NCC Group reports that ransomware attacks have risen 288% between the first and second quarters of 2021, driven by a rise in double extortion attempts, with a significant portion of all attacks resulting from phishing emails sent by the Conti group. Almost half of the victims were based in the US. “We’ve seen targets range […]
Apple has urged users to update their device software after ‘zero click’ Pegasus malware sent attributed to Israel’s NSO Group was found by Canadian Internet security watchdog Citizen Lab on a Saudi activist’s iPhone. This is the first time that a “zero-click” exploit has been caught and analysed. “After identifying the vulnerability used by this […]
According to US cybersecurity insurance provider Coalition‘s H1 2021 Cyber Insurance Claims Report, compared to the same period last year, the size of the average ransomware demand has tripled in size in 2021, from $450,000 to $1.2 million. This number is down a little on the $1.3 million being asked in late 2020, probably due […]
An angry Conti ransomware affiliate has leaked server IP addresses and a large training material archive. The leak gives security researchers to see how legitimate products such as Atera remote access software can be used as a backdoor to steal revenue and insurance data. For more details on what can be done and how, see […]
Natural language processing (NLP, a form of machine learning) is being used to write spearphishing emails at scale. Normally an unappealingly labour-intensive task, researchers have shown that using the algorithm outstrips the capabilities of any team of human cybercriminals, and proves that putting all the work in is worth the effort. In a limited test, […]
Low-level cyber criminals are trying to get in on the act, using ransomware as a service, where hackers do the work in exchange for a cut of the profits for ne’er-do-wells with little or no idea about how to commit the crime themselves.. One particular unsophisticated, clumsy and amateurish ransomware campaign attempts to fool employees into […]