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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 April 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 April 2022

-One Tenth of UK Staff Bypass Corporate Security

-Majority Of Data Security Incidents Caused by Insiders

-One-Third of UK Firms Suffer A Cyber Attack Every Week

-Russia's Cyber Criminals Fear Sanctions Will Erase Their Wealth

-86% Of Organisations Believe They Have Suffered a Nation-State Cyber Attack

-Multiple Hacking Groups Are Using the War in Ukraine As A Lure In Phishing Attempts

-4 Ways Attackers Target Humans to Gain Network Access

-Security Incidents Reported to FCA Surge 52% in 2021

-NCSC Suggests Rethinking Russian Supply Chain Risks

-25% Of Workers Lost Their Jobs In The Past 12 Months After Making Cyber Security Mistakes: Report

-Attackers Compromise 94% Of Critical Assets Within Four Steps Of Initial Breach

-UK Spy Chief Warns Russia Looking for Cyber Targets

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

  • One Tenth of UK Staff Bypass Corporate Security

A new study from Cisco has found that a tenth of UK employees actively circumvent their organisation’s security measures.

The network technology company polled over 1000 UK professionals working for organisations that allow hybrid working, in order to better understand the potential security risks of the modern, flexible workplace.

The research has revealed that many hybrid workers do not see cyber security as their responsibility, with many actively finding workarounds or engaging in risky behaviours such as password reuse.

19% of employees said they reuse passwords for multiple accounts and applications, with only 15% using password managers.

The problem seems to stem from user friction in existing security measures. Only 44% of survey participants said they found it easy to securely access their IT equipment.

A majority said they would be willing to use biometric authentication, a reflection of how enterprise security is still catching up to consumer functionality.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/03/28/one-tenth-of-uk-staff-bypass-corporate-security/

  • Majority Of Data Security Incidents Caused by Insiders

New research from Imperva has revealed that 70% of EMEA organisations have no insider risk strategy, despite 59% of data security incidents being caused by employees.

The shocking revelation comes as part of a wider study carried out by Forrester: Insider Threats Drive Data Protection Improvements. The study involved interviewing 150 security and IT professionals in EMEA.

An insider threat is defined by Imperva as originating from “inappropriate use of legitimate authorised user accounts” by either their rightful owner or a threat actor who has managed to compromise them.

The study found that insider threats were responsible for 59% of incidents impacting sensitive data in the past 12 months. This supports a previous Imperva analysis of the most significant breaches of the past five years, revealing that 24% were caused by either human error or compromised credentials.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/04/01/majority-of-data-security-incidents-caused-by-insiders/

  • One-Third of UK Firms Suffer a Cyber Attack Every Week

Cyber attacks and related incidents at UK organisations continue their seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory, with new statistics from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) revealing that 31% of businesses and 26% of charity organisations now experience incidents on a weekly basis.

The data, contained in the annual cyber security breaches survey report, paints a stark picture of the scale of the threat facing the average organisation, and the urgent need to boost standards and defences.

It is vital that every organisation takes cyber security seriously as more and more business is done online and we live in a time of increasing cyber risk.  No matter how big or small your organisation is, you need to take steps to improve digital resilience.

Some 20% of businesses and 19% of charities said they had experienced a negative outcome as a direct consequence of an attack. The average cost of an attack, spread out across all organisations, now works out at £4,200, or £19,400 if only medium and large businesses are considered, although there is probably a vast amount of under-reporting, so the true figures are certainly higher.

Meanwhile, 35% of businesses and 38% of charities said they had experienced some kind of negative impact during the incident, such as service downtime.

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252515288/One-third-of-UK-firms-suffer-a-cyber-attack-every-week

  • Russia's Cyber Criminals Fear Sanctions Will Erase Their Wealth

Punitive economic sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine had crooks discussing the best ways to adapt to the new reality.

Members of Russian-language underground forums are not immune to the latest news. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent economic sanctions against Moscow got forum users to discuss how to live in this new world they find themselves in.

According to a report by the Digital Shadows Photon team, dark web forums are teeming with questions on how to ensure the safety of funds held in Russia-based accounts.

One user sought advice on what to do with dollars held in a Russian bank, with others suggesting converting dollars to rubles for a few months.

"I hope you were joking about [holding the funds in rubles for] half a year? After half a year, your rubles will only be good for lighting a fire, they will not be good for anything else," a forum user responded.

https://cybernews.com/news/russias-cybercriminals-fear-sanctions-will-erase-their-wealth/

  • 86% Of Organisations Believe They Have Suffered a Nation-State Cyber Attack

A new study by Trellix and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has revealed that 86% of organisations believe they have fallen victim to a nation-state cyber attack.

The research surveyed 800 IT decision-makers in Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UK and US.

It has also been revealed that 92% of respondents have faced, or suspect they have faced, a nation-state backed cyber attack in the past 18 months, or anticipate one in the future.

Russia and China were identified as the most likely suspects behind said attacks. 39% of organisations that believe they have been hit with a nation-state cyber attack believe Russia were the perpetrators.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/03/29/86-of-organisations-believe-they-have-suffered-a-nation-state-cyberattack/

  • Multiple Hacking Groups Are Using the War in Ukraine as A Lure in Phishing Attempts

Hostile hacking groups are exploiting Russia's invasion of Ukraine to carry out cyber attacks designed to steal login credentials, sensitive information, money and more from victims around the world.

According to cyber security researchers at Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), government-backed hackers from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, as well as various unattributed groups and cyber criminal gangs, are using various themes related to the war in Ukraine to lure people into becoming victims of cyber attacks.

