Cybersecurity News & Trends

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This week, the U.S. government brought up cybersecurity legislation, while the U.S. judicial system handed down cybercriminal incarceration.

SonicWall Spotlight

Hackers used ransomware to take over parts of UC San Francisco’s network and extorted $1.14million in exchange for returning access to their files — Daily Mail

  • UC San Francisco hasn’t said what files were affected nor how the ransomware entered the system, but the FBI has opened an investigation into the incident.

Sonicwall Lands In Ireland, Expands Channel Partner Strategy — SonicWall Press Release

  • SonicWall today announced that it has appointed Tristan Bateup as country manager for Ireland.

UCSF pays $1 million ransom to recover medical school data from hackers — The Mercury News

  • The UCSF School of Medicine was the third targeted by cyberattacks in the past two months, but a spokesperson said the attack did not affect patient care or ongoing COVID-19 research.

Cybersecurity News

Russian Criminal Group Finds New Target: Americans Working at Home — The New York Times

  • A hacking group calling itself Evil Corp., indicted in December, has shown up in corporate networks with sophisticated ransomware. American officials worry election infrastructure could be next.

How COVID-19 changed Cyber Command’s ‘Cyber Flag’ exercise — Cyberscoop

  • This year, U.S. Cyber Command convened with allied countries for what appeared to be a straightforward simulation of an attack against a European airbase — but then a global pandemic changed all the rules.

Russian cybercriminal gets 9 years for online fraud website — The Washington Times

  • A Russian computer hacker who facilitated $20 million in credit card fraud and ran a sophisticated clearinghouse for international cybercriminals was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison.

Lawmakers introduce legislation to establish national cybersecurity director — The Hill

  • A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation in the House that would establish a national cybersecurity director to lead government efforts on cybersecurity.

DDoS botnet coder gets 13 months in prison — ZDNet

  • Kenneth Schuchman, known as Nexus Zeta, created multiple DDoS botnets, including Satori, Okiru, Masuta, and Fbot/Tsunami.

An embattled group of leakers picks up the WikiLeaks mantle — Ars Technica

  • DDoSecrets was banned from Twitter after releasing what they claim is the largest-ever cache of hacked U.S. police data, a leak some say positions the group as the heir apparent of WikiLeaks’ early, idealistic mission.

Senators move to boost state and local cybersecurity as part of annual defense bill — The Hill

  • A group of Senate Democrats on Monday introduced as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a measure that would strengthen cybersecurity protections for states vulnerable to malicious cyberattacks.

U.S. FCC issues final orders declaring Huawei, ZTE national security threats — Reuters

  • The FCC has formally designated China’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp as posing threats to national security, barring U.S. firms from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to purchase equipment from the companies.

Schools Already Struggled With Cybersecurity. Then Came Covid-19 — Wired

  • A lack of dedicated funding and resources made it hard to keep data secure — and that was before classes moved almost entirely online.

Things that happen every four years: Olympic Games, presidential elections, and now new Mac ransomware — The Register

  • Known as EvilQuest, the brand-new strain of Mac ransomware was spotted spreading via Russian piracy and torrent sites.

DDoS Attacks Jump 542% from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 — Dark Reading

  • The shift to remote work and heavy reliance on online services has driven an increase in attacks intended to overwhelm ISPs.

Tax software used by Chinese bank clients installs GoldenSpy backdoor — SC Magazine

  • A tax software program installed by business clients of an unidentified Chinese bank was trojanized with malware that installs a backdoor granting attackers system-level privileges, researchers warn.

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Hackers made inroads this week with zero-day threats, massive DDoS attacks and point-of-sale compromises — but there were significant wins for the good guys, too.

SonicWall Spotlight

CEO Outlook 2020 – Bill Conner — CRN

  • CRN recently asked 80 of the industry’s top CEOs — including SonicWall’s Bill Conner — why 2020 will be the launch of the data decade.

