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Black Arrow Admin 07/01/2024 Black Arrow Admin 07/01/2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 January 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 05 January 2024:

-A “Ridiculously Weak“ Password Causes Disaster for Spain’s Number 2 Mobile Carrier

-Russia Kyivstar Hack Should Alarm West, Ukraine Security Chief Warns

-23andMe Tells Victim It’s Their Fault Their Data Was Breached

-Financial Sector Faces More Cyber Attacks Than Other Sectors

-An Innocent-Looking Instagram Trend Could Be a Gift to Hackers

-Cyber Criminals Shared Millions of Stolen Records During Holiday Break

-Law Firm that Handles Data Breaches was Itself Hit by Data Breach

-Nigerian Hacker Arrested for Stealing Millions from Charities

-Cyber Criminals Implemented Artificial Intelligence for Invoice Fraud

-Shadow IT Threatens Corporate Cyber Security, Study Reveals

-Escalating Cyber Threats: Bots, Fraud Farms, and Cryptojacking Surge

-Putin has Declared a Cyber War on Britain

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

A “Ridiculously Weak“ Password Causes Disaster for Spain’s Number 2 Mobile Carrier

Spain’s second largest mobile operator, Orange España, suffered a major outage after an unknown party obtained a “ridiculously weak” password and used it to access an account for managing the network that delivers the company’s internet traffic. The attacker had posted the account they had compromised, and researchers found that the associated system had been infected with a Raccoon type infostealer back in September of 2023. The compromised account was Orange’s RIPE administrator account, with the password “ripeadmin”. The incident led to a 50% drop in connections for a 4 hour period, and underscores the critical importance of robust cyber security measures, including strong passwords, and serves as a stark reminder that even seemingly minor oversights can lead to significant disruptions.

Source: [Ars Technica]

Russia Kyivstar Hack Should Alarm the West, Ukraine Security Chief Warns

If Ukraine's core telephone network can be taken out, organisations in the West could easily be next, Ukraine's SBU chief says. December's cyber attack on Ukrainian telecommunications operator Kyivstar by Russian-backed threat actor ‘Sandworm’ dealt a catastrophic blow to the telecoms provider, according to Illia Vitiuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) cyber security department. It is believed that although the attack took place in December 2023, the threat actors likely had access to Kyivstar systems since May 2023.

Source: [Dark Reading]

23andMe Tells Victims It’s Their Fault Their Data Was Breached

A cyber incident at DNA data firm 23andMe started with credential stuffing 14,000 user accounts. Credential stuffing is the process by which a malicious actor uses previously harvested usernames and passwords from earlier unrelated breaches to break into other sites and services. Many of the 14,000 accounts had opted-in for a feature whereby information is shared with relatives, which meant that once compromised, attackers had access to 6.9 million users: nearly half of the user base.

Facing over 30 lawsuits from victims, 23andMe is now blaming victims, according to letters seen by victims. 23andMe stated “users negligently recycled and failed to update their passwords following these past security incidents, which are unrelated to 23andMe”. This has caused divide in the cyber world; on one side, recycling and failing to update passwords is poor cyber hygiene and on the other hand, there are technical controls that could have better prevented this type of well known and common attack.

Source: [TechCrunch] [The Register]

Financial Sector Faces More Cyber Attacks Than Other Sectors

A recent study found that more than three-quarters (77%) of financial organisations detected an attack on their infrastructures in 2023, compared with around two-thirds (68%) of other sectors. In particular, the study found that financial workers were at a higher than average risk of phishing compared to other workers. Despite their target attractiveness, only three-quarters (73%) of the financial sector respondents said that they have a cyber security policy in place or will do so within the next year. A separate report from Kaspersky stated that the financial sector is poised to experience an influx of artificial intelligence based attacks 2024, adding to the fire.

Sources: [SC Media] [TechRadar ]

An Innocent-Looking Instagram Trend Could Be a Gift to Hackers

A recent trend that has picked up traction at the end of December on social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok, encourages their followers to “get to know them better”. This trend gets people to answer a popular template, freely giving away personal information such as their height, date of birth, and various details that they feel strongly about including favourite food and phobias. While these questions may seem harmless, these sorts of personal details are used by companies for security questions, for example when a person wants to reset their password. Hackers can use this information to easily social engineer victims or impersonate them to get access to their accounts.

