SolarWinds Unlikely to Be an Isolated Event as Attackers Become More Sophisticated

Cyber-attacks have become increasingly sophisticated in the past year, with the SolarWinds incident unlikely to be an isolated event going forward, according to VMware Security Business Unit’s 2021 Global Cybersecurity Outlook report.

The researchers noted that, in addition to widening the attack surface, the shift to digital following the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed malicious actors the time, capital and opportunity to industrialize, leading to advancements in their operations.

Nearly 40% of the 180 IR, cybersecurity and IT professionals surveyed for the study stated that double-extortion ransomware was the most observed new ransomware technique in 2020. In general, ransomware was a very prominent method employed, with 66% of those polled revealing they had been targeted in this way last year.

There also appears to be a growing number of cyber-villains undertaking counter incident responses (IR), with 63% of respondents saying they saw this occur in 2020. Security tooling disablement (33%) was the most common counter IR technique witnessed, followed by DDoS attacks (26%), security tool bypass (15%) and destruction of logs (11%).

Additionally, the report noted a rise in “island hopping,” in which attackers jump from one network to another along a supply chain, as occurred in the SolarWinds attack. Close to half (44%) of those surveyed observed island hopping taking place in over 25% of all IR engagements, while 13% said it occurred in more than 50% of engagements.

Tom Kellermann, head of cybersecurity strategy, VMware Security Business Unit, commented: “This [SolarWinds] is not an isolated event. With COVID-19 catalyzing digital transformation and a shift to cloud services, th ..

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