Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 December 2021
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Beware Of Ransomware Attacks Between Christmas And New Year’s!
Darktrace reported that its security researchers discovered a 30% increase in the average number of attempted ransomware attacks globally over the holiday season in every consecutive year from 2018 to 2020 compared to the monthly average.
The researchers also observed a 70% average increase in attempted ransomware attacks in November and December compared to January and February. Following a record number of ransomware attacks this year, the company expects the spike to be higher over the 2021 holiday period.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/09/ransomware-attacks-holiday/
Why Holidays Put Your Company at Risk of Cyber Attack (And How to Take Precautions)
It is a time when many are thinking of their families and loved ones, time off work, and gift-giving – the holidays. However, while many have their minds outside the realm of work during the holiday season, often, this is when attackers plan their most sinister attacks.
So how can you take precautions to protect your organisation during these times?
Attackers today do not have a soft spot for businesses and give companies a break at any time of the year, especially not during holidays. On the contrary, any time of the year where companies may be less prepared to fend off a cyberattack is an opportunity for successful compromise. As a result, the holidays put your company at a higher risk of cyberattack.
https://thehackernews.com/2021/12/why-holidays-put-your-company-at-risk.html
Security Experts Sound Alarm on Zero-Day in Widely Used Log4j Tool
Security experts are sounding the equivalent of a five-alarm fire on a critical new zero-day vulnerability in Log4j, a logging framework that is ubiquitously present in Java software.
The flaw (CVE-2021-44228) could allow remote attackers to run arbitrary code on any application that uses Log4j and is already being actively exploited. Some vendors have observed mass scanning activity — presumably by threat actors — for vulnerable applications, and there are some reports of exploit activity against organisations. Attacks against the flaw take little skill to execute and are being fueled by proof-of-concept code in the wild.
SolarWinds Attackers Spotted Using New Tactics, Malware
One year after the disruptive supply-chain attacks, researchers have observed two new clusters of activity from the Russia-based actors that signal a significant threat may be brewing.
One year after the notorious and far-reaching SolarWinds supply-chain attacks, its orchestrators are on the offensive again. Researchers said they’ve seen the threat group – which Microsoft refers to as “Nobelium” and which is linked to Russia’s spy agency – compromising global business and government targets with novel tactics and custom malware, stealing data and moving laterally across networks.
https://threatpost.com/solarwinds-attackers-new-tactics-malware/176818/
Cyber Crime Supply Chain: Fuelling The Rise In Ransomware
Trend Micro released a research detailing the murky cybercrime supply chain behind much of the recent surge in ransomware attacks. Demand has increased so much over the past two years that many cybercriminal markets now have their own “Access-as-a-Service” sections.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/06/cybercrime-supply-chain/
Weak Passwords Caused 30% Of Security Breaches
A recent survey assessed the risk factors associated with password management and how to safeguard them from attacks or breaches. The results revealed that 30% of respondents reported password leaks and security breaches as a result of poor password practices. Respondees admitted to making poor password choices, such as sharing them with colleagues, family members or friends; writing them on sticky notes, papers, planners; re-using passwords across multiple sites and only changing them when prompted.
Consequently, researchers revealed some of the best password practices to create unhackable passwords. These practices include using secure VPNs, two-factor authentication, using a password management software and creating unique passwords that aren’t easily deduced .
https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2021/12/10/weak-passwords-caused-30-of-security-breaches/
Work-from-Anywhere Requires "Work-from-Anywhere Security"
Securing today's expanding networks often includes adding additional technologies to an already overburdened security environment. With organisations already struggling to manage an average of 45 security tools, with each incident requiring coordination across 19 different devices, adding new technologies to the mix may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
The most recent example of the rapid expansion of the network's attack surface has been remote work. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for a work-from-anywhere (WFA) strategy. And now, as workers begin to return to the office, a hybrid approach to work has become the new status quo. According to Accenture, 83% of workers prefer a hybrid work model that allows them to work remotely between 25% and 75% of the time. And businesses are listening. 63% of high-revenue growth companies have already enabled productivity anywhere workforce models.
One of the biggest security challenges of a hybrid workforce is that employees need to move seamlessly between the corporate office, their home network, and other remote locations. Applications, whether deployed in the data centre, SaaS, or cloud, not only need to be available from anywhere, but user experience—and security—needs to be consistent from any location as well.
https://www.securityweek.com/work-anywhere-requires-work-anywhere-security
Just 3% of UK Firms Escaped a Supply Chain Breach in 2021
Some 97% of UK organisations suffered a supply chain breach over the past year, up from 82% in 2020 and the second highest figure globally, according to BlueVoyant.
The security firm polled 1200 C-level executives with responsibility for managing risk in supply chains, across the UK, US, Singapore, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.
UK firms also experienced a higher-than-average percentage of breaches: 59% suffered between two and five supply chain incidents compared to an overall average of 49%. The average number of breaches in the country grew from 2.64 in 2020 to 3.57 in 2021.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given these figures, only a quarter (27%) of UK respondents said they consider third-party cyber risk a key priority versus a 42% global average.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/just-3-uk-firms-escaped-supply/
Critical Flaw In ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP Tool Exploited In The Wild
News of this latest zero-day vulnerability comes after hackers exploited at least two other flaws in ManageEngine products this year. Attacks against MSPs and their tools have seen a rise over the past several years due to hackers realizing that compromising such organisations can provide an easy way into the networks of thousands of businesses that rely on them to manage their IT assets.
News of this latest zero-day vulnerability comes after hackers exploited at least two other flaws in ManageEngine products this year. Attacks against MSPs and their tools have seen a rise over the past several years due to hackers realizing that compromising such organisations can provide an easy way into the networks of thousands of businesses that rely on them to manage their IT assets.
