Why organizations need threat intelligence tools as part of their security defences

What is Threat Intelligence?

Those very same technologies that have allowed globalization, which have brought us all closer together and enabled organizations and brands to achieve the current growth and success they enjoy today, have simultaneously brought with them increased risks. These risks come in the form of increased vulnerabilities and exploitable attack vectors for cyber attackers. Threat intelligence is all about gathering data and knowledge to combat and mitigate these threats. 

Threat intelligence provides organizations with information and context required to effectively predict and even prevent cyberattacks. Additionally, it helps inform security teams of the best practice for both preventative measures and response measures to ensure if there is a cyberattack the resulting costs are minimal. 

In short, threat intelligence is the gathering of evidence-based knowledge to inform action-oriented preventative and reactionary responses to an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.

The Importance of Threat Intelligence

Threat actors are increasingly persistent, and their persistence pays off. Even the most dedicated professionals can’t help but struggle to keep abreast of every new cybersecurity development. New exploits are constantly being discovered or developed and strategies such as social engineering are increasing in complexity. Security teams need up to date data and intelligence on evolving threats if they are going to be able to develop effective responses.

Additionally, within the corporate world one of the key buzzwords of the last two decades has been “accessibility”. Accessibility to data means organizations have necessarily become reliant on digital processes and almost everything is stored on the cloud. Unfortunately, while accessibility is essential to developing efficient processes, and effectively using big data, it also increases the number of threat vectors that attackers can exploit. According to the IBM 2020 data breach report the longer a data breach goes undetected the more expensive it ends up being for the organization. Primarily then, threat intelligence gathered using tools like Signal OSINT can help organizations detect data breaches earlier, mitigating the eventual costs both reputational and monetary.

The final reason that threat intelligence plays such a pivotal role in today’s security is the distinct lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Threat intelligence is a time-consuming business that requires a skilled deft hand to manage. The best threat intelligence solutions use machine learning to automate data collection, then filter and structure data from disparate sources to present only hyper-relevant information to a skilled security team for final analysis. The security team can then use this data to create effective actionable plans based on evidential knowledge. This approach optimizes the performance of both the cybersecurity professional and the intelligence tools being used.

Threat intelligence is actionable — it’s timely, provides context, and is able to be understood by the people in charge of making decisions.

Use Case Examples for Threat Intelligence 

Threat intelligence can be used in a diverse range of strategies which makes it an essential tool for security teams in any organization. It’s most immediate value is in helping prevent an attack by gathering intel on threats in real-time, however, it’s also useful for a broad scope of activities such as managing vulnerabilities, informing decision making, and responding to attacks as or after they happen.

Related: The Role of Threat Intelligence and Cybersecurity in Retail

Prevent an attack

From the time that a vulnerability is found to the time an exploit targeting that vulnerability is available for threat actors is shortening. Security professionals need to know about the vulnerability fast so that they can implement a patch and prevent it from being exploited.

Respond to a Data Breach

Data breaches are costly and often go unnoticed. With the right threat intelligence tools you can determine when a data breach happens fast and take suitable actions to mitigate the costs of any following repercussions.

Manage a Vulnerability

The approach of “patch everything, all the time” is impractical and will likely see organizations fall behind - leaving more serious vulnerabilities open for longer. Threat intelligence can help security teams effectively manage vulnerabilities by giving the salient data to allow them to prioritize patches based on actual risk. 

Risk Analysis

This leads on nicely from the last point. Threat intelligence can help security teams determine the actual risks associated with potential vulnerabilities or attacks by providing additional contextual information. For example, threat intelligence can help security professionals  answer the following questions:

• Which threat actors are using this attack, and do they target our industry?

• How often has this specific attack been observed recently by enterprises like ours?

• Which vulnerabilities does this attack exploit, and are those vulnerabilities present in our enterprise?

• What kind of damage, technical and financial, has this attack caused in enterprises like ours?

Fraud Prevention

Fraud can encompass anything from a fraudulent use of your brand, data, or even impersonation of your employees. For example, an individual might impersonate a doctor and sell fake versions of your prescription medication online.

Incident Response

Having the ability to gather and filter through threat intelligence from across the surface, deep, and dark web in real-time allows security teams to effectively and appropriately respond to incidents as they are happening.

How can Signal threat intelligence improve your organization’s security?

Signal allows our customers to analyze emerging global trends, detect threats in real-time, and then form appropriate security strategies to counter these potential threats as or even before they fully reveal themselves.

