McAfee Showcases Increased Commitment to Cyber Threat Research with Shamoon Revelations

McAfee Showcases Increased Commitment to Cyber Threat Research with Shamoon
Revelations

McAfee Links Series of Shamoon Malware
Campaigns Targeting Saudi Arabia; Suggests One Common Actor Behind Attacks

NEWS
HIGHLIGHTS

·  McAfee to invest more in investigation
of the technology and tactics of the latest cyberwarfare and cybercrime
campaigns

·  McAfee discloses detailed analysis of
the evolution of Shamoon malware campaigns from 2012 attacks to 2016 and 2017
campaigns

·  Commonalities between Shamoon campaigns
targeting Saudi Arabia suggest common actor developing and coordinating them

Singapore,
April 27, 2017 – A few weeks after launching as a
standalone company, McAfee LLC, the globally trusted security provider, today
announced it will increase investments and resources in cyber threat research.
As a proof point of this commitment, McAfee
released evidence that
a series of Shamoon malware campaigns targeting Saudi Arabia are the work of
one coordinated force of attackers, rather than that of multiple independent
renegade hacker groups.

McAfee’s
new investment will focus on investigations of the global threat landscape’s
most sophisticated cyberwarfare and cybercrime campaigns. In investigating the
latest threats, their design, and how they are built into cyber-attack
campaigns, McAfee will then look to help customers better understand the
technology and tactics of their adversaries. Areas of increased focus will
include advanced malware, ransomware, financial fraud, general cybercrime,
cyber espionage, cyberwarfare, and protection of industrial control systems.
Among other contributions, McAfee will provide cyber security professionals the McAfee
Threat Landscape Dashboard, an overview of the latest, most
significant threats tracked by McAfee researchers.

McAfee
will also increase its engagement with law enforcement and academia, including
coordinated efforts to take down criminal networks, develop new approaches to
fighting cybercrime, and recruit more young people to join the ranks of
cybersecurity professionals.

“Campaign
investigations complete our triad of research capabilities focused on keeping
the digital world safe,” said Steve Grobman, Chief Technology Officer for
McAfee LLC. “McAfee is committed to bringing together world-class threat
intelligence, vulnerability research, and investigative expertise to provide
customers more insights into how specific malicious actors develop and wage
cyber-attacks.”

Today’s
Shamoon disclosure surveys the evolution of Shamoon malware campaigns, from the
2012 attacks on the Middle Eastern energy sector, to the latest cyber espionage
campaigns of 2016 and 2017. Whereas earlier Shamoon campaigns targeted a
relatively small number of energy sector organizations to disrupt the
operations of the region’s critical energy industry, the more recent attacks
focused on a greater number of organizations in the energy, government,
financial services and critical infrastructure sectors of Saudi Arabia.

The
commonalities between these campaigns suggest that, rather than being the
product of multiple independent hacker groups, they are more likely the product
of one comprehensive cyber espionage operation on the scale one would expect
from a serious geopolitical actor. Furthermore, the findings illustrate the arc
of the actor’s development and increased sophistication over the last five
years. It is the latest evidence that rogue state and stateless actors are
developing cyberwarfare and cyber espionage capabilities without which they
would otherwise be unable to gain advantages versus major state actors and
their extensive conventional military and surveillance capabilities.

The
McAfee disclosure offers customers and partners constructive guidance to fend
off such attacks on their own organizations. For information on this research
into the Shamoon cyber-attacks, please visit ourexecutive
summary and technical
blogs on
the research.

“We
strongly believe that the latest threat data must be complemented with a deeper
understanding of how today’s advanced cyberattacks operate,” said Raj
Samani, Chief Scientist and head of McAfee Strategic Intelligence, the group
leading McAfee’s investigative research. “The revelations of this latest
research remind us that data can be the difference, but only if we can gain a
view into the inner workings of threats, the campaigns they spearhead, and the
individuals and organizations behind them.”