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!!
Cisco confirms attack by Yanluowang ransomware gang
On Wednesday 10th of August 2022, Cisco confirmed the Yanluowang ransomware group had breached its corporate network in late May and that the ransomware group tried to extort them under the threat of leaking stolen files online. Although Cisco confirmed that the incident had no impact on their business operations. This confirmation was released in a response to the Yanluowang
7-Eleven Denmark confirms store closures as a result of a ransomware attack
On Monday 8th of August 2022, 7-Eleven Denmark experienced a ransomware attack that resulted in the closure of 175 stores across Denmark as they were not able to accept payment or use their cash register. The incident was confirmed via a statement on Facebook. “This is a so-called ransomware attack, where the criminals have forced access to the network and
New GwisinLocker ransomware can target and encrypt Windows and Linux ESXi servers
This week, cybersecurity researchers at Ahnlab and ReversingLabs released reports on the new ransomware family called ‘GwisinLocker’ which has been seen targetting South Korean healthcare, industrial, and pharmaceutical companies with Windows and Linux encryptors. The reports also highlighted that these encryptors have support for encrypting VMware ESXi servers and virtual machines as well as using AES symmetric-key encryption with SHA256
Highly disruptive cyberattack hits German Chambers of Industry and Commerce
On Thursday 4th of August, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) announced they had to shut down all of its IT systems and switch off digital services, telephones, and email servers, in response to a cyberattack to provide the IT teams time to resolve the incident and restore services. Some services have gradually become available again
German power electronics manufacturer Semikron experiences LV ransomware attack
On Monday 1st of August, the German power electronics manufacturer Semikron revealed they had experienced a ransomware attack that partially encrypted the company’s network as well as data being allegedly stolen. According to an alert issued by the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik), the ransomware operators are blackmailing the company and threatening to
Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research experiences a ransomware attack
On Tuesday 2nd of August 2022, Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) experienced a ransomware attack on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of July 2022 which resulted in multiple centers being cut off from the Council’s network in an attempt to stop the spread of the ransomware. The incident was detected on Monday 18th of July 2022 and the
