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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 24 November 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 24 November 2023:

-The Human Element- Cyber Security’s Great Challenge

-Good Cyber Hygiene is a Strategic Imperative for SMEs, Report Shows

-Despite Increasing Ransomware Attacks, Some Companies in Denial

-A Single Supply Chain Related Ransomware Incident Spurred UK Decision Makers to Spend Big on Cyber as Latest Victim Count exceeds 2.6K Organisations and 77M People

-The True Cost of a Ransomware Attack

-Largest Study of Its Kind Shows Outdated Password Practices Are Putting Millions at Risk

-Cyber Security Investment Involves More Than Just Technology

-Questions Leaders Must Ask Themselves on Security Culture

-There’s a Crossover Between Organised Crime, Financial Crime, and Nation-State Crime

-Cyber Attack on British Library Highlights Lack of UK Resilience

-Organisations Rethink Cyber Security Investments to Meet NIS2 and DORA Directive Requirements

-The Cyber Security Lawsuit Boards are Talking About

-UK and Republic of Korea Issue Warning About North Korea State-Linked Cyber Actors Attacking Software Supply Chains

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.

The Human Element- Cyber Security’s Great Challenge

According to Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 74% of all breaches involved a human element. It is important for organisations to understand that it is not simply malicious employees or employees falling for social engineering attacks; it includes things such as negligent, or intentional but not malicious actions. In fact, a recent separate report by Kaspersky found that 26% of incidents over the past two years involved the result of intentional security protocol violations; in comparison, external hacking attempts made up 20%.

Further, Kaspersky found 25% of incidents occurred due to neglecting system software or application updates, followed by 22% resulting from deliberate use of weak passwords or failing to change them promptly, and 18% from staff visiting unsecured websites. One potential cause for these incidents is a lack of training on why such protocols need to be followed.

Black Arrow provides live in person and online instructor lead cyber security training including Cyber Risk and Governance Workshops for Senior Leadership, and Awareness, Behaviour and Culture Training for employees and contractors.

Sources [Beta News] [ Infosecurity Magazine] [The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)]

Good Cyber Hygiene is a Strategic Imperative for SMEs, Report Shows

Small or large, no company is immune to a cyber attack and therefore good cyber hygiene is an imperative for all. Whilst large firms may already have more mature defences in place, smaller firms are definitely catching on to this, with 47% of respondents to a recent survey stating they were more worried about their organisation’s security posture now than compared to six months ago.

The survey found that ransomware (35%), software vulnerability exploits (28%) and using the same password across different applications (25%) were amongst the largest concerns. Interestingly, in a separate report, 44% of incidents were found to lack any element of malware, indicating that attackers are moving beyond traditional methods. The same report found 65% of cases included remote monitoring and management tools as the vector for initial access, something a number of organisations do not secure.

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks are also a key concern for businesses of all sizes but can be especially damaging to smaller organisations for whom the financial loss can be devastating.

Sources [Computer Weekly]  [Beta News] [Beta News]

Despite Increasing Ransomware Attacks, Some Companies are in Denial

A recent study has highlighted a contradiction in the way organisations perceive ransomware threats. Although many do not consider themselves likely targets, they are, nevertheless, bolstering their security measures, expanding their teams, and fortifying cyber defences, acknowledging the risks despite their assumed invulnerability.

Simultaneously, ransomware tactics are undergoing significant changes. The past three quarters have seen a marked increase in double-extortion attacks, with data leaks from these incidents rising by 50% compared to the previous year. This trend is predominantly driven by a few active groups, some newly emerged this year, amplifying the threat landscape.

In a tactical shift, the ransomware group ALPHV, also known as Blackcat, has lodged a formal complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a victim for failing to comply with new disclosure regulations. Meanwhile, LockBit, infamous for attacks on high-profile targets, is modifying its extortion tactics due to lower-than-anticipated ransom returns. These developments point to an evolving and adaptive ransomware environment.

Sources: [Dark Reading] [SC Media] [Insurance Journal] [MSSP Alert] [Security Brief]

A Single Supply Chain Related Ransomware Incident Spurred UK Decision Makers to Spend Big on Cyber as Latest Victim Count exceeds 2.6K Organisations and 77M People

It is reported that 2,620 organisations and more than 77 million individuals have been impacted to date by the MOVEit supply chain ransomware attack, with millions in the past week alone having received notifications that their information had either been accessed, leaked, or both.

In a survey involving directors of UK companies with over 500 seats that had suffered a ransomware or extortion attack in the past 18 months, it was found that 24% had become significantly more anxious about ransomware attacks as a direct result of the MOVEit breach, and 66% were slightly more anxious. This anxiety translated into action, with 42% of respondents investing more into backup and recovery, and 29% tweaking existing cyber strategies. 29% had taken the decision to amend their existing cyber strategies. Staff training was also found to rise, with 42% looking to spend on skills development and 40% upping their investment in training.

Sources: [The Register] [Computer Weekly]

The True Cost of a Ransomware Attack

While the demand is often financial, the impact and reach of ransomware goes far beyond the ransomware demand. Alongside the financial impact, comes the reputational impact, loss of customers, resources in returning to business as normal and time lost in recovery. For some companies, it can take months to return to where they were before and for others, it marks the end of their organisation.

For an attacker, it doesn’t matter. Their goal is not limited by the size or sector of an organisation and it is therefore imperative that every organisation is prepared for the event of an incident. Black Arrow works with organisations of all sizes and sectors to design and prepare for managing a cyber security incident; this can include an Incident Response Plan and an educational tabletop exercise for the leadership team that highlights the proportionate controls to help the organisation prevent and mitigate an incident.

Source: [ITPro]

Largest Study of Its Kind Shows Outdated Password Practices Are Putting Millions at Risk

A recent study has exposed serious flaws in passwords on the internet, revealing that three out of four popular websites are compromising user security by not meeting basic password standards. The study examined 20,000 websites, finding many allowed simple passwords, didn’t block common ones and adhered to outdated complexity requirements. It was found that over half the websites accept passwords of six characters or fewer, with 75% not requiring the advised minimum of eight characters, and 30% not supporting spaces or special characters. The study showcases the gap in security measures implementation across the web and emphasises the importance of ongoing improvement in web security standards.

The problem is further exacerbated by employees using work email for non-work approved websites and reusing the same passwords, meaning any breach of a compromised site hands the user’s credentials to an attacker. Further, many organisations are not even aware this is going on.

Source: [TechXplore]

Cyber Security Investment Involves More Than Just Technology

C-suite business leaders and senior IT professionals within large organisations, found that the top five cyber security investment areas were technologies (49%), threat intelligence (46%), risk assessment (42%), cyber insurance (42%), and third-party risk management (40%). Fewer organisations highlighted technology as good value for money in 2023 (49%) than in 2022 (58%). suggesting an awareness that technology investments go hand-in-hand with investing in governance and personnel to effectively enable and manage the technology.

Black Arrow supports business leaders in organisations of all sizes to demonstrate governance of their cyber security by owning their cyber security strategy and leveraging their existing internal and external resources to build resilience against a cyber security incident.

Source: [Dark Reading]

Questions Leaders Must Ask Themselves on Security Culture

In today's corporate landscape, there's a growing emphasis on the human aspect of cyber security, with Stanford University research indicating that about 88% of data breaches result from employee errors. Companies are now focusing on enhancing security awareness through marketing campaigns and integrating cyber security performance into job reviews. This shift acknowledges that as technological defences evolve, cyber attackers increasingly exploit human vulnerabilities, as evidenced by major ransomware incidents like those impacting Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods.

Developing a strong security culture is essential, by complementing robust policies with ingraining security-minded beliefs and behaviours in employees. Key to this is the role of leadership in embedding and continuously assessing this culture. This involves evaluating training effectiveness, reporting mechanisms, proactive security approaches, and the impact of security initiatives, while also considering the complexity of human behaviour and the example set by top management. Emphasising these aspects is crucial for maintaining a secure and resilient organisational environment, and in so doing protecting an organisation's reputation and financial integrity.

Source: [AT&T]

There’s a Crossover Between Organised Crime, Financial Crime, and Nation-State Crime

The convergence of organised crime, financial crime, and nation-state crime is a growing concern in today’s interconnected world. This crossover, driven by the digital revolution, globalisation, economic factors, and state fragility, is reshaping the global criminal landscape. Organised crime syndicates, traditionally involved in activities like drug trafficking and extortion, are now branching out into financial crimes, offering higher profits with lower risks.

Financial crime, once the domain of individual fraudsters and white-collar criminals, has become a lucrative venture for organised crime groups. They exploit the global financial system to launder proceeds of crime, finance their operations, and evade law enforcement. Nation-state crime, involving state-sponsored or state-condoned criminal activities, often overlaps with organised and financial crime. Some governments turn a blind eye to these activities, while others actively support them for political, economic, or strategic reasons.

