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According to management, the main reasons for expanding cybersecurity in companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are the increasing awareness of economic consequences. On average, 10 percent of companies in the DACH region also stated that they had not made any investments in cybersecurity in recent years. According to current figures from the Sophos Management Study, the threat of economic damage from cyberattacks is the main reason for investing in cyber protection. Managers in Germany and Austria cite awareness of the economic consequences of cyberattacks as the main reason for investing, with 23,4 percent (D) and 24 percent (AUT) respectively.
macOS devices are increasingly being targeted by cyber criminals - most recently the AMOS infostealer family was noticed, which is responsible for more than 50 percent of all attacks on the Apple operating system. Rumors also suggest that the criminals want to expand their target area to iOS. It has long been believed that the macOS operating system is less vulnerable to malware than Windows. This may be due to its lower market dominance and various security features that require different approaches from malware developers. It was assumed that only unconventional attacks and malware had a chance here...
The number of compromised backups and data encryption rates due to ransomware in the education sector have increased compared to the previous year. The recovery costs after an attack were even double and four times as high, respectively. These are the results of the report The State of Ransomware in Education 2024. According to the latest figures from the Sophos report The State of Ransomware in Education 2024, educational institutions are still at high risk from ransomware and its effects. Compared to the previous year, ransomware attacks on organizations in the lower education sector (schools) have increased from 80 percent to 63 percent and in the upper education sector (universities)...
During an investigation into a Qilin ransomware attack, the Sophos X-Ops team found that the attackers were stealing credentials stored in Google Chrome browsers on certain network endpoints. The Qilin group, which has been active for over two years, gained access through compromised credentials and manipulated group policies to run a PowerShell script to collect Chrome credentials. These scripts were activated when users logged in to collect the data. Attackers collect credentials using PowerShell script The cybercriminals used the PowerShell script to collect credentials from networked endpoints and were able to avoid the lack of…
The ransomware group "Mad Liberator" uses Anydesk as a bridge to get into corporate networks. Sophos X-Ops reveals details of the attack and provides tips for better protection against these attacks. The Sophos X-Ops Incident Response Team has investigated the tactics of the ransomware group "Mad Liberator". This group is a new threat actor that first appeared on the scene in mid-July 2024. In the new report "Don't get Mad, get wise", Sophos X-Ops looks at the attack techniques used by this group in connection with the popular remote access application Anydesk. The security specialists also give tips on how...
Companies in the KRITIS energy and water sectors have a significantly higher attack rate of 67 percent than the global average (59 percent). 55 percent needed more than a month to recover after the attack. Findings from the Sophos report "The State of Ransomware in Critical Infrastructure 2024". The results of its industry study entitled "The State of Ransomware in Critical Infrastructure 2024" speak for themselves: the water, energy, oil and gas sectors are among the sixteen critical infrastructure sectors defined by CISA, which are examined in more detail in the study. Recovery costs of 2,8...
Almost half of companies have security problems due to overlooked warnings. A survey shows that 43 percent of respondents admitted that there were cyber attacks that were reported by the system but not noticed or processed. Effective cyber security is only achieved when the numerous messages and alarms from the installed systems are registered and, above all, responded to competently. According to a recent survey by Sophos, however, the necessary overview and response does not seem to be guaranteed in 43 percent of companies. Techconsult surveyed a total of 200 IT managers in Germany on behalf of Sophos....
The current cyber insurance report from Sophos shows that around three-quarters of all companies are improving their defenses against network attacks. Not only for themselves, but also to qualify for cyber insurance. Since the recovery costs exceed the insurance coverage, insurers are now placing high demands on policyholders. The current Sophos report "Cyber Insurance and Cyber Defenses 2024: Lessons from IT and Cybersecurity Leaders" shows interesting results. It reveals that 97 percent of companies with a cyber policy have invested in their defense measures to support the insurance. 76 percent say that this has qualified them for...
When backups become a problem in a ransomware attack: Cyber criminals also target backups for encryption. Why? Because this creates even more extortion pressure and doubles the ransom amounts. The financial and operational impact of a ransomware attack is bad enough. However, if cyber criminals also manage to damage or encrypt the backups, there is a high probability that a company will have to pay around twice as much ransom. According to a study by Sophos of 2.974 IT/cybersecurity decision-makers in 14 countries, the total cost of recovery is eight times higher than with...
Experts show 6 methods that security professionals should know: They can be used to extract data from encrypted, virtual hard drives. These are important techniques for the cyber task force to recover information from locked virtual drives. In the event of data encryption by ransomware, "incident responders" and task forces must act quickly and efficiently to extract as much data as possible, for example from an encrypted virtual machine. The current Sophos report State of Ransomware 2024 once again underlines how important specialist knowledge and the right approach are: 58 percent of German companies were affected by ransomware last year and...
