Monday Morning Impact – March 13

2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report Shows Continued Increase in Attacks

SonicWall has released its 2023 Cyber Threat Report, detailing an increasingly diversified cyberattack landscape amid shifting threat actor strategies. The Milpitas, California-based company recorded the second-highest year on record for global ransomware attempts, as well as an 87% increase in Internet of Things (IoT) malware and a record number of cryptojacking attacks (139.3 million) in 2022.

“The past year reinforced the need for cybersecurity in every industry and every facet of business, as threat actors targeted anything and everything, from education to retail to finance,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bob VanKirk. “While organizations face an increasing number of real-world obstacles with macroeconomic pressures and continued geopolitical strife, threat actors are shifting attack strategies at an alarming rate.”

According to the report, global malware volume increased 2% year-over-year, but it was jumps in IoT malware (+87%) and cryptojacking (+43%) that offset the decline of overall global ransomware volume (-21%), signifying a strategic shift. Threat actors have embraced slower and more stealthy approaches to achieve financially motivated cyberattacks.

Threat actors are showing clear preferences for certain techniques, with notable shifts toward weak IoT devices, cryptojacking and potentially soft targets like schools and hospitals.

Prominent ransomware attacks impacted enterprises, governments, airlines, hospitals, hotels and even individuals causing widespread system downtime, economic loss, and reputational damage. Following global trends, several industries faced large year-over-year increases of ransomware volume, including education (+275%), finance (+41%) and healthcare (+8%).

While ransomware continues to be a threat, SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers expect more state-sponsored activity targeting a broader set of victims in 2023, including SMBs and enterprises.

SonicWall threat researchers gather, analyze and vet cross-vector threat information from the SonicWall Capture Threat network, consisting of global devices and resources, including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 215 countries and territories.

Channel Impact^®
Cyberattacks are an ever-present danger for companies of all sizes, putting their operations and reputation on the line. Channel partners play a key role in helping customers to understand attackers’ tactics, techniques, and procedures, and develop strategies to defend and mitigate.

Cisco and NTT Announce 5G Collaboration Agreement

Cisco and NTT Ltd. have announced plans to collaborate on private 5G adoption across the automotive, logistics, healthcare, retail, and public sectors.

The two companies plan to jointly bring to market new products and managed services that will enable enterprise customers to facilitate private 5G deployments and to accelerate edge connectivity through NTT’s Managed Private 5G solution, combined with Intel hardware to support private 5G integration into pre-existing LAN/WAN/Cloud infrastructure.

Anticipated features include Industry 4.0 capabilities such as push-to-talk ‘walkie talkie’ communications, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), always connected PCs (for digital frontline workers), and machine vision (e.g., predictive maintenance, PPE detection).

Cisco and NTT have already begun coordination on several customer deployments. In addition, the two companies are planning to power computer vision for product quality analysis, predictive analytics for manufacturing equipment functionality and maintenance, and autonomous vehicles for moving product on the factory floor, leveraging NTT’s IoT connected solutions.

“Together with NTT, we aim to help our enterprise customers accelerate digital transformation, with the power of 5G and Wi-Fi across IT and OT operations,” said Masum Mir, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Provider Mobility, Cisco Networking. “Our cloud-managed private 5G offers customers seamless integration with their Enterprise network fabric along with common policy and zero trust security architecture, helping to reduce technical, financial, and operational risks associated with managing 5G networks, so they can focus on driving business agility and efficiency.”

“This is a natural expansion of the cutting-edge capabilities and services NTT brings to market to help our global clients modernize their businesses. NTT and Cisco are building on our mutual commitment to build a simple to manage pure private network solution,” said Shahid Ahmed, Executive Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation at NTT. “As a premier systems integrator partner to Cisco, the two companies are well positioned to deliver a secure, reliable, and future-proof private 5G network for our joint enterprise customers with global footprints.”

For Cisco’s Private 5G, NTT will provide network infrastructure design, deployment, run operations, use case development, device sourcing, compatibility, and end-to-end testing.

Channel Impact^®
The move is intended to help accelerate digital transformation; a key profit center for channel partners.

Red Hat Introduces New Partner Subscriptions to its Open Hybrid Cloud Portfolio

Red Hat, Inc., a Raleigh, NC-based provider of open-source solutions, has rolled out a new subscription model that provides partners deeper access to the Red Hat open hybrid cloud portfolio. Through this announcement, the company intends to replace its current Not-for-Resale subscriptions with a simplified path for partners to acquire Red Hat product subscriptions that can be used to develop software solutions and proof-of-concepts, test product offerings, and deepen technical skills.

“Red Hat Partner Subscriptions equip partners with Red Hat subscriptions typically worth thousands of dollars to develop and sell solutions based on hardened, enterprise-grade open-source software, driving improved operational efficiencies and technical capabilities for customers,” said Stefanie Chiras, Red Hat’s Senior Vice President of Partner Ecosystem Success.

Anticipated partner benefits include access to hundreds of self-support subscriptions for the Red Hat open hybrid cloud portfolio; extended use for single- and multi-user software development, testing, internal training, demonstrations, and proofs-of-concept; and standard support for up to five contacts, with the option to upgrade for additional contacts.

The subscriptions are currently available to all Red Hat Ready, Advanced and Premier Business Partners. In addition, Red Hat technology partners that have completed or are in the process of completing product certifications with Red Hat are also eligible.

Channel Impact^®
The move is intended to help channel partners experiment with new technologies, collaboration methods, and business models. The Red Hat subscription service will likely help the company’s partners to more easily react to evolving customer demands.