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Linsanity, Whitney’s Death, Tibetan Protests – New Fodder for This Quarter’s Cybercrime Campaigns
Published Apr 18, 2012
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This quarter saw a significant shift in the way the security industry approaches targeted attacks and advanced persistent threats, which are now viewed more as a long-term, on-going campaign versus the typical “smash-and-grab incidents” favored by cybercriminals in the past, according to the Trend Micro (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704) Q1 2012 Security Roundup Report, available in full here.
According to the report, Q1’s visible events – Linsanity, Whitney Houston’s death, and sociopolitical upheavals around the world – gave cybercriminals new social-engineering campaign material, equipping them to penetrate and or infect users and networks in order to access victim’s data.
The report also noted that cybercriminals who launch APTs will often keep track of the different attacks within a campaign in order to determine which individual attack compromised a specific victim’s network. The Luckycat campaign, in particular, attacked a diverse set of targets using a variety of malware, some of which have been linked to other cyber-espionage campaigns.
“Cyber crime is a multibillion dollar industry and the criminals have the resources to develop more and more sophisticated attacks. We must be prepared for this, and Trend Micro has always stressed that educating our users and helping them to develop their skills, especially here in the Middle East is an integral part of mitigating these threats. In addition, choosing a security partner that understands and has the ability to deal with threats on a daily basis, without disrupting every day business operation is vital. Businesses and individuals need to realise that getting the cheapest security solution is not a sound strategy – many times you get what you pay for, and the consequences can be disastrous,” commented Nick Black, Technical Manager, Med, Middle East and Africa,
Trend Micro.
Notable trends in Q1 2012:
• Cybercriminals are capitalizing on the growth of Android users who use their smartphones to gain Internet access. In fact, Trend Micro identified approximately 5000 new malicious Android apps in the first quarter.
• Apple surpassed Oracle, Google and Microsoft in reported vulnerabilities, with a total of 91. Oracle came in second, with 78; Google, 73; Microsoft, 43. Apart from posting the highest number of reported vulnerabilities, Apple also issued a record-breaking number of patches last March.
• New social networking site, Pinterest, gained not just popularity but also notoriety. Site users were drawn into “re-pinning” a Starbucks logo to get supposed gift cards but instead got malware.
• This quarter’s top spam-sending countries included: India (20 percent), Indonesia (13 percent), South Korea (12 percent), and Russia (10 percent).
• During this quarter, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™, a cloud computing infrastructure, protected Trend Micro customers against a total of: 15.3 billion spam, 338.4 thousand malware, and 1.3 billion malicious URLs.
About Trend Micro
Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704;TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, creates a world safe for exchanging digital information with its Internet content security and threat management solutions for businesses and consumers. A pioneer in server security with over 20 years' experience, we deliver top-ranked client, server and cloud-based security that fits our customers' and partners' needs, stops new threats faster, and protects data in physical, virtualized and cloud environments. Powered by the industry-leading Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ cloud computing security infrastructure, our products and services stop threats where they emerge – from the Internet. They are supported by 1,000+ threat intelligence experts around the globe.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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