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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 April 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 19 April 2024:

-94% of Ransomware Victims Have Their Backups Targeted by Attackers

-Sharing IT Providers Is a Risk for Financial Services, Says IMF, as Rising Cyber Threats Pose Serious Concerns for Financial Stability

-Hackers are Threatening to Publish a Huge Stolen Sanctions and Financial Crimes Watchlist

-Your Annual Cyber Security Is Not Working, but There is a Solution

-73% of Security Professionals Say They’ve Missed, Ignored or Failed to Act on a High Priority Security Alert

-Russia and Ukraine Top Inaugural World Cyber Crime Index

-Police Takedown Major Cyber Fraud Superstore: Will the Cyber Crime Industry Become More Fragmented?

-Small Businesses See Stable Business Climate; Cite Cyber Security as Top Threat

-The Threat from Inside: 14% Surge in Insider Threats Compared to Previous Year

-Dark Web Sales Driving Major Rise in Credential Attacks as Attackers Pummel Networks with Millions of Login Attempts

-Large Enterprises Experience Breaches, Despite Large Security Stacks - Report Finds 93% of Breaches Lead to Downtime and Data Loss

-Charities Doing Worse than Private Sector in Staving off Cyber Attacks

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

94% of Ransomware Victims Have Their Backups Targeted by Attackers

Organisations that have backed up sensitive data may believe they are safe from the effects of ransomware attacks; however a new study by Sophos reported that cyber criminals attempted to compromise the backups of 94% of companies hit by ransomware in the past year. The research found that criminals can demand a higher ransom when they compromise an organisation’s backup data, and those victims are twice as likely to pay. The median ransom demand is $2.3 million when backups are compromised, compared to $1 million otherwise.

Additionally, sectors like state and local governments, along with media and entertainment, are particularly vulnerable with nearly all affected organisations experiencing backup compromises.

Source: [Tech Republic]

Sharing IT Providers Is a Risk for Financial Services, Says IMF, as Rising Cyber Threats Pose Serious Concerns for Financial Stability

The International Monetary Fund has found that with greater digitalisation and heightened geopolitical tensions comes a greater risk of cyber attack with systemic consequences. The IMF noted that losses more than quadrupled since 2017 to $2.5 billion.

The push for technology has led to a number of financial services institutions relying on third-party IT firms, increasing their susceptibility to cyber disruption on a wider scale and a potential ripple effect were a third party to be hit. Whilst such third parties can increase the cyber resilience of a financial services institution, they also expose the industry to systemwide shocks, the IMF reports.

The IMF recommend institutions should identify potential systematic risks in their third-party IT firms. If the organisation is unable to perform such risk assessments, they should seek the expert support of an independent cyber security specialist.

Sources: [The Banker] [IMF]

Hackers are Threatening to Publish a Huge Stolen Sanctions and Financial Crimes Watchlist

A cyber crime group named GhostR has claimed responsibility for stealing 5.3 million records from the World-Check database, which companies use for "know your customer" (KYC) checks to screen potential clients for financial crime risks. The data theft occurred in March and originated from a Singapore-based firm with access to World-Check. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), which owns World-Check, confirmed that the breach involved a third-party's dataset and not their systems directly. The stolen data includes sensitive information on individuals identified as high-risk, such as government-sanctioned figures and those linked to organised crime. LSEG is coordinating with the affected third party and authorities to protect the compromised data and prevent its dissemination.

Source: [TechCrunch]

Your Annual Cyber Security Is Not Working, But There is a Solution

Most organisations utilise annual security training in an attempt to ensure every department develops their cyber awareness skills and is able to spot and report a threat. However, this training is often out of date. Additionally, often training has limited interactivity, failing to capture and maintain employees’ attention and retention. On top of this, many training courses fail to connect employees to real-world scenarios that could occur in their specific job.

To get the most return on investment, organisations need to have more regular education, with the aim of long-term behavioural shifts in the work place, nudging employees towards greater cyber hygiene.

Source: [TechRadar]

73% of Security Professionals Say They’ve Missed, Ignored or Failed to Act on a High Priority Security Alert

A new survey from Coro, targeting small medium enterprises (SME) cyber security professionals, reveals that 73% have missed or ignored high priority security alerts due to overwhelming workloads and managing multiple security tools. The 2024 SME Security Workload Impact Report highlights that SMEs are inundated with alerts and responsibilities, which dilute their focus from critical security threats. On average, these professionals manage over 11 security tools and spend nearly five hours daily on tasks like monitoring and patching vulnerabilities. Respondents handle an average of over 2,000 endpoint security agents across 656 devices, more than half dealing with frequent vendor updates.

