Cybercriminals have become more successful at delivering malware through cloud apps.
Netskope, a threat and data protection provider, has blocked an increasing number of malware downloads from cloud apps, which now make up an increasing share of total malware downloads. The percentage of malware downloads from cloud apps increased from 46 percent to 73 percent and then plateaued at 66 percent.
Google Drive replaced Microsoft OneDrive to become the top app for malware downloads in 2021.
The number of credential attacks against managed cloud apps remained level in 2021 compared to 2020. These attacks comprise more than half of all managed cloud app instances. However, the number of sources of these attacks increased markedly in 2021, with each source carrying out fewer login attempts.
Cybercriminals are also continuing to deliver malware in Microsoft Office documents. Emotet led to a spike in malicious Office documents in the second quarter of 2020. Malicious Microsoft Office documents now represent one-third of all malware downloads, compared to one-fifth before Emotet. The quality of malicious documents also remains higher post-Emotet.
Employees left their jobs at twice the rate in 2021 than in 2020, increasing the risk from insider threats. More than one in seven employees who left their jobs used personal Cloud Storage apps to take organizational data with them.
The popularity of Cloud Storage apps among users is a primary reason they are increasingly used for malware downloads and insider threats. "Cloud and Threat Report: January 2022 Edition" www.netskope.com (Jan. 2022).