Source: [Business Insider]

Cyber Criminals Shared Millions of Stolen Records During Holiday Break

While many people unwind and enjoy their time off during the festive season, cyber criminals remain active. In fact, they leaked approximately 50 million records containing sensitive personal information during this period. These data breaches were not limited to the West; they had a global impact, affecting individuals in various countries such as Peru, Australia, South Africa, and more. It is important to note that not all the data leaks were recent; some appeared to be remnants of older incidents. For instance, some of the leaked data belonged to customers of the credit company Klarna, which was rumoured to have experienced a breach back in 2022, although it was never publicly confirmed. This ‘Free Leaksmas’ event, as it’s been dubbed, underscores the extensive global reach and serious consequences of these cyber criminal activities.

Sources: [Security Affairs] [Dark Reading]

Law Firm that Handles Data Breaches was Itself Hit by Data Breach

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a law firm specialising in managing security incidents for other companies, has disclosed more details of the cyber attack it itself experienced in March 2023. The breach compromised the sensitive health and personal information of over 637,000 individuals. The stolen data was linked to client organisations and included the names of individuals alongside their social security numbers, medical details, and financial information. Despite the firm's expertise in cyber security, the attack highlights the pervasive risk of data breaches, even among those who advise on such matters. Orrick's delayed response and subsequent legal settlements underscore the importance of proactive security measures and swift action in the wake of a breach. This incident serves as a stark reminder to all organisations of the need for robust cyber defences and transparent communication strategies in today's digital landscape. The law firm has recently settled in principle to resolve four class action lawsuits that accused Orrick of failing to inform victims of the breach until months after the incident.

Source: [TechCrunch]

Nigerian Hacker Arrested for Stealing Millions from Charities

A Nigerian national, Olusegun Samson Adejorin, has been arrested for charges relating to business email compromise attacks that caused a charitable organisation in the US to lose more than $7.5 million. Adejorin had purchased a credential harvesting tool to steal login credentials, which were used to send emails to the charity’s financial service provider. The emails requested and authorised a transfer of $7.5 million, which the investment services provider believed it was paying to the charity whereas it was paying into a bank account controlled by the attacker.

Source: [Bleeping Computer]

Cyber Criminals Implemented Artificial Intelligence for Invoice Fraud

A cyber criminal gang known as GXC Team has been seen selling an artificial intelligence tool for creating fraudulent invoices. The tool, known as Business Invoice Swapper, scrutinises compromised emails that are fed to it, looking for emails which mention invoices or include invoice attachments. It then alters the details of the intended recipient to details specified by the perpetrator. This altered invoice then either replaces the compromised one, or is sent to a predetermined set of contacts.

Source: [Security Affairs]

Shadow IT Threatens Corporate Cyber Security, Study Reveals

With remote working becoming more and more prevalent, organisations are finding themselves at risk of cyber threats due to what is known as shadow IT; this is any software, hardware or IT resource used without the IT department’s approval, knowledge or oversight. A study by Kaspersky found of the 77% of companies that had suffered from cyber incidents over the past two years, 11% of these were directly caused by the unauthorised use of shadow IT.

Source: [Security Brief]

Escalating Cyber Threats: Bots, Fraud Farms, and Cryptojacking Surge

In the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape, 2023 has witnessed a notable surge in the use of bots, fraud farms, and cryptojacking. A new report found that 73% of web and app traffic this year has been attributed to malicious bots and fraud farms, indicating a significant shift towards automated cyber attacks. This trend poses a heightened risk to the ecommerce sector, where cyber criminals exploit API connections and third-party dependencies.

Furthermore, the surge in cryptojacking, marked by a 399% increase, reveals a diversifying strategy among cyber criminals, targeting critical infrastructure with sophisticated methods. These developments serve as a crucial reminder for organisations to bolster their cyber defences and adopt a proactive stance against these emerging and increasingly automated threats.

