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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 24 November 2023
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 24 November 2023:
-The Human Element- Cyber Security’s Great Challenge
-Good Cyber Hygiene is a Strategic Imperative for SMEs, Report Shows
-Despite Increasing Ransomware Attacks, Some Companies in Denial
-A Single Supply Chain Related Ransomware Incident Spurred UK Decision Makers to Spend Big on Cyber as Latest Victim Count exceeds 2.6K Organisations and 77M People
-The True Cost of a Ransomware Attack
-Largest Study of Its Kind Shows Outdated Password Practices Are Putting Millions at Risk
-Cyber Security Investment Involves More Than Just Technology
-Questions Leaders Must Ask Themselves on Security Culture
-There’s a Crossover Between Organised Crime, Financial Crime, and Nation-State Crime
-Cyber Attack on British Library Highlights Lack of UK Resilience
-Organisations Rethink Cyber Security Investments to Meet NIS2 and DORA Directive Requirements
-The Cyber Security Lawsuit Boards are Talking About
-UK and Republic of Korea Issue Warning About North Korea State-Linked Cyber Actors Attacking Software Supply Chains
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.
The Human Element- Cyber Security’s Great Challenge
According to Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 74% of all breaches involved a human element. It is important for organisations to understand that it is not simply malicious employees or employees falling for social engineering attacks; it includes things such as negligent, or intentional but not malicious actions. In fact, a recent separate report by Kaspersky found that 26% of incidents over the past two years involved the result of intentional security protocol violations; in comparison, external hacking attempts made up 20%.
Further, Kaspersky found 25% of incidents occurred due to neglecting system software or application updates, followed by 22% resulting from deliberate use of weak passwords or failing to change them promptly, and 18% from staff visiting unsecured websites. One potential cause for these incidents is a lack of training on why such protocols need to be followed.
Black Arrow provides live in person and online instructor lead cyber security training including Cyber Risk and Governance Workshops for Senior Leadership, and Awareness, Behaviour and Culture Training for employees and contractors.
Sources [Beta News] [ Infosecurity Magazine] [The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)]
Good Cyber Hygiene is a Strategic Imperative for SMEs, Report Shows
Small or large, no company is immune to a cyber attack and therefore good cyber hygiene is an imperative for all. Whilst large firms may already have more mature defences in place, smaller firms are definitely catching on to this, with 47% of respondents to a recent survey stating they were more worried about their organisation’s security posture now than compared to six months ago.
The survey found that ransomware (35%), software vulnerability exploits (28%) and using the same password across different applications (25%) were amongst the largest concerns. Interestingly, in a separate report, 44% of incidents were found to lack any element of malware, indicating that attackers are moving beyond traditional methods. The same report found 65% of cases included remote monitoring and management tools as the vector for initial access, something a number of organisations do not secure.
Business email compromise (BEC) attacks are also a key concern for businesses of all sizes but can be especially damaging to smaller organisations for whom the financial loss can be devastating.
Sources [Computer Weekly] [Beta News] [Beta News]
Despite Increasing Ransomware Attacks, Some Companies are in Denial
A recent study has highlighted a contradiction in the way organisations perceive ransomware threats. Although many do not consider themselves likely targets, they are, nevertheless, bolstering their security measures, expanding their teams, and fortifying cyber defences, acknowledging the risks despite their assumed invulnerability.
Simultaneously, ransomware tactics are undergoing significant changes. The past three quarters have seen a marked increase in double-extortion attacks, with data leaks from these incidents rising by 50% compared to the previous year. This trend is predominantly driven by a few active groups, some newly emerged this year, amplifying the threat landscape.
In a tactical shift, the ransomware group ALPHV, also known as Blackcat, has lodged a formal complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a victim for failing to comply with new disclosure regulations. Meanwhile, LockBit, infamous for attacks on high-profile targets, is modifying its extortion tactics due to lower-than-anticipated ransom returns. These developments point to an evolving and adaptive ransomware environment.
Sources: [Dark Reading] [SC Media] [Insurance Journal] [MSSP Alert] [Security Brief]
A Single Supply Chain Related Ransomware Incident Spurred UK Decision Makers to Spend Big on Cyber as Latest Victim Count exceeds 2.6K Organisations and 77M People
It is reported that 2,620 organisations and more than 77 million individuals have been impacted to date by the MOVEit supply chain ransomware attack, with millions in the past week alone having received notifications that their information had either been accessed, leaked, or both.
In a survey involving directors of UK companies with over 500 seats that had suffered a ransomware or extortion attack in the past 18 months, it was found that 24% had become significantly more anxious about ransomware attacks as a direct result of the MOVEit breach, and 66% were slightly more anxious. This anxiety translated into action, with 42% of respondents investing more into backup and recovery, and 29% tweaking existing cyber strategies. 29% had taken the decision to amend their existing cyber strategies. Staff training was also found to rise, with 42% looking to spend on skills development and 40% upping their investment in training.
Sources: [The Register] [Computer Weekly]
The True Cost of a Ransomware Attack
While the demand is often financial, the impact and reach of ransomware goes far beyond the ransomware demand. Alongside the financial impact, comes the reputational impact, loss of customers, resources in returning to business as normal and time lost in recovery. For some companies, it can take months to return to where they were before and for others, it marks the end of their organisation.
For an attacker, it doesn’t matter. Their goal is not limited by the size or sector of an organisation and it is therefore imperative that every organisation is prepared for the event of an incident. Black Arrow works with organisations of all sizes and sectors to design and prepare for managing a cyber security incident; this can include an Incident Response Plan and an educational tabletop exercise for the leadership team that highlights the proportionate controls to help the organisation prevent and mitigate an incident.
Source: [ITPro]
Largest Study of Its Kind Shows Outdated Password Practices Are Putting Millions at Risk
A recent study has exposed serious flaws in passwords on the internet, revealing that three out of four popular websites are compromising user security by not meeting basic password standards. The study examined 20,000 websites, finding many allowed simple passwords, didn’t block common ones and adhered to outdated complexity requirements. It was found that over half the websites accept passwords of six characters or fewer, with 75% not requiring the advised minimum of eight characters, and 30% not supporting spaces or special characters. The study showcases the gap in security measures implementation across the web and emphasises the importance of ongoing improvement in web security standards.
The problem is further exacerbated by employees using work email for non-work approved websites and reusing the same passwords, meaning any breach of a compromised site hands the user’s credentials to an attacker. Further, many organisations are not even aware this is going on.
Source: [TechXplore]
Cyber Security Investment Involves More Than Just Technology
C-suite business leaders and senior IT professionals within large organisations, found that the top five cyber security investment areas were technologies (49%), threat intelligence (46%), risk assessment (42%), cyber insurance (42%), and third-party risk management (40%). Fewer organisations highlighted technology as good value for money in 2023 (49%) than in 2022 (58%). suggesting an awareness that technology investments go hand-in-hand with investing in governance and personnel to effectively enable and manage the technology.
Black Arrow supports business leaders in organisations of all sizes to demonstrate governance of their cyber security by owning their cyber security strategy and leveraging their existing internal and external resources to build resilience against a cyber security incident.
Source: [Dark Reading]
Questions Leaders Must Ask Themselves on Security Culture
In today's corporate landscape, there's a growing emphasis on the human aspect of cyber security, with Stanford University research indicating that about 88% of data breaches result from employee errors. Companies are now focusing on enhancing security awareness through marketing campaigns and integrating cyber security performance into job reviews. This shift acknowledges that as technological defences evolve, cyber attackers increasingly exploit human vulnerabilities, as evidenced by major ransomware incidents like those impacting Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods.
Developing a strong security culture is essential, by complementing robust policies with ingraining security-minded beliefs and behaviours in employees. Key to this is the role of leadership in embedding and continuously assessing this culture. This involves evaluating training effectiveness, reporting mechanisms, proactive security approaches, and the impact of security initiatives, while also considering the complexity of human behaviour and the example set by top management. Emphasising these aspects is crucial for maintaining a secure and resilient organisational environment, and in so doing protecting an organisation's reputation and financial integrity.
Source: [AT&T]
There’s a Crossover Between Organised Crime, Financial Crime, and Nation-State Crime
The convergence of organised crime, financial crime, and nation-state crime is a growing concern in today’s interconnected world. This crossover, driven by the digital revolution, globalisation, economic factors, and state fragility, is reshaping the global criminal landscape. Organised crime syndicates, traditionally involved in activities like drug trafficking and extortion, are now branching out into financial crimes, offering higher profits with lower risks.
Financial crime, once the domain of individual fraudsters and white-collar criminals, has become a lucrative venture for organised crime groups. They exploit the global financial system to launder proceeds of crime, finance their operations, and evade law enforcement. Nation-state crime, involving state-sponsored or state-condoned criminal activities, often overlaps with organised and financial crime. Some governments turn a blind eye to these activities, while others actively support them for political, economic, or strategic reasons.
Sources: [The Currency]
Cyber Attack on British Library Highlights Lack of UK Resilience
A recent ransomware attack on the British Library has spotlighted the vulnerabilities in the UK's public sector IT infrastructure, amid rising state-backed cyber attacks. This major incident, which caused a significant technical outage at the library, underscores the concerns of cyber intelligence experts about the government's inadequate investment in cyber resilience in critical areas like education, healthcare, and local government. The hacking group Rhysida, targeting essential infrastructure, claimed responsibility and auctioned stolen data, including British Library employees’ passports, for 20 bitcoin (approximately £600,000).
The attack on the British Library, a key public service institution, highlights the escalating threat of ransomware attacks and their potential exploitation by state actors. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has reported a significant increase in cyber attacks in 2023, with incidents more than doubling compared to the previous year. In response, the UK government, which had already allocated £2.6bn for cyber security improvements and IT system updates, is actively assessing the situation with the support of the National Protective Security Authority.
Source: [FT]
Organisations Rethink Cyber Security Investments to Meet NIS2 and DORA Directive Requirements
The European Union (EU) is seeking to improve cyber resilience across all member states by bringing in two new regulations: the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which focuses on financial services companies, and its counterpart the Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2). The effects of the two regulations are likely to be wider reaching, bringing in more stringent processes and controls and redefining service provision to organisations.
With NIS2 coming into effect in October 2024, the mandatory directive will have teeth, with strict penalties for non-compliance for both the business and senior board personnel, who can be held directly accountable and prevented from holding similar positions in the future. It also aims to increase intelligence sharing between member states and enhance supply chain security. This latter measure will see the directive have a global impact.
Many organisations supplying services to firms that fall under DORA and NIS2 will themselves be subject to the full force of the regulations, with many of these suppliers, including IT providers, unaware that this will have far reaching ramifications for them and their ability to continue to provide these services.
Sources: [Help Net Security] [Help Net Security]
The Cyber Security Lawsuit Boards are Talking About
For the last month, an under-the-radar lawsuit has privately been a hot topic of conversation in boardrooms and corporate security departments alike. The lawsuit involved the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing SolarWinds and their CISO of fraud. SolarWinds, like many organisations, had disclosed some facts, however what was reported was not sufficient to satisfy the regulator. The lawsuit is the first in which the SEC has charged a company with intentional fraud related to cyber security disclosures and it paints a picture for the wider movement of the cyber landscape. Whilst the SEC is US based you can expect regulatory counterparts in other jurisdictions globally to follow suit.
Source: [The New York Times]
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Why boards must prioritize cyber security expertise - Help Net Security4 data loss examples keeping backup admins up at night | TechTarget
Companies step up investment in ransomware protection (betanews.com)
CISOs can marry security and business success - Help Net Security
7 must-ask questions for leaders on security culture (att.com)
The human element -- cyber security's greatest challenge (betanews.com)
Why good cyber hygiene is a strategic imperative for UK SMEs (betanews.com)
MOVEit incident spurred UK decision makers to spend big on cyber | Computer Weekly
Cyber security Investment Involves More Than Just Technology (darkreading.com)
Hackers Weaponize SEC Disclosure Rules Against Corporate Targets (darkreading.com)
The Cyber security Lawsuit That Boards Are Talking About - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Only 9% of IT budgets are dedicated to security - Help Net Security
Why transparency and accountability are important in cyber security | Computer Weekly
SolarWinds lawsuit puts corporate security chiefs on high alert By Investing.com
Internal audit leaders are wary of key tech investments - Help Net Security
Maximize Cyber security Returns: 5 Key Steps to Enhancing ROI (darkreading.com)
Stressed staff put enterprises at risk of cyber attack (betanews.com)
Threats
Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks
2023 ransomware statistics: Number of double-extortion attacks skyrocket | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
More than money: The true cost of a ransomware attack | ITPro
Despite Increasing Ransomware Attacks, Some Companies In Denial | MSSP Alert
Ransomware attacks doubIe in two years says Akamai Technologies report (securitybrief.co.nz)
Hackers Weaponize SEC Disclosure Rules Against Corporate Targets (darkreading.com)
Logs missing in 42% cyber attacks; small business most vulnerable: Report (business-standard.com)
Companies step up investment in ransomware protection (betanews.com)
Understanding the Ransomware Attack Fallout on China’s ICBC (informationweek.com)
Ransomware Gang LockBit Revises Its Tactics to Get More Blackmail Money (insurancejournal.com)
The shifting sands of the war against cyber extortion - Help Net Security
Ransomware Crews Develop GenAI Tools for Cyber attacks | MSSP Alert
Play Ransomware Goes Commercial - Now Offered as a Service to Cyber criminals (thehackernews.com)
Scattered Spider Hops Nimbly from Cloud to On-Prem in Complex Attack (darkreading.com)
Ransomware groups rack up victims among corporate America | CyberScoop
Scattered Spider Casino Hackers Evade Arrest in Plain Sight (darkreading.com)
Paying ransom for data stolen in cyber attack bankrolls further crime, experts caution | CBC Radio
UK signs joint statement against ransomware payments - “New norm” or status quo? - Lexology
Capita to axe up to 900 jobs as it battles to recover from Russian cyber attack (telegraph.co.uk)
Schools Look to Improve Cyber security, but Many Vulnerable to Ransomware (insurancejournal.com)
4 Ways Fintech Companies Can Protect Themselves from Ransomware (financemagnates.com)
Cyber security should not be a gamble: Latest data breach hits major casino - Digital Journal
Ransomware Victims
Royal Mail spent £10 million recovering from LockBit breach - Tech Monitor
British Library staff passports leaked online as hackers demand £600,000 (telegraph.co.uk)
Hackers Weaponize SEC Disclosure Rules Against Corporate Targets (darkreading.com)
Understanding the Ransomware Attack Fallout on China’s ICBC (informationweek.com)
MOVEit victim count latest: 2.6K+ orgs, 77M+ people • The Register
Allen & Overy Given 5 Days to Meet Hackers’ Demands: Expert Q&A | Law.com International
London & Zurich ransomware attack causes customer chaos • The Register
CitrixBleed Vulnerability Exploitation Suspected in Toyota Ransomware Attack - SecurityWeek
Lockbit Gang Behind ICBC Attack Hacks Into Chicago Trading Company - Bloomberg
Russian hackers claim attack on Ukraine fighter jet supplier (telegraph.co.uk)
Clorox Scapegoats Cyber Chief, Rewards Board After Crisis (forbes.com)
Fortune 500 insurance and mortgage firm FNF shuts down network following cyber attack | TechRadar
Yamaha Motor confirms ransomware attack on Philippines subsidiary (bleepingcomputer.com)
St Helens Council suspected cyber attack caused significant disruption - BBC News
Western Isles Council backup systems 'inaccessible' following cyber attack | STV News
Auto parts giant AutoZone warns of MOVEit data breach (bleepingcomputer.com)
BlackCat claims attack on Fidelity National Financial • The Register
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Phishing Simulations Boost Cyber Awareness and Defences | Mimecast
How to combat AI-produced phishing attacks | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
More Than 50% of Online Retailers Not Blocking Fraudulent Emails | MSSP Alert
How Multi-Stage Phishing Attacks Exploit QRs, CAPTCHAs, and Steganography (thehackernews.com)
DarkGate and PikaBot Malware Resurrect QakBot's Tactics in New Phishing Attacks (thehackernews.com)
Bloomberg Twitter account hijacked to send users to phishing malware | TechRadar
The Most Common Indicators of a Phishing Attempt (With Screenshots) | HackerNoon
Artificial Intelligence
Cyber threats reached a new high this year, with AI playing a major role | TechRadar
How to combat AI-produced phishing attacks | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
IT Pros Worry That Generative AI Will Be a Major Driver of Cyber security Threats (darkreading.com)
Smaller businesses embrace GenAI, overlook security measures - Help Net Security
The Good, The Bad And The Reality: The Impact Of AI On Cyber security (forbes.com)
Ransomware Crews Develop GenAI Tools for Cyber attacks | MSSP Alert
Over a Dozen Exploitable Vulnerabilities Found in AI/ML Tools - SecurityWeek
AI threats prompt Virgin Money to invest $250 million in cyber security (proactiveinvestors.com.au)
OII | Large Language Models pose risk to science with false answers, says Oxford study
Malware
5 Of The Most Common Ways Malware Is Spread (And How To Stay Protected) (slashgear.com)
Report finds malware is no longer the biggest cyberthreat to smaller businesses - SiliconANGLE
Over half of SME cyber incidents now ‘malware-free’ | Computer Weekly
Bloomberg Twitter account hijacked to send users to phishing malware | TechRadar
Mirai malware infects routers and cameras for new botnet • The Register
Beware: Malicious Google Ads Trick WinSCP Users into Installing Malware (thehackernews.com)
DarkGate and PikaBot Malware Resurrect QakBot's Tactics in New Phishing Attacks (thehackernews.com)
Gamaredon's LittleDrifter USB malware spreads beyond Ukraine (bleepingcomputer.com)
Malware Uses Trigonometry to Track Mouse Strokes (darkreading.com)
Atomic Stealer Malware is tricking Mac users with fake browser updates - gHacks Tech News
USB worm unleashed by Russian state hackers spreads worldwide | Ars Technica
DarkGate and Pikabot malware emerge as Qakbot’s successors (bleepingcomputer.com)
How Ducktail steals Facebook accounts | Kaspersky official blog
Cyber criminals turn to ready-made bots for quick attacks - Help Net Security
3 Ways to Stop Unauthorized Code From Running in Your Network (darkreading.com)
New botnet malware exploits two zero-days to infect NVRs and routers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Mobile
FCC Tightens Telco Rules to Combat SIM-Swapping - SecurityWeek
Inside Apple’s Secretive War to Protect iPhones from Hacking • iPhone in Canada Blog
Cyber criminals Are Targeting App Beta-Testing, and This Is What to Look Out For (makeuseof.com)
Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS
Internet of Things – IoT
Data Breaches/Leaks
4 data loss examples keeping backup admins up at night | TechTarget
Morgan Stanley Fined $6.5 Million for Exposing Customer Information - SecurityWeek
Canadian government discloses data breach after contractor hacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
US Cyber security Lab Suffers Major Data Breach - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Hacktivists breach US nuclear research lab, steal employee data (bleepingcomputer.com)
Welltok data breach exposes data of 8.5 million US patients (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cyber attackers leaked data of 27,000 NYC Bar Association membersers (therecord.media)
Enterprise software provider TmaxSoft leaks 2TB of data (securityaffairs.com)
Sumo Logic says customer data untouched during breach • The Register
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Indian Hack-for-Hire Group Targeted US, China, and More for Over 10 Years (thehackernews.com)
Shadowy Hack-for-Hire Group Behind Sprawling Web of Global Cyber attacks (darkreading.com)
Police Professional | Five-year plan launched to tackle fraud, economic and cyber crime
Outsmarting cyber criminals is becoming a hard thing to do - Help Net Security
Cyber security firm executive pleads guilty to hacking hospitals (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Microsoft: Lazarus hackers breach CyberLink in supply chain attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
Three Questions To Ask Third-Party Vendors About Cyber security Risk (forbes.com)
Cloud/SaaS
Scattered Spider Hops Nimbly from Cloud to On-Prem in Complex Attack (darkreading.com)
Navigating the complexities of cyber security in a SaaS-dominated era (securitybrief.co.nz)
Encryption
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
Your password hygiene remains atrocious, says NordPass • The Register
US Teen Pleads Guilty to Credential Stuffing Attack on Fantasy Sports Website - SecurityWeek
Social Media
Malvertising
Training, Education and Awareness
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
Hackers Weaponize SEC Disclosure Rules Against Corporate Targets (darkreading.com)
The Cyber security Lawsuit That Boards Are Talking About - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
SolarWinds lawsuit puts corporate security chiefs on high alert By Investing.com
Morgan Stanley Fined $6.5 Million for Exposing Customer Information - SecurityWeek
UK watchdog threatens enforcement action over ad cookies • The Register
Models, Frameworks and Standards
DORA Set to Drive Significant Change in Sell-Side Third Party Risk Management | Financial IT
Understanding the UK government’s new cyber security regime, GovAssure - IT Security Guru
Data Protection
Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
US Teen Pleads Guilty to Credential Stuffing Attack on Fantasy Sports Website - SecurityWeek
Scattered Spider Casino Hackers Evade Arrest in Plain Sight (darkreading.com)
US cyber cops trace and return nearly $9M stolen by scammers • The Register
Police Professional | Five-year plan launched to tackle fraud, economic and cyber crime
Cyber security firm executive pleads guilty to hacking hospitals (bleepingcomputer.com)
Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda
Nation State Actors, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), Cyber Warfare, Cyber Espionage and Geopolitical Threats/Activity
Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage
Why cyber war readiness is critical for democracies - Help Net Security
Fog of War | How the Ukraine Conflict Transformed the Cyber Threat Landscape (inforisktoday.com)
Nation State Actors
China
Russia
USB worm unleashed by Russian state hackers spreads worldwide | Ars Technica
Almost 4,000 cyber attacks on Ukraine detected – US Treasury Department | Ukrainska Pravda
Russian hackers use Ngrok feature and WinRAR exploit to attack embassies (bleepingcomputer.com)
Russian hackers claim attack on Ukraine fighter jet supplier (telegraph.co.uk)
Potential cyberespionage campaign against Ukraine involves Remcos tool | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
Iran
Possible Iranian Group Behind 'Flood' of New Cyber attacks in Israel - Bloomberg
Cyber attacks on Israel intensify as the war against Hamas rages: Check Point | CSO Online
North Korea
Microsoft: Lazarus hackers breach CyberLink in supply chain attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
DPRK Hackers Masquerade as Tech Recruiters, Job Seekers (darkreading.com)
Hackers pose as officials to steal secrets and cryptocurrency for North Korea (bitdefender.com)
Other Nation State Actors, Hacktivism, Extremism, Terrorism and Other Geopolitical Threat Intelligence
Vulnerability Management
Vulnerabilities
MOVEit victim count latest: 2.6K+ orgs, 77M+ people • The Register
Citrix Bleed WFH Hack and Exploit: News on Data Loss Flaw - Bloomberg
Citrix warns admins to kill NetScaler user sessions to block hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hackers Exploiting Windows SmartScreen Zero-day Vulnerability (cybersecuritynews.com)
Security researchers bypass Windows Hello fingerprint authentication - gHacks Tech News
CISA warns of actively exploited Windows, Sophos, and Oracle bugs (bleepingcomputer.com)
Sophos Web Appliance vulnerability exploited in the wild (CVE-2023-1671) - Help Net Security
Over a Dozen Exploitable Vulnerabilities Found in AI/ML Tools - SecurityWeek
A critical OS command injection flaw affects Fortinet FortiSIEM (securityaffairs.com)
Russian hackers use Ngrok feature and WinRAR exploit to attack embassies (bleepingcomputer.com)
Splunk RCE Vulnerability Let Attackers Upload Malicious File (cybersecuritynews.com)
Tools and Controls
Only 9% of IT budgets are dedicated to security - Help Net Security
MOVEit incident spurred UK decision makers to spend big on cyber | Computer Weekly
Phishing Simulations Boost Cyber Awareness and Defences | Mimecast
Logs missing in 42% cyber attacks; small business most vulnerable: Report (business-standard.com)
Cyber attack on British Library raises concerns over lack of UK resilience (ft.com)
Companies step up investment in ransomware protection (betanews.com)
DORA Set to Drive Significant Change in Sell-Side Third Party Risk Management | Financial IT
The 7 Deadly Sins of Security Awareness Training (darkreading.com)
Identity And Access Management: 18 Important Trends And Considerations
The Good, The Bad And The Reality: The Impact Of AI On Cyber security (forbes.com)
MFA under fire, attackers undermine trust in security measures - Help Net Security
AI threats prompt Virgin Money to invest $250 million in cyber security (proactiveinvestors.com.au)
New Flaws in Fingerprint Sensors Let Attackers Bypass Windows Hello Login (thehackernews.com)
Security researchers bypass Windows Hello fingerprint authentication - gHacks Tech News
Detection & Response That Scales: A 4-Pronged Approach (darkreading.com)
Maximize Cyber security Returns: 5 Key Steps to Enhancing ROI (darkreading.com)
6 Steps to Accelerate Cyber security Incident Response (thehackernews.com)
The CISO view: Navigating the promise and pitfalls of cyber security automation (betanews.com)
Other News
Why Defenders Should Embrace a Hacker Mindset (thehackernews.com)
Hackers are taking over planes’ GPS — experts are lost on how to fix it (nypost.com)
UK proposes 'super-complaints' to help keep internet safe • The Register
Consumers plan to be more consistent with their security in 2024 - Help Net Security
Security trends public sector leaders are watching | CyberScoop
Even gas pumps aren't safe from cyber attacks at the moment | TechRadar
Scottish cyber security organisation calls for greater awareness of rising threat - Business Insider
The US government wants to offer better cyber security to major infrastructure firms | TechRadar
The retail sector is under threat from… Gmail, WhatsApp and Google Drive? | TechRadar
Sekoia: Latest in the Financial Sector Cyber Threat Landscape (techrepublic.com)
Shields Ready: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience
Crimeware and financial cyberthreat predictions for 2024 | Securelist
Terrorism, cyber attacks main Paris 2024 threats as security plan finalised | Reuters
Read again: Decoding cyber security, safeguarding educational institutions | Edexec
What direction for the EU Cyber security Competence Centre? – EURACTIV.com
Unveiling the Most Common Cyber Threats in Retail – International Supermarket News
Mideast Oil & Gas Facilities Could Face Cyber Related Energy Disruptions (darkreading.com)
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 21 July 2023
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 21 July 2023:
-Cyber Attacks Reach Two-Year High Amid Ransomware Resurgence as Financial Service Firms Lose $32 Billion in 5 Years
-MOVEit Body Count Closes in on 400 orgs, 20M+ Individuals
-IT Worker Jailed for Impersonating Ransomware Gang to Extort Employer
-Stabilising the Cyber Security Landscape: The CISO Exodus and the Rise of vCISOs
-Risk is Driving Medium-Sized Business Decisions
-Talent and Governance, Not Technology, are Key to Drive Change around Cyber Security
-Hybrid Work, Digital Transformation can Exploit Security Gaps
-Human Cyber-Risk Can Be Demonstrably Mitigated by Behaviour Changing Training
-AI Tool WormGPT Enables Convincing Fake Emails For BEC Attacks
-Pro-Russian Hacktivists Increase Focus on Western Targets
-Infosec Doesn't Know What AI Tools Orgs Are Using
-Google Restricting Internet Access to Some Employees to Reduce Cyber Attack Risk
-Unlocking Business Potential: How CISOs are Transforming Cyber Security into a Strategic Asset
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Cyber Attacks Reach Two-Year High Amid Ransomware Resurgence as Financial Service Firms Lose $32 Billion in 5 Years
The average weekly volume of cyber attacks reached a two-year high in the second quarter of 2023 amid a spike in activity among ransomware groups according to Check Point Research, with healthcare in particular facing a significant year-on-year increase. The impact of ransomware hits every organisation, with separate research finding global financial services organisations having lost over $32bn in downtime since 2018 due to ransomware breaches.
