Chinese Hacking Secrets Revealed

The secret behind Chinese hacking has been revealed by ThreatConnect. CNN Money reports:

The hackers’ techniques don’t sound very sophisticated: They send innocent-looking emails to unsuspecting recipients, whose computers then get infected with malware that trawls for sensitive information.

This graphic from ThreatConnect shows the key role played by spearphishing.

Source: ThreatConnect

This simple technique is devastatingly effective because it is easy to create an email that deceives users into taking the actions desired by the attackers. In its September 24, 2015 first page story, “Sleuths Link Hacker to China’s Military,” the Wall Street Journal describes how a spearphishing email works. The Wall Street Journalwrites,

The email attachment would tempt anyone following the diplomatic standoff between China and other countries in the South China Sea.

How can you help your users fight being deceived? Use SP Guard from Iconix. SP Guard lets IT quickly and easily tell users which senders are trusted.

Iconix Issued Seventh U.S. Patent For Email

ICONIX, Inc., the industry leader in visual email solutions, announced on September 15, 2015, that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued Iconix’s seventh patent titled “User interface for email inbox to call attention differently to different classes of email.” The abstract for U.S. Patent 9,137,048, dated September 15, 2015, states: “Sender emails have their Truemarks (icons) displayed in the sender column of a list view” and “fraudulent emails have a fraud icon displayed with a warning in the sender column.”

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NSA Director Warns — Don’t Underestimate Impact of Users on Security

On September 8, 2015, Admiral Mike Rogers, NSA Director and Commanding Office of US Cybercommand, conducted a briefing at the Wilson Center. During that briefing he was asked about the recent breach of the Joint Staff by a spearphishing attack.

Admiral Mike Rogers

He said, “[Y]you can have the greatest technology and greatest defensive structure in the world, but in the end, you can never underestimate the impact of user behavior.”

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Sun Tzu Explains Cyberwar 2,500 Years Ago

The US Government does a very good job of technically securing its systems.  There is rarely a report of attackers compromising US Government computers through technical exploits.  So, how do they do it?

A recent report in The Hill describes how Chinese and Russian cyberwarriors are using the same tactics to cyberattack the United States Government. What are these common tactics?  Spearphishing emails.  Why would two adversaries adopt identical tactics?

About 2,500 years ago Sun Tzu, the Chinese general, strategist and tactician, wrote what is considered by many to be the definitive work on military strategy and tactics — the Art of War.

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