Although they are often eclipsed by new and emerging threats, two attack patterns that date back to 1969 — footprinting and brute force attacks — remain widely used by attackers around the world. Because the IoT devices and industrial control systems increasingly present in networks don’t always get the level of security review given to a new computer, they can more easily fall victim to both footprinting and brute force attacks. Fortunately, many tools and mitigation techniques to thwart these older kinds of cyber attack have been developed over the years. Organizations that apply them in their environments will be better equipped to deal with the ongoing threat.

Read this research report to learn why you should pay attention to service sweep alerts and which port sweeps most frequently target, how common brute force password attacks are today, and what you can do to protect against these older attack types.

Download the complete IBM X-Force research report: Beware of older cyber attacks