Organizations and companies are exposed to destructive and BEC attacks in 51% of cases.
Cybersecurity experts from VMware have reported a sharp increase in the number of cyber attacks aimed at destroying or manipulating data. According to VMware’s annual report, destructive cyberattacks have increased during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with organizations now hitting 51% of the time.
Hackers use a variety of techniques, including manipulating timestamps with Chronos attacks or using fake content in business email compromise (BEC) attacks. Thus, attackers gain access to the communication application or email accounts to impersonate the identity of the owners.
“Business communication platforms are an ideal mechanism for delivering deepfakes because organizations and users work in this environment and trust them unconditionally,” the experts explained.
By manipulating time stamps, attackers can “disrupt the entire network, change the operating hours of routers and switches, or interrupt attempts by security solutions to search for cyber threats.”
According to experts, 41% of financial institutions and 60% of information security specialists discovered manipulations with time stamps during the analysis of cyberattacks. According to 123 experts interviewed, companies and organizations are now subjected to destructive attacks in 51% of cases.
The researchers attributed the increase in the number of such attacks to the increased use of cloud technologies and the transition to a remote mode of operation due to the pandemic. For example, 43% of respondents said more than one third of attacks targeted the cloud, while 22% said more than half of the attacks.
In addition, an increase in the attack surface has led to an increase in the level of stress and professional burnout for many information security experts. 51% of respondents experienced severe stress or burnout in the past 12 months, 65% considered quitting their job, while 67% had to take a vacation.
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