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Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week — with higher education institutions and electricity companies on high alert, and with the Microsoft Exchange server crisis raging on — it’s no wonder 82% say cyberterrorism is America’s top potential threat.


SonicWall in the News

IoT malware attacks saw a huge rise last year — Techradar

  • As the number of consumer-oriented IoT devices grows, data from SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report suggests, IoT malware has been on the rise.

Phishing Email Warning Shows Cybercriminals Seizing on Tax Filing Delay, Vaccine Rollout Gallery — Channel Futures

  • Dmitriy Ayrapetov explains how bad actors are targeting vaccine distribution and takes a closer look at the threats caused by the remote workforce.

ICYMI: Our Channel News Roundup For the Week of March 15 — ChannelPro Network

  • SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report was included in ChannelPro Network’s weekly news roundup.

India Saw Largest Spike In Malware Attacks In 2020: Report — ET CISO

A Pandemic Of Email Scams — Financial Times

  • SonicWall recently reported a 62% increase in ransomware attacks last year and a 74% increase in malware variants.

New SonicWall 2020 Research Shows Cyber Arms Race At Tipping Point — CIO Review India

  • This article spotlights SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report.

Industry News

Lawmakers reintroduce legislation to secure internet-connected devices — The Hill

  • The Cyber Shield Act would create a voluntary cybersecurity certification program for IoT devices.

Ransomware operators are piling on already hacked Exchange servers — Ars Technica

  • The fallout from the Microsoft Exchange server crisis isn’t abating just yet.

Purple Fox Malware Targets Windows Machines With New Worm Capabilities — Threat Post

  • A new infection vector from the established malware puts internet-facing Windows systems at risk from SMB password brute-forcing.

Thousands of Exchange servers breached prior to patching, CISA boss says — Cyberscoop

  • A U.S. government cybersecurity official has warned organizations not to have a false sense of security when it comes to vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server software, noting that “thousands” of computer servers with updated software had already been breached.

Covid-19: Vaccines and vaccine passports being sold on darknet — BBC

  • Researchers say they have seen a “sharp increase” in vaccine-related darknet adverts, while the BBC has been unable to determine whether the vaccines being sold there are real.

UK colleges and unis urged to prepare for ransomware before it’s too late — The Register

  • There’s been an uptick in attacks since schools reopened, warns National Cyber Security Centre

Electricity Distribution Systems at Increasing Risk of Cyberattacks, GAO Warns — Security Week

  • A newly published report form the U.S. Government Accountability Office describes the risks of cyberattacks on the electricity grid’s distribution systems, along with the scale of the potential impact of such attacks.

8 in 10 say cyberterrorism is top potential threat: Gallup — The Hill

  • According to the survey, 82% of respondents said cyberterrorism is a critical threat to the U.S.

TikTok Doesn’t Pose Overt U.S. National Security Threat, Researchers Say — The New York Times

  • A new study by university cybersecurity researchers found that the computer code underlying the TikTok app doesn’t pose an overt national security threat to the U.S.

Acer reportedly targeted with $50 million ransomware attack — ZDNet

  • The REvil ransomware gang has published various Acer documents, such as financial spreadsheets, bank balances and bank communications.

FBI warns of BEC attacks increasingly targeting US govt orgs — Bleeping Computer

  • The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning U.S. private sector companies about an increase in business email compromise (BEC) attacks targeting state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government entities.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus now automatically mitigates Exchange Server vulnerabilities — ZDNet

  • Mitigation fixes will be applied automatically in a renewed effort by Microsoft to contain security incidents caused by the bugs.

SolarWinds-linked hacking group SilverFish abuses enterprise victims for sandbox tests — ZDNet

  • Existing victim networks are used as a novel form of sandbox, as cybercriminals exploit them to test out payloads.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, SonicWall released its biggest trove of threat intelligence yet: The 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.


SonicWall in the News

Microsoft Office Files Now Used By Hackers to Spread Malware: IoT Under Attack — Tech Times

  • Tech Times covered SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report, highlighting the surge in malicious Office file attacks.

Election security report calls out Russian, Iranian influence ops. Remediation progress. Ukraine finds Russian cyberespionage — CyberWire

  • SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report was included under the “Cyber Trends” section of the newsletter.

Threat Actors Thriving on the Fear and Uncertainty of Remote Workforces — Help Net Security

  • Help Net Security shared an article on SonicWall’s 2021 Threat Report, highlighting that cyber criminals preyed on the new remote work reality.

Ransomware Up 62 Percent Since 2019 — BetaNews

  • BetaNews shared an article on SonicWall’s 2021 Threat Report, highlighting the growth in ransomware.

