Cyber Security News & Trends

This week, Baltimore battles ransomware, IoT attacks are increasing, and the potential vulnerabilities in a driverless car are investigated.

SonicWall Spotlight

5 Steps to Robust Network Security – Business World (India)

• IT security teams around the world are dealing with an ever-increasing level of complexity in the threat landscape. SonicWall’s Debasish Mukherjee argues that the best way to overcome these challenges is with a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, he then recommends five steps to take in order to get there.

How to Mitigate the IoT Attacks That Are Increasing at 217.5% – IoT Agenda

• Internet of Things (IoT) devices are expected to increase in number to 75.44 billion worldwide by 2025. Using the 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report IoT Agenda explains why preventative measures need to be developed sooner rather than later.

Cyber Security News

Baltimore Ransomware Attack: NSA Faces Questions – BBC

• After a ransomware attack currently estimated to cost at least $18M Baltimore officials are questioning why the hacking vulnerability known as EternalBlue was not disclosed when discovered by the NSA years ago. The NSA are declining to comment on the issue.

New Zealand Budget Leak: ‘Hackers’ Had Simply Searched Treasury Website – The Guardian

• After the embargoed New Zealand budget was leaked to the opposition National Party days before it was due to be released, officials were quick to call it a hack. However, it has now been found that the documents were searchable on the New Zealand treasury website.

HawkEye Malware Campaign Upticks on Business Users – SC Magazine

• Hawkeye, a keylogger than has been around for six years, has seen a major increase in a campaign targeting business users worldwide.

Startups: Embrace Cybersecurity Priorities From Day One – Forbes

• Forbes argues that cybersecurity in startups should not be considered an add-on or a luxury product and provide four cybersecurity priorities that a startup needs to think about from day one.

Emotet Made up 61% of Malicious Payloads in Q1 – Dark Reading

• A new study has found that 61% of all malware payloads in the first quarter of 2019 contained the Emotet botnet.

Security Expert: Here’s How Driverless Cars Could Be Hacked – Yahoo! Finance

• As cars modernize and driverless cars are becoming a reality it is fair to say that they are becoming more and more like a series of interconnected computers. Yahoo! Finance looks at where the security weakpoint in these computers might be found, how it could be targeted by hackers, and how the car industry is struggling to keep up with security requirements.

Nation-State Security: Private Sector Necessity – SecurityWeek

• Attackers with the funding and technical support of nation-states are now targeting commercial entities and the obvious split between commercial and political cyberattacks is disappearing. SecurityWeek examine the current threat landscape, including the increasing number of organizations embracing “Zero Trust” security models where all environments are considered untrusted until proven otherwise. They then offer some advice on how to ensure your organization is ready for cyberattacks.

Microsoft Issues Second Warning About Patching BlueKeep as PoC Code Goes Public – ZDNet

• Microsoft again warned users to ensure their patches are up to date to protect against the Bluekeep vulnerability – described as similar to the EternalBlue exploit – after a proof-of-concept attack appeared online. SonicWall provides protection against this threat.

In Case You Missed It

• Inside the Modern Phishing Campaigns of 2019 – Ganesh Umapathy
• An Explanation of E-rate: How to Cost-Effectively Protect K12 Networks – SonicWall Staff
• 4 Ways the WhatsApp Exploit Could Use Employees to Infiltrate Your Network – Rob Krug
• Non-Standard Ports Are Under Cyberattack – Brook Chelmo
• Cryptojacking Apocalypse: Defeating the Four Horsemen of Cryptomining – Brook Chelmo

John Lynch

Social Media Manager | SonicWall

John Lynch is a Social Media Manager at SonicWall. He lives in Dublin, Ireland, and has over 10 years worth of web content writing experience. Do ask him how his writing is coming along.