Ransomware: What to do?

What to do?

Here are some links we think you’ll find useful:

• To defend against ransomware in general, see our article How to stay protected against ransomware.
• To protect against JavaScript attachments, tell Explorer to open .JS files with Notepad.
• To protect against misleading filenames, tell Explorer to show file extensions.
• To protect against VBA malware, tell Office not to allow macros in documents from the internet.
• To learn more about ransomware, listen to our Techknow podcast.

Eight years’ worth of police evidence wiped out in ransomware attack

Ransomeware is such a big problem these days causing havoc wherever it can. In this Naked Security article Sophos discusses how a Texas police force lost a year's worth of digital evidence by getting hit by ransom ware attack in December and refusing to pay the ransom. In their attempt to clean up the systems that were infected they wiped out data that they had no backups for. This digital evidence is gone forever. Had they had in place a backup system set up for disaster recovery, and/or security measures like Sophos’s Intercept X, Sophos Central Server Advanced Protection, Sophos Central EndPoint Advanced Protection they would have had a good chance of not losing anything. That wasn’t the case!

See more information on why this happened.

It is not just your IoT's that can get you into trouble with the LAW!

A recent article in Naked Security how gentleman's pacemaker information may help to convict him of setting a fire in his own home. It shows how so much of our lives now is being recorded by different types of devices and in so many different locations that it is hard to stay off of the grid. With this being said, it makes you wonder how people think that they can get away with illegal acts. Remember, Big Brother is watching!

.

Sophos XG Firewall 16.5 Release Info

Sophos XG Firewall from Sophos on Vimeo.

You can also continue reading on our product pages about new features and what’s new in the latest release.

• Sophos XG Firewall Brochure
• Datasheet
• Advanced Persistent Threats Whitepaper

Sonos’s New CEO Wants To Connect With Alexa, Google And All Services That Matter.

Patrick Spence, Sonos new CEO, has a new mission: Keep Sonos alive in the face of the innovative disruption from the rest of the industry. Amazon’s Alexa and now Google’s Home Products are part of this competition invading the networked speaker environment. Sonos is a manufacturer of home speaker systems that have their own unique connectivity. Instead of embracing standards they have stood alone with their products not interfacing with other manufacturers products.

The Alexa is a good example of this type of device providing more than just sound, but services as well to access information or purchasing merchandise. Integrating this product with internet programming like IFTTT provides an extension to personalize its services.

So if Patrick Spence gets his way, Sonos will be connecting to these other devices that are exploding onto the market. I hope so.

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/8/30/12709452/sonos-amazon-alexa-announced

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/business/sonos-john-macfarlane-ceo.html?_r=0

Sophos PAC Trip to Burlington

We had a great time driving up to and back from our trip to Burlington, MA. Besides the meeting Kathy and I visited Salem, Marblehead, Rockport, Gloucester, Concord, Lexington, Manchester-by-the-Sea and Cape Ann areas. I have posted images up to most of my picture sites but you can take a look at them at SmugMug here.

Sophos Intercept X

Yesterday Sophos announced the availability of a new product to the security product line. Sophos Launches Next Generation of Anti-Exploit and Anti-Ransomware Technology With Sophos Intercept X. 

Sophos Intercept X combines four critical security components that IT administrators should expect from next-generation endpoint protection.

• Signatureless Threat and Exploit Detection: Anti-malware and anti-hacker defense that blocks zero-day, unknown and memory resident attacks and threat variants without the need for file scanning
• CryptoGuard: Anti-ransomware innovation that identifies and intercepts malicious encryption activity, blocks ransomware before it can lock and cripple systems and can roll back maliciously encrypted files to their pre-attack state
• Root Cause Analytics: A 360 degree visual analysis of attack events that shows where the attack came in, what it affected, where it may have stopped and recommended actions to prevent a similar attack in the future
• Sophos Clean: Powerful utility that hunts for and removes any trace of spyware and deeply embedded, lingering malware

Sophos Intercept X–Sophos Information Page

https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/intercept-x.aspx

Stop Ransomware Before it Takes Your Files Hostage

Ransomware is the #1 malware attack affecting organizations today. It encrypts your files and holds them hostage until the ransom is paid, causing massive disruption to business productivity.
Sophos Intercept features CryptoGuard, which prevents the malicious spontaneous encryption of data by all forms of ransomware – even trusted files or processes that have been hijacked. And once ransomware gets intercepted, CryptoGuard reverts your files back to their safe states.

