DNS data indicates increased malicious domain activity

New research from cybersecurity vendor Akamai has revealed that 12.3% of monitored devices communicated with domains associated with malware or ransomware at least once during the second quarter of 2022. This represented a 3% increase compared to Q1 2022, the firm stated, with phishing toolkits playing a key role in malicious domain-related activity. The findings are based on DNS data and Akamai’s visibility into carrier and enterprise traffic across different industries and geographies.

Increased malware, phishing, C2 domain activity detected in Q2 2022

In a blog post detailing its research, Akamai stated that, in addition to the devices it detected communicating with domains associated with malware/ransomware, a further 6.2% of devices accessed phishing domains with 0.8% accessing command-and-control (C2)-associated domains (both small increases on Q1 2022). “While this number might seem insignificant, the scale here is in the millions of devices,” the firm wrote. “When this is considered, with C2 being the most malignant of threats, this is not only significant, it’s cardinal.”

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