cybersecurity
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...
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...
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 ...
6 Ways CFOs Can Stay Ahead of Hackers
Global losses from payment fraud have tripled from $9.84 billion in 2011 to $32.39 billion in 2020, according to Deutsche Bank’s 2021 report on the future of payments. And financial professionals are saying COVID-19 hasn’t helped matters, with 65% believing that the global pandemic is to blame for some of the accelerated rate in fraud activity, revealed by a 2021 survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). While these cybercriminals can target many areas of an organisation, the dangers are ultimately measured in financial terms. This means that Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) can no longer ignore cyber security simply because it is a complex issue outside their area of expertise. As custodians of the company’s monetary assets and financial data, CFOs are responsible for sa...
Kenya Has Had to Deal with Nearly 33-Million Cyber Attacks in the First Half of 2021
The increase in cyberthreats recorded by internet security group Kaspersky in the first half of this year in Kenya amounted to 32.8 million. Compared to similarly prominently targeted countries in the African region the recorded number was on par with South Africa accounting for 31.5 million, and near double the number recorded in Nigeria at 16.7 million. Overall, a combined 81 million attacks were recorded in these three countries, which is indicative of how significant the danger has become to organisations and users in the connected world. “Threats can be categorised as criminal (80% of attacks), targeted (19.9%), and advanced (0.01%). The advanced grouping is significantly more sophisticated and feature increased investment from attack groups. Unfortunately, both criminal and targeted ...
Fight Back Against the Rise of Ransomware in SA with EDR Solutions
When cyberattacks are on the rise, as they certainly have been in South Africa this year, an organisation cannot afford to have its cybersecurity operating in a reactive manner. And yet, far too many businesses operate in this manner, making them prime targets for a breach. This is according to Milad Aslaner, Senior Director, Cyber Defense Strategy at SentinelOne, which helps organisations to prevent, detect, respond to and remediate end-point threats using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Its endpoint security products are distributed throughout Africa by Networks Unlimited. Aslaner explains: “Endpoints including laptop computers, tablets, and phones provide entry points to a wider network penetration that could harm the organisation, and which is one of the goals of ran...
Beware: These Are The Top 10 Brands Imitated in Phishing Attacks
Image sourced from Kaspersky. Check Point Research (CPR), the Threat Intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies, a leading provider of cyber security solutions globally, has published its new Brand Phishing Report for Q3 2021. The report highlights the brands which were most frequently imitated by criminals in their attempts to steal individuals’ personal information or payment credentials during July, August and September. In Q3, Microsoft continued its reign as the brand most frequently targeted by cybercriminals, albeit at a slightly lower rate. Twenty-nine per cent of all brand phishing attempts were related to the technology giant, down from 45% in Q2 2021, as threat actors continue to target vulnerable, distributed workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon has replac...
Most SAns Would Stop Trusting Brands Involved in Phishing Attacks – Survey
Image sourced from Kaspersky. According to the global Brand Trust survey by cybersecurity company Mimecast, almost three-quarters (74%) of South African consumers would stop buying from a brand if they fell victim to a phishing attack involving that brand, with 93% of South African consumers expecting their favourite brands to ensure their services, such as websites, emails and other communication, are safe to use. Heino Gevers, cybersecurity expert at Mimecast, says brands need to do more to protect their customers from cybercriminals. “South Africans are incredibly trusting with 69% of consumers not hesitating to open an email from brands they use regularly, and 56% readily clicking on links from their favourite brands. However, with cyber threats- including impersonation attacks and phi...
FirstNet Technology Services Broadens its Security Offering with EDR Solution from Fortinet
Image by Darwin Laganzon, Pixabay. FirstNet Technology Services, a First Technology Group company, has broadened its security portfolio offering to include endpoint detection and response (EDR). As a long-time Fortinet partner, FortiEDR was the natural choice. This is according to Dave Campbell, Product Manager: Cloud Services at FirstNet, who explains, “FirstNet holds an Advanced Level partner status with Fortinet. Our cloud and security services are underpinned by a range of Fortinet products, with the use of solutions including FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, FortiEDR, and FortiToken, which makes the FirstNet and Fortinet partnership a compelling offer for our customers.” “This experience has made us one of the top Fortinet partners in South Africa with a wealth of technical and...
SEACOM Taps NETSCOUT for DDoS Services in SA & Kenya
Image sourced from Shutterstock. NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, a leading provider of security, service assurance, and business analytics has announced a new strategic partnership today with one of Africa’s leading broadband internet providers, SEACOM. This new strategic alliance aims to provide managed DDoS and security services to enterprise customers throughout Kenya and South Africa, as well as to Wholesale customers utilising SEACOM’s subsea and terrestrial networks, according to a statement from NETSCOUT. DDoS Attacks on the Rise With global DDoS attacks hitting more than 5.4 million in the first half of 2021, an 11% increase over the same period in 2020, the need to protect IT infrastructure has never been more acute. Research from Korn Ferry also points to a worldwide shortage of more than 4.3 ...
The New DDoS ‘Normal’ is Not Normal in Any Way
Image sourced from Shutterstock. Threat actors will never turn down an opportunity for innovation, and the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an enormous such opportunity. We are seeing this quite clearly in the numbers coming through – and the new ‘normal’ around distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is not normal at all. So says Carole Hildebrand, Senior Strategic Marketing Writer at NETSCOUT, a leading global provider of service assurance, security and business analytics. Writing in a recent blog, she explains, “After an astonishingly active first quarter of DDoS attack activity, things calmed down a bit for the second quarter of 2021. Unfortunately, ‘calmed down’ is a relative term.” NETSCOUT decided to compare the numbers of DDoS attacks during the COVID-19 era of 2020 and 2021 thu...
3 Trends to Understand the Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape
Image sourced from Feed Navigator. Given the global disruption that took place last year, it is hardly surprising that malware increased by 358% and ransomware by 435% as compared to 2019. The rapid push to digitalise and embrace work from home solutions meant companies not only had to accelerate data migration projects to the cloud but also remain cognizant of how best to secure employee endpoint devices while keeping the impact on productivity to a minimum. What makes the likes of malware and ransomware so difficult to combat is that successful attacks on corporate networks and endpoint devices can potentially remain hidden for months giving the hacker access to a veritable treasure trove of information. Attackers can encrypt this compromised data at any time, resulting in significant da...
