Perimeter Defense: Off-line Cyber Threats
In recent years there has been a significant spin on the ways cyber security is weaponized to achieve narrow objectives of Advanced Persistent Threats.
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Updated November 2026. This was first published on 28 May 2020. The idea is the same. Any number below is what the original piece said then. It is not a new count.
Key takeaways
- In recent years there has been a significant spin on the ways cyber security is weaponized to achieve narrow objectives of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).
- One prominent methodology is the offline cyber attacks conducted by various ATPs.
- The conventional way of launching a cyber attack is to exploit a zero day or to exploit an existing vulnerability in an unpatched system.
What are APTs #
In recent years there has been a significant spin on the ways cyber security is weaponized to achieve narrow objectives of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). One prominent methodology is the offline cyber attacks conducted by various ATPs.
The conventional way of launching a cyber attack is to exploit a zero day or to exploit an existing vulnerability in an unpatched system. But this requires weeks or months of attacking and testing. Stuxnet is one such cyber weapon that was used back in 2010 to attack Iranian nuclear program. But it was a very sophisticated process to launch a cyber attack as such. As a substitution for this time consuming sophisticated process, ATPs came up with alternatives which would eliminate the months of attacking and searching for vulnerabilities. The use of offline attacks commonly come under the umbrella term of ‘Social Engineering? which uses psychological manipulation to trick users into making security mistakes or providing sensitive information.
Types of Offline Attacks and How They are Launched: #
One such widely used social engineering technique is manipulating people to provide sensitive information via text messages. A perpetrator would first conduct an investigation on the victim to collect information about his or her target. This will allow the attacker to collect potential points to exploit the weakest link in cyber security; human, behind the device. With prior information, the attacker gains the victim’s trust and gradually provides stimuli for the subsequent actions. This includes the victim revealing sensitive information or providing access to mission critical resources.
This could also happen via the form of pretexting where the attacker discloses that he or she needs information of their target to confirm their identity. In reality, they steal that data and use it to commit identity theft or stage secondary attacks.
Manipulating Victims through Phone Calls to use Personal Information.
The most commonly launched social engineering attacks are known as ‘Vishing Attacks?, which are conducted over phone calls. By calling a company and imitating as an authentic customer of the company, the attacker could pull information out of a user. This is widely used to trick help desk personnel of commercial enterprises. Help desk personnel are one of the most vulnerable entities in the link since their work is to provide ‘help? to whoever is on the other end of the receiver.
Hence, instead of finding vulnerabilities in softwares and systems, a social engineer is more likely to make a phone call in the middle of the night to an employee and pose as an IT support personnel and try to trick the employee into divulging his or her passwords.
Another frequently used technique to collect personal information is using the form of financial benefits. During the period of quarantine, cyber attackers are advertising posts mentioning that they are providing financial benefits such as loans for the people who are financially unstable. to collect that money, the users are requested to provide their bank details to the attacker. Once customer information has been successfully collected, the cyber criminals can log into the original account of the customer and steal the money in that account.
This could also happen in the form of notifications which says you have won a fancy amount of money in a competition, lottery, or sweepstake that the user might not remember entering. The notification may come by a mail, email, text message or via social media. To claim the prize, the customer is requested to deposit a certain amount of money and, or provide sensitive information to verify the identity. This information is later used for identity thefts and financial scams.
Quid Pro Quo - Gain Benefits In Exchange for Sensitive Information.
Quid Pro Quo is another method commonly used for offline cyber crimes which promis benefits in exchange for sensitive or non sensitive information. These types of attacks are mostly carried out with the support of an internal party who provides the information to the cyber criminal in exchange for rewards or personal benefits. Such an attack can take place over a phone call, via a text message, email or in person. Quid Pro Quo is not a sophisticated trick or an illusional attack compared to other attacks since people are more likely to give away their passwords even for a cheap pen drive or for a bar of chocolate, when the right amount of convincing is achieved.
Apart from the above mentioned means of offline exploits, it is a proven fact that human vulnerabilities play a prominent role when it comes to security. Human fear, greed, lust and anger are some of the fundamental elements that have been used by cyber criminals to methodically steal personal and proprietary financial information. The best way to stay safe from such cyber attackers who exploit human vulnerabilities is to improve the cyber awareness of the employees with regard to cyber security best practices and formulate company policies in places which will control the possibility of devastating human errors and help mitigate the damage in case of a mistake.
How Can You Protect Yourself in an Offline Situation? #
These types of offline attacks could be controlled by providing adequate security awareness and training. people should be educated on how social media techniques are used to carry out cyber attacks. Pretexting attacks could be prevented through security awareness programs. Proper classification of information is mandatory when it comes to standing against offline attacks. Only the right people should have access to the right set of information. This could be achieved by enabling multi factor authentication to business critical processes and imposing proper privilege access. Also to that, having a good social media policy on privacy can eliminate the possibility of offline attacks happening in the first place. As offline attacks are evolving and finding new attack vectors everyday, users must be vigilant and continuously update their strategies to combat it.
Questions and answers #
What are APTs? #
In recent years there has been a significant spin on the ways cyber security is weaponized to achieve narrow objectives of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). One prominent methodology is the offline cyber attacks conducted by various ATPs.
How Can You Protect Yourself in an Offline Situation? #
These types of offline attacks could be controlled by providing adequate security awareness and training. people should be educated on how social media techniques are used to carry out cyber attacks.