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As a counterpart to security for your assets in the cloud, you may also run into solutions that offer security from the cloud. These solutions are generally referred to as cloud-delivered security. Cloud-delivered security is sometimes called security-as-a-service which we will avoid here as it might be confused with the more generally used term Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Types of cloud-delivered security

It is not hard to imagine several types of cloud-delivered security:

• Definitions or rules for detection are in the cloud
• Security controls and logs for systems that in multiple places are located in the cloud
• Suspicious files that are not recognized are uploaded to the cloud for closer inspection
• The security applications run completely or partially in the cloud and check on the security health of the physical systems

With detection criteria in the cloud there is only one update needed for new definitions and not for every individual system.

Controls and logs in the cloud enable security management to be the spider in the web from virtually anywhere.

The closer inspection of the suspicious
file can be done by the security provider themselves or use a more general
resource like VirusTotal.

Using containerization, security applications can be shared amongst different systems, even if they are running a different operating system.

Models of cloud-delivered security

Besides these different types, there are also three basic cloud delivery models:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

SaaS clients use applications supplied by a
service provider. SaaS does not allow or require any control of the cloud
platform or the infrastructure. This can be beneficial to some organizations
while others would like at least some control.

PaaS users can deploy consumer-created or
acquired applications using programming languages and tools supported by the
provider’s content policies. This both limits the choices but it also enhances
security.

IaaS is interesting for more sophisticated and demanding users as it allows them to deploy and run arbitrary software. This could apply to both operating systems and applications.

The main difference for these three
delivery models is the internal organization of the cloud infrastructure. For
the user this mainly results in a degree of freedom in how to use the
infrastructure.

Cloud-enabled architecture

A cloud-enabled architecture is by
definition built in the cloud and delivered as a service. This means it
provides a platform that you can easily deploy, and it will help you minimize
the need for costly appliances and backhauling.

Even more than when you are starting to use cloud enabled architecture, moving existing critical capabilities such as endpoint security into the cloud requires careful consideration of a wide range of privacy and security assurances. But sometimes the choice between the two isn’t one that is available. Circumstances do not always allow for the easy path of stepping into a readily prepared platform.

SaaS-based, cloud-enabled architecture should provide customers with a system that can be operational in minutes and requires no on-premise infrastructure. It may combine multiple security functions into one solution, so you can extend protection to devices, remote users, and distributed locations anywhere.

Integrated cloud security service benefits:

• Flexible security protection on and off network
• Consistent policies across remote locations
• Easier to scale on a subscription-based model

Benefits of cloud-delivered security

There are several benefits of cloud-delivered security:

• The protection will benefit all cloud resources and the SaaS applications
• It makes it easier to get insight into mobile users, application usage, and overall traffic
• Enhancement of management efficiency because it can be centralized and done with minimal effort
• Significant improvement in discovered malware incidents and attempted breaches
• As a result, a reduction of security related downtime
• Ease of gathering sufficient audit evidence

What to look for in cloud-delivered security

There are several aspects organizations may
be looking for in a cloud security solution. These can vary by type of
organization and their priorities. In no particular order these may be:

• Assistance from security
  vendors
• Cloud administration and
  management
• Scalability and cost efficiency
• Protect all critical
  infrastructure
• Extra features

Security should work for the organization and not the other way around. Security vendors are expected to assume a stronger, more active role in managing and helping the client to maintain the protection of their systems and network(s). Cloud-delivered security allows the organization to focus on their business and abandon or reduce the do-it-yourself security approach.

For businesses looking to simplify their security management through the elimination of hardware, reduced administration, and centralized management, the cloud is the most viable option. And it allows the vendor or a provider to perform remote administration and management.

Cloud-delivered services can dynamically
grow and shrink based on the needs of the organization and you only pay for
what you need based on usage. Moreover, it can also be less expensive to
acquire since they are usually sold on a subscription basis, where payments are
spread out over time.

To optimize the use of assistance, centralized
management, and scalability, a cloud-delivered security solution should be
designed to protect all critical infrastructure, applications, and data
delivered as-a-service.

Usually organizations can add extra services or features to the security solution, which can include, for example, identity management, email security, and other features.

Possible drawbacks of cloud-delivered security

Some organizations may shy away from cloud-delivered security for various reasons.

Organizations may feel they have less control over the functionality of the security solution, which is not always justified as it will depend on the chosen model. And most of the times you will still be able to file feature requests with the vendor and work them out.

Organizations may have doubts about the privacy of the delivered technology and storage of logs in the cloud. But if you can’t trust your security vendor there is a worse problem that needs to be solved first.

Further, data residency can lead to compliance issues for some organizations in some countries. This absolutely should be researched before onboarding with a vendor. It would be a shame to engage in an onboarding process only to find out that there will be compliance issues.

Smaller businesses and cloud-delivered security

Smaller businesses can still profit from cloud-delivered security by acquiring it from a Managed Services Provider (MSP). Security vendors will provide MSPs with a cloud management console where they can keep an eye on all their customers. This enables the MSP to protect, monitor and remediate against security threats.

Stay safe everyone!

The post Explained: cloud-delivered security appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at how secure the cloud is, understood why unexpected demand can influence an organization to consider their “just in time” (JIT) system, speculated on why the threat actors behind the Troldesh ransomware suddenly released thousands of decryption keys, preached the good news about VPN being mainstream, touched on the relationship between cybercrime and a challenged economy, and identified what users can do if they received an extortion email.

