Whether you realize it or not, the
cybersecurity threat landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years—and recent security issues prove it.

Everywhere you turn, conversations about cyber issues today are happening. The media coverage on massive breaches continues to grow by the day. But since most of the high profile cases people read about are large companies (Equifax, Apple, Target, etc.), many small business owners you work with have it in their mind that large companies are the targets and they’re immune or safe from new threats.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Attacks on SMBs, as well as MSPs, are on the rise, and you both must be vigilant as a result. According to the Ponemon Institute: 2017 State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) study, the average cost due to damage or theft of IT assets and infrastructure increased from $879,582 to $1,027,053. The average cost due to disruption of normal operations increased from $955,429 to $1,207,965.

So, What’s Changed?

Security was a modest part of the services you’ve provided—until now. It’s made its way to the forefront of business IT needs so you can protect against the top cybersecurity threats out there. Endpoint protection, firewall protection, and email protection were staples of the managed services business, but they’re simply not enough anymore. Failure to address these increases the chance of a serious security event, and reduces the chance to avoid downtime, a work stoppage, or worse.

For years, MSPs have provided a successful security strategy that has provided their customers excellent uptime and productivity. Cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated and targeting small to medium businesses. Ransomware, data breaches, and phishing attacks are examples of tactics that eclipse the solutions that we’ve relied on thus far. You’ll want to make sure they’re safeguarded against these more sophisticated attacks, and mitigate as much risk as possible. Cyber issues today don’t just impact your customers, but their customers, suppliers, etc. If someone were to breach your customer, it could give them access to all of their critical systems and data. If an incident happens in a regulated industry, the cause goes beyond their loss of business. It would compromise your patient’s protected data and be in breach of HIPAA requirements. Aside from financial implications due to a work stoppage, breaches in industries that are regulated (financial, healthcare, industrial, government, etc.) are also subject to investigations, digital forensics teams, and litigation.

As an MSP, more times than not you’ll be questioned and have to participate in those investigations. If the customer has cyber insurance, the insurance company will do their investigation before paying out. In a breach today where data is compromised, the financial impact is a whopping $148 per record. It’s not just downtime that can render a business in trouble after a breach, because the lingering effects are crippling to most companies.

What Can You Do About It?

Several things. First, realize that this is not a problem you can throw a bunch of tools at to fix. People and process is a key component of a strong security posture. As you can see in the chart “What’s Behind the Trends: Root Cause”, 54% of data breaches were a result of negligent employees or contractors. That correlates to nearly half of all attacks being executed through phishing or social engineering. Implementing security awareness training through Customer Security Programs is a good way to expand your service offering and reduce your customers risk that doesn’t involve adding another tool to your stack.

Second, leverage a proven framework as a benchmark to measure your customers’ businesses (and your own). We believe the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is the most comprehensive and easiest framework for MSPs to adopt. We’ve built a risk assessment based on that framework that includes strengths and weaknesses for your customer, plus an actionable report and an attestation letter that protects you against recommendations your customer doesn’t wish to add. With this, you can walk into a customer’s office and say, “In order to make sure you’re as protected as you can be, I went ahead and did a risk assessment of your business to help determine your security posture. The assessment is based on the Cybersecurity Framework created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and it’s the benchmark we use to grade all companies—regardless of size or industry. It’s also the same assessment I perform regularly on my own company.”

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This article was provided by our service partner : connectwise.com

Ransomware is any malware that holds your data ransom. These days it usually involves encrypting a victim’s data before asking for cash (typically cryptocurrency) to decrypt it. Ransomware ruled the malware world since late 2013, but finally saw a decline last year. The general drop in malware numbers, along with defensive improvements by the IT world in general (such as more widespread backup adoption), were factors, but have also led this threat to become more targeted and ruthless.

Delivery methods

When ransomware first appeared, it was typically distributed via huge email and exploit kit campaigns. Consumer and business users alike were struck without much discretion. 

Today, many ransomware criminals prefer to select their targets to maximise their payouts. There’s a cost to doing business when it comes to infecting people, and the larger the group of people you are trying to hit, the more it costs. 

Exploit kits

Simply visiting some websites can get you infected, even if you don’t try to download anything. This is usually done by exploiting weaknesses in the software used to browse the web such as your browser, Java, or Flash. Content management and development tools like WordPress and Microsoft Silverlight, respectively, are also common sources of vulnerabilities. But there’s a lot of software and web trickery involved in delivering infections this way, so the bulk of this work is packaged into an exploit kit which can be rented out to criminals to help them spread their malware. 

