84 percent of attacks now use legitimate tools

New research from Bitdefender shows that 84 percent of high severity attacks are using Living off the Land (LOTL) techniques, exploiting legitimate tools used by administrators. One of the findings is that the netsh.exe tool -- used for network configuration -- management is the most frequently abused tool, appearing in a third of major attacks. While checking firewall configurations is a logical initial step for attackers, this clearly demonstrates how data analysis can spotlight trends that human operators might instinctively disregard. Other frequently exploited tools include the PowerShell.exe command-line shell and scripting language, Reg.exe, a command-line tool allows administrators to… [Continue Reading]