Technext Technext
  • Home
  • Stories
    • App Review: Sety Let’s You Know if there’s Danger Around and When the Coast is Clear
      App Review: Sety Let’s You Know if there’s Danger Around and When the Coast is Clear
      10 hours ago 0
      35
    • Social Media Roundup: #InaugurationDay, NIMC and Other Stories that Trended
      Social Media Roundup: #InaugurationDay, NIMC and Other Stories that Trended
      1 day ago 0
      72
    • Global Tech Roundup: President Biden Reverses Nigeria’s Travel Ban
      Global Tech Roundup: President Biden Reverses Nigeria’s Travel Ban
      2 days ago 0
      104
    • Nigerians React as NRC Launches N900 million Railway e-Ticketing Platform
      Nigerians React as NRC Launches N900 million Railway e-Ticketing Platform
      2 days ago 0
      156
    • Alphabet Shuts down Balloon-powered Internet in Kenya Months after its Launching
      Alphabet Shuts down Balloon-powered Internet in Kenya Months after its Launching
      2 days ago 0
      94
    • Google Search And Facebook News Could Leave Australia if Forced to Pay News Publishers
      Google Search And Facebook News Could Leave Australia if Forced to Pay News Publishers
      3 days ago 0
      86
    • Movie Review: ‘Outside the Wire’ is an Explosive Action Thriller Showing the Dangers of Sentient AI
      Movie Review: ‘Outside the Wire’ is an Explosive Action Thriller Showing the Dangers of Sentient AI
      3 days ago 0
      120
    • Here Are 5 Major Tech Events that Happened With Joe Biden’s Inauguration
      Here Are 5 Major Tech Events that Happened With Joe Biden’s Inauguration
      3 days ago 0
      111
    • Covid-19 Update: FG Against Jan 18 School Resumption, Nigeria Readies Freezers for Vaccines
      Covid-19 Update: FG Against Jan 18 School Resumption, Nigeria Readies Freezers for Vaccines
      4 days ago 0
      137
  • Features
    • Sell it or Repurpose it, Here are 5 Things You Could do With your Old Gadgets and Devices
      Sell it or Repurpose it, Here are 5 Things You Could do With your Old Gadgets and Devices
      4 days ago 0
      117
    • 5 Tips to Make Your Business More Popular on Social Media
      5 Tips to Make Your Business More Popular on Social Media
      2 weeks ago 0
      228
    • Analysts Forecast Bitcoin to Hit $100k in 2021, But is This Really a Good Time to Start Buying?
      Analysts Forecast Bitcoin to Hit $100k in 2021, But is This Really a Good Time to Start Buying?
      2 weeks ago 0
      391
    • Top 5 Most In-Demand Tech Jobs for 2021 — and Skills Required for them
      Top 5 Most In-Demand Tech Jobs for 2021 — and Skills Required for them
      2 weeks ago 0
      450
    • Financial Strategies for Surviving 2021 with Ayo Akinmade, Vice Chairman, Regus
      Financial Strategies for Surviving 2021 with Ayo Akinmade, Vice Chairman, Regus
      3 weeks ago 0
      415
    • ‘Expect Aggressive Expansion in 2021’- PlentyWaka’s Johnny Enagwolor on Surviving 2020 and What the Future Holds
      ‘Expect Aggressive Expansion in 2021’- PlentyWaka’s Johnny Enagwolor on Surviving 2020 and What the Future Holds
      4 weeks ago 0
      463
    • After a Poor 2020, Here are the Top Cinema Trends to Watch Out for in 2021
      After a Poor 2020, Here are the Top Cinema Trends to Watch Out for in 2021
      4 weeks ago 0
      411
  • Reviews
    • Global Tech Roundup: President Biden Reverses Nigeria’s Travel Ban
      Global Tech Roundup: President Biden Reverses Nigeria’s Travel Ban
      2 days ago 0
      104
    • Movie Review: ‘Outside the Wire’ is an Explosive Action Thriller Showing the Dangers of Sentient AI
      Movie Review: ‘Outside the Wire’ is an Explosive Action Thriller Showing the Dangers of Sentient AI
      3 days ago 0
      120
    • You Can’t Get Your NIN Slip Through the NIMC App but Here are 3 Things You Can Do With it
      You Can’t Get Your NIN Slip Through the NIMC App but Here are 3 Things You Can Do With it
      4 days ago 0
      189
    • Netflix Surpasses 200 Million Subscribers, Says It no Longer Needs External Financing
      Netflix Surpasses 200 Million Subscribers, Says It no Longer Needs External Financing
      5 days ago 0
      126
    • With Growing Interest in Forex Trading, Here are 5 Best Forex Brokers in Nairaland, Nigeria
      With Growing Interest in Forex Trading, Here are 5 Best Forex Brokers in Nairaland, Nigeria
      5 days ago 0
      137
    • Kenya Overtakes Nigeria as Africa’s Favorite Investment Destination
      Kenya Overtakes Nigeria as Africa’s Favorite Investment Destination
      5 days ago 0
      272
    • App Review: Omomi Gives Mothers and Guardians Access to Excellent Child Healthcare
      App Review: Omomi Gives Mothers and Guardians Access to Excellent Child Healthcare
      5 days ago 0
      120
  • Women in Tech
  • Videos
  • Contact Us
Go to...

