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Cyber Security News & Trends

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This week, SonicWall highlights how the UK is taking malware seriously, there is an investigation into new vehicles that are vulnerable to cyberattacks, and an update on the average price paid for ransomware.

SonicWall Spotlight

Bill Conner: How the UK Is Taking Malware Seriously – Information Age

  • SonicWall CEO Bill Conner was interviewed by Information Age editor Nick Ismail on the changing cybersecurity landscape, how malware can be region specific, the possibilities of cross-border collaboration, and more.

DCC Inks Distribution Deal With SonicWall –

  • IT products distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) has been appointed as an official distributor for SonicWall in South Africa.

SMBs Need Layered Security to Defend Their Businesses – Forbes

  • Bill Conner, CEO of SonicWall, talks as part of the Forbes Technology Council on why small and medium businesses (SMBs) need layered cybersecurity. He argues that if you’re running an SMB online cybercriminals see you as an easy target and, without adequate investment in cyberdefenses, they might just be correct.

Cyber Security News

Is Your Car Hackable? Cybersecurity Experts Say It Might Be – USA Today

  • A modern car is full of small computers, but in a new survey of 15,900 IT security practitioners and engineers in the automotive industry, many acknowledged a huge number of flaws in the cybersecurity makeup of the vehicles. 62 percent of those surveyed say a malicious attack against automotive technologies is likely or very likely to occur in the next 12 months.

Trojan Malware: The Hidden Cyber Threat to Your PC – ZDNet

  • While Ransomware and cryptocurrency mining have been making the headlines recently, ZDNet investigates the quiet growth of Trojan malware – made possible by the huge number of recent breaches leading to targeted phishing emails.

Ransomware Victims Who Pay Cough up $6,733 (on Average) – BankInfoSecurity

  • A new report has found that in the fourth quarter of 2018 ransomware victims who paid the ransom spent, on average, $6.73; an increase of 13 percent from the previous quarter. Unsurprisingly Bitcoin is the preferred method of payment.

Two Hacker Groups Responsible for 60 Percent of All Publicly Reported Hacks – ZDNet

  • Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis investigated publicly reported cryptocurrency exchange hacks and concluded that 60 percent could be traced back to two hacking groups.

True Crime: SamSam Ransomware I Am – SC Magazine

  • SamSam may not be the worst malware out there but its impact on enterprise cybersecurity became difficult to ignore in 2018. SC Magazine traces the history of the malware throughout the year.

Report: Nation-State Malware Attack Could Cripple US – BankInfoSecurity

  • A new report has concluded that without improved private and public data co-operation, the US is at risk of being crippled by well-made malware. The report recommends closer technical data sharing and action taken to improve communication between public and private entities.

A Hacker’s Take on Blockchain Security – Forbes

  • With Blockchain seen by some as the solution to cybersecurity problems, Forbes asks a black hat hacker to investigate with them just how true that is. They come across some less obvious stumbling blocks in blockchain security.

In Case You Missed It

Cyber Security News & Trends

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This week, Collections #2-5 drop over 2 billion stolen logins, Bangladesh is suing a Philippines bank over cybertheft and SonicWall CEO Bill Conner discusses keeping up with the cybersecurity market.

SonicWall Spotlight

Could Cash-Rich Facebook Be Considering Acquisition Targets? – Real Money

  • SonicWall CEO Bill Conner is quoted by Real Money talking about Facebook’s need for cybersecurity acquisitions in a piece that speculates where the company might go next.

Are We Really Aware of What Mobile Malware Is? – VarIndia

  • SonicWall’s Debasish Mukherjee is interviewed as part of a panel discussing the mobile malware. He talks about the data SonicWall Capture Labs found on the Android platform throughout 2018.

SonicWall Aims to Build Brand in Critical Two Years – IT Europa

  • Bill Conner, CEO of SonicWall, lends his thoughts to IT Europa talking about the future of the fast-moving cybersecurity market and why not every security company is able to keep up.

Cyber Security News

Hackers are Passing Around a Megaleak of 2.2 Billion Records – Wired

  • After the leak of Collection # 1 earlier in the year Collections #2-5 continue the data dump of hacked records, largely information that has been leaked previously.

Airbus Reports Breach Into Its Systems After Cyber Attack – Reuters

  • Airbus detected a cyberattack which resulted in a data breach of mostly employee data. It says the incident did not affect commercial operations.

