What Is a Watering Hole Attack?

Thanks for reprinting the article Charlie. You could of mentioned that the Biden Administration IS ACTUALLY WORKING ON AND IMPROVING CYBER SECURITY. I will forgive you not mentioning how Donnie undercut our cyber security efforts while his buddy Puttie hardened Russia's.

The most infamous watering hole attack in recent memory came to light in 2019, after targeting iPhone users within China's Uyghur Muslim community for two years. But threat intelligence researchers emphasize that the technique is fairly common, likely because it's so powerful and productive. The internet security firm ESET says it detects multiple watering hole attacks per year, and Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) similarly sees as many as one per month.

The name comes from the idea of poisoning a central water source that then infects anyone who drinks from it. Relatedly, it also evokes a predator that lurks near a watering hole waiting for prey to stop by. Watering hole attacks can be difficult to detect because they often operate quietly on legitimate websites whose owners may not notice anything amiss. And even once discovered, it's often unclear exactly how long an attack has been going on and how many victims there are.