How Cyber Spies Infiltrate Business Systems

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Bob Violino reports on the quiet threat to today's business: cyber spies on network systems. According to observers, 75 percent of companies have been infected with undetected, targeted attacks — ones that typically exploit multiple weaknesses with the ultimate goal of compromising a specific account. Such attacks often begin by correlating publicly available information to access a single system. From there, the entire environment can be gradually traversed enabling attackers to place monitoring software in out-of-the-way systems, such as log servers, where IT often doesn't look for intrusions. 'They collect the data and send it out, such as via FTP, in small amounts over time, so they don't rise over the noise of normal traffic and call attention to themselves,' Violino writes. 'There's probably no way you can completely protect your organization against the increasingly sophisticated attacks by foreign and domestic spies. That's especially true if the attacks are coming from foreign governments, because nations have resources that most companies do not possess.'"

Comments

Re:Thought of this sort of thing in 2004

[bsDaemon]

I know... they might upload a virus into their shipping fleet's ballast control computers and blame it on you so the government can trash your shit for them. But it should all work out in the end, though, and you'll get the girl.

Re:Cyber Spies

[teh moges]

I like your idea of calling non-cyberspies 'meatspies' from now on.