Firewall News

Top Menu

  • Home
  • Our Blog
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Software Updates
  • Alerts & Bugs
  • Out of the Box
  • Home
  • Our Blog
  • Contact Us

Firewall News

Firewall News

  • Software Updates
    • WatchGuard logo

      TDR 6.0.0 is now integrated into WatchGuard Cloud

      04/01/2021
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      XG Firewall 17.5 MR14 Released

      30/07/2020
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos Firewall Manager SFM 17.1 MR4 Released

      27/07/2020
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos Enterprise console - Endpoint Security and Control v10.8.9 for Windows has ...

      16/07/2020
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos iView v3 MR-2 Released

      07/07/2020
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      SD-RED Firmware 3.0.002 Pattern Update

      06/07/2020
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      XG Firewall 17.5 MR13 Released

      06/07/2020
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      End-of-Life (EoL) announcement for old firmware v17 and v17.1 for XG Firewall

      03/07/2020
      0
    • WatchGuard logo

      Fireware 12.5.4 Now Available

      01/07/2020
      0
  • Alerts & Bugs
    • Sophos Logo

      Advisory: Sophos Central Maintenance scheduled for Saturday, April 2nd, 2022

      29/03/2022
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos: Important Product Lifecycle Updates

      03/03/2022
      0
    • WatchGuard logo

      WatchGuard Support Alert

      23/02/2022
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos: Important Product Lifecycle Reminder

      03/02/2022
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos: Product Lifecycle Information: Extended Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server ...

      31/01/2022
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      End-of-Life (EoL) announcement for Sophos SSL VPN Client

      29/11/2021
      0
    • WatchGuard logo

      WatchGuard: macOS Monterey 12.0.1 Does Not Support the AuthPoint Logon App

      09/11/2021
      0
    • Sophos Logo

      Sophos UTM Manager (SUM) End of Distribution

      04/11/2021
      0
    • WatchGuard logo

      WatchGuard: End of Sale Notice: AP420

      01/11/2021
      0
  • Out of the Box
    • WatchGuard’s Firebox T80 Earns 5-Star Rating in SC Labs Review

      17/11/2020
      0
    • WatchGuard Wins Big in CRN 2020 Tech Innovator Awards

      16/11/2020
      0
    • Coronavirus scams: what to look for and how to stop them

      02/04/2020
      0
    • Dell SonicWALL TZ 300

      Out the Box - Dell SonicWALL TZ 300

      05/07/2016
      0
    • Dell SonicWALL TZ SOHO

      Out the Box - Dell SonicWALL TZ SOHO

      05/07/2016
      0
    • WatchGuard Firebox T50

      WatchGuard Firebox T50

      31/03/2016
      0
    • WatchGuard Firebox M200

      WatchGuard Firebox M200

      31/03/2016
      0
NewsWatchGuard
Home›News›WatchGuard Technologies Report Finds Two-Thirds of Malware is Encrypted, Invisible Without HTTPS Inspection

WatchGuard Technologies Report Finds Two-Thirds of Malware is Encrypted, Invisible Without HTTPS Inspection

By admin
24/06/2020
1119
0
Share:
WatchGuard logo

Q1 2020 Internet Security Report highlights the danger of encrypted malware, a surge in Monero cryptominers, Flawed-Ammyy and Cryxos malware, and more.

Body

SEATTLE – June 24, 2020 – WatchGuard® Technologies, a global leader in network security and intelligence, secure Wi-Fi, and multi-factor authentication, today announced the release of its Internet Security Report for Q1 2020. For the first time ever, this report includes data on the percentage of malware in the wild delivered via encrypted HTTPS connections. WatchGuard’s threat intelligence shows that 67% of all malware in Q1 was delivered via HTTPS, so organizations without security solutions capable of inspecting encrypted traffic will miss two-thirds of incoming threats. Additionally, 72% of encrypted malware was classified as zero day (meaning no antivirus signature exists for it, and it will evade signature-based protections). These findings show that HTTPS inspection and advanced behavior-based threat detection and response solutions are now requirements for every security-conscious organization.

“Some organizations are reluctant to set up HTTPS inspection due to the extra work involved, but our threat data clearly shows that a majority of malware is delivered through encrypted connections and that letting traffic go uninspected is simply no longer an option,” said Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer at WatchGuard. “As malware continues to become more advanced and evasive, the only reliable approach to defense is implementing a set of layered security services, including advanced threat detection methods and HTTPS inspection.”

WatchGuard’s Internet Security Report prepares midmarket businesses, the service providers that support them, and the end users that work for them with data on the trends, research and best practices they need to defend against modern security threats. Here are the key findings from the Q1 2020 report:

  • Monero cryptominers surge in popularity. Five of the top ten domains distributing malware in Q1 (identified by WatchGuard’s DNS filtering service DNSWatch) either hosted or controlled Monero cryptominers. This sudden jump in cryptominer popularity could simply be due to its utility; adding a cryptomining module to malware is an easy way for online criminals to generate passive income.
  • Flawed-Ammyy and Cryxos malware variants join top lists. The Cryxos trojan was third on WatchGuard’s top-five encrypted malware list and also third on its top-five most widespread malware detections list, primarily targeting Hong Kong. It is delivered as an email attachment disguised as an invoice and will ask the user to enter their email and password, which it then stores. Flawed-Ammyy is a support scam where the attacker uses the Ammyy Admin support software to gain remote access to the victim’s computer.
  • Three-year-old Adobe vulnerability appears in top network attacks. An Adobe Acrobat Reader exploit that was patched in Aug. 2017 appeared in WatchGuard’s top network attacks list for the first time in Q1. This vulnerability resurfacing several years after being discovered and resolved illustrates the importance of regularly patching and updating systems.
  • Mapp Engage, AT&T and Bet365 targeted with spear phishing campaigns. Three new domains hosting phishing campaigns appeared on WatchGuard top-ten list in Q1 2020. They impersonated digital marketing and analytics product Mapp Engage, online betting platform Bet365 (this campaign was in Chinese) and an AT&T login page (this campaign is no longer active at the time of the report’s publication).
  • Malware hits and network attacks decline. Overall there were 6.9% fewer malware hits and 11.6% fewer network attacks in Q1, despite a 9% increase in the number of Fireboxes contributing data. This could be attributed to fewer potential targets operating within the traditional network perimeter with worldwide work-from-home policies in full force during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Great Britain and Germany heavily targeted by widespread malware threats. WatchGuard’s most widespread malware list showed Germany and Great Britain were top targets for almost all of the most prevalent malware in Q1.