New SonicWall 2020 Research Shows Cyber Arms Race At Tipping Point — CRN

  • This article features the findings from SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report.

SonicWall: Pandemic exposes record-breaking cyber attacks — Mobile News

  • This article features the findings from SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report.

Ransomware and IoT Malware Detections Surge By Over 60% — InfoSecurity Magazine

  • InfoSecurity Magazine covered SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report, highlighting the double-digit surge in ransomware and IoT malware.

Cybercrime Saw an ‘Explosion’ in 2020 — ITProPortal

  • ITProPortal covered SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report, highlighting that ransomware, cryptojacking and malicious Office files were the most popular vectors for cybercrime in 2020.

ChannelPro Weekly Podcast: Episode #178 — ChannelPro Weekly Podcast

  • This podcast features an interview with Dmitriy discussing the impact the pandemic had on cybersecurity and the cybersecurity trends of 2021.

Industry News

More than $4 billion in cybercrime losses reported to FBI in 2020 — FBI Internet Crime Report 2021

  • American victims reported $4.2 billion in losses as a result of cybercrime and internet fraud to the FBI in 2020, a roughly 20% uptick from 2019.

Attackers are trying awfully hard to backdoor iOS developers’ Macs — Ars Technica

  • Researchers said they’ve found a trojanized code library in the wild that attempts to install advanced surveillance malware on the Macs of iOS software developers.

Ransom Payments Have Nearly Tripled — Dark Reading

  • In 2020, ransomware targeted the manufacturing sector, healthcare organizations and construction companies, with the average ransom reaching $312,000, a report finds.

U.S. taxpayers targeted with RAT malware in ongoing phishing attacks — Bleeping Computer

  • U.S. taxpayers are being targeted by phishing attacks attempting to take over their computers using malware and steal sensitive personal and financial information.

$4,000 COVID-19 ‘Relief Checks’ Cloak Dridex Malware — Threat Post

  • The American Rescue Act is the latest zeitgeisty lure being circulated in an email campaign.

Mimecast Says SolarWinds Hackers Stole Source Code — SecurityWeek

  • Email security company Mimecast on Tuesday said it completed its forensic investigation into the impact of the SolarWinds supply chain attack and revealed that the threat actor managed to steal some source code.

Buffalo Public Schools cancels classes after cyberattack — Cyberscoop

  • Ransomware attackers appear to have taken a swipe at Buffalo Public Schools in recent days, screeching the school system’s plans for remote classes and in-person learning to a halt on Friday.

FBI warns of escalating Pysa ransomware attacks on education orgs — Bleeping Computer

  • The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cyber Division has warned system administrators and cybersecurity professionals of increased Pysa ransomware activity targeting educational institutions.

Bitcoin surges past $60,000 for first time — BBC

  • Bitcoin, which has more than tripled in value since the end of last year, has been powered on by well-known companies adopting it as a method of payment.

Exclusive: Microsoft could reap more than $150 million in new U.S. cyber spending, upsetting some lawmakers — Reuters

  • Microsoft stands to receive nearly a quarter of COVID-19 relief funds destined for U.S. cybersecurity defenders, angering some lawmakers who don’t want to increase funding for a company whose software was recently at the heart of two big hacks.

Molson Coors says cyberattack disrupted beer brewing — Cyberscoop

  • Molson Coors, one of the biggest beer companies in the U.S., didn’t provide many specifics about the cyberattack.

With Spectre Still Lurking, Google Looks to Protect the Web — Wired

  • Researchers from Google have developed a proof-of-concept that reveals the hazard Spectre assaults pose to the browser.

Ransomware now attacks Microsoft Exchange servers with ProxyLogon exploits — Bleeping Computer

  • A new ransomware called ‘DEARCRY’ is targeting Microsoft Exchange servers, with one victim stating they were infected via the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week saw breaches on more than two dozen U.K. schools and universities, thousands of security cameras, Microsoft Exchange servers, and even hacking forums themselves.


SonicWall in the News

Ryuk Ransomware Is Now More Dangerous Than Ever. Here’s Why — Toolbox

  • Ryuk, which has set organizations back by $150 million over the past three years, has acquired new capabilities that allow it to propagate across connected networks and systems, including those that are inactive or powered off.

Microsoft Cloud App Security Aims To Expand Your Defenses — TechTarget

  • Data center security tools have little control over the plethora of SaaS apps used in the enterprise. A Microsoft offering attempts to bridge that gap to ward off threats.

