How Cybercriminals Work | The Steps To Mitigate Cloud Attacks

For your information, politically-motivated Cybercriminals include members of extremist and radical groups at both ends of the political spectrum. These hackers use the Internet to spread propaganda, attack the Web sites and networks of their political enemies, steal money to fund their militant activities, or plan and coordinate their “real-world” crimes.

Hacking is not necessarily a cybercrime; not all hackers are Cybercriminals. Cybercriminals hack and infiltrate computer systems with malicious intent. While Hackers only seek to find new and innovative ways to use a system, for good or bad. Likewise, cybercriminals differ significantly from threat actors in various ways, the first of which is intent.

Threat Actors conduct targeted attacks, which actively pursue and compromise a target entity’s infrastructure. Cybercriminals are unlikely to focus on a single entity. However, they often perform operations on broad masses of victims. Sometimes, their acts are defined only by similar platform types, online behavior, or programs used; thus, they differ in skills.

Threat actors follow a six-step process, which includes researching targets and moving laterally inside a network. Conversely, cybercriminals are unlikely to follow defined steps to get what they want from their victims. Notwithstanding, some cybercriminals have also adopted targeted attack methodologies in their operations. Thus, it’s essential to stay aware.

Understanding Who Cybercriminals Are On The Cloud Space

Technically, Cybercriminals are individuals or teams who use technology to commit malicious activities on digital systems or networks. Eventually, they will steal sensitive company information or personal data and generate profit. Sometimes, they can also access the cybercriminal underground markets on the deep web to trade malicious goods and services.

With the help of hacking tools and stolen data, highly motivated cybercriminals in underground markets are known to specialize in particular products or services. Laws related to cybercrime continue to evolve across various countries worldwide. Law enforcement agencies are continually challenged regarding finding, arresting, charging, and proving cybercrimes.

The core factor that makes a crime a cybercrime is that it’s directed at a computer or other devices, and these technologies are used to commit the crime. Cybercriminals with political motivations range from relatively benign hackers who just want to make a political statement to organized terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda.

In other words, a Cybercriminal is a person who conducts illegal activity using computers or other digital technology such as the Internet. As a rule of thumb, a highly motivated cybercriminal may use computer expertise, knowledge of human behavior, and various tools and services to achieve his or her goal. As a result, they can infiltrate the systems.

Topmost Crimes:

Cloud-based hacking
Personal identity theft
online scams and frauds
creating and disseminating malware,
attacks on computer systems and websites, etc.

Notably, a politically motivated cybercriminal usually devotes a lot of time to his or her cause and often (though by no means always) has a prior criminal record for offenses such as criminal trespass, rioting, and similar activities. Actual terrorists are especially dangerous because they are willing to die for their cause. They also often have extensive networks.

These are a collection of like-minded people they can call on to help them carry out their missions and hide them from law enforcement. With that in mind, regarding website security, understanding the common cyber threats is the first step towards safeguarding your online presence. Be that as it may, we’ll try to delve into some of these threats below.

Key Threats:

Malware Files: This is malicious software designed to cause harm to your website. It can take various forms, including viruses, worms, and ransomware. For instance, in 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack affected hundreds of thousands of computers across 150 countries, causing billions of dollars in damages.
Phishing Attacks: These threats involve attackers posing as trustworthy entities to trick users into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers. In 2016, someone sent a phishing email that caused the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign to leak thousands of internal emails.
SQL Injection: This occurs when an attacker uses malicious SQL code to manipulate your database, leading to data theft, data loss, or denial of service. In 2008, Heartland Payment Systems suffered a data breach due to an SQL injection, resulting in the theft of 130 million credit card numbers.

As you can see, the security threats mentioned above are just a few examples of many cyber attacks in action today. On that note, you can better prepare your website and implement adequate security measures by understanding these threats in detail. Next, we’ll explore how cybercriminals impact the cloud computing space with their terrors.

Why Cybercriminals Are The Real Deal In Cyberterrorism

First, Cyberterrorism refers to using the Internet and computer skills to disrupt or shut down a country’s critical infrastructure and government services. Although no such large-scale attacks have thus far been implemented, security experts warn that such attacks are or will be within the capabilities of some terrorist organizations and could pose a massive threat.

These threats are sometimes subject to governments and business operations. While perpetrators and their activities are secretive, we do know that their motivations vary. Most bad guys want to steal your money and use several approaches to get it, including those at the bottom of this page. From social engineering threats to ransomware, money is often the main aim.

This may include access to several data types, from credit card information and contact information to IP addresses, usernames, and passwords. As mentioned, political hackers, or ‘hacktivists’ – such as the loose grouping known as Anonymous – put their skills to work, exposing or attacking establishment bodies such as governments, financial institutions, and other entities they see as corrupt.

Why Most Cybercriminals Want:

Money (extorting or transferring money from accounts)
To gain ultimate power and foster control
Financial information or corporate data
Personal profiling data (passwords, etc)
Information relating to new product research and development
Access to systems (to create ‘zombies’)
To place software on your machine (adware, spyware, etc.)
Sensitive information (government institutions, personal data from public/private companies)

Another aim of many cybercriminals is corporate espionage: stealing information, data, or ideas. It may be that the data is valuable or that the breach damages a business’s reputation. Sometimes, these actors initially want passwords, personal data, or user data — part of a grander scheme.