Source: [Help Net Security]

Putin has Declared a Cyber War on Britain

This year over 2 billion people will vote for new governments across the world, and it is crucial to be aware of upcoming threats to these elections from foreign powers. In particular, Russia is notorious for deploying bots, trolls, and deepfakes, which are techniques used to manipulate information and influence public opinion. These malicious actors are adept at spreading misinformation and disinformation, often with the goal of interfering in elections. With the upcoming UK General Election in 2024 and the US Presidential Election also falling this year, it is imperative to exercise caution and discernment when consuming online content. Not everything we see can be taken at face value.

Source: [Telegraph]

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

Linux and Open Source

2023: The Year Open Source Security Supply Chain Grew Up - The New Stack

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

An Overview Of The Defence Department’s Long-awaited Proposed Regulations For Its Cyber Security Maturity Model Certification Program | Morrison & Foerster LLP - Government Contracts Insights - JDSupra

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

Nation State Actors, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), Cyber Warfare, Cyber Espionage and Geopolitical Threats/Activity

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

The FBI is adding more cyber focused agents to US embassies | CyberScoop

Nation State Actors

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea

Other Nation State Actors, Hacktivism, Extremism, Terrorism and Other Geopolitical Threat Intelligence

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Tools and Controls

Other News

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

· Automotive

· Construction

· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

· Defence & Space

· Education & Academia

· Energy & Utilities

· Estate Agencies

· Financial Services

· FinTech

· Food & Agriculture

· Gaming & Gambling

· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

· Health/Medical/Pharma

· Hotels & Hospitality

· Insurance

· Legal

· Manufacturing

· Maritime

· Oil, Gas & Mining

· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems

· Retail & eCommerce

· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

· Startups

· Telecoms

· Third Sector & Charities

· Transport & Aviation

· Web3

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 ‘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 Admin 14/05/2023 Black Arrow Admin 14/05/2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 May 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 May 2023:

-79% of Cyber Pros Make Decisions Without Threat Intelligence

-61% of Business Leadership Overlook the Role of Cyber Security as a Business Enabler and as being Key to Business Success

-Risk Managers Warn Cyber Insurance Could Become ‘Unviable Product’

-Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Don’t Give up on Cyber Security

-AI Has Been Dubbed a 'Nuclear' Threat to Cyber Security, but It Can Also Be Used for Defence

-Paying Cyber Hijackers’ Ransoms Doubles Cost of Recovery, Sophos Study Shows

-Majority of US, UK CISOs Unable to Protect Company 'Secrets'

-Company Executives Can’t Afford to Ignore Cyber Security Anymore

-BEC Campaign via Israel Spotted Targeting Multinational Companies

-CISOs Worried About Personal Liability for Breaches

-UK, US and International Allies Uncover Russian Snake Malware Network in 50+ Countries

-Plug-and-Play Microsoft 365 Phishing Tool 'Democratizes' Attack Campaigns

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

79% of Cyber Pros Make Decisions Without Threat Intelligence

In a recent report, 79% of security pros say they make decisions without adversary insights “at least the majority of the time.” Why aren’t companies effectively leveraging threat intelligence? And does the C-Suite know this is going on?

Threat intelligence helps organisations stay informed about the latest cyber threats and vulnerabilities. By gathering and analysing information about potential attacks, threat intelligence can provide organisations with valuable insights into the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) used by cyber criminals.

Given the deep value provided by threat intelligence, why aren’t more cyber pros taking advantage of it?

https://securityintelligence.com/articles/79-percent-of-cyber-pros-make-decisions-without-threat-intelligence/

61% of Business Leadership Overlook the Role of Cyber Security as a Business Enabler and as being Key to Business Success

A recent report found only 39% of respondents think their company's leadership has a sound understanding of cyber security's role as a business enabler. Cyber security can be a huge business enabler; executive leaders need to think of cyber security in terms of the value it can deliver at a more strategic level.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/global-research-from-delinea-reveals-that-61-of-it-security-decision-makers-think-leadership-overlooks-the-role-of-cybersecurity-in-business-success

Risk Managers Warn Cyber Insurance Could Become ‘Unviable Product’

The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA), an umbrella body representing 22 trade associations, said the cyber insurance market is “evolving in isolation from the industries it serves”.