A recent report found that the ransomware gangs LockBit and Cl0p alone accounted for nearly 40% of all recorded ransomware attacks across June 2023. The impact from Cl0p’s MOVEit attack alone has been felt by over 400 organisations since May 2023. One of the key takeaways from the MOVEit attack is that no matter the sector, any organisation can be a victim and as such it is essential to have effective controls in place, incorporating defence-in-depth. It’s worth considering how many organisations are still running vulnerable instances of MOVEit, or have someone in their supply chain who is.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-costs-financial-32bn/
MOVEit Body Count Closes in on 400 Organisations, 20M+ Individuals
The number of victims and the costs tied to the MOVEit file transfer hack continues to climb as the fallout from the massive supply chain attack enters week seven. In late May 2023, Russian ransomware gang Cl0p exploited a security hole in Progress Software's MOVEit product suite to steal documents from vulnerable networks. As of last week, the number of affected organisations was closing in on 400 and individual victims exceed 20 million.
The attack highlights the need for organisations to have policies and procedures in place for third parties, and to be aware of the data which a third party supplier has on them. It will be the organisation who will need to let their customers know in the event of a breach.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/20/moveit_victim_count/
IT Worker Jailed for Impersonating Ransomware Gang to Extort Employer
28-year-old Ashley Liles, a former IT employee, has been sentenced to over three years in prison for attempting to blackmail his employer during a ransomware attack. Liles, an IT security analyst at an Oxford-based company in the UK, exploited his position to intercept a ransomware payment following an attack suffered by his employer. To deceive the company, he impersonated the ransomware gang extorting them. He tried to redirect the ransomware payments by switching the cyber criminals' cryptocurrency wallet to one under his control. He also accessed a board member's private emails over 300 times.
Insider threat is a risk that organisations need to be aware of and, although it was malicious in this case, it can also come from employee negligence. Organisations looking to achieve a strong level of cyber resilience should incorporate insider risk into their training and controls.
Stabilising the Cyber Security Landscape: The CISO Exodus and the Rise of vCISOs
In today's evolving digital landscape, the role of a chief information security officer (CISO) is critical. These professionals defend against the rising tide of daily cyber threats. Yet many CISOs are leaving or considering leaving their jobs; this trend seems to reflect the intense pressure CISOs endure. They face a constant stream of complex cyber threats, manage compliance issues and struggle with a talent deficit in cyber security. Paired with high expectations, many reconsider their roles which can lead to a leadership gap.
A virtual CISO (vCISO) is an outsourced security practitioner who offers their expertise to businesses on a part-time or contractual basis. These professionals provide many of the same services as a traditional CISO, such as developing and implementing security strategies, ensuring compliance with regulations, training staff and managing a company's cyber security posture. vCISOs, such as from Black Arrow, are often part of a larger team and can bring a wide range of experiences and skills. They are exposed to diverse security landscapes across industries, and can provide a fresh perspective and innovative solutions to your security challenges. The vCISO model may not replace the need for a full-time CISO in all cases, but it can certainly add a flexible and cost-effective tool to the arsenal of businesses looking to bolster their cyber security posture.
Risk is Driving Medium-Sized Business Decisions
Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have long lacked the tools, expertise, staff and budget to make major cyber security investments. However, as threats become more mainstream and more advanced, the focus is shifting, so SMBs need to take the threats seriously and evaluate their cyber security controls.
In a survey of 140 SMBs, it was found that 40% of respondents believe they are very likely or extremely likely to experience a cyber security attack target in the next 12 months. That fear is founded, as 34% of organisations stated they experienced a malware attack in the past year, and 29% experienced a phishing or spear phishing incident. SMBs are putting their time, energy, and budget toward risk management. When it came to budgeting, 67% list their primary budgeting method as “risk-based”, and only 32% as “ad hoc/following an attack or breach”. It was found that over two-thirds of businesses would rather spend money now than pay a ransom later.
Talent and Governance, Not Technology, are Key to Drive Change Around Cyber Security
For the last 20 years, large organisations have been spending significant amounts of money on cyber security products and solutions, on managed services, or with consultancies large and small. Yet maturity levels remain elusive: a report found that 70% of firms surveyed had yet to fully advance to a mature-based approach. Cyber security good practices have been well established for the best part of the last 20 years and continue to provide, in most industries, an acceptable level of protection against most threats and an acceptable level of compliance against most regulations.
However cyber security is often viewed as something external to the business. This perspective leads to talent alienation and execution failures because the employees who should be invested in maintaining and improving cyber security may feel disconnected from these efforts. To make genuine progress, cyber security needs to be intrinsically linked to business values as a visible priority, owned and directed from the highest levels of an organisation.
This approach underlines the importance of governance in setting effective cyber security policies and procedures. It also highlights the crucial role of nurturing talent within the organisation to ensure active involvement in maintaining and improving cyber security measures. While technology is undoubtedly an essential element of cyber security, prioritising talent and governance can lead to lasting progress.
Hybrid Work, Digital Transformation can Exploit Security Gaps
A new study showed that larger organisations generally recognise malware threats but they lack protection against malicious actors and ways to properly remediate infections. The report revealed security leaders are concerned about attacks that leverage malware-exfiltrated authentication data. 53% say they are extremely concerned about attacks, with 1% of security leaders saying they weren’t concerned at all. 98% said that better visibility into at-risk applications would significantly improve their security posture.
The most overlooked entry points for malware include 57% of organisations allowing employees to sync browser data between personal and corporate devices. 54% of organisations struggle with shadow IT, due to employees’ unsanctioned adoption of applications and systems, creating gaps not only in visibility but also in basic security controls and corporate policies.
Human Cyber Risk Can Be Demonstrably Mitigated by Behaviour Changing Training
The process of encouraging secure cyber habits in end users is evolving from traditional awareness training toward changing end user behaviour. It reflects a growing acceptance that traditional methods haven’t worked. While traditional security awareness teaches users how to recognise social engineering, new behaviour changing trains the brain – almost pre-programs it – on the correct recognition and response to phishing.
What is considered a standard phishing email today may not be tomorrow, and changes in user behaviour will help to combat this. It is simply not enough to be shown one phishing email and be told to follow procedures. Training should instead be focused on going beyond; this should look to change how the user approaches things such as phishing, and gamifying the recognition and reporting of it.
AI Tool WormGPT Enables Convincing Fake Emails For BEC Attacks
A generative AI tool, WormGPT, has emerged as a powerful weapon in the hands of cyber criminals, specifically for launching business email compromise (BEC) attacks, according to new findings. The tool is designed for malicious purposes and has no restrictions on what a user can request. Such a tool allows for impeccable grammar in emails to reduce suspicion and allows sophistication with no restrictions on prompts. The lowered entry threshold enables cyber criminals with limited skills to execute sophisticated attacks, democratising the use of this technology.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/wormgpt-fake-emails-bec-attacks/
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-dark-web-wormgpt-hack-b2376627.html
Pro-Russian Hacktivists Increase Focus on Western Targets
‘Anonymous Sudan’, apparent pro-Russian hacktivists, claimed a one-hour distributed denial of service attack on the social platform OnlyFans last week. This was the latest in a string of operations aimed at targets in the US and Europe. The group’s digital assaults coincide with attacks coming from a broader network of hackers aligned with Moscow that seek attention by taking down high-profile victims and strategic targets; many of the targets support Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia.
The pro-Russian group appears to be affiliated with Killnet, a pro-Russian hacktivist group that emerged in late 2021 or early 2022 and has claimed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, data theft and leaks on perceived adversaries of the Russian government, according to an analysis from Google’s Mandiant released earlier this week. The collective’s apparent significant growth in capabilities, demonstrated by Microsoft’s confirmation that Anonymous Sudan was responsible for the outages they experienced, potentially indicates a significant increase in outside investment in the collective, further suggesting a potential tie to the Russian state.
https://cyberscoop.com/anonymous-sudan-killnet-russia-onlyfans/
Infosec Doesn't Know What AI Tools Organisations Are Using
With the marketplace awash in new artificial intelligence (AI) tools and new AI features being added to existing tools, organisations are finding themselves lacking visibility into what AI tools are in use, how they are used, who has access, and what data is being shared. As businesses try, adopt, and abandon new generative AI tools, it falls on enterprise IT, risk, and security leaders to govern and secure their use without hindering innovation. While developing security policies to govern AI use is important, it is not possible without knowing what tools are being used in the first place.
Enterprise security teams have to consider how to handle discovery, learning which generative AI tools have been introduced into the environment and by whom, as well as risk assessment.
https://www.darkreading.com/tech-trends/infosec-doesnt-know-what-ai-tools-orgs-are-using
Google Restricting Internet Access to Some Employees to Reduce Cyber Attack Risk
In a bid to shrink the attack surface of its employees, and thus boost security, Google is taking an experimental, and some might say extreme, approach: cutting some of their workstations off from the internet. The company originally selected more than 2,500 employees to participate and will disable internet access on the selected desktops, except for internal web-based tools and Google owned websites like Google Drive and Gmail. Some workers who need the internet to do their job will get exceptions, the company stated in materials.
Google is running the programme to reduce the risk of cyber attacks, according to internal materials. If a Google employee’s device is compromised, the attackers may have access to user data and infrastructure code, which could result in a major incident and undermine user trust. The program comes as companies face increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Just last week, Microsoft said Chinese intelligence hacked into company email accounts belonging to two dozen government agencies in the US and Western Europe, including the US State Department, in a “significant” breach.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/19/google_cuts_internet/
Unlocking Business Potential: How CISOs are Transforming Cyber Security into a Strategic Asset
Enterprises are responding to growing cyber security threats by working to make the best use of tools and services to ensure business resilience, according to a recent report. Chief information security officers (CISOs) and virtual CISOs (vCISOS) in particular, want more solutions and services that help them align security measures with enterprise objectives and C-level executives have become more aware of the need for cyber resilience. As a result, security investments have expanded beyond detection and response to include rapid recovery and business continuity.
The report found that amongst other things, enterprises are investing in risk assessments and outsourcing more services. In some cases, where a CISO cannot be hired, organisations may look to hire a vCISO. It is important that the vCISO is able to understand cyber in context to the business and help to align security objectives with the organisations objectives. Black Arrow supports clients as their vCISO with specialist experience in cyber security risk management in a business context.
https://www.blackarrowcyber.com/blog/threat-briefing-14-july-2023
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Risk is Driving Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) Decisions - MSSP Alert
Stabilising The Cyber security Landscape: The Rise Of vCISOs (forbes.com)
Talent and Governance, not Technology, are Key to Drive Change around Cyber Security - TechNative
Hybrid Work, Digital Transformation Can Exploit Security Gaps, Study Finds - MSSP Alert
Stress, data privacy, zero trust to shape cyber security trends | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
Network, IAM, cloud are 2023's top cyber security spend priorities | VentureBeat
CISOs are making cyber security a business problem - Help Net Security
Top Information Security Threats for Businesses 2023 (cybersecuritynews.com)
Best practices for an effective cyber security strategy | CSO Online
Exploring the macro shifts in enterprise security - Help Net Security
Google Cloud CISO Phil Venables On Cyber security, Cloud Adoption And The Boardroom (forbes.com)
Threats
Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks
MOVEit victim count closes in on 400 orgs, 20M+ individuals • The Register
Weekly cyber attacks reach two-year high amid ransomware resurgence | ITPro
Ransomware attacks are on the rise—and so are ransom payments (fastcompany.com)
IT worker jailed for impersonating ransomware gang to extort employer (bleepingcomputer.com)
Security Patch Management Strengthens Ransomware Defence (trendmicro.com)
The rise in ransomware attacks this year may be related to Russia's war in Ukraine : NPR
Cyber security firm Sophos impersonated by new SophosEncrypt ransomware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Trends in ransomware-as-a-service and cryptocurrency to monitor - Help Net SecurityFIN8 deploys ALPHV ransomware using Sardonic malware variant (bleepingcomputer.com)
Linux Ransomware Poses Significant Threat to Critical Infrastructure (darkreading.com)
Financial cyber crime syndicate deploys reworked backdoor malware | CyberScoop
Ransomware attackers getting more sophisticated: Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (yahoo.com)
SophosEncrypt Ransomware Fools Security Researchers (darkreading.com)
Mallox Ransomware Exploits Weak MS-SQL Servers to Breach Networks (thehackernews.com)
New Ransomware With RAT Capabilities Impersonating Sophos - SecurityWeek
Google’s Bard poses ransomware risk, say researchers | Cybernews
FIN8 Group spotted delivering the BlackCat Ransomware - Security Affairs
Cyber insurers adapting to data-centric ransomware threats | TechTarget
Shutterfly says Clop ransomware attack did not impact customer data (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware Victims
MOVEit victim count closes in on 400 orgs, 20M+ individuals • The Register
Ofcom says it won’t pay ransom, as new MOVEit hack victims come forward | TechCrunch
MOVEit Transfer vulnerability: New Cl0p 'victims' include Discovery (techmonitor.ai)
BlackCat and Clop gangs both claim cyber attack on Estée Lauder | Computer Weekly
Iron ore giant Fortescue Metals targeted by Russian ransomware group | Cybercrime | The Guardian
Russian medical lab suspends some services after ransomware attack (therecord.media)
Recycling Giant Tomra Takes Systems Offline Following Cyber attack - SecurityWeek
Shutterfly says Clop ransomware attack did not impact customer data (bleepingcomputer.com)
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Typo leaks millions of US military emails to Mali web operator | Financial Times (ft.com)
Microsoft Exchange servers compromised by Turla APT - Help Net Security
Microsoft takes pains to obscure role in 0-days that caused email breach | Ars Technica
Analysis of Storm-0558 techniques for unauthorised email access | Microsoft Security Blog
Only a handful of hackers are responsible for all email extortion attacks | TechRadar
Microsoft Tops List of the Most Impersonated Brand for Phishing Scams in Q2 2023 - MSSP Alert
Enhanced Monitoring to Detect APT Activity Targeting Outlook Online | CISA
Gmail encouraging users to enable Enhanced Safe Browsing (9to5google.com)
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Only a handful of hackers are responsible for all email extortion attacks | TechRadar
Nigerian Man Sentenced to 8 Years in US Prison for $8 Million BEC Scheme - SecurityWeek
Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc
Artificial Intelligence
ChatGPT rival WormGPT with ‘no ethical boundaries’ sold to hackers on dark web | The Independent
Infosec Doesn't Know What AI Tools Orgs Are Using (darkreading.com)
AI models must be reconciled with data protection laws • The Register
1 in 4 Brits play with generative AI and some believe it too • The Register
OpenAI credentials stolen by the thousands for sale on the dark web (bleepingcomputer.com)
AI must have better security, says top cyber official - BBC News
Google Categorises 6 Real-World AI Attacks to Prepare for Now (darkreading.com)
How to Use Generative AI Tools While Still Protecting Your Privacy | WIRED
Google’s Bard poses ransomware risk, say researchers | Cybernews
Malware
Microsoft: Hackers turn Exchange servers into malware control centers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Malicious USB Drives Targeting Global Targets with SOGU and SNOWYDRIVE Malware (thehackernews.com)
Financial cyber crime syndicate deploys reworked backdoor malware | CyberScoop
New SOHO Router Botnet AVrecon Spreads to 70,000 Devices Across 20 Countries (thehackernews.com)
Hackers Target Gamers With Microsoft-Signed Rootkit (darkreading.com)
Source code of the BlackLotus UEFI Bootkit was leaked on GitHub - Security Affairs
Are Viruses Still a Threat to Cyber security? (makeuseof.com)
Black Hat Hacker Exposes Real Identity After Infecting Own Computer With Malware - SecurityWeek
Pernicious Rootkits Pose Growing Blight On Threat Landscape (darkreading.com)
Mobile
Hackers Exploit WebAPK to Deceive Android Users into Installing Malicious Apps (thehackernews.com)
Meta confirms WhatsApp is down worldwide (bleepingcomputer.com)
Botnets
New SOHO Router Botnet AVrecon Spreads to 70,000 Devices Across 20 Countries (thehackernews.com)
Ukraine's cyber police dismantled a massive bot farm - Security Affairs
Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS
Cloudflare reports 'alarming surge' in DDoS sophistication, escalation in recent months | CyberScoop
Attackers intensify DDoS attacks with new tactics - Help Net Security
Internet of Things – IoT
How your internet-connected domestic devices can be a critical tool of cyber attack (mid-day.com)
US preparing Cyber Trust Mark for more secure smart devices (bleepingcomputer.com)
Seven new gadgets added to riskiest connected devices list | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
Data Breaches/Leaks
MOVEit Hack: Number of Impacted Organisations Exceeds 340 - SecurityWeek
Data compromises on track to set a new record - Help Net Security
Virustotal data leak exposed data of some registered customers - Security Affairs
What to do (and what not to do) after a data breach - Help Net Security
Thousands of images on Docker Hub leak auth secrets, private keys (bleepingcomputer.com)
Met Police ‘passed victims’ data to Facebook via online tracking tool’ | Evening Standard
LastPass: The lessons we learnt from our devastating breach | TechRadar
JumpCloud, an IT firm serving 200,000 orgs, says it was hacked by nation-state | Ars Technica
Rogue Azure AD Guests Can Steal Data via Power Apps (darkreading.com)
FIA World Endurance Championship driver passports leaked - Security Affairs
Typo leaks millions of US military emails to Mali web operator | Financial Times (ft.com)
Colorado State University says data breach impacts students, staff (bleepingcomputer.com)
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Only a handful of hackers are responsible for all email extortion attacks | TechRadar
Nigerian Man Sentenced to 8 Years in US Prison for $8 Million BEC Scheme - SecurityWeek
Owner of BreachForums Pleads Guilty to Cyber crime and Child Pornography Charges (thehackernews.com)
Genesis Market infrastructure and inventory sold on hacker forum (bleepingcomputer.com)
Black Hat Hacker Exposes Real Identity After Infecting Own Computer With Malware - SecurityWeek
Police arrests Ukrainian scareware developer after 10-year hunt (bleepingcomputer.com)
Extremist-friendly tech company closes after fine for securities fraud | Technology | The Guardian
Hacker Conversations: Inside the Mind of Daniel Kelley, ex-Blackhat - SecurityWeek
Go Beyond the Headlines for Deeper Dives into the Cyber criminal Underground (thehackernews.com)
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
IT worker jailed for impersonating ransomware gang to extort employer (bleepingcomputer.com)
Former contractor accused of remotely accessing town's water treatment facility | Tripwire
Insider Risk Management Starts With SaaS Security (darkreading.com)
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Growing scam activity linked to social media and automation - Help Net Security
A fresh look at the current state of financial fraud - Help Net Security
Tech support scammers now accepting cash via snail mail • The Register
Extremist-friendly tech company closes after fine for securities fraud | Technology | The Guardian
The cruel new holiday scams you need to know about | This is Money
Airbnb-Related Scams Surge: Beware Of ‘Too Good To Be True’ Offers (forbes.com)
AML/CFT/Sanctions
Insurance
Cyber insurers adapting to data-centric ransomware threats | TechTarget
Strengthening Password Security may Lower Cyber Insurance Premiums (bleepingcomputer.com)
Dark Web
Genesis Market infrastructure and inventory sold on hacker forum (bleepingcomputer.com)
OpenAI credentials stolen by the thousands for sale on the dark web (bleepingcomputer.com)
Supply Chain and Third Parties
JumpCloud, an IT firm serving 200,000 orgs, says it was hacked by nation-state | Ars Technica
Google Cloud Build bug lets hackers launch supply chain attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Supply chain executives unaware of growing customer trust issues - Help Net Security
Possible Supply Chain Attack Targeting Pakistani Government Delivers Shadowpad (trendmicro.com)
Cloud/SaaS
Microsoft makes cloud security logs available for free • The Register
Microsoft Expands Cloud Logging to Counter Rising Nation-State Cyber Threats (thehackernews.com)
Network, IAM, cloud are 2023's top cyber security spend priorities | VentureBeat
Google Cloud Build bug lets hackers launch supply chain attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Three key unanswered questions about the Chinese breach of Microsoft cloud services | CyberScoop
TeamTNT's Cloud Credential Stealing Campaign Now Targets Azure and Google Cloud (thehackernews.com)
Hybrid/Remote Working
Hybrid Work, Digital Transformation Can Exploit Security Gaps, Study Finds - MSSP Alert
Securing The Hybrid Workforce Begins With Browsing (forbes.com)
Attack Surface Management
Identity and Access Management
Network, IAM, cloud are 2023's top cyber security spend priorities | VentureBeat
The rise of hassle-free and secure authentication | CyberScoop
Encryption
Real-world examples of quantum-based attacks - Help Net Security
EU Urged to Prepare for Quantum Cyber Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Signal president rejects ‘mass surveillance’ UK law | Fortune
API
Docker Leaks API Secrets & Private Keys, as Cyber criminals Pounce (darkreading.com)
API keys: Weaknesses and security best practices | TechTarget
Open Source
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
LastPass: The lessons we learnt from our devastating breach | TechRadar
Millions of Keyboard Walk Patterns Found in Compromised Passwords - IT Security Guru
TeamTNT's Cloud Credential Stealing Campaign Now Targets Azure and Google Cloud (thehackernews.com)
Strengthening Password Security may Lower Cyber Insurance Premiums (bleepingcomputer.com)
Social Media
Growing scam activity linked to social media and automation - Help Net Security
Met Police ‘passed victims’ data to Facebook via online tracking tool’ | Evening Standard
Training, Education and Awareness
Security Awareness Training Isn’t Working - How Can We Improve It? - SecurityWeek
Companywide Cyber security Training: 20 Tips To Make It ‘Stick’ (forbes.com)
Digital Transformation
Travel
The cruel new holiday scams you need to know about | This is Money
Airbnb-Related Scams Surge: Beware Of ‘Too Good To Be True’ Offers (forbes.com)
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
AI models must be reconciled with data protection laws • The Register
Online Safety Bill Last chance for Lords to stop surveillance | Evening Standard
Models, Frameworks and Standards
Data Protection
Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security
Career Benefits of Learning Ethical Hacking (analyticsinsight.net)
Should You Be Using a Cyber security Careers Framework? (darkreading.com)
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
Nigerian Man Sentenced to 8 Years in US Prison for $8 Million BEC Scheme - SecurityWeek
Owner of BreachForums Pleads Guilty to Cyber crime and Child Pornography Charges (thehackernews.com)
Police arrests Ukrainian scareware developer after 10-year hunt (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ukraine's cyber police dismantled a massive bot farm - Security Affairs
Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring
Online Safety Bill Last chance for Lords to stop surveillance | Evening Standard
Stress, data privacy, zero trust to shape cyber security trends | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
How to Use Generative AI Tools While Still Protecting Your Privacy | WIRED
Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda
Nation State Actors, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage
Russia
The rise in ransomware attacks this year may be related to Russia's war in Ukraine : NPR
Gamaredon hackers start stealing data 30 minutes after a breach (bleepingcomputer.com)
Analysis of Storm-0558 techniques for unauthorised email access | Microsoft Security Blog
Microsoft Exchange servers compromised by Turla APT - Help Net Security
Pro-Russian hacktivists increase focus on Western targets. The latest is OnlyFans. | CyberScoop
Elon Musk’s Starlink is putting our soldiers at risk, Ukraine warns (telegraph.co.uk)
Thousands of Russian officials to give up iPhones over US spying fears | Financial Times (ft.com)
Ukraine innovates on cyber defence | Financial Times (ft.com)
China
Three key unanswered questions about the Chinese breach of Microsoft cloud services | CyberScoop
China Espionage Operatives Left Empty Handed in Email Heist, White House Official Says - MSSP Alert
Xi wants to make the Great Firewall of China even greater • The Register
North Korea
JumpCloud breach traced back to North Korean state hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)
North Korean hackers breached a US tech company to steal crypto | Reuters
Misc/Other/Unknown
JumpCloud, an IT firm serving 200,000 orgs, says it was hacked by nation-state | Ars Technica
APT Protection: The Key to Safeguarding Your Business (ts2.space)
How to Secure Your OT Network Against Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) (ts2.space)
Microsoft Expands Cloud Logging to Counter Rising Nation-State Cyber Threats (thehackernews.com)
Vulnerability Management
CVSS 4.0 released, to help assess real-time threat and impact of vulnerabilities - Help Net Security
Security Patch Management Strengthens Ransomware Defence (trendmicro.com)
What is Vulnerability Assessment In Cyber security? (gbhackers.com)
Vulnerabilities
Windows Users Urged To Update As Microsoft Confirms New Zero-Day Exploits (forbes.com)
Microsoft still unsure how hackers stole Azure AD signing key (bleepingcomputer.com)
Microsoft takes pains to obscure role in 0-days that caused email breach | Ars Technica
CVE-2023-38408: Remote Code Execution in OpenSSH’s forwarded ssh-agent | Qualys Security Blog
New critical Citrix ADC and Gateway flaw exploited as zero-day (bleepingcomputer.com)
OpenSSH Addresses Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2023-38408 - VULNERA
Adobe Rolls Out New Patches for Actively Exploited ColdFusion Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)
Cisco fixed a critical flaw in SD-WAN vManage - Security Affairs
Hacking campaign targets sites using WordPress WooCommerce Payments Plugin - Security Affairs
Microsoft hit by Storm season – a tale of two semi-zero days – Naked Security (sophos.com)
5 Major Takeaways From Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday (darkreading.com)
Two Jira Plugin Vulnerabilities in Attacker Crosshairs - SecurityWeek
Google says Apple employee found a zero-day but did not report it | TechCrunch
Tools and Controls
Network, IAM, cloud are 2023's top cyber security spend priorities | VentureBeat
Stress, data privacy, zero trust to shape cyber security trends | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
Leverage Threat Intelligence, AI, and Data at Scale to Boost Cyber Defences (darkreading.com)
A Few More Reasons Why RDP is Insecure (Surprise!) (thehackernews.com)
Enterprise communication security a growing risk, priority | TechTarget
MIT’s Cyber security Metior: A Secret Weapon Against Side-Channel Attacks (scitechdaily.com)
NCSC Shares Alternatives to Using a SOC - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Microsoft's security roadmap: Protect Azure DevOps secrets • The Register
CISA shares free tools to help secure data in the cloud (bleepingcomputer.com)
What is the new Enhanced Safe Browsing for Gmail (and should you enable it)? | ZDNET
Insider Risk Management Starts With SaaS Security (darkreading.com)
67% of daily security alerts overwhelm SOC analysts - Help Net Security
Gmail encouraging users to enable Enhanced Safe Browsing (9to5google.com)
Microsoft Expands Cloud Logging to Counter Rising Nation-State Cyber Threats (thehackernews.com)
Microsoft makes cloud security logs available for free • The Register
Security Awareness Training Isn’t Working - How Can We Improve It? - SecurityWeek
API keys: Weaknesses and security best practices | TechTarget
Other News
Google restricting internet access to some employees for security (cnbc.com)
Enterprise communication security a growing risk, priority | TechTarget
Healthcare organisations in the crosshairs of cyber attackers - Help Net Security
Broadband consumers demand security and sustainability - Help Net Security
Microsoft Exchange Online hit by new outage blocking emails (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cyber security measures SMBs should implement - Help Net Security
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 June 2023
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 June 2023:
-Hacker Gang Clop Deploys Extortion Tactics Against Global Companies
-Social Engineering Drives BEC Losses to $50B Globally
-Creating A Cyber-Conscious Culture—It Must Be Driven from the Top
-Artificial Intelligence is Coming to Windows: Are Your Security Policy Settings Ready?