In just the last two weeks alone, Google has seen several hacking groups looking to take advantage of the war to fulfil their malicious aims, whether that's stealing information, stealing money, or something else.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-multiple-hacking-groups-are-using-the-war-in-ukraine-as-a-lure-in-phishing-attempts/

  • 4 Ways Attackers Target Humans to Gain Network Access

Since the day we started receiving email, we hope that our antivirus or endpoint protection software alerts us to problems. In reality, it often does not. When technology fails, it’s likely because the attacker made an end run around it by targeting humans. Here are four ways they do it:

1. The targeted human attack

2. Fraudulent wire transfer email

3. Tricking users into handing over credentials

4. Bypassing multi-factor authentication

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3654850/4-ways-attackers-target-humans-to-gain-network-access.html#tk.rss_news

  • Security Incidents Reported to FCA Surge 52% in 2021

The number of cyber security incidents reported to the UK’s financial regulator surged by over 50% last year after a significant increase in cyber-attacks, according to new figures from Picus Security.

The security vendor submitted Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to compile its latest report, Cyber Security Incidents in the UK Financial Sector.

The 52% year-on-year increase in “material” security incidents reported to the FCA seems to have been driven by cyber-attacks, which comprised nearly two-thirds (65%) of these reports.

Picus Security claimed that the rest are likely explained by “system and process failures and employee errors.”

In addition, a third of incident reports were about corporate or personal data breaches, and a fifth involved ransomware.

Picus Security explained that to qualify as a material incident, there needs to have been a significant loss of data, operational IT outages, unauthorized IT access, and/or an impact on a large number of customers.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/security-incidents-reported-fca/

  • NCSC Suggests Rethinking Russian Supply Chain Risks

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of the UK has urged organisations to reconsider the risks associated with “Russian-controlled” parts of their supply chains.

Ian Levy, technical director of the NCSC argued that “Russian law already contains legal obligations on companies to assist the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and the pressure to do so may increase in a time of war. We also have hacktivists on each side, further complicating matters, so the overall risk has materially changed.”

Levy has suggested that while there is currently nothing to suggest that the Russian state intends to force commercial providers to sabotage UK interests, that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/03/30/ncsc-suggests-rethinking-russian-supply-chain-risks/

  • 25% Of Workers Lost Their Jobs in The Past 12 Months After Making Cyber Security Mistakes: Report

For business leaders, there is never a good time for their employees to make mistakes on the job. This is especially true now for workers who have anything to do with the cyber security of their companies and organisations. Given the growing risks of cyber attacks across the world and the increased threats posed by Russia in the aftermath of their invasion of Ukraine, these are certainly perilous times.

Indeed, a new study released by email security company Tessian found that one in four employees (26%) lost their job in the last 12 months after making a mistake that compromised their company’s security.

According to the second edition of Tessian’s Psychology of Human Error report, people are falling for more advanced phishing scams—and the business stakes for mistakes are much higher.

The study also found that:

  • Two-fifths (40%) of employees sent an email to the wrong person, with almost one-third (29%) saying their business lost a client or customer because of the error

  • Over one-third (36%) of employees have made a mistake at work that compromised security and fewer are reporting their mistakes to IT.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2022/03/29/25-of-workers-lost-their-jobs-in-the-past-12-months-after-making-cybersecurity-mistakes-report/?sh=d47cdfa49b26

  • Attackers Compromise 94% of Critical Assets Within Four Steps of Initial Breach

New research from XM Cyber analysing the methods, attack paths, and impacts of cyber attacks has discovered that attackers can compromise 94% of critical assets within just four steps of initial breach points. The hybrid cloud security company’s Attack Path Management Impact Report incorporates insights from nearly two million endpoints, files, folders, and cloud resources throughout 2021, highlighting key findings on attack trends and techniques impacting critical assets across on-prem, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments.

The findings showed that 75% of an organisation’s critical assets are open to compromise in their current security state, while 73% of the top attack techniques used last year involved mismanaged or stolen credentials. Just over a quarter (27%) of most common attack techniques exploited a vulnerability or misconfiguration.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3655633/attackers-compromise-94-of-critical-assets-within-four-steps-of-initial-breach.html

  • UK Spy Chief Warns Russia Looking for Cyber Targets

A UK intelligence chief warned that the Kremlin is hunting for cyber targets and bringing in mercenaries to shore up its stalled military campaign in Ukraine.

Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ electronic spy agency, praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “information operation” for being highly effective at countering Russia’s massive disinformation drive spreading propaganda about the war.

While there were expectations that Russia would launch a major cyber attack as part of its military campaign, Fleming said such a move was never a central part of Moscow’s standard playbook for war.

“That’s not to say that we haven’t seen cyber in this conflict. We have — and lots of it,” Fleming said in a speech in Canberra, Australia, according to a transcript released in London on Wednesday.

He said GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre has picked up signs of “sustained intent” by Russia to disrupt Ukrainian government and military systems.

“We’ve seen what looks like some spillover of activity affecting surrounding countries,” Fleming said. “And we’ve certainly seen indicators which suggest Russia’s cyber actors are looking for targets in the countries that oppose their actions.”

He provided no further details. He said the UK and other Western allies will continue to support Ukraine in beefing up its cyber security defences.

https://www.securityweek.com/uk-spy-chief-warns-russia-looking-cyber-targets

Threats

Ransomware

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IoT

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Supply Chain

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 July 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 July 2021: Russian Hackers Target IT Supply Chain In Ransomware Attack Leading To Hundreds Of Firms Being Hit; 71% Of Orgs Experienced BEC Attacks Over The Past Year; Cyber Insurance Making Ransomware Crisis Worse; Breach Exposes 92% Of LinkedIn Users; Users Clueless About Cyber Security Risks; Paying Ransoms Make You A Bigger Target; Cyber Crime Never Sleeps; Classified MOD Docs Found At Bus Stop; Don’t Leave Your Cyber IR Plan To IT, It’s An Organisational Risk

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

Russian Hackers Target IT Supply Chain In Ransomware Attack Leading To Hundreds Of Firms Being Hit

Hackers began a ransomware attack on Friday, hitting at least 200 companies, according to cyber security researchers. 

