Ransomware is one of the most prominent cybersecurity threats organizations face today. Any institution or company (small or large) can fall victim to ransomware – including schools, healthcare providers, educational facilities, non-profit entities, and government agencies. Cybercriminals that deploy ransomware attacks do not discriminate. Thankfully, there are ways to protect your organization from ransomware attacks. In this article, you’ll discover everything you need to know about ransomware as a chief information security officer (CISO), from its evolution to preventative methods to prevention.
More than 60 experts from industry, government, law enforcement, civil society and international organizations have worked together to develop a comprehensive framework, breaking down siloed approaches and advocated for a unified, aggressive, comprehensive, public-private anti-ransomware campaign.
The 81-page report, "A Comprehensive Framework for Action: Key Recommendations from the Ransomware Task Force," includes 48 recommendations that together form a comprehensive framework to address ransomware. The report was delivered to the Biden administration this week. Among those, these priority recommendations are the most foundational and urgent, and many of the other recommendations were developed to facilitate or strengthen these core actions.
Meet Max Vetter, Chief Cyber Officer of Immersive Labs. Before joining Immersive Labs, Vetter spent seven years working with the Metropolitan Police Service as a police officer, intelligence analyst, and covert internet investigator. After leaving his career in law enforcement, he trained the private sector and government agencies in ethical hacking and open source intelligence, specializing in darknets and cryptocurrencies. This included three years of teaching at the GCHQ Cyber Summer School. Here, we speak to Vetter about emerging threats in the cybersecurity space and general security trends he has been noticing throughout the industry.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security, and CISA have released a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) addressing Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) cyber actors—also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 29 (APT 29), the Dukes, CozyBear, and Yttrium—continued targeting of U.S and foreign entities. The SVR activity—which includes the recent SolarWinds Orion supply chain compromise—primarily targets government networks, think tank and policy analysis organizations, and information technology companies and seeks to gather intelligence information.
While COVID-19 paused many activities in 2020, cybercriminals continued to keep busy evolving their arsenal of weapons for more lucrative cyberattacks. While companies adopted remote work models and third parties experienced heightened disruption, cyber risk skyrocketed with increased ransomware, credential stuffing, malware, and Virtual Private Network (VPN) exploitation. As a result, the number of data breaches in the U.S. reached 1001 cases last year, with over 155.8 million individuals affected. Now following the SolarWinds hack, President Biden is set to sign off on an executive action to address gaps in national cybersecurity. The move is causing many CSOs to look for ways to evolve beyond the reactive model to an “always-on” approach -- one that proactively mitigates potential threats and risks before they disrupt business.
Hiscox reveals that U.S. businesses’ cybersecurity spending is on the rise and they are leaders in cyber expertise, but still have more work to do when it comes to ransomware and phishing emails. The annual Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report, which gauges businesses’ preparedness to combat cyber incidents and breaches, surveyed over 6,000 professionals responsible for their company’s cybersecurity from the U.S., U.K., Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. Key findings specific to the more than 1,000 U.S. professionals surveyed include:
Sophos published a new report on a recently uncovered connection between the Mount Locker ransomware group and a new group, called “Astro Locker Team.”
The first line of defense in cybersecurity is taking proactive measures to detect and protect the entire IT landscape. It’s critical to have the right security systems and processes in place to find known and unknown threats before they impact your business. But you also need a bulletproof plan in case your systems are breached. You need to move very quickly to limit damage, so you should have a team experienced in handling these situations ready to jump to action, bringing along tools, procedures, and a proven methodology to stop attacks and to repair and restore whatever you can. Here are five critical factors in preparing for the first 24 hours after an attack:
The Awake Security division of Arista Networks has discovered evidence linking the Hades ransomware gang to Hafnium, the state-sponsored threat actor operating from China that Microsoft says is behind the recent Exchange hacks.
Clop ransomware group has allegedly hacked the grades and social security numbers for students at the University of Colorado and patient data of the University of Miami.
