Comparing current reported cyber/IT security threats, attacks and incidents to what happened a few years ago, it seems to me that  something has surely changed (I must warn that these conclusions are not based on statistics but on reading everyday bulletins and news).

On one side, security surely has improved: vulnerabilities are reported and fixed, patches are applied (at least more often), security policies, standards and practices are making a difference. Still managing password and properly configuring systems and services exposed on Internet remain very difficult tasks too often performed without the required depth.

But security has improved, which also means that attackers have been moving to easier and more lucrative approaches which have to do mostly with the “human interface”. In other words: fraud.

The first example is ransomware, that is the attacker is able to access the victim system, copy vast amount of data, then encrypt it or remove it and finally ask a ransom not only to return the data but also to avoid making it public on Internet. Since everybody is getting better in making backups, here the important point is the “making it public on Internet” so that the ransom is asked more to prevent sensitive data to be published than to restore the systems.

The second example is Targeted Phishing attacks, Business Email Compromise and similar scams in which the attacker impersonate a well known or important person by writing emails, letters, making phone calls etc. to convince typically a clerk but in some cases also a manager, to send a large amount of money to the wrong bank account.

Neither of these two types of attacks is new, but now they are filling the news daily. Even if cyber/IT security can still improve tremendously, there have been and there are notable security improvements which makes it that attacks are aimed more often to the weakest link: the human user.