Barracuda

Security, Access and Reliability for Cloud-Connected Networks and Applications

Ransomware

Could complacency be setting in when it comes to ransomware?

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Ransomware may be a headline favourite, but the attack itself is nothing new. In fact, it’s been around in some form or another for decades. Since last year’s high profile global campaigns such as WannaCry and NotPetya you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who isn’t aware of the threat posed.

But are the headlines representative? Do IT teams really feel the threat day-to-day? Is there a danger that our focus on ransomware could lead us to take our eye off the ball elsewhere?

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Ransomware Forces the Unifications of Cybersecurity and Data Protection Issue

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The rise of ransomware has probably done more to highlight the intimate relationship between cybersecurity and data protection that should exist between functions than arguably any other event in the history of IT. The only practical defense against ransomware attacks is to make sure there is a pristine copy of data residing somewhere that hopefully can’t be compromised. In an ideal world, backing up data should not be a continuous process to limit the amount of data that cybercriminals might be able to hold hostage.

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Barracuda Threat Spotlight: New URL File Outbreak Could be a Ransomware Attempt

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We’re closely tracking an alarming threat that’s currently aiming to take advantage of careless or untrained users in a possible effort to distribute ransomware and other forms of malware—here’s what we’ve found.

Highlighted Threat: Attackers are using a variety of techniques in an attempt to launch a Quant Loader trojan capable of distributing ransomware and password stealers.

The Details:

In the world of email, an unfamiliar file extension—especially one that is compressed alone in a ZIP file—is often a sure sign of a new malware outbreak. This was no exception when zipped Microsoft internet shortcut files with a “.url” file extension started showing up in emails claiming to be billing documents last month. These shortcut files use a variation on the CVE-2016-3353 proof-of-concept, containing links to JavaScript files (and more recently Windows Script Files). However, in this instance the URL was prefixed with “file://” rather than “http://” which fetches them over Samba rather than through a web browser. This has the benefit of executing the contained code using WScript under the current user's profile rather than requiring browser exploitation, although it does prompt the user before doing so. The remote script files are heavily obfuscated, but all result in downloading and running Quant Loader when allowed to execute.

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Why is Safer Internet Day important in 2018?

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Safer Internet Day has come around again, and this year the theme is ‘create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you’.

Since we started out as a company, we've been teaming up with other organisations to help make the internet a safer place for all.

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Does the channel have a blind spot when it comes to the biggest security and data protection challenges?

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As an organisation that sees our relationships with channel partners as essential to our ability to react to customer needs, we’re constantly looking to find out what they think. That’s why we polled 164 channel partners across Europe in late 2017 to find out more about their customers’ cybersecurity woes. We then compared these findings with similar end-user research that we’d conducted over the course of the same year.

What ransomware?

Ransomware has quickly become one of the largest threats out there for businesses, and it doesn’t look like it’s set to slow down anytime soon. A study by IBM Security found that it accounted for around 40% of all spam messages in 2016, and last year saw some really high profile attacks such as WannaCry and Petya which brought this issue into the public eye.

Ransomware has quickly become one of the largest threats for businesses, and it doesn’t look like it’s set to slow down anytime soonClick To Tweet

While we know from our customers just how big ransomware has become within the cyber attack landscape, we wanted to see whether this perception matches reality when it comes to what the channel are seeing.

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Free Webinar – 2017’s Ransomware Lessons Learned

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Free webinar:  2017’s Ransomware Lessons Learned

Date: Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Time: 1:30 PM PST
Duration: 1 hour
Register here

A billion dollar in criminal profits. Five billion dollars in global damages.

Any way you slice it, 2017 was the Year of Ransomware—and it’s not slowing down.

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Barracuda’s European tour: 5 cities in 5 days

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While holiday season may be over, our Barracuda team decided to renew their passports in order to commence on the European #cudatour17.

Starting with Noordwijik, they bravely decided to embark upon a whistle-stop tour of five cities in just five days, moving onto London, Vienna, Frankfurt and ending in Paris. All in aid of talking to partners about key industry topics such as GDPR, data protection and ransomware, and how Barracuda solutions can help their customers address the changing cyber threat landscape.

5 cities in 5 days! Check out the recap on our European Roadshow #cudatour17Click To Tweet

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Office 365 Active Usage Soars — Some Still Unclear On Security

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If you asked an end user within an organization that recently migrated from Microsoft Office Suite to Office 365, they’d probably tell you that the transition was smooth and hardly noticeable. They might even say that they’re really enjoying the additional productivity on any device, the always up-to-date applications, and the anytime availability and access. Office 365 presents a wide range of benefits for users and organizations, which is why millions continue to adopt the platform. But, is there anything we need to know that isn’t quite so obvious? Does our security approach need updating as well, or can we just move right along and everything will be ok? 

Let’s find out. This year, Barracuda conducted a global customer survey to measure the current trends around the adoption and use of Office 365. We came away with a wealth of information in the recently published survey titled, “Office 365 Adoption Survey: Drivers, Risks, and Opportunities.”  Here are a few of the key findings:

Adoption rates and the most used features

Of the over 1,100 respondents, a little over 63 percent said that they’re currently using Office 365, which is about a 20 percent increase over a similar survey from last year. Exchange Online is the most commonly used feature, however, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online are also seeing high usage. 

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Ransomware tops the list of barriers to cloud

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Right on cue with the end of summer, the autumn leaves have begun to fall and the weather has started to turn. Much like the weather, cyber criminals are forever changing their tactics in order to find the most efficient and lucrative way of exploiting organisations and getting past those pesky cybersecurity defences.

In this context, it may come as no surprise that security concerns – with ransomware singled out by respondents as the top issue – remain the biggest barrier holding people back from adopting cloud, according to our new study which polled over 1,100 organisations.

This is despite firms increasingly turning to Microsoft Office 365, with almost two thirds (62%) of businesses in EMEA now using Office 365, an increase of 50% on 2016. Of those not yet using the productivity suite, just under 40% plan to migrate in the future. As this year-on-year adoption continues to increase across the EMEA region, it’s natural to assume that concerns over cyber threats will keep pace.

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Cybersecurity in the Workplace is Everyone’s Business

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October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) in the US, which is an annual effort by the Department of Homeland Security to educate the public about privacy and security in our increasingly connected world. There are different themes each week, and this week the focus is on cybersecurity in the workplace.

Creating a culture of cybersecurity is one of the most important pieces of a business security initiative. Companies often overlook the human element in security, despite investing heavily in firewalls, security gateways, and data protection. Simple passwords and social engineering scams put the company at risk of a larger attack. Spear phishing, for example, can trick an unsuspecting employee into exposing the company to ransomware, data exfiltration, and more.

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