What Was the Cybersecurity Impact of the Shutdown? – FCW

  • With the Government shutdown over, the cybersecurity impact is still being worked out. FCW discuss the possible knock-on effects and how long they might last.

IT Spending Expected to Rise in 2019 Amid Shift to Cloud Services – Wall Street Journal

  • Forecasts for IT enterprise spending say there will be an 8.5% growth this year, and overall IT spending is expected to rise 3.2%.

Too Few Cybersecurity Professionals Is a Gigantic Problem for 2019 –

  • There is a global gap of nearly 3 million cybersecurity positions. In the USA alone 314,000 jobs were posted in a one-year period between 2017 and 2018. Cybersecurity training itself is a new area and almost no cybersecurity professional over 30 today has a formal cybersecurity degree.

Bangladesh to Sue Philippine Bank Over $81M Cyber Heist – Security Week

  • A digital heist in 2016 led to the successful theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account with the US Federal Reserve. Bangladesh is now attempting to retrieve the funds by suing the Philippines bank that facilitated the transfer. The Federal Reserve denies that it was hacked.

Massive DDoS Attack Generates 500 Million Packets per Second – Dark Reading

  • A DDos attack on Github in 2018 made headlines as the biggest ever DDos attack, but it was only a quarter of the size of the attack stopped earlier this month.

Cryptocurrency Thefts, Scams Hit $1.7 Billion in 2018: Report – Reuters

  • Cryptocurrency theft rose 400 percent in 2018, with up to $1.7 billion stolen by the end of the year. $950 million of this was theft from cryptocurrency exchanges and digital wallets.

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Cyber Security News & Trends

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This week, fears are growing that new 5G industrial robots are vulnerable to cyberattack, the numbers affected by a breach jump from 500 to over 500,000 and the government shutdown continues to worry cybersecurity experts.

SonicWall Spotlight

SonicWall on Winning the Cyber Arms Race on Winning the Cyber Arms Race – Tahawul Tech

  • SonicWall’s Michael Berg is interviewed talking SonicWall’s expansion in Dubai, the cyber arms race and where SonicWall is going in 2019.

Cyber Security News

Why Cybersecurity Must Be a Top Priority for Small & Midsize Businesses – Dark Reading

  • Big corporations seize the cyberattack headlines, but Dark Reading argues that cybersecurity must be a top priority for small and medium businesses, outlining the major security risks and methods of protection.

For Industrial Robots, Hacking Risks Are on the Rise  – Wall Street Journal

  • 5G and the Internet of Things promise to make factories a lot smarter, but also a lot more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

New Ransomware Poses as Games and Software to Trick You Into Downloading It – ZDNet

  • A Dangerous new ransomware dubbed Anatova that was found at the start of the new year is being watched closely by researchers. Its modular architecture makes it easily adaptable and potentially very dangerous in the hands of a skilled cybercriminal.

The Shutdown Is Exposing Our Economy to Crippling Cybersecurity Breaches – Salon

  • Salon details the infrastructural cybersecurity problems, many previously outlined by SonicWall, that have been growing with the ongoing government shutdown.

Proposed Law Classifies Ransomware Infection as a Data Breach – SecurityWeek

  • The Act to Strengthen Identity Theft Protections in North Carolina proposes widening the definition of a breach to include ransomware and even unauthorized access. The legislation requires tightened data protection and a quicker notifications period when there is a breach.

Online Casino Group Leaks Information on 108 Million Bets, Including User Details – ZDNet

  • The server details of an online casino were left exposed online, leaking information on 108 million bets, including complete customer data like real names and addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, and more.

Victim Count in Alaska Health Department Breach Soars – BankInfoSecurity

  • It was originally thought to only affect 501 people but the numbers in the Alaska Health Department breach of June 2018 have soared to up to 700,000. The number has soared after months of analysis and confirmation, the DHSS says they always knew the number would rise dramatically after analysis.

Recession Is the Number One Fear for CEOs in 2019, Survey Says – CNBC

  • While recession is the number one fear worldwide, a survey of over 800 CEO’s found that cybersecurity was the number one fear for CEO’s in the U.S.

Cybercriminals Home in on Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals – Dark Reading

  • With a growing cybersecurity awareness in businesses new research is suggesting that some hackers are shifting their sights to the estates and businesses of wealthy families with personalized cyberattacks.

