F-Secure experts have been monitoring the use of the exploit kits

Oct 12, 2013 07:49 GMT  ·  By

Now that their alleged author has been arrested, the BlackHole and Cool exploit kits are no longer used by cybercriminals.

According to F-Secure, the popularity of BlackHole and Cool, which were once the most used exploit kits, has recorded a sudden decrease.

Charts published by the security firm show that the two exploit kits peaked in the second half of April, when their percentage share reached an average of 54%. However, since September, they’ve been continually declining.

On Thursday, the percentage share of Cool dropped to 0% and the one of BlackHole to 1%.

Experts believe cybercriminals might turn to other exploit kits, and another one might take BlackHole’s place. However, they hope malware developers will be discouraged by Paunch’s arrest.

“[We hope] that other exploit kit authors will take the hint, that even if they may enjoy a few years of invincibility, they are not unreachable by the long arm of the law,” F-Secure’s Karmina Aquino noted.