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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 March 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 March 2021: ‘Really Messy’: Why The Hack of Microsoft’s Email System Is Getting Worse - Attacks Doubling Every Two Hours; Trickbot Malware Becoming Huge Security Headache; Criminals Targeting Browser Zero Days; More Than 1m Small Businesses ‘At Risk Of Collapse’ Due To Cyber Threats; Ransomware Attacks Up 150%; Massive Supply-Chain Cyber Attack Breaches Several Airlines; Millions Of Windows Devices Are Still Infested With Malware; Browser Extensions Looking at Bank Accounts?
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
‘Really Messy’: Why The Hack of Microsoft’s Email System Is Getting Worse, With Attacks Doubling Every Two Hours
The cyber security community sprang into action after Microsoft first announced a series of vulnerabilities that let hackers break into the company's Exchange email and calendar programs. China has used it to spy on a wide range of industries in the United States ranging from medical research to law firms to defence contractors, the company said. China has denied responsibility. In the past 24 hours, the team has observed "exploitation attempts on organizations doubling every two to three hours." The countries feeling the brunt of attack attempts are Turkey, the United States, and Italy, accounting for 19%, 18%, and 10% of all tracked exploit attempts, respectively.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-exchange-server-hacks-doubling-every-two-hours/
Trickbot Malware Is Now Your Biggest Security Headache
Trickbot malware has risen to fill the gap left by the takedown of the Emotet botnet, with a higher number of criminals shifting towards it to distribute malware attacks. Emotet was the world's most prolific and dangerous malware botnet before it was disrupted by an international law enforcement operation in January this year.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-trojan-malware-is-now-your-biggest-security-headache/
Cyber Criminals Are Increasingly Targeting Browser Zero Days
As more and more of our work is done within our browsers, cyber criminals have begun to leverage web browser exploits to compromise endpoint systems, according to new research from Menlo Security. At the same time, enterprises around the world were forced to make an almost overnight transition to remote work last year and this surge in employees working from home along with the shift to cloud computing have resulted in a greatly increased attack surface.
https://www.techradar.com/news/cybercriminals-are-increasingly-targeting-browser-zero-days
More Than 1m Small Businesses ‘At Risk Of Collapse’ Due To Cyber Threats
The research, commissioned by Vodafone, also showed that 16 per cent of firms would likely be forced to lay off staff in the event of a hack. As a result, the report called on ministers to beef up the country’s corporate cyber defences, warning that a failure to do so could hamper the post-pandemic economic recovery. It urged the government to expand a dedicated business cyber security within the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ, and introduce a five per cent VAT cut on cybersecurity products for small companies.
Number Of Ransomware Attacks Grew By More Than 150%
By the end of 2020, the ransomware market, fueled by the pandemic turbulence, had turned into the biggest cyber crime money artery. Based on the analysis of more than 500 attacks observed during Group-IB’s own incident response engagements and cyber threat intelligence activity, researchers estimate that the number of ransomware attacks grew by more than 150% in 2020.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/03/08/ransomware-attacks-grew-2020/
Hackers Are Using Home Office Selfies To Steal Your Personal Data
The pandemic has been the source of plenty of memes and new internet trends, not least the remote working selfie, which involves people taking photos of their home office setup or video conferencing sessions. However, a new blog suggests cyber criminals are capitalizing on this new genre of selfie to steal a range of personal data that could be used to execute identity or financial fraud.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/hackers-are-using-home-office-selfies-to-steal-your-personal-data
Massive Supply-Chain Cyber Attack Breaches Several Airlines
A communications and IT vendor for 90 percent of the world’s airlines, SITA, has been breached, compromising passenger data stored on the company’s U.S. servers in what the company is calling a “highly sophisticated attack.” The affected servers are in Atlanta, and belong to the SITA Passenger Service System (SITA PSS).
https://threatpost.com/supply-chain-cyberattack-airlines/164549/
Millions Of Windows Devices Are Still Infested With Malware
Over 100 million Windows consumer and business devices across the world were infected with malware last year, new analysis has found. While examining the recent Malwarebytes "State of Malware" report, Atlas VPN noted that whilst the number of infected Windows machines seems high, this landmark figure was actually 12% drop when compared to 2019.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/millions-of-windows-devices-are-still-infested-with-malware
Did You Know Browser Extensions Are Looking at Your Bank Account?
