Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week SonicWall announced that it had recorded a staggering 116% increase during the first 5 months of 2021 over the same period last year — with May notching more ransomware attacks than any other single month on record.

SonicWall in the News

Ransomware Attack Roiled Meat Giant JBS, Then Spilled Over to Farmers and Restaurants — The Wall Street Journal

• During a recent supply chain attack, plants were closed, the prices of beef and pork climbed, and farmers sought new buyers for their livestock.

Mastercard Foundation gives $1.3 billion to boost vaccinations in Africa — PBS Newshour

• The 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report data was referenced in the PBS Newshour segment regarding the Mastercard Foundation’s donation to fund vaccinations in Africa.

World leaders target cyber threats — The Financial Times

• The clean energy company Invenergy said it had been hacked but did not intend to pay any ransom after Russia-linked hacking group REvil threatened to leak embarrassing details about its billionaire chief executive.

Ransomware Gangs Say This Makes You a Target — SDx Central

• Maor pointed to an RSA Conference session titled “Two Weeks With a Russian Ransomware Cell” by SonicWall Senior Product Strategist Brook Chelmo, in which Russian attackers gave Chelmo tips on how to avoid being attacked.

Why Is Ransomware on the Rise? — The Markup

• “During the first five months of this year, the company tracked a 116 percent increase in ransomware attempts compared to the same period in 2020, and the 62.3 million attacks it detected this May were the most it has ever recorded in a single month,” said Dmitriy Ayrapetov, vice president of platform architecture for SonicWall.

Industry News

Digital ad industry accused of huge data breach — The BBC

• The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is suing a branch of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and others over what it describes as “the world’s largest data breach.”

Ukraine arrests Clop ransomware gang members, seizes servers — Bleeping Computer

• Ukrainian law enforcement arrested cybercriminals associated with the Clop ransomware gang and shut down infrastructure used in attacks targeting victims worldwide since at least 2019.

‘That horse has left the barn’: Secret Service official says ransom payments have fueled hacking sprees — Cyberscoop

• “We’re in this boat we’re in now because over the last several years, people have paid the ransom,” Stephen Nix, assistant to the Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Secret Service, said.

Most firms face second ransomware attack after paying off first — ZDNet

• Some 80% of businesses that choose to pay to regain access to their encrypted systems experience a subsequent ransomware attack, and 46% of those believe the second attack was instigated by the same attackers.

VPN Attacks Surged in First Quarter — Dark Reading 

• Attacks against virtual private network products surged dramatically in the first quarter of 2021 as threat actors tried to take advantage of previously disclosed vulnerabilities that organizations had not patched.

Audi, Volkswagen data breach affects 3.3 million customers — Bleeping Computer

• Audi and Volkswagen have suffered a data breach affecting 3.3 million customers after a vendor exposed unsecured data on the internet.

Burgeoning ransomware gang Avaddon appears to shut down, mysteriously — Cyberscoop

• The operators left no explanation for why they might have done so, and they’re letting their remaining victims off the hook. Avaddon sent Bleeping Computer 2,934 decryption keys, after which the security firm Emsisoft produced a free, public decryption tool.

McDonald’s Hit by Data Breach — The Wall Street Journal 

• The hack exposed some U.S. business information and customer data in South Korea and Taiwan, the company said.

Network security firm COO charged with medical center cyberattack — Bleeping Computer

• The former chief operating officer of Securolytics, a network security company providing services for the health care industry, was charged with allegedly conducting a cyberattack.

EA source code stolen by hacker claiming to sell it online — Ars Technica

• Game maker Electronic Arts is responding to the theft of gigabytes of private data by hackers who breached its internet-connected networks.

Justice Department, international law enforcement disrupt major marketplace for cybercriminals — Cyberscoop

• DOJ worked with international law enforcement to take down an online marketplace, Slilpp, offering stolen login credentials.

A Mystery Malware Stole 26 Million Passwords From Windows PCs — Wired

• The credentials were part of a trove containing 1.2 terabytes of sensitive data extracted between 2018 and 2020.

In Case You Missed It

Introducing the Updated SonicWall Network Security Administrator (SNSA) for SonicOS 7 Course —Jerry Avila
SonicWall’s Bill Conner Talks Ransomware on the Radio — Lindsey Lockhart
Infiltrate, Adapt, Repeat: A Look at Tomorrow’s Malware Landscape — Brook Chelmo
Join us for the 2021 SonicWall Partner Virtual Roadshow — David Bankemper
Capture Client 3.6 Launch Brings Key Features — Brook Chelmo

Amber Wolff

Senior Digital Copywriter | SonicWall

Amber Wolff is the Senior Digital Copywriter for SonicWall. Prior to joining the SonicWall team, Amber was a cybersecurity blogger and content creator, covering a wide variety of products and topics surrounding enterprise security. She spent the earlier part of her career in advertising, where she wrote and edited for a number of national clients.