Sources: [The Currency]

Cyber Attack on British Library Highlights Lack of UK Resilience

A recent ransomware attack on the British Library has spotlighted the vulnerabilities in the UK's public sector IT infrastructure, amid rising state-backed cyber attacks. This major incident, which caused a significant technical outage at the library, underscores the concerns of cyber intelligence experts about the government's inadequate investment in cyber resilience in critical areas like education, healthcare, and local government. The hacking group Rhysida, targeting essential infrastructure, claimed responsibility and auctioned stolen data, including British Library employees’ passports, for 20 bitcoin (approximately £600,000).

The attack on the British Library, a key public service institution, highlights the escalating threat of ransomware attacks and their potential exploitation by state actors. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has reported a significant increase in cyber attacks in 2023, with incidents more than doubling compared to the previous year. In response, the UK government, which had already allocated £2.6bn for cyber security improvements and IT system updates, is actively assessing the situation with the support of the National Protective Security Authority.

Source: [FT]

Organisations Rethink Cyber Security Investments to Meet NIS2 and DORA Directive Requirements

The European Union (EU) is seeking to improve cyber resilience across all member states by bringing in two new regulations: the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which focuses on financial services companies, and its counterpart the Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2). The effects of the two regulations are likely to be wider reaching, bringing in more stringent processes and controls and redefining service provision to organisations.

With NIS2 coming into effect in October 2024, the mandatory directive will have teeth, with strict penalties for non-compliance for both the business and senior board personnel, who can be held directly accountable and prevented from holding similar positions in the future. It also aims to increase intelligence sharing between member states and enhance supply chain security. This latter measure will see the directive have a global impact.

Many organisations supplying services to firms that fall under DORA and NIS2 will themselves be subject to the full force of the regulations, with many of these suppliers, including IT providers, unaware that this will have far reaching ramifications for them and their ability to continue to provide these services.

Sources: [Help Net Security] [Help Net Security]

The Cyber Security Lawsuit Boards are Talking About

For the last month, an under-the-radar lawsuit has privately been a hot topic of conversation in boardrooms and corporate security departments alike. The lawsuit involved the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing SolarWinds and their CISO of fraud. SolarWinds, like many organisations, had disclosed some facts, however what was reported was not sufficient to satisfy the regulator. The lawsuit is the first in which the SEC has charged a company with intentional fraud related to cyber security disclosures and it paints a picture for the wider movement of the cyber landscape. Whilst the SEC is US based you can expect regulatory counterparts in other jurisdictions globally to follow suit.

Source: [The New York Times]


Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

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

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Encryption

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

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

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.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·         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.

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Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 September 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 08 September 2023:

-More Than Half of UK Organisations Know They Aren’t Well Protected

-Generative AI Considered a Security Risk by 60% of Board Members: How Organisations Can Prepare

-Businesses Ignore Incident Response at Their Peril

-Blame Culture: An Organisation’s Ticking Time Bomb

-Spend to Save: CFO’s and Cyber Security Investment

-Cyber Security Tools Are New Targets for Attackers, including Nation-State Actors

-Attackers Access UK Military Data Through Third Party Supplier as Relentless Russian Cyber Attacks Raise Spectre of WW3

-Common Tactics Used by Threat Actors to Weaponise PDFs

-Years-old Microsoft Security Holes Still Hot Targets for Cyber Criminals

-Popular ‘As-a-Service’ Operations Have Earned Cyber Criminals over $64m

-71% of Organisations are Impacted by Cyber Security Skills Shortage

-Multiple Schools Hit by Cyber Attacks Before Term Begins

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

More Than Half of UK Organisations Know They Aren’t Well Protected

According to a recent report, just 49% of business leaders report their organisation is well or very well protected. Cyber security featured as the third highest-rated business priority, with increasing revenues and reducing costs forming the top two. One of the ways an organisation can reduce cost is to outsource, and 63% of respondents agreed, reporting that they wanted to work with an external cyber security partner to improve their security.

Even if you’re in the 49% of organisations that believes it is well protected, this can be a dangerous self-assessment based on a lack of experience and impartiality. Business leaders need independent assurance to ensure their security controls are appropriate and in line with the organisation’s risk appetite. It is essential to dispel assumptions, by investigating your security before an attacker does.

Black Arrow Cyber Consulting offers a free, no-obligation, introductory consultation to help you gain an unbiased perspective on how your current security approach could withstand an attacker. We help our clients to know the questions to ask of their external or internal IT provider, and how to leverage other security controls from existing resources.

Sources: [IT Security Guru][Beta News]

Generative AI Considered a Security Risk by 60% of Board Members. How Organisations Can Prepare

A recent report conducted by Proofpoint found that 60% of board members consider generative AI a security risk.

The rapid development and adoption of AI is double-edged in nature. Whilst it can yield positive benefits if used safely and responsibility within organisations, AI is also being used to great effect by malicious actors with AI abuse growing beyond phishing to increasing the efficacy of multistage attacks, being used to generated malware, and carrying out different types of social engineering attacks.

For this reason Boards and senior leaders are right to be concerned and should ensure appropriate measures are being taken.

Sources: [TheNationalNews] [SCMagazine] [CyberSecurityNews]

Further reading: [BusinessCloud.co.uk] [WIRED UK] [Help Net Security]

Businesses Ignore Incident Response at Their Peril

According to a UK Government report, a quarter of businesses don’t regard cyber incident response skills as essential and almost half said they weren’t confident they could put together an incident response plan. This led to 41% saying they were not very or not at all confident that they would be able to deal with a cyber security breach or attack.

Unfortunately, this leaves many organisations in a situation where they will have to learn the hard way about the implications of not having an incident response plan. A separate government report found that 37% of those hit by a cyber attack said it impacted operations and a quarter experienced negative consequences such as loss of money or data.

One of the ways organisations can circumnavigate their lack of confidence in their ability to construct an incident response plan is to use cyber security experts to construct it. 

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

Blame Culture: An Organisation’s Ticking Time Bomb

An organisation’s attitude and responses to cyber security are almost as important as the actions taken to prevent cyber attacks. “Lessons learnt” are a common feature within mature and cyber resilient organisations. Incidents are a matter of when not if, and it is important that organisations know how to react.

Taking the example of a phishing attack, it is easy to blame the employee who opened it, potentially firing them. With phishing simulations, it is equally easy to discipline an employee who fell for it. The problem is, neither of these focus on what can be learned, such as why the employee fell for it in the first place. Additionally, there is the potential that employees become reserved or reticent about reporting potential events, due to the fear of being disciplined. This can be the difference between an organisation having an early detection of an incident and being able to invoke incident response plans sooner, or leaving the attacker in the system doing damage for longer before being reported.

Source: [ IT Security Guru]

Spend to Save: CFOs and Cyber Security Investment

For chief financial officers (CFOs), the increasing impact of data breaches creates a paradox. While more spending is necessary to combat these challenges, this spending isn’t directly tied to profit. Instead, cyber security spending is all about return on investment.

When looking at spending, CFOs need to keep in mind that the total cost of a breach is more than the initial currency loss: there is the knock-on effect of reputation and losses in customers. But it is not a case of spending more to protect more; spending must be tailored to the organisation and prioritise in terms of business needs.

Source: [Security Intelligence]

Cyber Security Tools Are New Targets for Attackers, Including Nation-State Actors

An increasing number of attacks by nation-state attackers are targeting cyber security tools in their campaigns. This includes the recent attacks on US officials which attacked and gained access through the firewalls of the victim. Security vendors, just like anyone, will have flaws in their software: there will be vulnerabilities. As such, organisations need to be aware of these vulnerabilities and when support runs out for their cyber security tools, to better protect themselves.

Source: [News Week]

Attackers Access UK Military Data Through Third Party Supplier as Relentless Russian Cyber Attacks Raise Spectre of WW3

Top secret military data from the UK’s Ministry of Defence was stolen and then sold by the ransomware gang LockBit. How, you might ask? Through a rogue Windows 7 PC that belonged to their fencing supplier, Zaun. The LockBit Ransom group conducted the attack on the supplier’s network, and Zaun admitted the group may have exfiltrated 10GB of data.

Many attackers have realised that if you cannot directly attack an organisation, then the supplier can present a way in. Organisations need to be sure of their suppliers’ security, and conduct third party security assessments to identify the risk the supplier may present to the organisation itself.

Black Arrow have helped many clients carry out third party risk assessments on a large number of suppliers and this can be done as a standalone offering or as part of a fractional CISO engagement.