Cybercriminals Recap: Snatch And Zeppelin Ransomware

Researchers at SophosLabs found that the ransomware operators use a Windows registry key to schedule a Windows service called SuperBackupMan, which can run in Safe Mode and cannot be stopped or paused. The malware even goes further by deleting all volume shadow copies on the system, thus preventing the forensic recovery of encrypted files.

Two ransomware families – Snatch and Zeppelin – with noteworthy features were spotted this week. Snatch ransomware is capable of forcing Windows machines to reboot into Safe Mode. On the other hand, Zeppelin ransomware was responsible for infecting healthcare and IT organizations across Europe and the U.S.

So, how do Snatch Ransomware attacks happen? Snatch reboots infected machines into Safe Mode to bypass security software and encrypt files without being detected. It was designed to do this because security software often does not run in Windows Safe Mode since it’s meant for debugging and recovering a corrupt Operating System (OS) framework.

First discovered in 2018, Snatch ransomware does not target home users or use mass distribution methods such as spam campaigns or browser-based exploits. Instead, the malware operators go after a small list of targets, including companies and government organizations. The operators were also found recruiting hackers on hacking forums and stealing information from target organizations.

Resource Reference: Website Cybersecurity Threats Management Strategies

Zeppelin, a new variant of the VegaLocker/Buran ransomware, was spotted with compilation timestamps no earlier than November 6, 2019. It was infecting companies located in Europe and the U.S. through targeted installs. As reported by BlackBerry Cylance, the Zeppelin ransomware, also a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) family, was found to be used.

As a result, it infected specific healthcare and IT companies. Zeppelin ransomware appears highly configurable and can be deployed as a .dll or .exe file wrapped in a PowerShell loader. Aside from encrypting files, it also terminates various processes, including those associated with the backup, database, and mail servers. Zeppelin executables were also found.

They were wrapped in three layers of obfuscation. Its ransom notes range from generic messages to elaborate notes tailored to specific organizations. Notably, it appears Zeppelin ransomware is not being widely distributed — or at least not yet. The researchers believe that Zeppelin, similar to Sodinokibi ransomware, is spreading through managed service providers (MSPs).

Example Risks And Steps To Protect Against Cyber Attacks

Protecting today’s data centers from advanced malware and zero-day threats is as critical as ever. That’s why businesses and organizations must opt for advanced solutions that secure, harden, and monitor the compliance posture of server systems for on-premises, virtual, and cloud data center environments—security tools to drive cybercriminals away.

Employees access data and applications from billions of devices with different capabilities, applications, and operating systems. Endpoint Security is the critical last line of defense in preventing cyber attacks from compromising those devices and protecting sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. That’s why you need the best data protection tool.

While organizations adopt cloud computing services for greater business agility, the expanded attack surface presents new security challenges. On that note, some elastic, cloud-native solutions help address these challenges with automated workload discovery and visibility, advanced malware detection and prevention, and vulnerability and exploit detection.

Political cybercriminals include members of extremist and radical groups at both ends of the political spectrum who use the Internet to spread propaganda, attack the Web sites and networks of their political enemies, steal money to fund their militant activities, or plan and coordinate their “real-world” crimes.

Examples Include:

Let’s start with the 1996 case in which “hacktivists” infiltrated the U.S. DOJ through its Web site, deleted the DOJ’s Web files, and replaced them with their pages protesting the recently passed Communications Decency Act.
Next, the rash of Website Defacements included the message “Free Kevin” (about Kevin Mitnick, who was arrested for computer crimes) in 1998.
At the same time, we witnessed the “cyberwars” between U.S. and Chinese hackers in the summer of 2000, following international disputes over the landing of a U.S. spy plane in China.
Finally, we can’t forget the use of botnets in 2007, which Russian hackers used to orchestrate DoS attacks against Estonian commercial and government websites.

Aside from maintaining an up-to-date operating system to address exploitable vulnerabilities, users should adopt the standard best practice of backing up data via the 3-2-1 rule. Users can also consider deploying comprehensive, multi-layered security solutions to protect against ransomware attacks from different entry points. There are other vital measures.

Endpoint Security Enterprise extends industry-leading SEP to all operating systems and devices, including mobile. It also offers cloud management features. Conversely, Endpoint Security Complete is a flagship product. It extends Endpoint Security Enterprise with attack surface reduction, endpoint detection and response, threat hunting, active directory defense, etc.

Equally important, it also offers other advanced technologies for complete protection and the best return on investment. These are measures that users and organizations can implement to prevent ransomware.

Some Preventive Measures:

Secure ports and services that are exposed to the internet
Enable multi-factor authentication to protect admin accounts from potential brute-force attacks
Secure remote access tools, as they can be used as entry points
Employ the principle of least privilege and regularly monitor your network for threats
Perform regular password audits for more robust access control

Trend Micro solutions such as the Smart Protection Suites and Worry-Free^™ Business Security solutions, which have behavior monitoring capabilities, can protect users and businesses from these threats, especially by detecting malicious files, scripts, and messages and blocking all related malicious URLs.

