Threat Lab

For many MSPs, integrating their security solution with their remote monitoring and management (RMM) and professional service automation (PSA) platforms is essential for doing business. Together, these platforms help lower the cost of keeping up with each client, ensuring profitable margins for a healthy, growing business.

For true providers of IT services—MSPs that sell services rather than licenses and take a holistic approach to client IT health—RMM and PSA integrations are critical for keeping track of hundreds or even thousands of unique endpoints and automating recurring operations for numerous clients.

Like many of the other features of our security solutions, our RMM and PSA integrations are custom-built with the needs of MSPs in mind. They’re designed to help MSPs create the most efficient, well-oiled versions of their businesses possible so that service is prompt, solutions are effective, and profit is preserved.   

Here’s what you should expect from your RMM and PSA security integrations:

1. Faster rollouts- One of the core benefits of RMM-assisted deployments, expect rollouts to new endpoints to be fast and hassle-free with well-designed integrations. New endpoints should be easy to set up with protection turned on in just a few clicks.
2. Simplified management- Efficiency is key to profitability. So a centralized dashboard displaying what’s running, what’s broken and how, infection statuses, endpoints requiring attention, and more helps increase the number of endpoints a single technician can manage, boosting efficiency and, ultimately, profitability. 
3. The data you need- The best RMM and PSA integrations make it possible to get the data you need to run a successful business. Whether it’s per-client data for calculating a client’s cost to you, information on policy settings for sites and endpoints, or additional reporting delivered to clients to promote peace-of-mind, having access to allof your data empowers decision-making. 

Integrations don’t have to end there

Integrating disparate products can be a laborious, time-intensive process. For that reason, many security vendors are reluctant to coordinate too closely with customers to automate functions unique to their businesses. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Advanced plugins and tools allow for complete customization of dashboards, reporting, and data tracking. Each can be customized to track the metrics most useful to the organization. Critical processes, like issuing periodic reports, can be fully automated. This can be extremely beneficial when it comes to communicating with customers. Weekly or monthly reports demonstrate that, despite a lack of any major security incidents, it wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of cybercriminals. 

More than simply allowing different business platforms to talk to one another, integration plugins can be used for running commands and performing actions. This includes creating, modifying, or deleting licenses, removing duplicate endpoints, or quickly creating new console sites. 

Insist on better integrations

So when considering which cybersecurity vendor offers the most for your MSP, consider not only whether the solution allows you to communicate with your RMM and PSA platforms, but also how deeply. Does the vendor have a dedicated integrations team? Do they offer tools for the customization of business-specific reporting? Can essential, recurring business processes be automated?

The answers to the questions above will help you determine how much value RMM and PSA integrations add for your business. In a market where margins can be razor thin and built-in efficiencies can make or break the bottom line, the answers may make all the difference.

SMBs are overconfident about their cybersecurity posture.

A survey of SMBs conducted by 451 Research found that in the preceding 24 months, 71% of respondents experienced a breach or attack that resulted in operational disruption, reputational damage, significant financial losses or regulatory penalties. At the same time, 49% of the SMBs surveyed said that cybersecurity is a low priority for their business, and 90% believe they have the appropriate security technologies in place. Clearly, SMBs are not correctly evaluating cybersecurity risk.

Many of us can relate – each day we ignore obvious signs that point to a reality that is in direct contrast to our beliefs. For example, as each year passes, most of us get a little slower, muscles ache that never ached before, we get a bit softer around the middle, and we hold our reading material farther away. Yet, we are convinced we could take on an NBA player in a game of one-on-one or complete the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course on the first try. 

While it’s unlikely that most of us can make the improvements needed to compete with elite athletes, the same can’t be said for enterprise cybersecurity. The journey is not an easy one given the security talent vacuum, a lack of domain understanding at the executive level, and the complexity of implementing a long-term, metric-based strategy. But, if you are an SMB struggling to run up and down the proverbial court, here are five things you should consider when building a better security practice:

1.   Experienced staff are valuable, but expensive, assets. 

Although enterprise cybersecurity is a 24/7/365 effort requiring a full roster of experienced professionals, many SMB cybersecurity teams are underequipped to handle the constant deluge of alert notifications, let alone the investigation or remediation processes. In fact, only 23% of survey respondents plan to add staff to their security teams in the coming year. For many SMBs, the security staffing struggles may get worse as 87% reported difficulties in retaining existing security professionals. To fill this gap, SMBs are increasingly turning to MSPs and MSSPs to provide the expertise and resources needed to protect their organizations around the clock.