Industry News

UPDATE: Hackers Breach Thousands of Security Cameras, Exposing Tesla, Jails, Hospitals — Bloomberg

  • A group of hackers say they breached a massive trove of security camera data collected by Silicon Valley startup Verkada, Inc., gaining access to live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras inside hospitals, companies, police departments, prisons and schools.

Researchers Show First Side-Channel Attack Against Apple M1 Chips — Security Week

  • Researchers have demonstrated that attackers could launch browser-based side-channel attacks that do not require JavaScript, and they’ve tested the method on a wide range of platforms, including devices that use Apple’s new M1 chip.

It’s Open Season for Microsoft Exchange Server Hacks — Wired

  • A patch for the Exchange vulnerabilities China exploited has been released. Now criminal groups are going to reverse engineer it — if they haven’t already.

Dark Web Markets for Stolen Data See Banner Sales — Threat Post

  • Despite an explosion in the sheer amount of stolen data available on the Dark Web, the value of personal information is holding steady, according to the 2021 Dark Web price index from Privacy Affairs.

EU Sets 2030 Goals to Secure Tech Sovereignty From U.S., Asia — Bloomberg

  • The European Union outlined its digital goals for the next decade, including plans to develop and manufacture the world’s most advanced semiconductors by 2030 in an effort to reduce reliance on foreign companies.

A Basic Timeline of the Exchange Mass-Hack — Krebs on Security

  • Brian Krebs breaks down the Microsoft Exchange attack timeline.

GandCrab ransomware affiliate arrested for phishing attacks — Bleeping Computer

  • A suspected GandCrab ransomware operator was arrested in South Korea for using phishing emails to infect victims.

University of the Highlands and Islands shuts down campuses as it deals with ‘ongoing cyber incident’ — The Register

  • In a message to students and staff, the institution, which spans 13 locations across the northernmost part of the UK, warned that “most services” – including its Brightspace virtual learning environment – were affected.

A new type of supply-chain attack with serious consequences is flourishing — Ars Technica

  • New dependency confusion attacks take aim at Microsoft, Amazon, Slack, Lyft and Zillow.

Watchdog Warns of Weak Cybersecurity in DOD Weapons Contracts — Bloomberg

  • A government watchdog warned that the U.S. military has failed to adequately include cybersecurity provisions in contracts for acquiring weapons systems. … “Some contracts we reviewed had no cybersecurity requirements when they were awarded, with vague requirements added later.”

Cyberattack shuts down online learning at 15 UK schools — ZDNet

  • The cyberattack also took email, phone and website communication offline.

Three Top Russian Cybercrime Forums Hacked — Krebs on Security

  • Over the past few weeks, three of the longest running and most venerated Russian-language forums, which serve thousands of experienced cybercriminals, have been hacked. In two of the intrusions, the attackers made off with the forums’ user databases, including email and Internet addresses and hashed passwords.

Ongoing phishing attacks target US brokers with fake FINRA audits — Bleeping Computer

  • The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a regulatory notice warning U.S. brokerage firms and brokers of an ongoing phishing campaign using fake compliance audit alerts to harvest information.

Business Apps Spoofed in 45% of Impersonation Attacks — Dark Reading

  • Business-related applications like those from Microsoft, Zoom and DocuSign are most often impersonated in brand phishing attacks.

Three New Malware Strains Linked to SolarWinds Hackers — Security Week

  • The malware, named GoldMax, GoldFinder and Sibot, has been used to maintain persistence and for other “very specific” actions.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, Gab got breached, Ryuk got stronger, and AOL users got phished.


SonicWall in the News

2021 Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards Winners — Globee Business Awards

  • SonicWall swept the Globee Business Awards, bringing home the Grand Trophy, along with nine other gold, silver and bronze honors.

Ransomware Has Changed In A Very Dramatic Way In The Past Two Years: SonicWall CEO — ET Tech

  • Bill Conner discusses the rise of nation states as primary threat actors and how that changes the conversation around country of origin marketing of cybersecurity products.

SonicWall CEO Bill Conner on His Journey in the Digital and Cybersecurity Space — YourStory

  • Bill Conner details his three-decade journey in the tech and enterprise sector and his role in helping governments, municipalities and others with the security of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution process.

Industry News

Gab’s CTO Introduced a Critical Vulnerability to the Site — Wired

  • A review of the open-source code shows an account under the executive’s name made a mistake that could lead to the kind of breach reported this weekend.

Why Global Power Grids Are Still So Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks — Bloomberg

  • More than five years after massive cyberattacks left a quarter of a million Ukrainians without electricity, the world’s power grids have become even more vulnerable to hackers.

