Top 6 Threats to Enterprise Security

With news of “cyberesponiage” making headlines, enterprises are taking a closer look at the threats that can impact their business and ultimately their bottom line. McAfee Labs has analyzed the threats of the past quarter for emerging trends, which center on mobile and overall malware. With BYOD becoming ubiquitous, threats that once considered consumer problems are now becoming issues for the enterprise as well. Here are the top six threats to enterprise security.

Attackers use legitimate apps as cover for their malicious code. In the case of “KaoSpy,” attackers used modified versions of the Kakao talk app and targeting Tibetan activists; this malware is distributed using phishing emails. The malicious spyware collects a large amount of sensitive user information (contacts, call logs, SMS messages, installed applications, and location) and uploads the data to the attacker’s server. But not all Trojans are so narrowly targeted; “BadNews” pretended to be a legitimate game app, which in turn collected sensitive user information and sent it to the attacker. As far as BYOD goes, if employees have access to sensitive information, this can be disastrous to an organization.

Mobile spyware, which forwards SMS messages, call logs and location information to the attacker’s server, has seen a small increase from the previous quarter. For instance, the Android virus “Vzw.A downloads a spyware app from the attacker’s website. Pretending to be a legitimate font installer app, the downloaded spyware forwards SMS messages, call logs and location information to the attacker’s server.