Cybercriminals work 24/7, so does your cybersecurity

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“Our offices are currently closed. Please contact us during normal business hours.

Cybercriminals love messages like these, especially their implications.

Hackers often seek to exploit organizations during off-peak hours, weekends and holidays, because defenses are, at least from a workforce perspective, literally down and times responses are much slower.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued warnings about this practice, reporting ransomware attacks against US-based critical infrastructure entities over Memorial Day weekends 2021 and July 4.

A recent study by cybersecurity software company Cybereason, titled Organizations at Risk: Ransomware Attackers Don't Take Holidays, also found that 90% of cybersecurity professionals are concerned about weekend/holiday attacks , and 24% have no specific plans in place to deal with increased risks during holidays and weekends, even if they have already been attacked during off-peak hours.

To help organizations better prepare 24/7, Cybereason announced today at Black Hat its new Cybereason Managed Detection and Response (MDR) mobile app. The app will be available for Android and iOS devices later this month.

"Security analysts are dealing with alert fatigue, staffing shortages, and new attacks during off-peak hours," said Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of Cybereason. "These burdens demanded an answer."

According to MarketsandMarkets, the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) market size is expected to grow from $985 million in 2022 to $2.36 billion in 2027, at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) just over 19%.

Cybereason's AI-powered XDR platform helps security analysts quickly understand the full extent of attacks in real time through a patented MalOp (malicious operation) detection engine.

The company's new MDR app essentially provides defenders with a mobile security operations center (SOC), Div. Cybersecurity experts can reduce mean time to resolution by suspending lateral movement of an attack directly from their devices. Users will see detailed information about active MalOps, their correspondence to the MITER ATT&CK framework, and criticality threat level.

The app provides anytime access to dashboards and enables rapid identification and isolation of compromised machines to remediate and minimize downtime and workflow interruptions, according to Cybereason. Users can also maintain constant contact with Cybereason's global SOC to immediately address potential threats.

In addition, the app offers links to industry reports and news so users can keep up to date with the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures used by nation-state threat actors and gangs cybercriminal ransomware.

The new app is especially important in today's 24/7/365 cybercrime landscape, according to Div.

According to the survey, 60% of security professionals said attacks on weekends and holidays took longer to assess their scope, and 50% said attacks during off-hours openness needed more time to put in place an effective response.

Also from the study:

36% of those surveyed who experienced an attack said they thought it was successful because there was no contingency plan in place and only a limited number of staff to respond. 33% needed a longer period to fully recover from such attacks. 12% said their organizations experienced more lost revenue as a direct result of delays...