Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, attacks on cyber-insurers, Kaseya, Morgan Stanley and the Ukrainian government were brought to light, and two prominent cybercriminals were brought to justice.

SonicWall in the News

Ransomware demands are digital extortion: don’t pay — Financial Times

• SonicWall’s report numbers on ransomware indicate attacks increased by more than 60%.
  Syndicated: California News Times

Review: SonicWall Cloud Edge Secure Access — Biz Tech

• With least-privilege access and advanced microsegmentation, SonicWall leverages the principles of zero trust to protect cloud-first organizations.

Global cyber insurance pricing increases by 32% – Howden — Global Insurance

• The rampage in ransomware now poses a threat to businesses of all sizes.

SonicWall Triples Threat Performance, Dramatically Improves TCO with Trio of New Enterprise Firewalls — ITWeb

• With triple the firewall throughput compared to previous SonicWall appliances, new NSa and NSsp models help organizations keep pace with the speeds of their growing networks.

Cybersecurity: how to invest in a thriving sector amid rising cybercrime — Proactive News

• It’s a “cat and mouse” industry as hackers and defense software developers get more sophisticated.

CISA Releases Ransomware Readiness Assessment Audit Tool — HIPAA Journal

• The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has launched a new tool that can be used by organizations to assess how well they are equipped to defend and recover from a ransomware attack.

SonicWall’s EMEA boss discusses what drove up sales by almost a third in 2020 — Channel Partner Insight

• SonicWall EMEA VP Terry Greer-King discusses what drove up sales by almost a third in 2020, as well as partner support, growth plans in EMEA and challenges ahead.

Infiltrate, adapt, repeat: A look at tomorrow’s malware landscape — Intelligent CIO

• Brook Chelmo, Software and Security Product Marketing Strategist at SonicWall, explains possible reasons for the growth in the varieties of new malware that were detected and featured in the SonicWall 2021 Cyberthreat Report.

Rebuilding after ransomware: Heartland Community College invests $1 million — EDSCOOP

• According to a recent report by the cybersecurity company SonicWall, COVID-themed malware attacks spiked for the education industry in early fall as students returned to school.

Industry News

Morgan Stanley reports data breach after vendor Accellion hack — Bleeping Computer

• Investment banking firm Morgan Stanley has reported a data breach after attackers stole personal information belonging to its customers by hacking into the Accellion FTA server of a third-party vendor.

Kaseya Left Customer Portal Vulnerable to 2015 Flaw in its Own Software — Krebs on Security

• It appears that, until last week, Kaseya’s customer service portal was left vulnerable to a data-leaking security flaw that was first identified in the same software six years ago.

Letting Businesses ‘Hack Back’ Against Hackers Is a Terrible Idea, Cyber Veterans Say — The Wall Street Journal

• Companies shouldn’t be allowed to strike back against hackers, cybersecurity specialists and former government officials warned, after senators last week introduced legislation floating the idea of such counterattacks.

Ransomware as a service: negotiators between hackers and victims are now in high demand — ZDNet

• RaaS groups are hiring negotiators whose primary role is to force victims to pay up.

Use of Common Malware in Operation Targeting Energy Sector Makes Attribution Difficult — Security Week

• Researchers at cybersecurity firm Intezer have been monitoring a campaign that appears to be mainly aimed at the energy sector, but attribution to a known threat group is made difficult by the fact that the operation involves several common malware families.

Attempted Hack of R.N.C. and Russian Ransomware Attack Test Biden — The New York Times

• The breach of a Republican National Committee contractor, also linked to Russia, and the global ransomware attack occurred weeks after a U.S.-Russian summit.

Hackers attack websites of Ukraine’s president and security service — Reuters

• A cyberattack hit the websites of Ukraine’s president, security service and other institutions on Tuesday afternoon, but they were working again by the evening.

Ransomware: US warns Russia to take action after latest attacks — ZDNet

• The U.S. has warned Russia to take care of cybercrime operating in its own backyard — or the U.S. will take care of it themselves.

Alleged Cybercriminal Arrested in Morocco Following Interpol Probe — Dark Reading

• The suspect operated under the name “Dr Hex” to target thousands of people through phishing, fraud and carding activities.

Fake Kaseya VSA security update backdoors networks with Cobalt Strike — Bleeping Computer

• Threat actors are trying to capitalize on the ongoing Kaseya ransomware attack crisis. This time, they’re targeting potential victims in a spam campaign pushing Cobalt Strike payloads disguised as Kaseya VSA security updates.

In Crosshairs of Ransomware Crooks, Cyber Insurers Struggle — Security Week

• In the past few weeks, ransomware criminals attacked at least three cyberinsurance brokerages — all of which offer policies to help others survive the very network-paralyzing, data-pilfering extortion attacks they themselves suffered.

Germany Thwarts Cyberattack, Denies Impact on Banking System — Bloomberg

• German authorities thwarted a cyberattack on a data service provider used by federal agencies, but they pushed back on a report that a broad assault targeted critical infrastructure and banks.

NSA: Russian GRU hackers use Kubernetes to run brute force attacks — Bleeping Computer

• The National Security Agency (NSA) warns that Russian nation-state hackers are conducting brute force attacks to access U.S. networks and steal email and files.

Colombia police collar suspected Gozi Trojan distributor — ZDNet

• The alleged hacker is wanted in the United States.

In Case You Missed It

Three New Firewalls with Triple the Performance, Plus Three Powerful Updates — Atul Dhablania
Insights with Jayant: TZ Does It — Jayant Thakre
SD-WAN and VPN Orchestrations: Fast-Tracking Enterprise Growth — Ken Dang
New SonicWall NSsp 13700 Firewall: Security for Large Enterprises — Ajay Uggirala
SonicWall Announces Capture Labs Portal — Brook Chelmo
SonicWall NSa 4700 and 6700: The Newest Next-Generation Firewalls for Medium Enterprises — Ajay Uggirala

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.