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Cybersecurity is not a one-stop-shop

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By Steve Law, CTO, Giacom and Kelvin Murray, Threat Researcher, Webroot

Boris Johnson announced the Government’s roadmap to lift Coronavirus restrictions for both businesses and the general public earlier in February, and since then, this has provided a glimmer of hope for many across the country. However, since the start of the pandemic, the way business is conducted has changed permanently, with many workforces wanting to continue to work remotely as lockdowns and restrictions ease over time.

So, as companies relax and rules are eased, life is expected to return to a form of ‘new normal.’ But, the issues around cybersecurity are here to stay, and the gas pedal must not be eased – especially with the increased risks associated with continued remote working. 

If anything, security should be more reinforced now than ever before to ensure all aspects of a business are secure. But this isn’t the case. Steve Law, CTO, Giacom and Kelvin Murray, Threat Researcher, Webroot, detail the importance of embedding a trilogy security approach into organisations, and this is where a strong CSP/MSP relationship can be invaluable. 

The Risk Grows

Despite lockdown restrictions easing, cybersecurity risks remain and are likely to grow as COVID-19 changes the working landscape. As indoor spaces begin to open in the next few months, employees will want to venture out to new spaces to work, such as coffee shops and internet cafes – but working on open networks and personal devices creates unlocked gateways for cyberattacks to take place. Since this hybrid and remote way of working looks like it’s here to stay, businesses must ensure they have the right infrastructure in place to combat any cyber threats. 

For instance, research by the National Cyber Security Centre shows that there has been a rise in COVID-19 related cyber attacks over the past year, with more than one in four UK hacks being related to the pandemic. This trend is not likely to ease up any time soon either. And, going forward, hackers could take advantage of excited travellers waiting to book their next holiday once the travel ban is lifted, deploying fake travel websites, for example. 

Aside from the bad actors in this wider scenario, part of the problem here is that many IT teams are not making use of a holistic and layered approach to security and data recovery; which can lead to damaging consequences as data is stolen from organisations. Such issues continue to resonate strongly across businesses of all sizes, who will, therefore, turn to their MSPs for a solution. 

The Importance of a Layered Approach 

Cybersecurity is not a one-stop-shop. A full trilogy of solutions is required to ensure maximum effect. This includes a layered combination of DNS networking, secure endpoint connections, and an educated and empowered human workforce. 

The need for DNS security cannot be ignored, especially with the rise of remote workforces, in order to monitor and manage internet access policies, as well as reduce malware. DNS is frequently targeted by

bad actors, and so DNS-layer protection is now increasingly regarded as an essential security control – providing an added layer of protection between a user and the internet by blocking malicious websites and filtering out unwanted material. 

Similarly, endpoint protection solutions prevent file-based malware, detect and block malicious internal and external activity, and respond to security alerts in real-time. Webroot® Business Endpoint Protection, for example, harnesses the power of cloud computing and real-time machine learning to monitor and adapt individual endpoint defences to the unique threats that users face.

However, these innovative tools and solutions cannot be implemented without educating users and embedding a cyber security-aware culture throughout the workforce. Humans are often the weakest link in cybersecurity, with 90% of data breaches occurring due to human error. So, by offering the right training and resources, businesses can help their employees increase their cyber resilience and position themselves strongly on the front line of defence. This combination is crucial to ensure the right digital solutions are in place – as well as increasing workforces’ understanding of the critical role they play in keeping the organisation safe. In turn, these security needs provide various monetisation opportunities for the channel as more businesses require the right blend of technology and education to enable employees to be secure.

The Channel’s Role 

Businesses, particularly SMBs, will look to MSPs to protect their businesses and help them achieve cyber resilience. This creates a unique and valuable opportunity for MSPs to guide customers through their cybersecurity journeys, providing them with the right tools and data protection solutions to get the most out of their employees’ home working environments in the most secure ways. Just as importantly, MSPs need to take responsibility for educating their own teams and clients. This includes delivering additional training modules around online safety through ongoing security awareness training, as well as endpoint protection and anything else that is required to enhance cyber resilience.

Moreover, cyber resilience solutions and packages can be custom-built and personalised to fit the needs of the customer, including endpoint protection, ongoing end-user training, threat intelligence, and backup and recovery. With the right tools in place to grow and automate various services – complemented by technical, organisational and personal support – channel partners will then have the keys to success to develop new revenue streams too.

Conclusion 

Hackers are more innovative than ever before, and in order to combat increasing threats, businesses need to stay one step ahead. Companies must continue to account for the new realities of remote work and distracted workforces, and they must reinforce to employees that cyber resilience isn’t just the job of IT teams – it’s a responsibility that everyone shares. By taking a multi-layered approach to cybersecurity, businesses can develop a holistic view of their defence strategy, accounting for the multitude of vectors by which modern malware and threats are delivered. Within this evolving cybersecurity landscape, it’s essential for SMBs to find an MSP partner that offers a varied portfolio of security offerings and training, as well as the knowledge and support, to keep their business data, workforces and network secure.

Vigilance urged for EMEA businesses as phishing season begins

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Businesses in EMEA are being urged to remain vigilant as phishing attacks ramp up during the winter months.

F5 Labs, in collaboration with Webroot, has launched its second annual Phishing and Fraud report, highlighting an anticipated threat surge from October until January.

According the report, fraud incidents in October, November, and December tend to jump over 50% compared to the annual average.

Indicative of the scale of the problem, 75,6% of all websites taken offline by the F5 SOC platform between January 2014 and the end of 2017 were related to phishing attacks. This is followed by malicious scripts (11.3%) and URL redirects (5.2%), which are also used in conjunction with phishing operations. Mobile phishing (2%) was also identified as a growing issue.

