Five tricks hackers use to dig deep into the enterprise network

Nikhil Taneja

Enterprises need to take more stringent security measures as hackers come up with newer tricks to penetrate deep down into their networks.

Cyber attacks are becoming more dramatic and cyber thieves have become smarter. With each passing year, we hear about the increasing intensity of cyber attacks and how the new generation of hackers is coming up with more innovative and sophisticated techniques to penetrate deep down into organizational networks.

While most attacks we hear about are targeted at layers 1-4 of operator networks, over time hackers have developed the skills to dig much deeper into the enterprise network. They have identified blind spots that can allow them to penetrate all the way to Layer 7, the application layer.

They are using newer methods to target specific applications and gain access to critical digital assets. Such attacks have the capabilities to cripple bandwidth and impact organizational network in a big way. These application attacks are smarter in their ways as they generate minimum traffic while sending targeted commands to applications. As a result detecting them gets much tougher.

Generally by the time the IT team is able to identify the attack or develop a strategy to deal with it, the damage has already been done.

Some of the advanced techniques used by modern day hackers include:

Attacks hidden by SSL encryption: Legacy systems need large amounts of CPU capacity to detect or decrypt attacks that are hidden by using SSL encryption. This can cripple their functioning and bring them down completely. Therefore, modern day hackers often deploy this technique to create large problems for organizations.

Getting past HTTP hurdles: In order to bring websites to a complete halt, hackers create headless browser requests. These are tools that operate like browsers but without the graphical user interface. This technique is generally used by hackers to bypass third-generation HTTP challenges.

Manipulation of IP addresses: Hackers have found ways to infest legacy systems with malware that can impact multiple IP devices. The hacker manipulates these devices and uses this network of computers to create botnet attacks from a changing list of IP addresses.

Bypassing CDN protection: Some recent cyber hacking incidents have demonstrated how easy it is to bypass the content delivery network (CDN). Attacks are being launched from behind a CDN that is used to mask the source IP address and target the vulnerability of legacy systems trying to find the source IP

address.

Slow and persistent attacks: Among the most common tricks being deployed by hackers today are advanced persistent threats (APT) or zero day attacks. These are slow attacks that gradually drain the server resources over a period of time. Attacks of this type often remain undetected for a long time and can cause huge damage.

Application attacks are becoming increasingly common as greater use of internet and mobile applications have created many more loopholes that cyber thieves can exploit. Such attacks often

result in service degradation, network outages, data exposure, consumption of bandwidth resources and system resources. The rising popularity of social networking has also made it easier for hackers to access systems. Organizations need to ramp up their security and devise new strategies to protect their networks from such emerging threats.

The author is Regional Director & Country Manager, India and SAARC- Radware