If cyber criminals have a lot of patience: ECOS Technology warns against long-term spying. The sum of supposedly uncritical information is an often underestimated danger for companies and authorities.
When handling their data, companies and authorities often use graduated security measures. What is particularly important and critical is also particularly well protected. For information that is (supposedly) less worthy of protection, however, the level of security may be lower. An approach that is sensible from a commercial and operational point of view and represents a foundation of common information security management systems.
Long-term spying is an underestimated danger
In this context, the IT security experts at ECOS Technology (www.ecos.de) warn of the often underestimated dangers of long-term spying or long-term tracking. Cyber criminals rely on recording any accessible data traffic of a company or organization over a longer period of time, decrypting it and relating it to other information. This allows conclusions to be drawn about structures, relationships and habits within the organization. These can then, for example, form the basis for successfully carrying out social engineering attacks.
Simple information helps with CEO fraud attacks
The particular danger of such attacks lies in the fact that those affected are usually not even aware of them. Because viewed in isolation, the individual pieces of information often appear largely irrelevant. The individual e-mails with flight and hotel details for the next business trip, for example, that an employee sends from the home office of his department head, will usually not do much at first. The situation is different if unauthorized third parties with criminal intentions come into possession of extensive amounts of data of this type through long-term observation. The knowledge gained from this can, for example, form the basis for a so-called “CEO fraud” attack.
Fake emails from the manager
Fake e-mails supposedly originating from the management are used to request the transfer of funds or the provision of information. If such e-mails are similar in content and style to a typical spam message, they are usually recognized immediately. However, it can look completely different if they are written by a hacker who has closely observed the communication style of the people involved over a long period of time. The same applies to e-mails that are used to smuggle in ransomware or encryption Trojans. The success rate of such attacks is higher, the better the attacker knows his victim and the more precisely the corresponding e-mail communication can be tailored.
Long-term strategy of the attacker
"When preparing larger, targeted attacks on the IT networks of companies or organizations, criminals are not interested in stealing the desired data immediately or smuggling in a blackmail Trojan horse," explains Paul Marx, Managing Director of ECOS Technology GmbH. “In many cases, professional attacks focus on a rather long-term strategy. Tapping individual e-mails seems supposedly harmless. The danger arises from the fact that unauthorized persons come into possession of extensive amounts of data over a longer period of time and derive appropriate conclusions from it. "
To defend against such attacks, ECOS recommends maintaining a high level of security even with comparatively uncritical information. This is especially true when working on the go or in the home office - scenarios in which, for example, special, secure remote access solutions or VPN access should be used.
More at ECOS.de
About ECOS Technology
ECOS Technology GmbH has specialized in the development and sale of IT solutions for highly secure remote access as well as the management of certificates and smart cards. The core products that are used in a wide variety of industries include the ECOS SECURE BOOT STICK and the PKI appliance ECOS TRUST MANAGEMENT APPLIANCE. Companies, authorities and organizations are thus able, for example, to create, extend or withdraw their own certificates, to connect employees in the home office, to provide quickly usable, cost-efficient emergency workplaces for crises or to maintain industrial plants remotely in a safe and secure manner. Thanks to the cost-optimized thin client solutions from ECOS, hardware costs can also be massively reduced in many scenarios (lifecycle extension). ECOS has been dealing with IT security in the context of network infrastructures since 1999. The German company is headquartered in Oppenheim near Mainz.