Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 December 2023

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

Majority of 2023’s Critical Cyber Attacks Stemmed from Fewer Than 1% of Vulnerabilities, with 1 in 4 High Risk Vulnerabilities Exploited Within 24 Hours of Going Public

A new Qualys report reveals that less than 1% of vulnerabilities are responsible for the greatest damage, and a quarter of high-risk vulnerabilities are now being exploited within a day of disclosure. In 2023, a record-breaking 26,000 vulnerabilities have been identified so far, emphasising the need for organisations to accelerate their response times. High-risk vulnerabilities, particularly in network devices and web applications, are the main targets for attackers seeking unauthorised access or privilege escalation. This situation underscores the critical need for organisations to implement a multi-layered defence strategy, automate patching where appropriate especially in areas of critical infrastructure, and adopt zero-trust principles to safeguard against such swift and potent cyber threats.

Sources: [SiliconANGLE] [SC Media]

Ransomware Gangs Are Increasingly Turning to Remote Access Tools for Attacks, As UK Honeypots Attacked 17 million Times Per Day

Nearly three quarters of cyber-attacks across the UK in 2023 targeted technology frequently used for remote working, new data from Coalition has revealed.

Attackers frequently target Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), a tool that lets users access office computers from home, as it grants the attacker quick access to devices and allows them to execute further attacks.

Honeypot sensors maintained by Coalition have recorded 5.8 billion attacks so far in 2023, averaging around 17 million attacks per day. Of these it was found that 76% of attacks targeted RDP.

Attackers exploit RDP vulnerabilities that often stem from simple configuration mistakes. By taking steps like disabling unnecessary remote access or tightening controls, companies can help shield themselves from these pervasive threats.

Sources: [Insurance Times] [TechRadar] [Infosecurity Magazine]

Why Employees Are a Bigger Security Risk than Hackers

In today's interconnected world, the spotlight is often on cyber criminals attacking from outside, but a worrying trend points inward. A recent study by Imperva reveals that insiders pose a significant threat, being behind 58% of security incidents. The incidents are a mixture of deliberate misuse and accidents, however the majority of organisations lack a strategy to combat these risks. Even when strategies exist, they may be undermined by employees bypassing IT protocols or due to the pressures of adapting to new technologies. With insider incidents on the rise by 47% in two years, the costs are too great to ignore.

Source: [Raconteur]

77% of Financial Services Firms Detected a Cyber Attack in the Last Year, as Finance and Healthcare Continue to Suffer the Most Cyber Attacks

Cyber attacks are more prevalent in the financial services sector than in any other industry. Last year, 77% of financial institutions were targeted, primarily through phishing and ransomware attacks. After financial services the second most targeted sector is healthcare. Both types of institutions are attractive targets not only because of their wealth of sensitive data but also because disruptions to their operations can lead to substantial ransom payments. They face increasingly sophisticated threats and the financial impact is significant, with approximately a quarter of these institutions estimating damages of at least $50,000. To mitigate these risks organisations are turning to cyber insurance, which necessitates further tightening of security practices, including identity and access management, to meet insurers’ stringent standards.

The healthcare sector reported over 179,000 cyber attacks in a single quarter, affecting entities globally. The primary threats were infostealers and ransomware. There have been scores of notable incidents where hospitals have been shut down or otherwise unable to operate. In many cases, this resulted in closing emergency departments, interfering with planned or emergency surgeries and forcing ambulances to divert to other hospitals, potentially causing life threatening delays. Further, a recent report analysing the enterprise risk management for the financial sector found that the two biggest concerns were rising interest rates at 74% and ransomware attacks at 65%.

Sources: [Security Magazine] [MSSP Alert] [PR NewsWire] [Security Magazine]

New Report Data Shows 75% Increase in Suspicious Emails Hitting Inboxes

A new report has unveiled the escalating threat posed by phishing emails, as detected by DMARC software. In the past year, there's been a 70% rise in emails flagged as fraudulent, with almost 18% of total email traffic in the first half of 2023 being intercepted as potential phishing attempts. This surge underscores a pressing need for robust email security measures. Simple yet effective tools like DMARC, which automatically weeds out emails impersonating legitimate domains, are becoming critical in the fight against these sophisticated scams. With the average cost of a cyber attack now well into the millions, and given the high click rates on phishing emails, it is clear that taking proactive steps to strengthen an organisations digital defence is not just sensible, it is essential for safeguarding the businesses in the digital age.

Source: [Dark Reading]

Threat Actors Still Exploiting Old Unpatched Vulnerabilities

A report by Cisco has found that the most targeted vulnerabilities this year, same as previous years, were old unpatched vulnerabilities which should have been fixed a long time ago. Some of these security gaps in widely-used applications like Microsoft Office and or within versions of Windows itself are over a decade old. Unpatched vulnerabilities can leave systems open to exploitation, potentially leading to unauthorised access, data breaches, and widespread security incidents, including being a key enabler of ransomware attacks. This highlights an urgent call to action for organisations to patch known vulnerabilities and secure user accounts to fortify their defences against cyber threats.

Source: [IT Business]

Many Organisations Still Lack Formal Cyber Security Training

As we navigate into 2024, a new report by the SANS Institute found that more than 30% of organisations do not regularly perform cyber readiness exercises, while 40% have yet to establish formal training for cyber security. These findings underline a gap between the need for robust security measures and actual preparedness. On a positive note, most organisations are adopting frameworks like the NIST CSF to shape their security posture, and two-thirds are actively using metrics to gauge the effectiveness of their security operations. Yet, there’s a call to action here: for real progress, intentional investment and commitment to comprehensive training and stringent security operations are non-negotiable. This is the path to mature security operations that can withstand the complexities of today’s cyber threats.

Source: [Security Brief]

Addressing the Growing Threat of Supply Chain Cyber Attacks

As businesses become more interconnected through digital supply chains, supply chain cyber attacks are becoming more of a pressing issue for organisations. The attackers tend to exploit weaknesses in third-party suppliers, often with less guarded entry points, to access larger networks. With companies increasingly outsourcing and using cloud adoption, the need for stringent third-party cyber risk assessments is vital. However, complexities arise with the shared responsibility model for cloud security, where setting out the division of security duties between cloud service providers and clients can blur lines of defence. To tackle these challenges, integration of cyber security into procurement and supply chain processes is essential. This means enforcing collaboration between procurement and cyber security teams, mandating security standards in vendor contracts, and utilising automated tools for continuous risk assessments. Safeguarding modern supply chains is no longer a siloed task but a strategic, organisation wide imperative.

Source: [HackerNoon]

Cyber Incident Costs Surge 11% as Budgets Remain Muted

A new report found an 11% jump in the direct costs of a significant cyber incident, now averaging $1.7 million. The burden is even heavier for those without cyber insurance, with costs escalating to $2.7 million per incident. Cyber risks like fraud, third-party breaches, and data theft remain prevalent. Despite these increasing threats, cyber security budgets have grown modestly and are not keeping pace with the increased level of threat. The report also highlights a concerning gap in understanding cyber threats and a lack of internal training, emphasising the critical need for not just financial investment, but also a deeper engagement with cyber security training and awareness within organisations.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

Attacks on Critical Infrastructure are Harbingers of War: Are We Prepared?

The escalating cyber threats against critical infrastructure, like recent attacks on water authorities, highlight an urgent security concern. These attacks, which are often state-sponsored, are not just targeting financial or data assets but are striking at essential services vital to human survival. The tactics used in these attacks, known as Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), are aimed at weakening a nation by disrupting services like power and water, key to both civil stability and military operations. Nations like Russia, China, and Iran employ these strategies for different purposes, ranging from strategic military advantages to ideological victories. The use of ransomware, as seen in the increasing incidents reported by the FBI, is a tool for both financial gain and geopolitical disruption. As we face these multifaceted threats, the need for robust cyber security measures to protect our critical infrastructure has never been more pressing. It is a call to action for nations and organisations alike to fortify their defences against these evolving and serious cyber threats.

Source: [SC Media]

UK Data Centres to be Classed as Critical Infrastructure Under New Gov Proposals

The UK government is considering new regulations aimed at enhancing the security and resilience of data centres. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) recognises the vital role of these data hubs and is examining the adequacy of current safety practices. With the identification of varying levels of security across the sector, the prospect of legislating minimum security standards is on the table. This may include establishing a regulatory body to oversee incident reporting and risk mitigation strategies, particularly for third-party service providers. These measures underscore the government's commitment to safeguarding data centres, which are increasingly integral to the UK's economic vitality and national security. As part of a broader initiative, the sector could be designated as critical national infrastructure, aligning it with international best practices and ensuring comprehensive protection from cyber threats and other risks.

Source: [ITPro]

Data Exfiltration and Extortion is the New Ransomware Threat, as 65% of Organisations Say Ransomware Concerns Impact Risk Management

Cyber criminals are escalating their tactics and becoming more aggressive in their effort to maximise disruption and compel the payment of ransom demands. Earlier this year, the ransomware group ALPHV exploited the new US data breach disclosure rules by filing a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a victim company for not reporting an alleged significant data breach. This marks a strategic evolution from traditional ransomware attacks, where data is encrypted and held hostage, to more nuanced extortion schemes. Such tactics are becoming more sophisticated, with triple extortion attacks threatening not just the target company but also their partners and clients. This shift from encryption to pure extortion requires a fresh understanding of cyber threats and a re-evaluation of defence strategies. It highlights the urgent need for businesses to protect not just their own data but also to consider the security of their entire data supply chain.

Source: [TechCrunch]

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Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Cyber Incident Costs Surge 11% as Budgets Remain Muted - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Three Tech Budget Implementations To Help Optimize Your Resources (forbes.com)

• New Report: 85% Firms Face Cyber Incidents, 11% From Shadow IT - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• 65% of organisations say ransomware concerns impact risk management | Security Magazine

• Healthcare and Finance Suffer Most Cyber Attacks | MSSP Alert

• CFOs are under the gun as the SEC's new 4-day data breach disclosure window goes into effect | Fortune

• SEC vs SolarWinds: A cyber security game changer for CISOs (securitybrief.co.nz)

• 77% of financial organisations detected a cyber attack in the last year | Security Magazine

• Level of cyber security: the new key indicator of a company's performance | TechRadar

• Managing cyber security risk during challenging economic times (techinformed.com)

• Many organisations still lack formal IT security training in 2024 (securitybrief.co.nz)

• The year in cyber security: 6 stories to read from 2023 | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

• After-Incident Reports Turn Breaches Into Security Blueprints (pymnts.com)

• What's the Best Way to Communicate After a Data Breach? (darkreading.com)

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Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

• Why extortion is the new ransomware threat | TechCrunch

• 65% of organisations say ransomware concerns impact risk management | Security Magazine

• FBI: ALPHV ransomware raked in $300 million from over 1,000 victims (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ransomware attacks hit new record in November :: Insurance Day

• Ransomware attacks on the rise in the UK (itsecuritywire.com)

• UK at High Risk of ‘Catastrophic’ Cyber Attack Affecting Critical Infrastructure: Report (insurancejournal.com)

• Ransomware surges, despite aggressive defences | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• BlackCat Strikes Back: Ransomware Gang “Unseizes” Website, Vows No Limits on Targets - Security Week

• A Major Ransomware Takedown Suffers a Strange Setback | WIRED

• Double-Extortion Play Ransomware Strikes 300 Organisations Worldwide (thehackernews.com)

• Ransomware trends and recovery strategies companies should know - Help Net Security

• Ransomware Attacks in November Rise 67% From 2022 (darkreading.com)

• 10 of the biggest ransomware attacks in 2023 | TechTarget

• BianLian, White Rabbit, and Mario Ransomware Gangs Spotted in a Joint Campaign (securityaffairs.com)

• ALPHV Second Most Prominent Ransomware Strain Before Reported Downtime - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• CISA releases Play ransomware guidelines | Security Magazine

• US and Australia Warn of Play Ransomware Threat - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Devices (and ransomware) are everywhere: How endpoint security must adapt | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• Behind the Scenes of Matveev's Ransomware Empire: Tactics and Team (thehackernews.com)

• Ransomware gangs are increasingly turning to remote encryption, and that's a huge problem | TechRadar

• FBI Develops Decryption Tool That Could Tackle Casino Attacks (sbcamericas.com)

Ransomware Victims

• Homebuyers stress as thousands of house purchases frozen by cyber attack - Property Industry Eye

• Ransomware gang behind threats to Fred Hutch cancer patients (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Delta Dental of California data breach exposed info of 7 million people (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Seattle cancer centre confirms cyber attack after ransomware gang threats (therecord.media)

• France International Schools Agency Impacted by Ransomware Hack - Bloomberg

• MOVEit Vulnerability Hits Delta Dental: 7 Million Records Exposed - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Cyber Attack Slams The North Face and Vans Owner, Shares Plunge - The Messenger

• Mr Cooper now says 15M people's data exposed in cyber attack • The Register

• MongoDB shares fall on cyber security incident By Investing.com

• 2.7M medical records exposed in double-extortion ransomware attack | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• Nearly 3 million affected by ransomware attack on medical software firm (therecord.media)

• Title insurance giant First American offline after cyber attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• St Vincent’s Health Australia says data stolen in cyber attack (yahoo.com)

• Kansas City-area hospital transfers patients, reschedules appointments after cyber attack (therecord.media)

• Ransomware cyber attack hits Milton Town School District (databreaches.net)

• The ransomware attack on Westpole is disrupting digital services for Italian public administration (securityaffairs.com)

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Generative AI is making phishing attacks more dangerous | TechTarget

• New DMARC Data Shows 75% Increase in Suspicious Emails Hitting Inboxes (darkreading.com)

• Anatomy of a Phishing Attack: How Hackers Trick You - Techopedia

• Qakbot is back and targets the Hospitality industry (securityaffairs.com)

• SMTP Smuggling Allows Spoofed Emails to Bypass Authentication Protocols - Security Week

• Fake F5 BIG-IP zero-day warning emails push data wipers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New phishing attack steals your Instagram backup codes to bypass 2FA (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cyber espionage group Cloud Atlas targets Russian companies with war-related phishing attacks (therecord.media)

Artificial Intelligence

• Generative AI is making phishing attacks more dangerous | TechTarget

• AI’s efficacy is constrained in cyber security, but limitless in cyber crime - Help Net Security

• 'Unintended harms' of generative AI are national security risk to UK (techmonitor.ai)

• Unequal Risk, Unequal Reward: How Gen AI disproportionately harms countries (ox.ac.uk)

• Anonymous Sudan hacking group pledges to keep targeting OpenAI's ChatGPT (axios.com)

• Security Researchers: ChatGPT Vulnerability Allows Training Data to be Accessed by Telling Chatbot to Endlessly Repeat a Word - CPO Magazine

• AI in Cyber Security: It's All About Being Aware (inforisktoday.com)

• How AI is weaponized for cyber attacks (betanews.com)

• Why 'dark AI' is a top cyber security concern for 2024 | Pension Times

• The cyber security arms race: AI vs. AI | TechRadar

• How AI Is Shaping the Future of Cyber Crime (darkreading.com)

• 4 ways CISOs can manage AI use in the enterprise | CIO

2FA/MFA

• New phishing attack steals your Instagram backup codes to bypass 2FA (bleepingcomputer.com)

Malware

• New KV-Botnet Targeting Cisco, DrayTek, and Fortinet Devices for Stealthy Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Rhadamanthys Malware: Swiss Army Knife of Information Stealers Emerges (thehackernews.com)

• Hackers Exploiting Old MS Excel Vulnerability to Spread Agent Tesla Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Windows and macOS targeted by new Go-based malware | TechRadar