In what appears to be one of the largest supply chain attacks to date, hackers compromised Kaseya, an IT management software supplier, in order to spread ransomware to the managed service providers that use its technology, as well as to their clients in turn. 

The attacks have been attributed t=to REvil, the notorious Russia-linked ransomware cartel that the FBI claimed was behind recent crippling attack on beef supplier JBS. 

The attack is the latest example of hackers weaponising the IT supply chain in order to attack victims at scale, by breaching just one provider. Last year, it emerged that Russian state-backed hackers had hijacked the SolarWinds IT software group in order to penetrate the email networks of US federal agencies and corporations, for example. 

Late on Friday, Kaseya urged those using the compromised “VSA server” tool, which provides remote monitoring and patching capabilities, to shut it down immediately. 

https://www.ft.com/content/a8e7c9a2-5819-424f-b087-c6f2e8f0c7a1

71% Of Organisations Experienced BEC Attacks Over The Past Year

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks are one of the most financially damaging cyber crimes and have been on the rise over the past year. This is according to a new report which revealed that spoofed email accounts or websites accounted for the highest number of BEC attack as 71% of organisations acknowledged they had seen one over the past year. This is followed by spear phishing (69%) and malware (24%). Data from 270 IT and cyber security professionals were collected to identify the latest enterprise adoption trends, gaps and solution preferences related to phishing attacks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/25/bec-attacks-past-year/

Cyber Insurance Isn't Helping With Cyber Security, And It Might Be Making The Ransomware Crisis Worse, Say Researchers

Cyber insurance is designed to protect organisations against the fallout of cyber attacks, including covering the financial costs of dealing with incidents. However, some critics argue that insurance encourages ransomware victims to simply pay the ransom demand that will then be covered by the insurers, rather than have adequate security to deter hackers in the first place. Insurers argue that it's the customer that makes any decision to pay the ransom, not the insurer.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-has-become-anc`-existential-threat-that-means-cyber-insurance-is-about-to-change/

LinkedIn Breach Reportedly Exposes Data Of 92% Of Users, Including Inferred Salaries

A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries. The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up to date. No passwords are included, but as the site notes, this is still valuable data that can be used for identity theft and convincing-looking phishing attempts that can themselves be used to obtain login credentials for LinkedIn and other sites. https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/

Users Clueless About Cyber Security Risks

Organisations are facing yet another unprecedented threat to their cyber security now that employees are headed back into offices with their personal devices, lax security hygiene and no clue about some of the most catastrophic attacks in history, such as the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. A new survey shows the mountains of work ahead for security teams in not just locking down their organisations’ systems but also in keeping users from getting duped into handing over the keys to the kingdom. 2,000 end users were surveyed in the U.S. and found the dangers to critical infrastructure, utilities and food supplies are not sinking in with the public, despite the deluge of headlines.

https://threatpost.com/users-clueless-cybersecurity-risks-study/167404/

Ransomware: Paying Up Won't Stop You From Getting Hit Again, Says Cyber Security Chief

Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) has been praised for its response after falling victim to a major ransomware attack and for not giving into cyber criminals and paying a ransom. HSE was hit with Conti ransomware in May, significantly impacting frontline health services. The attackers initially demanded a ransom of $20 million in bitcoin for the decryption key to restore the network. While the gang eventually handed over a decryption key without receiving a ransom, they still published stolen patient data – a common technique by ransomware attackers, designed to pressure victims into paying.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-paying-up-wont-stop-you-from-getting-hit-again-says-cybersecurity-chief/

Don’t Leave Your Cyber IR Plan To IT, It’s An Organisational Risk

Phishing attacks, insider threats, denial of service disruptions, malware and ransomware — cyber security incidents like these happen on a daily basis. For most of these incidents, the onsite IT team will remediate based on a pre-developed plan and process. And for many of these incidents, that’s a solid approach. But those incident response plans and strategies are IT oriented and geared toward short-term fixes and single incident responses. Meaning, if an incident accelerates beyond a handful of infected laptops or a compromised server and begins to affect operations of all or even part of the organisation, business itself can be disrupted — or even shut down entirely.

https://securityintelligence.com/posts/incident-response-vs-cyber-crisis-management-plan/

Cyber Crime Never Sleeps

When the Colonial Pipeline fell victim to a ransomware attack, people across the United States were shocked to find that a single episode of cyber crime could lead to widespread delays, gas shortages and soaring prices at the pump. But disruptive ransomware attacks like these are far from rare; in fact, they are becoming more and more frequent. Cyber crime is on the rise, and our cyber security infrastructure desperately needs to keep up. A quick look at the data from the last year confirms that cyber crime is a growing threat. Identity theft doubled in 2020 over 2019.

https://www.newsweek.com/cybercrime-never-sleeps-opinion-1603901

IT, Healthcare And Manufacturing Facing Most Phishing Attacks

Researchers examined more than 905 million emails for the H1 2021 Global Phish Cyber Attack Report, finding that the IT industry specifically saw 9,000 phishing emails in a one month span out of almost 400,000 total emails. Their healthcare industry customers saw more than 6,000 phishing emails in one month out of an average of over 450,000 emails and manufacturing saw a bit less than 6,000 phishing emails out of about 330,000 total emails. Researchers said these industries are ripe targets because of the massive amount of personal data they collect and because they are often stocked with outdated technology that can be easily attacked.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/it-healthcare-and-manufacturing-facing-most-phishing-attacks-report/

Classified Ministry Of Defence Documents Found At Bus Stop

Classified Ministry of Defence documents containing details about HMS Defender and the British military have been found at a bus stop in Kent. One set of documents discusses the likely Russian reaction to the ship's passage through Ukrainian waters off the Crimea coast on Wednesday. Another details plans for a possible UK military presence in Afghanistan after the US-led NATO operation there ends. The government said an investigation had been launched.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57624942