Ransomware Paper

Naked Security Post: NIST’s new password rules – what you need to know

by Chester Wisniewski

It’s no secret. We’re really bad at passwords. Nevertheless, they aren’t going away any time soon.

With so many websites and online applications requiring us to create accounts and think up passwords in a hurry, it’s no wonder so many of us struggle to follow the advice of so-called password security experts.

At the same time, the computing power available for password cracking just gets bigger and bigger.

OK, so I started with the bad news, but this cloud does have a silver lining.

It doesn’t need to be as hard as we make it and the government is here to help.

That’s right, the United States National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is formulating new guidelines for password policies to be used in the whole of the US government (the public sector).

Why is this important? Because the policies are sensible and a great template for all of us to use within our own organizations and application development programs.

Anyone interested in the draft specification for Special Publication 800-63-3: Digital Authentication Guidelines can review it as it evolves over on Github or in a more accessible form on NIST’s website.

For a more human approach, security researcher Jim Fenton did a presentation earlier this month at the PasswordsCon event in Las Vegas that sums up the changes nicely.

To see what is new click here

Yahoo ordered to show how it recovered ‘deleted’ emails in drug case – Naked Security

Interesting reading about Yahoo recovering supposedly deleted files from their servers for a U.K. drug case. It makes you wonder what else is available that can be handed over to the government to prosecute you. I am not totally unhappy that these drug dealers information was made available for prosecution, however, this may be a real issue for the general private market out there. Just something to think about!

If this is peak your interest you can read more here.

Have you ever had a cell phone stolen?

CTIA members of the Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Committee have met their voluntary commitment to make antitheft tools available for free on all new mobile phones manufactured after July 2016 for sale in the US. This covers most of the phones that are manufactured for sale in the US.

The first phase of this commitm you ent plan called for the antitheft tools to be installed on all handsets offered for sale after July 2015 in the US. The second phase called for new handset models sold after July 2016 in the US to give authorized users the ability to disable the antitheft tools anytime they want to, as long as the device is still connected and still in the authorized user's possession.

So if you don't like being tracked by your cell phone the ability to turn off this feature is a big boon.

For more information from naked security on the subject click here.

Secure messaging app Telegram leaks anything pasted in to it – Naked Security

While this more of an old story than a new one since a patch for the issue has already been issued, the information that Naked Security discussed was interesting an if you are a Mac user and you are worried about security issues this would be something to consider. Read More Here.

Another posting for Sysadmin’s Day from Naked Security

Feeling under appreciated, needing a little help? Want to get a little something for talking about your favorite issue?

Here is good way to compensate. Find a little humor with the Sysadmin foolproof flowchart guide on fixing any computer problem. After you stop laughing send in one of your many experiences and get a free IT Survival Kit.

Protect Data Everywhere, Automatically

Sophos SafeGuard encrypts content as soon as it’s created. And with the encryption always on, you can enjoy seamless secure collaboration. Synchronized Encryption proactively protects your data by continuously validating the user, application, and security integrity of a device before allowing access to encrypted data.

Looking for an encryption solution?

If you’re considering a new encryption solution we highly recommend you take a look at Sophos. Their solution is easy to deploy, manage and use. Sophos has been named as ‘The Breakout Star’ in Forrester Encryption Wave 2015 and recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection. Find out more [link to https://www.sophos.com/en-us/lp/encryption-dance.aspx#encryption-made-simple]

Is encryption the Achilles heel in your data protection strategy?

Get the free whitepaper from Sophos and bust 6 common encryption myths including system performance and key management. Download now [link to https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/security-news-trends/whitepapers/gated-wp/deciphering-the-code.aspx]

See how a hacker can strike through unsecured Wi-Fi and gain access to your login details and sensitive files. Then watch the same scenario with Sophos SafeGuard encryption in place and see the same sensitive files become unreadable and unusable to the hacker. Watch now [link to https://www.sophos.com/en-us/lp/encryption-dance.aspx#encryption-isnt-complicated]

Sophos Revisits AFF

AFF (Advanced Funds Fraud) is something that has been around for centuries. Today we see it involving Email solicitations often coming from the stellar Country of Nigeria. Sophos has made several ads the of highlight the absurdity of such solicitations. I hope that you enjoy them and take held to believing that you are going to be the special person picked out of millions that can become an instant millionaire.

A Nigerian scam, old-school style!

