2011 Social Media Malware Trends

Social Media as the Top Malware Delivery Vehicle: How to Protect Your Network Presented by Paul Henry Security and Forensic Analyst, Lumension MCP+I, MCSE, CCSA, CCSE, CISSP-ISSAP, CISM, CISA, CIFI, CCE, ACE, GCFA, VCP, SANS Institute Instructor

Should I allow network users to access social media?
Impact on productivity
Lack of control
Compromise of security

The New World of Social Media Malware
Attacks are no longer limited to those who post a wealth of private information online
Hackers now leverage advanced techniques
Click jacking
Spear phishing
Password sniffing

Click jacking
Click jacking attacks are regularly going viral on Facebook
Be careful with that ever popular “like” button

Spear phishing
Phishing now makes up 23 percent of all attacks in the realm of social media

Password Sniffing
People often share passwords across multiple accounts
It may be a complex password but if shared across multiple accounts it increases risk
Just as importantly, what about your secret questions used to reset your password?

Surfing Unencrypted
Users think nothing of surfing social media sites via open, unencrypted WiFi
You are exposing your account username and password often
Are you using that password across multiple accounts?
A bad guy can harvest your secret questions once he/she is able access your social media accounts….
Why guess the password when he/she can reset it to the password of his/her choosing?

So What Can You Do?
Educate users
Put policies in place
Patch, patch, patch
Leverage an endpoint security solution

User Education
Ensure site visits are encrypted
Pay attention to what is displayed in the browser bar
Don’t share personal information, such as birth date or address
Don’t trust people you don’t know
Password credentials

User Policy
Lay out usage policies, such as:
No downloading content from social media sites
Use your personal email (rather than work email) for access
Even better, put tools in place to enforce these policies

Deploy Patches
The top security priority is patching client-side software (SANS Institute)
Don’t focus on Microsoft alone
more than 2/3 of today’s vulnerabilities come from non-Microsoft applications
check Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple regularly for browser patches
Look at ALL vulnerabilities (not just critical)

Effective Software
Multiple Consoles
3-6 different management consoles on average
Agent Bloat
3-10 agents installed per endpoint
Decreased network performance
AV is no longer enough
Move away from point products

What You Need
At the very least , you should be leveraging software that employs:
Application control or whitelisting
Antivirus
Patch and remediation
Enforcement of the Rule of Least Privlidge

Questions?

2011 Social Media Malware Trends

by Lumension

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2011 Social Media Malware Trends Presentation Transcript

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