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Global cyber insurance premiums are declining despite an increase in ransomware attacks, according to a recent report by insurance broker Howden  www.howdengroup.com.  This trend reflects improved business security practices, evolving insurance industry dynamics, and changing attitudes toward cyber risk management.

The Howden report indicates that the cyber insurance market experienced double-digit price reductions in 2023/24, starkly contrasting the skyrocketing premiums seen in 2021 and 2022 d

Since the beginning of COVID-19, now well over a year, some company managers thought that people would come flocking back to the office once generous unemployment benefits ended.  Instead, after Republican states cut the $300-a-week Federal benefit and other benefits expired, there has been no rush to return to the workforce.  There are many reasons for this.  People do not want to catch COVID-19 and new variants; people are sick of their bad jobs; early retirement; and the one I care about toda

Activity Summary - Week Ending 14 May 2021:

• Red Sky Alliance observed 78 unique email accounts compromised with Keyloggers
• Analysts identified 23,596 connections from new unique IP Addresses
• 1,802 new IP addresses are participating in various Botnets
• COVID-19 Lures Continue
• RotaJakiro
• Lemon Duck
• Colonial Pipeline and DarkSide
• US – Oil Supply Chain Repercussions
• Belnet hit in Belgium
• Rubin Design Bureau, Russian DIB
• BoA upping Cyber Security Budgets
• The “new” Normal, is it?

Link to full report:

The COVID-19 pandemic is now a year old and has forced businesses to quickly support remote working practices, often without proper security measures in place.  The Verizon Business Mobile Security Index (MSI) 2021 reveals that many businesses may have left themselves vulnerable and open to cybercriminals in the rush to ensure their workforce could operate remotely.  Forty-nine (49) percent of businesses surveyed in the latest edition of Verizon's MSI stressed that changes made to remote working

Business Email Compromise or BEC attack begins with a cybercriminal hacking and spoofing emails to impersonate your company’s supervisors, CEO, or vendors.  Once in, they request a seemingly legitimate business payment. The email looks authentic, seems to come from a known authority figure, so the unsuspecting employee complies.  These fraudsters are increasingly exploiting the auto-forwarding feature in compromised email accounts to help conduct business email compromise scams, the US Federal B

In the US, many people fear the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  When a US citizen receives any type communication from the IRS, people take notice.  The cyber bad guys know that too and send IRS phishing messages to unwitting US citizens.  In addition to receiving scam voice mails and texts about your Social Security number being at risk, a “credible looking” yet fake, IRS email has been sent to tens of thousands of email inboxes across the US.  The question of authenticity can be explained in

In a recent study by CrowdStrike regarding cyber threat activity show more intrusion attempts in the first six months of this year than in all of 2019.  The pandemic-related shift to remote work and the growing availability of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) were two major drivers.  Red Sky Alliance has reported on many of these ransomware groups and actors in detail in 2020.  These reports can be found at no charge at https://redskyalliance.org.

The security vendor's threat-hunting team blocked

Ransomware is here to stay.  Recent alerts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report that there is no end in sight.  There are many versions of ransomware in use and group and nations behind the extortion attempts.  These cyber actors are motivated by money.  Ransomware can be described simply as a type of malware from crypto virology that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.  While some simple ransomware

There will be no let-up in ransomware attacks, as it has proven to such a profitable business model of cybercriminals.  The cybersecurity landscape is evolving, and many businesses do not understand how to keep their defenses ahead of the attackers.  While major corporations can spend as much as $1 billion a year, many small companies may not have the budget to hire a cybersecurity vendor to help them keep up with all the technology available needed to deter hackers.  The loss of just a few thou

A British media outlet, The Saturday Telegraph, recently obtained a 15-page research document by the Five Eyes (5E) Intelligence consortium; made up of the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.  The report outlines an intelligence perspective on the negligence of China with the COVID-19 pandemic.  The report demonstrates the “endangerment of other countries” as the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or “disappearing” medical doctors who spoke out, its destroying o

New car showrooms are closed.  Inventory is backing up.  Auto dealers are cash strapped and ready to negotiate a good deal, almost any deal.  So, if a person in the market for a new car, in good health and has a solid job (even with the various state “lock downs”), the timing is very good to buy a new car.  Car shopping will currently be electronic, but salespersons are willing to sell cars and reduce their inventories.  If you are a savvy online shopper and ready to negotiate a price by email o

Later yesterday, the US based InfraGard National https://www.infragard.org/ provided a very valuable link to a Northeastern University site that provides COVID-19 information and prevention on-line training.  Much of this information is provided through the support of John Hopkins University, Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.  We here at Red Sky Alliance would like to provide this very valuable reliable reference source; as “Knowledge is Power.”   Having the proper pr

Summary

As some operations and businesses in the United States and around the world come to a significant slowdown due to COVID-19, many employees are being forced to work from home.  While every-day business operations may slow down, cyber-attacks do not; in fact, we predict - they will increase.  Many companies are implementing BYOD and work-from-home policies on a huge scale.  This presents many more hacking opportunities and creates more vulnerabilities than companies normally manage while e