Source: [The Register] [Tech Monitor]

Common Tactics Used by Threat Actors to Weaponise PDFs

PDFs are often seen as safe, something that cannot be used by an attacker, but that’s wrong. Actors are using this trustworthiness, as well as the difficulty in detection and ubiquity of PDFs, to weaponise them. Common tactics involve malicious hyperlinks within PDFs and macros that run when a PDF is opened, and in some cases attackers are disguising a malicious Word document as a PDF to evade detection.

Source: [Cyber Security News]

Years-old Microsoft Security Holes Still Hot Targets for Cyber Criminals

A recent report has found that Microsoft vulnerabilities as old as 6 years are still being exploited, with one recorded as being exploited as recently as 31 August. In fact, since this particular vulnerability was fixed, it has been used to deploy 467 different malware types. This is not the number of attacks, but the number of different types of malware used in attacks.

The concept isn’t just for Microsoft. Many organisations do not employ effective patching strategies, and as such leave the doors open to attackers. Sometimes, these doors are open for years.

Source: [The Register]

Popular ‘As-a-Service’ Operations Have Earned Cyber Criminals over $64m

As-a-service operations allow attackers to employ sophisticated attacks without the need for extensive knowledge; they simply just purchase the ability.  Take phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS), where an attacker with very limited cyber knowledge simply needs to purchase a phishing kit and they are then well-equipped to target organisations. This availability in tools creates a significant surge in the number of cyber criminals, with one scheme alone raking in $64.5 billion in illegal gains.

Source: [IT Security Guru]

71% of Organisations are Impacted by Cyber Security Skills Shortage

Most organisations (71%) report that they’ve been impacted by the cyber security skills shortage, leading to an increased workload for the cyber security team (61%), unfilled open job requisitions (49%) and high burnout among staff (43%). Further, 95% respondents state the cyber security skills shortage and its associated impacts have not improved over the past few years and 54% (up 10% from 2021) say it has got worse.

Organisations need to continue maintaining and improving their security while their cyber security positions remain unfilled. Black Arrow supports firms to achieve this by providing expert resources on a flexible basis for technical, governance and transformational positions.

Source: [Security Magazine] [Digital Journal]

Multiple Schools Hit by Cyber Attacks Before Term Begins

Ahead of the new school term, a number of schools have become the victim of serious cyber attacks. The education sector isn’t a new target, with previous ransomware reports finding the education sector to account for 16% of victims.

The education sector remains a target due to the valuable data they hold, large attack surfaces and frequently a lack of resources and budgets, something many small and medium-sized business may share.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]



Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Artificial Intelligence

Malware

Mobile

Botnets

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

BYOD

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Impersonation Attacks

Deepfakes

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Attack Surface Management

Encryption

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Backup and Recovery

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Russia

China

Iran

North Korea

Misc Nation State/Cyber Warfare


Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities




Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·         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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 August 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 25 August 2023:

-Cloud Hosting Firm Loses All Customer Data After Ransomware Attack

-Would You Infect Others to Rid Yourself of Ransomware?

-Artificial Intelligence and USBs Drive 8% Rise in Cyber Attacks

-Ransomware Attacks Broke Records in July, Mainly Driven By One Group

-Cyber Risk in The Boardroom

-Malware-Infected Advertising Grows Ever More Sophisticated, And More Damaging

-Cyber Security is Everyone’s Responsibility

-QR Code Hacks Are Another Thing to Worry About Now

-Security Basics Aren’t So Basic Anymore

-Apple MacOS Security Myths

-Security Leaders Report Misalignment of Investments and Risk Reduction

-Many CISOs Tout SaaS (Cloud) Cyber Security Confidence, but 79% Admit to SaaS Incidents, New Report Finds

-If You Ever Used Duolingo, Watch Out for Phishing Email

-91% of Security and IT Professionals Agree Cyber Criminals are Already Using AI in Email Attacks

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

Cloud Hosting Firm Loses All Customer Data After Ransomware Attack

CloudNordic, a Danish cloud hosting provider, has told customers to consider all of their data as having been lost following a ransomware infection that encrypted the large Danish cloud provider. The threat actors had destroyed the organisation’s backups, which prevented the firm from recovering effectively. The attack also impacted AzeroCloud, which is owned by the same company.

Worryingly, many organisations believe that having backups and using the cloud is enough for them to be able to recover from any cyber incident; unfortunately, as shown in the CloudNordic and AzeroCloud attacks, it is not enough. Organisations need to have a recovery plan in place which is tested and improved, to best strengthen themselves in the event of a cyber incident.

Sources: [The Register] [Bleeping Computer] [Help Net Security]

Would You Infect Others to Rid Yourself of Ransomware?

Hackers continually develop ransomware with new and creative attack methods that keep internet security professionals on their toes and pose challenges for people trying to detect threats. Victims of ransomware usually see messages asking them to pay for file access restoration; however, the Popcorn Time ransomware group takes a different approach to getting victims involved.

The Popcorn Time ransomware approach works via the referral method. The ransomware group is willing to give victims access to their files if they send the referral link to two other people, extending the attacker’s reach. Most people would hesitate to distribute a ransomware link through email, WhatsApp, or another method that is easy for victims to identify them as the perpetrators. Law enforcement bodies categorise ransomware attacks as crimes that come with hefty fines and prison time. Even those choosing to send the links to people they know face disastrous consequences beyond law enforcement, including the loss of jobs and relationships.

Source: [CyberNews]

Artificial Intelligence and USBs Drive 8% Rise in Cyber Attacks

Checkpoint’s 2023 Mid-Year Security Report shows an 8% surge in global weekly cyber attacks during Q2, marking the most significant increase in two years. The report highlights the fusion of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology with traditional tools like USB devices used for disruptive cyber attacks.

Other significant findings include the evolution of ransomware tactics. The report found that ransomware groups are exploiting vulnerabilities in common corporate software and shifting focus from encrypting data to stealing it. USB devices have resurfaced as threats, employed by both state-affiliated groups and cyber-criminals to distribute malware globally. The misuse of AI has escalated, as attackers use generative AI tools for phishing emails, keystroke monitoring malware and basic ransomware code.

Source: [InfoSecurity Magazine]

Ransomware Attacks Broke Records in July, Mainly Driven By One Group

A number of ransomware actors are utilising the threat of releasing sensitive data to get organisations to pay ransoms; in some cases this is combined with encryption to give the actor two avenues of payment. A report has found there were over 500 attacks last month, an increase of 153% compared to one year ago, and a 16% increase compared to June. Within Europe, there was a 59% increase in ransomware attacks from June to July.

Part of the significant rise is due to the ransomware group called Cl0p, whose attack on the MOVEit software has accounted for hundreds of victims this year. The Cl0p ransomware group has kept its promise to publish files on the clearweb of all its victims if contact was not made. The clearweb is simply what we know as the internet; anyone can access it. As such, there will be many organisations who are now having their sensitive data published and readily viewable for anyone who has access to the internet.

Sources: [Gov Info Seccurity] [Security Week] [ZDNET] [Cyber News]

Cyber Risk in The Boardroom

The relationship between the CISO and the wider boardroom has become increasingly cooperative, with 77% of CEO’s seeing cyber as a strategic function and a potential source of competitive advantage. While it is ultimately up to the board to take steps to keep cybersecurity high on the agenda, the CISO also has a responsibility to press the message and bridge any gaps.

CISOs must deliver concerns, strategies and recommendations in a business-first manner, while avoiding jargon and overly technical language. Attracting and retaining good quality senior security professionals is very challenging in the current market and Black Arrow offer a fractional CISO service, giving access to a whole team of specialists with wider expertise, experience and backgrounds, for less than the cost of hiring one individual.

Sources: [Security Week] [TechRadar]

Malware-Infected Advertising Grows Ever More Sophisticated, And More Damaging

The malware exploits known as malware-infected ads, or malvertising, have been around for decades, but new reports point to a steady rise in efficacy. With malvertising, the infected ads are typically placed on legitimate ad networks, which makes them more difficult to spot and remove. The technique continues to use more and more sophisticated mechanisms for getting their infections spread throughout the web and keeping them running for a long time. The exploits can operate in one of several ways, including intercepting a user’s clickstream on random hyperlinks and substituting them with redirects to advertising websites.

Adblockers either on endpoints or at the network level can also help to prevent malvertising from causing harm.

Source: [SiliconAngle]

Cyber Security is Everyone’s Responsibility

A recent survey found that 41% of respondents said that poor quality training, or a lack of training altogether, and insider threats were impacting their organisation’s security. Cyber security involves everyone as any employee can be an entry point for a cyber incident, but they also have the power to prevent one. It is important to make sure all employees are provided adequate training. Not every role requires the same training however, so it is important for organisations to identify and provide training that is appropriate to employees. Black Arrow provide live in person and online instructor lead cyber security training, both through Cyber Risk and Governance Workshops for Senior Leadership and Awareness, Behaviour and Culture Training for employees and contractors.

