ENISA: Drive-By Attacks Biggest Threat Of 2012

PRESS RELEASE

The EU’s cyber security agency ENISA has published the first and most comprehensive Cyber Threat Landscape analysis of 2012, summarising over 120 threat reports. The report identifies and lists the top threats and their trends, and concludes that drive-by exploits have become the top web threat.

The ENISA Threat Landscape report summarises 120 recent reports from 2011 and 2012 from the security industry, networks of excellence, standardisation bodies and other independent parties, making the report the world’s most comprehensive synthesis presently available. The report provides an independent overview of observed threats and threat agents together with the current top threats, and emerging threats trends landscapes. Moreover, the Threat Landscape report analyses the “cyber enemy”; identifying and also listing the top ten (out of a total of sixteen) threats in emerging technology areas. The areas considered are Mobile Computing, Social Media/Technology, Critical Infrastructure, Trust Infrastructures, Cloud, and Big Data. The identified top ten threats are:

Drive-by exploits (malicious code injects to exploit web browser vulnerabilities) Worms/trojans Code injection attacks Exploit kits (ready to use software package to automate cybercrime) Botnets (hijacked computers that are remotely controlled) (Distributed) Denial of Service attacks (DDoS/DoS) Phishing (fraud mails and websites) Compromising confidential information (data breaches) Rogueware/scareware Spam

Finally, the Agency makes a number of conclusions for industry and stakeholders on how to better fight cyber threats to business, citizens and the digital economy at large:

Use a common terminology within threat reports Include the end-user perspective Develop use cases for threat landscapes Collect security intelligence of incidents including starting point and target of an attack Perform a shift in security controls to accommodate emerging threat trends Collect and develop better evidence about attack vectors (methods) so as to understand attack workflows Collect and develop better evidence on the impact reached by attackers Collect and maintain more qualitative information about threat agents

The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht stated:

“ I am proud that the Agency undertakes this important work to better understand the composition of the current cyber threats. This is the first and most comprehensive Cyber Threat Analysis available to date and a point of reference for all cyber security policy makers, and stakeholders.”