• QNAP VioStor NVR vulnerability actively exploited by malware botnet (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Over 10K downloads amassed by malicious PyPi packages | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• Info stealers and how to protect against them (securityaffairs.com)

• 8220 Gang Exploiting Oracle WebLogic Server Vulnerability to Spread Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Qakbot is back and targets the Hospitality industry (securityaffairs.com)

• Qakbot Sightings Confirm Law Enforcement Takedown Was Only a Setback (darkreading.com)

• Hospitality Industry Faces New Password-Stealing Malware - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Cyber criminals target hotel staff for management credentials • The Register

• BattleRoyal Cluster Signals DarkGate Surge - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Scam 'missed parcel' SMS messages: advice on avoiding malware - NCSC.GOV.UK

• 3 Ways to Use Real-Time Intelligence to Defeat Bots (darkreading.com)

• Microsoft: Hackers target defence firms with new FalseFont malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Hospitality sector subjected to new malware attacks | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

Mobile

• iOS 17.2 update puts an end to Flipper Zero's iPhone shenanigans | ZDNET

• The 5G risk: How to protect your smartphone from emerging security threats - PhoneArena

• Apple rolls out iOS 17.2.1 with bugfixes and minor improvements - Neowin

• What is spyware and what can you do to stay protected? - Amnesty International

• NSO Group May Be On Its Way Out But There’s No Shortage Of Competitors To Take Its Place | Techdirt

• Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules | Ars Technica

Internet of Things – IoT

• IoT security strategy: an arms race for businesses | ITPro

• Porsche To Kill ICE-Powered Macan In Europe Over Cyber Security Laws | Carscoops

• Cyber security and car thefts: how are car makers responding? | CAR Magazine

• Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people | Ars Technica

• Marketing firm admits it listens to conversations to sell targeted ads (searchengineland.com)

Data Breaches/Leaks

• Data of over a million users of the crypto exchange GokuMarket exposed (securityaffairs.com)

• MongoDB says customer data was exposed in a cyber attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Mr Cooper now says 15M people's data exposed in cyber attack • The Register

• Wolverine-developer Insomniac Games sees 1.67TB of secrets leaked in data breach | Ars Technica

• Everything Hackers Just Revealed in Sony Insomniac Games Leak (tech.co)

• Comcast says hackers stole data of close to 36 million Xfinity customers | TechCrunch

• BMW dealer at risk of takeover by cyber criminals - Security Affairs

• Celebrities Found in Unprotected Real Estate Database Exposing 1.5 Billion Records - Security Week

• Data leak exposes users of car-sharing service Blink Mobility (securityaffairs.com)

• Hacked security cam footage from bedrooms, dressing rooms, spas found to be on sale on Telegram group - NotebookCheck.net News

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Ex-Amazon engineer pleads guilty to hacking crypto exchanges (bleepingcomputer.com)

• How Microsoft’s cyber crime unit has evolved to combat increased threats | Ars Technica

• Gang charged with running $80 million "pig butchering" cryptocurrency investment scam (bitdefender.com)

• Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit Goes Deep on How It Disrupts Cyber Crime | WIRED

• German police takes down Kingdom Market cyber crime marketplace (bleepingcomputer.com)

• INTERPOL celebrates huge cyber crime Christmas present (emergingrisks.co.uk)

• Law enforcement Operation HAECHI IV led to the seizure of $300 Million (securityaffairs.com)

• Two arrested as police investigate Birmingham dark web drugs trade - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

• NSA Blocked 10 Billion Connections to Malicious and Suspicious Domains - Security Week

• BattleRoyal Cluster Signals DarkGate Surge - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Intelligence Researchers to Study Computer Code for Clues to Hackers’ Identities - WSJ

• Dark web marketplace Kingdom Market dismantled | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• Lapsus$ teen sentenced to indefinite detention in hospital • The Register

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

• Data of over a million users of the crypto exchange GokuMarket exposed (securityaffairs.com)

• Ex-Amazon engineer pleads guilty to hacking crypto exchanges (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Gang charged with running $80 million "pig butchering" cryptocurrency investment scam (bitdefender.com)

• DeFi’s billion-dollar secret: The insiders responsible for hacks – Cointelegraph Magazine

• Crypto scammers abuse Twitter ‘feature’ to impersonate high-profile accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Crypto drainer steals $59 million from 63k people in Twitter ad push (bleepingcomputer.com)

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Insider threats: why employees are a bigger risk than hackers (raconteur.net)

• Former IT manager pleads guilty to attacking high school network (bleepingcomputer.com)

• DeFi’s billion-dollar secret: The insiders responsible for hacks – Cointelegraph Magazine

Insurance

• Mandatory protections, higher premiums and continued growth -- cyber insurance predictions for 2024 (betanews.com)

• Uninsured firms incur 69% higher cyber incident costs - CIR Magazine

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• What is supply chain risk management (SCRM)? | Definition by TechTarget

• Addressing the Growing Threat of Supply Chain Cyber Attacks | HackerNoon

• Homebuyers stress as thousands of house purchases frozen by cyber attack - Property Industry Eye

• Supply chain emerges as major vector in escalating automotive cyber attacks - Help Net Security

• Adapting to the Post-SolarWinds Era: Supply Chain Security in 2024 (darkreading.com)

Cloud/SaaS

• Most cloud transformations are stuck in the middle - Help Net Security

• IoT security strategy: an arms race for businesses | ITPro

• Millions of Microsoft Accounts Power Lattice of Automated Cyber Attacks (darkreading.com)

• Box cloud storage down amid 'critical' outage (bleepingcomputer.com)

Encryption

• Zscaler ThreatLabz Finds Most Cyber Attacks Hide (itsecuritywire.com)

• 86% of cyber attacks are delivered over encrypted channels - Help Net Security

• SSH protects the world’s most sensitive networks. It just got a lot weaker | Ars Technica

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

• The password attacks of 2023: Lessons learned and next steps (bleepingcomputer.com)

• CISA urges vendors to get rid of default passwords | CyberScoop

• BMW dealer at risk of takeover by cyber criminals - Security Affairs

• Hospitality Industry Faces New Password-Stealing Malware - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Cyber criminals target hotel staff for management credentials • The Register

Social Media

• Social media platform X back up after global outage | Reuters

• Crypto scammers abuse Twitter ‘feature’ to impersonate high-profile accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Crypto drainer steals $59 million from 63k people in Twitter ad push (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New phishing attack steals your Instagram backup codes to bypass 2FA (bleepingcomputer.com)

Malvertising

• Malvertising has been out of control in 2023, and Google needs to do more to stop it | ITPro

Training, Education and Awareness

• Are We Ready to Give Up on Security Awareness Training? (thehackernews.com)

• Many organisations still lack formal IT security training in 2024 (securitybrief.co.nz)

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• CFOs are under the gun as the SEC's new 4-day data breach disclosure window goes into effect | Fortune

• SEC vs. SolarWinds: A cyber security game changer for CISOs (securitybrief.co.nz)

• Porsche To Kill ICE-Powered Macan In Europe Over Cyber Security Laws | Carscoops

• UK data centres to be classed as critical infrastructure under new gov proposals | ITPro

• Clock Starts on SEC Cyber Attack Rules: What CISOs Should Know (informationweek.com)

• SEC disclosure rule for ‘material’ cyber security incidents goes into effect | CyberScoop

• What Do CISOs Have to Do to Meet New SEC Regulations? (darkreading.com)

• EU agrees amendments to Cyber Solidarity Act in bid to create ‘cyber shield’ for member states | ITPro

• Rules targeting financial criminals will require new filings for startups and small businesses – GeekWire

• A quiet cyber security revolution is touching every corner of the economy as US, allies ‘pull all the levers’ to face new threats | Fortune

Models, Frameworks and Standards

• Cyber Security Frameworks: A Guide for MSSPs | MSSP Alert

• SANS Institute Research Shows the Frameworks Organisations Use (darkreading.com)

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

• How cyber security roles are changing and what to look for when hiring | CSO Online

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

• BlackCat Strikes Back: Ransomware Gang “Unseizes” Website, Vows No Limits on Targets - Security Week

• A Major Ransomware Takedown Suffers a Strange Setback | WIRED

• US law enforcement seizes BlackCat ransomware site, distributes decryption key (axios.com)

• Ex-Amazon engineer pleads guilty to hacking crypto exchanges (bleepingcomputer.com)

• How Microsoft’s cyber crime unit has evolved to combat increased threats | Ars Technica

• Gang charged with running $80 million "pig butchering" cryptocurrency investment scam (bitdefender.com)

• Former IT manager pleads guilty to attacking high school network (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit Goes Deep on How It Disrupts Cyber Crime | WIRED

• German police takes down Kingdom Market cyber crime marketplace (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Law enforcement Operation HAECHI IV led to the seizure of $300 Million (securityaffairs.com)

• Two arrested as police investigate Birmingham dark web drugs trade - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

• Interpol op cuffs 3,500 cyber suspects, seizes $300M • The Register

• NSA Blocked 10 Billion Connections to Malicious and Suspicious Domains - Security Week

• Qakbot Sightings Confirm Law Enforcement Takedown Was Only a Setback (darkreading.com)

• Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules | Ars Technica

• Dark web marketplace Kingdom Market dismantled | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• Lapsus$ teen sentenced to indefinite detention in hospital • The Register

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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

• Attacks on critical infrastructure are harbingers of war: Are we prepared? | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

Nation State Actors

China

• China's Cyber Warfare Surges With Hacking Of US Infrastructure (thefederalist.com)

• Espionage from the East: "Russia Is a Storm, China Is Climate Change" - DER SPIEGEL

• US cyber warriors issue a call to arms - Asia Times

• China's Secret War Preps Inside US Utilities (spytalk.co)

• National Grid drops Beijing-backed supplier over UK power network fears (ft.com)

• Chinese Spacecraft Emitting Strong Signal Over North America (futurism.com)

• A top-secret Chinese spy satellite just launched on a supersized rocket | Ars Technica

• China's MIIT Introduces Color-Coded Action Plan for Data Security Incidents (thehackernews.com)

Russia

• Cyber attack on Kyivstar is likely one of highest-impact disruptive in Ukraine since Feb 2022 - British intelligence (interfax.com.ua)

• The UK Defence Intelligence Analyses Massive Cyber Attack Ukraine Suffered | Defence Express (defence-ua.com)

• Ukraine updates: UK says Ukraine suffered severe cyber attack – DW – 12/16/2023

• Espionage from the East: "Russia Is a Storm, China Is Climate Change" - DER SPIEGEL

• US cyber warriors issue a call to arms - Asia Times

• Anonymous Sudan hacking group pledges to keep targeting OpenAI's ChatGPT (axios.com)

• UK and partners form The Tallinn Mechanism for cyber security - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

• Ukraine mobile cyber attack high impact says UK - Emerging Risks Media Ltd

• Russian APT29 Hacked US Biomedical Giant in TeamCity-Linked Breach (hackread.com)

• Cyber espionage group Cloud Atlas targets Russian companies with war-related phishing attacks (therecord.media)

Iran

• Israel-linked hacking group claims it ‘disabled’ gas stations across Iran | World News - Hindustan Times

• Iranian 'Seedworm' Cyber Spies Target African Telcos & ISPs (darkreading.com)

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

• Intellexa and Cytrox: From fixer-upper to Intel Agency-grade spyware (talosintelligence.com)

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Vulnerability Management

• 2023 Cyber Threats: 26,000+ Vulnerabilities, 97 Beyond CISA List - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Majority of 2023's critical cyber attacks stemmed from fewer than 1% of vulnerabilities - SiliconANGLE

• 1 in 4 high-risk CVEs are exploited within 24 hours of going public | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• Will Putting a Dollar Value on Vulnerabilities Help Prioritize Them? (darkreading.com)

• Creating a formula for effective vulnerability prioritization - Help Net Security

• Zoom Unveils Open Source Vulnerability Impact Scoring System - Security Week

• Threat actors still exploiting old unpatched vulnerabilities, says Cisco | IT Business

Vulnerabilities

• 80 percent of Struts 2 downloads include critical flaw • The Register

• ESET fixed a high-severity bug in the Secure Traffic Scanning Feature of several products (securityaffairs.com)

• Fortinet Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products | CISA

• Flaws in pfSense firewall can lead to arbitrary code execution (securityaffairs.com)

• QNAP VioStor NVR vulnerability actively exploited by malware botnet (bleepingcomputer.com)

• MOVEit Vulnerability Hits Delta Dental: 7 Million Records Exposed - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Microsoft discovers critical RCE flaw in Perforce Helix Core Server (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Years-Old, Unpatched GWT Vuln Leaves Apps Open to Server-Side RCE (darkreading.com)

• 8220 Gang Exploiting Oracle WebLogic Server Vulnerability to Spread Malware (thehackernews.com)

• 3CX Urges Customers to Disable Integration Due to Potential Vulnerability - Security Week

• Mozilla Patches Firefox Vulnerability Allowing Remote Code Execution, Sandbox Escape - Security Week

• Researchers uncover major security issue in Microsoft Azure - here's what we know | TechRadar

• Microsoft Outlook Zero-Click Security Flaws Triggered by Sound File (darkreading.com)

• 3CX warns customers to disable SQL database integrations (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Dell Urges Customers to Patch Vulnerabilities in PowerProtect Products - Security Week

• Outlook Plays Attacker Tunes: Vulnerability Chain Leading to Zero-Click RCE - Security Week

• Targeted F5 Vulnerability 'Update' Delivers Wiper to Israeli Victims (darkreading.com)

• Urgent: New Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild - Update ASAP (thehackernews.com)

• Ivanti releases patches for 13 critical Avalanche RCE flaws (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Apple rolls out iOS 17.2.1 with bugfixes and minor improvements - Neowin

• Hackers Exploiting MS Excel Vulnerability to Spread Agent Tesla Malware (thehackernews.com)

• SSH protects the world’s most sensitive networks. It just got a lot weaker | Ars Technica

• Impact of Log4Shell Bug Was Overblown, Say Researchers - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Fake F5 BIG-IP zero-day warning emails push data wipers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New Security Vulnerabilities Uncovered in pfSense Firewall Software - Patch Now (thehackernews.com)

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Tools and Controls

• AI’s efficacy is constrained in cyber security, but limitless in cyber crime - Help Net Security

• More cyber criminals turning to remote desktop protocol attacks | Insurance Times

• Insurer’s UK Honeypots Attacked 17 Million Times Per Day - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• The cyber security arms race: AI vs. AI | TechRadar

• Microsoft unveils new, more secure Windows Protected Print Mode (bleepingcomputer.com)

• 65% of organisations say ransomware concerns impact risk management | Security Magazine

• AI in Cyber Security: It's All About Being Aware (inforisktoday.com)

• Demystifying Open XDR: What It Is, How to Do It, and ROI | Binary Defence

• 5 things you need to know about your EDR | CSO Online

• Can you trust Windows Hello biometric authentication | Kaspersky official blog

• Many organisations still lack formal IT security training in 2024 (securitybrief.co.nz)

• How CISOs can manage multiprovider cyber security portfolios | TechTarget

• Intelligence Researchers to Study Computer Code for Clues to Hackers’ Identities - WSJ

• CISA Releases Microsoft 365 Secure Configuration Baselines and SCuBAGear Tool | CISA

• Are Workstation Security Logs Actually Important? | MSSP Alert

• What's the Best Way to Communicate After a Data Breach? (darkreading.com)

