We are the weakest link when it comes to IT security, a report suggests. Social engineering is about getting people to do the work of cybercrime automated exploits.
Proofpoint’s new Human Factor Report found that dangerous mobile apps from rogue marketplaces affect two out of five enterprises. The IT security product firm’s researchers identified rogue app stores from which users could download malicious apps onto iOS devices – even those not “jailbroken,” or configured to run apps not offered through Apple’s iTunes store. Lured in by “free” clones of popular games and banned apps, users who download apps from rogue marketplaces – and bypass multiple security warnings in the process – are four times more likely to download an app that is malicious. These apps will steal personal information, passwords or data.
The year 2015 saw mobile attack vectors came of age; the fourth quarter in particular saw a surge of ‘riskware’. These are mobile apps that aren’t necessarily malicious but transmit sensitive data to servers that may be compromised or that reside in foreign countries. After the US, China is a main destination for data from malicious applications.
People willingly downloaded more than two billion mobile apps that steal their personal data. Attackers used social media threats and mobile apps, not just email, to trick users into infecting their own systems. Proofpoint analysis of authorized Android app stores discovered more than 12,000 malicious mobile apps – apps capable of stealing information, creating backdoors, and other functions – accounting for more than two billion downloads.
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Mark James, security specialist at ESET, says: “Most people still do not perceive the mobile phone or tablet as very real threat vector, it’s still seen as just a phone and not a very powerful computer which is also capable of making calls. The worrying trend is peoples lack of understanding of what’s actually stored on a phone, in most cases the data on a mobile phone can reveal a lot more about what you do on a day-to-day basis than your computer can, users will save information in contacts, notes, photos and videos that they may not even consider saving on a desktop computer.”
According to the report, some low-volume campaigns are of highly targeted phishing emails focused on one or two people within an organization to transfer funds
directly to attackers. Highly targeted phishing messages target people with wire-transfer access, in firms of every size across all industries. Often called “wire transfer phishing” or “CEO phishing,” these scams usually show a high degree of background research on the part of the attackers. These emails have spoofed senders so they appear to be from the CEO, CFO or other executive; they rarely have links or attachments; and they urgently instruct the recipient to transfer funds to an account – the criminal’s.
