Protecting Against ShinyHunters: Advanced Cyber Threats and DPRM Solutions

Cyber threats are relentless and continually evolving in the financial services sector and other data-rich industries. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, posing an ever-increasing risk to organisations. A recent breach, impacting 30 million individuals at a prominent financial services company, highlights the severe threat posed by advanced hacking groups like ShinyHunters. This further underscores the urgent need for robust Data Protection and Risk Management (DPRM) solutions to safeguard sensitive information.

The Gravity of ShinyHunters Cyber Attacks

ShinyHunters are notorious for orchestrating high-profile data breaches across various sectors. Their method of working involves exploiting stolen credentials to infiltrate cloud services and databases, reselling valuable user data for profit. Their recent attack on Ticketmaster, with stolen data still being sold online, is a testament to their capabilities. By leveraging legitimate credentials, ShinyHunters create superuser accounts with escalated privileges, posing severe risks to data-rich industries.

The financial sector, with its vast repositories of sensitive data, presents a desirable target for hackers. The intensity and frequency of these attacks are only set to increase. As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, their methods of infiltration and data exploitation evolve daily, making it harder for businesses to mitigate these threats. Hackers methods today are bypassing traditional network security making it obsolete as a sole source of data security. Business need to be doing more to protect their data – by protecting data at the source. 

The Role of DPRM in Data Security

The average cost of a data breach now sits at a whopping $4.45 million, emphasising the urgent need for advanced data protection measures. Certes DPRM (Data Protection and Risk Mitigation) offers a comprehensive solution to safeguard your data, regardless of the infrastructure it traverses. Here’s how DPRM can protect your data:

• Advanced Data Protection: Certes DPRM ensures data in transit is only readable by the customer and the intended recipient. This makes intercepted data useless to attackers.
• Zero Trust Data Access: This model ensures that network access does not equate to data access, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorised access and credential misuse.
• Crypto-Segmentation: Certes DPRM secures application data flows with unique policies and encryption keys, protecting sensitive data from unauthorised access and lateral movement within the network.
• Customer-Controlled Key Management: With DPRM, customers control all encryption keys, ensuring data security is not reliant on third-party providers.

Specific Measures Against AD Compromise

• Preventing Escalated Privileges: Certes DPRM uses data-centric segmentation to protect Active Directory (AD). Unique policies prevent unauthorised access and lateral movement, which is crucial for preventing privilege escalation.
• Mitigating Data Exfiltration: Certes DPRM ensures that any data leaving the site is indecipherable to attackers. Protection policies controlled by the organisation’s security team make exfiltrated data useless.
• Securing Active Directory Against Advanced Threats: Active Directory is a prime target for attackers due to its central role in managing user identities and access controls. Certes DPRM applies policy-based crypto-segmentation to protect AD from sophisticated attacks, preventing unauthorised access and manipulation of sensitive data.

Futureproofing Against Quantum Threats

Certes DPRM is designed to be quantum-safe and crypto-agile, offering protection against future quantum computing threats. Its architecture can easily adapt to new algorithms as they become available, positioning Certes DPRM as a forward-looking tool that anticipates and neutralises future cybersecurity threats.

ShinyHunters and similar groups are becoming increasingly bold and sophisticated, leveraging new techniques to bypass traditional defences. The targeting of the financial industry and others is only going to get more intense, with hackers constantly adapting to and overcoming existing security measures. This escalation necessitates a proactive and advanced approach to cybersecurity. You can also read our larger whitepaper on the impact of ShinyHunters here. 

Certes DPRM provides robust defence against credential theft, AD compromise, and data exfiltration, offering unparalleled protection for critical infrastructure. By adopting a data-centric security approach, organisations can move beyond traditional perimeter defences and focus on protecting their most valuable assets.

Implement Certes DPRM today and ensure your organisation is protected against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats, secure your data, and maintain the trust of your stakeholders.