Cabinet Office Increases Cyber Security Training Budget By Almost 500%

The UK’s Cabinet Office increased its cyber security training budget to £274,142.85 in the fiscal year 2021 – a 483% increase from the £47,018 spent in the previous year. In its FOI response, the Cabinet Office detailed the cyber security courses attended by its staff, revealing that the number of booked courses grew from 35 in 2019-20 to 428 in the current fiscal year.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/cyber-security/360039/cabinet-office-increases-cyber-spending-by-almost-500-amid-cctv

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Malware

Mobile

IoT

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

 Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 June 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 June 2021: BEC Losses Top $1.8B As Tactics Evolve; 30M Dell Devices At Risk For Remote BIOS Attacks, Remote Code Exploits; Bad Employee Behaviours Picked Up During Remote Working Pose Serious Security Risks; Ways Technical Debt Increases Security Risk; Orgs Ill-Equipped To Deal With Growing BYOD Security Threats; Firewall Manufacturer Sees 226.3 Million Ransomware Attack Attempts This Year; Ransomware Criminals Look To Other Hackers To Provide Them With Network Access

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

BEC Losses Top $1.8B As Tactics Evolve

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks ramped up significantly in 2020, with more than $1.8 billion stolen from organisations with these types of attacks last year alone — and things are getting worse. BEC attacks are carried out by cyber criminals either impersonating someone inside an organisation, or masquerading as a partner or vendor, bent on financial scamming. A new report from Cisco’s Talos Intelligence examined the tactics of some of the most dangerous BEC attacks observed in the wild in 2020 and reminded the security community that in addition to technology, smart users armed with a healthy scepticism of outside communications and the right questions to ask are the best line of defence. “The reality is, these types of emails and requests happen legitimately all over the world every day, which is what makes this such a challenge to stop,” the report said.

https://threatpost.com/bec-losses-top-18b/167148/

30M Dell Devices At Risk For Remote BIOS Attacks, Remote Code Execution

A high-severity series of four vulnerabilities can allow remote adversaries to gain arbitrary code execution in the pre-boot environment on Dell devices, researchers said. They affect an estimated 30 million individual Dell endpoints worldwide. According to analysis the bugs affect 129 models of laptops, tablet, and desktops, including enterprise and consumer devices, that are protected by Secure Boot. Secure Boot is a security standard aimed at making sure that a device boots using only software that is trusted by the device original equipment manufacturer (OEM), to prevent rogue takeovers.

https://threatpost.com/dell-bios-attacks-rce/167195/

Bad Employee Behaviours Picked Up During Remote Working Pose Serious Security Risks in the New Hybrid Workplace

Most employers are wary that the post-pandemic hybrid workforce would bring bad cyber security behaviours. More than half (56%) of employers believed that employees had picked bad security practices while working remotely. Similarly, nearly two-fifths (39%) of employees also admitted that their employee behaviours differed significantly while working from home compared to the office. Additionally, nearly a third (36%) admitted discovering ‘workarounds’ since they started working remotely. Younger workers were more prone to these bad employee behaviours, with 51% of 16-24, 46% of 25-34, and 35% of 35-44-year-olds using ‘workarounds.’ Close to half (49%) of workers adopted the risky behaviour because they felt that they were not being watched by IT departments. Nearly a third (30%) said they felt that they could get away with the risky employee behaviours while working away from the office.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/bad-employee-behaviors-picked-up-during-remote-working-pose-serious-security-risks-in-the-new-hybrid-workplace/

7 Ways Technical Debt Increases Security Risk

Two in three CISOs believe that technical debt, the difference between what's needed in a project and what's finally deployed, to be a significant cause of security vulnerability, according to the 2021 Voice of the CISO report. Most technical debt is created by taking shortcuts while placing crucial aspects such as architecture, code quality, performance, usability, and, ultimately, security on hold. Many large organisations are carrying tens or hundreds of thousands of discovered but un-remediated risks in their vulnerability management systems,. In many sectors there's this insidious idea that underfunded security efforts, plus risk management, are almost as good as actually doing the security work required, which is dangerously wrong.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3621754/7-ways-technical-debt-increases-security-risk.html

Organisations Ill-Equipped To Deal With Growing BYOD Security Threats

A report shows the rapid adoption of unmanaged personal devices connecting to work-related resources (aka BYOD) and why organisations are ill-equipped to deal with growing security threats such as malware and data theft. The study surveyed hundreds of cyber security professionals across industries to better understand how COVID-19’s resulting surge of remote work has affected security and privacy risks introduced using personal mobile devices. The insights in this report are especially relevant as more enterprises are shifting to permanent remote work or hybrid work models, connecting more devices to corporate networks and, as a result, expanding the attack surface.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/17/byod-security/

Firewall Manufacturer SonicWall Sees 226.3 Million Ransomware Attack Attempts This Year

Firewall manufacturer SonicWall said it saw dramatic increases in almost every market, even in those such as the US and UK, where ransomware attacks were already common. The US saw a 149% spike, and the UK 69%. “The bombardment of ransomware attacks is forcing organisations into a constant state of defence rather than an offensive stance,” said the SonicWall CEO. “And as the tidal wave of ransomware attacks continues to crush company after company, there is a lot of speculation on how to keep individual organisations safe, but no real consensus on how to move forward when it comes to combating ransomware.

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252502854/SonicWall-sees-2263-million-ransomware-attack-attempts-this-year

Ransomware Criminals Look To Other Hackers To Provide Them With Network Access

According to a new report, cyber criminals distributing ransomware are increasingly turning to other hackers to buy access into corporate networks.

Researchers said a robust and lucrative criminal ecosystem exists where criminals work together to carry out ransomware attacks. In this ecosystem, ransomware operators buy access from independent cyber criminal groups who infiltrate major targets for part of the ransom proceeds.