• How Segmentation Can Slow a Cyber Attack - ClearanceJobs

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• Annual Payment Fraud Intelligence Report: 2023 | Recorded Future

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Other News

• The Financial Sector Experiences More Cyber Attacks than Other Verticals, and those Incidents Result in Costlier Outcomes (prnewswire.com)

• 77% of financial organisations detected a cyber attack in the last year | Security Magazine

• Small businesses targeted by cyber criminals for data (securitybrief.co.nz)

• Retailers Are Being Barraged By Cyber Attacks This Holiday Season (forbes.com)

• Complexity leaves energy companies vulnerable to cyber attacks - Verdict

• The MOVEit breach may well have been the biggest cyber attack of the year | TechRadar

• How to bolster security against intellectual property theft (c4isrnet.com)

• In Cyber Security, Some Conventional Wisdom, While Well-Intentioned, Is Off-Base (newsweek.com)

• Navigating The Cyber Security Landscape In 2024 (forbes.com)

• 3 Strategic Insights from Cyber Security Leader Study (trendmicro.com)

• Healthcare sector warned of poor cyber hygiene; CISA doles out remedy advice | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

• The truth behind four small business cyber security myths (themanufacturer.com)

• Conclusion of Crossed Swords: the most exciting offensive cyber operations exercise

• Australia announces cyber security plan after major breaches | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

• National Grid drops Beijing-backed supplier over UK power network fears (ft.com)

• As British Library faces fallout of cyber attack—what can arts bodies do to combat ransomware threats? (theartnewspaper.com)

• NIST Report Spotlights Cyber, Privacy Risks in Genomic Data (inforisktoday.com)

• Zscaler ThreatLabz Finds Most Cyber Attacks Hide (itsecuritywire.com)

• 86% of cyber attacks are delivered over encrypted channels - Help Net Security

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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

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 March 2023

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber threat intelligence 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

Business Email Compromise Attacks Can Take Just Hours

Microsoft’s security intelligence team found that Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are moving rapidly, with some taking mere minutes. Microsoft found the whole process, from signing in using compromised credentials to registering typo squatting domains and hijacking an email thread, took threat actors only a couple of hours. Such a rapid attack leaves minimal time for organisations to identify and take preventative action. This is worrying when considering the cost of BEC is predicted to more than tens of billions.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-business-email-compromise-attacks-can-take-just-hours/

Research Reveals ‘Password’ is Still the Most Common Term used by Hackers to Breach Enterprise Networks

In a report of over 800 million breached passwords, vendor Specops identified some worrying results. Some of the key findings from the report include 88% of passwords used in successful attacks consisting of 12 characters or less and the most common base terms used in passwords involving ‘password’, ‘admin’, ‘welcome’ and ‘p@ssw0rd’. The report found that 83% of the compromised passwords satisfied both the length and complexity requirements of cyber security compliance standards such as NIST, GDPR, HIPAA and Cyber Essentials.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2023/03/08/research-reveals-password-still-the-most-common-term-used-by-hackers-to-breach-enterprise-networks/

Just 10% of Firms Can Resolve Cloud Threats in an Hour

Two-thirds (39%) of global organisations reported a surge in breaches over the past year, with IT complexity increasing and detection and response capabilities worsening, according to Palo Alto Networks. It found that as enterprises move more of their data and workloads to the cloud, they’re finding it increasingly difficult to discover and remediate incidents quickly. Over two-fifths (42%) reported an increase in mean time to remediate, while 90% said they are unable to detect, contain and resolve cyber-threats within an hour. Nearly a third (30%) reported a major increase in intrusion attempts and unplanned downtime. Part of the challenge appears to be the complexity of their cloud security environments – partly caused by tool bloat.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/10-firms-resolve-cloud-threats-hour/

MSPs in the Crosshairs of Ransomware Gangs

Many attacks have heightened attention around third-party risk and the security obligations of MSPs in meeting multiple customers’ IT needs. Attacks such as the ones on RackSpace and LastPass show that some ransomware actors are now intentionally targeting MSPs to access sensitive customer data. It is now believed that some advanced persistent threat (APT) groups could be stepping up their attacks on MSP’s in order to gain sensitive customer data.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/msps-in-the-crosshairs-of-ransomware-gangs/

Stolen Credentials Increasingly Empower the Cyber Crime Underground

Threat Intelligence provider Flashpoint found that last year threat actors exposed or stole 22.62 billion credentials and personal records, which often make their way to underground forums and cyber criminal markets. This follows a significant increase in market activity; just last year Flashpoint recorded 190 new illicit markets emerge and the continual rise in attacks focused on stealing credentials only further empowers cyber crime underground.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3690409/stolen-credentials-increasingly-empower-the-cybercrime-underground.html#tk.rss_news

It’s Time to Assess the Potential Dangers of an Increasingly Connected World

As global conflicts continue, cyber has become the fifth front of warfare. The world is approaching 50 billion connected devices, controlling everything from our traffic lights to our nuclear arsenal and we have already seen large-scale cyber attacks. Adding to this, a multitude of infrastructure runs on services ran by a handful of companies; Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Fortinet control more than 50% of the market for security appliances. As such, an attack on one of these companies could cause a huge ripple effect on their customers.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/it-s-time-to-assess-the-potential-dangers-of-an-increasingly-connected-world-

Mounting Cyber Threats Mean Financial Firms Urgently Need Better Safeguards

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 64% of banks and supervisory authorities do not mandate testing and exercising cyber security and 54% lack dedicated a cyber incident reporting regime. This increases the risk of experiencing a cyber attack. Regularly testing and exercising security will aid any organisation in its cyber resilience.

https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/03/02/mounting-cyber-threats-mean-financial-firms-urgently-need-better-safeguards

Insider Threat: Developers Leaked 10m Credentials Including Passwords in 2022

Security provider GitGuardian found that the rate at which developers leaked critical software secrets jumped by 0.5 to reach 5.5 out of every 1,000 commits to GitHub repositories; overall, this amounted to at least 10 million instances of secrets leaking to a public repository. Generic passwords accounted for the majority of leaked secrets (56%) and more than a third (38%) of leaks involved API keys, random number generator seeds and other sensitive strings. These leaks can have worrying consequences for organisations.

https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/inside-threat-developers-leaked-10m-credentials-passwords-2022

Cyber Threat Detections Surges 55% In 2022

Security Provider Trend Micro has said that it stopped 146 billion cyber threats in 2022, a 55% increase on the previous year and evidence of the increase of attacks ramping up. Trend Micro also found a 242% increase in the number of blocked malicious files and an 86% increase in backdoor malware detections with the latter showing an increase in attackers gaining initial access. Furthermore, the number of critical vulnerabilities in 2022 doubled compared to the previous year. Trend Micro noted that this is all likely due to an ever expanding attack surface of organisations.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberthreat-detections-surge-55/

European Central Bank Tells Banks to Run Cyber Stress Tests after Rise in Hacker Attacks

The European Central Bank (ECB) will ask all major lenders in the Eurozone to detail by next year, how they would respond to and recover from a successful cyber attack. The ECB is in the process of designing a scenario involving a theoretical breach of the financial system’s cyber defences, which will be sent to all of the 111 banks it assesses to see how they would react. The stress test stems from the increasing amount of cyber attacks. If cyber has shown us anything, it’s that anyone can be a target and performing a stress test would help any organisation prepare for the worst.

https://www.ft.com/content/f03d68a4-fdb9-4312-bda3-3157d369a4a6

Employees Are Feeding Sensitive Business Data to ChatGPT

1 in 20 employees have put sensitive corporate data into popular AI tool ChatGPT, raising concerns that this could result in massive leaks of proprietary information. In some cases, this has involved employees cutting and pasting strategic documents and asking ChatGPT to make a PowerPoint.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/employees-feeding-sensitive-business-data-chatgpt-raising-security-fears

Is Ransomware Declining? Not So Fast Experts Say

Security provider CrowdStrike have explained that the perceived decline in ransomware reflects the abilities of threat actors to adapt, splinter and regroup against defensive measures. CrowdStrike expand on this, stating that whilst ransom payments dipped slightly in 2022, there was an uprise in data extortion and ransomware as a service (RaaS).

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/365532201/Is-ransomware-declining-Not-so-fast-experts-say

Preventing Corporate Data Breaches Starts with Remembering that Leaks have Real Victims

The impact a data breach can have on an individual is devastating and ultimately there’s not much an individual can do themselves if the organisation that holds their data isn’t taking the right steps. To best protect themselves and their clients’ data, organisations should look to have appropriate defence in depth controls, including effective asset management, an open security culture, close monitoring of access, utilising strong authentication and maintaining an awareness of the ever changing threat landscape.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/03/07/preventing-corporate-data-breaches/

Faced With Likelihood of Ransomware Attacks, Businesses Still Choosing to Pay Up

In a recent report Proofpoint found that globally 76% of organisations experienced ransomware attempts, with 64% eventually infected. Amongst those that had a cyber insurance policy, 82% of insurers stepped up to pay the ransom either in full or partially. The report found that with the rise in number and sophistication of attacks it is more important than ever for proper security training and awareness in organisations.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/faced-with-likelihood-of-ransomware-attacks-businesses-still-choosing-to-pay-up/

Experts See Growing Need for Cyber Security Workers as One in Six Jobs go Unfilled

A report by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) found that 1 in 6 cyber security jobs are unfulfilled and this is only expected to grow in the coming years. The ICTC stated that “This is not just about education or government funding, but about companies willing to provide hands-on training and experience to the next generation of cyber security experts”.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/article-experts-see-growing-need-for-cybersecurity-workers-as-one-in-six-jobs/

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Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

• Faced with likelihood of ransomware attacks, businesses still choosing to pay up | ZDNET

• MSPs in the Crosshairs of Ransomware Gangs - MSSP Alert

• Is ransomware declining? Not so fast, experts say | TechTarget

• FBI and CISA warn of increasing Royal ransomware attack risks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• City of Oakland Faces Major Data Leak - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Indigo Books Refuses LockBit Ransomware Demand (darkreading.com)

• Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack

• Core Members of DoppelPaymer Ransomware Gang Targeted in Germany and Ukraine (thehackernews.com)

• Ransom House ransomware attack hit Hospital Clinic de Barcelona- - Security Affairs

• Security Patch Management Strengthens Ransomware Defence (trendmicro.com)

• Ransomware's Favorite Target: Critical Infrastructure and Its Industrial Control Systems (darkreading.com)

• Ransomware review: March 2023 (malwarebytes.com)

• Ransomware gang posts video of data stolen from Minneapolis schools (bleepingcomputer.com)

• IceFire ransomware now encrypts both Linux and Windows systems (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Examining Ransomware Payments From a Data-Science Lens (trendmicro.com)

• DND: Black & McDonald reported ransomware attack | CTV News

• Cyble — BlackSnake Ransomware Emerges from Chaos Ransomware's Shadow

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• AI is taking phishing attacks to a whole new level of sophistication - Help Net Security

• Catches of the Month: Phishing Scams for March 2023 - IT Governance UK Blog

• Emotet starts post-break phishing campaign • The Register

BEC – Business Email Compromise

• Microsoft: Business email compromise attacks can take just hours (bleepingcomputer.com)

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

• Experts Warn of "SMS Pumping" Fraud Epidemic - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Vishing attacks increasing, but AI's role still unclear | TechTarget

• Defeating the Deepfake Danger - SecurityWeek

• Does Your Help Desk Know Who's Calling? (thehackernews.com)

2FA/MFA

• NCSC: Twitter Users Should Find MFA Alternatives - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Malware

• DrayTek VPN routers hacked with new malware to steal data, evade detection (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Malicious PyPI package signals direction of cyber crime • The Register

• How to prevent Microsoft OneNote files from infecting Windows with malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Snake Keylogger Malware Removal Guide (makeuseof.com)

• Stealthy UEFI malware bypassing Secure Boot enabled by unpatchable Windows flaw | Ars Technica

• New malware infects business routers for data theft, surveillance (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Old Windows ‘Mock Folders’ UAC bypass used to drop malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Emotet malware attacks return after three-month break (bleepingcomputer.com)

• AI-Powered 'BlackMamba' Keylogging Attack Evades Modern EDR Security (darkreading.com)

• New ScrubCrypt Crypter Used in Cryptojacking Attacks Targeting Oracle WebLogic (thehackernews.com)

• Hackers Exploiting Remote Desktop Software Flaws to Deploy PlugX Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Custom Chinese Malware Found on SonicWall Appliance - SecurityWeek

• Remcos Trojan Returns to Most Wanted Malware List After Ukraine Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• FBI and international cops catch a NetWire RAT • The Register

Mobile

• Transparent Tribe Hackers Distribute CapraRAT via Trojanized Messaging Apps (thehackernews.com)

• Officials Targeted with Romance Scams and Android Trojan - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Google One expands security features to all plans with dark web report, VPN access - Help Net Security

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

• Akamai mitigated a record-breaking DDoS that peaked 900Gbps- Security Affairs

Internet of Things – IoT

• TPM 2.0 Library Vulnerabilities May Affect Billions of IoT Devices - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Chinese Hikvision cameras ‘that pose security threat’ used on King’s Sandringham estate (thetimes.co.uk)

Data Breaches/Leaks

• Preventing corporate data breaches starts with remembering that leaks have real victims - Help Net Security

• The LastPass Hack Somehow Gets Worse | WIRED

• LastPass Hack: Engineer's Failure to Update Plex Software Led to Massive Data Breach (thehackernews.com)

• Credential Stuffing attack on Chick-fil-A impacted +71K users- Security Affairs

• Popular fintech apps expose valuable, exploitable secrets - Help Net Security

• PayPal Sued Over Data Breach that Impacted 35,000 users (hackread.com)

• Acer Data Breach? Hacker Claims to Sell 160GB Trove of Stolen Data (hackread.com)

• Brazilian Conglomerate Suffers 3TB Data Breach: Report - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Data breach exposed millions of Verizon customers' account info (androidpolice.com)

• Congress’ Social Security Numbers Leaked in DC Health Link Hack (gizmodo.com)

• Data protection vendor Acronis admits to data leak • The Register

• AT&T confirms 9m wireless accounts exposed by third part • The Register

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• At Least 30% of "Cyber-Criminals" Are Women: Report - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Cyber crime site shows off with a free leak of 2 million stolen card numbers - The Record from Recorded Future News

• BidenCash leaks 2.1M stolen credit/debit cards- Security Affairs

• Malicious PyPI package signals direction of cyber crime • The Register

• Where are the women in cyber security? • The Register

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

• FTX Confirms $9 Billion in Customer Funds Vanished (gizmodo.com)

• Russia-Ukraine war: How both sides of the conflict have used crypto to win (cointelegraph.com)

• New ScrubCrypt Crypter Used in Cryptojacking Attacks Targeting Oracle WebLogic (thehackernews.com)

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• 6 Ways To Go Beyond Awareness And Foster A Real Culture Of Cyber security (forbes.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Scams Security Pros Almost Fell For (darkreading.com)

• FTX Confirms $9 Billion in Customer Funds Vanished (gizmodo.com)

• Experts Warn of "SMS Pumping" Fraud Epidemic - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Scammers using voice-cloning A.I. to mimic relatives | Fortune

• Alleged security breach leaves millions of dollars missing from Flutterwave accounts | TechCrunch

• UK Government Plans Skills Boost for Public Sector Fraud Fight - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Officials Targeted with Romance Scams and Android Trojan - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• New Rise In ChatGPT Scams Reported By Fraudsters (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

Deepfakes

• From Disinformation to Deep Fakes: How Threat Actors Manipulate Reality (thehackernews.com)