Browser extensions have full access to all the web pages you visit. It can see which web pages you are browsing, read their contents, and watch everything you type. It could even modify the web pages—for example, by inserting extra advertisements. If the extension is malicious, it could gather all that private data of yours—from web browsing activity and the emails you type to your passwords and financial information—and send it to a remote server on the internet.
https://www.howtogeek.com/716771/did-you-know-browser-extensions-are-looking-at-your-bank-account/
Threats
Ransomware
Capcom reportedly forced employees to work in the office following ransomware attack
Fake Ad Blocker Delivers Hybrid Cryptominer/Ransomware Infection
New ransomware only decrypts victims who join their Discord server
Phishing
Malware
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
Microsoft's March Patch Tuesday: Critical remote code execution flaws, IE zero-day fixed
F5 issues BIG-IP patches to tackle unauthenticated remote code execution, critical flaws
Hackers Exploit QNAP Vulnerabilities to Turn NAS Devices Into Crypto Miners
Malware Can Exploit New Flaw in Intel CPUs to Launch Side-Channel Attacks
Adobe releases batch of security fixes for Framemaker, Creative Cloud, Connect
Critical 0-day that targeted security researchers gets a patch
Intel CPU interconnects can be exploited by malware to leak encryption keys and other info
Organised Crime
Dark Web
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation-State Actors
Researchers Unveil New Linux Malware Linked to Chinese Hackers
United States considering cyber war on Russia in retaliation for SolarWinds hack
Privacy
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 March 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 March 2021: New Strain Of Ransomware Implements Self-Spreading Capabilities; One In Four People Use Work Passwords For Consumer Websites; Massive Rise In Threats Across Expanding Attack Surfaces; Half of Orgs Concerned Remote Working Puts Them at Greater Risk of Cyber Attacks; Microsoft Patches Four Zero-Day Exchange Server Bugs; A Booming Trade In Bugs Is Undermining Cyber Security; Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered; Solarwinds Security Fiasco May Have Started With Simple Password Blunders
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
New Strain Of Ransomware Implements Self-Spreading Capabilities
French experts spotted a new Ryuk ransomware variant that implements self-spreading capabilities to infect other devices on victims’ local networks.
This new version has a new attribute that allows it to self replicate over the local network allowing the malware to propagate itself – machine to machine – within the Windows domain. Once launched, it will spread itself to every Windows machine it can reach.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/115064/reports/ryuk-ransomware-self-spreading-capabilities.html
One In Four People Use Work Passwords For Consumer Websites
The report found that one in four consumers admit to using their work email or passwords to log in to consumer websites and applications such as food delivery apps, online shopping sites and even dating apps. The report found that consumers are neglecting to implement fundamental security safeguards across smart IoT devices at home, which could have serious security ramifications on both the individual and the enterprise amid increased and ongoing remote work spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/26/use-work-passwords-for-consumer-websites/
Massive Rise In Threats Across Expanding Attack Surfaces
New malware samples nearly doubled: New ransomware samples increased 106% year-over-year. Trojans increased 128%, with threat actors using trojans to exploit lower-severity vulnerabilities. Sophisticated, multi-staged attacks and malware-as-a-service have become the norm. Vulnerabilities hit a new high: 18,341 new vulnerabilities in 2020 have been reported. To stay ahead of attacks, security and risk leaders need sophisticated insights into which vulnerabilities are high-risk and remediation options for all assets, including non-patching options.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/26/expanding-attack-surfaces/
Half of Organisations Concerned Remote Working Puts Them at Greater Risk of Cyber Attacks
Half of organizations are concerned that the shift to remote work is putting them a greater risk of Cyber Attacks, according to a new study with IDG. A survey of UK CIOs, CTOs and IT decision makers revealed that insecure practices are regularly taking place among remote workers, providing more opportunities for Cyber Criminals to strike.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/half-orgs-remote-working-risk/
Microsoft Patches Four Zero-Day Exchange Server Bugs
Microsoft has been forced to release out-of-band patches to fix multiple zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited by Chinese state-backed threat actors. The unusual step was taken to protect customers running on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Server.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/microsoft-patch-four-zeroday/
A Booming Trade In Bugs Is Undermining Cyber Security
If you discover that a favourite vending-machine dispenses free chocolate when its buttons are pressed just so, what should you do? The virtuous option is to tell the manufacturer, so it can fix it. The temptation is to gorge.
