Zero day specialists hooked on spear phishing

At the cutting-edge of IT-based crime, attackers are using a combination of easily sourced technologies and social information to carry out successful assaults on the very organizations that spend more time and money on security than anyone in the world.

While he isn't able to share the names of the companies that have been victimized, or the identities of the people within those organizations who have been exploited, an interview with Kevin Mandia, founder and CEO of security services provider Mandiant, provides a shocking view into the incredibly complex attacks being carried out against financial services firms and government entities.

According to the former United States Air Force special agent and IT intrusion investigator, the savviest criminals in the world -- some of whom may receive support from overseas governments -- are targeting specific individuals throughout the ranks of business and government against whom they are executing multitiered attacks in the name of stealing closely protected information.

The continued discovery of new zero day flaws in popular software products -- most notably Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows and Office platforms -- along with the ever-growing amounts of personal and professional information being published online, have created an environment where criminals and their backers can have their way with organizations that already expend tremendous resources on IT security, Mandia said.

"In a matter of hours someone can identify an employee of a specific organization and create a targeted attack that will allow them to break into that organization's network and steal whatever information they're looking for," Mandia said. "As long as people can still exploit technologies like Microsoft Office, spear phishing will be a very serious problem."

Spear-phishing attacks are the more targeted iterations of the mass-market scam threats that show up in your e-mail inbox every day.

After hacking their way into major organizations by attacking individual employees using the threats, criminals are gathering the data and materials necessary to turn around and carry out successful campaigns against those organizations' customers and constituents, in addition to making off with intellectual property and other valuable information, Mandia said.

For example, an attacker wishing to carry out some form of campaign against a specific company might simply peruse the Web in search of personal Web pages, or profiles of social networking sites such as MySpace until they find the details of an employee of the firm.

Having deduced what types of communications the person might be open to accepting -- such as e-mail from another site member or someone anonymous with similar social interests -- the attacker then creates a threat through which they attempt to exploit the individual's computer to break into break into the targeted employer's network.

These types of attacks are occurring frequently, and taking their toll on everyone from government contractors to online trading firms, according to the investigator, who said his company has been involved in investigations of similar attacks at two large organizations within the last month alone.