Ransomware, Phishing and other Malware Archives - Page 3 of 8

Cyber Security is a Business Issue

This is a subject I return to quite often and it’s all about how cyber security is viewed by many SMEs, and I’ll explore why that view appears to be paramount. I am pretty much of the view that the attitude I’m about to expand on, is as much the fault of the cyber security industry, as anything else.

We tend to flood potential clients with adverts and articles, mainly focused on technology. Many of this comes from sales, rather than from the seasoned cyber security experts, that you might wish it did.

Let me give you a couple of quotes. The first comes from a renowned Harvard scientist and cyber security specialist. He says, ‘If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology’.’ The second comes from Stephane Nappo, Vice President and Global Chief Information Security Officer for Groupe SEB, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and a few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.’

Boil that down and they are saying that this is not an IT issue, it’s a business issue. That’s not discounting technology’s role but without integrating it with PEOPLE and PROCESS, we’re only curing half the ailment. When advising a company’s leaders, we must not only identify the threats but also gauge vulnerability to these threats and ascertain the risk to the business. Only then can we craft a solution that harmoniously unites People, Process, and Technology.

Perhaps because there is a considerable amount of what we call FUD, fear, uncertainty and doubt, doing the rounds constantly, it concentrates people on thinking about specifics, instead of looking at the bigger picture. Whilst there is no doubt that phishing, ransomware, and other scams have certainly concentrated the mind somewhat, and these attacks are most definitely not confined to the large enterprise businesses, but have been attacking, with a lot of success, the small to medium business market, this causes vendors to try and exploit the issues around that and push their technology solutions and of course, SMEs rarely, if ever, have the expertise to judge whether or not a particular product will actually give them the protection they need. We now must add into the mix AI and its capacity for increasing cyber-attacks at all levels, making the production of code, so much easier and making it available to those perhaps less skilled than heretofore.

As we travel around and visits clients or potential clients, it is common to find that they have the view that adequate security is provided by technology. They rely on their IT provider to give the guidance they need which tends to involve firewalls, anti-malware software and perhaps a backup regime. All well and dandy. Let’s just remind ourselves of the quote from Bruce Schneier:

‘If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology’.

So, what does he mean? As he’s not here to ask I suggest what he’s saying is that essentially the technology available can be an essential part of your protection but it has to be targeted in the right way, which not only means you have the right piece of kit doing the right thing, but that you are targeting your IT spend to support your business goals and give a maximum return on investment (ROI). It should also be married to good policies and processes that are enforceable and auditable and fully understood by your work force. To do this you have to understand exactly what your risks, vulnerabilities and threats are to ensure that your solution to those risks, vulnerabilities, and threats, is targeted for maximum effect and ROI and that the technology is supporting the policies and processes, all of which is underpinned with good security awareness training.

It’s also necessary to have some form of measuring the effectiveness of your solutions through a protective monitoring solution. Such solutions for SMEs have long been considered too expensive to even consider, even though it provides a set of cybersecurity practices and measures aimed at safeguarding an SMEs digital assets and sensitive information.

But first and foremost, you need to identify the risks that you face. How can you identify that risk and then mitigate it? Taking risks is a part of business. You assess risk every day when doing business. Do you want to do this deal? What happens if it goes not as expected? Do I want to take this person on? Etc etc etc. Whether you formally undertake a risk assessment or whether you assess that risk informally, you are working out what is appropriate to a level that is consistent with the risk that your organisation is prepared to take. Failure to do that will almost certainly be damaging to your business, perhaps fatally so.

Within SMEs the difference between assessing day to day business risk and assessing risk to information assets, is one of understanding. What is an information asset? Note the word ‘information’ rather than IT. It is the information contained within the IT system that is the important asset, not the piece of hardware it is sitting on. You understand your business risk, after all it is your business, but do you understand information risk? Do you have a clear idea of what information assets you have and where they are? Before you answer that think it through. Do you really know where all the data is? OK, you know that you have a server or servers and that somewhere in those servers there is a bunch of data which runs your business. How much of that data has been saved onto staff workstations when they needed it to carry out some work? How much has been copied off somewhere else for what was probably a very good reason at one point? How well is your firewall functioning? Can malware work its way onto the network because the firewall does not have Universal Threat Management installed and can therefore be probing the servers and workstations. I could go on.

The first thing to understand is that these risks are owned by the board, and if you don’t have a formal board, then the management team. That needs to be understood fully by those at the top. That team needs to understand what level of risk is acceptable and agree what risks you are prepared to tolerate to achieve your business aims. You need to ensure that supporting policies are produced, implemented, understood by employees, and regularly reviewed and updated. At H2 we tend to produce an information security and data protection handbook which can run into many pages. Producing these policies is not as easy as it sounds.

You may also wish to look at some recognised standards by which you can regulate your risk management. One such is the international standard for information security, ISO 27000 series but perhaps the most appropriate for SMEs is the Cyber Essentials Scheme which will help you demonstrate an appropriate level of information security and risk management within your company.

Once you have a risk management framework in place, owned from the top, then you can identify your information assets and assess the risk to your business should those assets be compromised in some way. Then and only then can you adequately assess what processes and technologies you need to mitigate the risks identified for each asset thus targeting your spend for maximum effectiveness.