-Cyber Crooks Targeting Employees, Organisations Fight Back with Training Programs
-Massive Phishing Campaign Uses 6,000 Sites to Impersonate 100 Brands
-A Recent Study Shows Over One in Ten Brits are Willing to Engage in ‘Illegal or Illicit’ Online Behaviour as the Cost of Living Crisis Worsens, Driving Insider Threat Concerns
-Microsoft Office 365 Phishing Reveals Signs of Much Larger BEC Campaign
-Europol Warns of Metaverse and AI Terror Threat
-What is AI, and is it Dangerous?
-Cyber Liability Insurance Vs. Data Breach Insurance: What's the Difference?
-Exploring the Dark Web: Hitmen for Hire and the Realities of Online Activities
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
Hacker Gang Clop Deploys Extortion Tactics Against Global Companies
The Russian-speaking gang of hackers that compromised UK groups such as British Airways and the BBC has claimed it has siphoned off sensitive data from more institutions including US-based investment firms, European manufacturers and US universities. Eight other companies this week made it onto Clop’s list on the dark web. That adds to the news last week that UK groups, including Walgreens-owned Boots, informed employees that their data had been compromised. The issue also targeted customers of Zellis, a UK-based payroll provider that about half of the companies on the FTSE 100 use.
The hacking group is pushing for contact with the companies on the list, according to a post on Clop’s dark web site, as the gang demands a ransom that cyber security experts and negotiators said could be as much as several million dollars.
https://www.ft.com/content/c1db9c5c-cdf1-48bc-8e6b-2c2444b66dc9
Social Engineering Drives BEC Losses to $50B Globally
Business email compromise (BEC) continues to evolve on the back of sophisticated targeting and social engineering, costing businesses worldwide more than $50 billion in the last 10 years - a figure that reflected a growth in business losses to BEC of 17% year-over-year in 2022, according to the FBI.
Security professionals attribute BEC's continued dominance in the cyber threat landscape to several reasons. A key one is that attackers have become increasingly savvy in how to socially-engineer messages so that they appear authentic to users, which is the key to being successful at this scam. And with the increase in availability of artificial intelligence, the continued success of BEC means these attacks are here to stay. Organisations will be forced to respond with even stronger security measures, security experts say.
https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/social-engineering-drives-bec-losses-to-50b-globally
Creating A Cyber Conscious Culture—It Must Be Driven from the Top
Businesses are facing more frequent and sophisticated cyber threats and they must continuously learn new ways to protect their revenues, reputation and maintain regulatory compliance. With hybrid and remote working blurring traditional security perimeters and expanding the attack surface, the high volumes of sensitive information held by organisations are at increased risk of cyber attacks.
The increase had led to cyber elevating to the board level; after all the board is responsible for cyber security. It doesn’t stop there however, as everyone in an organisation has responsibility for upholding cyber security. The board must aim to create a cyber-conscious culture, where users are aware of their role in cyber security. One important way such a culture can be achieved is through providing regular education and training to all users.
Artificial Intelligence is Coming to Windows: Are Your Security Policy Settings Ready?
What’s in your Windows security policy? Do you review your settings on an annual basis or more often? Do you provide education and training regarding the topics in the policy? Does it get revised when the impact of an incident showcases that an internal policy violation led to the root cause of the issue? And, importantly, do you have a security policy that includes your firm’s overall policies around the increasing race towards artificial intelligence, which is seemingly in nearly every application released these days?
From word processing documents to the upcoming enhancements to Windows 11, which will include AI prompting in the Explorer platform, organisations should review how they want their employees to treat customer data or other confidential information when using AI platforms. Many will want to build limits and guidelines into their security plans that specify what is allowed to be entered into platforms and websites that may store or share the information online. However, confidential information should not be included in any application that doesn’t have clearly defined protections around the handling of such data. The bottom line is that AI is coming to your network and your desktop sooner than you think. Build your policies now and review your processes to determine if you are ready for it today.
Cyber Crooks Targeting Employees, Organisations Fight Back with Training Programs
Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting an organisation’s employees, figuring to trick an untrained staffer to click on a malicious link that starts a malware attack, Fortinet said in a newly released study of security awareness and training.
More than 80% of organisations faced malware, phishing and password attacks last year, which were mainly targeted at users. This underscores that employees can be an organisation’s weakest point or one of its most powerful defences.
Fortinet’s research revealed that more than 90% of the survey’s respondents believe that increased employee cyber security awareness would help decrease the occurrence of cyber attacks. As organisations face increasing cyber risks, employees serving as an organisation’s first line of defence in protecting their organisation from cyber crime becomes of paramount importance.
Massive Phishing Campaign Uses 6,000 Sites to Impersonate 100 Brands
A widespread brand impersonation campaign targeting over a hundred popular apparel, footwear, and clothing brands has been underway since June 2022, tricking people into entering their account credentials and financial information on fake websites. The brands impersonated by the phony sites include Nike, Puma, Asics, Vans, Adidas, Columbia, Superdry, Converse, Casio, Timberland, Salomon, Crocs, Sketchers, The North Face and others.
A recent report found the campaign relies on at least 3,000 domains and roughly 6,000 sites, including inactive ones. The campaign had a significant activity spike between January and February 2023, adding 300 new fake sites monthly. The domain names follow a pattern of using the brand name together with a city or country, followed by a generic TLD such as ".com." Additionally, any details entered on the checkout pages, most notably the credit card details, may be stored by the website operators and resold to cyber criminals.
Over One in Ten Brits are Willing to Engage in ‘Illegal or Illicit’ Online Behaviour
A recent study found that 11% of Brits were tempted to engage in ‘illegal or illicit online behaviour’ in order to help manage the fallout from the cost of living crisis. This statistic becomes even more concerning when focused on younger people, with almost a quarter of 25–35 year old respondents (23%) willing to consider illegal or illicit online activity. Of those willing to engage in this kind of behaviour, 56% suggested it was because they are desperate and struggling to get by, and need to find alternative means of supporting their families.
Nearly half (47%) of UK business leaders believe their organisation has been at a greater risk of attack since the start of the cost-of-living crisis. Against this backdrop, many SME business leaders are understandably worried about the impact on employees. Of those who think their organisation is more exposed to attack, 38% believe it’s due to malicious insiders and 35% to overworked and distracted staff making mistakes. Organisations not doing so already, should look to incorporate insider threat into their security plans. Insider threat should focus on areas such as regular education and monitoring and detection.
The report found that 44% of respondents have also noticed an uptick in online scams hitting their inboxes since the cost of living crisis began in late 2021/early 2022. Another worrying finding is that this uptick is proving devastatingly effective for scammers: over one in ten (13%) of UK respondents have already been scammed since the cost of living crisis began. This rises to a quarter (26%) of respondents in the 18-25 age range, reflecting a hyper-online lifestyle and culture that scammers can work to exploit effectively.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/costofliving-crisis-drives-insider/
Microsoft Office 365 Phishing Reveals Signs of Much Larger BEC Campaign
Recently, Microsoft discovered multi-stage adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing and business email compromise (BEC) attacks against banking and financial services organisations. The attackers are successfully phishing employees’ accounts with fake Office 365 domains. This allows them to bypass authentication, exfiltrate data and send further phishing emails against other employees and several targeted external organisations. In some cases, threat actors have registered their own device to the employee’s account, to evade MFA defences and achieve persistent access.
https://securityaffairs.com/147327/hacking/aitm-bec-attacks.html
https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/adversary-in-middle-attack-campaign.html
Europol Warns of Metaverse and AI Terror Threat
New and emerging technologies like conversational AI, deepfakes and the metaverse could be utilised by terrorists and extremists to radicalise and recruit converts to their cause, Europol has warned. The report stated that the online environment lowers the bar for entering the world of terrorism and extremism, broadens the range of people that can become exposed to radicalisation and increases the unpredictability of terrorism and extremism.
Europol also pointed to the potential use of deepfakes, augmented reality and conversational AI to enhance the efficiency of terrorist propaganda. Both these technologies and internet of things (IoT) tools can also be deployed in more practical tasks such as the remote operation of vehicles and weapons used in attacks or setting up virtual training camps. Digital currencies are also playing a role in helping to finance such groups while maintaining the anonymity of those contributing the funding, Europol said.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/europol-warns-metaverse-and-ai/
What is AI, and is it Dangerous?
Recently, we saw the release of the first piece of EU regulation on AI. This comes after a significant rise in the usage of tools such as ChatGPT. Such tools allow for even those with limited technical ability to perform sophisticated actions. In fact, usage has risen 44% over the last three months alone, according to a report.
Rather worryingly, there is a lack of governance on the usage of AI, and this extends to how AI is used within your own organisation. Whilst the usage can greatly improve actions performed within an organisation, the report found that 6% of employees using AI had pasted sensitive company data into an AI tool. Would your organisation know if this happened, and how damaging could it be to your organisation if this data was to be leaked? Continuous monitoring, risk analysis and real-time governance can help aid an organisation in having an overview of the usage of AI.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65855333
https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/new-research-6-of-employees-paste.html
Cyber Liability Insurance Vs. Data Breach Insurance: What's the Difference?
With an ever-increasing number of cyber security threats and attacks, companies are becoming motivated to protect their businesses and customer data both technically and financially. Finding the right insurance has become a key part of the security equation.
Companies looking to protect themselves have most likely heard the terms “cyber liability insurance” and “data breach insurance.” Put simply, cyber liability insurance refers to coverage for third-party claims asserted against a company stemming from a network security event or data breach. Data breach insurance, on the other hand, refers to coverage for first-party losses incurred by the insured organisation that has suffered a loss of data.
Exploring the Dark Web: Hitmen for Hire and the Realities of Online Activities
The dark web makes up a significant portion of the internet. Access can be gained through special browser, TOR, also known as the onion Router. The service bounces around IP addresses, constantly changing to protect the anonymity of the user.
This dark web contains an array of activities and sites, which include hitmen for hire, drugs for sale, and stolen credit card databases amongst others. Sometimes these aren’t real however, and are actually a trap to steal money from users on the basis that these users are unlikely to report it to law enforcement when the victim was trying to break the law in the first place. What we do know however, is that the dark web contains a plethora of information, and this could include data from your organisation.
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Creating A Cyber-Conscious Culture—It Must Be Driven From The Top (forbes.com)
Most businesses vulnerable to attacks on the cyber battlefield - The Globe and Mail
10 Important Security Tasks You Shouldn't Skip (darkreading.com)
Enhancing security team capabilities in tough economic times - Help Net Security
Ignoring digital transformation is more dangerous than a recession - Help Net Security
Ransomware Insurance: Security Strategies to Obtain Coverage (trendmicro.com)
Lax security measures, sophisticated hackers reason for rise in cyber breaches (ewn.co.za)
Cyber Crooks Targeting Employees, Organisations Fight Back with Training Programs - MSSP Alert
Cyber liability insurance vs. data breach insurance: What's the difference? | CSO Online
Red teaming can be the ground truth for CISOs and execs - Help Net Security
Threats
Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks
CL0P Ransomware Gang Hits Multiple Governments, Businesses in Wide-Scale Attack - MSSP Alert
How Continuous Monitoring and Threat Intel Can Help Prevent Ransomware (darkreading.com)
Researchers Report First Instance of Automated SaaS Ransomware Extortion (darkreading.com)
Why Critical Infrastructure Remains a Ransomware Target (darkreading.com)
Ransomware Insurance: Security Strategies to Obtain Coverage (trendmicro.com)
CISA: LockBit ransomware extorted $91 million in 1,700 US attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Microsoft links data wiping attacks to new Russian GRU hacking group (bleepingcomputer.com)
To Fight Cyber Extortion and Ransomware, Shift Left (trendmicro.com)
Ransomware Hackers and Scammers Utilizing Cloud Mining to Launder Cryptocurrency (thehackernews.com)
Russian ransomware hacker extorted tens of millions, says DOJ (cnbc.com)
Ransomware Victims
Ofcom, Minnesota Dept of Ed among latest MOVEit victims • The Register
Confidential data downloaded from UK regulator Ofcom in cyber attack (therecord.media)
Oil and gas giant Shell confirms it was impacted by Clop ransomware attacks (therecord.media)TfL warns 13,000 staff that it was raided by Russian hackers (telegraph.co.uk)
Russian hackers steal data on thousands of Ulez drivers (telegraph.co.uk)
An Illinois hospital links closure to ransomware attack (nbcnews.com)
US energy department, other agencies hit in global hacking spree | Reuters
iTWire - Financial services firm FIIG hit by cyber attack, ALPHV claims credit
Xplain data breach also impacted national Swiss railway FSS - Security Affairs
Rhysida ransomware leaks documents stolen from Chilean Army (bleepingcomputer.com)
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Microsoft Office 365 AitM phishing reveals signs of much larger BEC campaign | CSO Online
Adversary-in-the-Middle Attack Campaign Hits Dozens of Global Organisations (thehackernews.com)
Log4J exploits may rise further as Microsoft continues war on phishing | ITPro
Popular Apparel, Clothing Brands Being Used in Massive Phishing Scam (darkreading.com)
Massive phishing campaign uses 6,000 sites to impersonate 100 brands (bleepingcomputer.com)
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Microsoft warns of multi-stage AiTM phishing and BEC attacks - Security Affairs
Analysis: Social Engineering Drives BEC Losses to $50B Globally (darkreading.com)
Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc
Artificial Intelligence
New Research: 6% of Employees Paste Sensitive Data into GenAI tools as ChatGPT (thehackernews.com)
Artificial intelligence is coming to Windows: Are your security policy settings ready? | CSO Online
Europol Warns of Metaverse and AI Terror Threat - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
How Europe is Leading the World in the Push to Regulate AI - SecurityWeek
AI is moving too fast to regulate, security minister warns (telegraph.co.uk)
AI to render humans 'second most intelligent creations' | ITWeb
LLM meets Malware: Starting the Era of Autonomous Threat - Security Affairs
What is AI, is it dangerous and what jobs are at risk? - BBC News
Calculations Suggest It'll Be Impossible to Control a Super-Intelligent AI : ScienceAlert
2FA/MFA
Multi-Factor Authentication Usage Nearly Doubles Since 2020, New Okta Report Finds - MSSP Alert
Small organisations outpace large enterprises in MFA adoption - Help Net Security
Malware
New SPECTRALVIPER Backdoor Targeting Vietnamese Public Companies (thehackernews.com)
New Loader Delivering Spyware via Image Steals Cryptocurrency Info (darkreading.com)
Pirated Windows 10 ISOs install clipper malware via EFI partitions (bleepingcomputer.com)
Chinese hackers use DNS-over-HTTPS for Linux malware communication (bleepingcomputer.com)
Fake zero-day PoC exploits on GitHub push Windows, Linux malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
LLM meets Malware: Starting the Era of Autonomous Threat - Security Affairs
New ‘Shampoo’ Chromeloader malware pushed via fake warez sites (bleepingcomputer.com)
Russian hackers use PowerShell USB malware to drop backdoors (bleepingcomputer.com)
Fake Security Researcher Accounts Pushing Malware Disguised as Zero-Day Exploits - SecurityWeek
Vidar Malware Using New Tactics to Evade Detection and Anonymize Activities (thehackernews.com)
Mobile
Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS
Microsoft’s Azure portal down following new claims of DDoS attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
DOS Attacks Dominate, but System Intrusions Cause Most Pain (darkreading.com)
Swiss government warns of ongoing DDoS attacks, data leak (bleepingcomputer.com)
IoT Botnet DDoS Attacks Threaten Global Telecom Networks, Nokia (hackread.com)
10 Different Types of DDoS Attacks and How to Prevent Them (geekflare.com)
Exclusive: Inside FXStreet's DDoS Attack (financemagnates.com)
Internet of Things – IoT
IoT Botnet DDoS Attacks Threaten Global Telecom Networks, Nokia (hackread.com)
How secure is your vehicle with digital key technology? - Help Net Security
Flipper Zero “Smoking” A Smart Meter Is A Bad Look For Hardware Hackers | Hackaday
Data Breaches/Leaks
Another huge US medical data breach confirmed after Fortra mass-hack | TechCrunch
New Research: 6% of Employees Paste Sensitive Data into GenAI tools as ChatGPT (thehackernews.com)
Top 10 cyber security findings from Verizon's 2023 data breach report | VentureBeat
Xplain data breach also impacted national Swiss railway FSS - Security Affairs
Examining the long-term effects of data privacy violations - Help Net Security
A Massive Vaccine Database Leak Exposes IDs of Millions of Indians | WIRED
Swiss Fear Government Data Stolen in Cyber attack - SecurityWeek
Ofcom, Minnesota Dept of Ed among latest MOVEit victims • The Register
Have I Been Pwned warns of new Zacks data breach impacting 8 million (bleepingcomputer.com)
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
Hackers steal $3 million by impersonating crypto news journalists (bleepingcomputer.com)
Beware: 1,000+ Fake Cryptocurrency Sites Trap Users in Bogus Rewards Scheme (thehackernews.com)
New Loader Delivering Spyware via Image Steals Cryptocurrency Info (darkreading.com)
Cryptocurrency Attacks Quadrupled as Cyber criminals Cash In (darkreading.com)
Ransomware Hackers and Scammers Utilizing Cloud Mining to Launder Cryptocurrency (thehackernews.com)
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Cyber Crooks Targeting Employees, Organisations Fight Back with Training Programs - MSSP Alert
Insider Threat Vs Outsider Threat: Which Is Worse? (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Impersonation Attacks
Insurance
Ransomware Insurance: Security Strategies to Obtain Coverage (trendmicro.com)
Cyber liability insurance vs. data breach insurance: What's the difference? | CSO Online
Dark Web
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Cloud/SaaS
SaaS Ransomware Attack Hit Sharepoint Online Without Using a Compromised Endpoint - SecurityWeek
New MOVEit Transfer critical flaws found after security audit, patch now (bleepingcomputer.com)
Seven steps for using zero trust to protect your multicloud • The Register
New cloud security guidance: it's all about the config - NCSC.GOV.UK
Microsoft keeps quiet on talk of possible Azure DDoS attack • The Register
Encryption
Open Source
Chinese hackers use DNS-over-HTTPS for Linux malware communication (bleepingcomputer.com)
Fake zero-day PoC exploits on GitHub push Windows, Linux malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
Thoughts on scheduled password changes (don’t call them rotations!) – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Microsoft misused our dark web data, says security vendor • The Register
RDP honeypot targeted 3.5 million times in brute-force attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Want to be hacked? Just make these password mistakes | Tom's Guide (tomsguide.com)
Training, Education and Awareness
Digital Transformation
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
AI is moving too fast to regulate, security minister warns (telegraph.co.uk)
Ofcom, Minnesota Dept of Ed among latest MOVEit victims • The Register
Confidential data downloaded from UK regulator Ofcom in cyber attack (therecord.media)
Yet more direct calling fiends fined by UK's data watchdog • The Register
How Europe is Leading the World in the Push to Regulate AI - SecurityWeek
Feds extend deadline for software security attestations • The Register
Models, Frameworks and Standards
Data Protection
Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring
Examining the long-term effects of data privacy violations - Help Net Security
Strava heatmap feature can be abused to find home addresses (bleepingcomputer.com)
US Intelligence Has Admitted Amassed Data on 'Nearly Everyone' (gizmodo.com)
Feds Say Facial Recognition IDed Bosnian War Criminal Miljkovic (gizmodo.com)
Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Putin’s little cyber helpers turn their sights on the UK (telegraph.co.uk)
Russia-Ukraine war sending shockwaves into cyber-ecosystem • The Register
Ukrainian hackers take down service provider for Russian banks (bleepingcomputer.com)
RomCom Threat Actor Targets Ukrainian Politicians, US Healthcare (darkreading.com)
Pro-Russian hackers step up attacks against Swiss targets, authorities say | Reuters
Russian hackers steal data on thousands of Ulez drivers (telegraph.co.uk)
Microsoft links data wiping attacks to new Russian GRU hacking group (bleepingcomputer.com)
Russian hackers use PowerShell USB malware to drop backdoors (bleepingcomputer.com)
Pro-Russian Hackers Target Website of Europe’s Largest Port in Rotterdam - Bloomberg
Russia-linked APT Gamaredon update TTPs in recent attacks against Ukraine - Security Affairs
Russia-backed hackers unleash new USB-based malware on Ukraine’s military | Ars Technica
Nation State Actors
Chinese hackers use DNS-over-HTTPS for Linux malware communication (bleepingcomputer.com)
Iran's 'quantum processor' turned out to be a $600 dev board | PC Gamer
China-based threat actors target UIDAI, AIIMS, ICMR: Govt advisory (moneycontrol.com)
Subsea cables: how the US is pushing China out of the internet’s plumbing
Ukraine information sharing a model for countering China, top cyber official says | CyberScoop
Chinese Threat Actor Abused ESXi Zero-Day to Pilfer Files From Guest VMs (darkreading.com)
North Korea created evil twin of South Korea's Naver.com • The Register
Behind the Scenes Unveiling the Hidden Workings of Earth Preta (trendmicro.com)
Gloucester: Russian hackers behind cyber-attack on council - BBC News
Critical Barracuda ESG Zero-Day Linked to Novel Chinese APT (darkreading.com)
Russian ransomware hacker extorted tens of millions, says DOJ (cnbc.com)
Vulnerability Management
Vulnerabilities
Third Flaw Uncovered in MOVEit Transfer App Amidst Cl0p Ransomware Mass Attack (thehackernews.com)
Bitwarden update corrects password manager access vulnerability on Windows - gHacks Tech News
Fortinet: Patched Critical Flaw May Have Been Exploited (darkreading.com)
Bitwarden update corrects password manager access vulnerability on Windows - gHacks Tech News
CISA orders federal agencies to secure Internet-exposed network devices (bleepingcomputer.com)
Microsoft June 2023 Patch Tuesday fixes 78 flaws, 38 RCE bugs (bleepingcomputer.com)
Log4J exploits may rise further as Microsoft continues war on phishing | ITPro
New Critical Google Chrome Payments Security Issue Confirmed (forbes.com)
Critical Security Vulnerability Discovered in WooCommerce Stripe Gateway Plugin (thehackernews.com)
VMware fixes critical flaws in Aria Operations for Networks (CVE-2023-20887) - Help Net Security
US energy department, other agencies hit in global hacking spree | Reuters
Tools and Controls
Ignoring digital transformation is more dangerous than a recession - Help Net Security
Cyber Crooks Targeting Employees, Organisations Fight Back with Training Programs - MSSP Alert
Cyber liability insurance vs. data breach insurance: What's the difference? | CSO Online
Red teaming can be the ground truth for CISOs and execs - Help Net Security
How Continuous Monitoring and Threat Intel Can Help Prevent Ransomware (darkreading.com)
What is Dark Web Monitoring and How Does It Work? | Trend Micro News
New cloud security guidance: it's all about the config - NCSC.GOV.UK
Why Now? The Rise of Attack Surface Management (thehackernews.com)
Exploring the All-Time Best Book for Ethical Hacking – Codelivly
Enhancing security team capabilities in tough economic times - Help Net Security
Small organisations outpace large enterprises in MFA adoption - Help Net Security
MSSQL makes up 93% of all activity on honeypots tracking 10 databases | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
5 best practices to ensure the security of third-party APIs | CSO Online
Multi-Factor Authentication Usage Nearly Doubles Since 2020, New Okta Report Finds - MSSP Alert
Reports Published in the Last Week
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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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 27 January 2023
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 27 January 2023:
-Supply Chain Attacks Caused More Data Compromises Than Malware
-What Makes Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Vulnerable to BEC Attacks
-Understanding Your Attack Surface Makes It Easier to Prioritise Technologies and Systems
-Cyber Security Pros Sound Alarm Over Insider Threats
-Ransomware Attack Hit KFC and Pizza Hut Stores in the UK
-Forthcoming SEC Rules Will Trigger ‘Tectonic Shift’ in How Corporate Boards Treat Cyber Security
-Why CISOs Make Great Board Members
-View From Davos: The Changing Economics of Cyber Crime
-Cloud Based Networks Under Increasing Attack, Report Finds
-GoTo Admits: Customer Cloud Backups Stolen Together with Decryption Key
-State-Linked Hackers in Russia and Iran are Targeting UK Groups, NCSC Warns
-3.7 Million Customers’ Data of Hilton Hotels Put Up For Sale
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
Supply Chain Attacks Caused More Data Compromises Than Malware
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, data compromises steadily increased in the second half of 2022 and cyber attacks remained the primary source of data breaches.
