According to a new report, cybercriminals release hundreds of thousands of new malware strains every day, the vast majority of which target Windows users only.
Based on statistics published by AV-TEST GmbH, Atlas VPN researchers concluded that in the first three quarters of 2022, a total of 62.29 million new malware samples were detected each day, or approximately 228,164 new variants.
Of this number, 59.58 million new malware samples were designed to target the Windows operating system, representing 95.6%. Linux malware ranked second (1.76 million samples/2.8%), followed by Android malware in the top three.
The most popular operating system
According to Atlas VPN, the mobile operating system encountered 938,379 new threats between Q1 and Q2 2022, or 1.5%, and for macOS, researchers discovered 8,329 never-before-seen variants.
Researchers say that the main reason why cybercriminals focus so much on Windows is its popularity. The Microsoft operating system is by far the most dominant computer product, with approximately 30% of the global market share. According to global Statcounter statistics, Android has a 43.47% market share, iOS 17.25% and Linux 1.08%.
Despite the terrifying statistics, the outlook is not as bleak as it may seem. Researchers say that compared to the same period last year, the number of new malware strains has actually decreased significantly – by more than a third (34%).
Of all the different variants, ransomware remains the most destructive and therefore the most popular. Other popular variants include information theft tools (capable of stealing stored passwords, credit card information, keystrokes and screenshots), cryptocurrency miners (also known as cryptojackers) and bots (using compromised endpoints to conduct distributed denial-of-service attacks) which can be sold as a service).