Botnet stories

Nozomi Networks’ latest research finds that wiper malware, IoT botnet activity, and the Russia/Ukraine war have had the biggest impact on the threat landscape in 2022 so far.

“Threat actors are quickly adjusting their tactics and these exploits tend to get industry attention, but the threat posed by older and attacks still persists."

"As zero-day attacks and other vulnerabilities among companies like Google and Microsoft come to light, threat actors are quickly adjusting their tactics."

Software vendors saw the largest year-on-year growth in 2021 at 146%, according to the 2022 Security Report from Check Point Research (CPR), the threat intelligence arm of the organisation.

In December, Trickbot claimed the top spot as most prevalent malware, overtaking Formbook which was in first place in November 2021.

Ransom DDoS attacks increased by 29% YoY and 175% QoQ in the last quarter 2021, according to new research from Cloudfare.

Sophos has provided new threat intelligence following the reporting of the Apache Log4Shell vulnerability.

Malware and scams continue to plague thousands of New Zealanders, laying $3.3 million to waste in just three months.

"DDoS attacks are rampant, and the frequency doesn't seem to be slowing down."

“We are seeing an increase in effective and destructive cyber attacks affecting thousands of organisations in a single incident creating an important inflection point for the war on cyber crime."

Surprisingly, a vast volume of malicious traffic can reach a residential device, writes Radware head of research Daniel Smith.

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) attacks surged during 2020, and their severity should not be underestimated.

Many significant cybersecurity events have occurred since the year 2000 — not every one of them ‘firsts’, but all of them correlating with a change in security behaviour or protection.

"Cybercriminals are relying on same old tricks to secure their financial treats, because they continue to be successful."

Imperva Research Labs has revealed findings of a six-month intensive investigation into a botnet that has been exploiting CMS vulnerabilities.

Microsoft has announced it took action to disrupt a botnet, Trickbot, one of the world's most infamous botnets and prolific distributors of malware and ransomware.

“There has never been a clearer picture than now, of why organisations need to adjust their defence strategies going forward to fully take into account the network perimeter extending into the home."

The botnet, which Bitdefender has dubbed ‘dark_nexus’ based on a string it puts in its banner, boasts new features and capabilities that ‘put to shame’ most other IoT botnets and malware that the cybersecurity has seen.

The botnet, called Necurs, gained control of the computers using malware and used them to commit crimes remotely.

28% of all organisations worldwide were impacted by malicious multi-purpose botnets, while the rise of 20% of incident response cases were targeted ransomware attack.

Black Friday is arguably the most anticipated retail sales period in the world, when brands offer consumers the largest discounts and promotional offers.

Check Point’s researchers report that the notorious botnet has been reactivated and is spreading active campaigns again.

"Cybercriminals continue to develop new, more sophisticated attack methods, and they are carrying them out with astonishing frequency."

This issue will only continue to grow as IoT forms the foundation of connected devices and smart city grids.