Trend Micro XGen^™ security provides a cross-generational blend of threat defense techniques against a full range of threats for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. It infuses high-fidelity machine learning with other detection technologies and global threat intelligence for comprehensive protection against advanced malware.

The Topmost Website Security Guidelines For Webmasters

Critical business data, tools, and utilities reside on storage devices. Symantec Endpoint Security Solution provides scalable, high-performance malware detection and prevention with centralized management and monitoring for cloud services, network-attached storage devices, Amazon S3 buckets, Microsoft Exchange servers, and SharePoint servers.

At the same time, to make your WordPress website somewhat safer, try monitoring its security with toolkits such as Sucuri, Wordfence, and other WordPress inbuilt security features. Additionally, it would be best to consider securing your web hosting account. It starts with choosing suitable hosts like Bluehost, Kenya Web Experts, Hostinger, and Truehost.

It would be best to consider protecting your web users against target-based attacks. Likewise, try observing the importance of restricting permissions by setting up certain password restrictions and logging out any idle website users. Equally important, protecting you, your business, and website users against Third-Party utilities and service solutions is crucial.

You can start by validating all third-party plug-ins, avoiding malicious third-party services, identifying potentially harmful plugins or themes, and only installing the essential plugins you need, or otherwise, only those WordPress recommends for your website. The best thing is also to check what others say about them. Below are more options you can consider.

Configure Installation Files

Change Your Administrative Username
How to Change Your Administrative Username
Installing Two-Factor Authentication With Google Authenticator
Install a CAPTCHA Solution and Get Spam Protection for Your Comments
Installing the Akismet WordPress Plug-In
Remove Your WordPress Version Number
Disable the WordPress API, Disable XML-RPC, etc.

Proper Passwords Hygiene

Crafting a Strong and Memorable Password
Practicing Good Password Hygiene
Making Sure Your Password Can’t Be Reset
Locking Out Multiple Sign-On Attempts
Installing WP Limit Login Attempts

Data And Account Security

Adding External Monitoring Systems
Setup an SSL Certificate and Configure WordPress
Add an SSL Certificate and migrate from HTTP to HTTPS
Update your existing File Permissions
Turn Off PHP Error Reporting
Keeping Your WordPress Site Current
Abandoning Out-of-Date Plug-Ins
Keeping Your Site Clean Always

At all costs, you must also protect your website pages and blogs against all other physical intrusions — internally and externally. Safeguard yourself by logging in through only those computers you are sure about, connecting to an internet service you can trust, and doing more research on the Internet of Things (IoT) to gather more security tips.

What The Cloud Computing Technology Business Future Holds

Given the ever-evolving risks of cloud computing technology, innovative security attacks, and software-based threats, giant corporations have more financial resources to invest in their defense systems. Furthermore, since most attackers are aware of this, alongside attacks on enterprises, they also logically target more vulnerable links in the chain: small businesses.

The data these small businesses process is often precious to the SMB and the client they are supplying or partnering with. Cybercriminals know this, too. Anonymously and from international bases, perpetrators produce software programs to scour the web, hunting for those weak links, wherever they may be.

Remember, some ransomware files can be distributed through malvertising operations and watering hole attacks. Often, people play as significant a role in cybersecurity as antivirus software like AVG Business. That’s why, to defend your business against cybercriminals, it’s essential to consider a few other things.

Such as follows:

Invest in cybersecurity software for your business to immediately and comprehensively protect your business from a range of security threats
Train your employees to stop bad actors from gaining access to social security data, online accounts, bank accounts, or other sensitive data so they don’t risk your business.

In a nutshell, even a slight data breach could cripple your small business, costing you thousands or millions of dollars in lost sales and damages. But, with this in mind, we hope you have gathered enough information regarding the above-revised topic. You can also learn more about protecting your small business from cybercriminals in detail.

For your information, the Web Tech Experts Agency has the tools necessary to ensure you have the proper coverage for protecting your company against losses from cyber attacks. If you require our Services Solutions or have additional information, contributions, or suggestions, you can Contact Us and let us know how we can sort you or your business out.

In Conclusion;

Staying ahead of the curve regarding security protection measures is a must-have strategy for all digital businesses and online or cloud-based computing organizations. In SEO terms, search engines may blocklist websites infected with malware, causing a considerable decrease in traffic. Sometimes, you may even need to rebuild from scratch.

Remember, as more and more businesses move online, the potential for digital website cybersecurity threats increases. As such, the importance of website security cannot be overstated. A secure website protects your business and your customers’ sensitive information. The risks of not securing a website are significant. Cybercriminals can be a pain for many.

In most cases, they can compromise sensitive-protected customer data. As mentioned, some cyber threats include acquiring credit card numbers and personal information through data breaches caused by business website cybersecurity threats. Eventually, this can result in financial loss, damage to your business’s reputation, and even legal consequences.