Is Your Browser Extension A Botnet Backdoor?
A company that rents out access to more than 10 million Web browsers so that clients can hide their true Internet addresses has built its network by paying browser extension makers to quietly include its code in their creations. This story examines the lopsided economics of extension development, and why installing an extension can be such a risky proposition.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/is-your-browser-extension-a-botnet-backdoor/
Cyber Attack Shuts Down Online Learning At 15 UK Schools
A threat actor was able to access the trust's central network infrastructure and while an investigation took place, all existing phone, email, and website communication had to be pulled. Students are still learning remotely in England. Schools are set to reopen on March 8, but in the meantime, only a small subset of children are attending school physically, such as the children of key workers.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cyberattack-shuts-down-online-learning-at-15-uk-schools/
First Fully Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered Online
A fully weaponized exploit for the Spectre CPU vulnerability was uploaded on the malware-scanning website VirusTotal last month, marking the first time a working exploit capable of doing actual damage has entered the public domain. The exploit was discovered and targets Spectre, a major vulnerability that was disclosed in January 2018. According to its website, the Spectre bug is a hardware design flaw in the architectures of Intel, AMD, and ARM processors that allows code running inside bad apps to break the isolation between different applications at the CPU level and then steal sensitive data from other apps running on the same system.
https://therecord.media/first-fully-weaponized-spectre-exploit-discovered-online/
Solarwinds Security Fiasco May Have Started With Simple Password Blunders
We still do not know just how bad the SolarWinds security breach is. We do know over a hundred US government agencies and companies were cracked. "The largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen," with more than a thousand hackers behind it. It may have all started when an intern first set an important password to "'solarwinds123." Then, adding insult to injury, the intern shared the password on GitHub.
Threats
Ransomware
Data analytics agency Polecat held to ransom after server exposed 30TB of records
Ransomware gang hacks Ecuador's largest private bank, Ministry of Finance
Search crimes – how the Gootkit gang poisons Google searches
Qualys hit with ransomware: customer invoices leaked on extortionists' tor blog
Phishing
Malware
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
These Microsoft Exchange Server zero-day flaws are being used by hackers, so update now
Working Windows and Linux Spectre exploits found on VirusTotal
Google shares PoC exploit for critical Windows 10 Graphics RCE bug
If you own a MacBook, download and install macOS Big Sur 11.2.2 ASAP
Data Breaches
Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked—Including Private Data
Singapore Airlines frequent flyer members hit in third-party data security breach
Organised Crime
Dark Web
Supply Chain
Why supply chains are today's fastest growing cyber security threat
Bombardier is latest victim of Accellion supply chain attack
Nation-State Actors
Indian cyber espionage activity rising amid growing rivalry with China, Pakistan
Security News This Week: The SolarWinds Body Count Now Includes NASA and the FAA
Privacy
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 December 2020
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 December 2020: The great hack attack - SolarWinds breach exposes big gaps in cyber security; A wake-up for the world on cyber security; White House activates cyber emergency response; US nuclear weapons agency targeted; UK companies targeted; Increasing Risk of Cyber Attacks; millions of users install malicious browser extensions; C19 Vaccines sold on dark web
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 Headlines of the Week
The great hack attack: SolarWinds breach exposes big gaps in cyber security
Until this week, SolarWinds was a little known IT software group from Texas. Its deserted lobby has a framed magazine article from a few years ago when it was on a list of America’s “Best Small Companies”.
Now the Austin-based company is at the heart of one of the biggest and most startling cyber hacks in recent history, with ramifications that extend into the fields of geopolitics, espionage and national security.
