Five-fold increase in new malicious files since 2011

The number of new malicious files increased considerably in 2017, research from Kaspersky Lab suggests.

According to the cyber security firm, its detection technology processed up to 360,000 a day last year, which was 11.5 per cent more than in 2016.

After a slight decrease in 2015, 2017 was the second year in the row that saw growth in the number of malicious files detected daily.

The figure was first calculated in 2011 and totaled 70,000 at that time. Since then, it has grown five-fold and seems to be going in only one direction.

Most of the files identified as dangerous fell into the malware category (92 per cent) with the rest being advertising software which isn’t considered malicious by default, but in many cases can cause private information exposure and other risks.

Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky, Kaspersky Lab’s head of anti-malware, said the number of new malware they had discovered has been growing, which was a sign that interest in creating new malicious code had been revived.

“The explosive increase in ransomware attacks over the last couple of years is only set to continue, as there is a huge criminal ecosystem behind this type of threat, producing hundreds of new samples every day,” he added.