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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 August 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 August 2021:
-SMBs Increasingly Vulnerable To Ransomware, Despite The Perception They Are Too Small To Target
-440% Increase In Phishing
-Users Can Be Just As Dangerous As Hackers
-With Crime-As-A-Service, Anyone Can Be An Attacker
-Move To Cloud Creating Security Blindspots
-Connected Devices Increasingly At Risk Of Ransomware Attacks
-Ransomware Payments Explode Amid ‘Quadruple Extortion’
-Accenture Hit With $50M Ransomware
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
SMBs Increasingly Vulnerable To Ransomware, Despite The Perception They Are Too Small To Target
A new report this week warns that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are at particular risk based on the attack trends seen during the first six months of the year. The report revealed that during the first half of 2021, 4 out of 5 organisations experienced a cyber security breach originating from a vulnerability in their third-party vendor ecosystem. That’s at a time when the average cost of a data breach rose to around $3.56 million, with the average ransomware payment jumping 33% to more than $100,000.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/10/smbs-ransomware/
May 2021 Saw A 440% Increase In Phishing, The Single Largest Phishing Spike On Record
In May 2021, a report revealed a 440% increase in phishing, holding the record for the single largest phishing spike in a single month. It also showed that industries such as oil, gas and mining saw a 47% increase in the same six-month period, with manufacturing and wholesale traders seeing a 32% increase. The report extends its yearly threat intelligence report, with updated metrics between January 1 and June 30 2021. It also investigates the latest trends in malware, phishing and crypto exchanges.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/may-phishing-increase-webroot/
Users Can Be Just As Dangerous As Hackers
Most organisations should be at least as worried about user management as they are about Bond villain-type hackers launching compromises from abroad. Most organisations have deployed single sign-on and modern identity-management solutions. These generally allow easy on-boarding, user management, and off-boarding. However, on mobile devices, these solutions have been less effective. Examples include mobile applications such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, or even SMS-which are common in the workforce. All these tools allow for low-friction, agile communication in an increasingly mobile business environment. Today, many of these tools offer end-to-end encryption (e2ee), which is a boon when viewed through the lens of protecting against outside attackers. However, e2ee also resists internal governance and compliance programs.
https://thehackernews.com/2021/08/users-can-be-just-as-dangerous-as.html?m=1
With Crime-As-A-Service, Anyone Can Be An Attacker
Crime-as-a-Service (CaaS) is the practice of experienced cybercriminals selling access to the tools and knowledge needed to execute cyber crime – in particular, it’s often used to create phishing attacks. For hackers, phishing is one of the easiest ways to steal your organisation’s data. Traditionally, executing a successful phishing campaign required a seasoned cyber criminal with technical expertise and knowledge of social engineering. However, with the emergence of CaaS, just about anyone can become a master of phishing for a small fee.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/03/crime-as-a-service/
The Rise Of Cloud Is Creating Security Blindspots
Businesses are growing increasingly reliant on cloud services, but with all the good, businesses must also face the bad, according to a new report which says that the rise of cloud means greater complexity and more security blind spots.
Increased expansion into the cloud has led to new risks. All of the respondents in the report had suffered at least one incident in their public cloud environment in the last year, with 30 percent saying they had no formal sign-off before pushing to production.
https://www.itproportal.com/news/the-rise-of-cloud-is-creating-security-blindspots/
Connected Devices Increasingly At Risk As New Ransomware Attacks Are Reported Almost Daily
A report has been released on the state of connected devices. The 2021 study addresses pandemic-related cyber security challenges, including the growth of connected devices and related increase of security risks from these devices as threat actors took advantage of chaos to launch attacks. The study incorporates security risk and trend analysis of anonymized data for the past 12 months (June 2020 through June 2021) across the company’s 500+ deployments in healthcare, life sciences, retail, and manufacturing verticals. The number of agentless and un-agentable devices increased to 42% in this year’s report (compared to 32% of agentless or un-agentable devices in 2020).
