Firms that didn’t patch and enabled local admin rights continue to suffer post cyber-attack7/17/2017
By Graham Cluley on Jul 12, 2017 |
Here’s a salutary reminder for all businesses. Just because a malware outbreak has begun to fade away from the newspaper headlines, doesn’t mean your troubles are over. Many firms can continue to suffer long afterwards. In late June, a malware attack crippled businesses and critical infrastructure in Ukraine at astonishing speed. Initially suspected of being a similar ransomware attack to the WannaCry outbreak seen the month before, the malware (variously named as Petya, NotPetya or GoldenEye by security vendors) appears to have been launched through a malicious automatic update to a popular Ukrainian accounting software tool called MeDoc. We tell companies all the time to keep their software updated with the latest available patches, and yet here was an update which actually delivered a devastating malware attack. The irony isn’t lost on anybody. By Razvan Muresan on Jul 17, 2017 | Some 75 percent of US CISOs state the worst consequences of an attacker gaining access to their companies’ most valuable asset would be the financial cost and reputational damage. However, few say the financial cost could lead to bankruptcy 35%. In Sweden, 65 percent of those surveyed expect cyber criminals accessing prized assets could lead to the downfall of the company. Reputational costs are perceived most as a main threat in the UK, where almost 80 percent of respondents have mentioned it as the most dangerous risk to their business, almost triple the percentage of Italian IT execs.
Even if it sounds alarming, loss of life – mentioned by 39 percent of the Swedes - is a severe yet real consequence of an APT. Targeted attacks could also aim at critical national or transnational infrastructures (i.e. nuclear power plants, national energy grids, urban water supplies, transportation management systems, traffic controller systems, hospitals and other healthcare facilities). In a modern environment where automation has become a reality, targeted attacks can practically paralyze countries and, unfortunately, lead to human casualties. |
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