Almost all the organizations heavily  rely on Firewalls, Antivirus and EDRs for the security of their digital assets and still become victims of cyber attacks. Many people reach out to us saying they had firewalls, IDS/IPS, AV/EDR, still some hackers managed to get inside their corporate network and now all their business critical data is encrypted and this has brought down all their business operations. 

One common question that corporate executives ask me is “How hackers managed to get inside their network despite having a firewall IDS/IPS and other security countermeasures ? “

Well it’s super easy to bypass any security systems including firewalls, AV/EDR and we will talk about some of the bypass techniques in this blog and how you can make sure that no cyber-criminal can bypass your digital security. 

1. Network Packet Crafting : Network packet crafting is the process of manually creating and manipulating network packets at the protocol level, with the aim of bypassing security controls or exploiting vulnerabilities in the targeted system. Hackers are well versed when it comes to the art of network packet crafting and with the help of this skill they can easily bypass firewalls, IDS/IPS and take control of your corporate network. 

2. Code Packing & Encryption : Before sending the malware to you or releasing it over the internet cyber criminals use code packing and encryption technique to make the malware undetectable by antivirus and EDR softwares. Cyber attackers use publicly available tools such as virus total to figure out if their designed malware is detectable by any anti malware software or not.  They work on it until they make the malware undetectable. 

3. Code mutation : Code mutation is a technique where hackers modify the code of existing malware and make it immune to the latest anti-viruses and firewalls. Most of the ransomwares in cyberspace are having multiple versions and the latest version is always undetectable and immune to your security system, it’s actually an outcome of code mutation.

4. Encoding Payload :  Another very common method to bypass the antivirus and EDR softwares. Cyber criminals often use tools to do this manually and when the malware is delivered and activated, it is then decoded and does its damage. This is usually done via a small header program tacked onto the front of the encoded virus. Antivirus scanners don’t perceive this program as a threat and the encoded virus is simply seen as data. So when the header is triggered (for example, by being embedded into an existing executable), it will decode the malware into a memory region and then jump the program counter to that region and execute the malware.

5. Phishing Attacks : One of the most used and most common techniques cyber criminals use to hack into networks. 94% cyber attacks start with phishing email and this number is enough to tell you how much hackers use it. In a phishing attack, the attacker deceives victims by pretending to be a trustworthy or known source. If users click a malicious link or download an infected file, attackers may gain access to their network, and then steal sensitive information. Antivirus software can only detect known threats and is not reliably effective against new variants.

6. Browser Based Attacks : Antivirus software and firewalls do not have access to operating systems which allow browser-based attacks to bypass them. These attacks infect your device by using malicious scripts and code. To prevent these attacks, some browsers include built-in defensive tools but must be used consistently and correctly to be effective.

There are thousands of ways a cyber criminal can bypass your cyber defense and hack into your network. Replying only on traditional cyber defense such as Firewalls, Antivirus, EDR is not enough to counter the modern cyber threats. 

Each organization must have round the clock 360° visibility, real time threat hunting and incident response capabilities across the network. 

Being blind about your network means allowing cyber criminals to hack into your corporate network and bring down the whole business. 

Wrixte offers 24x7x365 managed SOC services which are powered by Wrixte’s dual AI powered SOC Suite which is capable of identifying the cyber threat in real time and blocking them. Wrixte SOC Suite is capable of identifying the latest cyber threat patterns so that your business can stay protected even from zero day attacks. 
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