Attevo Tackles the Changing Landscape of Digital Piracy

CLEVELAND, Aug. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The evolution and widespread use of computers throughout society has been shadowed by new age pirates who disrupt, steal and hoard information for amusement, peer recognition and profit. These digital predators, aka hackers, have altered their strategies and tactics as intrusion defenses have changed and as organized crime syndicates have escalated their involvement in the lucrative business of information theft.

Unauthorized access to computer systems has evolved significantly. Beginning in the 1960s, hacking had nothing to do with illicit activities, as early hackers were focused on improving systems by eliminating their vulnerabilities or by improving operating performance. In the decade that followed, digital predators began to organize into cyber-gangs with a focus on breaking into computer systems for bragging rights, to disrupt service and for petty theft (think free long-distance telephone calls). Moving into the 1980s and 90s, the prevalence of digital piracy expanded rapidly as cyber predators intentionally stole electronic information for the purpose of large-scale profit. In 1995, two Russian pirates penetrated Citibank computers and made-off with $10 million. In another attack, the First National Bank of Chicago was the target of a $70 million heist.

With the advent of the Internet, cyber pirates created electronic viruses, worms, e-mail bombs and other methods to wreak havoc and facilitate theft. The general intent behind these criminal actions was to infect as many computers as possible in the least amount of time. To facilitate these attacks, digital pirates captured and took control of compromised computers by installing backdoor software to zombify the machines, turning them into "bots." These infected bots were controlled remotely by the pirates and could be used to steal passwords, log keystrokes, phish for sensitive information and act as a proxy server in order to conceal the attackers' identities. In the overwhelming majority of instances, the rightful owners of the compromised computers never knew that their machines were hijacked by cyber pirates.

Today's digital predators tend to exercise greater patience, are more targeted in their attacks and they tend to use a full spectrum of computer intrusion technologies and techniques to compromise their targets. Instead of opportunistically seeking immediate financial gain, these pirates prefer a low and slow approach to achieve defined objectives; they attempt to stay hidden as long as possible, slowly moving from one compromised host to the next, without generating regular or predictable network traffic. Working like mice, instead of stealing the entire block of cheese in one fell swoop, they will nibble on their target one bite at a time. This approach has been called Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).

In response to the above, corporations are no longer relying on simply defending the perimeter of their computer networks, rather they are creating layered security environments to "defend in depth." This approach utilizes technologies that protect the hardware infrastructure at a wide-variety of points, as well as the data itself. According to Mark Mahovlich, Practice Director at Attevo, Inc., "Today's digital pirates band together to leverage a wide-range of insights, expertise and assets. The sale of security flaws on the black market by clandestine researchers in combination with organized groups building, growing and even bartering botnets (groups of bots) has created an environment that requires a comprehensive, refined and ever-evolving security strategy. In the years to come, criminal activity in the theft of sensitive business information is going to intensify."

Attevo has implemented data loss prevention (DLP) solutions within complex, geographically-dispersed computing environments. The Attevo Risk Management team includes highly-skilled professionals that are certified to implement solutions and train others on a variety of DLP platforms. Attevo partners with several of the world's leading DLP software development companies. Attevo delivers business consulting services to large, enterprise-class organizations that include program management, master data management, business intelligence and strategic information planning. In addition to public sector experience, Attevo serves clients in the manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, banking, logistics, consumer goods, retail and software industries.

Contact:
Mark Mahovlich
216-928-2800
[email protected]
1375 E. 9th Street, Suite 2500
Cleveland, OH 44114

SOURCE Attevo