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| Src | Date (GMT) | Titre | Description | Tags | Stories | Notes |
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2024-01-24 06:00:39 | (Déjà vu) 5 Techniques d'attaque d'escalade communes avec des exemples 5 Common Privilege Escalation Attack Techniques with Examples (lien direct) |
Privilege escalation is often a top aim for cybercriminals as they traverse the attack chain to exploit your IT crown jewels. It lets them achieve critical steps in the attack chain, like maintaining persistence and moving laterally within an environment. Once they\'ve initially compromised a host, they will seek to acquire higher privileges to gain access to valuable assets and create other mischief or damage. This blog post explains why privilege escalation is a significant challenge for today\'s businesses. We also present five common techniques, along with brief examples of each. And we offer a real-world example to underscore how bad actors use privilege escalation as a key intermediary step to carry out attacks. Understanding privilege escalation In cybersecurity, privilege escalation is the process by which an attacker gains access or permissions on a system that is at a higher level of privilege than what they had at the time of the initial compromise. Attackers look to escalate privileges in one of two ways. They either do this horizontally or vertically. Horizontal example This approach involves an attacker moving laterally within a network by compromising accounts at the same privilege level. As they move across the network, they can discover more targets and find more valuable data or systems. Here\'s an example of how a horizontal privilege escalation attack might unfold: An attacker uses stolen credentials to access a host with regular privileges within a company\'s network. The attacker identifies a file server within the network that has sensitive data. Multiple users can access it, but they can only read and write files. The attacker takes advantage of this shared access. They modify files within the shared file system, injecting malicious code or replacing critical configuration files. This activity may go unnoticed for a time because legitimate users regularly modify files on the shared file server. As other users interact with the compromised files, the attacker can increase the number of compromised accounts and hosts, collect sensitive data and prepare to launch a more widescale attack. Vertical example In this approach, attackers exploit identity vulnerabilities within a system or application to escalate their privileges from a basic user account to a privileged user. They might use social engineering tactics like phishing at first to trick users into handing over their login credentials. Here is how a vertical privilege escalation attack might play out: An attacker uses a compromised user account to gain access to a targeted system. They identify a known vulnerability in an application or service that is running on the system. The attacker creates and deploys an exploit to take advantage of this vulnerability. In this case, they take advantage of a flaw in the code that allows a user to escalate privileges without being authorized. The attacker can now change their privileges to a higher level, like system admin. Now that they have a lot of control over the system, the attacker can carry out a range of malicious actions. For example, they might change system configurations or steal data. Why it is important to prevent privilege escalation attacks The examples above make it clear that privilege escalation-enabled attacks can have a significant impact on businesses. To underscore the risk further, here are several other reasons these attacks are a cause for concern: Unauthorized access to and exposure of sensitive data Compromised user accounts and user identities Manipulated systems and configurations Disrupted business operations Data tampering and manipulation, such as with ransomware Legal and regulatory repercussions Reputational damage 5 Common privilege escalation attack techniques and examples Now that you understand the two main categories of privilege escalation and why you must be vigilant in defending against these techniques, let\'s look at five tactics that bad actors might use in | Tool Vulnerability Threat Commercial | ★★★ | |
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2024-01-23 15:29:37 | Plus d'un quart des 2000 mondiaux ne sont pas prêts pour les règles d'authentification des e-mails rigoureuses à venir More than One-Quarter of the Global 2000 Are Not Ready for Upcoming Stringent Email Authentication Rules (lien direct) |
Le courrier électronique reste le principal canal de communication pour les organisations et les moyens de communication préférés pour les consommateurs.Et partout où les gens vont, les acteurs de la menace suivent.Les cybercriminels continuent d'exploiter les e-mails pour livrer le phishing, la fraude par e-mail, le spam et d'autres escroqueries.Mais Google, Yahoo!, Et Apple se battent avec de nouvelles exigences d'authentification par e-mail conçues pour empêcher les acteurs de la menace d'abuser des e-mails.Bien que ce changement majeur soit une excellente nouvelle pour les consommateurs, les organisations n'ont pas beaucoup de temps pour préparer le google, Yahoo!Et Apple commencera à appliquer ses nouvelles exigences au premier trimestre de 2024. Avec seulement des semaines jusqu'à ce que ces règles commencent à prendre effet, plus d'un quart (27%) des Forbes Global 2000 ne sont pas prêts pour ces nouvelles exigences;Cela peut avoir un impact significatif sur leur capacité à fournir des communications par e-mail à leurs clients en temps opportun et met leurs clients en danger de fraude par e-mail et d'escroqueries.En fait, notre rapport State of the Phish 2023 a révélé que 44% des consommateurs mondiaux pensent qu'un e-mail est sûr s'il inclut simplement l'image de marque familière. L'analyse de Proofpoint \\ de la Forbes Global 2000 et leur adoption du protocole ouvert DMARC (reporting et conformité d'authentification des messages basés sur le domaine), un protocole d'authentification largement utilisé qui aide à garantir l'identité des communications par e-mail et protège les noms de domaine du site Web contre le fait d'êtreusurpé et mal utilisé, montre: Plus d'un quart (27%) du Global 2000 n'a aucun enregistrement DMARC en place, indiquant qu'ils ne sont pas préparés aux prochaines exigences d'authentification par e-mail. 69% stupéfiants ne bloquent pas activement les e-mails frauduleux en atteignant leurs clients;Moins d'un tiers (31%) ont mis en œuvre le plus haut niveau de protection pour rejeter les e-mails suspects en atteignant leurs clients de réception. 27% ont mis en œuvre une politique de moniteur, ce qui signifie que des e-mails non qualifiés peuvent toujours arriver dans la boîte de réception du destinataire;et seulement 15% ont mis en œuvre une politique de quarantaine pour diriger des e-mails non qualifiés aux dossiers spam / indésirables. L'authentification par e-mail est une meilleure pratique depuis des années.DMARC est l'étalon-or pour se protéger contre l'identité des e-mails, une technique clé utilisée dans la fraude par e-mail et les attaques de phishing.Mais, comme le révèle notre analyse du Global 2000, de nombreuses entreprises doivent encore la mettre en œuvre, et celles qui sont à la traîne de l'adoption du DMARC devront désormais rattraper leur retard rapidement s'ils souhaitent continuer à envoyer des e-mails à leurs clients.Les organisations qui ne se contentent pas ne pourraient pas voir leurs e-mails acheminés directement vers les dossiers de spam des clients ou rejeté. La mise en œuvre peut cependant être difficile, car elle nécessite une variété d'étapes techniques et une maintenance continue.Toutes les organisations n'ont pas les ressources ou les connaissances en interne pour répondre aux exigences en temps opportun.Vous pouvez profiter de ressources telles que le kit technique et d'authentification de l'e-mail technique de Proofpoint \\ pour vous aider à démarrer.ProofPoint propose également un outil pour vérifier les enregistrements DMARC et SPF de votre domaine, ainsi que pour créer un enregistrement DMARC pour votre domaine.Cet outil fait partie d'une solution complète de défense de fraude par e-mail, qui fournit un SPF hébergé, un DKIM hébergé et des fonctionnalités DMARC hébergées pour simplifier le déploiement et la maintenance tout en augmentant la sécurité.La solution comprend également l'accès à des consultants hautement expérimentés pour vous guider à travers les workflows d'im | Spam Tool Threat Cloud Technical | ★★★ | |
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2024-01-23 12:51:12 | Le paysage des menaces est toujours en train de changer: à quoi s'attendre en 2024 The Threat Landscape Is Always Changing: What to Expect in 2024 (lien direct) |
Gather \'round, cyber friends, and I\'ll let you in on a little secret: no one knows what the Next Big Thing on the threat landscape will be. But we can look back on 2023, identify notable changes and actor behaviors, and make educated assessments about what 2024 will bring. This month on the DISCARDED podcast my co-host Crista Giering and I sat down with our Threat Research leaders Daniel Blackford, Alexis Dorais-Joncas, Randy Pargman, and Rich Gonzalez, leaders of the ecrime, advanced persistent threat (APT), threat detection, and Emerging Threats teams, respectively. We discussed what we learned over the last year, and what\'s on the horizon for the future. While the discussions touched on different topics and featured different opinions on everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to living off the land binaries (LOLBins) to vulnerability exploitation to ransomware, there were some notable themes that are worth writing down. We can\'t say for sure what surprises are in store, but with our cyber crystals balls fully charged – and a deep knowledge of a year\'s worth of threat actor activity based on millions of email threats per day – we can predict with high confidence what\'s going to be impactful in the coming year. 1: Quick response (QR) codes will continue to proliferate 2023 was the year of the QR code. Although not new, QR codes burst on the scene over the last year and were used in many credential phishing and malware campaigns. The use was driven by a confluence of factors, but ultimately boiled down to the fact that people are now way more accustomed to scanning QR codes for everything from instructions to menus. And threat actors are taking advantage. Proofpoint recently launched new in-line sandboxing capabilities to better defend against this threat, and our teams anticipate seeing more of it in 2024. Notably, however, Dorais-Joncas points out that QR codes still just exist in the realm of ecrime – APT actors have not yet jumped on the QR code bandwagon. (Although, some of those APT actors bring ecrime energy to their campaigns, so it\'s possible they may start QR code phishing, too.) 2: Zero-day and N-day vulnerability exploitation A theme that appeared throughout our conversations was the creative use of vulnerabilities – both known and unreported – in threat actor activity. APT actors used a wide variety of exploits, from TA473 exploiting publicly-facing webmail servers to espionage actors using a zero-day in an email security gateway appliance that ultimately forced users to rip out and reinstall physical hardware. But ecrime actors also exploited their share of vulnerabilities, including the MOVEit file transfer service vulnerability from the spring of 2023 that had cascading repercussions, and the ScreenConnect flaw announced in the fall of 2023 – both of which were used by ecrime actors before being officially published. Proofpoint anticipates vulnerability exploitation will continue, driven in part by improved defense making old school techniques – like macro-enabled documents – much less useful, as well as the vast financial resources now available to cybercriminals that were once just the domain of APT. Pargman says the creativity from ecrime threat actors is a direct response of defenders imposing cost on our adversaries. 3: Continuing, unexpected behavior changes Avid listeners of the podcast know I have regularly said the ecrime landscape is extremely chaotic, with TA577 demonstrating the most chaotic vibes of them all. The tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of some of the most sophisticated actors continue to change. The cost imposed on threat actors that Pargman mentioned – from law enforcement takedowns of massive botnets like Qbot to improved detections and automated defenses – have forced threat actors, cybercriminals in particular, to regularly change their behaviors to figure out what is most effective. For example, recently Proofpoint has observed the increased use of: traffic dis | Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Prediction | ★★★ | |
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2024-01-18 05:00:52 | Mémoire de sécurité: TA866 revient avec une grande campagne de messagerie Security Brief: TA866 Returns with a Large Email Campaign (lien direct) |
What happened Proofpoint researchers identified the return of TA866 to email threat campaign data, after a nine-month absence. On January 11, 2024, Proofpoint blocked a large volume campaign consisting of several thousand emails targeting North America. Invoice-themed emails had attached PDFs with names such as “Document_[10 digits].pdf” and various subjects such as “Project achievements”. The PDFs contained OneDrive URLs that, if clicked, initiated a multi-step infection chain eventually leading to the malware payload, a variant of the WasabiSeed and Screenshotter custom toolset. Screenshot of an email with an attached PDF. If the user clicked on the OneDrive URL inside the PDF, they were: Served a JavaScript file hosted on OneDrive. The JavaScript, if run by the user, downloaded and ran an MSI file. The MSI file executed an embedded WasabiSeed VBS script. The WasabiSeed VBS script then downloaded and executed a second MSI file as well as continued polling for additional payloads in a loop. The additional payloads are currently unknown. Finally, the second MSI file contained components of the Screenshotter screenshot utility which took a screenshot of the desktop and sent it the C2. Attack chain summary: Email > PDF > OneDrive URL > JavaScript > MSI / VBS (WasabiSeed) > MSI (Screenshotter). The attack chain was similar to the last documented email campaign using this custom toolset observed by Proofpoint on March 20, 2023. The similarities helped with attribution. Specifically, TA571 spam service was similarly used, the WasabiSeed downloader remained almost the same, and the Screenshotter scripts and components remained almost the same. (Analyst Note: While Proofpoint did not initially associate the delivery TTPs with TA571 in our first publication on TA866, subsequent analysis attributed the malspam delivery of the 2023 campaigns to TA571, and subsequent post-exploitation activity to TA866.) One of the biggest changes in this campaign from the last observed activity was the use of a PDF attachment containing a OneDrive link, which was completely new. Previous campaigns used macro-enabled Publisher attachments or 404 TDS URLs directly in the email body. Screenshot of “TermServ.vbs” WasabiSeed script whose purpose is to execute an infinite loop, reaching out to C2 server and attempting to download and run an MSI file (empty lines were removed from this script for readability). Screenshot of “app.js”, one of the components of Screenshotter. This file runs “snap.exe”, a copy of legitimate IrfanView executable, (also included inside the MSI) to save a desktop screenshot as “gs.jpg”. Screenshot of “index.js”, another Screenshotter component. This code is responsible for uploading the desktop screenshot ”gs.jpg” to the C2 server. Attribution There are two threat actors involved in the observed campaign. Proofpoint tracks the distribution service used to deliver the malicious PDF as belonging to a threat actor known as TA571. TA571 is a spam distributor, and this actor sends high volume spam email campaigns to deliver and install a variety malware for their cybercriminal customers. Proofpoint tracks the post-exploitation tools, specifically the JavaScript, MSI with WasabiSeed components, and MSI with Screenshotter components as belonging to TA866. TA866 is a threat actor previously documented by Proofpoint and colleagues in [1][2] and [3]. TA866 is known to engage in both crimeware and cyberespionage activity. This specific campaign appears financially motivated. Proofpoint assesses that TA866 is an organized actor able to perform well thought-out attacks at scale based on their availability of custom tools, and ability and connections to purchase tools and services from other actors. Why it matters The following are notable characteristics of TA866\'s return to email threat data: TA866 email campaigns have been missing from the landscape for over nine months (although there are indications that the actor was meanwhile | Spam Malware Tool Threat | ★★ | |
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2024-01-17 06:00:02 | Comment mettre en place un programme de gestion des menaces d'initié et de prévention des pertes de données How to Set Up an Insider Threat Management and Data Loss Prevention Program (lien direct) |
This blog post is adapted from our e-book, Getting Started with DLP and ITM. The last few years have brought unprecedented change. An increasingly distributed workforce, access to more data through more channels and a shift to the cloud have transformed the nature of work. These trends have made protecting sensitive data more complicated and demanding. What\'s clear is that organizations are struggling to rise to the challenge. Between 2020 and 2022, insider threats increased by a staggering 44%. And the costs of addressing them increased 34%-from $11.45 million to $15.38 million. This upswing mainly comes down to two factors. For starters, most security teams have little visibility into people-caused data loss and insider-led security incidents. And few have the tools or resources to handle it. That\'s why Gartner sees platforms for data loss prevention and insider threat management (DLP and ITM) increasingly converging. Businesses need tools and processes that give them holistic, contextualized insights that take user behavior into account. It\'s no longer enough to focus on data-and where it\'s moving. To prevent data loss, industry leaders need to take a people-centric approach that expands beyond traditional drivers like compliance. In this blog post, we\'ll explore some basics for designing an ITM and DLP program. This can help you approach information protection in a way that\'s built for how modern organizations work. Why information protection is so challenging Risks are everywhere in today\'s complex landscape. Here are a few changes making it difficult for companies to protect their data. More data is open to exposure and theft. As businesses go digital, more data is being generated than ever before. According to IDC\'s Worldwide Global DataSphere Forecast, the total amount of data generated data will double from 2022 to 2026. That means malicious insiders will have more access to more sensitive data through more channels. It will also be easier for careless users to expose data inadvertently. Plus, any security gap between channels, any misconfiguration or any accidental sharing of files can give external attackers more opportunities to steal data. New data types are hard to detect. Data isn\'t just growing in volume. It\'s also becoming more diverse, which makes it harder to detect and control. With traditional DLP program tools, data typically fits within very tightly defined data patterns (such as payment card number). But even then, it generates too many false positives. Now, key business data is more diverse and can be graphical, tabular or even source code. The network security perimeter no longer exists. With more employees and contractors working remotely, the security perimeter has shifted from brick and mortar to one based on people. Add to the mix bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practices, where the personal and professional tend to get blurred, and security teams have even more risks to contend with. In a survey for the 2023 State of the Phish report from Proofpoint, 72% of respondents said they use one or more of their personal devices for work. Employee churn is high. Tech industry layoffs in 2022 and 2023 have seen many employees leaving and joining businesses at a rapid rate. The result is greater risk of data exfiltration, infiltration and sabotage. Security leaders know it, too-39% of chief information security officers rated improving information protection as the top priority over the next two years. Security talent is in short supply. A lack of talent has left many security teams under-resourced. And the situation is likely to get worse. In 2023, the cybersecurity workforce gap hit an all-time high-there are 4 million more jobs than there are skilled workers. DLP vs. ITM What\'s the difference between DLP and ITM? Both DLP and ITM work to prevent data loss. But they achieve it in different ways. DLP tracks data movement and exfiltration DLP monitors file activity and scans content to see whether users are handling sen | Tool Threat Cloud Technical | ★★ | |
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2024-01-16 08:32:19 | Défense post-livraison à propulsion du cloud: la dernière innovation de Proofpoint \\ dans la protection des e-mails Cloud-Powered Post-Delivery Defense: Proofpoint\\'s Latest Innovation in Email Protection (lien direct) |
Cybercriminals are constantly innovating so that they can infiltrate your systems and steal your valuable data. They do this through a complex multi-stage method commonly known as the attack chain. During the initial compromise, attackers use advanced email threats like phishing scams, malware attachments, business email compromise (BEC) and QR code threats to get a foothold in your systems. That\'s why email security tools typically focus on stopping these threats. Steps in the attack chain. But no technology is foolproof. Inevitably, some emails will get through. To keep your company safe, you need an email security solution that can detect, analyze and remediate email threats post-delivery. That\'s where Proofpoint can help. Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response is the cloud-based alternative to TRAP (Threat Response Auto-Pull), known for its effective post-delivery remediation capabilities. Not only is this solution easy to use, but it also automates post-detection incident response and remediation tasks that slow down security teams. In this blog post, we\'ll highlight some of its capabilities and benefits. Overview of Cloud Threat Response capabilities Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response keeps you safer by remediating threats post-delivery. Plus, it helps security teams prioritize and execute response actions three different ways: Automatically by Proofpoint. Cloud Threat Response automatically analyzes emails post-delivery. It identifies and quarantines malicious emails within user inboxes. Doing so reduces the risk that users will interact with them, helping to prevent your business from being compromised. Manually by the SOC team. Your security team gains instant access to detailed email analysis, historical data and risk scoring through an integration with Proofpoint Smart Search. This integration makes it easier for you to delve into specific emails and swiftly identify and remove any lurking threats. With the assistance of end users. Users can report messages that look suspicious thanks to a simple button directly integrated into their mailboxes. Reported emails are automatically investigated and are neutralized if determined to be a threat. Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response benefits At many companies, security incident response is a slow and labor-intensive process. Responding to security incidents may take days or weeks depending on the size of your security team. Time-intensive tasks can turn into painful bottlenecks. Compare that to Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response, which automates and simplifies threat response tasks. Here\'s what you can expect: Enjoy a simplified management interface. Our centralized, modern interface simplifies how you manage email security. From this dashboard, you can manage a range of tasks, including threat reporting, threat analysis and user administration. The simplified, modern interface of Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response. Respond to incidents faster. Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response acts on intelligence from our Supernova detection engine, which improves threat detection and reduces the mean time to respond (MTTR). Spend less time on deployment and maintenance. Because it\'s cloud native, our platform is not only easy to deploy but it eliminates the need for on-premises infrastructure. Plus, your investment is future-proof, and it comes with automated maintenance and security updates. Streamline security operations. Use Single Sign-On (SSO) to seamlessly navigate between Cloud Threat Response and other Proofpoint apps such as Targeted Attack Protection, Email Fraud Defense and Email Protection. This helps to boost analyst efficiency and response times. See more threats. It automatically shares a threat\'s remediation status across your other Proofpoint platforms. This increases threat visibility and helps you to identify and neutralize threats faster. Proofpoint Cloud Threat Response is integrated with Proofpoint threat intelligence and abuse mailbox sources. Contain threats quickly. Malici | Malware Tool Threat Cloud | ★★ | |
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2024-01-12 06:00:17 | Déterministe vs détection de menace probabiliste: quelle est la différence? Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Threat Detection: What\\'s the Difference? (lien direct) |
