Cyberattack Trends
Tendenza #1: uso dell'IA
Una delle caratteristiche che definiscono il 2023 è la rapida ascesa dell'intelligenza artificiale (IA) in Cyber Security. ChatGPT ha avuto un lancio pubblico negli ultimi mesi del 2023 ed è stato visto come innovativo e unico. Nel giro di pochi mesi, c'erano centinaia o migliaia di nuovi strumenti e progetti che applicavano l'IA generativa e i grandi modelli linguistici (LLM) a una varietà di compiti diversi.
Nello spazio della cybersecurity, l'IA generativa ha numerose applicazioni potenziali. Questi strumenti sono già stati applicati per aumentare drasticamente la qualità degli attacchi di ingegneria sociale e per sviluppare nuovi malware, tra cui infostealer, keylogger e ransomware.
While companies such as OpenAI have attempted to build defenses into their tools, they have met with limited success. Research has demonstrated that these restrictions can be easily bypassed, allowing cybercriminals to leverage these tools to increase the scale and sophistication of their attacks.
Tendenza #2: ransomware
Il ransomware è una delle principali minacce alla cybersecurity da diversi anni, e gli attacchi ransomware sono diventati sempre più sofisticati, comuni e costosi per le aziende.
Uno dei principali fattori alla base del suo successo duraturo è la costante evoluzione della minaccia ransomware. La rivalità tra i gruppi di ransomware ha portato a ransomware che criptano più velocemente, eludono le difese e prendono di mira più sistemi operativi. Il ransomware si è anche spostato dalla crittografia dei dati al loro furto, sconfiggendo i backup come potenziale difesa contro il pagamento dei riscatti.
Gli operatori di ransomware hanno anche utilizzato diverse tecniche per scalare i loro attacchi. Nel 2023, lo sfruttamento della catena di approvvigionamento e delle vulnerabilità zero-day ha consentito attacchi simultanei su larga scala contro molte aziende da parte dei gruppi ransomware CL0P e LockBit.
Tendenza #3: Hacktivism
Gli hacktivisti eseguono attacchi informatici con motivazioni politiche. Sebbene gruppi come Anonymous abbiano eseguito attacchi di questo tipo per anni, il 2022 e la prima metà del 2023 hanno visto una drammatica impennata degli attacchi hacktivisti affiliati allo Stato.
Questi attacchi impiegano comunemente attacchi DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service ) per interrompere le operazioni delle organizzazioni situate in un particolare Stato-nazione. Ad esempio, Killnet, affiliato alla Russia, ha preso di mira le organizzazioni sanitarie occidentali, mentre il filo-islamico Anonymous Sudan ha attaccato le compagnie aeree scandinave, le organizzazioni sanitarie statunitensi e Microsoft.
Tendenza #4 Minacce mobili
In recent years, mobile device usage has increased dramatically in the workplace. This trend is driven by the growth of remote work and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies.
Di conseguenza, i criminali informatici hanno concentrato i loro sforzi sulla compromissione di questi dispositivi mobili, e la quantità e la qualità del malware mobile sono cresciute in modo drammatico. Le recenti campagne di malware mobile come FluHorse prendono di mira i codici di autenticazione a due fattori (2FA) sui dispositivi mobili, mentre FakeCalls genera chiamate vocali fraudolente spacciandole per applicazioni finanziarie. La campagna Triangulation sottolinea il cambiamento del panorama della sicurezza di iOS, in quanto i criminali informatici sfruttano le vulnerabilità zero-click in dispositivi precedentemente ritenuti molto più sicuri delle loro controparti Android.
Cyberattacks in the News
Russia/Ukraine conflict
Check Point Research (CPR) has released information on cyber attacks that have been seen in the context of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. In the first three days of battle, cyber attacks on Ukraine’s government and military sector increased by an astounding 196%. The number of cyber attacks on Russian businesses has climbed by 4%.
Phishing emails in East Slavic languages grew sevenfold, with a third of those malicious phishing emails being sent from Ukrainian email addresses to Russian receivers.
Apache Log4j Vulnerability
A severe remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the Apache logging package Log4j 2 versions 2.14.1 and below was reported on December 9th 2021 (CVE-2021-44228). With over 400,000 downloads from its GitHub repository, Apache Log4j is the most popular java logging package. It is used by a large number of enterprises throughout the world and allows users to log in to a variety of popular applications. It’s easy to exploit this flaw, which allows threat actors to take control of java-based web servers and perform remote code execution assaults.
SolarWinds Sunburst Attack
The world is now facing what seems to be a 5th generation cyber-attack – a sophisticated, multi-vector attack with clear characteristics of the cyber pandemic. Named Sunburst by researchers, we believe this is one of the most sophisticated and severe attacks ever seen. The attack has been reported to impact major US government offices as well as many private sector organizations.
This series of attacks was made possible when hackers were able to embed a backdoor into SolarWinds software updates. Over 18,000 companies and government offices downloaded what seemed to be a regular software update on their computers, but was actually a Trojan horse. By leveraging a common IT practice of software updates, the attackers utilized the backdoor to compromise the organization’s assets enabling them to spy on the organization and access its data. For more information visit our Sunburst attack hub.
Ransomware Attacks
The resurgence of ransomware has been growing. Small local and state government agencies, mainly in the southeastern part of the U.S., have been victimized. Digital transformation is eroding traditional network perimeters with the adoption of cloud computing, cloud-based subscription services, and the ubiquity of mobile devices. This increased expansion of vectors means more ways to attack an organization.
In Q3 2020 Check Point Research saw a 50% increase in the daily average of ransomware attacks, compared to the first half of the year, Organizations worldwide were under a massive wave of ransomware attacks, with healthcare as the most targeted industry
As these attacks continue to mature both in frequency and intensity, their impact on business has grown exponentially. The Top ransomware types were Maze and Ryuk
Types of Cyberattacks
Cyber threats of generation V and VI are now a reality for businesses. Cybercriminals are aware of recent advancements in company cybersecurity and have adapted their attacks to circumvent and defeat traditional safeguards. To avoid detection, modern cyber attacks are multi-vectored and use polymorphic code. As a result, detecting and responding to threats is more challenging than ever.
Cybercriminals’ primary target and an organization’s first line of defense in the remote work world is the endpoint. Securing the remote workforce necessitates an understanding of the most common cyber risks that employees experience, as well as endpoint security solutions capable of detecting, preventing, and resolving these assaults.
Cyberattacks come in a variety of different forms. Cybercriminals use many different methods to launch a cyber attack, a phishing attack, an exploitation of compromised credentials, and more. From this initial access, cybercriminals can go on to achieve different objectives including malware infections, ransomware, denial of service attack, data theft, and more.
A Cyberattack is Preventable
Despite the prevalence of cyber attacks, Check Point data suggests that 99 percent of enterprises are not effectively protected. However, a cyber attack is preventable. The key to cyber defense is an end-to-end cyber security architecture that is multilayered and spans all networks, endpoint and mobile devices, and cloud. With the right architecture, you can consolidate management of multiple security layers, control policy through a single pane of glass. This lets you correlate events across all network environments, cloud services, and mobile infrastructures.
In addition to architecture, Check Point recommends these key measures to prevent cyber attacks:
- Maintain security hygiene
- Choose prevention over detection
- Implement the most advanced technologies
Learn more about recent cyber attack trends by checking out Check Point’s 2024 Cyber Security Report. You’re also welcome to learn how to protect against modern cyber threats by signing up for a free demo of Check Point Harmony Endpoint.
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