How to stay protected against ransomware

Here is a Sophos Whitepaper describing ways to protect yourself and your organization against ransomware attacks.

This document explains how to react quickly and effectively to the threats posed by ransomware such as Cryptowall, TeslaCrypt and Locky.

It first details the mechanisms that these infections use to find their way into companies and why a large number of new infections continue to surface despite existing protective measures.

It then provides practical recommendations to protect against them, showing how these threats can be tackled using short-term and longterm technical
and organizational measures.

It also includes optimal configuration settings for Sophos solutions to protect against ransomware.

Have you thought about Cyber Insurance?

When putting together all of the pieces that you need to be able to recover from a security attack have you left anything out? It might be Cyber insurance.

When we are designing a system to mitigate the harm from a Cyber Attack we look at multiple factors. First you need a solid firewall that is being updated to keep its security functions as current as possible. Secondly you need protection on your workstations with malware/antivirus protection (endpoint protection). If you choose the right vendor and the right products from the right vendor you can have these two security points synchronizing their support. This provides an extra layer of protection that you don’t find in other vendor’s products. Sophos is the only company out their that has this kind of synchronized security and the integration of all the products providing this is just on the horizon.

Second, you need a backup solution that provides a full image of your network. This allows you to dial back time to be able to restore to a point that dates prior to your attack/infection. If you don’t have this some of the attacks can cause you to do a full restore of the system and to then have to recreate your data if you don’t have it backed up.

So how do you pay for all of this labor to get you back to normal after an attack. Along comes Cyber Insurance. What is Cyber Insurance? I was reading an article from TechCrunch that defined it as follows:

Cyber insurance is a sub-category within the general insurance industry, offering products and services designed to protect businesses from internet-based risks. Although forms of cyber insurance policies have been around for the past 10 years, market awareness has recently increased exponentially, in part because of the headline-grabbing cyber breaches that have hit almost every industry.

Asking your Insurance Company about Cyber Insurance may cause you to look into increasing you front line defenses before they will cover you. You will need to comply with their basic security requirements before they write the policy. This will be an additional expense to you to become compliant. So it is important to choose the right products and be doing the right procedures to ensure that you are providing yourself the best security that you can.

This is why security has become one of our main focal points. It is really getting scary out there.

For more information on Sophos Synchronized Security down these papers:

• How to Stay Protected against Ransomware
• Sophos Server Protection
• Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Explained
• Security Heartbeat
• Synchronized Security and Security Heartbeat
• Synchronized Security: A Revolution in Protection

Sophos SFOS 15.01.0 MR-3 Released

Our own Matt Shafer just posted to us that Sophos has just pushed out a new maintenance release for the XG firewall, including a number of fixes for open issues.

Please direct your customers to the Sophos Community Blog for XG Firewall to review the release notes and share their feedback.

As a reminder, our communications plan for all maintenance releases like this is to publish notifications and release notes on the Sophos Community Blog, so we encourage everyone, such as yourselves and customers, to subscribe to the blog – you'll get immediate notifications via email whenever an XG Firewall or UTM firmware update is available. Complete instructions on how to subscribe are located in this blog article.

Download full release notes: Sophos XG Firewall V15.0.1.0 MR3 Release Notes.pdf

If you’re wondering how to do firmware updates or roll-backs on your XG Firewall, we’ve got a new video for you, covering everything you need to know to keep your firewall up to date.

Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is now available

Security made simple.

Product Notification   Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is now available Dear Customer, We’re pleased to announce that the new Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is now available for download and upgrade. With new management of Windows 10 computers, Apple DEP (Device Enrollment Program) support, improved email and document containers, and much more, Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is an even better EMM solution for businesses that want to spend less time and effort to manage and secure mobile devices. For more information about what’s new, please see the knowledgebase article New features in SMC 6.1. Best regards, Your Sophos Team   Getting too many emails? Visit the Preference Center and receive the content you want or unsubscribe. © 2016 Sophos Inc. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy 3 Van de Graaff Drive, Burlington, MA 01803.

Email Spoofing...Yes it is a real life problem.

One of my friends, Michelle Drolet fom Towerwall, Inc. just posted an interesting article about Email Spoofing and how the Sophos Product Reflexion Total Control can help prevent this issue.

You can find the entire article here.

Reflexion Total Control provides quite a few ways for dealing with controlling SPAM and other email problems. Take a look at a quick list of features here. To purchase, find out more on the product or to have us setup a trial be sure to contact us.