Cyber criminal threat groups already distributing banking malware or other trojans may also become part of a ransomware affiliate network said researchers.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/ransomware/359919/ransomware-criminals-look-to-other-hackers-to-provide-them-with-network

5 Biggest Healthcare Security Threats For 2021

Cyber Attacks targeting the healthcare sector have surged because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting rush to enable remote delivery of healthcare services. Security vendors and researchers tracking the industry have reported a major increase in phishing attacks, ransomware, web application attacks, and other threats targeting healthcare providers. The trend has put enormous strain on healthcare security organisations that already had their hands full dealing with the usual volume of threats before the pandemic. “The healthcare industry is under siege from a range of complex security risks," says Terry Ray. Cyber Criminals are hunting for the sensitive and valuable data that healthcare has access to, both patient data and corporate data, he says. Many organisations are struggling to meet the challenge because they are under-resourced and rely on vulnerable systems, third-party applications, and APIs to deliver services.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3262187/biggest-healthcare-security-threats.html

Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Cryptocurrency

Dark Web

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 November 2020

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 November 2020

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.

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

Cyber crime is 'a constant threat' to SMEs

Criminals are diversifying and growing more dangerous, while SMEs remain complacent and mostly oblivious to the threats.

With a quarter of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) falling victim to a cyberattack in the last 12 months, the threat towards these organizations is constant. This is according to a new report from Direct Line – Business, which claims that businesses aren't doing all they can to stay safe.

The report states that, if a cyber attack were to occur, many organisations would find themselves in a seriously dangerous position given they hold less than $13,000 in cash reserves. Besides financial damage, many should also expect damaged client and customer relationships due to eroded trust.

With cybercriminals diversifying into different methods of attack, SMEs need to stay vigilant on multiple fronts. Phishing is still the most popular weapon for criminals, the report states, but malware and ransomware, as well as DDoS attacks, are also notable mentions.

https://www.itproportal.com/features/cybercrime-is-a-constant-threat-to-smes/

The most common passwords of 2020 are atrocious

Bottom line: Choosing secure passwords has never been humanity’s strong suit and let’s face it, it’s never going to be. People simply have too many accounts to protect these days, leading to poor practices such as simplifying passwords to make them easier to remember and reusing the same password across multiple accounts.

https://www.techspot.com/news/87657-most-common-passwords-2020-atrocious.html#Share

Why ransomware is still so successful: Over a quarter of victims pay the ransom

Over a quarter of organisations that fall victim to ransomware attacks opt to pay the ransom as they feel as if they have no other option than to give into the demands of cyber criminals – and the average ransom amount is now more than $1 million.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-ransomware-is-still-so-successful-over-a-quarter-of-victims-pay-the-ransom/

Cyber crime is maturing. Here are 6 ways organisations can keep up

In 2020, the world has experienced many challenges. Among them, hastened digitalisation has brought new opportunities but also new risks. According to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2020, cyber attacks rank first among global human-caused risks and RiskIQ predicts that by 2021 cyber crime will cost the world $11.4 million each minute.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/how-to-protect-companies-from-cybercrime/

Ransomware-as-a-service: The pandemic within a pandemic

Ransomware is a massive problem. But you already knew that.

Technical novices, along with seasoned cyber security professionals, have witnessed over the past year a slew of ransomware events that have devastated enterprises around the world. Even those outside of cyber security are now familiar with the concept: criminals behind a keyboard have found a way into an organization’s system, prevented anyone from actually using it by locking it up, and won’t let anyone resume normal activity until the organization pays a hefty fee.

https://public.intel471.com/blog/ransomware-as-a-service-2020-ryuk-maze-revil-egregor-doppelpaymer/

CISOs say a distributed workforce has critically increased security concerns

73% of security and IT executives are concerned about new vulnerabilities and risks introduced by the distributed workforce, Skybox Security reveals.

The report also uncovered an alarming disconnect between confidence in security posture and increased cyberattacks during the global pandemic.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/11/18/distributed-workforce-security/

Threats

Ransomware

Capcom confirms Ragnar Locker ransomware attack, data exposure

Capcom has confirmed that a recent security incident was due to a Ragnar Locker ransomware infection, potentially leading to the exposure of customer records.

This week, the Japanese gaming giant confirmed that the company had fallen prey to "customized ransomware" which gave attackers unauthorised access to its network -- as well as the data stored on Capcom Group systems.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/capcom-confirms-ransomware-attack-potential-theft-of-customer-employee-data/

Ransomware attack forces web hosting provider Managed.com to take servers offline

One of the biggest providers of managed web hosting solutions, has taken down all its servers in order to deal with a ransomware attack.

The ransomware impacted the company's public facing web hosting systems, resulting in some customer sites having their data encrypted.

The incident only impacted a limited number of customer sites, which the company said it immediately took offline.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/web-hosting-provider-managed-shuts-down-after-ransomware-attack/

Phishing

Office 365 phishing campaign detects sandboxes to evade detection

Microsoft is tracking an ongoing Office 365 phishing campaign that makes use of several methods to evade automated analysis in attacks against enterprise targets.

"We’re tracking an active credential phishing attack targeting enterprises that uses multiple sophisticated methods for defence evasion and social engineering," Microsoft said.

"The campaign uses timely lures relevant to remote work, like password updates, conferencing info, helpdesk tickets, etc."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/office-365-phishing-campaign-detects-sandboxes-to-evade-detection/

Malware

Adult site users targeted with ZLoader malware via fake Java update

A malware campaign ongoing since the beginning of the year has recently changed tactics, switching from exploit kits to social engineering to target adult content consumers.

The operators use an old trick to distribute a variant of ZLoader, a banking trojan that made a comeback earlier this year after an absence of almost two years, now used as an info stealer.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/adult-site-users-targeted-with-zloader-malware-via-fake-java-update/

Lazarus malware strikes South Korean supply chains

Lazarus malware has been tracked in new campaigns against South Korean supply chains, made possible through stolen security certificates.

