Cyber attacks: the past, present and future

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.director.co.uk/12370-2-cyber-attacks-the-past-present-and-future/


With cyber attacks becoming smarter and more relentless, business needs a
three-part cyber-security defence: prevent, detect and respond, says John
Bruce

> From worms and viruses to data breaches, cyber attacks have evolved rapidly
in the past 25 years – becoming increasingly sophisticated and tenacious.
It’s been a tremendous challenge for the “good guys” – cyber-security
professionals, technology vendors, law enforcement – to keep up.

At the year’s biggest cyber-security event, the RSA Conference, company
president Amit Yorandelivered a powerful message: the security industry
needs to change its ways.

This last year of high-profile cyber attacks served as a wake-up call:
prevention and detection solutions are simply not enough. Cyber-security
leaders are realising there are no technological or procedural silver
bullets – if cyber attackers are skilled, determined, and well funded,
they’ll get into any network.

The new goal: build resilience – learn to respond to, mitigate and move on
from cyber attacks as quickly and completely as possible.

By looking at milestones in the evolution of cyber crime, we can see how
threats, and security strategies, have developed. We can make informed
predictions of what to expect from – and how to build resilience against –
tomorrow’s cyber attacks.

1989: the first worm

In 1989, Robert Morris created the first computer worm to test the size of
the internet, but the self-propagating virus spread aggressively, closing
much of it down. The impact was nowhere near as devastating as it would be
today – but it shaped how we managed the threat for decades.

Businesses began to invest in the first preventative security products,
such as firewalls. It was cyber security’s first counter-punch – the first
of many back-and-forth efforts between cyber security and their
cyber-criminal adversaries.

1990s: the first viruses

> From here on, viruses went, well, viral. Melissa and ILOVEYOU infected tens
of millions of PCs, damaging email systems worldwide with little clear
objective. Cyber vandalism on a massive scale.

These threats highlighted the human factor, how employee mistakes can
damage cyber security. So the industry tried to remove the human element
through technology, such as auto-updating antivirus software designed to
spot the signature of the virus and prevent it from executing.

2005-07: credit card cyber attacks

The new millennium saw cyber attacks become bigger and more targeted –
notably with the first serial data breach of credit card numbers. Hacker
Albert Gonzalez masterminded a criminal ring that stole information from
nearly 50 million cards used by customers of US retailer TJX, costing the
company $256m.

Businesses realised hackers could circumvent their existing security tools
and processes and operate within their networks for years. Detection
solutions became a top priority.

The data involved in these breaches became more tightly regulated –
requiring companies to notify authorities and compensate any parties who
were harmed.

Businesses learned the dire consequences of going unprotected, and began
arming themselves with more sophisticated security systems.

2014: Target, Sony and beyond

The massive recent data breaches of Target, Sony and others demonstrated
that today’s cyber-threat landscape has evolved to staggering new heights:

- Cyber criminals are more sophisticated than ever before, with organised
criminal groups and even nation states driving cyber attacks on businesses
- More than money is at risk: intellectual property, company reputation and
executive jobs were lost in the fall-out at Target and Sony
- Flying under the radar is no longer an option. Target and Sony were both
relentlessly targeted for financial and political purposes

In these breaches, existing prevention and detection tools were bound to
fail – but some wondered if a stronger response could’ve prevented the
breaches from becoming catastrophes.

Now: the age of incident response

Prevention and detection alone are insufficient for dealing with cyber
crime. In this new era, incident response is the third leg of the security
stool.

By focusing on responding faster and more effectively, businesses can
ensure data breaches are survivable. Just as businesses have learned to
live with fire, accidents and theft for centuries, companies today can
learn to mitigate cyber attacks and thrive regardless.

Provision for an attack, and then practise response processes so all
parties – security, executives, marketing, PR – are well prepared to
respond.

By protecting valuable information and acting swiftly and effectively when
it gets in harm’s way, damage – including backlash from regulators and
customers – can be avoided. By building its resilience, businesses can
gracefully manage cyber attacks and the business can continue to succeed.

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