Tag Archives: security

74 Percent of Companies that Suffer a Data Breach Don’t Know How It Happened

And just two thirds of IT pros say their current IT security budget is sufficient, a recent survey found. According to the results of a recent survey [PDF] of 250 IT professionals, 34 percent of companies in the U.S. were breached in the past year, and 74 percent of the victims don’t know how it happened. The survey, conducted by iSense Solutions for Bitdefender, also found that two thirds of companies would pay an average of $124,000 to avoid public shaming after a breach, while 14 percent would pay more than $500,000. One third of CIOs say their job has become more important in their company’s hierarchy, and another third say their job has been completely transformed in the past few years. And while nine in 10 IT decision makers see IT security as a top priority for their companies, only two thirds say their IT security budget is suifficient — the remainder say they would need an increase of 34 percent on average to deliver efficient security policies. Cloud security spending increased in the past year at 48 percent of companies, while the budget for other security activities remained the same. On average, respondents say only 64 percent of cyber attacks can be stopped, detected or prevented with their current resources. Separately, a survey of 403 IT security professionals in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Europe found that only three percent of organizations have the technology in place and only 10 percent have the skills in place to address today’s leading attack types. The survey, conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by Tripwire, also found that just 44 percent of organizations have the skills, and 43 percent have the technology, to address ransomware attacks effectively. “Most organizations can reasonably handle one or two key threats, but the reality is they need to be able to defend against them all,” Tripwire senior director of IT security and risk strategy Tim Erlin said in a statement. “As part of the study, we asked respondents which attack types have the potential to do the greatest amount of damage to their organization. While ransomware was cited as the top threat, all organizations were extremely concerned about phishing, insider threats, vulnerability exploitation and DDoS attacks.” Respondents felt most confident in their skills to handle phishing (68 percent) and DDoS attacks (60 percent), but less confident in their abilities to deal with insider threats (48 percent) and vulnerability exploitations (45 percent). Similarly, respondents felt more confident in the technology they have in place to address phishing (56 percent) and DDoS attacks (63 percent), but less confident in the technology to address insider threats (41 percent) and vulnerabilities (40 percent). A separate survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers by Kaspersky Lab and HackerOne found that 22 percent of respondents are more likely to make a purchase if they know a company hired hackers to help boost security. Knowing what they do about their own company’s cyber security practices, just 36 percent of respondents said they would choose to be a customer of their own employer. Almost two in five U.S. adults don’t expect companies to pay a ransom if hit by ransomware. When asked what types of data they would expect a company to pay a ransom for, 43 percent expect companies to do so for employee Social Security numbers, followed by customer banking details (40 percent) and employee banking details (39 percent). Source: http://www.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/74-percent-of-companies-that-suffer-a-data-breach-dont-know-how-it-happened.html

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74 Percent of Companies that Suffer a Data Breach Don’t Know How It Happened

DDoS attacks increasingly form blended attacks of more vulnerabilities

DDoS attacks increasingly formed blended attacks of four or more vulnerabilities over the course of the fourth quarter of 2016, with an intent to overload targeted monitoring, detection and logging systems, according to Nexusguard. Hybrid attacks were a common attack pattern against financial and government institutions. DDoS botnet activity: Top attacking countries The supersized Mirai attack from Q3 set the stage for Q4 challenges, resulting in a ripple of botnets from connected devices and the … More ?

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DDoS attacks increasingly form blended attacks of more vulnerabilities

Monitoring scanning activities that could lead to IoT compromises

IoT devices are ideal targets for attackers looking to build DDoS botnets because they have limited or non-existent security features. Some IoT devices utilize hard-coded default passwords. Many devices have unnecessary services running that can be exploited, and others have unprotected management interfaces. Most important for DDoS attackers, IoT devices offer high-speed connections that are always on, which allows for a large, predictable amount of attack traffic volume per compromised device. Monitoring login attempts Looking … More ?

