Cyber Secured notes regarding attacks to watch out for in 2023
The new year has just begun and it’s a time of renewal as we plan for the possibilities to come in 2023. It’s also a time when you need to plan for resiliency in the face of ever-present cyberattacks.
Sixty-eight percent of surveyed business leaders feel that cybersecurity risks are getting worse.
They have a good reason. Attacks continue to get more sophisticated. To protect your business in the coming year, it’s important to watch the attack trends. What new methods are hackers using? What types of attacks are increasing in volume? Knowing these things is important. It helps you better update your IT security to mitigate the risk of a data breach or malware infection.
Here are the attack trends that you need to watch out for.
Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks aka "spear phishing"
Phishing is the number one delivery vehicle for ransomware. In BEC attacks, the bad guys impersonate or compromise trusted entities to steal money and data. Attackers often compromise a vendor’s email, observe mail patterns, and intercept existing threads to carry out invoice fraud.
Spear phishing is a more sophisticated and elaborate version of phishing. Threat actors gather information on key people in a targeted organization to craft a personalized and believable email to encourage specific targeted user(s) to provide confidential information or deliver certain malicious content (ransomware delivery, polymorphic URLs, drive-by downloads, silent malware, etc.)
BEC attacks are also known as "CEO fraud" or :whaling". In these attacks, the threat agents typically impersonate an email account belonging to a high-profile executive and then use it to send an email to the organization’s employees with financial authority, asking them to transfer money into bank accounts controlled by the attackers. CEOs, directors, and executive-level, payroll, or human resources staff are part of the company’s "big fish" making them frequent targets of attack and impersonation.
Attacks on 5G Devices
The world has been buzzing about 5G for a few years. It is finally beginning to fulfill the promise of lightning-fast internet. As providers build out the infrastructure, you can expect this to be a high-attack area.
Hackers are looking to take advantage of the 5G hardware used for routers, mobile devices, and PCs. Anytime you have a new technology like this, it’s bound to have some code vulnerabilities. This is exactly what hackers are looking to exploit.
You can prepare by being aware of the firmware security in the devices you buy. This is especially true for those enabled for 5G. Some manufacturers will build better firmware security into their designs than others. Make sure to ask about this when purchasing new devices.
One-time Password (OTP) Bypass
This alarming new trend is designed to get past one of the best forms of account security. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is well-known as very effective at preventing fraudulent sign-in attempts. It can stop account takeovers even in cases where the criminal has the user’s password.
There are a few different ways that hackers try to bypass MFA. These include:
Reusing a token: Gaining access to a recent user OTP and trying to reuse it
Sharing unused tokens: The hacker uses their own account to get an OTP. Then attempts to use that OTP on a different account.
Leaked token: Using an OTP token leaked through a web application.
Password reset function: A hacker uses phishing to fool the user into resetting a password. They then trick them into handing over their OTP via text or email.
Attacks Surrounding World Events
During the pandemic, the cyberattack volume increased by approximately 600%.
Large criminal hacking groups have realized that world events and disasters are lucrative.
They launch phishing campaigns for world events. Attacks come for everything from the latest hurricane or typhoon to the war in Ukraine. Unsuspecting people often fall for these scams. This is because they are often distracted by the crisis. They will often use social engineering tactics, such as sad photos, to play on the emotions. Social media is a frequent delivery vehicle of malicious content as well.
Smishing & Mobile Device Attacks
Mobile devices go with us just about everywhere these days. This direct connection to a potential victim is not lost on cybercriminals. Look for more mobile device-based attacks, including SMS-based phishing (“smishing”).
Many people aren’t expecting to receive fake messages to their personal numbers. But cell numbers are no longer as private as they once were. Hackers can buy lists of them online. They then craft convincing fake texts that look like shipping notices or receipts. One wrong click is all it takes for an account or data breach.
Mobile malware is also on the rise.
During the first few months of 2022, malware targeted to mobile devices rose by 500%.
It’s important to ensure that you have good mobile anti-malware. As well as other protections on your devices, such as a DNS filter.
Elevated Phishing Using AI & Machine Learning
These days, phishing emails are not so easy to spot. It used to be that they nearly always had spelling errors or grainy images. While some still do, most don’t.
Criminal groups elevate today’s phishing using AI and machine learning. Not only will it look identical to a real brand’s emails, but it will also come personalized. Hackers use these tactics to capture more victims. They also allow hackers to send out more targeted phishing messages (often called spear phishing or BEC attacks) in less time than in years past.
Thanks to the folks at The Technology Press for sharing!
Kommentare