What is a Cyber Attack?

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

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 雲端. 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

• Cover all attack vectors

• Implement the most advanced technologies

• Keep your 威脅情資 up to date

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.