Wray hints at federal response to SolarWinds hack — The Hill

FBI Director Christopher Wray hinted at the planned federal response to what has become known as the SolarWinds attack, stressing that confronting foreign attacks in cyberspace would be a “long, hard slog.”

China’s new cyber tactic: targeting critical infrastructure — SC Magazine

  • A newly discovered threat group breached India’s power infrastructure, marking the first time a Chinese government-linked cyber actor has emerged as a significant threat against another nation’s critical infrastructure.

Bitcoin at ‘tipping point,’ Citi says as price surges — Reuters

  • Bitcoin rose nearly 7%, with Citi saying the most popular cryptocurrency was at a “tipping point” and could become the preferred currency for international trade.

Government watchdog finds federal cybersecurity has ‘regressed’ in recent years — The Hill

  • Federal cybersecurity has “regressed” since 2019 due to factors including the lack of centralized cyber leadership at the White House, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released Tuesday.

Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked—Including Private Data — Wired

  • The transparency group DDoSecrets says it will make the 70 GB of passwords, private posts and more available to researchers, journalists and social scientists.

Google: Bad bots are on the attack, and your defence plan is probably wrong — ZDNet

  • Bot attacks are on the rise as businesses move online due to the pandemic.

Beware: AOL phishing email states your account will be closed — Bleeping Computer

  • An AOL mail phishing campaign is underway to steal users’ login name and password by warning recipients that their account is about to be closed.

Ryuk ransomware now self-spreads to other Windows LAN devices — Bleeping Computer

  • A new Ryuk ransomware variant with worm-like capabilities allowing it to spread to other devices on victims’ local networks has been discovered.

SolarWinds Hack Pits Microsoft Against Dell, IBM Over How Companies Store Data — The New York Times

  • Microsoft argues the cloud offers more protection; rivals point to firms’ need to hold and access their information on-premises.

Bitcoin set for worst week since March as riskier assets sold off — Reuters

  • Bitcoin was headed on Friday for its worst week since March as a rout in global bond markets sent yields flying and sparked a sell-off in riskier assets.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, SonicWall was recognized as one of the coolest network security companies of 2021. Less cool: a huge spate of cyberattacks targeting the NSA, hospitals, universities, airlines, IT companies and even Apple’s new M1 silicon.


SonicWall in the News

The 20 Coolest Network Security Companies of 2021: The Security 100 — CRN

  • SonicWall was included on CRN’s list of the 20 Coolest Network Security Companies.

The Top 6 Enterprise VPNs To Use in 2021 — TechRepublic

  • SonicWall’s Global VPN Client is cited as one of the top VPNs for enterprises.

Experts Blast SMBs’ “Head In The Sand” Approach To Cyber Security — IT PRO

  • From failing to patch exposed VPNs to meeting ransom demands, businesses are playing a role in fueling the threat landscape.

Industry News

Hackers Tied to Russia’s GRU Targeted the US Grid for Years, Researchers Warn — Wired

  • A Sandworm-adjacent group has successfully breached U.S. critical infrastructure a handful of times, according to new findings from the security firm Dragos.

COVID pandemic causes spike in cyberattacks against hospitals, medical companies — ZDNet

  • IBM says attack rates have doubled against medical entities since the pandemic began.

After Russian Cyberattack, Looking for Answers and Debating Retaliation — The New York Times

  • Key senators and corporate executives warned that the “scope and scale” of the SolarWinds attack were unclear, and that the attack might still be ongoing.

LazyScripter hackers target airlines with remote access trojans — Bleeping Computer

  • Security researchers believe they uncovered activity belonging to a previously unidentified actor fitting the description of an advanced persistent threat (APT).

10K Targeted in Phishing Attacks Spoofing FedEx, DHL Express — Dark Reading

  • The two campaigns aimed to steal victims’ business email account credentials by posing as the shipping companies.

NASA and the FAA were also breached by the SolarWinds hackers — Bleeping Computer

  • NASA and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have reportedly also been compromised by the nation-state hackers behind the SolarWinds supply-chain attack.

Ransomware: Sharp rise in attacks against universities as learning goes online — ZDNet

  • Higher education is struggling with ransomware attacks, with gangs seeing an easy target in institutions busy making the switch to remote operations.

Finnish IT Giant Hit with Ransomware Cyberattack — Threat Post

  • A major Finnish IT provider has been hit with ransomware, forcing the company to turn off some services and infrastructure while it takes recovery measures.