Source: [Business Wire]

Russia and Ukraine Top Inaugural World Cyber Crime Index

The inaugural World Cybercrime Index (WCI) identifies Russia, Ukraine, and China as the top sources of global cyber crime. This index, the first of its kind, was developed over four years by an international team from the University of Oxford and the University of New South Wales, with input from 92 cyber crime experts. These experts ranked countries based on the impact, professionalism, and technical skills of their cyber criminals across five cyber crime categories, including data theft, scams, and money laundering. Russia topped the list, followed by Ukraine and China, highlighting their significant roles in high-tech cyber criminal activities. The index, expected to be updated regularly, aims to provide a clearer understanding of cyber crime's global geography and its correlation with national characteristics like internet penetration and GDP. Of note the UK and US also made the top ten list, so it is not just other countries we need to worry about.

Top ten Countries in full:

1.       Russia

2.       Ukraine

3.       China

4.       United States

5.       Nigeria

6.       Romania

7.       North Korea

8.       United Kingdom

9.       Brazil

10.   India

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

Police Takedown Major Cyber Fraud Superstore: Will the Cyber Crime Industry Become More Fragmented?

The London Metropolitan Police takedown of online fraud service LabHost serves as a reminder of the industrial scale on which cyber crimes are being performed, with the service amassing 480,000 debit or credit card numbers and 64,000 PINs: all for the subscription price of £300 a month. The site even included tutorial videos on how to commit crime and offered customer service.

Such takedowns can lead to fragmentation. The 2,000 individuals subscribed to LabHost may have lost access but where there is demand, supply will be found. The takedown of one service allows other, small services to fill the gap. As the saying goes ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ and it is especially true when it comes to cyber crime; there is too much business for empty spaces not to be filled.

Sources: [ITPro] [The Guardian]

Small Businesses See Stable Business Climate; Cite Cyber Security as Top Threat

Small businesses are experiencing a stable business climate, as reflected by the Small Business Index, indicating an increasing optimism about the economy. However, the recent surge in cyber attacks, including major assaults on UnitedHealth Group and MGM Resorts, has underscored the growing vulnerability of these businesses to cyber crime. Despite 80% of small to medium-sized enterprises feeling well-protected by their IT defences, a Devolutions survey reveals that 69% of them still fell victim to cyber attacks last year. This has led to cyber security being viewed as the greatest threat by 60% of small businesses, even surpassing concerns over supply chain disruptions and the potential for another pandemic.

The average cost of these attacks ranges from $120,000 to $1.24 million, leading to 60% of affected businesses closing within six months. This vulnerability is further compounded by a common underestimation of the ransomware threat. While 71% of businesses feel prepared for future threats, the depth of this preparedness varies, with only 23% feeling very prepared for cyber security challenges.

Sources: [Claims Journal] [Inc.com]

The Threat from Inside: Insider Threats Surge 14% Annually as Cost-of-Living Crisis Bites

Employee fraud grew significantly last year thanks to the opportunities afforded by remote working and the pressures of a cost-of-living crisis in the UK, according to Cifas, an anti-fraud non-profit. The number of individuals recorded in its cross-sector Insider Threat Database (ITD) increased 14% year-on-year (YoY) in 2023, with the most common reason being “dishonest action to obtain benefit by theft or deception” (49%).

Insider threats – both by accident or with malicious intent – by their own employees are overlooked, despite accounting for 58% of cybersecurity breaches in recent years. As a result, a large proportion of businesses may lack any strategy to address insider risks, leaving them vulnerable to financial, operational and reputational harm.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine] [TechRadar]

Dark Web Sales Driving Major Rise in Credential Attacks as Attackers Pummel Networks with Millions of Login Attempts

Dark web sales are driving a major rise in credential attacks, with a surge in infostealer malware attacks over the last three years significantly heightening the cyber crime landscape. Kaspersky reports a sevenfold increase in data theft attacks, leading to the compromise of over 26 million devices since 2022. Cyber criminals stole roughly 400 million login credentials last year alone, often sold on dark web markets for as low as $10 per log file. These stolen credentials have become a lucrative commodity, fostering a complex economy of initial access brokers who facilitate broader corporate network infiltrations. The Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions have been particularly affected, with millions of credentials stolen annually.

