Mobile malware attacks double in 2018; search for porn gets safer: Report

The number of users attacked by malware out to steal premium access login data to popular adult websites more than doubled in a year, rising from around 50,000 users in 2017 to 110,000 users in 2018.

In all, more than 8,50,000 attacks were detected. This growth was accompanied by more offers of stolen credential for sale on dark web markets and an increase in the number of malware families launching attacks. These and other findings are unveiled in Kaspersky Lab’s report on threats to users of adult websites in 2018.

While porn is usually considered a good decoy to attract victims to a malicious website or involve them in a fraud scheme, the adult content itself wasn’t previously considered worth hunting for. However, the new report shows that porn, namely premium accounts to porn websites, which include access to exclusive content, are gaining more and more attention from fraudsters.