Source: [IT Pro Today]

QR Code Hacks Are Another Thing to Worry About Now

One of the upcoming technologies thrust upon us is QR codes. At this point, you can find them at most restaurants and parking sites. You simply scan the code and you are taken to the relevant site, for example, the menu for the restaurant. Attackers have cottoned on to this and started to use QR codes in phishing attacks; the idea being that the victim will scan the code without scrutinising it and be taken to a malicious website instead.

Source: [Bloomberg]

Security Basics Aren’t So Basic Anymore

The basics of cyber security, it turns out, aren’t so basic anymore. What was considered basic has moved way beyond just having firewalls and antivirus, and the most basic controls nowadays include more advanced controls such as robust identity and access management, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and patching and vulnerability management. Many of these now basic controls are lacking or non-existent across the economy according to cyber security experts. A report found that only 28% of Microsoft users had MFA enabled as 2022 closed.

You can’t solve all the problems at once. However, progress on these fronts also relies heavily on the need for a cultural shift. Organisations need to get to the point where they view cyber security in the same light as locks on doors and seatbelts in cars.

Source: [CioDive]

Apple MacOS Security Myths

Apple has maintained a reputation as being more secure than other manufacturers, and whilst Apple has put many different security mechanisms into its operating system, no technology is bulletproof. Assuming an Apple device is invulnerable can lead users to believe that their Mac will not get viruses or be subject to a plethora of other cyber threats. As a result, this can lead to poor cyber hygiene from the individual, as they assume they are safe regardless of what they do. Apple users need to remain every bit as aware of risks, social engineering, keeping devices up to date, and having appropriate security controls.

Source: [Huntress]

Security Leaders Report Misalignment of Investments and Risk Reduction

The cyber risk landscape was analysed in a recent report that examined the amount of risk that organisations are willing to accept, their resource constraints and key priorities for approaching cyber risk in the future. The report found 66% of respondents indicating that they have limited visibility and insight into their cyber risk profiles, hindering their ability to prioritise investments and allocate resources effectively. 67% of organisations experienced a breach requiring attention within the last two years despite having traditional threat-based security measures in place. Further, 61% of security executives expressed concerns over the current misalignment between cyber security investments and their organisation's risk reduction priorities.

Source: [InfoSecurity Magazine]

Many CISOs Tout SaaS (Cloud) Cyber Security Confidence, but 79% Admit to Incidents

Cyber security, IT, and business leaders alike recognise SaaS (cloud) cyber security as an increasingly important part of the cyber threat landscape. And at first glance, respondents appear generally optimistic about their SaaS cyber security as 85% answered that they are confident or very confident in their company's or customer's data security in sanctioned SaaS apps.

Despite the confidence, 79% of respondents confirmed that their organisation had identified SaaS cyber security incidents over the past 12 months. Many of those incidents occurred in environments with cyber security policies in place and enforced, as 66% of respondents claimed in their responses.

Source: [The Hacker News]

If You Ever Used Duolingo, Watch Out for Phishing Email

Users of Duolingo, past and present, should be wary of phishing emails as data on about 2.6 million accounts were scraped through an exposed application programming interface (API), and then offered on a hacking forum back in January. Login and real names, email addresses, phone numbers, and courses studied were part of the collection, which went for $1,500. Now that data has resurfaced on a different forum, and at a substantially lower cost of just a few dollars, users of the service can expect this data to be used in fresh phishing campaigns.

Source: [PCWorld]

91% of Security and IT Professionals: Criminals are Already Using AI in Email Attacks

Recent research found that 91% of security and IT professionals are noticing cyber criminals already using AI as part of email attack campaigns, with 74% indicating they have experienced an increase in the use of AI by cyber criminals in the past six months. This is worrying as 52% reported that email security is among one of their top three concerns.

Organisations need to make sure that their technologies, procedures and policies are updated to factor in AI-enabled email attacks to help reduce the risk they pose to the organisation. Such improvements should also include employees.

Source: [PR Newswire]



Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

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

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Impersonation Attacks

Deepfakes

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

API

Biometrics

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Cyber Bullying, Cyber Stalking and Sextortion

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Backup and Recovery

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring


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

Russia

China

North Korea

Misc/Other/Unknown



Tools and Controls



Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·         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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 21 July 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 21 July 2023:

-Cyber Attacks Reach Two-Year High Amid Ransomware Resurgence as Financial Service Firms Lose $32 Billion in 5 Years

-MOVEit Body Count Closes in on 400 orgs, 20M+ Individuals

-IT Worker Jailed for Impersonating Ransomware Gang to Extort Employer

-Stabilising the Cyber Security Landscape: The CISO Exodus and the Rise of vCISOs

-Risk is Driving Medium-Sized Business Decisions

-Talent and Governance, Not Technology, are Key to Drive Change around Cyber Security

-Hybrid Work, Digital Transformation can Exploit Security Gaps

-Human Cyber-Risk Can Be Demonstrably Mitigated by Behaviour Changing Training

-AI Tool WormGPT Enables Convincing Fake Emails For BEC Attacks

-Pro-Russian Hacktivists Increase Focus on Western Targets

-Infosec Doesn't Know What AI Tools Orgs Are Using

-Google Restricting Internet Access to Some Employees to Reduce Cyber Attack Risk

-Unlocking Business Potential: How CISOs are Transforming Cyber Security into a Strategic Asset

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

  • Cyber Attacks Reach Two-Year High Amid Ransomware Resurgence as Financial Service Firms Lose $32 Billion in 5 Years

The average weekly volume of cyber attacks reached a two-year high in the second quarter of 2023 amid a spike in activity among ransomware groups according to Check Point Research, with healthcare in particular facing a significant year-on-year increase. The impact of ransomware hits every organisation, with separate research finding global financial services organisations having lost over $32bn in downtime since 2018 due to ransomware breaches.

A recent report found that the ransomware gangs LockBit and Cl0p alone accounted for nearly 40% of all recorded ransomware attacks across June 2023. The impact from Cl0p’s MOVEit attack alone has been felt by over 400 organisations since May 2023. One of the key takeaways from the MOVEit attack is that no matter the sector, any organisation can be a victim and as such it is essential to have effective controls in place, incorporating defence-in-depth. It’s worth considering how many organisations are still running vulnerable instances of MOVEit, or have someone in their supply chain who is.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-costs-financial-32bn/

https://www.itpro.com/security/ransomware/weekly-cyber-attacks-reach-two-year-high-amid-ransomware-resurgence

  • MOVEit Body Count Closes in on 400 Organisations, 20M+ Individuals

The number of victims and the costs tied to the MOVEit file transfer hack continues to climb as the fallout from the massive supply chain attack enters week seven. In late May 2023, Russian ransomware gang Cl0p exploited a security hole in Progress Software's MOVEit product suite to steal documents from vulnerable networks. As of last week, the number of affected organisations was closing in on 400 and individual victims exceed 20 million.

The attack highlights the need for organisations to have policies and procedures in place for third parties, and to be aware of the data which a third party supplier has on them. It will be the organisation who will need to let their customers know in the event of a breach.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/20/moveit_victim_count/

  • IT Worker Jailed for Impersonating Ransomware Gang to Extort Employer

28-year-old Ashley Liles, a former IT employee, has been sentenced to over three years in prison for attempting to blackmail his employer during a ransomware attack. Liles, an IT security analyst at an Oxford-based company in the UK, exploited his position to intercept a ransomware payment following an attack suffered by his employer. To deceive the company, he impersonated the ransomware gang extorting them. He tried to redirect the ransomware payments by switching the cyber criminals' cryptocurrency wallet to one under his control. He also accessed a board member's private emails over 300 times.

Insider threat is a risk that organisations need to be aware of and, although it was malicious in this case, it can also come from employee negligence. Organisations looking to achieve a strong level of cyber resilience should incorporate insider risk into their training and controls.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/it-worker-jailed-for-impersonating-ransomware-gang-to-extort-employer/

  • Stabilising the Cyber Security Landscape: The CISO Exodus and the Rise of vCISOs

In today's evolving digital landscape, the role of a chief information security officer (CISO) is critical. These professionals defend against the rising tide of daily cyber threats. Yet many CISOs are leaving or considering leaving their jobs; this trend seems to reflect the intense pressure CISOs endure. They face a constant stream of complex cyber threats, manage compliance issues and struggle with a talent deficit in cyber security. Paired with high expectations, many reconsider their roles which can lead to a leadership gap.

