According to the Russian company expert in cysersecurity, this kind of attacks has increased also because of the online publication of exploits
A new alarm is coming on the computer security front. And to launch it is once again Kaspersky Lab. The Russian company expert in cybersecurity solutions in the second quarter of 2017 detected and blocked more than 5 million hacker attacks caused by exploits and vulnerabilities.
These violations are particularly dangerous because, unlike other forms of computer infections, they do not require the user's involuntary cooperation. An attack using an exploit exploits the presence of flaws in the targeted machines, and the only thing users can do to defend themselves is to fix the vulnerabilities. But that often doesn't happen. According to the Kaspersky report, most of the attacks used Windows flaws, for which Microsoft had already released updates before they were made known on the Internet by cyber criminals.
What are exploits
Exploits are not real malware or tools created by hackers and cyber criminals to attack computer structures of any kind. Instead, they are flaws and vulnerabilities in the source code of software that allow hackers to gain undisturbed access to computers, servers and smartphones (but also to smart devices like security cameras) and install malicious software, such as banking trojans or ransomware.
This type of cyber attack, despite not being very well known,
is very dangerous, more so than other threats that are usually more "publicized". It is enough to consider, as an example, WannaCry, a ransomware that has infected the machines because of some flaws in the operating systems.
Blame of Shadow brokers
According to the Russian company, the attacks through exploits have increased just because the flaws have been spread on the Net. In particular, according to the Kaspersky report, the main resource from which hackers have drawn was Lost in Translation, an archive published by the Shadow Brokers group, which contains a series of exploits related to different Windows versions.
One of the most used flaws to hit users was CVE-2017-0199, a bug discovered in April and corrected with an update patch by Microsoft soon after. Yet, according to Kaspersky, 1.5 million victims were infected, a sign that there are still many users who do not update their software, despite the many "calls to order".
The data regarding Italy is also worrying, where Kaspersky has detected more than 7 thousand malware attacks.
How to protect yourself from exploits
To protect yourself against this type of computer attack, you need to keep your devices up to date. Software companies continually release patches that are meant to cover up flaws before they are exploited by hackers.