Security
Number of cyberattacks against organizations increases by 13%
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Ransomware – Hindsight is 20/20
Sourced from Kaspersky Three things many companies wished they had actioned before a ransomware attack. There are few things worse than discovering that your business has been compromised. Be it a phish, ransomware, hack or malicious attack, it’s going to leave a long legacy of damage and complexity behind it. According to Martin Potgieter, Co-Founder and Technical Director at Nclose, “There are three things that most breach victims wished they had checked, or done differently, after they’ve been hit with a ransomware attack.” “The first is to ensure that the company firewall is filtering outbound traffic as aggressively as it is filtering inbound traffic. Once an attacker gets a foothold within a network if there is unrestricted outbound access, they have the freedom they need to do...
The State of Cyber Extortion Crime in South Africa
Sourced from Kaspersky The KnowBe4 and ITWeb Ransomware Survey took a deep look into the South African organisation, finding that ransomware and cybercrime are increasingly impacting organisations on the continent. While many companies (32%) were attacked in 2021, some multiple times (12%), 64% of organisations believe they are prepared, and 67% would not pay the ransom. According to Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, the South African market with its growing economy and cyber dependence, is becoming increasingly tasty as a cyber extortion snack. Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa. “It is natural for cybercriminal organisations to look at emerging economies for future attacks, as they are often not as prepared as the re...
How to Protect Yourself from Gift Card Scams This Holiday Season
Image sourced from NorthJersey.com This holiday season checking off that gift list will look a little different than in past years. Many shoppers are planning to rely on e-commerce for a significant amount of their holiday shopping. Digital gift card sales are also likely to increase. However, given the spike in digital activity predicted over the holidays, cybercriminals, too, will be making their lists and checking them twice. It’s a particularly risky time of the year as shoppers of all ages (including some with less experience recognising digital threats) flock to search engines and online channels to place orders before holiday delivery date cutoffs. And opportunistic hackers know just how to create enticing, seasonally-appropriate lures—and even some of the simplest scams c...
How a Small Email Phish Can Become a Million Rand Ransom
Image sourced from Kaspersky. Cybercrime is smart, innovative, and agile. Cybercriminals are well-rewarded for their innovative attack vectors and have no incentive to stop finding inventive ways of penetrating systems and moving past the most vulnerable defences. According to Paul Grapendaal, Head of Managed Security Services at Nclose, there’s no standard playbook when it comes to penetrating a system successfully, but there are solid security steps that can mitigate risk and help the business manage the fallout. Steps that will help bolster your defences and ensure that one phish won’t cost your business millions. Paul Grapendaal, Head of Managed Security Services at Nclose. “There are obvious routes of attack, such as spear phishing, that are designed to focus on a target with the sole...
How Finance Companies Can Reduce EMI Default Risk on Smartphone Financing
Image sourced from the Digital Frontiers Institute. In a dynamic world driven by innovation and automation, every sector, whether industrial or not relies heavily on the latest technologies. Smartphones are amongst the popular mobile devices that everyone wants to own. The incessant demand for buying smartphones and other mobile devices has given rise to propositions such as device financing. Device financing allows users to spread out their payment for the purchase of smartphones and other devices into smaller fragments that can be paid over a fixed duration. This makes it possible for users to buy the latest devices despite their high costs without burning a hole in their pockets. Who are device financers? Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) or device resellers are generally those wh...
Exclusive Networks Acquires Cyber Specialist to Establish Sub-Sahara African Presence
Jesper Trolle, CEO Exclusive Networks. Exclusive Networks, a global trusted cybersecurity specialist for digital infrastructure, has completed its acquisition of Networks Unlimited. Networks Unlimited is a major regional value-added distributor serving 38 national markets in Africa with cybersecurity and infrastructure solutions. The acquisition establishes Exclusive Networks’ first presence in sub-Saharan Africa, expanding its global footprint and providing new opportunities for vendor and reseller partners both within the region and around the world. “This is the perfect acquisition for us in Africa – I’m pleased to welcome Networks Unlimited into the global Exclusive family and believe this brings a host of benefits and opportunities to all our partners,” said Jesper Trolle, CEO at Excl...
How Brand Trust Can Benefit by Preserving Digital Privacy
Image sourced from Pexels. Consumer data is valuable, and nowadays, all businesses wish to get to know their clients as closely as possible. However, certain strategies can spook potential clients. For instance, predicting your clients’ preferences and future purchases might seem like the golden ticket to success. Sadly, it might not go as planned as customers will feel that your approach is intrusive and creepy. Thus, all marketing specialists now walk a thin line. Is a particular marketing campaign brilliant, or will it cause some unnecessary confusion? The good news is that if you get things right, digital privacy and care for consumers’ data could be a part of your brand. What is digital privacy? Most programs and applications require a login name and a password to create an account yo...
How Remote Work Makes Financial Insider Threats A Bigger Challenge
Image sourced from Finance Times. Now more than ever, insider threats pose a serious risk to financial institutions, especially those that have transitioned to alternate work environments to ensure business continuity, warns Fortinet. Fortinet’s 2020 Securing Remote Work Survey revealed that the shift to remote work was putting pressure on security teams and increasing the risk of breaches. In South Africa, studies have found that remote and hybrid models are here to stay, meaning organisations must make insider risk a priority, says Doros Hadjizenonos, Regional Sales Manager at Fortinet. With a 47% increase in just two years, insider threats are a significant and growing problem worldwide, exacerbated by the move to remote and hybrid work models. No organisation is immune to the...
A North Korean Cyber Espionage Group Was Active in SA – New Report
Image sourced from Feed Navigator. Kaspersky researchers have disclosed details of its latest threat intelligence reports on South Africa, including the cybersecurity firm’s analysis of APT groups in the country – major threat actors hunting for sensitive information and finances. The company’s telemetry has demonstrated that throughout 2021 entities in South Africa faced attacks from North Korean group Lazarus and Chinese speaking group CloudComputating. Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are typically, according to Kaspersky, a nation-state or state-sponsored group of extremely stealthy high-level threat actors. In the vast majority of cases, they attack strategically important organisations with a goal of cyberespionage and, in rarer cases, financial gain, since the cost of their cybera...
Beware: Microsoft is One of the Most Impersonated Brands in Phishing Attacks
Image sourced from NS Energy. Check Point Research for the second quarter of 2021 found that Microsoft was the most popular brand used to lure unsuspecting individuals and employees. This isn’t hard to believe because Microsoft’s Active Directory, continues to dominate the market share globally in 2021 and as a result is still the most popular target for phishing. The weight of this risk is emphasised by the fact that in 2021, phishing attacks increased by 47% in just the first quarter alone. The threats are smart, capable, and worrying – increasing in volume every year. Companies are facing an onslaught of risk that’s designed to fool employees into making mistakes that can cost the company money and reputation. “The risk is when employee credentials are stolen, this can lead to detriment...
Targeted Malware is Raging Across South Africa, Kenya & Nigeria
According to the latest research of internet security firm Kaspersky on threat landscape trends, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are facing dramatic changes in the landscape. While regular, self-propagating malware is decreasing dramatically, as it is no longer effective and cannot fly under security radars, the region will see the growth of new cybercrime models in the upcoming year. While comparing the overall number of mass cyberattacks in 2021, security researchers at Kaspersky noticed a 7,5% decrease in Nigeria, a 12% decrease in South Africa and an unprecedented 28,6% decrease in Kenya. The reason for such a change was the introduction and popularisation of new cybercrime models in the region, with cybercrime tools becoming more targeted along with a long-running trend where malware ...