One of the key issues that security teams and analysts face is the sheer amount of noise that might surround their brand. Invariably much of this noise is irrelevant to their purposes, however, some of it will be bad. This is why Signal assists with advanced filters with boolean logic as well as features such as our emotional analysis tool.

What is Ransomware and Why Should you Care?

Ransomware is big money and is a rapidly growing cyberattack strategy. The market has expanded massively since the advent of secure and untraceable payment methods such as Bitcoin. Emsisoft estimates that ransomware costs for US organizations in 2019 was in excess of $7.5 billion. Compare this to four years prior when in 2015 ransomware damages totalled around $300 million.

Some markets are particularly prone to ransomware attacks such as medical organizations and public services. And there have been several high profile cases involving these industries over the last few years. Attackers know that with lives literally on the line organizations in these fields are likely to simply pay the ransom to make the problem go away. Most recently Garmin technology company has been held to ransom with attackers using the WastedLocker ransomware seeking a ransom of USD$10 million.

In this article, we explore in detail what ransomware is, how cybercriminals utilize and what strategies organizations can employ to ensure they are protected from ransomware attacks.  

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a form of malware. It can take various forms but generally it functions in one of two ways:

• Crypto ransomware. This malware encrypts the files on a computer so that the user cannot access them.

• Locker ransomware. This malware locks the victim out of their device or out of particular files, preventing them from using it. 

One thing all ransomware attacks have in common is that the target won’t be able to regain access to their files unless they pay the attackers a hefty ransom to unlock the files.

Ransomware has grown in popularity over the last few years in the wake of cryptocurrencies which makes it safe to receive their ransom payments. The cost of a ransomware attack can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars depending on who the target is and how valuable the attackers believe the files they have locked out of reach are. 

Probably the most common delivery system for ransomware is phishing scams. For examples, a virus masquerading as an email attachment can, once downloaded and opened, easily take over a victims computer. Another strategy is through social engineering which is growing in popularity with cybercriminals because of the better strike rate. A recent example of a successful social engineering attack was perpetrated against Twitter employees. Attackers were able to get aways with an estimated 12.85BTC, nearly US$120,000.

The encryption strategy for malware is the more common of the attacks. The result of this attack is that the victim will not be able to decrypt their files without a mathematical key known only to the attacker. The user will be presented with a message when they attempt to open their files saying that their documents are now inaccessible and will only be decrypted if the victim sends an untraceable cryptocurrency payment to the attacker’s wallet.

To encourage prompt payment attackers might masquerade as law enforcement and demand the payment as a fine. If the victim does have illegal or illicit files or programs on their device, such as pornography or pirated software or movies, then they may be more likely to pay without asking questions and without reporting the attack.

12 Ransomware Examples from the Last Decade

Ransomware has been around for decades. However, it was only after the advent of cryptocurrencies that it began being a favoured strategy for cybercriminals. Cryptocurrencies allow for them to collect untraceable completely anonymous payments. Some of the worst offenders have been:

• CryptoLocker is an older malware threat, and while it isn’t in broad circulation anymore during it’s peak it infected some half a million machines. Cryptolocker is a Trojan horse that infects a device computer and then searches the computer as well as additional connected media including; external hardrives, cloud storage, and USB sticks, for files to encrypt. 

• TeslaCrypt is a variation or copycat of CryptoLocker. TeslaCrypt started by using social engineering to infiltrate devices and later used phishing emails as well. It heavily targeted gaming files and saw numerous upgrade improvements during its reign of terror.

• SimpleLocker was another CyrptoLocker styled malware. However, it’s key difference was that it focused it’s targeting on Android devices.

• WannaCry is a ransomware worm. What this means is that it spreads autonomously from computer to computer using EternalBlue, an exploit developed by the NSA and then stolen by hackers.

• NotPetya also used the EternalBlue exploit. It is thought to be part of a Russion-directed cyberattack against the Ukraine. However, it expanded autonomously to infect a broad range of organizations.

• Leakerlocker was first discovered in 2017 and targeted Android devices. Rather than encrypt files, it threatens to share your private data and browsing history unless you pay the ransom.

• WYSIWYE, stands for “What You See Is What You Encrypt”. Discovered in 2017, this ransomware scans the web for open Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers. It then allows for a customized attack with an interface through which it can be configured according to the attacker’s preferences.

• SamSam has been around since 2015 and has affected devices in a number of waves of attacks. It utilizes vulnerabilities in remote desktop protocols (RDP), Java-based web servers, file transfer protocol (FTP) servers or brute force against weak passwords It would then spread to numerous devices. It primarily targeted public services and healthcare effectively bringing entire organizations to halt.