The number of data breaches resulting from supply chain attacks exceeded malware related compromises in 2022 by 40%. According to the report, more than 10 million people were impacted by supply chain attacks targeting 1,743 entities. By comparison, 70 malware-based cyber attacks affected 4.3 million people.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/01/26/data-compromises-2022/
What Makes Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Vulnerable to BEC Attacks
According to the United States’ FBI’s 2021 Internet Crime Report, business email compromise (BEC) accounted for almost a third of the country’s $6.9 billion in cyber losses that year – around $2.4 billion. In surprisingly sharp contrast, ransomware attacks accounted for only $50 million of those losses.
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are especially vulnerable to this form of attack and BEC’s contribution to annual cyber losses not only makes sense but is also likely underreported.
In stark contrast to highly disruptive ransomware attacks, BEC is subversive and is neither technically complicated nor expensive to deploy. In the case of large organisations, the financial fallout of BEC is almost negligible. That’s not the case for small and medium-sized businesses, which often lack the means to absorb similar financial losses.
BEC’s simplicity gives more credence for attackers to target smaller organisations, and because of that, it’s doubly essential for SMBs to be vigilant.
Understanding Your Attack Surface Makes It Easier to Prioritise Technologies and Systems
It has been observed that attackers will attempt to start exploiting vulnerabilities within the first fifteen minutes of their disclosure. As the time to patch gets shorter, organisations need to be more pragmatic when it comes to remediating vulnerabilities, particularly when it comes to prioritisation.
Attack surfaces constantly evolve and change as new applications are developed, old systems are decommissioned, and new assets are registered. Also, more and more organisations are moving towards cloud-hosted infrastructure, which changes the risk and responsibility for securing those assets. Therefore, it is essential to carry out continuous or regular assessments to understand what systems are at risk, instead of just taking a point-in-time snapshot of how the attack surface looks at that moment.
The first step would be to map “traditional” asset types – those easily associated with an organisation and easy to monitor, such as domains and IP addresses. Ownership of these assets can be easily identified through available information (e.g., WHOIS data). The less traditional asset types (such as GitHub repositories) aren’t directly owned by the organisation but can also provide high-value targets or information for attackers.
It’s also important to understand which technologies are in use to make sound judgements based on the vulnerabilities relevant to the organisation. For example, out of one hundred vulnerabilities released within one month only 20% might affect the organisation’s technologies.
Once organisations have a good understanding of which assets might be at risk, context and prioritisation can be applied to the vulnerabilities affecting those assets. Threat intelligence can be utilised to determine which vulnerabilities are already being exploited in the wild.
What is then the correct answer for this conundrum? The answer is that there is no answer! Instead, organisations should consider a mindset shift and look towards preventing issues whilst adopting a defence-in-depth approach; focus on minimising impact and risk by prioritising assets that matter the most and reducing time spent on addressing those that don’t. This can be achieved by understanding your organisation’s attack surface and prioritising issues based on context and relevance.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/01/24/understanding-your-attack-surface/
Cyber Security Pros Sound Alarm Over Insider Threats
Gurucul, a security information and event management (SIEM) solution provider, and Cyber security Insiders, a 600,000-plus member online community for information security professionals, found in their annual 2023 Insider Threat Report that only 3% of respondents surveyed are not concerned with insider risk.
Among all potential insiders, cyber security professionals are most concerned about IT users and admins with far-reaching access privileges (60%). This is followed by third-party contractors (such as MSPs and MSSPs) and service providers (57%), regular employees (55%), and privileged business users (53%).
The research also found that more than half of organisations in the study had been victimised by an insider threat in the past year. According to the data, 75% of the respondents believe they are moderately to extremely vulnerable to insider threats, an 8% spike from last year. That coincided with a similar percentage who said attacks have become more frequent, with 60% experiencing at least one attack and 25% getting hit by more than six attacks.
Ransomware Attack Hit KFC and Pizza Hut Stores in the UK
Nearly 300 fast food restaurants, including branches of KFC and Pizza Hut, were forced to close following a ransomware attack against parent company Yum! Brands. In a statement dated 18 January 2023, Yum! confirmed that unnamed ransomware had impacted some of its IT infrastructure, and that data had been exfiltrated by hackers from its servers. However, although an investigation into the security breach continues, the company said that it had seen no evidence that customer details had been exposed.
What has not yet been made public, and may not even be known to those investigating the breach, is how long hackers might have had access to the company's IT infrastructure, and how they might have been able to gain access to what should have been a secure system. Yum! has also not shared whether it has received a ransom demand from its attackers, and if it did how much ransom was demanded, and whether it would be prepared to negotiate with its extortionists.
Forthcoming SEC Rules Will Trigger ‘Tectonic Shift’ in How Corporate Boards Treat Cyber Security
Under rules first proposed in 2022 but expected to be finalised as soon as April 2023, publicly traded companies in the US that determine a cyber incident has become “material”, meaning it could have a significant impact on the business, must disclose details to the SEC and investors within four business days. That requirement would also apply “when a series of previously undisclosed, individually immaterial cyber security incidents has become material in the aggregate.
The SEC’s rules will also require the boards of those companies to disclose significant information on their security governance, such as how and when it exercises oversight on cyber risks. That info includes identifying who on the board (or which subcommittee) is responsible for cyber security and their relevant expertise. Required disclosures will also include how often and by which processes board members are informed and discuss cyber risk. The former cyber adviser to the SEC commented that “The problem we have with the current cyber security ecosystem is that it’s very focused on technical mitigation measures and does not contemplate these business, operational, [or] financial factors.”
Whilst this only impacts US firms, we can expect other jurisdictions to follow suit.
Why CISOs Make Great Board Members
Cyber security-related risk is a top concern, so boards need to know they have the proper oversight in place. The past three years created a perfect storm situation with lasting consequences for how we think about cyber security, and as a result cyber security technologies and teams have shifted from being viewed as a cost centre to a business enabler.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, 40% of companies will have a dedicated cyber security committee. Who is better suited than a CISO to lead that conversation? Cyber security-related risk is a top concern, so boards need to know they have the proper oversight in place. CISOs can provide advice on moving forward with digital change initiatives and help companies prepare for the future. They can explain the organisation’s risk posture, including exposure related to geopolitical conflict as well as to new business initiatives and emerging threats, and what can be done to mitigate risk.
Lastly, the role of the CISO has evolved from being a risk metrics presenter to a translator of risk to the business. Therefore, the expertise CISOs have developed in recent years in how to explain risk to the board makes them valuable contributors to these conversations. They can elevate the discussion to ensure deep understanding of the trade-offs between growth and risk, enable more informed decision-making, and serve as guardrails for total business alignment.
https://www.securityweek.com/why-cisos-make-great-board-members/
View From Davos: The Changing Economics of Cyber Crime
Cyber crime is a risk created by humans, driven by the economic conditions of high profit and easy opportunity. Ransomware is the most recent monetisation of these motives and opportunities, and it has evolved from simple malware to advanced exploits and double or triple extortion models.
The motive for cyber crime is clear: to steal money, but the digital nature of cyber crime makes the opportunity uniquely attractive, due to the following:
· Cryptocurrency makes online extortion, trading illicit goods and services, and laundering fraudulent funds highly anonymous and usually beyond the reach of financial regulators or inspection
· There isn't enough fear of getting caught for cyber crime.
· With the explosion in spending on digital transformation, data is the new gold and it is incredibly easy to steal, due to lapses in basic hygiene like encrypting data-at-rest and in-transit or limiting access to only authorised users.
· Paying extortion through extensive cyber insurance policies only feeds the ransomware epidemic by incentivising further crime, as noted by the FBI.
Fighting cyber crime is a team sport, and to succeed, we must adopt this framework of cyber resilience that integrates the technical, policy, behavioural, and economic elements necessary to manage the reality of ever-growing cyber crime as a predictable and manageable cyber risk.
https://www.darkreading.com/edge-articles/view-from-davos-the-changing-economics-of-cybercrime
Cloud Based Networks Under Increasing Attack, Report Finds
As enterprises around the world continue to move to the cloud, cyber criminals are following right behind them. There was a 48 percent year-over-year jump in 2022 in cyber attacks on cloud-based networks, and it comes at a time when 98 percent of global organisations use cloud services, according to Check Point. The increases in cyber attacks were experienced in various regions, including Asia (with a 60 percent jump), Europe (50 percent), and North America (28 percent) according to a report by Checkpoint last week.
Check Point explained that "The rise in attacks on the cloud was driven both by an overall increase in cyber attacks globally (38 percent overall in 2022, compared to 48 percent in the cloud) and also by the fact that it holds much more data and incorporates infrastructure and services from large amounts of potential victims, so when exploited the attacks could have a larger impact,". Later, Checkpoint highlighted that human error is a significant factor in the vulnerability of cloud-based networks.
The report highlighted the need for defence capabilities in the cloud to improve. According to Check Point, this means adopting zero-trust cloud network security controls, incorporating security and compliance earlier in the development lifecycle, avoiding misconfigurations, and using tools such as an intrusion detection and prevention systems and next-generation web application firewalls. As commented by Check Point “it is still up to the network and security admins to make sure all their infrastructure is not vulnerable.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/20/cloud_networks_under_attack/
GoTo Admits: Customer Cloud Backups Stolen Together with Decryption Key
On 2022-11-30, GoTo informed customers that it had suffered “a security incident”, summarising the situation as follows:
“Based on the investigation to date, we have detected unusual activity within our development environment and third-party cloud storage service. The third-party cloud storage service is currently shared by both GoTo and its affiliate, LastPass.”
Two months later, GoTo has come back with an update, and the news isn’t great:
“[A] threat actor exfiltrated encrypted backups from a third-party cloud storage service related to the following products: Central, Pro, join.me, Hamachi, and RemotelyAnywhere. We also have evidence that a threat actor exfiltrated an encryption key for a portion of the encrypted backups. The affected information, which varies by product, may include account usernames, salted and hashed passwords, a portion of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) settings, as well as some product settings and licensing information.”
The company also noted that although MFA settings for some Rescue and GoToMyPC customers were stolen, their encrypted databases were not.
State-Linked Hackers in Russia and Iran are Targeting UK Groups, NCSC Warns
Russian and Iranian state-linked hackers are increasingly targeting British politicians, journalists and researchers with sophisticated campaigns aimed at gaining access to a person’s email, Britain’s online security agency warned on Thursday. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued an alert about two groups from Russia and Iran, warning those in government, defence, thinktanks and the media against clicking on malicious links from people posing as conference hosts, journalists or even colleagues.
Both groups have been active for some years, but it is understood they have recently stepped up their activities in the UK as the war in Ukraine continues, as well as operating in the US and other NATO countries.
The hackers typically seek to gain confidence of a target by impersonating somebody likely to make contact with them, such as by falsely impersonating a journalist, and ultimately luring them to click on a malicious link, sometimes over the course of several emails and other online interactions.
NCSC encourages people to use strong email passwords. One technique is to use three random words, and not replicate it as a login credential on other websites. It recommends people use two-factor authentication, using a mobile phone as part of the log on process, ideally by using a special authenticator app.
The cyber agency also advises people exercise particular caution when receiving plausible sounding messages from strangers who rely on Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook or other webmail accounts, sometimes impersonating “known contacts” of the target culled from social media.
3.7 Million Customers’ Data of Hilton Hotels Put Up For Sale
A member of a hacker forum going by the name IntelBroker, has offered a database allegedly containing the personal information of 3.7 million people participating in the Hilton Hotels Honors program. According to the actor, the data in question includes personally identifying information such as name, address and Honors IDs. According to the Hilton Hotel, no guest login credentials, contacts, or financial information have been leaked.
https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/3-7-millions-customers-data-hilton-hotel-up-for-sale/
Threats
Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks
Rebranded Ransomware Crews Spike Number of Hijacking Incidents in Q4 2022 - MSSP Alert
The Unrelenting Menace of the LockBit Ransomware Gang | WIRED
Ransomware access brokers use Google ads to breach your network (bleepingcomputer.com)
FBI hacked into Hive ransomware gang, disrupted operations | TechTarget
Ransomware victims are refusing to pay, tanking attackers’ profits | Ars Technica
Vice Society Ransomware Group Targets Manufacturing Companies (trendmicro.com)
New Mimic ransomware abuses ‘Everything’ Windows search tool (bleepingcomputer.com)
Contractor error led to Baltimore schools ransomware attack | TechTarget
LAUSD says Vice Society ransomware gang stole contractors’ SSNs (bleepingcomputer.com)
Riot Games receives ransom demand from hackers, refuses to pay (bleepingcomputer.com)
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
State-linked hackers in Russia and Iran are targeting UK groups, NCSC warns | Hacking | The Guardian
ChatGPT is a bigger threat to cyber security than most realize - Help Net Security
Yahoo Most Faked Brand Name in Phishing Attempts by Threat Actors in Q4 2022 - MSSP Alert
SEABORGIUM and TA453 continue their respective... - NCSC.GOV.UK
Bitwarden password vaults targeted in Google ads phishing attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
New 'Blank Image' attack hides phishing scripts in SVG files (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hackers now use Microsoft OneNote attachments to spread malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc
Malware
BlackBerry: Threat Actors Launch A Unique Malware Sample Every Minute - MSSP Alert
Consumers Face Greater Risks from Malware but Many are Unprepared and Vulnerable - MSSP Alert
New 'Blank Image' attack hides phishing scripts in SVG files (bleepingcomputer.com)
ChatGPT Could Create Polymorphic Malware Wave, Researchers Warn (darkreading.com)
Hackers now use Microsoft OneNote attachments to spread malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
ChatGPT Can Write Polymorphic Malware to Infect Your Computer (gizmodo.com)
Microsoft plans to kill malware delivery via Excel XLL add-ins (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hackers use Golang source code interpreter to evade detection (bleepingcomputer.com)
Emotet Malware Makes a Comeback with New Evasion Techniques (thehackernews.com)
'DragonSpark' Malware: East Asian Cyber Attackers Create an OSS Frankenstein (darkreading.com)
Malware exploited critical Realtek SDK bug in millions of attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Mobile
Massive Ad Fraud Scheme Targeted Over 11 Million Devices with 1,700 Spoofed Apps (thehackernews.com)
New 'Hook' Android malware lets hackers remotely control your phone (bleepingcomputer.com)
Pair of Galaxy App Store Bugs Offer Cyber Attackers Mobile Device Access (darkreading.com)
Google to phase out legacy apps with Android 14 to improve security - GSMArena.com news
Botnets
Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS
Why a hybrid approach can help mitigate DDoS attacks | SC Media
Russia’s largest ISP says 2022 broke all DDoS attack records (bleepingcomputer.com)
Internet of Things – IoT
Nice smart device – how long does it get software updates? • The Register
Why British homes are at risk from ‘Trojan Horse’ smart devices (telegraph.co.uk)
Why most IoT cyber security strategies give zero hope for zero trust - Help Net Security
Data Breaches/Leaks
Companies impacted by Mailchimp breach warn their customers - Security Affairs
LastPass owner GoTo says hackers stole customers’ backups | TechCrunch
GoTo warns customers of crypto key and backup heist • The Register
3.7 Million Customers Data Of Hilton Hotels Put Up For Sale (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
QUT confirms personal data of thousands of staff compromised in cyber attack - ABC News
Riot Games hacked, now it faces problems to release content - Security Affairs
ICE releases asylum seekers after exposing their data • The Register
Hacker Gets Hands on No-Fly List of Alleged Terrorist Suspects (gizmodo.com)
Risk & Repeat: Breaking down the LastPass breach | TechTarget
T-Mobile Cyber Attack Spurs Law Firm Investigation - MSSP Alert
Risk & Repeat: Another T-Mobile data breach disclosed | TechTarget
Entire US "No Fly List" Exposed Online Via Unsecured Server (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Near-Record Year for US Data Breaches in 2022 - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Zacks data breach impacted hundreds of thousands of customers - Security Affairs
French rugby club Stade Français leaks source code - Security Affairs
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
Inside the crypto ‘prisons’ scamming Britons out of their life savings (telegraph.co.uk)
Hackers Take Over Robinhood Twitter Account To Promote Scam - Decrypt
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Inside the crypto ‘prisons’ scamming Britons out of their life savings (telegraph.co.uk)
P-to-P fraud most concerning cyber threat in 2023: CSI | CSO Online
Hackers Take Over Robinhood Twitter Account To Promote Scam - Decrypt
Insurance
4 tips to find cyber insurance coverage in 2023 | TechTarget
Insurers in talks on adding state-backed cyber to UK reinsurance scheme | Financial Times (ft.com)
Cyber Security Posture & Insurance Outlook with Advisen (trendmicro.com)
Dark Web
Software Supply Chain
Cloud/SaaS
Report: Cloud-based networks under growing attack • The Register
Chinese 8220 Gang Aims For Public Clouds And Vulnerable Apps (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Microsoft Azure-Based Kerberos Attacks Crack Open Cloud Accounts (darkreading.com)
Attack Surface Management
Encryption
API
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
Bitwarden password vaults targeted in Google ads phishing attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
Bitwarden responds to encryption design flaw criticism | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)
Social Media
Malvertising
Massive Ad Fraud Scheme Targeted Over 11 Million Devices with 1,700 Spoofed Apps (thehackernews.com)
Google Ads invites being abused to push spam, adult sites (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware access brokers use Google ads to breach your network (bleepingcomputer.com)
Over 4,500 WordPress Sites Hacked to Redirect Visitors to Sketchy Ad Pages (thehackernews.com)
Training, Education and Awareness
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
Governance, Risk and Compliance
View from Davos: The Changing Economics of Cyber Crime (darkreading.com)
Awareness Training Must Change | CSA (cloudsecurityalliance.org)
Despite Slowing Economy, Demand for Cyber Security Workers Remains Strong (darkreading.com)
Organisations Must Brace for Privacy Impacts This Year (darkreading.com)
Data Protection
Ireland’s data protection watchdog fines WhatsApp €5.5m • The Register
ICO Offers Data Protection Advice to SMBs - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security
Despite Slowing Economy, Demand for Cyber Security Workers Remains Strong (darkreading.com)
Can't Fill Open Positions? Rewrite Your Minimum Requirements (darkreading.com)
Veterans bring high-value, real-life experience as potential cyber security employees | CSO Online
Dozens of Cyber Security Companies Announced Layoffs in Past Year - SecurityWeek
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
FBI hacked into Hive ransomware gang, disrupted operations | TechTarget
Dutchman Detained for Dealing Details of Tens of Millions of People (darkreading.com)
Dutch suspect locked up for alleged personal data megathefts – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring
Organisations Must Brace for Privacy Impacts This Year (darkreading.com)
Scientists use Wi-Fi routers to see humans through walls | ZDNET
Most consumers would share anonymised personal data to improve AI products - Help Net Security
Artificial Intelligence
ChatGPT is a bigger threat to cyber security than most realize - Help Net Security
Learning to Lie: AI Tools Adept at Creating Disinformation - SecurityWeek
FBI Chief Says He's 'Deeply concerned' by China's AI Program | SecurityWeek.Com
ChatGPT Can Write Polymorphic Malware to Infect Your Computer (gizmodo.com)
Chat Cyber Security: AI Promises a Lot, but Can It Deliver? (darkreading.com)
Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda
Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
State-linked hackers in Russia and Iran are targeting UK groups, NCSC warns | Hacking | The Guardian
UK authorities warn of phishing from Iran, Russia • The Register
Armis State of Cyberwarfare and Trends Report - IT Security Guru
SEABORGIUM and TA453 continue their respective... - NCSC.GOV.UK
Gamaredon Group Launches Cyber Attacks Against Ukraine Using Telegram (thehackernews.com)
Chinese 8220 Gang Aims For Public Clouds And Vulnerable Apps (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
FBI Chief Says He's 'Deeply concerned' by China's AI Program | SecurityWeek.Com
“Pegasus” lifts the lid on a sophisticated piece of spyware | The Economist
North Korea-linked TA444 turns to credential harvesting activity - Security Affairs
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
State-linked hackers in Russia and Iran are targeting UK groups, NCSC warns | Hacking | The Guardian
UK authorities warn of phishing from Iran, Russia • The Register
SEABORGIUM and TA453 continue their respective... - NCSC.GOV.UK
Gamaredon Group Launches Cyber Attacks Against Ukraine Using Telegram (thehackernews.com)
Russia’s largest ISP says 2022 broke all DDoS attack records (bleepingcomputer.com)
Nation State Actors – China
Chinese 8220 Gang Aims For Public Clouds And Vulnerable Apps (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
FBI Chief Says He's 'Deeply concerned' by China's AI Program | SecurityWeek.Com
Nation State Actors – North Korea
Nation State Actors – Iran
Vulnerability Management
Extent of reported CVEs overwhelms critical infrastructure asset owners - Help Net Security
Log4j Vulnerabilities Are Here to Stay — Are You Prepared? (darkreading.com)
Trained developers get rid of more vulnerabilities than code scanning tools - Help Net Security
New Open Source OT Security Tool Helps Address Impact of Upcoming Microsoft Patch - SecurityWeek
Halo Security unveils KEV feature to improve attack surface visibility - Help Net Security
Vulnerabilities
Crims can still exploit this NSA-discovered Microsoft bug • The Register
75k WordPress sites impacted by critical online course plugin flaws (bleepingcomputer.com)
Log4j Vulnerabilities Are Here to Stay — Are You Prepared? (darkreading.com)
Chrome 109 update addresses six security vulnerabilities - Security Affairs
Microsoft urges admins to patch on-premises Exchange servers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Drupal Patches Vulnerabilities Leading to Information Disclosure | SecurityWeek.Com
Critical Vulnerabilities Patched in OpenText Enterprise Content Management System | SecurityWeek.Com
Around 19,500 end-of-life Cisco routers exposed to hack - Security Affairs
In-the-Wild Exploitation of Recent ManageEngine Vulnerability Commences | SecurityWeek.Com
Apple patches are out – old iPhones get an old zero-day fix at last! – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Apple Patches WebKit Code Execution in iPhones, MacBooks - SecurityWeek
Crooks are already exploiting this bug in old iPhones • The Register
Logfile nightmare deepens thanks to critical VMware flaws • The Register
Malware exploited critical Realtek SDK bug in millions of attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Realtek SDK flaw CVE-2021-35394 actively exploited in the wild- Security Affairs
Lexmark warns of RCE bug affecting 100 printer models, PoC released (bleepingcomputer.com)
Crims can still exploit this NSA-discovered Microsoft bug • The Register
Tools and Controls
Is Once-Yearly Pen Testing Enough for Your Organisation? (thehackernews.com)
LastPass owner GoTo says hackers stole customers’ backups | TechCrunch
Bitwarden password vaults targeted in Google ads phishing attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
Bitwarden responds to encryption design flaw criticism | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)
Companies Struggle With Zero Trust as Attackers Adapt to Get Around It (darkreading.com)
Federal Agencies Infested by Cyber Attackers via Legit Remote Management Systems (darkreading.com)
Why a hybrid approach can help mitigate DDoS attacks | SC Media
Steps To Planning And Implementation Of Endpoint Protection (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Other News
Hackers can make computers destroy their own chips with electricity | New Scientist
Scientists use Wi-Fi routers to see humans through walls | ZDNET
Microsoft 365 outage takes down Teams, Exchange Online, Outlook (bleepingcomputer.com)
Lessons Learned from the Windows Remote Desktop Honeypot Report (bleepingcomputer.com)
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 23 December 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 23 December 2022:
-LastPass Users: Your Info and Password Vault Data are Now in Hackers’ Hands
-Ransomware Attacks Increased 41% In November
-The Risk of Escalation from Cyber Attacks Has Never Been Greater
-FBI Recommends Ad Blockers as Cyber Criminals Impersonate Brands in Search Engine Ads
-North Korea-Linked Hackers Stole $626 Million in Virtual Assets in 2022
-UK Security Agency Wants Fresh Approach to Combat Phishing
-GodFather Android malware targets 400 banks, crypto exchanges
-Companies Overwhelmed by Available Tech Solutions
-Nine in 10 Third-party Contractors, Freelancers Use Personal, Unmanaged Devices Likely to be Infected
-UK Privacy Regulator Names and Shames Breached Firms
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
LastPass Admits Attackers have an Encrypted Copy of Customers’ Password Vaults
Password locker LastPass has warned customers that the August 2022 attack on its systems saw unknown parties copy encrypted files that contain the passwords to their accounts.
