Global cybersecurity experts are raising serious concerns over the newly identified cyber threat known as Data Splicing Attacks, which poses a significant threat to thousands of businesses worldwide. It seems that even the most advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools that are currently being used are unable to stop the sophisticated data exfiltration technique.
A user can manipulate sensitive information directly within the browser, enabling the attacker to split, encrypt or encode it into smaller fragments that will remain undetected by conventional security measures because they can manipulate data directly within the browser. By fragmenting the data pieces, they circumvent the detection logic of both Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) and network-based tools, only to be reassembled seamlessly outside the network environment in which they were found.
As a further contributing factor to the threat, malicious actors are using alternatives to standard communication protocols, such as grpc and Webrtc, and commonly used encrypted messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, as a means of exfiltrating data. As a result of these channels, attackers can obscure their activities and evade traditional SSL inspection mechanisms, making it much more difficult to detect and respond to them.
An important shift in the threat landscape has taken place with the introduction of Data Splicing Attacks, which require immediate attention from both enterprises and cybersecurity professionals. Data exfiltration, a growing concern within the cybersecurity industry, refers to the act of transferring, stealing, or removing a specific amount of data from a computer, server, or mobile phone without authorisation.
Several methods can be used to perform this type of cyberattack, including a variety of cyberattacks such as data leakage, data theft, and information extrusion. The kind of security breach posed by this type of company poses a serious threat to the company, since it can result in significant financial losses, disruptions to operations, and irreparable damage to their reputation. This lack of adequate safeguarding of sensitive information under such threats emphasises the importance of developing effective data protection strategies.
There are two primary means by which data can be exfiltrated from an organisation's network: external attacks and insider threats. Cybercriminals infiltrate an organisation's network by deploying malware that targets connected devices, which can be the result of a cybercriminal attack. A compromised device can serve as a gateway to broader network exploitation once compromised.
Some types of malware are designed to spread across corporate networks in search of and extracting confidential information, while others remain dormant for extended periods, eschewing detection and quietly collecting, exfiltrating, and exchanging data in small, incremental amounts as it grows. As well as insider threats, internal threats can be equally dangerous in stealing data.
A malicious insider, such as a disgruntled employee, may be responsible for the theft of proprietary data, often transferring it to private email accounts or external cloud storage services for personal gain. Furthermore, employees may inadvertently expose sensitive information to external parties due to negligent behaviour, resulting in the disclosure of sensitive information to outside parties.
The insider-related incidents that take place at a company underscore the importance of robust monitoring, employee training, and data loss prevention (DLP) to safeguard the company's assets from outside threats. As a rule, there are many ways in which data exfiltration can be executed, usually by exploiting technological vulnerabilities, poor security practices, or human error in order to carry out the exfiltration.
When threat actors attempt to steal sensitive data from corporate environments, they use sophisticated methods without raising suspicion or setting off security alarms, to do so covertly. For organisations that wish to improve their security posture and reduce the risk of data loss, they must understand the most common tactics used in data exfiltration.
Infiltrating a system using malware is one of the most prevalent methods, as it is malicious software that is intentionally installed to compromise it. When malware is installed, it can scan a device for valuable data like customer records, financial data, or intellectual property, and send that information to an external server controlled by the attacker, which makes the process stealthy, as malware is often designed to mask its activity to evade detection by a company.
Data exfiltration is often accompanied by trojans, keyloggers, and ransomware, each of which is capable of operating undetected within a corporate network for extended periods. A similar method, phishing, relies on social engineering to trick users into revealing their login information or downloading malicious files. A cybercriminal can trick employees into granting them access to internal systems by craftily crafting convincing emails or creating false login pages.
When attackers gain access to a network, they can easily move across the network laterally and gain access to sensitive information. Phishing attacks are particularly dangerous because they rely heavily on human error to exploit human error, bypassing even the most sophisticated technological safeguards. The insider threat represents a challenging aspect of an organisation.