Chinese spyware code was copied from America’s NSA: researchers — The Wall Street Journal

  • Chinese spies used code first developed by the U.S. National Security Agency to support their hacking operations — another example of how malicious software developed by governments can boomerang against their creators.

Malware monsters target Apple’s M1 silicon with ‘Silver Sparrow’ — The Register

  • U.S. security consultancy Red Canary says it’s found macOS malware written specifically for the shiny new M1 silicon that Apple created to power its post-Intel Macs.

Global Accellion data breaches linked to Clop ransomware gang — Bleeping Computer

  • Financially motivated hacker groups combined multiple zero-day vulnerabilities and a new web shell to breach up to 100 companies using Accellion’s legacy File Transfer Appliance.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week was a good one for the rule of law, as a number of cybercriminals involved in ransomware, phishing and cryptocurrency theft were brought to justice.


SonicWall in the News

2021 Channel Chiefs: Robert (Bob) VanKirk — CRN

  • Robert (Bob) VanKirk has been named one of CRN’s Channel Chiefs for 2021.

2021 Channel Chiefs: HoJin Kim — CRN

  • HoJin Kim has been named one of CRN’s Channel Chiefs for 2021.

2021 Channel Chiefs: David Bankemper — CRN

  • David Bankemper has been named one of CRN’s Channel Chiefs for 2021.

Industry News

North Korea Turning to Cryptocurrency Schemes in Global Heists, U.S. Says — The Wall Street Journal

  • The U.S. Justice Department has charged North Koreans hackers in wide-ranging scheme that includes attempts to steal $1.3 billion for Pyongyang.

Nigerian man sentenced 10 years for $11 million phishing scam — Cyberscoop

  • The sentence comes as the cost of email scams continues to rise, plaguing U.S. businesses.

Cred-stealing trojan harvests logins from Chromium browsers, Outlook and more, warns Cisco Talos — The Register

  • A credential-stealing trojan is capable of lifting your login details from the Chrome browser, Microsoft’s Outlook and instant messengers.

NIST hints at upgrades to its system for scoring a phish’s deceptiveness — SC Magazine

  • Officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) this week teased future improvements to its “Phish Scale,” which helps companies determine whether phishing emails are hard or easy for their employees to detect.

Egregor Arrests a Blow, but Ransomware Will Likely Bounce Back — Dark Reading

  • Similar to previous ransomware takedowns, this disruption to the ransomware-as-a-service model will likely be short-lived, security experts say.

SolarWinds attack hit 100 companies and took months of planning, says White House — ZDNet

  • The White House warns the SolarWinds attack was more than espionage, because the private sector targets could lead to follow-up attacks.

Senate Intel leader demands answers on Florida water treatment center breach — The Hill

  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has demanded answers regarding the investigation into the recent attempt to breach and poison the water supply in a Florida city.

Rising healthcare breaches driven by hacking and unsecured servers — Bleeping Computer

  • 2020 was a bad year for healthcare organizations in the U.S., which had to deal with record-high cybersecurity incidents on the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bitcoin hits new record of $50,000 — BBC

  • The cryptocurrency, which was created by an unknown inventor, has risen about 72% this year.

270 addresses are responsible for 55% of all cryptocurrency money laundering — ZDNet

  • Most cryptocurrency money laundering is concentrated in a few online services, opening the door for law-enforcement actions.

Microsoft asks government to stay out of its cyber attack response in Australia — ZDNet

  • Government intervention would result in a “Fog of War,” further complicating any attempt to mitigate cyberattack response, the company said.

France’s cyber-agency says Centreon IT management software sabotaged by Russian Sandworm — The Register

  • Web hosts were infiltrated for up to three years in an attack that somewhat resembles the SolarWinds breach.

100+ Financial Services Firms Targeted in Ransom DDoS Attacks in 2020 — Dark Reading

  • Consumer banks, exchanges, payment firms and card-issuing companies around the globe were among those hit.

Microsoft: SolarWinds attack took more than 1,000 engineers to create — ZDNet

  • Microsoft reckons that the huge attack on security vendors and more took the combined power of at least 1,000 engineers to create.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, the massive SolarWinds breach made headlines around the world, but that doesn’t mean other hackers took a holiday.


SonicWall in the News

The 25 Hottest Edge Security Companies: 2020 Edge Computing 100 — CRN

  • SonicWall was recognized in CRN’s 2020 Edge Computing 100 list for its new SD-Branch and Cloud Edge Secure Access solutions.