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Monitoring scanning activities that could lead to IoT compromises

39% of businesses not ready to protect themselves against DDoS

Companies are not ready to protect themselves against DDoS, with four in ten (39%) businesses unclear about the most effective protection strategy to combat this type of attack, according to research from Kaspersky Lab. A lack of knowledge and protection is putting businesses at risk of grinding to a halt. DDoS attacks can quickly incapacitate a targeted business’s workflow, bringing business-critical processes to a stop. However, the research found that nearly a fifth (16%) of businesses are not protected from DDoS attacks at all, and half (49%) rely on built-in hardware for protection. This is not effective against the increasing number of large-scale attacks and ‘smart’ DDoS attacks which are hard to filter with standard methods. Large-scale cyberattacks are now commonplace, such as the recent attack on telecommunications provider StarHub, which faced a high-profile DDoS attack in October last year. Hackers are also showing a preference for DDoS attacks, with the proliferation of IoT devices today. As IoT devices have weak security protocols, they are easy targets for hackers to launch DDoS attacks from. As IoT devices are forecasted to hit 21 billion in 2020, each potential entry point into an organisation increases vulnerability to DDoS attacks. Many businesses are in fact aware that DDoS is a threat to them – of those that have anti-DDoS protection in place, a third (33%) said this was because risk assessments had identified DDoS as a potential problem, and one in five (18%) said they have been attacked in the past. For some, compliance, rather than awareness of the security threat, is the main driver, with almost half (43%) saying regulation is the reason they protect themselves. The problem for businesses is that, in many cases, they may assume they’re already protected. Almost half (40%) of the organizations surveyed fail to put measures in place because they think their Internet service provider will provide protection, and one in three (30%) think data center or infrastructure partners will protect them. This is also not always effective, because these organizations mostly protect businesses from large-scale or standard attacks, while ‘smart’ attacks, such as those using encryption or imitating user behavior, require an expert approach. Moreover, the survey found that a third (30%) fail to take action because they think they are unlikely to be targeted by DDoS attacks. Surprisingly, one in ten (12%) even admit to thinking that a small amount of downtime due to DDoS would not cause a major issue for the company. The reality is that any company can be targeted because such attacks are easy for cybercriminals to launch. What’s more, the potential cost to a victim can reach millions. “As we’ve seen with the recent attacks, DDoS is extremely disruptive, and on the rise,” says Kirill Ilganaev, Head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection at Kaspersky Lab. “When hackers launch a DDoS attack, the damage can be devastating for the business that’s being targeted because it disables a company’s online presence. As a result business workflow comes to a halt, mission-critical processes cannot be completed and reputations can be ruined. Online services and IT infrastructure are just too important to leave unguarded. That’s why specialized DDoS protection solution should be considered an essential part of any effective protection strategy in business today.” Source: http://www.networksasia.net/article/39-businesses-not-ready-protect-themselves-against-ddos.1486046674

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39% of businesses not ready to protect themselves against DDoS

The emergence of new global cybercriminal attack patterns

The findings of a new Malwarebytes report illustrate a significant shift in cybercriminal attack and malware methodology from previous years. Ransomware, ad fraud and botnets, the subject of so much unjustified hype over previous years, surged to measurable prominence in 2016 and evolved immensely. Cybercriminals migrated to these methodologies en masse, impacting nearly anyone and everyone. To better understand just how drastically the threat landscape evolved in 2016, researchers examined data taken from Windows and … More ?

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The emergence of new global cybercriminal attack patterns

Google mistakes the entire NHS for massive cyber-attacking botnet

Hospitals advised to use Bing instead Exclusive   Google is blocking access to the entire NHS network, mistaking the amount of traffic it is currently receiving as a cyber attack.…

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Google mistakes the entire NHS for massive cyber-attacking botnet

Review: DNS Security

About the authors Allan Liska is a Consulting Systems Engineer at FireEye, and Geoffrey Stowe is an Engineering Lead at Palantir Technologies. Inside DNS Security: Defending the Domain Name System DNS security is a topic that rarely comes up, and when it does, it’s usually after an attack or breach disruptive enough to merit a mention in the news. Last year’s DDoS attack against US-based DNS provider Dyn was one of those, but it isn’t … More ?

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Review: DNS Security

Unbreakable Locky ransomware is on the march again

Necrus botnet wakes up and starts fresh malware-cano Cisco is warning of possible return of a massive ransomware spam campaign after researchers noticed traces of traffic from the hitherto dormant Necrus botnet.…

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Unbreakable Locky ransomware is on the march again

Mirai author named as operator of DDoS protection service

Krebs says he’s fingered author of epic IoT web assault code The author of the massive distributed denial-of-service attack malware Mirai, which ropes infected routers and internet of things devices into remotely controlled armies, is a New Jersey man, according to journo Brian Krebs.…

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Mirai author named as operator of DDoS protection service