Simultaneously, Cisco’s Talos team warns of a current credential compromise campaign targeting networks via mass login attempts to VPN, SSH, and web apps. Attackers use a mix of generic and specific usernames with nearly 100 passwords from about 4,000 IP addresses, likely routed through anonymising services (such as TOR). These attacks pose risks like unauthorised access, account lockouts, and potential denial-of-service. The attack volume has increased since 18 March this year mirroring a previous alert by Cisco about a similar campaign affecting VPNs. Despite method and infrastructure similarities, a direct link between these campaigns is yet to be confirmed.

Sources: [Ars Technica] [Data Breach Today]

Large Enterprises Experience Breaches, Despite Large Security Stacks; Report Finds 93% of Breaches Lead to Downtime and Data Loss

93% of enterprises admitting to having had a breach have suffered significant consequences, ranging from unplanned downtime to data exposure or financial loss, according to a recent report. 73% of organisations made changes to their IT environment at least quarterly, however only 40% tested their security at the same frequency. Unfortunately, this means that many organisations are facing a significant gap in which changes in the IT environment are untested, and therefore their risk unknown.

Security tools can aid this, however as the report finds, despite having a large number of security stacks, 51% still reported a breach in the past 24 months. Organisations must keep in mind that security extends beyond the technical realm, and it needs to include people and operations.

Sources: [Infosecurity Magazine] [Help Net Security]

Charities Doing Worse than Private Sector in Staving off Cyber Attacks

Recent UK Government data reveals a significant cyber security challenge for charities, with about a third experiencing breaches this past year, equating to nearly 924,000 cyber crimes. Notably, 83% of these incidents involved phishing, with other prevalent threats including fraud emails and malware. The data found that 63% of charities said cyber security was a high priority for senior management, however, charities lag behind the private sector in adopting security monitoring tools and conducting risk assessments.

Additionally, while half of the charities implement basic cyber hygiene defences like malware protection and password policies, only about 40% seek external cyber security guidance.

Source: [TFN]


Governance, Risk and Compliance


Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Insurance

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Linux and Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Backup and Recovery

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea

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


Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities





Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·         Automotive

·         Construction

·         Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·         Defence & Space

·         Education & Academia

·         Energy & Utilities

·         Estate Agencies

·         Financial Services

·         FinTech

·         Food & Agriculture

·         Gaming & Gambling

·         Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·         Health/Medical/Pharma

·         Hotels & Hospitality

·         Insurance

·         Legal

·         Manufacturing

·         Maritime

·         Oil, Gas & Mining

·         OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems

·         Retail & eCommerce

·         Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·         Startups

·         Telecoms

·         Third Sector & Charities

·         Transport & Aviation

·         Web3


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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 April 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 12 April 2024:

-UK Cyber Breaches Survey Finds Business Falling Short on Cyber, as Half Suffer Breach and Many Fail to Report

-The Cyber Attack Stopped by a Microsoft Engineer Was Scarier Than We Realise

-UK Government Urged to Get on ‘Front Foot’ with Ransomware Instead of ‘Absorbing the Punches’

-74% of Employees Falling Victim to Phishing Attacks Hit with Disciplinary Actions; Egress Reveals

-Why Are Many Businesses Turning to Third-Party Security Partners?

-60% of SMBs and 74% of Businesses with up to 500 Employees are Concerned About Cyber Security as Attacks Rise

-Cyber Attacks Cost Financial Firms $12bn Says IMF

-LastPass: Hackers Targeted Employee in Failed Deepfake CEO Call

-Most Cyber Criminal Threats are Concentrated in Just a Few Countries

-Why Incident Response is the Best Cyber Security ROI

-Ransomware Attacks are the Canaries in the Cyber Coal Mine

-Cyber Security is Crucial, but What is Risk and How do You Assess it?

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

UK Cyber Breaches Survey Finds Business Falling Short on Cyber, as Half Suffer Breach and Many Fail to Report

Half of UK businesses experienced a cyber breach last year, according to a survey by the UK Government. The figure could be much higher however, as the survey found only 34% report breaches externally.

It is said that a cyber incident is a matter of when, not if. Nonetheless, 78% of organisations lack a dedicated response plan outlining actions to be taken in the event of a cyber incident and only 11% review their immediate suppliers for risks. To improve cyber resilience, there needs to be a paradigm shift.

