APTs: So What if you ARE a Target?

This blog post continues the discussion from last month, which examined Advanced Persistent Threats, or APTs.  You can find it here.

So if leading technology companies can't stop an APT, what chance do you have against defending against it?  The unfortunate answer is: not much.

An interesting article from DarkReading.com discusses what you should know about detecting a targeted attack, and goes over the methodology an attacker might use to probe a company for weaknesses.  Rightfully so, the article discusses the human vulnerabilities inherent to every company, saying: “Detecting attacks attempting to exploit human assets is often nearly impossible without regular training and awareness. You can't install Snort on your CEO and CFO.”  This is a great point – if your company is specifically targeted by an attacker and your network is secure, the attacker will naturally turn to social engineering, custom malware, or spear phishing in an attempt to gain a foothold.  Some tools can offer limited assistance here, but none surpass user awareness.

To that point, you should make an effort to check out the online tools that your users frequent - Facebook, Gmail, Craigslist, and LinkedIn for example.  These all have good resources that explain how to control privacy of information, as well as tips to avoid scams common to these applications.  These pages can typically be located within a few clicks and are well worth the effort to find.  Make it a point to compile and send these tips to your users on a regular basis.

Your users are, by far, your biggest security liability.  Instituting a sound security policy, coupled with user training, is a must.  Your security policy is your IT security playbook: user-oriented policies, and training about these policies, will act to "harden" your users just as you might harden your network perimeter.

If you don't already have a security policy, check out www.InstantSecurityPolicy.com, which can help you obtain a custom set of security policies in minutes.