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Management Devising a New Strategy to Tackle Today's Cyberattacks

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Management Devising a New Strategy to Tackle Today's Cyberattacks INFORMATION SECURITY ESSENTIAL GUIDE THREAT Management Devising a new strategy to tackle today's cyberattacks INSIDE Antimalware Cybercrime Social Engineering Incident Response Can your network security stop APTs? FireEye can. Over 95% of networks are compromised as advanced attacks easily evade traditional and next generation signature-based firewalls, IPSs, AV and gateways. APT The best and brightest across every industry are protecting themselves from zero-day and APT attacks Targeted with FireEye. FireEye… the leader in stopping Zero-day zero-day and APT attacks! Contact FireEye now for a free assessment. www.FireEye.com/StopAPTs Join FireEye at the online Threat Management Summit Wednesday, March 14, 2012 10:00 – 11:00 AM PST REGISTER NOW www.fireeye.com | [email protected] | 877.FIREEYE (347.3393) EDITORIAL p MARCIA SAVAGE Battling on All Fronts Organizations are preparing to defend themselves from growing malware threats and targeted attacks in 2012. UFFICE TO SAY, an information security pro’s job never gets any easier. The threat environment is constantly changing and growing more complex as criminals continue to find new ways to attack companies Sand their users. Security pros have to battle on multiple fronts, from increasingly sophisticated malware that’s spreading to mobile platforms to stealthy social engineering and targeted attacks. According to Information Security and SearchSecurity.com’s 2012 Priorities survey, 34 percent of survey participants rate preventing worms and viruses as a top security challenge for their organization. Almost 28 percent view preventing spam and spyware as a major problem and 17 percent say detecting targeted, persistent attacks is a top challenge. To that end, organizations are making threat management a priority this year. Almost 18 percent of 919 respondents expect spending on threat man- agement (defending against viruses, malware, intrusions, spyware, spam, Antimalware and application attacks) will see the largest year-over-year increase compared to other security initiatives. Cybercrime The focus on threat management comes after a year that some are calling a watershed for high-profile security breaches. RSA, Sony, and Epsilon are WSE among the big companies victimized in 2011. This year will likely be another Social Engineering tough one for security, judging from the many threat predictions issued by O security vendor research teams. Incident Response On the malware front, researchers at M86 Security Labs say they expect to see more variants of the Zeus Trojan since the source code for the crime- BR ware—which has heavily targeted online banking—became public last year. 3 Information Security Essential Guide Threat Management They also expect the exploit kits used by criminals to spread malware will become increasingly professional and harder to detect. But the major loom- ing malware trend they see on the horizon—along with many other security researchers—is mobile malware. Immature mobile antimalware systems, com- bined with a vulnerable general user base, make “It’s only recently that the mobile platform “one of the most concerning we’re starting to see areas for cybercriminals to exploit in 2012,” accord- these mobile systems ing to M86. Mobile malware has been more of a theoretical remain consistent in exercise but with today’s influx of employees using terms of functionality; their personal smartphones at work, it’s quickly that will allow someone moving past the conceptual stage, researchers say. writing malware to have In 2011, McAfee researchers documented Android malware designed to carry out a range of nefarious it be effective and actions, including collecting sensitive information remain effective.” from a phone, recording phone calls, and using root —FRED TOUCHETTE, exploits to access system files. senior security analyst, AppRiver “One reason mobile malware hasn’t hit until now is because the different phones would change their operating system every couple months,” says Fred Touchette, senior security analyst at AppRiver. “It’s only recently that we’re starting to see these mobile systems remain consistent in terms of functionality; that will allow someone writing malware to have it be effective and remain effective.” While mobile malware takes off, targeted attacks against companies will Antimalware also increase this year, researchers say. Michael Sutton, vice president of secu- rity research for the research arm of cloud-based security provider Zscaler, predicts that overuse and overhype of the term APT will subside but that Cybercrime stories of targeted attacks against enterprises will “rise tenfold” in the media. WSE “This will be a reflection