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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 March 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 01 March 2024:

-Phishing, Smishing and Vishing Skyrocket 1,265%

-Business Email Compromise Attacks Are Evolving, But What Can Be Done About It

-Vulnerabilities Count Set to Rise by 25% in 2024

-BYOD Increases Mobile Phishing; Risks Have Never Been Higher

-Risk-based spending: An Imperative for Cyber Security That Demands Board Attention

-If you Pay Ransoms, You May not Get Your Data Back and Worse, You Will Probably Get Hit Again, with 78% of Firms who Paid Then Suffering Repeat Ransomware Attacks

-Cyber Resilience and Cyber Hygiene: Why They Matter to Your Business

-Why Governance, Risk and Compliance Must be Integrated with Cyber Security

-More and More UK Firms Concerned About Insider Threats

-98% of Businesses Linked to Breached Third Parties

-What Companies Should Know About Rising Legal Threats

-CIOs Rethink All-In Cloud Strategies as Five Eyes Nations Warn of Evolving Russian Cyber Espionage Practices Targeting Cloud Environments

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

Risk-based spending: An Imperative for Cyber Security That Demands Board Attention

Staying ahead of the latest cyber security developments is essential to keeping your organisation safe. But with the rise of artificial intelligence and attackers dreaming up new techniques every day, a lot of organisations are left to question how they can create proactive, agile cyber security strategies and what approach gives the best return on investment, mitigating risks and maximising the value of their cyber security investments.

Unfortunately, most organisations do not have an unlimited budget, and for small and medium-sized businesses, there is even less to work with. What is needed is a risk-based approach, where organisations identify and prioritise their greatest vulnerabilities, correlating these to business impact; this is then used to form the cyber risk strategy for the organisation.

Sources: [Security Week] [The Hacker News] [Risk.net]

If you Pay Ransoms, You May not Get Your Data Back and Worse, You Will Probably Get Hit Again, with 78% of Firms who Paid Then Suffering Repeat Ransomware Attacks

Recent research from Proofpoint has found that 69% of organisations experienced a successful ransomware incident in the past year, a rise of 5% compared to the previous year. The report found that 60% reported four or more separate ransomware incidents and of the total involved, 54% admitted to paying a ransom. In a separate report, it was found that 78% of organisations suffering a ransomware attack suffered repeat attacks even after they paid.

Sources: [databreaches.net] [Infosecurity Magazine] [Infosecurity Magazine] [Claims Journal]

Cyber Resilience and Cyber Hygiene: Why They Matter to Your Business

Cyber resilience unites cyber security with business continuity and organisational durability, with proper implementation allowing the continuation of routine operations during adverse cyber incidents. Cyber hygiene, on the other hand, refers to having strong cyber security processes and procedures, to help the organisation mitigate the chance of an incident. The combination of both of these allows an organisation to reduce their likelihood of suffering a cyber incident, whilst improving their likelihood of continuing operations in the event of such an incident.

Sources: [Information Week] [Security Boulevard]

Why Governance, Risk and Compliance Must be Integrated with Cyber Security

With pressure from regulators, the evolving threat landscape and requirements for stronger oversight, governance, risk and compliance (GRC) has even more of an argument for alignment with cyber security. After all, cyber security is still security. Incorporating cyber security into the GRC programme of an organisation allows for cyber to become a business enabler.

Source: [CSO Online]

More and More UK Firms Concerned About Insider Threats

A report has found that 54% of UK business decision makers are concerned about the likelihood of their employees disclosing sensitive information or providing network access to fraudsters. In a separate report, 35% of respondents cited overworked and distracted staff making mistakes as a reason why they thought their business experienced insider risk. Certainly, insider risk does not just involve malicious employees; it can also include negligence and in some cases, employees may not be trained enough to identify the risk they are placing on the organisation such as not knowing or following an organisation’s call back procedure. It is important for organisations to consider whether their current training addresses this and whether the programme is doing enough to ensure that insider risk is mitigated.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

98% of Businesses Linked to Breached Third Parties

A new report has found that 98% of organisations are associated with a third party that has experienced a breach, and these breaches often take months or more to be discovered. 75% of external business-to-business (B2B) relationships that enabled third-party breaches involved software or other technology products and services. Third party security is an important part of an organisation’s cyber security and to manage it correctly, organisations need to implement a third party risk management programme.

