AppRiver, LLC, a leading provider of email messaging and web security solutions, today released its mid-year Global Security Report, a detailed analysis of web and email-borne threats and malware trends tracked between January and June 2014. 

 

During the first half of 2014, AppRiver screened more than 19 billion messages, nearly 18.9 billion of which were spam and another 636 million that contained malware. Europe was once again the top point of origin for spam output followed by the US, which accounted for a larger percentage than usual. 

 

In a video available here, AppRiver Security Analysts Fred Touchette, Troy Gill and Jon French discuss highlights from the report, including:

 

Events—Some of the bigger stories surrounding email and web threats over past six months included CryptoLocker copycats such as CryptoWall and CryptoDefense, along with a massive spam campaign that was a classic “Pump and Dump” stock scam.  “Early on, AppRiver predicted that in 2014 we’d begin seeing a slew of copycat malware based on the CryptoLocker franchise,” said Touchette. “This prediction came true almost immediately as we began seeing the likes of CryptoWall and CryptoDefense piggy backing on the success of CryptoLocker.”Metrics—In addition to the familiar data regarding email spam and viruses, this report includes some baseline data about web-based threats through Q2 as detected by AppRiver’s web filtering solution (SecureSurf).  In total, AppRiver recorded over 5.1 million unique locations added throughout the first six months of 2014.  “It’s quite notable that the second most common blocked category was malicious sites, or sites distributing malicious payloads,” said Gill. “There were nearly 40 million blocked pages in the first half of 2014 and 13.6 percent of those were malicious sites.”The Cyber World—This section of the report discusses major cybercrime breaches and exploits. When encrypted eBay customer data was stolen, cyber criminals took advantage of the resulting headlines by sending spam messages that attempted to capitalize on the fears of eBay customers.  Additionally, Gameover Zeus hit the scene. This new version of Zeus had been tweaked with new capabilities and was clearly being operated by a single group located in Russia and Ukraine. 

 

For a full copy of AppRiver’s Mid-Year Global Threatscape Report, please visit: http://uk.appriver.com/resources/global_security_report/global_security_report_mid-year-report-2014.aspx.

 

About AppRiver

AppRiver is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider offering award-winning email and Web security solutions to businesses of all sizes. Understanding the need to protect networks from today's increasingly complex IT threats, AppRiver offers businesses a comprehensive, yet affordable subscription-based solution that incorporates the latest spam and virus protection, email encryption and Web security on the market. In addition, the company provides a complete managed service for Microsoft Exchange, as well as a bundled Office 365 solution. Since its inception, AppRiver has sustained an impressive 93% customer retention rate while growing its customer base to more than 47,000 companies and 8.5 million mailboxes worldwide. The company maintains offices in Florida, Georgia, Texas, New York, Switzerland and Spain, and is led by an Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur of the Year award winner.