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Cyber Security News & Trends

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This week, one city is back to using pen and paper after a ransomware attack, cybercriminals utilize popular video game Fortnite in a money laundering scam and construction industry cranes are alarmingly vulnerable to being hacked.

SonicWall Spotlight

SSL, TLS Certificates Expiring on US Government Sites During Federal Shutdown – SonicWall Blog

  • SonicWall’s Brook Chelmo explains why US Government websites are starting to suffer during the ongoing Government Shutdown, explaining that security certificates are not being updated and what kind of messages you might be seeing as a result.

Cyber Security News

Hack Brief: An Astonishing 773 Million Records Exposed in Monster Breach – Wired

  • Wired details the mega-breach where at least 773 million emails and 21 million unique passwords have been released in a folder called “Collection #1.” Some are calling this the largest collection of breached data ever found, although it should be noted that Collection #1 is a compilation of both old and new leaked details.

Fortnite Is Being Used by Criminals to Launder Cash Through V-Bucks – ZDNet

  • Criminals have been using the in-game currency in Fortnite for laundering money from stolen cards. It is not known exactly how much profit the cybercriminals have made, but Fortnite coins sold on eBay alone have grossed over $250,000 in two months.

Defense Department Continuously Challenged on Cybersecurity – Security Week

  • A report has revealed that while the U.S. Department of Defense has been making strides to improve their cybersecurity stance, they are still struggling. In September of last year there were 266 open cybersecurity‑related recommendations, some dating as far back as 2008.

NotPetya Victim Mondelez Sues Zurich Insurance for $100 Million

  • Zurich insurance rejected a $100 million claim by Mondelez saying that since the NotPetya ransomware attack has been seen by some, including the UK government, as a Russian military attack it is not covered by standard insurance against malware. Mondelez are taking legal action in response.

Oklahoma Gov Data Leak Exposes FBI Investigation Records, Millions of Department Files – ZDNet

  • A storage server belonging to the Oklahoma Department of Securities was found with terabytes of confidential data exposed and accessible to the public.

Yes, You Can Remotely Hack Factory, Building Site Cranes. Wait, What? – The Register

  • Cybersecurity protection on cranes, drilling rigs, and other heavy machinery has been found to be severely lacking with a report into the area finding that none of the radio remote controllers investigated had “implemented any protection mechanism to prevent unattended reprogramming.”

WEF: Cyber-Attacks a Major Global Risk for Next Decade – Infosecurity Magazine

  • The World Economic Forum released a reporting stating that cyberattacks remain as one of the risks facing the world today with 82 percent of those queried stating they expect data and monetary theft attacks to increase.

Ransomware Attack Sends City of Del Rio Back to the Days of Pen and Paper – ZDNet

  • Officials at Del Rio, Texas, had to abandon their computers and switch to pen and paper after a ransomware attack last week. It has not been revealed who is behind the ransomware but the FBI have been informed and are investigating.

Emotet Malware Returns to Work After Holiday Break – BankInfoSecurity

  • Whether coincidence or a sign that the criminals were actually on holidays, a number of malware strains including Emotet have returned in 2019 after falling out of use towards the end of the year. BankInfoSecurity trace the history and usage of Emotet, including information on where in the world it has and has not been striking.

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Cyber Security News & Trends

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Adware apps downloaded by millions, German politicians have their data leaked, and how is the government shutdown affecting cybersecurity? SonicWall has collected this week’s best cybersecurity stories, just for you.

SonicWall Spotlight

What Is Driving the Workforce of the Future? – IT News Africa

  • SonicWall threat data is used to examine the potential dangers of a workforce dependent on the Internet of Things and 5G mobile connection.

Cyber Security News

German Man Confesses to Hacking Politicians’ Data, Officials Say – New York Times

  • The December leak of the personal information of German politicians was carried out by a young German student who used very basic techniques like guessing the passwords. The authorities are treating him as a juvenile and he has been released while the investigation is ongoing.

Google Removes 85 Adware Apps That Were Installed by Millions of Users – ZDNet

  • Google removed 85 apps from the Play Store after complaints that they were blatantly adware where every page on the apps triggered a full screen advert. At the time of removal one of the apps had already been downloaded over five million times.

Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Over Marriott Data Breach – Washington Times

  • 76 plaintiffs from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are suing Marriott International Inc. in federal court over the data breach in 2018 that saw millions of people’s data released.

Who Should Be Responsible for Protecting Our Personal Data? – World Economic Forum

  • The World Economic Forum explores the growing cybersecurity challenges that are presented by the fact that 89% of Americans and 70% of Europeans use the internet daily, and half the world’s population is online in some way. They ask if governments are reacting fast enough to the changes and if cybersecurity is a personal or public responsibility.

Zeroday Exploit Prices Are Higher Than Ever, Especially for iOS and Messaging Apps – ArsTechnica

  • The going rate for a zero-day jailbreak for Apple’s iOS is currently as high as $2 million. That’s the highest end of the scale but the market for exploits has been going higher and higher with no sign of leveling off.

U.S. Initiative Warns Firms of Hacking by China, Other Countries – Reuters

  • A new initiative by The National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center (NCSC) has been launched, aimed with improving cybersecurity in U.S. companies. Videos, brochures, and online informational materials have all been made available in an attempt to address ongoing concerns that many companies are not currently doing enough to protect themselves from cyberthreats.

Cybersecurity May Suffer as Shutdown Persists – Roll Call

  • The partial government shutdown may be leaving departments open to cybersecurity risks since many of the shutdown departments are on the “hit-list for hackers.” As more time passes there is a fear that minor setbacks may become irreversible.

This Old Ransomware Is Using an Unpleasant New Trick to Try and Make You Pay Up – ZDNet

  • First spotted in 2016, Cryptomix is a ransomware that seemed to have disappeared until it was rediscovered recently with a new distasteful trick; using information scraped from children’s charity organizations to make it seem like the ransom payment will be used to help people in need.

  The Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Is Getting Worse – CSO Online

  • With 53 percent of respondents of one survey reporting a problematic shortage of people with the right skills, the cybersecurity job situation is seen by some as actively getting worse rather than better. CSO Online recommend massive federal leadership, a more thorough public/private partnership and an integrated industry effort to solve the problem.

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Cyber Security News & Trends

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How long did it take before 2019’s first cyberattack took place? Find out this and more. SonicWall has collected this week’s best cybersecurity stories, just for you.

SonicWall Spotlight

SonicWall Celebrates Key EMEA Milestones  – Enterprise Channels MEA

  • SonicWall’s Michael Berg comments on SonicWall’s boosted presence in EMEA, crediting channel expertise and commitment to speaking the local language as key factors in growth.

Ransomware Attacks Hit Legal System – Today’s General Counsel Magazine

  • An investigation into the growing threat of ransomware in the legal world uses SonicWall 2018 data as its jumping off point.

Cyber Security News

The Elite Intel Team Still Fighting Meltdown and Spectre – Wired

  • The Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities were first announced a year ago and made major waves in the news cycle due to their scope and impact. Wired follow up on the story with an in-depth look at how STORM, Intel’s strategic offensive research and mitigation hacker group, have been dealing with the problem.

Town of Salem Breach Affects 7 Million Accounts – SC Magazine

  • Some payment information was exposed in the breach, but the main leak was of usernames, email addresses, hashed passwords, IP addresses, game and forum activity. The developers have stressed that no card numbers were leaked.

What We Still Don’t Know About the Cyberattack on Tribune Newspapers – Washington Post

  • A cyberattack seriously hampered printing several papers owned by Tribune Publishing, including The L.A. Times. While the Tribune group say they suspect the cyberattack originated from abroad, they have given little other information and the identity and motive of attackers remain unclear.

Dublin’s Luas Tram System Threatened With Private Data Leak – ZDNet

  • Dublin’s tram system is hit with what looks like a ransomware attack that threatens to expose online users unless a ransom of one bitcoin is paid.

Your Data Was Probably Stolen in Cyberattack in 2018 – and You Should Care – USA Today

  • Marriott, Quora, Facebook, Dunkin’ Donuts; USA today summarize the biggest hacks of 2018 and come to the conclusion that very few people have escaped unscathed.

German Politicians Targeted in Mass Data Attack  – BBC

  • Hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, had personal details stolen and published on Twitter throughout December. No one has publicly taken responsibility for the attack yet but all parties except those on the far right were affected.

