Despite the steady drumbeat of hacks that are reported on a nearly weekly basis, it is safe to say that cybersecurity is still far from a “top of mind issue” for most people. Massive data breaches like Equifax, Marriott, and many, many more are chalked up to being yet another part of the modern life. While each of those cybersecurity incidents was quite serious in its own right, for the public whose data were compromised, they represented more of an inconvenience than a serious concern.

The 2021 Egnyte Data Governance Trends Report contains a plethora of interesting findings that offer insight into how we’ve been working collaboratively during the global pandemic, and the security threats that have arisen as a result.

2021 has witnessed a surge of ransomware attacks. Also, the attackers are targeting businesses that are critical to the public infrastructure, such as oil pipelines and international meat producers. Further, the demands for ransom have increased and the cost of clean-up has also doubled over the last year. There are two major reasons for this sudden spike in ransomware attacks: Like SaaS, RaaS also has a flexible business approach.

The US Government has underlined once again that it continues to strongly discourage organisations hit by ransomware from giving in to extortion demands. In an updated advisory, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has called upon businesses not to pay ransoms, and to focus on cybersecurity measures that can prevent or mitigate ransomware attacks.

Kroll has observed an uptick in actors offering network access on the dark web, particularly in the wake of recent disruptions to the ransomware-as-a-service (RAAS) ecosphere such as the ban on ransomware discussions in notorious underground criminal forums.

News of ransomware attacks disrupting supply chains has increased recently. As threat actors disrupt businesses and critical infrastructure, they may appear to be working harder. However, cybercriminals treat ransomware as a business, enabling an underground industry. Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) is a growing underground industry that continues to place sensitive information at risk.

Malicious Microsoft Office documents are a popular vehicle for malware distribution. Many malware families such as Emotet, IcedID, and Dridex abuse Office documents as their primary distribution mechanism. Attackers have long used phishing emails with malicious Microsoft Office documents, often hosted in popular cloud apps like Box and Amazon S3 to increase the chances of a successful lure. The techniques being used with Office documents are continuing to evolve.

In 2021, there are two words that can send a cold chill down the spine of any Cybersecurity professional and business leader; Phishing and Ransomware. Research carried out by the Data Analytics and training company CybSafe, identified that 22% of all cyber incidents reported in the first quarter of 2021 were ransomware attacks. According to the figures obtained from the Information Commissioners Office, they are up by 11% compared to 2020.

Ransomware groups have been exploiting the switch to remote work unlike any other. Ransomware attacks increased by more than 485% in 20201. By 2031, a new organization is expected to fall prey to a ransomware attack every 2 seconds2. Multiple reports by threat hunting firms confirm that the primary attack vector they are using to infiltrate corporate networks are poorly guarded Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections.

Cyberattacks against businesses of all sizes are at all-time highs. Data from 2021 and projections for the future of cybersecurity suggest that the frequency and intensity of these attacks will only continue to grow. At the forefront of most cyberattacks in 2020 was ransomware, a type of malicious malware attack where attackers encrypt your organization’s data and demand payment in exchange for a decryption key to restore access.

Nearly 80 per cent of all ransomware attacks in the first half of 2021 involved the threat of leaking exfiltrated data. Exfiltration is a popular pressure tactic as it introduces the threat to publish stolen sensitive data to a threat actor extortion website if a ransom payment is not received. Our team currently tracks over 40 threat actor extortion websites, with new sites belonging to new ransomware groups emerging each week.

Ransomware has become an annual event for many organizations, costing them millions in lost productivity and revenue. While there have been some notable successes in fighting off this threat, the industry as a whole must continue strengthening its resolve in order to safeguard against future attacks. Part of this can come down to recognizing the role that users and employees play in fighting off these attacks and providing them with info and tools they need to help reduce risks.

Most ransomware groups operating in the RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) model have an internal code of A new zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2021-40444) affecting multiple versions of Windows has recently been discovered and disclosed by Microsoft. According to Microsoft’s Security Update Guide, the MSHTML component can be exploited by an attacker through a custom ActiveX control, allowing remote code execution.

Most ransomware groups operating in the RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) model have an internal code of ethics that includes avoiding breaching some specific sectors, such as hospitals or critical infrastructure, thus avoiding great harm to society and consequently drawing less attention from law enforcement.

On July 2, 2021, the cybersecurity world woke up to yet another ransomware attack—this time, the victim was Kaseya, a software enterprise that provides IT management solutions predominantly to managed service providers (MSPs). The attack made a huge impact, affecting several MSPs and thousands of their customers. So, what exactly transpired in what most cybersecurity experts are calling the largest criminal ransomware attack on record?

Cybersecurity threats have proliferated for years, and that shows no sign of stopping. One estimate, for example, is that damages due to cybercrime will hit $10.5 trillion by 2025. One especially pernicious threat gaining new popularity: fileless malware. Fileless malware attacks are particularly dangerous because, unlike traditional malware, they involve no files to scan — and therefore are harder to detect by conventional endpoint protection tools.

Cloud-based business models such as infrastructure as a service and software as a service have balloon in popularity, gaining mainstream acceptance in recent years. Cloud providers benefit from superior economic models that scale while also reducing their development risk and complexity. However, with success comes attention, so it’s only logical that criminals have emulated these models.

Accenture has acknowledged that it was the victim of a ransomware attack on July 30 in what it described as a "security incident." As reported by Cyberscoop, the hackers (a gang known as LockBit) began leaking stolen data and threatened to release further compromised information. LockBit first emerged in 2019 and its ransomware cyberattacks primarily target large corporations, from which it hopes to extort large sums of money.

Did you know that nearly 560,000 new instances of malware are detected every day? As cybersecurity advances, threat actors develop malware with new tricks that exploit weaknesses in an IT environment. Once the malware finds a loophole, it spreads exponentially like a disease, corrupting files, exfiltrating data, redirecting traffic to other destinations, and performing other malicious activities. Malware can spread at a jaw-dropping rate.

Malware detection is an important part of the Netskope Security Cloud platform, complete with a secure access service edge (SASE) architecture, that we provide to our customers. Malware is malicious software that is designed to harm or exploit devices and computer systems. Various types of malware, such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, and spyware, remain a serious problem for corporations and government agencies.