February's Cyber Insights

Although February is the shortest month of the year, we have a lot to share with you from the past 29 days.

We've been awarded another industry award, the ransomware landscape has given us some massive news stories to digest, and we've been out and about at events - these are just a few of the things that have been keeping us busy in February.

Also join us today (Thursday 29th February) at 11am EST/8am PST for our webinar BlackFog ADX: Challenging the cybersecurity status quo.

Keeping reading to find out what else has been happening at BlackFog!

We won a teissaward2024!

We are delighted to announce that we were awarded "Best Threat Intelligence Technology" at the teissAwards 2024.

The teissAwards recognize excellence in cyber and information security, with a particular focus on the contributions of vendors and technologies in relation to the use, development, and deployment of information security.

Some of our team attended the awards ceremony and thoroughly enjoyed the night spent chatting to other industry professionals and attendees.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees this year!

Ransomware hitting highs again in January

We started 2024 with a record January and the second highest number of attacks we've ever recorded, a massive 130% over 2023. Similarly, unreported attacks increased 75% over the previous year.

From an industry perspective we saw education under siege followed by healthcare.?Even at this early stage we are seeing a similar breakdown by country as we saw throughout 2023 with USA at 57% and UK at 8% and Singapore in 3rd place with 4% of attacks.

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The State of Ransomware 2023 Annual Report is now available, highlighting 2023's ransomware statistics and trends.

We're coming to a city near you!

In 2024 BlackFog will be out on the road across US, UK and Europe to share our knowledge of cybersecurity and showcase our innovative ADX technology.

In February, our CEO Darren Williams attended the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) conference in California and presented on a panel, alongside other industry professionals, discussing "The state of channel distribution for rapidly growing tech start-ups."

In March, our US sales team will be attending three events hosted by GBI Impact to chat to attendees about how BlackFog's ADX solution can add the extra layer of security needed to combat sophisticated cyberthreats. These events include:

CIO Salt Lake City Evening Gathering - 5th March

CIO Denver Evening Gathering- 6th March

CISO Boston Evening Gathering - 27th March

Stay tuned for information on other events we're attending in the coming months!

BlackFog's Ransomware and Cybersecurity Blogs

We have added a number of new blogs to our website, discussing cybersecurity topics, trends and threats facing organizations. Check out some of our newest blogs:

How Data Exfiltration is Changing the Ransomware Landscape

According to our 2023 Annual Ransomware Report, 91% of all ransomware incidents now include some form of data exfiltration.

This exponential rise in exfiltration creates endless extortion potential, sparks legal action, allows tailored demands, and fuels future breaches, marking a major shift from a solely encryption based attack.

The use of data exfiltration in attacks has some major repercussions for organizations with the longevity and severity of consequences increased in recent years.

Discover more about data exfiltration and its consequences

Ransomware Focus: LockBit Attacks in 2024

After a record-breaking year last year and its recent resurgence after being "taken down" by a coordinated international law enforcement operation, it is clear that it will take a lot to slow LockBit down in 2024.

We’ve decided to put a specific focus on LockBit attacks in an attempt to better track and understand their targeting and tactics. We'll be keeping you up to date with all LockBit attacks, both publicly disclosed and undisclosed, so stay tuned to find out who the next victim is!

Discover who has fallen victim to a LockBit attack in 2024

BlackFog Newsroom

We are often asked to share our thoughts on stories that are making news in the cybersecurity world. Here's a highlight from February:

33M French Citizens Impacted in Country's Largest-Ever Breach - Dark Reading

Two payment processors widely used by French health insurers were hit by cyberattacks within five days of each other, causing a combined breach impacting 33 million French citizens.

A phishing attack on an employee granted threat actors initial access to Viamedis' systems and a portal used by health professionals was used during the Almerys breach. Personally identifiable information was among the data stolen during the incidents.

Our CEO Darren Williams spoke to Dark Reading about the continued targeting of healthcare services and how it could be some time before we know the true fallout from these breaches.

Meet our SVP of Sales, Roger Cobb

We spent some time with Roger discussing his 23 years experience in the cybersecurity industry and why he thinks BlackFog stands out from the crowd.

How long have you worked in cybersecurity?

I have been in cybersecurity engineering, sales and executive leadership for over 23 years. I was one of the original employees at FishNet Security and also one of the original founders of Zscaler.

What drew you to work in cybersecurity?

My father was a computer programmer and owned one of the first personal computers in the US. I grew up watching him code as well as seeing the invention of the interest and the problems that came with it.

What makes BlackFog stand out as a product?

Not only our revolutionary approach concentrating on outbound data, but also the fact that we created, and are the global leader of the ADX (anti data exfiltration) space.

Tell us a fun fact about you...

I received a scholarship to Colorado State University to play the trumpet in the Colorado State Jazz Band.

We hope you've enjoyed this edition of Cyber Insights. Come back next month for more BlackFog news and cybersecurity insights.