Third-party testing has found that WatchGuard products consistently maintain high throughput when inspecting HTTPS traffic. Many competitive products show a significant degradation in performance in this scenario. For example, an independent test performed by Miercom found that the Firebox M370 outperformed competitive products while inspecting HTTPS traffic with full security services enabled.

The findings in WatchGuard’s Internet Security Reports are drawn from anonymized Firebox Feed data from active WatchGuard appliances whose owners have opted in to share data to support the Threat Lab’s research efforts. Today, over 44,000 appliances worldwide contribute threat intelligence data to the report. In Q1 2020, they blocked over 32,148,519 malware variants in total (730 samples per device) and more than 1,660,000 network attacks (38 attacks per device).

The complete report includes key defensive best practices that organizations of all sizes can use to protect themselves in today’s threat landscape and a detailed analysis of how the COVID-19 pandemic and associated shift to working from home affected the cyber security landscape.

Previous Article

Sophos Exploit Prevention version 3.17.17 fails to ...

Next Article

Trend Micro Once Again Ranks Number One ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Related articles More from author

  • Fortinet
    FortinetNews

    Fortinet Tightens Partnership with Google Cloud to Provide Advanced Cloud Security and Accelerate the Cloud On-Ramp

    16/12/2019
    By admin
  • Fortinet Gartner Peers
    News

    The Value of Fortinet Products in Education: Customer Reviews in Gartner Peer Insights

    11/09/2017
    By admin
  • Fortinet
    FortinetNews

    Spark NZ Chooses Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to Deliver Scalable, Secure Services

    09/06/2020
    By admin
  • Fortinet
    FortinetNews

    Fortinet Introduces Self-Learning Artificial Intelligence Appliance for Sub-Second Threat Detection

    24/02/2020
    By admin
  • News

    Securing Your Dynamic Cloud Strategy

    30/08/2019
    By admin
  • WatchGuard logo
    NewsWatchGuard

    WatchGuard Technologies Completes Acquisition of Panda Security

    02/06/2020
    By admin

  • BarracudaNews

    The three email threat types that are hardest for users to detect

  • Fortinet
    FortinetNews

    Fortinet Again Named as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls

  • Sophos Logo
    Software UpdatesSophos

    Sophos: Introducing Central Firewall Reporting with XG Firewall v18

Timeline

  • 29/03/2022

    Advisory: Sophos Central Maintenance scheduled for Saturday, April 2nd, 2022

  • 03/03/2022

    Sophos: Important Product Lifecycle Updates

  • 01/03/2022

    Shoring up your cybersecurity posture in light of ongoing crisis

  • 23/02/2022

    WatchGuard Support Alert

  • 03/02/2022

    Sophos: Important Product Lifecycle Reminder

Sponsored Links

Latest Comments

  • Paul Sillars
    on
    21/06/2016
    I received this in an email this morning, it was the first I heard about it ...

    Dell Software Group sold to help fund looming EMC deal

  • Paul Sillars
    on
    20/06/2016
    This is going to be an interesting one to watch. Especially after today's announcement that ...

    Ingram Micro gets distribution access to Dell’s security range in Australia

Find us on Facebook

Firewall.News Logo

This site serves more as a reference point for some of the major security vendor's updates and product/press releases

It will never be a definitive list, but it helps our customers keep up to date and also allows us to express our comment and observations as well.

About us

  • PO Box 451, North Lakes, Queensland, 4509, Australia
  • [email protected]
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Sophos Logo

    Advisory: Sophos Central Maintenance scheduled for Saturday, April 2nd, 2022

    By admin
    29/03/2022
  • Sophos Logo

    Sophos: Important Product Lifecycle Updates

    By admin
    03/03/2022
  • Shoring up your cybersecurity posture in light of ongoing crisis

    By admin
    01/03/2022
  • WatchGuard logo

    WatchGuard Support Alert

    By admin
    23/02/2022
  • Dell SonicWALL Supermassive

    Ingram Micro gets distribution access to Dell’s security range in Australia

    By admin
    14/06/2016
  • Francisco Partners and Elliott Management to Acquire the Dell Software Group

    Dell Software Group sold to help fund looming EMC deal

    By admin
    21/06/2016
  • WatchGuard Firebox M500 – The Cure for HTTPS Performance Headaches

    By admin
    05/03/2015
  • Sophos Logo

    Advisory: Sophos Central Maintenance scheduled for Saturday, April 2nd, 2022

    By admin
    29/03/2022
  • Paul Sillars
    on
    21/06/2016

    Dell Software Group sold to help fund looming EMC deal

    I received this in ...
  • Paul Sillars
    on
    20/06/2016

    Ingram Micro gets distribution access to Dell’s security range in Australia

    This is going to ...

Follow Me

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Home