9 rising malware trends every security pro should know

Source: CSO Online · OCT 19, 2026

Malware is evolving rapidly, driven by advances in AI and changes in computing infrastructures. Security professionals must continuously educate themselves on these trends to defend against increasingly sophisticated threats. The traditional game of cat and mouse between security attackers and defenders has got fiercer with fresh techniques evolving and older less effective approaches falling out of fashion. Here is a look at what’s heating up in the world of malware — and what’s cooling off. Infostealers commoditizing initial access Infostealers have experienced huge growth in the past 18 months, with malware such as Lumma Stealer , StealC, and RisePro now responsible for 75% of all stolen credentials, according to cybersecurity vendor Immersive. Infostealers steal browser cookies, VPN credentials, multi-factor authentication (MFA) tokens, crypto wallet data, and more. Cybercriminals sell the data that infostealers grab through dark web markets , giving attackers easy access to corpor