Tag Archive for: revolution

The Kaseya attack is a revolution in sophistication for ransomware hackers

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with Aaron Schaffer

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The Kaseya ransomware attack, which paralyzed hundreds of businesses over the Fourth of July weekend, marks a major strategic advancement for the criminal hacking gangs that have wreaked havoc on U.S. businesses. 

Most ransomware gangs exploit basic security flubs to lock up victims’ computers and demand payments, such as shared and reused passwords. REvil, the Russia-based group responsible for this attack, however, exploited a computer bug that had never been used and was unknown to top cybersecurity experts. 

That’s a highly sophisticated sort of attack, known as a “zero day,” that’s more commonly used by nation-states looking to steal each other’s secrets than by financially motivated criminals. And it paid dividends — it’s the largest ransomware attack to date, locking up computers at up to1,500 companies that work with the software management company Kaseya and its clients, and enabling a $70 million ransom demand.  

That probably is a sign of things to come as cybercrime gets more lucrative and cybercriminals gain more money and resources to pull off major heists. 

“A lot of ransomware actors have bigger budgets than some nation-state actors do, so this is the logical next step,” Allan Liska, senior threat intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, told me. “They’re going to have to continue going after larger targets if they want multimillion-dollar ransoms and using zero days is one way of doing that.” 

Criminal hackers are unlikely to ever achieve the skills of top government hackers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and China. But they could equal the capabilities and investments of some third-tier cyber powers such as Pakistan or Brazil, Liska said. 



a man wearing a suit and tie: Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with President Biden. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

© Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with President Biden. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

The Kremlin could halt the advance.

Experts widely agree that REvil and other major ransomware gangs operate on Russian territory with at least the Kremlin’s tacit approval. 

“There’s no reasonable doubt among the analyst community that…

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PLDT Enterprise empowers an ICT revolution – Rappler

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PLDT Enterprise empowers an ICT revolution  Rappler

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Inside the race to keep secrets safe from the quantum computing revolution

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“We have done some work with the NCSC but they just do not have the budget to fund this kind of development,” he says. 

His fear is that the UK could experience a brain drain of cryptography talent to other countries like Canada and France that have allocated more government funding to the field. 

In January, the French government announced €150m (£130m) in funding for quantum safe encryption as part of a larger €1.8bn grant for quantum computing.

Insiders with links to the security services say that the Government is carrying out its own secret work on quantum safe encryption instead of relying on start-ups.

Dr Ian Levy, the technical director of the NCSC, says the organisation “continues to work closely with industry, academia and international partners” on the subject. “The NCSC is committed to ensuring the UK is well-prepared for quantum-safe cryptography,” he adds.

The threat of quantum computing breaking encryption could be solved within months, however. Many organisations, including PQ Shield and Post-Quantum have been taking part in a global competition run by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The contest, announced in 2016, is nearing completion. Early next year, NIST will announce the new standard for quantum safe encryption, essentially replacing RSA. “It will change the world not for the next decade, but for the next 40 or 50 years,” Cheng says.

If everything goes smoothly, in several years the encryption keeping secrets safe will be quietly swapped out so that quantum computers cannot easily crack messages.

“I think the answer to the threat should be transparent for users. They should have basically the same experience they have today. They shouldn’t have to install some new bit of kit,” says Alan Woodward, a computer security expert and visiting professor at the University of Surrey.

But while NIST’s competition is nearing its end, there’s a rival scheme that has already been launched around the world.

Telecom businesses such as BT have spent millions of pounds creating specialist networks that use a system called quantum key distribution. It uses a stream of single photos to transfer the secret encryption keys…

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Guardsquare Announces ThreatCast: A Revolution in Mobile Application Threat Intelligence – WFMZ Allentown

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Guardsquare Announces ThreatCast: A Revolution in Mobile Application Threat Intelligence  WFMZ Allentown
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