Sadly, that’s not the end. User education is probably the most important element of all for an SME. Ensuring that your staff are aware of the policies and why they exist. Protect yourself against scams which sadly, form the biggest danger to SMEs rather than hacks. Scams can be very low tech or high tech using malware, but however they come in, your staff need to be aware of them.

SPOOFING

I’ve mentioned spoofing quite a bit in various posts and blogs, but what exactly is it? Spoofing, as it pertains to cybersecurity, is when someone or something pretends to be something else, attempting to gain our confidence to get access to our systems, steal data, steal money, or spread malware. These attacks come in several forms, including:

Email spoofing
Website and/or URL spoofing
Caller ID spoofing
Text message spoofing
GPS spoofing
Man-in-the-middle attacks
Extension spoofing
IP spoofing
Facial spoofing

Cyber criminals aren’t all that original and spoofing is another con to fool us into taking some form of action that the criminal wants us to take; in other words, it’s a more technical variation on a con artists skill set. Very often, merely invoking the name of a big, trusted organisation is enough to get us to give up information or take some kind of action. For example, a spoofed email might inquire about purchases you never made. Concerned about your account, you might click the included link.

From that malicious link, scammers will send you to a web page with a malware download or a faked login page, complete with a familiar logo and spoofed link to a web page, for the purpose of harvesting your username and password.

There are many more ways a spoofing attack can play out. In all of them, fraudsters rely on victims falling for the fake. If you never doubt the legitimacy of a website and never suspect an email of being faked, then you could become a victim of a spoofing attack at some point.

Let’s look at some types of spoofing.

Email spoofing is the act of sending emails with false sender addresses, usually as part of a phishing attack designed to steal your information, infect your computer with malware or just ask for money. An example of this is the fabled CEO attack whereby a spoofed email is sent to someone in your accounts payable department attaching an invoice from a fake supplier and purporting to come from the CEO or other senior manager, with the instruction to pay the invoice now, without delay, and sounding like the senior manager is angry about something. Of course, this is quite easy to defend against by having a rule in place that if a suspect email is received, the alleged sender should be contacted for verification. Be aware though, if you simply reply to the email, it will go back to the scammer, you must open a fresh email or make a call.

Phishing emails will typically include a combination of deceptive features:

False sender address designed to look like it’s from someone you know and trust, maybe a friend, coworker, family member, or company you do business with.
In the case of a company or organisation, the email may include familiar branding, e.g. logo, colours, font, call to action button, etc.
Spear phishing attacks target an individual or small group within a company and will include personalised language and address the recipient by name.
Typos. Email scammers can be lazy and often don’t spend much time proofreading their own work. Email spoofs often have typos, or they look like someone translated the text through Google Translate.

Website spoofing is all about making a malicious website look like a legitimate one. The spoofed site will look like the login page for a website you frequent, down to the branding, user interface, and even a spoofed domain name that looks the same at first glance. Cybercriminals use spoofed websites to capture your username and password (aka login spoofing) or drop malware onto your computer.

Caller ID spoofing happens when scammers fool your caller ID by making the call appear to be coming from somewhere it isn’t. Scammers have learned that you’re more likely to answer the phone if the caller ID shows an area code the same or near your own.

Text message spoofing or SMS spoofing is sending a text message with someone else’s phone number or sender ID. If you’ve ever sent a text message from your laptop, you’ve spoofed your own phone number to send the text, because the text did not actually originate from your phone.

Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks can happen when you use free Wi-Fi at your local coffee shop. Have you considered what would happen if a cybercriminal hacked the Wi-Fi or created another fraudulent Wi-Fi network in the same location?

Extension spoofing occurs when cybercriminals need to disguise executable malware files. One common extension spoofing trick criminals like to use is to name the file something along the lines of “filename.txt.exe.” The criminals know file extensions are hidden by default in Windows so to the average Windows user this executable file will appear as “filename.txt.”

IP spoofing is used when someone wants to hide or disguise the location from which they’re sending or requesting data online.

Facial spoofing might be the most personal, because of the implications it carries for the future of technology and our personal lives. As it stands, facial ID technology is limited. We use our faces to unlock our mobile devices and laptops, and not much else. This is likely to spread, and the use of AI makes facial spoofing more likely. Imagine if we advance to using facial recognition to make online payments – scary stuff.

There’s a lot more to this subject, for instance, how do you spot it? How do you protect yourself against it? The best form of defence is simply cyber awareness training, something you’re probably getting fed up hearing from me. But it’s simply a fact that your staff can be your first line of defence, or your biggest threat.

Malwarebytes have published a more detailed article on this subject but even that needs some understanding and explanation.

HOW DO HACKERS HACK?

I’ve posted this before but it’s worth repeating, and you’ll have to forgive me for a somewhat provocative title and allow me some poetic licence, because in fact, different hacking groups do things differently, although they have much in common. Personally, I don’t like the term hacker, much preferring cybercriminal, because anyone who accesses a system without the owners’ permission, is by definition, a criminal. But I suppose hacker is less of a mouthful.

What is Hacking?

Hacking involves exploiting vulnerabilities in systems, software, or networks to gain unauthorised access or manipulate data using a variety of techniques and methods, which tend to combine technical tactics and social engineering.

