Today, data no longer resides in securely guarded underground vaults. Instead, it traverses across multiple data touchpoints, such as on-premises and cloud environments. This hyperactive, continuous movement and interconnectivity don’t go unnoticed. All it takes is one vulnerable data pipeline for that data to slip away and result in data exfiltration.
As billions of data-hungry devices communicate, data exfiltration now occurs in 93% of ransomware attacks, with attackers stealing data in a median of just two days or within the first hour in 20% of cases. As cloud adoption, remote work, parallel data environments, and hyper connectivity intensify, data exfiltration becomes both easier to execute and harder to detect.
Read on to understand what data exfiltration is.
What is Data Exfiltration?
Organizations today face a wide array of cyberattacks, all of which are increasingly unforgiving. One such cyberattack most modern organizations face is data exfiltration.
Data exfiltration, also referred to as data theft, data extrusion, data exploitation, or data exportation, is the unauthorized access and transfer of data out of an organization’s data environment. This is usually done by a rogue group of cybercriminals who use social engineering attacks to illegally obtain access to the data.
In essence, this intentional data theft moves sensitive data out of a once thought ‘protected environment’ where it should have stayed secured, and now into the hands of malicious individuals who can use the data to harm the organization.
Examples of Data Exfiltration
Common examples of data exfiltration include:
a. Email-Based Exfiltration
If an attacker manages to obtain an employee’s email account credentials, they can log in, attach confidential files such as reports and documents, and send this sensitive data to themselves or a third-party outside the corporate email network. The attacker doesn’t even have to enter the corporate building, yet can obtain core business data by simply copying and pasting it to an email message.
b. Cloud-Based Exfiltration
This exfiltration can take place by both the cybercriminal and a rogue insider. The individual can upload sensitive data to an unauthorized external cloud storage service. Once the data is uploaded to a cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox, the malicious individual can then obtain unrestricted access to the data from anywhere without the company noticing right away.
Similar to cloud-based exfiltration, this exfiltration technique can occur by both the cybercriminal and a rogue insider. This is where an individual obtains access to a device that contains sensitive data. The individual can plug in a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or any other plug-in storage device and transfer sensitive files to the removable device. That device can simply be put in the pocket, and the individual can discreetly walk out of the premises.
How Does Data Exfiltration Work
Most data exfiltration follows a common pattern. This includes:
a. Obtain Unrestricted Access
Exfiltration begins by gaining unrestricted and unauthorized access to a network, system, or device that hosts sensitive data. The attacker can engage in social engineering attacks, such as phishing or malware, and get access to the crown jewels, i.e., data.
b. Discover the Crown Jewels
The next step, post-unrestricted access, is to discover sensitive data that the attacker came after. This could include core customer data, financial data, emails, or databases.
c. Disguise the Data
More often, data exfiltration takes days or weeks instead of a single-day exploit. This is where the attacker can compress the data in a different format and hide or rename it, making things appear normal. This is also referred to as the staging spot where the attacker parks the data for exfiltration.
d. Data Exfiltration
Now comes the exfiltration stage, where the attacker transfers data outside the corporate network via various means like web uploads, email, cloud, or removable storage.
e. Cleanup
Although not crucial, most attackers engage in a cleanup activity where they cover their tracks so that security teams can’t instantly detect their nefarious activities.
Data Exfiltration vs. Data Leakage vs. Data Breach
With various types of data exploits, it’s common to get confused. Although these three terms might sound familiar, they differ in the approach sensitive data gets transported outside the organization.
Data Exfiltration: Intentional, unauthorized, covert transfer of data from a computer or other device.
Data Leakage: Accidental exposure of data to an unauthorized individual.
Data Breach: A verified security incident in which sensitive data is accessed or made public without authorization.
Impact of Data Exfiltration on Businesses
For organizations, data exfiltration can trigger multiple vulnerabilities that expose the organization to:
a. Financial Costs
Security professionals must be onboarded in addition to existing security teams. This increases the financial costs of investigating, containment, incident response, cleanup and future vulnerability patch upgrades. Loss of revenue, covering legal costs, and compensating customers further tighten finances, causing operational disruptions.
b. Reputational Damage
Once an organization incurs a data breach or data exposure, and word hits the market about data exfiltration, the organization’s reputation takes a hit. Stakeholders lose confidence in the business, tarnishing its brand image, which can take immense effort to recover.
c. Regulatory Exposure
Organizations operate in a tight-knit regulatory environment where various data privacy laws impose strict obligations on businesses. Sensitive data exposure can lead to hefty noncompliance penalties and legal action, jeopardizing the organization’s reputation.
d. Operational Disruption
Incidents like data exfiltration can result in partial or long-term operational disruptions. An organization may need to pause certain operations while security upgrades are made, resulting in delays and loss of revenue.
How to Detect Data Exfiltration
Here are some of the common ways organizations can detect data exfiltration:
a. Unusual Outbound Network Traffic
Erratic network traffic spikes can trigger suspicions about whether data is leaving the network. This is a giveaway, especially when network traffic is high at odd hours, or data is being sent to locations it hasn’t been sent to before.
b. Suspicious User Activity
Network operators have a network history of what constitutes normal user traffic and what’s abnormal. When the network is loaded with incoming and outgoing traffic and files that aren’t normally accessed are being utilized from unknown locations, it’s an indication that something suspicious is going on.
c. Heightened Sharing
When multiple platforms are being utilized to transfer files, particularly containing large email attachments and sensitive data to external recipients, it’s possible that data exfiltration is taking place unless such large-scale transfer is authorized and monitored.
5 Best Practices to Prevent Data Exfiltration
Preventing data exfiltration requires a comprehensive approach to amplifying data security posture. Common best practices include:
1. Limiting to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Data accessibility should be regulated by introducing the least privileged model, where only authorized individuals have limited access to data required to fulfill their role. This drastically minimizes data exposure risk as no single individual has unrestricted access to data.
2. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
MFA acts as an additional security layer that authenticates access. This could include SMS codes and authenticator codes that change each time access is required.
3. Use DLP (Data Loss Prevention) Controls
DPL tools are designed to detect and restrict sensitive data from being shared outside the organization.
4. Monitor Suspicious Activity and Data Transfers
Real-time monitoring of the network provides visibility into which files are being downloaded, uploaded and shared across platforms. Mass export of large files from unknown locations at odd hours flags suspicions and prompts network operators to immediately restrict flows.
5. Limiting Outgoing Communications
Whether it’s an email or a messaging app, communications should be regulated. Emails shouldn’t have the option to auto-forward to external recipients and large files shouldn’t be allowed to be uploaded or accessed by anyone without the authorized link.
Preventing Data Exfiltration Through Automated Data Governance
Data exfiltration is a constant threat, one that is only going to escalate. Fortunately, Securiti provides a comprehensive, policy-driven solution that helps organizations reduce data exfiltration risk at scale.
By discovering hidden data assets, identifying overexposed repositories, and classifying sensitive data, Securiti enables enterprises to understand exactly what data is at risk and where.
Securiti Data Command Center helps organizations automatically discover, classify, and organize sensitive and high-value data across systems, so organizations can trust their data, reduce noise, and use the right data faster for insights and decision-making.
Request a demo to learn more.