Other cybersecurity news

• The season of threat actors banking on coronavirus continues as fake news sites spring up to promote a “pandemic survival book.” (Source: Avast Blog)
• Cybersecurity experts warned small- to medium-sized businesses about an increase in targeted attacks, thanks to the pandemic (Source: TechRadar)
• While internet users are using VPN all the more, experts have seen attacks on something probably no one has thought about protecting: the router. (Source: InfoSecurity)
• Phishers targeted Zoom users yet again with spoofed meeting notifications that would likely cause them to panic and click the phishing link. (Source: Source: Bleeping Computer)
• Payment card details owned by US and South Korean citizens were reportedly sold underground for $2M USD. (Source: Group-IB)
• While governments have renewed interest into using contact tracing apps to help contain COVID-19, the interest in using Bluetooth attacks may naturally follow. (Source: ZDNet)
• Israel’s National Cyber Directorate published an alert about attacks on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. (Source: Security Week)
• Parking meter vendor CivicSmart was attacked by ransomware and had their data stolen. (Source: StateScoop)
• Some ransomware gangs opted out of targeting hospitals. For some, it’s business as usual. Colorado hospital shut down by ransomware. (Source: Health IT Security)
• OceanLotus APT is suspected to be behind an espionage campaign dubbed PhantomLance, which targeted specific victims in Southeast Asia. (Source: Threatpost)

Stay safe everyone!

The post A week in security (April 27 – May 3) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

In the last few weeks, there has been an upswing in people receiving threatening, extortion email messages, demanding payment to avoid release of sensitive information. Most of the time, these emails are what we call “sextortion” emails, as they claim that malware on your computer has captured embarrassing photos of you through the webcam, but there can be other variants on the same theme.

These extortion emails are nothing new, but with the recent increase in frequency, many people are looking for guidance. If you have received such an email message and want to know how you should respond, you’re in the right place. Read on!

Extortion claims

These email messages are not all exactly the same, but they do have fairly common characteristics. Consider the following example:

This is fairly representative of many examples. It starts out by telling you that the scammer knows one of your passwords, and the password really IS one of your passwords, which immediately ratchets up the fear and puts you in a mindset to believe that the rest of the message is also true. (Hint: it is not.)

Next, it tells you that the scammer knows other things about you, including photos of you doing something embarrassing, captured through malware on the computer. The message threatens to send these photos to people you know. Some variants may not involve this kind of “sextortion,” but the general pattern of doing something damaging with data stolen from the user is the same.

In order to prevent this, the scammer demands to be paid, usually in a currency called Bitcoin. There’s usually a time limit given for the payment, to really put the pressure on and encourage fast action rather than seeking help.

Are the extortion claims true?

With one exception, none of this is true. There is no malware involved. The scammer does not have any of the claimed information. If you don’t pay the demanded sum, nothing bad will happen. For the most part, these messages can simply be ignored.

However, the one part that is true is the password—which is the part that makes everything else seem more believable. The password did not, however, come from malware on the computer. Instead, it came from a third-party data breach.

What happens is that a site you have an account on gets breached, and someone is able to extract a bunch of email addresses and passwords. How this happens is not particularly important for our purposes here, but the effect is that two pieces of your personal information may have been published to various “dark web” sites: your email address and a password used with an account associated with that email address.

This is very similar to someone writing your phone number on the wall in a bathroom stall: it becomes public knowledge, for anyone who knows where to look, and it can lead to a lot of harassment.

Once this information has become public knowledge, criminals can take these lists and send mass email messages to everyone on the list, including the password associated with their email message. This is the real source of the seed of truth in these messages, not the fictitious malware the scammers want you to believe you’re infected with.

So I can ignore this, right?

Well, yes and no. Yes, the threat itself is an empty one, since there’s no malware. However, there’s a real danger under the surface: you have a password that has become public knowledge!

If the password provided is an old one that you are no longer using, then you’re golden. You’ve got no need to do anything further. However, for many people, the password is one that is still in active use, and that presents a problem. This particular scammer decided to use the password to scare you, but there are other criminals out there who might decide to use it for more nefarious purposes, like taking over your online life!

To prevent this from happening, there are a few steps you’ll need to take.

Step 1: Change your password

First and foremost, on any account using the password that was provided, change your password. While you’re at it, though, let’s make sure that it’s a good strong one. The best passwords are long, random ones… for example, “vdBdq8GoDh8ELGm$qRdgXVTq.” The longer the better.

It’s also important to use a different password on every site. Because password breaches will always happen, if you use the same password on multiple sites, that can lead to a breach on one site making it possible for an attacker to access your accounts across many different sites.

Okay, I hear you. No, I’m not expecting you to memorize ridiculous passwords for every site you have an account on. There’s a solution to that problem.

Step 2: Use a password manager

A password manager is a program designed to remember your passwords for you. Password managers can keep a list of not just your passwords, but also what site you’ve used them on, the username you use to log in to that site, any security questions you use on that site, etc.

A password manager can be as simple as a notebook you keep in a drawer in your desk. Of course, that’s also something that can be read by anyone with access to your office, and it’s not something you can easily carry around with you.

Password managers more typically come in the form of software, which can encrypt your passwords with a single master password, help you share them between devices, and much more.

You may have a password manager right at your fingertips already, as some web browsers have them built in. Examples include iCloud Keychain in Safari, Google Password Manager in Chrome, and the Firefox Password Manager.

If you use a more obscure browser, don’t want to use the built-in password manager, or just need something more powerful, you can consider something like 1Password or Lastpass.

Whatever fits your particular needs, use it. A password manager is the only way you can realistically have long, strong passwords that are different on every site. Your password manager’s “master” password becomes the only password you need to remember.

Creating a master password for your password manager follows the same, simple rules for your regular passwords—the longer the better. Since you’ll be typing this password in regularly, it could be easier to make a passphrase, which is a string of words that should have no direct meaning to you. Avoid birthdates and street addresses and lean into the chaos of your brain’s random word generator: something like “cantankerousbuffalopotteryhypothesis.”

