Kaseya Ltd Security Incident

What we learned from the Kaseya attack: recommendations for a human-centric approach to curb ransomware Roxana Radu August 30, 2021 Articles for Cyberpeace The ransomware attack unfolding on 2 July 2021 against Kaseya Ltd, a Miami-based software producer, was the worlds largest to date. As an indiscriminate supply chain attack, this case brings into sharper focus the extent of the harm inflicted by ransomware to society as a whole. The attack was disruptive for everyone using Kaseya services directly or indirectly, including nurseries, schools, pharmacies and supermarkets in 17 countries. Corrupting software supply chains with ransomware that is deployed automatically to millions of devices is also devastating for our collective trust in ICT capabilities and resilience when critical infrastructure is under attack. We have a shared responsibility to take the norms on responsibilities for curbing cybercrime to the next level and enforce them as a first step towards accountability. Three sets of measures are within reach to change the status quo: Collecting relevant data to assess and understand the societal impact of attacks; Increasing transparency around data and responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities; Linking technical analysis to normative and legal instruments to promote change of behaviour and foster accountability. The attack against Kaseya combined a trusted means of deploying automatic software via a managed service provider with a near-impossible-to-defend-against attack vector. The cyberattack exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Kaseyas Virtual System Administrator (VSA) software, which is a remote monitoring and management software package. This impacted customers with on-premises deployments of VSA. In a matter of minutes, it caused harm on an unprecedented scale, hitting around 1,500 companies and thousands of victims around the world, from businesses and municipalities in the United States to Australian organizations. In Sweden, a large food...

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