Kaspersky and Symantec are each reporting on the Turla spy network. Turla  targeted the governments and embassies of a number of former Eastern Bloc countries.

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Symantec concludes that this espionage has been taking place for at least FOUR YEARS!

Unremarkably, the attacks overcame defenses by tricking users into introducing malware into their systems.  From that point, the attackers escalate their rights and conduct espionage.  What tricks did the attackers use to deceive users?  Spearphishing and watering holes.  As Verizon noted in their latest Data Breach Investigations Report, spearphishing has not become less pervasive, the bad guys have merely added watering holes (termed Strategic Website Compromise, “SWC” by Verizon) to their inventory of infiltration methods.

In spearphishing, this unfortunate chain of events is triggered by employees who are tricked by deceptive emails. Yet again,  we see that email is an ideal medium for attackers to deceive users into compromising systems.  Every user with an email account is an inside man who is a potential unwitting accomplice to attackers.  Letting users decide which emails to trust is dangerous. Using SP Guard, IT can determine a list of trusted senders and provide this information to staff in a simple and highly effective manner. You can contact us at  408-727-6342,ext 3 or use our online form.