After a pandemic lull in 2020, malware aimed at individuals and organizations surged in 2021, according to a report released last week by cybersecurity software maker Malwarebytes. Year-over-year, overall malware detections jumped 77%, the report noted, with business-focused threats rising 143% and consumer threats climbing 65%, to more than 152 million.
The report also noted that spyware detections on Android phones surged 1,600% at the beginning of the pandemic, but growth tapered off in 2021, with 54,677 detections of Android monitoring apps discovered during the period, a 7.2% increase, and 1,106 detections of spyware apps, a 4.2% increase. However, the report found that while overall numbers for monitoring and spyware apps were up, detections have declined since their peak in 2021.