Profiling

One of the first things a hacker, or criminal group, will do, is to profile your organisation and your people. Favourite open sources of information include:

Social media: Information about hobbies, job roles, family, and schedules shared on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Do you have a social media policy in your company? Do you lay down what an employee can and cannot say about your company on their personal social media pages? Do you have a designated person in the company who handles your company’s profile on social media?

Company Website: You’ll want to give prospective clients contact information of course, but you should not give out individual email addresses and you should limit profiles published. I do give my personal profile on my website but don’t give information about any other position, leaving it to a generic phone number and email address.

Professional Profiles: LinkedIn is a favourite for targeting businesses, as it provides details about an individual’s role, connections, and organisational structure.

Personal Websites or Blogs: These may reveal contact details, interests, or sensitive information inadvertently. The same issues that appertain to social media apply here.

Data Brokers: Cybercriminals can purchase detailed dossiers on individuals from data aggregator sites.

With all of these things you’re walking a bit of a tightrope. You need to advertise and you need to provide potential customers with relevant information to allow them to contact you easily, but at the same time you need to be careful of what you give away. Use generic email addresses and phone numbers and limit the information you give in profiles.

Phishing and Pretexting

Another favourite is phishing and pretexting.

Phishing Emails: We all know, or at least I hope we know, what phishing is. Attackers send emails designed to extract more information, such as login credentials, by posing as a trusted entity. In this context, it could be as simple as the attacker wanting to verify information by perhaps sending an email to a discovered address but wanting to confirm that individuals position in the company. That just requires a response showing a signature block, so the phishing email might seem very innocuous.

Fake Surveys or Job Offers: These can be used to obtain detailed personal or professional data.

Favourite Reconnaissance Tools

Hackers don’t need an array of expensive tools to do their job, neither do they need to spend hours developing their own. There are a variety of reconnaissance tools used by attackers, including open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools, WHOIS lookups and scanning misconfigured systems using commercially available tools such as Nmap and Nessus, which identify open ports, services and weak configurations. This is why it’s essential to regularly scan your network for these weaknesses. Ports can be opened for a particular reason and never closed again. It’s a common fault.

We are now seeing new models increasingly. In particular ransomware as a service (RaaS) is a cybercrime business model where operators write software and affiliates pay to launch attacks using said software. Affiliates do not need to have technical skills of their own but rely on the technical skills of the operators. The “ransomware as a service” model is a criminal variation of the “software as a service” business model. This model allows small threat attackers to gain access to sophisticated ransomware tools at lower costs, also lowering the threshold of entry into cybercrime and complicating defenses against hacking.

Here at H2 we scan the dark web daily looking for leaked credentials, particularly email credentials. When we on board a new client we nearly always get hits with sometimes up to 20+ compromised email addresses including passwords. You might ask why they’d be on the dark web – simple, they are often up for sale on dark web marketplaces.

Psychological Profiling

In terms of cybercrime, who’s heard of psychological profiling? Cybercriminals analyse:

Behavioural Patterns: Regularity in actions, such as times a person is online, financial habits, or common purchases.

Weaknesses and Triggers: Examples include a recent job loss, major life changes, or emotional vulnerabilities, which they exploit through spear-phishing or scams.

I’ve often argued on these pages, that your employees are both your first line of defence and your greatest weakness, and that a good cyber awareness programme is worth its weight in gold. Cybercriminals often focus on employees in specific departments (like HR, finance, or IT).

LinkedIn and Organisation Charts: Identify individuals with access to sensitive data.

Impersonation: Pretending to be a senior executive to trick lower-level employees (e.g., through Business Email Compromise attacks – I’ve written about the CEO scam a lot).

Technical Probing: Use of phishing or malware to breach a target’s employer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what I’ve tried to do here is give you a flavour of what you may be up against, and I hope, I’ve shown you that for all the reasons shown above technology comes last after people and process. All the tech in the world won’t prevent issues arising from the above and is just one part of an integrated defence in depth required to prevent disaster.

Frequency of Cyber-Attacks and their Effects

There is a lot of discussion around the number and effects of cyber-attacks in the UK and beyond. There are those who believe that the instance is under reported, often because the organisation under attack is concerned about reputational damage and this can be a contributing factor to many paying up when subject to a ransomware attack. And there are those who think the number of attacks is over estimated, especially in reports commissioned by vendors of cyber-security products, to scare up business. Personally, I can see both arguments, but I tend to come down on the side of under reported.

The exact number of UK businesses failing solely due to cyber incidents is difficult to pinpoint, research indicates that a significant percentage of businesses have been impacted by cyber-attacks, and a substantial portion of those that are targeted end up closing down. Specifically, one study showed that 60% of small businesses close within six months of a cyber-attack. Furthermore, a recent report states that more than one in four UK businesses have experienced a cyber-attack in the past year. The sources I used to put this together include:

Cyber security breaches survey 2024 – GOV.UK9 Apr 2024
Which UK
Raconteur       
Simpson Wreford LLP

Note: I did not use data from reports commissioned from Vendors.

Let’s take a closer look:

Prevalence of cyber-attacks:  More than 25% of UK businesses have reported being hit by a cyber-attack in the past year.

Impact on small businesses:  A concerning 60% of small businesses fail within six months of experiencing a cyber-attack.

Factors contributing to business failure:  Cyber-attacks can lead to financial losses, reputational damage, data breaches, and operational disruptions, all of which can severely impact a business’s ability to survive, especially small businesses.

