Despite the decline in the appearance of new varieties of malware in general, the number of malware for Linux and devices from the "Internet of things" continues to grow. In particular, in the ranking of the most common threats in the first quarter of 2017, the percentage of malicious software for Linux was 36%. Such data are presented in a study by WatchGuard. In total, in the first quarter of 2017, experts identified more than 7 million malware variants.

According to the report, the effectiveness of antivirus solutions in terms of detecting new threats continues to decline. The antiviruses tested by experts could not detect 38% of new variants of malicious programs detected in the first quarter of 2017, while in the fourth quarter of last year this figure was 30%.

In the past quarter, the most common types of attacks were drive-by attacks and browser attacks. According to researchers, 82% of attacks were directed to web-servers (and other web-services).

It also turned out that the attackers continue to exploit the vulnerability StageFright. This year, attacks with the exploitation of this vulnerability appeared in the list of the most common. Recall, the issue of StageFright became known in July 2015. As it was reported earlier, more than 950 million smartphones and tablets based on Android versions with 2. 2 to 5. 1 (including Lollipop and KitKat) contain this vulnerability. By exploiting the error, the attacker can remotely access the target device, for example, by sending a malicious MMS message. To conduct such an attack, you only need to know the victim's phone number.

In general, experts note a decrease in the number of threats by 52% compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. In their opinion, the decline is explained by the absence of seasonal malicious campaigns timed to the pre-New Year sales and other holidays. It was during the holidays that there was an increase in the number of malicious software.