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why antivirus is not enough

It is often mistakenly believed that antivirus is an sufficient protection of the systems from cyber threats.

But that’s not the case, that’s why.

Antivirus is a protection against malware

Malware is malicious software that can infect computer systems by compromising them or allowing cybercriminals to access data.
The malware types are many: ransomware, trojans, spyware, wipers, cryptominers, worms, skimmers, … just to name a few.
Although malware is a significant problem, used in most cyber attacks (41% in 2021, see our Dashboard), there are other types of cyber threats.
These include, for example, Phishing, Social Engineering, exploitation of vulnerabilities, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), and much more.
Unfortunately, antiviruses are unable to deal with these threats and further solutions need to be put in place to mitigate them.

Not all antiviruses are created equal

Whether you choose a free antivirus or a paid one, modern products are generally of good quality, but they can differ in some features:

Reliability: the ability to correctly identify threats with a low number of false positives.
Quality of protection: the malware landscape is constantly changing, so a good antivirus must be able to update itself frequently and effectively detect and resolve the greatest number of threats.
Functionality: the antivirus must be able to perform its functions without significant impact on the system in use.
Ease of use: the antivirus must have an intuitive and easy to use interface, so that it can be used successfully even by less experienced users.

Don’t forget mobile devices!

Malware can also compromise mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Since they are connected to the same network where there are computers and servers (both in the company and at home!), it is important to have antivirus protection also for all the used mobile devices.

Cyber Security involves numerous types of threats, which are constantly evolving.
For an adequate protection antivirus is certainly important but it is not enough.
On the contrary, to protect from the latest generation of cyber risks it is essential a targeted and customized strategy based on specific needs.

Find out how we can help you identify your customized Cyber Security strategy!

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FIVE MAIN ATTACK TECHNIQUES

Every year, for over ten years, I have been classifying and analyzing the trends of thousands of cyber attacks.

During this period of time I have witnessed various evolutions in attacks, from the most important sectors targeted, to the now uncontrolled spread of cybercrime.

The attack techniques, while always updated, remain in fact the same, especially those that I call “evergreen“.

So let’s see the classic attack techniques that have been confirmed for years as the most dangerous as well as the most effective.

MALWARE

The term Malware comes from “malicious software“, created and injected into IT devices (computers but also smartphones) to disturb operations, cause damage or steal information.

Previously referred to as a “computer virus“, malware comprises several categories based on the main function it serves.

Among these, also the virus, that is a piece of code able to reproduce and infect computer systems, in the same way that biological viruses spread in living beings.

Another well-known type of malware is the trojan, which takes its name from the famous “Trojan horse” used by the Greeks to sneak undisturbed into the city of Troy, defeated thanks to this expedient.

This term indicates a malicious program that pretends to be legitimate software in order to convince the victim to install it, thus completing the infection.

Spyware, is instead able to collect data and information on the victim’s system and send them to the attacker.

Ransomware, on the other hand, is the most famous and most used malware in this period, capable of encrypting infected systems in order to make data inaccessible.

Following the infection, a message can be found on the systems where the attacker asks for the payment of a ransom, usually in bitcoin or another crypto-currency, to obtain in exchange the encryption key that will allow you to recover the data.

The traditional ransom request has recently been accompanied by the use of double extortion, or a second ransom that the criminal requires in order not to publicly disclose the stolen data before being encrypted.

The types of malware are varied and the risks of being victims remain remarkably high.
EXPLOIT OF VULNERABILITY

Vulnerabilities are problems that can afflict information systems and that, if not detected, could favor their compromise. Among these, the most common type is that of software vulnerabilities (also called bugs), or defects in the design, installation or configuration of software.

Bugs are exploited by criminals to break into systems and carry out their cyber attacks.

When new vulnerabilities are discovered, software manufacturers prepare appropriate corrective “patches“, which are installed on systems through updates.

To mitigate these problems it is therefore very important that the operating systems as well as the applications are always updated to the latest version available and that this check is carried out continuously.

Vulnerabilities that are not yet known and for which there are no remedies yet are called 0-day and can pose a serious threat to systems.

There are also different types of vulnerabilities, from those concerning the protocols we use to surf the Internet, to the communication methods (for example encrypted or not, etc.), to the incorrect management of passwords (too short or trivial, too reused or not modified. quite often, …) and of utilities.

The ever-increasing complexity of IT systems and the lack of reactivity in updates contribute to the spread of vulnerabilities, which have been confirmed for years among the most present threats in the cyber world.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING

Social Engineering includes all techniques that study human behavior to force victims to perform certain actions.

In these cases, it is essential to carry out a preliminary phase of collecting information on the victim, in order to subsequently be able to devise the best way to achieve the set goal.

This information can be collected from any available source: websites, social media, hobbies, social habits, and even from our junk.

The attack using these techniques can be carried out in different ways, which use pretexts, false settings or baits.

Phishing is also one of these types of attack, which will be described later.

It is important to remember that social engineering can affect not only through IT means: on the contrary, the social engineering uses any means that can prove effective, including telephone calls.

PHISHING

Phishing is a particular type of scam where the victim is deceived and convinced to provide confidential information.

The term derives from fishing and indicates the “trawling” which criminals are using to gain useful information such as credit card numbers or passwords by mass sending fraudulent messages that mimic legitimate content.

Usually this type of threat is associated with e-mails, but it is not excluded that phishing can also affect via SMS (in this case we speak of “Smishing”) or on social media.

The fraudulent message may contain an attachment with malware that is installed after the document is opened, or a link that leads to a fake website, a clone of a legitimate site.

In any case, modern phishing scams are more and more accurate, constantly updated in order to take advantage of the hottest and not always easy to recognize topics.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

Denial of Service (DoS) is a type of cyber attack that aims to exhaust the resources of a system that provides a service (for example a website) in order to make it unusable.

This is achieved by flooding the victim service with incoming data traffic.

In its best known version, the Distributed Denial of Service (abbreviated to DDoS, or distributed DoS), these incoming data arrive from multiple sources at the same time, dramatically increasing the effectiveness of the attack.

The set of attacking machines constitutes a botnet, or a network of computers infected with malware capable of controlling them.

At the right moment, all infected computers are activated by the attacker, starting to overwhelm the target service with connection requests.

Modern DDoS, thanks also to the spread of broadband Internet connections, can take on truly remarkable proportions, which can create many problems, especially if the victim system delivers a critical service.

In some cases, the attacker can even ask for a ransom to stop or not repeat the attack.

In these cases we speak of Ransom Distributed Denial of Service (RDDoS), one of the criminal tendencies that combines extortion with disservice.

The types of cyber attacks can be numerous and very complex.
The solutions to these threats will therefore have to be varied and put together in an organic way.