Sources: [Computer Weekly] [Computing] [Infosecurity Magazine] [Info Risk Today]

Cyber Attacks Cost Financial Firms $12bn Says IMF

A recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report has highlighted significant financial losses in the financial services sector, totalling $12 billion over the last two decades due to cyber attacks, with losses accelerating post-pandemic. The number of incidents and the scale of extreme losses have sharply increased, prompting the IMF to urge enhanced cross-border cooperation to uphold the stability of the global financial system.

The report underscores the critical threat that cyber attacks pose to financial stability, particularly for banks in advanced economies which are more exposed to such risks. With major institutions like JP Morgan facing up to 45 billion cyber threats daily, the IMF emphasises the need for international collaboration to effectively manage and mitigate these risks.

Source: [Finextra]

The Cyber Attack Stopped by a Microsoft Engineer Was Scarier Than We Realise

A critical security breach was narrowly avoided when a Microsoft developer detected suspicious activity in XZ Utils, an open-source library crucial to internet infrastructure. This discovery revealed that a new developer had implanted a sophisticated backdoor in the software, potentially giving unauthorised access to millions of servers worldwide. This incident has intensified scrutiny on the vulnerabilities of open-source software, which is largely maintained by unpaid or underfunded volunteers and serves as a backbone for the internet economy. The situation has prompted discussions among government officials and cyber security experts about enhancing the protection of open-source environments. This close call, described by some as a moment of "unreasonable luck," underscores the pressing need for sustainable support and rigorous security measures in the open-source community.

Source: [Inc.com]

UK Government Urged to Get on ‘Front Foot’ with Ransomware Instead of ‘Absorbing the Punches’

Amidst a rising tide of ransomware attacks affecting wide range of UK services, officials in Westminster are being pressured to enhance funding for operations aimed at disrupting ransomware gangs. The current strategy focuses on bolstering organisational cyber security and recovery preparedness, a stance under the second pillar of the UK's National Cyber Strategy known as resilience. However, this approach has not curbed the frequency of incidents, which have steadily increased over the past five years, impacting sectors including the NHS and local governments. In contrast to the proactive disruption efforts seen in the US, the UK has yet to allocate new funds for such measures, despite successful disruptions like the recent takedown of the LockBit gang by the US National Crime Agency, which underscored the potential benefits of increased resources for cyber crime disruption.

Source: [The Record Media]

74% of Employees Falling Victim to Phishing Attacks Hit with Disciplinary Actions

The Egress 'Email Threat Landscape 2024' report reveals a surge in phishing attacks, with 94% of companies falling victim to this type of crime in this past year alone, leading to increasingly complex cyber security challenges. According to the report, 96% of these companies suffered significant repercussions, including operational disruption and data breaches, with common attack vectors being malicious URLs, and malware or ransomware attachments.

The human cost is also notable, with 74 per cent of employees involved in attacks having faced disciplinary actions, dismissals, or voluntary departures, underscoring the severity of the issue and the heightened vigilance among companies in addressing the phishing threat. Financial losses primarily stem from customer churn, which accounts for nearly half of the total impact. Amidst rising attacks through compromised third-party accounts, Egress advocates for stronger monitoring and defence strategies to protect critical data and reduce organisational and individual hardships.

Source: [The Fintech Times]

Why Are Many Businesses Turning to Third-Party Security Partners?

In 2023, 71% of organisations reported being impacted by a cyber security skills shortage, leading many to scale back their cyber security initiatives amid escalating threats. To bridge the gap, businesses are increasingly turning to third-party security partnerships, reflecting a shift towards outsourcing crucial cyber security operations to handle complex challenges more efficiently. This approach is driven by the need to fill technical and resource gaps in the face of a severe workforce shortfall, with an estimated 600,000 unfilled security positions in the US alone. Moreover, these strategic partnerships allow organisations to leverage external expertise for scalable and effective security solutions, alleviating the burden of staying updated with the rapidly evolving threat landscape.

Source: [Help Net Security]

74% of Businesses with up to 500 Employees are Concerned About Cyber Security as Attacks Rise

According to a recent poll by the US Chamber of Commerce, 60% of small businesses expressed concerns about threats, with 58% concerned about a supply chain breakdown. The highest concern came from businesses with 20-500 employees (74%). Despite such concern, only 49% had trained staff on cyber security. When it came to the impact of a cyber event, 27% of respondents say they are one disaster or threat away from shutting down their business.

