Malware attacks are a growing concern amongst enterprises. It not only results in downtime but also poses the threat of data theft. In the second of this four part series on malware attacks on enterprises, we bring to you the implications of malware attacks on businesses.

Effects on organizations and businesses
There are very well known - attacks of Conficker, experienced from a lot of organizations, from the UK Parliament to Waikato DHB network. The virus first disables a number of Windows services, such as the Automatic Update, Security Center, Windows Defender and Windows Error Reporting. Microsoft continues to offer a reward of $250,000 for finding the creators of the worm.

Another incident was reported at the end of 2009. During Christmas, DDoS attacks took down the Web sites of Amazon and Walmart. Christmas shopping took a break because of attacks on the servers of Amazon,Walmart and Expedia. Although the situation was soon under control-, these attacks caused big losses for the affected companies, as the traffic increases for on-line shopping during the holidays season.

The attacks in CAT 2009 Online exam in India made it impossible for almost 4000 students to attend the test.There have been some recent and quite interesting DDOS attacks targeting miscellaneous banks in Russia. The attackers behind these incidents used a botnet spread across China and Russia in order to hammer down the banks’ networks. Given the poor security measures implemented at the corporate level, the financial institutions had suffered major outages and managed to resume operation after almost a week.

Reasons for massive increase in attacks, malicious web links etc
In the current malicious environment, the one fifth of the globe population connected to the Internet has to cope with approximate 2,000 new and mutated viruses per day, almost 50,000 phishing attempts per month and more than 1,000,000 hijacked computers that spread bots, rootkits and other malware during one year.

Malware creators use automated tools to alter the code responsible for the virus’ signature. Bagle, Peed or Zbot are just few examples where the malware itself or one of its components (especially the downloader) frequently changes to dodge the signature-based products.

As a countermeasure, security companies introduced heuristics and behavior based technologies. A new or mutated breed of malware can now be detected and annihilated based on architectural or behavioral pattern, rather than using a list of known e-threats.

The main advantage is the drastic decrease of the time elapse between the launching of malware and the issuing of an antimalware signature update (also known as window of exposure). BitDefender’s B-HAVE heuristics, for instance, detects 63 percent of e-threats, without even needing a signature .

The information available on social networking sites could be used by attackers in the preliminary reconnaissance phase. A potential intruder could gather data concerning the size of the organization, its employees’ hierarchy, their work expertise and IT&C literacy degree, etc. This information might simply outline the profile of the most vulnerable employee. Via different types of social engineering techniques he or she could be later determined into revealing even more sensitive data that will eventually provide the back door into the company’s network.

Impact of malware trends on mobile workforce
In today’s connected world, there is no distinction between consumers and business people - they are now one in the same. This convergence of personal and business computing is a result of today’s connected lifestyle. Where you are no longer dictates or limits what you can do online. Computer-based communications now takes place in virtually any environment, blurring the lines between office and home technology, and creating a merger of personal and business interests.

The web is the new platform for business and home: Social networks and online communities, hosted services, collaboration and sharing.

Everyday activities are now conducted online: Bill payment, stock trading, shopping, gaming. This "mix and match" lifestyle poses an increased risk for computer users, as each of the numerous activities they now engage in through the Web is a likely target of newly emerged and more complex forms of attack.

This article has been written with inputs from Catalin Cosoi, Senior Antimalware Researcher, BitDefender.

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