Hackers are getting more hands-on with their attacks. That's not a good sign

Both nation-state-backed hackers and cyber criminals are trying to take advantage of the rise in remote working - and getting more sophisticated in their approach.

There's been a sharp rise in sophisticated hands-on hacking campaigns over the course of this year, with the first six months of 2020 seeing more of these intrusions than the total number for the whole of 2019.

A hands-on intrusion is when human hackers actively explore compromised systems themselves rather than relying on programmed scripts that perform automated tasks.

The rise in attacks is attributed to a combination of cyber criminals continuing to evolve their tools, techniques and procedures, as well as the way hacking groups have exploited the rise in remote working driven by the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of gaining access to accounts and networks.

The findings are detailed in Crowdstrike's Threat Hunting Report 2020, based on potential 'hands-on' intrusions identified by the cybersecurity company's research team. The first half of 2020 saw 41,000 intrusions, a higher figure than the 35,000 detected during all of 2019, according to the company.

"The most alarming thing from a 2020 perspective has been the volume and the reach of the amount of intrusions we've observed," Jennifer Ayers, VP at Crowdstrike, told ZDNet.

"Keep in mind that the report is essentially the first half of the year and in half a year we've already significantly exceeded the volume of what we observed in 2019 and 2018. It's really a testament to how troubled the landscape truly is."

Full article on https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-are-getting-more-hands-on-with-their-attacks-thats-not-a-good-sign/

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