Source: [Help Net Security]

Phishing, Smishing and Vishing Skyrocket 1,265%

According to a report, since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, vishing, smishing, and phishing attacks have increased by a staggering 1,265%. Despite different techniques, these attacks all have one focus, and that’s on the user. Organisations looking to protect themselves should consider a blend of mitigations, including advanced email filtering, enabling multi-factor authentication and arguably the most important, effective user education and awareness training. This training should go beyond ticking boxes, by instead teaching employees how to both recognise and report phishing attempts.

A separate report analysed over 1 billion emails. Some of the key findings included that the majority of phishing attempts (71%) rely on deceptive links, but attachments (22%) and predatory QR codes (7%) are on the rise. When it came to spoofs, Microsoft was the most spoofed entity and financial services were amongst those most targeted sectors.

Source: [Bleeping Computer] [Help Net Security] [Security Affairs]

Business Email Compromise Attacks Are Evolving, But What Can Be Done About It

Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks remain a dominant danger, with a staggering $51 billion lost over the last decade. A recent report underscores the prevalence of email as the primary battlefield, far outstripping other cyber attack methods. The low-cost, high-reach nature of email makes it an attractive starting point for cyber criminals. As organisations embrace cloud-based infrastructures, these attacks have morphed, presenting new challenges. Attackers have progressed from direct phishing attempts, to compromising business partners, vendors and other third parties. In this arms race, artificial intelligence (AI) assumes a pivotal role as an essential ally, efficiently discerning between benign and malicious content. This development signifies a significant milestone in the realm of email security resilience.

Source: [ITPro]

Vulnerabilities Count Set to Rise by 25% in 2024

The cyber threat landscape is rapidly evolving, with an anticipated 25% increase in published systems vulnerabilities for 2024. This surge, reaching approximately 2,900 vulnerabilities per month, underscores the critical need for robust vulnerability management strategies. Vulnerabilities serve as prime entry points for ransomware actors, heightening the urgency for organisations to fortify their defences. However, the sheer volume of vulnerabilities poses a daunting challenge for security and IT teams already thinly stretched. Timely risk-scoring remains a significant issue, leaving defenders vulnerable to exploits with threat actors often gaining a head start. Honeypot data reveals a concerning uptick in scans targeting remote desktop protocol (RDP), with businesses running end-of-life (EOL) software at heightened risk. In this dynamic cyber security climate, proactive risk management and expert intervention, such as Managed Detection and Response (MDR), are imperative to safeguarding against emerging threats.

Source: [Help Net Security]

BYOD Increases Mobile Phishing; Risks Have Never Been Higher

The risk of cyber attacks looms large, with stolen employee login credentials serving as a prime target for malicious actors. Mobile phishing has emerged as a significant threat, with data revealing a surge in encounter rates, especially in hybrid work environments and amid Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies. Personal devices, once considered outside the realm of corporate security, now pose substantial risks, as attackers exploit social engineering schemes to breach organisational networks. The financial implications of a successful phishing attack are staggering, with estimates suggesting potential losses of up to $4 million for organisations. As phishing encounter rates continue to rise, it's imperative for businesses to bolster their security strategies, ensuring comprehensive protection against mobile phishing threats across all employee devices. To navigate this evolving landscape and safeguard sensitive data, organisations must stay vigilant and adopt proactive measures.

Source: [MSSP Alert]

What Companies Should Know About Rising Legal Threats

The cyber security landscape is witnessing a significant shift as legal actions increasingly target both corporations and individual security officers. Recent cases including lawsuits by Tesla against ex-employees for cyber security breaches and charges by regulatory bodies like the US FTC and SEC, underscore the mounting legal risks associated with cyber security breaches. Notably, private companies are not exempt from such liabilities, facing scrutiny from authorities, regulators, customers and other affected parties. This environment has prompted many cyber security leaders to reconsider their roles, with concerns raised about the future of the profession. Amidst escalating threats and enforcement actions, there's a pressing need for enhanced cyber security budgets, robust risk-based controls and proactive audits or other independent assurance.

Source: [Darkreading]

CIOs Rethink All-In Cloud Strategies as Five Eyes Nations Warn of Evolving Russian Cyber Espionage Practices Targeting Cloud Environments

As organisations embrace the cloud, CIOs recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach may not be optimal. Many now favour a nuanced strategy, shifting workloads from public clouds to platforms offering productivity gains and cost savings; a trend known as ‘cloud exit.’ CIOs are rethinking cloud strategies, assessing each application’s suitability and fostering context-aware hosting decisions.

