As Unit 42 researcher Brad Duncan noted in June 2017 and January 2018, likely reasons for the decline of Rig EK include a declining browser target base, lack of new exploits, efforts to fight domain shadowing, criminal arrests, and on-going work by vendors to harden browsers.īut the decline and (hopeful) fall of Rig and other exploit kits isn’t the only story here. And now in our most recent research blog “ Rig EK one year later: From Ransomware to Coin Miners and Information Stealers” we can see the decline in April wasn’t an anomaly: it was the start of a precipitous decline that may mark the fall of Rig EK and exploit kits altogether as you can see.Īs with the rise and fall of other threat trends, there are many likely reasons for this. We first noted the trend in our June 2017 research blog “ Decline in Rig Exploit Kit”. But when April 2017 came, Rig started a very marked decline.įigure 1: Hits for Rig EK from January 2017 through January 2018

In January 2017, Rig Exploit Kit (EK) was still in the middle of a strong run. What a difference a year makes in the threat environment.

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