Pictured: Fabian Wosar, CTO of Emsisoft, who says that due to threats he receives thanks to his ransomware-disruption efforts, he tries to keep photographs of himself from circulating.

Alert for Ransomware Attack Victims: Here's How to Respond

Mathew J. Schwartz • July 23, 2021

As ransomware continues to pummel organizations, if they do get hit, then from an incident response standpoint, what are the essential steps they should take to smooth their recovery? Veteran ransomware-battler Fabian Wosar, CTO of Emsisoft, shares essential steps and guidance for recovery.

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Fraud Management & Cybercrime

US Senate Approves Jen Easterly as CISA Director

Latest

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

Pegasus Spyware: World Leaders Demand Israeli Probe

Mathew J. Schwartz • July 27, 2021

Calls are growing for an investigation into how commercial Pegasus spyware developed by Israel's NSO Group gets sold to autocratic governments and used to target journalists, lawyers, human rights advocates and others, with some lawmakers saying "the hacking-for-hire industry must be brought under control."

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Congress Urged to Update Federal Laws to Combat Ransomware

Scott Ferguson • July 27, 2021

Congress needs to update and expand federal laws to combat the surge in ransomware attacks, federal cybersecurity experts told a Senate committee at a Tuesday hearing.

Critical Infrastructure Security

Experts Testify on Pipeline Cybersecurity Measures

Dan Gunderman • July 27, 2021

At a Senate hearing on pipeline cybersecurity, leaders from several federal agencies briefed lawmakers on the roles regulators can play in the aftermath of the Colonial Pipeline attack. Lawmakers urged the agencies to "flatten the bureaucracy" to improve relationships with companies that support pipelines.

Governance & Risk Management

M&A Update: Deloitte and Sophos Make Acquisitions

Doug Olenick • July 27, 2021

Brisk M&A activity in the cybersecurity sector continues. Among the latest moves: Deloitte and Sophos each have announced two acquisitions.

COVID-19

SASE: Building a Migration Strategy

Geetha Nandikotkur • July 27, 2021

Security experts offer an analysis of Gartner's new strategic road map for SASE adoption that emphasizes the need for a detailed migration plan and offer tips for a successful rollout.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Kaseya Says It Paid No Ransom to Obtain Universal Decryptor

Doug Olenick • July 26, 2021

Remote management software company Kaseya says it obtained the ability to decrypt all victims of a massive REvil - aka Sodinokibi - attack via its software, without paying a ransom to attackers. But Kaseya has still not revealed how it obtained the decryption key, except to say it was supplied by a third party.

Cybercrime

Attackers Rely on 'Exotic' Languages for Malware Creation

Rashmi Ramesh • July 26, 2021

Malware developers increasingly are relying on "exotic" programming languages - such as Go, Rust, DLang and Nim - to create malicious code that can avoid detection by security tools and add a layer of obfuscation to an attack, according to a report released Monday by BlackBerry.

Cryptocurrency Fraud

Hackers Target Kubernetes Using Misconfigured Argo Workflows

Akshaya Asokan • July 26, 2021

A hacking campaign is targeting Kubernetes environments using misconfigured Argo Workflows to deploy cryptominers, a report by security firm Intezer finds.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Ransomware: Average Ransom Payment Drops to $137,000

Mathew J. Schwartz • July 26, 2021

Good news on the ransomware front: The average ransom paid by a victim dropped by 38% from Q1 to Q2, reaching $136,576, reports ransomware incident response firm Coveware. In addition, fewer victims are paying a ransom simply for a promise from attackers to delete stolen data.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

IoT Security Dangers Loom as Office Workers Return

Doug Olenick • July 24, 2021

With corporate America beginning to ask employees to come back to their offices in the fall, cybersecurity teams have the huge task of ensuring that the work environment is safe. This is particularly true of IoT devices, as many have been left unprotected for months.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

ISMG Editors’ Panel: Examining the Pegasus Project

Anna Delaney • July 23, 2021

In the latest weekly update, four editors at Information Security Media Group discuss important cybersecurity issues, including the use of commercially available spyware and security risk management in the telecom sector.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Resiliency Is Key to Surviving a CDN Outage

Doug Olenick • July 23, 2021

A short-lived outage at the content delivery network supplier Akamai on Thursday which briefly knocked offline many corporate websites, is another indicator that companies need resiliency built into their systems. That means they should avoid relying on just one CDN provider, security experts say.