Servers, IoT and mobile malware side topping security gaps

BANGALORE, INDIA: Every one of the top ten vulnerabilities exploited in 2014 took advantage of code written years or even decades ago, as per a new report.

HP has published the 2015 edition of its annual Cyber Risk Report, providing in-depth threat research and analysis around the most pressing security issues plaguing the enterprise during the previous year and indicating likely trends for 2015.

Authored by HP Security Research, the report examines the data indicating the most prevalent vulnerabilities that leave organizations open to security risks. This year’s report reveals that well-known issues and misconfigurations contributed to the most formidable threats in 2014.

Other findings indicate that around 44 per cent of known breaches came from vulnerabilities that are two to four years old. Attackers continue to leverage well-known techniques to successfully compromise systems and networks.

It also spots that server misconfigurations were the number one vulnerability. Over and above vulnerabilities such as privacy and cookie security issues, server misconfigurations dominated the list of security concerns in 2014, providing adversaries unnecessary access to files that leave an organization susceptible to an attack.

“Many of the biggest security risks are issues we’ve known about for decades, leaving organizations unnecessarily exposed,” said Jyoti Prakash, Country Director, India and SAARC countries, HP Enterprise Security Products (ESP). “We can’t lose sight of defending against these known vulnerabilities by entrusting security to the next silver bullet technology; rather, organizations must employ fundamental security tactics to address known vulnerabilities and in turn, eliminate significant amounts of risk.”

Additional avenues of attack were introduced via connected devices. In addition to security issues presented via Internet of Things (IoT) devices, 2014 also saw an increase in the level of mobile malware detected.

The primary causes of commonly exploited software vulnerabilities are defects, bugs, and logic flaws. Most vulnerabilities stem from a relatively small number of common software programming errors. Old and new vulnerabilities in software are swiftly exploited by attackers.

The recommendations that follow talk about a comprehensive and timely patching strategy should be employed by network defenders to ensure systems are up-to-date with the latest security protections to reduce the likelihood of these attacks succeeding;  and regular penetration testing and verification of configurations by internal and external entities can identify configuration errors before attackers exploit them.