The Art of Cyberwarfare [Review]
In recent years cyberattacks have evolved from being the preserve of individual hackers to something much more serious, carried out by organized criminals and even nation states with the aim of espionage and financial gain.
This makes the process of investigating and defending against attacks more important than ever, but the sophistication of the methods used doesn't make the process any easier. This new book from security strategist Jon DiMaggio offers an investigator's guide to understanding the latest generation of threats.
UK police force becomes first to deploy new digital forensics solution
Thanks to increased use of computers and mobile phones almost every crime now has some form of digital element. This has put a strain on the police's ability to investigate effectively and inevitably led to delays.
West Midlands Police in the UK has become the first to deploy a new cloud-based digital forensic solution from Exterro which allows greater collaboration between officers and means cases can be worked on remotely and resolved at greater speed.
Want a well-paid a career? Have you considered cybercrime?
OK, so there may not be a pension scheme and a company car, but rookie fraudsters are taking home approximately $18,700 (£15,000) a month with 'cybercriminal CEOs' making up to three times as much as their counterparts in legitimate businesses. According to a new report from Arkose Labs.
The return on investment for launching cyber attacks or committing online fraud is larger than ever before. Some of the highest earning fraudsters are known to be making around $7.5 million (£6 million) a year according to even the most conservative estimates. This is almost three times the amount that FTSE 100 chief executives were paid in 2020, when they earned an average $3.4m (£2.7m).
Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting the financial industry
Cybercrime tends to follow the money when it comes to selecting targets, so it’s perhaps not too surprising to learn that 63 percent of financial institutions admit experiencing an increase in destructive attacks.
The latest Modern Bank Heists report from VMWare surveyed the financial industry's top CISOs and security leaders on the changing behavior of cybercriminal cartels and the defensive shift in the sector.
The increasing importance of Cyber Threat Intelligence
Globally, the cyber threat level to organizations remains high and the current situation only serves to highlight this further. To this point, any organization that has substantial gaps in its cybersecurity capabilities is operating at risk, and when the threat landscape changes, as it has now, so we become more aware of the vulnerabilities that we have carried for some time and the need for better Cyber Threat Intelligence.
Two major cybersecurity events of the past 12 months really showcase the requirement for CTI in network security operations -- the SolarWinds software supply chain attack which broke at the start of 2021 and the Log4j vulnerability response process that occurred at the end of 2021. Both of these incidents highlight the need to rapidly gain situational awareness, contextualize vast amounts of information being shared, and prioritize remediation of significant threats.
Less than a quarter of directors see ransomware as a top priority
Only 23 percent of board of directors consider ransomware to be their top priority. Yet 59 percent of organizations have fallen victim to ransomware.
A new study from email security company Egress, independently conducted by Arlington Research, polled 500 IT leaders across the US and UK. It finds 52 percent of organizations allocate less than a quarter of their security budget to anti-phishing measures, yet 84 percent were hit by phishing and 42 percent had credentials stolen.
85 percent of organizations have suffered ransomware attacks
In the past five years 85 percent of organizations have suffered a ransomware incident, while 74 percent have had more than one.
A new report from ExtraHop based on a survey conducted by Wakefield Research shows that 77 percent of IT decision makers are very or completely confident in their company's ability to prevent or mitigate cybersecurity threats.
40 percent of incoming emails are potential threats
New research from Hornetsecurity finds that 40 percent of all inbound emails pose a potential threat, including spam, phishing and advanced threats such as CEO fraud and any type of malware.
Phishing, malicious links, and ransomware are among the most popular attack tactics used by hackers with brand impersonation being especially popular.
The most expensive data breaches of the 2020s
Data breaches not only lead to a loss of reputation and drive customers elsewhere, they also have a significant financial cost.
A new study from Surfshark applies IBM's 'Cost of a Data Breach' calculations to the largest data breaches of the last two years in order to find the estimated cost of some of the biggest data breaches.
The countries where you're most likely to fall victim to cybercrime
Worried about becoming a victim of cybercrime? A new study from Surfshark reveals the places where your fears are most likely to be justifed, the countries where cybercrime density -- the number of attacks per million of population -- is highest.
The UK tops the list with 3,409 victims per million internet users, almost twice as many as the US (1,724 per million). The number of victims in the UK also grew by 130 percent compared to 2019, which is the second-highest year-on-year growth worldwide after South Africa which faced the sharpest rise of 277 percent.
Over a quarter of businesses have critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited
Over a quarter of businesses (28 percent) have critical vulnerabilities that could easily be exploited by cyberattack.
But even when these vulnerabilities are flagged by penetration testing, they are still being left unaddressed.
Cybercriminals move fast to exploit zero day flaws
The final quarter of 2021 saw a 356 percent growth in the number of attacks where the infection vectors were CVE or zero day vulnerabilities compared to Q3.
The latest Threat Landscape report from Kroll shows CVE/zero day exploitation accounted for 26.9 percent of initial access cases over the period, indicating that attackers are becoming more adept at exploiting vulnerabilities, in some cases leveraging them on the same day that the proof-of-concept exploit appears.
New adversaries add to already crowded threat landscape
The 2021 threat landscape has become more crowded as new adversaries emerge according to the 2022 Global Threat Report released today by CrowdStrike.
CrowdStrike Intelligence is now tracking more than 170 adversaries in total with 21 added last year. Financially motivated eCrime activity continues to dominate with intrusions attributed to eCrime accounting for 49 percent of all observed activity.
Insurance businesses targeted for customer details
Insurance companies exist to offer protection but they're increasingly having to protect themselves against a range of cyberattacks.
A new report from IntSights looks at the threats faced by insurance businesses and why they’ve become a particular problem in recent times.
The big three threat actors behind financial services attacks
The financial services industry is a prime target for cybercriminals due to the vast sums of money managed but also the quantity and quality of sensitive information that is collected by these institutions.
A new industry report by Blueliv uses threat intelligence gathered by the company’s Threat Compass to assess the evolving threat landscape surrounding the financial services sector.
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