Whoa, hold on a minute! Don’t walk away yet. Having good passwords and a way to store them is only a small part of the battle. After all, a good password is no good as soon as the site gets breached by a hacker and spills all its passwords. Believe it or not, there’s something else beyond the password.

Step 3: Use two-factor authorization

Two-factor authorization (abbreviated 2FA) is some kind of secondary piece of information, in addition to a password, that can be required for you to log into a website. These typically are some kind of code—most commonly four or six digits—that you must enter during the login process.

The most common way to receive these codes is via text message on your phone. However, they can also be codes that change every 30 seconds, which are generated by a variety of different apps, such as Authy, Google Authenticator, or some more full-featured password managers. These are more secure than texted codes, but also less commonly supported, and codes sent to your phone via text message are better than nothing.

Whatever type your accounts support, use it. It can take some time to set this up these days, when people often have a LOT of accounts, so just take it a few at a time until you’re done.

For help figuring out what kinds of 2FA a site supports see the Two Factor Auth site. You can search this site for the site you’re interested in, and it will tell you what types of 2FA it supports (SMS and Software Token being the two types described above), and link you to that site’s documentation for how to set up 2FA.

For more information about 2FA, see Duo Security’s Two-Factor Authentication: The Basics.

Step 3a: What if there’s no 2FA?

Some sites don’t support 2FA, instead only supporting something like security questions… you know, “What’s the name of your first pet,” or “What street did you live on growing up,” and any number of other similar questions. Here’s the problem with these questions: they’re easy to guess, and the information may be public knowledge.

So, here’s what you do if security questions are all you have to secure a site: lie! Never, ever use true answers to security questions. Instead, make something up. For example, maybe say your first car was a “Millennium Falcon.” Or maybe you drove an “avocado toast.” Even better, say you drove a “dknO6RF%an!Fdke8.”

By now, I’m sure you’re not asking how you’re supposed to remember these ridiculous answers, because you know what the answer will be already: use your password manager. Most password managers support arbitrary notes, so add both the questions and the nonsensical answers to a note for that login in your password manager.

Wrapping up

If you skipped to the end without reading the details (we hope you did not), here’s the tl;dr: these messages are fake, there is no malware involved, and the only thing to be concerned about is the fact that one of your passwords is floating around in cyberspace.

Once you have followed all the instructions above to secure your online accounts, you’ll have nothing left to do, other than mark the message as junk and delete it (if you haven’t already).

Keep in mind that no antivirus software can prevent you from seeing these types of extortion messages. Email systems or clients that do junk mail (spam) filtering can help to catch some of these, but they cannot be relied on to catch all of them. These scammers are sneaky, and are good at evading junk mail filtering.

The fact that you keep receiving these extortion messages does not represent a security issue, and you do not need to be afraid of these thugs. They are only a threat to your wallet, and only if you fall for their tricks and send them money. Otherwise, they cannot do you any harm… so long as you’ve secured your accounts so they can’t use your leaked password against you.

The post What to do when you receive an extortion email appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Cybercrime and the economy have always been intertwined, but with COVID-19 on the road to causing a seemingly inevitable global recession, many are asking what, exactly, will the impact be on cybercrime. Will criminals step up and increase malware production, ramp up phishing attacks, do whatever it takes to pull in some cash? Or will it cause a little downturn in malware making and other dubious dealings?

Cyber recession: setting the scene

One of our key points of observation would be back in 2009, during the last global recession. While searching for information, one of the flashpoints which kept coming up was a paper put together by a team of researchers from around the world called Crime online: cybercrime and illegal innovation. Almost every article which came back to me referenced it in some way, and it was front and centre for every writeup. It’s so pervasive that even articles written in the last 12 months tend to link it when talking about the impact of recessions on professional computer criminals.

The Telegraph, Metro, OneIndia and many more all focused on the impact the recession would have as per the research paper. The only problem? Having read it, the paper mentions a recession 3 times, 2 of which are the same sentence reused stating that a global recession will likely increase the chances of people moving into cybercrime. And for all the lasting impact references to this paper have had down the years, that’s essentially what all of the linkage is based on: someone saying “here comes the cybercrime recession, probably”.

The Past: Making predictions

Mostly, it’s a very solid and wide-ranging paper covering a large range of threat developments, from credit card fraud and phishing to malware authoring and “value chain analysis.” All very interesting, but outside of many claims that technology x or people getting better at y would result in probable increases in z, nothing really leapt out at me to say, “recession is going to explode bad activity online and this is why”. Was it possible people on the receiving end of the presumed press release saw the single line about recession and pinned their entire piece around it? Who knows, but there didn’t seem to be an awful lot to go on.

Putting the puzzle together

In fairness, it’s not just that one research paper taking up the entirety of 2009’s “here comes the recession hacker boom” content. It was up for discussion and there’s no harm in considering the problem. A panel back in 2009 talked about how a recession creates “more cybercriminals” who then go on to do a lot more cybercriminaling. There’s a fair bit of assumption at work here; that a big slice of people hit by a recession will automatically turn to crime, and computer crime at that. If resources are tight and money is short, if people are so physically impacted by a recession that they need to turn to crime to survive, will they:

1. Invest time, electricity, and stamina they may not have on crash course hacking, malware, phishing, digging around on forums for someone—anyone—to help them so they can maybe go off and rip someone off online with no guarantee any of it will work; or
2. Go out and steal some food or break into physical objects such as cars?

Personally, I’d be in Camp B all the way. Camp A seems like incredibly slim vanishing returns all round.

