IT security is very important in today’s technology world because of the virtualization and cloud computing techniques that are used in many businesses. CIO.com reported on an article that talks about how hackers are flying into cloud based servers and how important IT security and tech support it. Check out some of the article below.
Cybercriminals are taking a page from the software-as-a-service playbook: they’re now selling exploit kits complete with hosting services, with customers paying for the length of time the exploits are actively infecting computers.
The kits offer several kinds of exploits, or sequences of codes that can take advantage of software vulnerabilities in order to deliver malware. Researchers from Seculert have found that at least a couple of these kits — Incognito 2.0 and Bomba — offer their own Web hosting as well as a Web-based management interface.
The new business model makes it easier for cybercriminals who may have trouble securing so-called “bulletproof” hosting, or ISPs willing to host malware servers, said Aviv Raff, CTO and cofounder of Seculert. The company specializes in a cloud-based service that alerts its customers to new malware, exploits and other cyberthreats.
The whole package is intended for criminals who want large numbers of hacked computers running Microsoft Windows. Once the computers are hacked, the machines can be used to steal personal data, send spam, for conducting denial-of-service attacks or other purposes.
It’s also cheaper. The criminal clients pay for only the time that their exploits are live, meaning if for any reason the ISPs shut down the rogue servers, they don’t have to pay, Raff said. He estimated the malware hosting and exploit service to cost between US$100 to $200 a month.
“This is all managed by the ‘service provider,'” Raff said. “You as a customer only pay for the time the exploits are hosted. We don’t have the exact numbers, but like any other ‘cloud-based’ service, it’s reasonable that the account is much more affordable than buying the kit and hosting it.”
The clients must provide their own malware for the exploits to deliver. They must also hack websites in order to redirected victims to the crimeware servers hosted by Incognito’s operators. When a potential victim visits one of the infected websites, an iframe is displayed that brings in content from Incognito servers that starts trying to hack the machines with various exploits.
So far, Seculert counted about 8,000 legitimate websites that have been hacked and are pulling exploits hosted by Incognito. Some victims are infected when they go to those sites through normal browsing, Raff said. But the hackers have also used spam campaigns to try to draw people to infected sites.
If you are heavily invested in your cloud server, how is your IT consultant handling the security in the server?
