Data-Stealing Cyberattacks Are Surging - 7 Ways To Protect Yourself And Your Business
ZDNet, Thursday, April 17th, 2025
The number of infostealers sent through phishing emails jumped by 84% last year. IBM X-Force offers these recommendations for defending yourself from all manner of malware.
2024 delivered some good news and bad news in the area of cybercrime. Malware-based ransomware attacks dropped for the third year in a row. But instances of infostealer malware grew dramatically. Those findings come from IBM X-Force's "2025 Threat Intelligence Index" released Thursday.
First, let's look at the good news. For the year, ransomware accounted for just 28% of malware incidents, the third annual decline in a row. This means a decrease in malware distributed in advance of ransomware attacks. At the same time, there was a drop in attacks from many high-volume malware distributors, including Emotet, TrickBot, IcedID, Qakbot, Gozi and Pikabot.