FBI Special Agent for Cyber Special Operations Leo Taddeo warned that given the increasing sophistication of threat actors and the operations they are capable of, the U.S. should be prepared for extremely damaging cyber attacks against networks in both the public and private sectors.

“It’s undeniable that the number of breaches is going up, and despite our best efforts, we are constantly surprised by new and important ways to affect these important [computer] networks,” Taddeo said on Bloomberg’s Market Makers show.

“I think that we would be well-served to prepare for — I won’t say a catastrophic attack, but an attack that has an impact that may shake some confidence-levels.”

“The notion that you can protect your perimeter is falling by the wayside,” said Taddeo . “The best organizations out there are monitoring, they are detecting what is on their network before it [has] a major impact.”

While Taddeo said he believes that the stock, bond and other critical financial markets are well-protected and generally not connected to the Internet, he admitted that “we’re always surprised” by what attackers are able to achieve, as exemplified by the recent breach at JP Morgan Chase.

In the wake of the highly publicized hack of Sony Entertainment’s networks late last year, the FBI reportedly issued a warning that U.S. businesses should be on alert for “destructive malware” targeting enterprise systems.

The confidential five-page “flash” advisory released on Monday is said to have included some technical details related to the malware used in the Sonty attack, as well as advice on how to mitigate the threat.

“The overwriting of the data files will make it extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible, to recover the data using standard forensic methods,” the advisory said.

Officials from the FBI refused to comment on the specifics of the flash alert, saying only that such advisories are routine and a courtesy to organizations who may similarly be targeted.

“The FBI routinely advises private industry of various cyber threat indicators observed during the course of our investigations,” FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell said. “This data is provided in order to help systems administrators guard against the actions of persistent cyber criminals.”

A single breach of customer data can mean millions of dollars in lost revenue, and that’s just the beginning.

The harder to quantify damage from an attack can include customer inconvenience and subsequent loss of customer confidence, the loss of intellectual property and market advantage, and the time and money spent recovering from each incident – not to mention the liability implications that come with compromised customer data.

Existing security controls are much less effective today as zero-day threats, APTs, web, mobile, and application-layer attacks often bypass these defenses and leave an organization vulnerable to attack.

While traditional security controls form the foundation of a good security posture, they alone are simply no longer enough. Protection against advanced threats requires threat intelligence-based approaches and strategies.

About Anthony M. Freed

Anthony M. Freed, Senior Editor of Publications for Norse Corporation, is an infosec journalist who authored numerous feature articles, interviews and investigative reports which have been sourced and cited by dozens of major media outlets, including The New York Times, Reuters, The Register, Financial Times of London, MSNBC, Fox News, PC/IT/Computer/Tech World, eWeek, SC Magazine, CSO Magazine, Federal News Radio, The Herald-Tribune, Naked Security, and many more.

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Tags: Attacks, Data Breach, Data Loss, FBI, Financial Market, Hacktivists, JP Morgan Chase, Law Enforcement, Malware, Network Security, Security Advisory, Sony Pictures