In a December 22nd update to its advice about the incident, LastPass brings customers up to date by explaining that in the August 2022 attack “some source code and technical information were stolen from our development environment and used to target another employee, obtaining credentials and keys which were used to access and decrypt some storage volumes within the cloud-based storage service.” Those creds allowed the attacker to copy information “that contained basic customer account information and related metadata including company names, end-user names, billing addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and the IP addresses from which customers were accessing the LastPass service.”
The update reveals that the attacker also copied “customer vault” data, the file LastPass uses to let customers record their passwords. That file “is stored in a proprietary binary format that contains both unencrypted data, such as website URLs, as well as fully-encrypted sensitive fields such as website usernames and passwords, secure notes, and form-filled data.” The passwords are encrypted with “256-bit AES encryption and can only be decrypted with a unique encryption key derived from each user’s master password”.
LastPass’ advice is that even though attackers have that file, customers who use its default settings have nothing to do as a result of this update as “it would take millions of years to guess your master password using generally-available password-cracking technology.” One of those default settings is not to re-use the master password that is required to log into LastPass. The outfit suggests you make it a complex credential and use that password for just one thing: accessing LastPass.
LastPass therefore offered the following advice to individual and business users: If your master password does not make use of the defaults above, then it would significantly reduce the number of attempts needed to guess it correctly. In this case, as an extra security measure, you should consider minimising risk by changing passwords of websites you have stored.
LastPass’s update concludes with news it decommissioned the systems breached in August 2022 and has built new infrastructure that adds extra protections.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/23/lastpass_attack_update/
Ransomware Attacks Increased 41% In November
Ransomware attacks rose 41% last month as groups shifted among the top spots and increasingly leveraged DDoS attacks, according to new research from NCC Group.
A common thread of NCC Group's November Threat Pulse was a "month full of surprises," particularly related to unexpected shifts in threat actor behaviour. The Cuba ransomware gang resurged with its highest number of attacks recorded by NCC Group. Royal replaced LockBit 3.0 as the most active strain, a first since September of last year.
These factors and more contributed to the significant jump in November attacks, which rose from 188 in October to 265.
"For 2022, this increase represents the most reported incidents in one month since that of April, when there were 289 incidents, and is also the largest month-on-month increase since June-July's marginally larger increase of 47%," NCC Group wrote in the report.
Operators behind Royal ransomware, a strain that emerged earlier this year that operates without affiliates and utilises intermittent encryption to evade detection, surpassed LockBit 3.0 for the number one spot, accounting for 16% of hack and leak incidents last month.
The Risk of Escalation from Cyber Attacks Has Never Been Greater
In 2022, an American dressed in his pyjamas took down North Korea’s Internet from his living room. Fortunately, there was no reprisal against the United States. But Kim Jong Un and his generals must have weighed retaliation and asked themselves whether the so-called independent hacker was a front for a planned and official American attack.
In 2023, the world might not get so lucky. There will almost certainly be a major cyber attack. It could shut down Taiwan’s airports and trains, paralyse British military computers, or swing a US election. This is terrifying, because each time this happens, there is a small risk that the aggrieved side will respond aggressively, maybe at the wrong party, and (worst of all) even if it carries the risk of nuclear escalation.
This is because cyber weapons are different from conventional ones. They are cheaper to design and wield. That means great powers, middle powers, and pariah states can all develop and use them.
More important, missiles come with a return address, but virtual attacks do not. Suppose in 2023, in the coldest weeks of winter, a virus shuts down American or European oil pipelines. It has all the markings of a Russian attack, but intelligence experts warn it could be a Chinese assault in disguise. Others see hints of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. No one knows for sure. Presidents Biden and Macron have to decide whether to retaliate at all, and if so, against whom … Russia? China? Iran? It's a gamble, and they could get unlucky.
Neither country wants to start a conventional war with one another, let alone a nuclear one. Conflict is so ruinous that most enemies prefer to loathe one another in peace. During the Cold War, the prospect of mutual destruction was a huge deterrent to any great power war. There were almost no circumstances in which it made sense to initiate an attack. But cyber warfare changes that conventional strategic calculus. The attribution problem introduces an immense amount of uncertainty, complicating the decision our leaders have to make.
FBI Recommends Ad Blockers as Cyber Criminals Impersonate Brands in Search Engine Ads
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this week raised the alarm on cyber criminals impersonating brands in advertisements that appear in search engine results. The agency has advised consumers to use ad blockers to protect themselves from such threats.
The attackers register domains similar to those of legitimate businesses or services, and use those domains to purchase ads from search engine advertisement services, the FBI says in an alert. These nefarious ads are displayed at the top of the web page when the user searches for that business or service, and the user might mistake them for an actual search result.
Links included in these ads take users to pages that are identical to the official web pages of the impersonated businesses, the FBI explains. If the user searches for an application, they are taken to a fake web page that uses the real name of the program the user searches for, and which contains a link to download software that is, in fact, malware.
“These advertisements have also been used to impersonate websites involved in finances, particularly cryptocurrency exchange platforms,” the FBI notes. Seemingly legitimate exchange platforms, the malicious sites prompt users to provide their login and financial information, which the cyber criminals then use to steal the victim’s funds.
“While search engine advertisements are not malicious in nature, it is important to practice caution when accessing a web page through an advertised link,” the FBI says.
Businesses are advised to use domain protection services to be notified of domain spoofing, and to educate users about spoofed websites and on how to find legitimate downloads for the company’s software.
Users are advised to check URLs to make sure they access authentic websites, to type a business’ URL into the browser instead of searching for that business, and to use ad blockers when performing internet searches. Ad blockers can have a negative impact on the revenues of online businesses and advertisers, but they can be good for online security, and even the NSA and CIA are reportedly using them.
North Korea-Linked Hackers Stole $626 Million in Virtual Assets in 2022
South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, estimated that North Korea-linked threat actors have stolen an estimated 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years.
According to the spy agency, more than half the crypto assets (about 800 billion won ($626 million)) have been stolen this year alone, reported the Associated Press. The Government of Pyongyang focuses on crypto hacking to fund its military program following harsh UN sanctions.
“South Korea’s main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said North Korea’s capacity to steal digital assets is considered among the best in the world because of the country’s focus on cyber crimes since UN economic sanctions were toughened in 2017 in response to its nuclear and missile tests.” reported the AP agency. North Korea cannot export its products due to the UN sanctions imposed in 2016 and 1017, and the impact on its economy is dramatic.
The NIS added that more than 100 billion won ($78 million) of the total stolen funds came from South Korea. Cyber security and intelligence experts believe that attacks aimed at the cryptocurrency industry will continue to increase next year. National Intelligence Service experts believe that North Korea-linked APT groups will focus on the theft of South Korean technologies and confidential information on South Korean foreign policy and national security.
Data published by the National Intelligence Service agency confirms a report published by South Korean media outlet Chosun early this year that revealed North Korean threat actors have stolen around $1.7 billion (2 trillion won) worth of cryptocurrency from multiple exchanges during the past five years.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/139909/intelligence/north-korea-cryptocurrency-theft.html
UK Security Agency Wants Fresh Approach to Combat Phishing
The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has called for a defence-in-depth approach to help mitigate the impact of phishing, combining technical controls with a strong reporting culture.
Writing in the agency’s blog, technical director and principal architect, “Dave C,” argued that many of the well-established tenets of anti-phishing advice simply don’t work. For example, advising users not to click on links in unsolicited emails is not helpful when many need to do exactly that as part of their job.
This is often combined with a culture where users are afraid to report that they’ve accidentally clicked, which can delay incident response, he said. It’s not the user’s responsibility to spot a phish – rather, it’s their organisation’s responsibility to protect them from such threats, Dave C argued.
As such, they should build layered technical defences, consisting of email scanning and DMARC/SPF policies to prevent phishing emails from arriving into inboxes. Then, organisations should consider the following to prevent code from executing:
Allow-listing for executables
Registry settings changes to ensure dangerous scripting or file types are opened in Notepad and not executed
Disabling the mounting of .iso files on user endpoints
Making sure macro settings are locked down
Enabling attack surface reduction rules
Ensuring third-party software is up to date
Keeping up to date about current threats
Additionally, organisations should take steps such as DNS filtering to block suspicious connections and endpoint detection and response (EDR) to monitor for suspicious behaviour, the NCSC advised.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-security-agency-combat-phishing/
GodFather Android malware targets 400 banks, crypto exchanges
An Android banking malware named 'Godfather' has been targeting users in 16 countries, attempting to steal account credentials for over 400 online banking sites and cryptocurrency exchanges.
The malware generates login screens overlaid on top of the banking and crypto exchange apps' login forms when victims attempt to log into the site, tricking the user into entering their credentials on well-crafted HTML phishing pages.
The Godfather trojan was discovered by Group-IB analysts, who believe it is the successor of Anubis, a once widely-used banking trojan that gradually fell out of use due to its inability to bypass newer Android defences. ThreatFabric first discovered Godfather in March 2021, but it has undergone massive code upgrades and improvements since then.
Also, Cyble published a report yesterday highlighting a rise in the activity of Godfather, pushing an app that mimics a popular music tool in Turkey, downloaded 10 million times via Google Play. Group-IB has found a limited distribution of the malware in apps on the Google Play Store; however, the main distribution channels haven't been discovered, so the initial infection method is largely unknown.
Almost half of all apps targeted by Godfather, 215, are banking apps, and most of them are in the United States (49), Turkey (31), Spain (30), Canada (22), France (20), Germany (19), and the UK (17).
Apart from banking apps, Godfather targets 110 cryptocurrency exchange platforms and 94 cryptocurrency wallet apps.
Companies Overwhelmed by Available Tech Solutions
92% of executives reported challenges in acquiring new tech solutions, highlighting the complexities that go into the decision-making process, according to GlobalDots.
Moreover, some 34% of respondents said the overwhelming amount of options was a challenge when deciding on the right solutions, and 33% admitted the time needed to conduct research was another challenge in deciding.
Organisations of all varieties rely on technology more than ever before. The constant adoption of innovation is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity to stay on par in today’s fast-paced and competitive digital landscape. In this environment, IT and security leaders are coming under increased pressure to show ROIs from their investment in technology while balancing operational excellence with business innovation. Due to current market realities, IT teams are short-staffed and suffering from a lack of time and expertise, making navigating these challenges even more difficult.
The report investigated how organisations went about finding support for their purchasing decisions. Conferences, exhibitions, and online events served as companies’ top source of information for making purchasing decisions, at 52%. Third-party solutions, such as value-added resellers and consultancies, came in second place at 48%.
54% are already using third parties to purchase, implement, or support their solutions, highlighting the value that dedicated experts with in-depth knowledge of every solution across a wide range of IT fields provide.
We are living in an age of abundance when it comes to tech solutions for organisations, and this makes researching and purchasing the right solutions for your organisation extremely challenging.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/12/20/tech-purchasing-decisions/
Nine in 10 Third-party Contractors, Freelancers Use Personal, Unmanaged Devices Likely to be Infected
Talon Cyber Security surveyed 258 third-party providers to better understand the state of third-party working conditions, including work models, types of devices and security technologies used, potentially risky actions taken, and how security and IT tools impact productivity.
Looking at recent high-profile breaches, third parties have consistently been at the epicenter, so they took a step back with their research to better understand the potential root causes. The findings paint a picture of a third-party work landscape where individuals are consistently working from personal, unmanaged devices, conducting risky activities, and having their productivity impacted by legacy security and IT solutions.
Here’s what Talon discovered:
Most third parties (89%) work from personal, unmanaged devices, where organisations lack visibility and cannot enforce the enterprise’s security posture on. Talon pointed to a Microsoft data point that estimated users are 71% more likely to be infected on an unmanaged device.
With third parties working from personal devices, they tend to carry out personal, potentially risky tasks. Respondents note that at least on occasion, they have used their devices to:
Browse the internet for personal needs (76%)
Indulge in online shopping (71%)
Check personal email (75%)
Save weak passwords in the web browser (61%)
Play games (53%)
Allow family members to browse (36%)
Share passwords with co-workers (24%)
Legacy apps such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solutions are prominent, with 45% of respondents using such technologies while working for organisations.
UK Privacy Regulator Names and Shames Breached Firms
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has taken the unusual step of publishing details of personal data breaches, complaints and civil investigations on its website, according to legal experts.
The data, available from Q4 2021 onwards, includes the organisation’s name and sector, the relevant legislation and the type of issues involved, the date of completion and the outcome.
Given the significance of this development, it’s surprising that the ICO has (1) chosen to release it with limited fanfare, and (2) buried the data sets on its website. Indeed, it seems to have flown almost entirely under the radar.
Understanding whether their breach or complaint will be publicised by European regulators is one of – if not the – main concern that organisations have when working through an incident, and the answer has usually been no. That is particularly the understanding or assumption where the breach or complaint is closed without regulatory enforcement. Now, at least in the UK, the era of relative anonymity looks to be over.
Despite the lack of fanfare around the announcement, this naming and shaming approach could make the ICO one of the more aggressive privacy regulators in Europe. In the future, claimant firms in class action lawsuits may adopt “US-style practices” of scanning the ICO database to find evidence of repeat offending or possible new cases.
The news comes even as data reveals the value of ICO fines issued in the past year tripled from the previous 12 months. In the year ending October 31 2022, the regulator issued fines worth £15.2m, up from £4.8m the previous year. The sharp increase in the value of fines shows the ICO’s increasing willingness selectively to crack down on businesses – particularly those that the ICO perceives has not taken adequate measures to protect customer and employee data.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-privacy-regulator-names-and/
Threats
Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks
20 companies affected by major ransomware attacks in 2021 | TechTarget
NCC Group: Ransomware attacks increased 41% in November | TechTarget
Adversarial risk in the age of ransomware - Help Net Security
FIN7 hackers create auto-attack platform to breach Exchange servers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware Uses New Exploit to Bypass ProxyNotShell Mitigations | SecurityWeek.Com
British newspaper The Guardian says it’s been hit by ransomware | TechCrunch
Play ransomware actors bypass ProxyNotShell mitigations | TechTarget
FIN7 Cyber crime Syndicate Emerges as Major Player in Ransomware Landscape (thehackernews.com)
Vice Society ransomware gang is using a custom locker - Security Affairs
NIO suffers user data breach, hacker demands $2.25 million worth of bitcoin - CnEVPost
German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp targeted in a cyber attack - Security Affairs
Paying Ransom: Why Manufacturers Shell Out to Cyber criminals (darkreading.com)
France Seeks to Protect Hospitals After Series of Cyber attacks | SecurityWeek.Com
Fire and rescue service in Victoria, Australia, confirms cyber attack - Security Affairs
Play Ransomware Gang Lay Claims For Cyber Attack On H-Hotels (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Evolving threats and broadening responses to Ransomware in the UAE - Security Boulevard
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Five Best Practices for Consumers to Beat Phishing Campaigns This Holiday Season - CPO Magazine
Hackers continue to exploit hijacked MailChimp accounts in cyber crime campaigns (bitdefender.com)
Holiday Spam, Phishing Campaigns Challenge Retailers (darkreading.com)
Email hijackers scam food out of businesses, not just money • The Register
Telling users to ‘avoid clicking bad links’ still isn’t working - NCSC.GOV.UK
“Suspicious login” scammers up their game – take care at Christmas – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Simple Steps to Avoid Phishing Attacks During This Festive season | Tripwire
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Telling users to ‘avoid clicking bad links’ still isn’t working - NCSC.GOV.UK
What happens once scammers receive funds from their victims - Help Net Security
Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc
2FA/MFA
Why Security Teams Shouldn't Snooze on MFA Fatigue (darkreading.com)
Comcast Xfinity accounts hacked in widespread 2FA bypass attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Malware
Malicious ‘SentinelOne’ PyPI package steals data from developers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Glupteba Botnet Continues to Thrive Despite Google's Attempts to Disrupt It (thehackernews.com)
Ukraine's DELTA military system users targeted by info-stealing malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Sophisticated DarkTortilla Malware Serves Imposter Cisco, Grammarly Pages (darkreading.com)
Trojanized Windows 10 installers compromised the Ukrainian government | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
Raspberry Robin Worm Targets Telcos & Governments (darkreading.com)
Raspberry Robin worm drops fake malware to confuse researchers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Number of command-and-control servers spiked in 2022: report - The Record by Recorded Future
Mobile
GodFather Android malware targets 400 banks, crypto exchanges (bleepingcomputer.com)
Godfather makes banking apps an offer they can’t refuse • The Register
T-Mobile hacker gets 10 years for $25 million phone unlock scheme (bleepingcomputer.com)
Botnets
Glupteba Botnet Continues to Thrive Despite Google's Attempts to Disrupt It (thehackernews.com)
Zerobot malware now spreads by exploiting Apache vulnerabilities (bleepingcomputer.com)
Flaws within IoT devices exploited by the Zerobot botnet (izoologic.com)
Zerobot Adds Brute Force, DDoS to Its IoT Attack Arsenal (darkreading.com)
Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS
DDoS Attacks are Slowly Growing in the Technology Era (analyticsinsight.net)
Zerobot Adds Brute Force, DDoS to Its IoT Attack Arsenal (darkreading.com)
BYOD
Internet of Things – IoT
Millions of IP cameras around the world are unprotected | TechRadar
Zerobot Adds Brute Force, DDoS to Its IoT Attack Arsenal (darkreading.com)
Throw away all your Eufy cameras right now | Android Central
Read what Anker’s customer support is telling worried Eufy camera owners - The Verge
Amazon Ring Cameras Used in Nationwide ‘Swatting’ Spree, US Says - Bloomberg
Connected homes are expanding, so is attack volume - Help Net Security
Security Risks, Serious Vulnerabilities Rampant Among XIoT Devices in the Workplace - CPO Magazine
Data Breaches/Leaks
LastPass users: Your info and password vault data are now in hackers’ hands | Ars Technica
Okta's source code stolen after GitHub repositories hacked (bleepingcomputer.com)
McGraw Hill's S3 buckets exposed 100,000 students' grades • The Register
NIO suffers user data breach, hacker demands $2.25 million worth of bitcoin - CnEVPost
Shoemaker Ecco leaks over 60GB of sensitive data for 500+ days - Security Affairs
Restaurant CRM platform ‘SevenRooms’ confirms breach after data for sale (bleepingcomputer.com)
Leading sports betting firm BetMGM discloses data breach (bleepingcomputer.com)
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
'Russian hackers' help two New York men game JFK taxi system - CyberScoop
What happens once scammers receive funds from their victims - Help Net Security
[FIN7] Fin7 Unveiled: A deep dive into notorious cyber crime gang - PRODAFT
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
FTX's alleged run-of-the-mill frauds depended entirely on crypto (yahoo.com)
GodFather Android malware targets 400 banks, crypto exchanges (bleepingcomputer.com)
Two associates of Sam Bankman-Fried plead guilty to fraud charges in FTX fall | FTX | The Guardian
North Korea-linked hackers stole $626M in virtual assets in 2022 - Security Affairs
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
FTX's alleged run-of-the-mill frauds depended entirely on crypto (yahoo.com)
“Suspicious login” scammers up their game – take care at Christmas – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Fraudulent ‘popunder’ Google Ad campaign generated millions of dollars • The Register
Over 67,000 DraftKings Betting Accounts Hit by Hackers (gizmodo.com)
What happens once scammers receive funds from their victims - Help Net Security
T-Mobile hacker gets 10 years for $25 million phone unlock scheme (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google Ad fraud campaign used adult content to make millions (bleepingcomputer.com)
Two associates of Sam Bankman-Fried plead guilty to fraud charges in FTX fall | FTX | The Guardian
Inside The Next-Level Fraud Ring Scamming Billions Off Holiday Retailers (darkreading.com)
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Cloud/SaaS
McGraw Hill's S3 buckets exposed 100,000 students' grades • The Register
AWS simplifies Simple Storage Service to prevent data leaks • The Register
New Brand of Security Threats Surface in the Cloud (darkreading.com)
Google WordPress Plug-in Bug Allows AWS Metadata Theft (darkreading.com)
Security on a Shoestring? Cloud, Consolidation Best Bets for Businesses (darkreading.com)
Hybrid/Remote Working
Attack Surface Management
Encryption
API
Open Source
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
LastPass admits attackers copied password vaults • The Register
LastPass users: Your info and password vault data are now in hackers’ hands | Ars Technica
Social Media
Malvertising
Fraudulent ‘popunder’ Google Ad campaign generated millions of dollars • The Register
Don't click too quick! FBI warns of malicious search engine ads | Tripwire
Google Ad fraud campaign used adult content to make millions (bleepingcomputer.com)
Parental Controls and Child Safety
Buggy parental-control apps could allow device takeover • The Register
Children And The Dangers Of The Virtual World (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
TSB fined nearly $60m for platform migration disaster • The Register
FCC proposes record-breaking $300 million fine against robocaller (bleepingcomputer.com)
France Fines Microsoft 60 Million Euros Over Advertising Cookies | SecurityWeek.Com
The long, long reach of the UK’s national security laws | Financial Times
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Make sure your company is prepared for the holiday hacking season - Help Net Security
The benefit of adopting a hacker mindset for building security strategies - Help Net Security
Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security
CISO roles continue to expand beyond technical expertise - Help Net Security
UK secret services wants ‘corkscrew thinkers’ for new cyber force | News | The Times
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring
France Fines Microsoft 60 Million Euros Over Advertising Cookies | SecurityWeek.Com
What is surveillance capitalism? - Definition from WhatIs.com (techtarget.com)
Google Maps: Important reason you should blur your house on Street View (ladbible.com)
Blur Your House ASAP if It's on Google Maps. Here's Why - CNET
Artificial Intelligence
Threat Modeling in the Age of OpenAI's Chatbot (darkreading.com)
This is how OpenAI's ChatGPT can be used to launch cyber attacks (techmonitor.ai)
Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda
Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
State level cyber attacks – Why and how (ukdefencejournal.org.uk)
The risk of escalation from cyber attacks has never been greater | Ars Technica
Ukraine's DELTA military system users targeted by info-stealing malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Trojanized Windows 10 installers compromised the Ukrainian government | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
NATO-Member Oil Refinery Targeted in Russian APT Blitz Against Ukraine (darkreading.com)
Russian APT Gamaredon Changes Tactics in Attacks Targeting Ukraine | SecurityWeek.Com
Kremlin-linked hackers tried to spy on oil firm in NATO country, researchers say | CNN Politics
‘Our weapons are computers’: Ukrainian coders aim to gain battlefield edge | Ukraine | The Guardian
The long, long reach of the UK’s national security laws | Financial Times
UK secret services wants ‘corkscrew thinkers’ for new cyber force | News | The Times
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
Nation State Actors – China
Apple accused of censoring apps in Hong Kong and Russia • The Register
The long, long reach of the UK’s national security laws | Financial Times
Nation State Actors – North Korea
Vulnerability Management
Open source vulnerabilities add to security debt - Help Net Security
Top 5 Vulnerabilities Routinely Exploited by Threat Actors in 2022 (socradar.io)
Over 50 New CVE Numbering Authorities Announced in 2022 | SecurityWeek.Com
A Guide to Efficient Patch Management with Action1 (thehackernews.com)
Digging into the numbers one year after Log4Shell | SC Media (scmagazine.com)
Vulnerabilities
Critical Windows code-execution vulnerability went undetected until now | Ars Technica
FoxIt Patches Code Execution Flaws in PDF Tools | SecurityWeek.Com
Old vulnerabilities in Cisco products actively exploited in the wild - Security Affairs
OWASSRF: CrowdStrike Identifies New Method for Bypassing ProxyNotShell Mitigations
Microsoft reports macOS Gatekeeper has an 'Achilles' heel • The Register
Microsoft will turn off Exchange Online basic auth in January (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cisco’s Talos security bods predict new wave of Excel Hell • The Register
Microsoft pushes emergency fix for Windows Server Hyper-V VM issues (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware Uses New Exploit to Bypass ProxyNotShell Mitigations | SecurityWeek.Com
Zerobot malware now spreads by exploiting Apache vulnerabilities (bleepingcomputer.com)
Two New Security Flaws Reported in Ghost CMS Blogging Software (thehackernews.com)
Critical Security Flaw Reported in Passwordstate Enterprise Password Manager (thehackernews.com)
This critical Windows security flaw could be as serious as WannaCry, experts claim | TechRadar
Google WordPress Plug-in Bug Allows AWS Metadata Theft (darkreading.com)
Microsoft Details Gatekeeper Bypass Vulnerability in Apple macOS Systems (thehackernews.com)
Tools and Controls
Companies overwhelmed by available tech solutions - Help Net Security
Is Enterprise VPN on Life Support or Ripe for Reinvention? | SecurityWeek.Com
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
The Growing Risk Of Malicious QR Codes (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
NASA infosec again falls short of required standard • The Register
US Joint Cyber Force Elevated to Newest Subordinate Unified Command - MSSP Alert
The Rise of the Rookie Hacker - A New Trend to Reckon With (thehackernews.com)
What enumeration attacks are and how to prevent them | TechTarget
US consumers seriously concerned over their personal data | CSO Online
The FBI is worried about wave of crime against small businesses (cnbc.com)
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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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 19 August 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 August 2022:
-Businesses Found to Neglect Cyber Security Until it is Too Late
-Cyber Tops Staff Retention as Biggest Business Risk
-Cyber Criminals Weaponising Ransomware Data for BEC Attacks
-Callback Phishing Attacks See Massive 625% Growth Since Q1 2021
-Credential Phishing Attacks Skyrocketing, 265 Brands Impersonated in H1 2022
-Are Cloud Environments Secure Enough for Today’s Threats?