It highlighted a move by Lloyd’s of London, the specialist insurance market and hub for cyber insurance, demanding that standard cyber policies have an exemption for big state-backed attacks.

“Without a more collaborative approach to cyber balancing the risk appetite of the insurance market with the coverage requirements of the corporate buyers, there is a risk that cyber insurance becomes an unviable product for many organisations,” FERMA said in a statement shared with the Financial Times.

The intervention is the strongest yet by the business lobby over the controversial exemption and wider concerns about cyber insurance.

https://www.ft.com/content/401629cc-e68a-41a4-8d50-e7c0d3e27835

Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Don’t Give up on Cyber Security

In today’s increasingly hostile environment, every enterprise, big or small, should be concerned about cyber security and have access to protection from hackers, scammers, phishers, and all the rest of the host of bad actors who seem to be sprouting up around the world.

Yet time and again, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are left out in the cold, an unaddressed market segment that finds real protection either too expensive or far too complex to adopt. Thus, cyber security becomes an “afterthought” or “add when we can” kind of service that leaves SMBs far more vulnerable than the corporate giants — just reading the news every day shows even they aren’t immune to ransomware, intrusions, and data theft. If you haven’t already, start thinking about security now.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3695593/small-and-medium-sized-businesses-don-t-give-up-on-cybersecurity.html

AI Has Been Dubbed a 'Nuclear' Threat to Cyber Security, but It Can Also Be Used for Defence

Hackers using ChatGPT are faster and more sophisticated than before, and cyber security analysts who don’t have access to similar tools can very quickly find themselves outgunned and outsmarted by these AI-assisted attackers. However, corporations are stumbling to figure out governance around AI, and while they do so, their employees are clearly defying rules and possibly jeopardising company operations. According to a study of 1.6 million workers, 3.1% input confidential company information into ChatGPT. Although the number seems small, 11% of users' questions include private information. This is a fatal flaw for corporate use considering how hackers can manipulate the system into giving them previously hidden information. In another study, it was found that 80% of security professionals used AI, with 46% of these giving specialised capabilities as a reason.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/04/ai-has-been-dubbed-a-nuclear-threat-to-cybersecurity-but-it-can-also-be-used-for-defence

Paying Cyber Hijackers’ Ransoms Doubles Cost of Recovery, Sophos Study Shows

In three out of four cyber attacks, the hijackers succeeded in encrypting victims’ data, cyber security provider Sophos said in its newly released State of Ransomware 2023 report.

The rate of data encryption amounted to the highest from ransomware since Sophos first issued the report in 2020. Overall, roughly two-thirds of the 3,000 cyber security/IT leaders’ organisations were infected by a ransomware attack in the first quarter of 2023, or the same percentage as last year.

Much advice has been doled out by cyber security providers and law enforcement urging organisations to not pay a ransom. According to Sophos’ survey, the data shows that when organisations paid a ransom to decrypt their data, they ended up doubling their recovery costs. On average, those organisations paying ransoms for decryption forked out $750,000 in recovery costs versus $375,000 for organisations that used backups to recover their data.

Moreover, paying the ransom usually meant longer recovery times, with 45% of those organisations that used backups recovering within a week, compared to 39% of those that paid the ransom.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/paying-cyber-hijackers-ransoms-doubles-cost-of-recovery-sophos-study-shows/

Majority of US, UK CISOs Unable to Protect Company 'Secrets'

A recent study found 75% of organisations have experienced a data leak involving company secrets, including API keys, usernames, passwords, and encryption keys, in the past. It was found that about 52% of chief information and security officers (CISOs) in the US and UK organisations are unable to fully secure their company secrets. The study showed that a huge chunk of the IT sector realises the danger of exposed secrets. Seventy-five percent said that a secret leak has happened in their organisation in the past, with 60% acknowledging it caused serious issues for the company, employees, or both. The report has pointed out that even though secrets management practice across the US and the UK has seen some maturity, it still needs to go a long way.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3695583/majority-of-us-uk-cisos-unable-to-protect-company-secrets-report.html