Wages down, crime up? Not so simple

When a recession hits, do criminals come creeping out of the woodwork? More to the point, do we end up with whole new waves of criminals? We have a few data points we can draw on for this. When major recessions and downturns have struck, crime rates can actually fall significantly. Apart from anything else, it’s quite tricky for career burglars to go about their business when economic factors are keeping people at home.

Throw a global pandemic into the mix which relies on as many people as possible staying indoors whether working or not, and it’s time to get a new criminal enterprise. The question is what, specifically, that criminal enterprise would involve. Computers or something else?

Driving the direction of technological attacks

While many folks seem to think cybercrime is the perfect place to go for replacement crime activities, the reality is it’s not quite that straightforward. In more normal times, the shifts inside online crime as a whole are represented by an ebb and flow towards different types of attack as opposed some sort of wholesale digital stampede to do something differently.

For a while now, we’ve seen consumer detections decrease while their business counterparts go up due to the juicy stuff being locked away behind corporate firewalls. Now, with so many people working from home, we expect to see cybercriminals modify their approach somewhat and start going back to poking around home computers (or at least, work computers suddenly on a home network).

Here comes the massive caveat:

It’s worth mentioning that for every “crime goes down during a recession” piece you know of, you’ll always find a few others claiming the opposite. You want confusing? Have fun with the first page of search results in Google should you want to do some digging of your own:

Click to Enlarge

Criminology and sociology aren’t my field of expertise, and I don’t pretend they are. I’m just highlighting the potentially significant shifts in data analysis for anyone trying to figure out the cybercrime / recession link, because even the non-cybercriminal data seems to have a hard time being stacked up one way or another depending on which data is used and who is telling the story.

What about good old infection / attack numbers? Is it even possible to dust off a big book of figures from more than a decade ago?

Playing the numbers

The answer is “sort of”, and “very cautiously”. Cybercrime from last year tends to be somewhat old hat, never mind something from 5 or 10 years ago which often looks as though it’s landed here from another planet. Everything and anything could potentially be different, from infection types, to spreading techniques, to operating systems and security tools, even down to the way everybody from security vendors and governments tally up their figures.

Having said that, there are some interesting snippets of information buried in the pile. The Great Recession hit in 2009, after the build-up of the 2007-08 financial crisis. A UKGOV-hosted cybercrime report from 2013 notes that many aspects of internet fraud dipped around the time of the year-long recession, with higher tallies surrounding it depending on attack type.

“Internet enabled card-not-present fraud” (catchy!) was at around £131 million loss costs recorded in 2010, starting off at a peak of about £181 million in 2008. This is, however, a partial estimate, and online banking fraud hit a peak of £59.7 million in the year of the recession before collapsing to £39.6 million by 2012. Even so, Financial Fraud Action reported “just” 50k phish banking phishes in 2009 and 256k by 2012.

The malware explosion of 2012 onwards

Numbers are somewhat tricky to come by, but not impossible. Although this AV Test chart for overall malware development begins with 2011, you can see the full chart in this 2015/16 PDF document which ranges from 2005 at 1.7 million all the way up to 2016 hitting some 578 million(!) From 2007 onwards, the new figure increases year on year from anything between 10 to 20 million, with nothing unusual about 2009 compared to the others. In fact, it isn’t until 2012/13 that the numbers begin to explode into the stratosphere. The one thing I mainly remember about 2009 in terms of security was prevalence of worms: Sality, Conficker, and others.

In terms of *new* malware created per year, another AV Test report (2017/18) is similarly illuminating. Once again, 2009 isn’t particularly notable whereas 2012 seems to be the point where things kick into high gear, remaining that way until 2016 when things take a small dip.

Elsewhere, though, different types of fraud received a boost. Internet fraud losses were up to the tune of 33% in 2008, though your mileage will vary with regards to taking the final year of the financial crisis and tying it specifically to the period of 2009 accepted as the recession itself. However you stack it up, it’s fair to say some types of crime would go up and some down, as expected – or at least, not explode the way you’d think it might.

Present: The cybers will get us

If we wind ourselves forward to the past few years, we see talk of cybercrime specifically being a potential cause for a possible recession. In 2018, the fear of a massive attack on banking systems worldwide was touted as the way we’d all be dragged into recession town, population: us. The way this was supposed to happen is as follows:

1. Rogue nation state or someone with equivalent resources somehow causes a massive “cashout strike”, where a huge wave of fraudulent withdrawals happens simultaneously and this is on such a scale that the banks all fall over. Yes, this is quite speculative.
2. A script kiddy does…something…malicious and everything breaks. This is even more speculative.

That’s, uh, pretty much it. The article itself mentions that the banks would probably return to normal once functionality is restored, and if you’re undercutting your own “this is bad” point with “actually not really” then in all fairness it’s probably not how civilization is brought to its knees.

Elsewhere, we have another prediction of cyber related recession antics from 2019. Once again, the trigger is going to be some sort of undefined bank exploit / attack where the financial sector comes crashing down around our ears. The fascinating part is that the article begins by stating that a recession is definitely going to happen “within 2 years”. Well, they were correct – but not for the reasons stated. As it turns out, the cybers getting us might have been a bit more preferable to what came along in 2020…

(Potential) future: 2020 and beyond

As we’ve seen so far, computer criminals deciding to shuffle the deck and throw it out the window is primarily based on what-if scenarios ranging from unlikely and incredibly vague to unlikely and a bit less vague. Dusting off the crystal ball is an interesting exercise, but the reality of the situation is that the current financial meltdown came hand in hand with a virus of the non-digital kind.

Right now, we can’t move for conflicting reports during the actual pandemic itself. On the one hand, you have Ransomware authors claiming they won’t target hospitals during the pandemic. This isn’t entirely altruistic; they must know hammering health services will attract unnecessary legal attention in the fallout. Having said that: here’s a bunch of health services under fire from hack attacks during the pandemic. As before, some types go down, some go up. It isn’t uniform and very difficult to make sense of so much conflicting data.

