Malware Attacks Target Linux-based Operating Systems
Trend Micro has found Linux operating systems are being targeted, with nearly 13 million malware detections in the first half of 2021. This is happening as organisations increase their digital footprint in the cloud and increase the Linux threat landscape. That is especially important as, according to Trend Micro, 90% of public clouds workloads run on Linux.
Theses findings are in the Trend Micro's latest Linux Threat Report which investigates the top malware families affecting Linux servers during the first half of 2021.
Key Points include:-
- Top malware families include: Coinminers (25%), Web shells (20%) and Ransomware (12%). The most prevalent detected was the modern ransomware family, DoppelPaymer. Other notable ransomware families seen targeting Linux systems as well are RansomExx, DarkRadiation, and the DarkSide.
- Attacks on Linux are likely taking advantage of outdated software with unpatched vulnerabilities, with most detections arose from systems running end-of-life versions of Linux distributions including 44% from CentOS versions 7.4 to 7.9.
- CentoS Linux (50.8%) and CloudLinux Server (31.24%) are the top Linux distributions with the found threat types, while web application attacks happen to be the most common attack vector.
Linux allows organisations to make the most of their cloud-based environments and power their digital transformation strategies and many modern IoT devices, cloud-based applications and technology run on some variation of Linux, making it a critical area of technology to secure. “In the industry, we see some very creative attacks and we have to stay ahead. Protecting the company, our employees, and our intellectual property is a priority,” commented John Breen, Global Head of Cybersecurity at the industrial control systems company Flowserve.
“It’s safe to say that Linux is here to stay, and as organisations continue to move to Linux-based cloud workloads, malicious actors will follow... We have seen this as a main priority to ensure our customers receive the best security across their workloads, no matter the operating system they choose to run it on.”said Aaron Ansari, vice president of cloud security for Trend Micro.
The report reveals that most detections arose from systems running end-of-life versions of Linux distributions. In addition, 200 different vulnerabilities were targeted in Linux environments in just six months.
This means attacks on Linux are likely taking advantage of outdated software with unpatched vulnerabilities.
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