Living off the Land Tools and Supply Chain Weaknesses Spur Stealthier, More Ambitious Attacks
Supply chain and living off the land (LotL) attacks are now a mainstay in the modern threat landscape, widely adopted by both cyber criminals and targeted attack groups. In fact, supply chain attacks ballooned by 78 percent in 2018.
LotL techniques allow attackers to maintain a low profile and hide their activity in a mass of legitimate processes. For example, the use of malicious PowerShell scripts increased by 1,000 percent last year. While Symantec blocks 115,000 malicious PowerShell scripts each month, this actually accounts for less than 1 percent of overall PowerShell usage. A sledgehammer approach toward blocking all PowerShell activity would be disruptive to organizations, further illustrating why LotL techniques have become the preferred tactic for many targeted attack groups.
Identifying and blocking these attacks require the use of advanced detection methods like analytics and machine learning such as Symantec’s Managed Endpoint Detection and Response (MEDR) service, its enhanced EDR 4.0 technology and its advanced AI solution Targeted Attack Analytics (TAA). TAA has allowed Symantec to uncover dozens of stealthy targeted attacks, including those from the Gallmaker group who conducted their cyber espionage campaigns completely without malware.
In addition to LotL and weaknesses in the software supply chain, attackers are increasing their use of conventional attack methods such as spear-phishing to infiltrate organizations. While intelligence gathering remains the primary motive of targeted attacks, the number of attack groups using malware designed to destroy and disrupt business operations increased by 25 percent in 2018.
Internet of Things in the Crosshairs of Cyber Criminals and Attack Groups
While the volume of Internet of Things (IoT) attacks remains high and consistent with 2017 levels, the profile of IoT attacks is changing dramatically. Although routers and connected cameras make up the largest percentage of infected devices (90 percent), almost every IoT device has been proven vulnerable, with everything from smart light bulbs to voice assistants creating additional entry points for attackers.
Targeted attack groups are increasingly focusing on IoT as a key entry point. The emergence of the VPNFilter router malware represents an evolution in traditional IoT threats. Conceived by a skilled and well-resourced threat actor, it allows its creators to destroy or wipe a device, steal credentials and data, and intercept SCADA communications.
“With the growing trend toward the convergence of IT and industrial IoT, the next cyber battlefield is operational technology,” said Sherif El-Nabawi, Vice President, Sales Engineering & Service Provider Sales, Asia Pacific & Japan, Symantec. “A growing number of groups such as Thrip and Triton display interest in compromising operational systems and industrial control systems to potentially prepare for cyber warfare.”
The Great Privacy Awakening
With the recent Cambridge Analytica data scandal and the Facebook data privacy hearings, the implementation of the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), and revelations about app location tracking and privacy bugs in widely used apps such as Apple’s FaceTime feature, consumer privacy has entered the spotlight the past year.
Smartphones could arguably be the greatest spying device ever created – a camera, a listening device and location tracker all in one that is willingly carried and used wherever its owner goes. While already targeted by nation states for traditional spying, smartphones have also become a lucrative means by which to collect consumers’ personal information, with mobile app developers existing as the worst offenders.
According to Symantec research, 45 percent of the most-popular Android apps and 25 percent of the most-popular iOS apps request location tracking, 46 percent of popular Android apps and 24 percent of popular iOS apps request permission to access your device’s camera, and email addresses are shared with 44 percent of the top Android apps and 48 percent of the most-popular iOS apps.
Digital tools that gather cell phone data for tracking children, friends or lost phones are also on the rise and clearing the way for abuse to track others without consent. More than 200 apps and services offer stalkers a variety of capabilities, including basic location tracking, text harvesting and even secret video recording.
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