Cyber Attacks

Roughly a week after a massive batch of stolen and debit cards went on sale in the underground market pointing to a breach in large retail giant Home Depot, the company confirms that their payment systems have been compromised.

When attackers look at a target network, they focus on the flaws that they can exploit, then customize their attacks based on these. What can IT admins do knowing that the weakest link usually lie with people, passwords, and places that are considered secure?

United Postal Service (UPS) recently disclosed a widespread malware breach on 51 of its 4,470 franchise stores. This potentially compromised about 105,000 customer transactions between the period of March 26 and August 11, 2014 in most stores.

Targeted attacks are designed to circumvent existing policies and solutions within the target network, making detection a challenge. To do this, IT administrators need to know what to look for, and where to check for signs of compromise.

A Russian cybercrime ring known to have been running underground operations since 2004 allegedly stole 1.2 billion Internet usernames and passwords from 420,000 websites, including Fortune 500 companies.

The targeted attack campaign Esile was found in the second half of 2013 trying to spread backdoor malware inside the networks of East Asian governments, electronic manufacturers, and telecommunications firms.

The PLEAD campaign is the second attack to target entities in Taiwan in the first half of 2014. Taiwanese agencies were also targeted in May using a Microsoft Word zero-day vulnerability.

In an ideal world, IT administrators go out of their way to protect the organization's information. However, even IT admins are prone to misconceptions that leave organizations vulnerable to attacks.

Ninety-six percent of enterprises think they know what targeted attack campaigns are. But studies show that more than half can't even differentiate between traditional threats and actual attacks. How far is enterprise perception on their targeted attack pr