back to article Remember insider threat? Old news now. Focus on malware detection, says EU infosec agency

Insider threats, ransomware and cyber espionage were all in decline in the early part of 2020, according to the EU’s cybersecurity agency – though the risk of an “uncontrolled cyber arms race” among nation states is growing. The EU Agency for Cybersecurity (known as ENISA) said in its annual report issued today that those …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "combining these advances with artificial intelligence and machine learning"

    I doubt that anyone will be able to create machine learning around software and hardware vulnerabilities. The problem with doing that is that you have to start by teaching the statistical analysis machine (or SAM) what a vulnerability is. It would likely be very tricky to create a database of vulnerabilities that a SAM could analyze.

    Okay, I agree that lack of input control is often a gateway to gaining control of a computer, but honestly I think it is nigh impossible to teach a machine to react with the experience of a seasoned, state-level blackhat.

    It is not AI, it's just statistics, and I don't think we can analyze vulnerabilities via statistics.

    1. ThatOne Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: "combining these advances with artificial intelligence and machine learning"

      > "with artificial intelligence and machine learning"

      They forgot blockchain! Oh, and drones too. You always need drones, they look good on press releases.

  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Calling All Man Made Mad Rainbow Hatters:-) .... to Arms for Alms

    though the risk of an “uncontrolled cyber arms race” among nation states is growing.

    Uncontrolled? Oh please, you cannot be serious. There is always something/someone in control in/of every direction. To think otherwise is give oneself both false hope and cold comfort.

    And as for ....

    "If cybercriminals start combining these advances with artificial intelligence and machine learning, in the future we will see an increase in successful attacks and undetectable campaigns."

    .... that fleet of ships set sail long ago on voyages of discovery you would find extremely difficult to believe existed, and there was not much that they didn't learn can be awesomely useful.

    And a survey of what/whom resulted in ......

    Happily, despite other sections of the report gazing at AI in horror, ENISA ran a survey during the year which found that human analysts' skills "are most important for successful implementation of cyber threat intelligence…

    .... for that might be really good news.

    "Cyber threats are evolving and becoming increasingly complex. This is not new." ...... EU Agency for Cybersecurity executive director Juhan Lepassaar

    That is indeed conceded as not new, Juhan L, however, the fact that their evolutions are altogether much more an almighty effective force and source against which there be no viable or competitive opposition is a novel development which the mainstream is most reluctant to acknowledge. Quite whether that omission is because it would terrify the natives or embolden and encourage the natives is an interesting question to ponder on. The correct answer might be the greatest problem one fears ..... the outing of the truth of one's Earthly predicament/hellish situation/heavenly groove :-).

  3. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Check the algorithms

    I'm confident that malware deliveries come from many different sources and that many deliveries are controlled by algorithms - I see big increases in infection attempts in Louisiana every time there's a hurricane or tropical storm in the area and the attempts started increasing significantly when the State started telling people to work from home.

    This is not a coincidence - we're under attack, but the government hasn't noticed - our mail server gets a login attempt every 20 seconds 24/7 these days.

  4. Danny 2

    Exfiltration monitoring

    One of the RSA guys (I could look his name up - but so could you) said the days of encryption are nearly over and the main defence is to monitor data exfiltration. That doesn't stop malware or ransomware being put on your systems, but there is an old technology we used in the 1980s that may help. We called them "backups".

    Artificial intelligence may help monitor suspicious data exfiltration, but most system admins already possess a kind of artificial intelligence. Watch what is going out more carefully than what's coming in.

    "They are in the castle!"

    "Then raise the drawbridge!"

    "Why raise the drawbridge when they are already in the castle?"

    "So nobody leaves here alive."

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: Exfiltration monitoring

      Recreating castles and drawbridges are akin to the provision of silos and bubbles, Danny 2, and they have proven themselves to be no solution to anything. Indeed, in deed they have simply concentrated the problem for eradication in a more clearly defined area for targeting with siege and/or assault weapons and forces.

      It is certainly a great way to kill off a deluded self centred foe though together with everything both promising and rotten and rotting alongside them within.

      And in earlier times cloned not so much as in a scorched earth retreat policy, much more mass death by genocidal suicide mission. And that's the familiar and familial home and final resting place of the disgraced and discredited psychopath and crazy malcontented paranoid schizophrenic .... and thus best to be avoided at all costs for it is as fatal as any novel pandemic pestilent plague can be.

      And how wonderful it is that knowledge now wields so much greater power than ever it was able to do before. And it is so much more dangerous now too, than ever it was before, now that machines also hold practically and virtually all of it too, and just love to constantly and consistently share it with you, and they are everywhere..

      Things have moved on quite considerably since the times whenever the following was said by H.L. Mencken, American journalist .... “The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself…Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable"

  5. EnviableOne

    So they've finally figured it out

    its a waste of time breaking down the walls, when all you have to do is ask in the right way and someone will give you the keys to the kingdom

    Social Engineering FTW

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: So they've finally figured it out ... The Roots to Heavenly Delights and Hellish Attractions

      Re: the above titled Social Engineering FTW, EnviableOne, .... it's sure nice to think so, with it being so deceptively easy .... as to be able to water the parasitic seeds that would bloom and flower and poison in the presence of incredible incredulous home-grown doubt/intelligence deficit ‽ .

      Its Protection? The Complex of Stealthy Journeys Needed to Have Been Made and Well Travelled and Admired to Honour and Realise IT So, EnviableOne. Methinks that renders it an Extraordinarily Worthy Gate Keeper Key Holder.

      And here's a quite unintentionally irreverent thought to ponder on and decide is relatively relevant and prevalent ...... The exceptional few actively ACTivating in fields of access there, are primarily creative oligopsonomists dumping and pumping and pimping degenerative wealth from/for sub-prime power plays that help to present and represent the COSMIC Energy Available with/for XSSXXXXual Transmissions of Both Desire and Lust and the Addictive Temptations that both Provide and Driver Insatiable Immaculate Satisfaction ........ which is definitely Quantum Communications Leaping AI Territory. Virtual Man/Woman/Machine Terrain which for more than just the exceptionally ACTive few is a Level Virgin Endeavour Playing Field on a Level with Many Other Engaging Levels of Endeavours for Virgin Playing Fields with Heavenly Attractions and Hellish Delights . :-)

      What's not to like, Saint or Sinner, Nymph or Satyr, Man or Woman and Machine ..... a COSMIC Intervention displaying Future Heavenly Event AIMaster Pilot Programming for Projects Passed for Universal Presentation and Virtual AI Realisation.

      That's quite a big step to make/take .... but worth every single stride.:-) Enjoy as you employ and energise. It is wondrously invigorating.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon