Malware increases threat to bank customers security, impact 13.33% organisations in November — Report
By Ibiyemi Mathew
A malware, Qbot has emerged as the most widespread malware in Nigeria for the month of November, a report by Check Point software technologies ltd a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions provider have revealed.
According to the report, Qbot is the most widespread malware in November in Nigeria impacting 13.33 per cent of organisations in the country, followed by Phorpiex with 6.67 per cent and Ramnit with 6.67 per cent.
Qbot A.K.A Qakbot is a banking Trojan that first appeared in 2008, designed to steal a user’s banking credentials and keystrokes.
It is often distributed via spam emails and employs several anti-VM, anti-debugging, and anti-sandbox techniques to hinder analysis and evade detection.
“The threat actors behind the Qbot malware are financially motivated cybercriminals, stealing financial data, banking credentials, and web browser information from infected and compromise systems. Once Qbot threat actors succeed in infecting a system, they install a backdoor to grant access to ransomware operators, leading to double extortion attacks. November saw Qbot leveraging a Windows Zero-Day vulnerability to provide threat actors full access to infected networks,” the report stated.
Findings by Nigerian NewsDirect also revealed that cybersecurity threats in Nigeria have been on the rise within the past 4 months with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT) releasing a security advisory almost on a weekly basis.
The NCC-CSIRT is the telecom sector’s cyber security incidence centre set up by the NCC to focus on incidents in the telecom sector and as they may affect telecom consumers and citizens at large.
The NCC-CSIRT also works collaboratively with Nigerian Computer Emergency Response Team (ngCERT), established by the Federal Government to reduce the volume of future computer risk incidents by preparing, protecting, and securing Nigerian cyberspace to forestall attacks, and problems or related events.
