Today, hacking tools are so easy to find and use that attackers no longer need specialized skills and knowledge; they simply deploy the tool of their choice. As a result, attacks are more frequent than ever, and it’s critical for internal information technology and security teams to spot them quickly. The key to protecting your environment is knowing what types of attacks to look for.
Once attackers have breached the perimeter, they often lurk in the network for months, looking for valuable data to steal. To stay hidden, they try to make their actions blend in with normal traffic.
Often, to inflict damage on critical systems or steal the data they want, attackers need administrative-level access. Gaining those permissions is not a simple task, since most operating systems now have built-in protections against privilege escalation. But many attackers do succeed.
Liam started as a trainer but realized that programming, breaking and hacking was a lot more fun. After spending time within infrastructure and security services, he moved into consultancy focusing on collaboration technologies. He is also a Microsoft MVP, and can be found presenting at many conferences, as well as teaching his kids how to code, raspberry PI programming, hacking the planet or building Lego robots.
Twitter: @helloitsliam