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/12/connected-devices-risks/
The Value Of PII And How It Still Fuels Malign Activities In The Digital Ecosystem
The COVID-19 pandemic engendered new vulnerabilities in the digital ecosystem for threat actors to exploit, resulting in items like vaccines, fraudulent vaccine certificates, and other COVID-19 related items being sold in dark marketplaces and underground forums, an Intelligence report reveals. The research analysed the value of personally identifiable information (PII), drawing links between the breach economy, PII, and a range of emerging digital threats to executives and brands.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/10/pii-value-digital-ecosystem/
Ransomware Payments Explode Amid ‘Quadruple Extortion’
Two reports slap hard figures on what’s already crystal clear: Ransomware attacks have skyrocketed, and ransomware payments are the comet trails that have followed them skyward. The average ransomware payment spiked 82 percent year over year: It’s now over half a million dollars, according to the first-half 2021 update report. As far as the sheer multitude of attacks goes, researchers on Thursday reported that they’ve identified and analysed 121 ransomware incidents so far in 2021, a 64 percent increase in attacks, year-over-year.
https://threatpost.com/ransomware-payments-quadruple-extortion/168622/
Hackers Netting Average Of Nearly $10,000 For Stolen Network Access
A new report from a cyber security company has spotlighted the thriving market on the dark web for network access that nets cyber criminals thousands of dollars. Researchers have examined network access sales on underground Russian and English-language forums before compiling a study on why criminals sell their network access and how criminals transfer their network access to buyers. More than 37% of all victims in a sample of the data were based in North America while there was an average price of $9,640 and a median price of $3,000.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-netting-average-of-nearly-10000-for-stolen-network-access/
1M Stolen Credit Cards Hit Dark Web For Free
Threat actors have leaked 1 million stolen credit cards for free online as a way to promote a fairly new and increasingly popular cyber criminal site dedicated to…selling payment-card credentials. Researchers noticed the leak of the payment-card data during a “routine monitoring of cyber crime and Dark Web marketplaces,” researchers said in a post published over the weekend. The cards were published on an underground card-selling market, AllWorld.Cards, and stolen between 2018 and 2019, according to info posted on the forum.
https://threatpost.com/1m-stolen-credit-cards-dark-web/168514/
Ransomware Group Demanding $50M In Accenture Security Breach
The hacker group behind a ransomware attack on global solution provider giant Accenture has made a ransom demand for $50 million, according to a cyber security firm that reports seeing the demand. The threat actor is demanding the $50 million in exchange for more than 6 TB of data, according to a tweet.
Threats
Ransomware
Ransomware Gangs Exploiting Windows Print Spooler Vulnerabilities
Hackers Reportedly Threaten To Leak Data From Gigabyte Ransomware Attack
Synology Warns Of Malware Infecting NAS Devices With Ransomware
Phishing
Other Social Engineering
Malware
Discord Malware Is A Persistent And Growing Threat Warns Sophos
Microsoft Warning: This Unusual Malware Attack Has Just Added Some New Tricks
Experts Shed Light On New Russian Malware-As-A-Service Written In Rust
IISpy: A Complex Server‑Side Backdoor With Anti‑Forensic Features
Mobile
A 5G Shortcut Leaves Phones Exposed to Stingray Surveillance
Beware! New Android Malware Hacks Thousands of Facebook Accounts
IOT
Vulnerabilities
Microsoft Confirms There's Yet Another New Windows Print Spooler Security Bug
Magento Update Released To Fix Critical Flaws Affecting E-Commerce Sites
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Attackers Started Exploiting a Router Vulnerability Just 2 Days After Its Disclosure
Hackers Steal $600 Million In Crypto From DeFi Site Poly Network
Dark Web
Supply Chain
DoS/DDoS
Nation State Actors
Cloud
Privacy
Other News
The Challenges Healthcare CISOs Face In An Evolving Threat Landscape
Researchers Develop RISC-V Chip for Quantum-Resistant Encryption
Quantum Computers Could Threaten Blockchain Security. These New Defenses Might Be The Answer
Saving Money By Holding Onto Old Tech Is Costing Us All Billions
Attacks Against Industrial Networks Will Become A Bigger Problem. We Need To Fix Security Now
Kaseya's Universal Revil Decryption Key Leaked On A Hacking Forum
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.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 14 May 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 14 May 2021: Two Thirds Of CISOs Expect Damaging Cyber Attack In Next 12 Months; Ransomware - Don't Pay, It Just Shows Cyber Criminals That Attacks Work; Most Significant Cyber Attacks 2006-2020; The Shape Of Fraud And Cyber Crime, 10 Things We Learned From 2020; US Pipeline Ransomware Serves As Warning To Persistent Corporate Inertia Over Security; Ransomware Attackers Now Using Triple Extortion Tactics; AXA Pledges To Stop Reimbursing French Ransomware Victims; Cyber Experts Warn Over Online Wine Scams
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
Two Thirds Of CISOs Across World Expect Damaging Cyber Attack In Next 12 Months
More than 1,000 CISOs around the world have expressed concerns about the security ramifications of the massive shift to remote work since the beginning of the pandemic. One hundred CISOs from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Japan, and Singapore were interviewed for the report, with many highlighting significant problems in the current cyber security landscape.