• Defeating the Deepfake Danger - SecurityWeek

Insurance

• Talking Cyber Insurance With Munich Re - SecurityWeek

Dark Web

• Cyber crime site shows off with a free leak of 2 million stolen card numbers - The Record from Recorded Future News

• Google One expands security features to all plans with dark web report, VPN access - Help Net Security

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• Snap CISO talks risky supply chain security business • The Register

• SolarWinds IR lead: supply-chain attacks 'getting bigger' • The Register

• AT&T confirms 9m wireless accounts exposed by third part • The Register

Software Supply Chain

• SBOMs become a security staple for the software supply chain • The Register

Cloud/SaaS

• Just 10% of Firms Can Resolve Cloud Threats in an Hour - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Experts Reveal Google Cloud Platform's Blind Spot for Data Exfiltration Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Hackers are quickly learning how to target cloud systems (axios.com)

• Understanding the Shared Responsibility Model, Critical Step to Ensure Cloud Security - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Attack Surface Management

• 5 Reasons You Should Care About Unmanaged Assets (darkreading.com)

Asset Management

• 5 Reasons You Should Care About Unmanaged Assets (darkreading.com)

Encryption

• New TPM 2.0 flaws could let hackers steal cryptographic keys (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New Steganography Breakthrough Enables “Perfectly Secure” Digital Communications (scitechdaily.com)

API

• API Security for UK companies - IT Security Guru

• Attackers exploit APIs faster than ever before - Help Net Security

Open Source

• IceFire ransomware now encrypts both Linux and Windows systems (bleepingcomputer.com)

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

• Research Reveals 'Password' Still the Most Common Term Used by Hackers to Breach Enterprise Networks - IT Security Guru

• Stolen credentials increasingly empower the cyber crime underground | CSO Online

• The LastPass Hack Somehow Gets Worse | WIRED

• Credential Stuffing attack on Chick-fil-A impacted +71K users- Security Affairs

• The Role of Verifiable Credentials In Preventing Account Compromise (darkreading.com)

• Securing ways to share workplace passwords • The Register

• Young government workers show poor password management habits - Help Net Security

Social Media

• NCSC: Twitter Users Should Find MFA Alternatives - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• TikTok unveils new European data security regime | Reuters

Training, Education and Awareness

• 6 Ways To Go Beyond Awareness And Foster A Real Culture Of Cyber security (forbes.com)

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• Biden Administration's Cyber security Strategy Takes Aim at Hackers (gizmodo.com)

• Government Claims New UK GDPR Will Save Firms Billions - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Inadequate patches and advisories increase cyber risk - Help Net Security

• Why do Businesses Need to Focus More on Cyber security (hackread.com)

• Flashpoint: Threat vectors converging, increasing damage | TechTarget

• How to achieve and shore up cyber resilience in a recession - Help Net Security

• The cyber security landscape in the era of economic instability – Help Net Security

Models, Frameworks and Standards

• Open letter demands OWASP overhaul, warns of mass project exodus | CSO Online

• PCI Compliance Requirements Guide (trendmicro.com)

• NIST Retooling Cyber security Framework to Reflect Changing Cyber scape – MSSP Alert

Data Protection

• Government Claims New UK GDPR Will Save Firms Billions – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

• Experts see growing need for cyber security workers as one in six jobs go unfilled – The Globe and Mail

• How to Jump-Start Your Cyber security Career (darkreading.com)

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

• Core Members of DoppelPaymer Ransomware Gang Targeted in Germany and Ukraine (thehackernews.com)

• FBI and international cops catch a NetWire RAT • The Register

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

• Secret Service and ICE break the law with fake phone towers • The Register

• Thought you'd opted out of online tracking? Think again • The Register

Artificial Intelligence

• AI is taking phishing attacks to a whole new level of sophistication - Help Net Security

• Employees Are Feeding Sensitive Business Data to ChatGPT (darkreading.com)

• You can poison AI datasets for just $60, a new study shows (fastcompany.com)

• Microsoft and MITRE developed a tool to prepare security teams for attacks on ML systems - Help Net Security

• Thousands scammed by AI voices mimicking loved ones in emergencies | Ars Technica

• Vishing attacks increasing, but AI's role still unclear | TechTarget

• AI-Powered 'BlackMamba' Keylogging Attack Evades Modern EDR Security (darkreading.com)

• Criminals will use ChatGPT to unleash wave of fraud, warns Darktrace (telegraph.co.uk)

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

• From Disinformation to Deep Fakes: How Threat Actors Manipulate Reality (thehackernews.com)

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

• What can security teams learn from a year of cyber warfare? | Computer Weekly

• New Backdoor MQsTTang Attributed to Mustang Panda Group - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Pegasus spyware used to spy on a Polish mayor- Security Affairs

• Russia-Ukraine war: How both sides of the conflict have used crypto to win (cointelegraph.com)

• Sharp Panda targets government entities in Southeast Asia- Security Affairs

• Russia’s Cyber Tactics in Ukraine Shift to Focus on Espionage - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Managed Service Provider Identifies Potential Chinese Spy Ring - MSSP Alert

• Chinese cyber spies target unpatched SonicWall gear • The Register

• What is Cyberwarfare? | Definition from TechTarget

Nation State Actors

• What can security teams learn from a year of cyber warfare? | Computer Weekly

• New Backdoor MQsTTang Attributed to Mustang Panda Group - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Russia Bans Messengers, Including WhatsApp, Telegram, And More (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Russia-Ukraine war: How both sides of the conflict have used crypto to win (cointelegraph.com)

• Chinese Hikvision cameras ‘that pose security threat’ used on King’s Sandringham estate (thetimes.co.uk)

• China-aligned APT is exploring new technology stacks for malicious tools - Help Net Security

• Sharp Panda targets government entities in Southeast Asia- Security Affairs

• Lazarus Group Exploits Zero-Day Vulnerability to Hack South Korean Financial Entity (thehackernews.com)

• Russia’s Cyber Tactics in Ukraine Shift to Focus on Espionage - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Managed Service Provider Identifies Potential Chinese Spy Ring - MSSP Alert

• Chinese firm got Covid contract despite trying to hack NHS data, minister says | Politics | The Guardian

• Chinese cyber spies target unpatched SonicWall gear • The Register

• TikTok unveils new European data security regime | Reuters

• Lazarus group infiltrated South Korean finance firm twice last year | CSO Online

• Remcos Trojan Returns to Most Wanted Malware List After Ukraine Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• New Chinese regulatory body expected to streamline data governance rules | CSO Online

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Vulnerability Management

• Inadequate patches and advisories increase cyber risk - Help Net Security

• Build Cyber Resiliency With These Security Threat-Mitigation Considerations

• Zero Day Threat Protection for Your Network (trendmicro.com)

• 557 CVEs Added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog in 2022 - SecurityWeek

• Machine Learning Improves Prediction of Exploited Vulnerabilities (darkreading.com)

• Security Patch Management Strengthens Ransomware Defense (trendmicro.com)

• VulnCheck: CISA's KEV missing 42 vulnerabilities from 2022 | TechTarget

Vulnerabilities

• TPM 2.0 Library Vulnerabilities May Affect Billions of IoT Devices - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Researchers discover 'kill switch' in Starlink terminals - Security - iTnews

• PoC exploit for recently patched Microsoft Word RCE is public (CVE-2023-21716) - Help Net Security

• CISA's KEV Catalog Updated with 3 New Flaws Threatening IT Management Systems (thehackernews.com)

• Exploitation of Critical Vulnerability in End-of-Life VMware Product Ongoing - SecurityWeek

• Fortinet warns of new critical unauthenticated RCE vulnerability (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Information Disclosure Vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager affecting multiple companies… | by Fat Selimi | Feb, 2023 | InfoSec Write-ups (infosecwriteups.com)

• Chinese cyber spies target unpatched SonicWall gear • The Register

• Chrome 111 Patches 40 Vulnerabilities - SecurityWeek

• Bitwarden flaw can let hackers steal passwords using iframes (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Veeam warns to install patches to fix a bug in Backup & Replication- Security Affairs

• Hackers Exploiting Remote Desktop Software Flaws to Deploy PlugX Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Vulnerability Exposes Cisco Enterprise Routers to Disruptive Attacks - SecurityWeek

• Jenkins Server Vulnerabilities Chained for Remote Code Execution  - SecurityWeek

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Tools and Controls

• The LastPass Hack Somehow Gets Worse | WIRED

• 3 Ways Security Teams Can Use IP Data Context (darkreading.com)

• Two-Thirds of European Firms Have Started Zero Trust - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• What is zero trust? A model for more effective security | CSO Online

• Too Many SOAR Vendors are Failing MSSPs - MSSP Alert

• Why enterprise SecOps strategies must include XDR and MDR | TechTarget

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Other News

• Biden Administration's Cyber security Strategy Takes Aim at Hackers (gizmodo.com)

• Tracking device technology: A double-edged sword for CISOs | CSO Online

• From Disinformation to Deep Fakes: How Threat Actors Manipulate Reality (thehackernews.com)

• What CISOs need to understand about document signing - Help Net Security

• Thousands of websites hacked as part of redirection campaign- Security Affairs

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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

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Cyber Alert 07 March 2023 – ACTION REQUIRED: New Hiatus Hacking Campaign Targets DrayTek Routers to Spy on Businesses

Executive Summary

An ongoing hacking campaign known as “Hiatus” is targeting DrayTek Vigour router models 2960 and 3900 to monitor and steal data from businesses.

What’s the risk to my business?

If exploited successfully, the attacker is able to remotely execute commands on the router, and monitor and control traffic that passes through the router including file-transfer and email communications.

Technical Summary:

Research by Black Lotus Labs has found the campaign involves following:

• A Bash script to deploy two executables to the targetdevice, post-exploitation. These are:

  • HIATUS Remote Access Trojan

  • A variant of ‘tcpdump’ that enables packet capture

Once this script has been executed the ‘HiatusRAT’ and ‘tcpdump’ variant are downloaded to a directory created by the script located at ‘/database/.updata’ and are then executed. The malware will listen on TCP port 8816 and if this port is already in use, the process on that port is terminated  so that the malware can use it instead. Once the malware has been sucessfully enabled on this port, a second process collects information about the victim device and sends it to a Command and Control (C2) server operated by the attacker (104.250.58.192); an additional C2 server (46.8.113.227) is also used by the attacker to receive information captured by the packet-capture tool . The packet capture tool observes ports associated with mail server and FTP connections, this include TCP ports 21, 25, 110, 143.

What can I do?

It is not currently known how the DrayTek routers have been initially compromised and Draytek have not yet released a security update to resolve any associated known vulnerability. The following actions can be taken to help mitigate and identify if a device has been impacted:

• Prevent outbound network traffic on TCP port 8816, to disable the malware’s outbound communication.

• Block network traffic to or from the following IP addresses: 104.250.58.192 and 46.8.113.227

• Check the following location on vulnerable devices for any files in that location, as this would be an indicator of compromise (IoC): ‘database’ and ‘/database/.updata’

• Configure continuous security monitoring to detect anomalous activity that may be indicative of a compromise.

Further indicators of compromise can be found here: https://github.com/blacklotuslabs/IOCs/blob/main/Hiatus_IoCs.txt

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

#threatadvisory #threatintelligence #cybersecurity

A link to the report from Black Lotus Labs can be found here: https://blog.lumen.com/new-hiatusrat-router-malware-covertly-spies-on-victims/?utm_source=press+release&utm_medium=referral

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 August 2022

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

• Average Cost of Data Breaches Hits Record High of $4.35 Million: IBM

The global average cost of data breaches reached an all-time high of $4.35 million in 2022 compared with $4.24 million in 2021, according to a new IBM Security report. About 60% of the breached organisations raised product and services prices due to the breaches.

The annual report, conducted by Ponemon Institute and analysed and sponsored by IBM Security, is based on the analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by 550 organisations globally between March 2021 and March 2022.

According to the report, about 83% of the organisations have experienced more than one breach in their lifetime, with nearly half of the costs reported to be incurred more than a year after the breach.

The report revealed that ransomware and destructive attacks represented 28% of breaches among the critical infrastructure organisations studied, indicating that threat actors are specifically targeting the sector to disrupt global supply chains. The critical infrastructure sector includes financial services, industrial, transportation, and healthcare companies.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3668655/average-cost-of-data-breaches-hits-record-high-of-435-million-ibm.html#tk.rss_news

• Researchers Warns of Large-Scale Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) Attacks Targeting Enterprise Users

A new, large-scale phishing campaign has been observed using adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) techniques to get around security protections and compromise enterprise email accounts.

It uses a technique capable of bypassing multi-factor authentication. The campaign is specifically designed to reach end users in enterprises that use Microsoft's email services.

Prominent targets include fintech, lending, insurance, energy, manufacturing, and federal credit union verticals located in the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

This is not the first time such a phishing attack has come to light. Last month, Microsoft disclosed that over 10,000 organisations had been targeted since September 2021 by means of AitM techniques to breach accounts secured with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

The ongoing campaign, effective June 2022, commences with an invoice-themed email sent to targets containing an HTML attachment, which includes a phishing URL embedded within it.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/08/researchers-warns-of-large-scale-aitm.html

• UK NHS Suffers Outage After Cyber Attack on Managed Service Provider

The UK National Health Service (NHS) 111 emergency services were affected by a significant and ongoing outage triggered by a cyber attack that hit the systems of British managed service provider (MSP) Advanced.

Advanced's Adastra client patient management solution, which is used by 85% of NHS 111 services, was hit by a major outage together with several other services provided by the MSP, according to a status page.

"There was a major outage of a computer system that is used to refer patients from NHS 111 Wales to out-of-hours GP providers," the Welsh Ambulance Services said. "This system is used by Local Health Boards to coordinate these services for patients. The ongoing outage is significant and has been far-reaching, impacting each of the four nations in the UK."

The UK public was advised to access the NHS 111 emergency services using the online platform until the incident is resolved.

While no details were provided regarding the nature of the cyber attack, based on the wording, it is likely that this was a ransomware or data extortion attack.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/uk-nhs-suffers-outage-after-cyberattack-on-managed-service-provider/

• A Third of Organisations Experience a Ransomware Attack Once a Week

Ransomware attacks show no sign of slowing. According to new research published by Menlo Security, a third of organisations experience a ransomware attack at least once a week, with one in 10 experiencing them more than once a day.

The research, conducted among 500+ IT security decision makers at US and UK organisations with more than 1,000 employees, highlights the impact this is having on security professionals’ own wellbeing. When asked what keeps them awake at night, 41% of respondents say they worry about ransomware attacks evolving beyond their team’s knowledge and skillset, while 39% worry about them evolving beyond their company’s security capabilities.

Their biggest concern, however, is the risk of employees ignoring corporate security advice and clicking on links or attachments containing malware (46%). Respondents worry more about this than they do their own job security, with just a quarter (26%) of respondents worried about losing their job.

According to the report, around half of organisations (61% US and 44% UK) have been the victim of a successful ransomware attack in the last 18 months, with customers and prospects the most likely entry point for an attack.

Partners/suppliers and employees/contractors are also seen as serious security risks, although one in 10 admit they are unable to identify how the attacks got in. The top three ransomware attack vectors are email (54%), web browsers via a desktop or laptop (49%) and mobile devices (39%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/04/organizations-experience-ransomware-attack/

• Ransomware Products and Services Ads on Dark Web Show Clues to Danger

Why is ransomware’s destructive potential so daunting? Some clues are in the “for sale” ads. In an examination of some 35 million dark web URLs, a provider of machine identity management and a forensic specialist found some 475 web pages peddling sophisticated ransomware products and services with a number of high profile crews hawking ransomware-as-a-service.