MSPs will be forced to fix ‘rushed out’ remote working solutions post-COVID – Sonicwall CEO —  Channel Partner Insight

  • In an interview with CPI, Bill Conner explained that as changes to work patterns are likely to outlast the pandemic, pivoting out of lockdown will mean some of the earlier “temporary” remote working solutions will need to be re-engineered.

The Tel Aviv Tech Startups that are Solving COVID-19 Challenges — Forbes

  • Tel Aviv-based Perimeter 81, a provider of network security-as-a-service that recently completed a $10 million Series A led by SonicWall and existing investors, offers solutions that replace traditional VPNs.

Cybersecurity News

FBI warns K-12 schools of ransomware attacks via RDP —  ZDNet

  • The FBI has issued a security alert warning K-12 schools about ransomware gangs abusing RDP connections to break into school systems.

There are DDoS attacks, then there’s this 809 million packet-per-second tsunami Akamai says it just caught —  The Register

  • The attack, which targeted an unspecified European bank, was the largest such attack Akamai had ever encountered — and CDN believes it may be the largest DDoS attack to hit any network, ever.

This ransomware has learned a new trick: Scanning for point of sales
devices —  ZDNet

  • Already one of the most dangerous forms of ransomware, Sodinokibi now looks like it could be attempting to make money from stolen payment information, too.

FBI sees major spike in coronavirus-related cyber threats — The Hill

  • FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received 20,000 coronavirus-related cyber threat reports this year — as many as they received in all of 2019.

Republicans propose bill to end ‘warrant-proof’ encryption —
The Washington Times

  • Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced a bill Tuesday taking on the encryption technology that major tech companies use to secure customer data.

New WastedLocker ransomware demands payments of millions of USD —  ZDNet

  • Evil Corp, one of the biggest malware operations on the planet, has returned to life with a new ransomware strain.

Ransomware operators lurk on your network after their attack —  Bleeping Computer

  • While many believe attackers quickly deploy ransomware and leave so they won’t get caught, in reality threat actors are not so quick to give up a resource that they worked so hard to control.

Phishing and cryptocurrency scams squashed as one million emails are reported to new anti-scam hotline —  ZDNet

  • In the two months since its launch, the UK’s new anti-scam hotline has received an average of 16,500 emails per day, resulting in 10,000 links to online scams either blocked or taken down by authorities.

Hacker arrested for stealing, selling PII of 65K hospital employees —
Bleeping Computer

  • 29-year-old Justin Sean Johnson has been arrested for allegedly stealing PII and W-2 information for over 65,000 University of Pittsburgh Medical Center employees and selling it on the dark web.

Security surprise: Four zero-days spotted in attacks on researchers’ fake networks —  ZDNet

  • Previously unknown attacks used against fake systems highlight big problems with industrial systems security.

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This week, SonicWall’s new Switches and Secure SD-Branch made waves, hackers made a stronger Qbot, and attacks on AWS made history.

SonicWall Spotlight

ChannelPro 5 Minute Roundup — ChannelPro Network

  • Erick and Rich of ChannelPro explore the far-reaching implications of SonicWall’s new branch office networking solution, which they say arrived at a great time for businesses.

SonicWall Launches New Network Switches — Enterprise Times

  • SonicWall has announced a range of new products, including new multi-gigabit switches and an SD-Branch solution.

SonicWall Advances Network Edge Security, Adds Multi-gigabit Switch Series and New SD-Branch Capabilities — TMCnet

  • TMCnet highlights SonicWall’s momentum over the past quarter, including the release of new and enhanced MSSP offerings and the launch of its SD-Branch capabilities.

SonicWall takes threat protection to the branch level — MicroScope

  • This article covers the  latest SD-Branch offering as a major shift and a milestone in its corporate history, with it set to have a major impact on the security player’s channel.

Cybersecurity News

Researchers Expose a New Vulnerability in Intel’s CPUs — Wired

  • Modern CPUs — particularly those made by Intel — have been under siege in recent years by an unending series of attacks. Now, two separate academic teams disclosed two new and distinctive exploits that pierce Intel’s Software Guard eXtension, by far the most sensitive region of the company’s processors.

