Nuspire,
a leading managed security services provider (MSSP), today announced the
release of its Q2 2020 Quarterly Threat Landscape Report, outlining
new cybercriminal activity and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs).
"Partnering with a MSSP like
Nuspire with access to the latest threat intelligence enables organizations to
understand and identify current threats before they impact the business," said
Craig Robinson, Program Director, Security Services at IDC.
This latest report finds that
as organizations are settling into long-term remote working, new attack vectors
for opportunistic cyberattackers-and new challenges for network administrators
have been introduced. Now six months into the pandemic, attackers pivoted away
from COVID-19 themes, instead utilizing other prominent media themes like the
upcoming U.S. election and exploiting the Black Lives Matter movement to wreak
havoc.
Nuspire observed an increase
in both botnet and exploit activity over the course of Q2 2020 by 29% and 13%
respectively-that's more than 17,000 botnet and 187,000 exploit attacks a day.
While attackers targeted remote work technology at the source to obtain access
to the enterprise in Q1 2020, Nuspire observed a shift in tactics to leverage
botnets to obtain a foothold in the network. Home routers typically are not
monitored by IT teams therefore have become a viable attack method that avoids
detection while infiltrating corporate networks.
"Today, the pandemic has
complicated an already complex threat landscape. CISOs are under great pressure
to ensure their virtual organizations are secure," said Lewie Dunsworth, CEO of
Nuspire. "Threat vectors will continue to evolve as the uncertainty of our
world continues to play out. That's why our team analyzes the latest threat
intelligence daily and uses this data to engage in proactive threat hunting and
response to ensure our clients have the upper hand."
Additional notable findings
from Nuspire's Q2 2020 Threat Landscape Report include:
- The ZeroAccess botnet made a resurgence in Q2, coming
in second for most used botnet. ZeroAccess was originally terminated in
2013 but has made rare resurgences over the last seven years.
- Nuspire witnessed a significant
spike (1,310% peak mid-quarter) in exploit attempts against Shellshock, an
exploit discovered in 2014, demonstrating that attackers attempt to
exploit old vulnerabilities to catch old operating systems and unpatched
systems.
- Nuspire identified a new
signature, dubbed MSOffice Sneaky that was released during Q2. Documents
containing malicious macros that reach out to command and control servers
to download a malware of the attackers choosing. This attack vector is
increasingly dangerous, especially when remote employees disconnect from
their VPN.
- DoublePulsar, the exploit developed by the NSA,
continues to dominate the exploit chart, consisting of 72% of all exploit
attempts witnessed at Nuspire.
Learn how Nuspire protects clients from cyberattacks and download
Nuspire's Q2 2020 Threat Report.