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> White Paper | Best Practices in Digital Transformation

The Threat Environment

The operators of MTDCs are faced with the tasks of securing

growing and evolving network architectures against increasingly

sophisticated and targeted attacks, while at the same time meeting

ever more stringent compliance and regulatory requirements to

protect the data with which they are entrusted. The most common

current security threats on the cyber level faced include:

• DDoS attacks – which have increased since the rise of botnets

and have moved the scope of attack from PCs to servers. DDoS

attacks are increasingly launched in conjunction with SSL-

induced security ‘blind spots’.

• Web Application attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site

scripting.

• Brute Force Attack - A basic attack method in which the attacker

tries to gain access to a website by repeatedly trying usernames

and passwords. This may cause disruption as large numbers of

repeated requests may tie up memory and processing capacity.

• Ransomware (where data is held for ransom supposedly until a

ransom is paid).

• DNS Infrastructure Attacks which have the capacity to disrupt

users accessing Internet services and which have occasionally

led to class actions against the ISP

• Malware (code directed with malicious intent to steal data or

incapacitate computing equipment) including Trojans, viruses

and worms. This has now morphed into malware that can act

across platforms.

• XSS - Cross-site scripting: a security vulnerability typically found

in web applications which enables an attacker to inject client-

side script into web pages viewed by other users and can be

used by attackers to bypass access controls.

• Man-in-the-middle attack - a network attack whereby the

attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communication

between two parties who believe they are communicating

directly with each other.

• Phishing (illegitimate requests for information and passwords).

• Unpatched software, most commonly browser add-in programs.

• APT - Advanced persistent threat: a network attack in which

an unauthorized entity gains access to a network and stays

undetected for a long period.

• Social media threats

• Advanced persistent threats (APTs) via (spear) phishing

Just like natural viruses which mutate in order to survive against

antibiotics, so the list above will mutate and combine in order to

present a more sustained and complex mode of attack.