Cyber security researchers reported the abuse of the certificates, stolen from two separate, legitimate South Korean companies.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/lazarus-malware-strikes-south-korean-supply-chains/

Malware activity spikes 128%, Office document phishing skyrockets

The report demonstrates threat actors becoming even more ruthless. Throughout Q3, hackers shifted focus from home networks to overburdened public entities, including the education sector and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Malware campaigns, like Emotet, utilized these events as phishing lure themes to assist in delivery.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/11/13/malware-activity-q3-2020/

Cloud

Attackers can abuse a misconfigured IAM role across 16 Amazon services

Researchers at Palo Alto’s Unit 42 have confirmed that they have compromised a customer’s AWS cloud account with thousands of workloads using a misconfigured identity and access management (IAM) role.

https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/cloud-security/attackers-can-abuse-a-misconfigured-iam-role-across-16-aws-services/

Vulnerabilities

More than 245,000 Windows systems still remain vulnerable to BlueKeep RDP bug

A year and a half after Microsoft disclosed the BlueKeep vulnerability impacting the Windows RDP service, more than 245,000 Windows systems still remain unpatched and vulnerable to attacks.

The number represents around 25% of the 950,000 systems that were initially discovered to be vulnerable to BlueKeep attacks during a first scan in May 2019.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-than-245000-windows-systems-still-remain-vulnerable-to-bluekeep-rdp-bug/

Windows Kerberos authentication breaks due to security updates

Microsoft is investigating a new known issue causing enterprise domain controllers to experience Kerberos authentication problems after installing security updates released to address CVE-2020-17049 during this month's Patch Tuesday, on November 10.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-kerberos-authentication-breaks-due-to-security-updates/

Cisco Patches Critical Flaw After PoC Exploit Code Release

A critical path-traversal flaw exists in Cisco Security Manager that lays bare sensitive information to remote, unauthenticated attackers.

A day after proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code was published for a critical flaw in Cisco Security Manager, Cisco has hurried out a patch.

https://threatpost.com/critical-cisco-flaw-sensitive-data/161305/

Widespread Scans Underway for RCE Bugs in WordPress Websites

WordPress websites using buggy Epsilon Framework themes are being hunted by hackers.

Millions of malicious scans are rolling across the internet, looking for known vulnerabilities in the Epsilon Framework for building WordPress themes, according to researchers.

According to the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team, more than 7.5 million probes targeting these vulnerabilities have been observed, against more than 1.5 million WordPress sites, just since Tuesday.

https://threatpost.com/widespread-scans-rce-bugs-wordpress-websites/161374/

Webex fixed some seriously spooky security flaws

Cisco has patched several troubling security vulnerabilities in its Webex video conferencing service.

The flaws in the video conferencing software were flagged. Researchers took a deeper look at the collaboration tools being used for day-to-day work to better understand how they could impact sensitive meetings now being held virtually. During its investigation, the company's security researchers discovered three vulnerabilities in Webex.

https://www.techradar.com/news/cisco-webex-had-some-very-spooky-security-flaws

Data Breaches

Animal Jam was hacked, and data stolen; here’s what parents need to know

WildWorks,  the gaming company that makes the popular kids game Animal Jam, has confirmed a data breach.

Animal Jam is one of the most popular games for kids, ranking in the top five games in the 9-11 age category in Apple’s App Store in the U.S., according to data provided by App Annie. But while no data breach is ever good news, WildWorks has been more forthcoming about the incident than most companies would be, making it easier for parents to protect both their information and their kids’ data.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/animal-jam-data-breach/

Crown Prosecution Service guilty of ‘serious’ data breaches

Prosecutors are routinely guilty of “serious” data breaches that can endanger the public by disclosing addresses of people who report crimes, a watchdog has revealed.

Independent assessors of the Crown Prosecution Service found that prosecutors in England and Wales were responsible for “a significant number of data security breaches”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/crown-prosecution-service-guilty-of-serious-data-breaches-k7vhl0hnf

Privacy

MacOS Big Sur reveals Apple secretly hates your VPN and firewall

If you're using a Mac VPN and recently updated your device to Big Sur, your privacy may be at risk as it was discovered that Apple apps are able to bypass both firewalls and VPN services in the company's latest version of macOS.

Twitter user mxswd first spotted the issue back in October and provided more details in a tweet which reads: “Some Apple apps bypass some network extensions and VPN Apps. Maps for example can directly access the internet bypassing any NEFilterDataProvider or NEAppProxyProviders you have running”.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/macos-big-sur-reveals-apple-secretly-hates-your-vpn-and-firewall

Server failure unearths massive macOS tracking plans

More serious doubts have been raised about Apple's snooping tactics following fresh revelations about the company's macOS software. We’ve already reported how apps in the latest release of macOS can bypass firewalls and VPNs and how the release was bricking some older MacBook Pro machines.

https://www.techradar.com/news/server-failure-unearths-massive-macos-tracking-plans

Employee surveillance software demand increased as workers transitioned to home working

As people hunkered down to work from home during COVID-19, companies turned to employee surveillance software to track their staff.

What does the rise of intrusive tools such as employee surveillance software mean for workers at home?

A new study shows that the demand for employee surveillance software was up 55% in June 2020 compared to the pre-pandemic average. From webcam access to random screenshot monitoring, these surveillance software products can record almost everything an employee does on their computer.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/employee-surveillance-software-demand-increased-as-workers-transitioned-to-home-working/

Los Angeles police ban facial recognition software and launch review after officers accused of unauthorized use

The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) has banned commercial facial recognition software and launched a review after 25 officers were accused of using it unofficially to try to identify people.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/lapd_facial_recogntion/

Nation State Actors

More than 200 systems infected by new Chinese APT 'FunnyDream'

A new Chinese state-sponsored hacking group (also known as an APT) has infected more than 200 systems across Southeast Asia with malware over the past two years.

The malware infections are part of a widespread cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a group named FunnyDream, according to a new report published today by security firm Bitdefender.