This comes as a recent advisory issued jointly by cyber security agencies from the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand reveals that Russian cyber espionage units, including APT29 and Cozy Bear, are adapting tactics to target cloud environments used by both public and private organisations. These sophisticated attacks pose significant threats across industries. Implementing basic cloud security measures is crucial to regularly evaluate dormant accounts, limit system-issued token validity, and enforce stringent device policies. As cloud adoption rises, prioritise cyber security fundamentals for effective defence.

Sources: [CyberScoop] [CIO]

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

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

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Linux and Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Backup and Recovery

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

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 29 October 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 October 2021

-Protect Your Passwords, Warns Spy Chief, As Ransomware Cyber Attacks Double

-Graff Multinational Jeweller Hit by Conti Gang, Data of its Rich Clients Are At Risk

-Business Email Compromise (BEC) Costs UK Firms £140M Over Past Year

-Ransomware: It's A 'Golden Era' For Cyber Criminals - And It Could Get Worse Before It Gets Better

-Despite Increased Cyber Threats, Many Organisations Have No Defence Plans In Place

-Serious Warning Issued For Millions Of Apple iPhone Users

-Ransomware Attacks Are Evolving. Your Security Strategy Should, Too

-Solarwinds Hackers Are Targeting The Global It Supply Chain, Microsoft Says

-Defenders Worry Orgs Are More Vulnerable Than Last Year

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

Protect Your Passwords, Warns Spy Chief, As Ransomware Cyber Attacks Double

Ransomware cyber attacks doubled in the past year, the chief of GCHQ has revealed - as he warned Britain must “pay attention” to attacks from China.

Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of the cyber spy agency, called for more action to "sort out" ransomware attacks across the UK, adding it was not "rocket science".

He said such attacks have doubled in the last year, with hackers using software to lock files on computers and stop victims from accessing their own data.

This essentially holds them hostage until the hackers receive payment and then give a decryption key to the victim, so they can regain access.

‘Criminals are making very good money from it’

Sir Jeremy said ransomware "just pays" and added that "criminals are making very good money from it and are often feeling that that's largely uncontested".

While cautious of “keeping up” with security challenges alongside European partners, he said the immediate priority was tackling “links between criminal and state actors” to defeat ransomware, which he said “is no mean feat in itself”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/25/ransomware-cyber-attacks-double-year-reveals-spy-chief/

Graff Multinational Jeweller Hit by Conti Gang. Data of its Rich Clients Are At Risk, Including Trump and Beckham, as the Gang Threaten to Release Private Details of World Leaders, Actors and Tycoons

The latest attack of the Conti ransomware gang makes the headlines, the threat actors hit high society jeweller Graff and asked the payment of a multi-million ransom to avoid leaking details of world leaders, actors and tycoons.

The customers of the company are the richest people on the globe, including Donald Trump, David Beckham, Tom Hanks, Samuel L Jackson, Alec Baldwin, and Sir Philip Green.

As proof of the hack, the group already published on its leak site files related to purchases made by David Beckham, Oprah, and Donald Trump.

The Conti gang has already leaked 69,000 confidential documents, leaked files include customer lists, invoices, receipts, and credit notes. https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/123980/cyber-crime/conti-ransomware-graff-jeweller.html

Business Email Compromise (BEC) Costs UK Firms £140M Over Past Year

Reported business email compromise (BEC) incidents have hit 4600 cases over the past 12 months, costing individuals and businesses £138m in losses, according to new figures from the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre (NECC).

The government body is working with the National Crime Agency (NCA), City of London Police, banking group UK Finance and fraud prevention non-profit Cifas on a new campaign to raise awareness of the crime, also dubbed “mandate fraud” or “payment diversion fraud.”

It claimed that the average amount lost over those 4600 cases was £30,000, with criminals typically impersonating others and creating or amending invoices to trick victims into diverting money to accounts under their control. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/bec-costs-uk-firms-140m-past-year/

Ransomware: It's A 'Golden Era' For Cyber Criminals - And It Could Get Worse Before It Gets Better

Ransomware is the most significant cybersecurity threat facing organisations today as increasingly professional and sophisticated cyber criminals follow the money in order to maximise the profit from illicit campaigns.

ENISNA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, has released the latest edition of the ENISA Threat Landscape (ETL) report, which analyses cyber-criminal activity between April 2020 and July 2021. It warns of a surge in cyber criminality, much of it driven by the monetisation of ransomware attacks.

