Number of hacker attacks launched via Microsoft Office increases notably

Kaspersky Lab presented the results of a study on hacker attacks launched via Microsoft Office.
 
According to the company’s analysts, in the first quarter of 2018, the number of users who suffered from infected office application documents increased more than four times compared to the same period in 2017. The share of exploits (malicious programs used to attack vulnerabilities in the software) for Microsoft Office grew almost twice, amounting to about 50%, in the past year
 
The number of different types of vulnerabilities Kaspersky Lab found in office applications was equal to the one detected only in Adobe Flash in 2017.
 
The share of Flash exploits, on the contrary, is declining: in the first quarter of 2018, it was just under 3%. This decline can be explained by the results of the work of developers, experts say.
 
Hacker attacks carried out with the use of exploits are considered very dangerous, since they do not require additional interaction with users (the malicious code is implemented imperceptibly). Such attacks are often launched by cybercriminals seeking illegal sources of profit, as well as by state actors pursuing ill-intentioned goals.
 
In January-March 2018, more than 1.3 million installation packages were detected, which is 11% less than three months before the stated period, DailyComm reports.

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