Password Stealing Malware Attacks Rise 60 Percent in First Half Password of 2019: Kaspersky

The use of malware designed to harvest consumers digital data, known as password stealers, grew 60 per cent in the first half of 2019, affecting a large number of users 

in India, showed data from cyber-security firm Kaspersky.

Most frequently, the malware has targeted users in India, Brazil, Germany, Russia 

and the US. The number of users, targeted by the stealers, peaked from less than 

600,000 in the first half of 2018 to over 940,000 during the same period this year, 

showed the findings.

Password Stealing Ware (PSW) is a major weapon in the cybercriminals' toolkit to sabotage users' privacy.

This malicious type of software grabs data directly from users' web browsers using 

various methods.

Quite often, this information is sensitive and includes access details for online 

accounts as well as financial information - like saved passwords, autofill data and 

saved payment card details.

In addition, some families of this type of malware are designed to steal browser 

cookies, user files from a specific location (for example, a user's desktop) as well as 

app files, such as messenger services.

"Modern consumers are increasingly active online and understandably rely on the 

Internet to carry out many tasks in their daily lives. This fills their digital profiles 

with more and more data and details and makes them a lucrative target for criminals

 as they could be monetized in numerous ways afterwards," Alexander Eremin, 

security researcher at Kaspersky, said in a statement.

One of the most widely spread Stealer Trojans was multifunctional Azorult, 

detected on the computers of more than 25 per cent of all users who encountered 

Trojan-PSW type malware in the examined period.

The researchers cautioned users against sharing passwords or personal information 

with friends or family as they could unwittingly make them vulnerable to malware.

Users should also not post them on forums or social media channels.Always install 

updates and product patches to ensure protection from the latest malware and 

threats, Kaspersky recommended.