Transcript 0:01 Now, all this is to say bad actors are becoming more innovative, more creative, and more disruptive. Even though we have seen a drop in overall attack numbers, these numbers are still way too high, way too disruptive. 0:19 And the scarier part of these nefarious characters are becoming more innovative. 0:28 [on-hold music] Welcome to the Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:43 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of the Peggy Smedley Show. As always, I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:49 This week's episode of the show is powered by Hilti, and I have been thinking a lot about what has changed in this past two years and what will continue to change, let's say, in the next two years. 1:03 One particular area is our cyber health. So today on the Peggy Smedley Show, I'm going to be talking all about cybersecurity. 1:12 A new report is out about the state of the market, and we will get into that in this first segment, and we're gonna kinda dive into all the results. 1:22 But the bottom line is this: these nefarious characters are getting more creative, simply more creative. They are more innovative than ever before. 1:34 And attacks are happening, I would like to say maybe even fast and furious. But there is some good news still in all of the news that I'm gonna share with you. But we'll talk about that here in this first segment. 1:47 But before we get to that, let me tell you about the guests I have on the show. 1:52 I will be talking with Eric Miksa, senior vice president of marketing at Hilti, and then I'll wrap up the show with Mark Chung, executive vice president of roadway practice at the National Safety Council. 2:05 Now, let me tell you about what we wanna talk about in the National Safety Council. I have some questions. I really wanna be looking at what's been happening. 2:13 You know, there's been a lot of talking, a lot of reports, a lot of planning, a lot of PR, and a lot of publicity. 2:20 But when it comes down to it, what has really changed, let's say, in the past decade when we talk about driver distraction? That is really what I want to know. 2:30 How are we going to stop glamorizing, let's say, the sing-alongs in all these cars? You know, does James Corbin still, and others, realize the dangers of distracted driving and the numbers of fatalities? 2:43 Well, check this out. Forty-two thousand and sixty people. Up. It's up, not down. What will get people to understand we have to focus on the road ahead? 2:56 Well, we'll get to that later on, but let's talk about the numbers on cybersecurity. NetScout's Threat Intelligence Report provides findings from the second half of twenty-twenty f-- one. 3:10 And DDoS, distributed denial-of-service, as, as I always like to say in these reports, there's some good news, and then there's some bad news to all of this, so we're gonna go through this. 3:21 But the good news is there has been, in fact, a decrease in DDoS attacks, okay? So these denial-of-service attacks in the second half of last year. Now, the organization anticipated this decline. 3:39 Before COVID, the Omicron began spreading here in the United States at the very end of the year. People were returning to physical offices and classrooms and all was great, right? 3:51 Well, then came a decrease in this cybercrime. 3:57 The overall number of attacks did indeed decrease from five point four million in the first half of twenty twenty-one to four point four million during the second half of the year. Good news, right? Quite the drop. 4:12 But it only paints one part of the overall picture. Now, this is what's interesting. When we look at the attacks year over year, it tells us a very different story. 4:24 The combined total of nine point seven million attacks in twenty twenty-one is up, actually fourteen percent increase above the number of attacks that occurred in twenty nineteen, a full two years earlier before the pandemic took hold of our lives, and apparently our cyber systems, if you take that into account. 4:49 So here's m-more not-so-great news for all of you. The bad actors are getting smarter. The report shows attackers doubled down on direct path attacks instead of amplification attacks. 5:03 What's more, they focused on targets that haven't ha-- that haven't traditionally been, well, let's say, a focus in the past. Attackers have also launched more potent attacks. 5:17 Now, these attacks are taking down companies, but they're also disrupting consumers' ability to access the internet. 5:28 So these nefarious characters are also being innovative with server-class botnets and increased use of DDoS techniques such as carpet bombing. Now, that was one I was just learning about, actually. 5:43 So these are a few of the big key findings from this report that I want to walk through quickly here on the first segment, so we'll all better be aware of the current state of cyberattacks. 5:56 Now, I know some of my friends in the industry were kinda giving me an update on this, so let's share some of the, the interesting kind of information. 6:04 First, the triple threat.Three prolific DDoS extortion campaigns operated simultaneously. VoIP providers were hit with high-profile extortion or ransom attacks from a REvil copycat. 6:20 Now, this resulted in an estimated revenue loss of somewhere between nine to twelve million dollars. At the same time, Lazarus Bear Armada and Fancy Lazarus targeted organizations around the world. 6:36 Meanwhile, ransomware gangs continued adding triple extortion to their arsenals. So these triple extortions include attacks made up of, I guess, file encryption and data theft and leakage and DDoS attacks. 6:53 So you got all kinds of stuff going on. Another key finding is there has been a rise in industry-specific targeting and direct path attacks. Now, think about this. 7:05 Attackers narrowed in on a number of key industries, including VoIP, electronic computer manufacturing, computer storage device manufacturing, software publishers, insurance agencies and brokerages, and colleges and universities, and professional schools. 