New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS): Over 4,00,000 new malicious files were distributed every day by cybercriminals to attack users in 2022, indicating a 5 per cent growth compared to 2021, a new report has said.

According to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, in 2021, approximately 3,80,000 of these files were detected daily, while in 2022, Kaspersky's systems detected approximately 122 million malicious files, up 6 million from the previous year.

"Considering how quickly the threat landscape is expanding its boundaries and the number of new devices appearing in users' daily lives, it's quite possible that next year we'll be detecting not 4,00,000 malicious files per day, but half a million," said Vladimir Kuskov, head of anti-malware research at Kaspersky.

"Even more dangerous is that, with the development of Malware-as-a-Service, any novice fraudster can now attack devices without any technical knowledge in programming," he added.

In comparison to 2021, Kaspersky's researchers discovered that the amount of ransomware encountered daily increased by 181 per cent, encrypting 9,500 files per day, according to the report.

Additionally, the cybersecurity firm detected a 142 per cent increase in Downloaders, malicious programmes that install malware or unwanted applications on infected devices.

Moreover, Windows remained the most common platform used by attackers among all platforms affected by the threat families.

Kaspersky experts discovered nearly 3,20,000 malicious files attacking Windows devices in 2022, the report added.

Additionally, Kaspersky experts observed a 10 per cent increase in the share of malicious files targeting Android platforms each day in 2022.