Ransomware: Don't Pay Up, It Just Shows Cyber Criminals That Attacks Work, Warns Home Secretary
For victims of ransomware attacks, paying the ransom does not guarantee that their network will be restored – and handing money to criminals only encourages them to try their luck infecting more companies with the file-encrypting malware. The impact of ransomware attacks continues to rise as cyber criminals encrypt networks, while also blackmailing victims with the prospect of stolen data being published, to generate as much money as possible from extortion.
The Most Significant Cyber Attacks From 2006-2020, By Country
Committing a cyber crime can have serious consequences. In the US, a cyber criminal can receive up to 20 years in prison for hacking into a government institution if it compromises national security. Yet, despite the consequences, cyber criminals continue to wreak havoc across the globe. But some countries seem to be targeted more than others. Using data from SpecOps Software, this graphic looks at the countries that have experienced the most significant cyber attacks over the last two decades.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cyber-attacks-worldwide-2006-2020/
The Shape Of Fraud And Cyber Crime: 10 Things We Learned From 2020
While it remains true that the older you are, the greater the financial loss, why would fraudsters target the young, who are arguably less well off? The answer lies in volume. Criminals have been offsetting higher monetary gain for higher attack rates, capitalising on the fact that the young are perhaps both more liberal with personal information (and privacy in general) and, at the same time, heavy digital users (social media, surveys, games, and so on). In fact, it is scary to see how much value the humble email address can have for criminals. We often forget that once obtained, it can be used further down the line to commit more fraud.
Is Third-Party Software Leaving You Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks?
When companies buy digital products, they expect them to be secure. In most cases, they do not test for vulnerabilities down the digital supply chain — and do not even have adequate processes or tools to do so. Hackers have taken note, and incidents of supply chain cyber attacks, which exploit weaknesses within the digital supply chain to break into organisations’ internal networks, are on the rise. As a result, there have been many headline incidents that not only bring shame to the companies involved, but rachet up the visibility of these threats to top executives who want to know their offerings are secure.
https://hbr.org/2021/05/is-third-party-software-leaving-you-vulnerable-to-cyberattacks
US Pipeline Ransomware Attack Serves As Fair Warning To Persistent Corporate Inertia Over Security
Organisations that continue to disregard the need to ensure they have adopted basic cyber security hygiene practices should be taken to task. This will be critical, especially as cyber criminals turn their attention to sectors where cyber threats can result in real-world risks, as demonstrated in the US Colonial Pipeline attack. In many of my conversations with cyber security experts, there is a shared sense of frustration that businesses still are failing to get some of the most basic things right. Default passwords are left unchanged, frontline staff and employees are still falling for common scams and phishing attacks, and major businesses think nothing of using technology that are decades old.
Ransomware Attackers Are Now Using Triple Extortion Tactics
The number of organisations affected by ransomware so far this year has more than doubled, compared with the same period in 2020, according to the report. Since April, Check Point researchers have observed an average of 1,000 organisations impacted by ransomware every week. For all of 2020, ransomware cost businesses worldwide around $20 billion, more than 75% higher than the amount in 2019. The healthcare sector has been seeing the highest volume of ransomware with around 109 attacks per organization each week. Amid news of a ransomware attack against gas pipeline company Colonial Pipeline, the utilities sector has experienced 59 attacks per organization per week. Organisations in the insurance and legal sector have been affected by 34 such attacks each week.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ransomware-attackers-are-now-using-triple-extortion-tactics/
AXA Pledges To Stop Reimbursing Ransom Payments For French Ransomware Victims
Insurance company AXA has revealed that, at the request of French government officials, it will end cyber insurance policies in France that pay ransomware victims back for ransoms paid out to cyber criminals. While unconfirmed, the Associated Press reported that the move was an industry first. AXA is one of the five biggest insurers in Europe and made the decision as ransomware attacks become a daily occurrence for organisations across the world.
