Trusona ATO Protect meets new UK National Cyber Security Centre recommendations to stop IT Help Desk attacks.

In the wake of recent high-profile cyberattacks on well-known UK retailers Marks and Spencer, Coop, and Harrods, the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has urgently released a set of recommendations for retailers and other UK businesses.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/incidents-impacting-retailers

The ransomware attacks are believed to have been orchestrated by Scattered Spider, a notorious online collective of hackers. In September 2023, attackers got into MGM Resorts through its IT help desk. Chief executive Bill Hornbuckle later said the attack was “partially socially engineered” and that the company’s tech call center was “the layer that got engineered.” MGM estimated that the attack would cut its third-quarter 2023 results by roughly $100 million (MGM Resorts, Form 8-K, October 2023).

The recent UK attacks seem to follow the same pattern, calling the IT help desk and using social engineering methods to persuade the agent to reset passwords, MFA or other credentials allowing the criminals access to the organisations IT network.

From here, they plant ransomware that encrypts critical business systems and then demand payment to resolve.

Organisations that do not agree to pay face the daunting task of rebuilding IT systems from backups, causing significant business disruption and incurring significant costs.

The NCSC advice is straightforward…

“Review helpdesk password reset processes, including how the helpdesk authenticates staff members’ credentials before resetting passwords, especially those with escalated privileges.”

… but how can businesses quickly achieve this?

Trusona ATO Protect was explicitly developed to give IT help desk agents the ability to quickly determine who is on the other end of the call by leveraging multiple fraud technologies and trusted data sources. It can be rapidly deployed with no integration to give instant protection.

Detecting SIM Swap, determining caller location and verifying identity, plus GenAI deepfake resistance, patented Man-In-The-Middle and anti-replay detection, ATO Protect can give every organisation 360-degree protection with its newest feature, Agent Verify (patent-pending), which protects employees who receive calls from scammers claiming to be from IT support.

Visit www.trusona.com to find out more and book your 7-minute demo of ATO Protect today.