Cybercriminals Continue to Evolve the Sophistication of Their Attack Methods

Cybercriminals continue to evolve the sophistication of their attack methods, from tailored ransomware and custom coding for some attacks, to living-off-the-land (LoTL) or sharing infrastructure to maximize their opportunities, according to the Fortinet latest report.

Research to see if threat actors carry out phases of their attacks on different days of the week demonstrates that cybercriminals are always looking to maximize opportunity to their benefit.

When comparing Web filtering volume for two cyber kill chain phases during weekdays and weekends, pre-compromise activity is roughly three times more likely to occur during the work week, while post-compromise traffic shows less differentiation in that regard.

This is primarily because exploitation activity often requires someone to take an action such as clicking on a phishing email. In contrast, command-and-control (C2) activity does not have this requirement and can occur anytime.

Cybercriminals understand this and will work to maximize opportunity during the week when Internet activity is the most prevalent. Differentiating between weekday and weekend web filtering practices is important to fully understand the kill chain of various attacks.

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