Rising Nation State Cyber Attacks fromLebanon and the Netherlands? Optiv Security Cyber-Intelligence Report Reveals State of the Cyber-Threat Landscape

DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#2018predictions—Optiv
Security, the worldÔÇÖs leading security solutions integrator, has
published its 2018
Cyber Threat Intelligence Estimate (CTIE), which details the current
state of the cyber-threat landscape and uses estimative intelligence to
predict how that landscape stands to change in the future. This report
is generated to provide OptivÔÇÖs clients with a global view of security
threats and trends, so they can effectively adapt their strategic plans
to mitigate anticipated enterprise risk.

Among the key findings in the report:

• The Rise of the Netherlands and Lebanon. Seemingly benign
  nation states such as Lebanon and the Netherlands are rising in
  the ranks of nation-sponsored attackers. The motivations for this rise
  are unclear, although both countries made headlines this year with
  cyberattacks: Lebanon for spying on thousands of people across 20
  countries via an Android malware campaign; and the Netherlands for
  penetrating RussiaÔÇÖs Cozy Bear organization and uncovering the hack of
  the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential
  election in the U.S.
• Cyber-Social is the Next Front for Nation States.
  Nation-state-sponsored attacks are expanding from ÔÇ£cyber-physical,ÔÇØ
  where the objective is to compromise data or critical infrastructure,
  to ÔÇ£cyber-social,ÔÇØ where the goal is to use social media to influence
  the opinions and actions of large populations of people. Russian
  cyber-social exploitation of European and American elections showed
  how relatively easy and cost-effective these can be, which
  dramatically increases the likelihood that this class of exploit will
  be exploited by a growing number of nation states, hacktivists and
  other groups in the future.
• Critical Infrastructure has been Breached. The utilities and
  energy industries experienced high indicators of exploit activity
  without any high-profile breaches. This suggests that attackers have
  access to critical infrastructure but are waiting to exploit this
  access in response to events such as war, or attacks on their own
  infrastructure.
• Healthcare IoT is Vulnerable. The Internet of Things (IoT)
  continues to suffer from weak security fundamentals and unmitigated
  vulnerabilities. The healthcare IoT is particularly problematic due to
  the increasing numbers of networked medical devices and the potential
  damage that could occur should those devices become compromised.
• Phishing Remains the Delivery Vehicle of Choice. Despite years
  of technology countermeasures, publicity and education campaigns,
  phishing remains the number one malware delivery mechanism.
  Additionally, while modern email security solutions can detect and
  stop emails with malicious attachments, they are still largely
  impotent against detecting hyperlinks to malicious websites.
• Protecting the Brand Rises in Importance. Brand security
  threats were the second most common source of alerts for Optiv during
  the year ÔÇô behind phishing attacks, but ahead of typical security
  concerns such as data leakage and web vulnerabilities. These alerts
  were generated in response to the presence of ÔÇ£phony, misleading or
  malicious sites,ÔÇØ raising the importance of brand risk in the
  hierarchy of enterprise security concerns.

If you are a member of the media interested in further analysis on any
of the issues addressed in OptivÔÇÖs
2018 Cyber Threat Intelligence Estimate, please contact Jason Cook
at [email protected] or
(816) 701-3374.

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Optiv helps clients plan, build and run successful cyber security
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in cyber security strategy, managed
security services, incident response, risk and compliance, security
consulting, training and support, integration and architecture services,
and security technology. Optiv maintains premium partnerships with more
than 350 of the leading security technology manufacturers. For more
information, visit www.optiv.com.

Contacts

Optiv Security
Jason Cook, 816-701-3374
[email protected]
or
Susan
Vaillancourt, 603-459-8906
[email protected]