How Attackers Have Overcome Some Traditional Enterprise Cybersecurity Staples

The Internet always finds a balance between convenience and risk. It's a place awash with aggressors who are keen to hijack, pillage, and rob. Naturally, with such threats always looming, it can be hard for enterprises to be assured in protecting their systems.  

The cost of remediation can be substantial, and while patching is essential, there are many ways that these efforts can be undermined. After all, there will always be a new attack on the horizon, ready to compromise even the most hardened of cyber fortresses. 

As a matter of fact, cybercrime resulted in the loss of around $6 trillion globally in 2021. Considering the 15% annual growth it suffices, it's well on track to accrue losses worth $10.5 trillion in the next three years.  

But why is this the case?  

One of the reasons businesses have been struggling to repel cyberattacks is that attackers have found ways around many of the traditional security measures that enterprises employ. 

Security measures like OTP and IAM seem to be less than enough to stop sophisticated and determined attackers now. Here's an analysis of why that's the case. 

OTP Is No Longer Fool Proof 

OTP (one-time-password) systems were once considered the most secure way for employees to authenticate themselves on their devices to access company data.  

These tokens would generate a new password every time an employee attempted to log in, ensuring that only that employee could access their account.  

In fact, they were considered so secure that many companies employed them for high-value accounts or sensitive information. 

But this is no longer the case. OTPs have been compromised by hackers using several different methods: 

• Stealing the token itself 
• Compromising the device (computer or phone) used to generate the token
• Using social engineering techniques to trick employees into giving up their credentials, etc. 

Cybercriminals Are Finding a Way Around IAM 

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) system has been a staple of enterprise cybersecurity for years. It's the first line of defense against an attack by limiting who can access what resources and when. 

But attacks are becoming more sophisticated, and these traditional tools aren't holding up to them anymore. Some cybercriminals have found ways around IAM by hacking into their targets' accounts or writing bots replicating human behavior.  

One way is by using social engineering techniques to gain access to the system. Another way is by hacking into employee accounts and stealing their passwords. 

•  IAM's main drawback is its inability to identify malicious insiders effectively. This is because IAM assumes that all users are trustworthy and compliant, which is not always the case. Insiders can be easily fooled into thinking that they're following protocol when they aren't. 
• Another issue with IAM is its lack of granularity regarding user roles and permissions. For example, if one wants to give a user access to sensitive data but then take it away later, they'll have to reassign their entire role again—which takes time and effort. 
• IAM also has trouble detecting anomalies in behavior since there's no way of knowing if something is out of the ordinary until it happens again (and again). 

VPN Is Not Doing Great 

VPNs have been around for a while now and have been used by many businesses to protect their data. As it stands, VPN is the most common way to establish a secure connection between two networks. But they're not perfect, and there are a few limitations of VPNs that attackers can exploit.  

•  First, they're not very easy to set up. You have to download software and configure it on every device—and if you want to access your network from a public Wi-Fi network; not to forget, you need to know how to do so securely. 
• They don't offer any protection against malware unless installed on the machine being used for the connection (which is rare). 
• VPNs might not work if the internet connection is slow or interrupted, so attackers can try to disrupt the connection to break through the VPN and access otherwise unauthorized data.
• Attackers are using DNS hijacking to redirect traffic over unprotected channels. 

Credential Management Has Become Weak 

Credential management is one of the most critical components of a security strategy. It can be an almost insurmountable challenge, especially with the constantly changing landscape of technology. However, there still are certain loopholes: 

•  Employees have trouble remembering their passwords, so they write them down or store them in insecure locations. 
• Traditional credential management systems are designed with legacy systems, which means they're not always compatible with new technologies. 
• Credential management systems often cannot keep up with organizational changes in employee roles, responsibilities, and locations. 

 Cybercriminals Are Creating Their Own OS For Conducting Ransomware Attacks 

The OS is called Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS). This platform allows criminals to design and distribute their ransomware easily. 

The creators of RaaS have decided to lower the barrier to entry for cyberattacks by providing an easy-to-use toolkit for creating ransomware. 

Ransomware is malware that encrypts files on a device or network and then demands money from users in return for unlocking them. It's a serious threat for enterprises because it can cause significant disruptions across an entire organization. 

These new tools make it easier for criminals to create their own ransomware without any technical expertise, so they can now compete with established cybercrime groups who previously controlled this market space, like Lazarus and Cryptowall. 

So, What's The Solution? 

Companies need to upgrade to proactive systems — like DarkTrace. 

Reactive tools have dominated the security industry for very long. These tools look to find and block threats after they've already caused disruptions. While effective enough for a while, this is a big problem for companies that have become targets of hackers—because it means the threats are already inside their network before they get detected. 

That's precisely why Novigo CyberSecurity has partnered with DarkTrace, a proactive cybersecurity platform that detects and blocks advanced threats before they go undetected. DarkTrace uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict which users on your network may be compromised or susceptible to attacks, so you can stop them before they can do any damage. 

Darktrace doesn't just stop cybercriminals from getting into your systems – it also identifies them after they've broken through. It does this by monitoring all your network activity for signs of malicious activity and then pinpoints the offenders before they can cause any harm. 

Moreover, Dark Trace detects previously unknown threats faster than any other solution on the market by analyzing billions of events per second across all devices on your network or cloud infrastructure — including mobile devices — without requiring prior knowledge about their behavior or intent. 

Conclusion 

The old approaches are at risk of getting compromised with hackers getting more innovative and creative.  

Enterprises need to rethink the approaches they have followed for years before any attack slips through the cracks and reaches their network. The focus is changing from a reactive approach to a proactive and deliberate one.  

Enterprises have always been able to adapt new approaches to fit their specific situations better, but now it's time that they make sure they're staying ahead of the game by fool-proofing their current security strategies. 

Worried about your data and network safety? 

All you need is Novigo to get unmatchable protection. Connect today and say YES to data security.