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Cyber Security

Ransomware Cryptocurrency Payments in 2023 Hit All-Time-High of $1.1Billion

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After an encouraging decline in 2022, the ransomware landscape saw a major escalation in the frequency, scope, and volume of attacks, resulting in victims paying out over US$1.1 billion in cryptocurrencies to cyber criminals last year. The findings, which are part of Chainalysis’ upcoming 2024 Crypto Crime Report, also highlighted that ‘big game hunting’ — where malicious actors aim to collect larger payments when successful — has become a winning strategy over the last few years, with 75% of ransomware revenue made up of payments of US$1 million or more.

“While it was encouraging to see a significant decline in 2022, the 94% increase last year — which marks an all-time-high for ransomware payouts — demonstrates that ransomware is a threat that is only set to worsen. Moreover, in addition to the $ 1.1 billion that was made in payments, there are significant losses that businesses incur due to productivity losses and remediation costs associated with attacks. As an example, even though it didn’t pay out any ransom, MGM estimated the losses due to the attack it suffered last year to be more than $ 100 million,” explained Jackie Koven, Chainalysis Head of Cyber Threat Intelligence.

“The importance of understanding the ransomware ecosystem, identifying potential attackers, and disassembling the mechanisms that empower them to carry out their attacks cannot be understated. Due to the globally distributed nature of these attacks, this will take a concerted effort between governments, law enforcement agencies, technology providers such as Chainalysis, and the support of victim organisations in transparently reporting and dealing with these attacks,” added Koven.

Alarmingly, through 2023, Chainalysis researchers saw numerous new entrants and offshoots of ransomware strains, attracted by the potential for high profits and lower barriers to entry. The ecosystem is widened by the growing popularity and ease of access to Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), in which outsiders are known as affiliates can access malware to carry out attacks in exchange for a share of profits to the strain’s core operators.

Offering insight into how ransomware groups and their affiliates operate, Koven said, “The growth of initial access brokers (IABs) has made it easier for bad actors to carry out ransomware attacks. As their name would suggest, IABs penetrate the networks of potential victims and then sell that access to ransomware attackers for as little as a few hundred dollars. IABs combined with off-the-shelf RaaS, means that much less technical skill is required to carry out a successful ransomware attack. We found a correlation between inflows to IAB wallets and an upsurge in ransomware payments, suggesting monitoring IABs could provide early warning signs and allow for potential intervention and mitigation of attacks.”

Chainalysis was also able to track the movement of ransomware funds to uncover how cybercriminals laundered their illicit earnings. Indicating a notable change in tactics employed by cybercriminals, last year, centralised exchanges showed the lowest level of concentration of funds received from ransomware-linked wallets, while gambling services, cross-chain bridges, and sanctioned entities showed the highest levels of concentration.

“The shift away from centralised exchanges and mixers, which have traditionally been the preferred off-ramping paradigm for attackers, results from takedowns that disrupted traditional laundering methods, some services’ implementation of more robust AML/KYC policies, and an evolution of ransomware actors’ laundering preferences,” said Koven. “Following the flow of funds arms authorities with a vital piece of the puzzle that ultimately helps law enforcement agencies to crack down on this form of cybercrime.”

Cloud

SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

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SentinelOne today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Workload Migration Program. This initiative supports AWS Partner Network (APN) members with SaaS offerings on AWS to accelerate and streamline workload migrations.

Through the program, SentinelOne will provide AWS customers with accelerated, secure cloud migration support, leveraging modern AI-powered CNAPP capabilities to ensure rapid and protected transitions. With access to AWS funding, technical resources, and go-to-market support, SentinelOne will help organizations reduce migration timelines and costs while maintaining robust security.

SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud Security delivers real-time visibility and protection throughout the migration journey—whether from on-premises or another cloud—enabling a secure, seamless transition to AWS.

“Through our participation in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, SentinelOne is helping customers accelerate secure cloud migrations with end-to-end protection and visibility,” said Ric Smith, President of Product, Technology, and Operations at SentinelOne. “Whether moving from on-prem or another cloud to AWS, organizations can count on us to deliver the security they need throughout their journey—realizing the performance, speed, agility, and cost benefits of the cloud.”

Singularity Cloud Security combines agentless and agent-based protection for deep visibility, continuous posture management, and real-time threat detection across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By collaborating with AWS and ecosystem partners, SentinelOne ensures seamless integration into migration projects, helping customers move faster, reduce risk, and scale confidently in the cloud.