Renting an exploit kit can cost $1,000 a month, so this method of delivery isn’t for everyone. Only those cybercriminals who’re sufficiently motivated and funded. 

“Because the cost of exploitation has risen so dramatically over the course of the last decade, we’ll continue to see a drop in the use of 0-days in the wild (as well as associated private exploit leaks). Without a doubt, state actors will continue to hoard these for use on the highest-value targets, but expect to see a stop to Shadowbrokers-esque occurrences. The mentioned leaks probably served as a powerful wake-up call internally with regards to who has access to these utilities (or, perhaps, where they’re left behind).” – Eric Klonowski, Webroot Principal Threat Research Analyst

Exploits for use in both malware and web threats are harder to come by these days and, accordingly, we are seeing a drop in the number of exploit kits and a rise in the cost of exploits in the wild. This threat isn’t going anywhere, but it is declining.

Email campaigns

Spam emails are a great way of spreading malware. They’re advantageous for criminals, as they can hit millions of victims at a time. Beating email filters, creating a convincing phishing message, crafting a dropper, and beating security in general is tough to do on a large scale, however. Running these big campaigns requires work and expertise so, much like an exploit kit, they are expensive to rent. 

Targeted attacks

The likelihood of a target paying a ransom and how much that ransom is likely to be is subject to a number of factors, including:

• The country of the victim. The GDP of the victim’s home nation is correlated to a campaign’s success, as victims in richer countries are more likely to shell out for ransoms 
• The importance of the data encrypted
• The costs associated with downtime
• The operating system in use. Windows 7 users are twice as likely to be hit by malware as those with Windows 10, according to Webroot data
• Whether the target is a business or a private citizen. Business customers are more likely to pay, and pay big

Since the probability of success varies based on the target’s circumstances, it’s important to note that there are ways of narrowing target selection using exploit kits or email campaigns, but they are more scattershot than other, more targeted attacks.

RDP

Remote Desktop Protocol, or RDP, is a popular Microsoft system used mainly by admins to connect remotely to servers and other endpoints. When enabled by poor setups and poor password policies, cybercriminals can easily hack them. RDP breaches are nothing new, but sadly the business world (and particularly the small business sector) has been ignoring the threat for years. Recently, government agencies in the U.S. and UK have issued warnings about this completely preventable attack. Less sophisticated cybercriminals can buy RDP access to already hacked machines on the dark web. Access to machines in major airports has been spotted on dark web marketplaces for just a few dollars.

Spear phishing

If you know your target, you can tailor an email specifically to fool them. This is known as spear phishing, and it’s an extremely effective technique that’s used in a lot of headline ransomware cases.

Modular malware

Modular malware attacks a system in different stages. After running on a machine, some reconnaissance is done before the malware reinitiates its communications with its base and additional payloads are downloaded. 

Trickbot

The modular banking Trojan Trickbot has also been seen dropping ransomware like Bitpaymer onto machines. Recently it’s been used to test a company’s worth before allowing attackers to deploy remote access tools and Ryuk(ransomware) to encrypt the most valuable information they have. The actors behind this Trickbot/Ryuk campaign only pursue large, lucrative targets they know they can cripple.

Trickbot itself is often dropped by another piece of modular malware, Emotet. 

What are the current trends?

As we’ve noted, ransomware use may be on the decline due to heightened defences and greater awareness of the threat, but the broader, more noteworthy trend is to pursue more carefully selected targets. RDP breaches have been the largest source of ransomware calls to our support teams in the last 2 years. They are totally devastating to those hit, so ransoms are often paid.

Modular malware involves researching a target before deciding if or how to execute and, as noted in our last blog on information stealers,they have been surging as a threat for the last six months. 

Automation

When we talk about selecting targets, you might be inclined to assume that there is a human involved. But, wherever practical, the attack will be coded to free up manpower. Malware routinely will decide not to run if it is in a virtualised environment or if there are analysis tools installed on machines. Slick automation is used by Trickbot and Emotet to keep botnets running and to spread using stolen credentials. RDP breaches are easier than ever due to automated processes scouring the internet for targets to exploit. Expect more and more intelligent automation from ransomware and other malware in future.

What can I do?

• Secure your RDP
• Use proper password policy. This ties in with RDP ransomware threats and especially applies to admins.
• Update everything
• Back up everything. Is this backup physically connected to your environment (as in USB storage)? If so, it can easily be encrypted by malware and malicious actors. Make sure to air gap backups or back up to the cloud.
• If you feel you have been the victim of a breach, it’s possible there are decryption tools available. Despite the brilliant efforts of the researchers in decryption, this is only the case in some instances.

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This article was provided by our service partner : webroot.com