01/04/2021: Cybersecurity & Tech News Roundup

Happy 1st of April! Today’s tech news roundup is no joke – we’ve got ransomware gangs gloating about their annual income, Google reneging its remote working policy, and a hellish ransomware strain linked to some of the biggest cyber-attacks this year. We keep you up to date with the latest technology updates and cybersecurity news on a daily basis, so read on to find out what’s going on in the tech world today:

Are Hades and Hafnium involved in a super villain team-up?

Security insiders have linked the Hades ransomware operation to the Hafnium hacking group that targeted Microsoft Exchange servers earlier this year. The Hades group took responsibility for attacks on Forward Air and has been linked to Evil Corp – an infamous cyber-crime organisation with possible links to Russia. Cybersecurity researchers have found links between not only Hades and Evil Corp, but Hafnium – who were recently called out by Microsoft as being sponsored by China – is now also in the mix.

Are all of these criminal organisations truly working together, or could this just be a coincidence? Perhaps an unknown threat actor is posing as the Hades group, or it just so happened that multiple ransomware gangs targeted the same organisations at around the same time. Is InfoSec’s answer to the Injustice League starting to form? Right now, there’s some pretty strong evidence – read about it here.

The REvil ransomware gang are making serious money following the SaaS model

Speaking of ransomware gangs, another group of hackers that have been hitting the headlines recently; the cyber-criminals behind the REvil ransomware strain have openly claimed they bring in over $100 million annually.

As part of their statement, not only did they explain that they had adopted and improved on the original REvil ransomware code, but they’re not selling it to other nefarious parties as part of a Ransomware-as-a-Service model. The gang have their minds on your money, your money on their minds, and they’re adopting innovative models from the tech world in order to get their hands on it. Ransomware authors are following the SaaS model and have created a hierarchical system where other hackers pay to add their ransomware to their own cyber-attack campaigns. They even offer customisable dashboards and exploit-gen tools – because UX is important for customer satisfaction.

The people behind NetWalker, LockBit, and Smaug have also adopted this money-making model. Read more here.

Bad news for Google’s remote workers

Google is gearing up to re-open its offices on the 1st September, but when that day comes, remote employees based in the US can kiss flexible working goodbye. The tech giant has released a statement saying that it’ll only allow employees to work from home for a total of 2 weeks a year – and that’s only upon application.

While remote working arrangements are set to continue until September, their offices will be open from May onwards, allowing staff to work there if they volunteer to do so. Come September though, employees won’t really have a choice – a strange decision, considering Google was one of the first organisations to offer remote working to all staff when the pandemic first took hold. With that said though, considering Google HQ’s state of the art interiors, perhaps staff will be glad to be back in the office. Read more here.

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