Google Sees Increase in COVID-19 Phishing in Brazil, India, UK — Security Week

  • Cyberthreats taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic are evolving, and Google is seeing an increase in related phishing attempts in some countries.

Attackers impersonate secure messaging site to steal bitcoins — Bleeping Computer

  • In what can be described as the case of both cybersquatting and phishing, threat actors have created a site that imitates the legitimate secure note sharing service privnote.com to steal bitcoins.

Coder-Turned-Kingpin Paul Le Roux Gets His Comeuppance — Wired

  • Paul Le Roux, 47 — who faced up to a life sentence after pleading guilty to crimes ranging from methamphetamine trafficking to selling weapons technology to Iran — has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.

Targeting U.S. banks, Qbot trojan evolves with new evasion techniques — SC Magazine 

  • By malware standards, the banking trojan Qbot is long in the tooth, but it still has some bite, according to researchers who say it has added some detection and research evasion techniques to its arsenal.

Hackers Trigger Far-Reaching Disruption by Targeting Low-Profile Firm — The Wall Street Journal

  • Small and midsize companies are fighting a rising tide of cyberattacks largely out of public view, posing an underappreciated risk for the bigger companies and institutions that use their services.

Google Alerts catches fake data breach notes pushing malware — Bleeping Computer

  • Fraudsters have begun pushing fake data breach notifications using big company names to distribute malware and scams. They’re mixing black SEO, Google Sites, and spam pages to direct users to dangerous locations.

Exclusive: Massive spying on users of Google’s Chrome shows new security weakness — Bloomberg

  • A newly discovered spyware effort attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to Google’s Chrome web browser, highlighting the tech industry’s failure to protect browsers despite their increasing use for email, payroll and other sensitive functions.

AWS said it mitigated a 2.3 Tbps DDoS attack, the largest ever — ZDNet

  • The previous record for the largest DDoS attack ever recorded was of 1.7 Tbps, recorded in March 2018.

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Cybersecurity News & Trends

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This week, SonicWall launched its new SD-Branch capabilities and multi-gigabit SonicWall Switches, bringing cost-effective simplicity and centralized management to the hyperdistributed era.

SonicWall Spotlight

Sonicwall Advances Network Edge Security, Adds Multi-Gigabit Switch Series, Easy-To-Manage SD-Branch Capabilities — SonicWall Press Release

  • To simplify security deployment, management and visibility for organizations with growing branch footprints, SonicWall is introducing new secure SD-Branch capabilities and a complete line of new multi-gigabit switches to cost-effectively scale and manage remote or branch locations.

SonicWall Adds Multi-Gigabit Switches to SD-Branch Portfolio — DevOps.com

  • Dmitriy Ayrapetov, vice president of platform architecture for SonicWall, talks about the new SonicWall Switches and SD-Branch capabilities, and how they centralize management of remote offices.

Seven Factors To Consider When Evaluating Endpoint Protection Solutions — MSSP Alert

  • Attackers are getting craftier when infiltrating secure environments. SonicWall’s Vishnu Chandra Pandey offers several ways to know whether your endpoint protection solution will be able to keep up.

Boundless Cybersecurity for the New Work Reality — SC Magazine

  • With the widespread adoption of remote work, we’ve moved into a hyperdistributed IT landscape. SonicWall’s Terry Greer-King explains how Boundless Cybersecurity can help businesses survive this new business normal.

Cybersecurity News

Ransomware: Hackers took just three days to find this fake industrial network and fill it with malware — ZDNet

  • Researchers set up a tempting honeypot to monitor how cybercriminals would exploit it. Then it came under attack.

Fake Black Lives Matter voting campaign spreads Trickbot malware — Bleeping Computer

  • A phishing email campaign asking you to vote anonymously about Black Lives Matter is spreading the TrickBot information-stealing malware.

