Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies

By : Tim Rains
Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies

By: Tim Rains

Overview of this book

After scrutinizing numerous cybersecurity strategies, Microsoft’s former Global Chief Security Advisor in this book helps you understand the efficacy of popular cybersecurity strategies and more. Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies offers an unprecedented long-term view of the global threat landscape by examining the twenty-year trend in vulnerability disclosures and exploitation, nearly a decade of regional differences in malware infections, the socio-economic factors that underpin them, and how global malware has evolved. This will give you further perspectives into malware protection for your organization. It also examines internet-based threats that CISOs should be aware of. The book will provide you with an evaluation of the various cybersecurity strategies that have ultimately failed over the past twenty years, along with one or two that have actually worked. It will help executives and security and compliance professionals understand how cloud computing is a game changer for them. By the end of this book, you will know how to measure the effectiveness of your organization’s cybersecurity strategy and the efficacy of the vendors you employ to help you protect your organization and yourself.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
9
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10
Index

Chapter summary

This chapter focused on internet-based threats. We examined phishing attacks, drive-by download attacks, and malware distribution sites. So many attacks leverage social engineering that CISOs and security teams must spend time and resources to mitigate it. For example, every week, tens of thousands of new phishing sites are connected to the internet, and every month, billions of phishing emails are sent to prospective victims.

Locations that have historically hosted above average concentrations of phishing sites include Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Indonesia. Most phishing emails include a link to a phishing site (Microsoft Corporation, 2018) and most phishing sites leverage HTTPS (SSL/TLS) (Phishing Activity Trends Report 4th Quarter 2019, 2020). Accounts are nearly 100% less likely to be compromised when MFA is enabled (Weinert, 2019). Anti-social engineering training for Information Workers can also be an effective mitigation.

Drive-by download attacks leverage...