• Ryuk first appeared in 2018. It is specifically used to target enterprise environments. It is often used in combination with other malware like TrickBot for distribution.

• Maze was first discover in 2019. The MAZE ransomware has been used in attacks that combine targeted ransomware use, public exposure of victim data, and an affiliate model. The ransomware was initially distributed via spam emails and exploit kits before later shifting to being deployed post-compromise.

• GandCrab currently holds a large portion of the ransomware market and may well be the most lucrative ransomware ever. Its developers, which sold the program to cybercriminals, claim more than $2 billion in victim payouts as of July 2019.

• Thanos is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation which allows affiliates to customize their own ransomware through a builder offered by the developer. It was first discovered by security professionals being talked about on a Russian darknet forum. It is the first to use the RIPlace technique, which can bypass many anti-ransomware methods.  

Dealing with Ransomware

Prevention is always the best policy when it comes to dealing with cyber attacks. Using tools such as Signal you can stay up to date with the most common strategies and one step ahead of cybercriminals. However, if you become the victim of a ransomware attack, it is advisable not to pay the ransom. If you do so there is now guarantee that the cybercriminal will return your data, they are thieves after all. Additionally, it fuels the profitability of the ransomware business making future attacks more likely. So what can you do?

Decryption

For many ransomwares, especially the older ones there are decryption tools which have been developed. The first step then is to contact your internet security vendor and determine if decryption is possible. If this initial strategy fails you can visit nomoreransom.org. The No More Ransom site is an industry-wide initiative designed to help all victims of ransomware.

Recovery

It’s good practice to back-up your data regularly on both external hard drives as well as on cloud storage. If you have done this it becomes possible to simply recover the data which is currently being held hostage. There are of course some scenarios where this won’t be possible, for example, if the malicious actor is threatening to share private information rather than having simply encrypted your device.

Preventing Ransomware Attacks

Good security practices will help prevent you from falling victim to ransomware. These defensive steps will additionally help protect you against other generic cyber attacks. 

Four basic steps that every organization should take to mitigate the threat of cyber attacks are:

• Keep all operating systems up to date and patched. Doing this will ensure that there are few potential vulnerabilities that malicious actors can exploit.

• Do not allow a software admin privileges unless you are confident in its safety and know exactly what it is and what it does.

• Ensure you have an active and up to date anti-virus software installed on all devices. This will allow you to detect and block malicious programs like ransomware as they arrive.

• And, as we said in the section above, back up all your files regularly. This last point won’t help protect against ransomware or other malware but can help mitigate the damages that your organization might suffer.

The Role of OSINT in Defending Against Ransomware

While open source intelligence tools can’t prevent ransomware, they can help organizations mitigate the potential damages. 

Securing the supply chain

Supply chains can stretch across continents with potentially hundreds of suppliers and manufacturers all around the world bearing responsibility. Should any single part or resource be in short supply, then assembly lines can be brought to a halt resulting in costly delays at the very least. 

There are numerous threats to the supply chain, one of which is malware and in particular regard to this article, ransomware. A key example of this is when the shipping giant Maersk had their IT systems taken out by a malware NotPetya. This resulted in their IT systems being down for days and many deliveries being delayed despite Herculean logistical efforts by the company. 

Using OSINT tools you can learn whether an organization on your supply chain has been affected by ransomware in real-time which will allow you to take the necessary actions to mitigate the damage this has as their production or logistics is slowed.

Industry Targeting

It’s not unusual for malware to exploit weaknesses which are specific to an industry. For example, the Healthcare industry is particularly susceptible to ransomware as a delay in returning their operations to normal could result in patients deaths. Indeed a leading medical-research institution working on a cure for Covid-19 were forced to pay hackers a $1.14m USD ransom because of a ransomware attack.

Using OSINT tools you can monitor your own specific industry to determine what strategies and exploits are currently being used by cybercriminals against like companies. Determining this will allow you to take extra and specific precautions to fend off similar attacks which could potentially be turned on you.

Detect New Ransomware and Strategies

Cybercriminals are continuously evolving and updating their strategies and the ransomware that go with them. We are unlikely to see the end of this development. 

By using OSINT to monitor darknet forums and market places security professionals are able to learn about the newest strategies being employed, the most recent weaknesses being exploited, and the most current software being utilized. Armed with this knowledge they are much more able to develop effective countermeasures as well as actively prevent ransomware infection.