Hunting for ‘Whales’ Using Targeted Malware

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Of course, spear phishing isn’t new, but the targets and tactics are evolving, and most users who might have known to not give away their banks account numbers at home may be handing over sensitive information in an enterprise setting due to lack of training and awareness.

Administrative assistants, accountants, salesmen, IT managers, and pretty much everyone else in an enterprise hold a great deal of company knowledge that criminals can use to ultimately unlock a company’s secrets.

But beyond simply explaining the threat to them, ask your staff to take a step back to see what information a cyber criminal can easily dig up. This may sound completely narcissistic to them, but I recommend you ask them to “Google” themselves from time to time in order to see what pops up in search results. The idea is to familiarize one’s self with what is public knowledge — so you aren’t caught off guard when it’s used to gain your trust.

Even though you aren’t likely to be considered a “whale” by Las Vegas casino standards, you and your staff need to understand that your position within a large organization probably makes you a pretty big fish in the eyes of a cyber criminal. And in order to help combat against these attempts, your best bet is to try and see what a hacker can see on the Internet so it can’t be used against you

Link: http://www.enterpriseefficiency.com/author.asp?section_id=1076&doc_id=265441&f_src=enterpriseefficiency_iwkfeed

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Companeis lack the ‘intelligence’ to deal with cyber threats

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Malcolm Marshall, KPMG partner and head of the firm’s Information Protection & Business Resilience team, says: “Increased awareness of cyber security threats is a positive trend, but indications are that organisations now need to focus on putting into place the fundamentals of intelligence management to gain real value from what they know. These revolve around creating an intelligence-led mindset within organisations, implementing an operating model similar to those employed by the intelligence community and building a decision-making process which is centred on a tightly controlled ‘information gathering programme’.

‘Cyber threat: intelligence and lessons from law enforcement’ argues that an intelligence-led mindset establishes a direct connection between the threats and vulnerabilities organisations face and the consequences of their compliance or inaction.

For example, rather than simply collating data, KPMG’s report urges organisations to set parameters for the type of information being gathered, so that haphazard approaches to analysis and actions can be avoided.

Link: http://www.actuarialpost.co.uk/article/companeis-lack-the—–039intelligence—-039-to-deal-with-cyber-threats-5096.htm

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New EU laws approve tougher sentences for cyber criminals

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For example, the Srizbi botnet, estimated to be either the world’s largest, or second-largest botnet, is thought to be made up of around half a million machines.

Botnet creators add machines to their networks through spam emails and malware, often building up networks before renting or selling it to other criminals. Anyone found setting up a botnet will face a minimum of three years in jail, and if the system is used to threaten national infrastructure then again, the minimum sentence rises to give years.

Member states have two years to sign the new directives into law, with only Denmark choosing to opt out in favour of its own rules.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new-eu-laws-approve-tougher-sentences-for-cyber-criminals-8690635.html

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DDoS attacks on sale for $2 an hour

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The service simply required attackers to inform it of which site they wish to launch a DDos attack against, decide how much they are willing to pay, and initiate the service.

This is just one example of a vast array of services and tools that make up a tumescent online marketplace wannabe cybercriminals can use to gather components of a cyberattack – or outsource the process altogether, the study found.

Stolen bank login information commands a higher price than credit card numbers, with prices ranging from two to 10 per cent of the account’s balance.

Meanwhile, so-called “bulletproof” hosting providers – firms which knowingly provide web or domain hosting to cybercriminals – can charge between $50 and $400 for their services per month.

Troels Oerting, head of EC3 European Cybercrime Centre – who wrote the white paper’s foreword, said: “Today’s cybercriminals do not necessarily require considerable technical expertise to get the job done, nor, in certain cases, do they even need to own a computer.

A marketplace offering cybercrime tools and services provides would-be criminals with an arsenal that can either be used as a component of a cyberattack or a handy way of outsourcing the process entirely.”

Link: http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2279505/ddos-attacks-on-sale-for-usd2-an-hour

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AppRiver Releases Mid-Year Global Threatscape Report

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vents—Some of the bigger stories surrounding email and web threats over the past six months include malware campaigns leveraging the Boston Marathon bombings, the continuing rise of mobile malware, and DSD: a distraction technique used by cybercriminals as they’re emptying your bank accounts.

“If you notice a deluge of spam in your email inbox, it’s best not to try to monitor your email, but instead go directly to your account(s) activity because the people behind this spam blast have somehow obtained your personal account information and email address,” says Touchette. “In order to hide purchase receipt emails or balance transfer confirmation emails, the attackers, just before they make the illegal transactions, turn on this deluge of spam email in order for these very important emails to get lost in the flood.

As for server side vulnerabilities, some of the biggest exploits so far in 2013 have included cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, broken authentication systems, Ruby vulnerabilities, universal plug and play problems, and an Adobe issue with ColdFusion.

Metrics—In addition to the familiar data regarding email spam and viruses, this report includes some baseline data about web-based malware that AppRiver will track over the months ahead. As web-based malware and “drive-by downloads” become more widespread, this data will expose trends and patterns that can help improve security for users.

The Cyber World—This section of the report discusses major cybercrime arrests like that of Hamza Bendelladj for leading a major Zeus botnet, along with Hacktivism activities, and the evolution of cyber espionage from simple murmurings to mainstream conversation with attention-grabbing incidents such as Stuxnet, targeting a very specific system for enriching Uranium in a very specific location, not to mention the talk of cyber exchanges between the U.S. and China.

Link: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/07/02/4994746/appriver-releases-mid-year-global.html

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Combating attacks with collaborative threat intelligence

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Once an attacker has targeted any member of a collaborative platform, command-and-control servers are easily identified by their IP addresses throughout the network. This means that attackers can no longer benefit from the isolation of their targets; they must use a new IP for each attack that they launch. Instead of being able to launch thousands of attacks from a single IP, they have to pay the cost of acquiring a number of IPs that is proportional to the number of attacks they wish to mount.

Additionally, an attacker’s tools and tactics become much less effective when defenders collaborate to protect themselves from the attacker.

Link: http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=1857&p=2

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