Monday Morning Impact – October 28

Webroot Finds Windows 7 is Becoming Riskier, Infections up by 71%

Webroot has shared the results of the mid-year update of its Webroot Threat Report, which explores the evolving cybersecurity landscape. Based on trends observed in the first half of 2019, Webroot found that 1 in 50 URLs are malicious, that nearly one-third of phishing sites use HTTPS, and that Windows 7 exploits have grown 75% since January.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of malicious URLs were found to be hosted on trusted domains, as hackers know trusted domain URLs raise less suspicion among users and are more difficult for security measures to block. Phishing grew rapidly, with a 400% increase in URLs discovered from January to July 2019. The top industries impersonated by phishing include SaaS/Webmail providers, financial institutions, social media, retail, file hosting, and payment services companies. The study also found that phishing lures are becoming increasingly personalized as more PII is collected from breaches. Phished passwords are used for more than account takeover, specifically: extortion emails claiming they’ve been caught doing something embarrassing or damaging that will be shared with colleagues, friends and family unless a ransom is paid. Phishing doesn’t always target usernames and passwords. These attacks also go after secret questions and their answers.

Over 75% of malware on Windows systems hides in one of three places:

41% in temp; 24% in appdata; and 11% in cache. Businesses and channel partners can easily set policies to restrict execution of any application from the temp and cache locations, thereby preventing more than 50% of infections.

Out of all infected PCs, 64% were home user machines, and 36% were business devices, likely because home users aren’t protected by corporate firewalls and security policies and may not be updated as regularly.

“We are beginning to see hackers create more personalized phishing emails using data gathered in recent massive breaches, as well as the use of HTTPS and trusted domains to seem more legitimate,” said Tyler Moffitt, Senior Threat Research Analyst at Webroot. “These tactics take advantage of familiarity and context, and result in unwarranted trust. Businesses and consumers need to be aware of and continually educate themselves about these evolving methods and risks to protect their data and devices.”

The Mid-Year Update is an extension of the annual Webroot Threat Report, which examines emerging threats and cybercrime trends from the previous year, and shares perspectives and predictions for the future.

Channel Impact^®
In addition to providing updated information on security trends, the report also highlights the importance of user education.

Tech Data and Akamai Forge Deal for Defense-in-Depth

Tech Data has partnered with Akamai Technologies, a prominent content delivery network (CDN) services provider, to offer security and performance services.

“Defense-in-depth brings a deeper and broader approach to cybersecurity. It’s not just multiple layers of protection — this approach offers many dimensions to thwart attacks and protect valuable information from unauthorized access,” said Alex Ryals, vice president, Security Solutions, at Tech Data. “Akamai’s capabilities offer our customers quick and easy access to this comprehensive security solution with unequaled scale and reach.”

Through the new alliance, Tech Data customers in the U.S. and Canada now have new options for web application firewall protection, accelerated performance of web and mobile applications, enterprise traffic protection and remote application access. All services provided are promised to be cloud- and hosting-provider-agnostic, include a 100 percent uptime guarantee and integrate without significant changes to infrastructure and software at the end-user site.

“Tech Data represents a proven enablement ecosystem with significant reach that Akamai can effectively engage to expand our base of security partners,” said Michael McCollough, vice president of Global Channels at Akamai. “We are pleased to offer our market-leading services exclusively within its portfolio to help organizations at all stages of digital transformation to leverage best-in-class security and performance to drive their businesses.”

Channel Impact^®
Representing Akamai’s first partnership with a technology distributor, these additions to Tech Data’s security portfolio provide new options for allied partners working in the security space.

Oracle Announces Cloud Infrastructure Hiring Spree

Oracle has announced plans to hire nearly 2,000 employees worldwide to work on its growing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business. The new roles, which include software development, cloud operations, and business operations, are intended to support Oracle’s expanding customer base, and further support upcoming product rollouts.

“Cloud is still in its early days with less than 20 percent penetration today, and enterprises are just beginning to use cloud for mission-critical workloads,” said Don Johnson, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “Our aggressive hiring and growth plans are mapped to meet the needs of our customers, providing them reliability, high performance, and robust security as they continue to move to the cloud.”

Recent product innovations include new automated cloud security services, the launch of Autonomous Linux, and a host of new cloud data services.

In the past year, Oracle has opened 12 new Gen 2 Cloud regions and currently operates 16 regions globally. The Redwood Shores, California-based company also plans to add 20 more regions by the end of 2020, bringing the global footprint to 36 total regions. 

Oracle also intends to make additional real estate investments to support the expanded Oracle Cloud Infrastructure workforce.

Channel Impact^®
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s growing talent base is intended to ensure that customers have continuous access to the tools and expertise needed to bring enterprise workloads to cloud quickly and efficiently.