Kaspersky announced on the 20th that it has released its annual report analyzing the financial cyber threat trends for 2024.
According to the report, the number of victims of mobile banking malware in 2024 is approximately 248,000, representing an increase of about 3.6 times compared to 69,000 in 2023. Meanwhile, the number of victims from PC-based financial malware has decreased from 312,000 to 199,000.
The largest share of phishing attacks still belongs to banks, accounting for 42.58% of the total. Online shopping malls and payment systems followed with 38.15% and 19.27%, respectively. Particularly, phishing related to cryptocurrency surged by 83.37% compared to the previous year, emerging as a new primary target for attacks.
Among mobile malware, the ‘Mamont’ series targeting user financial information accounted for 36.7% of all mobile attacks, making it the most actively distributed. The damage mainly occurred in Russia, Turkey, and Indonesia, with South Korea experiencing a relatively low rate of 0.3%.
In phishing attacks targeting corporations, many cases impersonated web services, delivery services, and cloud accounts, while general users were frequently exposed to phishing related to shopping malls, banks, messaging apps, and games. Many phishing pages impersonating Amazon, Netflix, and Apple were also discovered.
Kaspersky noted, "The increase in cryptocurrency scams and mobile financial malware is emerging as a central security threat," emphasizing that compliance with security measures such as multi-factor authentication, strong passwords, and regular updates is essential.