Indian SMB cyberattacks involving backdoor malware rose 52.1% year on year in the first half of 2026, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said. Its network detected 452,000 backdoors on systems belonging to Indian small and medium-sized businesses, up from 297,000 a year earlier.

Key Takeaways

  • Backdoor detections rose while remote desktop attack attempts and exploit detections declined.
  • Kaspersky advised businesses to disable unnecessary remote desktop access, patch systems and maintain daily backups.

Indian SMB cyberattacks show a mixed pattern

Kaspersky Security Network recorded 408,000 backdoor detections in the second half of 2025, compared with 452,000 between January and June 2026. A backdoor lets an attacker bypass normal authentication and maintain hidden remote access to a computer, potentially enabling data theft or further attacks.

Other measures moved in the opposite direction. Attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol, or RDP, totaled 3.738 million in the first half of 2026, about 20,650 attempts a day and 26.3% fewer than a year earlier. Exploit detections fell 35.1% to 463,000.

Kaspersky said software exploits remained among the most damaging threats to small and medium-sized businesses, alongside phishing, mass malware and ransomware in its latest global SMB survey.

Financial losses and security measures

A Kaspersky survey of IT professionals across 18 countries, including India, found that 86% of SMBs had faced at least one cyber incident in the past year. Financial loss was the most common consequence, reported by 22%.

Purshottam Bhatia, Kaspersky's head of consumer business for South Asia, said the increase in backdoors suggested Indian SMBs were increasingly being treated as long-term footholds rather than one-off targets. Kaspersky advised businesses to disable RDP where it is not needed, patch systems promptly and keep daily backups.

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