Criminals are not only of the physical world but also manifest their presence in the digital world. According to the security firm, Trend Micro, evidences about propagation of malwares have been discovered. These are also being controlled remotely from cloud servers, making netizens vulnerable if they don’t make necessary measures.
Many individuals make their living in many forms using the internet today. Even big business firms expand the horizons in the digital world. Almost everyone is depending on traffic and this is where cybercriminals like hackers accomplish their malicious schemes. Malicious software were being uploaded as ordinary traffic between corporate end points and cloud-based services.
Trend Micro further explained through a blog that most of these cybercriminals use Dropbox to host the command and control them for malware and botnets that have passed through corporate firewalls. We know that Dropbox is a file hosting service that primarily offers cloud storage for photos, docs, videos and different kinds of files. It can also perform file synchronization and also give personal cloud and client software.
Not too long ago, malwares are easily exposed through the identification of malicious servers. That is not the case now since they have already made access with the cloud servers to host their C&C software. Trend Micro has pinpointed Dropbox but also emphasized that any cloud platform even the likes of Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive can be used to host C&C software.
So the big question is: How do ordinary users protect themselves from such security threats? Trend Micro advised that general protective measures must be taken like closely monitoring of network traffic. If you have an all-of-a-sudden influx of traffic even if your business does not use cloud services, check on your traffic activity. You can use that point for analyses and make necessary measures out of your discovery.
Trend Micro does notsay —however—that cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft SkyDrive have been compromised. The security firm also does not say that the companies using these cloud services are in grave threat. The cyber criminals are merely using these services to host the malware and control them from there.