Rate of Ransomware Attacks in Healthcare Slows in H1 2020 — Dark Reading

  • A lower number of ransomware attacks on healthcare entities suggests many threat groups are indeed avoiding targeting them during the current pandemic. But the lull may be short-lived.

Encryption Utility Firm Accused of Bundling Malware Functions in Product — Threat Post

  • A legally registered Italian company is selling what it claims is a legitimate encryption utility, but the service it provides has been a common denominator in thousands of attacks over the past year.

Vulnerability in Plug-and-Play Protocol Puts Billions of Devices at Risk — Dark Reading

  • “CallStranger” flaw in UPnP allows attackers to launch DDoS attacks and scan internal ports, security researcher says.

Environmentalists Targeted Exxon Mobil. Then Hackers Targeted Them. — The New York Times

  • Federal prosecutors are investigating a global hacker-for-hire operation that sent phishing emails to environmental groups, along with thousands of individuals and hundreds of institutions around the world.

Valak malware gets new plugin to steal Outlook login credentials — Bleeping Computer

  • A new module discovered by researchers suggests the authors of the Valak information stealer are increasingly focusing on stealing email credentials.

Amid Pandemic and Upheaval, New Cyberthreats to the Presidential Election — The New York Times

  • Fear of the coronavirus is speeding up efforts to allow voting from home, but some of them pose security risks and may make it easier for Vladimir Putin or others to hack the vote.

NATO Condemns Cyberattacks Against COVID-19 Responders — Security Week

  • Over the past couple of months, there has been a surge in attacks targeting those who work in response to the pandemic, prompting NATO to publicly condemn the malicious cyber-activities directed against COVID-19 responders.

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This week, cybercriminals took a more hands-on approach, a new breed of ransomware bided its time, and computers got too hot to handle.

SonicWall Spotlight

Test Platform Leaks Bank Of America Clients’ Covid-19 PPP Loan Applications — SC Magazine

  • Bank of America has disclosed that its third-party test platform briefly exposed Paycheck Protection Program applications to outside parties. According to SonicWall’s Dmitriy Ayrapetov, the leak was due to a rushed effort by the bank to finish the data platform, resulting in holes in its security.

Boundless Cybersecurity For The New Work Reality — SC Magazine

  • The adoption of work-from-home has moved us into a hyper-distributed IT landscape. With 100-percent-remote employees conducting online meetings and connecting via email, mobile and cloud, the perimeter has vanished into a multitude of endpoints spread across the globe.

Cybersecurity News

New Tycoon ransomware targets both Windows and Linux systems — Bleeping Computer

  • A new human-operated ransomware strain is being deployed in highly targeted attacks on small- to medium-size organizations in the software and education industries.

Large-scale attack tries to steal configuration files from WordPress sites — ZDNet

  • In an attempt to steal database credentials, attackers tried to download configuration files from WordPress via old vulnerabilities in unpatched plugins.

‘Scorching-hot hacked computer burned my hand’ — BBC

  • At least a dozen supercomputers across Europe had to be shut down last week due to cryptojacking attacks. One individual found out the hard way that his was one of them.

USBCulprit malware targets air-gapped systems to steal govt info — Bleeping Computer

  • The newly revealed USBCulprit malware is designed for compromising air-gapped devices via USB.

Cybersecurity warning: Hackers are targeting your smartphone as way into the company network — ZDNet

  • Campaigns targeting smartphones have risen by a third in just a few months, many with the end goal of opening a portal to corporate networks.

Denial of service attacks against advocacy groups skyrocket — Cyberscoop

  • A new report suggests that advocacy sites are being targeted at a rate more than four times that of U.S. government websites such as police and military organizations.

Ransomware gang says it breached one of NASA’s IT contractors — ZDNet

  • DopplePaymer ransomware gang claims to have breached DMI, a major U.S. IT and cybersecurity provider and a NASA IT contractor.

Anonymous, aiming for relevance, spins old data as new hacks — Cyberscoop

  • The group is trying to use the nationwide protests to draw attention to data that was stolen years ago.