The Dystopic Future Of Cyber Security And The Importance Of Empowering CISOs
Over a decade ago, in 2007, the first iPhone was released and with it emerged an ecosystem of apps that continues to expand to this day. This was a watershed moment, not solely for the technology industry, but civilization. It was a catalyst for what was to come. Suddenly, every consumer could access the internet at a touch of a button, and the accumulation of their data by private companies began en masse. It was at this point that data was established as an increasingly valuable commodity, and in turn, became a heightened exploitation risk. It also instigated a wave of innovation that has yet to break and is only growing rapidly in pace. In this state, technology providers, users, and manufacturers get excited about new functionalities, new features, new developments, while little thought is given to the negative consequences that could arise as a result. Indeed, fear has no place in the state of innovation as it is this primal thinking that inhibits creativity.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/the-dystopic-future-of/
Cyber Security Experts Warn Over Online Wine Scams
Online wine scams became a bigger threat as cyber criminals sought to take advantage of more people and businesses organising virtual drinks and ordering bottles on the internet in the wake of Covid-19 restrictions, suggests the report. So-called ‘phishing emails’ were a particular concern, according to findings published in April by US-based group Recorded Future in partnership with Area 1 Security. From January 2020 onwards, the authors found a significant rise in legitimate wine-themed web domain registrations using terms like Merlot, Pinot, Chardonnay or Vino.
https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/cyber-security-experts-warn-over-online-wine-scams-457647/
Threats
Ransomware
New Ransomware: CISA Warns Over Fivehands File-Encrypting Malware Variant
Energy Companies Are The Firms Most Likely To Pay Cyber Attack Ransoms
A Student Pirating Software Led To A Full-Blown Ryuk Ransomware Attack
BEC
Phishing
Other Social Engineering
Coronavirus-Related Cyber Crime Contributes To 15-Fold Surge In Scam Takedowns
She Responded To A Smishing Scam. Then The Spam Texts Got Worse.
Malware
Mobile
IOT
Vulnerabilities
Don’t Delay Installing Your Windows 10 May Patch Tuesday Update – It Fixes 3 Zero-Day Exploits
WiFi Vulnerability May Leave Millions Of Devices Open To 'Frag Attacks'
Remote Mouse Mobile App Contains Raft Of Zero-Day RCE Vulnerabilities
Lemon Duck Hacking Group Adopts Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities In New Attacks
Data Breaches
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Supply Chain
Nation State Actors
Russian Hackers Are Targeting These Vulnerabilities, So Patch Now
NCSC Warns British Start-Ups Of Threat From Chinese And Russian Hackers
Privacy
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
Your Old Mobile Phone Number Could Compromise Your Cyber Security
Biden Signs Executive Order Aiming To Prevent Future Cyber Security Disasters
Train Firm’s ‘Worker Bonus’ Email Is Actually Cyber Security Test
Half Of Government Security Incidents Caused By Missing Patches
90% Of Security Leaders View Bot Management As A Top Priority
'Everyone Had To Rethink Security': What Microsoft Learned In Last Year
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.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing for 11 April 2020 – NCSC advisory on COVID activity, Travelex pays $2.3M ransom, Zoom tries to get better, Shadow IT risks, Unkillable Android malware, Bot traffic up
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing for 11 April 2020 – NCSC advisory on COVID activity, Travelex pays $2.3M ransom, Zoom tries to get better, Shadow IT risks, Unkillable Android malware, Bot traffic up
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
60 second video flash briefing
UK NCSC and US CISA issue joint Advisory: COVID-19 exploited by malicious cyber actors
A joint advisory was put out from the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) relating to information on exploitation by cyber criminal and advanced persistent threat (APT) groups of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic. It includes a non-exhaustive list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) for detection as well as mitigation advice.
Read more here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/covid-19-exploited-by-cyber-actors-advisory
Download the advisory notice here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/files/Final%20Joint%20Advisory%20COVID-19%20exploited%20by%20malicious%20cyber%20actors%20v3.pdf
Travelex paid $2.3M in Bitcoin to get its systems back from hackers
Travelex paid hackers $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin to regain access to its computer systems after a devastating ransomware attack on New Year’s Eve.
