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New Mass-Ransomware Strain ‘BadRabbit’ Hits Global Companies

In May of this year, the world was shook by a global ransomware attack, the now-infamous WannaCry, which is believed to have affected more than 400,000 machines. It shook the world, crippling business big and small across a wide variety of industries. It utilised a vulnerability in the outdated Windows protocol Server Message Block (SMB) v1, and Microsoft even developed a patch for Windows XP to help defend against it. How could such an attack have caught so many organisations off guard? Well, lack of patching, cited the experts, and lack of security awareness on behalf of their employees. Patch your machines now, train your staff, and you’ll be OK going forward. Then, the following month, it happened again – the world was hit by NotPetya, a ransomware strain believed to have infected a further 250,000 machines around the world. It’s worth noting that both attacks managed to affect PCs in Ireland, and that the second of the two major attacks could have been prevented if these companies had taken appropriate measures following WannaCry.


BadRabbit is the latest in a streak of mass-ransomware attacks this year, and may have been unleashed by the creators of NotPetya

As of this week, yet another strain of mass-ransomware is out in the wild, which has been dubbed BadRabbit. While it doesn’t utilise the same vulnerability as the previous two infections, its modus operandi is very similar in that it relies on both the SMB v1 protocol (which is largely defunct in 2017) and heavy use of social engineering to trick employees into clicking their malicious links. It’s an epidemic, and too few companies are learning the lessons that the cyber and business communities have gleaned from these attacks.

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Shane Chambers No Comments

Windows 10 Creators Update Introduces New Features to Defend Against Ransomware

Ransomware has taken the world by storm this year, costing millions for businesses around the world. In the last 12 months alone, the number of ransomware variants spotted in the wild has more than doubled. As its prevalence has increased, so has the complexity of the attacks, and new ways to defend against them have been developed. Microsoft have been known to take the ransomware threat very seriously, even releasing a security patch for the long obsolete Windows XP operating system in the wake of the infamous WannaCry attack back in May. With the realease of the Windows 10 Creators Update (build 1703), now there are even more features built right in to the OS that can prevent and protect against ransomware. In fact, it’s so secure that Microsoft claim no Windows 10 devices were affected by WannaCry.


The Creators Update of Windows 10 is Microsoft’s most secure operating system yet, containing many anti-ransomware features

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Shane Chambers 1 Comment

Cybercrime as a Service – Online scamming courses, €10 hacking software, & much more

Everyone’s talking about cyber security these days, and there’s a seemingly endless list of protective measures to be taken to prevent cyber attacks. It can be a bit daunting, and at times hard to secure the right budget, so is all this hype about security really necessary? The short answer is – YES. The long answer is that in order to understand why cyber security has taken over the forefront of IT for businesses, you must first understand that cyber criminals are no longer just bedroom hackers; they’re a fully fledged industry.


Cybercrime costs the economy an estimated $450 billion globally

Cybercrime-as-a-Service is on the rise in a big way, with criminals constantly developing more advanced ways to steal businesses’ hard-earned cash over the internet. The industry continues to evolve and adapt and is now highly organised. All one has to do is log onto certain sites on the Dark Web and they’ll be greeted with professional hackers offering ransomware, malware, phishing, DDoS and much more as-a-service.

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CEO or CFO Fraud

CEO/CFO Fraud is a phishing scam that has gained popularity in recent years, where cyber criminals hack or spoof the email address of a senior staff member and request an urgent payment to an unknown account. These phishing emails are usually sent to staff involved in the finance or accounts of the company, and request payment in a manner which is often outside normal payment procedures. These emails appear to be genuine to convince staff members to comply with the request, believing they are indeed from their company’s CEO or CFO. Once the money has been transferred to the criminal’s account, it is usually withdrawn again straight away and hidden elsewhere.

You should be extra vigilant of:
– Any payment request which is outside of normal policy or procedure, especially by email
– Any urgent or confidential request for payment transfer, especially if not respecting the standard procedure
– Any unusual request such a transfer of high amounts to an unknown account or to a country where the company does no business

If you do receive an unusual financial request by email, we strongly advise you to get verbal confirmation from the sender before taking any action.

Concerned that your organisation may be vulnerable to such phishing attacks? We’re offering a free phishing risk assessment for companies who want to find out and learn how to mitigate these dangers.

Shane Chambers 1 Comment

Spear-Phishing

“Spear phishing is an email or electronic communications scam targeted towards a specific individual, organisation or business. Although often intended to steal data for malicious purposes, cybercriminals may also intend to install malware on a targeted user’s computer.”

Gone are the days when the only phishing threats were from poorly spelled emails asking you to claim Clubcard points. With the cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) industry estimated to be worth in the billions each year, cyber criminals are becoming increasingly organised in the way they implement their attacks. Instead of sending out random emails and hoping for the best, spear-phishing involves researching a particular organisation, probing for weaknesses, then sending highly targeted, personal phishing emails. These emails may appear as if they come from your CEO, or IT manager, or even the colleague that sits next to you. It is estimated that over 90% of successful data breaches by cyber criminals started with a spear-phishing attack. The best means of prevention is to implement an ongoing cyber security awareness program, as trained staff can detect and block spear phishing attacks before it’s too late.