Dell SecureWorks has announced availability of a new suite of what it calls Targeted Threat Intelligence Services that are designed to detect and anticipate so-called Advanced Persistent Threats before they do significant damage to a targeted institution.

APTs – unleashed by cyber criminals whom Col. (Retired) Barry Hensley, executive director of Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit, described in an interview as “well resourced, extremely patient and good enough” to mount highly sophisticated attacks that may take many weeks to come together – is a typical method used to penetrate institutions with good perimeter security such as credit unions and banks.

“In Advanced Persistent Threat attacks, hackers create custom attacks and infrastructure to target one or a handful of organizations,” elaborated Jon Ramsey, Dell SecureWorks chief technology officer, in a prepared statement. “However, even with APT attacks, the attackers do use common tactics such as spear phishing and other social engineering ploys. With our Targeted Threat Intelligence services, we are looking to provide insight into the specific attacks, infrastructure and tactics, as it relates to the organizations being targeted.”

Hensley added that in their probing, criminals invariably leave behind cyber footprints and Dell SecureWorks now believes it has developed the tools to identify these traces and sound early warnings.

“Criminals have to build out infrastructure before they attack,” said Hensley.

In some cases, said Hensley, SecureWorks has been able to track activity back to the command and control centers.

“Having more context into the cyber threats targeting your organization, as well as the indicators of these threats, enables your security team to implement customized and robust security controls and defenses, while helping prepare your incident response and forensic teams for any possible scenario,” said Ramsey in his statement.

Hensley indicated that a key market for these SecureWorks' services will be credit unions and banks.

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Dell SecureWorks Announces New Tools to Fight APT Attacks

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