Beware, cyber bandits are getting more aggressive

Muscat: Cyber-security rhetoric may seem like fear mongering, but the escalation in threats is both real and quantifiable. These realities have been costly in some cases, while others have gone unreported and have caused mere inconveniences. But even for those that have not suffered the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages incurred by, say, Sony Pictures, the effects of malware can be cumulative. The slowing of computing resources or the downtime of services can lead to costs that are not easily summated, but nonetheless impact performance and profitability, according to a Microsoft statement.
In Oman, a live survey of PCs, conducted by Microsoft throughout 2015, revealed an alarming barrage of attempted breaches. For example, in the fourth quarter, when aggression peaked, 43 per cent of computers surveyed reported a malware encounter, compared with a worldwide average of around 21 per cent in the same three-month period. While most of these infections were blocked, 6.59 per cent of monitored machines faced infections that had to be cleaned, against a global average of 1.69 per cent.
Encounter and infection rates are both higher for Oman than those for regional neighbours such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, both of which are placed high in world-rankings for malware attacks.Interestingly, the higher-than-average infection rate for Oman cannot be attributed to a lower-than-average protection rate among Omani machines.
The savagery of the malware horde – what cyber-security specialists refer to as the “threat landscape” – has escalated for several reasons. First, the attack surface (the number of system entry-points available to malware authors) has expanded at an astounding rate as humankind has migrated from a PC-and-server world to a multi-device miasma. “Tablets, smartphones and other more exotic Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices have led to countless estimates of what our world will look like in 2020. Some projections say we will find ourselves trying to protect 30 billion devices by then; others say 75 billion,” said the statement.
This device epidemic, coupled with a bewildering amount of software vulnerabilities, has created fertile ground for those with sinister intent. A 2014 report from Symantec suggests around 868,000 malware strains get released into the wild each day. And an April 2014 article from CNN Money cites a Verizon study that claimed each of those samples takes an average of only 82 seconds to claim its first victim.
And malware-producers have also developed more sophisticated techniques for propagation. They have adapted to the signature-matching methods used by traditional anti-virus applications, by employing self-updating malware.They have also found ways to disguise their strains as authorised processes, to fool standard detection systems. And advances in social engineering have allowed an alarming escalation in the number of phishing, spear-fishing and whaling attacks.
All of this is bad news for consumers, governments, and businesses of all sizes; getting attacked is now a matter of “when” rather than “if”. But legitimate software companies are striking back. Infected machines only suffer damage if the malicious code is allowed free reign.By switching to detection rather than prevention, security specialists are gaining ground. Zero-day attacks (malware incursions from strains that have yet to be categorised and for which there are no current counter-measures) are particularly vulnerable to this kind of approach.
“We can all be more secure – consumers, governments and businesses of all scales. When we approach cyber-security, we should do so with no assumptions. Talk to the experts. They often have first-hand knowledge not only of the scale of the problem, but of the mitigating measures that can be taken to combat the cyber-villains. Be vigilant; do not underestimate your adversary; educate your workforce and formulate a strategy. Be safe.”
But protection starts at the end-point. Windows 10 now resides on more than 400 million devices worldwide and those users are experiencing the most secure Windows yet. Windows 10 introduces identity management provisions such as Windows Hello and Credential Guard that safe-guard against credentials theft. Bitlocker and Windows Information Protection enact data encryption at the device and file level. Windows Defender guards inboxes, and the sandboxed Microsoft Edge browser protects users online. Meanwhile, Device Guard locks down your device, ensuring only trusted applications are run.
Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is a new service that enables Windows enterprise customers to actively patrol their digital perimeters, detecting, investigating, and mitigating advanced persistent threats (APTs) and data breaches. UEFI secure boot and virtualisation-based security are also part of Windows 10.
“Microsoft invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in security, and we have poured those developments into Windows 10. That is why the US Department of Defense has chosen to upgrade 4 million of its devices to Windows 10, starting in January 2017.”