securtiy policies

In 2013 some of the most sophisticated forms of attack used “watering holes”. This type of attack refers to initiating an attack against targeted businesses and organizations. In a watering hole attack scenario, threat actors compromise a carefully selected website by inserting an exploit resulting in malware infection. So in other words an attacker infiltrates a legitimate site visited by their target, and then plants a malicious code, and then sits and waits and they can be pretty potent. The Hidden Lynx infected approx. 4,000 users in one month. Another form of attack was Ransomware which is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. This type of attack grew by 500 percent in 2013. They are highly profitable and attackers have adapted so they remain that way. This has evolved to Ransomcrypt which is commonly known as Cryptolocker. Cryptolocker is the most prominent of these threats and turns Ransomware viscous by the attacker pretending to law enforcement and encrypts a user’s files which in turn they request some type of ransom for the files to be unencrypted. While mobile malware was pretty low in 2013 it showed the environment for explosive growth. This report showed that 38 percent of mobile users had already experienced some type of mobile cybercrime. Users are storing more and more of their sensitive files online (52 percent) some of these files consist of work and personal information. With that said that has put their employer’s data at risk. In 2012 each mobile malware family had an average of 38 variants by 2013 that number grew to 58. The reason why this has not exploded yet is because the bad guys have not needed it to get what it they were looking for.