When you understand the difference between deterministic and probabilistic threat detection, you can better choose the right mix of processes and tools that will keep your data, systems and users most secure. Here is a spoiler, though: As you compare probabilistic and deterministic methods, you will likely conclude that both approaches are needed to some degree. That means you\'re on the right track. When you employ both, you can use the strengths of each approach while mitigating their respective weaknesses. In other words, these methods are different but complementary. To help you figure out when to use each method, we put together this overview. In each section, we start by defining terms, and then we delve into the pros and cons of using the approach to detect threats. What is probabilistic threat detection? Probabilistic threat detection involves the use of probability-based analytic methods to identify potential security threats or malicious activities within a system. This approach doesn\'t rely on fixed (deterministic) rules or signatures alone. Instead, it relies on the likelihood-or probability-that certain behaviors or patterns may indicate the presence of a security threat. Tools for probabilistic threat detection analyze various factors and assign weights to different indicators. That helps cybersecurity systems-and security teams-to prioritize and respond to potential threats based on their perceived risk. This approach to threat detection presents advantages as well as challenges. Here\'s a look at some of the pros and cons of using probabilistic and deterministic detections. Pros Let\'s start with the pros of probabilistic threat detection. Adaptability to new threats. Probabilistic threat detection can help you identify new and evolving threats that may not have definitive signatures. Machine learning and behavioral analysis can adapt to changing attack tactics. Slight pivots in attacker tools and techniques won\'t necessarily fake out these detection techniques. Reduced false positives to unknown threats. Probabilistic methods may result in fewer false negatives for threats that have not been seen before. That\'s because these methods don\'t require a perfect match to a known signature to send an alert. Probabilistic methods are inherently non-binary. Behavioral analysis. This is often part of probabilistic threat detection. It typically uses a baseline of normal system behavior. That, in turn, makes it easier to detect deviations that may indicate a security threat. Continuous learning. Machine learning models for probabilistic threat detection can continuously learn, incorporate feedback from security analysts, and adapt to changes in the threat landscape. That means their accuracy is not static and can improve over time. Cons Now, here is a rundown of some cons. False positives. Probabilistic methods will produce false positives. They rely on statistical models that might interpret unusual but benign behavior as a potential threat. That can lead to alerts on activities that aren\'t malicious. Taken to extremes this can waste security analysts\' time. But making the models less sensitive can lead to false negatives. That\'s why tuning is part of ongoing maintenance. Complexity and resource intensiveness. Implementing and maintaining probabilistic threat detection systems can be complex and demand a lot of resources. That is especially true when it comes to systems that use machine learning because they require a great deal of computing power and expertise to operate. Cost issues. Probabilistic methods and tools deal with uncertainty, which is a key design principle. So they may not be as cost effective as deterministic approaches for detecting well-known threats. Difficulty in interpreting results. It can be a challenge to understand the output of probabilistic models. You may have difficulty discerning why a particular activity is flagged as a potential threat, as the rationale is deep within the model. To interpret the results, you | Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat | ★★ | |
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2024-01-09 11:57:12 | L'augmentation préoccupante des attaques centrées sur l'identité: tendances et faits The Concerning Rise in Identity-Centric Attacks: Trends and Facts (lien direct) |
Identity threats are by no means a new type of crime. But in today\'s increasingly digitized world, there are more opportunities for bad actors to steal identities and engage in identity-centric attacks than ever before. Unfortunately, user identities are tough for businesses to protect. The fact that these types of attacks are skyrocketing is evidence of that-in the past year alone the Identity Defined Security Alliance reports that a whopping 84% of companies experienced an identity-related security breach. In this post, we\'ll take a look at identity attack statistics and trends and provide some recent case studies to illustrate how some attacks work. We\'ll also highlight one of the most important identity threat facts-that the human element plays a crucial role in the success of these attacks. Understanding identity-centric attacks There are many types of identity attacks. When most people think of these types of crimes, they often imagine traditional identity theft scenarios: Financial identity theft, where a criminal gains access to a victim\'s financial data, like their credit card details, bank account numbers or Social Security number, to make unauthorized purchases, withdraw funds or open new accounts. Tax identity theft, where a bad actor uses a victim\'s personal information to file false tax returns and claim refunds, diverting the money to their own accounts. Employment identity theft, where a fraudster uses a victim\'s identity to get a job, potentially causing issues for that person when discrepancies arise in their employment and tax records. But identity-based attacks also target enterprises and their online users. The cybercriminals behind these attacks might aim to steal sensitive data, siphon off funds, damage or disrupt systems, deploy ransomware or worse. Those are the types of identity attacks we\'re covering here. Identity threat trends and tactics In short, identity-centric attacks are a practical calculation by bad actors: Why would they invest their time and resources to build exploits to help them get in through a virtual back door when they can just walk through the front door? But before they reap the rewards, they still have some legwork to do. Here are a few techniques that cybercriminals use to progress identity-based attacks against businesses and their users: MFA bypass attacks. Many businesses today use multifactor authentication (MFA) to protect the account of their users. It\'s more secure than using passwords alone. But of course, bad actors have found new ways to bypass commonly used MFA methods. MFA fatigue attacks are one example. People-activated malware. People often give life to malware when they fall for a phishing scam or other social engineering tactics. Malware can appear in the form of a .zip file, QR code, .html link, MS Office file and more-there are at least 60 known techniques to plant people-activated malware on corporate networks. Active Directory (AD) attacks. Most enterprises today use AD as a primary method for directory services like user authentication and authorization. Cybercriminals are keen to target AD, which touches almost every place, person and device on a network. This approach works very well, too-more than half of identity-related breaches can be traced back to AD. Cached credentials harvesting. Cached credentials are commonly stored on endpoints, in memory, in the registry, in a browser or on disk. Attackers use various tools and techniques to collect these credentials and gain access to more privileged identities. Once they have harvested these credentials, they can use them to move laterally and log into different applications. Adversaries are likely to find a good “crop” when they are harvesting cached credentials. Recent research from Proofpoint found that more than one in 10 endpoints have exposed privileged account passwords, making it one of the most common identity risks. Keep in mind that cybercriminals are always innovating, and they are quick to build or adopt tools that | Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Studies | Uber | ★★ |
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2024-01-08 06:00:19 | ProofPoint reconnu en 2023 Gartner & Reg;Guide du marché pour les solutions de gestion des risques d'initiés Proofpoint Recognized in 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for Insider Risk Management Solutions (lien direct) |
It\'s easy to understand why insider threats are one of the top cybersecurity challenges for security leaders. The shift to remote and hybrid work combined with data growth and cloud adoption has meant it\'s easier than ever for insiders to lose or steal data. Legacy systems simply don\'t provide the visibility into user behavior that\'s needed to detect and prevent insider threats. With so much potential for brand and financial damage, insider threats are now an issue for the C-suite. As a result, businesses are on the lookout for tools that can help them to better manage these threats. To help businesses understand what to look for, Gartner has recently released Market Guide for Insider Risk Management Solutions. In this report, Gartner explores what security and risk leaders should look for in an insider risk management (IRM) solution. It also provides guidance on how to implement a formal IRM program. Let\'s dive into some of its highlights. Must-have capabilities for IRM tools Gartner states that IRM “refers to the use of technical solutions to solve a fundamentally human problem.” And it defines IRM as “a methodology that includes the tools and capabilities to measure, detect and contain undesirable behavior of trusted accounts in the organization.” Gartner identifies three distinct types of users-careless, malicious and compromised. That, we feel, is in line with our view at Proofpoint. And the 2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report from Ponemon Institute notes that most insider risks can be attributed to errors and carelessness, followed by malicious and compromised users. In its Market Guide, Gartner identifies the mandatory capabilities of enterprise IRM platforms: Orchestration with other cybersecurity tooling Monitoring of employee activity and assimilating into a behavior-based risk model Dashboarding and alerting of high-risk activity Orchestration and initiation of intervention workflows This is the third consecutive year that Proofpoint is a Representative Vendor in the Market Guide. Proofpoint was an early and established leader in the market for IRM solutions. Our platform: Integrates with a broad ecosystem of cybersecurity tools. Our API-driven architecture means it\'s easy for you to feed alerts into your security tools. That includes security information and event management (SIEM) as well as SOAR and service management platforms, such as Splunk and ServiceNow. That, in turn, helps you gain a complete picture of potential threats. Provides a single lightweight agent with a dual purpose. With Proofpoint, you get the benefit of data loss prevention (DLP) and ITM in a single solution. This helps you protect against data loss and get deep visibility into user activities. With one agent, you can monitor everyday users. That includes low-risk and regular business users, risky users, such as departing employees, privileged users and targeted users. Offers one centralized dashboard. This saves you time and effort by allowing you to monitor users, correlate alerts and triage investigations from one place. You no longer need to waste your time switching between tools. You can quickly see your riskiest users, top alerts and file exfiltration activity in customizable dashboards. Includes tools to organize and streamline tasks. Proofpoint ITM lets you change the status of events with ease, streamline workflows and better collaborate with team members. Plus, you can add tags to help group and organize your alerts and work with more efficiency. DLP and IRM are converging In its latest Market Guide, Gartner says: “Data loss prevention (DLP) and insider risk strategies are increasingly converging into a unified solution. The convergence is driven by the recognition that preventing data loss and managing insider risks are interconnected goals.” A legacy approach relies on tracking data activity. But that approach is no longer sufficient because the modern way of working is more complex. Employees and third parties have access to more data than ever before. And ex | Tool Threat Cloud Technical | ★★★ | |
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2024-01-05 06:00:31 | 2023 Année en revue: versions de contenu axées sur les menaces pour la sensibilisation à la sécurité 2023 Year in Review: Threat-Driven Content Releases for Security Awareness (lien direct) |
As a new year approaches, it is natural to reflect on recent accomplishments. At Proofpoint, we are reflecting on our work to deliver security awareness content and updated features in line with our ongoing goal to drive behavior change. Proofpoint Security Awareness integrates our rich threat intelligence, which means it taps into current and emerging attacks. Our threat analysts surface threat trends, such as artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced vishing, malicious QR codes and remote IT support scams. And then we work quickly to release new training features and awareness material to ensure inform security administrators and educate employees about ever-evolving attacks. In 2023, our content releases focused on three areas: Delivering a threat-driven program Improving how security awareness administrators work Enhancing how people learn Let\'s review the past year and explore how Proofpoint used content releases to respond to the changing threat landscape. Image from AI Chatbot Threats training (play video). Quick turnaround for threat trends Proofpoint Security Awareness alerts customers to threats in two powerful ways-Threat Alerts and Attack Spotlights. It also continuously trains employees with threat-driven training modules. Threat Alerts These weekly releases focus on a specific and current ongoing attack. They explain what the threat is and who it might target. And they describe a specific lure, if applicable. Each alert is linked to activity that our threat analysts see happening in the wild. We recommend applicable training like simulated phishing and awareness material and include suggested email messaging. In 2023, we released Threat Alerts on: IRS-themed phishing lures for tax season (February, March, April) AI-enhanced vishing calls that impersonate loved ones (March) Malicious QR codes for credential phishing (May, August) Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) using a Geek Squad PDF lure (July, October) Charity donation scams around the Israel-Palestine crisis (October) Christmas party lures for credential phishing (November) Attack Spotlights These monthly releases cast a wider lens on attack types. They focus on a time-based or reoccurring threat that is expected to trend, typically related to holidays, travel seasons or shopping events. Each spotlight is released a month in advance with a campaign plan, awareness material and training modules, and is available in 12 core languages. In 2023, Proofpoint published these Attack Spotlight campaigns: Smishing with package delivery lures (February) Business email compromise (BEC) phishing with requests for quotations (RFQs) (April) LinkedIn phishing lures (May) Amazon phishing lures (June) Remote IT support scams (September) Gift card scams (December) Image from Attack Spotlight video (play video). Threat modules These training videos are relevant to the changing threat landscape. They are inspired by our threat intelligence and our team\'s threat landscape research. These micro-learning modules are grounded in learning science principles that are designed to drive behavior change. Each module has a concise and specific learning objective. The delivery of content is tailored to individual factors such as a person\'s role, learning style, vulnerability level and preferred language. In 2023, we covered these topics in our new threat training modules: Data loss protection AI chatbot threats Amazon phishing scams Cryptocurrency investment scams QR code dangers Multifactor authentication (MFA) Image from Threat Module video (play video). Staying ahead of generative AI attacks AI-powered systems are promoted as tools to help us work faster, and they are transforming businesses and industries. This wide-reaching access can create security risks from potential data breaches to concerns over user privacy. Your employees need to be aware of the limitations and risks of using AI-powered tools, especiall | Ransomware Tool Vulnerability Threat Studies Prediction Cloud | ★★★★ | |
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2024-01-04 06:00:10 | Cybersecurity Stop of the Month: MFA Manipulation (lien direct) | This blog post is part of a monthly series exploring the ever-evolving tactics of today\'s cybercriminals. Cybersecurity Stop of the Month focuses on the critical first three steps in the attack chain in the context of email threats. The series is designed to help you understand how to fortify your defenses to protect people and defend data against emerging threats in today\'s dynamic threat landscape. The critical first three steps of the attack chain: reconnaissance, initial compromise and persistence. So far in this series, we have covered the following types of attacks: Supplier compromise EvilProxy SocGholish eSignature phishing QR code phishing Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) Payroll diversion In this post, we examine an attack technique called multifactor (MFA) manipulation. This malicious post-compromise attack poses a significant threat to cloud platforms. We cover the typical attack sequence to help you understand how it works. And we dive deeper into how Proofpoint account takeover capabilities detected and prevented one of these threats for our customer. Background MFA manipulation is an advanced technique where bad actors introduce their own MFA method into a compromised cloud account. These attackers are used after a cloud account takeover attack, or ATO. ATOs are an insidious threat that are alarmingly common. Recent research by Proofpoint threat analysts found that in 2023 almost all businesses (96%) were targeted by cloud-based attacks. What\'s more, a whopping 60% were successfully compromised and had at least one account taken over. MFA manipulation attacks can work several ways with bad actors having multiple options for getting around MFA. One way is to use an adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attack. This is where the bad actor inserts a proxy server between the victim and the website that they\'re trying to log into. Doing so enables them to steal that user\'s password as well as the session cookie. There\'s no indication to the user that they\'ve been attacked-it just seems like they\'ve logged into their account as usual. However, the attackers have what they need to establish persistence, which means they can maintain access even if the stolen MFA credentials are revoked or deemed invalid. The scenario Recently, Proofpoint intercepted a series of MFA manipulation attacks on a large real estate company. In one case, the bad actors used an AiTM attack to steal the credentials of the firm\'s financial controller as well as the session cookie. Once they did that, they logged into that user\'s business account and generated 27 unauthorized access activities. The threat: How did the attack happen? Here is a closer look at how this MFA manipulation attack played out: 1. Bad actors used the native “My Sign-Ins” app to add their own MFA methods to compromise Microsoft 365 accounts. We observed that the attackers registered their own authenticator app with notification and code. They made this move right after they gained access to the hijacked account as part of an automated attack flow execution. This, in turn, allowed them to secure their foothold within the targeted cloud environment. The typical MFA manipulation flow using Microsoft\'s “My Sign-Ins” app. 2. After the compromise, the attackers demonstrated a sophisticated approach. They combined MFA manipulation with OAuth application abuse. With OAuth abuse, an attacker authorizes and/or uses a third-party app to steal data, spread malware or execute other malicious activities. Attackers also use the abused app to maintain persistent access to specific resources even after their initial access to a compromised account has been cut off. 3. The attackers authorized the seemingly benign application, “PERFECTDATA SOFTWARE,” to gain persistent access to the user\'s account and the systems, as well as the resources and applications that the user could access. The permissions the attackers requested for this app included: | Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Cloud | ★★★ | |
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2024-01-02 08:41:00 | 6 Exigences d'assurance cybersécurité Votre entreprise doit être prête à répondre 6 Cybersecurity Insurance Requirements Your Business Should Be Ready To Meet (lien direct) |
Every year, more companies are finding out firsthand how damaging a cyberattack can be. Research for the 2023 State of the Phish report from Proofpoint found that 30% of companies that were successfully attacked experienced a direct monetary loss. That\'s an increase of 76% year over year. And costs for these attacks are rising. IBM reports that the global average cost of a data breach went up by 15% over the last three years, hitting $4.45 million in 2023. Concerns about costs and risks mean that more companies than ever are buying cyber insurance. A World Economic Forum survey found that 71% of organizations have cyber insurance. And Allied Market Research projects that the global cyber insurance market, which is currently valued at $12.5 billion, will reach $116.7 billion by 2032. Investing in cyber insurance for your business can be a wise strategy. For one, it helps you to transfer some of the financial risks of a cybersecurity event to your insurance provider. But the cyber insurance landscape is changing. You should know that getting the coverage you want might be a challenge, and you will need to meet an array of cybersecurity insurance requirements. In this blog post, we\'ll cover six of the most common requirements you\'ll likely need to fulfill. What is cyber insurance-and what does it cover? But first, let\'s take a closer look at what cyber insurance is and why it is important. Also known as cyber liability insurance, this relatively new type of insurance helps to protect businesses and individuals from the negative impacts of cybersecurity events. It generally covers: Loss of data and the associated recovery Loss of revenue due to business interruption Loss of transferred funds from cyberattacks, like business email compromise (BEC) and phishing Loss of funds from ransomware and extortion Many policies also cover the aftermath and follow-up events associated with a data breach. This includes the costs associated with identifying and notifying victims, credit monitoring for victims and forensics expertise, to name a few. Why is cyber insurance important? For many companies, cyber insurance is an essential part of their risk management strategy. It covers many costs related to cyber events, such as legal expenses and fees for compliance violations. Depending on the policy, it might also cover: Ransomware attacks. If your business is hit with a ransomware attack, you may face demands for payment to unlock your systems. Or you may need to pay a ransom to prevent the release of sensitive data. In certain cases, cyber insurance can help cover ransom payments. Incident response and recovery. Cybersecurity insurance can help with the cost of investments you may need to make after an attack. For example, you may need to hire experts, conduct forensic investigations, and implement tools and measures to prevent future attacks. Business disruption. This may include lost revenue during downtime. This coverage can help your business stay afloat financially and continue operating in the wake of a cyber event. Want more details on the benefits of cyber insurance? Download the Proofpoint presentation, “Cyber Insurance: Facts, Figures and Policy Fundamentals.” Examples of common cyber insurance requirements As noted earlier, getting coverage is more complicated than it used to be. Because security breaches are so costly and cybercrime is so common, many insurers have become more stringent in their underwriting processes. Some have lowered caps for payouts and narrowed their coverage offerings as well. This means that the requirements your business may be expected to meet will be fairly complex. Every provider will likely conduct a risk assessment to determine if you qualify for cyber insurance. The process will help them to determine how much coverage they can offer you, and what you\'ll need to pay for it. The risk assessment might be as quick and simple as a questionnaire or as complex and time-consuming as a third-party audit. Here are six examples | Ransomware Data Breach Tool Threat | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-29 08:35:15 | Pointpoint de preuve nommé fournisseur représentatif en 2023 Gartner & Reg;Guide du marché pour la gouvernance des communications numériques Proofpoint Named as a Representative Vendor in 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for Digital Communications Governance (lien direct) |
