A review of the first half of 2018 shows a threat landscape that not only has constant and familiar features but also has morphing and uncharted facets: Ever-present threats steadily grew while emerging ones used stealth.
We discovered spam mails abusing EGG (.egg) files to deliver the GandCrab v4.3 ransomware. Additionally, the operators behind the spam mails appear to be specifically going after South Korean users, as evidenced by the use of Hangul in the spam mails.
Security researchers uncovered that a version of Jigsaw, an old ransomware, has resurfaced as a bitcoin stealer. Its operators have already netted 8.4 bitcoins (US$66,807 as of July 24, 2018) using the repurposed malware.
A new Rakhni variant was found with the ability to decide whether to install ransomware or cryptominers. It also has a worm component, installs spyware, and can disable Windows Defender.
Researchers discover SynAck ransomware family to be first to use Process Doppelgänging as evasion technique, making it more difficult and complicated for detection and analysis.
Security intelligence researchers found an ongoing spam campaign aimed at infecting as many systems as possible through simultaneous configurations and infection payloads.
We look at some of the defining moments in the threat landscape that helped steer organizations toward adding proactive incident response strategies to their cybersecurity defenses.
SAMSAM ransomware is suspected to hit systems used by the city of Atlanta's local services, causing outages on customer facing applications, including some that customers may use to pay bills or access court-related information.
As environments become progressively interconnected, threats become increasingly complicated. The top security events of the past year make this apparent — and their repercussions make the implementation of smart protections all the more important.