    Sophos Threat Report Flags Ransomware and Other Significant Cyberattack Trends Expected to Shape IT Security In 2021

    SponsoredSponsored
    2 months ago
    Sophos Threat Report Flags Ransomware and Other Significant Cyberattack Trends Expected to Shape IT Security In 2021

    Comprehensive Report Provides 3D View of Cyberattack Trends from SophosLabs Researchers, as well as from Sophos’ Threat Hunters, Rapid Responders, and Cloud Security and AI Experts

    Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today published the Sophos 2021 Threat Report, which flags how ransomware and fast-changing attacker behaviours, from advanced to entry-level, will shape the threat landscape and IT security in 2021.

    The report, written by SophosLabs security researchers, as well as Sophos’ threat hunters, rapid responders, and cloud security and AI experts, provides a three-dimensional perspective on security threats and trends, from their inception to real-world impact.

    Three key trends analyzed in the Sophos 2021 Threat Report include:

    1.      The gap between ransomware operators at different ends of the skills and resource spectrum will increase.

    At the high end, the big-game hunting ransomware families will continue to refine and change their tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) to become more evasive and nation-state-like in sophistication, targeting larger organizations with multimillion-dollar ransom demands.

    In 2020, such families included Ryuk and RagnarLocker. At the other end of the spectrum, Sophos anticipates an increase in the number of entry-level, apprentice-type attackers looking for menu-driven, ransomware-for-rent, such as Dharma, that allows them to target high volumes of smaller prey.

    Another ransomware trend is “secondary extortion,” where alongside the data encryption the attackers steal and threaten to publish sensitive or confidential information, if their demands are not met. In 2020, Sophos reported on Maze, RagnarLocker, Netwalker, REvil, and others using this approach.

    “The ransomware business model is dynamic and complex. During 2020, Sophos saw a clear trend towards adversaries differentiating themselves in terms of their skills and targets. However, we’ve also seen ransomware families sharing best-of-breed tools and forming self-styled collaborative ‘cartels,’” said Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist, Sophos.

    “Some, like Maze, appeared to pack their bags and head for a life of leisure, except that some of their tools and techniques have resurfaced under the guise of a newcomer, Egregor. The cyberthreat landscape abhors a vacuum. If one threat disappears another one will quickly take its place.

    In many ways, it is almost impossible to predict where ransomware will go next, but the attack trends discussed in Sophos’ threat report this year are likely to continue into 2021.”

    2.      Everyday threats such as commodity malware, including loaders and botnets, or human-operated Initial Access Brokers, will demand serious security attention.

    Such threats can seem like low-level malware noise, but they are designed to secure a foothold in a target, gather essential data and share data back to a command-and-control network that will provide further instructions.

    If human operators are behind these types of threats, they’ll review every compromised machine for its geolocation and other signs of high value, and then sell access to the most lucrative targets to the highest bidder, such as a major ransomware operation.

    For instance, in 2020, Ryuk used Buer Loader to deliver its ransomware.

    “Commodity malware can seem like a sandstorm of low-level noise clogging up the security alert system. From what Sophos analyzed, it is clear that defenders need to take these attacks seriously, because of where they might lead. Any infection can lead to every infection.

    Many security teams will feel that once malware has been blocked or removed and the compromised machine cleaned, the incident has been prevented,” said Wisniewski.