“We’re in the middle of a cyber-crimewave where phishers and fraudsters take advantage of people at their most distracted,” said David Warburton, Senior EMEA Threat Research Evangelist, F5 Networks.

“It is prime season for individuals giving up credentials or inadvertently installing malware. Businesses are wrapping up end-of-year activities, key staff are on vacation, and record numbers of online holiday shoppers are searching for the best deals, looking for last-minute credit or feeling generous when charities come calling.”

Although phishing targets vary based on the nature of the scam, a remarkable 71% of attackers’ efforts from 1 September to 31 October 2018 focused on impersonating just ten organisations.

Technology companies were most mimicked (70% of incidents), with 58% of phishers’ time spent posing as big hitters like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, Adobe, Dropbox, and DocuSign during the monitored period.

The finance sector was also under fire. 13 of the top 20 fastest growing targets were financial organisations. Banks accounted for 55% of these, five of which were major European entities.

Notably, some of the most successful malware programs started out as banking malware. For example, Trickbot, Zeus, Dyre, Neverquest, Gozi, GozNym, Dridex, and Gootkit are all banking trojans known to have spread initially through phishing campaigns.

The Phishing and Fraud report stresses that the best first line of defence is a consistent education programme and creating a culture of curiosity. Tests by Webroot show that security awareness training can have a particularly ameliorative effect.

Companies that ran 11 or more training campaigns reduced employee phishing click-through rates to 13%. Six to ten sessions saw a 28% click-through rate, rising to 33% with one to five employee engagements.

In addition to awareness-raising, F5 Labs stresses the importance of organisations implementing access control protections, including multi-factor authentication and credential stuffing controls, to prevent phished credentials becoming a breach. Other report recommendations include the following defensive tactics:

  • Email labeling. Clearly label all mail from external sources to prevent spoofing. A simple, specially formatted message can alert users to be on guard.
  • Anti-virus (AV) software. AV software is a critical tool to implement on every system a user has access to. In most cases, up-to-date AV software will stop the malware installation attempt. Set your AV policy to update daily at a minimum.
  • Web Filtering. A web filtering solution helps block access to phishing sites. Not only will this prevent a breach (providing the phishing site is known by your web filter provider), but it presents a valuable teaching opportunity by displaying an error message to the user
  • Traffic decryption and inspection. F5 Labs analysed malware domains from Webroot that were active in September and October 2018. 68% of them were phoning-home over port 443, which is the standard TCP port used for websites encrypting communications over SSL/TLS. If organisations do not decrypt traffic beforeinspection, the malware installed through phishing attacks will go undetected inside the network.
  • Single-Sign On (SSO). The fewer credentials users manage, the less likely they are to share them across multiple applications, create weak passwords, and store them insecurely. 
  • Report phishing. Provide a means for employees to easily report suspected phishing. Some mail clients now have a built-in phish alert button to notify IT of suspicious activity. If your email client doesn’t have this feature, instruct all users to call the helpdesk or security team.
  • Change email addresses. Consider changing the email addresses of commonly targeted employees if they are receiving an unusually high number of phishing attacks on a continual basis.
  • Use CAPTCHAs. Use challenge-response technologies like CAPTCHA to distinguish humans from bots. However, users can find them annoying so use in cases where it’s highly likely a script is coming from a bot.
  • Access control reviews. Review access rights of employees regularly, especially those with access to critical systems. These employees should also be prioritised for phishing training.
  • Look out for newly-registered domain names. Phishing sites are often newly registered domains. When F5 reviewed the list of active malware and phishing domains collected by Webroot in September, only 62% were still active a week later.
  • Implement web fraud detection. Implement a web fraud solution that detects clients infected with malware. This stops cybercriminals logging into your systems and allowing fraudulent transactions to occur.

“Phishing is a big problem and we expect attacks to continue because they are so effective, especially during the winter period” added Warburton.

“As organisations get better at web application security, it will be easier for fraudsters to phish people than to find web exploits. Ultimately, there is no one-stop-shop security control for phishing and fraud. A comprehensive control framework that includes people, process, and technology is a critical requirement to reduce the risk of an attack becoming a major incident.”

Employee Security Risk

SMB’s ‘lack of concern’ regarding Ransomware threat an issue

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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A new report from security vendor Webroot has revealed that less than half of small and medium sized businesses think they’re at risk of suffering a ransomware attack in 2017, despite the fact that more than 60 per cent have already been affected.

600 IT decision makers at companies with 100-499 employees from across the UK, US and Australia were contacted to compile and publish Webroot’s latest report ‘Cyber Threats to Small and Medium Sized Businesses in 2017’.

Only 42 per cent thought that ransomware was a major external security threat for the company, despite the recent major global attacks such as WannaCry and Petya.

However, almost 100 per cent of all IT decision makers polled for the report said they would be increasing their annual IT security budget in 2017.

72 per cent of UK IT decision makers said their business wouldn’t be fully prepared to combat threats, such as DDoS, phishing and other forms of malware infections.

“The lack of concern about ransomware is leaving a gaping hole in the security of global businesses, as witnessed by the recent outbreaks of WannaCry and not-Petya,” said Webroot’s EMEA regional manager, Adam Nash.

“This, combined with the UK’s false sense of security when it comes to businesses’ ability to manage external threats, is worrying. Small- to medium-sized businesses can no longer afford to put security on the back burner and need to start engaging with the issues and trends affecting the industry.”