The work is a joint effort between the Salt Lake City-based Venafi and Forensic Pathways, which took place between November 2021 and March 2022. Researchers used Forensic’s Dark Search Engine to carry out the investigation.

Here are some of the research findings:

• 87% of the ransomware found on the dark web has been delivered via malicious macros to infect targeted systems.

• 30 different “brands” of ransomware were identified within marketplace listings and forum discussions.

• Many strains of ransomware being sold — such as Babuk, GoldenEye, Darkside/BlackCat, Egregor, HiddenTear and WannaCry — have been successfully used in high-profile attacks.

• Ransomware strains used in high-profile attacks command a higher price for associated services. For example, the most expensive listing was $1,262 for a customised version of Darkside ransomware, which was used in the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack.

• Source code listings for well-known ransomware generally command higher price points. For example, Babuk source code is listed for $950 and Paradise source code is selling for $593.

Ransomware Sold for as Little as $1: In addition to a variety of ransomware at various price points, a wide range of services and tools that help make it easier for attackers with minimal technical skills to launch ransomware attacks are for sale on the dark web, Venafi said. Services with the greatest number of listings include those offering source code, build services, custom development services and ransomware packages that include step-by-step tutorials.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-breaches-and-attacks/ransomware/ransomware-products-services-ads-on-dark-web-show-clues-to-danger/

• Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: How Malware Tricks Users and Antivirus

One of the primary methods used by malware distributors to infect devices is by deceiving people into downloading and running malicious files, and to achieve this deception, malware authors are using a variety of tricks.

Some of these tricks include masquerading malware executables as legitimate applications, signing them with valid certificates, or compromising trustworthy sites to use them as distribution points.

According to VirusTotal, a security platform for scanning uploaded files for malware, some of these tricks are happening on a much larger scale than initially thought.

The platform has compiled a report presenting stats from January 2021 until July 2022, based on the submission of two million files daily, illustrating trends in how malware is distributed.

• Abusing legitimate domains: Distributing malware through legitimate, popular, and high-ranking websites allows threat actors to evade IP-based blocklists, enjoy high availability, and provide a greater level of trust.

• Using stolen code-signing certificates: Signing malware samples with valid certificates stolen from companies is a reliable way to evade AV detection and security warnings on the host. Of all the malicious samples uploaded to VirusTotal between January 2021 and April 2022, over a million were signed, and 87% used a valid certificate.

• Disguised as popular software: Masquerading a malware executable as a legitimate, popular application has seen an upward trend in 2022. Victims download these files thinking they’re getting the applications they need, but upon running the installers, they infect their systems with malware. The most mimicked applications are Skype, Adobe Acrobat, VLC, and 7zip.

• Lacing legitimate installers - Finally, there’s the trick of hiding malware inside legitimate application installers and running the infection process in the background while the real apps execute in the foreground. Based on VirusTotal stats, this practice also appears to be on the rise this year, using Google Chrome, Malwarebytes, Windows Updates, Zoom, Brave, Firefox, ProtonVPN, and Telegram as lures.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/wolf-in-sheep-s-clothing-how-malware-tricks-users-and-antivirus/

• Microsoft Accounts Targeted with New MFA-Bypassing Phishing Kit

A new large-scale phishing campaign targeting credentials for Microsoft email services use a custom proxy-based phishing kit to bypass multi-factor authentication.

Researchers believe the campaign's goal is to breach corporate accounts to conduct BEC (business email compromise) attacks, diverting payments to bank accounts under their control using falsified documents.

The phishing campaign's targets include fin-tech, lending, accounting, insurance, and Federal Credit Union organisations in the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

The campaign was discovered by Zscaler's ThreatLabz researchers, who report that the operation is still ongoing, and the phishing actors register new phishing domains almost daily.

Starting in June 2022, Zscaler's analysts noticed a spike in sophisticated phishing attempts against specific sectors and users of Microsoft email services.

Some of the newly registered domains used in the campaign are typo-squatted versions of legitimate domains.

Notably, many phishing emails originated from the accounts of executives working in these organisations, whom the threat actors most likely compromised earlier.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-accounts-targeted-with-new-mfa-bypassing-phishing-kit/

• Cyber Attack Prevention Is Cost-Effective, So Why Aren’t Businesses Investing to Protect?

Cyber attacks like ransomware, BEC scams and data breaches are some of the key issues businesses are facing today, but despite the number of high-profile incidents, many boardrooms are reluctant to free up budget to invest in the cyber security measures necessary to avoid becoming the next victim.

In a Help Net Security interview, Former Pentagon Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Reiber, VP Cyber security Strategy and Policy, AttackIQ, discusses how now, more than ever, companies need to protect themselves from cyber threat actors. He offers insight for CISOs, from talking to the Board to proper budget allocation.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/01/cyberattack-prevention-investing/

• Securing Your Move to the Hybrid Cloud

The combination of private and public cloud infrastructure, which most organisations are already using, poses unique security challenges. There are many reasons why organisations adopt the public cloud, from enabling rapid growth without the burden of capacity planning to leveraging flexibility and agility in delivering customer-centric services. However, this use can leave companies open to threats.

Since regulatory requirements or other preferences dictate that certain applications remain on private (on-prem) infrastructure, many organisations choose to maintain a mix of private and public infrastructure. Additionally, organisations typically use multiple cloud providers simultaneously or preserve the option to move between providers. However, this hybrid approach presents unique and diverse security challenges. Different cloud providers and private cloud platforms may offer similar capabilities but different ways of implementing security controls, along with disparate management tools.

The question then becomes: How can an organisation maintain consistent governance, policy enforcement and controls across different clouds? And how can it ensure that it maintains its security posture when moving between them? Fortunately, there are steps professionals can take to ensure that applications are continuously secure, starting from the early stages of development and extending throughout the lifecycle.

https://threatpost.com/secure-move-cloud/180335/

• Lessons from the Russian Cyber Warfare Attacks

Cyber warfare tactics may not involve tanks and bombs, but they often go hand-in-hand with real combat.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a prime example. Before Russian troops crossed the border, Russian hackers had already taken down Ukrainian government websites. And after the conflict started, the hacktivist group Anonymous turned the tables by hacking Russian media to shut down propaganda about the war.

In these unprecedented times of targeted attacks against governments and financial institutions, every organisation should be on heightened alert about protecting their critical infrastructure and digital attack surface.

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a backdrop, two Trend Micro security experts recently discussed cyber warfare techniques and how they’re an important reminder for every business to proactively manage cyber risk.

https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/ciso/22/h/russian-cyber-warfare-attacks.html

• Four Sneaky Attacker Evasion Techniques You Should Know About

Remember those portrayals of hackers in the 80s and 90s where you just knew when you got pwned? A blue screen of death, a scary message, a back-and-forth text exchange with a hacker—if you got pwned in a movie in the 80s and 90s, you knew it right off the bat.

What a shame that today’s hackers have learned to be quiet when infiltrating an environment. Sure, “loud” attacks like ransomware still exist, but threat actors have learned that if they keep themselves hidden, they can usually do far more damage. For hackers, a little stealth can go a long way. Some attack tactics are inherently quiet, making them arguably more dangerous as they can be harder to detect. Here are four of these attack tactics you should know about.

1. Trusted Application Abuse: Attackers know that many people have applications that they inherently trust, making those trusted applications the perfect launchpad for cyber attacks. Threat actors know that defenders and the tools they use are often on the hunt for new malware presenting itself in environments. What isn’t so easy to detect is when the malware masquerades under legitimate applications.

2. Trusted Infrastructure Abuse: Much like trusted application abuse, trusted infrastructure abuse is the act of using legitimate, publicly hosted services and toolsets (such as Dropbox or Google Drive) as part of the attack infrastructure. Threat actors know that people tend to trust Dropbox and Google Drive. As a result, this makes these tools a prime means for threat actors to carry out malicious activity. Threat actors often find trusted infrastructure abuse easy because these services aren’t usually blocked at an enterprise’s gateway. In turn, outbound communications can hide in plain sight.

3. Obfuscation: Although cyber security has more than its fair share of tedious acronyms, the good news is that many terms can be broken down by their generic dictionary definitions. According to dictionary.com, this is what obfuscate means: “To make something unclear, obscure or difficult to understand.” And that’s exactly what it means in cyber security: finding ways to conceal malicious behaviour. In turn, this makes it more difficult for analysts and the tools they use to flag suspicious or malicious activity.

4. Persistence: Imagine writing up documentation using your computer, something you may well do in your role. You’ve spent a ton of time doing the research required, finding the right sources and compiling all your information into a document. Now, imagine not hitting save on that document and losing it as soon as you reboot your computer. Sound like a nightmare—or perhaps a real anxiety-inducing experience you’ve been through before? Threat actors agree. And that’s why they establish persistence. They don’t want all of their hard work to get into your systems in the first place to be in vain just because you restart your computer. They establish persistence to make sure they can still hang around even after you reboot.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-guests/four-sneaky-attacker-evasion-techniques-you-should-know-about/

• Zero-Day Defence: Tips for Defusing the Threat

Because they leave so little time to patch and defuse, zero-day threats require a proactive, multi-layered approach based on zero trust.

The recent Atlassian Confluence remote code execution bug is just the latest example of zero-day threats targeting critical vulnerabilities within major infrastructure providers. The specific threat, an Object-Graph Navigation Language (OGNL) injection, has been around for years but took on new significance given the scope of the Atlassian exploit. And OGNL attacks are on the rise.

Once bad actors find such a vulnerability, proof-of-concept exploits start knocking at the door, seeking unauthenticated access to create new admin accounts, execute remote commands, and take over servers. In the Atlassian case, Akamai's threat research team identified that the number of unique IP addresses attempting these exploits grew to more than 200 within just 24 hours.

Defending against these exploits becomes a race against time worthy of a 007 movie. The clock is ticking and you don't have much time to implement a patch and "defuse" the threat before it's too late. But first you need to know that an exploit is underway. That requires a proactive, multi-layered approach to online security based on zero trust.

What do these layers look like? There are a number of different practices that security teams — and their third-party Web application and infrastructure partners — should be aware of.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/zero-day-defense-tips-for-defusing-the-threat

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Threats

Ransomware

• Reported ransomware attacks are just the tip of the iceberg. That's a problem for everyone | ZDNet

• Initial Access Brokers - Key to Rise In Ransomware Attacks (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Ransomware gangs are hitting roadblocks, but aren't stopping (yet) - Help Net Security

• SonicWall: Ransomware Global Cyber Attack Volume Shrinks, Still Exceeds Totals for 2017-2019 - MSSP Alert

• 87% of the ransomware found on the dark web has been delivered via malicious macros - Help Net Security

• LockBit Ransomware Abuses Windows Defender for Payload Loading | SecurityWeek.Com

• German Chambers of Industry and Commerce hit by 'massive' cyber attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Brand-New HavanaCrypt Ransomware Poses as Google Software Update App Uses Microsoft Hosting Service IP Address as C&C Server (trendmicro.com)

• Ransomware Task Force releases SMB blueprint for defence and mitigation (scmagazine.com)

• Prepare for ransomware before you're hit • The Register

• German semiconductor giant Semikron says hackers encrypted its network | TechCrunch

• Ransomware Hit on European Pipeline & Energy Supplier Encevo Linked to BlackCat (darkreading.com)

• Luxembourg Energy Company Hit by Ransomware | SecurityWeek.Com

• Spanish research agency still recovering after ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Countdown Clock Puts Pressure on Phishing Targets - Infosecurity Magazine

• The most impersonated brand in phishing attacks? Microsoft - Help Net Security

• Open Redirect Flaw Snags Amex, Snapchat User Data | Threatpost

• American Express, Snapchat Open-Redirect Vulnerabilities Exploited in Phishing Scheme (darkreading.com)

• A new malware threat is spying on users' Gmail inbox — do this before you're next | Laptop Mag

• Massive New Phishing Campaign Targets Microsoft Email Service Users (darkreading.com)

• North Korean Hackers Use Browser Extension to Spy on Gmail and AOL Accounts - Infosecurity Magazine

Other Social Engineering; SMishing, Vishing, etc

• US FCC warns of the rise of smishing attacks - Security Affairs

Malware

• VirusTotal Reveals Most Impersonated Software in Malware Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Gootkit Loader Resurfaces with Updated Tactic to Compromise Targeted Computers (thehackernews.com)

• Woody RAT: A new feature-rich malware spotted in the wild | Malwarebytes Labs

• VirusTotal: Threat Actors Mimic Legitimate Apps, Use Stolen Certs to Spread Malware (darkreading.com)

• New IoT RapperBot Malware Targeting Linux Servers via SSH Brute-Forcing Attack (thehackernews.com)

• New Linux malware brute-forces SSH servers to breach networks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Credential Stealer Malware Raccoon Updated to Obtain Passwords More Efficiently - Infosecurity Magazine

• Attackers cause Discord discord with malicious npm packages • The Register

• Gootkit AaaS malware is still active and uses updated tactics - Security Affairs

Mobile

• Facebook finds new Android malware used by APT hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Google Patches Critical Android Bluetooth Flaw in August Security Bulletin - Infosecurity Magazine

• Banking trojan finds new routes to accounts by infiltrating Google Play Store (scmagazine.com)

Internet of Things – IoT

• A Digital Home Has Many Open Doors (darkreading.com)

• All the Data Amazon's Ring Cameras Collect About You | WIRED

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Thousands of hackers flock to 'Dark Utilities' C2-as-a-Service (bleepingcomputer.com)

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

• Phishing campaign targets Coinbase wallet holders to steal cryptocurrency in real-time - Help Net Security

• Nearly $200 Million Stolen from Cryptocurrency Bridge Nomad | SecurityWeek.Com

• Crypto firm that promised security loses $200 million in 'frenzied free-for-all' hack | PC Gamer

• Nomad to crooks: Keep 10% as a bounty, return the rest • The Register

• Cyber attackers Drain Nearly $6M From Solana Crypto Wallets (darkreading.com)

• Man robbed of $800,000 in cryptocurrency sues Google • The Register

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• T-Mobile Store Owner Made $25M Using Stolen Employee Credentials (darkreading.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• UK Branded Europe’s “Capital of Card Fraud” - Infosecurity Magazine

• Huge network of 11,000 fake investment sites targets Europe (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Online payment fraud losses accelerate at an alarming rate - Help Net Security

• COMMENT: 'Hi Mum, Hi Dad' Scams On The Rise - Britons Already (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Increase in Fake Tickets Being Sold by Cyber criminals on Social Media - IT Security Guru

AML/CFT/Sanctions

• Robinhood Crypto Penalized $30M for Violating NY Cybersecurity Regulations | SecurityWeek.Com

Dark Web

• A Ransomware Explosion Fosters Thriving Dark Web Ecosystem (darkreading.com)

• The popularity of Dark Utilities 'C2-as-a-Service' rapidly increases - Security Affairs

Software Supply Chain

• Now is the time to focus on software supply chain security improvements - Help Net Security

Cloud/SaaS

• Cyber attackers Increasingly Target Cloud IAM as a Weak Link (darkreading.com)

• What Worries Security Teams About the Cloud? (darkreading.com)

• Who Has Control: The SaaS App Admin Paradox (thehackernews.com)

• Enterprises face a multitude of barriers to securing diverse cloud environments - Help Net Security

Open Source

• New Linux malware brute-forces SSH servers to breach networks (bleepingcomputer.com)

