At the beginning of 2021, Emotet was considered to be the world’s most dangerous malware by Europol. The threat was first discovered in 2014 when it was acting as a banking trojan. Over the years, the malware evolved into one of the most relevant botnets in the threat landscape, often used to deliver other threats, such as Trickbot and Ryuk ransomware. Netskope detected Emotet during Oct 2020, using PowerShell and WMI to download and execute its payload.

It is prediction time once again, and we’ve polled some of our esteemed experts here at Netskope to see what’s piquing their interest with 2022 on the horizon. Much like our predictions last year, we’ve broken the list out into some longer shots and some pretty safe bets. Here’s what we think is in store for 2022.

The abuse of Google Drive to deliver malicious content continues, and two recent examples remind us how the flexibility of this cloud storage tool can be easily weaponized by malicious actors. And the spectrum of content that can be distributed, and victims that can be targeted is surprising.

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), also known as Cloud Security Gateways, were created to address the increasing cloud security problems facing organizations as cloud and application usage increased over the last decade.

In this hyperconnected world, where 70% of users continue to work remotely, sharing data in real-time with partners and customers leveraging the flexibility of the cloud is a fundamental aspect for the daily operations of businesses worldwide. In this scenario, the risk of misconfigurations exposing sensitive data continues to be a serious (and frequent) concern.

For a concept that represents absence, zero trust is absolutely everywhere. Companies that have explored how to embark upon zero-trust projects encounter daunting challenges and lose sight of the outcomes a zero-trust approach intends to achieve. Effective zero-trust projects aim to replace implicit trust with explicit, continuously adaptive trust across users, devices, networks, applications, and data to increase confidence across the business.

The common theme across ransomware, insider threats, and data theft is the exfiltration of data. While threat research labs usually publish the process steps of ransomware encryption, keys, and disk clean-up, the parts about accessing the data and exfiltration are often left out. Also, one security solution does not solve the problem itself, making partner integrations vital to the success of security solution stacks.

As the pandemic wears on, and return to work plans continue to shift and morph, there’s really never been a better time to re-evaluate how your organization is handling remote access. Your hastily put-together VPN setup may have gotten the job done in the early days of lockdown, but is it really ready to protect a hybrid workforce that’s now used to flexibility and choice? Here are five signs that it might be time to reconsider your remote access VPN.

Even though cloud computing isn’t all that new anymore, learning how to use it effectively can be overwhelming. It’s unfortunately very easy to make mistakes.

BazarLoader (sometimes referred to as BazaLoader) is a popular downloader among criminals, used to distribute multiple malicious payloads including Ryuk and Conti ransomware. According to a recent report by Phishlabs, during Q3 2021 this malware accounted for 24.7% of all attacks, earning the unwelcome accolade of being the most common payload.