In a recent report, Microsoft has stated that supply chain attacks have become an increasingly pressing concern for cybersecurity professionals.

What are Supply Chain Attacks?

Computer software is constantly updated by developers. These are released to the public through cycles of patches. A supply Chain Attack is a type of cyberattack that infiltrates a victim’s computer through one of these updates.

By hacking into a software developer’s update code before it is released to the public, cyberattackers are able to avoid detection by antivirus protocols that are designed to allow these updates from trusted developers through their firewalls. In the past few years, this type of cyberattack has become more and more prominent, as illustrated by these following examples.

In June 2017, more than 10 000 computers in Ukraine were infected by a ransomware known as Petya. Incidentally, ransomware is a type of malware that locks sensitive data behind ‘ransomwalls’ and demands payment for its safe release. In its investigation, Microsoft uncovered that the attack originated from a hacked patch of the tax-accounting software MEDoc. It is now known that the attackers had illegally inserted a line of malicious code into one if its patches.

Three months later in September 2017, CCleaner, a software that unclutters old computer files, was also hacked using Supply Chain. The software’s developer Piriform stated that the malware inserted into its code stole sensitive data from victims’ computers and sent it to the cyberattacker’s computer.

A Growing Threat towards Cloud Computing

As the percentage of computers relying on cloud computing and online data storage grows, so too does the threat of cyberattacks such as Supply Chain. We are already seeing devastating damage being done to cloud servers with this kind of cyberattack. For example, Docker Hub, a cloud-storage service, was hacked in mid-2018 – an attack that lead to over 5 million infections.

Because it is often difficult for antivirus software to detect these attacks, Microsoft suggests that companies need to develop countermeasures to handle post-infection scenarios to protect themselves against Supply Chain cyberattack. An example of this is using network segmentation, which involves keeping critical computers permanently disconnected from the company network, so that it is not in danger even if a virus were to infect the main server.

Do you need help setting up or protecting your servers? Our technicians at GigE can help. Our networking solutions can help your company protect itself from cyberattack. We also provide IT consulting to help you identify weak points in your network. Call us today at +1 888 366 4443!

A server is a computer that is connected to other systems in a company through either the internet or a local network, and that dedicates its resources to ‘serving’ these computers. Because of this, servers are in constant communication with all company systems, storing, processing, and communicating data. Due to the fact that they are the central nodes of an organization’s network, they are often the targets of malware attacks. This is because servers are connected to most, if not all company systems, and therefore give easy avenues for the attackers to spread their malicious software to all computers on the network. In light of this, protecting your server should be viewed as critically important when it comes to company cybersecurity.

Recent Malware Attacks that Ravaged Company Servers

On July 16^th, Algonquin College reported that its servers were affected by a malware attack on May 16^th. The infected server, they stated, contained sensitive information belonging to students, employees, and alumni. It is believed that data such as date-of-birth and home addresses of 4,568 individuals was leaked, and that the non-sensitive data of another 106,931 individuals could also have been compromised.

Another recent case of malware infecting server systems was the “Wannacry” malicious software. In 2017, this ransomware was able to lock the files of hundreds of thousands of systems behind ransom-walls. The widespread reach of the malware was attributed to the fact that it has “worm capability”, allowing it to spread to computers connected to a server without any input from the user. In other words, once this malware attached itself onto the central server of an organization, all connected systems became at-risk of infection.

Finally, the “Adylkuzz” malware also demonstrates the importance of protecting your server. This malware is categorized as “cryptomining malware”, which transforms the infected system into a cryptomining slave that wastes its resources making digital currency for the attacker.

How to protect your servers against Malware Attacks

In many of the above instances, malware was able to infiltrate an organizations’ servers due to the fact that the companies neglected to keep their systems up-to-date with current patches. Servers, like any other system, use operating systems such as Windows. Therefore, they need to be constantly updated to receive the latest security measures developed by vendors such as Microsoft.

Following the Wannacry outbreak, Microsoft released a statement noting that “EternalBlue”, the security vulnerability that was exploited by the attackers, had in fact been patched two months prior to the incident. However, many companies failed to install the fix, leaving their systems open to infection. Similarly, the vulnerability used by “Adylkuzz” called CVE-2017-7269 was also repaired prior to the event by Microsoft in an update released on June 13^th, 2017. The severity of both of these incidents could have been drastically mitigated if organizations had been more diligent in keeping their servers’ operating systems up-to-date.

Therefore, it is clear that protecting your company’s server is critical to the safety of all systems on your network. Because they are connected to many of an organization’s systems, malware-infected servers become extreme threats to the security of all computers connected to it.

At GigE, our experts have years of experience in ensuring that your organization’s servers and computers are up-to-date with current software. Do not fall victim to malware and contact us today at +1 (888) 366-4443.