Business impact:  The survey we mentioned highlighted that nearly three-quarters of business leaders believe a cybersecurity incident will disrupt their business in the next 12 to 24 months.

Specific examples:  In the past few months, major UK retailers like Marks and Spencer, the Co-operative Group, and Harrods have been targeted by cyberattacks as well as businesses that have now ceased trading, such as Knights of Old.

While these statistics highlight the severity of the issue, it’s important to note that cyber-attacks can be a contributing factor to business failure, rather than the sole cause. Other factors like poor management, economic downturns, or market competition can also play a role. However, the increasing sophistication and frequency of cyber threats make it crucial for businesses of all sizes to prioritise cybersecurity measures to mitigate risks and protect their operations.

With my focus remaining with SMEs, it concerns me that SMEs of all sizes still do not prioritise cyber security other than putting a tick in the box, by, for example, obtaining certifications like cyber essentials. Whilst this is a good thing and not to be dismissed, they are often doing this for marketing purposes rather than any commitment to cyber security which can mean that once the certification is obtained for a 12 month period, standards can then be let slip and I base this on obtaining the certification for a client, returning 12 months later, and finding many of the same issues recurring that we dealt with the year previous.

Cyber criminals target SMEs, don’t think that because an SME has smaller revenue and therefore smaller reward for the criminal, that they are immune. SMEs are often targeted because they will have spent much less in terms of money and effort in protecting themselves against attacks. They lack good advice and guidance, they can’t afford a full-time cyber security professionals and in fact, probably don’t need one full time, but they do not seek that vital guidance. SMEs must understand that they are seen a low hanging fruit.

I’ve made this final point many times, and that is cyber awareness training. Most cyber-attacks begin with some form of social engineering. Your company will be profiled, and the attacker will obtain information from open sources such as companies house, your website and marketing, simple phone calls to obtain names and phone numbers etc. Then comes the emails phishing for information or to plant malware on your systems. The first line of defence here is always your employees, the more they know, the more they can protect your business. Cyber Awareness training is not a nice to have, it’s essential and is the cheapest and quickest win you can make in your cyber defences.

The Effects of Downtime on Your Business Can Be Devastating

I’ve talked in the past about what SMEs really care about when it comes to cyber security. Do they really care about the technicalities of an attack or scam? Do they really care about the technical aspects of a piece of protective software or hardware? My argument is that they neither need nor want to know how this stuff works. What they do want to know can be summed up pretty easily.

How vulnerable are they to an attack and/or scam?
What would be the effects if that attack or scam succeeded?
What can they do about it, and how much will it cost them?

I wrote mostly about points a and c in a blog earlier in the year, https://hah2.co.uk/what-do-sme-owners-and-directors-want-from-cyber-security/, and I’ve included the link if you want to read it. This time I’m concentrating on point b and the effects of the downtime that it creates.

Downtime following a cyberattack can have serious consequences for businesses, and individuals. We can categorise these into several key areas:

Financial Costs

Lost Revenue: For e-commerce platforms, financial institutions, or other time-sensitive industries, downtime directly results in revenue losses. All businesses will suffer some degree of revenue loss if they can’t carry out their business because their access to suppliers, customers and operations are seriously curtailed.
Operational Costs: Companies may need to pay overtime to staff to keep the business going manually without access to IT, hire external cybersecurity experts, or invest in replacement hardware or software.
Regulatory Fines: Non-compliance with regulations like GDPR or industry focused standards, due to downtime or data breaches can lead to significant fines.

Damage to Reputation

Loss of Customer Trust: Downtime can erode confidence, especially if sensitive customer data is exposed or if services are unavailable for extended periods.
Brand Damage: Affected organisations may face negative publicity, making it harder to attract and retain customers or partners.

Operational Disruption

Service Outages: Critical systems might be offline, affecting production lines, supply chains, or essential services.
- Loss of Productivity: Employees unable to access IT systems are effectively idle, causing delays in work and project completion.

Note: Points d and c were what essentially led to the collapse of Knights of Old. When they were hit with a ransomware attack which took out their IT systems, they were unable to fulfil time sensitive orders which led to the cancellation of those orders, damaging their brand and seriously impacting customer trust. They never recovered and are now out of business.

Data Loss

Corruption or Deletion: Cyberattacks like ransomware can encrypt, leak or destroy critical data, which may take days or weeks to recover, even with backups.
Intellectual Property Theft: If attackers steal proprietary information, it can be sold to competitors or leaked online.

Security Gap

Exploitation of Vulnerabilities: Downtime often exposes weak points in an organisation’s infrastructure, which may need to be patched or rebuilt.
Increased Risk of Future Attacks: Downtime may signal to attackers that the organisation is a viable target.

Legal and Regulatory Implications

Breach of Contract: Failure to meet service-level agreements (SLAs) due to downtime can result in legal action from customers or partners.
Insurance Implications: Cyber insurance claims may be denied if the company failed to follow adequate preventative measures.

Psychological and Social Impact

Employee Stress: Staff may feel pressured to resolve issues quickly, leading to burnout.
Customer Frustration: Extended downtime can alienate loyal customers, particularly in industries where continuity is critical, such as healthcare or finance.

