Backdoor attacks on SMB systems rise 52% in H1 2026: Kaspersky

New Delhi: Backdoor malware attacks on systems of Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) rose 52.1 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2026, according to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. Kaspersky Security Network data showed 4.52 lakh backdoors were detected between January and June, up from 2.97 lakh in H1 2025 and 4.08 lakh in H2 2025. A 'backdoor' lets attackers bypass authentication and secretly return to steal data or launch further attacks. c. Kaspersky describes a backdoor as a way of bypassing normal authentication to gain hidden remote access to a computer, and notes that backdoor Trojans are among the most widespread and dangerous types of malware. Attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) stood at 37.38 lakh, or about 20,650 attempts a day, 26.3 per cent lower than H1 2025. Exploit detections fell 35.1 per cent to 4.63 lakh.

Even so, it said, software exploits rank among the most damaging threats SMBs face: they were named alongside phishing, mass malware and ransomware as the most harmful incidents in Kaspersky's latest global SMB survey.

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