Malware, Phishing and Ransomware

A new cybersecurity coalition, which is backed by IT Security Guru, has launched this week in a move to fight back against ransomware. The coalition is part of a new movement headed by managed security service provider Talion, called #RansomAware, which encourages organisations to come clean on ransomware and speak up about the attacks they are facing. Today businesses are facing a tidal wave of ransomware attacks and recent data from Cybereason has revealed that...

Shortly after hitting Colonial Pipeline, Darkside developers announced they would be closing operations. Nevertheless, researchers at AT&T Alien Labs have observed evidence that the group has completed a Linux version of its malware that is targeting ESXi servers hosting VMware virtual machines. To this point, the authors announced the Darkside 2.0 version with Linux capabilities.   "Linux and UNIX servers have always been a preferred option for servers and data centers, likely due to the...

As one of the unfortunate benefactors from the changing business behaviours of the pandemic, ransomware attack trends continue to evolve. During the last year, malicious actors have attacked anything from healthcare organisations and medical trials, to education and the public sector, and even business supply chains. The gravity of the threats of ransomware was exemplified by the attack that shut down the cross-country gas pipeline system Colonial Pipeline; the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, leading to...

Capcom has released the final update on their investigation into the major ransomware attack they suffered last year. The investigation has found that the attackers accessed the company through an outdated VPN device. Through this avenue, the attackers were able to access the companies network, as well as any compromised devices in the network. The attack took place in November 2020, when Capcom was targeted by the Ragnar Locker ransomware. The attack resulted in Capcom...

A new report released by the FBI has revealed that Americans had over $4 billion stolen due to cybercrime in 2020. Also found in the 2020 Internet Crime Report was the fact that the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) saw an increase of 69% compared to what was reported 2019. Further research has shown that the top three crimes reported by victims in 2020 were phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. It was highlighted that...

Ransomware attacks and nation-state assaults on vaccine supply chains are only two of the many challenges healthcare cyber professionals have been hit with as a result of COVID-19. How were these challenges overcome? More importantly, though, what challenges are healthcare cyber professionals facing in a post-Pandemic world? The Israeli Economic and trade Missions in London and Washington, DC have teamed up to launch a cybersecurity panel focusing on exactly that: “Post-Pandemic Healthcare: Greatest challenges facing...

To lean on the cliché, these unprecedented times have brought about significant challenges for everyone. Practically every organisation, person and industry has been forced to make unexpected changes and significant sacrifices in a variety of different forms. The rush to equip organisations and employees with the tools needed to work from home has greatly exacerbated the already underlying condition of poor cybersecurity hygiene. While businesses and individuals were focused on staying safe and operational, cybercriminals...

This week, Google has added a wave of new cybersecurity vendors to its BeyondCorp Alliance to add Zero Trust to its security model for mobile devices. With digital transformation and cloud being swiftly adopted by organisations, smartphones, tables and laptops have become integral for the everyday working individual. For mobile devices, this is extremely critical given that they have replaced more traditional devices as our main productivity tool which has meant there is now a...

New research has revealed that COVID-19 related phishing emails are still a serious threat as found by KnowBe4, a dedicated security awareness training and simulated phishing platform. The results from the Q3 2020 top-clicked phishing report, exactly half of the most clicked phishing emails contained a coronavirus reference – and this was the most popular out of all the ones tested in the KnowBe4 phishing simulator. This was closely followed by social media messages (47%)...

If you haven’t seen this video on attention, please do so, it’s just over a minute long.  https://www.youtube.com/embed/vJG698U2Mvo The video is by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, both authors of the book, ”The Invisible Gorilla,” in which they reveal the numerous ways our intuitions can deceive us.  In essence, much like we react to the video above, we realise that our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the...