This is the second in a series of articles about cloud-based attack vectors. Check out our last article about admin takeovers! Inside the Cloud: Attacks & Prevention – Administrative Account Compromise Ransomware has long been associated with takeovers of endpoints. However, attackers are evolving to target cloud environments – and the effects can be devastating.

Researchers at Bitdefender warn that law firms are high-value targets for ransomware gangs and other criminal threat actors. Attackers frequently use phishing to gain initial access to an organization’s networks. “Phishing is one of the most common attacks in the legal field,” the researchers write. “Cybercriminals pose as legitimate entities, tricking employees into divulging sensitive information or clicking malicious links.

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups have long been key players in global cyber espionage, and in 2024, a Chinese-linked threat cluster known as "Crimson Palace" continues to demonstrate its effectiveness. This collective of three distinct APT units has managed to breach multiple organizations across Asia, including a prominent government agency in Southeast Asia, proving their ability to evade detection and extract sensitive information.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently hosted a webinar to discuss the critical importance of cybersecurity in the healthcare sector, which highlighted the severity of the situation the industry is currently facing. Healthcare organisations are increasingly relying on digital systems to facilitate their daily workflow, but the prevalence of outdated legacy technology in the sector is rendering it vulnerable to cyberattacks with severe consequences.

Threat actors are opting for malicious links over attachments in email-based attacks because it gives them a critical advantage that many solutions can’t address. Given that a malicious email is the very first step (or close to it) in an attack, it’s critically important that the attack maintain its’ stealth; detecting an attack at this point means an early (and well-deserved) death to the attack itself – something threat actors don’t want to see.

Flannel shirts, acid-washed jeans, Polaroid cameras, and vinyl records—these items which were once out of style are now emerging as popular must-haves among the younger generation. In the realm of IT, data backup has always been a necessity. Initially, it represented a compelling concept—storing data in an alternate location to ensure redundancy and failover capabilities in preparation for natural disasters.

Ransomware incident response is the need of the hour. Let me explain you why- Ransomware attacks have evolved to become a critical threat in 2024, while recovery from such an attack increased drastically from $1.82 million in 2023 to a whopping $2.73 million this year—which is sans any ransom paid out. Healthcare organizations have fallen victim quite badly, where the cost of data breaches increased by 53.3% since 2020.

Credentials are prime targets for attackers, as they make it easy to access resources as legitimate users without discovering vulnerabilities or using technical exploits. Malware authors know how interesting these low-hanging fruits are and are coming after your secrets!

On August 22, 2024, a remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2024-40766) was disclosed in SonicOS, affecting a selection of SonicWall firewall devices. At the time of disclosure, active exploitation was not known and no proof-of-concept exploit was publicly available. As of September 6, 2024, however, the security advisory has been updated with additional details, indicating that the vulnerability is potentially being actively exploited.