Apple fixes bug that could have given hackers full access to user accounts — Ars Technica

  • Sign In With Apple — a privacy-enhancing tool that lets users log in to third-party apps without revealing their email addresses — just fixed a bug that made it possible for attackers to gain unauthorized access to those same accounts.

Suspected Hacker Faces Money Laundering, Conspiracy Charges — Bank Info Security

  • According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a New York City man is facing federal charges after being arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport with a PC allegedly containing thousands of stolen credit card numbers.

An advanced and unconventional hack is targeting industrial firms — Ars Technica

  • Attackers are putting considerable skill and effort into penetrating industrial companies in multiple countries, with hacks that use multiple evasion mechanisms, an innovative encryption scheme, and exploits that are customized for each target.

PonyFinal Ransomware Targets Enterprise Servers Then Bides Its Time — Threat Post

  • Microsoft has warned of a new breed of “patient” ransomware that lurks in networks for weeks before striking.

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This week, a lot’s been up—including data loss, ransom demands, white-hat bounties, VPN sales and more.

SonicWall Spotlight

Test Platform Leaks Bank of America Clients’ COVID-19 PPP Loan Applications — SC Magazine

  • BoA said the platform was designed to test application submissions of to the Small Business Administration — but the company soon realized client docs could be viewed by other lenders and third parties.

SonicWall’s Labs Threat Research Team Spot fake Aarogya Setu App Carrying Spyware Components — CRN India

  • After the Covid-19 tracking app reached five million downloads within its first three days, it became a target for malware creators. According to SonicWall Labs Threats research team, fake Aarogya Setu apps containing spyware are now in circulation.

New Ransomware Is Spreading That Charges $1,300 In Bitcoin — Decrypt

  • SonicWall researchers have discovered a new ransomware called Instabot that asks for ransom in bitcoin—and includes video instructions and a step-by-step manual to “help” victims comply.

Cybersecurity News

Israeli cyber chief: Major attack on water systems thwarted – The Washington Times

  • According to Israel’s national cyber chief, the country has thwarted a major cyberattack against its water systems, and it’s believed that Iran is behind it.

Ransomware’s big jump: ransoms grew 14 times in one year – Bleeping Computer

  • Ransomware has become one of the most insidious threats in the past few years, and the demands continue to climb: According to Bleeping Computer, ransom demands for more than $1 million are no longer rare.

Data Loss Spikes Under COVID-19 Lockdowns – Dark Reading

  • Two new reports suggest a massive gap between how organizations have prepared their cybersecurity defenses and the reality of their effectiveness.

DHS’s cyber division has stepped up protections for coronavirus research, official says – Cyberscoop

  • “I just want you to know that we have stepped up our protections of HHS and CDC,” Bryan Ware told industry representatives Friday.

New Octopus Scanner malware spreads via GitHub supply chain attack – Bleeping Computer

  • Security researchers have found a new malware that finds and backdoors open-source NetBeans projects hosted on the GitHub web-based code hosting platform to spread to Windows, Linux, and macOS systems.

Hong Kong demand for VPNs surges on heels of China’s plan for national security laws – Reuters

  • Demand for virtual private networks in Hong Kong surged more than six-fold last Thursday as Beijing proposed tough new national security laws that some say could impact internet privacy.

States plead for cybersecurity funds as hacking threat surges – The Hill

  • Cash-short state and local governments are pleading with Congress to send them funds to shore up their cybersecurity as hackers look to exploit the crisis by targeting overwhelmed government offices.

$100 million in bounties paid by HackerOne to ethical hackers – Bleeping Computer

  • Bug bounty platform HackerOne announced that it has paid out $100,000,000 in rewards to white-hat hackers around the world.

‘Turla’ spies have been stealing documents from foreign ministries in Eastern Europe, researchers find – Cyberscoop

  • According to researchers, a notorious group of suspected Russian hackers have used a revamped tool to spy on governments in Eastern Europe and quietly steal sensitive documents from their networks.