2.   Executives understand what is at stake, but not what action to take. 

As the threat landscape becomes more treacherous, regulatory requirements multiply, and security incidents become more common, executives at SMBs have become more acutely aware of the business impact of security incidents – most are feeling an urgency to strengthen organizational cybersecurity. However, acknowledging the problem is only the first step of the process. Executives need to interface with their internal security teams, industry experts and MSPs in order to fully understand their organization’s risk portfolio and design a long-term cybersecurity strategy that integrates with business objectives.

3.   Security awareness training (SAT) is low-hanging fruit (if done right). 

According to the 451 Research Voice of the Enterprise: Information Security: Workloads and Key Projects survey, 62% of SMBs said they have a SAT program in place, but 50% are delivering SAT on their own using ‘homegrown’ methods and materials. It should be no surprise that many SMBs described their SAT efforts as ineffective. MSPs are increasingly offering high-quality, comprehensive SAT for a variety of compliance and regulatory frameworks such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, ISO, GDPR and GLBA. SMBs looking to strengthen their security posture should look to partner with these MSPs for security awareness training.

4.   Securing now means securing for the future. 

The future of IT architecture will span both private and public clouds. This hybrid- and multi-cloud infrastructure represents a significant challenge for SMBs that require a cybersecurity posture that is both layered and scalable. SMBs need to understand and consider long-term trends when evaluating their current cybersecurity strategy. With this aim in mind, SMBs can turn to MSPs and MSSPs with the experience and toolsets necessary for securing these types of complex environments. 

5.   A metrics-based security approach is needed for true accountability. 

In a rush to shore up organizational security, SMBs might make the all-too-common mistake of equating money spent with security gained. To be clear: spending not backed by strategy and measurement only enhances security posture on the margins, if at all. To get the most bang for each buck, SMBs need to build an accountable security system predicated on quantifiable metrics.Again, this is an area where SMBs can partner with MSPs and MSSPs. This serves as an opportunity to develop cybersecurity strategy with measurable KPIs to ensure security gains are maintained over time. MSPs can help SMBs define the most applicable variables for their IT architectures, whether it be incident response rate, time-to-response or other relevant metrics.

The strategic reevaluation of organizational security is a daunting task for any organization, but given the risks SMBs face and their tendency to be underprepared, it is a necessary challenge. These key points of consideration for SMBs embarking on this critical journey underscore the importance of building an accountable and forward-looking security system and highlight the ways in which SMBs can work alongside MSP or MSSP partners to implement the right cybersecurity system for their organizations. I hope this will be the wake-up call all SMBs need to unleash their inner cybersecurity all-star.

If you’re interested in learning more about how other SMBs are approaching cybersecurity, read my report Security Services Fueling Growth for MSPs.

Amazon User Receives Thousands of Alexa-Recorded Messages

Upon requesting all his user data from Amazon, one user promptly received over 1,700 recorded messages from an Alexa device. Unfortunately, the individual didn’t own such a device. The messages were from a device belonging to complete stranger, and some of them could have easily been used to find the identity of the recorded person. While Amazon did offer the victim a free Prime membership, it’s cold comfort, as these devices are constantly recording and uploading everyday details about millions of users. 

San Diego School District Hacked

In a recent phishing scheme, hackers successfully gained the trust of a San Diego Unified School Districtemployee and obtained credentials to a system that contained student, parent, and staff data from the past decade. The database mostly consisted of personal data for over half a million individuals, but also included student course schedules and even payroll information for the District’s staff. 

Data Breach Affects Hundreds of Coffee Shops

Attackers were able to access payment data for 265 Caribou Coffee shopsacross the United States. The breach could affect any customers who made purchases between the end of August 2018 and the first week of December. The company recommends that any customers who may have visited any of their locations across 11 states engage a credit monitoring service to help avoid possible fraud.

FBI Shuts Down DDoS-for-Hire Sites

At least 15 DDoS-for-Hire siteshave been taken down in a recent sweep by the U.S. Justice Department, and three site operators are currently awaiting charges. Some of the sites had been operating for more than 4 years and were responsible for over 200,000 DDoS attacks across the globe. This is the second in a series of government-led cyberattack shutdowns over the last year. 

