Report on Global Financial Threats Against Banks or Institutions

Symantec says financial threats are 2.5 times more relevant than ransomware, with more than 1.2 million detections per year worldwide.

Attention to ransomware-type attacks is on the rise. However, Symantec presented its annual report on financial threats in which financial malware is identified as more relevant than ransomware.

Main findings

Financial threats are more relevant than ransomware

While this second type of threat continues to have all the attention (especially in the recent case of WannaCry ransomware), financial threats are 2.5 times more relevant, with more than 1.2 million detections in the world.

Attacks on rising financial institutions

Since 2016, with the emergence of several sophisticated cybercrime groups following financial institutions, 38% of all detections of financial threats were directed to institutions rather than attacking consumers. This is because the benefit to cyber criminals is much greater.

Symantec saw a large increase in the detection of financial Trojans throughout Asia, with Japan, China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam gaining prominence in the top 10 list. This shows that the attackers are expanding into new markets of less saturated and less protected regions.