Broader Economic and Societal Impacts

Supply Chain Disruption: Downtime in one organisation can ripple through its partners, affecting entire supply chains.
- Critical Infrastructure Risks: Attacks on essential services like utilities or healthcare systems can have life-threatening consequences.

I have blogged many times about the mitigation strategies you can take, that don’t need to break the bank, but the bottom line, proactive measures can significantly reduce the impact of cyberattacks and the associated downtime. Understand your vulnerabilities and threats, base your spend on protecting against those threats, starting with the most serious, and then working down. Don’t try and get to 100% security, it doesn’t exist, so understand what risks you find acceptable and what risks you don’t.

PROACTIVE CYBER SECURITY

Proactive security, protective monitoring, security operations – all pretty much means the same thing in terms of cyber, at least in the corporate world and the larger, more sensitive Government organisations. I’ve been involved with the design and commissioning of security operations centres for a long time. I designed the first for the FCO, under contract to HP, ran the security team for the Identity and Passport Service which included a security operations centre, amongst others. But the one thing I knew, was that it was too complex and expensive for an SME, even though it would bring them great benefits.

I’ve been talking and posting a lot recently about this subject because I think it’s extremely important and hasn’t, in the past, resonated with SME owners and management simply because it was considered by many to be purely in the province of the corporate world and was way too expensive for an SME to even consider. Well, that cost issue is no longer the case and there is a system, which we use to provide a managed service for SMEs, that is very affordable. So that leaves us to consider whether it is something that an SME would consider as an essential element of their cyber defences, now that it is affordable.

Typically, an SME would generally want such a solution that balances strong security coverage with affordability, simplicity, and minimal disruption to daily operations. Here’s what I think they would like to include if they could afford it.

Comprehensive Threat Visibility

Log collection from key systems (servers, endpoints, cloud services, firewalls, applications).
Real-time monitoring for suspicious activities (e.g., failed logins, privilege escalation, data exfiltration).
Ability to spot both external attacks (phishing, malware) and insider threats.

Actionable Alerts, Not Noise

Intelligent alert prioritisation to avoid alert fatigue.
- Context-rich notifications so the SME knows what happened, why it matters, and what to do next.
- Possibly AI-driven correlation of events to detect patterns.

Ease of Use & Low Overhead

Simple dashboards that non-experts can navigate, or more likely, a managed service as an SME will have little or no resource to give to this.
Minimal in-house expertise required to operate.
Fast onboarding and configuration.
Reporting

Reports that are east to read, management focused and not full of jargon.
Audit trails for investigations.

Incident Response Integration

Clear escalation paths (automated and manual).
Integration with existing tools (ticketing systems, email, Slack/Teams).
Ability to block malicious IPs or disable compromised accounts quickly.

Affordability & Scalability

Pricing that fits SME budgets (no enterprise-only costs).
Scales up with business growth without a full rip-and-replace.
Easy and flexible deployment.
Coverage regardless of where your staff work, in the office, remote or on the move.

Resilience & Reliability

Works even if parts of the infrastructure are down.
Secure storage and backup of monitoring data.
Regular updates to threat detection rules.

In short: An SME doesn’t just want raw data — they want reassurance, clarity, and quick guidance so they can protect their systems without hiring a large security team. And that’s what we are offering, assurance. There’s no such thing as 100% security, so if you’re looking for that, then we can’t help you. Using this system our managed service plays the percentages by monitoring your defences, telling you in no uncertain terms where your defences aren’t up to the job, alerting you to problems and providing advice and guidance on how to fix stuff.

So, what exactly are we offering. Well, it’s a 24/7 service which provides a manned interface between you and us, on the end of the phone or by email in working hours, and an automated response service in silent hours. Doing it that way you don’t have to pay for expensive night shifts. The staff on duty don’t just monitor your systems but provide advice and guidance as well, giving you a cyber security resource on tap.

Specifically, we are covering off:

Email Security – Stay ahead of potential email threats with our user-friendly, API-based active protection.

Endpoint Security – Safeguard laptops and desktops against cyber threats like malware and ransomware.

Cloud Data – Enable cloud data protection for secure collaboration with external users.

Secure Browsing – Keep your browser secure with a provided extension, protecting you from viruses and malicious sites.

Awareness Training – Empower employees to be the first line of defence against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

Phishing Simulation – Regularly simulate cyber-attacks, including phishing emails, to identify vulnerabilities and educate staff to the dangers of Phishing.

External Risk – Obtain actionable insights on external threats by scanning your digital footprint and exposed vulnerabilities. This includes regular scanning of the dark web looking for compromised email addresses and credentials.

Insurance – Mitigate the cyber risk associated with evolving threats through tailored coverage at the right price (optional; aligning your premiums with your security posture can lower those costs).

Here are some questions to ask yourself and if you answer yes to most of them, then you might be a fit for this service:

Do you employ around 1-250 staff members?
Does falling victim to cybercrime worry you?
Could you continue to operate your business without your IT systems?
Is a recent cyber scan of your public domain on your radar?
Are you aware of the constantly evolving cyber threats and tactics?
Does your business need protection against these advancing cyber threats?
Are you looking for coverage under a cyber insurance policy?

Keep your eye out for a webinar that we will shortly be doing which will provide a full demo of the system, or if you prefer, contact us and we will give you a one-to-one demo, with no obligation. You can follow this with a totally free 14-day trial covering your whole estate, again with no obligation.

