Intel Security Designs Threat Landscape Dashboard To Fight Online Threats

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Intel Security is well aware that today’s cyber-security landscape is constantly evolving. The risks for enterprises of getting plagued with phishing campaigns, healthcare services getting attacked with ransomware and old malware resurfacing to attack new targets are rising. The cyber-security firm wants to stay ahead of the game, and to do this, it has come up with a new tool.

All malware-related information in one place

Intel seeks to make the tough task of staying on top of both new and existing threats a lot easier for cyber-security professionals. To do this, Intel Security, which will soon be spun off from the chip maker into a separate firm called McAfee (unless John McAffee prevents the use of his name), launched the Threat Landscape Dashboard. It’s a free online resource that makes it possible for users to view which threats are the most significant, from the company’s point of view.

According to Intel Security, the prevalence of attacks that exploit those vulnerabilities is used as the basis for ranking malware and digital threats. Information regarding several aspects such as exploit kits, campaigns, and ransomware and on threats as a whole is included in the dashboard, which also illustrates any relationships between them.

For example, the dashboard has information about how the RIG exploit kit takes advantage of specific vulnerabilities in software to spread different ransomware families.

Intel Security also referenced Operation Afraidgate, which consists of multiple domains that spread various types of ransomware.

“The operation started in early 2016 and has consisted of multiple websites compromised by the Neutrino, Nuclear, and Angler exploits kits to distribute CryptXXX, Locky, and Zepto ransomware.”

Intel Security allots “risk” and “media” scores as well

Intel Security has added a “risk score” for each threat and a “media score” based on how much attention the press is giving each one, notes ZDNet. This makes it even easier for users to decide which vulnerabilities should be patched first.

The company has shortlisted the top 10 threats that businesses and consumers are facing today. The list includes names like Cerber ransomware, CVE-2016-7200, the RIG exploit kit, a Microsoft Edge vulnerability that makes remote attacks possible and the Methbot fraud campaign.

In a blog post announcing the launch, the cyber-security firm said that the dashboard was the result of nine months of hard work. The company revealed its plans to further extend the platform with an RSS feed and reference links about threats, including the original source, whitepapers and blogs.

“For the administrators responsible for safeguarding a company’s systems, networks, and digital information, keeping up is an overwhelming task, made doubly difficult because it is often hard to determine the most significant threats,” the security firm says.

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