Insight

Ransomware is a crime that is predominantly financially motivated, yet the effects of attacks are far broader and more profound than just the financial impact. Pervasive attacks against healthcare, local government, schools and other forms of critical infrastructure are threatening our quality and safety of life every day. These disruptive attacks tear at the very fabric of our society, while also causing economic and reputational harm. Further, ransom payments are fuelling the activities of organized...

In May the US Colonial Pipeline shut its operational network after a ransomware cyber-attack. It’s said to be one of the costliest attacks for an economy. A painful accolade if ever there was one. New details are emerging about the specifics of the pipeline attack all the time but there are a few concerns that every boardroom must acknowledge. The first relates to reports that there was no Chief Security Officer (CSO) in place. Ten...

In the last 13 months the UK lost a reported £10.4 million to cybercrime, as per official police statistics. One of the most damaging forms of cybercrime comes in the form of Ransomware.  Not only that, but 81% of cyber security experts believe we are likely to see more ransomware than ever across the next few years, thanks to its increasing prevalence. It’s a terrifying prospect for businesses especially, who stand to lose everything, and...

Hackers are using weak and stolen credentials in a significant way to compromise business-critical environments. Stealing access to your environment using a known password for a user account is a much easier way to compromise systems than relying on other vulnerabilities. Therefore, using good password security and robust password policies is an excellent way for organizations to bolster their cybersecurity posture. What characteristics make up an effective password policy? Developing an effective reporting structure for...

It was long overdue, but Netflix has finally started to explore ways to address its password problem. By prompting viewers to prove that they live with the holder of that account by receiving a code, sent via text or email, they are hoping to weed out password freeloaders who, let’s face it, are probably costing Netflix millions of dollars each year. The issue of password sharing, which isn’t just a Netflix problem, is almost universally...

Although cybercrime as a whole has seen a rise during the pandemic, arguably ransomware has been one of the more successful and lucrative attack types. According to the World Economic Forum 2020 Global Risk Report, ransomware was the third most common, and second most damaging type of malware attack recorded last year, with payouts averaging a hefty $1.45M per incident. Our own research report, the State of Encrypted Attacks Report 2020, found that there had...

By the time you have finished reading this sentence, an organisation somewhere in the world will have fallen victim to a ransomware attack and had at least some of its corporate data encrypted. Globally, on average, the criminals behind ransomware attacks hit a new organisation every 10 seconds, but less than five years ago, it was every 40. Recently, Colonial Pipeline, a major US fuel company made headlines after falling victim to such an attack...

Ransomware is a growing threat to every organisation on the planet; it seems we can’t go a day without seeing another high-profile ransomware attack being detailed in mainstream media. Cyber-criminals are innovating at a phenomenal pace in this growing ‘industry’, because they have the funds to do so. In fact, many cyber-criminal groups have more funds than most enterprises. Staggeringly the cost of cyber-crime was reported to be more than $1 trillion in 2020, more...

It comes as no surprise that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in security gaps. The global crisis revealed a multitude of nascent cyber-security shortcomings, including a lack of agility to support homeworking and an overreliance on on-premise security. It also created a whole host of new challenges, from scam Covid-related domains to an increase in phishing attacks. Indeed, the pandemic has seen cyber-crime flourish. In its Annual Review 2020, the UK’s NCSC...

Passwords are the first line of defense when it comes to digital security. For most businesses, each employee is going to have at least one username and password that they need to remember. In many cases, there will be many. This is, of course, is in addition to all of their personal accounts and passwords which are sometimes used on the same device as their work accounts.   With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that somewhere between 20% and 50% of calls...