SHARING & COMMUNICATING FOR A ROBUST CYBERSECURITY INDUSTRY

JOHN SHIER, SENIOR SECURITY ADVISOR, SOPHOS, TELLS ANITA JOSEPH IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW HOW SOPHOS ADOPTS A COMPREHENSIVE, COLLABORATIVE AND INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO CYBERSECURITY.

- JOHN SHIER

How would you evaluate the global threat landscape today? What are the main areas of concern?

The obvious global concern is ransomware. Unfortunately, ransomware is often a symptom of an underlying security weakness. The reasons for ransomware’s success are varied and speak to a broader set of causes. We find ourselves in a world where many cybercriminals have specialised and offer their unique services to others. Some focus their efforts on initial access by breaching companies with weak security on their externally facing services. Others are skilled at phishing which nets them valuable network credentials. Both these groups can resell their ill-gotten information to other criminals who are skilled at handson attacks and data exfiltration.

We also see malware, mostly in the form of droppers, that provide this initial foothold and offer compromised hosts to other malware crews, like banking trojans. These banking trojans will, in turn, sell their access to ransomware crews once they have everything they need for financial fraud. Much of this world is automated, but it is supported by wellresourced criminals who have the time, money, and skill to deal with setbacks. What’s worse are the groups that offer everything-criminal-as-a-service to unskilled, wannabe-cybercriminals.