Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 22 | Page 19

LATEST INTELLIGENCE 2019 VULNERABILITY AND THREAT TRENDS PRESENTED BY Download whitepaper here 2 2018 will be remembered as the year when cryptomining rose in prominence, overtaking ransomware as the cybercriminal tool of choice Cryptomining attacks represented 27% of all incidents last year, rising from 9% in 2017 and far surpassing ransomware’s 13% share in 2018. Its rise in popularity could be owed to the fact that cryptomining attacks are faster to execute, generate profit for the attacker over a longer period of time and often can occur without the victim’s knowledge. 2018 brought more examples of exploits derived from patches This phenomena makes it ever more important for security teams to track exploitability and be able to quickly understand where and how to deploy temporary mitigations when immediate network- wide patching proves impossible. www.intelligentcio.com Cloud security is strong but not bulletproof While cloud networks are relatively secure, attacks continue to occur like that against Tesla’s AWS network in February 2018. The attack exploited an insecure Kubernetes console to launch a malicious cryptominer. Applications used to manage cloud deployments and misconfigurations can also pose a significant risk in cloud security, especially in increasingly complex, hybrid and fragmented networks. Internal exposures pose a significant risk in vulnerable operational technology networks OT networks are still worryingly vulnerable, with attacks increasing by 10% in 2018 over the previous year. OT attacks can range in motive and impact, but the WannaCry outbreak in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is a prime example of how the combination of ransomware, worms and internal exposure can wreak havoc on a network – and a company’s bottom line. n INTELLIGENTCIO 19