The attacks have primarily targeted Southeast Asian governments. While Bitdefender has not named any victim countries, a report published earlier this spring by fellow security firm Kaspersky Lab has identified FunnyDream targets in Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines, with the most victims being located in Vietnam.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-than-200-systems-infected-by-new-chinese-apt-funnydream/

Massive, China-state-funded hack hits companies around the world, report says

Attacks are linked to Cicada, a group believed to be funded by the Chinese state.

Researchers have uncovered a massive hacking campaign that’s using sophisticated tools and techniques to compromise the networks of companies around the world.

The hackers, most likely from a well-known group that’s funded by the Chinese government, are outfitted with both off-the-shelf and custom-made tools. One such tool exploits Zerologon, the name given to a Windows server vulnerability, patched in August, that can give attackers instant administrator privileges on vulnerable systems.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/massive-china-state-funded-hack-hits-companies-around-the-word-report-says/

Other News

Hackers are leaning more heavily on cloud resources

Underground cloud services may seem like an oxymoron, but they are quite real, and criminals are using them to speed up attacks and leave very little room for compromised businesses to react.

This is according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which found terabytes of internal business data and logins - including for Google, Amazon and PayPal - for sale on the dark web.

https://www.itproportal.com/news/hackers-are-leaning-more-heavily-on-cloud-resources/

CEOs Will Be Personally Liable for Cyber-Physical Security Incidents by 2024

Digital attack attempts in industrial environments are on the rise. In February 2020, IBM X-Force reported that it had observed a 2,000% increase in the attempts by threat actors to target Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) assets between 2018 and 2020. This surge eclipsed the total number of attacks against organizations’ industrial environments that had occurred over the previous three years combined.

https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/risk-based-security-for-executives/ceo-personally-liable-cyber-physical-security-incidents/

Reports Published in the Last Week

Sophos 2021 Threat Report: Navigating cybersecurity in an uncertain world

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/11/18/sophos-threat-report-2021/

Verizon Releases First Cyber-Espionage Report

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/verizon-releases-first-cyber/

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.

 

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Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 01 May 2020 – 50% of users feel vulnerable WFH, yet many have had no infosec training in last year, spear-phishing compromises execs in 150+ companies, Sophos zero-day

Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing for 01 May 2020 – Half of users feel vulnerable WFH and many have had no infosec training in last year, spear-phishing compromises execs in 150+ companies, Chrome vulns, Sophos firewall zero-day exploited

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 video version:

Half of remote workers feel vulnerable to growing cyber attacks

New research has revealed that almost half (49%) of employees working remotely feel vulnerable online due to the insecurity of the company laptops and PCs they are using to connect to corporate networks.

1,550 UK employees working from home during the pandemic were surveyed to better understand the security issues they've faced while working remotely.

The survey found that 42 percent of respondents received suspicious emails while 18 percent have dealt with a security breach while working from home. Of those who suffered a cyberattack, over half (51%) believed it was because they clicked on a malicious link and 18 percent believed an infected attachment was responsible.

Additionally, 42 percent of respondents reported that someone else in their household had experienced a hack of their social media accounts during the lockdown.

Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/half-of-remote-workers-feel-vulnerable-to-growing-cyberattacks

Many remote workers given no cyber security training

Two in three remote workers have not received any cyber security training in the past 12 months, according to a new report.

Based on a poll of 2,000 remote workers in the UK, the report states that more than three quarters (77 percent) are unconcerned about cyber security. Further, more than six in ten said they use personal devices when working from home, which poses a distinct threat to business data.

The report highlights the dangers associated with working from home and the fact cyber criminals are capitalising on the coronavirus outbreak to infect unwitting victims with malware.

With most businesses transitioning to remote working in response to lockdown measures, IT and security teams have been left with a network of unsecured, often naive workers who are easy prey for various forms of attack - especially phishing.

Read the full article here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/many-remote-workers-given-no-cybersecurity-training/

Spear-phishing campaign compromises executives at 150+ companies

A cyber crime group operating since mid-2019 has breached the email accounts of high-ranking executives at more than 150 companies, cyber-security firm Group-IB reported today.

The group, codenamed PerSwaysion, appears to have targeted the financial sector primarily, which accounted for more than half of its victims; although, victims have been recorded at companies active across other verticals as well.

PerSwaysion operations were not sophisticated, but have been extremely successful, nonetheless. Group-IB says the hackers didn't use vulnerabilities or malware in their attacks but instead relied on a classic spear-phishing technique.

They sent boobytrapped emails to executives at targeted companies in the hope of tricking high-ranking executives into entering Office 365 credentials on fake login pages.

Read the full article here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/spear-phishing-campaign-compromises-executives-at-150-companies/

Microsoft: Ransomware gangs that don't threaten to leak your data steal it anyway

Just because ransomware attackers haven't threatened to leak your company's data, it doesn't mean they haven't stolen it, Microsoft warns. 

And human-operated ransomware gangs – typically associated with multi-million dollar ransom demands – haven't halted activity during the global coronavirus pandemic.

In fact, they launched more of the file-encrypting malware on target networks in the first two weeks of April than in earlier periods, causing chaos at aid organizations, medical billing companies, manufacturing, transport, government institutions, and educational software providers, according to Microsoft.

Read More: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-ransomware-gangs-that-dont-threaten-to-leak-your-data-steal-it-anyway/

Google Confirms New Security Threat For 2 Billion Chrome Users

Google has warned of yet more security vulnerabilities in Chrome 81, which was only launched three weeks ago.

Google has confirmed two new high-rated security vulnerabilities affecting Chrome, prompting yet another update since the release of Chrome 81 on April 7. These new security threats could enable an attacker to take control of an exploited system, which is why the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has advised users to apply that update now.