This Data-Stealing Android Malware Infiltrated the Google Play Store, Infecting Users in 196 Countries – ZDNet

  • When an App is first uploaded into the Google Play Store it is subject to tough reviews to ensure it is safe for users, but some malware developers have been taking advantage of less stringent checks later down the line and injecting malware as an update.

2019’s First Data Breach: It Took Less than 24 Hours – CBR Online

  • The first data breach of 2019 was reported less than 24 hours into the New Year when an estimated 30,000 Australian civil servants had work emails, phone numbers and job titles leaked. Thankfully, no financial information is said to have been affected.

In Case You Missed It

Cyber Security News & Trends

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Quantum Cryptography, Malware spreading through the cloud, and Fortnite making teenagers a lot of money; SonicWall has collected and compiled this week’s best cybersecurity stories, just for you.

SonicWall Spotlight

CEO Outlook: Five Questions on 2019  – CRN.com

  • SonicWall CEO Bill Conner gives his five predictions for 2019; from the biggest market opportunities to his thoughts on why staying up-to-date will be key for Channel Partners. He also predicts that 2019 will be the year of the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform.

SonicWall Increasing Local Partner Support Across EMEA – Computer Weekly

  • SonicWall celebrates key EMEA milestones including the hiring of industry-leading talent and the opening of three new offices in the UK, Spain, and the UAE.

Quantum Cryptography: The Next-Generation of Secure Data Transmission – Information-Age

  • With SonicWall Threat Data showing an increase in encrypted threats throughout 2018, Information Age speculate that quantum cryptography could be the future in encryption.

Cyber Security News

Public Clouds: Fertile Ground to Spread Malware – Security Boulevard

  • A general trust in cloud services is leaving an easy entry point open for threat actors to spread malware. Researchers have already found browser hijacker adware Linkury making its way across Microsoft Azure.

Hackers Have Earned $1.7 Million so Far From Trading Data Stolen From US Gov Payment Portals – ZDNet

  • Click2Gov, a US government self-service payment system owned by Superion, was hit by a data breach in September 2017. Security researchers are estimating that the hackers have earned at least $1.7 million to date selling the information on the Dark Web.

Google Finds Internet Explorer Zero-Day Exploited in Targeted Attacks – Security Week

  • Microsoft released a patch for Internet Explorer fixing a dangerous zero-day bug. SonicWall Captures Labs also issued a signature to provide protection.

Fortnite Teen Hackers ‘Earning Thousands of Pounds a Week’ – BBC

  • With Fortnite estimated to have earned more than £1 billion through selling in-game “skins” there is a growing black-market, often run both by and for very young teenagers.

Irish Data Authority Probes Facebook Photo Breach – Security Week

  • A GDPR investigation has been launched in Ireland after it was revealed that up to 6.8 million users may have had their photos exposed to third party apps. A fine of up to four percent of annual global turnover can be issued to a corporation if they are found to be in breach of GDPR.

New Malware Pulls Its Instructions From Code Hidden in Memes Posted to Twitter – Tech Crunch

  • Researchers have found a type of malware that appears to be activated by memes on Twitter. The good news for those who can’t resist a link to a laugh is that it still looks to be in a testing stage and may never be released.

NASA Discloses Data Breach – ZDNet

  • NASA confirmed a data breach in October 2018 where a third party gained access to personal data, including Social Security Numbers, of current and former employees. No missions are believed to jeopardized by the hack but the investigation into the incident will “take time.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Cybersecurity Risks for Children’s Toys – EURACTIV (Europe)

  • As the Internet of Things enters toy manufacturing a host of problems are coming with it; open Bluetooth connections, cheap manufacturing standards, and cybersecurity laws that cannot yet be effectively applied.

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Cybersecurity for SMBs: Bundled Network Security Delivers Cost-Effective Protection

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If you’re a small- or medium-sized business (SMB), don’t bury your head in the digital sand. Cybercriminals don’t discriminate. Your data, credentials or access could be valuable to them in ways not immediately apparent. SMB cybersecurity is critical.

Unfortunately, SMBs also haven’t received the necessary guidance in terms of government support. That’s alarming since in September 2018 alone, the average SonicWall customer faced 1,662 malware attacks. For the year, SonicWall recorded 8.5 billion malware attacks globally — a 54 percent increase over 2017.

There is good news, however. In August 2018, President Trump signed into law the new NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Act. New legislation in Canada and the UK bring hope for similar protections.

