Spotlight falls on incident response after Sony malware issue

Incident response is receiving a lot of attention in the aftermath of the hacking episode at Sony Pictures.

The film giant had a signed digital certificate stolen and leaked on the web, and security specialists have  responded by encouraging businesses to pay more attention to the way in which they respond to attacks.

Kaspersky Labs’ researchers found the latest version of malware in the Sony breaches, known as ‘Destover’, signed with the firm’s official – albeit stolen – certificate.

ESET security specialist Mark James told SC Magazine:

“In this particular case, the certificates are being used in an attempt to validate malware to trick some systems into thinking it’s safe because it has a valid certificate. This will trick automated systems to validate the malware and allow it to pass through the very systems designed to stop it.”

Kaspersky said that the latest Destover version was compiled back in July, but wasn’t signed until 5th December. It added that stolen certificates are able to be applied to further malicious samples, as well as contribute to more attacks.

Further, Kaspersky confirmed that it has filed a report about the certificate to Digicert and COMODO.

Incident response isn’t the only aspect of cyber security to which businesses need to pay more attention; it is an area that generally continues to be neglected. Business owners should look at the incident with Sony and open their eyes as to just how much of an issue hacking has become. In reality, they should be doing everything they can to prevent any form of cyber crime.

The more cyber security jobs are filled, the more protected UK firms will be.