More here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/04/29/google-confirms-new-security-threats-for-2-billion-chrome-users/#7a3dc3cc39bc

These popular antivirus tools share a major security flaw

More than two dozen popular antivirus solutions contain a flaw that could enable hackers to delete files, trigger crashes and install malware, according to a new report.

Popular antivirus solutions such as Microsoft Defender, McAfee Endpoint Security and Malwarebytes all feature the bug, which is described as “trivial” to abuse.

The report refers to the shared vulnerability as “symlink race” – the use of symbolic links and directory junctions to link malicious files to legitimate counterparts. This all occurs in the short space of time between an antivirus scanning and deleting a file.

"Make no mistake about it, exploiting these flaws was pretty trivial and seasoned malware authors will have no problem weaponising the tactics outlined in this blog post," said the report.

Read more: https://www.itproportal.com/news/these-popular-antivirus-tools-could-have-major-security-flaws/

Hackers are exploiting a Sophos firewall zero-day

Cyber-security firm Sophos has published an emergency security update on Saturday to patch a zero-day vulnerability in its XG enterprise firewall product that was being abused in the wild by hackers.

Sophos said it first learned of the zero-day on late Wednesday, April 22, after it received a report from one of its customers. The customer reported seeing "a suspicious field value visible in the management interface."

After investigating the report, Sophos determined this was an active attack and not an error in its product.

Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-are-exploiting-a-sophos-firewall-zero-day/

This sophisticated new Android trojan threatens hundreds of financial apps

Researchers have discovered a sophisticated new Android trojan that bypasses security measures and scrapes data from financial applications.

First identified in March, the EventBot banking trojan abuses Android’s accessibility features to harvest financial data and intercept SMS messages, allowing the malware to circumvent two-factor authentication.

According to the firm responsible for the discovery, EventBot targets over 200 financial applications, spanning banking, money transfer and cryptocurrency wallet services.

Affected applications include those operated by major players such as HSBC, Barclays, Revolut, Paypal and TransferWise - but many more are thought to be at risk.

More: https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/this-sophisticated-new-android-trojan-threatens-hundreds-of-financial-apps

Microsoft Office 365: US issues security alert over rushed remote deployments

The US Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published security advice for organizations that may have rushed out Office 365 deployments to support remote working during the coronavirus pandemic.

CISA warns that it continues to see organizations that have failed to implement security best practices for their Office 365 implementation. It is concerned that hurried deployments may have lead to important security configuration oversights that could be exploited by attackers.

"In recent weeks, organizations have been forced to change their collaboration methods to support a full 'work from home' workforce," CISA notes in the new alert. 

Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-office-365-us-issues-security-alert-over-rushed-remote-deployments/

Financial sector is seeing more credential stuffing than DDoS attacks

The financial sector has seen more brute-force attacks and credential stuffing incidents than DDoS attacks in the past three years according to a report published this week.

Statistics about attacks carried out against banks, credit unions, brokers, insurance, and the wide range of organizations that serve them, such as payment processors and financial Software as a Service (Saas).

The report's findings dispel the notion that DDoS attacks are one of today's most prevalent threats against the financial vertical.

The report states that brute force attacks, credential stuffing, and all the other account takeover (ATO) attacks have been a much bigger threat to the financial sector between 2017 and 2019. This includes all the ATO variations such as:

·         Brute-force attacks - attackers try common or weak username/passwords pairs (from a preset list) to brute-force their way into an account

·         Credential stuffing - attackers try username/password pairs leaked at other sites

·         Password spraying - attackers try the same password, but against different usernames

Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/financial-sector-has-been-seeing-more-credential-stuffing-than-ddos-attacks-in-recent-years/

This buggy WordPress plugin allows hackers to lace websites with malicious code

Security researchers have identified a flaw in the Real-Time Find and Replace WordPress plugin that could allow hackers to lace websites with malicious code.

The affected plugin affords WordPress users the ability to edit website code and text content in real-time, without having to go into the backend - and reportedly features on over 100,000 sites.

The exploit manipulates a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) flaw in the plugin, which the hacker can use to push infected content to the website and create new admin accounts.

Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/this-buggy-wordpress-plugin-allows-hackers-to-lace-websites-with-malicious-code

Zoom Gets Stuffed: Here’s How Hackers Got Hold Of 500,000 Passwords

At the start of April, the news broke that 500,000 stolen Zoom passwords were up for sale. Here's how the hackers got hold of them.

More than half a million Zoom account credentials, usernames and passwords were made available in dark web crime forums earlier this month. Some were given away for free while others were sold for as low as a penny each.

Researchers at a threat intelligence provider obtained multiple databases containing Zoom credentials and got to work analysing exactly how the hackers got hold of them in the first place.

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/04/28/zoom-gets-stuffed-heres-how-hackers-got-hold-of-500000-passwords/#6586d7be5cdc

Sophisticated Android Spyware Attack Spreads via Google Play

The PhantomLance espionage campaign is targeting specific victims, mainly in Southeast Asia — and could be the work of the OceanLotus APT.

A sophisticated, ongoing espionage campaign aimed at Android users in Asia is likely the work of the OceanLotus advanced persistent threat (APT) actor, researchers said this week.

Dubbed PhantomLance by Kaspersky, the campaign is centered around a complex spyware that’s distributed via dozens of apps within the Google Play official market, as well as other outlets like the third-party marketplace known as APKpure.

The effort, though first spotted last year, stretches back to at least 2016, according to findings released at the SAS@home virtual security conference on Tuesday.

Read more here: https://threatpost.com/sophisticated-android-spyware-google-play/155202/

Skype phishing attack targets remote workers

Remote workers have been warned to take extra care when using video conferencing software after a new phishing scam was uncovered.

Researchers from a security firm have revealed hackers are using emails pretending to be from Skype, the popular Microsoft-owned video calling tool, in order to trick home workers into handing over their login details.

Criminals could then use these logins to access corporate networks to spread malware or steal valuable information.

Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/skype-phishing-attack-targets-remote-workers

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.

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