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

• Hackers stole passwords for accessing 140,000 payment terminals | TechCrunch

• Credential Canaries Create Minefield for Attackers (darkreading.com)

• 5 reasons why businesses should never use consumer-grade password managers | TechRadar

Social Media

• Hackers Exploit Twitter Vulnerability to Exposes 5.4 Million Accounts (thehackernews.com)

• Parliament shuts down TikTok account over China data security concerns (telegraph.co.uk)

• Over 3,200 Apps Leak Twitter API Keys, Some Allowing Account Hijacks (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Increase in Fake Tickets Being Sold by Cyber criminals on Social Media - IT Security Guru

Privacy

• DuckDuckGo browser now blocks all Microsoft trackers, most of the time (bleepingcomputer.com)

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

• Australia charges dev of Imminent Monitor RAT used by domestic abusers (bleepingcomputer.com)

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• Most companies are unprepared for CCPA and GDPR compliance - Help Net Security

• Data privacy: Collect what you need, protect what you collect | CSO Online

• India scraps data protection law, promises better successor • The Register

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

• Austrian Investigation Reveals Spyware Targeting Law Firms, Finance Institutions - Infosecurity Magazine

• Ukraine takes down 1,000,000 bots used for disinformation (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Nancy Pelosi ties Chinese cyber-attacks to Taiwan visit • The Register

• Spanish Research Center Suffers Cyber attack Linked to Russia | SecurityWeek.Com

• Russian organisations attacked with new Woody RAT malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Greek intelligence spied on journalist with a surveillance spyware - Security Affairs

• Rare Pegasus screenshots depict NSO Group's spyware capabilities | AppleInsider

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Double Whammy: Russian Hackers Launch Cyber Attacks On Lockheed Martin; Armed Forces Hack Into HIMARS -- Reports (eurasiantimes.com)

• Ukraine Shutters Major Russian Bot Farm - Infosecurity Magazine

Nation State Actors – China

• Chinese hackers use new Cobalt Strike-like attack framework (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Massive China-Linked Disinformation Campaign Taps PR Firm for Help (darkreading.com)

• Parliament shuts down TikTok account over China data security concerns (telegraph.co.uk)

• China, Huawei, and the eavesdropping threat | CSO Online

• Global network of fake news sites push Chinese propaganda, researchers find - CyberScoop

• Taiwanese military reports DDoS in wake of US Speaker visit • The Register

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Cyber crime a Key Revenue Stream For North Korea's Weapons Program - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• North Korean Hackers Use Browser Extension to Spy on Gmail and AOL Accounts - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Nation State Actors – Iran

• Iranian Hackers Likely Behind Disruptive Cyber attacks Against Albanian Government (thehackernews.com)

• Disruptive Cyber attacks on NATO Member Albania Linked to Iran | SecurityWeek.Com

Nation State Actors – Misc APT

• Twitter breach exposes anonymous accounts to nation state hackers - CyberScoop

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Vulnerabilities

• VMware urges admins to patch critical auth bypass bug immediately (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Critical RCE Bug in DrayTek Routers Opens SMBs to Zero-Click Attacks (darkreading.com)

• Cisco fixes critical remote code execution bug in VPN routers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• F5 Fixes 21 Vulnerabilities With Quarterly Security Patches | SecurityWeek.Com

• High-Severity Bug in Kaspersky VPN Client Opens Door to PC Takeover (darkreading.com)

• Hackers Exploit Atlassian Confluence Vulnerability to Deploy New 'Ljl' Backdoor - Infosecurity Magazine

• Slack Resets Passwords After a Bug Exposed Hashed Passwords for Some Users (thehackernews.com)

• VMware Releases Patches for Several New Flaws Affecting Multiple Products (thehackernews.com)

• Hackers are actively exploiting password-stealing flaw in Zimbra (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Google fixed Critical Remote Code Execution flaw in Android - Security Affairs

• CISA adds Zimbra bug to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogue - Security Affairs

• Warning! Critical flaws found in US Emergency Alert System • The Register

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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

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Other News

• APIs attacked in 94% of companies in past year - IT Security Guru

• Over 60% of Organisations Expose SSH to the Internet - Infosecurity Magazine

• How IT and security teams can work together to improve endpoint security - Microsoft Security Blog

• Burnout and attrition impact tech teams sustaining modern digital systems - Help Net Security

• Machine learning creates a new attack surface requiring specialized defences - Help Net Security

• Cyber security lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic (techtarget.com)

• 10 enterprise database security best practices (techtarget.com)

• Resolving Availability vs. Security, a Constant Conflict in IT (thehackernews.com)

• Tips to prevent RDP and other remote attacks on Microsoft networks | CSO Online

• 5 ways to unite security and compliance | CSO Online

• The Myth of Protection Online — and What Comes Next (darkreading.com)

• The Importance of Data Security in the Enterprise (techtarget.com)

• Who Needs Macros? | Threat Actors Pivot to Abusing Explorer and Other LOLBins via Windows Shortcuts - SentinelOne

• How IT Teams Can Use 'Harm Reduction' for Better Cyber security Outcomes (darkreading.com)

• Businesses lack visibility into run-time threats against mobile apps and APIs - Help Net Security

• Browser synchronization abuse: Bookmarks as a covert data exfiltration channel - Help Net Security

• Threats emanating from digital ecosystems can be a blind spot for businesses - Help Net Security

• Busting the Myths of Hardware Based Security - Security Affairs

• New Traffic Light Protocol standard released after five years (bleepingcomputer.com)

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 04/08/2022 – DrayTek provides patches for a critical vulnerability in their Vigor Routers

Executive Summary

Trellix Threat Labs Vulnerability research team discovered an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability which affects multiple DrayTek routers, which have their management interface configured to be accessible directly via the internet. This attack can also be performed by a malicious actor who has access within the local network, which is the default configuration for these devices.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

This is a one-click attack that can be performed without any user interaction, and can lead to the full compromise of the device. As these devices are on the network perimeter, compromise of these devices can lead to further breaches of other networked systems and data.

What can I do?

The vendor has released patches for this issue on their website, which should be applied out of band due to the severity of this issue. To mitigate this issue externally, management interfaces should never be configured to be directly accessible via the internet interface, however even with this mitigation it is important that the patch is applied promptly due to the threat of further compromise from an attacker with local network access.

Technical Summary

The following is a breakdown of the vulnerability with the affected DrayTek products.

CVE-2022-32548: This vulnerability has been given a CVSS 3.0 rating of 10.0, the attack works by compromising a buffer overflow vulnerability within the login page, which allows an attacker to provide a carefully crafted username and/or password which could allow an attacker to take control of the “DrayOS” which runs on the routers. Affected models with affected firmware versions include:

• Vigor3910 < 4.3.1.1

• Vigor1000B < 4.3.1.1

• Vigor2962 Series < 4.3.1.1

• Vigor2927 Series < 4.4.0

• Vigor2927 LTE Series < 4.4.0

• Vigor2915 Series < 4.3.3.2

• Vigor2952 / 2952P < 3.9.7.2

• Vigor3220 Series < 3.9.7.2

• Vigor2926 Series < 3.9.8.1

• Vigor2926 LTE Series < 3.9.8.1

• Vigor2862 Series < 3.9.8.1

• Vigor2862 LTE Series < 3.9.8.1

• Vigor2620 LTE Series < 3.9.8.1

• VigorLTE 200n < 3.9.8.1

• Vigor2133 Series < 3.9.6.4

• Vigor2762 Series < 3.9.6.4

• Vigor167 < 5.1.1

• Vigor130 < 3.8.5

• VigorNIC 132 < 3.8.5

• Vigor165 < 4.2.4

• Vigor166 < 4.2.4

• Vigor2135 Series < 4.4.2

• Vigor2765 Series < 4.4.2

• Vigor2766 Series < 4.4.2

• Vigor2832 < 3.9.6

• Vigor2865 Series < 4.4.0

• Vigor2865 LTE Series < 4.4.0

• Vigor2866 Series < 4.4.0

• Vigor2866 LTE Series < 4.4.0

Further technical information on the vulnerability can be found here: Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution in a Wide Range of DrayTek Vigor Routers (trellix.com)

Patches are available from the vendors website here: Latest Firmwares | DrayTek

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 July 2022

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 Is the Biggest Global Cyber Threat. And The Attacks Are Still Evolving

Ransomware is the biggest cyber security threat facing the world today, with the potential to significantly affect whole societies and economies – and the attacks are unrelenting, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned.

"Even with a war raging in Ukraine – the biggest global cyber threat we still face is ransomware. That tells you something of the scale of the problem. Ransomware attacks strike hard and fast. They are evolving rapidly, they are all-pervasive, they're increasingly offered by gangs as a service, lowering the bar for entry into cyber crime," said Lindy Cameron, CEO of the NCSC in a speech at Tel Aviv Cyber Week.

She added that the NCSC has dealt with "nationally significant incidents" along with hundreds of general cyber incidents that "affect the UK more widely every year".

While she didn't detail any specific instances of responding to ransomware incidents, Cameron warned that "these complex attacks have the potential to affect our societies and economies significantly", and implied that if it weren't for the work of NCSC incident responders, alongside their counterparts in the industry and international counterparts, the attacks could have had a major impact.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-attacks-are-the-biggest-global-cyber-threat-and-still-evolving-warns-cybersecurity-chief/

• Study Reveals Traditional Data Security Tools Have a 60% Failure Rate Against Ransomware and Extortion

Titaniam, Inc., the data security platform, announced the ‘State of Data Exfiltration & Extortion Report.’ The survey revealed that while over 70% of organisations have an existing set of prevention, detection, and backup solutions, nearly 40% of organisations have been hit with ransomware attacks in the last year, and more than 70% have experienced one in the previous five years, proving existing solutions to be woefully inadequate in managing the risks and impacts from these attacks.

Data exfiltration during ransomware attacks is up 106% relative to where it was five years ago. We are seeing the emergence of a new trend where cyber criminals are no longer limiting themselves to just encrypting entire systems—they are making sure to steal data ahead of the encryption so that they can have additional leverage on the victim. The survey found that 65% of those who have experienced a ransomware attack have also experienced data theft or exfiltration due to the incident. Of those victims, 60% say the hackers used the data theft to extort them further, known as double extortion. Most of them, i.e., 59% of victims, paid the hackers, implying that they were not helped by their backup or data security tools to prevent this fate.

Data is being exposed for theft and extortion in other ways too. Nearly half (47%) uncovered publicly exposed data in their systems in the last 24 months. It was found that respondents have a mix of data security & protection (78%), prevention & detection (75%), and backup and recovery (73%) in their cyber security stacks. Still, exposure and extortion numbers imply a missing puzzle piece regarding attacks.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/study-reveals-traditional-data-security-tools-have-a-60-failure-rate-against-ransomware-and-extortion

• Patchable and Preventable Security Issues Lead Causes of Q1 Attacks

Attacks against companies spiked in Q1 2022 with patchable and preventable external vulnerabilities responsible for the bulk of attacks.

Eighty-two percent of attacks on organisations in Q1 2022 were caused by the external exposure of known vulnerabilities in the victim’s external-facing perimeter or attack surface. Those unpatched bugs overshadowed breach-related financial losses tied to human error, which accounted for 18 percent.

The numbers come from Tetra Defense and its quarterly report that sheds light on a notable uptick in cyber attacks against United States organisations between January and March 2022.

The report did not let employee security hygiene, or a lack thereof, off the hook. Tetra revealed that a lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA) mechanisms adopted by firms and compromised credentials are still major factors in attacks against organisations.

https://threatpost.com/lead-causes-of-q1-attacks/180096/

• Three in Four Vulnerability Management Programs Ineffective

How at risk are organisations to unsecured vulnerabilities in their networks? NopSec, a threat and exposure management provider, gives us the answers in a new study of some 430 cyber security professionals.

Are security teams finding successful approaches to their vulnerability management, or are “open doors around their attack surface” leaving them susceptible to disaster in their organisation? The answer, as it turns out, is that some organisations are better at detection, response and remediation of their vulnerabilities.

Perhaps more importantly, others are not as locked down as they believe, according to the report. Keeping track of known vulnerabilities and responding quickly is one thing, but locating flaws they did not previously know existed is quite another.

Seventy percent of respondent say their vulnerability management program (VMP) is only somewhat effective or worse, blind spots and shadow IT remain top challenges, and vulnerabilities take too long to patch.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/three-in-four-vulnerability-management-programs-ineffective-study-finds/

• EMEA Continues to Be a Hotspot for Malware Threats

Ransomware detections in the first quarter of this year doubled the total volume reported for 2021, according to the latest quarterly Internet Security Report from the WatchGuard Threat Lab. Researchers also found that the Emotet botnet came back in a big way, the infamous Log4Shell vulnerability tripled its attack efforts and malicious cryptomining activity increased.

Although findings from the Threat Lab’s Q4 2021 report showed ransomware attacks trending down year over year, that all changed in Q1 2022 with a massive explosion in ransomware detections. While Q4 2021 saw the downfall of the infamous REvil cybergang, WatchGuard analysis suggests that this opened the door for the LAPSUS$ extortion group to emerge, which along with many new ransomware variants such as BlackCat – the first known ransomware written in the Rust programming language – could be contributing factors to an ever-increasing ransomware and cyber-extortion threat landscape.

The report also shows that EMEA continues to be a hotspot for malware threats. Overall regional detections of basic and evasive malware show WatchGuard Fireboxes in EMEA were hit harder than those in North, Central and South America (AMER) at 57% and 22%, respectively, followed by Asia-Pacific (APAC) at 21%.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/06/30/emea-malware-threats/

• A New, Remarkably Sophisticated Malware Is Attacking Home and Small Office Routers

An unusually advanced hacking group has spent almost two years infecting a wide range of routers in North America and Europe with malware that takes full control of connected devices running Windows, macOS, and Linux, researchers reported on June 28.

So far, researchers from Lumen Technologies' Black Lotus Labs say they've identified at least 80 targets infected by the stealthy malware, including routers made by Cisco, Netgear, Asus, and DrayTek. Dubbed ZuoRAT, the remote access Trojan is part of a broader hacking campaign that has existed since at least the fourth quarter of 2020 and continues to operate.

The discovery of custom-built malware written for the MIPS architecture and compiled for small-office and home-office routers is significant, particularly given its range of capabilities. Its ability to enumerate all devices connected to an infected router and collect the DNS lookups and network traffic they send and receive, and remain undetected, is the hallmark of a highly sophisticated threat actor.

"While compromising small office/home office (SOHO) routers as a vector to gain access to an adjacent LAN is not a novel technique, it has seldom been reported," Black Lotus Labs researchers wrote. "Similarly, reports of person-in-the-middle style attacks, such as DNS and HTTP hijacking, are even rarer and a mark of a complex and targeted operation. The use of these two techniques congruently demonstrated a high level of sophistication by a threat actor, indicating that this campaign was possibly performed by a state-sponsored organisation."

The campaign comprises at least four pieces of malware, three of them written from scratch by the threat actor. The first piece is the MIPS-based ZuoRAT, which closely resembles the Mirai internet-of-things malware that achieved record-breaking distributed denial-of-service attacks that crippled some Internet services for days. ZuoRAT often gets installed by exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities in SOHO devices.

https://www.wired.com/story/zuorat-trojan-malware-hacking-routers/

• What Are Shadow IDs, and How Are They Crucial in 2022?