But in many cases, cybersecurity guidance isn’t immediately available. In the U.S., for example, NIST has a year to deliver the guidance (read our eBook to learn more). Regardless of geographic location, a year is a long time for SMBs to wait to either enhance or begin their cybersecurity strategy. For this reason, SonicWall has created cost-effective cybersecurity bundles tailored specifically for SMBs.

Bundled Security for SMBs

The SonicWall TotalSecure SMB Bundle* provides robust cybersecurity technology and services that defend growing SMBs from the volume and sophistication of modern cyberattacks.

The tailored package includes high-performance network security, endpoint protection, cloud sandbox, content filtering, online management and more. Admins can also use powerful reporting functions to easily check the health of the network and endpoints and remediate threats if ever needed.

What’s included What you get
  • Perimeter firewall protection, including SSL traffic inspection
  • Intrusion prevention
  • Content filtering
  • Zero-day defense via Capture ATP with RTDMI
  • Behavior-based endpoint security
  • Endpoint rollback (Windows only)
  • Advanced reporting and attack visualization

Bundled Security for Small Offices

The SonicWall TotalSecure SMB Bundle* also is available for small or home offices. It provides foundational cybersecurity tools that help smaller organizations mitigate cyberattacks from the perimeter to the endpoint.

It’s a comprehensive, out-of-the-box solution to stop cyberattacks, help remediate issues, protect endpoints and manage security — easily and efficiently.

What’s included What you get
  • Perimeter firewall protection, including SSL/TLS traffic inspection
  • Intrusion prevention
  • Content Filtering Service
  • Behavior-based endpoint security
  • Endpoint rollback (Windows only)
  • Advanced reporting and attack visualization

SonicWall has been protecting SMBs for more than 27 years. SonicWall is the No. 2 cybersecurity vendor in the SMB space, according to Gartner’s Market Share: Unified Threat Management (SMB Multifunction Firewalls), Worldwide, 2017 report.

Contact SonicWall to build or enhance your cybersecurity posture for true end-to-end protection from today’s most malicious cyberattacks, including never-before-seen threats.

Lock In Your SMB Bundle

It’s time to use real-time cybersecurity to protect your business from cyberattacks. Contact a SonicWall security expert today. We’re ready to help you build a sound, cost-effective security strategy that’s just right for your business.

CONNECT WITH AN EXPERT

* Please contact SonicWall or your SonicWall SecureFirst partner for regional availability.

Botnets Targeting Obsolete Software

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Overview: This is not a disclosure of a new vulnerability in SonicWall software. Customers with the current SonicWall Global Management System (GMS) 8.2 and above have nothing to worry about. The reported vulnerability relates to an old version of GMS (8.1), which was replaced in December 2016. Customers with GMS 8.1 and earlier releases should patch, per SonicWall guidance, as they are running out-of-support software. Best practice is to deploy a SonicWall next-generation firewall (NGFW) or a web application firewall (WAF) in front of GMS and other web servers to protect against such attacks. Look for global third-party validation on protection effectiveness, such as the 2018 NSS Labs NGFW Group Test. After rigorous testing, SonicWall firewalls earned the NSS Labs coveted ‘Recommended’ rating five times.

On Sept. 9, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 published a blog post highlighting a developing trend of botnets picking up publicly known CVE exploits and weaponizing them against enterprise infrastructure. This marks a change in the botnet authors’ tactics from targeting consumer-grade routers and IP cameras to searching for higher-profile enterprise targets to harness additional endpoints for DDoS attacks.

The first botnet, Mirai, targeted the Apache Struts vulnerability from early 2017, which affects web servers around the world. On March 6, 2017, SonicWall provided protection against the Apache Struts vulnerability with the Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) on the NGFW line, rolling out protection to all firewalls with licensed IPS service.

The second botnet highlighted in the Palo Alto Networks post, Gafgyt, picked up the Metasploit code for an XML-RPC vulnerability for an obsolete version of SonicWall GMS (8.1) central management software, which was replaced by GMS 8.2 in December 2016.

The bottom line: the reported botnet attack is misguided and presents no threat to SonicWall GMS in production since December 2016.

