A cybersecurity company that illuminates, examines and remediates internal and external risks released the results of its second report on trends in external cyber defense, highlighting the new risks facing organizations outside the traditional IT environment.
“As enterprise attack surfaces continue to expand, cyber threat actors are adapting their strategies to exploit new vulnerabilities,” said Joel Molinoff, Global Head of Supply Chain Defense at BlueVoyant. “BlueVoyant conducted this research to shed light on the attack vectors that organizations need to be aware of and provide recommendations for action to combat the latest threats.” Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way companies do business because of the technology's ability to create content efficiently. Cybercriminals are also leveraging AI to create more effective phishing campaigns. “The biggest cybersecurity risk resulting from the increasing use of AI tools is the increasing number of attacks,” said Ron Feler, Global Head of Threat Intelligence at BlueVoyant. “While the fundamentals of attacks are changing little, the increasing number and variety of attacks are making the work of security teams more difficult.”
Key insights
- Online advertising as an attack vector: BlueVoyant threat intelligence has shown that cybercriminals are using search engine ads as distribution vectors for phishing attacks, luring unsuspecting victims to malicious websites posing as major financial institutions in the US, UK and Eastern Europe.
- Criminal use of AI: AI may not fundamentally change the way threat actors carry out attacks. Still, security teams should be aware of how cybercriminals use them to streamline and facilitate their workflows.
- Need for Better Email Security: Many organizations do not enable all key components that ensure the authenticity and integrity of messages, which could leave them vulnerable to email-based threats.
- Continued need for faster patches: In last year's report, BlueVoyant found that companies are often slow to patch their systems, while attackers exploit new vulnerabilities more quickly. Today, vulnerabilities are being exploited faster than ever, creating a high-stakes race between threat actors and defenders if disclosed.
Identify vulnerabilities
Supply Chain Defense is a fully managed solution that continually monitors vendors, suppliers, and other third parties for vulnerabilities and then works with those third parties to quickly remediate issues. The platform identifies companies' online software vulnerabilities and other exploitable opportunities using techniques similar to those used by external cyber attackers and profiles potential targets.
Digital Risk Protection goes beyond the boundaries of the Internet to detect threats against customers, employees and business partners on the clear, deep and dark web and in instant messaging applications. The platform has unique access to DNS records and cybercrime channels. This enables the solution to detect the latest techniques, tactics and procedures used by cyber attackers and initiate comprehensive external remediation measures to prevent financial losses and reputational damage.
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About BlueVoyant
BlueVoyant combines internal and external cyber defense capabilities into a results-oriented, cloud-based cybersecurity solution that continuously monitors networks, endpoints, attack surfaces and supply chains, as well as the clear, deep and dark web for threats. Comprehensive cyber defense products and services quickly illuminate, investigate and remediate threats to protect organizations.