The London-based company said it decided to pay the 285 BTC based on the advice of experts, and had kept regulators and partners in the loop throughout the recovery process.
Although Travelex, which manages the world’s largest chain of money exchange shops and kiosks, did confirm the ransomware attack when it happened, it hadn’t yet disclosed a Bitcoin ransom had been paid to restore its systems.
Travelex previously blamed the attack on malware known as Sodinokibi, a ‘Ransomware-as-a-Service’ tool-kit that has recently begun publishing data stolen from companies that don’t pay up.
Travelex‘ operations were crippled for almost all of January, with its public-facing websites, app, and internal networks completely offline. It also reportedly interrupted cash deliveries to major banks in the UK, including Barclays and Lloyds.
At the time, BBC claimed that Travelex‘ attackers had demanded $6 million worth of Bitcoin to unlock its systems.
Zoom sets up CISO Council and hires ex-CSO of Facebook to clean up its privacy mess
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has seen people relying on work collaboration apps like Teams and Slack to talk to others or conduct meetings. Zoom, in particular, has seen incredible growth over the past few weeks but it came at a cost. The company has been under a microscope after various researchers discovered a number of security flaws in the app. To Zoom’s credit, the company responded immediately and paused feature updates to focus on security issues.
The company announced that it’s taking help from CISOs to improve the security and patch the flaws in the app. Zoom will be taking help from CISOs from HSBC, NTT Data, Procore, and Ellie Mae, among others. Moreover, the company is also setting up an Advisory Board that will include security leaders from VMware, Netflix, Uber, Electronic Arts, and others. Lastly, the company has also asked Alex Stamos, ex-CSO of Facebook to join as an outside advisor. Alex is a well-known personality in the cybersecurity world who left Facebook after an alleged conflict of interest with other executives about how to address the Russian government’s use of its platform to spread disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Read more here: https://mspoweruser.com/zoom-ciso-hires-ex-facebook-cso-clean-its-mess/
Researchers discover IoT botnet capable of launching various DDoS attacks
Cyber security researchers have found a new botnet comprised of more than a thousand IoT devices, capable of launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
According to a report, researchers have named the botnet Dark Nexus, and believe it was created by well-known malware developer greek.Helios - a group that has been selling DDoS services and botnet code for at least the past three years.
Analysing the botnet through a honeypot, the researchers found it is comprised of 1,372 bots, but believe it could grow extremely quickly.
Dark Nexus is based on Mirai and Qbot, but has seen some 40 iterations since December 2020, with improvements and new features added almost daily.
Read the original article here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/researchers-discover-iot-botnet-capable-of-launching-various-ddos-attacks/
Microsoft: Cyber-Criminals Are Targeting Businesses Through Vulnerable Employees
Microsoft has warned that cyber-criminals are preying on people’s vulnerable psychological states during the COVID-19 pandemic to attack businesses. During a virtual press briefing, the multinational technology company provided data showing how home working and employee stress during this period has precipitated a huge amount of COVID-19-related attacks, particularly phishing scams.
Working from home at this time is very distracting for a lot of people, particularly if they are looking after children. Additionally, many individuals are in a stressful state with the extra pressures and worries as a result of COVID-19. This environment is providing new opportunities for cyber-criminals to operate.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in COVID-related phishing lures for our customers,” confirmed Microsoft. “We’re blocking roughly 24,000 bad emails a day with COVID-19 lures and we’ve also been able to see and block through our smart screen 18,000 malicious COVID-themed URLs and IP addresses on a single day, so the volume of attacks is quite high.”
Read the original article here: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cybercriminals-targeting/
Stolen Zoom account credentials are freely available on the dark web
Loved, hated, trusted and feared in just about equal measure, Zoom has been all but unavoidable in recent weeks. Following on from a combination of privacy and security scandals, credentials for numerous Zoom account have been found on the dark web.
The credentials were hardly hidden -- aside from being on the dark web. Details were shared on a popular forum, including the email address, password, meeting ID, host key and host name associated with compromised accounts.