It has been more than a year since Gartner retired its Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving, which it had published for many years. When it first happened, many of us from the compliance, e-discovery and archiving world wondered what research would come next. Now the wait is over. On November 13, 2023, Gartner unveiled its new Market Guide for Digital Communications Governance (DCG). And it named Proofpoint as a Representative DCG solution Vendor. Gartner says, “Gartner retired the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving in 2022. This DCG research recognizes the rise in communication tool complexity and demand from clients to seek guidance on the selection of vendors and solutions that specialize in communications governance.” The Gartner Market Guide presents a “definition, rationale and dynamics” for the DCG market and a list of Representative Vendors. It is now up to clients to download the Market Guide so that they can learn more about digital communications governance. And they can refer to Gartner recommendations as they look into DCG solutions that will work best for their business. In this blog post, I go over some of initial coverage of DCG by Gartner. I also provide insights into some of the key points that are made in the new report. Assessing a strategic planning assumption Gartner specifies two strategic planning assumptions in the Market Guide. Here is a look at the first one: “By 2027, 40% of enterprise customers will proactively assess workstream collaboration and meeting solution content for corporate policy and general business insights, up from less than 5% in 2023.” We believe this seems reasonable at face value if you apply it to businesses that operate in regulated industries like financial services. But I question its validity if the intent is to expand it to all verticals. Customers that use a DCG solution as a way to improve their litigation readiness will likely find the deployment of a supervision/surveillance solution for “corporate policy and general business insights” to be a “nice to have,” not a “must have.” I suspect that, in general, these customers will agree to the value in principle. But they will struggle to gain executive sponsors and budget in the absence of: Regulatory mandates that compel relevant action, like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for financial services Widely accepted performance statistics, such as archive search performance or archive system availability It will be interesting to revisit this assumption in 2027. At that point, we\'ll see how much progress has been made on the regulatory and statistics fronts-and the percentage of enterprise customers. Compliance risk versus security risk In the Market Direction section of the report, under “Compliance risk versus security,” Gartner states, “Most frequently used for adherence to compliance use cases, solutions are expanding to broader uses in security risk.” No vendor will do integrations simply because they are cool ideas. They need compelling use cases and business cases. However, with Proofpoint you have a single vendor that offers leading technology for both digital communications governance and security. To learn more about these platforms, check out Proofpoint Aegis threat protection and the Proofpoint Sigma information protection. For more than 15 years, we have provided innovative solutions to address compliance use cases as well as security use cases. Most of the customers we work with who use Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance offerings are Proofpoint security customers, as well. The use of machine learning to improve supervision and surveillance Gartner addresses the use of these technologies in the Market Analysis section of the Market Guide, under “Supervision and surveillance capabilities.” It says, “The results can be used for improved automated monitoring/tagging, and accuracy and efficiency outcomes | Tool Threat Commercial | ★★ | |
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2023-12-27 09:19:46 | 3 incontournables des performances de recherche d'archives: une comparaison de logiciels d'archives de messagerie 3 Must-Haves of Archive Search Performance: An Email Archive Software Comparison (lien direct) |
Yes, it\'s true that customers who use legacy on-premises archives or even modern cloud solutions say “fast search performance” is a primary reason to migrate to Proofpoint Archive. Our customers often highlight “fast search performance” as a key email archiving solution element. For reference, look no further than Gartner Peer Insights, where “search/index” is ranked the highest out of product feature areas evaluated by our customers. However, you don\'t buy a Tesla Model X just for its top speed. You don\'t purchase a Rolex just to tell time. And you don\'t subscribe to or license an archive just for its search performance. Of course, not having adequate search performance can spell dire consequences when you need to address e-discovery requests. Think of having to settle a lawsuit early because you can\'t get search results in time to determine whether it makes better sense to litigate. But there\'s more to email archive search performance than just speed. In this blog, we\'ll explore three factors that drive positive outcomes for our customers. Speed is one, and the other two are scalability and ease of use. 1: Speed When you run a search for specific information in your email archive, how long does it take to retrieve that information? Hours? Days? Longer? Search speed dictates how fast you receive results from a search. While some vendor email archiving tools are incredibly slow, Proofpoint Archive has a financially backed search service-level agreement (SLA) that obligates us to return search results in seconds, on average, for our customers. To give you with some context, here\'s what we found when we compared the email archive search speeds of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery and Proofpoint Archive-specifically when searching 100 mailboxes and 50,000 mailboxes. For this example, a total of 200 searches were run, based on an average of 10 cases managed per month with each case requiring 20 searches to be performed. Microsoft doesn\'t have search performance SLAs. But they provide “guidelines for average search time” based on the number of mailboxes searched. (See the table below.) Guidelines for average search times for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery solutions. Based on internal, anonymous archive usage reports, as of August 2023 the average search time for Proofpoint Archive was 3.28 seconds. Also, it\'s estimated that Microsoft will take about 1.67 hours to return results when searching 100 mailboxes. Proofpoint Archive returned results in about 0.18 hours, as shown below. A comparison of search speed between Microsoft and Proofpoint. At this level of searching, the search speed difference may not seem significant. However, if you factor in rerunning searches due to new data or a system failure (like index corruption) with Microsoft, the numbers can grow rapidly. The search speed expectation with Proofpoint remains consistent, given our average search performance, particularly when you run consecutive searches. The search speed difference becomes more noteworthy when you consider highly litigious organizations that need to run hundreds or thousands of searches across hundreds or thousands of mailboxes. In the second scenario, when searching 50,000 mailboxes, it\'s estimated that Microsoft will take about 66.67 hours to return search results. That\'s like having your team “babysit” Microsoft e-discovery searches for more than a week and a half every month! Separately, Proofpoint Archive is expected to remain the same at 0.18 hours. With Proofpoint, you get search results from the archive when you need them, helping to improve your ability to respond to e-discovery requests and internal investigations in a timely fashion. 2: Scalability When you address an e-discovery request, do you run only one search? Probably not. The factor of search scalability defines your ability to achieve your expected search speed performance time and time again, regardless of whether you\'re searching 100 mailboxes or 50,000 mailboxes-and regardless of | Tool Cloud | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-21 05:00:25 | Battleroyal, le cluster Darkgate se propage par e-mail et les fausses mises à jour du navigateur BattleRoyal, DarkGate Cluster Spreads via Email and Fake Browser Updates (lien direct) |
Overview Throughout the summer and fall of 2023, DarkGate entered the ring competing for the top spot in the remote access trojan (RAT) and loader category. It was observed in use by multiple cybercrime actors and was spread via many methods such as email, Microsoft Teams, Skype, malvertising and fake updates. Proofpoint researchers are tracking a particularly interesting operator of the DarkGate malware. At the time of publication, researchers are not attributing this cluster of activity to a known threat actor and are temporarily calling it BattleRoyal. Between September and November 2023, at least 20 email campaigns used DarkGate malware with GroupIDs “PLEX”, “ADS5”, “user_871236672” and “usr_871663321”. The GroupID is a configuration setting that is also referred to as username, botnet, campaign, or flag 23. The campaigns are notable for: Delivery: via email and RogueRaticate fake browser updates Volumes and geography: email campaigns include tens of thousands of emails targeting dozens of industries primarily in USA and Canada Attack chain: includes a variety of notable tools such as 404 TDS, Keitaro TDS, and .URL files exploiting CVE-2023-36025 Volume of DarkGate campaigns based on four GroupIDs discussed in this report. TDS all the things! (an email campaign example) On October 2, 2023, Proofpoint identified one of the first campaigns in this cluster. It was notable due to the use of more than one traffic delivery system (TDS), specifically 404 TDS and Keitaro TDS. Additionally, the .URL files involved exploited CVE-2023-36025, a vulnerability in Windows SmartScreen. While other parts of the attack chain from this actor changed or varied, .URL files were involved in every campaign. The emails in this campaign contained: 404 TDS URLs that, if clicked by the user, redirected to Keitaro TDS Keitaro TDS was observed serving an internet shortcut (.URL) file The internet shortcut, if double clicked, downloaded a zipped VBS script The VBS in turn downloaded and executed several shell commands (cmd.exe) The shell commands (a) created a directory on C: drive, (b) copied curl.exe from system folder to this new directory, (c) used the curl to download Autoit3.exe, (d) used curl to download and save an AutoIT script, and (e) ran the downloaded AutoIT script with the downloaded AutoIT interpreter The AutoIT script ran an embedded DarkGate Attack chain summary that follows the flow of: Email > 404 TDS > Keitaro TDS > .URL > .VBS > Shell commands > AutoIT / AutoIT script > DarkGate. Screenshot of an example email from October 2 campaign. Screenshot of the .URL file involved in the October 2 campaign. Proofpoint has identified multiple cybercriminal campaigns exploiting CVE-2023-36025; however, the BattleRoyal cluster exploited this vulnerability more than any other actor observed in Proofpoint threat data. Notably, this activity cluster exploited CVE-2023-36025 before it was published by Microsoft. SmartScreen is a security feature that is designed to prevent people from visiting malicious websites. The vulnerability could allow an actor to bypass the SmartScreen defenses if a user clicked on a specially crafted .URL file or a hyperlink pointing to a .URL file. More specifically, a SmartScreen alert would not be triggered when a .URL points to a SMB or WebDav share as file:// and the malicious payload is inside a ZIP file which is specified in the URL target. RogueRaticate (fake browser update campaign example) On October 19, 2023, an external researcher identified and publicly shared details of the RogueRaticate fake update activity cluster using an interesting obfuscation technique first identified in 2020. Proofpoint subsequently identified the activity in Proofpoint data. This campaign delivered fake browser update requests to end users on their web browsers that dropped a DarkGate payload with the “ADS5” GroupID. The threat actor injected a request to a domain they controlled that used .css steganography to conceal the malicious c | Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Prediction | ★★ | |
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2023-12-18 06:00:21 | Une approche de risque intégrée pour briser la chaîne d'attaque juridique et de conformité: les informations de Proofpoint Protect 2023 An Integrated Risk Approach to Breaking the Legal and Compliance Attack Chain: Insights from Proofpoint Protect 2023 (lien direct) |
Last September, Proofpoint held our first in-person event since the pandemic in New York City, Protect 2023. In this blog post, our Chief Compliance Officer in Residence John Pepe shares some key insights from the leaders who participated in the Compliance Leader\'s Roundtable at that conference. A big part of that discussion was exploring how combining data points from multiple tools can help stop known risk patterns before problems escalate. “Break the Attack Chain” is a Proofpoint initiative that outlines our approach to prevent and disrupt cyberattacks that target people and their data. The attack chain can basically be broken down into eight steps and three main stages: Initial compromise Privilege escalation Data exfiltration Steps in the attack chain. We believe that breaking the attack chain is so important that we made it the theme of Protect 2023. When you break the attack chain, you reduce the risks and the impact of cyberattacks. And you avoid a lot of the financial, reputational and operational damage. Proofpoint argues that this starts by taking a people-centric approach to security that focuses on the human factors that enable and motivate attackers. But this theme isn\'t just relevant to cybersecurity. It\'s also an important concept that\'s relevant to compliance professionals and their current challenges. Recently at the Protect 2023 conference, we explored how the industry is using this idea to rethink the ways it approaches and mitigates risk. What\'s top of mind for compliance professionals right now? Part of my job at Proofpoint is to provide our customers-some of whom are highly regulated-with executive briefings on compliance and regulatory best practices. I also have a lot of critical discussions with the legal and regulatory communities. So I understand why the concept of breaking the attack chain transcends cybersecurity and really resonates with these groups. That\'s why I chose to explore it at Protect 2023 at the Compliance Leader\'s Roundtable. This panel was comprised of a chief compliance officer from a leading financial services provider, the head of surveillance for an asset manager, and a chief information security officer. And our topic was “What\'s Top of Mind for Compliance Professionals Post COVID-19." The discussion was informal and focused on work-from-home (WFH) initiatives during and after the pandemic. Two interconnected areas were of particular interest: Risks and programs related to WFH, with a special focus on collaboration platforms How behavioral indicators may help to predict potential legal or compliance issues When talking about insider risks and threats, the panelists explored: Best practices for controlling messaging apps and mitigating risks in mobile texts and chat How behavioral modeling and analytics can be used to enhance risk monitoring for user conduct How combining multiple compliance approaches can help form a holistic risk management program, which can mean integrating: Threat detection People analytics Conduct compliance applications As part of the conversation, I brought up the topic of employee behaviors and patterns that can lead to legal or compliance issues. The example scenario I offered was of a disgruntled employee who had received an underwhelming bonus or was passed up for a promotion. To get back at the company, this person stole sensitive company data and intellectual property (IP) before they left their job. The panel discussed behaviors or telemetry that might be present in such a scenario. And they talked about whether any data about user conduct might help detect and prevent potential losses. An integrated approach to breaking the attack chain What follows are some of the ways that our panelists use tools to mitigate risks. And how Proofpoint can help. Combining internal and external data One of the most crucial aspects of a surveillance analyst\'s job, especially in financial services, is monitoring employee risk. The roundtable emp | Tool Threat Mobile Prediction Conference | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-15 06:00:41 | Comment empêcher les attaques basées sur l'identité avec ITDR How to Prevent Identity-Based Attacks with ITDR (lien direct) |
Identity-based attacks are on the rise. Research from the Identity Defined Security Alliance found that 84% of businesses experienced an identity-related breach in the past year. While that\'s a huge percentage, it\'s not all that surprising. Just consider how focused attackers have been in recent years on gaining access to your user\'s identities. In the latest Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, Verizon found that 40% of all data breaches in 2022 involved the theft of credentials which is up from 31% in 2021. With access to just one privileged account an attacker can move around undetected on a company\'s network and cause havoc. When they look like the right employee, they have the freedom to do almost anything, from stealing sensitive data to launching ransomware attacks. What\'s worse, attackers usually have tools that make it fast and easy to exploit stolen credentials, escalate privilege and move laterally. That makes this type of attack all the more appealing. There are a bevy of cybersecurity tools that are supposed to protect companies from these attacks. So why do they fall short? The simple answer is that it\'s not their job-at least not completely. Take tools used for identity access management (IAM) as an example. Their role is to administer identities and manage their access to applications and resources. They don\'t detect malicious activity after a “legitimate” user has been authenticated and authorized. And tools for anomaly detection, like security information and event management (SIEM) systems, alert on abnormal or malicious user activity. But they are even less capable of flagging attempts at lateral movement and privilege escalation. As a result, these tools tend to generate high levels of false positives, which overwhelm security teams. However, there is a way to address the security gaps these solutions aren\'t well equipped to cover. It\'s called identity threat detection and response, or ITDR for short. What is ITDR? ITDR is an umbrella term coined by Gartner to describe a new category of security tools and best practices that companies can use to detect and respond more effectively to identity-based attacks. ITDR protects the middle of the attack chain-the point where enterprise defenses are usually the weakest. ITDR tools offer robust analytics, integrations and visibility that can help you to: Detect, investigate and respond to active threats Stop privilege escalations Identify and halt lateral movement by attackers Reduce the identity-centric attack surface before the threat actor even arrives When you use ITDR, you\'re not replacing existing tools or systems for IAM and threat detection and response like privileged access management (PAM) or endpoint detection and response (EDR). Instead, you\'re complementing them. Those tools can continue to do what they do best while ITDR addresses the identity security gaps they\'re not designed to cover. How ITDR solutions work-and help to prevent identity-based attacks ITDR tools are designed to continuously monitor user behavior patterns across systems. They scan every endpoint-clients and servers, PAM systems and identity repositories-to look for unmanaged, misconfigured and exposed identities. With a holistic view of identity risks, your security team can remove key attack pathways through Active Directory (AD) that threat actors use to install ransomware and steal data. ITDR tools can help defenders stop identity attacks and proactively get rid of risks. They allow defenders to see exactly how attackers can access and use identities to compromise the business. Essentially, ITDR provides answers to these three critical questions: Whose identity provides an attack path? What is the identity threat blast radius, and the impact to my business? Are there any identity-based attacks in progress? Leading ITDR tools can help you catch adversaries in the act by planting deceptive content, or trip wires, throughout your environment that only attackers would in | Ransomware Data Breach Tool Vulnerability Threat | ★★ | |
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2023-12-14 09:44:32 | Atténuation des menaces d'initié: 5 meilleures pratiques pour réduire le risque Insider Threat Mitigation: 5 Best Practices to Reduce Risk (lien direct) |
(This is an updated version of a blog that was originally published on 1/28/21.) Most security teams focus on detecting and preventing external threats. But not all threats come from the outside. The shift to hybrid work, accelerated cloud adoption and high rates of employee turnover have created a perfect storm for data loss and insider threats over the past several years. Today, insider threats rank amongst the top concerns for security leaders-30% of chief information security officers report that insider threats are their biggest cybersecurity threat over the next 12 months. It\'s easy to understand why. Insider threats have increased 44% since 2020 due to current market dynamics-and security teams are struggling to keep pace. According to the Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 74% of all breaches involve the human element. In short, data doesn\'t lose itself. People lose it. When the cybersecurity risk to your company\'s vital systems and data comes from the inside, finding ways to mitigate it can be daunting. Unlike with tools that combat external threats, security controls for data loss and insider threats can impact users\' daily jobs. However, with the right approach and insider threat management tools, that doesn\'t have to be the case. In this blog post, we\'ll share best practices for insider threat mitigation to help your business reduce risk and overcome common challenges you might face along the way. What is an insider threat? But first, let\'s define what we mean by an insider threat. In the cybersecurity world, the term “insider” describes anyone with authorized access to a company\'s network, systems or data. In other words, it is someone in a position of trust. Current employees, business partners and third-party contractors can all be defined as insiders. As part of their day-to-day jobs, insiders have access to valuable data and systems like: Computers and networks Intellectual property (IP) Personal data Company strategy Financial information Customer and partner lists All insiders pose a risk given their position of trust-but not all insiders are threats. An insider threat occurs when someone with authorized access to critical data or systems misuses that access-either on purpose or by making a mistake. The fallout from an insider threat can be dire for a business, including IP loss, legal liability, financial consequences and reputational damage. The challenge for security firms is to determine which insiders are threats, and what type of threats they are, so they know how to respond. There are three insider threat types: Careless. This type of risky insider is best described as a user with good intentions who makes bad decisions that can lead to data loss. The 2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report from Ponemon Institute notes that careless users account for more than half (56%) of all insider-led incidents. Malicious. Some employees-or third parties, like contractors or business partners-are motivated by personal gain. Or they might be intent on harming the business. In either case, these risky users might want to exfiltrate trade secrets or take IP when they leave the company. Industrial espionage and sabotage are examples of malicious insider activity. Ponemon research shows malicious insiders account for 26% of insiders. Compromised. Sometimes, external threat actors steal user login information or other credentials. They then use those credentials to access applications and systems. Ponemon reports that compromised users account for 18% of insiders. Insider threat mitigation best practices Companies can minimize brand and financial damage by detecting and stopping insider threats. How each security team approaches insider threats will vary depending on the industry, maturity and business culture. However, every organization can use the five best practices we\'ve outlined below to improve their insider threat prevention. 1. Identify your risky users Most insiders fall into the “care | Data Breach Tool Threat Industrial Cloud Technical | ★★ | |
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2023-12-14 09:00:56 | La détection de code QR malveillant fait un bond en avant géant Malicious QR Code Detection Takes a Giant Leap Forward (lien direct) |
Proofpoint introduces inline, pre-delivery QR code detection engine to help protect against imaged-based QR code phishing attacks QR code phishing, also known as quishing, is the latest attack hitting inboxes. This emerging threat is able to get around traditional email defenses and is forging a new way to deliver email attacks directly to users. Along with email phishing, executive impersonation, spear phishing and business email compromise (BEC), this threat has become one of the top concerns for security and IT teams. In response, Proofpoint has launched new inline sandboxing capabilities to detect and stop suspicious QR code threats. Not only do we support behavioral and sandbox detection engines, but we also provide pre- and post-scanning for risky QR codes. When combined, these capabilities more accurately detect and better protect against this new threat vector. Most API-based email security tools rely on behavioral signals, which means they can only detect a suspicious QR code email after it has been delivered to the user\'s inbox. In contrast, Proofpoint stops attacks pre-delivery, so threats can never make it to users\' inboxes. In this blog post, we\'ll cover what you should know about QR code phishing and detection-and how Proofpoint can help. Why QR codes? When Microsoft disabled macros to prevent threat actors from exploiting them to deliver malware, threat actors started to test various new attack delivery techniques, such as QR codes. Used by marketers as a quick and easy way to connect with consumers and drive engagement, QR codes have become a part of our daily lives and are now used in retail stores, airline tickets, contactless menus and scan-to-pay, among many others. While it\'s common knowledge that standard QR codes can be used in malicious ways, a recent Scantrust QR code survey found that “over 80% of US-based QR code users said that they think QR codes are safe.” It\'s this inherent trust of QR codes that threat actors depend on. That and the fact that QR codes do not expose malicious URLs make them very hard detect with traditional email security tools. What is QR code phishing? A QR code scam is when a bad actor creates a QR code phishing campaign to trick a user into navigating to a malicious URL. This leads them to a malicious website that then harvests their credentials or downloads malware onto their device. These campaigns include payment scams, package scams, email scams and even donation scams during the holiday season. Because all QR codes look similar, users are easily fooled. Figure 1: How a QR scam typically works. Why are QR codes getting through? Legacy email security providers and most API-based email security tools have a very difficult time detecting these attacks. That\'s because these tools scan email messages for known malicious links-they don\'t scan images for links that are hidden inside QR code images. This attack method also creates a new security blind spot. QR codes are scanned by a separate device, like a smartphone, from where the email is delivered. And smartphones are less likely to have robust security protection, which is needed to detect and prevent these attacks. For this reason, it\'s essential that an email security tool detects and blocks QR code phishing emails before they reach users\' inboxes. When messages are scanned post-delivery, like with API-based tools, there\'s a chance that users will get to them first-before they\'re clawed back. Post-delivery-only detection risks Post-delivery-only email security tools claim to “detect and block” QR code phishing emails, but they simply cannot. While they may “detect” a suspicious QR code email, it\'s only after the threat has been delivered to the user\'s inbox. Moreover, these tools do not sandbox suspicious QR codes. This means they have a high miss rate-which creates more risk for your company. Besides creating more risk, they also create more work for your teams. By relying solely on behavioral anomalies, these tools | Malware Tool Threat Mobile Cloud | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-12 05:00:00 | Mémoire de sécurité: TA4557 cible les recruteurs directement par e-mail Security Brief: TA4557 Targets Recruiters Directly via Email (lien direct) |