If you wanted this system, you might still think it’s too expensive for you, well, it’s only £14 per user per month, so if you only have 10 IT users amongst your staff, that would be £140 per month on a rolling 30-day contract i.e. you can quit with just 30 days’ notice.

Scams v Hacks

We hear a lot about the consequences of cyber-attacks and data breaches but not a lot about the specific threats against SMEs, rather than the generic threats against all businesses. In general businesses are more likely to be targeted by scammers (social engineering attacks) than by purely technical attacks. But why? Attacks against individual SMEs are not going to bring in a lot of profit for the criminal, so they often go after multiple targets all at once. How they do that is to craft an attack which can be automated and directed at many SMEs all at once. The easiest way to do that is via a social engineering attack. Let’s take a look at what we mean by that.

Scams and social engineering attacks rely heavily on human error. Not only do SMEs have weaker defences than their corporate cousins, but they spend little, if anything, on cyber awareness training. The attack that brought down Knights of Old, reducing a once thriving business to bankruptcy in a frighteningly short time, was the result of a weak password being cracked. That suggests that OK, a stronger password protocol and the use of MFA would have been of great benefit but so would educating the users about social engineering and how they can protect the company and their jobs.

Typically, we see:

Phishing emails that trick employees into giving credentials or downloading malware.
Business email compromise (BEC) — attackers impersonate executives to request bank transfers or the immediate payment of an invoice.
Fake invoices or supplier fraud.

It’s done this way simply because it’s easier and cheaper to execute than a technical attack. It’s scalable with scammers sending thousands of phishing emails, and it often bypasses technical defences by exploiting people directly.

In addition to the traditional attacks, we are now facing AI generated attacks, enabling criminals to design scams that are even more scalable and to be produced more quickly. Some examples include:

Deepfake CEO Fraud (AI-Generated Voice or Video)

A finance employee receives a video call from someone who appears to be the CEO instructing them to urgently transfer funds to a supplier. The video and voice are AI-generated deepfakes using real footage and voice samples taken from public online sources. This has happened in the UK causing a UK based firm to lose over £20m in early 2025. Obviously not an SME but the attack was not difficult to generate.

Another AI attack was an upscale of the Business Email Compromise:

Criminals use AI to monitor and mimic email communication styles. They craft perfectly worded emails from a company executive asking the accounting team to update supplier bank details or pay fake invoices. What is new in 2025 is that AI now personalises these scams based on internal speech patterns and tone scraped from Slack or Teams (when credentials are compromised and that list is not exhaustive – other online messaging systems are available).

One scam that we are now seeing more of is the fake job applicant scam targeting HR departments and IT onboarding teams. Scammers apply for remote jobs using fake CVs and AI-generated video interviews. Once hired, they gain access to internal systems and exfiltrate data or install malware. They’re playing the long game here, but it can really pay off.

There are lots of examples and I’ll just put in a couple more:

How many of you use Software as a Service (SaaS) and pay a subscription? In this case a fake renewal notice is sent for services like Microsoft 365, Zoom, or Slack. The email contains a link to a spoofed portal, which steals company admin credentials when they try to “log in.” A new twist in 2025 is that the phishing emails are personalised with real invoice numbers and recent usage data scraped from prior breaches.

Most of you are probably on LinkedIn, even if you are not particularly active on there. We are now seeing more of the LinkedIn Clone Attack. What happens here is that the scammers clone the LinkedIn profile of a known business leader and use it to reach out to employees or partners, proposing urgent collaborations or investment opportunities that include malicious links. In a more advanced tactic, they use AI-generated responses in real-time chats that make these accounts seem very real.

So, in conclusion, whilst we cannot rule out the more technical attack on an SME, we can say that the most likely attack will come via some sort of scam, often nowadays using AI. The defences need to be in depth and will include some technical defences but often the best defence against social engineering is cyber awareness training and this is generally ignored by SMEs.

Ransomware – The Threat That Keeps On Giving

I know I’ve banged on about this quite a bit recently, but I make no apologies for it. It has sprung to the front again following the Panorama programme on Monday night which highlighted the often catastrophic effects of ransomware on companies, and had interviews with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA), with an NCA rep saying that 2025 is shaping up to be the worst year ever for ransomware and the CEO of NSCS calling on businesses to face up to the issue and sort out their cyber defences.

The programme highlighted that Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) now enables less skilled attackers to run ransomware, complete with support and updates. Over 70% of attacks now use these services.

Attackers have shifted to double/triple extortion schemes, encrypting data, threatening to leak it, and sometimes targeting associated partners or customers. Next-gen ransomware, e.g. LockBit 4.0, BianLian etc, is rolling out advanced stealth, data theft, and automated lateral movement techniques, using an initial breach to jump across to other parts of your network or that of your partners and customers.

You’ll have to forgive me for being a bit smug as the programme highlighted issues that I’ve been talking about for a long time now. Firstly, it’s not just the corporates that are targets for this. SMEs are also very much in the firing line. The programme highlighted an example I’ve quoted before. Knight of Old (part of the KNP Logistics Group) suffered consequences that they just couldn’t recover from.

In June 2023, the Akira ransomware gang infiltrated the company via stolen credentials and encrypted critical systems, including freight-tracking, payments, and internal servers, displaying this chilling message:

“If you’re reading this, it means the internal infrastructure of your company is fully or partially dead.”