Ransomware deploys virtual machines to hide itself from antivirus software – ZDNet

  • The operators of the RagnarLocker ransomware are running Oracle VirtualBox to hide their presence on infected computers inside a Windows XP virtual machine.

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This week, cybersecurity news was thrust into the fray, with clashes between scammers and vigilante hackers, between conspiracy theorists and cell-phone towers, and between REvil and a number of high-profile celebrities.

SonicWall Spotlight

DeskFlix: SonicWall channel director on COVID-19 cybersecurity challenges — CRN UK

  • Mike Awford discusses the ways SonicWall has supported partners through the migration to remote working.

EasyJet Hack: Passenger Data Could be Sold on Dark Web After Major Cyber Attack, Experts Warn — The Independent

  • Based on similar attacks in the past, SonicWall’s VP EMEA Terry Greer-King discusses what could happen to customers’ data once it hits the Dark Web.

SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Teams Uncovers New Variant of Raccoon Stealer — CXO Today

  • SonicWall has reported a new variant of Raccoon stealer malware, version 1.5, which has been used in a malicious COVID-19 campaign.

Cybersecurity News

ShinyHunters Is a Hacking Group on a Data Breach Spree — Wired

  • In May, ShinyHunters began selling 200 million stolen records from over a dozen companies … and they claim this is just Stage 1.

Beware of phishing emails urging for a LogMeIn security update — Help-Net Security

  • The email appears to be legitimate correspondence from LogMeIn, including company logo, spoofed sender identity and a link that appears legitimate.

Vigilante hackers target scammers with ransomware, DDoS attacks — Bleeping Computer

  • A hacker has been taking justice into their own hands by targeting “scam” companies with ransomware and denial of service attacks.

Tech Chiefs Press Cloud Suppliers for Consistency on Security Data — The Wall Street Journal

  • Each cloud company offers its own process on cybersecurity and governance, creating added work for customers.

Cell-tower attacks by idiots who claim 5G spreads COVID-19 reportedly hit US — Ars Technica

  • Wireless telecom providers are being warned to boost security as 5G conspiracy theorists ramp up attacks on cell towers and telecommunications workers.

Microsoft warns of ‘massive’ phishing attack pushing legit RAT — Bleeping Computer

  • Microsoft is warning of an ongoing COVID-19 themed phishing campaign that spreads via malicious Excel attachments.

Supercomputers hacked across Europe to mine cryptocurrency — ZDNet

  • Multiple supercomputers across Europe have been shut down to investigate cryptocurrency mining malware infections.

Microsoft opens up coronavirus threat data to the public — Cyberscoop

  • Microsoft has announced plans to make threat intelligence it collected on COVID-19-related hacking campaigns public.

NetWalker adjusts ransomware operation to only target enterprise — Bleeping Computer

  • NetWalker ransomware group is moving away from phishing for malware distribution and has adopted a network-intrusion model focusing on huge businesses only.

REvil Ransomware found buyer for Trump data, now targeting Madonna — Bleeping Computer

  • After breaching a prominent law firm, the REvil ransomware group is holding the personal information of high-profile celebrities for ransom.

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This week, we spotlight 5G conspiracy theorists, government-linked attacks, and two young hackers–one who “saved the internet,” the other an “evil genius.”

SonicWall Spotlight

What are the security priorities for the post-coronavirus world? — Computer Weekly

  • Terry Greer-King, EMEA vice-president at SonicWall, believes the pandemic has accelerated an ongoing transformational shift in cybersecurity, which was driven by the continued adoption of cloud-based resources.

Maintaining Business Continuity in Cyber Threat Environment — CIO Review

  • A Q&A on cybercrimes that have spiked during the current pandemic, the impact on different sectors and recommended strategies for businesses to handle the situation.

Lurking Cyber Threats on Social Media — Dataquest

  • Debasish Mukherjee, VP Regional Sales-APAC at SonicWall, discusses the current threats on social media — including misinformation campaigns, fake profiles, data mining and social engineering — that are posing an increasing threat to users.