Cyberattack ‘Leaves UK Infrastructure Exposed for Month’ — Newsweek

  • SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner, who in recent years has advised the U.K. and U.S. governments on how best they can protect critical national assets from cybercrime, said the hackers appeared to be motivated by geopolitical control.

Cases of Cyber Ransomware Rising During COVID Pandemic — MSN

SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team Warns of Egregor Ransomware Attacks — SME Channels

  • SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research team warns that Egregor Ransomware attacks — which steal system information and banking and online account credentials, as well as deploy keyloggers and remote backdoors — will likely intensify.

SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack Led to FireEye, US Government Breaches — SDxCentral

  • Bill’s commentary on the U.S. Treasury hack was featured in an SDxCentral article about recent data breaches.

SonicWall Seeks The Bliss of The Predictable — ChannelPro Network

  • ChannelPro Network shared a feature on SonicWall’s SecureFirst Partner Program for its ChannelBeat column.

Industry News

SolarWinds Breach Potentially Gave Hackers ‘God Access’: Ex-White House Official — Newsweek

  • The SolarWinds breach potentially gave hackers “God access” or a “God door” to computer systems using the companies OrionIT software, a former White House official has warned.

FireEye, Microsoft create kill switch for SolarWinds backdoor — Bleeping Computer

  • Microsoft, FireEye and GoDaddy have collaborated to create a kill switch for the SolarWinds Sunburst backdoor that forces the malware to terminate itself.

Little-Known SolarWinds Gets Scrutiny Over Hack, Stock Sales — Security Week

  • The revelation that elite cyber spies spent months exploiting SolarWinds’ software to peer into computer networks has put many of its high-profile customers on high alert — and it’s raising questions about whether company insiders knew of its security vulnerabilities as its biggest investors sold off stock.

Russia’s Hacking Frenzy Is a Reckoning — Wired

  • Despite years of warning, the U.S. still has no good answer for the sort of “supply chain” attack that has left Washington stunned.

Malicious Domain in SolarWinds Hack Turned into ‘Killswitch’ — Krebs on Security

  • A key malicious domain name used to control computer systems compromised via the months-long breach at SolarWinds was commandeered by security experts and used as a “killswitch” designed to turn the sprawling cybercrime operation against itself.

Schiff calls for ‘urgent’ work to defend nation in the wake of massive cyberattack — The Hill

  • House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Wednesday called on Congress to undertake “urgent work” to defend critical networks in the wake of a massive cyber espionage attack on the U.S. government.

FBI says DoppelPaymer ransomware gang is harassing victims who refuse to pay — ZDNet

  • FBI says the ransomware group has been calling victims and threatening to send individuals to their homes if they don’t pay the ransom.

“Evil mobile emulator farms” used to steal millions from US and EU banks — Ars Technica

  • Researchers from IBM Trusteer say they’ve uncovered a massive fraud operation that used a network of mobile device emulators to drain millions of dollars from online bank accounts in just days.

EU unveils revamp of cybersecurity rules days after hack — The Washington Times

  • The EU unveiled plans to revamp its dated cybersecurity rules, just days after data on a new coronavirus vaccine was unlawfully accessed in a hack attack on the European Medicines Agency.

45 million medical scans from hospitals all over the world left exposed online for anyone to view – some servers were laced with malware — The Register

  • CybelAngel, which sells a digital risk protection platform, reported not only was the sensitive personal information unsecured, but cybercriminals had also accessed those servers and poisoned them with apparent malware.

Microsoft: New malware can infect over 30K Windows PCs a day — Bleeping Computer

  • Microsoft has warned of an ongoing campaign pushing Adrozek, a new browser hijacking and credential-stealing malware which, at its peak, was able to take over more than 30,000 devices every day.

Massive Subway UK phishing attack is pushing TrickBot malware — Bleeping Computer

  • A massive phishing campaign pretending to be a Subway order confirmation has been spotted distributing the notorious TrickBot malware.

This new ransomware is growing in strength and could become a major threat warn researchers — ZDNet

  • The group behind MountLocker ransomware are “clearly just warming up,” researchers say.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, Trickbot is gaining strength, Bitcoin is gaining value, and cybercriminals are gaining ground against vaccine manufacturers.


SonicWall in the News

New Partnerships Boost OT/IoT Security Across Digital Environments — Security Boulevard

  • SonicWall’s Q3 Threat Report data is cited in this article about Nozomi Networks partnership with Honeywell and Yokogawa Europe.

Top Tips to Stay Safe During Black Friday & Cyber Monday — Security Toolbox

  • Check out five tips to maintain security hygiene when shopping online during the upcoming holiday season.

