Today Iconix released its whitepaper, "Defending Against Spoofed Domain Spearphishing Attacks."  In this whitepaper,  Iconix discusses the ease with which hackers can use spoofed email addresses to deceive email recipients. Spoofed domain spearphishing is occurring because technology favors the social engineering schemes employed in spearphishing that are used to deceive recipients.  It is technically easy to fake the sending email address that is displayed to the recipient.  You can see a demonstration of how easy it is to spoof a sending domain at Spearphishing -- The Movie.  A little internet research yields substantial personal information that can be used to [...]

Flame is in the news.  What is Flame?  It is a large piece of malware that is used to spy on its victims.  Flame takes numerous cyberspying techniques and packages them together into a comprehensive suite of bad news.  Flame can record keystrokes, screen shots and SKYPE sessions.  It can turn on your microphone and listen in on conversations.  It can hijack bluetooth devices. You can watch a discussion about Flame between a former CIA official and a security expert on the PBS Newshour. Flame also demonstrates the general problem with anti-virus.  Until the malware is identified, it operates undetected. [...]

KnowBe4 has released information about the most widespread spearphishing scams targeting businesses. Spearphishing is the hacking technique in which highly targeted socially engineered emails are sent to a very small number of people.  The purpose of a spearphishing email is to deceive the recipient into taking an action, such as following a link or opening an attachment, that will compromise the security of the recipient's systems. KnowBe4 cites these five scams: 5. Better Business Bureau Complaint – The recipient receives an official-looking email that is made it appear the Better Business Bureau.  The recipient is instructed to click on a [...]

In a story first reported by The Christian Science Monitor, The United States Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) has issued a warning about an active "spear phishing" campaign targeting companies in the natural gas pipeline sector. The article cites an April 13 confidential ICS-CERT alert: ICS-CERT has recently identified an active series of cyber intrusions targeting natural gas pipeline sector companies.  Multiple natural gas pipeline organizations have reported either attempts or intrusions related to this campaign. The campaign appears to have started in late December 2011 and is active today. The public ICS-CERT report states: Analysis shows [...]

ZDNet UK is reporting that British defense firms are being targeted by spearphishing attacks. Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude Discloses SpearphishingPhoto credit: BIS Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude stated that British defense contractors were being targeted by a sophisticated campaign that uses highly targeted emails to compromise systems.  The Minister announced that these attacks had been identified through a data sharing arrangement between business and government under the new UK cybersecurity strategy that was announced in November of 2011. The Minister noted, "UK government networks continue to be regularly targeted by foreign intelligence agencies, or groups working on their [...]

Bit9 recently released its 2012 Bit9 Cyber Security Research Report.  The report contains a survey of IT and Security Professionals which asks, "What  method of cyber attack are you most worried about?"  The answer -- spearphishing, with almost half of respondents identifying spearphishing as the threat that most concerns them. SP Guard from Iconix provides your staff with the ability to distinguish real email from spearphishing attacks.

Hackers seeking to steal confidential information from Tibetan activists are using spearphishing emails to infiltrate systems.  Spearphishing occurs when hackers use socially engineered emails in order to deceive targeted email recipients into compromising their systems. In a textbook example of a spearphishing, reported by The Hacker News, hackers are pretending to send emails from the trusted security company FireEye.  This is an example of one of those fake FireEye emails: In order to prevent social engineering from deceiving the email recipient,  SP Guard from Iconix modifies the email client’s display to provide a visual indicator of the identity of the sender of email. [...]

Hackers use socially engineered emails in order to deceive targeted email recipients into compromising their systems. In order for a socially engineered email to deceive, it must contain a call to action that is compelling to the recipient. A current attack on Tibetan organizations demonstrates how clever hackers are able to use the news -- even news that discloses attacks -- to create a compelling call to action. Two weeks ago, SC Magazine reported that hackers in China were sending highly targeted emails to organizations in Tibet. The spearphishing message used a Tibetan religious festival as the call to action. The [...]

Antivirus software does not work against Advanced Persistent Threats. In the realm of Advanced Persistent Threats, the malware is targeted and designed for each intended victim. The attackers are hard at work creating new malware. According to Bit9: Furthermore, AV signature-based libraries are growing at 50,000 a day, with current libraries anywhere from 6 to 20 million signatures. At this pace, basing endpoint security solely on AV libraries is unsustainable in terms of sheer volume and efficient endpoint scanning – as well as a drain on IT resources. Some AV vendors now recommend downloading selective signature packs, belying the scalability problem. But more important is currency: No [...]

Our friends at Trend Micro have released a research report and an infographic that shows the global reach of espionage networks that use spearphishing to infiltrate computer networks.  Spearphishing is a malicious email that is targeted to the recipient that encourages the recipient to take an action that will compromise his system.  Trend Micro summarizes the problem: The number of targeted attacks has dramatically increased. Unlike largely indiscriminate attacks that focus on stealing credit card and banking information associated with cybercrime, targeted attacks noticeably differ and are better characterized as “cyber espionage.” Highly targeted attacks are computer intrusions threat actors [...]