Email Scam Offers Brand New BMW for Personal Info

A new email scam is informing victims that they’ve just won a 2018 BMW M240iand over $1 million dollars, which they can easily claim if they provide their name and contact information. Victims who provide their contact details are then contacted directly and asked to give additional information, such as their social security number and credit or bank card details. If you receive this email or one like it, we recommend you delete it immediately, without opening it. 

Facebook API Bug Reveals Photos from 6.8 Million Users

Facebook announced this week that an API bug had been found that allowed third-party apps to access all user photos, rather than only those posted to their timeline. The vulnerability was only available for 12 days in mid-September, but could still impact up to 6.8 million users who had granted apps access to their photos in that time.

Children’s Charity Falls Victim to Email Scam

Over $1 million was recently diverted from a children’s charity organization after hackers were able to gain access to an internal email account and begin creating false documents and invoices. Due to a lack of additional authentication measures, the funds were promptly transferred to a Japanese bank account, though insurance was able to compensate for most of the loss after the scam was finally discovered.

Email Extortion Scams Now Include Hitmen

The latest in a series of email extortion campaigns promises its victims will be executed by a hitman if a Bitcoin ransom of $4,000 isn’t paid within 38 hours. Given such poorly executed scare tactics, it comes as no surprise that the payment account has still not received any funds after several days. Hopefully, as the threats of violence leads to victims contacting law enforcement rather than paying the scammers, these types of scams will become more rare.

Hackers Force Printers to Spam PewDiePie Message

Nearly 50,000 printers around the world have been spamming out a message suggesting subscribing to PewDiePie on YouTube and recommending the recipient improve their printer security. The group behind the spam has stated they want to raise awareness of the real threat of unsecured devices connected to the internet and how they can be used maliciously. In addition to sending print-outs, attackers could also steal data being printed or modify documents while they are being printed.

Cybersecurity Audit Shows Major Vulnerabilities in U.S. Missile Systems

A recent report showed that U.S. ballistic missile defense systems have consistently failed security audits for the past five years. Some of the major flaws included a lack of encryption for data stored on removable devices, patches reported in previous years that remained untouched, and the regular use of single-factor authentication for entire facilities. Physical security issues that could leave highly-sensitive data exposed to anyone willing to simply try to access it were also detailed in the report.

Touch ID Used to Scam Apple Users

Two apps were recently removed from the Apple App Store after several users reported being charged large sums of money after installing the app and scanning their fingerprint. Both apps were fitness-related and had users scan their fingerprint immediately so they could monitor calories or track fitness progress. But the apps launched a payment confirmation pop-up with the user’s finger still on the device to charge any card on file for the account. Luckily, the apps were only available for a brief period before being removed and refunds issued.

Signet Jewelers Expose Customer Order Data

Signet Jewelers, the parent company for Kay and Jared jewelers, was informed last month by an independent researcher of a critical flaw in their online sites. By simply altering the hyperlink for an order confirmation email, the researcher was able to view another individual’s order, including personal payment and shipping information. While Signet resolved the issue for future orders, it took additional weeks to remedy the flaw for past orders.

WeChat Ransomware Hits over 100k Chinese Computers

In the five days since December began, a new ransomware variant dubbed WeChat Ransom has been spreading quickly across China. With over 100,000 computers currently infected and thousands more succumbing each day, WeChat has made a significant mark. Though it demands a ransom of only roughly $16 USD, the variant quickly begins encrypting the local environment and attempts to steal login credentials for several China-based online services. Fortunately, Tencent banned the QR code being used to send ransom payments and disabled the account tied to it.

Nearly 100 Million Users Compromised in Quora Breach

Servers containing sensitive information for nearly 100 million Quora.comusers were recently compromised by unknown hackers. In addition to personal information about users, any posts or messages sent over the service were also breached. While informing affected users of the leak, Quora stated that all password data they store was fully encrypted using bcrypt, which makes it considerably more expensive and time-consuming for the hackers to break the algorithms and obtain the data. 

Marriott Hotels Breach Leaves Half a Billion Users Vulnerable

In one of the largest data breaches to date, Marriott International is under fire for exposing the personal data of nearly 500 million individuals. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the hotel chain. For many victims, their names, home addresses, and even passport information was available on an unsecured server for nearly four years after the company merged with Starwood, whose reservation systems were already compromised.

