Understanding the Silent Risk of Non-Malware Attacks with IT Companies in Houston

As the IT world continues evolving, so do cybercrimes, which are now taking a completely new level, giving IT companies in Houston a tough challenge of dealing with them. The cybercriminals are now moving from the obvious detectable cyberattack techniques to techniques that are more sinister and undetectable. Consider, for instance, the following non-malware attacks:

Fileless Malware

Cybercriminals have now advanced to the use of fileless malware as opposed to the traditional malware attacks. With fileless malware attacks, the attacker does not have to install software on the victim’s device. What happens is that inbuilt windows tools are used in carrying out the attacks. Antivirus and firewalls cannot detect or block such because it is already infiltrated in the apps and files that are already on the device. “Living off the land” is a term that has been coined to refer to fileless malware implantation.

IT companies in Houston have done research and come up with the methods that cybercriminals use for fileless infection, which include the following:

1. Memory-only Attacks – Here, a hacker takes advantage of the Windows service weak point and installs a worm in a device’s internal memory. This type of attack is becoming even more dangerous as hackers come up with more sophisticated attack techniques.
2. Fileless Persistence – This is where an infection is installed in the Windows Registry. With the fileless persistence, even if you clear your device off this infection, it will still appear every time you put on your device.
3. Dual Use Tools – Hackers are now taking advantage of applications that seem harmless such as Windows notepad. They infect such apps and use them to get data, which they in turn use for malware installation.
4. Non-Portable Executable – To execute this form of attack, the criminals will use a legit tool and certain scripts. They will use files to transmit the infection but since the scripts can easily be obscured, they become very hard to even detect. The program that the user will use to open the file will automatically be infected with the malware.

Cryptojacking

As cryptocurrencies become popular, hackers are becoming interested and thus mining for them secretly— this is called cryptojacking. The criminals will infect a device with a malware, such as Coinhive, which is disguised in a website’s code. It is what they use to hijack systems and successfully do the cryptojacking or mining.

To keep your data safe, it is advisable to partner with IT companies in Houston such as ICS. Contact us today and our experts will give you more insight into the secret cyber for the safety of your data.