A virtual CISO (vCISO) is an outsourced security practitioner who offers their expertise to businesses on a part-time or contractual basis. These professionals provide many of the same services as a traditional CISO, such as developing and implementing security strategies, ensuring compliance with regulations, training staff and managing a company's cyber security posture. vCISOs, such as from Black Arrow, are often part of a larger team and can bring a wide range of experiences and skills. They are exposed to diverse security landscapes across industries, and can provide a fresh perspective and innovative solutions to your security challenges. The vCISO model may not replace the need for a full-time CISO in all cases, but it can certainly add a flexible and cost-effective tool to the arsenal of businesses looking to bolster their cyber security posture.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2023/07/14/stabilizing-the-cybersecurity-landscape-the-ciso-exodus-and-the-rise-of-vcisos/

  • Risk is Driving Medium-Sized Business Decisions

Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have long lacked the tools, expertise, staff and budget to make major cyber security investments. However, as threats become more mainstream and more advanced, the focus is shifting, so SMBs need to take the threats seriously and evaluate their cyber security controls.

In a survey of 140 SMBs, it was found that 40% of respondents believe they are very likely or extremely likely to experience a cyber security attack target in the next 12 months. That fear is founded, as 34% of organisations stated they experienced a malware attack in the past year, and 29% experienced a phishing or spear phishing incident. SMBs are putting their time, energy, and budget toward risk management. When it came to budgeting, 67% list their primary budgeting method as “risk-based”, and only 32% as “ad hoc/following an attack or breach”. It was found that over two-thirds of businesses would rather spend money now than pay a ransom later.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-guests/risk-is-driving-small-and-medium-sized-businesses-smb-decisions/

  • Talent and Governance, Not Technology, are Key to Drive Change Around Cyber Security

For the last 20 years, large organisations have been spending significant amounts of money on cyber security products and solutions, on managed services, or with consultancies large and small. Yet maturity levels remain elusive: a report found that 70% of firms surveyed had yet to fully advance to a mature-based approach. Cyber security good practices have been well established for the best part of the last 20 years and continue to provide, in most industries, an acceptable level of protection against most threats and an acceptable level of compliance against most regulations.

However cyber security is often viewed as something external to the business. This perspective leads to talent alienation and execution failures because the employees who should be invested in maintaining and improving cyber security may feel disconnected from these efforts. To make genuine progress, cyber security needs to be intrinsically linked to business values as a visible priority, owned and directed from the highest levels of an organisation.

This approach underlines the importance of governance in setting effective cyber security policies and procedures. It also highlights the crucial role of nurturing talent within the organisation to ensure active involvement in maintaining and improving cyber security measures. While technology is undoubtedly an essential element of cyber security, prioritising talent and governance can lead to lasting progress.

https://technative.io/talent-and-governance-not-technology-are-key-to-drive-change-around-cyber-security/

  • Hybrid Work, Digital Transformation can Exploit Security Gaps

A new study showed that larger organisations generally recognise malware threats but they lack protection against malicious actors and ways to properly remediate infections. The report revealed security leaders are concerned about attacks that leverage malware-exfiltrated authentication data. 53% say they are extremely concerned about attacks, with 1% of security leaders saying they weren’t concerned at all. 98% said that better visibility into at-risk applications would significantly improve their security posture.

The most overlooked entry points for malware include 57% of organisations allowing employees to sync browser data between personal and corporate devices. 54% of organisations struggle with shadow IT, due to employees’ unsanctioned adoption of applications and systems, creating gaps not only in visibility but also in basic security controls and corporate policies.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/digital-transformation-hybrid-work-models-create-perfect-setting-for-cybercriminals-to-exploit-security-gaps-study-finds/

  • Human Cyber Risk Can Be Demonstrably Mitigated by Behaviour Changing Training

The process of encouraging secure cyber habits in end users is evolving from traditional awareness training toward changing end user behaviour. It reflects a growing acceptance that traditional methods haven’t worked. While traditional security awareness teaches users how to recognise social engineering, new behaviour changing trains the brain – almost pre-programs it – on the correct recognition and response to phishing.

What is considered a standard phishing email today may not be tomorrow, and changes in user behaviour will help to combat this. It is simply not enough to be shown one phishing email and be told to follow procedures. Training should instead be focused on going beyond; this should look to change how the user approaches things such as phishing, and gamifying the recognition and reporting of it.

https://www.securityweek.com/human-cyber-risk-can-be-demonstrably-mitigated-by-behavior-changing-training-analysis/

  • AI Tool WormGPT Enables Convincing Fake Emails For BEC Attacks

A generative AI tool, WormGPT, has emerged as a powerful weapon in the hands of cyber criminals, specifically for launching business email compromise (BEC) attacks, according to new findings. The tool is designed for malicious purposes and has no restrictions on what a user can request. Such a tool allows for impeccable grammar in emails to reduce suspicion and allows sophistication with no restrictions on prompts. The lowered entry threshold enables cyber criminals with limited skills to execute sophisticated attacks, democratising the use of this technology.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/wormgpt-fake-emails-bec-attacks/

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-dark-web-wormgpt-hack-b2376627.html

  • Pro-Russian Hacktivists Increase Focus on Western Targets

‘Anonymous Sudan’, apparent pro-Russian hacktivists, claimed a one-hour distributed denial of service attack on the social platform OnlyFans last week. This was the latest in a string of operations aimed at targets in the US and Europe. The group’s digital assaults coincide with attacks coming from a broader network of hackers aligned with Moscow that seek attention by taking down high-profile victims and strategic targets; many of the targets support Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia.

The pro-Russian group appears to be affiliated with Killnet, a pro-Russian hacktivist group that emerged in late 2021 or early 2022 and has claimed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, data theft and leaks on perceived adversaries of the Russian government, according to an analysis from Google’s Mandiant released earlier this week. The collective’s apparent significant growth in capabilities, demonstrated by Microsoft’s confirmation that Anonymous Sudan was responsible for the outages they experienced, potentially indicates a significant increase in outside investment in the collective, further suggesting a potential tie to the Russian state.

https://cyberscoop.com/anonymous-sudan-killnet-russia-onlyfans/

  • Infosec Doesn't Know What AI Tools Organisations Are Using

With the marketplace awash in new artificial intelligence (AI) tools and new AI features being added to existing tools, organisations are finding themselves lacking visibility into what AI tools are in use, how they are used, who has access, and what data is being shared. As businesses try, adopt, and abandon new generative AI tools, it falls on enterprise IT, risk, and security leaders to govern and secure their use without hindering innovation. While developing security policies to govern AI use is important, it is not possible without knowing what tools are being used in the first place.

Enterprise security teams have to consider how to handle discovery, learning which generative AI tools have been introduced into the environment and by whom, as well as risk assessment.

https://www.darkreading.com/tech-trends/infosec-doesnt-know-what-ai-tools-orgs-are-using

  • Google Restricting Internet Access to Some Employees to Reduce Cyber Attack Risk

In a bid to shrink the attack surface of its employees, and thus boost security, Google is taking an experimental, and some might say extreme, approach: cutting some of their workstations off from the internet. The company originally selected more than 2,500 employees to participate and will disable internet access on the selected desktops, except for internal web-based tools and Google owned websites like Google Drive and Gmail. Some workers who need the internet to do their job will get exceptions, the company stated in materials.

Google is running the programme to reduce the risk of cyber attacks, according to internal materials. If a Google employee’s device is compromised, the attackers may have access to user data and infrastructure code, which could result in a major incident and undermine user trust. The program comes as companies face increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Just last week, Microsoft said Chinese intelligence hacked into company email accounts belonging to two dozen government agencies in the US and Western Europe, including the US State Department, in a “significant” breach.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/18/google-restricting-internet-access-to-some-employees-for-security.html

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/19/google_cuts_internet/

  • Unlocking Business Potential: How CISOs are Transforming Cyber Security into a Strategic Asset

Enterprises are responding to growing cyber security threats by working to make the best use of tools and services to ensure business resilience, according to a recent report. Chief information security officers (CISOs) and virtual CISOs (vCISOS) in particular, want more solutions and services that help them align security measures with enterprise objectives and C-level executives have become more aware of the need for cyber resilience. As a result, security investments have expanded beyond detection and response to include rapid recovery and business continuity.

The report found that amongst other things, enterprises are investing in risk assessments and outsourcing more services. In some cases, where a CISO cannot be hired, organisations may look to hire a vCISO. It is important that the vCISO is able to understand cyber in context to the business and help to align security objectives with the organisations objectives. Black Arrow supports clients as their vCISO with specialist experience in cyber security risk management in a business context.

https://www.blackarrowcyber.com/blog/threat-briefing-14-july-2023



Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Artificial Intelligence

Malware

Mobile

Botnets

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Attack Surface Management

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Digital Transformation

Travel

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Russia

China

North Korea

Misc/Other/Unknown


Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities


Tools and Controls



Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·       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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 17 March 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 17 March 2023:

-Almost Half of IT Leaders Consider Security as an Afterthought

-Over $10bn Lost To Online Frauds, with Pig Butchering and Investment Scams Accounting for $3B, Overtaking BEC – FBI Report Says

-Over 721 Million Passwords Were Leaked in 2022

-How Much of a Cyber Security Risk are Suppliers?

