Actu
The inception of "Inception" - one of the most sophisticated malware attacks ever seen
December 2014 by Lancope CTO - TK Keanini
There is a new cyber threat which is targeting embassies, finance, engineering and military installations and spans 60 mobile networks. Uncovered by Blue Coat, it has been described by them as "one of the most sophisticated malware attacks" that they’ve ever seen.
Commenting on this, Lancope CTO, TK Keanini, says:
"People need to realise that we are computing and communicating much more on our Smartphones than we are on PC’s these days. It is for this reason that adversaries will spend time and resources developing technology for these platforms.
The fundamental problem to be solved here is both technical and social. The technical problem is that these platforms need strong authentication of data and communication so that the user can be cryptographically assured of the origin (ie. updates from Adobe are really from Adobe). The social factor is the more important one because, while some of these authentication means are available today, people are not using them or subverting them and then getting into this type of trouble. Until this is solved, the bad guys will continue to write software to do their bidding.
An important point to be made about ’Inception’ is the fact that its concentration is not on getting in, but remaining hidden and its originators remaining unidentified. This is a trait common to all advanced threat as getting in comes at a very low cost - people still have very insecure habits are will continue to be exploited until they develop good habits. The malware getting discovered or the authors identified means they need to start all over again and this is something that raises their cost of operations. The only way this problem goes away is when we can effectively change the economics for these adversaries. "