Industry News

Manchester United attack illuminates the cyberthreats facing an overlooked sports sector — Cyberscoop

  • The headline-making attack is a stark reminder that major sports franchises have targets on their backs, even if regulators and the press don’t apply the same amount of scrutiny to data protection strategies in athletics as in other sectors.

 Federal agencies warn that hackers are targeting US think tanks — The Hill

  • The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned Tuesday that major hacking groups are targeting U.S. think tanks.

 Companies Urged to Adjust Hiring Requirements for Cyber Jobs — The Wall Street Journal

  • Companies need millions more cybersecurity professionals to fill roles around the world, but researchers say the problem may be outlandish job requirements, rather than a lack of workers.

FINRA Warns Brokerage Firms of Phishing Campaign — Security Week

  • Cybercriminals are using a recently registered lookalike domain in a phishing campaign targeting U.S. organizations, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority warns.

Cyberespionage APT group hides behind cryptomining campaigns — Bleeping Computer

  • An advanced threat group called Bismuth recently used cryptocurrency mining as a way to hide the purpose of their activity and to avoid triggering high-priority alerts.

Bitcoin Hits New Record, This Time With Less Talk of a Bubble — The New York Times

  • The crazy cousin of traditional currencies, which fell below $4,000 in March, has now passed $19,783 — and more investors are now buying it for the long term.

Government watchdog urges policymakers to boost cybersecurity for 5G networks — The Hill

  • The agency detailed “capabilities and challenges” involved in the buildout of 5G networks and made a number of recommendations aimed at scaling up cybersecurity, spectrum availability and consumer data privacy.

Supreme Court considers scope of federal anti-hacking law in biggest cyber case to date — Cyberscoop

  • This case is the biggest to come before the nation’s highest court involving the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), written in the 1980s and centering on when an individual “exceeds authorized access” to a computer.

It’s hard to keep a big botnet down: TrickBot sputters back toward full health — Cyberscoop

  • Mounting evidence suggests that TrickBot, the vast botnet that both U.S. Cyber Command and a Microsoft-led coalition sought to disable around the 2020 elections, is on the mend and evolving.

Coronavirus: Hackers targeted Covid vaccine supply ‘cold chain’ — BBC

  • The international vaccine supply chain has reportedly been targeted by cyber-espionage.

The Internet’s Most Notorious Botnet Has an Alarming New Trick — Wired

  • The hackers behind TrickBot have begun probing victim PCs for vulnerable firmware, which would let them persist on devices undetected.

North Korean Hackers Are Said to Have Targeted Companies Working on Covid-19 Vaccines — The Wall Street Journal

  • At least six pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., the U.K. and South Korea were targeted as the regime seeks sensitive information it could sell or weaponize.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, attackers targeted everything from the energy sector and the U.S. elections to social media accounts and your coffeemaker.


SonicWall in the News

The 100 People You Don’t Know but Should 2020 — CRN

  • SonicWall’s Jason Carter has been selected to be part of CRN’s annual “100 People You Don’t Know but Should” list.

How Home Tech Can Be Companies’ Weakest Link — Financial Times (Business Education)

  • SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner weighs in on how companies can protect against risks due to remote employees’ home network setups.

Managed IT Service Providers Expands Support For Remote Workers During Pandemic — Crain’s Detroit Business

  • In March, SonicWall helped Vision Computer Solutions acquire additional licenses more quickly than normal so the company could rapidly transition to remote work.

These 13 Israeli Cybersecurity Startups Have Raised A collective $847 Million In Funding This Year For New Tools That Protect Remote Work  — Business Insider

  • Perimeter 81 — which SonicWall has invested in — is included in the roundup as a cloud-based company helping IT and security professionals more easily secure remote access.

Industry News

U.S. tech giants face curbs on data sharing, digital marketplaces, under draft EU rules — Reuters

  • Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and other U.S. tech giants could be banned from favoring their services or forcing users to sign up to a bundle of services under draft EU rules.

House passes bills to secure energy sector against cyberattacks — The Hill

  • The House has unanimously passed four bills aimed at securing the power grid and other energy infrastructure against cyberattacks.

Microsoft looks to expose espionage groups taking aim at NGOs, US politics — Cyberscoop

  • Cyberscoop summarizes/explores the new Microsoft report — a detailed review of criminal and government hackers’ tradecraft.

When coffee makers are demanding a ransom, you know IoT is screwed — Ars Technica

  • With the name Smarter, you might expect a network-connected kitchen appliance maker to be, well, smarter than companies selling conventional appliances. But in the case of the Smarter’s IoT coffee maker, you’d be wrong.