Elsewhere, we have organizations reporting “five-fold increases” in cyber-attacks. By the same token, we have entities such as Microsoft and NCSC claiming the overall levels of cyber-crime aren’t going up. Criminals don’t seem to be making more money off the back of COVID-19 either.

That’s all well and good for scammers riding the coat-tails of the pandemic in the here and now, and numbers could change dramatically as time goes on. How about any future-based, lasting recession?

My entirely unscientific guess – and that’s all we can do, guess – is that even accounting for any new recession, cybercrime will just keep on keeping on and expand or contract at its own pace if it follows the same general pattern we saw in 2009. We’re in an unprecedented situation for technology, and may need to wait till the smoke clears to figure out what we do next. Believe me when I say I’m as fascinated as you are to see where it ends up.

Let’s just hope it’s a little bit more preferable to what we have right now.

The post Cybersecurity and the economy: when recession strikes appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) have been growing in popularity for the last three years, a notable trend revealed in a collaborative report [PDF] by Top10VPN and GlobalWebIndex. This year is no different.

When a majority of the world’s internet users are in isolation due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the increase in VPN usage is likely and expected, especially with so many people moving regular work from offices to their very homes. VPNs are best used in this time when employees cannot be physically within office premises to securely connect and access sensitive files, local apps, and other internal resources they need to do their job.

A jump in work-from-home employees isn’t the only reason why VPNs nowadays are in high demand. If anything, its steady growth was suddenly sped up by the effects of the current pandemic, introducing a historical spike in usage while internet users are thrust to a “new normal” when it comes to living life closer to family and away from colleagues, extended family, friends, and strangers.

However, there are other factors at play when it comes to motivations for using VPNs. The report entitled “The Global VPN Usage Report 2020” sheds a light on these and more. Let’s take a look.

Current VPN usage trend

Why use VPNs?

More than 30 percent of internet users are now using VPNs, with the heaviest users being in Asia and the Middle East & Africa regions. Specifically, Indonesia and India—61 percent and 45 percent, respectively—have the biggest number of VPN users compared to other countries. If you may recall, the Indonesian government have made attempts to filter content their citizens see online, especially on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. The use of certain communication channels, such as WhatsApp, were also restricted.

It’s not unusual to say that some VPN growth actually stems from attempts to enact censorship over a population. Note that while VPN usage is high in areas where government repression is heaviest, these are also the countries where the use of VPN is legal.

Perhaps surprisingly, countries in democratic countries like Australia (69 percent) and the Netherlands (76 percent) have seen a notable market growth over a three-year period.

“In 2017, the Netherlands introduced a law that gave the intelligence services the right to wiretap online communications around suspects on a large scale and store the data for a period of 3 years,” explains Pieter Arntz, malware intelligence researcher for Malwarebytes, regarding this trend, “For that reason, the law was called the “Sleepwet” (or dragnet law). Amnesty International and local privacy advocates made objections against the scale and the long retention period. Since the introduction, we have seen a big rise in the use of VPN’s in the Netherlands.”

A data retention law coming into effect that year in Australia is the likely trigger for citizens to start using VPNs.

The report also outlines other reasons why people use VPNs.

In some countries, government surveillance isn’t a massive concern. What makes their citizens opt to use VPNs is to hide their browsing activities from potential snoopers, of which might be their ISP, advertisers, or threat actors.

Who uses VPNs?

For every 10 internet user, 3 use VPNs, according to the report.

Below is a global profile of who uses VPNs based on demographic data collected for this study. A VPN user is typically:

• Male (36 percent, compared to 26 percent female)
• Young (average of 37 percent between Gen Y and Gen Z users, compared to only an average of 21 percent for Gen X and Baby Boomers) *
• More educated (average of 37 percent between college/university students and post-graduate users, compared to users who are schooling at the age of 18 and below)
• Mobile users (64 percent, compared to 62 percent of PC/laptop users)

*Older generations are notably catching up, though.

Heavy users in the APAC and MEA regions are young users who are “more urban and more affluent, relative to the rest of the population”. They are also more comfortable with digital tools.

What’s in a user’s VPN wish list?

Most users (72 percent) in the US and UK are using free VPNs compared to those who opted to pay (36 percent). For payers, the most common reason for this is to avoid the sharing of their information with third parties (54 percent).

When looking for a VPN, users prefer those with reliable connection (54 percent), that are easy to use (54 percent), quick (54 percent), has privacy/logging policies (43 percent), and reasonably priced (42 percent).

What attitudes or behaviors do VPN users have?

VPN users are more likely to be consistent with how they protect their online privacy than someone who doesn’t use a VPN. This means they use other measures like deleting browser cookies and using browsers that promote private browsing.

It also came out that internet users are at least aware that protecting their privacy online is important but don’t know how. Even those deemed privacy-conscious are mostly not using VPNs.

When it comes to frequency in use, users in the US and UK tend to use VPNs every day for their daily browsing activities, not just for more private browsing. Younger users in these regions also claim that they see VPNs, primarily, as a privacy tool.

The road to safer surfing

It’s always interesting to take note of trends, motivations, and even buying behavior. However, there are other points in the report that merit some highlights. For one, many users associate VPNs with the word “secure”, although as with all things occasionally this isn’t the case. This is particularly true for mobile devices.

When it comes to finding “the one” VPN for you, it is therefore no longer enough to just take other people’s word for it. It is more crucial than ever for users to go hands on and experience the products themselves. It is also important that users do a little investigative work about the company behind the software or service they were eyeing to try out. And when you do, please remember: Ask the right questions.

