Netscout
Omnis Security from NETSCOUT: Protect Your Network from the Threats You Can’t See
On 09 December 2021, the world was alerted to the Log4j vulnerability [CVE-2021-44228 aka Log4Shell]. It is likely that threat actors already knew about the vulnerability before this date, says Tom Bienkowski, NETSCOUT Product Marketing Director, because it’s been reported that the vulnerability had been exposed much earlier in Minecraft chat forums. How does Log4j work – and what lessons does it bring? Log4j, which is open-source software provided by the Apache Software Foundation, records errors and routine system operations and sends diagnostic messages about them to system administrators and users. A common example of Log4j is when a user types in or clicks on a bad weblink and they receive a 404 error message. The web server running the domain of the attempted weblink sends a message ...
Bad Actors Innovate, Extort & Launch 9.7M DDoS Attacks
In March 2022 we released our 2H 2021 Threat Intelligence Report. The report covers worldwide distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack activity during 2021—particularly during the second half of the year. As always, it’s chock-full of DDoS attack statistics, trends, and insights from our elite NETSCOUT ATLAS Security Engineering and Research Team (ASERT). Key findings include: DDoS attacks continued to exceed pre-pandemic levels. During the second half of 2021, cybercriminals launched approximately 4.4 million DDoS attacks, bringing the total number of DDoS attacks in 2021 to 9.75 million. These attacks represent a 3 percent decrease from the record number set during the height of the pandemic but continue at a pace that’s 14 percent above pre-pandemic levels. DDoS extortion and ransomw...
How a common network security technology stack aligns IT & Cybersecurity
There’s no question that ensuring enterprise network security is becoming increasingly difficult for IT and security teams. In the first half of 2021, cyberattackers launched 5.4 million distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks—an 11 percent increase from the year before. And cyberattacks equate to big paydays for attackers. In just the first half of 2021, one ransomware group collected $100 million in payments. The money gleaned from those attacks is then used to buy more expensive attack tools that can be used to further overwhelm enterprise IT and security teams. Given the increase in attacks and the added stress they create for enterprises, the solution often is to add new security tools to address the biggest pain points of the moment. But that strategy creates additiona...
Say Hello to the Edge – Why smart monitoring matters in today’s increasingly complex ecosystem
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NETSCOUT: The Long Tail of Adversary Innovation
Image sourced from Shutterstock. NETSCOUT’s ATLAS Security Engineering and Response Team (ASERT) observed a record-setting 5.4 million attacks in the first half of 2021, further confirmation that their “up and to the right” mantra would continue to hold true. As the findings from the 1H 2021 NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report show, the ongoing surge in DDoS activity is just one aspect of the dramatic global impact cyberattacks continue to have on private and public entities. “Cybercriminals are making front-page news launching an unprecedented number of DDoS attacks to take advantage of the pandemic’s remote work shift by undermining vital components of the connectivity supply chain,” stated Richard Hummel, threat intelligence lead, NETSCOUT. “Ransomware gangs added triple-extortion ...
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 ...
4 Network Security Challenges to Watch Out For
Sourced from Travellers The growing reliance on hybrid IT infrastructures that support cloud-based applications and a largely remote workforce is creating network security and performance challenges for many enterprises. According to research from a recent white paper by The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), 85 percent of organizations believe network security is more difficult today than it was two years ago. Entitled “Network Security Without Borders: A Common Technology Stack for Network Security and Operations,” the study cites several factors that contribute to the growing challenge of network security. Namely, here are 4 Network Security Challenges to Watch Out For: Increasingly Sophisticated Cyberthreat Tools Monitoring cyberthreats; correlating cyber threat intelligence with interna...
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...
Today’s New Business Normal Creates Threat Opportunities
Image sourced from Feed Navigator. The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses of all shapes and sizes to make rapid changes in how they operated, with employees predominantly working remotely and sensitive data and systems being accessed from outside the office. For many, this triggered an increased reliance on remote-access infrastructure and cloud-delivered services. IT departments rushed to install, expand, or upgrade remote desktop access (RDA) servers, virtual private network (VPN) concentrators, and remote access routers to meet surging workforce demand for remote access to data centres. Moreover, widespread reliance on video conferencing apps forced many businesses to upgrade enterprise wide-area network and local-area network capacity, as well as to re-evaluate routing and DNS re...
Take Steps Now to Protect Your Organisation as Ransomware-as-a-Service Ramps Up DDoS Attack Offerings
Image sourced from Ben Kerckx, Pixabay. The services industry has traditionally included sectors ranging from social assistance and health care to transportation and scientific services. However, it doesn’t end there, because the human talent for innovation can turn almost anything into a service. We also find – rather less top-of-mind for most people – the offer of hitmen-as-a-service, usually associated, at least in Hollywood, with large and well-muscled men in expensive suits and sunglasses. A few years ago, this area of business moved into the cyber arena as well. And so we present: ransomware-as-a-service. Today, one of its latest offerings is a ‘triple threat’ that turns Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks into an even more lethal cyber weapon against organisations. Carole H...
The High Cost of Cybercrime is Getting Higher
Image sourced from Finance Times. If cybercrime organizations could be publicly traded, we’d have an instant new multibillion-dollar industry sector. Indeed, cyber threats have become so pervasive that U.S. President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order aimed at improving federal cybersecurity in the wake of multiple significant cyberattacks, including the ransomware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline. Meanwhile, a broad coalition of experts in the industry, government, law enforcement, civil society, and international organizations have joined together in the Ransomware Task Force to build a framework for combatting ransomware. Ransomware attacks are only one method, however. Threat actors also use distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to ratchet up the p...
Surging DDoS Attacks Drive Growing Demand for Third Party Protection Services
Image sourced from Shutterstock. As the global workforce largely shifted to work-from-home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, reliance on online services soared. Many businesses were able to successfully pivot to this new normal as remote connectivity allowed access to vital systems and data. But as is often the case, no good deed goes unpunished. As the latest NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report shows, cybercriminals have exploited new vulnerabilities created by remote work across a wide variety of vertical industries. Making matters worse, perpetrators no longer have to be particularly technology-savvy in order to pull off attacks. Today, it is easy and relatively inexpensive to access sophisticated attack tools via for-hire services: A cottage industry has sprung ...
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