In the spotlight this week: The cyber-extortion landscape has shown real signs of strength and advancement in the past three months: Many operations have been deploying ransomware (including new variants), but the use of denial of service (DoS) or data breaches in ransom attacks has also been increasingly reported. The method of combining two discrete attack methods to increase the probability of a successful extortion was apparently pioneered by operators of the “Maze” ransomware, and has spread to other cybercriminals and types of ransomware. Given the high profitability of ransomware attacks, especially those incorporating data breaches, they are likely to persist.

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A user of the cybercriminal forum RaidForums has offered 533 million records of Facebook user data for only a few US dollars.

Insurance provider CNA Financial has announced it was targeted in a cyber attack, later confirmed as involving the newly identified “Phoenix Cryptolocker” ransomware.

The new Internet of Things (IoT) botnet ZHtrap has been turning devices it has infected into honeypots, in a novel technique that highlights yet another risk presented by exposed IoT devices.

Four zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Servers have been linked to more than 30,000 cyber attacks taking place in the week following their discovery.

A new round of software attacks has raised another red flag concerning supply-chain security and the prevalence of third-party supply-chain targeting.

The French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) identified a new “Ryuk” ransomware variant that has the capability to self-propagate across victim networks.

The People’s Republic of China-linked advanced persistent threat group “APT31” reportedly cloned and deployed a zero-day exploit developed by NSA's Equation Group in 2013.

An unidentified attacker accessed the computer systems of a water treatment facility in the US, altering sodium hydroxide levels in the potable water supply.

Following the disclosure of the SolarWinds supply-chain compromise in December 2020, details continue to emerge about the scale of the attack.

The North Korean advanced persistent threat (APT) group “ZINC” has been targeting cyber-security professionals with social engineering that leads to malware delivery.

A new web portal is aiding cyber-threat incident responders by detailing vulnerabilities in popular malware.

Technical analysis of a cyber-threat campaign using the dangerous and widespread “Lokibot” malware has revealed an updated method being used to conduct sophisticated attacks.

A cyber-security firm released a free decryptor for the popular and sophisticated “DarkSide” ransomware.

The cyber-security industry learned some valuable lessons during the unique and unprecedented year of 2020.

The notorious Automated Vending Cart (AVC) website Joker’s Stash allegedly displayed a notification that the site was seized by law-enforcement agencies.

SolarWinds confirmed that its network management system, Orion Platform, was exploited to conduct a highly sophisticated, manual supply-chain attack.

A global spearphishing campaign targeted organizations associated with a COVID-19 vaccine cold chain.

A threat actor recently hijacked a vulnerable WordPress website set up by a security researcher.

The operators of the “RagnarLocker” ransomware began an advertising campaign on Facebook to further extort the victim of one of their recent attacks.

“CostaRicto” has become the fourth cyber-mercenary group to be discovered in 2020.