It can involve malicious insiders, such as employees or contractors, who deliberately leak or sell confidential information for monetary, strategic, or personal gain. As an example, insiders can also compromise data security unintentionally by mishandling sensitive data, sending information to incorrect recipients, or using insecure devices, without realising it. No matter what the intent of an insider threat is, it can be very difficult to detect and prevent it, especially when organisations do not have comprehensive monitoring and security controls in place.
Lastly, network misconfigurations are a great source of entry for attackers that requires little effort. When an internal system is compromised, it can be exploited by an attacker to gain unauthorised access by exploiting vulnerabilities such as poorly configured firewalls, exposed ports, and unsecured APIS. Once the attacker is inside, he or she can navigate the network by bypassing the traditional security mechanisms to locate and steal valuable information.
Often, these misconfigurations don't become apparent until a breach has already occurred, so it is very important to conduct continuous security audits and vulnerability assessments. In order to safeguard critical information assets better, organizations must understand these methods so that they may be able to anticipate threats and implement targeted countermeasures. Increasingly, web browsers have become an integral part of workplace productivity, creating a significant threat surface for data leaks.
As more than 60% of enterprise data is now stored on cloud-based platforms and is accessed primarily through browsers, ensuring browser-level security has become an extremely important concern. However, many existing security solutions have fallen short in addressing this challenge as recent research has revealed. It is very hard for proxy-based protections incorporated into enterprise browsers to identify sophisticated threats because they lack visibility.
Nevertheless, these solutions are not capable of understanding user interactions, monitoring changes to the Document Object Model (DOM), or accessing deeper browser context, which makes them easily exploitable to attackers. The traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP) systems on endpoints are also not without limitations. As a result of their dependence on browser-exposed APIs, they are unable to determine the identity of the user, track browser extensions, or control the flow of encrypted content in the browser.
The constraints are creating a blind spot, which is increasingly being exploited by insider threats and advanced persistent attacks as a result of these constraints. It is especially problematic that these attacks are so adaptable; adversaries can develop new variants with very little coding effort, which will further widen the gap between modern threats and outdated security infrastructure, as well as allowing adversaries to build new variants that bypass existing defences.
A new toolkit developed specifically for reproducing the mechanics of these emerging data splicing attacks has been developed by researchers to address this growing concern. The tool has been developed to respond to this growing concern. It is designed for security teams, red teams, and vendors to test and evaluate their current defences in a realistic threat environment rigorously to determine whether their current defences are adequate.
It is the objective of Angry Magpie to help companies discover hidden vulnerabilities by simulating advanced browser-based attack vectors in order to evaluate how resilient their DLP strategies are. It is becoming increasingly apparent that enterprises need a paradigm shift in their approach to browser security, emphasizing proactive assessment and continuous adaptation in order to deal with rapidly changing cyber threats in the future.
As data splicing attacks have become increasingly prevalent and current security solutions have become increasingly limited, enterprise cybersecurity is at a critical inflexion point. As browser-based work environments become the norm and cloud dependency becomes more prevalent, traditional Data Loss Prevention strategies need to evolve both in scope and sophistication, as well as in scale. As organisations, we need to move away from legacy solutions that do not offer visibility, context, or adaptability that are necessary for detecting and mitigating modern data exfiltration techniques.
For cybersecurity professionals to remain competitive in the future, they must adopt a proactive and threat-informed defence strategy that includes continuous monitoring, advanced browser security controls, and regular stress testing of their systems through tools such as Angry Magpie. By taking this approach, organisations can identify and close vulnerabilities before they become exploitable, as well as ensure that there is a culture of security awareness throughout the workforce to minimise human error and insider threats.
Security infrastructures must keep up with the rapidly growing threats and innovations in cyberspace as well to maintain a competitive advantage. Businesses need to acknowledge and commit to modern, dynamic defence mechanisms to increase their resilience and ensure the integrity of their most valuable digital assets is better protected as a result of emerging threats.