Company Executives Can’t Afford to Ignore Cyber Security Anymore

In a recent survey, when asked about the Board and C-Suite‘s understanding of cyber security across the organisation, only 36% of respondents believe that it is considered important only in terms of compliance and regulatory demands, while 17% said it is not seen as a business priority. The disconnect between business and security goals appears to have caused at least one negative consequence to 89% of respondents’ organisations, with 26% also reporting it resulted in an increased number of successful cyber attacks at their company. On the misalignment of cyber security goals, respondents believed it contributed to delays in investments (35%), delays in strategic decision making (34%), and unnecessary increases in spending (27%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/10/cybersecurity-business-goals-alignment/

BEC Campaign via Israel Spotted Targeting Multinational Companies

An Israel-based threat group was discovered carrying out a business email compromise (BEC) campaign primarily targeting large and multinational enterprises. The group has conducted 350 BEC campaigns since February 2021, with email attacks targeting employees from 61 countries across six continents. The group operate through two personas — a CEO and an external attorney and spoofed email addresses using real domains.

https://www.darkreading.com/remote-workforce/bec-attacks-out-of-israel-target-multinational-corporations

CISOs Worried About Personal Liability for Breaches

Over three-fifths (62%) of global CISOs are concerned about being held personally liable for successful cyber attacks that occur on their watch, and a similar share would not join an organisation that fails to offer insurance to protect them, according to Proofpoint annual ‘Voice of the CISO’ survey for 2023. The security vendor polled 1600 CISOs from organisations of 200 employees or more across different industries in 16 countries to compile the report.

It revealed that CISOs in sectors with high volumes of sensitive data and/or heavy regulation such as retail (69%), financial services (65%) and manufacturing (65%) are most likely to demand insurance coverage.

Such concerns only add to the mental load on corporate IT security bosses. A combination of high-stress working environments, shrinking budgets and personal liability could be harming CISOs’ quality of life. Some 60% told Proofpoint they’ve experienced burnout in the past 12 months.

CISOs are most likely to experience burnout in the retail (72%) and IT, technology and telecoms (66%) industries.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cisos-worried-personal-liability/

UK, US and International Allies Uncover Russian Snake Malware Network in 50+ Countries

The UK NCSC along with the US National Security Agency (NSA) and various international partner agencies have discovered infrastructure connected with the sophisticated Russian cyber-espionage tool Snake in over 50 countries worldwide. Snake operations have been attributed to a specific unit within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Center 16.

Cyber criminals reportedly used Snake to retrieve and remove confidential documents related to international relations and diplomatic communications.

According to an advisory published by the agencies on Tuesday, the FSB targeted various industries, including education, small businesses, media, local government, finance, manufacturing and telecommunications. The Snake malware is installed on external infrastructure nodes for further exploitation.

According to the NSA Russian government actors have used this tool for years for intelligence collection and it is hoped that the technical details shared in the advisory will help many organisations find and shut down the malware globally.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/nsa-uncovers-russian-snake-malware/

Plug-and-Play Microsoft 365 Phishing Tool 'Democratizes' Attack Campaigns

A new phishing-as-a-service tool called "Greatness" is being used in attacks targeting manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and other sectors.

Researchers at Cisco Talos detailed their findings on "Greatness," a one-stop-shop for all of a cyber criminal's phishing needs. With Greatness, anyone with even rudimentary technical chops can craft compelling Microsoft 365-based phishing lures, then carry out man-in-the-middle attacks that steal authentication credentials — even in the face of multifactor authentication (MFA) — and much more.

The tool has been in circulation since at least mid-2022 and has been used in attacks against enterprises in manufacturing, healthcare, and technology, among other sectors. Half of the targets thus far have been concentrated in the US, with further attacks occurring around Western Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.

https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/plug-and-play-microsoft-365-phishing-tool-democratizes-attacks