Sources: [Malwcv arebytes][Marketplace] [US Chamber]

LastPass: Hackers Targeted Employee in Failed Deepfake CEO Call

LastPass recently reported a thwarted voice phishing attack targeting one of its employees using deepfake audio technology to impersonate CEO Karim Toubba. The attack, conducted via WhatsApp, was identified by the employee as suspicious due to the unusual communication channel and clear signs of social engineering, such as forced urgency. Despite the failure of this particular attempt, LastPass has shared the incident publicly to highlight the growing use of AI-generated deepfakes in executive impersonation schemes. This incident underscores a broader trend, as indicated by alerts from both the US Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, pointing to an increase in sophisticated cyber attacks employing deepfake technology for fraud, social engineering, and potential influence operations.

Source: [Bleepingcomputer]

Most Cyber Criminal Threats are Concentrated in Just a Few Countries

Oxford researchers have developed the world's first cyber crime index to identify global hotspots of cyber criminal activity, ranking countries based on the prevalence and sophistication of cyber threats. The index reveals that a significant portion of cyber threats is concentrated in a few countries, with Russia and Ukraine positioned at the top, with the USA and the UK also ranking prominently. The results indicate that countries like China, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Romania, and Nigeria are among the top hubs for activities ranging from technical services to money laundering. This tool aims to refine the focus for cyber crime research and prevention efforts, although the study acknowledges the need for a broader and more representative sample of expert opinions to enhance the accuracy and applicability of the findings. The index underscores that while cyber crime may appear globally fluid, it has pronounced local concentrations.

Sources: [ThisisOxfordshire] [Phys Org]

Why Incident Response is the Best Cyber Security ROI

The Microsoft Incident Response Reference Guide predicts that most organisations will encounter one or more major security incidents where attackers gain administrative control over crucial IT systems and data. While complete prevention of cyber attacks may not be feasible, prompt and effective incident response is essential to mitigate damage and protect reputations. However, many organisations may not be adequately budgeting for incident response, and the recent UK Government report found that 78% of organisations do not have formalised incident response plans, risking prolonged recovery and increased costs. Cyber crime damages hit $23b in 2023, but the true costs of incidents includes non-financial damage such as reputational harm. If a cyber incident is a matter of when, not if, then a prepared incident response plan is the best cyber security ROI.

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: [CSO Online]

Ransomware Attacks are the Canaries in the Cyber Coal Mine

A recent report has found that ransomware attacks were up 110% compared to the prior month, stating that unreported attacks were up to 6 times higher. The report found that tactics are increasingly using data extortion, with 92% of attacks utilising this method.

Sources: [Silicon Republic] [The Hill]

Cyber Security is Crucial, but What is Risk and How do You Assess it?

Cyber security is an increasingly sophisticated game of cat and mouse, where the landscape is constantly shifting. Your cyber risk is the probability of negative impacts stemming from a cyber incident, but how do you assess risk?

One thing to understand is that there are a multitude of risks: risks from phishing, risks from insiders, risks from network attacks, risks of supply chain compromise, and of course, nation states. To understand risk, an organisation must first identify the information that it needs to protect, to avoid only learning of the information asset’s existence from a successful attacker. Once all assets are identified, then organisations should conduct risk assessments to identify threats and an evaluation the potential damage that can be done.

Sources: [Security Boulevard] [International Banker]


Governance, Risk and Compliance


Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Encryption

Linux and Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Backup and Recovery

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Nation State Actors

China

Russia

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


Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities




Other News


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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 November 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 10 November 2023:

-Boardroom Woes on Ransomware Intensify as Organisations Face an Average of 86 Ransomware-linked Events Annually

-Many SMBs Have No Real Way to Deal with Cyber Threats, Leaving Them Vulnerable

-Cyber Attacks Top Global Risk – 2023 Aon Survey

-To Improve Cyber Defences, Practice for Disaster

-Meet Your New Cyber Security Auditor: Your Insurer

-Allen and Overy Suffer Ransomware Attack

-Shadow IT Remains a Top Threat, as Shown by Attack on Okta

-Ransomware, AI, and Social Engineering All Set to Be 2024's Biggest Security Threats

-Cyber Governance: Growing Expectations for Information Security Oversight and Accountability

-Generative AI Will Level Up Cyber Attacks, According to New Google Report

-Public Wi-Fi Remains a Huge Risk, is Your Organisation Prepared?

