Surprising Trends Emerge in Threat Landscape

Surprising Trends Emerge in Threat Landscape

by Sean Michael Kerner

Kevin Mandia Continues to Lead Research Efforts

Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia now serves as senior vice president and chief operating officer at FireEye. At the RSA 2014 conference in February, Mandia presented on the outcome of the original APT1 report after being available for a year.

APT1 Moves Its Infrastructure After Mandiant Report

Mandiant’s 2013 APT1 report helped expose the extent of Chinese hacking but didn’t stop it. Instead, what has happened is the locations from which the attacks occur have shifted.

Financial Services, Media & Entertainment Firms in the Crosshairs

In 2013, the new Mandiant M-Trends report found, there was an increase in attacks against both financial services firms and media and entertainment companies.

The Time From Compromise to Discovery Is Declining

On a positive note, Mandiant found that the median number of days for a compromise to be discovered was 229 days in 2013, a decline of 14 days from 2012.

Fewer Breaches Are Being Discovered Internally

Most breaches are not discovered by victims, but rather by third-party vendors. In 2013, Mandiant found that 33 percent of victims discovered a breach internally, down from 37 percent in 2012.

Phishing Emails Impersonate IT Departments

When it comes to spam, the Mandiant report found that 44 percent of phishing emails attempted to impersonate a corporate IT department.

Wednesday Is Top Day for Phishing Emails

According to Mandiant, 93 percent of phishing emails were sent on weekdays, with Wednesday being the most popular day of the week.