McAfee Labs Report Highlights Success of Phishing Attacks With 80 Percent of Business Users Unable to Detect Scams
September 04 2014 - 12:01AM
Business Wire
Results Show Finance and HR Departments, Which
Hold Sensitive Corporate Data, Performed Worst
McAfee Labs today released the McAfee Labs Threats Report:
August 2014, revealing that phishing continues to be an effective
tactic for infiltrating enterprise networks. Testing business
users’ ability to detect online scams, the McAfee Phishing Quiz
uncovered that 80 percent of its participants failed to detect at
least one of seven phishing emails. Furthermore, results showed
that finance and HR departments, those holding some of the most
sensitive corporate data, performed the worst at detecting scams,
falling behind by a margin of 4 percent to 9 percent.
Since last quarter’s Threats Report, McAfee Labs has collected
more than 250,000 new phishing URLs, leading to a total of nearly
one million new sites in the past year. Not only was there an
increase in total volume, there was a significant rise in the
sophistication of phishing attacks occurring in the wild. Results
showed both mass campaign phishing and spear phishing are still
rampant in the attack strategies used by cybercriminals around the
world. Meanwhile, the United States continues to host more phishing
URLs than any other country.
“One of the great challenges we face today is upgrading the
Internet’s core technologies to better suit the volume and
sensitivity of traffic it now bears,” said Vincent Weafer, senior
vice president for McAfee Labs. “Every aspect of the trust chain
has been broken in the last few years—from passwords to OpenSSL
public key encryption and most recently USB security. The
infrastructure that we so heavily rely on depends on technology
that hasn’t kept pace with change and no longer meets today’s
demands.”
Findings also revealed new cybercrime opportunities since the
public disclosure of the Heartbleed vulnerability, as stolen data
from still vulnerable websites is currently being sold on the black
market. Lists of unpatched websites have quickly become hit lists
for cybercriminals and tools are readily available to mine
unpatched sites. With these tools, it is possible to tie together
an automated system that targets known vulnerable machines and
extracts sensitive information.
Each quarter, the McAfee Labs team of more than 400
multidisciplinary researchers in 30 countries follows the complete
range of threats in real time, identifying application
vulnerabilities, analyzing and correlating risks, and enabling
instant remediation to protect enterprises and the public.
Additional Key Findings
- Operation Tovar: McAfee joined
global law enforcement agencies and others to take down Gameover
Zeus and CryptoLocker by blocking more than 125,000 CryptoLocker
domains and sinkholing in excess of 120,000 Gameover Zeus domains.
However, copycats are on the rise, creating new variants of
ransomware or financial-targeting malware using the leaked Zeus
source code.
- Growth in Malware: New malware
samples rose by only 1 percent in the second quarter. However, with
more than 31 million new samples, this was still the largest amount
recorded in a single quarter. The total count of mobile malware
increased by 17 percent in the second quarter, while the rate of
new malware appears to have leveled off at about 700,000 per
quarter.
- Network Threats: Denial of
service attacks rose by 4 percent in the second quarter and remain
the most prevalent type of network threat.
To read the full McAfee Labs Threats Report: August 2014 with a
complete list of findings, please visit: http://mcaf.ee/uycbt
About McAfee Labs
McAfee Labs is one of the world’s leading sources for threat
research, threat intelligence, and cybersecurity thought
leadership. The McAfee Labs team of more than 400 researchers
collects threat data from millions of sensors across key threat
vectors—file, web, message, and network. The team then performs
cross-vector threat correlation analysis and delivers real-time
threat intelligence to tightly integrated McAfee endpoint, content,
and network security products through its cloud-based McAfee Global
Threat Intelligence service. McAfee Labs also develops core threat
detection technologies—such as McAfee DeepSAFE technology,
application profiling, and graylist management—that are
incorporated into the broadest security product portfolio in the
industry. http://www.mcafee.com/us/mcafee-labs.aspx
About McAfee
McAfee, part of Intel Security and a wholly owned subsidiary of
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), empowers businesses, the public
sector, and home users to safely experience the benefits of the
Internet. The company delivers proactive and proven security
solutions and services for systems, networks, and mobile devices
around the world. With its Security Connected strategy, innovative
approach to hardware-enhanced security, and unique Global Threat
Intelligence network, McAfee is relentlessly focused on keeping its
customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com
Note: McAfee is a trademark or registered trademark of McAfee,
Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other names and
brands may be claimed as the property of others.
McAfeeChris Palm, 408-346-3089chris_palm@mcafee.comorZeno
GroupEleni Manetas, 646-203-5135eleni.manetas@zenogroup.com
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