-88% of Security Leaders Think Their Organisation Is Falling Short Addressing Cyber Security

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

Boardroom Woes on Ransomware Intensify as Organisations Face an Average of 86 Ransomware-linked Events Annually

A recent report by Akamai Technologies has found that organisations experienced an average of 86 ransomware-linked events in the past 12 months (successful or not), double the number of annual attacks from 2 years ago.

The most common issues impacting organisations after a ransomware attack were network downtime (44%), data loss (42%) and brand/reputation damage (39%).

Ransomware attackers have increasingly employed tactics like double and triple extortion. These methods combine encryption, data exfiltration, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to extort money. While these strategies are not new, their prevalence has significantly increased in recent times.

With 81% of companies experiencing ransomware attacks in the previous 12 months this is increasingly something that company Boards are concerned about, not only the organisation’s ability to stop a ransomware attack in the first place, but also the organisation’s ability to recover when an attack happens.

Sources: [TechTarget] [PRNewsWire] [Security Magazine] [InsuranceJournal] [Financial Times]

Many SMBs Have No Real Way to Deal with Cyber Threats, Leaving Them Vulnerable

A recent report found that of nearly 6,000 small and medium-sized business (SMB) IT professionals surveyed across Europe, a third of those based in the UK have no cyber security in place to protect assets such as their own printers, with 16% suffering a printer breach alone in the past. Despite this, less than a quarter educated their employees about printer (23%) IT security. With hybrid working seen as a security concern for 38% of SMEs, and potentially leading to more remote use of these devices, surprisingly just 4 in 10 (41%) cover hybrid working as part of their current security training.

Black Arrow supports organisations of all sizes in designing and delivering proportionate user education and awareness programmes, including in-person and online training as well as simulated phishing campaigns. Our programmes help secure employee engagement and build a cyber security culture to protect the organisation. 

Sources: [TechRadar] [The Recycler]

Cyber Attacks Top Global Risk – 2023 Aon Survey

Aon’s Global Risk Management Survey identified cyber attacks and data breaches as the leading business risk worldwide, followed by business interruption. Aon warned that deficits in talent or specialised skills may exacerbate cyber risks in particular.

Supply chain disruptions were ranked as another area of concern, with risks associated with supply chain failure hitting a 14-year high in the survey. However, less than 40% of organisations have conducted supplier resilience assessments. which contributes to cyber risk when organisations hand data to suppliers without considering whether their suppliers keep that data safe.

Source: [Investing]

To Improve Cyber Defences, Practice for Disaster

If you aren’t already running incident simulations in your organisation, it’s time to start. Such simulations allow employees to understand their roles and responsibilities, as well as providing a great opportunity to educate. Cyber attacks are a matter of when, not if, and no-one wants to be improvising their security response in the event of a real cyber 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: [Dark Reading]

Meet Your New Cyber Security Auditor: Your Insurer

In the dynamic world of cyber security, cyber insurers are emerging as key players, reshaping the landscape with ever more stringent requirements. With ransomware attacks becoming more complex, cyber insurance premiums have surged by 50%, challenging Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to demonstrate their organisation's cyber defence capabilities. Insurers, using detailed risk assessments, are influencing cyber security strategies, compelling organisations to adapt and meet higher standards.

CISOs are now tasked with ensuring their security measures are comprehensive and transparent, as insurers scrutinise everything from multifactor authentication to Active Directory policies. Accurate self-assessment is critical, as any misrepresentation can lead to denied coverage or legal repercussions. In this competitive market, organisations must showcase their cyber maturity, particularly in high-risk industries, to secure coverage. The evolving cyber insurance landscape demands a clear understanding of risk factors and continuous improvement in cyber defence strategies, ultimately aiming to enhance overall protection against cyber threats.

Source: [Dark Reading]

Allen and Overy Suffer Ransomware Attack

Allen & Overy, the “magic circle” law firm, has suffered a cyber attack on its systems, making it the latest large corporation to fall victim to a ransomware hack. A&O confirmed the incident after the infamous ransomware gang LockBit posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, claiming to have breached the legal giant and threatening to publish data from the firm’s files on 28 November.

Earlier this year, the UK National Cyber Security Centre reported that law firms of all sizes were at risk from cyber attackers because of the sensitive client information they routinely handle. The importance of reputation to the business also made law firms attractive targets for extortion.

