Mar/Apr 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

Cyber Patrol launch coordinated physical attacks using drones and automated vehicles. Another example that we can ex- pect to see in the future is automated spear phishing. Right now, even the most advanced spear phishing attacks require a heavy amount of skilled la- bor. An attacker must first identify a victim, spend a significant amount of time researching that individual and then launch a highly targeted message to execute an attack. “If some of the relevant research and synthesis tasks can be auto- mated, then more actors may be able to engage in spear phishing,” the re- port says. “For example, it could even cease to be a requirement that the at- tacker speaks the same language as their target. Attackers might also gain the ability to engage in mass spear phishing, in a manner that is currently infeasible, and therefore become less discriminate in their choice of targets. Similar analysis can be applied to most varieties of cyberattacks, as well as to threats to physical or political security that currently require non- trivial human labor.” Micha Rave, vice president of prod- ucts for Meta Networks, also foresees a future where hackers could leverage AI to gain initial access to a network and its assets. “An approach they will use to do this is through virtual private network (VPN) connections, which are intended to give employees network access but at the same time leave a wide attack surface for attackers,” Rave says. Rave recommends that businesses consider migrating to a more secure form of remote access, such as a software-defined perimeter, in order to isolate the network and make it invis- ible to hackers. “When remote users need to con- nect, they are given highly restricted access to the applications they need, with the rest of the network hidden from view,” Rave continued. Top Malicious Email Attachment Types File Type Percent .doc, .dot 37% .exe 19.5% .rtf 14% xls, .xlt, .xla 7.2% .jar 5.6% .html, .htm 2.3% .docx 2.3% .vbs 1.8% .xlsx 1.5% .pdf 0.8% Source: Symantec 81 March - April, 2019 | Channel Vision