Real World Threats: Meet Agent Tesla Are your customers and business protected against the dangers of sophisticated Malware?
Consider malware the spy who infiltrated your team and stole your most sensitive secrets, only to take them back to the opposition and not only use them against you, but also expose you as weak and unreliable.
Having your network configurations set up to proactively stop these attacks is what your business should have a major focus on. But what are the biggest threats out there targeting businesses?
According to Statista, in 2023, there were 6.06 billion malware attacks worldwide. That includes businesses, institutions and the average internet user. If you’re delivering services to or on behalf of the Government and education sectors, this will be of particular interest to you. If not, you should still take note because the more security you deploy across your network, the more complicated cybersecurity becomes.
A new curveball afflicting the US education and government sectors is a malicious campaign leveraging a two-pronged attack – Agent Tesla and Taskun malware. Not heard of these? Let’s look at their characteristics and find the most proactive activities and strategies you can implement as a network owner.
Agent Tesla
This isn’t your average malware. This sophisticated spyware acts like a digital shadow, silently siphoning a user’s most valuable data. It functions as a keylogger, capturing every keystroke typed, from passwords to sensitive documents. It can even grab screenshots and steal login credentials for browsers, VPNs, and other critical applications. Armed with this stolen arsenal, attackers gain unauthorized access to accounts and potentially sensitive systems, jeopardizing entire networks and your reputation.
Taskun
This serves as Agent Tesla’s cunning accomplice. It operates by exploiting vulnerabilities in a system’s defenses, essentially creating a backdoor for Agent Tesla to infiltrate undetected. Once inside, Taskun establishes persistence, allowing Agent Tesla to remain hidden and extend its data collection activities for a longer period. This potent partnership between the two malware strains significantly increases the risk of a successful cyberattack.
So, where’s the ‘back door’?
In fact, it’s more like the front door. The current campaign utilizes malicious email attachments as its primary attack mechanism. These attachments are specifically designed to exploit known vulnerabilities in popular software programs.
The attackers gather information about their targets through reconnaissance, allowing them to identify exploitable weaknesses within the targeted systems. By focusing on frequently used software and operating systems with known vulnerabilities, attackers can compromise a vast number of devices within an organization with a single campaign.
What are the consequences of not being prepared?
It goes without saying, educational institutions and government agencies store highly sensitive and personally identifiable data, and this makes them prime targets for cybercriminals.
Any successful malware attack could result in a catastrophic data breach. But the consequences run much further for businesses, sometimes leading to severe financial losses, reputational damage, and even identity theft for affected individuals.
An accurate and proactive configuration-based approach destroys risk
Defending your business and mitigating the risk of falling victim to Agent Tesla and Taskun, or similar malware threats, means taking crucial precautions. Putting in the groundwork will pay dividends as you secure yours and your client’s data.
The Teneo Group works specifically with organizations to understand their network needs by performing detailed security analysis, finding the misconfigurations and mistakes that leave it open to intruders. The Teneo Group understands that every network is unique and delivers an approach tailored to the tools and demands of each organization.
Gone are the days of vendor recommended configurations being good enough. If you enable all security protections your network will break. Vendor best practices are not meant to break your network. Each security tool needs to be customized for the network it is protecting.
Taking a diligent, proactive approach to your security configurations will ultimately safeguard your sensitive data and your finances for the future of your organization. But it doesn’t stop there. All organizations must continuously re-assess its security posture multiple times a day. At the speed of change in 2024 just because you are good at noon, doesn’t mean you are still good at 3p.