The group also threatened to release over 10,000 confidential documents (payroll, invoices, financial files) as a form of double extortion. Despite having cyber insurance and backups, they couldn’t fully restore financial systems, and some backups were also destroyed. Insurers covered only the initial cleanup (~£250k) and $1M policy, but this fell far short of covering the estimated $2.7–$5.3 million ransom or the broader economic damage. Operational disruption prevented them from producing reports and financial statements, essential for securing bank funding. A sale fell through, as buyers wanted director guarantees they couldn’t offer.

The company entered administration in September 2023 and ceased operations. Around 730 out of 900 employees lost their jobs, including many long-serving drivers and staff who were owed unpaid wages. Local impact was severe: furloughed staff lost homes, cars, and some experienced severe personal hardship.

It appears that the attack was perpetrated via a weak password and the absence of multi-factor authentication (MFA), with the gang using a brute force method to crack the password. It underscores the fact that even companies with cyber insurance and accredited systems are vulnerable.

Obviously, we’re not party to the full facts but the company’s directors have been quite candid in interview, and we have to wonder if something as simple as good cyber awareness training and the introduction of MFA could have stopped this attack in its tracks. There are other factors to consider though. The backups seemed to have failed, with some of them being destroyed by the attack, suggesting that these backups were on the same network as the main system.

Clearly what is needed is defence in depth, based on the tried and tested method of risk management. The idea of defence in depth stems from military defences, where there are multiple layers to a defensive system. In cyber security we talk about People, Process and then Technology. I’ll once again trot out the quote from Bruce Schneier, ‘If you think technology will solve your cyber security problem, you don’t understand the problem and you don’t understand the technology’. This aligns very well with the opinion of both NCSC and NCA that the majority of these attacks are more in line with scams than with technical hacking.

Rather than bore you with the components of risk management in cyber, I’ll just point you towards a short video we produced on the subject.

Risk Management – a short video

We produced another video which highlights social engineering. That is the method by which much of these attacks are undertaken which are not particularly technical in nature. It’s the People part of the risk management process and is arguably the quickest and cheapest win any company can take. It’s a continual source of wonder amongst cyber security professionals that a large focus remains on technology whilst ignoring this vital element. Our short video tries to hit the highlights but in this changing landscape, we haven’t hit them all.

Social Engineering – A Short Video

The takeaway from this should be that no one is safe or immune from a ransomware attack, particularly ransomware as a service. This latter means that the attacker doesn’t need to be technically proficient, just determined. It enables attackers to target multiple companies at once. If they, for instance, attack 1000 companies at the same time, using the same service, and ask for moderate amounts of ransom, they only need to hit around a 40-50% success rate to make a decent profit. Add in AI which makes this so much easier to do, and you’ve got an idea of how much of a business this is for criminal and nation state sponsored gangs.

Do CISOs have a role in the Small to Medium Enterprise?

A Chief Information Security Officer or CISO, is a post you almost never find in an SME, even those at the top end of that sector. This has contributed to the growth of what is known as fractional appointments i.e. appointments that are not full time with the incumbents often taking roles in more than one organisation, thus the term Fractional.

Anyone taking any role in an SME management team will need to be pragmatic, practical and bring cost effectiveness to their discipline. The CISO role is no different and is all about managing risk, enabling the business and ensuring trust in a very cost sensitive environment.

The CISO can play a crucial role in an SME by ensuring that the organisation’s information and data assets are secure. While the CISO role in a large corporation may be more siloed or focused on strategy, in an SME the CISO often wears multiple hats, balancing strategy, operations, and hands-on technical work.

Challenges Unique to SMEs

I’ve often talked about the challenges that SMEs face, focusing as I do on cyber security. Let’s just have a quick recap looking at where the CISO fits in with these unique challenges.

Limited budget and staff: This is the main reason why SMEs will not employ a full time CISO, they simply can’t afford it. The other being that an SME probably doesn’t require a full-time resource anyway. Because of this lack of resource the CISO may also act as a hands-on security engineer or IT lead, perhaps liaising with a contracted IT outsourcer.
Lack of security culture: Many SMEs don’t prioritise security until after a breach. The CISO will be able to raise awareness and provide advice and guidance before the fact.
Rapid growth and change: Scaling securely is a key challenge as SMEs expand and there are often gaps left because of overlooking the need to embed security at the design stage. The CISO can plug that gap.

Let’s take a look at the potential elements of a job description for the role of a CISO, or a Fractional CISO, in an SME. Of course, these may not fit everyone and it’s more of a menu for SMEs to choose from:

Developing and Leading the Cybersecurity Strategy
Define the overall information security roadmap aligned with the SME’s business goals.
Balance security with business agility, in other words making sure security does not get in the way of business and keeping in mind budget constraints typical in SMEs.
Ensure the strategy addresses risk management, compliance, and data protection.

Risk Management and Assessment
Identify and assess cyber risks relevant to the SME (e.g., phishing, ransomware, insider threats).
Conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration tests.
Prioritise risks based on business impact and likelihood.

Policy and Compliance Management
Develop and enforce security policies, standards, and procedures.
Ensure compliance with relevant regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS etc depending on industry).
Prepare for audits and provide documentation to demonstrate compliance.