For nine months, sophisticated state-backed hackers have exploited a ubiquitous SolarWinds software product in order to spy on government and business networks around the world, including in the US, UK, Israel and Canada. Wielding innovative tools and tradecraft, the cyber spies lurked in email services, and posed as legitimate staffers to tap confidential information stored in the cloud.
The bombshell revelations have sent 18,000 exposed SolarWinds customers scrambling to assess whether outsiders did indeed enter their systems, what the damage was and how to fix it.
https://www.ft.com/content/c13dbb51-907b-4db7-8347-30921ef931c2
A wake-up for the world on cyber security
Imagine intruders break into your home and loiter undetected for months, spying on you and deciding which contents to steal. This in essence is the kind of access that hackers, assumed to be Russian, achieved in recent months at US government institutions including the Treasury and departments of commerce and homeland security, and potentially many US companies. If the fear in the Cold War was of occasional “moles” gaining access to secrets, this is akin to a small army of moles burrowing through computer systems. The impact is still being assessed, but it marks one of the biggest security breaches of the digital era.
https://www.ft.com/content/d3fc0b14-4a82-4671-b023-078516ea714e
US government, thousands of businesses now thought to have been affected by SolarWinds security attack
Thousands of businesses and several branches of the US government are now thought to have been affected by the attack on software firm SolarWinds.
The Austin-based company has fallen victim to a massive supply chain attack believed to be the work of state-sponsored hackers.
Along with the US treasury and commerce departments, the Department of Homeland Security is now thought to have been affected by the attack. In a statement to the SEC today, SolarWinds said it had notified 33,000 customers of its recent hack, but that only 18,000 of these used the affected version of its Orion platform.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/solarwinds-suffers-massive-supply-chain-attack
White House activates cyber emergency response under Obama-era directive
In the wake of the SolarWinds breach, the National Security Council has activated an emergency cyber security process that is intended to help the government plan its response and recovery efforts, according to White House officials and other sources.
The move is a sign of just how seriously the Trump administration is taking the foreign espionage operation, former NSC officials told CyberScoop.
The action is rooted in a presidential directive issued during the Obama administration known as PPD-41, which establishes a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) that is intended to help the U.S. government coordinate multiple agencies’ responses to the significant hacking incident.
The UCG is generally led by the Department of Justice — through the FBI and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force — as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security.
https://www.cyberscoop.com/solarwinds-white-house-national-security-council-emergency-meetings/
Hackers targeted US nuclear weapons agency in massive cyber security breach, reports say
The National Nuclear Security Administration and Energy Department, which safeguard the US stockpile of nuclear weapons, have had their networks hacked as part of the widespread cyber espionage attack on a number of federal agencies.
Politico reports that officials have begun coordinating notifications about the security breach to the relevant congressional oversight bodies.
Suspicious activity was identified in the networks of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation, and the Richland Field Office of the Department of Energy.
Officials with direct knowledge of the matter said hackers have been able to do more damage to the network at FERC, according to the report.
Microsoft warns UK companies were targeted by SolarWinds hackers
Microsoft has warned that some of its UK customers have been exposed to the malware used in the Russia-linked SolarWinds hack that targeted US states and government agencies.
More than 40 of the tech giant's customers are thought to have used breached SolarWinds software, including clients in Britain, the US, Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, Israel, and the UAE.
The company would not name the victims, but said they include government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organisations and IT firms. Microsoft said four in five were in the US, with nearly half of them tech companies.
“This is not ‘espionage as usual,’ even in the digital age,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president. “Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world.”
The attackers, believed to be working for the Russian government, got into computer networks by installing a vulnerability in Orion software from SolarWinds.
Society at Increasingly High Risk of Cyber Attacks
Cyber attacks are becoming easier to conduct while conversely security is getting increasingly difficult, according to Kevin Curran, senior IEEE member and professor of cyber security, Ulster University, during a virtual media roundtable.
“Any company you can think of has had a data breach,” he commented. “Whenever a data breach happens it weakens our credentials because our passwords are often reused on different websites.”
He observed that the art of hacking doesn’t necessarily require a significant amount of technical expertise anymore, and bad actors can receive substantial help from numerous and readily accessible tools online. “You don’t have to spend seven years in college to learn how to hack, you just have to know about these sites and what terms to use,” noted Curran.