Availability: SentinelOne’s solutions are available globally.

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Cyber Security

Beyond Blocklists: How Behavioural Intent Analysis Can Safeguard Middle East Businesses from Rising AI-Driven Bot Threats

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The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-driven bot attacks, with malicious automation now outpacing traditional defenses. Mohammad Ismail, Vice President for EMEA at Cequence Security, warns that legacy tools like IP blocklists and rate limiting are no match for today’s sophisticated threats (more…)

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Cyber Security

Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

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Sophos has announced a significant update to its Sophos Firewall software, introducing enhanced protection and incident response capabilities. This update notably includes Sophos NDR Essential, a new feature now available free of charge to all customers holding an XStream Protection license for Sophos Firewall.

This integration empowers Sophos Firewall with two dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) engines specifically designed to detect both malware communications and those utilizing algorithmically generated domain names. This advanced functionality, derived from the Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR) probe, aims to identify sophisticated malware communications even if they are previously unknown or not yet indexed. It serves as a powerful complement to the Active Threat Response capabilities already embedded within Sophos firewalls.

Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos

Addressing the technical demands of such advanced detection, Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos, explained the strategic approach, “NDR traffic analysis requires substantial processing power. That’s why we’ve adopted a new approach by deploying an NDR solution in Sophos Cloud to offload the heaviest tasks from the firewall.” This cloud-centric design ensures optimal performance without burdening the firewall’s on-device resources.

Beyond network detection, the update also brings significant improvements to connectivity and user authentication. Sophos Connect now integrates EntraID for Single Sign-On (SSO). This new feature for the VPN client, bundled with Sophos Firewall, is set to enhance both the security and user experience for SSL and IPsec VPN connections. The integration with EntraID (Azure AD) enables users to authenticate and leverage multi-factor authentication for both Sophos Connect and access to the user portal hosted by the firewall, streamlining secure access.

Further VPN-related enhancements include:

  • Improved user interface and usability: Connection types have been renamed for greater clarity, with “site-to-site” now referred to as “policy-based” and tunnel interfaces as “route-based,” making configurations more intuitive.
  • Dynamic validation of the IP address pool: For VPN connections (SSL VPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP), the system now dynamically validates the allocated IP address pool, helping to better resolve potential IP address conflicts.
  • Strict profile enforcement: IPsec profiles now exclude default values to ensure algorithm synchronization, effectively eliminating potential fragmentation of session negotiation packets that could otherwise prevent site-to-site VPN tunnels from being established.
  • Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: The system has been optimized to support up to 3,000 simultaneously established tunnels. Specifically, Sophos Firewall solutions can now manage up to 1,000 SD-RED site-to-site tunnels and connect up to 650 concurrent SD-RED devices.

Additional management improvements enhance administrative flexibility and search capabilities:

  • More flexible DHCP Prefix Delegation (IPv6 DHCP-PD): The system now supports a broader range of prefixes, from /48 to /64, improving compatibility with various internet service providers.
  • Router Advertisement (RA) and DHCPv6 server: These features are now enabled by default, simplifying IPv6 network setup.
  • Resizable table columns: The web admin interface continues its adaptation for ultra-wide screens, with many configuration pages now allowing users to resize columns as needed for improved usability.
  • Enhanced object search functionality: The search field within the SD-WAN routing configuration screen now supports more granular criteria, including route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses and domains. Similarly, local ACL rules now also support object name and value searches, extending to content-based searches for more precise results.
  • Default configuration changes: To streamline initial setups, default firewall rules and rule groups previously created during new firewall deployments have been removed. The initial configuration now only includes the default network rule and MTA rules. Furthermore, the default firewall rule group and the default gateway probe for custom gateways are now set to “None” by default.

Sophos continues its commitment to cybersecurity through a “Secure by Design” approach, enhancing the intrinsic security of its firewalls. This methodology involves the containerization of specific features and rigorous integrity checks on critical operating system files using mathematical checksums. Any detected checksum mismatch triggers a potential compromise alert, enabling monitoring teams to proactively identify possible security incidents affecting the firewall OS integrity. This proactive detection allows incident response and development teams to react swiftly to critical security events.

This update is now available for manual download and deployment by customers with any Sophos Firewall equipped with a valid license.

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