of increased activity by attackers as they broaden Social Engineering their reach to smaller companies and decisions by corporate council to dis- O close details of an attack rather than to suppress the information and risk litigation for trying to cover up such activity,” he says in a blog post. Incident Response Social media, which criminals use for reconnaissance to carry out targeted attacks, will continue to provide the bad guys with ammunition for more BR sophisticated attacks and a platform to spread scams, researchers say. 4 Information Security Essential Guide Threat Management All these dire predictions cast a gloomy pall over 2012, but at the same time there have been advances that bode well for security. According to a report released last year by the IBM X-Force research team, the number of Web application vulnerabilities dropped during the first half of 2011, critical vulnerabilities were at their lowest point since 2007, and spam declined after major botnet operators were taken down by law enforcement. Furthermore, the SQL Slammer worm, which the IBM X-Force team describes as one of the most common sources of malicious packet on the Internet since 2003, dramatically disappeared last March. At the same time, awareness of security threats appears to be growing among executive business managers. Heavy media coverage of security breaches has made it more common “for business line heads to have a better understanding of the threat environment,” says Paul Rohmeyer, a faculty member in the graduate school at Stevens Institute of Technology and a risk management consultant. Such increased awareness at the C-level should help boost security’s prominence in the enterprise and provide the support needed for security professionals to succeed in a tough threat environment. p MARCIA SAVAGE is Editor of Information Security magazine. Send comments on this column to [email protected]. Antimalware Cybercrime WSE Social Engineering O Incident Response BR 5 Information Security Essential Guide Threat Management sSec Fullpg Ad:Layout 1 2/5/09 11:39 AM Page 1 Your One Stop Shop for All Things Security Nowhere else will you find such a highly targeted combination of resources specifically dedicated to the success of today’s IT-security professional. Free. IT security pro's turn to the TechTarget Security Media Group for the information they require to keep their corporate data, systems and assets secure. We’re the only information resource that provides immediate access to breaking industry news, virus alerts, new hacker threats and attacks, security standard compliance, videos, webcasts, white papers, podcasts, a selection of highly focused security newsletters and more — all at no cost. Feature stories and analysis designed to meet Breaking news, technical tips, security schools the ever-changing need for information on and more for enterprise IT professionals. security technologies and best practices. www.SearchSecurity.com www.SearchSecurity.com Learning materials geared towards ensuring UK-focused case studies and technical advice on security in high-risk financial environments. the hottest topics in the UK Security industry. www.SearchFinancialSecurity.com www.SearchSecurity.co.UK Information Security strategies for the Technical guidance AND business advice Midmarket IT professional. specialized for VARs, IT resellers and systems integrators. www.SearchMidmarketSecurity.com www.SearchSecurityChannel.com ANTIMALWARE New Platforms, New Threats Attackers are targeting new vectors such as smartphones, social media and cloud services. Enterprises need to up their game. BY LISA PHIFER hile IT continues to fight increasingly clever attacks against on-site enterprise infrastructure, new malware is taking aim at lower-hanging fruit: Wunder-secured smartphones, mobile applications, social media, and other cloud services. As workers make more extensive use of such perimeter-less platforms, they create rich targets that require new antimalware protection strategies to mitigate these multifaceted new malware threats. Enterprises can defend themselves by understanding these new malware vectors, enforcing application policies, implementing new device resident Antimalware and cloud-based antimalware techniques, and leveraging other security tools. Cybercrime FOLLOWING THE MONEY Far more than fame or hacktivism, the malware industry is driven by finan- WSE cial gain and drawn to low-cost, high-profit attacks. This has been repeatedly Social Engineering proven, as malware migrated from floppy to USB drives, email to Web, browser O to PDF, abandoning old haunts to seek out more vulnerable monocultures. Incident Response “As technology trends such as Web and mobile come to the forefront, that’s where malware refocuses,” says Intrepidus Group Principal Consultant BR Zach Lanier. “Mobile convergence creates an interesting
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