

Hackers associated with national governments, on the other hand, have entirely different motives.
#SOLARWINDS 12 CRACK SOFTWARE#
Medical systems tend to use specialty medical devices that run older, vulnerable software that is difficult to upgrade. University networks are notoriously decentralised, difficult to secure, and often underfund cybersecurity. ( Supplied: Australian National University) One of the spear phishing emails sent to ANU staff, inviting them to provide support on common issues in the region. The hackers typically target organisations with weaker security, like health-care systems, universities and municipal governments. They use techniques like ransomware to extort money from their victims, steal financial information, and harvest computing resources for activities like sending spam emails or mining for cryptocurrency.Ĭriminal hackers exploit well-known security vulnerabilities that, had the victims been more thorough in their security, could have been prevented. This was almost certainly the work of a nation – not criminalsĬriminal hackers focus on near-term financial gain. The victims of Sunburst were specifically targeted, likely with a primary focus on intelligence gathering. These are some of the hardest targets to hit in corporate America. Many have world-class cybersecurity teams. SolarWinds estimates about 18,000 firms were affected.Īs CEO of cybersecurity firm Cyber Reconnaissance Inc and an associate professor of computer science at Arizona State University, I have met security professionals from many of the targeted organisations. The list of organisations that use the compromised software includes firms like MasterCard, Lockheed Martin and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Read moreįrom top-tier cybersecurity firm FireEye to the US Treasury, Microsoft, Intel and many other organisations, the victims of the attack are for the most part firms with comprehensive cybersecurity practices. Fans don't know it yet, but this is an act of cyber sabotage designed to distract Australia from a brewing regional war. The year is 2022 and ticketing for the football grand final goes down.