-Most Q2 Attacks Targeted Old Microsoft Vulnerabilities
-Cyber Resiliency Isn't Just About Technology, It's About People
-The “Cyber Insurance Gap” Is Threatening Most Companies
-Easing the Cyber-Skills Crisis with Staff Augmentation
-Mailchimp Suffers Second Breach In 4 Months
-Firm Told It Can't Claim Full Cyber Crime Insurance After Social Engineering Attack
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
Businesses Found to Neglect Cyber Security Until it is Too Late
Businesses only take cyber security seriously after falling victim to an attack, according to a report published by the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) this week.
For the research, the UK government surveyed IT professionals and end users in 10 UK organisations of varying sizes that have experienced cyber security breaches in the past three years. This analysed their existing level of security prior to a breach, the business impacts of the attack and how cyber security arrangements changed in the wake of the incident.
Nearly all respondents said their organisation took cyber security much more seriously after experiencing a breach, including reviewing existing practices and significantly increased investment in technology solutions.
While there was a consensus among participants that there is a greater need for vigilance and investment in cyber security, there was significant variation between organisations’ practices in this area. Medium and large organisations tended to have formal plans in place and budget allocated for further cyber security investment, but smaller businesses mostly did not due to resource constraints.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cybersecurity-seriously-breach/
Cyber Tops Staff Retention as Biggest Business Risk
Cyber security concerns represent the most serious risk facing organisations, beating inflation, talent acquisition/retention and rising production costs, according to a new PwC study.
The PwC Pulse: Managing business risks in 2022 report was compiled from interviews with 722 US C-suite executives.
Two-fifths (40%) ranked cyber-attacks as a serious risk, rising to 51% of board members. PwC said boardrooms may be getting more attuned to cyber risk after new SEC proposals were published in March that would require directors to oversee cyber security risk and be more transparent about their cyber expertise.
In fact, executives appear to be getting more proactive with cyber security on a number of fronts.
Some 84% said they are taking action or monitoring closely policy areas related to cyber security, privacy and data protection. A further 79% said they’re revising or enhancing their cyber risk management approaches, and half (49%) pointed to increased investments in cyber security and privacy.
By way of comparison, 53% said they’re increasing investment in digital transformation and 52% in IT.
Cyber security is a strategic business enabler – technology is the central nervous system of many companies – and confirming its data is secure and protected can be brand defining.
There’s now heightened attention from a wider range of business leaders and corporate directors as they recognise that cyber security and data privacy should be part of not only a risk management strategy, but also a broader corporate strategy. C-suite and boards are actively taking steps to better understand the global threat landscape, confirm a foundational cyber security program is in place, and manage these risks to create opportunities.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyber-tops-staff-retention-biggest/
Cyber Criminals Weaponising Ransomware Data for BEC Attacks
Cyber criminals and other threat actors are increasingly using data dumped from ransomware attacks in secondary business email compromise (BEC) attacks, according to new analysis by Accenture Cyber Threat Intelligence.
The ACTI team analysed data from the 20 most active ransomware leak sites, measured by number of featured victims, between July 2021 and July 2022. Of the 4,026 victims (corporate, non-governmental organisations, and governmental entities) uncovered on various ransomware groups’ dedicated leak sites, an estimated 91% incurred subsequent data disclosures, ACTI found.
Dedicated leak sites most commonly provide financial data, followed by employee and client personally identifiable information and communication documentation. The rise of double extortion attempts – where attack groups use ransomware to exfiltrate data and then publicise the data on dedicated leak sites – has made large amounts of sensitive corporate data available to any threat actor. The most valuable types of data most useful for conducting BEC attacks are financial, employee, and communication data, as well as operational documents. There is a significant overlap between the types of data most useful for conducting BEC attacks and the types of data most commonly posted on these ransomware leak sites, ACTI said.
The data is a “rich source for information for criminals who can easily weaponise it for secondary BEC attacks,” ACTI said. “The primary factor driving an increased threat of BEC and VEC attacks stemming from double-extortion leaks is the availability of [corporate and communication data].”
Callback Phishing Attacks See Massive 625% Growth Since Q1 2021
Hackers are increasingly moving towards hybrid forms of phishing attacks that combine email and voice social engineering calls as a way to breach corporate networks for ransomware and data extortion attacks.
According to Agari's Q2 2022 cyber-intelligence report, phishing volumes have only increased by 6% compared to Q1 2022. However, the use of 'hybrid vishing' is seeing a massive 625% growth.
Vishing, "voice phishing," involves some form of a phone call to perform social engineering on the victim. Its hybrid form, called "callback phishing," also includes an email before the call, typically presenting the victim with a fake subscription/invoice notice.
The recipient is advised to call on the provided phone number to resolve any issues with the charge, but instead of a real customer support agent, the call is answered by phishing actors.
The scammers then offer to resolve the presented problem by tricking the victim into disclosing sensitive information or installing remote desktop tools on their system. The threat actors then connect to the victim's device remotely to install further backdoors or spread to other machines.
These callback phishing attacks were first introduced by the 'BazarCall/BazaCall' campaigns that appeared in March 2021 to gain initial access to corporate networks for ransomware attacks.
The attacks work so well that multiple ransomware and extortion gangs, such as Quantum, Zeon, and Silent Ransom Group, have adopted the same technique today to gain initial network access through an unsuspecting employee.
"Hybrid Vishing attacks reached a six-quarter high in Q2, increasing 625% from Q1 2021. This threat type also contributed to 24.6% of the overall share of Response-Based threats," details the Agari report.
"While this is the second quarter hybrid vishing attacks have declined in share due to the overall increase of response-based threats, vishing volume has steadily increased in count over the course of the year."
Credential Phishing Attacks Skyrocketing, 265 Brands Impersonated in H1 2022
Abnormal Security released a report which explores the current email threat landscape and provides insight into the latest advanced email attack trends, including increases in business email compromise, the evolution of financial supply chain compromise, and the rise of brand impersonation in credential phishing attacks.
The research found a 48% increase in email attacks over the previous six months, and 68.5% of those attacks included a credential phishing link. In addition to posing as internal employees and executives, cyber criminals impersonated well-known brands in 15% of phishing emails, relying on the brands’ familiarity and reputation to convince employees to provide their login credentials. Most common among the 265 brands impersonated in these attacks were social networks and Microsoft products.
“The vast majority of cyber crime today is successful because it exploits the people behind the keyboard,” said Crane Hassold, director of threat intelligence at Abnormal Security.
“By compromising people rather than networks, it’s easier for attackers to circumvent conventional security measures. This is especially true with brand impersonation, where attackers use urgency and fear to encourage their targets to provide usernames and passwords.”
LinkedIn took the top spot for brand impersonation, but Outlook, OneDrive and Microsoft 365 appeared in 20% of all attacks. What makes these attacks particularly dangerous is that phishing emails are often the first step to compromising employee email accounts. Acquiring Microsoft credentials enables cyber criminals to access the full suite of connected products, allowing them to view sensitive data and use the account to send business email compromise attacks.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/15/landscape-email-threat/
Are Cloud Environments Secure Enough for Today’s Threats?
Cyber security is a major problem right now. Not only is it the highest priority of any given business to keep their own data and their customers’ and clients’ data secure, but changes in the workplace have had a knock-on effect on cyber security. The concept of working from home has forced businesses all around the world to address old and new cyber security threats. People taking their laptops, and therefore their data, home to public networks that can be hacked or leaving access details like passwords scribbled on notebooks has meant that access to a business and therefore their customers’ data is a lot more accessible.
The saving grace was said to be the cloud. Beyond retraining cyber security in staff workforces, the practical solution was to move data into the cloud. But we’re now a few years from the point when the cloud really gained popularity. Is it still the answer to all our cyber security problems? Is there a chance of risk to using the cloud?
Cloud data breaches do happen and misconfiguration is a leading cause of them, mainly due to businesses inadequate cyber security strategies. This is due to several factors, such as the fundamental nature of the cloud designed to be easy for anyone to access, and businesses unable to completely see or control the cloud’s infrastructure and therefore relying on the cyber security controls that are provided by the cloud service provider (or CSP).
Unauthorised access is also a risk. The internet, which is a readily available public resource to most of the world, makes it easy for hackers to access data if they have the credentials to get past the cyber security set up by the individual business. This is where the ugliness of internal cloud breaches happens. If security is not configured well or credentials like passwords and secret questions are compromised, an attacker can easily access the cloud.
However, it’s not only through an employee that hackers access credentials. Phishing is a very common means of gaining information that would allow access to a customer or business data.
Plus, the simple nature of sharing data can easily backfire on a company. A lot of data access is granted with a link to someone external, which can then be forwarded, either sold or stolen, to an attacker to access the cloud’s data.
https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/08/16/are-cloud-environments-secure-enough-for-todays-threats/
Most Q2 Attacks Targeted Old Microsoft Vulnerabilities
Attacks targeting a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft's MSHTML browser engine — which was patched last September — soared during the second quarter of this year, according to a Kaspersky analysis.
Researchers from Kaspersky counted at least 4,886 attacks targeting the flaw (CVE-2021-40444) last quarter, an eightfold increase over the first quarter of 2022. The security vendor attributed the continued adversary interest in the vulnerability to the ease with which it can be exploited.
Kaspersky said it has observed threat actors exploiting the flaw in attacks on organisations across multiple sectors including the energy and industrial sectors, research and development, IT companies, and financial and medical technology firms. In many of these attacks, the adversaries have used social engineering tricks to try and get victims to open specially crafted Office documents that would then download and execute a malicious script. The flaw was under active attack at the time Microsoft first disclosed it in September 2021.
Attacks targeting a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft's MSHTML browser engine — which was patched last September — soared during the second quarter of this year, according to a Kaspersky analysis. Researchers from Kaspersky counted at least 4,886 attacks targeting the flaw last quarter, an eightfold increase over the first quarter of 2022. The security vendor attributed the continued adversary interest in the vulnerability to the ease with which it can be exploited. According to Kaspersky, exploits for Windows vulnerabilities accounted for 82% of all exploits across all platforms during the second quarter of 2022. While attacks on the MSHTML vulnerability increased the most dramatically, it was by no means the most exploited flaw, which was a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office that was disclosed and patched four years ago that was attacked some 345,827 times last quarter.
Cyber Resiliency Isn't Just About Technology, It's About People
Cyber attacks are on the rise — but if we're being honest, that statement has been true for quite a while, given the acceleration of cyber incidents over the past several years. Recent research indicates that organisations experienced 50% more attack attempts per week on corporate networks in 2021 than they did in 2020, and tactics such as phishing are becoming increasingly popular as attackers refine their tried-and-true methods to more successfully entice unsuspecting targets.
It's no surprise, then, that cyber resiliency has been a hot topic in the cyber security world. But although cyber resiliency refers broadly to the ability of an organisation to anticipate, withstand, and recover from cyber security incidents, many experts make the mistake of applying the term specifically to technology. And while it's true that detection and remediation tools, backup systems, and other resources play an important role in cyber resiliency, organisations that focus exclusively on technology risk are overlooking an equally important element: people.
People are often thought of as the weak link in cyber security. It's easy to understand why. People fall for phishing scams. They use weak passwords and procrastinate on installing security updates. They misconfigure hardware and software, leave cloud assets unsecured, and send confidential files to the wrong recipient. There's a reason so much cyber security technology is moving toward automation: removing people from the equation is seen as one of the most obvious ways to improve security. To many security experts, that's just common sense.
Except — is it, really? It's true that people make mistakes — it's called "human error" for a reason, after all — but many of those mistakes come when employees aren't put in a position to succeed. Phishing is a great example. Most people are familiar with the concept of phishing, but many may not be aware of the nefarious techniques that today's attackers deploy. If employees have not been properly trained, they may not be aware that attackers often impersonate real people within the organisation, or that the CEO asking them to buy gift cards "for a company happy hour" probably isn't legit. Organisations that want to build strong cyber-resiliency cannot pretend that people don't exist. Instead, they need to prioritise the resiliency of their people just as highly as the resiliency of their technology.
Training the organisation to recognise the signs of common attack tactics, practice better password and cyber hygiene, and report signs of suspicious activity can help ease the burden on IT and security personnel by providing them better information in a more timely manner. It also avoids some of the pitfalls that create a drain on their time and resources. By ensuring that people at every level of the business are more resilient, today's organisations will discover that their overall cyber-resiliency will improve significantly.
The “Cyber Insurance Gap” Is Threatening Most Companies
A new study by BlackBerry and Corvus Insurance confirms a “cyber insurance gap” is growing, with a majority of businesses either uninsured or under insured against a rising tide of ransomware attacks and other cyber threats.
Only 19% of all businesses surveyed have ransomware coverage limits above the median ransomware demand amount ($600,000)
Among SMBs with fewer than 1,500 employees, only 14% have a coverage limit in excess of $600,000
37% of respondents with cyber insurance do not have any coverage for ransomware payment demands
43% of those with a policy are not covered for auxiliary costs such as court fees or employee downtime
60% say they would reconsider entering into a partnership or agreement with another business or supplier if the organisation did not have comprehensive cyber insurance
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) software is frequently a key component to obtaining a policy
34% of respondents have been previously denied cyber coverage by insurance providers due to not meeting EDR eligibility requirements
Easing the Cyber-Skills Crisis with Staff Augmentation
Filling cyber security roles can be costly, slow, and chancy. More firms are working with third-party service providers to quickly procure needed expertise.
There are many possible solutions to the cyber security skills shortage, but most of them take time. Cyber security education, career development tracks, training programs, employer-sponsored academies, and internships are great ways to build a talent pipeline and develop skill sets to meet organisational needs in years to come.
But sometimes the need to fill a gap in capability is more immediate.
An organisation in the entertainment industry recently found itself in such a position. Its primary cyber security staff member quit suddenly without notice, taking along critical institutional knowledge and leaving various projects incomplete. With its key defender gone, the organisation's environment was left vulnerable. In a scarce talent market, the organisation faced a long hiring process to find a replacement — too long to leave its digital estate unattended. It needed expertise, and quickly.
According to a 2021 ESG report, 57% of organisations have been impacted by the global cyber security skills crisis. Seventy-six percent say it's difficult to recruit and hire security professionals. The biggest effects of this shortage are increasing workloads, positions open for weeks or months, and high cyber security staff burnout and attrition.
In this climate, more companies are turning to third parties for cyber security staff reinforcement. According to a NewtonX study, 56% of organisations are now subcontracting up to a quarter of their cyber security staff. Sixty-nine percent of companies rely on third-party expertise to assist in mitigating the risk of ransomware — up from 58% in 2017 — per a study by Ponemon and CBI, a Converge Company.
One way that companies gain this additional support is via third-party staff augmentation and consulting services. Cyber security staff augmentation, or strategic staffing, entails trained external consultants acting as an extension of an organisation's security team in a residency. Engagements can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few years, and roles can range from analysts and engineers to architects, compliance specialists, and virtual CISOs.
https://www.darkreading.com/operations/easing-the-cyber-skills-crisis-with-staff-augmentation
Mailchimp Suffers Second Breach In 4 Months
Mailchimp suffered another data breach earlier this month, and this one cost it a client.
In a statement Friday, Mailchimp disclosed that a security incident involving phishing and social engineering tactics had targeted cryptocurrency and blockchain companies using the email marketing platform. It was the second Mailchimp breach to target cryptocurrency customers in a four-month span.
Though Mailchimp said it has suspended accounts where suspicious activity was detected while an investigation is ongoing, it did not reveal the source of the breach or scope of the attack.
More details were provided Sunday by one of the affected customers, DigitalOcean, which cut ties with Mailchimp on Aug. 9.
The cloud hosting provider observed suspicious activity beginning Aug. 8, when threat actors used its Mailchimp account for "a small number of attempted compromises" of DigitalOcean customer accounts -- specifically cryptocurrency platforms.
While it is not clear whether any DigitalOcean accounts were compromised, the company did confirm that some email addresses were exposed. More importantly, the statement attributed a potential source of the most recent Mailchimp breach.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252523911/Mailchimp-suffers-second-breach-in-4-months
Firm Told It Can't Claim Full Cyber Crime Insurance After Social Engineering Attack
A Minnesota computer store suing its cyber insurance provider has had its case dismissed, with the courts saying it was a clear instance of social engineering, a crime for which the insurer was only liable to cover a fraction of total losses.
SJ Computers alleged in a November lawsuit that Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. owed it far more than paid on a claim for nearly $600,000 in losses due to a successful business email compromise (BEC) attack.
According to its website, SJ Computers is a Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher, reselling Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer products, as well as providing tech services including software installs and upgrades.
Travelers, which filed a motion to dismiss, said SJ's policy clearly delineated between computer fraud and social engineering fraud. The motion was granted with prejudice last Friday.
In the dismissal order, the US District Court for Minnesota found that the two policy agreements are mutually exclusive, as well as finding SJ's claim fell squarely into its social engineering fraud agreement with Travelers, which has a cap of $100,000.
When SJ filed its claim with Travelers, the court noted, it did so only under the social engineering fraud agreement. After realising the policy limit on computer fraud was 10 times higher, "SJ Computers then made a series of arguments – ranging from creative to desperate – to try to persuade Travelers that its loss was not the result of social-engineering-fraud (as SJ Computers itself had initially said) but instead the result of computer fraud," the district judge wrote in the order.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/16/social_engineering_cyber_crime_insurance/
Threats
Ransomware
Ransomware Group Threatens to Leak Data Stolen From Security Firm Entrust | SecurityWeek.Com
Cisco Confirms Hack: Yanluowang Ransom Gang Claims 2.8GB Of Data (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Ransomware is still on the rise. Here's what you need to do to stay safe from hackers | ZDNET
Russian Man Extradited to US for Laundering Ryuk Ransomware Money | SecurityWeek.Com
‘Coopetition’ a growing trend among ransomware gangs (computerweekly.com)
Hackers Attack UK Water Supplier, Sends Ransom Demand to the Wrong Company (gizmodo.com)
SOVA malware adds ransomware feature to encrypt Android devices (bleepingcomputer.com)
BlackByte ransomware v2 is out with new extortion novelties - Security Affairs
Ransomware is back, healthcare sector most targeted - Help Net Security
Why Hackers Are Now Targeting Electric Car Charging Stations (nocamels.com)
BlackByte Ransomware Gang Returns With Twitter Presence, Tiered Pricing (darkreading.com)
Ski-Doo maker BRP resumes operations following cyber attack; shares fluctuate - MarketWatch
Argentina's Judiciary of Córdoba hit by PLAY ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Response-based attacks make up 41% of all email-based scams - Help Net Security
PayPal Phishing Scam Uses Invoices Sent Via PayPal – Krebs on Security
Microsoft admits it can't stop scammers fooling you with their latest tricks | ZDNET
Other Social Engineering; SMishing, Vishing, etc
Malware
Hackers Deploy Bumblebee Loader to Breach Target Networks - Infosecurity Magazine
'DarkTortilla' Malware Wraps in Sophistication for High-Volume RAT Infections (darkreading.com)
Malicious browser extensions targeted almost 7 million people (bleepingcomputer.com)
DoNot Team Hackers Updated its Malware Toolkit with Improved Capabilities (thehackernews.com)
Whack-a-Mole: More Malicious PyPI Packages Spring Up Targeting Discord, Roblox (darkreading.com)
Mobile
SOVA Android malware now also encrypts victims' files - Security Affairs
Malware devs already bypassed Android 13's new security feature (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google releases Android 13 with improved privacy and security features - Help Net Security
Android malware apps with 2 million installs found on Google Play (bleepingcomputer.com)
Researchers Find 35 Adware Apps on Google Play - Infosecurity Magazine
Nearly 1,900 Signal Messenger Accounts Potentially Compromised in Twilio Hack (thehackernews.com)
Internet of Things – IoT
How attackers are exploiting corporate IoT - Help Net Security
Amazon fixes Ring Android app flaw exposing camera recordings (bleepingcomputer.com)
Data Breaches/Leaks
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
With Plunge in Value, Cryptocurrency Crimes Decline in 2022 (darkreading.com)
Hardware-based threat defence against increasingly complex cryptojackers - Microsoft Security Blog
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Ex-HP manager jailed for $5m company card shopping spree • The Register
Microsoft Employees Exposed Own Company’s Internal Logins (vice.com)
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
AML/CFT/Sanctions
Insurance
Organisations are losing cyber insurance as an important risk management tool - Help Net Security
For cyber insurance, some technology leads to higher premiums (techtarget.com)
New Study Reveals Serious Cyber-Insurance Shortfalls - Infosecurity Magazine
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Denial of Service DoS/DDoS
Cloud/SaaS
Organisations Struggle to Fend Off Cloud and Web Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine
Incident response in the cloud can be simple if you are prepared - Help Net Security
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
Credential Theft Is (Still) A Top Attack Method (thehackernews.com)
FBI Warns of Proxies and Configurations Used in Credential Stuffing Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com
Over 9,000 VNC servers exposed online without a password (bleepingcomputer.com)
Privacy
Google fined $60 million over Android location data collection (bleepingcomputer.com)
New Amazon Ring Vulnerability Could Have Exposed All Your Camera Recordings (thehackernews.com)
Period and pregnancy tracking apps have bad privacy protections, report finds - The Verge
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
5 Russia-Linked Groups Target Ukraine in Cyberwar (darkreading.com)
Russia-linked Gamaredon APT continues to target Ukraine - Security Affairs
Microsoft shuts down accounts linked to Russian spies • The Register
State-Sponsored APTs Dangle Job Opps to Lure In Spy Victims (darkreading.com)
Estonia Repels Biggest Cyber-Attack Since 2007 - Infosecurity Magazine
NHS cyber attacks hit record levels in four in five trusts after Russian invasion (telegraph.co.uk)
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
Microsoft disrupts Russian hackers' operation on NATO targets (bleepingcomputer.com)
Russian APT29 hackers abuse Azure services to hack Microsoft 365 users (bleepingcomputer.com)
Microsoft Disrupts Russian Group's Multiyear Cyber-Espionage Campaign (darkreading.com)
Russian hackers target Ukraine with default Word template hijacker (bleepingcomputer.com)
Estonia says it repelled major cyber attack after removing Soviet monuments | Reuters
Nation State Actors – China
Western companies wake up to China risk | Financial Times (ft.com)
China-backed APT41 Hackers Targeted 13 Organisations Worldwide Last Year (thehackernews.com)
China-linked RedAlpha behind multi-year credential theft campaign - Security Affairs
Chinese Cyberspy Group 'RedAlpha' Targeting Governments, Humanitarian Entities | SecurityWeek.Com
China's APT41 Embraces Baffling Approach for Dropping Cobalt Strike Payload (darkreading.com)
Chinese takeover of tech company blocked over security fears (telegraph.co.uk)
3 ways China's access to TikTok data is a security risk | CSO Online
Montana flagged bugs in cow app exploited in alleged China hack | Business and Economy | Al Jazeera
APT41 group: 4 malicious campaigns, 13 victims, new tools and techniques - Help Net Security
Nation State Actors – North Korea
Vulnerability Management
Vulnerabilities
CISA adds 7 vulnerabilities to list of bugs exploited by hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google patches yet another Chrome zero-day vulnerability (techtarget.com)
Chrome browser gets 11 security fixes with 1 zero-day – update now! – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Cisco fixes High-Severity bug in Secure Web Appliance - Security Affairs
Exploit out for critical Realtek flaw affecting many networking devices (bleepingcomputer.com)
Safari 15.6.1 fixes a zero-day flaw actively exploited in the wild - Security Affairs
Rapid7: Cisco ASA and ASDM flaws went unpatched for months (techtarget.com)
Windows Vulnerability Could Crack DC Server Credentials Open (darkreading.com)
ÆPIC and SQUIP Vulnerabilities Found in Intel and AMD Processors (thehackernews.com)
PoC exploit code for the critical Realtek RCE flaw released online - Security Affairs
Other News
Exploiting stolen session cookies to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) - Help Net Security
Janet Jackson music video given CVE for crashing laptops • The Register
How aware are organisations of the importance of endpoint management security? - Help Net Security
The Future of Cyber Security is Prevention | SecurityWeek.Com
DigitalOcean Discloses Impact From Recent Mailchimp Cyber Attack | SecurityWeek.Com
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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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 27 May 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 27 May 2022
-How Confident Are Companies in Managing Their Current Threat Exposure?
-'There's No Ceiling': Ransomware's Alarming Growth Signals a New Era, Verizon DBIR Finds
-Paying Ransom Doesn’t Guarantee Data Recovery
-Report: Frequency of Cyber Attacks in 2022 Has Increased by Almost 3M
-New Zoom Flaws Could Let Attackers Hack Victims Just by Sending them a Message
-VMware, Airline Targeted as Ransomware Chaos Reigns
-Crypto Hacks Aren't a Niche Concern; They Impact Wider Society
-State of Cyber Security Report 2022 Names Ransomware and Nation-State Attacks as Biggest Threats
-Vishing (Voice Phishing) Cases Reach All Time High
-DeFi (Decentralised Finance) Is Getting Pummelled by Cyber Criminals
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
How Confident Are Companies In Managing Their Current Threat Exposure?