New Financial Services Industry Report Reveals Major Gaps in Storage and Backup Security
Continuity™, the first dedicated storage and backup security provider, this week announced findings from its Security Intelligence Report: Analysis of Storage and Backup Security in the Financial Services & Banking Sector. This extensive study – the first of its kind – explores the security posture of storage and backup environments in the global financial services industry.
The survey of 200 financial services firms and banks from 45 countries revealed that most of these organisations have not yet reached a satisfactory level of storage and backup maturity. Notably, more than half (52%) of the respondents were not strongly confident about their storage and backup security, and a quarter (25%) noted they were significantly concerned (low or no confidence).
UK’s Poor Cyber Risk Planning Could “Wreak Havoc”
The UK’s long-term risk planning is under-powered and could expose the nation if it is struck by a serious cyber-threat, a new House of Lords (HoL) report has found.
The study, Preparing for Extreme Risks: Building a Resilient Society, was produced by the upper chamber’s Select Committee on Risk Assessment and Risk Planning after interviews with 85 expert witnesses.
It claimed that the government spends too much of its time reacting to crises and emergencies, neglecting the kind of long-term planning which would have prepared the country better for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The UK’s unpreparedness to manage the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus was and is clear. More broadly, our inquiry has analyzed the UK’s risk assessment process and found that our current system is deficient at assessing and addressing future threats and hazards,” it argued.
“However, pandemics are only one of a number of extreme risks facing the UK. Severe space weather events could render smart technologies on which much of society relies inoperable for weeks or longer; this would include GPS, the internet, communications systems and power supplies. A cyber or physical attack on our critical national infrastructure could wreak havoc.”
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uks-poor-cyber-risk-planning-could/
Threats
Ransomware
Ransomware Attacks Soar, Hackers Set To Become More Aggressive | Reuters
Emotet’s Behaviour & Spread Are Omens of Ransomware Attacks | Threatpost
Ireland Conti Ransomware Attack Vector Was Spam Email • The Register
Crackdown On Crypto Firms Needed To ‘Wreck’ Ransomware, Says Ex-GCHQ Boss (telegraph.co.uk)
Companies Linked to Russian Ransomware Hide in Plain Sight - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
New 'Karakurt' Cyber Crime Gang Focuses On Data Theft And Extortion - Security Affairs
More Than 300 Spar Shops In North Of England Hit By Cyber Attack | Hacking | The Guardian
New Cerber Ransomware Targets Confluence And GitLab Servers (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Ransomware Attack Locks Hotel Guests Out Of Rooms - IT Security Guru
BlackCat: A New Rust-based Ransomware Malware Spotted in the Wild (thehackernews.com)
ALPHV BlackCat - This Year's Most Sophisticated Ransomware (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Phishing
Microsoft, Google OAuth Flaws Can Be Abused In Phishing Attacks (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Researchers Explore Microsoft Outlook Phishing Techniques (darkreading.com)
Convincing Microsoft Phishing Uses Fake Office 365 Spam Alerts (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Study: Most Phishing Pages Are Abandoned Or Disappear In A Matter Of Days - Techrepublic
Phishing Attacks Use QR Codes To Steal Banking Credentials (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Malware
Emotet Is Back and More Dangerous Than Before (darkreading.com)
Malicious Notepad++ Installers Push StrongPity Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Mobile
IOT
IoT Under Attack: Security Is Still Not Good Enough On These Edge Devices | ZDNet
Three-Quarters of Firms Admit to Sub-Optimal IoT Security - Infosecurity Magazine
Data Breaches/Leaks
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Microsoft Seizes 42 Malicious Web Domains Used By Chinese Hackers (thehackernews.com)
Google Disrupts Massive Glupteba Botnet, Sues Russian Operators (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Cyber Criminals Are Using Fake Advertising To Distribute Malware | Techspot
Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking
Hackers Are Minting Their Own Crypto To Use In Elaborate Phishing Scams | Techradar
Tor2Mine Cryptominer Is Warning Sign Of Network Exploitation • The Register
QNAP Warns Users Of Bitcoin Miner Targeting Their NAS Devices (Bleepingcomputer.com)
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Fraud & Financial Crime
Dark Web
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation State Actors
UK Spy Chief Raises Fears Over China’s Digital Renminbi | Financial Times (FT.com)
Russia Blocks Tor Privacy Service in Latest Censorship Move (thehackernews.com)
Cloud
Vulnerabilities
Your Microsoft Network Is Only As Secure As Your Oldest Server | CSO Online
Lack of Patching Leaves 300,000 Routers at Risk for Attack (darkreading.com)
Vulnerability In Windows 10 URI Handler Leads To Remote Code Execution | Malwarebytes Labs
Dark Mirai Botnet Targeting RCE On Popular TP-Link Router (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Sprawling Active Attack Aims to Take Over 1.6M WordPress Sites | Threatpost
Sector Specific
Financial Services Sector
US Bank Regulator Urges Vigilance As Ransomware Attacks On The Rise | Reuters
Israel Leads 10-Country Simulation Of Major Cyber Attack On World Markets | The Times Of Israel
Health/Medical/Pharma Sector
Retail
Fueled by Pandemic Realities, Grinchbots Aggressively Surge in Activity | Threatpost
Hackers Infect Random WordPress Plugins To Steal Credit Cards (Bleepingcomputer.Com)
Transport and Aviation
Other News
Google, Microsoft: Internet Whac-a-Mole vs. Cyber Criminals - MSSP Alert
Are You Guilty of These 8 Network-Security Bad Practices? | Threatpost
1.6 Million WordPress Sites Under Cyber Attack From Over 16,000 IP Addresses (thehackernews.com)
Next-Gen Maldocs & How to Solve the Human Vulnerability | Threatpost
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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