Just before last Christmas, in a first-of-a-kind case, JPMorgan was fined $200M for employees using non-sanctioned applications for communicating about financial strategy. No mention of insider trading, naked shorting, or any malevolence. Just employees circumventing regulation using, well, Shadow IT. Not because they tried to obfuscate or hide anything, simply because it was a convenient tool that they preferred over any other sanctioned products (which JPMorgan certainly has quite a few of.)

Visibility into unknown and unsanctioned applications has been required by regulators and also recommended by the Center for Internet Security community for a long time. Yet it seems that new and better approaches are still in demand. Gartner has identified External Attack Surface Management, Digital Supply Chain Risk, and Identity Threat Detection as the top three trends to focus on in 2022, all of which are closely intertwined with Shadow IT.

"Shadow IDs," or in other words, unmanaged employee identities and accounts in third-party services, are often created using a simple email-and-password-based registration. Cloud access security broker (CASB) and corporate single-sign-on (SSO) solutions are limited to a few sanctioned applications, and are not widely adopted on most websites and services either. This means, that a large part of an organisation's external surface - as well as its user identities - may be completely invisible.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/06/what-are-shadow-ids-and-how-are-they.html

• Zero-Days Aren't Going Away Anytime Soon, and What Leaders Need to Know

Few security exploits are the source of more sleepless nights for security professionals than zero-day attacks. Just recently, researchers discovered a new vulnerability enabling hackers to achieve remote code execution within Microsoft Office. Dubbing the evolving threat the Follina exploit, researchers say all versions of Office are at risk. And because the internal security teams have no time to prepare or patch their systems to defend against these software vulnerabilities, crafty threat actors can take advantage, taking their time after they've accessed an organisation's environment to observe and exfiltrate data while remaining completely unseen.

And though sophisticated threat actors and nations have exploited zero-days for nearly two decades, last year saw a historic rise in the number of vulnerabilities detected. Both Google and Mandiant tracked a record number of zero-days last year, with the caveat that more zero-days are being discovered because security companies are getting better at finding them — not necessarily because hackers are coming up with new vulnerabilities. Not all zero-days are created equal, though. Some require sophisticated and novel techniques, like the attack on SolarWinds, and others exploit simple vulnerabilities in commonly used programs like Windows. Thankfully, there's some basic cyber hygiene strategies that can keep your organisation sufficiently prepared to mitigate zero-day exploits.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/zero-days-aren-t-going-away-anytime-soon-and-what-leaders-need-to-know

• Half of 2022's Zero-Days Are Variants of Previous Vulnerabilities

Google Project Zero has observed a total of 18 exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in the first half of 2022, at least half of which exist because previous bugs were not properly addressed.

According to Google Project Zero researcher Maddie Stone, nine of the in-the-wild zero-days seen so far this year could have been prevented had organisations applied more comprehensive patching.

“On top of that, four of the 2022 zero-days are variants of 2021 in-the-wild zero-days. Just 12 months from the original in-the-wild zero-day being patched, attackers came back with a variant of the original bug,” Stone says.

The most recent of these issues is the Follina vulnerability in the Windows platform. Tracked as CVE-2022-30190, it is a variant of an MSHTML zero-day tracked as CVE-2021-40444.

CVE-2022-21882 is another Windows vulnerability that is a variant of an in-the-wild zero-day that was improperly resolved last year, namely CVE-2021-1732.

An iOS IOMobileFrameBuffer bug (CVE-2022-22587) and a type confusion flaw in Chrome’s V8 engine (CVE-2022-1096) are two other zero-days that are variants of exploited security flaws found last year – CVE-2021-30983 and CVE-2021-30551, respectively.

Other 2022 zero-days that are variants of improperly addressed security defects are CVE-2022-1364 (Chrome), CVE-2022-22620 (WebKit), CVE-2021-39793 (Google Pixel), CVE-2022-26134 (Atlassian Confluence), and CVE-2022-26925 (Windows flaw called PetitPotam).

https://www.securityweek.com/google-half-2022s-zero-days-are-variants-previous-vulnerabilities

• Human Error Remains the Top Security Issue

Human error remains the most effective vector for conducting network infiltrations and data breaches.

The SANS Institute security centre issued its annual security awareness report Wednesday, which was based on data from 1,000 infosec professionals and found that employees and their lack of security training remain common points of failure for data breaches and network attacks. The report also tracked the maturity level of respondents' security awareness programs and their effectiveness in reducing human risk.

"This year's report once again identifies what we have seen over the past three years: that the most mature security awareness programs are those that have the most people dedicated to managing and supporting it," the cyber security training and education organisation said.

"These larger teams are more effective at working with the security team to identify, track, and prioritise their top human risks, and at engaging, motivating, and training their workforce to manage those risks."

The SANS Institute study ranked maturity by five levels, from lowest to highest: nonexistent, compliance-focused, promoting awareness and behaviour change, long-term sustainment and culture change, and metrics framework. The report found that while approximately 400 respondents said their programs promote awareness and behaviour change - the highest such response for any maturity level - the number represented a 10% decrease from the previous year's report.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252522226/SANS-Institute-Human-error-remains-the-top-security-issue

• Carnival Cruises Torpedoed by US States, Agrees to Pay $6m After Wave of Cyber Attacks

Carnival Cruise Lines will cough up more than $6 million to end two separate lawsuits filed by 46 states in the US after sensitive, personal information on customers and employees was accessed in a string of cyber attacks.

A couple of years ago, as the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold, the Miami-based business revealed intruders had not only encrypted some of its data but also downloaded a collection of names and addresses; Social Security info, driver's license, and passport numbers; and health and payment information of thousands of people in almost every American state.

It all started to go wrong more than a year prior, as the cruise line became aware of suspicious activity in May 2019. This apparently wasn't disclosed until 10 months later, in March 2020.

Back in 2019, the security operations team spotted an internal email account sending spam to other addresses. It turned out miscreants had hijacked 124 employee Microsoft Office 365 email accounts, and were using them to send phishing emails to harvest more credentials. This, we're told, gave the intruders access to personal data on 180,000 Carnival employees and customers. It's likely the miscreants first broke in using phishing mails or brute-forcing passwords; either way, there was no multi-factor authentication.

Then in August 2020, the company said it was hit with the aforementioned ransomware, and copies of its files were siphoned. In January 2021, it was infected again with malware, and again sensitive information – specifically, customer passport numbers and dates of birth, and employee credit card numbers – were downloaded. And in March that year, a staffer's work email account was compromised again to send out a phishing email; more sensitive information was exposed.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/28/carnival-cybersecurity-fines/

• Uber Ex-Security Chief Accused of Hacking Coverup Must Face Fraud Charges, Judge Rules

A federal judge on Tuesday said a former Uber Technologies Inc. security chief must face wire fraud charges over his alleged role in trying to cover up a 2016 hacking that exposed personal information of 57 million passengers and drivers.

The US Department of Justice had in December added the three charges against Joseph Sullivan to an earlier indictment, saying he arranged to pay money to two hackers in exchange for their silence, while trying to conceal the hacking from passengers, drivers and the US Federal Trade Commission.

https://www.reuters.com/business/uber-ex-security-chief-accused-hacking-coverup-must-face-fraud-charges-judge-2022-06-28/

Threats

Ransomware

• Ransomware market evolution results in fewer variants, but rise in off-the-shelf cyber crime kits continues | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• Record-Breaking Year for Ransomware Attacks, WatchGuard Research Predicts - MSSP Alert

• Cyber Security Experts Warn of Emerging Threat of "Black Basta" Ransomware (thehackernews.com)

• 5 years after NotPetya: Lessons learned | CSO Online

• AstraLocker 2.0 infects users directly from Word attachments (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Mitel VoIP Bug Exploited in Ransomware Attacks | Threatpost

• Black Basta Ransomware Gang Attacks 50 Companies, Cybereason Reports - MSSP Alert

• How Dangerous Is BlackBasta Ransomware? (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• LockBit 3.0 Debuts With Ransomware Bug Bounty Program (darkreading.com)

• Black Basta Ransomware Operators Expand Their Attack Arsenal With QakBot Trojan and PrintNightmare Exploit (trendmicro.com)

• Son of Conti: Ransomware tries its hand at politics - The Record by Recorded Future

• Kaseya Ransomware - Cyber Leader’s Thoughts & Learnings One Year Later (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Are Protection Payments the Future of Ransomware? (tripwire.com)

• Conti vs. LockBit: A Comparative Analysis of Ransomware Groups (trendmicro.com)

• This new malware is at the heart of the ransomware ecosystem | ZDNet

• Macmillan Publishing shuts down systems after likely ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Walmart denies being hit by Yanluowang ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Fake copyright infringement emails install LockBit ransomware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cisco Talos techniques uncover ransomware sites on dark web (techtarget.com)

• RansomHouse gang claims to have some stolen AMD data • The Register

• 'Prolific' NetWalker extortionist pleads guilty • The Register

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Google Warns About Hacker-for-Hire Services Trying to Phish Users (pcmag.com)

• Clever phishing method bypasses MFA using Microsoft WebView2 apps (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cyber Attacks via Unpatched Systems Cost Orgs More Than Phishing (darkreading.com)

• How phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated - Help Net Security

• How Evilnum Cyber Attacks Target Microsoft Office Files - MSSP Alert

• New Matanbuchus Campaign drops Cobalt Strike beacons - Security Affairs

• Kaspersky Reveals Phishing Emails That Employees Find Most Confusing (darkreading.com)

• Ukraine arrests cyber crime gang operating over 400 phishing sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

Malware

• Microsoft finds Raspberry Robin worm in hundreds of Windows networks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Microsoft Exchange servers worldwide backdoored with new malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Microsoft warning: This malware that targets Linux just got a big update | ZDNet

• ZuoRAT Hijacks SOHO Routers From Cisco, Netgear (darkreading.com)

• XFiles info-stealing malware adds support for Follina delivery (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Raccoon Stealer is back with a new version to steal your passwords (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Minors Use Discord Servers To Earn Extra Pocket Money Through Spreading Malware (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• PyPi python packages caught sending stolen AWS keys to unsecured sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

Mobile

• Android Spyware 'Revive' Upgraded to Banking Trojan - Infosecurity Magazine

• Google warns Hermit spyware is infecting phones. What is it and how do you protect yourself from it? | Mashable

• Phone Hackers: 9 Ways To Tell If You Have Fallen Victim (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Apple revokes certificates for Hermit spyware app - 9to5Mac

• Google Warns of New Spyware Targeting iOS and Android Users - IT Security Guru

Internet of Things – IoT

• Swarm of malfunctioning driverless taxis brings traffic to a halt for hours (telegraph.co.uk)

Data Breaches/Leaks

• Millions of free VPN user records leaked | TechRadar

• Leaky Access Tokens Exposed Amazon Photos of Users | Threatpost

• California gun dashboards expose 10 years of personal data • The Register

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• The strange business of cyber crime | CSO Online

• Russia-China cyber criminal collaboration could “destabilize” international order | CSO Online

• Canadian admits to hacking spree with Russian cyber-gang - BBC News

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

• Pentagon finds concerning vulnerabilities on blockchain | TechRepublic

• Threat actors sell access to tens of vulnerable networks compromised by exploiting Atlassian 0daySecurity Affairs

• Hackers steal $100m from another breached crypto bridge | TechRadar

• Santander Warns of 87% Surge in UK Crypto Scams - Infosecurity Magazine

• Dozens of cryptography libraries vulnerable to private key theft | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• Missing Cryptoqueen: FBI adds Ruja Ignatova to top ten most wanted - BBC News

• Singapore warns of ‘brutal, unrelentingly hard’ crypto regs • The Register

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Rogue HackerOne employee steals bug reports to sell on the side (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Japanese worker loses city's personal data in USB fail • The Register

• How you handle independent contractors may determine your insider threat risk | CSO Online

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Threat actors increasingly use third parties to run their scams - Help Net Security

• Santander Warns of 87% Surge in UK Crypto Scams - Infosecurity Magazine

• Evolving online habits have paved the way for fraud. What can we do about it? - Help Net Security

Insurance

• Cyber Insurance: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - IT Security Guru

Software Supply Chain

• It's a Race to Secure the Software Supply Chain — Have You Already Stumbled? (darkreading.com)

• Over a Decade in Software Security: What Have We learned? - IT Security Guru

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

• Russian hacktivists take down Norway govt sites in DDoS attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

Attack Surface Management

• Digital Shadows Weaken Your Attack Surface (securityintelligence.com)

Shadow IT

• Shadow IT Spurs 1 in 3 Cyber Attacks (darkreading.com)

• What is Shadow IT and why is it so risky? (thehackernews.com)

Open Source

• CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of 'PwnKit' Linux Vulnerability in the Wild (thehackernews.com)

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

• RansomHouse Hackers Claim to Breach AMD With Bad Passwords (gizmodo.com)

• Breaking Down the Zola Hack and Why Password Reuse is so Dangerous (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Raccoon Stealer is back with a new version to steal your passwords (bleepingcomputer.com)

Social Media

• Verified Twitter accounts hacked to send fake suspension notices (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Facebook Business Pages Targeted via Chatbot in Data-Harvesting Campaign (darkreading.com)

• New YTStealer malware steals accounts from YouTube Creators (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Facebook 2FA phish arrives just 28 minutes after scam domain created – Naked Security (sophos.com)

Training, Education and Awareness

• Time Constraints Hamper Security Awareness Programs (darkreading.com)

Privacy

• ‘Supercookies’ Have Privacy Experts Sounding the Alarm | WIRED

• UK should immediately ban use of live facial recognition, warns report | Financial Times (ft.com)

• Snoopers’ Charter Ruled Partially Unlawful - Infosecurity Magazine

• We must stop sleepwalking towards a surveillance state | Financial Times (ft.com)

Parental Controls and Child Safety

• How parents can talk about online safety and personal info protection with their kids - Help Net Security

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• Manx government department fined over data breach - BBC News

• Clearview fine: The unacceptable face of modern surveillance - Help Net Security

• UK security services must seek approval to access telecoms data, judges rule | UK security and counter-terrorism | The Guardian

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

• Global Police Crack Down on Online Sexual Exploitation - Infosecurity Magazine

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

• Lethal drinking water, runs on banks and panic buying: What a real Undeclared War cyber attack could mean (inews.co.uk)

• Microsoft's Defending Ukraine report offers fresh details on digital conflict and disinformation | CSO Online

• Clear Rules Needed to Prevent Conflict and Struggle in Cyber Space, Says NCSC Chief - Infosecurity Magazine

• NATO to create cyber rapid response force, increase cyber defence aid to Ukraine - CyberScoop

• Could the Russian cyber attack on Lithuania draw a military response from NATO? | World News | Sky News

• Evilnum hackers return in new operation targeting migration orgs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Commercial cyber products must be used responsibly, says NCSC CEO (computerweekly.com)

• G7 to tackle cyber threats and disinformation from Russia: communique | Reuters

• Google Warns of New Spyware Targeting iOS and Android Users - IT Security Guru

• Apple revokes certificates for Hermit spyware app - 9to5Mac

• China lured graduate jobseekers into digital espionage | Ars Technica

• FCC commissioner calls TikTok Chinese spyware and wants it pulled from mobile app stores (androidpolice.com)

• Google warns Hermit spyware is infecting phones. What is it and how do you protect yourself from it? | Mashable

Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Ukraine targeted by almost 800 cyber attacks since the war started (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Russia-linked actors may be behind an explosion at a liquefied natural gas plant in Texas - Security Affairs

• Russian Hacker Group Says Cyber Attacks Continue On Lithuania (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Russian hacktivists take down Norway govt sites in DDoS attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Russia's Killnet hacker group says it attacked Lithuania | Reuters

