Cybersecurity News & Trends – 10-23-20
While election security is still making headlines, education news moved to the forefront this week as K-12 institutions continue fighting off a barrage of cyberattacks.
SonicWall in the News
Hackney Council Cyberattack: Why Are Hackers Targeting The Public Sector? — IT Supply Chain
- Terry Greer-King, VP of EMEA at SonicWall, offers some perspective on the Hackney Council cyberattack — and a warning to other public bodies.
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Empower Organizations in Cybersecurity Protocols — Business 2 Community
- Companies should be doing more to defend against cyberattacks, and during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, cybersecurity professionals are committed to telling you how.
Ripple20 Isn’t An Anomaly – IoT Security is a Mess (Still) — Infosecurity Magazine
- A new SonicWall report found a 50% increase in IoT malware attacks in the first half of 2020 alone — a number that’s sure to rise further as the number of IoT devices coming online continues to rise.
Industry News
UK’s GCHQ spy chief: We must engage business to harness cyber talent for future — Reuters
- The head of Britain’s GCHQ agency said on Wednesday it was seeking to engage more with business to harness top cyber talent.
Botnet Fights Back After Microsoft’s Election Security Takedown — Bloomberg
- After Microsoft led a global attack against a highly prolific malware group, the company says it’s winning the battle to destabilize the malicious botnet ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
LockBit ransomware moves quietly on the network, strikes fast — Bleeping Computer
- LockBit ransomware takes as little as five minutes to deploy the encryption routine on target systems once it lands on the victim network.
Mysterious ‘Robin Hood’ hackers donating stolen money — BBC
- Darkside hackers claim to have extorted millions of dollars from companies, but say they now want to “make the world a better place.” In a post on the Dark Web, the gang posted receipts for $10,000 in Bitcoin donations to two charities.
U.S. Accuses Google of Illegally Protecting Monopoly — The New York Times
- A victory for the government could remake one of America’s most recognizable companies and the internet economy that it has helped define.
Hackers Smell Blood as Schools Grapple With Virtual Instruction — The Wall Street Journal
- Many K-12 schools opting for virtual instruction distributed devices to students and teachers. Now, as this unique school year unfolds, hackers are circling.
TrickBot malware under siege from all sides, and it’s working — Bleeping Computer
- The Trickbot malware operation is on the brink of going down completely following efforts from an alliance of cybersecurity and hosting providers targeting the botnet’s command-and-control servers.
Democrats introduce bill providing $400 million to protect schools from cyberattacks — The Hill
- The Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act would establish a $400 million “K-12 Cybersecurity Human Capacity” grant program to help protect educational institutions against attacks.
Hackers now abuse BaseCamp for free malware hosting — Bleeping Computer
- Phishing campaigns have started using Basecamp as part of malicious phishing campaigns that distribute malware or steal login credentials.
Fancy Bear Imposters Are on a Hacking Extortion Spree — Wired
- Companies worldwide are getting extortion notices from hackers, which claim to be Fancy Bear or the Lazarus Group, warning them to pay up or face powerful DDoS attacks.
Federal watchdog finds escalating cyberattacks on schools pose potential harm to students — The Hill
- The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watchdog agency, has concluded that an increasing number of cyberattacks on educational institutions are putting students increasingly at risk.
Thousands of infected IoT devices used in for-profit anonymity service — Ars Technica
- Some 9,000 devices — mostly Android, but also Linux and Darwin OS— have been corralled into the Interplanetary Storm, a botnet whose chief purpose is creating a for-profit proxy service.
Trump signs legislation making hacking voting systems a federal crime — The Hill
- Trump has signed the Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act unanimously approved by the House last month, over a year after the Senate also unanimously passed the legislation.
In Case You Missed It
- Capture Client: Purpose-Built for the Distributed Workforce — Brook Chelmo
- Securing Internet-Connected Devices in Healthcare — Amber Wolff
- Another Reason to Not Pay the Ransom: Trouble with Uncle Sam — Amber Wolff
- Securing Devices at Home and at Work — Amber Wolff
- SonicWall Unveils Boundless 2020, Company’s Largest Ever Global Virtual Experience — Robert (Bob) VanKirk