    “They may not realize that the attack was likely against more than one machine and that seems common malware like Emotet and Buer Loader can lead to Ryuk, Netwalker and other advanced attacks, which IT may not notice until the ransomware deploys, possibly in the middle of the night or on the weekend.

    Underestimating ‘minor’ infections could prove very costly.”

    3.      All ranks of adversaries will increasingly abuse legitimate tools, well-known utilities and common network destinations to evade detection and security measures and thwart analysis and attribution.

    The abuse of legitimate tools enables adversaries to stay under the radar while they move around the network until they are ready to launch the main part of the attack, such as ransomware.

    For nation-state-sponsored attackers, there is the additional benefit that using common tools makes attribution harder. In 2020, Sophos reported on the wide range of standard attack tools now being used by adversaries.

    “The abuse of everyday tools and techniques to disguise an active attack featured prominently in Sophos’ review of the threat landscape during 2020. This technique challenges traditional security approaches because the appearance of known tools doesn’t automatically trigger a red flag. This is where the rapidly growing field of human-led threat hunting and managed threat response really comes into its own,” said Wisniewski.

    “Human experts know the subtle anomalies and traces to look for, such as a legitimate tool being used at the wrong time or in the wrong place. To trained threat hunters or IT managers using endpoint detection and response (EDR) features, these signs are valuable tripwires that can alert security teams to a potential intruder and an attack underway.”

    Additional trends analyzed in the Sophos 2021 Threat Report include:

    Attacks on servers: adversaries have targeted server platforms running both Windows and Linux, and leveraged these platforms to attack organizations from within

    The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on IT security, such as the security challenges of working from home using personal networks protected by widely varying levels of security

    The security challenges facing cloud environments: cloud computing has successfully borne the brunt of a lot of the enterprise needs for secure computing environments, but faces challenge different from those of a traditional enterprise network

    Common services like RDP and VPN concentrators, which remain a focus for attacks on the network perimeter. Attackers also use RDP to move laterally within breached networks

    Software applications traditionally flagged as “potentially unwanted” because they delivered a plethora of advertisements, but engaged in tactics that are increasingly indistinguishable from overt malware

    The surprising reappearance of an old bug, VelvetSweatshop – a default password feature for earlier versions of Microsoft Excel – used to conceal macros or other malicious content in documents and evade advanced threat detection

    The need to apply approaches from epidemiology to quantify unseen, undetected and unknown cyber threats in order to better bridge gaps in detection, assess risk and define priorities

    Sophos’ Wisniewski provides an overview of the Sophos 2021 Threat Report in the video below:


    If you’d like to get featured on our Entrepreneur Spotlight, click here to share your startup story with us.


    SUBSCRIBE

    Get latest Technology news, reviews, business-related content with a deliberate emphasis on the African narrative and insightful analysis in Nigeria – straight to your inbox.


    Comments

    Share :
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Pinterest
    • Linkedin
    • Email
    Sponsored

    Sponsored

    Shared reports from our corporate partners.. You can also share your stories with us and we will help amplify your voice. Send an email to [email protected]

    #RIP Diego: 5 Mind-Blowing Facts about Late Football Legend Diego Maradona
    Next article
    #RIP Diego: 5 Mind-Blowing Facts about Late Football Legend Diego Maradona
    Co-founder of Digital Encode, Peter Obadare, accepted into Forbes Technology Council
    Previous article
    Co-founder of Digital Encode, Peter Obadare, accepted into Forbes Technology Council

    Related Posts

    • Stories 10 hours ago

      App Review: Sety Let's You Know if there's Danger Around and When the Coast is Clear

      App Review: Sety Let’s You Know if there’s Danger Around and When the Coast is Clear
      Stories 1 day ago

      Social Media Roundup: #InaugurationDay, NIMC and Other Stories that Trended

      Social Media Roundup: #InaugurationDay, NIMC and Other Stories that Trended
      Reviews, Stories 2 days ago

      Global Tech Roundup: President Biden Reverses Nigeria's Travel Ban

      Global Tech Roundup: President Biden Reverses Nigeria’s Travel Ban
    • Stories 2 days ago

      Nigerians React as NRC Launches N900 million Railway e-Ticketing Platform

      Nigerians React as NRC Launches N900 million Railway e-Ticketing Platform
      Stories 2 days ago

      Alphabet Shuts down Balloon-powered Internet in Kenya Months after its Launching

      Alphabet Shuts down Balloon-powered Internet in Kenya Months after its Launching
      Stories 3 days ago