Good luck!

The post VPNs are mainstream, which is good news appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

As it becomes clear that some things will never again be the same after the global coronavirus pandemic, it is time to prepare for the future. The cybersecurity implications of upcoming changes will be most noticeable in organizations that rely on security models like the software defined perimeter.

The software defined perimeter is a model closely related to the zero trust framework, in which users must authenticate themselves first before accessing any company-sensitive documents or on-site information. Connectivity in the software defined perimeter is based on the premise that each device and identity must be verified before being granted access to the network.

Below, we explore why unexpected demand spikes may force organizations to reconsider their “Just in Time” delivery networks. But remember, a switch from one system brings questions about any new one.

Just in time delivery

As an example of the changes we can expect, let’s assume that after the coronavirus pandemic, some organizations will transition away from the Just In Time (JIT) delivery system they used when their supply lines began diminishing.

Just In Time delivery systems provide goods as orders come in, allowing for a lean, at-need production process with little to no surplus. But as we’ve recently seen, these types of systems are vulnerable to sudden peaks in demand, as depleting supply chains have already hit several industries, with the most poignant victim being healthcare. Hospitals, clinics, and medical centers around the world have quickly run of masks, hand sanitizer, and ventilators in the months since COVID-19 struck.

Many stores, both brick-and-mortar and web shops, have already faced the same problem. Soon after China applied its regional quarantine, global supply chains took a hit, with some businesses impacted sooner than others. It makes a big difference whether your goods come per container or air freight in terms of how soon your line could dry up.

How we need a constant stream of goods

To western economies, a continuous flow of goods and components is of the utmost importance. We regard transport and logistics as vital infrastructure for compelling reasons. Many of our factories depend on components made on the other side of the globe, and consumers recently learned just how many of their daily products originate from Asia. It’s not just electronics, toys, and clothing being made elsewhere, but also a lot of car parts, tools, and condoms.

One way to solve this problem for the next lock-down (which is a possibility, depending on how local governments decide to “open up” their economies) is to decentralize the origin of products that we can’t afford to miss. But by market standards, goods are often produced wherever labor is cheapest, and spreading production would increase price. In some cases, consumers might be willing to pay a higher price for locally produced goods. In other cases, trade restrictions could drive up the price for goods produced abroad. In both cases, the supply lines would get shorter and gain stronger defenses to interruption.

Just in Time inventory management saves money by minimizing the necessary amount of storage room and by limiting goods going to waste because they go over the expiration date. What you need to realize is that you are not solving this problem, you are just moving it to your logistics partner, who may be better equipped to handle it as they probably do it for many others. And in turn they rely on other shipping and production companies to keep their stocks at a level which allows them to satisfy the needs of their customers.

Now that organizations have learned that a broken link in the supply chain can have drastic results for those at the end of the line, the question is whether this system can be used for every type of good, or whether we need to prioritize between essential goods and those we can afford to miss for a while.

Different software

Switching to another inventory system requires another type of software. Where JIT inventory management may be as simple as sending out an order to the logistics partner—whether it’s yours or the one of your supplier is not really relevant—keeping your own inventory requires a different approach. Countless goods have expiration dates, and not just food and drugs. Some other products also lose their usefulness over time. Others may even lose their value, or the cost to produce them may drop rapidly compared to other products.

Different software comes with a bunch of question, mainly related to security:

• Who needs access?
• What will be the permissions of the software itself?
• How are we going to manage (remote) accessibility?
• Do we anticipate any compliance issues?
• How did the software perform during security testing?
• What will be the procedure during transition?
• How will this influence my software defined perimeter?

Most of the time, simple stock-keeping software should be less complicated than Just-In-Time inventory management, so it may be a good time to rethink some of the settings you have chosen while you were still using JIT. Even when you end up using a mix of both systems (as many organizations do) the time of change is typically a good time to reconsider choices made in the past. Nobody may have reviewed them because they simply worked. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were the optimal choices.

Most of the questions above speak for themselves but will need to be answered on a case by case basis.

Recommended reading: Explained: the strengths and weaknesses of the Zero Trust model

Software defined perimeter

As you may have expected, the software defined perimeter is a security model which is often used in combination with cloud-based software or when remote access to on-premise applications is needed. The software defined perimeter finds its base in the Zero Trust model and divides network access into small segments by establishing direct connections between users and the resources they access.

Logic dictates that when you switch from JIT to a more local inventory this will impact the software defined perimeter. In the JIT system you can expect outbound connections to be established that control the flow of needed goods into the organization. In a system based on local storage, you may see more requests from remote workers to check up on the state of the inventory.

If you this type of change will not affect your organization, there are many other changes that might be caused or ramped up by this crisis. So, it might be beneficial to try and plan ahead. A prepared organization doesn’t get caught by surprise.

Stay safe!

The post Switching from a “Just in Time” delivery system should include planning ahead appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A GitHub user claiming to represent the authors of the Troldesh Ransomware calling themselves the “Shade team” published this statement last Sunday:

“We are the team which created a trojan-encryptor mostly known as Shade, Troldesh or Encoder.858. In fact, we stopped its distribution in the end of 2019. Now we made a decision to put the last point in this story and to publish all the decryption keys we have (over 750 thousands at all). We are also publishing our decryption soft; we also hope that, having the keys, antivirus companies will issue their own more user-friendly decryption tools. All other data related to our activity (including the source codes of the trojan) was irrevocably destroyed. We apologize to all the victims of the trojan and hope that the keys we published will help them to recover their data.”

Are these the real Troldesh decryption keys?

