Introduction

Welcome to the McAfee® Labs Threats Report September 2018. In this edition, we highlight the notable investigative research and trends in threats statistics gathered by the McAfee Advanced Threat Research and McAfee Labs teams in Q2 of 2018.

Cybercriminals continue to follow the money. Although this statement is familiar, our latest Threats Report clearly shows the migration from certain older attacks to new threat vectors as they become more profitable. Just as in Q1, we see the popularity of cryptocurrency mining continue to rise.

In this report we detail recent findings from three McAfee Labs analyses that appeared in Q2. You can read summaries of each on pages 5-7. One area of investigation by our research teams is in digital assistants. In Q2 we analyzed a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Cortana. This flaw allowed an attacker to log into a locked Windows device and execute code. Following our vulnerability disclosure policy, we communicated our findings to Microsoft; the analysis resulted in CVE-2018-8140. We also examined the world of cryptocurrency attacks with an in-depth view of blockchain technology. Our report detailed many of the vulnerabilities being exploited by threat actors looking for a quick return on their investment.