What happened Since at least October 2023, TA4557 began using a new technique of targeting recruiters with direct emails that ultimately lead to malware delivery. The initial emails are benign and express interest in an open role. If the target replies, the attack chain commences. Previously, throughout most of 2022 and 2023, TA4557 typically applied to existing open job listings purporting to be a job applicant. The actor included malicious URLs, or files containing malicious URLs, in the application. Notably, the URLs were not hyperlinked and the user would have to copy and paste the URL text to visit the website. The legitimate job hosting sites would then generate and send email notifications to the prospective employers who posted the positions. In recently observed campaigns, TA4557 used both the new method of emailing recruiters directly as well as the older technique of applying to jobs posted on public job boards to commence the attack chain. Specifically in the attack chain that uses the new direct email technique, once the recipient replies to the initial email, the actor was observed responding with a URL linking to an actor-controlled website posing as a candidate resume. Alternatively, the actor was observed replying with a PDF or Word attachment containing instructions to visit the fake resume website. Example initial outreach email by TA4557 to inquire about a job posting. Example follow up email containing a URL linking to a fake resume website. Very notably, in campaigns observed in early November 2023, Proofpoint observed TA4557 direct the recipient to “refer to the domain name of my email address to access my portfolio” in the initial email instead of sending the resume website URL directly in a follow up response. This is likely a further attempt to evade automated detection of suspicious domains. Email purporting to be from a candidate directing the recipient to visit the domain in an email address. If the potential victims visit the “personal website” as directed by the threat actor, the page mimics a candidate\'s resume or job site for the candidate (TA4557) applying for a posted role. The website uses filtering to determine whether to direct the user to the next stage of the attack chain. Example of a fake candidate website operated by TA4557 that leads to download of a zip attachment. If the potential victim does not pass the filtering checks, they are directed to a page containing a resume in plain text. Alternatively, if they pass the filtering checks, they are directed to the candidate website. The candidate website uses a CAPTCHA which, if completed, will initiate the download of a zip file containing a shortcut file (LNK). The LNK, if executed, abuses legitimate software functions in "ie4uinit.exe" to download and execute a scriptlet from a location stored in the "ie4uinit.inf" file. This technique is commonly referred to as "Living Off The Land" (LOTL). The scriptlet decrypts and drops a DLL in the %APPDATA%\Microsoft folder. Next, it attempts to create a new regsrv32 process to execute the DLL using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and, if that fails, tries an alternative approach using the ActiveX Object Run method. The DLL employs anti-sandbox and anti-analysis techniques. It incorporates a loop specifically designed to retrieve the RC4 key necessary for deciphering the More_Eggs backdoor. This loop is strategically crafted to extend its execution time, enhancing its evasion capabilities within a sandbox environment. Furthermore, the DLL employs multiple checks to determine if it is currently being debugged, utilizing the NtQueryInformationProcess function. The DLL drops the More_Eggs backdoor along with the MSXSL executable. Subsequently, it initiates the creation of the MSXSL process using the WMI service. Once completed, the DLL deletes itself. More_Eggs can be used to establish persistence, profile the machine, and drop additional payloads. Attribution Proofpoint has been tracking TA4557 since 2018 as a | Malware Tool Threat | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-08 06:00:37 | Protéger les identités: comment ITDR complète EDR et XDR pour garder les entreprises plus en sécurité Protecting identities: How ITDR Complements EDR and XDR to Keep Companies Safer (lien direct) |
Defenders who want to proactively protect their company\'s identities have no shortage of security tools to choose from. There are so many, in fact, that it seems like a new category of tool is invented every few months just to help keep them all straight. Because most security teams are finding it increasingly difficult to stop attackers as they use identity vulnerabilities to escalate privilege and move laterally across their organization\'s IT environment, some of today\'s newest tools focus on this middle part of the attack chain. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and extended detection and response (XDR) are two tools that claim to cover this specialized area of defense. But unfortunately, because of their fundamental architecture and core capabilities, that\'s not really what they do best. That\'s why a new category of tool-identity threat detection and response (ITDR)-is emerging to fill the gaps. In this blog post, we\'ll explain the difference between EDR, XDR and ITDR so that you can understand how these tools complement and reinforce each other. They each have strengths, and when they\'re combined they provide even better security coverage. But first, let\'s rewind the cybersecurity evolution timeline back to the 1980s to understand why ITDR has emerged as a critical defense measure in today\'s threat landscape. The rise of antivirus software and firewalls We\'re starting in the 1980s because that\'s the decade that saw the advent of computer networks and the proliferation of personal computers. It also saw the rapid rise of new threats due to adversaries taking advantage of both trends. There were notable computer threats prior to this decade, of course. The “Creeper” self-replicating program in 1971 and the ANIMAL Trojan in 1975 are two examples. But the pace of development picked up considerably during the 1980s as personal computing and computer networking spread, and bad actors and other mischief-makers sought to profit from or simply break into (or break) devices and systems. In 1987, the aptly named Bernd Robert Fix, a German computer security expert, developed a software program to stop a virus known as Vienna. This virus destroyed random files on the computers it infected. Fix\'s program worked-and the antivirus software industry was born. However, while early antivirus tools were useful, they could only detect and remove known viruses from infected systems. The introduction of firewalls to monitor and control network traffic is another security advancement from the decade. Early “network layer” firewalls were designed to judge “packets” (small chunks of data) based on simple information like the source, destination and connection type. If the packets passed muster, they were sent to the system requesting the data; if not, they were discarded. The internet explosion-and the escalation of cybercrime The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed the explosive growth of the internet as a key business platform, kicking off an era of tremendous change. It brought new opportunities but also many new security risks and threats. Cybercrime expanded and became a more formalized and global industry during this time. Bad actors focused on developing malware and other threats. Email with malicious attachments and crafty social engineering strategies quickly became favorite tools for adversaries looking to distribute their innovations and employ unsuspecting users in helping to activate their criminal campaigns. As cyberthreats became more sophisticated, defenders evolved traditional detective security tools to feature: Signature-based detection to identify known malware Heuristic analysis to detect previously difficult to detect threats based on suspicious behavioral patterns All of these methods were effective to a degree. But once again, they could not keep in step with cybercriminal innovation and tended to generate a lot of false positives and false negatives. Enter the SIEM Around 2005, security information and event management (SIEM) tools emerged to enhance | Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Studies Cloud | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-06 08:01:35 | Conscience de sécurité et renseignement sur la sécurité: le jumelage parfait Proofpoint Security Awareness and Threat Intelligence: The Perfect Pairing (lien direct) |
Just like peanut butter and chocolate, when you add threat intelligence to a security awareness program, it\'s the perfect pairing. Together, they can help you efficiently train one of your most important yet most attacked lines of defense-your people. A robust security awareness program that is tailored, defined and driven by real-world threat insights and context is one of the strongest defenses you can implement. Every week, the Proofpoint Security Awareness team gets regular updates about new and emerging threats and social engineering trends from the Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services team. This helps drive the development of our security awareness platform. Likewise, our customers can generate daily, weekly, monthly and ad-hoc threat intelligence reports to boost the efficacy of their security awareness programs. In this blog, we will discuss some ways that security awareness teams (SATs) can use threat intelligence from Proofpoint to supercharge their awareness programs. Tailor your program to defend against the latest threats Not all people within a company see the same threats. And the response to threats differs greatly across teams-even within the same business. That\'s why security awareness programs shouldn\'t a take one-size-fits-all approach. Here\'s where Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services can help. Our team regularly briefs customers about which threat actors are targeting their business and industry, who within their company is clicking, which users and departments are attacked most, and what threats they\'re being targeted with. Proofpoint gives SAT teams the data they need so they can tailor the modules, training and phishing simulations to match those that their users face. Threats in the wild are converted to valuable, tailored awareness materials. Use cases Our threat intelligence services team analyzes exactly what threat actors are targeting when they go after a customer-both in terms of volume, but also at a granular department level. We regularly observe that it\'s more common for specific actors to target users within a specific department. Are threat actors targeting a specific department? This is a good example of how SAT teams can use threat intelligence to identify departments that are at risk and help keep them safe. In this case study, Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services revealed that TA578-an initial access broker-was frequently targeting marketing and corporate communications departments with a standard copyright violation message lure. We highlighted this trend for a particular customer as we reviewed their TAP data. This Proofpoint threat actor victimology report shows that TA578 is targeting a marketing address. Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services identified what was happening and also provided additional context about the threat actor, including: Tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) Malware payloads Attack chains Specific examples of message lures and landing pages Plus, Proofpoint offered recommendations for remediation and proactive, layered protection. Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services report on TA578. The SAT team used this information in its Proofpoint Security Awareness program to train the marketing department about specific message lures. The team also created a phishing simulation that used a similar-style lure and content to educate those users about this unique threat. Are threat actors targeting specific people? Another use case for Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services is that it can help SAT teams understand who at their company is clicking-and what types of message themes they are clicking on. Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services report for a large healthcare customer. Proofpoint Threat Intelligence Services report shows which users are repeat clickers. This data is compiled from real threats that users have clicked on. SAT teams can use it to prioritize these users for additional awareness training. They can also pi | Tool Threat Studies Prediction | ★★★ | |
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2023-12-04 07:10:47 | Arrêt de cybersécurité du mois: Utilisation de l'IA comportementale pour écraser le détournement de la paie Cybersecurity Stop of the Month: Using Behavioral AI to Squash Payroll Diversion (lien direct) |
This blog post is part of a monthly series exploring the ever-evolving tactics of today\'s cybercriminals. Cybersecurity Stop of the Month focuses on the critical first steps in the attack chain – stopping the initial compromise-in the context of email threats. The series is designed to help you understand how to fortify your defenses to protect people and defend data against emerging threats in today\'s dynamic threat landscape. The first three steps of the attack chain: stop the initial compromise. In our previous posts, we have covered these attack types: Supplier compromise EvilProxy SocGholish E-signature phishing QR code phishing Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) In this installment we examine a payroll diversion threat that Proofpoint detected during a recent threat assessment. We also cover the typical attack sequence of payroll fraud and explain how Proofpoint uses multiple signals to detect and prevent these threats for our customers. Background Business email compromise (BEC) continues to grow in popularity and sophistication. The 2022 FBI Internet Crime Report notes that BEC attacks cost U.S. businesses $2.7 billion last year. The global figure is no doubt much higher. Ransomware victims, in contrast, lost just $34 million. Payroll diversion is a form of BEC. Typically, employees who have direct access to fulfilling payroll-related requests are prime targets. In these attacks, a bad actor pretends to be an employee who needs to update their direct deposit information. The new information is for an account that the bad actor owns. Once the fraudulent request is complete, the lost funds cannot be retrieved by the business. Payroll diversion fraud isn\'t a new form of BEC, but the frequency of this type of attack is on the rise. Proofpoint continues to see this type of threat getting through the defenses of other email security tools. Across all of our October 2023 threat assessments, we found that more than 400 of these threats got past 12 other email security tools. There are a few reasons why it\'s difficult for a lot of email security tools to detect or remediate these threats. The primary reason is because they don\'t usually carry malicious payloads like attachments or URLs. They also tend to be sent from personal email services-like Google, Yahoo and iCloud-and target specific users. Notably, API-based email security tools that scan for threats post-delivery are the most susceptible to not being able to detect or remediate this type of threat. This partly comes down to how they work. In order for them to be effective, they need security and IT teams to manually populate them with a dictionary of possible display names of all employees, which is a very time-consuming effort that is hard to scale. To avoid this, many organizations simply choose to enable display name prevention for their senior executives only. But bad actors behind payroll diversion don\'t just impersonate executives, they target anyone in the organization who can access corporate funds. In our example below, an attacker took advantage of this exact weakness. The scenario Proofpoint detected a payroll diversion attempt where the attacker posed as a non-executive employee. The email was sent to the director of human resources (HR) at a 300-person company in the energy and utilities industry. The company\'s incumbent email security tool delivered the message, and its API-based post-delivery remediation tool failed to detect and retract it. The threat: How did the attack happen? Here is a closer look at how this payroll diversion scam unfolded: 1. The deceptive message: The attacker sent a request to update their direct deposit information from an account that appeared to be a legitimate employee\'s personal email account. The original malicious message delivered to the recipient\'s inbox. 2. Payroll diversion attack sequence: If the recipient had engaged, the attacker\'s goal would have been to convince them to trans | Ransomware Tool Threat | Yahoo | ★★ |
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2023-11-30 06:00:38 | L'avenir de la conformité: suivre le rythme d'un paysage en constante évolution The Future of Compliance: Keeping Pace with an Ever-Changing Landscape (lien direct) |
Nothing stands still in cybersecurity-and that includes compliance. Just as new threats drive the need for new deterrents, new technologies and evolving business practices drive the need for greater oversight. Over the last few years, compliance, regulation and governance have begun evolving faster than we have seen for some time. This has been in response to rapid changes we\'ve seen ripple across industries caused by new technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and new ways of doing business launched in response to the pandemic. In this blog, we explore what has changed within the world of compliance over the last few years and where things are likely heading. On compliance trends Like many industries, compliance and regulation tend to follow market trends. If we go back a few years, we saw a raft of privacy legislation introduced in the wake of the European Union\'s introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). High profile events also tend to shift the attitudes of regulators. For example, financial services companies found themselves in the spotlight following the 2008 economic crash, while the auto industry faced similar scrutiny after the emissions scandal. During these times, regulators tend to turn their attention to enforcement, and they are willing to make an example of a company if that\'s what\'s needed to improve things. Over the years, many regulators have become much more aggressive in this area, expanding their scope and proactively applying their rules. Of course, technology drives regulatory change, too. The pandemic has recently accelerated the mass adoption of collaborative technologies and communication channels like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack and many more. The availability and advancement of these channels have changed how we communicate and how we access and share data, both inside and outside of our organizations. In turn, compliance requirements have had to adapt to accommodate new ways of working. On AI and ML compliance Over the last two or three years, we have seen exciting advances in generative AI. But it has also made possible some fundamental capabilities that will become incredibly important. For example, in a world with so many claims of fake news and misrepresentation, the ability to retain immutable records is a big deal. “Immutable” effectively means that something cannot be changed and cannot be hacked. This is huge not just from a source of truth perspective but also regarding reproducibility. As we use AI tools en masse, questions will be asked about why specific systems are making certain decisions. Is AI discriminating against specific ZIP codes, for example? And if not, can those in charge of these systems prove that? In many cases, doing so will take work. AI could be better at explaining how it gets to its decisions. In order to do so, businesses will need to return to the original, immutable data. And as they become increasingly information-intensive, getting back to that source data sets a high bar of capability. AI\'s ability to process vast data sets will also raise concerns around testing. Before any organization puts a system or platform into the world, potential users want to be confident that it has been suitably tested. But even if a company spends millions of dollars testing a system, it will still sometimes fail-and errors will get through. In the past, we could accept a failure rate of, say, one in a million. But today\'s software is much more complex than anything we\'ve been able to produce in the past. So, a one-in-a-million failure rate in a system running 100, 200 or 300 million events in a day quickly adds up to widespread failures. Regulators will need to iron out how they intend to protect consumers and the markets from issues like these and set clear guidelines regarding who, ultimately, is accountable. On the future of compliance Current trends are likely to continue to drive the development of compliance management. Currently, we\'re seeing a lot of instability. While t | Tool Legislation | ★★ | |
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2023-11-28 23:05:04 | Prédictions 2024 de Proofpoint \\: Brace for Impact Proofpoint\\'s 2024 Predictions: Brace for Impact (lien direct) |
In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, defenders find themselves navigating yet another challenging year. Threat actors persistently refine their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), showcasing adaptability and the rapid iteration of novel and complex attack chains. At the heart of this evolution lies a crucial shift: threat actors now prioritize identity over technology. While the specifics of TTPs and the targeted technology may change, one constant remains: humans and their identities are the most targeted links in the attack chain. Recent instances of supply chain attacks exemplify this shift, illustrating how adversaries have pivoted from exploiting software vulnerabilities to targeting human vulnerabilities through social engineering and phishing. Notably, the innovative use of generative AI, especially its ability to improve phishing emails, exemplifies a shift towards manipulating human behavior rather than exploiting technological weaknesses. As we reflect on 2023, it becomes evident that cyber threat actors possess the capabilities and resources to adapt their tactics in response to increased security measures such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). Looking ahead to 2024, the trend suggests that threats will persistently revolve around humans, compelling defenders to take a different approach to breaking the attack chain. So, what\'s on the horizon? The experts at Proofpoint provide insightful predictions for the next 12 months, shedding light on what security teams might encounter and the implications of these trends. 1. Cyber Heists: Casinos are Just the Tip of the Iceberg Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting digital supply chain vendors, with a heightened focus on security and identity providers. Aggressive social engineering tactics, including phishing campaigns, are becoming more prevalent. The Scattered Spider group, responsible for ransomware attacks on Las Vegas casinos, showcases the sophistication of these tactics. Phishing help desk employees for login credentials and bypassing MFA through phishing one-time password (OTP) codes are becoming standard practices. These tactics have extended to supply chain attacks, compromising identity provider (IDP) vendors to access valuable customer information. The forecast for 2024 includes the replication and widespread adoption of such aggressive social engineering tactics, broadening the scope of initial compromise attempts beyond the traditional edge device and file transfer appliances. 2. Generative AI: The Double-Edged Sword The explosive growth of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, FraudGPT and WormGPT bring both promise and peril, but the sky is not falling as far as cybersecurity is concerned. While large language models took the stage, the fear of misuse prompted the U.S. president to issue an executive order in October 2023. At the moment, threat actors are making bank doing other things. Why bother reinventing the model when it\'s working just fine? But they\'ll morph their TTPs when detection starts to improve in those areas. On the flip side, more vendors will start injecting AI and large language models into their products and processes to boost their security offerings. Across the globe, privacy watchdogs and customers alike will demand responsible AI policies from technology companies, which means we\'ll start seeing statements being published about responsible AI policies. Expect both spectacular failures and responsible AI policies to emerge. 3. Mobile Device Phishing: The Rise of Omni-Channel Tactics take Centre Stage A notable trend for 2023 was the dramatic increase in mobile device phishing and we expect this threat to rise even more in 2024. Threat actors are strategically redirecting victims to mobile interactions, exploiting the vulnerabilities inherent in mobile platforms. Conversational abuse, including conversational smishing, has experienced exponential growth. Multi-touch campaigns aim to lure users away from desktops to mobile devices, utilizing tactics like QR codes and fraudulent voice calls | Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Mobile Prediction Prediction | ChatGPT ChatGPT | ★★★ |
