Ransomware up 25% in Q1 as Beazley predicts second-quarter jump in phishing scams

Beazley has reported a 25% increase in ransomware attacks during the first quarter of this year compared to Q4 2019, and predicted that Covid-19-related phishing scams are likely to dominate the second quarter of 2020. Ransomware incidents reported to Beazley Breach Response (BBR) Services in Q1 affected all industries, but manufacturing was hardest hit with a 156% increase quarter over quarter. However, financial services and healthcare continued to suffer the most and accounted for half of all ransomware attacked in the first quarter. Beazley said ransomware attacks against vendors and managed service providers (MSPs) continued to pose problems in Q1 2020, hitting both targeted business as well as their downstream clients. The insurer’s numbers show that banks and credit unions, as well as healthcare organisations, were particularly hard hit as a result of attacks against MSPs. Beazley added that as threat actors increasingly exploited ransomware in Q1, business email compromises (BEC) were down 16% on the previous quarter. The insurer said that while BEC remains a problem across industries, financial services, healthcare and retail sectors were among those to report fewer incidents in the first quarter of this year. But it said the fall may prove a “temporary reprieve” caused by behavioural changes amid Covid-19. “Employees first adjusting to working from home may have been less responsive to emails generally, and organisations may have been more focused on quickly ramping up remote working capacity than on identifying and reporting BEC incidents,” it said. Beazley said it is clear that phishing scams are soaring during the pandemic and more employees are likely to fall victim as attacks accelerate in the second quarter. It pointed to research from security awareness training experts KnowBe4 that reveals Covid-19-related scams ranging from social media posts, smishing, via-text-message phishing, and, above all, email phishing have skyrocketed. “Social engineering relies on manipulating human emotions to bypass our critical thinking. Cybercriminals exploit uncertain or emotional situations to influence people into taking actions they would typically avoid. Therefore, the spike in phishing tricks behind these attacks should not be a surprise given the drastic changes to working practices under lockdown,” said Beazley. Katherine Keefe, head of BBR Services, added: “Cybercriminals are preying on people’s heightened anxiety during this pandemic, tricking them into clicking and sharing links that steal information. Also, those working from home may have weaker IT security than corporate networks typically provide. Organisations must ensure their security systems and protocols are up to date and ensure that colleagues working from home are extra vigilant.” Beazley said organisations that have quickly expanded their remote workforce and therefore have a larger attack surface will need to be more vigilant than ever to protect against BEC, credential theft and phishing, which opens the door to ransomware and other malware. It listed seven ways for companies and their IT teams to help mitigate this risk: Use a virtual private network (VPN). Whenever possible, have employees connect from company-managed computers and devices through a VPN to the corporate network. Ensure that all traffic is tunnelled through this connection. This will allow many of the protections to apply to the traffic being generated from home. Require multi-factor authentication (MFA). Turn on MFA for external access to all applications, particularly sensitive ones such as email, remote desktop protocol (RDP) and VPNs, as well as for administrative accounts. Lock down RDP. The RDP attack vector is regularly targeted by ransomware attacks. Disable RDP where not required. Apply secure configurations where RDP is enabled, including use of strong passwords (at least 16 characters in length) and MFA. Secure personal devices. Implement mobile device management for personal devices used to access to the corporate network, to manage configuration, ensure scheduled updates and allow remote wiping of lost or stolen devices. Log and monitor access. Identify and monitor successful and failed login attempts, and restrict logins from regions where employees are unlikely to be connecting from. Patch systems. Allow automatic patching of the operating system and internet browsers. If possible, allow IT staff to help home users ensure their patching is up to date and provide a quality endpoint protection product for them to use. Stay on top of antivirus software updates to detect new or emerging threats that can go unnoticed in a system if the antivirus program is out of date. Conduct security awareness training. Train employees on how to recognise common threats and scams and how to report any suspicious security incident. Conduct phishing exercises periodically to enhance security awareness and prepare employees for responding to cyberattacks.

Ransomware up 25% in Q1 as Beazley predicts second-quarter jump in phishing scams

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