Monday Morning Impact – May 16

Zscaler: 400% Increase in Phishing Attacks Directed at Retail and Wholesale

Zscaler, Inc., a San Jose-based cloud security company, has issued its 2022 ThreatLabz Phishing Report showing a major increase in phishing attacks. The study reviews 12 months of global phishing data from the Zscaler security cloud to identify key trends, industries and geographies at risk, and emerging tactics. The research team analyzed data from more than 200 billion daily transactions, and 150 million daily blocked attacks in order to identify emerging threats and track malicious actors from across the globe. This year’s report showed dramatic 29% growth in overall phishing attacks compared to previous years, with retail and wholesale companies bearing the brunt of the increase. The report also showed an emerging reliance on phishing-as-a-service methods, as well as new attack vectors, such as SMS phishing, becoming one of the more prevalent methods of intrusion.

“Phishing attacks are impacting businesses and consumers with alarming frequency, complexity, and scope – with the rise in phishing-as-a-service making it easier than ever for non-sophisticated actors to launch successful attacks,” said Deepen Desai, CISO and VP of Security Research and Operations at Zscaler. “Our annual report highlights how cybercriminals continue to escalate their usage of phishing as a starting point to breach organizations to deliver ransomware or steal sensitive data.”

In 2021, the U.S. was the most-targeted country globally, accounting for over 60% of all phishing attacks blocked by the Zscaler security cloud. The next most frequently attacked countries include Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Not all countries experienced the same attention from phishing attacks. For example, the Netherlands experienced a decrease of 38 %, which may have resulted from recently passed legislation that increased the penalties for online fraud.

Retail and wholesale businesses experienced an increase of over 400% in phishing attempts – the most out of all tracked industries. These businesses were followed by financial and government sectors, with organizations in these industries seeing over 100% increases in attacks on average. However, some industries experienced partial relief from phishing attacks last year. Healthcare saw a notable drop of 59%, while the services industry saw a decline of 33%.

Channel Impact^®
Zscaler recommends that channel partners assist their customers by helping them to understand the risks, leveraging automated tools and actionable intelligence to reduce phishing incidents, simulating phishing attacks to identify gaps in security policies and procedures, and evaluating security infrastructure to ensure access to the latest research and system capabilities.

Masergy, Fortinet, and Ingram Micro Forge SD-WAN Partnership

Masergy, Fortinet, and Ingram Micro have teamed to deliver a new distribution sales route and tailored SD-WAN solution for VARs and MSPs. The move provides the reseller community with a combined offering that converges networking, security, and services, specifically targeting partners without service operations, technical expertise, or SD-WAN certifications.

Distributed by Ingram Micro, the solution combines Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solutions with 24/7 network and security management services from Masergy.

“In leading with the needs of our partners, we’ve designed a new distribution model with flexible SD-WAN service options that complement how resellers and MSPs like to do business,” said Bill Madison, vice president, global channel alliances at Masergy. “As a result, we’re capturing more market opportunities,”

“With Ingram Micro combining Fortinet’s industry-leading Secure SD-WAN technology and services expertise from Masergy, we are truly pioneering innovative new routes to market for our partners,” said Jon Bove, vice president channel sales at Fortinet. “Fortinet’s security-driven networking approach has been chosen time and again by customers and partners around the world to help them solve today’s toughest challenges of securing and connecting work-from-anywhere and hybrid IT deployments.”

“SD-WAN-as-a-service is a fast-growth, problem-solving sales opportunity for the channel and an area where Ingram Micro continues to expand and invest in our security and networking portfolio and resources,” says Eric Kohl, Ingram Micro’s vice president of security and networking. “As a long-standing, top-performing Fortinet distributor and Masergy’s new go-to-market partner, Ingram Micro is well positioned to bring Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and Masergy’s managed network and security services to our channel partners nationwide.”

Channel Impact^®
The offering is expected to help resellers more easily scale their businesses, meeting growing demand for network and security services supporting hybrid work.

RackTop Systems Expands Channel Partner Program

RackTop Systems, a Maryland-based cyber storage vendor, has added various new components to its partner program, including new training, new incentives, an expanded list of subscription and consumption-based product offerings, and the addition of MSP and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) programs.

The program features two tiers based on meeting various targets goals, and investment. The Authorized level includes benefits such as a partner portal, deal registration, sales and technical training, marketing and newsletters, as well as NFR Software and sales performance incentive fund (SPIF) eligibility. The Premier level builds on those benefits with additional joint business planning, demo equipment availability and rebates.

The company has also announced a new SPIF to drive sales and integrations.

Since the program’s initial launch in 2021, the company has already more than doubled the number of channel partnerships and plans to make significant investments in its channel focused sales and distribution strategy across all public and private sector verticals.

RackTop’s cyber storage solution, BrickStor Security Platform (SP), can be deployed as an on-premises solution, on the customer’s existing infrastructure, or in the public cloud. BrickStor SP can also augment existing storage and enhance prior SAN and S3 compatible object storage investments.

Channel Impact^®
By partnering with RackTop, enterprises and end-users can bundle data security services in an effort to simplify operational management and reduce the total cost of solution ownership.