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2023-11-27 09:26:51 | 8 sujets essentiels de cybersécurité à inclure dans votre programme de formation 8 Essential Cybersecurity Topics to Include in Your Training Program (lien direct) |
Your employees have a critical role to play as a first line of defense against cyberthreats. But to be effective, they need to know what those threats are-and stay apprised of how they\'re evolving. A comprehensive security awareness program is the key to helping your users grow their understanding of attackers\' methods and objectives so they can become more proactive defenders. That includes knowing what strategies malicious actors employ to manipulate people so they can use them to enable their campaigns. The importance of security awareness It\'s well worth taking the time to craft a meaningful and engaging security awareness program. By presenting the right mix of information to your users in a compelling way, you can empower them to help you improve your organization\'s security posture as well as create a more robust security culture overall. The cybersecurity topics that you include in your program should be relevant to your business and industry, of course. Companies face different cyberthreat challenges and regulatory compliance requirements related to data protection and data privacy. That said, there are several subjects that almost any modern business, regardless of its industry, will want to ensure its employees understand. We list eight of these cybersecurity topics below. They are the go-to approaches and tools that attackers around the world commonly use to compromise users and their accounts, disrupt normal business operations, steal money or data, and do other damage. Here\'s a high-level overview of these eight must-know cybersecurity topics: 1. Social engineering Social engineering is a collection of techniques malicious actors use to manipulate human psychology. Attackers rely on these strategies to trick or threaten users to take actions such as giving up account credentials, handing over sensitive data, running malicious code and transferring funds. They do this by taking advantage of users\': Emotions, by conveying a sense of urgency, generating excitement about an opportunity, or creating fear around losing money or doing something wrong Trust, by posing as someone familiar to the user or a trusted brand or authority-such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), UPS, Amazon or Microsoft Fatigue, by timing attacks when users are likely to be tired or distracted and more inclined to let their “emotional mind” guide their decision-making Common social engineering tactics include phishing-which we cover in the next section-and these others: Social media reconnaissance. Attackers often turn to social media to gather information about users that they target with their campaigns. These efforts can include direct outreach to users. Vishing (voice phishing) and smishing (SMS/text phishing). Vishing is the fraudulent practice of making phone calls or leaving voice messages purporting to be from a trusted brand or authority. With smishing, attackers use text messages to send SMS messages to users or robocall them. The messages often promise gifts or services in exchange for payment. Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD). TOAD attacks start with an email that claims to be from a legitimate source and includes a phone number for customer assistance. Callers are connected to fake customer service representatives who then direct the victim through the attack. They may instruct the victim to let them access their machine remotely or download a file that turns out to be malware. Or they might direct them to a phishing site. Common sense can go a long way toward preventing a social engineering attack. Make sure to reiterate that if a message seems too good to be true, it\'s very likely a scam. And if something doesn\'t look or sound right, it probably isn\'t. 2. Phishing Phishing is an example of social engineering. Most phishing messages are sent by email. But some attackers deliver these messages through other methods, including smishing and vishing. Here are some typical strategies: Malicious links. When a user clicks on a | Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Mobile Cloud | Uber Uber | ★★ |
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2023-11-21 08:35:02 | Prévenir les attaques de fatigue du MFA: sauvegarder votre organisation Preventing MFA Fatigue Attacks: Safeguarding Your Organization (lien direct) |
Gaining access to critical systems and stealing sensitive data are top objectives for most cybercriminals. Social engineering and phishing are powerful tools to help them achieve both. That\'s why multifactor authentication (MFA) has become such an important security measure for businesses and users. Without MFA as part of the user authentication process, it is much less challenging for an attacker with stolen credentials to authenticate a user\'s account. The primary goal of MFA is to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, especially in situations where passwords alone may not provide enough protection. Even if an attacker steals a user\'s password, with MFA they still need the second factor (and maybe others) to gain access to an account. Examples of MFA factors include biometrics, like fingerprints, and signals from user devices, like GPS location. MFA isn\'t a perfect solution, though-it can be bypassed. Adversaries are relentless in their efforts to undermine any security defenses standing in the way of their success. (The evolution of phish kits for stealing MFA tokens is evidence of that.) But sometimes, attackers will choose to take an in-your-face approach that is not very creative or technical. MFA fatigue attacks fall into that category. What are MFA fatigue attacks-and how do they work? MFA fatigue attacks, also known as MFA bombing or MFA spamming, are a form of social engineering. They are designed to wear down a user\'s patience so that they will accept an MFA request out of frustration or annoyance-and thus enable an attacker to access their account or device. Many people encounter MFA requests daily, or even multiple times per day, as they sign-in to various apps, sites, systems and platforms. Receiving MFA requests via email, phone or other devices as part of that process is a routine occurrence. So, it is logical for a user to assume that if they receive a push notification from an account that they know requires MFA, it is a legitimate request. And if they are very busy at the time that they receive several push notifications in quick succession to authenticate an account, they may be even more inclined to accept a request without scrutinizing it. Here\'s an overview of how an MFA attack works: A malicious actor obtains the username and password of their target. They can achieve this in various ways, from password-cracking tactics like brute-force attacks to targeted phishing attacks to purchasing stolen credentials on the dark web. The attacker then starts to send MFA notifications to the user continuously, usually via automation, until that individual feels overwhelmed and approves the login attempt just to make the requests stop. (Usually, the push notifications from MFA solutions require the user to simply click a “yes” button to authenticate from the registered device or email account.) Once the attacker has unauthorized access to the account, they can steal sensitive data, install malware and do other mischief, including impersonating the user they have compromised-taking their actions as far as they can or want to go. 3 examples of successful MFA fatigue attacks To help your users understand the risk of these attacks, you may want to include some real-world examples in your security awareness program on this topic. Here are three notable incidents, which are all associated with the same threat actor: Uber. In September 2022, Uber reported that an attacker affiliated with the threat actor group Lapsus$ had compromised a contractor\'s account. The attacker may have purchased corporate account credentials on the dark web, Uber said in a security update. The contractor received several MFA notifications as the attacker tried to access the account-and eventually accepted one. After the attacker logged in to the account, they proceeded to access other accounts, achieving privilege escalation. One action the attacker took was to reconfigure Uber\'s OpenDNS to display a graphic image on some of the company\'s internal sites. Cisco. Cisco suffer | Ransomware Data Breach Malware Tool Threat Technical | Uber | ★★★ |
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2023-11-17 12:01:12 | Démystifier l'IA et ML: six questions critiques à poser à votre fournisseur de cybersécurité Demystifying AI and ML: Six Critical Questions to Ask Your Cybersecurity Vendor (lien direct) |
As cyber threats continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace, many organizations are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in hopes of keeping up. While these advanced technologies hold immense promise, they\'re also more complex and far less efficient than traditional threat detection approaches. The tradeoff isn\'t always worth it. And not all AI and ML processes are created equal. The models used, the size and quality of the data sets they\'re trained on-and whether an advanced computational process is suitable for the problem at hand-are all critical factors to consider when deciding how both AI and ML fit into your cybersecurity strategy. In this blog post, we explore the vital questions you should ask your cybersecurity vendor about these technologies. We will also demystify their role in safeguarding your people, data and environment. Note: Though often conflated, AL and ML are related but distinct concepts. For simplicity, we\'re using AI when discussing the broader technology category and ML to discuss narrower learning models used in AI. Question 1: Why is AI suitable for this security problem? You\'ve probably heard the old saying that when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. While AI has rightly generated enthusiasm in cybersecurity, it may not be the optimal approach to every task. On one hand, the technologies can help analyze large amounts of data and find anomalies, trends and behaviors that indicate potential attacks. And the technologies can automate response and mitigation of security incidents. But depending on the size and complexity of the learning model, they can also be computationally intensive (read: expensive) to maintain. And worse, execution time can be much longer than less complex approaches such as rules and signatures. On the other hand, rules and signatures are static, so they don\'t automatically evolve to detect new threats. But they\'re also fast, easy on computing resources and highly effective for certain aspects of threat detection. Other signals, such as email sender reputation and IP addresses, can also be as effective as AI for many detections-and in most cases are faster and much more cost-effective. Getting AI right starts with understanding what cybersecurity tasks they\'re best suited to and applying them to the right problems. In the same vein, how the technology is applied matters. In cybersecurity, every second counts. Making decisions in real time and blocking malicious content before it can be delivered is today\'s key challenge. If the processing time of the vendor\'s AI means the technology is relegated solely to post-delivery inspection and remediation, that\'s a major drawback. Question 2: Where do you get your training data? The performance of ML models hinges on the source and quality of their data. That\'s because AI models learn from examples and patterns, not rules. And that requires a large amount of data. The more data, and the higher the quality of that data, the better the model can learn and generalize to new conditions. Like any ML model, those used in cybersecurity need a wide-ranging, diverse data set that accurately reflects the real world. Or more precisely, the data used to train your vendor\'s AI model should reflect your world-the threats targeting your organization and users. Finding data for general-purpose AI applications is easy. It\'s all over the internet. But threat data-especially data well-suited for the type of ML model the vendor intends to use- is scarcer. Gaining malware samples is a lot harder than acquiring data used in applications such as image and natural language processing. First, not much attack data is publicly available. Most security vendors hold on tightly to the threat data they collect, and for good reason. Beyond the obvious competitive advantages it offers, threat data is sensitive and comes with a bevy of privacy concerns. As a result, few cybersecurity vendors have a dataset large enough to trai | Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat | ★★ | |
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2023-11-16 14:15:19 | Informations exploitables: simplifier l'explication des menaces via le résumé de la condamnation Actionable Insights: Simplifying Threat Explainability via the Condemnation Summary (lien direct) |
In this blog series we cover how to improve your company\'s security posture with actionable insights. Actionable insights are a critical tool to help you improve your security posture and stop initial compromise in the attack chain. You can use them to identify and respond to potential risks, enhance your incident response capabilities, and make more informed security decisions. In previous actionable insights blog posts, we covered these topics: People risk Origin risk Business email compromise (BEC) risk Ensuring proper risk context Risk efficacy Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) risk Threat intelligence Your risk profile In this post, we are excited to announce the new TAP Condemnation Summary-which is available to all Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection (TAP) customers who use the Proofpoint Aegis threat protection platform. We\'ll explain why it is an invaluable resource and we\'ll explore some of its key reports. Threat explainability: Introducing the Condemnation Summary In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, clear communication and rapid understanding of email threats are essential. Proofpoint introduced the Condemnation Summary to enhance threat visibility and explain-in plain, everyday language-why a particular threat is condemned. The summary makes it easier for both technical and nontechnical users to comprehend email threats. You can find the TAP Condemnation Summary in the Evidence section of the threat details page for any individual threat within your Aegis platform. Let\'s explore how this new feature can help your business. Insights: What you can learn from the Condemnation Summary The Condemnation Summary helps demystify email threats and streamline the decision-making process for threat remediation. Here\'s what you can expect from this innovative feature. User and VIP insights The Condemnation Summary includes a highlights card that spotlights impacted users and VIPs. With drilldown options and actionable items, you can quickly determine who is affected. You can use these insights to understand the steps you need to take to mitigate the threat. Details about affected users shown in the Condemnation Summary. Threat state overview This section of the summary breaks down the state of the threat or campaign, complete with timestamps. A chronological view provides you with a clear understanding of how the threat evolved, so you can assess its severity and impact. The threat state overview section in the Condemnation Summary. User-friendly descriptions The Condemnation Summary offers high-level observations from our behavioral and machine learning detection layers. Threats are described in everyday language. So nontechnical users can better grasp the nature of a threat and its potential consequences. High-level observations in plain language in the Condemnation Summary. Source attribution It\'s helpful to understand where a threat originated. Condemnation Sources gives you insight into which sources contributed to the detection and condemnation of the threat. The Condemnation Sources section in the Condemnation Summary. Targeted controls: Taking action The Condemnation Summary isn\'t just a feature for visibility or explainability. It\'s a tool for action. Here\'s how to make the most of this new feature: Mitigate threats faster. With user and VIP insights, you can respond promptly to threats that are impacting specific individuals. Take immediate actions to protect these users and mitigate risks. Improve your communication about threats. The user-friendly descriptions in the Condemnation Summary make it easier to communicate threat details to nontechnical stakeholders. This, in turn, helps to foster better collaboration around security across your business. See how threats evolve. When you have a timeline of a threat\'s progression, you can assess how a threat evolved and whether it is part of a broader campaign. Track where threats come from. It is cruci | Tool Threat Technical | ★★★ | |
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2023-11-13 07:23:13 | ProofPoint reconnu en 2023 Gartner & Reg;Guide du marché pour la prévention de la perte de données Proofpoint Recognized in 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for Data Loss Prevention (lien direct) |
The risk of data loss increases as your business embraces digital transformation, remote work and cloud computing. Legacy data loss prevention (DLP) solutions weren\'t developed with these new dynamics in mind. In today\'s world, your DLP platform must provide visibility across multiple channels for data loss-email, cloud services, endpoint and web. It must scale with your needs while protecting data without interruption. And since data doesn\'t lose itself, it should be people centric. Part of that means providing insight into user behavior. The Gartner Market Guide for Data Loss Prevention explains that “DLP technology is mature, but today, organizations look for comprehensive solutions that go beyond traditional DLP measures.” It also notes that “Security and risk management leaders should focus on risk-based adaptive data protection techniques to strengthen the data security of their organization.” Let\'s take a look at some other insights from the report. Adaptive DLP: Enhanced with classification and converged with insider threat management The Gartner Market Guide states that “DLP vendors are increasingly converging with insider risk management platforms. This convergence enables better detection of data exfiltration as it enriches DLP events with anomalous user behaviors, improved risk scoring and real-time monitoring capabilities.” This, the report notes, enables an adaptive, risk based DLP approach. It also shares important insights such as: Enterprise DLP (EDLP) solutions offer centralized policy management and reporting functionality Enterprise DLP (EDLP) solutions generally incorporate advanced content inspection techniques to identify complex content and apply remediation Content inspection within IDLP solutions has improved considerably, and many of these solutions can recognize classification tags from more sophisticated classification tools DLP solutions use data classification labels and tags, content inspection techniques and contextual analysis to identify sensitive content and analyze actions related to the use of that content Gartner sees that DLP vendors are increasingly converging with insider risk management platforms. This convergence enables better detection of data exfiltration as it enriches DLP events with anomalous user behaviors, improved risk scoring and real-time monitoring capabilities. Gartner recommends in its Market Guide that a business use enterprise DLP if it has limited resources and its “users are transacting sensitive information through multiple channels.” The report also mentions that consulting and managed services can help “shorten the time to value and augment lean IT and security departments.” Proofpoint delivers adaptive DLP As a key player in the space, we think Proofpoint Enterprise DLP expands on the capabilities that Gartner shares in its report. The following is an overview of how we do that. People-centric insights and risk-based adaptive DLP Proofpoint Enterprise DLP protects against data loss across email, cloud, endpoint and web. Our solution combines content, behavior and threat telemetry from all these channels to address the full spectrum of people-centric data loss scenarios such as: Leavers who feel entitled to take intellectual property with them Compromised users whose data is stolen by threat actors Careless users who accidently email sensitive documents to your partners People-centric information protection is an adaptive, risk-based approach to DLP. Our Enterprise DLP solution uses people and application risk scoring and modeling for dynamic policies. Figure 1. Web security risk-based access rule. In Figure 1, “Leavers Policy 2” applies isolation as a data control when “Risky Leavers” access “Critical Business Cloud Apps.” One console, one agent, one cloud-native platform Proofpoint provides what administrators and analysts need to accurately detect DLP and insider threats: Policy management Workflows Alert management | Tool Threat Cloud | ★ | |
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2023-11-13 07:14:17 | Informations exploitables: comprenez votre profil de risque global avec le rapport de résumé exécutif Actionable Insights: Understand Your Overall Risk Profile with the Executive Summary Report (lien direct) |
In this blog series we cover how to improve your company\'s security posture with actionable insights. Actionable insights are a critical tool to help you improve your security posture and stop initial compromise in the attack chain. You can use them to identify and respond to potential risks, enhance your incident response capabilities, and make more informed security decisions. In previous actionable insights blog posts, we covered these topics: People risk Origin risk Business email compromise (BEC) risk Ensuring proper risk context Risk efficacy Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) risk Threat intelligence In this post, we introduce the new TAP Executive Summary Report-which is available to all Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection (TAP) customers who use the Proofpoint Aegis threat protection platform. We\'ll show you why the Executive Summary Report is so useful so you can use it effectively to enhance your company\'s security posture. Unlock powerful insights with the Executive Summary Report Email security is more crucial than ever in today\'s fast-evolving threat landscape. To protect your business and users from emerging threats, you need the right tools-like the TAP Dashboard Executive Summary Report. We designed this new report specifically to meet the high-level reporting needs of executives and other decision-makers. It empowers these users by providing quick, easy-to-consume insights on their email security, which helps to accelerate their decision-making. You can find it in the Reports section of the TAP Dashboard as the new first tab. Let\'s explore how this new feature can help your business. Insights: What you can learn from the Executive Summary This report gives you a comprehensive overview of your business\'s email threat landscape. It equips your teams and executives with actionable intelligence. End-to-end threat protection insights Integrating data from the Proofpoint email gateway, the Executive Summary Report offers a holistic view of your company\'s inbound email threat protection effectiveness. This end-to-end visibility helps you understand how your security measures perform across your email stack. Inbound email protection breakdown This new visualization in the TAP Threat Insight Dashboard provides an at-a-glance breakdown of the total number of messages received through your email protection stack. It reveals how and when Proofpoint identified and blocked malicious messages. With this detailed insight, you can identify threats and detect anomalies-and make data-driven decisions to enhance your email security. The inbound email protection breakdown. Exposure insights The Executive Summary Report also provides insight into potentially exposed messages. With drilldowns and actionable items, you can address these threats quickly to minimize the risk of a breach. Exposure insights in the Executive Summary Report. Messages protected This chart offers a trended view of messages protected by advanced threat detection capabilities in Proofpoint TAP. The information presented is broken down by threat type or category. It lets you see the evolving nature of threats over time, so you can conduct a more in-depth analysis of your company\'s email security. The messages protected trend chart-by threat type. Efficacy metrics There are two charts that report on Proofpoint TAP\'s efficacy. The first is the “threat landscape effectiveness” chart. It provides you with a clear understanding of where the most significant threats exist within your email landscape. It displays top objectives, malware families and threat actors by total message volume. The threat landscape effectiveness chart with a breakdown of threat objectives. The second chart is “inbound protection overview.” This donut-style chart combines traditional email security and advanced threat detection (TAP) metrics. This single statistic reflects the overall effectiveness of your Proofpoint inbound email prote | Malware Tool Threat Prediction | ★★ | |
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2023-11-10 08:04:20 | 2023 Prédictions de l'escroquerie de vacances, si ce que vous devez savoir 2023 Holiday Scam Predictions-Here\\'s What You Should Know (lien direct) |
