Sophisticated mass market attacks, refined malware to target users in 2013: Blue Coat

Businesses should take a holistic view of their security as mass market and targeted threats converge, according to Blue Coat Systems Asia-Pacific product marketing director, Jonathan Andresen, who views mass market and targeted attacks as one and the same, and not separate entities.

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Andresen said the focus should be on visibility for all traffic, including Web, non-Web and SSL.

Read our "Each defensive solution logs traffic," he said.

"Reviewing those logs on a regular basis to identify anomalies is crucial to stopping attacks."

As for what businesses should be looking out for in 2013, Andresen points to mass market attacks that provide cover for targeted attacks.

With businesses manage many end points, Andresen said there is the potential that at any given time tens to hundreds of them may be infected, typically with mass market malware.

"While not the ideal security situation, businesses nonetheless tend to tolerate this level of mass market malware infections," he said.

Most malware in 2013 is expected to come from large malnets that operate "malware as a business" model, which utilise infrastructures tuned to launch attacks that are highly effective at infecting users.

Unsurprisingly, this has meant malnet operators have built a thriving business.

"Their continued success at infecting computers indicates that they don't need a revolutionary breakthrough to continue making money, just on-going evolutionary adjustments," Andresen said.

As the malnets amass funds through their activities, it is likely that their models will be refined as investments are made to develop more sophisticated, believable attacks.

For example, by taking the simple step of hiring translators and copy editors, better phishing emails can be created by malnet operators to mimic the real page of a financial institution.