• Trend Micro
  • About TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog
Search:
  • Home
  • Categories
    • Ransomware
    • Vulnerabilities
    • Exploits
    • Targeted Attacks
    • Deep Web
    • Mobile
    • Internet of Things
    • Malware
    • Bad Sites
    • Spam
    • Botnets
    • Social
    • Open source
Home   »   CTO Insights   »   Targeted Attacks: Not All Attacks Need To Be Sophisticated

Targeted Attacks: Not All Attacks Need To Be Sophisticated

  • Posted on:August 27, 2015 at 8:05 pm
  • Posted in:CTO Insights, Targeted Attacks
  • Author:Raimund Genes (Chief Technology Officer)
0

The security industry loves to talk about how “sophisticated” attacks can be. Usually this takes the form of us saying how advanced and sophisticated an attack is, what new methods were used to hide servers or make analysis harder, etcetera. However, it’s easy to forget that not all attacks need to be technically sophisticated; instead it can be in the social engineering used and how the attack is carried out.

For example, a few months ago we talked about the Arid Viper campaign, a sophisticated attack that targeted users in Israel. However, that well-organized attack shared some of its attack infrastructure with Advtravel, which was far less sophisticated. Arid Viper was advanced; Advtravel was less so. How could this be the case? Weren’t targeted attacks supposed to be the work of educated, sophisticated attackers? Weren’t these attackers supposed to have nothing in common with “ordinary” cybercriminals?

Let’s think about it for a moment. Are the skills needed to carry out a “targeted attack” that different from an ordinary cybercriminal attack? Fundamentally, they are not. While cybercriminals generally profit from activities like credit card fraud, they are not above selling their skills to attack specific targets with a planned goal in mind. If that is the case, why shouldn’t they reuse their existing tools? Why shouldn’t they reuse existing infrastructure?

Even “large-scale” attacks that have affect the real world sometimes use surprisingly simple tools. Consider the attack on TV5 Monde: that was carried out using malware created with a VBScript toolkit. Instructions on how to use it could be found on Youtube. It was not a great challenge to get this tool to work properly.

The sophistication of these attacks lies in how the tools are used. What social engineering was used to convince the targets to open malicious attachments/links? No sophisticated “persistent threat” is needed when an ordinary remote access tool (RAT) will do.

These attacks are persistent, and it will be difficult – if not impossible – for an organization to stop all of them. An attacker will not go away merely because he has been stopped once, or twice, or even more times. There is no bulletproof, fool-proof solution that will stop all attacks. So, what can an organization do?

An organization needs to realize that it can’t stop all attacks. What it can do is discover attacks that are in progress so that the damage from any particular one is mitigated. An intrusion detection system is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. This defends against not only common threats like RATs, but against sophisticated targeted attacks as well. There is no silver bullet to dealing with today’s threats; one must constantly keep up with current and future technology – both for offensive and defensive purposes – to understand the constantly changing threat landscape and the available defenses.

Learn how to protect Enterprises, Small Businesses, and Home Users from ransomware:
ENTERPRISE »
SMALL BUSINESS»
HOME»

Security Predictions for 2020

  • Cybersecurity in 2020 will be viewed through many lenses — from differing attacker motivations and cybercriminal arsenal to technological developments and global threat intelligence — only so defenders can keep up with the broad range of threats.
    Read our security predictions for 2020.

Business Process Compromise

  • Attackers are starting to invest in long-term operations that target specific processes enterprises rely on. They scout for vulnerable practices, susceptible systems and operational loopholes that they can leverage or abuse. To learn more, read our Security 101: Business Process Compromise.

Recent Posts

  • Our New Blog
  • How Unsecure gRPC Implementations Can Compromise APIs, Applications
  • XCSSET Mac Malware: Infects Xcode Projects, Performs UXSS Attack on Safari, Other Browsers, Leverages Zero-day Exploits
  • August Patch Tuesday Fixes Critical IE, Important Windows Vulnerabilities Exploited in the Wild
  • Water Nue Phishing Campaign Targets C-Suite’s Office 365 Accounts

Popular Posts

Sorry. No data so far.

Stay Updated

  • Home and Home Office
  • |
  • For Business
  • |
  • Security Intelligence
  • |
  • About Trend Micro
  • Asia Pacific Region (APAC): Australia / New Zealand, 中国, 日本, 대한민국, 台灣
  • Latin America Region (LAR): Brasil, México
  • North America Region (NABU): United States, Canada
  • Europe, Middle East, & Africa Region (EMEA): France, Deutschland / Österreich / Schweiz, Italia, Россия, España, United Kingdom / Ireland
  • Privacy Statement
  • Legal Policies
  • Copyright © Trend Micro Incorporated. All rights reserved.