A number of legitimate online mechanisms that can help damaging attacks to be launched by hackers were highlighted by Curran in his presentation. These include Google Dorks, which are “search strings which point to website vulnerabilities.” This means vulnerable accounts can be identified simply via Google searches.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/society-increasingly-risk-cyber/
Three million users installed 28 malicious Chrome or Edge extensions
More than three million internet users are believed to have installed 15 Chrome, and 13 Edge extensions that contain malicious code, security firm Avast said today.
The 28 extensions contained code that could perform several malicious operations, including:
-redirect user traffic to ads
-redirect user traffic to phishing sites
-collect personal data, such as birth dates, email addresses, and active devices
-collect browsing history
-download further malware onto a user's device
But despite the presence of code to power all the above malicious features, Avast researchers said they believe the primary objective of this campaign was to hijack user traffic for monetary gains.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/three-million-users-installed-28-malicious-chrome-or-edge-extensions/
Vaccines for sale on dark web as criminals target pandemic profits
Black market vendors were offering coronavirus vaccines for sale on hidden parts of the internet days after the first Covid-19 shot was approved this month, as criminals seek to profit from global demand for inoculations.
One such offer on the so-called dark web, traced by cyber security company Check Point Software, was priced at $250 with the seller promising “stealth” delivery in double-wrapped packaging. Shipping from the US via post or a leading courier company would cost $20, with an extra $5 securing overnight delivery.
https://www.ft.com/content/8bfc674e-efe6-4ee0-b860-7fcb5716bed6
Threats
Ransomware
FBI says DoppelPaymer ransomware gang is harassing victims who refuse to pay
House purchases in Hackney fall through following cyber attack against council
Mount Locker Ransomware Offering Double Extortion Scheme to Other Hackers
Ransomware operators use SystemBC RAT as off-the-shelf Tor backdoor
Phishing
Subway Sandwich Loyalty-Card Users Suffer Ham-Handed Phishing Scam
Microsoft Office 365 Credentials Under Attack By Fax ‘Alert’ Emails
IoT
Malware
New iOS and Android spyware responsible for multi-layered sextortion campaign
Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge hijacked by massive malware attack: What you need to know
This nasty malware is infecting every web browser — what to do now
Tor malware is becoming a worryingly popular ransomware tool
Vulnerabilities
Israeli Phone-hacking Firm Claims It Can Now Break Into Encrypted Signal App
PgMiner botnet exploits disputed CVE to hack unsecured PostgreSQL DBs
Zero-day in WordPress SMTP plugin abused to reset admin account passwords
Sophos fixes SQL injection vulnerability in their Cyberoam OS
Wormable code-execution flaw in Cisco Jabber has a severity rating of 9.9 out of 10
Data Breaches
Twitter hit with €450,000 GDPR fine nearly two years after disclosing data breach
Data Leak Exposes Details of Two Million Chinese Communist Party Members
Organised Crime
Nation State Actors
Privacy
UK police unlawfully processing over a million people’s data on Microsoft 365
Sci-fi surveillance: Europe's secretive push into biometric technology
Other News
Reports Published in the Last Week
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 19 June 2020: Widespread Office 365 phishing attacks, new cyber storm as businesses reopen, cyber spies use LinkedIn, largest ever DDoS attack, Ripple20 IoT vulns
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 19 June 2020: Widespread Office 365 phishing attacks, new cyber storm as businesses reopen, cyber spies use LinkedIn, largest ever DDoS attack, Ripple20 IoT vulns
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.
If you’re pressed for time watch the 60 second quick fire video summary of the top Cyber and InfoSec stories from the last week:
Office 365 Phishing Campaign Exploits Samsung, Adobe and Oxford Servers
Over the last few years, the adoption of Office 365 in the corporate sector has significantly increased. Its popularity has attracted the attention of cyber criminals who launch phishing campaigns specifically to attack the platform. As 90% of cyber-attacks start with a phishing campaign, Office 365 is an attractive target for threat actors who work to evade the continuously introduced security solutions.