\'Tis the season for cyberscams. As the holiday season nears, adversaries will try to take advantage of people\'s generosity and holiday spirit. That\'s why it\'s critical to be alert. While it\'s still early to detect and analyze seasonal trends, we anticipate to see several new and emerging techniques in attackers\' creativity and lures, along with tried-and-true tactics from previous holiday seasons. From generative AI that helps telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) to multifactor authentication (MFA) bypass that leans on shipping alerts, here\'s a look at five holiday scam predictions. These are the tricks and trends that you might see evolve in this year\'s winter threat landscape. 1: Generative AI will make threat detection trickier What\'s blown up since last holiday season? A little thing called generative AI. This emerging technology might change the game of crafting emails that include those too-good-to-be-true offers. Phony shipping emails are always favorites for attackers, and they always become more frequent during the holidays. Nobody wants a problem with merchandise they\'ve ordered or packages they\'ve shipped. Last year, many holiday season shipping phishing attempts featured standard red flags, like grammatical errors and non-native language structure. These are easily detectable at a quick glance. But this year, we expect to see many attackers using generative AI to write their emails and texts, potentially reducing easy detection. So go a level deeper when you\'re trying to determine whether a holiday season shipping email is a scam. Take a closer look these emails and ask these questions: Is the message generic or personalized? Are you being asked for unnecessary sensitive information? Does the sender display name match the email address? (This is a safety checklist item that people learn in security awareness training.) Are you being asked to pay a fee to receive a package? (Note: In this case, it\'s best to refuse the delivery until you can confirm the shipment is legitimate.) 2: TOAD scams might get an AI boost TOAD has become part of the threat toolkit, as attackers push victims to take unsafe actions over the phone. Writing with generative AI could increase the believability of TOAD attacks that use a holiday playbook. Need to stop an expensive gift purchase on your credit card or accept a heavily discounted travel offer? Then, contact this (fake) call center! If an AI-generated email successfully imitates a legitimate company, it\'s more likely that the victim will dial the phone number they\'re directed to. Generative AI could also provide opportunities to expand holiday scams globally. For instance, every Christmas and New Year, we see English-language vacation scams that target a Western audience. But there is also a huge volume of travel and celebration for Lunar New Year in China, South Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong. If attackers previously lacked cultural knowledge or language skills to target these populations, they might now use freely available AI tools to quickly research what experiences might feel meaningful and create holiday lures that are localized and enticing. Luckily, generative AI is unlikely to improve interaction with the fraudulent call center. If you call the TOAD number, red flags should still be detectable. For instance, be wary if the “operator” is: Clearly following a script. Pressuring you to take an action. Speaking in a regional accent that your security awareness training has taught you is where call center fraud often originates. 3: MFA bypass could surface more often MFA bypass surged in popularity last year, and we continue to see an increase in the number of lures that use this technique. The attacker steals account credentials in real time by intercepting the MFA short code when the victim types it into an account login page that is fake or compromised. Since MFA bypass is an ongoing threat trend, we expect to see the techniques applied this year to holiday- | Tool Threat Prediction | FedEx | ★★★ |
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2023-11-10 07:55:46 | New Gartner & Reg;Rapport BEC: les recommandations sont entièrement prises en charge par Proofpoint New Gartner® BEC Report: Recommendations Are Fully Supported by Proofpoint (lien direct) |
Business email compromise (BEC) is costly. The latest Internet Crime Report from the FBI\'s Internet Crime Complaint Center notes that businesses lost more than $2.7 billion due to these scams in 2022. Another staggering statistic that is less reported: BEC losses were almost 80 times that of ransomware last year. The rate of BEC attacks and the average loss per incident are likely to keep climbing, which makes BEC an ongoing concern for businesses. A recent report by Gartner, How to Protect Organizations Against Business Email Compromise Phishing, offers companies several recommendations to help them reduce the risk of these attacks and minimize potential losses. Below, we share five top takeaways and key findings from this 2023 report. We also explain how Proofpoint can help protect your business against BEC attacks by linking what we do to Gartner\'s recommendations. 1. To combat BEC, businesses need to invest in email security rather than relying on endpoint protection Not all BEC scams contain a malicious payload like malware or malicious links. That\'s why endpoint protection and endpoint detection and response platforms are not effective defenses for these types of attacks. Gartner recommends: If you\'re a security and risk management leader who is responsible for infrastructure security, you can maximize your protection against BEC by seeking out and implementing artificial intelligence (AI)-based secure email gateway solutions. Look for solutions that offer: Advanced BEC phishing protection Behavioral analysis Impostor detection Internal email protection Proofpoint protects: Proofpoint believes that Gartner report\'s recommendation stems from the understanding that stopping BEC attacks before they reach a recipient\'s inbox is the best method to minimize risks. This strategy is at the heart of the Proofpoint Aegis threat protection platform. Proofpoint has used machine learning (ML) for more than two decades to detect email threats. We create the highest levels of BEC detection efficacy through our combination of AI/ML-driven behavioral analysis and rich threat intelligence. 2. Supplement email security with additional controls to reduce the risk of ATO Account takeover fraud (ATO) is often a feature in BEC attacks. It occurs when an adversary gains control of a legitimate account. To reduce the risk of ATO, businesses need to be able to recognize whether an email is from a genuine sender. Gartner recommends: Businesses should supplement their existing email security solutions with additional controls to further reduce the risk of BEC attacks like ATO and domain abuse. Proofpoint protects: To protect against account takeover, you need to identify accounts that might be compromised and automate remediation. If you rely solely on behavioral analytics to detect these accounts, you could end up with a high volume of false alerts. Proofpoint combines behavioral analysis with our rich threat intelligence to detect both compromised employee accounts and compromised third-party accounts. How Proofpoint helps when ATO occurs If an internal account has been compromised, a password reset isn\'t enough. Attackers in your environment can still manipulate third-party apps and gain persistent access to the account to wage attacks at will. Proofpoint TAP Account Takeover (TAP ATO) provides insights into what types of threats are targeting your users\' email accounts. And it provides you with the tools you need to take corrective action to protect a compromised account. TAP ATO correlates threat intelligence with artificial intelligence, ML and behavioral analytics to find malicious events across the email attack chain. It helps you see who is being attacked and how, and it provides automated remediation. How Proofpoint helps when supplier accounts are compromised Proofpoint Supplier Threat Protection gives you insight into which third-party and supplier accounts may be compromised. We combine AI/ML-driven behavioral analysis with threat in | Ransomware Malware Tool Threat | ★★ | |
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2023-11-09 14:25:13 | Comment trouver vos identités risquées How to Find Your Risky Identities (lien direct) |
Les acteurs de la menace utilisent de nombreuses techniques pour obtenir des informations d'identification de compte pour la simple raison qu'ils ouvrent la porte à une multitude de tactiques en aval. Lorsqu'ils ont des informations d'identification, les cybercriminels n'ont pas besoin de percer votre périmètre ou de rechercher des vulnérabilités existantes pour entrer. Au lieu de cela, ils peuvent s'attendre sans être détectés, se déplacer dans votre réseau, poser plusieurs charges utiles malveillantes, voler des données et ciblerAutres utilisateurs de grande valeur en cours de route.Toute défense efficace contre ce type d'attaque nécessite que vous compreniez quelle identité risquée est susceptible d'être à la réception de celle-ci. Toute identité unique peut être compromise et doit être protégée en conséquence.Cependant, certains sont plus à risque des attaques que d'autres et d'autres sont plus précieux.Lorsque vous obtenez une visibilité dans les identités les plus à risque, vous pouvez appliquer et améliorer les contrôles où ils sont le plus nécessaires. Voici un aperçu des identités sur lesquelles vous devez concentrer vos efforts ainsi que certains outils qui peuvent vous aider. 3 catégories d'identités risquées Les identités risquées peuvent être regroupées en trois catégories: Identités non gérées Les comptes de service ne sont généralement pas gérés par les outils de gestion de l'accès aux privilèges (PAM) car ils sont souvent non découverts lors de la mise en œuvre.De plus, les identités de la machine peuvent être erronées pour permettre à tort une connexion interactive par les humains. Les administrateurs locaux sont configurés pour faciliter les demandes de support informatique sur les points de terminaison et sont souvent oubliés après leur création. Les comptes privilégiés ne sont souvent pas gérés activement car ils ne sont pas constamment découverts. Identités mal configurées Les administrateurs fantômes sont généralement mal configurés en raison de la complexité des groupes d'identité imbriqués dans Active Directory.Cela peut rendre extrêmement difficile de voir les droits et les droits complets de toutes les identités.En conséquence, les administrateurs fantômes peuvent se voir accorder des privilèges excessifs involontaires. Les identités configurées avec un cryptage faible ou manquant et celles qui n'appliquent pas de mots de passe solides entrent également dans cette catégorie. Identités exposées Les informations d'identification en cache sont généralement stockées sur les points de terminaison, les navigateurs, la mémoire, le registre et le disque.En conséquence, ils peuvent être facilement exploités à l'aide d'outils d'attaquant communs. Les jetons d'accès cloud stockés sur les points de terminaison sont également un moyen courant pour les attaquants d'accéder aux actifs cloud. Les séances d'application à distance, telles que RDP, peuvent être mal fermées.Si cela se produit, les cybercriminels peuvent les utiliser pour compromettre une session ouverte et ses privilèges, sans risque de détection. Ces identités sont risquées. C'est là que vivent des identités risquées. Défense de la menace d'identité de la preuve Plus de 90% des attaques reposent sur des identités compromises.C'est pourquoi vous avez besoin de la défense de la menace d'identité de la preuve.ProofPoint peut vous aider à détecter les menaces actives et à éliminer les lacunes de votre posture d'identité qui peuvent être exploitées par les attaquants. La défense des menaces d'identité est invaincue dans plus de 160 exercices d'équipe rouge (et comptage).Cela peut vous aider: Découvrez et hiérarchisez vos vulnérabilités d'identité Retourner automatiquement les risques sur vos points de terminaison et vos serveurs Détecter les menaces actives au milieu de la chaîne d'attaque au moment de l'escalade des privilèges et du mouvement latéral Proofpoint vous donne les outils pour empêcher les | Tool Vulnerability Threat Cloud | ★★ | |
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2023-11-09 07:02:10 | Le pouvoir de la simplicité: élever votre expérience de sécurité The Power of Simplicity: Elevating Your Security Experience (lien direct) |
Recent research underscores just how challenging the current threat and risk landscape is for businesses and their security and IT teams. Ransomware attacks are up 153% year over year. Business email compromise (BEC) attacks doubled during the same period. Meanwhile, the global deficit of skilled security personnel sits at about 4 million. New threats are emerging and existing ones are growing more sophisticated all the time. Security measures need to keep pace with these dynamics to be effective. Businesses must be proactive and aim to stop threats before they start, but still be able to respond with speed to incidents already in progress. To do that, you must understand how attackers are targeting your business. And you must be able to clearly communicate those risks to executive leadership and peer stakeholders. At Proofpoint, our goal is to protect our customers from advanced threats by streamlining our solutions and processes while also providing easy-to-understand threat visibility. That\'s why we introduced improvements to the usability and reporting of the Proofpoint Aegis threat protection platform. Read on to learn more. 3 Aegis usability enhancements The market spoke, and we listened. Feedback from our customers was key in developing all of the following user interface (UI) enhancements, which we focused around three goals: simplifying access, prioritizing usability and clarifying the threat landscape. 1: Simplifying access Complexity hinders productivity and innovation. With that in mind, Proofpoint launched a new single sign-on (SSO) portal to provide a centralized, frictionless user login experience to Aegis. Customers can now use a single URL and single set of credentials to log in to the platform and switch seamlessly between our products. That\'s a big win for businesses that use multiple Proofpoint solutions. Your business can expect to see improved operational efficiency. By simplifying access to the Aegis platform, we\'re reducing the time admins spend getting to work, navigating their environments and searching for tools. The SSO portal is a significant step forward in improving the usability and user experience of the Proofpoint Aegis platform. 2: Prioritizing usability Proofpoint\'s user-centric design approach means our solutions are becoming more intuitive and easier to use all the time. The new usability updates for Aegis reduce cognitive load by minimizing the mental effort that\'s required to focus on processes. This makes creating natural workflows less complex, which results in fewer errors and less time spent on manual work. Our intuitively designed tools reduce frustration and effort for users by enabling faster onboarding. They also provide better problem-solving and self-troubleshooting capabilities. Our goal of improved usability led us to incorporate new Email Protection modules into the updated cloud administration portal. The modules offer streamlined workflows and quicker response times. This means admins can perform their daily tasks and manage email threats more easily. And they don\'t have to navigate through complicated menus. The Email Protection modules are available now in PPS 8.20; they include the Email Firewall and Spam Configuration UIs. 3: Clarifying the threat landscape Proofpoint has long been at the forefront of bringing clarity to the threat landscape. And we know that when security and IT teams have more visibility, they can make more informed decisions. However, we also know that for actionable decisions to be truly effective, threat landscape visibility needs to be quick and easy for other stakeholders to grasp as well. We\'re striving to minimize information overload through summarized and contextually driven documentation. This helps you to always know and understand the cyberthreats your business is facing. Clear, easy to access data allows administrators to move fast to keep up with evolving threats. It also enhances the ability to communicate risk to nontechnical stakeholders w | Ransomware Spam Tool Threat Cloud | ★★ | |
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2023-11-08 06:00:00 | Protéger vos chemins, partie 1: comment la gestion du chemin d'attaque peut arrêter les attaquants sur leurs traces Protecting Your Paths, Part 1: How Attack Path Management Can Stop Attackers in Their Tracks (lien direct) |
This blog is the first in a series where we explore attack path management. We\'ll explain what you need to know and give you the tools you need to help you better protect the middle of the attack chain. A big reason that successful cyberattacks are on the rise is that threat actors are shifting their tactics to identity-based attacks. Last year, 84% of businesses fell victim to an identity-related breach. When attackers land on a host, it is rarely their end target. Instead, they look to escalate privilege and move laterally across an environment. Their next step is to exploit more privileged credentials, and they often do this by using shadow admin vulnerabilities. It can be a challenge to stop them. To do so, you need to quickly discover, prioritize and remediate identity vulnerabilities. But first, you need to know what you\'re up against. In this blog post, we explore the multitude of identity vulnerability challenges, and we explain why an attack path management (APM) view is so important. We also specify which identity-centric attack vectors are likely to exist in your environment. Key terms Before we dive into this topic further, let\'s define some key terms that are central to this area of security: Attack path management. This refers to the process of identifying, analyzing, understanding and remediating attack paths within a business. Identities and other system resources are typically spread across multiple on-premises and cloud identity stores. These include Microsoft Active Directory (AD), Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), AWS and Okta. Attack path. Threat actors follow a sequence of steps as they compromise security, which is called an attack path. The typical end result is the compromise of a tier-zero asset (TZA)-or what is generally referred to as a bad breach. TZAs. Tier-zero assets are often referred to as the “crown jewels.” They are a company\'s most critical and sensitive assets. They can include systems, data or other resources (databases, web gateways) that are essential to its operation, reputation and overall resilience. In certain scenarios, AD domain controllers or authentication systems can be considered TZAs given the broad scope of damage that can arise with their breach. The risks of TZA compromise Compromising a tier-zero asset is a high-value objective for attackers because it allows them to achieve their financial or other malicious goals. Here are some common objectives: Data exfiltration TZAs may store or have access to critical and sensitive data or intellectual property. Or they might be critical system resources that, if compromised, could result in a service outage. Attackers aim to steal this information for financial gain, espionage or extortion. Data exfiltration clearly impacts the confidentiality part of the CIA triad. Data manipulation Attackers may alter or manipulate data within TZAs to achieve their goals. For instance, they could modify user account settings, insert malicious code or encrypt data as a step toward operational disruption. Data manipulation impacts the integrity part of the CIA triad. Denial of service (DoS) or disruption Attackers may use compromised tier-zero assets to launch DoS attacks against critical operational services in an enterprise. This can disrupt services and cause operational or financial harm to the business. This exposure category is about impacting the availability portion of the CIA triad. Ransomware Attackers may use their control over TZAs to deploy ransomware across a network. By encrypting critical systems and data, they can demand substantial ransom payments in exchange for the decryption keys. Ultimately ransomware attackers are focused on financial gain. One of their main tactics for extracting a ransom is threatening to directly impact system availability. (See this 2021 breach as an example.) Lateral movement to more TZAs Once attackers compromise a tier-zero asset, they can use it as a launch pad to move laterally to other TZAs. Figure 1. Tier-zero | Ransomware Tool Vulnerability Threat Cloud | ★★ | |
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2023-11-06 07:20:56 | 3 erreurs courantes que vous faites avec votre programme de sensibilisation à la sécurité 3 Common Mistakes You\\'re Making with Your Security Awareness Program (lien direct) |
Despite the vast budget and resources invested in cybersecurity, breaches are still commonplace and increasingly impactful. When these incidents are analyzed, there is a common factor-the controlling technology is undermined by human action. This can include staff handing out credentials, facilitating unauthorized requests, falling for spoof emails and running malware at the behest of an attacker. When the World Economic Forum states that 95% of security breaches occur because of human action, it is clear that security awareness throughout your organization is imperative. Yet despite years of activity, more still needs to be done. Here are some things you may be doing that will hinder your security program-and, more importantly, the steps you can take to fix them. Mistake 1: You have named your security program incorrectly As simple as it sounds, you may have chosen a poor name for your security program. We all focus on security awareness and build “security awareness programs” for our businesses, but that isn\'t what we really want. Our true aim is more than just to improve awareness-it is to change behavior. Calling our program “security awareness” encourages us to focus on the wrong outcome. After all, if our real aim is to stop people smoking, we wouldn\'t call our initiative the “be aware of the risks of smoking campaign.” This has an easy fix: Change the name of your program. Decide on the outcome you want and name your program appropriately-such as \'Security Behavior Change Program\' or \'Build Security Culture Program.\' You will be amazed by the difference such a small change can make because the new title will be a constant reminder of what you are actually trying to achieve. Mistake 2: Thinking that \'lots of awareness\' leads to culture The second mistake is related to the first. All too often, programs decide they can change the culture of the organization by increasing the amount of awareness training that staff undertake. That won\'t happen. Culture is not the same as “lots of awareness.” There is an “ABC” maturity model that I use, which stands for awareness, behavior, culture. Each is a step that builds on the previous one. Critically, there is a pivot at each step-a change of focus that\'s required to transition from one level to the next. Let\'s assume we already do awareness. To pivot to behavior, you need to focus on making sure that your staff members understand the consequences of cybersecurity, both personally and professionally. Once they have awareness and motivation, they are much more likely to display the correct behavior. (There is science behind this simplified approach, and I recommend you check out Professor BJ Fogg\'s behavior model.) Once behavior is on the road to achievement, then culture becomes your goal. The pivot for the culture step is the creation of a wide-ranging perception that everyone around the business cares about security. Note that I use the word “perception.” It doesn\'t have to be true initially, as this is a real case of “fake it \'til you make it.” Create that perception by tuning your communications plan to ensure that security messages arrive from across your organization-from executives, from receptionists, and especially from middle and line managers. Indeed, these messages should come from almost everyone except the chief information security officer (CISO). This will build a perception in each staff member that everyone around them cares about security, and that will create peer pressure for them to act in similar ways. This is the crucible of culture. Mistake 3: Using negative consequences as a primary motivator The key step to mature to the behavior level mentioned above is to create a motivation to change behavior. Motivation can be encouraged in various ways. One approach is to create a fear of punishment or embarrassment if staff make an error or fail a security test. Many security professionals have strong opinions on this matter. Some believe that negative c | Malware Tool Vulnerability | ★★ | |
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2023-10-27 09:36:08 | Au-delà du statu quo, partie 3: comment réduire les risques humains en changeant les mentalités et les comportements des utilisateurs Beyond the Status Quo, Part 3: How to Reduce Human Risk by Changing Users\\' Mindsets and Behaviors (lien direct) |