-90% of £5m+ Businesses Hit by Cyber Attacks

-Rushed Cloud Migrations Result in Escalating Technical Debt

-17 European Nations Targeted by Russia in 2023 as Espionage Ramping Up

-Microsoft Warns of Large-Scale Use of Phishing Kits

-BEC Volumes Double on Phishing Surge

-The Risk of Pasting Confidential Company Data in ChatGPT

-Ransomware Attacks have Entered a New Phase

-MI5 Launches New Agency to Tackle State-Backed Attacks

-Why Cyber Awareness Training is an Ongoing Process

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

  • Almost Half of IT Leaders Consider Security as an Afterthought

A recent industry report found that security is an afterthought for almost half of UK IT leaders, despite 92% of respondents agreeing that security risks had risen in the last five years. Additionally, 48% of respondents felt that the rapid development of new tools had caused challenges around security. The concept of security as an afterthought is worrying when considering that 39% of UK businesses identified a cyber attack within the past 12 months.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2023/03/14/almost-half-of-it-leaders-consider-security-as-an-afterthought-research-reveals

  • Over $10bn Lost to Online Frauds, with Pig Butchering and Investment Scams Accounting for $3B, Overtaking BEC – FBI Report Says

According to the latest FBI crime report pig butchering now accounts for $3 billion of the $10 billion total lost to online fraud. Pig butchering is a rising investment scam that uses the promise of romance and the lure of making easy cryptocurrency profit against its unsuspecting targets. The concept of pig butchering is to “fatten up” the victim, with small returns on cryptocurrency and personal interactions, often with an element of romance; eventually, the victim is lured into making a larger investment with the scammer. In addition to pig butchering, other investment scams are growing in provenance and are set to overtake Business Email Compromise (BEC) as a major earner for cyber criminals.

https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/pig-butchering-investment-scams-3b-cybercrime-threat-overtaking-bec

  • Over 721 Million Passwords were Leaked in 2022

A report published this week discovered 721.5 million exposed credentials online in 2022. Additionally, the report identified 72% of users reusing previously compromised passwords. The study also uncovered 8.6 billion personally identifiable information assets, including 67 million credit card numbers which were publicly available.

https://www.neowin.net/news/study-over-721-million-passwords-were-leaked-in-2022/

  • How Much of a Cyber Security Risk are Suppliers?

When your business is digitally connected to a service provider, you need to understand how a cyber security attack on their business can affect yours. You can have all the right measures in place to manage your own cyber risks, but this doesn’t matter if there are undiscovered vulnerabilities in your supply chain. Organisations need to audit the cyber security of suppliers at several stages of their relationship; you may benefit from specialist cyber security support if you can’t do this in-house. Ask hard questions and consider advising your suppliers that if their cyber security is not enough then you may take your business elsewhere. Many businesses now require suppliers to be certified to schemes such as ISO 27001; demonstrating your security posture to your customers is an important ticket to trade.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-much-of-a-cybersecurity-risk-are-my-suppliers-mqbwcf7p2

  • 90% of £5m+ Businesses Hit by Cyber Attacks

A study from Forbes found that 57% of small and medium-sized enterprises had suffered an online attack. Businesses with an annual turnover in excess of £5 million were even more likely to experience a cyber crime with the figure rising to nearly 90% of firms of this size suffering a cyber attack. To make matters worse, the study found that a significant proportion of British businesses are without any form of protection against online attacks.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2023/03/13/nine-in-10-5m-businesses-hit-by-cyber-attacks/

  • Rushed Cloud Migrations Result in Escalating Technical Debt

A cloud service provider found 83% of CIO’s are feeling pressured to stretch their budgets even further than before. 72% of CIOs admitted that they are behind in their digital transformation because of technical debt and 38% believed the accumulation of this debt is largely because of rushed cloud migrations. Respondents believed these rushed migrations caused for miscalculations in the cloud budget, which resulted in significant overspend.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/03/16/managing-cloud-costs/

  • Microsoft: 17 European Nations Targeted by Russia in 2023 as Espionage Ramping Up

According to an intelligence report from Microsoft, Russia has been ramping up its cyber espionage operations and this now includes 17 European nations. Of all 74 countries targeted, the UK ranked third, after the US and Poland.

https://www.securityweek.com/microsoft-17-european-nations-targeted-by-russia-in-2023-as-espionage-ramping-up/

  • Microsoft Warns of Large-Scale Use of Phishing Kits

Microsoft have found that phishing kits are being purchased and used to perform millions of phishing emails every day. In their report, Microsoft found the availability of purchasing such phishing kits was part of the industrialisation of the cyber criminal economy and lowered the barrier of entry for cyber crime. Microsoft identified phishing kits which had the capability to bypass multi factor authentication selling for as little as $300. The emergence of AI is only going to compound this.

https://thehackernews.com/2023/03/microsoft-warns-of-large-scale-use-of.html

  • BEC Volumes Double on Phishing Surge

The number of Business Email Compromise (BEC) incidents doubled last year according to security provider Secureworks. In their report, they found that the main initial access vectors for BEC were phishing and systems with known vulnerabilities, with each accounting for a third of initial accesses.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/bec-volumes-double-on-phishing/

  • The Risk of Pasting Confidential Company Data in ChatGPT

Researchers analysed the use of artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT and found that 4.9% of employees have provided company data to the tool; ChatGPT builds its knowledge on this and in turn, this knowledge is shared publicly. The risk is serious, with employees putting their organisation at risk of leaking sensitive and confidential information. The research found that 0.9% of employees are responsible for 80% of leaks caused by pasting company data into ChatGPT and this number is expected to rise.

https://securityaffairs.com/143394/security/company-data-chatgpt-risks.html

  • Ransomware Attacks have Entered a Heinous New Phase

With an increasing amount of victims refusing to pay, cyber criminal gangs are now resorting to new techniques; this includes the recent release of stolen naked photos of cancer patients and sensitive student records. Where encryption and a demand for payment were previously the de facto method for cyber criminals, this has now shifted to pure exfiltration. In a report, the FBI highlighted evolving and increasingly aggressive extortion behaviour, with actors increasingly threatening to release stolen data.

https://www.wired.com/story/ransomware-tactics-cancer-photos-student-records/

  • MI5 Launches New Agency to Tackle State-Backed Attacks

British intelligence agency MI5 have announced the creation of the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), created as part of a major review of government defences. The NPSA is to operate out of MI5 and absorb and extend the responsibilities for the protection of national infrastructure. The NPSA will work with existing agencies such as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Counter Terrorism Security Office (CTSO) to provide defensive advice to UK organisations.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/mi5-new-agency-tackle-statebacked/

  • Why Cyber Awareness Training is an Ongoing Process

A survey conducted by Hornetsecurity found that 80% of respondents believed remote working introduced extra cyber security risks and 75% were aware that personal devices are used to access sensitive data, fuelling the need for employees to be cyber aware. Where IT security training is only undertaken once, for example in block training, it is likely that participants will have forgotten a lot of the content after as little as a week; this means that for organisations to get the most out of training, they need to conduct frequent awareness training. By conducting frequent training there is more chance of trainees retaining the training content and allowing the organisation to shape a culture of cyber security.

https://www.hornetsecurity.com/en/security-information/why-cyber-awareness-training-is-an-ongoing-process/


Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Botnets

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Impersonation Attacks

Deepfakes

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Attack Surface Management

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Artificial Intelligence

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Nation State Actors


Vulnerabilities




Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·       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.

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 14 October 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 14 October 2022:

-Ransomware Report: Most Organisations Unprepared for an Attack, Lack Incident Playbook, Research Finds

-LinkedIn Scams, Fake Instagram Accounts Hit Businesses, Execs

-Study Highlights Surge in Identity Theft and Phishing Attacks

-Increase in Cyber Liability Insurance Claims as Cyber Crime Skyrockets

-UK Government Urges Action to Enhance Supply Chain Security

-For Most Companies Ransomware Is the Scariest Of All Cyber Attacks

-EDR Is Not a Silver Bullet

-Attackers Use Automation to Speed from Exploit to Compromise

-Rising Premiums, More Restricted Cyber Insurance Coverage Poses Big Risk for Companies

-Why CISO Roles Require Business and Technology Savvy

-Wi-Fi Spy Drones Used to Snoop on Financial Firm

-Magniber Ransomware Attacking Individuals and Home Users

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

  • Ransomware Report: Most Organisations Unprepared for an Attack, Lack Incident Playbook, Research Finds

Some organisations have made significant improvements to their ransomware readiness profile in the last year, Axio said in a newly released report. However, a lack of fundamental cyber security practices and controls, inadequate vulnerability patching and employee training continues to leave ransomware defences lacking in potency.

