> Cisco and researchers have known since last week that a ransomware crime syndicate called Akira was gaining access to devices through password spraying and brute-forcing...

Ignoring just how often security holes seem to be found in Cisco equipment... this sort of stuff is a darn good argument for creative renaming of all root & admin accounts. A wide variety of attacks are impotent if the baddies don't know that (examples) your firm renames 'root' to 'tap4' and 'admin' to 'peon2' everywhere.