Battle of Cyber Crime Reports: Dell vs Calif. AG Kamalah Harris

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - We recently reviewed the 2016 California Threat Report issued by California's Attorney General Kamalah Harris and concluded that overall, it was a waste of taxpayer's money. Refer to :  http://cotobuzz.blogspot.com/2016/02/cyber-attacks-california-data-breach.html

Right on cue, Dell today released its own  2016 Threat Report "detailing the cybercrime trends that shaped 2015 and identifying top emerging security risks for 2016."

The report overall is more substantive, actionable, reliable and credible than the 2016 California Threat Report.  And of course the best part is that Dell's report comes with no cost to the taxpayer.

The Dell report details four developing trends in cybercrime. 

1. The evolution of exploit kits to stay one step ahead of security systems. 

The Dell Security Annual Threat Report shows that cybercriminals employed a number of new tactics to better conceal exploit kits from security systems, including the use of anti-forensic mechanisms; URL pattern changes; steganography which is concealing the file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video; and modifications in landing page entrapment techniques.

2. A continued surge in SSL/TLS encryption that is giving cybercriminals more opportunities to conceal malware from firewalls.

 Using SSL or TLS encryption, skilled attackers can cipher command and control communications and malicious code to evade intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and anti-malware inspection systems. This tactic was used in a crafty malvertising campaign in August 2015 to expose as many as 900 million Yahoo users to malware by redirecting them to a site that was infected by the Angler exploit kit.

3.  The continued rise of Android malware. 

• Android-specific ransomware popularity accelerated throughout the year.
• The rise of a new Android malware that stored its malicious contents on a Unix library file, rather than the classes.dex file that security systems typically scan.
• The financial sector continued to be a prime target for Android malware, with a number of malicious threats targeting banking apps on infected devices.
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• 4. A marked increase in the number of malware attacks.

• The team received 64 million unique malware samples, compared with 37 million in 2014, representing an increase of 73 percent, indicating attackers are putting more effort each year into infiltrating organizational systems with malicious code. 
• 2015 saw an almost 2x increase in attack attempts from 4.2 billion to 8.19 billion.
• The combination of Dyre Wolf and Parite topped network traffic through 2015. Other long-lasting malware included TongJi, a widely used JavaScript by multiple drive-by campaigns (malware that downloads silently and automatically when a user visits an infected website); Virut, a general cybercrime botnet active since at least 2006; and the resurgence of Conficker, a well-known computer worm targeting Microsoft Windows operating system since 2008.
• In October and November 2015, the Spartan exploit kit was more highly concentrated in Russia than anywhere else.

According to Curtis Hutcheson, Dell Security general manager, "Many of the breaches in 2015 were successful because cybercriminals found and exploited a weak link in victims’ security programs due to disconnected or outdated point solutions that could not catch these anomalies in their ecosystem.  Each successful attack provides an opportunity for security professionals to learn from others’ oversights, examine their own strategies and shore up the holes in their defense systems.　At Dell Security, we believe the best way for customers to protect themselves is to inspect every packet on their network and validate every entitlement for access."

Additional  predictions: Flash zero-day virus decrease, Android Pay attacks, and Android Auto hacks 

The Dell Security Annual Threat Report also identified several trends and predictions which are discussed in further detail in the full report.

• The battle between HTTPS encryption and threat scanning will continue to rage, as companies fear performance trade-offs.
• The number of zero-day Adobe Flash viruses will drop gradually because major browser vendors no longer support Adobe Flash.
• Malicious threats will target Android Pay through the vulnerabilities of Near Field Communication (NFC). Such attacks may leverage malicious Android apps and point-of-sale (POS) terminals, tools that are easy to acquire and manipulate for hackers.
• We can expect malicious entities to target cars equipped with Android Auto, possibly via ransomware where victims must pay to exit the vehicle or even more dangerous tactics.

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HPE 2016 Cyber landscape:

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HPE 2016 Cyber Report:  http://www.bitpipe.com/fulfillment/1455827832_34