Friday , October 2 2026

2023 Threat Report: Social Engineering and Web Attacks waves

The overall cyber-threat risks have significantly increased during the second quarter of 2023. The number of unique web attacks being blocked has increased by 24%, resulting in over 700 million unique attacks being blocked every month. Social engineering and web-related threats have become increasingly prevalent among the various cyber risks. These threats include scams, phishing, adware, Trojans, file infectors, and other similar risks. These types of threats have seen a significant increase compared to other cyber threats.

Threat Vectors Based on Attack Types

Nearly 100,000 email addresses exposed in first AI-related data breach in Singapore

Nearly 100,000 Bee Cheng Hiang customers had their email addresses leaked when an employee used an AI tool to generate...
Read More
Nearly 100,000 email addresses exposed in first AI-related data breach in Singapore

Hackers Exploit Zimbra Mail Servers: TeamViewer patched 5 critical flaws

Hackers to exploit a flaw in Zimbra mail servers that are connected to the Internet. They send special emails that...
Read More
Hackers Exploit Zimbra Mail Servers: TeamViewer patched 5 critical flaws

Google Warns of Hackers Actively Exploiting Citrix 0-Day Flaws

Google has said that hackers are using two serious Citrix NetScaler security holes to get root access, set up hidden...
Read More
Google Warns of Hackers Actively Exploiting Citrix 0-Day Flaws

CISA Warns Critical MikroTik RouterOS Flaw While Cisco SD-WAN Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is alerting people about a major flaw in MikroTik RouterOS. This could...
Read More
CISA Warns Critical MikroTik RouterOS Flaw While Cisco SD-WAN Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks

Apple Zero-Day Exploited: Pentagon Data Breach Reportedly Exposes Sensitive Data of 3 Million People

Apple has launched iOS 26.7.1 and iPadOS 26.7.1 to fix a serious zero-day flaw that it believes might have been...
Read More
Apple Zero-Day Exploited: Pentagon Data Breach Reportedly Exposes Sensitive Data of 3 Million People

JadePuffer Agentic AI targets and destroys Azure’s cloud resources

The JadePuffer ransomware group is attacking Azure users with agent-based attacks that gather information, steal passwords, and damage key components. The...
Read More
JadePuffer Agentic AI targets and destroys Azure’s cloud resources

“InfoSecCon-2026: Bangladesh’s Cybersecurity Leaders Unite to Shape a Safer Digital Future”

The 5th Edition of InfoSecCon-2026, a premier cybersecurity-focused event, has been successfully completed with the participation of cybersecurity professionals, technology...
Read More
“InfoSecCon-2026: Bangladesh’s Cybersecurity Leaders Unite to Shape a Safer Digital Future”

Microsoft Patches CVSS 10.0 Azure AI Foundry Vulnerability Allowing Privilege Escalation

Microsoft has fixed a serious security flaw in Azure AI Foundry that could let bad actors gain privilege escalation. The...
Read More
Microsoft Patches CVSS 10.0 Azure AI Foundry Vulnerability Allowing Privilege Escalation

AWS is unable to restore access to Bahrain, one UAE cloud data zone after war damage

Amazon Web Services cannot restore access to its cloud-computing facility in Bahrain and ‌one of three data-hosting zones in the...
Read More
AWS is unable to restore access to Bahrain, one UAE cloud data zone after war damage

Cisco Warns of Critical ISE 0-Day Flaw and Hackers Allegedly Selling Fortinet FortiGate 1-Day Flaw

A threat actor is allegedly offering a private remote code execution exploit for Fortinet FortiGate SSL VPN appliances, claiming that...
Read More
Cisco Warns of Critical ISE 0-Day Flaw and Hackers Allegedly Selling Fortinet FortiGate 1-Day Flaw

In addition, the blocked attack statistics showed that there were 594 million web-related attacks, 37 million file-based attacks, 14 million email-based attacks, 5 million behavioral threats, 3 million exploits, 600k scripts, and 500k other types of attacks. In the second quarter of 2023, 147 million URLs were blocked along with 61 million blocked files, showing the significant impact of these measures. The analysis focused on Desktop-related attack vectors and Mobile-related malware types, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of how threat actors carry out their attacks.

ALSO READ:

UK electoral Commission hack exposed data of 40 million voters

Statistical Analysis

Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Angola, Ghana, and the Republic of Korea faced the most severe wave of ransomware attacks.

The Avast threat report revealed that the most common coin miners were web miners (various strains), XMRig, FakeKMSminer, VMiner, CoinBitMiner, CoinHelper, and NeoScrypt.

The second quarter of 2023 witnessed a significant 14% decline in information stealer malware. However, the most common info stealer malware were AgentTesla, FormBook, Raccoon Stealer, RedLine, Fareit, Lokibot, and ViperSoftX.

Desktop-related Threats and Mobile related Threats

More hackers are targeting desktop devices and organizations are taking precautions to prevent security breaches. Despite the progress made, threats related to desktops continue to persist.

Scams were responsible for the majority of Desktop-related threats in the pool, making up a whopping 51%. Following closely behind, phishing accounted for 25.6% of the threats. Trojan attacks were at 3.5%, while adware and file infectors made up 3.8% and 2.9%, respectively. Lastly, other types of attacks represented 13.1% of the total.

The rate of scam cases has skyrocketed by an impressive 101.9%, closely trailed by a 6.6% increase in Phishing incidents. However, Trojan and File infectors have seen a reduction from the last quarter.

Mobile-related threats in the last quarter witnessed a staggering surge of 86% in dropper malware. The comprehensive report reveals that Adware represents a staggering 73.6% of the risks encountered. Following closely behind is the notorious Dropper, accounting for 6.1% of the threats. Banker malware stands at 5.8%, while Trojan poses a significant 3.9% risk. Other categories of malware collectively make up 7.5% of the potential dangers.

Avast released a detailed report on the threats of Q2 2023. It includes information about malware, info stealers, ransomware, and related attack methods.

 

Check Also

India: C-DOT Launches 14 Local Quantum-Safe Technologies

India is making its communication systems safer and stronger by launching 14 local quantum products. …