Crossword Cybersecurity has released a report based on the findings of a survey of over 200 CISOs and senior UK cyber security professionals. The paper reveals companies are more concerned and exposed to cyber threats than ever before, with 61 percent describing themselves as at best only “fairly confident” at managing their current cyber security threat exposure, which should raise some eyebrows around the boardroom.
Respondents also feared their cyber strategy would not keep pace with the rate of tech innovation and changes in the threat landscape. 40 percent of organisations believe their existing cyber strategy will be outdated in two years, and a further 37 percent within three years. Additional investment is needed to address longer term planning, with 44 percent saying they only have sufficient resources in their organisation to focus on the immediate and mid-term cyber threats and tech trends.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/26/organizations-cyber-strategy/
'There's No Ceiling': Ransomware's Alarming Growth Signals A New Era, Verizon DBIR Finds
Ransomware has become so efficient, and the underground economy so professional, that traditional monetisation of stolen data may be on its way out.
The past year has seen a staggering acceleration in ransomware incidents, with 25% of all breaches containing a ransomware component.
That's the top-line finding in the 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), which found that ransomware events in conjunction with breaches ballooned 13% in the past year — last year's report found that just 12% of incidents were ransomware-related. That translates into a rate of increase that's more than the previous five years of growth combined.
The 15th annual DBIR analysed 23,896 security incidents, of which 5,212 were confirmed breaches. About four in five of those were the handiwork of external cyber criminal gangs and threat groups, according to Verizon. And according to Alex Pinto, manager of the Verizon Security Research team, these nefarious types are finding it easier and easier to earn an ill-gotten living with ransomware, making other types of breaches increasingly obsolete.
"Everything in cyber crime has become so commoditised, so much like a business now, and it's just too darn efficient of a methodology for monetising their activity," he tells Dark Reading, noting that with the emergence of ransomware as-a-service (RaaS) and initial-access brokers, it takes very little skill or effort to get into the extortion game.
"Before, you had to get in somehow, look around, and find something worth stealing that would have a reseller on the other end," he explains. "In 2008 when we started the DBIR, it was by and large payment-card data that was stolen. Now, that has fallen precipitously because they can just pay for access someone else established and install rented ransomware, and it's so much simpler to reach the same goal of getting money."
https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/ransomware-alarming-growth-verizon-dbir
Paying Ransom Doesn’t Guarantee Data Recovery
A Veeam report has found that 72% of organisations had partial or complete attacks on their backup repositories, dramatically impacting the ability to recover data without paying the ransom.
Additionally, 76% of organisations admitted to paying the ransom. But while 52% paid the ransom and were able to recover data, 24% paid the ransom but were still not able to recover data.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/24/paying-ransom-recover-data-video/
Report: Frequency Of Cyber Attacks in 2022 Has Increased By Almost 3M
Kaspersky has released a new report revealing a growing number of cyber attacks on small businesses in 2022 so far. Researchers compared the period between January and April 2022 to the same period in 2021, finding increases in the numbers of Trojan-PSW detections, internet attacks and attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol.
In 2022, the number of Trojan-PSW (Password Stealing Ware) detections increased globally by almost a quarter compared to the same period in 2021 一 4,003,323 to 3,029,903. Trojan-PSW is a malware that steals passwords, along with other account information, which then allows attackers to gain access to the company network and steal sensitive information.
Internet attacks grew from 32,500,000 globally in the analysed period of 2021 to almost 35,400,000 in 2022. These can include web pages with redirects to exploits, sites containing exploits and other malicious programs, botnet command & control centres and more.
The number of attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol grew in the U.S. (while dropping slightly globally), going from 47.5 million attacks in the first trimester of 2021 to 51 million in the same period of 2022. With the widespread shift toward remote work, many companies have introduced Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), a technology that enables computers on the same corporate network to be linked together and accessed remotely, even when the employees are at home.
With small business owners typically handling numerous responsibilities at the same time, cyber security is often an afterthought. However, this disregard for IT security is being exploited by cyber criminals. The Kaspersky study sought to assess the threats that pose an increasing danger to entrepreneurs.
New Zoom Flaws Could Let Attackers Hack Victims Just By Sending Them A Message
Popular video conferencing service Zoom has resolved as many as four security vulnerabilities, which could be exploited to compromise another user over chat by sending specially crafted Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) messages and execute malicious code.
With Zoom's chat functionality built on top of the XMPP standard, successful exploitation of the issues could enable an attacker to force a vulnerable client to masquerade a Zoom user, connect to a malicious server, and even download a rogue update, resulting in arbitrary code execution stemming from a downgrade attack.
https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/new-zoom-flaws-could-let-attackers-hack.html
VMware, Airline Targeted As Ransomware Chaos Reigns
Global ransomware incidents target everything from enterprise servers to grounding an airline, with one India-based group even taking a Robin Hood approach to extortion with the "GoodWill" strain.
Ransomware incidents are on the rise and this week proved no exception, with the discovery of a Linux-based ransomware family called Cheerscrypt targeting VMware ESXi servers and an attack on SpiceJet, India’s second largest airline.
Meanwhile, an oddball "GoodWill" variant purports to help the needy.
The Cheerscrypt ransomware variant was uncovered by Trend Micro and relies on the double-extortion scheme to coerce victims to pay the ransom – i.e., stealing data as well and threatening to leak it if victims don’t pay up.
Because of the popularity of ESXi servers for creating and running multiple virtual machines (VMs) in enterprise settings, the Cheerscrypt ransomware could be appealing to malicious actors looking to rapidly distribute ransomware across many devices.
Meanwhile, low-cost carrier SpiceJet faced a ransomware attack this week, causing flight delays of between two and five hours as well as rendering unavailable online booking systems and customer service portals.
While the company’s IT team announced on Twitter that it had successfully prevented the attempted attack before it was able to fully breach all internal systems and take them over, customers and employees are still experiencing the ramifications.
https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/vmware-airline-targeted-as-ransomware-chaos-reigns
Crypto Hacks Aren't A Niche Concern; They Impact Wider Society
Million-dollar crypto heists are becoming more common as the currency starts to go mainstream; prevention and enforcement haven't kept pace.
The attack against the Ronin Network in March was quickly speculated to be one of the largest cryptocurrency hacks of all time. Approximately $540 million was stolen from the cryptocurrency and NFT games company in a combination of USDC and Etherium, with $400 million of the stolen funds owned by customers playing the game Axie Infinity.
This attack was the latest in a string of thefts perpetrated against crypto and should be a jolt to both the digital asset and cyber security communities to bring the security of cryptocurrencies into line.
The current vogue of large-scale crypto heists goes as far back as the 2014 Mt. Gox hack (another cryptocurrency exchange built around a game, Magic: The Gathering), which went into bankruptcy after losing $460 million of assets.
However, the trend has been gathering pace. In the months leading up to the Ronin Network attack, cyber criminals stole nearly $200 million worth of cryptocurrency from the crypto trading platform BitMart, attacked 400 Crypto.com users, and orchestrated NFT-related scams, to name but a few incidents.
There is often an uncomfortable tendency to see these attacks as something that takes place in isolation in a remote part of the Internet when they actually have a huge impact on thousands of people.
State Of Cyber Security Report 2022 Names Ransomware And Nation-State Attacks As Biggest Threats
Ransomware is the biggest concern for cyber security professionals, according to results of the Infosecurity Group’s 2022 State of Cybersecurity Report, produced by Infosecurity Europe and Infosecurity Magazine.
Cyber Security Professionals' Number One Concern: Ransomware.
This attack vector was voted as the biggest cyber security trend (28%) by the survey respondents (including CISOs, CTOs, CIOs and academics), marking a significant change from the previous report in 2020, where ransomware did not break the top three. This follows surging ransomware incidents in 2021, with ransom demands and payments growing significantly last year. A number of these attacks have also impacted critical industries, for example, taking down the US’ largest fuel pipeline.
The survey respondents also highlighted the evolving tactics and capabilities of ransomware attackers. This includes threat actors becoming more sophisticated as they evolve into loosely coupled service-based operations.
A number of cyber security professionals believe that cyber-criminal groups will become more guarded in their approach due to new initiatives by governments and law enforcement to tackle these activities.
Cyber Security Professionals' Number Two Concern: Nation-State Attacks.
The second biggest concern for survey respondents was geopolitics/nation-state attacks (24%), particularly the shifting hostilities from the Russia-Ukraine conflict into cyberspace. Russia already had a reputation for conducting offensive cyber operations prior to the conflict, and the Ukrainian government and critical services have experienced numerous attacks both before and since the war began.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/2022-state-industry-report/
Vishing (Voice Phishing) Cases Reach All Time High
Vishing (voice phishing) cases have increased almost 550 percent over the last twelve months (Q1 2021 to Q1 2022), according to the latest Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report from Agari and PhishLabs.
In Q1 2022, Agari and PhishLabs detected and mitigated hundreds of thousands of phishing, social media, email, and dark web threats targeting a broad range of enterprises and brands. The report provides an analysis of the latest findings and insights into key trends shaping the threat landscape.
According to the findings, vishing attacks have overtaken business email compromise (BEC) as the second most reported response-based email threat since Q3 2021. By the end of the year, more than one in four of every reported response-based threat was a vishing attack, and this makeup continued through Q1 2022.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/24/vishing-cases-increased/
DeFi (Decentralised Finance) Is Getting Pummelled By Cyber Criminals
Decentralised finance lost $1.8 billion to cyber attacks last year — and 80% of those events were the result of vulnerable code, analysts say.
Decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms — which connect various cryptocurrency blockchains to create a decentralised infrastructure for borrowing, trading, and other transactions — promise to replace banks as a secure and convenient way to invest in and spend cryptocurrency. But in addition to attracting hordes of new users with dreams of digital fortune, cyber criminals have discovered them to be an easy target, wiping out wallets to zero balances in a moment, tanking whole markets while profiting, and more, according to a new report.
Analysts with Bishop Fox found that DeFi platforms lost $1.8 billion to cyber attacks in 2021 alone. With a total of 65 events observed, 90% of the losses came from unsophisticated attacks, according to the report, which points to the lax cyber security practices of the sector.
DeFi averaged five attacks per week last year, with most of them (51%) coming from the exploitation of "smart contracts" bugs, the analysts found. Smart contracts are essentially records of transactions, stored on the blockchain.
Other top DeFi attack vectors include cryptowallets, protocol design flaws, and so-called "rug-pull" scams (where investors are lured to a new cryptocurrency project that is then abandoned, leaving targets with a worthless currency). But taken together, 80% of all events were caused by the use (and re-use) of buggy code, according to the report.
https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/defi-pummeled-by-cybercriminals
Threats
Ransomware
Ransomware Attacks Increasing at “Alarming” Rate - Infosecurity Magazine
VMware, Airline Targeted as Ransomware Chaos Reigns (darkreading.com)
Clop ransomware gang is back, hits 21 victims in a single month (bleepingcomputer.com)
Link Found Connecting Chaos, Onyx and Yashma Ransomware | Threatpost
Ransomware demands three good demands to restore files • The Register
Ransomware Cheerscrypt targets VMware ESXi systems • The Register
New Chaos Malware Variant Ditches Wiper for Encryption (darkreading.com)
Industrial Spy data extortion market gets into the ransomware game (bleepingcomputer.com)
BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware asks $5 million to unlock Austrian state (bleepingcomputer.com)
Conti Ransomware Operation Shut Down After Splitting into Smaller Groups (thehackernews.com)
Suspected phishing email crime boss arrested in Nigeria • The Register
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Interpol arrests alleged leader of the SilverTerrier BEC gang (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cyber security breach at the city of Portland led to fraudulent $1.4M transaction | KATU
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Intuit warns of QuickBooks phishing threatening to suspend accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)
Suspected phishing email crime boss arrested in Nigeria • The Register
Other Social Engineering
Malware
BPFDoor malware uses Solaris vulnerability to get root privileges (bleepingcomputer.com)
New Windows Subsystem for Linux malware steals browser auth cookies (bleepingcomputer.com)
This Windows malware uses PowerShell to subvert Chrome • The Register
Hackers have found a new way to smuggle malware onto your device | TechRadar
Cyber Security Community Warned of Fake PoC Exploits Delivering Malware | SecurityWeek.Com
Popular Python and PHP libraries hijacked to steal AWS keys (bleepingcomputer.com)
New Attack Shows Weaponized PDF Files Remain a Threat (darkreading.com)
Mobile
Microsoft finds severe bugs in Android apps from large mobile providers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google warns Android smartphones targeted by dangerous Predator spyware | TechRadar
New ERMAC 2.0 Android malware steals accounts, wallets from 467 apps (bleepingcomputer.com)
BYOD
Data Breaches/Leaks
GM Discloses Data Breach of Cars' Locations, Mileage, Service (gizmodo.com)
MGM Resorts' customer data now leaked on Telegram for free • The Register
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
REvil prosecutions reach a 'dead end,' Russian media reports - CyberScoop
Scammer Behind $568M International Cyber Crime Syndicate Gets 4 Years (darkreading.com)
Multi-Continental Operation Leads to Arrest of Cyber Crime Gang Leader - Infosecurity Magazine
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
68% of Legal Sector Data Breaches Caused by Insider Threats - Infosecurity Magazine
Verizon Report: Ransomware, Human Error Among Top Security Risks | Threatpost
Dark Web
Military cyber weapons could become available on dark web: Interpol (cnbc.com)
Darknet market Versus shuts down after hacker leaks security flaw (bleepingcomputer.com)
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Denial of Service DoS/DDoS
Cybergang Claims REvil is Back, Executes DDoS Attacks | Threatpost
DDoS Extortion Attack Flagged as Possible REvil Resurgence (darkreading.com)
Anatomy of a DDoS amplification attack - Microsoft Security Blog
Cloud/SaaS
Attack Surface Management
Open Source
Privacy
Passwords & Credential Stuffing
Strong Password Policy Isn't Enough, Study Shows (darkreading.com)
Verizon DBIR: Stolen credentials led to nearly 50% of attacks (techtarget.com)
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
GDPR Anniversary, Expert Insight On What Lead To GDPR Fines – Information Security Buzz
Indian stock markets given ten day deadline to file reports • The Register
Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Network of hyperlocal Russian Telegram channels spew disinformation in occupied Ukraine - CyberScoop
Predator spyware uses in Chrome, Android zero-day exploits • The Register
Unknown APT group is targeting Russian government entities - Security Affairs
Hackers target Russian govt with fake Windows updates pushing RATs (bleepingcomputer.com)
Remote bricking of Ukrainian tractors raises agriculture security concerns | CSO Online
Anonymous Declares Cyber-War On Pro-Russian Hacker Gang Killnet – Information Security Buzz
Ex-spymaster and fellow Brexiteers' emails stolen, leaked • The Register
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
Russian Hackers Believed to Be Behind Leak of Hard Brexit Plans - Infosecurity Magazine
Russian Gamaredon APT could fuel a new round of DDoS attacks - Security Affairs
Putin aimed cyber attack at me, says former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove | News | The Times
Nation State Actors – China
Trend Micro Patches Vulnerability Exploited by Chinese Cyber Spies | SecurityWeek.Com
Chinese "Twisted Panda" Hackers Caught Spying on Russian Defense Institutes (thehackernews.com)
Nation State Actors – Iran
Vulnerabilities
CISA ‘Strongly Urges’ You To Patch 75 Actively Exploited Security Bugs (forbes.com)
CISA adds 41 vulnerabilities to list of bugs used in cyber attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Exploit released for critical VMware auth bypass bug, patch now (bleepingcomputer.com)
Zyxel addresses four flaws affecting APs, AP controllers, and firewalls - Security Affairs
Critical New Google Chrome Security Warning For All Users, Update Now (forbes.com)
Patching the latest Active Directory vulnerabilities is not enough | CSO Online
Microsoft Elevation-of-Privilege Vulnerabilities Spiked Again in 2021 (darkreading.com)
Sector Specific
SMBs – Small and Medium Businesses
Legal
Health/Medical/Pharma Sector
teiss - News - American healthcare tech giant Omnicell suffers a major ransomware attack
Web app attacks on the rise in healthcare as insider challenges remain (scmagazine.com)
Retail/eCommerce
Microsoft: Credit card stealers are getting much stealthier (bleepingcomputer.com)
Microsoft warns of new highly evasive web skimming campaigns - Security Affairs
Transport and Aviation
Hundreds Stranded After Ransomware Attack on Indian Airline | SecurityWeek.Com
SpiceJet airline passengers stranded after ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Taking the Danger Out of IT/OT Convergence (darkreading.com)
Critical Flaws in Popular ICS Platform Can Trigger RCE | Threatpost
Energy & Utilities
Oil, Gas and Mining
Education and Academia
Other News
IP and cyber security disputes are top legal concerns for tech companies | TechCrunch
Verizon DBIR: Stolen credentials led to nearly 50% of attacks (techtarget.com)
Managed Detection and Response (MDR): Who's Responsible for the R? - MSSP Alert
Survey Evidences Leaders Lack Confidence in Cyber-Risk Management - Infosecurity Magazine
Flaw in PayPal can allow attackers to steal money from users' account - Security Affairs
Most organisations do not follow data backup best practices - Help Net Security
Why are current cyber security incident response efforts failing? - Help Net Security
Nation-state malware will be a commodity on dark web soon, Interpol warns - Security Affairs
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 April 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 April 2022:
-Why Ransomware Attacks Prefer Small Business Targets Rather Than Rich Enterprises
-Ransomware Plagues Finance Sector as Cyber Attacks Get More Complex
-76% of Organisations Worldwide Expect to Suffer a Cyber Attack This Year
-Most Email Security Approaches Fail to Block Common Threats
-Financial Leaders Grappling with More Aggressive and Sophisticated Attack Methods
-Hackers Sneak Malware into Resumes Sent to Corporate Hiring Managers
-West Warns of Russian Cyber-Attacks As Concerns Rise Over Putin’s Nuclear Rhetoric
-Criminals Adopting New Methods To Bypass Improved Defences, Says Zscaler
-Cyber Criminals Are ‘Drinking the Tears’ Of Ukrainians
-Hackers For Hire Attempt to Destroy Hedge Fund Manager's Reputation
-New Threat Groups and Malware Families Emerging
-Economic Warfare: Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Part of Geopolitical Conflict
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
Why Ransomware Attacks Prefer Small Business Targets Rather Than Rich Enterprises
Enterprise businesses with 25,000 employees+ are less likely to get hit by a ransomware attack than smaller businesses — even though big companies typically can afford to pay higher ransoms, the 2022 CyberEdge Cyberthreat Defense Report concluded.
What explains hackers taking aim at small businesses more frequently than enterprise giants? The answer: Damaging a critical infrastructure facility or similar disruptions are certain to catch the eye of federal law enforcement, or national governments — something that no hacker wants, CyberEdge said. Smaller to medium-sized firms, as it turns out, get hit more frequently by ransomware attacks, on average at roughly 70 percent, the report said.
Overall, some 71 percent of organisations have been bitten by ransomware in 2022, up a point and a half from last year and by 8.5 points in 2020. It’s companies of 10,000 to 24,999 employees that are the sweet spot for ransomware hackers, nearly 75 percent of which are victimised by cyber extortionists.
The extensive study, which surveyed 1,200 security decision makers and practitioners employed by companies of greater than 500 people in 17 countries across 19 industries, is geared to helping gauge their internal practices and investments against those of their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Ransomware Plagues Finance Sector as Cyber Attacks Get More Complex
Cyber criminals have evolved from hacking wire transfers to targeting market data, as ransomware continues to hit financial firms, says a new VMware report. Here's what to do about it.
Ransomware plagues financial institutions as they face increasingly complex threats over previous years owing to the changing behaviour of cyber criminal cartels, according to VMware's latest Modern Bank Heists report.
This has happened as the cyber crime cartels have evolved beyond wire transfer frauds to target market strategies, take over brokerage accounts, and island-hop into banks, according to the report.
For the report, VMware surveyed 130 financial sector CISOs and security leaders from across different regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, and Africa.
Report findings were consistent with observations by other security experts. "The Secret Service, in its investigative capacity to protect the nation's financial payment systems and financial infrastructure, has seen an evolution and increase in complex cyber-enabled fraud," says Jeremy Sheridan, former assistant director at the US Secret Service. "The persistent, inadequate security of systems connected to the internet provides opportunity and methodology."
76% of Organisations Worldwide Expect to Suffer a Cyber Attack This Year
Ransomware, phishing/social engineering, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and the business fallout of a data breach rank as the top concerns of global organisations, a new study shows.
The newly published Cyber Risk Index, a study by Trend Micro and the Ponemon Institute, shows that more than three-quarters of global organisations expect to suffer a cyber attack in the next 12 months — 25% of which say an attack is "very likely."
More than 80% of the 3,400 CISO and IT professionals and managers surveyed say their organisations were hit with one or more successful cyber attacks in the past 12 months, and 35% suffered seven or more attacks, according to the report, which covers the second half of 2021.
Most Email Security Approaches Fail to Block Common Threats
A full 89 percent of organisations experienced one or more successful email breaches during the previous 12 months, translating into big-time costs.
On overwhelming number of security teams believe their email security systems to be ineffective against the most serious inbound threats, including ransomware.
That’s according to a survey of business customers using Microsoft 365 for email commissioned by Cyren and conducted by Osterman Research, which examined concerns with phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and ransomware threats, attacks that became costly incidents, and preparedness to deal with attacks and incidents.
“Security team managers are most concerned that current email security solutions do not block serious inbound threats (particularly ransomware), which requires time for response and remediation by the security team before dangerous threats are triggered by users,” according to the report, released Wednesday.
Less than half of those surveyed said that their organisations can block delivery of email threats. And, correspondingly, less than half of organisations rank their currently deployed email security solutions as effective.
https://threatpost.com/email-security-fail-block-threats/179370/
Financial Leaders Grappling with More Aggressive and Sophisticated Attack Methods
VMware released a report which takes the pulse of the financial industry’s top CISOs and security leaders on the changing behaviour of cyber criminal cartels and the defensive shift of the financial sector.
The report found that financial institutions are facing increased destructive attacks and falling victim to ransomware more than in years past, as sophisticated cyber crime cartels evolve beyond wire transfer fraud to now target market strategies, take over brokerage accounts and island hop into banks.
In the Modern Bank Heists report, 63% of financial institutions admitted experiencing an increase in destructive attacks, with cyber criminals leveraging this method as a means to burn evidence as part of a counter incident response.
Additionally, 74% experienced at least one ransomware attack over the past year, with 63% paying the ransom. When asked about the nation-state actors behind these attacks, the majority of financial instructions stated that Russia posed the greatest concern, as geopolitical tension continues to escalate in cyberspace.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/21/cybercriminal-cartels-financial-sector/
Hackers Sneak Malware into Resumes Sent to Corporate Hiring Managers
A new set of phishing attacks delivering the ‘more_eggs’ malware has been observed striking corporate hiring managers with bogus resumes as an infection vector, a year after potential candidates looking for work on LinkedIn were lured with weaponised job offers.
"This year the more_eggs operation has flipped the social engineering script, targeting hiring managers with fake resumes instead of targeting jobseekers with fake job offers," eSentire's research and reporting lead, Keegan Keplinger, said in a statement.
The Canadian cyber security company said it identified and disrupted four separate security incidents, three of which occurred at the end of March. Targeted entities include a US-based aerospace company, an accounting business located in the UK, a law firm, and a staffing agency, both based out of Canada.
The malware, suspected to be the handiwork of a threat actor called Golden Chickens (aka Venom Spider), is a stealthy, modular backdoor suite capable of stealing valuable information and conducting lateral movement across the compromised network.
"More_eggs achieves execution by passing malicious code to legitimate windows processes and letting those windows processes do the work for them," Keplinger said. The goal is to leverage the resumes as a decoy to launch the malware and sidestep detection.
https://thehackernews.com/2022/04/hackers-sneak-moreeggs-malware-into.html
West Warns of Russian Cyber Attacks as Concerns Rise Over Putin’s Nuclear Rhetoric
Cyber crime groups have publicly pledged support for Russia, western officials worry about Putin’s reliance on nuclear threats and the battle for Mariupol in Ukraine grinds on.
The US and four of its closest allies have warned that “evolving intelligence” shows that Russia is contemplating cyber attacks on countries backing Ukraine, as the Kremlin’s frustration grows at its failure to make military gains.
Vladimir Putin used the launch on Wednesday of a powerful new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of carrying ten or more warheads, to make nuclear threats against western countries.
The Sarmat has long been in development and test flights were initially due to start in 2017. The Pentagon confirmed that the US had been given notice of the test and was not alarmed. Western officials are more concerned by the increasing emphasis Moscow puts on its nuclear arsenal as its conventional forces have faltered in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army continued to put up resistance in the besieged and devastated city of Mariupol, but Putin’s Chechen ally, Ramzan Kadyrov, predicted that the last stand of the port’s defenders at the Azovstal steel works would fall on Thursday.
The Kremlin has made repeated threats against the many countries that have been supplying Ukraine’s army with modern weapons, and members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing network – the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – predicted Moscow could also work with cyber crime groups to launch attacks on governments, institutions and businesses.
Criminals Adopting New Methods To Bypass Improved Defences, Says Zscaler
The number of phishing attacks worldwide jumped 29 percent last year as threat actors countered stronger enterprise defences with newer methods, according to researchers with Zscaler's ThreatLabz research team.
