Hackers have many options to launch cyber attacks to steal passwords, personal data or take control of a computer. But how long does this process really take? The truth is that they are getting faster. We are going to echo a report that shows how they can break security in a very short time. We will also give you advice to protect yourself.
According to this report, the time to attack has dropped significantly in the last year. The breakout time, which is what is known as the time to detect and contain attacks, has fallen to 62 minutes, on average, compared to 82 the previous year. This allows cybercriminals greater scope to act. However, this is an average.
Minimum time to carry out attacks
In Crowdstrike’s global threat report, they show that the fastest attack recorded was two minutes and seven seconds. But what does this mean exactly? That’s the time from when they initially compromise security, until they can sneak in malware or tools to start controlling the device. They need time to complete the attack. The less time it takes to achieve it, the greater the likelihood of success. Basically, the victim will have less room to act, to be able to eliminate the threat, disconnect the computer from the network or carry out some action to prevent data from being stolen.
Regarding the most attacked sectors, 23% correspond to technology, 15% to telecommunications and 13% to finance. In addition, campaigns are becoming more advanced, with more sophisticated practices to achieve their objective. Much of the attack time is spent breaking in and gaining initial access. This has led to an increase in Phishing and social engineering attacks. One fact to keep in mind, which reflects what we mentioned, is that 75% of the detections did not have any malware. However, in 2019 that figure was 40%. They are, therefore, more Phishing and social engineering type attacks, to manage to steal access in this way.
Protect yourself
What can you do to protect yourself? If we take into account that a significant percentage does not use malware, but rather relies on Phishing and social engineering, common sense will be paramount. Avoiding making mistakes, not falling for false links or giving information where you shouldn’t, will help you be very protected on the Internet.
It is also key to have everything up to date. An important part of the attacks that are not based on malware exploit security flaws in the system, applications or drivers. To prevent this from happening, it is key to have everything very well updated. Having the latest versions will be of great help. This will allow them to use an exploit to break the security. It is always necessary to have the operating system updated, but also all the programs, because they could use a vulnerability in those programs to infect our computer.
On the other hand, to increase protection as much as possible, it is good to have a good antivirus. You will find many options, but you should always choose one with guarantees. You can inform yourself well about this security program, read comments and verify that it is really going to help you. Our recommendation is that you use the Microsoft Defender security system, it works very well, consumes very few resources, and the integration with the operating system is simply perfect. A very important aspect is that this antivirus also incorporates ransomware detection, so if we are infected by ransomware, it will be able to detect it due to the hundreds of modifications made to files by the same process, and subsequently it will be in charge of closing said file. process so that it does not continue encrypting all our data on the hard drive or SSD. Finally, Microsoft Defender also includes a powerful firewall that will allow us to configure advanced policies to allow or deny network traffic.
In short, hackers need less and less time to attack a device and achieve their objective. They use techniques that require less malware, such as Phishing and social engineering, so avoiding making mistakes will be key.
