by G Hunt |
June 1, 2023 |
Security Awareness Training
Cyberattacks on businesses have been increasing at an astonishing rate and attacks are becoming much more sophisticated. A successful attack can cause long-lasting problems for businesses due to the reputational damage caused, especially when sensitive customer data is stolen. Customers will be lost and may never return and lawsuits following successful cyberattacks are increasingly likely. That is on top of the disruption to business while remediating an attack and the potential for permanent loss of data. Many businesses invest considerable money into technical cybersecurity measures and while these are important and will block many attacks, some will bypass those defenses and will reach employees. Employees are an important line of defense and they should not be neglected. Education of the workforce on security best practices and the threats they may encounter can be the difference between a thwarted attack and an extremely damaging data breach. An increasing number of businesses are recognizing that security awareness training for employees is a good investment and can significantly improve their security posture, but simply providing a training course to employees may not provide the expected benefits. You must make sure the training is effective to get a good return on your investment. Security awareness training is important because cybercriminals usually target an organization’s employees. The Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report suggests 82% of data breaches involve the human element, which includes responses to phishing emails, misconfigurations, and other mistakes that can open the door to hackers. Through security awareness training, bad security practices can be reduced and employees can be trained to be more security aware and taught how to identify the telltale signs of phishing emails and other types of cyberattacks. Security Awareness Training Tips to Make Training More Effective Many security awareness training programs are not as effective as they should be, so to get the best bang for your buck you should consider the following. Create a baseline against which progress can be measured If you have yet to start providing security...
by G Hunt |
April 30, 2023 |
Cybersecurity Advice, Internet Security News, Security Awareness Training
There has been a notable increase in search engine poisoning for distributing malware. Search engine poisoning is the term given to the manipulation of search engine results to display links to malicious websites. These websites can be used to phish for sensitive information, but this technique is most commonly used for distributing malware. Search engine poisoning can be achieved in different ways. One of the ways search engine poisoning is used to target businesses is to create a webpage and use search engine optimization techniques to target specific search queries. It can take a lot of time an effort to get webpages appearing in the organic search results for key search terms, but since the queries typically targeted have little competition, it is quite easy to get pages appearing high up in the organic search engine listings. Attackers typically target low volume business search queries, such as searches for contract templates, forms, and agreements. Since the person performing the search is looking to download the content, they can easily be tricked into downloading a malicious file. Oftentimes the user will get the file they are looking for but will silently install malware when the file is opened. Google is well aware that the higher up a webpage is in the search results, the more likely it will be visited. The prime spots are at the very top of the search engine results, and that area is reserved for sponsored links. Getting a malicious site in these links will maximize the traffic to a website, and advertisers compete for these advertising slots through the Google Ads online advertising platform. Advertisers can bid for these slots for key search terms that they want to target. Google Ads are increasingly being used by malicious actors as an alternative method of search engine poisoning, and they achieve the greatest success when they target popular software downloads. An attacker will create a website advertising a popular software solution, often cloning the website of a legitimate brand. They will offer a download of that software on the site but will alter the installation file so that in addition to installing the software, malicious code will...
by G Hunt |
January 31, 2023 |
Cybersecurity Advice, Security Awareness Training, Web Filtering
There has been an increase in the use of information-stealing malware by cybercriminals. Info stealers are typically installed to steal a range of sensitive data from a user’s device, such as system information, usernames and passwords, and cryptocurrency wallets. Infostealers typically have keystroke logging capabilities, allowing usernames and passwords to be obtained, which are then exfiltrated to the attacker’s command and control server, allowing the user’s accounts to be accessed. In 2022, cybercriminals increasingly used these types of malware in their attacks on businesses. The latest information stealers have been developed specifically for this purpose and instead of targeting individual accounts, they are being used for much more extensive attacks on businesses, and steal system information and session cookies that allow multifactor authentication controls to be bypassed. If the malware is installed, changing passwords will have little effect, as the attacker will already be in the system. Multifactor authentication can prevent stolen credentials from being used to access accounts, but modern malware is capable of stealing session cookies allowing accounts to be accessed. While multifactor authentication is important, it is not effective if the system has already been compromised. Further, phishing kits are now used that are capable of obtaining session cookies and bypassing multifactor authentication. Phishing attacks have also become more sophisticated and it is now common for a wide range of malicious attachments to be used for distributing malware and directing users to malicious websites. While Office documents are commonly used, now compressed files, ISO files, ZIP files, OneNote files, image files, HTML files, and more are used for malware distribution, many of which are not blocked by email security solutions. To protect against these new malware variants and multifactor authentication-bypassing phishing attacks, businesses need to rethink their protections. An email security solution is required to block malware delivery via email and identify and block the phishing emails that are used for credential theft. Email security solutions will...
by G Hunt |
December 30, 2022 |
Cybersecurity News, Security Awareness Training
A phishing campaign has been detected that is being used to deliver QBot malware, one of the oldest malware families still in use. QBot malware has been around since at least 2009 and is known by many different names, including QakBot, QuackBot and Pinkslipbot. One of the primary functions of the malware is to steal passwords, although the latest variants also serve as a backdoor into victims’ systems. As is the case with many other Trojan malware variants, the group operating the malware works as an initial access broker for ransomware gangs. After the gang has achieved its aims, access to compromised devices is sold to ransomware gangs. The threat actors behind QBot malware have previously worked with the operators of the Emotet botnet, and used the Emotet malware for delivering QBot; however, the law enforcement takedown of the Emotet botnet in January 2021 forced the group to switch attack vectors, and since then QBot malware has been primarily distributed using phishing emails. Now the group has been observed using a new tactic in its phishing campaigns that use Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files. SVG files have become popular due to their ability to support interactivity and animations and are a web-friendly XML-based vector file format. It is the support for interactivity that makes SVG files a good choice for malware distribution. SVG files can include HTML tags, and JavaScript can be included in the <script> tags in the image. In this case, the JavaScript is malicious. The phishing campaign involves emails that have an HTML attachment, which loads an SVG file from the Internet. The SVG image will be specified within an <embed> or <iframe> tag and will be displayed, but the JavaScript in the image will also be executed. In this campaign, the JavaScript within the SVG image assembles the malware directly on the user’s device, instead of downloading the malware from the Internet, as that would risk detection by security solutions. The malware is packaged into a ZIP file that is password protected, so antivirus solutions cannot scan the content. The user is provided with the password to open the zip file in the HTML. The user is told...
by G Hunt |
November 30, 2022 |
Cybersecurity Advice, Security Awareness Training
Cybersecurity experts agree that security awareness training is an important part of any cybersecurity strategy. You can implement next-generation technology to repel malicious actors and prevent and rapidly detect cyberattacks, but it is important not to forget about the human element. According to the Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations report, 82% of all data breaches involve the human element. Through training, you can teach cybersecurity best practices and reduce risky behaviors that open the door to hackers, and you can train employees how to identify phishing. The percentage of companies providing security awareness training to their employees is increasing as the importance of training is now better understood, but one aspect of the training process that is often neglected is conducting phishing simulations on the workforce. Phishing simulations are fake but realistic phishing emails that businesses send internally to employees. You may wonder why you should do such a thing. Well, there are clear benefits that come from doing so. Here we provide five reasons why conducting phishing simulations on employees is beneficial. 1. Create a Baseline to Measure the Effectiveness of your Training Many companies provide security awareness training but are unable to measure its effectiveness, other than a reduction in data breaches and phishing incidents. Phishing simulations are a great way to monitor the effectiveness of training over time and clearly show the return on investment. Conduct phishing simulations before you start your training program and you have a baseline against which you can measure the effectiveness of training over time and see the ROI. 2. Test the Effectiveness of Training in a Work Setting You can show an employee the signs of phishing that they need to look out for, and you can test to make sure they have understood the training at the end of the training course, but that does not mean the training will be remembered nor that it will be applied when they are at work. Phishing is often successful because the emails arrive in inboxes when employees are busy, and that is why mistakes are made. Phishing simulations allow you to test...
by G Hunt |
July 30, 2022 |
Internet Security News, Network Security, Security Awareness Training
Most people are aware of the importance of cybersecurity and the need to take care when opening emails, browsing the internet or downloading apps on their mobile phones. If you ask anyone whether they are knowledgeable about cybersecurity and if they can recognize a malicious website or email, there’s a high chance that they will say yes. A recent survey conducted by AT&T on 2,000 U.S. adults confirms that. 70% of the respondents to the survey said they were knowledgeable about cybersecurity, two-thirds of people said they know how hackers gain access to sensitive information on devices, and 69% of people said they were able to recognize suspicious websites at a glance. However, despite being aware of the importance of cybersecurity, cybersecurity best practices are not always followed. People take considerable risks with email and the Internet, and the survey suggests that the confidence in the ability to recognize scams, malicious websites, and suspicious emails is misplaced. While most people claim to be able to recognize a suspicious website, only 45% of respondents said they knew those sites carried a risk of identity theft. 46% of respondents were unaware of the difference between active and passive cybersecurity threats. Passive cybersecurity threats are those where a threat actor simply monitors communications and gathers sensitive information, whereas an active attack involves some action or modification of communications. An example of a passive attack is a malicious actor eavesdropping on a connection to a website via an evil twin Wi-Fi access point. An example of an active attack would be a malware attack. The average person lands on 6.5 malicious websites or suspicious social media accounts every day and in many cases, those sites are accessed deliberately. Suspicious websites include those that start with HTTP rather than HTTPS, which means the connection between the web browser and the website is not encrypted. Suspicious sites include those with lots of pop-ups, or unverified sites and social media accounts. 39% of respondents said they accessed suspicious streaming websites to view major sporting events, 37% would download files from...
by G Hunt |
April 30, 2022 |
Network Security, Security Awareness Training
Technical defenses need to be implemented to protect against cyber threats, but it is also important to provide security training to the workforce. Security awareness training involves teaching users how to identify and avoid cyber threats, and training users to follow the security best practices that are necessary for protecting devices, networks, and data. When businesses analyze security incidents, they often find that the threat could have easily been identified and avoided. A ransomware attack, for example, could have been prevented had an employee recognized the phishing email that gave the attackers the credentials they needed to access the network. Employees are commonly thought of as a weak link in the security chain, but employees can actually be security assets. Through training, they can become important sensors that help to protect the company. Security awareness training is necessary for all members of the workforce, from the CEO down. Security awareness training needs to be provided to all individuals when they join the company, and then periodically thereafter. 20% of businesses provide security awareness training once a year or less, but something so important needs to be provided more frequently as employees cannot be expected to retain all of the information from a single, annual training session and then apply that information to real-life situations continuously throughout the year. Many businesses need to change their thinking on security awareness training from it being a checkbox item that needs to be completed for compliance or to take out cyber insurance. Effective training is required, and that means it needs to be provided continuously. If you don’t exercise, your muscles will become weak. The same applies to security awareness training. Classroom or computer-based training should be provided, which should be augmented with presentations, quizzes, infographics, and videos. Regular refresher training sessions should be provided in bite-sized chunks that are easy to take on board and remember. The aim of security awareness training is to create a security culture where everyone knows to be constantly alert. Businesses need to develop...
