Exploit kits have been bought and sold in dark corners of the Internet for over 10 years now.
Kits like Angler and now the Terror exploit kit target established vulnerabilities in common programmes.
Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, explains how we can counter such threats.
“We look at malware with an obvious bad taste in our mouths.
“It plagues almost everything we do in modern day computing, from working on our desktops, through phones and the many IoT devices that are being introduced almost daily.
“We of course combat these with security policies, software and training in many different forms, but we need to remember one thing, it’s software, in its makeup often no different than a lot of software we use on a daily basis.
“It gets made, released, someone buys or downloads it, sooner or later it gets old (maybe stops working) and someone makes it better for the cycle to begin again.
“Multi-layered defence is the only way to keep your machine safe.
“Sadly, it is a cat and mouse game, you do all you can to keep them out, they do all they can to get in.
“If every machine was on the latest Operating System running currently maintained, applications updated regularly then their job would be so much harder.
“But it’s not. When we talk about exploits, some are known and some are unknown but both you and the software manufacturers have a common goal.
“They don’t want you to be infected due to a vulnerability in their software, they want you to be safe, you want to be safe so it is possible and attainable to be safer than most.
“It still is one of the biggest wins we have along with not re-using passwords, 2 simple precautions we have complete control over and the bad guys rely on you not doing.”
How often do you check that your system is up-to-date? Let us know on Twitter @ESETUK.
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