{"id":57749,"date":"2017-08-23T16:18:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T21:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=57749"},"modified":"2017-08-23T16:18:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T21:18:58","slug":"government-return-malware-back-sender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/government-return-malware-back-sender\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Government Wants to Return Malware Back to Sender"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Cyber Crime is Skyrocketing &#8211; And the U.S. has a New Plan<\/h3>\n<p>With the increased cyber crime the world is facing today, countries are beginning to look for alternative methods to divert malware attacks. \u00a0The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency is doing just that. \u00a0In recent reports, there have been talks of rerouting malware attacks back to the same sender it came from. \u00a0Essentially, a &#8220;return to sender&#8221; method. \u00a0Lieutenant-general, Vincent Stewart of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency recently <a href=\"https:\/\/nakedsecurity.sophos.com\/2017\/08\/21\/return-to-sender-military-will-send-malware-right-back-to-you\/\">stated<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Once we\u2019ve isolated malware, I want to reengineer it and prep to use it against the same adversary who sought to use against us. We must disrupt to exist.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This may be a way to &#8220;teach the hackers a lesson&#8221;. \u00a0But how many times have we heard how difficult it is to catch cyber criminals because they leave virtually no tracks? \u00a0How would spending the time and money to implement this, be worthwhile? \u00a0Could it be? \u00a0Perhaps, but it&#8217;s a long shot. \u00a0Also, who is to say the hacker won&#8217;t see the &#8220;return to sender&#8221; occurring and reroute it elsewhere &#8212; thus making the U.S. government appear as a hacker to an innocent third-party?<\/p>\n<p>There are several ways to look at this, but perhaps we focus on the biggest flaw of them all. \u00a0Why not stop the malware attack from beginning in the first place? \u00a0Block the threat, and you won&#8217;t have to return it back to the original sender. \u00a0Or work on remediation efforts. \u00a0Most solution providers have been complacent. \u00a0They haven&#8217;t advanced their technology to effectively combat today&#8217;s cyber threats. \u00a0Instead, they have continued to use an archaic blacklist approach which has proven time and time again, it is not effective.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of consistently hoping for the best, knowing your slowing catching up to the hacker &#8212; why have the best security solution and stay one step ahead? \u00a0By implementing a default-deny approach, or application whitelisting technology, any unknown threats will be tested and proven safe before they are allowed to execute. \u00a0Thus, catching each new malware variant before it can worm its way into devices.<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts on the government&#8217;s latest proposed approach?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cyber Crime is Skyrocketing &#8211; And the U.S. has a New Plan With the increased cyber crime the world is facing today, countries are beginning to look for alternative methods to divert malware attacks. \u00a0The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency is doing just that. \u00a0In recent reports, there have been talks of rerouting malware attacks back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":55104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5090],"tags":[56,5321,5074],"class_list":["post-57749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","tag-malware","tag-us-government","tag-whitelist"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Government Wants to Return Malware Back to Sender<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The U.S. government is working on a method to return malware attacks back to the original sender. 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