The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.
January - 2011 - issue > Technology
The State of the Cyberstate
Amit Yoran
Cybercrime and other politically and economically motivated attacks on public and private networks have crossed the line from a looming threat to a cost of doing business.
The infamous Aurora attack on Google, Intel and other companies underscored both the potency of data theft and the acknowledgement by corporate America that, for now, the battle is being lost. Recent SEC filings – from Google to Northrop Grumman – are now including shareholder risk language to protect corporations in an environment where cyber defense is an inexact science, and where online pillaging presents explosive growth opportunities for adversaries with little upfront investment.
In 2010 the Kneber botnet, provided a perfect representation of the state of the cyberstate. A medium sized instance of the well-known ZeuS botnet, the operators behind Kneber slipped past what should have been more-than-adequate defenses within over 2,500 companies. They remained entrenched in these companies for more than 18 months, and in one month alone managed a massive data theft totaling 75GB of sensitive data. But, for all that was said to be average about the malware involved in Kneber, and Aurora, these attacks on corporations are representative of new “offensive-in-depth” methodologies that are multilayered, multifaceted, advanced threats.
Gaps In Effectiveness
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