Recently, a seemingly unsophisticated Office 365 phishing campaign caught our attention. The attackers abused an Adobe Campaign redirection mechanism, using a Samsung domain to redirect victims to an O365 themed phishing website. The hackers took advantage of the fact that access to a reputable domain, such as Samsung’s, would not be blocked by security software.
To expand their campaign, the attackers also compromised several websites to inject a script that imitates the same mechanism offered by the Adobe redirection service. Further investigation revealed that the actors behind the campaign implemented a few other interesting tricks to hide the phishing kit and avoid detection at each stage of the attack.
Read more here: https://research.checkpoint.com/2020/phishing-campaign-exploits-samsung-adobe-and-oxford-servers/
Guernsey Police warn businesses in Guernsey using Office 365 also targeted by scammers
Guernsey Police are warning local businesses about an online scam targeting users of Office 365.
Officers have been in contact with several businesses using the service who have fallen victim to phishing scams which have allowed hackers access to their email inbox.
The hackers then distribute malicious links to their contacts.
Police say using multi-factor authentication can help keep personal data safe.
Anyone who receives an unexpected email from someone they trust containing a link should contact them directly to make sure they sent it.
As Businesses Reopen, A New Storm Of Cybercrime Activity Looms
There is nothing ordinary about the amount of disruption that will impact our lives moving forward as countries and states reopen following the coronavirus pandemic. In the context of the cloud, disruptions caused by COVID-19 have opened the door to another type of virus: cybersecurity threats. Today we are witnessing a rapid rise of opportunistic cybercriminal activity taking advantage of the chaos created by COVID-19.
Focal concerns about economic recovery and a potential second wave of human infection are abounding. Still, the concern for many companies should also include heightened cybersecurity threats that can easily break companies before they have a chance to relaunch. For the many companies that are already fighting to remain afloat due to challenges faced during COVID-19, a cybersecurity breach could quickly mean the end. As businesses navigate this “new normal,” they must address weaknesses in their IT strategies exposed by COVID-19 and consider implementing a better preparedness plan to avoid long-term damage.
Microsoft: COVID-19 malware attacks were barely a blip in total malware volume
Microsoft says that despite all the media headlines over the past few months, malware attacks that abused the coronavirus (COVID-19) theme have barely been a blip in the total volume of threats the company sees each month.
These COVID-19 attacks included emails carrying malicious file attachments (also referred to as malspam) and emails containing malicious links that redirect users to phishing sites or malware downloads.
According to Microsoft's Threat Protection Intelligence Team, the first attacks abusing a COVID-19 lure started after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on January 30.
As the world yearned to learn more about this new disease, attacks intensified, and they peaked in March when most of the world's countries enforced stay-at-home measures.
"The week following [the WHO] declaration saw these attacks increase eleven-fold," Microsoft said. "By the end of March, every country in the world had seen at least one COVID-19 themed attack."
Cyber spies use LinkedIn to hack European defence firms
LONDON (Reuters) - Hackers posed as recruiters working for U.S. defence giants Collins Aerospace and General Dynamics (GD.N) on LinkedIn to break into the networks of military contractors in Europe, cyber security researchers said on Wednesday.
The cyber spies were able to compromise the systems of at least two defence and aerospace firms in Central Europe last year by approaching employees with pseudo job offers from the U.S. firms.
The attackers then used LinkedIn’s private messaging feature to send documents containing malicious code which the employees were tricked into opening.
The researcher declined to name the victims, citing client confidentiality, and said it was unclear if any information was stolen. General Dynamics and Collins Aerospace, which is owned by Raytheon Technologies RTX.N, declined immediate comment.
The researchers were unable to determine the identity of the hackers but said the attacks had some links to a North Korean group known as Lazarus, which has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of orchestrating a string of high-profile cyber heists on victims including Sony Pictures and the Central Bank of Bangladesh.
Read more here: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-linkedin-hacks/cyber-spies-use-linkedin-to-hack-european-defence-firms-idUKKBN23O2L7
Australian PM says nation under serious state-run 'cyber attack' – Microsoft, Citrix, Telerik UI bugs 'exploited'
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called a snap press conference to reveal that the nation is under cyber-attack by a state-based actor, but the nation’s infosec advice agency says that while the attacker has gained access to some systems it has not conducted “any disruptive or destructive activities within victim environments.”
