Author: Joanne Hurley

Another month, another alarming crop of zero day bugs – it can only be Patch Tuesday. 

This month brings a bumper harvest of fixes for 74 bugs, including two Zero Day bugs which have already been exploited by cybercriminals. 

Our CEO Mark Lamb was recently quoted in Spiceworks, describing it as another “major update” with plenty of vulnerabilities which can put businesses at risk. 

He says, “This month’s actively exploited Zero Days will undoubtedly cause the greatest anxiety.”

“Both vulnerabilities can be triggered without any human intervention, which makes them highly concerning and means patching now is essential. Until these are patched, criminals have two very easy routes into an organisation’s network.”

Fortunately, the solution is simple – patch, patch and patch again – and for God’s sake enable Auto Patch if you can! 

Lamb says, “Most organisations can take advantage of Auto Patch, so the update should pass without too many hitches or interruptions. For organisations who have not yet enabled Auto Patch, this month’s Zero Days should provide them with some motivation.”

Two core members of the notorious DoppelPaymer ransomware gang whose attacks had netted 40 million Euros (£35m) in the U.S. alone were arrested this week.

Our CEO Mark Lamb had a VERY busy week in the wake of the arrests of ‘core members’ of the notorious gang, speaking to HelpNet Security, SecurityWeek, CyberNews, and InfoSecurity Magazine about the arrests – and what they mean for the group. 

The group had targeted more than 601 organisations worldwide – including an attack on University Hospital in Düsseldorf which led to the death of a 78-year-old patient whose emergency treatment was delayed. 

Mark said, “This is another impactful collaboration from law enforcement, tackling a major ransomware gang not long in the wake of the takedown of the Hive ransomware gang.

“DoppelPaymer has been causing havoc and costing organisations millions for over three years, and it relied on two of the world’s most notorious malware variants – Emotet and Dridex – to initially target businesses before executing the ransomware.

The arrests are not the end of the operation, Mark points out. 

“According to reports, two members of the DoppelPaymer gang have already been targeted by law enforcement officials, but, with DoppelPaymer being a ransomware-as-a-service operation, it is likely there will be many more perpetrators behind the threat that will need to be caught before we can say goodbye to the ransomware for good.

“However, the seized infrastructure should provide significantly more intelligence to law enforcement and it’s likely others behind the threat will face the heavy hand of the law very soon.”