This is the final installment in a blog series where we cover topics from our Wisdom 2023 sessions. In each blog, we have explored creative techniques for inspiring engagement in security awareness and building a strong security culture. In the first article, we covered how to personalize and invigorate your curriculum for your users using threat intelligence. Then, last week we learned about impactful ways to keep users and security practitioners engaged in continuous learning. Security teams have long believed that people who take risky actions lack security awareness. So, when users fail trainings or phishing assessments, they assign them more trainings and assessments in the hopes that they will improve. But our recent survey found that the majority of users who took risky action in the past tend to bypass security guidelines on purpose. Given this finding, it would seem that more training alone will do little to help change user behavior. At our annual customer conference, 2023 Proofpoint Protect, our customer panelists delved deep into the top behaviors that increase risk for companies. They also discussed the reasons that training alone is not as effective as people expect it to be. And they shared various ways to motivate employees to prioritize security and take a holistic approach to reducing people risk. Let\'s look at some of their key insights and advice. 3 types of users represent the biggest risk People remain attackers\' primary target. Everyone could pose risk to a business, but some users tend to be a higher risk than others. Our panelists called out the following types of users who require extra attention or could use more help or communication: Click-happy users. Email remains the number one threat vector, and attackers rely heavily on social engineering tactics to target people. So, click-happy users can pose a higher risk to businesses even if they don\'t have access to critical data or systems. Negligent users. These employees believe security has nothing to do with them. They see it as someone else\'s job. And they don\'t think they play a role in securing the business other than to complete mandatory training assigned to them. Frustrated users. These employees view security as a barrier. They overlook the importance of following security best practices and try to go around security controls to meet other objectives. Think outside the box to identify your people risk The most common ways to identify vulnerable users include conducting a phishing simulation and a knowledge assessment. Our customers told us they went beyond phishing tests and used threat intelligence to better identify risky users and quantify people risk. They talked about using Very Attacked People™ (VAPs) insights derived from the Proofpoint Aegis threat protection platform to uncover their most attacked users and top clickers. They also reviewed users who repeatedly failed phishing tests, and those who have business privileges to access sensitive data. Our panelists shared how they factored in the results from gamified training and survey tools to enrich the people risk score. Measuring employees\' attitudes toward security can help security teams get an idea of cultural shift. Nandita Bery, our panelist from Equinix, went above and beyond to connect with the security operations team to track user actions blocked by each security control and factor those security events into individuals\' risk scores. (There are tools in the market to generate user risk scores based on specific user behavior. Social media scraping tools and Proofpoint Nexus People Risk Explorer are examples.) The key is to think outside of the box because there are more effective and meaningful ways to identify and quantify people risk than tracking the training completion rate. Motivate employees by making security easy and personal “It\'s easy for security people to forget that our colleagues have a day job that isn\'t security. If security is perceived as a barrier to that, it\'s going to b | Tool Threat | ★★ | |
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2023-10-26 06:00:18 | Break the Attack Chain with Identity Threat Protection (lien direct) | “The attacker only has to be right once. Defenders have to get it right every time.” This well-known saying has shaped countless cybersecurity strategies. The belief is that a single compromise of our defenses can lead to a catastrophic outcome. As new risks emerge and attackers develop tactics to evade controls, defenders face the daunting task of protecting an ever-expanding array of connected identities. Many companies now embrace resilience strategies, accepting that an incident is inevitable - “It\'s not a matter of if, but when.” That\'s because defenders have been fixated on the impossible task of protecting everything within the business. But a new industry approach to cyber defense in recent years has emerged that points the path towards a better way. Instead of protecting everything, defenders should aim to neutralize attackers\' tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), which are hard to replace. This disrupts the completion of the attack chain. What is the attack chain? And how does identity threat protection disrupt it? That\'s what we\'re here to discuss. The enduring relevance of the attack chain No other concept has captured the essence of successful cyber attacks like the attack chain (aka the “cyber kill chain”), which was developed by Lockheed Martin in 2011. Even 12 years later, the attack chain remains relevant, while defenders struggle to prevent the most impactful incidents. While cyber criminals don\'t follow the same steps every time, the basic phases of an attack are pretty much always the same: Steps in the cyber attack chain. The challenge of initial compromise The first phase in the attack chain is the initial compromise. Modern cyber criminals use an array of tactics to infiltrate companies and wreak havoc on their systems, from BEC attacks to cloud account takeovers and ransomware incidents. One trend is to exploit trusted third-party relationships to compromise companies through their suppliers. What seems like an innocuous initial email can escalate into a full-scale compromise with great speed. Once attackers gain unrestricted access to a company\'s domain, they can infiltrate email accounts to commit fraudulent activities. One alarming twist to credential phishing emails is that they can evade detection. They leave behind no traces of compromise or malware. Even with the rise of multifactor authentication (MFA), these attacks continue to surge. Once accounts are compromised through a credential phishing email or a vulnerable remote desktop session, businesses face the next phase of the attack chain: privileged escalation and lateral movement within their networks. Next phase: privilege escalation and lateral movement This is the middle of the attack chain. And it\'s where threat actors try to breach a company\'s defenses. Often, they do this by compromising the identities of employees, contractors, service providers or edge devices. Their main goal is to use this initial access to elevate their privileges, typically targeting Active Directory (AD). AD, which many businesses around the world use, is susceptible to compromise. It can provide attackers with unparalleled control over a company\'s computing infrastructure. With this access, they can engage in lateral movement and spread malware across the business, causing more harm. Finally, the risk of data loss Attackers don\'t rely on a single stroke of luck. Their success hinges on a series of precise maneuvers. Monetary gains through data exfiltration are often their objective. And once they have navigated the intricate web of identities, they can target valuable data and orchestrate data theft operations. Defenders must disrupt this chain of events to prevent the loss of sensitive data, like intellectual property or customer identifiable data. Then, they can gain the upper hand and steer the course of cybersecurity in their favor. The three best opportunities to break the attack chain. Building a map of your organizat | Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Prediction Cloud | ★★ | |
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2023-10-24 07:48:01 | Au-delà du statu quo, partie 2: 6 approches percutantes pour maintenir les personnes engagées dans la sensibilisation à la sécurité Beyond the Status Quo, Part 2: 6 Impactful Approaches to Keeping People Engaged in Security Awareness (lien direct) |
This is the second installment of a three-part blog series where we cover topics from our Wisdom 2023 sessions. In each blog, we explore creative techniques for inspiring engagement in security awareness and building a strong security culture. In the first article, we covered how to personalize and invigorate your curriculum for your users using threat intelligence. Every October, security professionals use Cybersecurity Awareness Month to promote best practices and the shared responsibility for behaving safely. But to stay safe, you have to stay vigilant. And that requires people to constantly be engaged. So in our second Wisdom session, we explored ways to inspire engagement in security awareness for both users and practitioners. Typically, when we\'re talking about engagement, we mean end users-and we all know how challenging it is to keep them engaged. In our 2023 State of the Phish Report, for instance, over 30% said security isn\'t priority at work for them. That\'s why in this session we discussed three ways to motivate and inspire your employees. We also addressed a group of people who are typically overlooked-security awareness practitioners! When you push yourself to find enthusiasm in security awareness, your attitude can have a cascading effect on how your employees engage. So we also covered three ways to find inspiration. This article recaps the insights we gained in conversation with Janet Roberts, former SVP/global head of security education and awareness at Zurich Insurance Company, and Brian Roberts (no relation), solution manager of information security awareness for Campbell\'s Soup Company. (Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.) 3 impactful ways to engage employees If you\'re looking for creative ways to motivate and inspire your employees, Janet Roberts and Brian Roberts have some tips: 1: Build and nurture an ambassador program At Zurich, Janet launched an ambassador program that is now used by 32 of the company\'s teams around the globe. Every month, her security awareness team creates a toolkit to distribute “grass roots,” always covering one simple topic that is customizable to the ambassadors\' culture, language and policies. Zurich has five regional CISOs and a global CISO, each of whom decide the strategy for delivering this material within their region. in their region. When it comes to measuring program outcomes, metrics will most likely be qualitative not quantitative because when it\'s done right it will be highly tailored to people and places. According to Janet, “[An ambassador] program helps you to meet people where they go for their daily information. Make sure you map it to the structure of your company…and [make sure] your ambassadors are working within their regional strategy or country strategy.” Brian agreed the ambassador program should target a local audience. At Campbell\'s, his security awareness team reaches both inside and outside the organization to cultivate a group of volunteers. Brian\'s advice is to start small, create a volunteer pathway, and build each relationship as you scale up. “The more you make that personal, the more you drive an organization that will create change. When you see ambassadors sharing stuff they did in their communities and at home, that\'s when you know it\'s connecting.” When asked by attendees during the Q&A about how to get those first volunteers, Brian said, “Be very open so people feel you\'re approachable and they can bring personal stories to you. That\'s where you find that first pool of people that you can then send out to find more people.” Janet added that at Zurich, “We started with people whose job was to lower the human risk factor, like security officers and service executives. From there, they added their own connections and built their teams.” 2: Create a people-focused messaging strategy In this part of the session, our panelists shared ideas about how to build effective messaging and tailor the content so that everyone can und | Tool Threat | ★★ | |
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2023-10-17 05:00:21 | Êtes-vous sûr que votre navigateur est à jour?Le paysage actuel des fausses mises à jour du navigateur Are You Sure Your Browser is Up to Date? The Current Landscape of Fake Browser Updates (lien direct) |
Key Takeaways Proofpoint is tracking multiple different threat clusters that use similar themes related to fake browser updates. Fake browser updates abuse end user trust with compromised websites and a lure customized to the user\'s browser to legitimize the update and fool users into clicking. Threat actors do not send emails to share the compromised websites. The threat is only in the browser and can be initiated by a click from a legitimate and expected email, social media site, search engine query, or even just navigating to the compromised site. The different campaigns use similar lures, but different payloads. It is important to identify which campaign and malware cluster the threat belongs to help guide defender response. Overview Proofpoint is currently tracking at least four distinct threat clusters that use fake browser updates to distribute malware. Fake browser updates refer to compromised websites that display what appears to be a notification from the browser developer such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, informing them that their browser software needs to be updated. When a user clicks on the link, they do not download a legitimate browser update but rather harmful malware. Based on our research, TA569 has used fake browser updates for over five years to deliver SocGholish malware, but recently other threat actors have been copying the lure theme. Each threat actor uses their own methods to deliver the lure and payload, but the theme takes advantage of the same social engineering tactics. The use of fake browser updates is unique because it abuses the trust end users place in both their browser and the known sites that they visit. Threat actors that control the fake browser updates use JavaScript or HTML injected code that directs traffic to a domain they control, which can potentially overwrite the webpage with a browser update lure specific to the web browser that the potential victim uses. A malicious payload will then automatically download, or the user will receive a prompt to download a “browser update,” which will deliver the payload. Fake browser update lure and effectiveness The fake browser update lures are effective because threat actors are using an end-user\'s security training against them. In security awareness training, users are told to only accept updates or click on links from known and trusted sites, or individuals, and to verify sites are legitimate. The fake browser updates abuse this training because they compromise trusted sites and use JavaScript requests to quietly make checks in the background and overwrite the existing, website with a browser update lure. To an end user, it still appears to be the same website they were intending to visit and is now asking them to update their browser. Proofpoint has not identified threat actors directly sending emails containing malicious links, but, due to the nature of the threat, compromised URLs are observed in email traffic in a variety of ways. They are seen in normal email traffic by regular end users who are unaware of the compromised websites, in monitoring emails such as Google alerts, or in mass automated email campaigns like those distributing newsletters. This creates a situation where these emails are considered to be malicious during the time the site is compromised. Organizations should not treat the fake browser update threats as only an email problem, as end users could visit the site from another source, such as a search engine, social media site, or simply navigate to the site directly and receive the lure and potentially download the malicious payload. Each campaign uniquely filters traffic to hide from researchers and delay discovery, but all the methods are effective at filtering. While this may reduce the potential spread of malicious payloads, it enables actors to maintain their access to the compromised sites for longer periods of time. This can complicate the response, because with the multiple campaigns and changing payloads, responders must take time to | Malware Tool Threat Studies | ★★★★ | |
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2023-10-16 07:29:59 | Navigation du cyber-risque: ce qu'il faut rechercher dans la couverture de la cyber-assurance Navigating Cyber Risk: What to Look for in Cyber Insurance Coverage (lien direct) |
Modern threats like phishing, ransomware and data breaches cast a dark cloud over businesses across sectors. For most bad actors, the goal of an attack is financial. As Proofpoint noted in the 2023 State of the Phish report, 30% of businesses that endured a successful attack experienced a direct monetary loss, such as a fraudulent invoice, wire transfer or payroll redirection. That is an increase of 76% year over year. A cyber insurance policy can protect you from the financial losses caused by cybersecurity incidents and data breaches. And when businesses pair cyber insurance with the prowess of Proofpoint solutions, they can build a formidable defense strategy. In this blog, we\'ll go over some best practices for choosing and managing you cyber insurance policy so you can protect yourself from risk. Actions that cyber criminals monetize Our research for the latest State of the Phish report shows that the three most common consequences of a cyber attack are: Data breach (44%) Ransomware infection (43%) Account compromise (36%) Notably, cyber criminals can monetize all these actions. Most common results of successful phishing attacks. (Source: 2023 State of the Phish report from Proofpoint.) Just one cybersecurity incident can cost tens of thousands of dollars. So, it\'s easy to understand why insurers see these incidents as too costly to cover in their general liability policies. But with cyber insurance, your business has a tool to help manage risk. Why cyber insurance can be a vital financial safety net While firewalls and endpoint protections remain vital, the truth is that a level of residual risk always exists. No matter how fortified your security is, breaches can happen due to ingenious adversaries, human error or just unfortunate circumstances. This is where cyber insurance comes to the rescue. It is the safety net that catches your business when your defenses fall short. It can help you cover costs like ransomware payments, legal fees, and costs associated with crisis management and revenue loss. In the graphic below, we can see how often cyber insurance covered losses from ransomware attacks among those surveyed for our 2023 State of the Phish report. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of businesses with cyber insurance policies said their insurers paid at least some of their ransomware-related losses. (Source: 2023 State of the Phish report from Proofpoint.) Cyber insurance best practices Now that we\'ve covered why cyber insurance can be a vital financial safety net, let\'s look at some essential best practices for cyber insurance. These measures can help your business become more effective at managing cybersecurity risks. Find an expert and ask for support and guidance. Specialized brokers are your allies in the intricate world of cyber insurance. Insurers vary in risk appetite, claim acceptance rates and expertise. Brokers have an in-depth grasp of this landscape, and they will assess your options meticulously. They will help ensure that the policy you choose is the right fit for your industry, size, risk profile and more. Be prepared for a rigorous assessment. Today, insurers want more insight into your company\'s security protocols and controls before they issue a cyber insurance policy. So preparedness is key. Be ready to provide evidence, like external audits, penetration test results and compliance certifications to insurers. If you implement access controls that insurers deem vital, such as multifactor authentication (MFA) and privileged access management (PAM), it may help to reduce your premiums. Closely examine coverage scope. Coverage specifics vary globally. But you will find that most cyber insurance policies cover a portion of losses from ransomware attacks and expenses linked to crisis responses. You need to have a thorough understanding of the breach scenarios your policy does or does not cover. Take note of any exclusions. Also, be sure to scrutinize services like breach investigation support, legal | Ransomware Tool Threat Guideline Cloud | ★★★ | |
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2023-10-13 08:01:34 | Un aperçu des modèles d'apprentissage automatique en point de preuve automatise An Overview of Machine Learning Models in Proofpoint Automate (lien direct) |
Did you know that, based on IDC\'s research, 39% of businesses say that improving operational efficiency is the top primary business objective for using artificial intelligence (AI)? At Proofpoint, there is tremendous interest in augmenting our product portfolio with AI and machine learning (ML) to produce benefits for our customers. In fact, today many of our Intelligent Compliance customers use our AI/ML technology to improve their operational efficiency and mitigate their compliance risk. When they report back to us about their quantitative and qualitative benefits, their results are impressive. In this blog, we\'ll give you an overview of why highly regulated firms choose the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance platform. And then we\'ll go into details about how ML works in several solutions in the Intelligent Compliance product family. Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance is a comprehensive solution Our Intelligent Compliance platform offers a way for businesses to stay protected and compliant in a dynamic, virtual environment. It provides them with: AI-driven data visibility Information control Records retention and oversight Robust e-discovery capabilities (built-in and advanced) to satisfy requirements set by corporate mandates and regulatory bodies The platform includes these solutions: Proofpoint Archive Proofpoint Automate Proofpoint Capture Proofpoint Discover Proofpoint Patrol Proofpoint Supervision Proofpoint Track A must-have for highly regulated firms The Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance platform can benefit businesses in highly regulated industries. For example, financial services firms that are doing business in the U.S. must follow rules about supervision and monitoring set out by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Many of these firms now use Proofpoint Supervision technology to enable regulatory compliance with FINRA and the SEC. And Proofpoint Automate and Proofpoint Supervision work together to help these businesses supervise their digital communications. Reducing false positives with ML models Automate makes a big impact with helping businesses to reduce false positives. These are flagged, archived items, like email messages, which turn out to be of low or no risk after a review. They are a significant problem for companies that need to supervise digital communications. Automate uses ML models with Supervision to reduce false positives from supervisory review queues. This helps customers streamline processes and reduce human fatigue and errors. Teams manage and review much less low-risk content, which means reviewers can focus on real issues. One Proofpoint client reported that after deploying Supervision and Automate, they cut their review queue volume by a third. They reduced their flagged but not reviewed items from nearly 30 days to about 14 days out, which is now within their internal service-level agreements. Automate provides ML models and the tools to build ML models trained on your data to help reduce false positives. You have the option to: Build your own models Work with Proofpoint professional services to develop customized models Start with any of the models included with Automate The models that come with Automate are Low-Risk Content Model (LRCM), Disclaimer Detection Model or Customer Complaints Model. Let\'s take a closer look at the first one-LRCM. What does the LRCM do? You can use LRCM to remove low-risk content in two different ways-through exclusion detection or Auto-Clear. For sender and subject line exclusion detection, the model will make suggestions that an administrator can review, accept or decline. (See Figure 1.) Figure 1. Proofpoint Automate uses exclusion detection to surface subject line suggestions to add to the Supervision policy. If the administrator accepts the subject line, that line is added to the Supervision policy. Subsequent messages with the respective subject line will not be ev | Tool | ★★ | |
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2023-10-12 10:52:45 | Une journée dans la vie d'un analyste de cybersécurité A Day in the Life of a Cybersecurity Analyst (lien direct) |
The day-to-day experience of cybersecurity professionals can vary widely, even though we face similar threats and have many of the same tools at our disposal. In this post, I\'d like to shine a light on what a typical day looks like for a business information security analyst in the world of cybersecurity-a role I know well. Getting started in cybersecurity I\'m a musician-a bagpiper. It\'s a strange one, I know, but that\'s how I started my career. For a couple of years after leaving school, I taught and performed pipe music. But after finishing my music diploma, I knew that there were only so many hours in the week, and only so many people to teach. So, perhaps I should learn another skill, too. It was my dad who suggested cybersecurity. From the outside, it looked interesting and seemed like an industry on the up and up. So I applied for a cybersecurity course at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. At that time, I didn\'t have much technical knowledge. However, after a chance meeting with the head of the cybersecurity course on a university open day, I felt it was an area I could potentially break into. Within a few weeks, I had signed up for a five-year course with the option of a placement after the second year. Fast-forward to today, and here I am two years into the job, and I\'ve just finished my third year at university. My work placement transitioned into a full-time role, which I still balance with my full-time studies. What does a “normal” day look like for a cybersecurity analyst? No two days are ever the same. It\'s typical for people new to this role to ask, “What are my tasks?” The honest answer is that they\'re hard to define. It depends on what\'s going on in the business at that time, and who you know and work with regularly. While we have great security tools in place to flag suspicious activity, a lot of the time I\'m dealing with situations where I must trust my gut instincts. A task I have grown into managing in my current role is the security training program and phishing simulations across the company. Just yesterday, I issued approvals for a new training campaign that we\'re running for our operations team in Iraq. We aim to carry out targeted team training quarterly in shorter bites, 20 minutes here and there, to try to keep people engaged more than once a year. I\'ll usually spend part of my day managing our external support teams and service providers, too. I manage our security exceptions process, which involves vetting and approving requests from the business. For me, it\'s a case of making sure we have the right information from our users, asking the “Why?” to their wants, and finding out if there are more secure alternatives for providing a solution. Indicator of compromise (IOC) checks are an ongoing task. We\'re part of a service organisation forum, so we often gather and share important information with our industry peers. We have a shared spreadsheet that\'s automatically tracked, and we always receive possible indicators internally from our ever-growing network of security champions. I just need to make sure that our email security and firewall security are ticked off, blocked and managed. Measuring success Being part of the service organisation forum means that we are constantly sharing information with our peers. It allows us to compare the results of our training programs over time to see how we trend against each other. We also look back at how we have performed in these areas internally over the last few years to make sure we\'re always improving. We\'re also passionate about data governance. We want to ensure that our users not only understand risk but also how to appropriately manage company and client data. We want to always use best practices and build an internal security culture from the ground up. There\'s that saying, “You\'re only as good as your weakest player.” When it comes to cybersecurity issues, an organization is like a football team. You have 40,000 employees-and if just one of them doesn\'t know what | Tool Prediction | ★★★ | |
