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What can crooks accomplish in an 'Evil Internet Minute'? You'd be surprised

July 20, 2017

Digital threat management company RiskIQ has examined the growing volume of malicious activity on the internet and produced its inaugural "Evil Internet Minute" assessment.

According to a company press release, the firm found that in a one-minute cyberattack, criminals can victimize 1,080 individuals and cause losses of approximately $858,153.

Despite business spending at the rate of $142,694 per minute on cybercrime prevention, bad actors continue to proliferate online, RiskIQ said.

Cybercriminals' tactics can range from malware to phishing, while motives range from monetary gain to reputational damage to mere entertainment value.

Within just one Evil Internet Minute, cybercriminals find success deploying tactics via 818 pieces of unique malware, 1,214 ransomware attacks, and more than 100,000 phishing email, the release said.

RiskIQ calclulated the per-minute deployment rates for various types of attacks as follows:

• new blacklisted mobile apps — 0.3 per minute;
• new phishing pages — 100 per minute;
• new malvertising — 14.5 ads per minute; and
• pirate content — 4,300 people per minute exposed to malware on content theft sites.

"As companies innovate web, social and mobile means to engage with their customers, partners, and employees, threat actors will prey on business exposures and brands to capture users' trust, access credentials, and sensitive data," RiskIQ CMO Scott Gordon said in the release. "This requires organizations to extend their security programs to monitor and mitigate threats outside the firewall."

View the Evil Internet Minuteinfographic.