At Webroot, we stay ahead of cybersecurity trends in order to keep our customers up-to-date and secure. As the end of the year approaches, our team of experts has gathered their top cybersecurity predictions for 2019. What threats and changes should you brace for?

General Data Protection Regulation Penalties

“A large US-based tech company will get hammered by the new GDPR fines.” – Megan Shields, Webroot Associate General Counsel

When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became law in the EU last May, many businesses scrambled to implement the required privacy protections. In anticipation of this challenge for businesses, it seemed as though the Data Protection Authorities (the governing organizations overseeing GDPR compliance) were giving them time to adjust to the new regulations. However, it appears that time has passed. European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli spoke with Reuters in October and said the time for issuing penalizations is near. With GDPR privacy protection responsibilities now incumbent upon large tech companies with millions—if not billions—of users, as well as small to medium-sized businesses, noncompliance could mean huge penalties.

GDPR fines will depend on the specifics of each infringement, but companies could face damages of up to 4% of their worldwide annual turnover, or up to 20 million Euros, whichever is greater. For example, if the GDPR had been in place during the 2013 Yahoo breach affecting 3 billion users, Yahoo could have faced anywhere from $80 million to $160 million in fines. It’s also important to note that Buttarelli specifically mentions the potential for bans on processing personal data, at Data Protection Authorities’ discretion, which would effectively suspend a company’s data flows inside the EU.

AI Disruption

“Further adoption of AI leading to automation of professions involving low social intelligence and creativity. It will also give birth to more advanced social engineering attacks.” – Paul Barnes, Webroot Sr. Director of Product Strategy

The Fouth Industrial Revolution is here and the markets are beginning to feel it. Machine learning algorithms and applied artificial intelligence programs are already infiltrating and disrupting top industries. Several of the largest financial institutions in the world have integrated artificial intelligence into aspects of their businesses. Often these programs use natural language processing—giving them the ability to handle customer-facing roles more easily—to boost productivity.

From a risk perspective, new voice manipulation techniques and face mapping technologies, in conjunction with other AI disciplines, will usher in a new dawn of social engineering that could be used in advanced spear-phishing attacks to influence political campaigns or even policy makers directly.

AI Will Be Crucial to the Survival of Small Businesses

“AI and machine learning will continue to be the best way to respond to velocity and volume of malware attacks aimed at SMBs and MSP partners.” – George Anderson, Product Marketing Director

Our threat researchers don’t anticipate a decline in threat volume for small businesses in the coming year. Precise attacks, like those targeting RDP tools, have been on the rise and show no signs of tapering. Beyond that, the sheer volume of data handled by businesses of all types of small businesses raises the probability and likely severity of a breach.

If small and medium-sized businesses want to keep their IT teams from being inundated and overrun with alerts, false positives, and remediation requests, they’ll be forced to work AI and machine learning into their security solutions. Only machine learning can automate security intelligence accurately and effectively enough to enable categorization and proactive threat detection in near real time. By taking advantage of cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services, machine learning has the capability to scale with the increasing volume and complexity modern attacks, while remaining within reach in terms of price.

Ransomware is Out, Cryptojacking is In

“We’ll see a continued decline in commodity ransomware prevalence. While ransomware won’t disappear, endpoint solutions are better geared to defend against suspicious ransom-esque actions and, as such, malware authors will turn to either more targeted attacks or more subtle cryptocurrency mining alternatives.” – Eric Klonowski, Webroot Principal Threat Research Analyst

Although we’re unlikely to see the true death of ransomware, it does seem to be in decline. This is due in large part to the success of cryptocurrency and the overwhelming demand for the large amounts of computing power required for cryptomining. Hackers have seized upon this as a less risky alternative to ransomware, leading to the emergence of cryptojacking.

Cryptojacking is the now too-common practice of injecting software into an unsuspecting system and using its latent processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies. This resource theft drags systems down, but is often stealthy enough to go undetected. We are beginning to feel the pinch of cryptojacking in critical systems, with a cryptomining operation recently being discovered on the network of a water utility system in Europe. This trend is on track to continue into the New Year, with detected attacks increasing by 141% in the first half of 2018 alone.

