To be fair, a majority of infections and infiltrations on networked systems occur as a direct result of user behavior. Spear fishing is just another way that these entities gain access to personal data and corporate networks in general. It just takes one infected user BYOD on a secured corporate network to bring down an entire company’s security fence.
Yes if you read the article the weaponized powerpoint was a lure; “Many of the lures observed have been specific to the Ukrainian conflict with Russia and to broader geopolitical issues related to Russia.” If the target didn’t open the powerpoint there was no exploit.
Way different than what the ABC article linked in the opening post implies.
“A destructive “Trojan Horse” malware program has penetrated the software that runs much of the nation’s critical infrastructure and is poised to cause an economic catastrophe, according to the Department of Homeland Security.”
That statement is simply not true.
Another comment puts it this way; “•An attacker can exploit this vulnerability [now patched in Microsoft Windows] to execute arbitrary code but will need a specifically crafted file and use social engineering methods (observed in this campaign) to convince a user to open it.”