Senior executives blamed for a majority of undisclosed security incidents

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/110813-senior-executives-blamed-for-a-275779.html?source=nww_rss

According to a report from ThreatTrack Security, the company responsible
for VIPRE Anti-Virus, a majority of malware analysts say that they've
investigated or addressed a security incident that was never disclosed by
their company. Moreover, many of those unreported incidents were caused by
a senior executive within the organization.

In October, a blind survey of 200 security professionals dealing with
malware analysis, conducted by Opinion Matters for ThreatTrack, shows that
66 percent of them have had to deal with a security incident that later
went unreported by the company. Further, the source of the incident can be
tracked back to a senior executive within the organization most of the
time, and many of the problems could have been avoided.

When it comes to how these easily avoided incidents occur the study's
respondents cited policy violations and careless behavior as the most
common reasons. For example, installation of a malicious mobile application
(33 percent); allowing a family member to use the company-owned device (45
percent); phishing (56 percent); or accessing pornographic websites (40
percent), were the top reasons listed.

Criminals target people first and platforms second, and in IT it's an
unfortunate reality that most executives are exempt from policy enforcement
and security restrictions. So it comes as no surprise to see Phishing as
the top source of infection, followed by allowing unauthorized users on
company devices. When people become low-hanging fruit easy for the picking
due to blatant disregard for, or an absence of, security policy --
criminals have a readymade attack surface to exploit.

In Q3-2013, criminals targeted some of the world's largest brands and most
popular news sources as a means to lure victims into their malicious nets.

According to Malcovery, a company that focuses phishing trends and
protection, Facebook, WhatsApp, UPS, Wells Fargo, and Companies House (UK),
HMRC were the top five brands targeted by phishing campaigns this last
quarter. In one case, people infected by the malware delivered by HMRC
related Phishing emails in the morning, were sending entirely different
malware and Phishing emails by the afternoon.

"We quickly discovered that malware delivered by one spam campaign early in
the morning was generating spam which was delivering a different malware
shortly thereafter," Malcovery's Brian Griffin told CSO.

"We found it interesting for a couple of reasons, but most notably because
it sheds light on the sort of effect your infected machine can have on
others as well as how valuable that compromised machine is to the bad guys."

In their Q3-2013 report, Commtouch noted that global news events were being
exploited by criminals within 22 hours of their announcement, including
real-time malware campaigns focusing on news of the royal baby Prince
George, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and the ongoing crisis in Syria.

According to a report from ThreatTrack Security, the company responsible
for VIPRE Anti-Virus, a majority of malware analysts say that they've
investigated or addressed a security incident that was never disclosed by
their company. Moreover, many of those unreported incidents were caused by
a senior executive within the organization.

In October, a blind survey of 200 security professionals dealing with
malware analysis, conducted by Opinion Matters for ThreatTrack, shows that
66 percent of them have had to deal with a security incident that later
went unreported by the company. Further, the source of the incident can be
tracked back to a senior executive within the organization most of the
time, and many of the problems could have been avoided.

When it comes to how these easily avoided incidents occur the study's
respondents cited policy violations and careless behavior as the most
common reasons. For example, installation of a malicious mobile application
(33 percent); allowing a family member to use the company-owned device (45
percent); phishing (56 percent); or accessing pornographic websites (40
percent), were the top reasons listed.

Criminals target people first and platforms second, and in IT it's an
unfortunate reality that most executives are exempt from policy enforcement
and security restrictions. So it comes as no surprise to see Phishing as
the top source of infection, followed by allowing unauthorized users on
company devices. When people become low-hanging fruit easy for the picking
due to blatant disregard for, or an absence of, security policy --
criminals have a readymade attack surface to exploit.

In Q3-2013, criminals targeted some of the world's largest brands and most
popular news sources as a means to lure victims into their malicious nets.

According to Malcovery, a company that focuses phishing trends and
protection, Facebook, WhatsApp, UPS, Wells Fargo, and Companies House (UK),
HMRC were the top five brands targeted by phishing campaigns this last
quarter. In one case, people infected by the malware delivered by HMRC
related Phishing emails in the morning, were sending entirely different
malware and Phishing emails by the afternoon.

"We quickly discovered that malware delivered by one spam campaign early in
the morning was generating spam which was delivering a different malware
shortly thereafter," Malcovery's Brian Griffin told CSO.

"We found it interesting for a couple of reasons, but most notably because
it sheds light on the sort of effect your infected machine can have on
others as well as how valuable that compromised machine is to the bad guys."

In their Q3-2013 report, Commtouch noted that global news events were being
exploited by criminals within 22 hours of their announcement, including
real-time malware campaigns focusing on news of the royal baby Prince
George, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and the ongoing crisis in Syria.

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