This software makes hacker life easier, and ours with you is more difficult.

Previously, hackers had to create threats from scratch. Due to the complexity of the process, only criminals with a high level of training were engaged in cyber attacks.

Today, the ready-made toolkit makes it possible to organize a cyber attack even to amateurs who, having bought it for several hundred dollars, can, for example, create a new spyware program based on existing templates. So innovations of the most sophisticated targeted attacks are gradually coming to the masses, and the number of signatures is growing exponentially.


What are these tools?
This software is for organizing mass cyber attacks on networked computers, which can be used by both beginners and professionals. This software allows cybercriminals to exploit multiple bundled exploits for known vulnerabilities. Moreover, it allows you to automate the conduct of attacks and customize the action of malicious programs in such a way as to avoid their detection. According to our data, with its use of automation tools about 60% of attacks are carried out, and this cannot but affect our work.
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additional services
Today, many tools are often sold by subscription, which provides for regular updates, the ability to expand functionality and technical support. Cybercriminals massively advertise installation services for such tools, provide access to management consoles for a fee, and use commercial anti-piracy tools to avoid free use of these programs.

The growing profitability of cyber attacks stimulates the creation of more advanced tools with a wide range of functions. Additional services have appeared that direct users to malicious websites where their computers can be hacked: spam emails are used, an aggressive search results optimization strategy (SEO), the introduction of software code in legitimate websites, as well as malicious advertising.

Market Review
The most popular cyber attack kits are MPack, Neosploit, ZeuS, Nukesploit P4ck and Phoenix.

For example, the main task of Zeus is to steal bank data. It is especially dangerous for small companies where less secure financial transaction protection is installed, and this makes them vulnerable and attractive to Zeus and fraudsters.

The wide popularity and demand contributed to the rise in prices for cyber attack kits. In 2006, the popular WebAttacker suite sold on the black market for $ 15. In 2010, ZeuS 2.0 is advertised at a price of almost $ 8,000.

Nevertheless, the profitability of such attacks is obvious: in September 2010, a group of cybercriminals were arrested in the USA, who are suspected of stealing more than $ 70,000,000 via the Zeus toolkit from electronic banking and trading accounts for 18 months.

Evolution

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Impact on protective equipment
Partly thanks to this toolkit, antivirus companies have to create more and more signatures every year.


Due to the growth in their number, signature-based scanning is becoming more and more resource-intensive, which may adversely affect the performance of our computers. It is complemented by heuristics and behavioral analysis, but this does not completely solve the problem. We at Symantec believe that the future belongs to cloud-based reputation technologies, and we have recently written about the dangers of anti-virus scanning and our new technologies that allow detecting threats without scanning at all — using a reputation system.

Install software updates!
Due to the rapid spread of knowledge about new system vulnerabilities and the possibilities to use them, within a few days after the discovery of vulnerabilities, cybercriminals begin to actively use and attack organizations that have not yet had time to install the necessary patches.

Installing all necessary updates (for OS, browsers, browser plugins, etc.) is very important. The vast majority of vulnerabilities on a typical system can be closed by simply installing all the necessary updates. Large companies with developed infrastructure should have a good vulnerability scanner that would detect them in the system, rank them by criticality and give the administrator a corresponding report on the health of the system and recommendations for correcting it. Another important aspect is the automation of installing updates directly. She must be. Office employees should not be distracted while working to install updates, and the company must be sure that its chief accountant’s computer has the latest Java plug-in patch covering a known vulnerability that 25 types of malicious software created in the last couple of days can successfully attack. using Zeus, and an attack on which can lead to a collapse in the company's financial system.

Take care of your computers!

Best wishes,
Your Symantec