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2023-10-12 09:27:20 | J'ai été frappé par les ransomwares-temps quoi?Étapes pour gérer les conséquences I\\'ve Been Hit by Ransomware-Now What? Steps for Dealing with the Aftermath (lien direct) |
The following is an excerpt from the Ransomware Survival Guide, our free handbook on preventing, managing and recovering from ransomware threats at every stage of the attack chain. This blog post provides general tips-it is not a substitute for professional cybersecurity and incident response services. The best ransomware strategy is to avoid it in the first place. But increasingly advanced attacks against the software supply chain and end users have shown that even the best-prepared companies can be caught out. Ransomware may not even be the first malware payload to infect your system, because many ransomware gangs now prefer to buy access to targets already infected with Trojans or loader malware. During an attack, you have short-term problems to resolve, like getting computers, phones and networks back online and dealing with ransom demands. But a panicked response won\'t help-and may make things worse. Here are some general steps you can take to contain the threat and start on the road to recovery. Questions to answer during a ransomware attack Before you react to an attack, it\'s important to take a step back and ask questions that will inform your response. Your answers should help network administrators scope the problem, devise an action plan and possibly curtail the spread. Who in your environment is compromised? How widespread are the infections? Is a threat actor actively scouting your environment, exfiltrating data or ready to drop ransomware on other devices? What network permissions do compromised accounts or devices have? Ransomware may have been installed only after attackers had already moved laterally within the network or stolen credentials and other data. What type of attack is it? Is this attack a secondary infection? Did it come from downloaders, remote access Trojans (RATs) or other malware installed on the infected machine or others on the network? Keep in mind that ransomware spreads quickly and is often a byproduct of other threats. If you see one infection, there are probably others that you don\'t see. Proactively look for other issues within your environment. Now as you take action, there are three general step to follow: Step 1: Isolate infected systems The second employees see the ransomware demand or notice something\'s odd-such as suddenly losing access to their own files-they should disconnect from the network and take the infected machine to the IT department. To prepare for this scenario, we recommend that you keep valuable data and systems separated so that a security issue on one system doesn\'t affect other systems. For example, your sensitive research or business data should not reside on the same server and network segment as your email environment. We advise against having employees reboot their system. Only the IT security team should attempt a reboot, and even that will work only in the event that it is “scareware,” or fake ransomware. "Scareware" is malware that appears to be ransomware but isn\'t. It may lock the user\'s screen with a ransom demand and payment instructions, but the data is not actually encrypted. In those scenarios, standard anti-malware tools can help. Knowing the difference isn\'t always easy. Determine the scope of the problem using threat intelligence and external incident responders or forensic analysts when necessary. While all ransomware is bad, some attacks are worse than others. Your response-including whether to pay the ransom-hinges on several factors. Step 2: Call law enforcement Ransomware-like other forms of theft and extortion-is a crime. Nobody has the right to seize devices, networks or data-let alone demand a ransom in exchange for it. Notifying the proper authorities is a necessary first step. Contact local or federal law enforcement right away. Special departments exist specifically to aid cyber crime victims, so do not be afraid to pick up your phone and call them. They are there to help you and may have access to decryption keys or information on payment recovery after | Ransomware Malware Tool Threat | ★★★ | |
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2023-10-04 06:00:00 | Arrêt de cybersécurité du mois & # 8211;Phishing du code QR Cybersecurity Stop of the Month – QR Code Phishing (lien direct) |
This blog post is part of a monthly series exploring the ever-evolving tactics of today\'s cyber criminals. Cybersecurity Stop of the Month focuses on the critical first steps in the attack chain-reconnaissance and initial compromise-in the context of email threats. The series is designed to help you understand how to fortify your defenses to protect people and defend data against emerging threats in today\'s dynamic threat landscape. The first two steps of the attack chain: reconnaissance and initial compromise. In our past installments, we have covered supplier compromise, EvilProxy, SocGholish and e-signature phishing. All of these are examples of threats we regularly detect for our customers before they\'re delivered to users. In this post, we explore a recent detection of a phishing attack in which the URL was encoded into a QR code. We\'ll also explore the mechanisms employed by our AI-driven detection stack that ultimately prevented the email from reaching the inbox of its intended target. The scenario Phishing, especially credential phishing, is today\'s top threat. Bad actors constantly devise new methods and tools to gain authenticated access to users\' accounts. This illicit entry often results in financial loss, data breaches and supplier account compromise that leads to further attacks. We recently detected a phishing attack hidden behind a QR code at an agriculture company with more than 16,000 employees. Fortunately, our Aegis platform detected the threats and broke the attack chain. In this scenario, a bad actor crafted a phishing lure purporting to contain completed documentation about the target\'s wages. Instead of including a link for the target to click, the bad actor included a QR code instructing the recipient to scan with their mobile phone\'s camera to review the documentation. Once scanned, a fake SharePoint login screen prompts the user to provide credentials. QR Code phishing represents a new and challenging threat. It moves the attack channel from the protected email environment to the user\'s mobile device, which is often less secure. With QR codes, the URL isn\'t exposed within the body of the email. This approach renders most email security scans ineffective. What\'s more, decoding QR codes using image recognition or optical character recognition (OCR) quickly becomes resource intensive and difficult to scale. The Threat: How did the attack happen? Here is a closer look at how the recent attack unfolded: 1. The deceptive message: An email claiming to contain employee payroll information sent from the organization\'s human resources department. Malicious email blocked by Proofpoint before it was delivered to the user\'s mailbox. (Note: For safety, we replaced the malicious QR code with one linking to Proofpoint.com. The rest of the message is a redacted screenshot of the original.) 2. QR Code Attack Sequence: The recipient is instructed to scan the QR code with their mobile device. Typical QR Code Attack Sequence for Phishing. 3. SharePoint phishing lure: Once the user decodes the URL, a fake SharePoint login screen tries to fool the recipient into entering credentials. Decoded QR code redirecting to an example SharePoint phishing page. Detection: How did Proofpoint detect the attack? QR Code phishing threats are challenging to detect. First, the phishing URL isn\'t easy to extract and scan from the QR code. And most benign email signatures contain logos, links to social media outlets embedded within images and even QR codes pointing to legitimate websites. So the presence of a QR code by itself isn\'t a sure sign of phishing . We employ an advanced blend of signals and layers of analysis to distinguish between weaponized and benign QR codes. We analyze and profile: The sender The sender\'s patterns The relationship of the sender and recipient based on past communication Those clues help identify suspicious senders and whether they are acting in a way that deviates from an established | Tool Threat Cloud | ★★ | |
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2023-09-27 05:00:29 | Une perspective CISO sur les menaces d'identité A CISO Perspective on Identity Threats (lien direct) |
Compromised credentials and commandeered accounts can act as skeleton keys for your networks and corporate systems. With such a potentially lucrative reward on offer, cyber criminals are increasingly focusing their attacks on your identities to unleash data exfiltration, take over IT environments and launch ransomware attacks. To gain a deeper understanding of how industry leaders are tackling this shift in the threat landscape, I recently participated in a webinar led by Proofpoint executives Tim Choi, group vice president of product marketing, and Ofer Israeli, group vice president and general manager, Identity Threat Defense. We discussed why identity attacks are a growing problem, the challenges of identifying vulnerable users, and how to protect people and data from attacks that use compromised accounts. The ease that compromised identities offer Our industry uses the term “people-centric” a lot. We know that attackers target people so they can launch ransomware campaigns or exfiltrate data. But for today\'s cyber criminals, that is no longer the end of the matter. Threat actors now target people to compromise identities. They use those identities to further elevate their access and privileges. And they, they make lateral moves within organizations to gain intel, launch further attacks and steal more data. Thanks to tools like Mimikatz and Bloodhound that can identify hidden relationships, user permissions and attack paths, the whole process of targeting identities, stealing credentials and escalating privileges is now very simple. Understanding high-risk identities Malicious actors need to know two things to increase the chances of a successful attack: where the data is that they want, and which identity will give them access to it. Most of the time, the answer to the latter is a service account. These accounts are not always protected in a privileged access management solution. They often have access to many different files and systems with static passwords that can do nothing. Regular users who are shadow administrators are also very high-risk identities. They\'re not usually marked as privileged but have often inherited all kinds of access through complicated Active Directory group memberships, which are very hard to follow. Where are organizations most vulnerable to identity attacks? Most organizations have struggled with identity and access management (IAM) for many years. Access has a way of becoming a living, breathing organism, so security teams need to make sure they understand what\'s going on with it. There are three main areas of concern: Shared credentials Stored credentials Shared secrets Most users will have tens, if not hundreds, of usernames and passwords across various accounts. And they are likely reusing credentials across at least some of them. All it takes is for just one site to suffer an attack, and those credentials can be sprayed across many more accounts and systems. When it comes to password storage, businesses must be extremely careful. Get them out of the environment they are used in as a starting point. Unfortunately, many identity attacks originate from drive-by hacking, where cyber criminals get credentials from password dumps or data breaches and try their luck, password spraying across corporate accounts. Protecting your identities Cybersecurity is like an asynchronous war. And by the time we\'ve built a new control or defense mechanism, the bad guys have figured out a new way to circumvent it. That is what\'s happening right now. There are plenty of statistics to confirm that even in the largest breaches, threat actors get in right through the front door. How? Because they gain access to a shared credential and identity that has more access than anyone at the target organization was aware it had. Fundamentally, it is a hygiene issue. We\'re all guilty of getting caught up in new, fancy rocket-science security capabilities. But we\'re missing some of the basics. That\'s simp | Ransomware Tool Threat | ★★★ | |
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2023-09-26 12:24:36 | Tendances modernes pour les menaces et risques d'initiés Modern Trends for Insider Threats and Risks (lien direct) |
«Les pirates externes sont la seule menace pour les actifs de l'entreprise» - McKinsey a à juste titre appelé cette affirmation comme un mythe en 2017.\\ est dans le paysage des menaces externes. Pendant trop longtemps, la communauté de la cybersécurité a surestimé (et trop dépensé) sur l'acteur de menace externe.Pourtant, maintes et maintes fois, nous voyons des cas où le risque d'initié devient une menace d'initiés et entraîne des résultats indésirables.Mais nous continuons à passer du temps, de l'argent et des efforts pour sécuriser les applications, les actifs et les données sans considérer les risques que les personnes qui accèdent à ces choses peuvent présenter. Lorsque vous pensez au chemin qu'une menace d'initié emprunte à travers la chaîne d'attaque, il est clair qu'il devrait y avoir des moyens pour empêcher les risques d'initiés d'évoluer en menaces d'initiés.Ces mesures peuvent inclure: Ajout de plus de couches d'accès Nécessitant plus de niveaux d'authentification Demander plus d'approbations dans le processus de partage des données En utilisant d'autres dissuasions, que ce soit le numérique ou la politique Et lorsqu'une menace d'initié échappe à la détection et n'est pas bloquée, nous devons nous appuyer sur la technologie pour la détection et la réponse des menaces d'identité.Les solutions avec ces capacités peuvent rechercher la persistance, la collecte d'informations, le mouvement latéral, l'escalade des privilèges et d'autres signes selon lesquels une menace d'initié essaie activement de renverser les processus et les contrôles de sécurité. Nous avons toujours la possibilité d'arrêter un événement de menace d'initié lorsque les données sont mises en scène et exfiltrées, ou lorsqu'un autre impact est imminent.Mais nous devons également faire ce qu'il faut pour fournir la vue la plus complète sur ce que les gens font dans l'écosystème numérique de l'entreprise.Cela aidera à empêcher les risques d'initiés de se transformer en menaces d'initiés actives. Un paysage changeant avec de nouvelles tendances dans les menaces d'initiés L'incertitude économique crée de nouveaux scénarios pour les menaces d'initiés.Cela amplifie également certains préexistants.Des événements de changement majeurs pour des entreprises telles que les fusions et les acquisitions, les désinvestissements, les nouveaux partenariats et les licenciements permettent aux risques d'initiés de devenir des menaces d'initiés.Il existe de nombreux exemples d'employés mécontents causant des dommages après avoir quitté une entreprise (ou avant).Et les employés tentés par de «meilleures» opportunités peuvent présenter un risque continu d'exfiltration de données. Une nouvelle tendance: des menaces d'initiés qui n'ont pas besoin d'un initié pour mettre en scène des données pour l'exfiltration.Les parties externes, y compris les pourvoyeurs de l'espionnage d'entreprise, payent plutôt l'accès.Nous avons vu des cas, comme le programme AT & amp; T «déverrouiller», où les employés recrutés par de mauvais acteurs recruteront ensuite d'autres dans l'entreprise pour s'engager dans une activité néfaste.Et nous avons vu des cas tels que le cas de menace d'initié Cisco - où les employés détruiront une infrastructure d'une entreprise pour des raisons malveillantes. L'émergence d'une IA générative souligne en outre la nécessité de modifier l'approche traditionnelle «extérieure» de la sécurité.Le blocage de l'utilisation d'outils comme Chatgpt, Bard AI de Google \\, Microsoft Copilot et autres n'est pas réaliste, car de nombreuses entreprises dépendront de l'IA générative pour les gains de productivité.Les initiés qui sont imprudents de protéger les données internes lors de l'utilisation de ces plates-formes hébergées sont un risque.L'atténuation de ce risque nécessitera la mise en œuvre d'un éventail de contrôles.(Il existe déjà des moyens de sauvegarder vos données dans une IA générative comme ChatGpt et d'autres plates-fo | Tool Threat | ChatGPT ChatGPT | ★★ |
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2023-09-26 05:00:51 | Zenrat: les logiciels malveillants apportent plus de chaos que de calme ZenRAT: Malware Brings More Chaos Than Calm (lien direct) |
Key Takeaways Proofpoint identified a new malware called ZenRAT being distributed via fake installation packages of the password manager Bitwarden. The malware is specifically targeting Windows users and will redirect people using other hosts to a benign webpage. At this time, it is unknown how the malware is being distributed. The malware is a modular remote access trojan (RAT) with information stealing capabilities. Overview Proofpoint Emerging Threats often receives tips from the community leading to the investigation and detection of novel malware. On 10 August 2023, Jérôme Segura, Senior Director of Threat Intelligence at Malwarebytes shared a malware sample that was being distributed as a part of a Windows software installation package. The sample was initially discovered on a website pretending to be associated with Bitwarden, bitwariden[.]com, a very convincing lookalike to the real bitwarden.com. Packaged with a standard Bitwarden installation package is a malicious .NET executable that we have dubbed “ZenRAT”. At this time, it is unknown how the malware is being distributed, however historic activities that have masqueraded as fake software installers have been delivered via SEO Poisoning, adware bundles, or via email. Figure 1: Fake Bitwarden website, bitwariden[.]com. bears a remarkable resemblance in theme with bitwarden.com. It is uncertain as to how traffic is being directed to this domain. Specifically Targeting Windows Users The malicious website only displays the fake Bitwarden download if a user accesses it via a Windows host. If a non-Windows user attempts to navigate to this domain, the page changes to something entirely different. Figure 2: If a non-Windows user attempts to visit the malicious website, they are instead redirected to a cloned opensource.com article. This screen capture was taken using Mozilla Firefox on Ubuntu 22.04. The website instead masquerades as the legitimate website “opensource.com”, going so far as to clone an article from Opensource.com by Scott Nesbitt, about the Bitwarden password manager. Additionally, if Windows users click download links marked for Linux or MacOS on the Downloads page, they are instead redirected to the legitimate Bitwarden site, vault.bitwarden.com. Clicking the Download button or the Desktop installer for Windows download button results in an attempt to download Bitwarden-Installer-version-2023-7-1.exe. This payload is hosted on the domain crazygameis[.]com, which as of this writing no longer appears to be hosting the payload: Figure 3: When Windows users click either the Download button or the desktop installer for Windows option, a request is made to crazygameis[.]com to retrieve the malicious Bitwarden installer. The domain registrar for both domains appears to be NiceNIC International Group, while the sites themselves appear to be hosted on Cloudflare. Installer Details The malicious installer, Bitwarden-Installer-version-2023-7-1.exe appears to have been first reported on VirusTotal on 28 July 2023, under a different name CertificateUpdate-version1-102-90. Figure 4: So far, the installer sample has been seen twice in relatively close proximity under two entirely different names. Looking at the details of the installer, we can see that the digital signature is not valid, but more interestingly, the installer is claiming to be Piriform\'s Speccy – a software application for gathering system specifications. Figure 5: The file metadata for the malicious bitwarden installer claims that it is Speccy, an application that is used to gather information (specs) about the system on which the application is run. Not only that, the installer claims that it is signed by Tim Kosse, an open-source software developer most well-known for the Filezilla FTP/SFTP software. Figure 6: In addition to the questionable file properties, the installer has an invalid digital signature, and claims to have been signed by Tim Kosse, an open-source developer most well-k | Malware Tool Threat | ★★ | |
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2023-09-25 05:00:10 | Comment la sécurité des e-mails gérée par la preuve aide à combler l'écart de talents de cybersécurité How Proofpoint Managed Email Security Helps Fill the Cybersecurity Talent Gap (lien direct) |
Talent shortages continue to plague the cybersecurity industry. Cyberseek.org reports that only 69% of cybersecurity jobs in the United States are staffed. Without the right talent, companies are at risk from attacks by threat actors. By 2025, Gartner predicts that talent shortages or human lapses will be at the root of over half of significant cyber incidents. Here\'s a rundown of some of today\'s biggest talent challenges faced by organizations: The impacts of the global cybersecurity skills shortage on businesses. (Source: “The Life and Times of Cybersecurity Professionals” by ISSA and Enterprise Strategy Group by TechTarget, 2023.) Challenges with recruiting and retaining security talent Email remains the go-to threat vector for many threat actors who target it to launch phishing scams, distribute malware, pursue business email compromise (BEC) campaigns, and more. BEC is an especially significant threat. In the 2023 State of the Phish report Proofpoint research showed that 75% percent of businesses experienced at least one BEC attack last year. Many businesses want to hire experienced email security professionals with extensive domain knowledge to help defend against BEC and other email-based threats. However, these professionals are hard to find in the hiring market. Email security professionals also need analytical and problem-solving skills. They need to translate identified threats and assessments into practical steps for remediation. In other words, the nature of the role is multidimensional, as it combines skill sets from email security and threat intelligence. Proofpoint Managed Email Threat Protection elevates email security As the threat landscape is dynamic, your organization\'s email management and incident response need to be a continuous process. Without an adequate supply of talent, how can businesses keep their email secure? Proofpoint Managed Email Threat Protection can help. As a co-managed service delivered by our email security and threat protection experts, it can help you fill gaps in your cybersecurity team. Here\'s what our expert team can offer: They can provide expertise in email security and threat protection Our experts deftly deploy and manage Proofpoint email security and threat protection products. They use a proactive approach to optimize your email system settings, rules and policies and update the latest threat intelligence. And they help to protect your business against emerging attack vectors and threat actors. “If I did not have [Proofpoint] Managed Services … I had said to my boss I would have to hire three skilled people, not entry-level people coming out of college.” - Information Security Director of a U.S. healthcare system and medical school with 20,000 users They can co-manage your daily email operations and provide staff continuity Attracting and retaining cyber talent are high priorities for security executives. But CISOs are expected to do more with less in these cautionary economic conditions. Amid these resource constraints, experts with Proofpoint can provide guidance and co-management of a company\'s daily email operations. Their support helps to foster operational stability. It reduces staffing needs and enhances cost-efficiency. “Massive value for dollars spent. We could only do one-third of the basic tasks you do, and we could not even conceptualize the strategic approach you take.” – CISO of a global equipment manufacturer with 35,000 users They can give valuable insights to your executives Our experts address email security gaps discovered during health checks. They provide configuration efficacy analysis, regular checkpoints and reports. This information adds transparency to your email security. It also empowers you and your leadership to monitor mitigations and gauge progress. “Proofpoint reports contain a lot of very useful information that helps us improve our operating performance. They give our nontechnical stakeholders a way to underst | Tool Threat Medical | ★★★ |
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