CISA Warns of Hackers Exploiting Zerologon Vulnerability — Security Week

  • The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued an alert to warn of attackers actively targeting a recently addressed vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC).

Microsoft disrupts nation-state hacker op using Azure Cloud service — Bleeping Computer

  • In a report today, Microsoft said that it disrupted operations of a nation-state threat group that was using its Azure cloud infrastructure for cyberattacks.

Ransomware Attacks Take On New Urgency Ahead of Vote — The New York Times

  • Attacks against small towns, big cities and the contractors who run their voting systems have federal officials fearing that hackers will try to sow chaos around the election.

FBI director warns that Chinese hackers are still targeting US COVID-19 research — The Hill

  • FBI Director Christopher Wray said Chinese hackers are continuing to target U.S. companies involved in COVID-19 research and described China as the nation’s “greatest counterintelligence threat.”

Mount Locker ransomware joins the multi-million dollar ransom game — Bleeping Computer

  • A new ransomware operation named Mount Locker is stealing victims’ files before encrypting and then demanding multi-million dollar ransoms.

FBI Director: Feeding DOD’s Cyber Offense Operations Is Crucial to New Strategy — Nextgov

  • Senator says legislation is moving forward to thwart intellectual property theft and defend federal networks from cyberattacks.

Phishing attacks are targeting your social network accounts — Bleeping Computer

  • Scammers are targeting your social network accounts with phishing emails that pretend to be copyright violations or promises of a shiny ‘blue checkmark’ next to your name.

In Case You Missed It

Cybersecurity News & Trends

This week, teenage hackers and nation-state attackers made trouble worldwide.


SonicWall Spotlight

SonicWall TZ 600 POE — SC Magazine

  • SC Media takes a close look at the TZ 600 POE and awards it top marks.

Why Small Businesses Must Deal With Emerging Cybersecurity Threats — Entrepreneur

  • Cybercriminals are counting on small businesses to be less protected — and they’re often right.

Surging CMS attacks keep SQL Injections On The Radar During The Next Normal — Help Net Security

  • Cyberattacks have risen during the pandemic, leaving businesses to wonder whether things will settle down when COVID-19 begins to wane, or if the increase in attacks is here to stay.

Cybersecurity News

Teenager arrested in cyberattacks on Miami-Dade schools — The Washington Times

  • A 16-year-old student has been arrested for orchestrating a series of network outages and cyberattacks during the first week of school in Florida’s largest district.

Microsoft Defender can ironically be used to download malware — Bleeping Computer

  • A recent update to Windows 10’s Microsoft Defender antivirus solution ironically allows it to download malware and other files to a Windows computer.

Twitter Hack May Have Had Another Mastermind: A 16-Year-Old — The New York Times

  • A Massachusetts teenager appears to have played a significant role in the July 15 Twitter attack, investigators and fellow hackers said.

Chinese Hackers Targeted European Officials in Phishing Campaign — Bloomberg

  • Chinese nation-state hackers launched a phishing campaign against European government officials, diplomats, non-profits and other organizations to gather intelligence about global economies reeling from the pandemic.

Minister: New Zealand Enduring Wave of Cyberattacks — Security Week

  • According to the Associated Press, tracking down the perpetrators will be extremely difficult, as the distributed denial of service attacks are being routed through thousands of computers.

Federal agencies deny seeing attacks on voting infrastructure — The Hill

  • The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have denied seeing any reports of attacks on voting infrastructure, following the publication of a report on potential Russian election interference.

The FBI Botched Its DNC Hack Warning in 2016—but Says It Won’t Next Time — Wired

  • Facing looming election threats and a ransomware epidemic, the bureau says it has revamped its process for warning hacking victims.

The accidental notary: Apple approves notorious malware to run on Macs — Ars Technica

  • Newfangled malware protection gives users a false sense of security, critics say, making it potentially worse than nothing at all.

Attackers abuse Google DNS over HTTPS to download malware — Bleeping Computer

  • More details have emerged on a malware sample that uses Google DNS over HTTPS to retrieve the stage 2 malicious payload.

‘UltraRank’ Gang Sells Card Data It Steals — Bank Info Security

  • A cybercriminal gang that has spent five years planting malicious JavaScript code in order to steal payment card data from hundreds of e-commerce websites also takes the unusual step of selling the data on its own.

Hackers Attack Norway’s Parliament — Security Week

  • Norway’s parliament said Tuesday it had been the target of a “vast” cyberattack that allowed hackers to access the some lawmakers’ emails.

In Case You Missed It