Cyber criminals have adapted to multi-factor authentication (MFA), employee security awareness training, and security controls by broadening who and where they will attack.
While the United States remained the country with the most phishing attempts, others are seeing faster growth in the number of incidents – exploiting new vectors like SMS and lowering the barrier of entry for launching attacks through pre-built tools made available on the market.
"Phishing attacks continue to remain one of the most prevalent attack vectors, often serving as a starting point for more advanced next stage attacks that may result in a large-scale breach," Deepen Desai, CISO and vice president of security research and operations at Zscaler, told The Register.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/20/phishing-attempts-on-rise-zscaler/
Cyber Criminals Are ‘Drinking the Tears’ of Ukrainians
In biology, when an insect drinks the tears of a large creature, it is called lachryphagy. And in cyberspace, malicious actors are likewise “drinking tears” by exploiting humanitarian concerns about the war in Ukraine for profit. Different forms of deception include tricking people into donating to bogus charities, clicking on Ukraine-themed malicious links and attachments, and even impersonating officials to extort payment for rescuing loved ones.
It is an unfortunate reality that cyber opportunists are engaging in lachryphagy to exploit humanitarian concerns about the war for profit or data collection. To date, one of the largest cryptocurrency scams involving fraudulent Ukrainian relief payments totalled $50 million in March, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cybersecurity companies warned the public that criminals were preying on Ukrainian relief fundraising efforts with cryptocurrency scams. Bitdefender Labs reports that cyber criminals have impersonated Ukrainian government entities and charitable organisations such as UNICEF, and the Australian humanitarian agency, Act for Peace. “Some [scammers] are even pretending to be Wladimir Klitschko, whose brother Vitali is mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv,” according to the BBC.
Hackers For Hire Attempt to Destroy Hedge Fund Manager's Reputation
Hackers bombarded a British hedge fund manager with 3,000 emails and fake news stories about his mortgage in an effort to destroy his reputation after being hired by a corporate rival.
Criminals even sought to gain personal information about Matthew Earl by pretending to be his sister in a three-year campaign when he raised concerns over the controversial German payments company Wirecard.
Mr Earl, a former City analyst who runs the hedge fund ShadowFall, said he was targeted by a group called Dark Basin.
This group has been linked to Aviram Azari, who this week pleaded guilty in New York to a conspiracy to target journalists and critics of Wirecard using phishing emails.
Mr Earl said the hacking attempts started in 2016 after ShadowFall, nicknamed the “dark destroyer” in the City, criticised the financial performance of Wirecard. The German company was later mired in a series of accounting scandals and went bust.
He said: “I was being sent very targeted emails, which were crafted with personal information about my interests, friends and family’s details. They were very specific.”
Mr Earl received news stories that appeared to be from media outlets such as Reuters and Bloomberg. Another email appeared to be sent by his sister, sharing family photographs, he added.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/21/reign-terror-hackers-hire-ramp-corporate-espionage/
New Threat Groups and Malware Families Emerging
Mandiant announced the findings of an annual report that provides timely data and insights based on frontline investigations and remediations of high-impact cyber attacks worldwide. The 2022 report––which tracks investigation metrics between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021—reveals over 1,100 new threat groups and 733 new malware families.
The report also notes a realignment and retooling of China cyber espionage operations to align with the implementation of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan in 2021. The report warns that the national-level priorities included in the plan “signal an upcoming increase in China-nexus actors conducting intrusion attempts against intellectual property or other strategically important economic concerns, as well as defence industry products and other dual-use technologies over the next few years.”
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/22/adversaries-innovating-and-adapting/
Economic Warfare: Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Part of Geopolitical Conflict
We’ve known for years that since at least March of 2016, Russian government threat actors have been targeting multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and other agencies have acknowledged this for quite some time in many of their technical alerts and statements.
In the intervening years, with the acceleration of digital transformation, cyber criminals and nation-state actors have increasingly set their sights on these sectors. The convergence of physical and digital assets brings competitive advantage but also inevitable risks. Attacks against hospitals, oil pipelines, food supply chains, and other critical infrastructure, have brought into sharp focus the vulnerability of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the impact on lives and livelihoods when they are disrupted. Now, overwhelming signs indicate critical infrastructure companies are in the bullseye of geopolitical conflict.
Threats
Ransomware
How Ready Are Organisations to Manage and Recover From A Ransomware Attack? - Help Net Security
FBI: BlackCat Ransomware Breached At Least 60 Entities Worldwide (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware: This Gang Is Getting a Lot Quicker at Encrypting Networks | ZDNet
Hive Hackers Are Exploiting Microsoft Exchange Servers in Ransomware Spree | ZDNet
REvil's TOR Sites Come Alive to Redirect To New Ransomware Operation (bleepingcomputer.com)
PYSA Ransomware Attacks: Here's What MSSPs Need to Know - MSSP Alert
An Investigation of the BlackCat Ransomware via Trend Micro Vision One
REvil Resurrected? Ransomware Crew Appears to Be Back • The Register
FBI Warning: Ransomware Gangs Are Going After This Lucrative but Unexpected Target | ZDNet
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
LinkedIn Brand Takes Lead as Most Impersonated In Phishing Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
FBI Warns of 'Reverse' Instant Payments Phishing Schemes | SecurityWeek.Com
Spreading Malware Through Community Phishing - Help Net Security
Malware
Windows Malware Can Steal Social Media Credentials and Banking Logins (komando.com)
Emotet Botnet Switches to 64-bit Modules, Increases Activity (bleepingcomputer.com)
New SolarMarker Malware Variant Using Updated Techniques to Stay Under the Radar (thehackernews.com)
Emotet Reestablishes Itself at The Top Of The Malware World • The Register
Mobile
BYOD
IoT
How to Secure Smart Home (IOT) Devices | Reviews by Wirecutter (nytimes.com)
New Stealthy BotenaGo Malware Variant Targets DVR Devices (bleepingcomputer.com)
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Russian Hackers Are Seeking Alternative Money-Laundering Options (bleepingcomputer.com)
How Russia Is Isolating Its Own Cyber Criminals (darkreading.com)
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking
Hackers Hammer SpringShell Vulnerability In Attempt To Install Cryptominers | Ars Technica
Beanstalk DeFi Platform Loses $182 Million In Flash-Loan Attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hackers Steal $655K After Picking MetaMask Seed from iCloud Backup (bleepingcomputer.com)
LemonDuck Botnet Plunders Docker Cloud Instances in Cryptocurrency Crime Wave | ZDNet
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Security Lessons From a Payment Fraud Attack (darkreading.com)
Scammers Snatch Up Expired Domains, Vexing Google | TechCrunch
Insurance
Dark Web
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Cloud
Rethinking Cyber-Defence Strategies in the Public-Cloud Age | Threatpost
Cyber Criminals Are Shifting Their Gaze To Kubernetes - Information Security Buzz
Passwords & Credential Stuffing
Digital Transformation
Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Moving Towards Defence in Depth Under The Grey Skies Of Conflict - Help Net Security
Locked Shields ‘Live Fire’ Cyber Drills to be Held as War in Ukraine Continues - Bloomberg
Russian-Linked Shuckworm Crew Ups Attacks on Ukraine • The Register
Russian Gamaredon APT Continues to Target Ukraine - Security Affairs
Phishing Attacks Using the Topic "Azovstal" Targets Entities in Ukraine - Security Affairs
Hackers Claim to Target Russia with Cyber Attacks and Leaks - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
The Anonymous Collective Hacked Other Russian Organisations - Security Affairs
Spyware Was Used Against Catalan Targets and UK Prime Minister and Foreign Office | CSO Online
Stalkerware Detection Trends: Monitor and Spyware Findings - MSSP Alert
Catalan Chief Accuses Spain's Intelligence Agency of Hacking | SecurityWeek.Com
Anomaly 6 Tracked NSA and CIA Spies as Product Demo: Report (gizmodo.com)
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
Five Eyes Nations Warn of Russian Cyber Attacks Against Critical Infrastructure (thehackernews.com)
NATO Locked Shields War Games Prep for Real Russian Cyber Attack (gizmodo.com)
The Russian Cyber Threat Is Here to Stay and NATO Needs To Understand It | Fox News
A Russian Cyber Attack Is Coming —Lawmakers and Citizens Must Prepare | The Hill
US Officials Increase Warnings About Russian Cyber-Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine
Work From Home Software 'At Risk of Russian Cyber Attacks' (telegraph.co.uk)
US Officials Preparing for Potential Russian Cyber Attacks - CBS News
After Foiled Sandworm Attack, US Critical Infrastructure Should Stand Guard | CSO Online
Nation State Actors – China
Nation State Actors – North Korea
North Korea Funds Nuclear Program with Cyber Crime- IT Security Guru
North Korea Aims 'TraderTraitor' Malware at Cryptocurrency Workers (cyberscoop.com)
Blockchain Companies Warned of North Korean Hackers - IT Security Guru
Nation State Actors – Misc
Vulnerabilities
VMware, Chrome Flaws Added to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogue - Security Affairs
Cisco Releases Security Patches for TelePresence, RoomOS and Umbrella VA (thehackernews.com)
Time to get patching: Oracle's quarterly Critical Patch Update arrives with 520 fixes | ZDNet
7-Zip Zero-Day Vulnerability Grants Privilege Escalation | TechSpot
QNAP Warns of New Bugs in Its Network Attached Storage Devices – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Cisco Umbrella Default SSH Key Allows Theft of Admin Credentials (bleepingcomputer.com)
Researcher Releases PoC for Recent Java Cryptographic Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)
Critical Cryptographic Java Security Blunder Patched – Update Now! – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Atlassian Drops Patches for Critical Jira Authentication Bypass Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)
Unpatched Bug in RainLoop Webmail Could Give Hackers Access to all Emails (thehackernews.com)
Sector Specific
Financial Services Sector
Modern Bank Heists 5.0: The Escalation from Dwell to Destruction (vmware.com)
Two-Thirds of Global Banks Witness Surge in Destructive Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine
FinTech
Health/Medical/Pharma Sector
The New Cyberthreat To Healthcare: Killware - Information Security Buzz
Many Medical Device Makers Skimp on Security Practices (darkreading.com)
Transport and Aviation
Other News
Why Companies Should Make ERP Security a Top Priority (techtarget.com)
The Evolving Role of The Lawyer in Cyber Security - Help Net Security
Cyber Security Litigation Risks: 4 Top Concerns for CISOs | CSO Online
Ponemon Research - Businesses to Invest $172b On Cyber Security In 2022 - Information Security Buzz
Funkypigeon.com Suspends Orders After 'Cyber Security Incident' | Business News | Sky News
The SEC Is About To Force CISOs Into America’s Boardrooms (forbes.com)
Data Breaches, Ransomware Attacks Leave Security Teams “Exhausted” - MSSP Alert
When Attacks Surge, Turn to Data to Strengthen Detection and Response | SecurityWeek.Com
Attacker Accessed Dozens of Repositories After OAuth Token Theft - Information Security Buzz
7 Best Practices for Web3 Security Risk Mitigation (techtarget.com)
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 February 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 February 2022:
-Why Cyber Change Outpaces Boardroom Engagement
-NCSC Alerts UK Orgs To Brace For Destructive Russian Cyber Attacks
-Ransomware: Over Half Of Attacks Are Targeting These Three Industries
-Third of Employees Admit to Exfiltrating Data When Leaving Their Job
-Massive Social Engineering Waves Have Impacted Banks In Several Countries
-Ransomware Is Terrifying – But Never Underestimate The Damage An Employee With Unmonitored Access Can Do
-People Working In IT Related Roles Equally Susceptible To Phishing Attempts As The General Population
-FBI Says More Cyber Attacks Come From China Than Everywhere Else Combined
-Managing Detections Is Not the Same as Stopping Breaches
-From War to Web Security, Protect Your Attack Surface from the Weakest Link
-Number Of Data Compromises Reaching All-Time High
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Cyber Change Outpaces Boardroom Engagement
We all know the story of the past two years. Mass digital investments in SaaS collaboration suites, cloud infrastructure and other tools helped to keep organisations operational when they needed it most. The money continues to flow today, as those same companies realize they must keep on pumping funds into digital to stay competitive amidst rising customer expectations. Gartner predicted public cloud spending growth would hit 23% year-on-year in 2021 and increase 20% this year to top $397bn.
From a cyber security perspective, these business decisions are loaded with risk if protections are not built into projects from the start. A recent global poll revealed that of 90% of business and IT decision makers are concerned about the impact of ransomware. It also found generally poor levels of cyber-awareness among board members. Less than half (46%) of respondents claimed concepts like “cyber risk” and “cyber risk management” were known extensively in their organisation.
The truth is that many board leaders do understand the need for greater investment in security as a strategic growth driver. But they find it hard to keep pace with a threat landscape that moves at the speed of light. Vulnerabilities used to go months or years before they were exploited, for example, but today threat actors are working on exploits for bugs like Log4Shell within hours of their discovery. That makes the fast-changing risk landscape difficult to grasp for even tech-savvy C-suite leaders. As a result, cyber risk continues to be managed reactively, which puts the organisation perpetually on the back foot.
https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/22/b/why-cyber-change-outpaces-boardroom-engagement.html
NCSC Alerts UK Orgs to Brace for Destructive Russian Cyber Attacks
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is urging organisations to bolster security and prepare for a potential wave of destructive cyber attacks after recent breaches of Ukrainian entities.
The NCSC openly warns that Russian state-sponsored threat actors will likely conduct the attacks and reminds of the damage done in previous destructive cyber attacks, like NotPetya in 2017 and the GRU campaign against Georgia in 2019.
These warnings come after Ukrainian government agencies and corporate entities suffered cyber attacks where websites were defaced, and data-wiping malware was deployed to destroy data and make Windows devices inoperable.
The cause for the resurgence of attacks is the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and attempts to negotiate a way out of the Ukraine crisis have failed so far.
Ukraine and Russia have engaged in cyber warfare for many years, but recent Russian military mobilization was accompanied by new waves of attacks, with European countries and the USA expected to be targeted next.
Over Half of Ransomware Attacks are Targeting Financial Services, Utilities and Retail
Three sectors have been the most common target for ransomware attacks, but researchers warn "no business or industry is safe".
Over half of ransomware attacks are targeting one of three industries; banking, utilities and retail, according to analysis by cyber security researchers – but they've also warned that all industries are at risk from attacks.
The data has been gathered by Trellix – formerly McAfee Enterprise and FireEye – from detected attacks between July and September 2021, a period when some of the most high-profile ransomware attacks of the past year happened.
According to detections by Trellix, banking and finance was the most common target for ransomware during the reporting period, accounting for 22% of detected attacks. That's followed by 20% of attacks targeting the utilities sector and 16% of attacks targeting retailers. Attacks against the three sectors in combination accounted for 58% of all of those detected.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-over-half-of-attacks-are-targeting-these-three-industries/
Third of Employees Admit to Exfiltrating Data When Leaving Their Job
Nearly one-third (29%) of employees admitted taking data with them when they leave their job, according to new research from Tessian.
The findings follow the ‘great resignation’ of 2021, when workers quit their jobs in huge waves following the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsurprisingly, close to three-quarters (71%) of IT leaders believe this trend has increased security risks in their organisations.
In addition, nearly half (45%) of IT leaders said they had seen incidents of data exfiltration increase in the past year due to staff taking data with them when they left.
The survey of 2000 UK workers also looked at employees' motives for taking such information. The most common reason was that the data would help them in their new job (58%). This was followed by the belief that the information belonged to them because they worked on the document (53%) and to share it with their new employer (44%).
The employees most likely to take data with them when leaving their job worked in marketing (63%), HR (37%) and IT (37%).
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/third-employees-exfiltrating-data/
Massive Social Engineering Waves Have Impacted Banks in Several Countries
A massive social engineering campaign has been delivered in the last two years in several countries, including Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, the UK, and France. According to Segurança Informática publication, the malicious waves have impacted banking organisations with the goal of stealing the users’ secrets, accessing the home banking portals, and also controlling all the operations on the fly via Command and Control (C2) servers geolocated in Brazil.
In short, criminal groups are targeting victims’ from different countries to collect their home banking secrets and payment cards. The campaigns are carried out by using social engineering schemas, namely smishing, and spear-phishing through fake emails.
Criminals obtain lists of valid and tested phone numbers and emails from other malicious groups, and the process is performed on underground forums, Telegram channels or Discord chats.
The spear-phishing campaigns try to lure victims with fake emails that impersonate the banking institutions. The emails are extremely similar to the originals, exception their content, mainly related to debts or lack of payments.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/127516/cyber-crime/massive-social-engineering-banks.html
Ransomware is Terrifying – But Never Underestimate the Damage an Employee with Unmonitored Access Can Do
Is the biggest threat to your data a mysterious ransomware merchant or an advanced persistent threat cartel?
Or is it a security system that will show you that data has been exfiltrated from your organisation – but only after the fact, leaving open the possibility that your valuable IP could have already been shared with unauthorized parties?
It was the latter scenario that allegedly resulted in 12,000 internal documents being lifted from Pfizer’s systems by a soon-to-depart employee last year. Those documents reportedly included details of COVID-19 vaccine research and a new melanoma drug.
The incident shows how today’s cloud infrastructure can exacerbate security gaps and why simply detecting a potential data leak isn’t enough. Companies need to have deep insight into what their employees are doing, as well as technology that can actively enforce policy and prevent unencrypted data from ever leaving the enterprise.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/ransomware_terrifying/
People Working in IT Related Roles Equally Susceptible to Phishing Attempts as the General Population
Phishing emails that mimic HR announcements or ask for assistance with invoicing get the most clicks from recipients, according to a study from F-Secure.
The study, which included 82,402 participants, tested how employees from four different organisations responded to emails that simulated one of four commonly used phishing tactics.
22% of recipients that received an email simulating a human resources announcement about vacation time clicked, making emails that mimic those sent by HR the most frequent source of clicks in the study.
An email asking the recipient to help with an invoice (referred to as CEO Fraud in the report) was the second most frequently engaged with email type, receiving clicks from 16% of recipients.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/02/03/phishing-emails-clicks/
FBI Says More Cyber Attacks Come from China than Everywhere Else Combined
US Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray has named China as the source of more cyber-attacks on the USA than all other nations combined.
In a Monday speech titled Countering Threats Posed by the Chinese Government Inside the US, Wray said the FBI is probing over 2,000 investigations of incidents assessed as attempts by China's government "to steal our information and technology."
"The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries – so much so that, as you heard, we're constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations, about every 12 hours or so."
Wray rated China's online offensive as "bigger than those of every other major nation combined," adding it has "a lot of funding and sophisticated tools, and often joining forces with cyber criminals – in effect, cyber mercenaries."
https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/fbi_china_threat_to_usa/
Managing Detections is Not the Same as Stopping Breaches
Enterprises interested in managed detection and response (MDR) services to monitor endpoints and workloads should make sure the providers have rock-solid expertise in detecting and responding to threats.
The fundamental challenge in cyber security is that adversaries move quickly. We know from observation that attackers go from initial intrusion to lateral movement in a matter of a couple hours or less.
If security teams are going to successfully stop a breach, they need to operate within the same timeframe, containing and remediating threats within minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Such constant vigilance can be challenging for in-house staff. This is why many organisations engage a provider of managed detection and response (MDR) security services, which monitors endpoints, workloads, and other systems to detect and monitor threats.
Unfortunately, even most managed services have several fundamental flaws that prevent them from executing on the core mission of stopping breaches.
https://www.darkreading.com/crowdstrike/managing-detections-is-not-the-same-as-stopping-breaches
From War to Web Security, Protect Your Attack Surface from the Weakest Link
With the rapid proliferation of data, increasing number of domains and subdomains as well as rise in third-party providers, the number of entry points through which attackers can infiltrate a company’s web environment is endless. Attacks are increasingly causing consequences felt beyond the perimeter of an organisation, as demonstrated earlier this year with the Colonial Pipeline breach, which caused fuel prices along the US East Coast to soar, and the attack on software provider Kaseya that forced hundreds of grocery stores in the Nordics to shut down business for days.
Security breaches often happen through an avenue that no one saw coming — a server no one knew existed, an old landing page, weak passwords or an application that was missing a patch. It’s perhaps never been clearer than today that a company is only as strong as the weakest link in its growing attack surface.
https://thenewstack.io/from-war-to-web-security-protect-your-attack-surface-from-the-weakest-link/
Number of Data Compromises Reaching All-Time High
According to an Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) report, the overall number of data compromises (1,862) is up more than 68 percent compared to 2020.
The new record number of data compromises is 23 percent over the previous all-time high (1,506) set in 2017. The number of data events that involved sensitive information (Ex: Social Security numbers) increased slightly compared to 2020 (83 percent vs. 80 percent). However, it remained well below the previous high of 95 percent set in 2017.
The number of victims continues to decrease (down five (5) percent in 2021 compared to the previous year) as identity criminals focus more on specific data types rather than mass data acquisition. However, the number of consumers whose data was compromised multiple times per year remains alarmingly high.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/01/31/data-compromises-up/
Threats
Ransomware
Aggressive BlackCat Ransomware on the Rise (darkreading.com)
A Look At The New Sugar Ransomware Demanding Low Ransoms (bleepingcomputer.com)
BlackCat Ransomware - What You Need To Know | The State of Security (tripwire.com)
KP Snacks Giant Hit By Conti Ransomware, Deliveries Disrupted (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hacker Group 'Moses Staff' Using New StrifeWater RAT in Ransomware Attacks (thehackernews.com)
Financially Motivated Hackers Use Leaked Conti Ransomware Techniques in Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com
FBI Shares Lockbit Ransomware Technical Details, Defense Tips (bleepingcomputer.com)
BlackCat (ALPHV) Ransomware Linked To BlackMatter, DarkSide Gangs (bleepingcomputer.com)
Over 500,000 People Impacted By A Ransomware Attack That Hit Morley - Security Affairs
Scottish Agency Still Recovering from 2020 Ransomware Attack - Infosecurity Magazine
Conti Ransomware Encrypted 80% of Ireland's HSE IT Systems (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware Wants You to Like and Subscribe, Or Else (vice.com)
Ransomware Means Your Database IS The Front Line. How Are You Defending It? • The Register
Phishing
Low-Detection Phishing Kits Increasingly Bypass MFA | Threatpost
MFA Adoption Pushes Phishing Actors To Reverse-Proxy Solutions (bleepingcomputer.com)
Intuit Warns Of Phishing Emails Threatening To Delete Accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)
Strong Authentication Protects Against Phishing. So Why Aren't More People Using It? | ZDNet
Microsoft Blocked Billions Of Brute-Force And Phishing Attacks Last Year (bleepingcomputer.com)
Other Social Engineering
Malware
Malicious CSV Text Files Used To Install BazarBackdoor Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
New Malware Used by SolarWinds Attackers Went Undetected for Years (thehackernews.com)
Microsoft: This Mac Malware Is Getting Smarter And More Dangerous | ZDNet
Data Breaches/Leaks
The 3 Most Common Causes of Data Breaches in 2021 (darkreading.com)
British Council Exposed More Than 100,000 Files With Student Records (bleepingcomputer.com)
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Supply Chain
DoS/DDoS
CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation State Actors
Russian 'Gamaredon' Hackers Use 8 New Malware Payloads In Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
State Hackers' New Malware Helped Them Stay Undetected For 250 Days (bleepingcomputer.com)
Charming Kitten Sharpens Its Claws with PowerShell Backdoor | Threatpost
FBI's Warning About Iranian Firm Highlights Common Cyber Attack Tactics | CSO Online
Cloud
Passwords & Credential Stuffing
Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare
Ukraine Continues to Face Cyber Espionage Attacks from Russian Hackers (thehackernews.com)
Gamaredon (Primitive Bear) Russian APT Group Actively Targeting Ukraine (paloaltonetworks.com)
Hackers Exploited 0-Day Vulnerability in Zimbra Email Platform to Spy on Users (thehackernews.com)
Cyber Spies Linked To Memento Ransomware Use New PowerShell Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware and Phantom Encryption Cracker Trigger Fresh Concerns - MSSP Alert
Vulnerabilities
Apple, SonicWall, Internet Explorer Vulnerabilities Added To CISA List | ZDNet
Samba 'Fruit' Bug Allows RCE, Full Root User Access | Threatpost
Tens of Thousands of Websites Vulnerable to RCE Flaw in WordPress Plug-in (darkreading.com)
Cisco Fixes Critical Bugs In SMB Routers, Exploits Available (bleepingcomputer.com)
UEFI Firmware Vulnerabilities Affect At Least 25 Computer Vendors (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google Patches 27 Vulnerabilities With Release of Chrome 98 | SecurityWeek.Com
Intel Patched 226 Vulnerabilities in 2021 | SecurityWeek.Com
600K WordPress Sites Impacted By Critical Plugin RCE Vulnerability (bleepingcomputer.com)
Critical Log4j Vulnerabilities Are the Ultimate Gift for Cyber Criminals (darkreading.com)
ESET Antivirus Bug Let Attackers Gain Windows SYSTEM Privileges (bleepingcomputer.com)
Sector Specific
Financial Services Sector
Retail
Transport and Aviation
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
Hackers Went Wild in 2021 — Every Company Should Do These 5 Things in 2022 (darkreading.com)
Rush To Remote Work Left Sysadmins Struggling To Keep Businesses Safe - Help Net Security
Telco Fined €9 Million For Hiding Cyber Attack Impact From Customers (bleepingcomputer.com)
90% of Security Leaders Warn of Skills Shortage - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Routers Exposed To Eternal Silence Campaign Via UPnP - Security Affairs
Social Security Numbers Most Targeted Sensitive Data - Infosecurity Magazine
NIST's New Cyber-Resiliency Guidance: 3 Steps For Getting Started | CSO Online
Organisations Neglecting Microsoft 365 Cyber Security Features - Help Net Security
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