Cybersecurity News

Merkel cites ‘hard evidence’ she was targeted by Russian hackers — The Hill

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers Wednesday that she has seen “hard evidence” of Russia-based hacking attempts targeting her emails and those of the nation’s lawmakers.

The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet — Wired

  • At 22, he single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story.

ProLock Ransomware teams up with QakBot trojan for network access — Bleeping Computer

  • ProLock is a relatively new form of ransomware, but it has quickly attracted attention by targeting businesses and local governments and demanding huge ransoms for file decryption.

Ransomware Reminder: Paying Ransoms Doesn’t Pay — Bank Info Security

  • Still don’t believe that paying the ransoms demanded by cybercriminals is a bad idea? A recent survey presents further proof.

Researchers expose new malware designed to steal data from air-gapped networks — Cyberscoop

  • ESET is hoping publicizing the malware will shake loose clues in their hunt for the enigmatic hackers.

Hackers Target WHO by Posing as Think Tank, Broadcaster — Bloomberg

  • Employees of the World Health Organization have been targeted with coronavirus-related emails purporting to be from news organizations and researchers — but which actually originate with an Iranian hacker group.

U.S. accuses China-linked hackers of stealing coronavirus research — Reuters

  • According to U.S. officials, China-linked hackers are breaking into American organizations researching COVID-19. The report warns scientists and public health officials to be on the lookout for cyber theft.

The 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Has Taken a Dark Turn — Wired

  • Though social networks have pledged to take more concerted action against conspiracy theories, the 5G hoax has continued to spread, inspiring a surge of attacks.

Sodinokibi ransomware can now encrypt open and locked files — Bleeping Computer

  • The Sodinokibi (REvil) ransomware has added a new feature that makes it easier to encrypt all files, even those that are opened and locked by another process.

Teen Hacker and Crew of ‘Evil Geniuses’ Accused of $24 Million Crypto Theft — Bloomberg

  • An adviser to blockchain companies is claiming a 15-year-old and his crew of “evil computer geniuses” stole $24 million in cryptocurrency from him by hacking into his phone.

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This week, healthcare continues to be in the crosshairs and ransomware-for-hire continues to mean big paydays for cybercriminals.

SonicWall Spotlight

Hackers Are Calling In The Raccoons — Fudzilla

  • Hackers are exploiting anxiety around Covid-19 to create new hooks for their malware, such as the new Raccoon Stealer variant uncovered by SonicWall’s Threat Research team

SonicWall Called Upon by Health Giant GNC to Rapidly Provide Protection of Remote, Mobile Workforce — CXOToday

  • SonicWall and GNC Holdings (GNC), a leading global health and wellness brand, are working closely to increase capacity of the company’s existing Secure Mobile Access (SMA) deployment to connect and secure the company’s growing volume of work-from-home employees.

Web-applications Attacks, Including SQL Injection Attacks, More Than Doubled In 2019, According To Data From Sonicwall — Security Boulevard

  • What is an SQL injection attack? How common are they? And why are they so devastating? Security Boulevard weighs in on these nefarious attacks, and gives tips on how to prevent them.

Cybersecurity News

It Has Been 20 Years Since Cybercrime Woke Up To Social Engineering With An Intriguing Little Email Titled ‘ILOVEYOU’ — The Register

  • Two decades have passed since cybercrooks demonstrated the role exploiting human psychology could play in spreading malware.

10 Questions With Tech Data Security Guru Alex Ryals On Security Trends And Training In Isolation — CRN

  • Learning about cybersecurity has never been more important — but with an abundance of styles and modules to choose from, it’s also never been easier.

Cyber-spies seek coronavirus vaccine secrets — BBC

  • The U.S. has seen foreign spy agencies carry out reconnaissance of research into a coronavirus vaccine, a senior U.S. intelligence official told the BBC — and similar reports have come from the UK as well.