      Google Search And Facebook News Could Leave Australia if Forced to Pay News Publishers

      Google Search And Facebook News Could Leave Australia if Forced to Pay News Publishers

    Bitcoin Recent Prices

    Brandest

    Sign up for Newsletters

    Popular News

    • Nigerian VC Firm, Ventures Platform, Invests in HealthTech Startup MDaaS
      Nigerian VC Firm, Ventures Platform, Invests in HealthTech Startup MDaaS
      September 4, 2018 0
    • Middletrust is Protecting Nigerians From Payment Fraud Using Escrow Technology, But its Fees Favour Large Transactions
      Middletrust is Protecting Nigerians From Payment Fraud Using Escrow Technology, But its Fees Favour Large Transactions
      8 months ago 0
    • Weekly Roundup: British Prime Minister, Theresa May, Visits Nigeria
      Weekly Roundup: British Prime Minister, Theresa May, Visits Nigeria
      September 1, 2018 0
    • App Store Users Spent $540m on New Year’s Day, the Highest-ever Amount Posted in One Day
      App Store Users Spent $540m on New Year's Day, the Highest-ever Amount Posted in One Day
      3 weeks ago 0
    • FG Increases Threshold of N50 Stamp Duty Charge on Electronic Transactions to N10,000
      FG Increases Threshold of N50 Stamp Duty Charge on Electronic Transactions to N10,000
      November 28, 2019 0

    Follow Us

    Latest Tweets

    • technextdotng If you’re wondering what to do with them, then you may want to consider one of these five things you can do with an… https://t.co/QFKXTuG6oU
      about 5 hours ago
    • technextdotng Using this metric, there are probably about 27 million NINs yet to be sent to telcos for verification by the Nation… https://t.co/bCcSA5xwXO
      about 8 hours ago
    • technextdotng New post: App Review: Sety Let's You Know if there's Danger Around and When the Coast is Clear https://t.co/DQe7o6l3fJ
      about 10 hours ago
    • technextdotng At almost half a billion, it is a huge investment by the SID group considering that train transport is not yet full… https://t.co/qURtd7qz5V
      about 11 hours ago

    Instagram

    technextdotng

    Technext.ng is the go-to site for news, reviews and insightful analysis in the Nigerian tech space.
    http://ow.ly/ayTM30mSlGS

    72.8% of our voters opt to give out their old devi 72.8% of our voters opt to give out their old devices or go with the flow of things.

What do you do?
#Smartphone #gadget #Polls
    Top App Downloads in Africa (2020) 1. Egypt - 2.3 Top App Downloads in Africa (2020)
1. Egypt - 2.3 billion
2. S/Africa - 680 million
3. Nigeria - 640 million

Read more at technext.ng
#Payments #Africa #Fintech #Finance #Innovation #Technology #Nigeria #SouthAfrica #Egypt #Consumer #Kenya #Report #Gaming #Gamers
    Highest In-app Spending in Africa (2020) 1. S/Afri Highest In-app Spending in Africa (2020)
1. S/Africa - $210 million
2. Egypt - $120 million
3. Nigeria - $60 million

Read more at technext.ng
#Payments #Africa #Fintech #Finance #Innovation #Technology #Nigeria #SouthAfrica #Egypt #Consumer #Kenya #MobileApp #App
    According to our latest poll results, the ride hai According to our latest poll results, the ride hailing battle in Nigeria is still between Uber and Bolt, with both clinching 77.8% of the votes.

#RideHailing #Nigeria #Polls
    Happy birthday to the in-house "techie", @Tommy_bl Happy birthday to the in-house "techie", @Tommy_blanc.
Best wishes from all of us at Technext. @te

#WeAreTechnext #HappyBirthday
    RIP David Ntekim. Our thoughts are with your famil RIP David Ntekim.
Our thoughts are with your family.

#Tribute #RIP
    Load More... Follow on Instagram

    Random News

    • Mastercard to Extend its Engage Programme to Fintechs in Lagos and Nairobi
      Mastercard to Extend its Engage Programme to Fintechs in Lagos and Nairobi
      May 2, 2019 0

      Global payments technology company, Mastercard is expanding its Mastercard Engage programme to Sub-Saharan Africa – Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, ...

      Read More
    Copyright 2020 technext.ng | Privacy Policy | Media Policy