Government enterprises. Healthcare companies. Retail networks. According to a study by Positive Technologies, cybercriminals can breach 93% of company networks. Is anyone surprised by the steady drumbeat of news headlines about cyberattacks across a multitude of industries?
Many security professionals say they’re unprepared for the threats they face in the immediate future. Today’s enterprise IT professionals are engaged in an intense battle against cybercriminals, often facing losses that span monetary, reputational, productivity and IP theft, mention only a few. No industry segment has been immune.
There’s another threat keeping IT professionals up at night: Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage. There is no shortage of free and paid residential proxy services. Yet some of those services are favored by nefarious actors who use them to mask malicious activities, such as scraping, scanning and testing passwords in order to access your network. The FBI has warned that cyber criminals are exploiting home VPN usage to break into corporate systems.
A deep understanding of the VPN market is essential. Knowing which providers promise criminal-friendly services, such as no logging or paying via cryptocurrency, security teams can gain critical context behind breaches and use that insight to limit the damage, as well as make strategic decisions as to who can access their networks, who requires additional authentication, and who should be blocked altogether.
In today’s world, new technologies usher in new tactics used by criminals. They can launch ransom attacks, take over networks, and illegally infiltrate consumer accounts through diverse devices from anywhere in the world. By leveraging camouflage techniques, they can do so anonymously. Tools such as VPNs, proxy servers, queue networks, and SmartDNS allow them to hide their true identities and locations.
The reliance of cyber criminals on these tactics can be key to deciphering crime networks and their activities if businesses take the right approach.
