Q2 2019 Introduction and Overview

Welcome back to our quarterly romp through the wild and crazy cyber-threat landscape. Q2 exhibited many themes and trends we’ve seen before, but we encountered plenty of new and noteworthy developments as we poured over intelligence collections. Here’s a brief summary of what’s on the menu for this quarter:

The Fortinet Threat Landscape Index : This barometer of threat activity across the internet hit its highest point ever in Q2 to close 4% higher than this time last year.

Upping the Ante on Anti-analysis : We examine a spam campaign that used novel anti-analysis and evasion techniques and discuss why this trend is one worth following.

Playbook Preview: Zegost : An infostealer active since 2011 has been upgraded with a plethora of capability upgrades. Our analysis will help you avoid being its next victim.

RobbinHood and Its (Un)Merry Men : The ransomware renaissance flourished in Q2 with attacks on Baltimore and other municipalities. Proceeds were not given to the poor.

Exploiting the Digital Supply Chain : Third-party risk is nothing new, but recent incidents exemplify the scope of exposures tied to a growing web of interdependencies.

Exploratory Analysis: Vulnerability Research : 28 zero days, vulnerabilities exploited in the wild, and time to exploitation for new signatures … what more could you want?

RDP and the “BlueKeep” Blues : A spate of RDP vulnerabilities, including the infamous BlueKeep, reminds us that remote access services open a door for criminals too.

Probing Smart Homes and Businesses : Between consumer IoT and ICS is a growing line of smart devices for home and small business use that has threat actors salivating.

The findings in this report represent the collective intelligence of FortiGuard Labs, drawn from a vast array of network sensors collecting billions of threat events observed in live production environments around the world. According to independent research , Fortinet has the largest security device footprint in the industry. This unique vantage point offers excellent views of the cyber-threat landscape from multiple perspectives, and we look forward to sharing highlights from that analysis with you in the pages that follow. See the full report here.