Yes. Since the statement and the keys were published the keys have been verified as our friends at Kaspersky have confirmed the validity of the keys and are working on a decryption tool. That tool will be added to the No More Ransom project.  The “No More Ransom” website is an initiative by the National High Tech Crime Unit of the Dutch police, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Kaspersky and McAfee with the goal to help victims of ransomware retrieve their encrypted data without having to pay the criminals.

In the past, a few decryption tools for some of the Troldesh variants have already been published on the “No More Ransom” website. We will update this post when the Kaspersky decryptor is released and would like to warn against following the instructions on GitHub unless you are a very skilled user. The few extra days of waiting shouldn’t hurt that much and a failed attempt may render the files completely useless.

When is it useful to use the Troldesh decryption tool?

Before you go off and run this expected tool on your victimized computer as soon as it comes out, check if your encrypted files have one of these extensions:

• xtbl
• ytbl
• breaking_bad
• heisenberg
• better_call_saul
• los_pollos
• da_vinci_code
• magic_software_syndicate
• windows10
• windows8
• no_more_ransom
• tyson
• crypted000007
• crypted000078
• rsa3072
• decrypt_it
• dexter
• miami_california

If the file extensions from your affected system(s) do not match one on the list above, then your files are outside of the scope of this decryption tool. If you do find a match you should wait for the decryption tool to be published.

Why would this gang publish the Troldesh decryption keys?

The reason for all this is unknown and
subject to speculation. We can imagine a few different reasons. From not very
likely to credible.

• Maybe their conscience caught up with them. After all they do apologize to the victims. But these are only the victims that didn’t pay or were unable to recover their files despite paying the ransom.
• The Shade team may suspect that someone has breached their key vault and they were forced or decided on their own accord to publish the keys for that reason. But we have seen no claims to support that possibility.
• The profitability of the ransomware had reached its limit. Ransom.Troldesh has been around since 2014 and we saw a steep detection spike once the threat actors ventured outside of Russian targets in February of 2019. But after that initial spike the number of detections gradually faded out. It was still active and generating money though.

• The development of this ransomware
  has reached its technical limit and the team will focus on a new software
  project. The team stated to have stopped distribution in the end of 2019, but
  failed to let on what they are currently working on.

What we know

All we know for sure is that the keys have
been verified and a decryption tool is in the works. All the rest are
speculations based on a statement made on GitHub by an account by the name of “shade-team”
that joined GitHub on April 25^th, just prior to the statement.

Victims can keep their eyes peeled for the
release of the decryption tool. We’ll keep you posted.

Stay safe!

The post Threat actors release Troldesh decryption keys appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The cloud has become the standard for data storage. Just a few years ago, individuals and businesses pondered whether or not they should move to the cloud. This is now a question of the past. Today, the question isn’t whether to adopt cloud storage but rather how.

Despite its rapid pace of adoption, there are some lingering concerns around cloud storage. Perhaps the most persistent issue is the matter of cloud data security. With as much critical data as there is stored on the cloud, and with a “nebulous” grasp on exactly how it’s stored and who has access, how can people be sure it’s safe?

Growing cloud usage

Cloud usage has exploded in recent years. Five years ago, global cloud traffic was at 3,851 exabytes, a number which has since skyrocketed to more than 16,000 exabytes. As the functionality and connectivity of the Internet grows, cloud traffic will likely increase with it.

People store a vast amount of information on the cloud. It’s not just businesses hosting IT operations or client data on these platforms anymore. Individuals use services like OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud to store everything from tax documents to family photos.

With all this data so easily accessible on the cloud, privacy and data protection become more prevalent concerns. Where exactly is the data going and who can see it? If someone can access all of their documents, pictures and contacts instantly from their phone, can hackers just as easily obtain this information? There are more than 1 billion cloud users today who, if they don’t already know, should be asking themselves these questions and learning how to keep their cloud data private and secure.

Securing cloud data

Cloud storage may seem like a security threat at first glance, but it can offer superior security over other methods for businesses. So, what about individuals? By taking the right steps towards careful cloud usage, people can be sure their data is safe.

Keep local backups

The
first step in cloud data protection is locally backing up data. Storing things
on the cloud offers greater convenience and utility, making it an ideal primary
option, but it’s essential to back up important files. Having backups on a
local storage device like a flash drive or server ensures files are safe in the
event of a breach.

Use the cloud judiciously

Users
should be mindful of what kinds of data they store on the cloud. As secure as
modern cloud storage is, there’s no such thing as being too careful. Most files
are fine to keep anywhere, but sensitive information like bank info or Social
Security numbers are best left offline.

Use encryption

Encryption is one of the most helpful methods of securing any digitally stored data. By encrypting files before uploading them to the cloud, users can ensure that the files are safe even from their cloud provider. Some providers offer varying levels of encryption services, but third-party software provides another layer of protection.

Read the terms of service

Most
people skip over the terms of service, but this can be a security risk. If
someone agrees to terms they didn’t read, they could legally give their cloud
service provider more rights over their data than they realize. It can seem
like a tedious task, but reading user agreements highlights what a company can
and can’t do with data on their platforms.

Use good password hygiene

One of the simplest ways to bolster cloud data security is by using a strong password. Hackers can crack 90 percent of passwords in a matter of seconds because the vast majority of people prefer easy-to-remember passwords over strong ones, and a disappointing number of people choose passwords like “123456” or “password” to protect their online info.

The advice here is simple: Create a unique, long password that includes special characters, numbers, and letters. On top of that, change your password every few months to better improve your security. Do not share your password via email or text, and do not use easily identifiable information in your password, like your birthdate or address.

Multi-factor
authentication further secures the login process. Most cloud providers should
have the option to turn on two-step verification so that users need more than
just a password to access their data. This function ensures that even if a
hacker cracks the password, they still can’t get into the server.

