Malware Outbreak

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The Situation

On a Monday morning, just back from a three day vacation, you plod into your business office, set down your steaming cup of coffee, turn on your computer, roll up your sleeves, and take a look at your email inbox. In addition to all of the expected emails that typically accumulate over three day weekend, there are numerous, automatically generated security warnings announcing that a potentially malicious threat has been identified– some sort of virus, worm, or other type of malware made it through the firewall and infected your company’s IT network and spread to one or more critical servers that contains sensitive data.

In the past, you might not have done much about the identified malware except quarantine it with your antivirus application because more often than not, a virus was nothing more than an inconvenience and the likelihood of it being a true threat was minimal. Unfortunately, cybercriminals got smart and started developing malware that multitasks. This is bad news for your business.

The Primary Risks

In the event of a successful malware attack, your company’s primary risk revolves around the proprietary data that might have been compromised. Data from your company, partners, and clients may have been exposed, but the extent of that exposure will likely be difficult to initially determine. Besides potential data exposure, even the least harmful malware can be expected to do the following:

• Penetrate your business’s information systems by seeking out all vulnerable systems on the network. Most malware is network-aware, meaning that it will prowl the network looking for systems that are unpatched and then use those systems to launch attacks on other external networks. In situations like this, not only is your company’s network compromised, it is also now being used to attack other corporations’ networks.
• Download more complex malware to your company’s network. The first wave of malware is typically simple exploits that are designed to breach the network’s security and establish permanent access to the IT environment. This first wave of malware gives hackers complete access to information systems, allowing more nefarious malware to be deployed at will.
• Communicate back to a “command and control” center. More advanced malware will report back to the hacker once the initial automated attack has been completed. These communications provide the hacker with system information that makes it easier to execute advanced threats and gain remote access to your company’s network.
• Affect services and systems such as internet, email, and server-based applications. Malware infected networks can slow down the speed and availability of services because they tax the processing power of every infected system with thousands of simultaneous communication requests.

The Secondary Risks

In addition to the primary risks that malware poses to your business’s network, malware infections can cause secondary risks such as the following:

• Shutdown by your ISP providers is not uncommon if they detect that your network has been compromised by malware with their network monitoring tools. Losing access to internet connectivity can delay the quarantine and eradication of malware on your system, especially if tools and patches need to be downloaded from the internet to clean up the infection.
• Blacklisting of your business’s IP addresses will occur if the malware hijacks your network to send out spam. This will affect your business’s ability to send and receive emails because the ISP community will block all mail flow to and from your company’s IP addresses. Getting the problem cleared up with the ISP community can take weeks.
• Reinfection of your business’s network is possible because advanced forms of malware can evade detection and continually re-launch themselves even after initial cleanup has been done.

The Reactive Solution

As soon as your business detects the presence of malware on its network, it should contact the IT security experts at All Covered. All Covered’s trained security team will triage your business’s IT environment and quickly identify what immediate steps must be taken to secure your information systems.As part of All Covered’s Incident Response Program you can expect our trained security experts to do the following for your information systems:

• Isolate- All Covered will quarantine all machines that are suspected of being infected from the network to prevent the possibility of further infection.
• Analyze- All Covered will research the nature of the malware to determine what its payload is. Due to the rapidly changing cyber threat landscape this can be a challenging, time consuming, but very important step that must be done to identify which tools must be used to completely eradicate the malware from you business’s IT environment.
• Remove- All Covered will get rid of the malware on your network. Removal is often very difficult and may require specific applications and tools such as specialized “boot disks” or vendor specific utilities which can be expensive.
• Patch- All Covered will update all operating systems and applications on all computers, servers and network devices to recommended standards. It is important that all available updates are applied immediately after the network has been cleaned up to avoid the risk of reinfection.
• Examine- All Covered will examine all servers using forensically sound procedures to determine the extent of the malware infection and identify if any sensitive data has been compromised. Depending on your business’s vertical market it may be governed by regulations, legal contracts, or association memberships that require a forensic investigation.
• Report- All Covered will provide your business a written document that identifies the nature of the including a detailed accounting of the malware type, the infected devices, and recommendations to help prevent the situation from reoccurring.

The Proactive Solution

Information Security should be considered an extension of business operations. Because your business has unique information security needs, All Covered will work with you to create a customized proactive Information Security Plan that will do the following for your organization:

• Assess- All Covered will provide your company with a comprehensive and critical examination of its information systems to identify all potential security risks. The assessment will compare your corporation’s current security environment against industry best practices. If vulnerabilities are discovered, All Covered will provide your business with solutions to help secure your network.
• Advise- All Covered will help your business navigate the complex security requirements of regulatory compliance from governing bodies such as HIPAA, SOX, and PCI.
• Monitor- All Covered offers your business remote monitoring services to track the health and condition of your information systems 24/7, responding to incidents while they happen, not after.
• Support- All Covered will keep your information systems patched and properly configured to prevent malware outbreaks that usually occur due to delinquent security updates or misconfigurations.
• Train- All Covered will provide your company with customized end-user security awareness training for all information system users.
• Test- All Covered will examine your network’s external protections to ensure that information systems are protected from internet attacks.
• Review- All Covered will work with your company to create or refine an information security policy that is in alignment with your business’s operational needs while keeping it responsive to the latest threats.

Learn More

Statistically, it is only a matter of time before your company is targeted by a malware threat. All Covered wants you to know that any malware infection poses a very real threat to your business on many different levels and encourages your company to face the threat head on by adopting proactive solutions that will help protect your company. When your business forms a partnership with All Covered it can trust that it is working IT security experts that will provide customized security solutions that will reduce the likelihood of a malware incident. In the event that your business does suffer from a malware infection, All Covered’s Incident Response team can help stop the infection, mitigate the damage, and determine the nature of data exposure.

To learn more about the proactive and reactive security solutions that All Covered can offer your organization please contact the IT services & security experts at All Covered.

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