VMware report investigates how cybercriminals distort reality

VMware has released its seventh annual Global Incident Response Threat Report, which investigates how cybercriminals are manipulating reality to reshape the modern threat landscape.

VMware has issued its seventh annual Global Incident Response Threat Report, examining how attackers reshape the modern threat landscape by altering reality. According to the research, attackers execute more focused, sophisticated attacks that corrupt digital reality through business communications compromise (BCC) or temporal manipulation.

“Today, we’re seeing a nexus between nation-states and cybercriminals continue to rapidly advance the development of increasingly sophisticated and destructive cyberattacks, combined with the broadening of the attack surface as a result of COVID-19,” says Tom Kellermann, head of cybersecurity strategy, VMware.

Further commented, “The digital and physical worlds have converged, and everything can be manipulated by modern-day attackers. The reality is that first adopters of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, are often cybercriminals on the dark web and in nation-states intelligence communities.”

Defenders fight against sophisticated threats and gain visibility in new environments like the cloud, containers, and enterprise communication applications. The survey also shows that defenders scuffles mental health issues and increased job expectancy with a 51% increase in anxiety and worries in the past year.

“Burnout is a huge issue with incident response teams, who are handling a spike in engagements in what is still a largely remote environment,” says Rick McElroy, principal cybersecurity strategist at VMware.

Also added: “It only further underscores the need for leaders to build resilient teams, whether that means considering rotations of work, empowering individuals to take mental health days, or any number of other initiatives aimed at nurturing personal growth and development.”

Additional key findings from the 2021Global Incident Response Threat Report include:

• The nexus between nation-states and e-crime heightens the threat landscape and exploit vulnerabilities: 64 percent of people who have been victims of ransomware attacks in the last year have seen affiliate programs and/or collaborations amongst ransomware gangs. Defenders are also looking for new strategies to combat the threat: 81% said they are willing to leverage active defense in the next 12 months.

• Advanced techniques are being used to make attacks more destructive and targeted: According to respondents, targeted victims are now subjected to destructive/integrity attacks more than half of the time. Cybercriminals are achieving this through new techniques such as timestamp manipulation, or Chronos attacks, as reported by over 60% of respondents. As a result of the transition to remote work, 32% of respondents reported seeing adversaries who used corporate communication platforms to travel about a given environment and launch sophisticated attacks.

• With cloud-jacking on the rise, cloud security remains a top priority: Cybercriminals have continued to abuse cloud systems following the pandemic’s rush to cloud technology. Nearly half of respondents (43%) stated more than a third of attacks were directed against cloud workloads, with nearly a quarter (22%) stating more than half. As a result, 6 out of 10 respondents stated that implementing cloud security tools is their top priority.

For additional information on the ever-changing threat landscape, as well as actionable guidelines and recommendations for incident responders and security teams, visit our website.             

Methodology

In May and June 2021, VMware conducted an online poll regarding incident response trends, with 123 cybersecurity and incident response professionals worldwide taking part. Because respondents were asked to check all that apply, percentages in specific questions exceed 100%. Because of rounding, the percentages in all questions may not add up to 100%.