Cyber Security
CosmicBeetle Expands Ransomware Operations

ESET researchers have mapped the recent activities of the CosmicBeetle threat group, documenting its new ScRansom ransomware being deployed and discovering connections to other well-established ransomware gangs. CosmicBeetle has been spreading ransomware to small and medium businesses (SMBs), mainly in Europe and Asia. ESET Research has observed the threat actor using the leaked LockBit builder and trying to leverage LockBit’s ransomware reputation.
Besides LockBit, ESET believes that CosmicBeetle is probably a new affiliate of ransomware-as-a-service actor RansomHub, a new ransomware gang active since March 2024 with rapidly increasing activity. “Probably due to the obstacles that writing custom ransomware from scratch brings, CosmicBeetle attempted to leech off LockBit’s reputation, possibly to mask the issues in the underlying ransomware and in turn to increase the chance that victims would pay,” says ESET researcher Jakub Souček, who analyzed the latest activity of CosmicBeetle.
“Additionally, recently, we observed the deployment of ScRansom and RansomHub payloads on the same machine only a week apart. This execution of RansomHub was very unusual compared to the typical cases we have seen in ESET telemetry, but quite similar to CosmicBeetle’s modus operandi. Since there are no public leaks of RansomHub, this leads us to believe with medium confidence that CosmicBeetle may be a recent affiliate of theirs,” adds Souček.
CosmicBeetle often uses brute-force methods to breach its targets. Besides that, it misuses various known vulnerabilities. Small and medium-sized businesses from all sorts of verticals all over the world are the most common victims of this threat actor because that is the segment most likely to use the affected software, or lack robust patch management processes in place. ESET Research has observed attacks on SMBs in the following verticals: manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, legal, education, healthcare, technology, hospitality leisure, financial services, and regional government.
Besides encrypting, ScRansom can also kill various processes and services on the affected machine. ScRansom is not a very sophisticated piece of ransomware, though CosmicBeetle has been able to compromise interesting targets and cause great harm to them. This is mostly because CosmicBeetle is an immature actor in the ransomware world, and problems plague the deployment of ScRansom. Victims affected by ScRansom, who decide to pay, should be cautious.
ESET Research was able to obtain a decryptor implemented by CosmicBeetle for its recent encryption scheme. ScRansom is undergoing constant development, which is never a good sign for ransomware. The overcomplexity of the encryption (and decryption) process is prone to errors, making restoration of all files doubtful. Successful decryption relies on the decryptor working properly and on CosmicBeetle providing all the necessary keys, and even in that case, some files may be destroyed permanently by the threat actor. Even in the best-case scenario, decryption is long and complicated.
CosmicBeetle, active since at least 2020, is the name ESET researchers assigned to a threat actor discovered in 2023. This threat actor is most known for the usage of its custom collection of Delphi tools, commonly called Spacecolon, consisting of ScHackTool, ScInstaller, ScService, and ScPatcher.
Cloud
SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

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

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…)
Cyber Security
Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

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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