Kaspersky Lab recently published a report which provides an overview of the biggest corporate security threats of 2013.<\/p>\n
According to the report, companies are increasingly falling victim to cyber-attacks, with 91% of the organisations polled suffering a cyber-attack at least once in the preceding 12-month period.<\/p>\n
9% of businesses were the victims of targeted attacks – carefully planned activity aimed at infecting the network infrastructure of a specific organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extensive use of digital devices in business has created ideal conditions for cyber-espionage and the deployment of malware capable of stealing corporate data,\u201d Kaspersky Lab said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe potential is so great that malicious programmes may soon completely replace company insiders as the way of gathering information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaspersky Lab\u2019s main corporate findings of the year are:<\/p>\n
2013 saw some major disclosures about spyware-led attacks that were related, directly or indirectly, to the activities of various governments\u2019 agencies.<\/p>\n
Other significant actors on the corporate cyber threat scene were businesses that turned to cyber-criminals to penetrate their competitors\u2019 networks.<\/p>\n
Outsourced cyber-criminal forces performed operations that were usually aimed at stealing information.<\/p>\n
Other attacks were based on sabotage \u2013 using malicious programmes to wipe data or block infrastructure operations. Some special Trojan programmes were capable of stealing money via online banking systems.<\/p>\n
Cyber-criminals could also compromise corporate sites and redirect visitors to malicious resources, damaging a company\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n
Financial losses were caused by a DDoS attack, which can close down a company\u2019s public-facing web resources for several days.<\/p>\n
Clients start looking for a more reliable company, which results in long-term financial losses.<\/p>\n
Over the past few years, Kaspersky Lab\u2019s experts have observed big and noisy APT gangs all over the world targeting large numbers of organisations from almost all sectors.<\/p>\n
They stayed in compromised networks for weeks and even months at a time, stealing every shred of information they could get.<\/p>\n
However, that approach stands less and less chance of going unnoticed for long, damaging their prospects of success.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why a new emerging trend is witnessed: small hit-and-run gangs that attack with surgical precision. They appear to know very well what they need from the victims.<\/p>\n
Basically, these kind of attackers come, steal what they want and leave. Kaspersky Lab\u2019s experts have named them “cyber-mercenaries” \u2013 an organised group of people conducting cyber-espionage\/cyber-sabotage activities on demand, following the orders of anyone who pays them.<\/p>\n
Icefog, which was recently discovered, appears to be an example of this \u2013 an APT campaign in search of specifically required data.<\/p>\n
Manual analysis of the data stored in corporate networks was used with the help of remote-access technologies integrated into malware on infected workstations. Subsequently the cyber-criminals selected and copied the documents that they wanted.<\/p>\n
Kaspersky Lab\u2019s analysts expect this trend to grow in future, and more small groups of cyber-mercenaries will be available for hire to perform surgical hit-and-run operations.<\/p>\n
The infamous disclosures of 2013 could potentially lead to a kind of de-globalisation and greater interest in creating national equivalents of global services.<\/p>\n
Those new national software products and services delivered by local manufacturers may not be of the same quality as those of the larger international companies.<\/p>\n
The investigation of cyber-attacks suggests that the smaller and less experienced the software developer is, the more vulnerabilities will be found in its code. As a result targeted attacks become easier and more effective.<\/p>\n
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