Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies - Second Edition

By : Tim Rains
3 (2)
Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies - Second Edition

3 (2)
By: Tim Rains

Overview of this book

Tim Rains is Microsoft's former Global Chief Security Advisor and Amazon Web Services’ former Global Security Leader for Worldwide Public Sector. He has spent the last two decades advising private and public sector organizations all over the world on cybersecurity strategies. Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies, Second Edition builds upon the success of the first edition that has helped so many aspiring CISOs, and cybersecurity professionals understand and develop effective data-driven cybersecurity strategies for their organizations. In this edition, you’ll examine long-term trends in vulnerability disclosures and exploitation, regional differences in malware infections and the socio-economic factors that underpin them, and how ransomware evolved from an obscure threat to the most feared threat in cybersecurity. You’ll also gain valuable insights into the roles that governments play in cybersecurity, including their role as threat actors, and how to mitigate government access to data. The book concludes with a deep dive into modern approaches to cybersecurity using the cloud. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of the threat landscape, how to recognize good Cyber Threat Intelligence, and how to measure the effectiveness of your organization's cybersecurity strategy.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
13
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14
Index

Global malware evolution

Understanding the evolution of malware will help CISOs and security teams put the hysteria they read in the news into context. Keep the Cybersecurity Usual Suspects in the back of your mind as you read this section.

In the wake of the successful large-scale worm attacks of 2003 and early 2004, Microsoft introduced Windows XP Service Pack 2 in August of 2004. Among other things, Windows XP Service Pack 2 turned on the Windows Firewall by default for the first time in a Windows operating system. Prior to this, it was an optional setting that was left to customers to turn on, configure, and test with their applications. This service pack also offered Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for the first time in a Windows operating system (David Ladd, 2011). These three features blunted the success of future mass worm attacks that sought to use the same tactics as SQL Slammer and MSBlaster.

A vulnerability in a service...