Security Awareness and Training
Conduct regular security awareness training for employees.
Create a culture of security by promoting best practices (e.g., strong passwords, phishing awareness).

Incident Response and Business Continuity
Develop and maintain an incident response plan.
Lead the response to security breaches and minimise damage.
Ensure business continuity and disaster recovery plans are in place and tested.

Technology Oversight and Vendor Management
Evaluate and implement cybersecurity tools (e.g., firewalls, endpoint protection etc).
Manage relationships with third-party vendors, especially cloud providers and MSSPs.
Ensure that vendors comply with the SME’s security requirements.
Ensure the SME itself is not in conflict with any security requirements of larger organisations if it is in that organisations supply chain.

Board and Executive Communication
Translate technical risks into business language for senior management.
Report regularly on security posture, incidents, and needs.
Advocate for security budget and resources in line with organisational risk appetite.

I hope that gives a feel as to why an SME might want to consider a Fractional CISO or Board Advisor. Cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated, faster and harder to repel. It is no longer just the corporates who are in the firing line. Modern, often AI driven attacks have put everyone in the sights of the modern cyber-criminal and even from those criminal organisations that are nation state funded. It’s never been more crucial to have professional advice and guidance on tap.

How Should SMEs View Cyber Security?

We experience a quite varied attitude amongst SMEs to cyber security. There is still a prevalent view that they are not really a target because they’re not worth it, and we’ve commented again and again that this is simply not so. SMEs are considered low hanging fruit amongst cyber criminals simply because they tend to have weaker defences and don’t have easy access to the right levels of advice and guidance.

Good cyber defences can be seen in a similar light to insurance. Whilst you hope that you’ll never need it, you understand that it’s safer to have it and in turn, the insurance company will require you to meet certain requirements for your policy to remain extant.

100% protection against an attack is simply not possible and no responsible cyber security company will guarantee that. But we do try and empower businesses by forging intelligent defences to protect them in an ever-evolving threat landscape, being made more dangerous as criminals adopt AI in greater numbers.

SMEs face many of the same cybersecurity threats as large organisations, but they are often more vulnerable due to limited resources, staff, and awareness. So far it’s being reported that the biggest cybersecurity threats to SMEs in 2025 include:

Phishing & Social Engineering

What it is: Deceptive emails, texts, or calls that trick employees into revealing credentials or installing malware.
Why it matters for SMEs: They often have no formal training or tools to detect phishing. A single click can lead to a major breach.

Ransomware Attacks

What it is: Malware that encrypts data and demands a ransom for decryption.
Why SMEs are targets: They’re seen as “soft” targets, less likely to have backups or strong defences, more likely to pay.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

What it is: Fraudsters impersonate executives or vendors to trick employees into sending money or sensitive data. Traditionally done by email spoofing, now increasingly being done by AI impersonation.
Why it’s dangerous: BEC is low-tech but high impact, no malware, just manipulation. Losses can be substantial.

Poor Password Hygiene

Common issues: Weak, reused, or shared passwords; lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Impact: Credential stuffing and brute-force attacks are easy ways into SME systems.

Unpatched Software & Systems

What it is: Outdated software with known vulnerabilities.
Why it happens: SMEs often delay updates due to compatibility fears or lack of IT resources.
Real threat: Attackers automate the search for these flaws.

Supply Chain Attacks

What it is: Attackers target less secure vendors or partners to infiltrate your network.
Relevance: SMEs often rely on third-party services (e.g. MSPs, cloud tools), but don’t vet their security rigorously. Check their Ts&Cs, what are they responsible for and what are you responsible for? This is becoming a big issue amongst those with critical supply chains of which SMEs may be a part.

Insider Threats (Malicious or Accidental)

Malicious: Disgruntled employees stealing or sabotaging data.
Accidental: Well-meaning staff misconfiguring systems or clicking unsafe links.
Problem: SMEs rarely have monitoring tools in place to catch insider issues early.

Insecure Remote Work Infrastructure

Examples: Unsecured Wi-Fi, lack of VPNs, personal device use (BYOD).
Why it’s risky: Many SMEs embraced remote/hybrid work without upgrading their security posture.

Lack of Cybersecurity Training

Result: Employees don’t recognise threats or understand basic security practices.
Impact: Human error is still a major cause of breaches. Cyber Awareness Training is arguably the biggest and cheapest quick win an employer can take.

Cloud Misconfigurations

Common mistake: Leaving cloud storage exposed to the internet.
Why it happens: SMEs may lack specialised cloud knowledge or rely on default settings. Check with your supplier.

Bonus: AI-Powered Attacks

Emerging trend: Attackers use generative AI to craft more convincing phishing emails, deepfakes, and automated reconnaissance. Check out our earlier blog on this subject (An increase in sophistication of cyber-attacks).
Why SMEs should care: These tools lower the barrier for attackers and increase the success rate of scams.

What practical advice would we have for SMEs? Obviously, that depends on the SME, their vertical, how they operate etc. But generally:

Enable MFA everywhere.
Train staff regularly.
Keep software up to date.
Back up data (and test recovery).
Use endpoint protection.
Identify where all your sensitive data resides.
Investigate protective monitoring services.
Investigate Cyber Security Insurance.
Hire or consult a cybersecurity professional, even part-time.

Ransomware, Phishing and other Malware