Targeted Attacks

“Attacks will become more targeted. In 2018, ransomware took a back seat to cryptominers and banking Trojans to an extent, and we will continue see more targeted and calculated extortion of victims, as seen with the Dridex group. The balance between cryptominers and ransomware is dependent upon the price of cryptocurrency (most notably Bitcoin), but the money-making model of cryptominers favors its continued use.” – Jason Davison, Webroot Advanced Threat Research Analyst

The prominence of cryptojacking in cybercrime circles means that, when ransomware appears in the headlines, it will be for calculated, highly-targeted attacks. Cybercriminas are now researching systems ahead of time, often through backdoor access, enabling them to encrypt their ransomware against the specific antivirus applications put in place to detect it.

Government bodies and healthcare systems are prime candidates for targeted attacks, since they handle sensitive data from large swaths of the population. These attacks often have costs far beyond the ransom itself. The City of Atlanta is currently dealing with $17 million in post-breach costs. (Their perpetrators asked for $51,000 in Bitcoin, which the city refused to pay.)

The private sector won’t be spared from targeting, either. A recent Dharma Bip ransomware attack on a brewery involved attackers posting the brewery’s job listing on an international hiring website and submitting a resume attachment with a powerful ransomware payload.

Zero Day Vulnerabilities

“Because the cost of exploitation has risen so dramatically over the course of the last decade, we’ll continue to see a drop in the use of zero days in the wild (as well as associated private exploit leaks). Without a doubt, state actors will continue to hoard these for use on the highest-value targets, but expect to see a stop in Shadowbrokers-esqueoccurrences. Leaks probably served as a powerful wake-up call internally with regards to access to these utilities (or perhaps where they’re left behind). – Eric Klonowski, Webroot Principal Threat Research Analyst

Though the cost of effective, zero-day exploits is rising and demand for these exploits has never been higher, we predict a decrease in high-profile breaches. Invariably, as large software systems become more adept at preventing exploitation, the amount of expertise required to identify valuable software vulnerabilities increases with it. Between organizations like the Zero Day Initiative working to keep these flaws out of the hands of hackers and governmental bodies and intelligence agencies stockpiling security flaws for cyber warfare purposes, we are likely to see fewer zero day exploits in the coming year.

However, with the average time between the initial private discovery and the public disclosure of a zero day vulnerability being about 6.9 years, we may just need to wait before we hear about it.

The take-home? Pay attention, stay focused, and keep an eye on this space for up-to-the-minute information about cybersecurity issues as they arise.

Infowars Online Site Compromised by MageCart Attack

Earlier this week, a security researcher found payment card-stealing scripts running on the Infowars online site. The scripts managed to stay active for nearly 24 hours. At least 1,600 users of the site may have been affected during this period, though many were returning customers who wouldn’t have had to re-enter their payment information into the compromised forms. As of writing, the malicious scripts being used by Magecart are active on nearly 100 other online stores, with almost 20% getting re-infected within a two-week period.

Scammers Syphon €19 Million From French Film Company

A lawsuit recently revealed that savvy scammers successfully took nearly €19 million through a series of unauthorized transfers from a spoofed personal email address of the company’s CEO. After requesting additional information from the scammers, who continued to provide highly-detailed documents suggesting their legitimacy, several payments were transferred from the company’s main cash pool with promises of a quick payback from the scammers.

Chinese Headmaster Caught Cryptomining on School’s Systems

The headmaster of a Chinese school was fired after staff discovered an excessively high power bill previously written off as a faulty HVAC system was actually caused by several cryptomining rigs running off the school’s electricity. The headmaster brought the mining machines into the school in mid-2017 and evaded blame for the excess power consumption until the physical proof was discovered. While it appears no other harm was done, cryptomining software can be dangerous, as you can never be sure nothing else is bundled with it.

New Botnet Exploits Unpatched Bug in Over 100,000 Devices

Researchers have been monitoring a relatively new botnet that is currently controlling over 100,000 devices, including 116 device types from multiple manufacturers. By taking advantage of well-known bugs within Universal Plug n Play, hackers can quickly take control of the device and begin monitoring traffic from outside of the network.

Cathay Pacific Airlines Cyberattack Occurred Over Several Months

After originally claiming a data breach had taken place last month, affecting 9.4 million customers, new findings have shown the attacks have been happening regularly since March. Even though local laws didn’t require the company to notify authorities regarding a data breach, it is still surprising that it has taken almost nine months to determine what data had been exposed and what hadn’t.