Nation State Actors – China

• Chinese Threat Actor Targets Rare Earth Mining Companies in North America, Australia | SecurityWeek.Com

• Chinese Hackers Target Building Management Systems | SecurityWeek.Com

• China lured graduate jobseekers into digital espionage | Ars Technica

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Experts blame North Korea-linked Lazarus APT for Harmony hack - Security Affairs

Vulnerability Management

• 18 Zero-Days Exploited So Far in 2022 (darkreading.com)

• Why more zero-day vulnerabilities are being found in the wild | CSO Online

• Cyber Attacks via Unpatched Systems Cost Orgs More Than Phishing (darkreading.com)

• Solving the indirect vulnerability enigma - fixing indirect vulnerabilities without breaking your dependency tree (thehackernews.com)

• Microsoft's quiet mishandling of vulnerabilities is becoming a public mess - OnMSFT.com

Vulnerabilities

• MITRE shares this year's list of most dangerous software bugs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Critical ManageEngine ADAudit Plus Vulnerability Allows Network Takeover, Mass Data Exfiltration (darkreading.com)

• How and why threat actors target Microsoft Active Directory | CSO Online

• Atlassian Confluence Exploits Peak at 100K Daily (darkreading.com)

• Patch Now: Linux Container-Escape Flaw in Azure Service Fabric (darkreading.com)

• Zoho ManageEngine ADAudit Plus bug gets public RCE exploit (bleepingcomputer.com)

• OpenSSL 3.0.5 awaits release to fix potential security flaw • The Register

• CISA: Adopt Modern Auth now for Exchange Online • The Register

• CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of 'PwnKit' Linux Vulnerability in the Wild (thehackernews.com)

• CISA orders agencies to patch Windows LSA bug exploited in the wild (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Mitel VoIP Bug Exploited in Ransomware Attacks | Threatpost

• Log4Shell Vulnerability in VMware Leads to Data Exfiltration and Ransomware (trendmicro.com)

• Jenkins discloses dozens of zero-day bugs in multiple plugins (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New UnRAR Vulnerability Could Let Attackers Hack Zimbra Webmail Servers (thehackernews.com)

Sector Specific

Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

• Stress and Burnout Could Lead to Exodus of CNI Cyber Security Leaders - Infosecurity Magazine

Financial Services Sector

• Android Spyware 'Revive' Upgraded to Banking Trojan - Infosecurity Magazine

FinTech

• A Fintech Horror Story: How One Company Prioritizes Cyber Security (darkreading.com)

• Security and compliance concerns limit ‘open finance’ expansion, say executives (scmagazine.com)

Telecoms

• Why the next-gen telecom ecosystem needs better regulations (techtarget.com)

OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA and Cyber-Physical Systems

• APT Hackers Targeting Industrial Control Systems with ShadowPad Backdoor (thehackernews.com)

• Cyber-Physical Security: Benchmarking to Advance Your Journey | SecurityWeek.Com

• Critical Security Flaws Identified in CODESYS ICS Automation Software (thehackernews.com)

• Microsoft Exchange bug abused to hack building automation systems (bleepingcomputer.com)

• 5 Cyber Security Tips for Smart Buildings - IT Security Guru

• Chinese Hackers Target Building Management Systems | SecurityWeek.Com

• OT security: Helping under-resourced critical infrastructure organisations - Help Net Security

Energy & Utilities

Oil, Gas and Mining

Chinese Threat Actor Targets Rare Earth Mining Companies in North America, Australia | SecurityWeek.Com

Food and Agriculture

• Wiltshire Farm Foods Cyberattack (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

Education and Academia

• Threat Actor Claims Responsibility For IBM and Stanford University Hack - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Web3

• Securing the Metaverse and Web3 | SecurityWeek.Com

• Cyber security and the metaverse: Identifying the weak spots | VentureBeat

Reports Published in the Last Week

• State of Email Security | Mimecast

• Q1 2022 Incident Response Insights from Tetra Defense | Arctic Wolf

• State of Data Exfiltration and Extortion 2022 - Titaniam

• SANS 2022 Security Awareness Report: Human Risk Remains the Biggest Threat to Your Organisation’s Cyber Security | SANS Institute

• Defending Ukraine: Early Lessons from the Cyber War - Microsoft On the Issues

Other News

• Cyber Attacks Gain Steam in Early '22: Tetra Defense Report - MSSP Alert

• FBI warns crooks are using deepfake videos in job interviews • The Register

• Destructive firmware attacks pose a significant threat to businesses - Help Net Security

• 48% of security practitioners seeing 3x increase in alerts per day - Help Net Security

• Adversarial machine learning explained: How attackers disrupt AI and ML systems | CSO Online

• Companies are desperate for cyber security workers—more than 700K positions need to be filled | Fortune

• 82% Cyber Breaches In Verizon’s Report Preventable, Says MyCena (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• SolarWinds hack explained: Everything you need to know (techtarget.com)

• Properly securing APIs is becoming increasingly urgent - Help Net Security

• 97% Of UK Business Leaders Expect Quantum Computing to Disrupt Their Sectors - Infosecurity Magazine

• LGBTQ+ folks warned of dating app extortion scams • The Register

• What is Zero Trust and why would you want it? • The Register

• Tencent admits to poisoned QR code attack on QQ accounts • The Register

• Exploring the insecurity of readily available Wi-Fi networks - Help Net Security

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 July 2021

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

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Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

 84% Of Organisations Experienced Phishing Or Ransomware Attacks In The Last Year

A new report from Trend Micro has found that 84% of organisations have reported phishing or ransomware security incidents in the last 12 months.

The findings come from an Osterman Research study commissioned by Trend Micro that was compiled from interviews with cyber security professionals in midsize and large organisations nationwide. The research also found that half of organisations are not effective at countering phishing and ransomware threats.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/ransomware/360191/84-of-organizations-experienced-phishing-or-ransomware-attacks-in-last

Phishing continues to be one of the easiest paths for ransomware

Ransomware gangs are still using phishing as one of the main ways to attack an organisation, according to a new survey from Cloudian featuring the insights of 200 IT decision-makers who experienced a ransomware attack over the last two years.

More than half of all respondents have held anti-phishing training among employees, and 49% had perimeter defenses in place when they were attacked.

Nearly 25% of all survey respondents said their ransomware attacks started through phishing, and of those victims, 65% had conducted anti-phishing training sessions. For enterprises with fewer than 500 employees, 41% said their attacks started with phishing. About one-third of all victims said their public cloud was the entry point ransomware groups used to attack them.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/phishing-continues-to-be-one-of-the-easiest-paths-for-ransomware-report/

Ransomware: Only Half Of Organisations Can Effectively Defend Against Attacks, Warns Report

Around half of firms don't have the technology to prevent or detect ransomware attacks, according to research by cybersecurity company Trend Micro. It suggests that many organisations don't have the cybersecurity capabilities required to prevent ransomware attacks, such as the ability to detect phishing emails, remote desktop protocol (RDP) compromise or other common techniques deployed by cyber attackers during ransomware campaigns. 

For example, the report warns that many organisations struggle with detecting the suspicious activity associated with ransomware and attacks that could provide early evidence that cyber criminals have compromised the network. That includes failing to identify unusual lateral movement across corporate networks, or being able to spot unauthorised users gaining access to corporate data.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-only-half-of-organisations-can-effectively-defend-against-attacks-warns-report/

MI5 Chief Warns Public Of Cyber-Threat From Hostile States Such As China & Russia

Head of Britain's MI5, Ken McCallum, is urging the public to be as vigilant about threats from "hostile states" as from terrorism.

These include disruptive cyber-attacks, misinformation, espionage and interference in politics - and are usually linked to Russia and China.

McCallum is warning that "less visible threats... have the potential to affect us all," affecting UK jobs and public services and could even lead to a loss of life.

The head of the Security Service wants to challenge the idea that activity by so-called "hostile states", usually taken to mean primarily Russia and China, only affects governments or certain institutions.

Instead, he is to argue in an annual threat update, that the British public are not immune to the "tentacles" of covert action by other states.

In the speech at MI5's Thames House headquarters, Mr McCallum will warn the "consequences range from frustration and inconvenience, through loss of livelihood, potentially up to loss of life".

https://eutoday.net/news/security-defence/2021/uk-mi5-chief-ken-mccallum-warns-public-of-cyber-threat-from-hostile-states-such-as-china-russia

Almost All Organisations Have Suffered Insider Data Breaches

Egress’ Insider Data Breach Survey 2021 claims that 94 percent of organisations have experienced insider data breaches in the last year. Human error was the top cause of serious incidents, according to 84 percent of IT leaders surveyed.

However, IT leaders are more concerned about malicious insiders, with 28 percent indicating that intentionally malicious behaviour is their biggest fear. Despite causing the most incidents, human error came bottom of the list, with just over one-fifth (21 percent) saying that it’s their biggest concern.

Additionally, almost three-quarters (74 percent) of organisations have been breached because of employees breaking security rules, and 73 percent have been the victim of phishing attacks.

The survey, independently conducted by Arlington Research on behalf of Egress, surveyed 500 IT leaders and 3,000 employees in the US and UK across vertical sectors including financial services, healthcare and legal.

https://workplaceinsight.net/almost-all-organisations-have-suffered-insider-data-breaches/

Cyber Crime Costs Organisations Nearly $1.79 Million Per Minute

Cybercrime costs organisations an incredible $1.79m every minute, according to RiskIQ’s 2021 Evil Internet Minute Report.

The study, which analysed the volume of malicious activity on the internet, laid bare the scale and damage of cyber-attacks in the past year, finding that 648 cyber-threats occurred every minute.

The researchers calculated that the average cost of a breach is $7.2 per minute, while the overall predicted cybersecurity spend is $280,060 every minute.

E-commerce has been heavily hit by online payment fraud in the past year, with cyber-criminals taking advantage of the shift to online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the e-commerce industry saw a record $861.1bn in sales, it lost $38,052 to online payment fraud every minute.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cybercrime-costs-orgs-per-minute/

Phishing, Ransomware Driving Wave of Data Breaches

Data compromises have increased every month this year except May.

If that trend continues, or even if there is only an average of 141 new compromises per month for the next six months, the total will still exceed the previous high of 1,632 breaches set in 2017.

These were among the findings of the nonprofit organization Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) latest data breach analysis report, which revealed publicly reported U.S. data breaches are up 38% in the second quarter of 2021, for a total of 491 compromises, compared to Q1.

https://securityboulevard.com/2021/07/phishing-ransomware-driving-wave-of-data-breaches/

Top CVEs Trending with Cybercriminals

An analysis of criminal forums reveal what publicly known vulnerabilities attackers are most interested in.

Criminal small talk in underground forums offer critical clues about which known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) threat actors are most focused on. This, in turn, offers defenders clues on what to watch out for.

An analysis of such chatter, by Cognyte, examined 15 cybercrime forums between Jan. 2020 and March 2021. In its report, researchers highlight what CVEs are the most frequently mentioned and try to determine where attackers might strike next.

“Our findings revealed that there is no 100 percent correlation between the two parameters, since the top five CVEs that received the highest number of posts are not exactly the ones that were mentioned on the highest number of Dark Web forums examined,” the report said. “However, it is still enough to understand which CVEs were popular among threat actors on the Dark Web during the time examined.”

https://threatpost.com/top-cves-trending-with-cybercriminals/167889/

Sonicwall Releases Urgent Notice About 'Imminent' Ransomware Targeting Firmware

Networking device maker SonicWall sent out an urgent notice to its customers about "an imminent ransomware campaign using stolen credentials" that is targeting Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 series and Secure Remote Access (SRA) products running unpatched and end-of-life 8.x firmware.

In addition to the notice posted to its website, SonicWall sent an email to anyone using SMA and SRA devices, urging some to disconnect their devices immediately. They worked with Mandiant and other security companies on the issue, according to the release.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/sonicwall-releases-urgent-notice-about-imminent-ransomware-targeting-firmware/

Google Finds Zero-Day Security Flaws In All Your Favourite Browsers

Researchers at Google have shared insight into four zero-day security vulnerabilities in popular web browsers which were exploited in the wild earlier this year.

DIscovered by Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), the four vulnerabilities in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and WebKit, the browser engine used by Apple's Safari, were used as a part of three different campaigns.

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-finds-zero-day-security-flaws-in-all-your-favorite-browsers

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Threats

Ransomware

• Ransomware attackers are growing bolder and using new extortion methods

• REvil ransomware gang's websites vanish soon after Kaseya fiasco, Uncle Sam threatens retaliation

• What it's really like to negotiate with ransomware attackers

• Holding The World To Ransom: Top 5 Online Gangs

• Ransomware demands are digital extortion: don’t pay

• Ransomware recovery: Plan for it now

• Ransomware shows the power and weakness of the web

• This ransomware gang hunts for evidence of crime to pressure victims into paying a ransom

• HelloKitty ransomware now targets VMware ESXi servers

BEC

• Business email compromise (BEC) attacks take phishing to the next level

Phishing

• Kaseya warns of phishing campaign pushing fake security updates

• Phishing, Ransomware Driving Wave of Data Breaches

Other Social Engineering

• Social Engineering Tactics Behind Ransomware

• Propaganda as a Social Engineering Tool

Malware

• Trickbot Malware Rebounds with Virtual-Desktop Espionage Module

• Hackers Spread BIOPASS Malware via Chinese Online Gambling Sites

Mobile

• iOS zero-day let SolarWinds hackers compromise fully updated iPhones

Vulnerabilities

• Microsoft July 2021 Patch Tuesday: 117 vulnerabilities, Pwn2Own Exchange Server bug fixed

• SonicWall vulnerability allows attackers to obtain full control of device and underlying OS

• Microsoft's Emergency Patch Fails to Fully Fix PrintNightmare RCE Vulnerability

• So nice of China to put all of its network zero-day vulns in one giant database no one will think to break into

• Serious Security Vulnerability Hits DrayTek’s UK Fibre Routers

• Kaseya issues patch for on-premise customers, SaaS rollout underway

Data Breaches

• Morgan Stanley suffered data breach of customers after supply chain hack

• Fashion retailer Guess discloses data breach after ransomware attack

• Insurance giant CNA reports data breach after ransomware attack

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• SolarWinds 0-day gave Chinese hackers privileged access to customer servers

• Magecart hackers hide stolen credit card data into images and bogus CSS files

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

• Does cyber crime impact crypto currency prices? Researchers find out

Insider Threats

• New Code42 Study Reveals Significant Impact of Insider Risk

Dark Web

• Feds: Dark web operator sought to sell inside information

Supply Chain

• UK food supply chain vulnerable to cyber-attack, expert warns

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• Vulnerability in Schneider Electric PLCs allows for undetectable remote takeover

• Unpatched Critical RCE Bug Allows Industrial, Utility Takeovers

Nation State Actors

• Fake Zoom App Dropped by New APT ‘Luminous Moth’

• These Iranian hackers posed as academics in a bid to steal email passwords

Privacy

• Threat actors scrape 600 million LinkedIn profiles and are selling the data online – again

User Education, Awareness and Training

• Without training one in three users fall for phishing scams 

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Other News

Kaseya's Staff Sounded the Alarm About Security Flaws for Years Before Ransomware Attack

Israeli Firm Helped Governments Target Journalists, Activists with 0-Days and Spyware

Endpoint Detection (alone) won’t protect your organisation from advanced hacking groups

Kaseya hack proves we need better cyber metrics

Instagram's Security Checkup will help users secure their accounts after a hack

79% of organisations identify threat modelling as a top priority in 2021

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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.