Axio’s report reveals that only 30% of organisations have a ransomware-specific playbook for incident management in place. In 2021’s report Axio, maker of a cloud-based cyber management software platform, identified seven key areas emerged where organisations were deficient in implementing and sustaining basic cyber security practices.

The same patterns showed up in the 2022 report:

  • Managing privileged access.

  • Improving basic cyber hygiene.

  • Reducing exposure to supply chain and third-party risk.

  • Monitoring and defending networks.

  • Managing ransomware incidents.

  • Identifying and addressing vulnerabilities in a timely manner.

  • Improving cyber security training and awareness.

Overall, most organisations surveyed are not adequately prepared to manage the risk associated with a ransomware attack. Key data findings include:

  • The number of organisations with a functional privileged access management solution in place increased by 10% but remains low at 33% overall.

  • Limitations on the use of service and local administrator accounts remain average overall, with nearly 50% of organisations reporting implementing these practices.

  • Approximately 40% of organisations monitor third-party network access, evaluate third-party cyber security posture, and limit the use of third-party software.

  • Less than 50% of respondents implement basic network segmentation and only 40% monitor for anomalous connections.

  • Critical vulnerability patching within 24 hours was reported by only 24% of organisations.

  • Active phishing training has improved but is still not practiced by 40% of organisations.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/most-organizations-unprepared-for-ransomware-attack-lack-incident-playbook-axio-reports/

  • LinkedIn Scams, Fake Instagram Accounts Hit Businesses, Execs

Business owners with public social media accounts are easy targets for scammers who lift information to create fake accounts. The arduous process for removing fraudulent accounts leaves victims frustrated and vulnerable to further data privacy issues. Victims say platform providers, particularly Facebook and Instagram, must improve their responses to reports of fraud.

Impersonation of a brand or executive contributed to more than 40% of all phishing and social media incidents in the second quarter, according to the Agari and Phish Labs Quarterly Threat Trends and Intelligence Report released in August. Q2 marks the second quarter that impersonation attacks have represented the majority of threats, despite a 6.1% decrease from Q1.

Executive impersonation has been on the rise over the past four quarters — representing more than 15% of attacks, according to the report — as impersonating a corporate figure or company on social media is simple and effective for threat actors.

Thom Singer, CEO for the Austin Technology Council and a public speaker, was recently impersonated on Instagram. A scammer created a fake Instagram account with his name and photos, creating a handle with an extra "r" at the end of Singer. That account appeared to amass over 2,300 followers – nearly as many as Singer's own account – lending to its appearance of authenticity.

He learned of the fake account from a contact who texted to ask if he'd reached out on Instagram, which wasn't a channel Singer typically uses to communicate. Singer reported the fraudulent account using the platform's report button and asked his followers to do the same.

"You can't reach anyone at these platforms, so it takes days to get a fake account removed," Singer said. "These social media sites have no liability, nothing to lose when fraud is happening. They need to up their game and have a better process to get [fraud] handled in a timely manner."

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/LinkedIn-scams-fake-Instagram-accounts-hit-businesses-execs

  • Study Highlights Surge in Identity Theft and Phishing Attacks

A new study from behavioural risk firm CybSafe and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) has been launched and it highlights an alarming surge in phishing and identity theft attacks.

The report, titled ‘Oh, Behave! The Annual Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors report’, studied the opinions of 3,000 individuals across the US, the UK and Canada towards cyber security and revealed that nearly half (45%) of users are connected to the internet all the time, however, this has led to a surge in identity theft with almost 1 in 4 people being affected by the attack.

Furthermore, 1 in 3 (36%) respondents revealed they have lost money or data due to a phishing attack. Yet the study also revealed that 70% of respondents feel confident in their ability to identify a malicious email, but only 45% will confirm the authenticity of a suspicious email by reaching out to the apparent sender.

When it comes to implementing cyber security best practices, only 33% of respondents revealed they use a unique password for important online accounts, while only 16% utilise passwords of over 12 characters in length. Furthermore, only 18% of participants have downloaded a stand-alone password manager, while 43% of respondents have not even heard of multi-factor authentication.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/10/12/study-highlights-surge-in-identity-theft-and-phishing-attacks/

  • Increase in Cyber Liability Insurance Claims as Cyber Crime Skyrockets

A cyber insurer, Acuity Insurance, is reporting an increased need for cyber liability insurance across both personal and business policyholders. From June 2021 to June 2022, the insurer saw cyber liability insurance claims on its commercial insurance policies increase by more than 50%. For personal policies, they saw more than a 90% increase in cyber claims being reported in 2021 compared with 2020.

Our lives, homes and businesses are more connected than ever before. Being connected leads to a greater risk of cyber attacks, which aren't covered under standard homeowners or business insurance policies.

The insurance experts caution that everyone is at risk — whether you are a small business owner or an individual — as cyber attacks continue to pose a serious financial threat. From 2019 to 2021, cyber attacks were up 50% from the previous year, according to recent research. Wire fraud and gift card scams are two of the most common types of cyber attacks impacting both businesses and individuals.

Scams involving social engineering are some of the easiest to fall for, as fraudsters exploit a person's trust to obtain money or personal information, which can then be used for unauthorised withdrawals of money. Cyber insurance can protect you from financial loss caused by wire transfer fraud, phishing attacks, cyber extortion, cyberbullying and more, Acuity reported.

While all cyber crimes have a financial impact, fraudulent wire transfers often come with greater losses. Banks are typically not responsible for funds lost as a result of a fraudulent wire transfer inadvertently authorised by the customer. Whether it's a wrongful money transfer by a business or an individual, cyber insurance can help mitigate some of the financial loss caused by these scams.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/acuity-reports-increase-in-cyber-liability-insurance-claims-as-cybercrime-skyrockets

  • UK Government Urges Action to Enhance Supply Chain Security

The UK government has warned organisations to take steps to strengthen their supply chain security.

New National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance has been issued amid a significant increase in supply chain attacks in recent years, such as the SolarWinds incident in 2020. The NCSC cited official government data showing that just over one in 10 businesses review the risks posed by their immediate suppliers (13%), while the proportion covering the wider supply chain is just 7%.

Aimed at medium-to-large organisations, the document sets out practical steps to better assess cyber security across increasingly complex supply chains. This includes a description of typical supplier relationships and ways that organisations are exposed to vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks via the supply chain, and the expected outcomes and key steps needed to assess suppliers’ approaches to security.

The new guidance followed a government response to a call for views last year which highlighted the need for further advice. Supply chain attacks are a major cyber threat facing organisations and incidents can have a profound, long-lasting impact on businesses and customers. With incidents on the rise, it is vital organisations work with their suppliers to identify supply chain risks and ensure appropriate security measures are in place.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-government-supply-chain-security/

  • For Most Companies Ransomware Is the Scariest Of All Cyber Attacks

SonicWall released the 2022 SonicWall Threat Mindset Survey which found that 66% of customers are more concerned about cyber attacks in 2022, with the main threat being focused on financially motivated attacks like ransomware.

“No one is safe from cyber attacks — businesses or individuals,” said SonicWall Executive Chairman of the Board Bill Conner. “Today’s business landscape requires persistent digital trust to exist. Supply-chain attacks have dramatically changed the attack surface of the typical enterprise in the past few years, with more suppliers and service providers touching sensitive data than ever before.

“It’s likely we’ll see continued acceleration and evolution of ransomware tactics, as well as other advanced persistent threats (APTs), as cyber crime continues to scale the globe seeking both valuable and weak targets.”

Companies are not only losing millions of dollars to unending malware and ransomware strikes, but cyber attacks on essential infrastructure are impacting real-world services. Despite the growing concern of cyber attacks, organisations are struggling to keep pace with the fast-moving threat landscape as they orient their business, networks, data and employees against unwavering cyber attacks.

“The evolving cyber threat landscape has made us train our staff significantly more,” said Stafford Fields, IT Director, Cavett Turner & Wyble. “It’s made us spend more on cyber security. And what scares me is that an end-user can click on something and bring all our systems down — despite being well protected.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/12/customers-concerned-ransomware/

  • EDR Is Not a Silver Bullet

Old lore held that shooting a werewolf, vampire, or even just your average nasty villain with a silver bullet was a sure-fire takedown: one hit, no more bad guy.

