Francis deSouza, group president, enterprise products and services, Symantec, told the keynote audience that DDoS attacks are being increasingly used to “create a diversion to cover up the real attack which is happening at the same time”. In verticals such as the financial services industry, these tactics are more likely to be successful, he said.
Francis deSouza’s takes his insight from the results of the Symantec intelligence network.
“Highly-advanced phishing attacks are prevalent and increasingly used as the attacker’s weapon of choice”, deSouza warned. “Phishing attacks have become more successful due to the vast amount of personal information available on social networking sites”, allowing the attacker to target individuals.
In order to protect against these attacks, deSouza recommends learning to understand the adversaries and what they are trying to do in order to create a better defence. He also suggests deploying the attitude that we do in the physical world: It’s impossible to win a battle with defence only.