Microsoft 365 (M365) has quickly become one of the most utilized email platforms and, thanks to a variety of productivity and communication applications deeply embedded in enterprise processes, it’s also a popular target for cyber criminals. Microsoft certainly understands that and has enabled extensive security mechanisms for M365, including multifactor authentication (MFA), which requires users to present more than one form of authentication before login.

On July 14, 2021, WooCommerce issued an emergency patch for a critical vulnerability allowing an unauthenticated attacker to access arbitrary data in an online store’s database. WooCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world and is installed on over five million websites. Additionally, the WooCommerce Blocks feature plugin, which is installed on more than 200,000 sites, was affected by the vulnerability and was patched at the same time.

Kroll experts have noticed an increase in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by cybercriminals seeking to turn a profit in two distinct incident types. First, many ransomware operators are now threatening and conducting DDoS attacks as an additional pressure tactic during the ransom negotiation process. Second, also known as ransom denial of service (RDoS), attackers threaten DDoS attacks that will take down an organization’s public-facing services unless a ransom is paid.

On the afternoon of July 2, 2021, Kaseya reported that it had been impacted by a ransomware attack affecting its Virtual System Administrator (VSA) product and advised users to shut down VSA servers immediately. Initial reporting indicates this was a well-orchestrated supply chain attack impacting about 60 managed services providers (MSPs) and up to 1,500 client organizations by leveraging a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2021-30116).