Read more: https://betanews.com/2020/04/08/zoom-account-credentials-dark-web/
Shadow IT Represents Major #COVID19 Home Working Threat
Rising threat levels and remote working challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic are putting increased pressure on IT security professionals, according to new data.
A poll of over 400 respondents from global organisations with over 500 employees was conducted to better understand the current challenges facing security teams.
It revealed that 71% of security professionals had reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the start of the virus outbreak. Phishing (55%), malicious websites (32%), malware (28%) and ransomware (19%) were cited as the top threats.
These have been exacerbated by home working challenges, with 95% of respondents claiming to be under new pressures.
Top among these was providing secure remote access for employees (56%) and scalable remote access solutions (55%). However, nearly half (47%) of respondents complained that home workers using shadow IT solutions represented a major problem.
These challenges are only going to grow, according to the research.
Read more here: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/shadow-it-covid19-home-working/
'Unkillable' Android malware gives hackers full remote access to your phone
Security experts are warning Android users about a particularly nasty strain of malware that's almost impossible to remove.
A researcher has written a blog post explaining how the xHelper malware uses a system of nested programs, not unlike a Russian matryoshka doll, that makes it incredibly stubborn.
The xHelper malware was first discovered last year, but the researcher has only now established exactly how it gets its claws so deeply into your device, and reappears even after a system restore.
Although the Google Play Store isn't foolproof, unofficial third party app stores are much more likely to harbour malicious apps. App-screening service Google Play Protect blocked more than 1.9 million malware-laced app installs last year, including many side-loaded or installed from unofficial sources, but it's not foolproof.
xHelper is often distributed through third-party stores disguised as a popular cleanup or maintenance app to boost your phone's performance, and once there, is amazingly stubborn.
Decade of the RATs (Remote Access Trojan): Novel APT Attacks Targeting Linux, Windows and Android
BlackBerry researchers have released a new report that examines how five related APT groups operating in the interest of the Chinese government have systematically targeted Linux servers, Windows systems and Android mobile devices while remaining undetected for nearly a decade.
The report comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice announcing several high-profile indictments from over 1,000 open FBI investigations into economic espionage as part of the DOJ’s China Initiative.
The BlackBerry report, titled Decade of the RATs: Cross-Platform APT Espionage Attacks Targeting Linux, Windows and Android, examines how APTs have leveraged the “always on, always available” nature of Linux servers to establish a “beachhead” for operations. Given the profile of the five APT groups involved and the duration of the attacks, it is likely the number of impacted organisations is significant.
The cross-platform aspect of the attacks is also of particular concern in light of security challenges posed by the sudden increase in remote workers. The tools identified in these ongoing attack campaigns are already in place to take advantage of work-from-home mandates, and the diminished number of personnel onsite to maintain security of these critical systems compounds the risks. While the majority of the workforce has left the office as part of containment efforts in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, intellectual property remains in enterprise data centres, most of which run on Linux.
Most large organizations rely on Linux to run websites, proxy network traffic and store valuable data. While Linux may not have the visibility that other front-office operating systems have, it is arguably the most critical where the security of critical networks is concerned. Linux runs nearly all of the top 1 million websites, 75% of all web servers, 98% of the world’s supercomputers and 75% of major cloud service providers (Netcraft, 2019, Linux Foundation, 2020).
More here: https://blogs.blackberry.com/en/2020/04/decade-of-the-rats
Bot traffic fueling rise of fake news and cybercrime
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted daily life around the world and the WHO recently warned that an overabundance of information about the virus makes it difficult for people to differentiate between legitimate news and misleading information.
At the same time, EU security services have warned that Russia is aggressively exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to push disinformation and weaken Western society through its bot army.
A cyber security firm has been using its bot manager to monitor internet traffic in an attempt to track the “infodemic” that both the WHO and EU security services have issued warnings on.
According to the data, bots have upped their game and organisations in the social media, ecommerce and digital publishing industries have experienced a surge in bad bot traffic following the coronavirus outbreak.
The bots have been found to be executing various insidious activities including spreading disinformation, spam commenting and more. In February, 58.1 percent of bots had the capability to mimic human behaviour. This means that they can disguise their identities, create fake accounts on social media sites and post their masters' propaganda while appearing as a genuine user.
Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/bot-traffic-fueling-rise-of-fake-news-and-cybercrime