Nihon Cyber Defence Co., Ltd.
HELP and ADVICE - Ransomware
Unfortunately, it is not a case of if, but when you will be impacted …
Nihon Cyber Defence’s (NCD) highly experienced team understands the challenges that the victims of these attacks face. We know that CEOs, CIOs and CISO’s and Senior Leadership Teams, need objective, helpful and timely advice to allow them to lead a successful recovery and mitigation.
Therefore, we have launched an advice service that gives victim organisations immediate access to the right guidance through industry experts, allowing organisations to prepare or respond to incidents.
We will assist in preparing, defending or responding to an attack and whilst our ransomware advice service is currently intended primarily for Japanese organisations, NCD has impressive experience working on ransomware and other forms of devastating cyber-attacks globally. You can learn more about what we offer here…
At Nihon Cyber Defence (NCD) we see the impact that cyber-attacks and in particular ransomware attacks can have. Whilst it has been major ransomware attacks that have dominated the headlines, the reality is that an enormous range of organisations are being impacted.
This increase in the number and sophistication of attacks has been driven by Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), that has made sophisticated cyber tools available to a growing range of criminal groups.
Dealing with a major cyber incident
For an organisation’s senior management, a ransomware attack is a major test of leadership. At NCD we believe that is important that senior managers, who are often under immense pressure, are supported through an incident. We have therefore – at the suggestion of several organisations that we have helped – are launching a cyber security advice service.
The key elements of this service are that it is:
- Confidential
- Cost effective
- Provides access to world-class cyber security experts
- For anyone in a leadership position
Purpose
The sole purpose of the NCD Advice Service is to help you recover from a Cyber Attack
Process
The way that this service works is:
- Companies that believe that they may have become the victim of a cyber-attack, contact NCD through our online portal (please do not use an email address that may have been compromised in the attack).
- A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is quickly put in place to ensure complete confidentiality.
- After an initial discussion with a native Japanese speaker, a secure video conferencing call will be set up between the company’s management and world-class cyber security experts who have dealt with many hundreds of cyber security incidents. This call can be in English or with Japanese translation.
- During the call senior managers CEO’s, CIOs, CFO’s, CISO’s or anyone else who finds themselves in a cyber incident management leadership role will have the opportunity to ask questions of these experts. These can be general questions around best and poor practice or specific technical questions.
Asking the right questions
For senior managers who do not have a technical background we will equip you with the questions to ask of your Incident Response team. They could include:
- Technical Understanding – How did the incident happen? Has the access and attack vector been identified and closed? Is the attacker off the network or still there? Is there still a risk of further attack
- Mitigation – What is the damage? What data has been affected or exfiltrated. How do we deal and mitigate this?
- Attribution and Investigation – Who was behind the attack? Why was the victim targeted? Is there an option to pay? Will we negotiate to identify the data exfoliated or to delay exposure? Do we know where the exposure will be … can we disrupt this? Can we recover the encrypted data? Should you involve law enforcement?
- Regulatory– What action is required from the data protection authorities or financial regulatory authorities?
- Comms – What is the internal and external Comms plan? Will this be protective or reactive (pending exposure)? How will we inform affected data subjects?
- Resilience – What is the plan to rebuild our network securely and how can we re-establish customer confidence and commercial reputation?
- Governance – What advice and guidance should be made available to the Board during an incident? How should the Incident be managed?
- Support – What external support do you require? As importantly, what support do we not require? How do we manage the expense of this support?
- Engagement with the hostile actors. Should we engage? What are the risks associated with paying the ransom? How should engagement be taken forward?
Whilst this is designed to be a one-off service, many of our clients have found our experts’ advice to be invaluable and ask us to remain engaged acting as a critical friend or to provide specialist technical services through the attack.
Other services
- Preparation– boards awareness, incident planning and exercising
- Monitoring – developing the deployment of the technical solutions pre and post in a cyber incident
Consultants
Our customers tell us that, having won the work, the major consulting companies use primarily junior staff to carry out the work. At NCD we only use consultants with many decades of experience.
Latest Ransomware News!!
Greece’s largest natural gas distributor suffers a data breach and disruptions following an attack by the Ragnar Locker ransomware gang
On Saturday 20th of August 2022, Greece’s largest natural gas distributor, DESFA released a statement confirming that they suffered a data breach and IT system outage following a cyberattack. Although due to the quick response of its IT team, the intrusion was limited. However, some files and data were accessed and could be possibly exfiltrated so there is the risk
LockBit’s data leak sites shut down from DDoS attack, LockBit blames Entrust for attacks
Over the weekend of the 20th of August 2022, the LockBit ransomware operation’s data leak sites have been shut down due to a DDoS attack in response to LockBit claiming responsibility for the cyberattack against Entrust that occurred in July. LockBit started to leak data that was allegedly stolen from Entrust, including legal documents, marketing spreadsheets, and accounting data. Shortly
BlackByte ransomware gang returns with new extortion tactics
The BlackByte ransomware operation has returned with version 2.0 of their operation which introduces a new data leak site utilizing new extortion techniques borrowed from LockBit. Since their return, the BlackByte ransomware operation has been promoting a new data leak site on hacker forums and through Twitter accounts the threat actor seems to be controlling. At the time of writing,
Clop ransomware group attacked UK water supplier but extorted the wrong company
On Monday 15th of August 2022, South Staffordshire confirmed that they had experienced IT disruption from a cyberattack. The released announcement explained that the safety and water distribution systems are still operational and therefore there is no impact on the supply of safe water to its customers or those of its subsidiaries, Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water. “This is
PLAY ransomware hits Argentina’s Judiciary of Córdoba
On Saturday 13th of August 2022, Argentina’s Judiciary of Córdoba experienced a ransomware attack that resulted in them having to shut down its IT systems. The shutdown also resulted in the use of pen and paper for submitting official documents. Argentina’s Judiciary of Córdoba has confirmed they were hit by ransomware and have engaged with Microsoft, Cisco, Trend Micro, and
FBI releases joint cybersecurity advisory against Zeppelin ransomware
On Thursday 11th of August 2022, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a joint TLP:WHITE cybersecurity advisory which revealed threat actors have been using the Zeppelin ransomware from 2019 through to at least June 2022 where a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure organisations have been targeted, including defence contractors, educational institutions, manufacturers, technology companies, and
