A new report by McAfee examines the controversy and confusion surrounding Advanced Evasion Techniques (AETs) and the role they play in Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Together with Vanson Bourne, McAfee surveyed 800 CIOs and security managers from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Brazil, and South Africa, to better understand how hackers are using AETs to circumvent their security defenses.

The survey revealed there are misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and ineffective safeguards in use by security experts responsible for protecting sensitive data.

Recent high-profile data breaches prove that criminal activity can successfully evade detection for long periods of time. The survey respondents acknowledged this trend, as well as more than one in five security professionals admitted that their network was breached (22 percent). Those who claimed to have had their network breached, about 40 percent believe that AET played a key role. On average, those who experienced a breach in the past 12 months reported a cost to their organization of more than $1 million.

 “We are no longer dealing with the random drive-by scanner that is just looking for obvious entryways into your network. In today's interconnected world, we are dealing with adversaries who spend weeks or months studying your public facing network footprint, looking for that one small sliver of light which will allow them to gain a foothold into your networks,” said John Masserini, Vice President and Chief Security Officer, MIAX Options.

“Advanced Evasion Techniques are that sliver of light. When deployed, McAfee’s Next Generation Firewall technology adds an extra layer of depth to protect against such threats, making that sliver of light that much harder to find.”

Firewall Tests Fail To Detect the Existence of AETs

According to the survey, nearly 40 percent of IT professionals believe they don’t have the technology in place to detect and track AETs within their organization. Almost two thirds of the 40 percent stated the biggest challenge when attempting to deploy a technology against AETs is convincing the board that they are a critical threat to the organization. “Many organizations are so intent of identifying new malware that they are falling asleep at the wheel toward advanced evasion techniques that can enable malware to circumvent their security defences,” said Jon Oltsik, Senior Principal Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “AETs pose a great threat because most security solutions can’t detect or stop them. Security professionals and executive managers need to wake up as this is a real and growing threat.”

There are an estimated 800 million known AETs, and only less than one percent is detected by other vendor’s firewalls. There are millions of combinations and modifications of network based AETs. Professor Andrew Blyth of the University of South Wales has studied the frequency and impact of AETs for several years. “The simple truth is that Advanced Evasion Techniques (AETs) are a fact of life. It’s shocking that the majority of CIOs and security professionals severely underestimated that there are 329,246 AETs, when in fact the total of known AETs is approximately 2,500 times that number or more than 800 million AETs and growing,” said Blyth.

AETs are methods of disguise and penetrate target networks undetected and can deliver malicious payloads. With AETs, an attacker and segment an exploit, bypass the firewall or IPS appliance, and gain access to the network. Once inside the network, it reassembles the malicious code to unleash malware and continue an APT attack. “Hackers already know about advanced evasion techniques and are using them on a daily basis,” said Pat Calhoun, General Manager of Network Security at McAfee. “What we’re hoping to do is educate businesses so they can know what to look for, and understand what’s needed to defend against them.”