Cisco warns firms against new cyber attack

Cisco, which said these are more virulent versions of distributed denial of service (DDOS), informed that these “could eliminate organisations’ backups and safety nets, required to restore systems and data after an attack.”

Network solution giant, Cisco, has alerted the public to a new wave of cyber-attack, which it described as “destruction of service” (DeOS).


Cisco, which said these are more virulent versions of distributed denial of service (DDOS), informed that these “could eliminate organisations’ backups and safety nets, required to restore systems and data after an attack.”


It pointed out that IoT growth (when it comes) increases the ‘attack surfaces’ and so exposes organisations to even greater harm.


The firm in its 2017 Midyear Cybersecurity Report, claimed that WannaCry and Nyetya, showed the rapid spread and wide impact of attacks that look like traditional ransomware, but are much more destructive, and foreshadow attacks that will prove far more damaging, leaving businesses with no way to recover.


Recent IoT botnet activity, claims Cisco, already suggests that some attackers may be laying the foundation for a wide-reaching, high-impact cyber-threat event that could potentially disrupt the Internet itself.


So measuring the effectiveness of security practices in the face of these attacks is critical. Cisco said it tracks progress in reducing ‘time to detection’ (TTD), the window of time between a compromise and the detection of a threat.


Since November 2015, Cisco has decreased its median TTD from just over 39 hours to about 3.5 hours for the period from November 2016 to May 2017. This figure is based on opt-in telemetry gathered from Cisco security products deployed worldwide.


While Cisco has seen a striking decline in exploit kits, other traditional attacks are seeing a resurgence. According to it, Spam volumes are significantly increasing, as adversaries turn to other tried-and-true methods, like email, to distribute malware and generate revenue. Cisco threat researchers anticipate that the volume of spam with malicious attachments will continue to rise while the exploit kit landscape remains in a flux.


Spyware and adware often dismissed by security professionals as more nuisance than harm, are forms of malware that persist and bring risks to the enterprise.