Cyber Security News & Trends

This week, the financial cost in a worst-case scenario cyberattack, a nuclear power plant is targeted, and SonicWall figures are used to look at the Internet of Things.

SonicWall Spotlight

Intelligent Living: The Smart Home and IoT – Silicon (UK)

• Silicon investigate the future of smart homes and rise of Internet of Things (IoT). When looking at the security risks they defer to SonicWall CEO Bill Conner and SonicWall research.

A Sneaky Online Security Threat: Encrypted Malware in SSL – Security Boulevard

• Security Boulevard tackles the double-edged sword of encryption, used by both cybersecurity experts and cybercriminals alike. They refer to the 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report for details on the rising number of cyberattacks coming in on encrypted channels.

Cybersecurity News

One Cyber Attack Can Cost Major APAC Ports $110B – ZDNet

• A new study has laid out a possible “extreme” scenario where a single software virus infecting 15 ports across five Asian markets can result in losses totaling $110 billion. 92% of these costs are currently uninsured.

Indian Nuke Plant’s Network Reportedly Hit by Malware Tied to N. Korea – Arstechnica

• A cyberattack on India’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant that took place in September of 2019 has been linked, through the use of the “Dtrack” malware, to a known North Korean government hacking group. Officials at the plant have stated that there was never any risk of losing control of the plant as the control systems are neither connected to the administrative network or any other networks in general.

ICS Attackers Set to Inflict More Damage With Evolving Tactics – ThreatPost

• New research claims that future attacks on industrial control system (ICS) networks, such as the power grid, may inflict even more damage in the long run as attackers will learn from previous cyberattacks. Analysts expect attacks to evolve from immediate, direct impact to stealthy attacks with multiple infection stages.

Muhstik Ransomware: A Hack-Back Story – Security Boulevard

• While ransomware is making headlines for the large targets, like government and multinational industries, there are still small scale ransomware attacks being launched. Security Boulevard report on one victim who, caught by Muhstik Ransomware, decided to hack back and took down the entire ransomware network, releasing a complete set of decryption keys in the process.

21 Million Stolen Fortune 500 Credentials for Sale on Dark Web – SecurityWeek

• A new study on leaked data used deep-learning techniques to sift through millions of leaked credentials on the darkweb. After removing duplicates, anomalies and default passwords it still found around 21 million different credentials belonging to the Fortune 500 companies; more than 16 million of which were compromised during the last 12 months. All the results were cleartext passwords, either because they were never encrypted, or hackers had decrypted them already.

Ohio Establishes ‘Cyber Reserve’ to Combat Ransomware – NextGov

• Ohio has become the first state to set up a “Cyber Reserve” force; five volunteer teams of 10 people apiece who are ready to be called into service in a cybersecurity emergency.

Why the EU Is About to Seize the Global Lead on Cybersecurity – Forbes

• The European Commission has made cybersecurity a “high priority” and proposed that the cybersecurity budget for 2021-27 include €2 billion to fund “safeguarding the EU’s digital economy, society and democracies through polling expertise, boosting EU’s cybersecurity industry, financing state-of-the-art cybersecurity equipment and infrastructure.” Forbes argues that similar US legislation and programs have been left in a segmented and fragmentary state with little national or international cohesion to them.

In Case You Missed It

• 10 Reasons to Upgrade to the Newest SonicWall TZ Firewall – Brook Chelmo
• SonicWall: Encrypted Attacks, IoT Malware Surge as Global Malware Volume Dips – Geoff Blaine
• How to Protect Multi-Cloud Environments with a Virtual Firewall – Tiju Cherian
• 2019 North America Roadshow Series: SonicWall Showcases Complete Cybersecurity Portfolio, Capture Cloud Platform – David Bankemper
• What is Your Disaster Recovery Plan? 5 Core Practices to Ensure Business Continuity – Richard Chio
• National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Focuses on Protecting Digital Identities, Being Accountable for Online Safety – Geoff Blaine

SonicWall Staff