As cyber security professionals, we understand – much like folks in the Old West knew – that there are no panaceas, no actual silver bullets. Yet humans gravitate towards simple solutions to complex challenges, and we are constantly (if unconsciously) seeking silver bullet technology.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools have become Standard Operating Procedures for cyber security regimes. They are every CIO’s starting point, and there’s nothing wrong with this. In a recent study by Cymulate of over one million tests conducted by customers in 2021, the most popular testing vector was EDR.

Yet cyber security stakeholders should not assume that EDR is a silver bullet. The fact is that EDR’s efficacy and protective prowess as a standalone solution has been slowly diminished over the decade since the term was first coined by Gartner. Even as it became a mainstay of enterprise and SMB/SME security posture – attacks have skyrocketed in frequency, severity, and success. Today, EDR is facing some of its greatest challenges, including threats laser-targeting EDR systems like the highly-successful Grandoiero banking trojan.

While EDR should not be your only line of defence against advanced threats, including it in a defence solution array is paramount. It should be installed on all organisational servers – including Linux-based ones. Yet installation is not enough. Your organisation is at significant risk if the underlying OS and EDR are not both implemented and fine-tuned.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/11/edr-is-not-a-silver-bullet/

  • Attackers Use Automation to Speed from Exploit to Compromise

A report from Laceworks examines the cloud security threat landscape over the past three months and unveils the new techniques and avenues cyber criminals are exploiting for profit at the expense of businesses. In this latest edition, the Lacework Labs team found a significantly more sophisticated attacker landscape, with an increase in attacks against core networking and virtualisation software, and an unprecedented increase in the speed of attacks following a compromise. Key trends and threats identified include:

  • Increased speed from exposure to compromise: Attackers are advancing to keep pace with cloud adoption and response time. Many classes of attacks are now fully automated to capitalise on timing. Additionally, one of the most common targets is credential leakage. In a specific example from the report, a leaked AWS access key was caught and flagged by AWS in record time. Despite the limited exposure, an unknown adversary was able to log in and launch tens of GPU EC2 instances, underscoring just how quickly attackers can take advantage of a single simple mistake.

  • Increased focus on infrastructure, specifically attacks against core networking and virtualisation software: Commonly deployed core networking and related infrastructure consistently remains a key target for adversaries. Core flaws in infrastructure often appear suddenly and are shared openly online, creating opportunities for attackers of all kinds to exploit these potential targets.

  • Continued Log4j reconnaissance and exploitation: Nearly a year after the initial exploit, the Lacework Labs team is still commonly observing vulnerable software targeted via OAST requests. Analysis of Project Discovery (interact.sh) activity revealed Cloudflare and DigitalOcean as the top originators.

https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/attackers-use-automation-to-speed-from-exploit-to-compromise-according-to-lacework-labs-cloud-threat-report

  • Rising Premiums, More Restricted Cyber Insurance Coverage Poses Big Risk for Companies

Among the many consequences of the rising number of costly data breaches, ransomware, and other security attacks are pricier premiums for cyber security insurance. The rise in costs could put many organisations out of the running for this essential coverage, a risky proposition given the current threat landscape.

Cyber insurance is a type of specialty insurance that protects organisations against a variety of risks related to information security attacks such as ransomware and data breaches. Ordinarily, these types of risks aren’t included with traditional commercial general liability policies or are not specifically defined in these insurance plans.

Given the rise in attacks, the growing sophistication of these incidents and the potential financial impact, having cyber insurance coverage has become critical for many organisations. Premiums for these plans have been on the rise because of the increase in security-related losses and rising demand for coverage.

Cyber insurance premiums increased by an average of 28% in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB), an association for commercial insurance and employee benefits intermediaries.

Among the primary drivers for the continued price increases were a reduced carrier appetite for the risk and high demand for coverage, CIAB said. The high demand for cyber coverage is in part fueled by greater awareness among companies of the threat cyber risk poses for businesses of all sizes, it said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/11/companies-are-finding-it-harder-to-get-cyber-insurance-.html

  • Why CISO Roles Require Business and Technology Savvy

Listening and communicating to both the technical and business sides is critical to successfully leading IT teams and business leaders to the same end-goal.

Of all the crazy postings that advertise for CISO jobs, the one asking for a CISO to code in Python was probably the most outrageous example of the disconnect about a CISO’s role, says Joe Head, CISO search director at UK-based search firm, Intaso. This was a few years ago, and one can only guess that the role had been created by a technologist who didn’t care about or didn’t understand the business — or, inversely by a businessperson who didn’t understand enough about technology.

In either case, the disconnect is real. However, Head and other experts say that when it comes to achieving the true, executive role and reporting to the CEO and board, business skills rule. That doesn’t mean, however, that most CISOs know nothing about technology, because most still start out with technology backgrounds.

In the 2022 CISO survey by executive placement firm, Heidrick & Struggles, most CISOs come from a functional IT background that reflects the issues of the time. For example, in 2022 10% of CISOs came from software engineering backgrounds, which tracks with the White House directive to protect the software supply chain. The report notes that the majority of CISOs have experience in the financial services industry, which has a low risk tolerance and where more money is spent on security.

The survey also indicates that only a small core of CISOs (working primarily for the Fortune 500) rise to the executive level with the combination of business and technical responsibilities that come with the role. In it, more than two-thirds of CISOs responding to the survey worked for companies worth over $5 billion. So, instead of bashing a CISO’s lack of IT skills, the real need lies in developing business skills for the technologists coming up the ranks.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3675952/why-ciso-roles-require-business-and-technology-savvy.html#tk.rss_news

  • Wi-Fi Spy Drones Used to Snoop on Financial Firm

Modified off-the-shelf drones have been found carrying wireless network-intrusion kit in a very unlikely place.

The idea of using consumer-oriented drones for hacking has been explored over the past decade at security conferences like Black Hat 2016, in both the US and in Europe, but now these sort of attacks are actually taking place. A security researcher recently recounted an incident that occurred over the summer at a US East Coast financial firm focused on private investment.

The hacking incident was discovered when the financial firm spotted unusual activity on its internal Atlassian Confluence page that originated from within the company's network. The company's security team responded and found that the user whose MAC address was used to gain partial access to the company Wi-Fi network was also logged in at home several miles away. That is to say, the user was active off-site but someone within Wi-Fi range of the building was trying to wirelessly use that user's MAC address, which is a red flag. The team then took steps to trace the Wi-Fi signal and used a Fluke system to identify the Wi-Fi device.

This led the team to the roof, where two modified commercially available consumer drones series were discovered. One drone was in fine condition and had a modified Wi-Fi Pineapple device, used for network penetration testing. The second drone was carrying a case that contained a Raspberry Pi, several batteries, a GPD mini laptop, a 4G modem, and another Wi-Fi device. It had landed near the building's heating and ventilation system and appeared to be damaged but still operable.

During their investigation, they determined that the first drone had originally been used a few days prior to intercept a worker's credentials and Wi-Fi, and this data was then hard coded into the tools that were deployed on the second drone.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/12/drone-roof-attack/

  • Magniber Ransomware Attacking Individuals and Home Users

A recent analysis shows that Magniber ransomware has been targeting home users by masquerading as software updates.

Reports have shown a ransomware campaign isolated by HP Wolf Security in September 2022 saw Magniber ransomware spread. The malware is known as a single-client ransomware family that demands $2,500 from victims. Magniber was previously primarily spread through MSI and EXE files, but in September 2022 HP Wolf Security began seeing campaigns distributing the ransomware in JavaScript files.

HP Wolf Security reported that some malware families rely exclusively on JavaScript, but have done so for some time. Currently, analysts are also seeing more HTML smuggling, such as with Qakbot and IcedID. This technique also makes use of JavaScript to decode malicious content. The only difference is that the HTML file is executed in the context of the browser and therefore usually requires further user interaction.

Remarkably, HP Wolf Security said, the attackers used clever techniques to evade detection, such as running the ransomware in memory, bypassing User Account Control (UAC) in Windows, and bypassing detection techniques that monitor user-mode hooks by using syscalls instead of standard Windows API libraries.

It appears that with the UAC bypass, the malware deletes the infected system’s shadow copy files and disables backup and recovery features, preventing the victim from recovering their data using Windows tools.

Having recently described the ransomware campaign in a recent interview, HP Wolf noted that the infection chain starts with a web download from an attacker-controlled website.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/10/14/https-www-infosecurity-magazine-com-news-magniber-ransomware-adopts/


Threats

Ransomware and Extortion

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Malware

Mobile

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Deepfakes

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Software Supply Chain

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Cloud/SaaS

Encryption

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Backup and Recovery

Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine


Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

Nation State Actors – China

Nation State Actors – North Korea

Nation State Actors – Misc





Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·       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.

Read More