Police dismantle DiskStation ransomware gang targeting NAS devices, arrest suspected ringleader

"Operation Elicius", a joint international law enforcement operation involving Europol and police forces in Italy, France, and Romania, has successfully dismantled a Romanian ransomware gang that targeted network-attached storage (NAS) devices and arrested its suspected leader.

The so-called "DiskStation Security" ransomware group has targeted and compromised NAS devices - particularly those manufactured by Synology - since 2021, leaving the data of businesses and non-profit organisations encrypted, and demanding a ransom for its recovery...

...Synology has been advising users on how to protect their NAS devices from ransomware attacks for several years.  Much of the advice revolves around minimising the exposure of NAS devices to the internet, hardening password security, and ensuring that regular backups are made of critical data.

The accounts used to secure NAS devices are no different from any other when it comes to security - you should ensure that passwords are unique, and not easy-to-crack.  Attackers will often use automated tools to brute force their way into poorly-secured devices, or take advantage of users who have used easy-to-guess, predictable passwords.

Donline supports dozens of business & home clients in specifying, building, deploying & ongoing management of Synology NAS devices. They are excellent, reliable, cost effective devices to manage your network & data. HOWEVER, as with all IT: internet connectivity, credentials, patching, etc - MUST be carefully managed. Got questions about IT? Contact Donline.

www.fortra.com

Western Digital sparks panic, anger for age-shaming HDDs

When should you be concerned about a NAS hard drive failing? Multiple factors are at play, so many might turn to various SMART (self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology) data. When it comes to how long the drive has been active, there are backup companies like Backblaze using hard drives that are nearly 8 years old. That may be why some customers have been panicked, confused, and/or angered to see their Western Digital NAS hard drive automatically given a warning label in Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) after they were powered on for three years. With no other factors considered for these automatic flags, Western Digital is accused of age-shaming drives to push people to buy new HDDs prematurely.

The practice's revelation is the last straw for some users. Western Digital already had a steep climb to win back NAS customers' trust after shipping NAS drives with SMR (shingled magnetic recording) instead of CMR (conventional magnetic recording). Now, some are saying they won't use or recommend the company's hard drives anymore.

www.arstechnica.com

Synology to enforce use of validated disks in its NAS. And guess what? Only its own disks exceed 4TB

Synology has introduced its first-ever list of validated disks and won’t allow other devices into its enterprise-class NAS devices. And in a colossal coincidence, half of the disks allowed into its devices – and the only ones larger than 4TB – are Synology’s very own HAT 5300 disks that it launched last week.

Seeing as privately held Synology is thought to have annual revenue of around US$350m, rather less than the kind of cash required to get into the hard disk business, The Register inquired if it had really started making drives or found some other way into the industry.

The Taiwanese network-attached-storage vendor told us the drives are Synology-branded Toshiba kit, though it has written its own drive firmware and that the code delivers sequential read performance 23 per cent beyond comparable drives. Synology told us its branded disks will also be more reliable because they have undergone extensive testing in the company’s own NAS arrays.

Slightly worrying - but this only applies to Synology's enterprise-class NAS devices - their "Big Iron". So the "smaller stuff" for Personal & Home User, IT Enthusiast, Small and Midsize Business - you can still use WD or Seagate branded approved Hard Drives. Phew!

www.theregister.com

Backup and protect your important data with a Synology NAS

Malicious software that uses encryption to hold your data for ransom has been on the rise over the last few years. Not only is it making its way into high profile businesses, but it’s also managed to weave its way into schools and hospitals. Synology provides many award-winning tools to help you combat ransomware. 

Solutions

Synology offers a range of tools to help you combat against ransomware and ensure your data is backed up securely: Take a closer look at Synology Active Backup suite, and see where it fits in Synology's Backup and Disaster Recovery app offering.

Active Backup

Centralises backup tasks for: Windows endpoints, Office 365 and G Suite to Synology NAS – and lets you manage from one simple console. Fast and reliable recovery delivered to keep running services and files instantly available.

Hyper Backup

Lets you enjoy a full range of multi-version backup destinations from local shared folders, expansion units, and external hard drives, to network shared folders, rsync server, and public cloud services.

Contact Donline to find out how Synology Network Attached Storage can be a great tool to help protect your critical data - on premise, device & in the cloud.

Synology urges all users to take immediate action to protect data from ransomware attack

TAIPEI, Taiwan - July 23, 2019 Synology recently found that several users were under a ransomware attack, where admins' credentials were stolen by brute-force login attacks, and their data was encrypted as a result. We investigated and found that the causes of these attacks were due to dictionary attacks instead of specific system vulnerabilities. This large-scale attack was targeted at various NAS models from different vendors; therefore we strongly recommend users check network and account settings to protect data from ransomware.

"We believe this is an organized attack. After an intensive investigation into this matter, we found that the attacker used botnet addresses to hide the real source IP," said Ken Lee, Manager of Security Incident Response Team at Synology Inc. "After collecting admin account passwords with brute-force attacks, the attack was launched on July 19 and caught users off guard. We therefore informed TWCERT/CC and CERT/CC immediately of this matter in hopes of accelerating the collaborative efforts to resolve this incident."

Since this attack is not related to system security vulnerabilities, it is recommended that Synology users utilize built-in network and account management settings to enhance system security level, preventing malicious attacks from the Internet.

"We urge all Synology users to take immediate action to protect their NAS from the ransomware attack," said Hewitt Lee, Director of Product Management at Synology Inc. "Users' data security is always our priority. For those who are not using Synology NAS, we still recommend you take corresponding actions to protect your precious data."

Synology are a great company with fantastic NAS devices. However, any piece of IT is only as secure as it's weakest link. Use a trivial password & expect to lose control of your device and data! ALWAYS use complex passwords & never reuse passwords!

www.synology.com

PC Magazine UK votes Synology best Server / NAS device for work

The best router and network storage should be invisible to users in the office. They simply work, day in, day out, delivering internet connectivity and fast, reliable, local storage of files (and more). Of course, they're not invisible to the admins who run them, which is why we ask the IT people in charge at the office to rate the brands they use across a number of criteria every year. These are their picks.

Synology say: For the sixth time Synology won the Business Choice Award for Work Servers/NAS! Scoring a whopping 9.1 overall satisfaction rating, 'there's little doubt that for PCMag readers who've gone with a Synology NAS at the office, there's no going back.’

Want to know more about how a Synology NAS can help in your workplace or home office? Contact Donline for more info.

www.uk.pcmag.com

Synology - upgrade DSM, SRM, and VS960HD for a critical vulnerability

The following issues may allow attackers to fully compromise any network-connected DiskStation, Synology routers, or VS960HD without authentication. 

We strongly advise that you upgrade your system to DSM 6.2.1-23824 Update 4, SRM 1.2-7742 Update 5, or Visual Station 2.3.3-1646 to resolve this vulnerability.

www.synology.com