State-sponsored attacks: The worst has yet to come

As more and more organisations are being hit by devastating cyber attacks on a daily basis a new survey from Lieberman Software Corporation has revealed that IT security experts actually believe the worst has yet to come and things are not going to improve anytime soon.

The survey, which was carried out at Black Hat USA 2014, revealed that 93 percent of IT security experts believe the hacking landscape is going to get worse and, worryingly, 44 percent of respondents believe the USA is losing the battle against state-sponsored cyber attacks. Interestingly, when Lieberman Software carried out the same survey at Black Hat USA 2013 96 percent of respondents revealed they believed cybercrime was set to get worse and 58 percent believed the USA was losing its battle against state-sponsored attacks. This ultimately means that despite these grave findings IT security experts actually believe things have slightly improved over the last year.

Commenting on the survey findings, Philip Lieberman, President of Lieberman Software, said: “Cyber attacks are evolving at an astounding pace and we are constantly facing extremely sophisticated attacks which we have never witnessed before. Organisations need to take this threat seriously, they cannot stop these attacks; and building taller and thicker walls won’t keep the hordes out.”

Other findings from the study revealed that 58 percent of respondents think that their network may have already been breached by a foreign state-sponsored attack. Also, half of IT security experts believe that security awareness within their organisation is only average, while more than 1 in 10 admit that security awareness within their own organization is bad.

“The majority of organizations are prepared for amateur hackers and low-level criminals, but are completely ill-equipped to deal with today’s advanced nation-state foes. The most dangerous threats are highly personalized attacks designed for one-time use against specific individuals. Many state-sponsored attackers can now create perfect email attacks that inserts remote control software onto corporate networks. Most corporations and government agencies would benefit from better security training, documented security processes, and enterprise-level products that can manage and secure powerful privileged accounts that grant access to critical IT assets,” continued Lieberman.