Implementing Cybersecurity Best Practices

Current SonicWall GMS users are not at risk. However, there are broader lessons here for the industry and business owners:

  • Take End-of-Life and End-of-Support announcements seriously and update proactively. They become a compliance and security risk for critical systems and compromise an enterprise’s compliance and governance posture.
  • Security best practices dictate that you never expose a web server directly to the internet without a NGFW or WAF deployed in front.
  • A security layer between the internet and critical enterprise infrastructure, like web servers or centralized firewall management, provides the ability to virtually patch zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits while working out a sensible patching strategy. For example, a SonicWall NGFW with Intrusion Prevention or a SonicWall WAF can easily handle this task.

Using Third-Party Validation

The blog post does, however, underscore the rapidly-evolving nature of today’s threat landscape, evidenced by the mixing of malware and exploits to create new malware cocktails, and the need to use the latest and most effective security solutions to protect against them.

When selecting a product to protect your critical infrastructure, go beyond listening to vendor claims and look at globally recognized independent testing, such as the NSS Labs NGFW report, to validate security efficacy. Items that you should consider when selecting a security product for the modern threat landscape:

  1. NSS Labs specifically tests for protection on non-standard ports (not just 80/443, for example) because malware often uses non-standard ports to bypass traffic inspection. Products that lack inspection on non-standard ports are blind to many malware attacks, and are easily fooled into missing dangerous traffic and allowing malware and exploits to sail right through.

2018 NSS Labs NGFW Group Test Report — Evasion Resistance

2018 NSS Labs Next Generation Firewall Security Value MapTM (SVM)

  1. Evaluate your NGFW on security efficacy, and how it deals with malware cocktails, such as the recently exposed Intel-based, processor-level vulnerabilities like Spectre, Meltdown and Foreshadow.
  • SonicWall patented and patent-pending Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMITM) technology is proven to catch chip/processor attacks through its unique approach to real-time memory inspection.
  • SonicWall RTDMI protection can also be applied to mitigate malicious PDFs, Microsoft Office documents and executables. The focus on PDF and Office document protection is especially important. Attacks are shifting into this delivery mechanism as browsers clamped down on Flash and Java content, drying up a fertile area of exploit and malware delivery. For example, RTDMI discovered more than 12,300 never-before-seen attack variants in the first half of 2018 alone.
  • The SonicWall Capture Client endpoint suite plugs into the RTDMI engine to offer the same protection for users that are outside a protected network.

 

The Bottom Line

The reported botnet attack is misguided and presents no threat to SonicWall GMS in production since December 2016.

July 2018 Cyber Threat Intelligence: Malware, Ransomware Attack Volume Still Climbing

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Just a month removed from the mid-year update to the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, the cyber threat landscape continues its volatile pace.

Analyzing the team’s most recent data, SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers are recording year-to-date increases for global malware, ransomware, TLS/SSL encrypted attacks and intrusion attempts.

In addition, the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection sandbox, with Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMITM), discovered an average of 1,413 new malware variants per day in July.

Globally, the SonicWall Capture Threat Network, which includes more than 1 million sensors across the world, recorded the following 2018 year-to-date attack data through July 2018:

  • 6,904,296,364 malware attacks (88 percent increase from 2017)
  • 2,216,944,063,598 intrusion attempts (59 percent increase)
  • 215,722,623 ransomware attacks (187 percent increase)
  • 1,730,987 encrypted threats (80 percent increase)

In July 2018 alone, the average SonicWall customer faced:

  • 2,164 malware attacks (28 percent increase from July 2017)
  • 81 ransomware attacks (43 percent increase)
  • 143 encrypted threats
  • 13 phishing attacks each day
  • 1,413 new malware variants discovered by Capture ATP with RTDMI each day

The SonicWall Capture Security Center displays a 70 percent year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks.

SonicWall cyber threat intelligence is available in the SonicWall Security Center, which provides a graphical view of the worldwide attacks over the last 24 hours, countries being attacked and geographic attack origins. This view illustrates the pace and speed of the cyber arms race.

The resource provides actionable cyber threat intelligence to help organizations identify the types of attacks they need to be concerned about so they can design and test their security posture ensure their networks, data, applications and customers are properly protected.

 

Get the Mid-Year Update

Dive into the latest cybersecurity trends and threat intelligence from SonicWall Capture Labs. The mid-year update to the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report explores how quickly the cyber threat landscape has evolved in just a few months.

GET THE UPDATE