Author name: Prayukth K V

Targeted attacks on supply chains connected with various sectors rose significantly in the last 8 months, according to various research firms. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as these findings relate to existing threats or threats that have been identified.  There could be many new ones lurking in the Dark Web and elsewhere. Most information security leaders tend to ignore the potency of unknown threats. This is because the security architecture in most enterprises and projects doesn’t permit adequate versatility to understand and identify latent threats to deal with them.  The problem is compounded by security practices based on restrictive network activities at the perimeter rather. This means that a threat that somehow manages to trick the perimeter-based security mechanism is free to wreak havoc inside the core network. Unfortunately, even the compliance mandates that are prevailing in various countries also fail to encourage businesses and other entities to look into emerging threats through a combination of insights, forecasts, and sheer imagination. Besides, thanks to the increasing diversity of processes and devices, it is easy to lose track of baseline cybersecurity requirements with every increase in surface area. No matter what your network architecture, industry, or level of security sophistication, gaps could arise during periods of transition, capacity expansion, or infusion of new technology. The addition of IoT exponentially amplifies the threat factor. In another survey, over 70 percent of cybersecurity practitioners reported some level of unfamiliarity with threats that emerge in converged environments spanning IT, OT, and IoT. Unfortunately, these converged environments represent the event horizon – a vista that presents infinite possibilities for hackers, malware developers, and threat actors to exploit. Converged environments needn’t be your organizational Achilles heel. Instead, such environments can be harnessed for testing new tech and workflows to improve efficiency, data analytics, and insights as also improving your cybersecurity posture and providing depth to your cyber resilience strategies. Connect with natalie.smith@subex.com to learn how you can join 30 percent of leaders who have successfully addressed this threat. Read our latest threat landscape report here to learn about cyber threats you need to know about. Proof: How we helped a leading manufacturer improve their cybersecurity posture and avoid such threats

5G brings forth new opportunities and threats. While the opportunities are more or less understood, the threats. While new virtualization technologies including software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are drawing attention and investment, there is no denying that they have raised new security concerns owing to their highly open, flexible, and programmable nature. Director Chris Krebs from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) calls 5G “the single biggest critical infrastructure build that the globe has seen in the last 25 years”–an assessment that isn’t hyperbolic, given the new networks promise to revolutionize everything from IoT, to augmented reality, to farming, while also creating a whole host of new security challenges. This underscores the importance of 5G security and the need to understand and manage it early. Enabling technologies such as robotics, IoT, IIoT, large scale automation and AI come with a huge dependency on 5G. For projects in these domains to succeed, 5G has to deliver value securely. Sacrificing value for security or sacrificing security for value are not the recommended options. A laser-sharp focus on cybersecurity aligned to outcome priorities is the way forward. Here are a few points to ponder in this regard. These points were culled from a presentation made by Subex at the “Enterprise 5G: The Edge of Innovation “event in October. 5G innovation within the enterprise space is an area witnessing plenty of action from a strategy and roadmap perspective 5G is secure by design but as the data moves closer to the endpoint, the level and control of security oversight thin out. There was broad consensus on deriving ways in which different players in the market can collaboratively engage to secure the 5G ecosystem What are the challenges in deploying 5G with legacy systems? Though 5G will continue to evolve there may be networks and systems that will still be on traditional networks bringing forth generational security challenges to the fore The new revenue models that 5G will generate will propel massive IoT adoption The success of 5G innovation will have a force multiplier effect on solving various challenges across verticals Plenty of unknowns will be uncovered as we move forward with the deployment of newer and more robust sub-networks that rely on 5G. We need to be prepared. In case you want to know more about strategies and solutions to deal with the cybersecurity challenges posed by sequestered 5G deployment, generational vulnerabilities, and cybersecurity innovation for 5G, Natalie Smith will be happy to assist you. Do reach out to her at natalie.smith@subex.com You can also download a complimentary whitepaper we have prepared for fine-tuning your 5G cybersecurity strategy below. Download Whitepaper Here!

When the year began, few businesses and cybersecurity vendors had imagined the extent to which the cybercrime landscape globally would deteriorate. Subex’s threat research team had started seeing a clear increase in targeted cyberattacks. We, therefore, decide to call out this trend and in early March, we came out with our first advisory. The cyberattacks that saw a spike in the last 180 days emerged in two distinct waves. The first wave included more actors, malware, variants of malware, and geographies and was designed to exploit the confusion created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The second wave had lesser moving parts, was more organized, and in many ways built upon the success of the first wave.   From our analysis, the second wave of attacks is still gathering momentum and will continue for at least another 65 days. We expect the attacks to slow and move into reconnaissance mode after that. Key trends Cyberattacks on Chinese interests globally and in China rise 230 percent The majority of the attacks on China are emerging from just 4 countries Attacks on datacenters and utility firms increase the most Phishing attacks continue to rise Most attacked regions – NA, South-East Asia and the Middle East Attack on pharmaceutical manufacturing companies; increasing rogue activity detected; targets include attempted batch and recipe changes as also operational disruptions to reduce the production capacity Variants of NotPetya are being discovered across manufacturing firms Coronavirus-themed attacks evolve The second wave of the Coronavirus-themed attacks grew more specific and potent towards mid-May. Chatter on the Dark Web and closed-door forums picked up indicate that there were many successful breaches in the last 90 days with many firms giving in to the demands of the hackers by meeting the ransom demand placed by hackers. Regional, businesses in Europe handed over the maximum amount in ransom to hackers followed by South East Asia and the Middle-East. In terms of frequency, at least one ransom was paid every 43.2 hours by some company somewhere. In some instances, APT groups in Pakistan, Russia, Iran and some other countries were also involved in multi-stage ransomware attacks. So why have APT groups resorted to monetizing their cyberattacks? One probable reason could be because in the aftermath of Covid-19, many governments have shrunk their black ops/cyber offense budgets and this must have hit the APT groups in countries that were already under sanctions, starved of funds for their cybercrime operations. It seems that some of these countries have authorized monetization of cyberattacks to keep the operations sustainable and to prevent erosion of cyber strike and malware development capabilities. A threat actor based in Somalia/East Africa launched as many as 700,000 attacks in a just under four days and walked away with a huge bounty in ransom. This group seems to have used stolen credentials available on the web along with compromised apps inadvertently installed by victims. This group targeted oil and gas companies in the Middle East. While deflective attacks on critical infrastructure came down this quarter, the attacks on this segment kept on rising. While the initial half of the second wave of attacks on critical infrastructure used Covid-19 themes to a large extend, the latter half of attacks used more targeted messaging and tactics. IoT and OT cybersecurity solutions and strategies are definitely the need of the hour. Read more about these threats and security challenges in the latest edition of our Threat Landscape Report for Q2, 2020