7:26 It's not to say there haven't been other attacks. We know that there have been, but these were some of the largest and most frequent in the second half of twenty-twenty-one. 7:39 Another big trend at the end of last year was the rise of server class botnet armies. So these certainly aren't new. The first botnets in the early nineteen-nineties were composed of servers. 7:54 Today, it has grown naturally and, and they continue to grow. But adversaries not only increase the size of the IoT botnets, but also conscripted kind of high-power servers into larger botnets. 8:09 So case in point, GitMury variants exploiting a vulnerability in Git servers. So many of you knew that, and that's not surprising. But another big trend at the end of last year was the DDoS for hire free-for-all. 8:24 I mean, launching these attacks no longer requires a nominal fee. I mean, we've just seen so many. So these DDoS attacks can increase via some form of digital or cryptocurrency. 8:36 So as you think about it, it just keeps going on and on, and we talk about what we have to do, but sometimes it just keeps happening, right? 8:44 These attacks target everything from specific applications and games to methods for bypassing standard anti-DDoS measures. 8:53 So according to just nineteen out of hundreds of such sites on the dark web, they claim to have successfully launched more than ten million DDoS attacks. Now, think about that. 9:08 I want to mention one final finding from this report, and that exists at the intersection of encryption, state, and DDoS defense. 9:19 Nefarious characters are focused on disrupting layer four transport layer security encrypted applications and services. Now, this is evidenced by the increase in bandwidth and throughput of these attacks. 9:36 In fact, the report shows DDoS for higher services increasingly added specific attack types for different web browsers, web-based games, and gaming service software. 9:51 Now, all this is to say bad actors are becoming more innovative, more creative, and more disruptive. That's what I started at the beginning of this show. 10:03 Even though we have seen a drop in overall attack numbers, these numbers are still way too high, way too disruptive. And the scarier part of these nefarious characters are becoming more innovative, 10:18 more-- I, I hate to say, more talented. In many cases, they are one step ahead of us, and we talk about this a lot. So... And that leads me to my opinion for today. 10:31 We need to figure out how to encourage these hackers to use their superpowers for good and not for evil. I mean, it, it's, it's really disturbing in a lot of ways that they're able to do such disruptive damage. 10:49 These threat actors are innovating and adapting to new techniques every day, every turn. They're becoming better at monetizing their nefarious behavior. Now, think about that. 11:04 Think about your company that at some point might have to deal with it. These individuals are creative, innovative, and they are coming after all of our businesses. In one way or another, they're eyeing our businesses. 11:19 They're waiting for us to slip up, and they're just saying, "I got you." And none of us wants to hear, "I got you." 11:27 If we don't do something about it soon, we're all gonna become victims of something we don't want to become victims to. We want to be more aware, but the sad part of it is, how? 11:40 So we want these bad guys to become good guys, white, black hats, whatever you want to call them today, we want them to be good guys and figure out how to make these bad guys see that they can put their talents to good. 11:54 So here's my tip. What do we need to do? We need to do something with this data I have shared with you today. How do we do that? 12:04 How do we encourage creative thinking from bad to good?There are so many steps we can take to make our businesses more secure, but sometimes it's a little tricky from educating and inspiring the younger generation, and the younger generation is very creative. 12:23 And maybe it's the younger generation that can help us to make things more secure, making security decisions while considering the big picture. 12:33 Are we including the younger generation to help us think about how we're going to be more secure? We are fighting a cyber battle, and we need to be thinking about what we need to do. 12:45 And this cyber battle we're fighting, many we can't see. We don't really know where it is. It's the unseen, but it's there. We need as many bright minds on our side as possible. 12:58 We need to figure out how to combat this cyber challenge, and we can't wait till it's too late. We have to combat it before it disrupts our businesses. And I guess the question I have for all of you: What will you do? 13:13 What are you doing? Who are you working with to help you solve these challenges? Because it's getting more and more, whether it's ransomware, whether it's a DDoS, whether it's one of these ransomware gangs. 13:27 I mean, it's amazing to me how many are creeping up every day at every turn and how good... I, I, you-- I hate to say they're innovative, but they are. They're creative. 13:38 You know, we, we have to figure out how to turn those disruptive behavior into disruptive positive behavior. All right. 13:47 Well, as always, if you have thoughts on what I've talked about today, please send me a tweet to continue this discussion on social media at Connected World. I wanna hear. I wanna hear your thoughts. 14:00 So again, tweet at me at Connected World. All right, listeners, I'm out of time for this segment, but please check out our website at connectedworld.com or our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 14:11 We put up a new issue, uh, new articles, so we'd love for you to check them out, read them, share your thoughts. 14:18 We're always excited for you to check out everything that's going on, and we wanna know what your thoughts are. So again, get up there. All right. This is The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world. 14:27 And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 14:31 We will be right back after this commercial break with Hilti to talk to us about what's happening in the world of connected tools and being more productive at the job site. We'll be right back. 14:42 Go get your quick cup of coffee. [outro music]