Healthcare Targeted By More Attacks But Less Sophistication — Dark Reading

  • An increase in attacks targeting healthcare organizations suggests that perhaps new cybercriminals are getting into the game.

Sodinokibi, Ryuk ransomware drive up average ransom to $111,000 — Bleeping Computer

  • The first quarter of the year saw a 33% increase of the average amount ransomware operators demand from their victims compared to the previous quarter.

LockBit, the new ransomware for hire: a sad and cautionary tale — Ars Technica

  • A ransomware infection involving a recent strain called LockBit ransacked one company’s poorly secured network in a matter of hours, leaving leaders no viable choice other than to pay the ransom.

New Kaiji Botnet Targets IoT, Linux Devices — Threat Post

  • The botnet uses SSH brute-force attacks to infect devices and a custom implant written in the Go Language.

Phishing Attacks Against Banks Jump With Pandemic Used as Lure — Bloomberg

  • Cyber-attacks trying to trick bank employees into clicking on malicious links jumped in the first quarter, with criminals attempting to take advantage of fear and confusion caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reports.

SilverTerrier BEC scammers target US govt healthcare agencies — Bleeping Computer

  • Government healthcare agencies, COVID-19 response organizations, and medical research facilities from across the globe were the targets of Business Email Compromise (BEC) phishing campaigns coordinated by multiple Nigerian BEC actors during the last three months.

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This week, COVID-19 continued to be a boon for opportunistic hackers, who targeted everything from federal stimulus funds, to package recipients, to John Wick 3.

SonicWall Spotlight

Cutting Business Expenses Shouldn’t Include Cybersecurity – Channel Futures

  • HoJin Kim explains how Boundless Cybersecurity’s emphasis on scalable economics is helping companies secure their networks during the current economic downturn.

Social Distancing For IoT—No, You Aren’t Paranoid When You Say It! – PC Quest

  • Debasish Mukherjee, VP of regional sales APAC at SonicWall, discusses how the world of cybersecurity compares to the race to find a cure for the novel coronavirus.

COVID-19 Impact: Health and Wellbeing of Employees Have Taken Precedence – Arabian Reseller

  • Mohamad Abdallah, regional director for META, speaks about how COVID-19 has impacted business at SonicWall and the contingency plans the company has put into place in case the crisis persists or continues to worsen.

Cybersecurity News

Scammers pounce as stimulus checks start flowing – The Hill

  • The ongoing taxpayer stimulus is increasingly being targeted by scammers, who see the funds as easy pickings during the ongoing crisis.

FCC Only Partially Improved Its Cybersecurity Posture, GAO Says – Security Week

  • The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has yet to fully address security weaknesses in its systems, a newly published report from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals.

Shade Ransomware shuts down, releases 750K decryption keys – Bleeping Computer

  • The operators behind the Shade Ransomware (Troldesh) have shut down their operations, released over 750,000 decryption keys, and apologized for the harm they caused their victims.

Hackers spoof SBA to try to compromise companies’ computers – Cyberscoop

  • It isn’t just the taxpayer stimulus being targeted by bad actors—the funds distributed by the U.S. Small Business Administration to companies affected by COVID-19 are also in their crosshairs.

The Covid-19 Pandemic Reveals Ransomware’s Long Game – Wired

  • Hackers laid the groundwork months ago for attacks. Now they’re flipping the game.

Lucy malware for Android adds file-encryption for ransomware ops – Bleeping Computer

  • A threat actor focusing on Android systems has expanded their malware-as-a-service (MaaS) business with file-encrypting capabilities for ransomware operations.

COVID-19’s impact on package deliveries creates golden opportunity for scammers  – SC Magazine

  • Cybercriminals are using the disruption caused by COVID-19 to pose as delivery companies, as they attempt to swindle businesses into opening malicious emails or handing over their credentials.

Microsoft warns of malware-laced ‘John Wick 3,’ ‘Contagion’ movie torrents – Cyberscoop

  • Tens of thousands of internet users have been infected with malware as they attempt to torrent popular movies and wind up downloading more than they intended.

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