Page 4 - Cyber Warnings

A Historic Year Ahead for Cybercrime

BY: Luis Corrons, PandaLabs Technical Director

Now that we’re well in 2016, we have some perspective on 2015 and what an incredible year it
was from a cybercrime perspective. Unfortunately, in spite of the whopping 84 million samples
of new malware created last year, one fourth of all the malware in history – we’re looking at
continued growth and sophistication of malware in 2016. If the kind of attacks we’re seeing
continues, as we expect it will, 2016 will shatter even the most astounding numbers we came
across in 2015.

The amount of attacks are increasing, and cybercriminal gangs are focusing on more profitable
targets. Corporations, big and small have been attacked in numerous ways, but two more
increasingly popular tactics are, Point-of-Sale (PoS) Trojans and Ransomware.

PoS Attacks

While we are seeing an increase in PoS attacks, it is the frequency and sophistication that are
making them more prominent, but this form of cybercrime is not new. The big data breach
against Target in 2013 was a result of a PoS attack, and it resulted in 46 million debit and credit
card stolen in just a few weeks. In 2015, we also saw an increase in these attacks against
specific business verticals, most notably, hotel chains, which experienced a slew of attacks last
year.

Major chains such as the Mandarin Oriental (hotels in America and Europe); Trump Hotels
(seven hotels); Hard Rock Las Vegas (shops and restaurants); FireKeepers Casino Hotel in
Battle Creek, MI; Hilton, Starwood (105 hotels) and Hyatt Hotels, (254 affected hotels in 54
countries), represent a sampling of huge hospitality companies that have been attacked.

Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware is not a new threat either. We trace the first attacks back to approximately the end
of 2013. However, the threat has evolved and only gotten stronger, their targets have moved
away from home users, and onto businesses and corporations. When this malware gets into the
system it steals a copy of the address book, to be used for future attacks.

This tactic is popular among cybercriminals for a number of reasons, but the most invasive (and
oftentimes successful) is, in order to recover the encrypted files, the victim’s only solution is to
pay the cybercriminals directly, (unless they have an updated backup copy of the files). With
nominal demands for payment (depending on the attack, the average is $300-$400), most
companies will pay that to prevent the tens of thousands of dollars in losses if they don`t pay.

Cybercriminals are even resurfacing techniques from almost 20 years ago, such as the use of
macros in Office documents especially Word. Most users have a false sense of security that a
text document will not contain any threats. With this in mind, and being aware that the perimeter
4 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – March 2016 Edition
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