NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report: Powered by ATLAS

In the past six months, NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence saw the cybercriminal business model grow into a stunningly efficient operation.

Crimeware has not just gone to B school; it could teach classes at this point. Botmasters are weaponizing everything from smartphones to smart homes to Apple software. It can take as little as five days from new attack vector discovery to weaponization, widening access to fast, efficient tools for anybody with an axe to grind. Internet of Things (IoT) devices are under attack five minutes after they are powered up and are targeted by specific exploits within 24 hours. Indeed, at this point cybercrime is thoroughly embedded in mainstream culture. College students can hire botnets to take down testing platforms, while nation states are increasingly turning to cyber weapons as part of their toolkit in geopolitical skirmishes. Two Florida cities used insurance to pay off ransomware attacks, while device manufacturers such as D-Link face legal consequences for leaving their hardware open to attacks. Advanced persistent threat (APT) groups are combining freely available malware with custom code to target countries — and the victim often modifies and reuses that same malware against the originator.