Although the paper warns that many different cybersecurity threats are on the rise, ransomware represents the 'prime threat' faced by organisations today, with a 150% rise in ransomware attacks during the reporting period. And there are fears that despite the problem of ransomware attracting the attention of world leaders, the problem will get worse before it gets better. https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-its-a-golden-era-for-cyber-criminals-and-it-could-get-worse-before-it-gets-better/

Despite Increased Cyber Threats, Many Organisations Have No Defence Plans In Place

98% of US executives report that their organisations experienced at least one cyber event in the past year, compared to a slightly lower rate of 84% in non-US executives, according to a Deloitte survey.

Further, COVID-19 pandemic disruption led to increased cyber threats to US executives’ organisations (86%) at a considerably higher rate than non-US executives experienced (63%). Yet, 14% of US executives say their organisations have no cyber threat defence plans, a rate more than double that of non-US executives (6%).

The biggest fallout US execs report from cyber incidents or breaches at their organisations during the past year include operational disruption (28%), share price drop (24%), leadership change (23%), intellectual property theft (22%) and loss of customer trust (22%).

Increases in data management, perimeter and complexities (38%), inability to match rapid technology changes (35%) and a need for better prioritization of cyber risk across the enterprise (31%) all pose obstacles to US executives’ organisation-wide cybersecurity management programs.

“No CISO or CSO ever wants to tell organisational stakeholders that efforts to manage cyber risk aren’t keeping-up with the speed of digital transformations made, or bad actors’ improving tactics”. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/10/28/threat-defence-plans/

Serious Warning Issued For Millions Of Apple iPhone Users

While iPhone 13 sales continue to soar, iPhones owners have faced growing security threats, multiple App Store scams, potential privacy violations and zero day hacks. Now a shocking account of extreme iPhone hacking has been revealed.

In a remarkable report, New York Times senior reporter Ben Hubbard has revealed how his iPhone was hacked multiple times over a period of several years, and without any human interaction or knowledge the attacks were taking place. And the experience results in a stark warning: “the spyware used against me makes us all vulnerable”.

“It’s like being robbed by a ghost,” explains Hubbard, recounting the experience. “I didn’t even have to click on a link for my phone to be infected.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2021/10/27/apple-iphone-warning-pegasus-hack-upgrade-ios-15-security/

Ransomware Attacks Are Evolving. Your Security Strategy Should, Too

Ransomware is an intensifying problem for all organisations, and it’s only going to get worse. What started as a floppy disk-based attack with a $189 ransom demands has grown from a minor inconvenience for organisations into a multi-billion dollar cyber crime industry.

The organisational threat of these types of attacks goes well beyond encryption of sensitive or mission-critical data – for many companies, the thought of a breach and data becoming publicly available on the internet makes a high ransom seem worth it. No wonder ransomware is on the rise: Organisations pay an average of $220,298 and suffer 23 days of downtime following an attack. https://threatpost.com/ransomware-attacks-evolving-security-strategy/175835/

Solarwinds Hackers Are Targeting The Global IT Supply Chain, Microsoft Says

The Russian-linked hacking group that’s been blamed for an attack on the US government and a significant number of private US companies last year is targeting key players in the global technology supply chain, according to cybersecurity experts at Microsoft.

Nobelium, as the hacking group is known, is infamous for the SolarWinds hack.

On Monday, Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president of customer security and trust, said Nobelium has “been attempting to replicate the approach it has used in past attacks by targeting organisations integral to the global IT supply chain.”

“This time, it is attacking a different part of the supply chain: resellers and other technology service providers that customize, deploy and manage cloud services and other technologies on behalf of their customers” https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/solarwinds-hackers-targeting-global-it-supply-chain-microsoft-says.html

Defenders Worry Orgs Are More Vulnerable Than Last Year

Enterprise security defenders find themselves in a rough spot: The number of threats against their organisations is growing and that they're vulnerable to attacks. Data from Dark Reading's 2021 Strategic Security Survey suggest that even though most IT and security leaders are confident about the security defences they have implemented, they also believe their organisations are more vulnerable to attacks compared with a year ago.

The reasons for this pessimism vary. For 67% of respondents, the biggest concern lies in the fact that there are more attacks this year than there were last year. However, 56% say the increased sophistication of the threats they are facing is why their organisations are more vulnerable to compromise. Other reasons include the surge in ransomware attacks and shortage of skilled security professionals to detect and respond to threats. https://www.darkreading.com/edge-threat-monitor/defenders-worry-orgs-are-more-vulnerable-than-last-year

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Dark Web

Supply Chain

Nation State Actors

As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Read More