Protect yourself from cyberthreats

Antivirus programs are an essential part of all computer-based functions, including cloud storage. Some forms of malware like keyloggers can give hackers entry into protected systems without users realizing it. By using a cloud provider with built-in antivirus software, third-party antivirus software or both, users can ensure they’re safe from these threats.

Common security mistakes

Quite often, the most significant threat to cloud data protection is improper use. In the corporate sphere, more than 40 percent of data breaches are the result of employee errors. No matter how many safety features a system has, user mistakes can always jeopardize security.

One
of the most common cloud security mistakes is poor password handling. People
use weak or repeated passwords, don’t change them or even list passwords on
unsecured online documents, putting their information at risk. Users can avoid
this by using strong passwords and changing them periodically.

Data
breaches are not as substantial a problem if there is no sensitive data at
risk. To avoid essential or private information from leaking or being stolen,
the most secure practice is to store these somewhere other than the cloud.
People should use cloud storage for things they need to access frequently, but
not for things like credit card numbers.

Finally, many people also fall victim to phishing or pharming scams. Users can easily avoid these by never clicking suspicious links or giving out personal information to an unknown source.

With
robust security measures and a healthy dose of general internet safety
guidelines, cloud storage can be as secure as any other option on the market.

The post Cloud data protection: how to secure what you store in the cloud appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs and around the Internet. In addition, we talk to JP Taggart, senior security researcher at Malwarebytes, about VPNs—debunking their myths, explaining their actual capabilities, and providing some advice on what makes a strong VPN.

Tune in for all this and more on the latest episode of Lock and Code, with host David Ruiz.

You can also find us on the Apple iTunes store, on Google Play Music, plus whatever preferred podcast platform you use.

We cover our own research on:

• The passwordless present: Will biometrics replace passwords forever?
• iOS Mail bug allows remote zero-click attacks
• Introduction of Malwarebytes Privacy
• TBD: Prepare for changes in the software you use and the security implications

Plus other cybersecurity news:

• What a deal: details of 267 Million Facebook users for 500 Euros. (Source: Medium.com)
• Smart IoT home hubs are vulnerable to remote code execution attacks. (Source: ZDNet)
• Automated bots are increasingly scraping data and attempting logins. (Source: DarkReading)
• A new Android trojan targets banking customers with overlay attacks. (Source: ThreatPost)
• Severe vulnerability in OpenSSL allows DoS attacks. (Source: SecurityWeek)
• Vivaldi adds built-in tracker and ad blocker to latest browser version. (Source: TechSpot)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Lock and Code S1Ep5: Mythbusting and understanding VPNs with JP Taggart appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Here at Malwarebytes, we’re no strangers to using virtual private networks (VPNs) to protect our privacy while browsing online. Regular readers of our blog will remember that we’ve advised on VPN usage on many occasions, whether for mobile device users looking for anonymity or business owners wanting additional authentication protocols. We believe VPNs are an essential part of layered protection that users should deploy against threats to both devices and personal data.

One important note we consistently emphasize is that it’s important to choose a VPN that does what it promises and doesn’t abuse your data. To make that choice a little easier, we’ve developed our own VPN that Malwarebytes users can trust to protect your data and privacy every time you go online. To that end, we proudly present: Malwarebytes Privacy.

What is Malwarebytes Privacy?

Malwarebytes Privacy is a next-gen VPN that helps protect
your privacy and your personal information when you go online. Our VPN secures
your connection, keeping your online activity private and protected. All your
traffic travels through an encrypted tunnel to our VPN servers, then onward to the
website you are visiting. This way, websites see the VPN’s identity instead of
yours. Any information that your ISP saves cannot be tied to you.

Most importantly, Malwarebytes Privacy does not collect user
logs or telemetry data whatsoever. Your data remains private—even from us.

What makes Malwarebytes Privacy next gen?

If you have used other VPNs in the past, you may have
experienced a serious slow-down of your Internet traffic. This is a logical
consequence of tunneling through a remote server. But if you compare
Malwarebytes Privacy to other VPNs, you will experience a smoother flow of
traffic that is much faster than traditional VPNs.

Not only does Malwarebytes improve your Internet speed compared to other VPNs. It also:

• Doesn’t slow down your computer
• Shows less battery usage for portable devices
• Uses best-in-class 256-bit AES encryption

As VPNs move from the workplace to the home, Malwarebytes
Privacy uses the latest technology to give users better performance and privacy
online.

Why use a VPN at all?

Every time you go online, corporations, advertisers, and
hackers are trying to eavesdrop on you. In a world that is more connected that
ever before, having a VPN is like having your own personal Internet connection.
By using a VPN, you can change your Internet-facing IP to a location of your
choice, masking your true server address and hiding your online activity from
those who try to profit from it.

Malwarebytes Privacy streamlines this process down to a
single click. Its intuitive interface shows the most important information
about your Internet connection in an easy-to-read dashboard, such as:

• Whether the VPN is on or off
• Which server location is selected
• Your actual IP address vs. the IP address being displayed

Using best-in-class encryption, Malwarebytes Privacy also
helps protect your personal information from cybercriminals—without collecting
any of your browsing or online activity data itself. As an added bonus, with
over 180 servers in more than 30 countries, our VPN offers users the potential to
view different, localized content around the Internet.

How to get Malwarebytes Privacy

The Malwarebytes Privacy user guide covers the basics of the program and can be found on our support pages. There you can find out how to download and install our VPN, activate the program, connect to a private server, and other functions. You can also configure program settings, check your account details, and seek in-app help.

For more information about Malwarebytes Privacy, take a look at our dedicated webpage for the VPN.

Stay safe and stay private, everyone!

The post Introducing Malwarebytes Privacy appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.