Sharp Cyber-Attack Increase Seen in Volume, Sophistication, and Variety

Fortinet®, a cyber-security solutions provider, has announced the findings of its latest Global Threat Landscape Report. The research reveals that attacks per firm have increased over the previous quarter. In addition, automated and sophisticated swarm attacks are accelerating, making it increasingly difficult for organizations to protect users, applications, and devices.

Phil Quade, chief information security officer of Fortinet, said,"The volume, sophistication, and variety of cyber threats continue to accelerate with the digital transformation of our global economy. Cyber criminals have become emboldened in their attack methods as they undergo a similar transformation, and their tools are now in the hands of many. The stark reality is that traditional security strategies and architectures simply are no longer sufficient for a digital-dependent organization. There is incredible urgency to counter today's attacks with a security transformation that mirrors digital transformation efforts. Yesterday's solutions, working individually, are not adequate. Point products and static defenses must give way to integrated and automated solutions that operate at speed and scale."

Report Highlights

Swarm Cyber Attacks Increase in Volume, Variety, and Velocity

The sophistication of attacks targeting organizations is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Digital transformation isn't just reshaping business; cyber criminals are leveraging the expanding attack surface it creates for new disruptive opportunities to attack. They are implementing newer swarm-like capabilities while simultaneously targeting multiple vulnerabilities, devices, and access points. The combination of rapid threat development combined with the increased propagation of new variants is increasingly difficult for many organizations to combat.

• Unprecedented Volume:An average of 274 exploit detections per firm were detected, which is a significant increase of 82% over the previous quarter. The number of malware families also increased by 25%, and unique variants grew by 19%. The data not only indicate growth in volume, but also an evolution of the malware as well. In addition, encrypted traffic using HTTPS and SSL grew as a percentage of total network traffic to a high of nearly 60% on average. While encryption can certainly help protect data in motion as it moves between core, cloud, and endpoint environments, it also represents a challenge for traditional security solutions.
• IoT Attack Intensity:Three of the top 20 attacks identified that targeted IoT devices and exploit activity quadrupled against devices like Wi-Fi cameras. None of these detections were associated with a known or named CVE, which is one of the troubling aspects of vulnerable IoT devices. In addition, unlike previous attacks, which focused on exploiting a single vulnerability, new IoT botnets, such as Reaper and Hajime, can target multiple vulnerabilities simultaneously. This multi-vector approach is much harder to combat. Reaper's flexible framework means that, rather than the static, pre-programmed attacks of previous IoT exploits, Reaper's code is easily updated to swarm faster by running new and more malicious attacks as they become available. To demonstrate its swarm abilities, exploit volume associated with Reaper exhibited a jump from 50,000 to 2.7 million over a few days before dropping back to normal.
  
• Ransomware Still Prevalent:  Several strains of ransomware topped the list of malware variants. Locky was the most widespread malware variant, and GlobeImposter followed as the second. A new strain of Locky emerged, tricking recipients with spam before requesting a ransom. In addition, there was a shift on the darknet from only accepting Bitcoin for payment to other forms of digital currency such as Monero.
  
• Crypto Currency Mining on the Rise:  Crypto mining malware increased, which seems to be intertwined with the changing price of Bitcoin. Cyber criminals recognize the growth in digital currencies and are using a trick called crypto jacking to mine crypto currencies on computers using CPU resources in the background without a user knowing. Crypto jacking involves loading a script into a web browser—nothing is installed or stored on the computer.
  
• Sophisticated Industrial Malware:  An uptick in exploit activity against industrial control systems and safety instrumental systems suggests these under-the-radar attacks might be climbing higher on attackers' radar.  An example is an attack code-named Triton. It is sophisticated in nature and has the ability to cover its tracks by overwriting the malware itself with garbage data to thwart forensic analysis. Because these platforms affect vital critical infrastructures, they are enticing for threat actors. Successful attacks can cause significant damage with far-reaching impact.
  
• Attack Variety : Steganography is an attack that embeds malicious code in images. It's an attack vector that has not had much visibility over the past several years, but it appears to be on the resurgence. The Sundown exploit kit uses steganography to steal information, and while it has been around for some time, it was reported by more organizations than any other exploit kit. It was found dropping multiple ransomware variants.

See a detailed view of the findings and some important takeaways for CISOs.