Morrison said the attack has targeted government, key infrastructure and the private sector, and was sufficiently serious that he took the courteous-in-a-crisis, but not-compulsory step, of informing the leader of the opposition about the incident. He also said that the primary purpose of the snap press conference was to inform and educate Australians about the incident.
But Morrison declined to state whether Australian defence agencies have identified the source of the attack and said evidence gathered to date does not meet the government’s threshold of certainty to name the attacker.
Read more here: https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/19/australia_state_cyberattack/
Google removes 106 Chrome extensions for collecting sensitive user data
Google has removed 106 malicious Chrome extensions that have been caught collecting sensitive user data.
The 106 extensions are part of a batch of 111 Chrome extensions that have been identified as malicious in a report published this week.
These extensions posed as tools to improve web searches, convert files between different formats, as security scanners, and more.
But in reality the extensions contained code to bypass Google's Chrome Web Store security scans, take screenshots, read the clipboard, harvest authentication cookies, or grab user keystrokes (such as passwords).
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-removes-106-chrome-extensions-for-collecting-sensitive-user-data/
AWS stops largest DDoS attack ever
Amazon has revealed that its AWS Shield service was able to mitigate the largest DDoS attack ever recorded at 2.3 Tbps back in February of this year.
The company's new AWS Shield Threat Landscape report provided details on this attack and others mitigated by its AWS Shield protection service.
While the report did not identify the AWS customer targeted in the DDoS attack, it did say that the attack itself was carried out using hijacked CLDAP (Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) web servers and lasted for three days.
https://www.techradar.com/news/aws-stops-largest-ddos-attack-ever
Ripple20 Vulnerabilities Affect Hundreds of Millions of IoT Devices
Zero-day vulnerabilities have been discovered that could impact millions of IoT devices found in data centres, power grids, and elsewhere.
The flaws, dubbed Ripple20, includes multiple remote code execution vulnerabilities and affects "hundreds of millions of devices (or more)."
Researchers named the vulnerabilities Ripple20 to reflect the widespread impact they have had as a natural consequence of the supply chain "ripple-effect" that has seen the widespread dissemination of the software library and its internal flaws.
"A single vulnerable component, though it may be relatively small in and of itself, can ripple outward to impact a wide range of industries, applications, companies, and people," wrote researchers.
Ripple20 reached critical IoT devices involving a diverse group of vendors from a wide range of industries. Affected vendors range from one-person boutique shops to Fortune 500 multinational corporations, including HP, Schneider Electric, Intel, Rockwell Automation, Caterpillar, and Baxter.
Read more: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ripple20-vulnerabilities-discovered/
Unpatched vulnerability identified in 79 Netgear router models
A whopping 79 Netgear router models are vulnerable to a severe security flaw that can let hackers take over devices remotely.
The vulnerability has been discovered by two security researchers independently, namely Adam Nichols from cyber-security GRIMM and a security researcher going by the nickname of d4rkn3ss, working for Vietnamese internet service provider VNPT.
According to Nichols, the vulnerability impacts 758 different firmware versions that have been used on 79 Netgear routers across the years, with some firmware versions being first deployed on devices released as far back as 2007.
This lack of proper security protections opens the door for an attacker to craft malicious HTTP requests that can be used to take over the router.
More here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/unpatched-vulnerability-identified-in-79-netgear-router-models/
New Mac malware uses 'novel' tactic to bypass macOS Catalina security
Security researchers have discovered a new Mac malware in the wild that tricks users into bypassing modern macOS app security protections.
In macOS Catalina, Apple introduced new app notarization requirements. The features, baked in Gatekeeper, discourage users from opening unverified apps — requiring malware authors to get more creative with their tactics.
As an example, researchers have discovered a new Trojan horse malware actively spreading in the wild via poisoned Google search results that tricks users into bypassing those protections themselves.
The malware is delivered as a .dmg disk image masquerading as an Adobe Flash installer. But once it's mounted on a user's machine, it displays instructions guiding users through the malicious installation process.