Cybersecurity , Data Breach , Risk Management
Operation Blockbuster: Unraveling the Long Thread of the Sony Pictures Attack Presented by Novetta 60 Minutes
The 2014 Sony Pictures hack was one of the most shocking and significant cyber attacks against a U.S. commercial enterprise to date. The incident caused significant financial and reputational damage to Sony Pictures and its executives. Most importantly, it illustrated how little resistance a corporate enterprise is able to provide in the face of a capable and determined adversary with destructive intent.
In Operation Blockbuster, a Novetta-led coalition, comprised of the Novetta's Threat Research & Interdiction Group (TRIG) and private industry partners, identified and interdicted the adversary behind the Sony Pictures attack. The coalition links this adversary - dubbed "the Lazarus Group" - to the repeated use of particular malware code and numerous malicious attacks against commercial, military and government targets, dating as far back as 2009.
Join Novetta's Alison Goodrich and Gregory Sinclair as they recount details about Operation Blockbuster and discuss:
How the Sony Pictures attack demonstrates that commercial enterprises are already living in a new era of cyber threats;
How, through the reuse of code, including open-source code freely available on the Internet, attackers can generate new attack software with low resource investment, allowing attackers the ability to go after large targets despite constrained resources; and
How collaborative action, similar to those taken by Operation Blockbuster, may be used to defend against cyber attackers.
Novetta's analysis of the base set of malware revealed that common code libraries were used across multiple malware families. The Operation Blockbuster team used these libraries to generate signatures to detect additional malware samples, including more than 45 distinct malware families that fall under the Lazarus Group's domain. Novetta and industry partners worked together to understand and devise ways to degrade the malware toolset, eroding the group's ability to use these tools for further harm.
As the work behind Operation Blockbuster continues, Novetta demonstrates organizations can and should should work collaboratively with partners not only to protect against attacks, but to fight back against attackers.
You might also be interested in …
Hackers Attack Web Hosting Firm