Sources: [Financial Times] [Law Gazette]

Shadow IT Remains a Top Threat, as Shown by Attack on Okta

Shadow IT refers to IT resources used by employees or end users that don’t have IT approval or oversight. This was the case in the recent Okta attack in which an Okta employee signed into their personal Google account on a company-owned device. It is believed that the employee’s personal Google account had been compromised, and unfortunately since the employee had configured it in a way to save credentials of Okta accounts, the attacker now also had these credentials. The result? 134 downstream customers impacted.  

Source: [Computer Weekly]

Ransomware, AI, and Social Engineering All Set to Be 2024's Biggest Security Threats

Ransomware attacks surged to record highs in 2023 and are expected to escalate further, especially with key 2024 elections approaching, ZeroFox Intelligence's 2024 Key Forecasts report indicates. This trend is driven by evolving cyber threats, including sophisticated social engineering and AI-generated synthetic media, aimed at spreading misinformation and targeting electoral processes.

ZeroFox also highlights a concerning shift towards physical damages from cyber attacks, with critical sectors like finance, energy, and healthcare being vulnerable due to outdated security infrastructures. These sectors are likely targets for nation-state and state-sponsored attacks amidst global geopolitical tensions. To counter these threats, the report suggests enhanced security measures, including encrypted cloud backups, vigilant network monitoring, and a zero-trust cyber security approach to safeguard against the evolving landscape of cyber threats.

Source: [TechRadar]

Cyber Governance: Growing Expectations for Information Security Oversight and Accountability

In today's interconnected digital economy, cyber security is a critical governance issue for businesses, necessitating effective oversight and strategic planning. The SEC's new rules, effective July 2023, require public companies to transparently disclose their cyber security strategies and report significant incidents, highlighting the increasing importance of cyber security in corporate governance. This regulatory development aims to improve transparency and accountability in managing cyber risks.

Corporations are responding by emphasising detailed cyber security disclosures, employee training programmes, and board-level expertise in information security. As the landscape of cyber threats evolves, timely and comprehensive reporting of breaches becomes more crucial, aligning with both regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations for robust cyber security governance.

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: [Harvard]

Generative AI Will Level Up Cyber Attacks, According to New Google Report

Google's Cloud Cyber Security Forecast 2024 report reveals a growing trend of using generative AI in cyber attacks. The technology, particularly large language models (LLMs), is enhancing phishing and social engineering tactics by producing content that appears more legitimate, making it difficult to spot errors typically associated with such attacks. This advancement allows attackers to mimic natural language effectively and create authentic-looking fake news, phone calls, and deepfake videos, potentially eroding public trust in online information.

On the flip side, the report highlights the potential of AI as a powerful tool for cyber defence. Cyber security professionals can leverage AI for rapid data synthesis, efficient threat detection, and swift response actions. As defenders direct AI development with specific security objectives, its capabilities are expected to significantly bolster cyber security measures in the near future.

Source: [ZDNET]

Public Wi-Fi Remains a Huge Risk, is Your Organisation Prepared?

New research found that half of UK participants believed they are most at risk of a cyber attack when using public Wi-Fi, which is Wi-Fi that anyone, including an attacker, can connect to. However, in contrast to concerns, the report found that 41% will use unsecured Wi-Fi if given the opportunity. Further, 53% of participants would enter or access sensitive information whilst connected to an unsecured public Wi-Fi network; this includes bring your own devices (BYOD) that have access to corporate data.

Source: [TechRadar]

88% of Security Leaders Think Their Organisation Is Falling Short in Addressing Cyber Security

A recent study by Foundry reveals a trend towards AI-driven security measures and increased reliance on cyber insurance among organisations. Key priorities for security leaders include preparedness for incidents, data protection, and enhancing IT and cloud data security. Despite this, 88% of security leaders feel their organisations are inadequate in addressing cyber security risks, mainly due to budget limitations, talent scarcity, and challenges in stakeholder communication.

To improve the situation, more top security executives are having regular engagements with the board of directors (85% this year compared to 82% in 2022), aiding in better cyber security initiatives. Security budgets are expected to remain stable or increase, with investments focused on authentication, data analytics, and cloud security, complemented by cyber insurance. AI's role is expanding in threat detection, malware identification, and automated responses, showcasing its growing importance in evolving security landscapes.

Source: [Foundry]


Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Encryption

Linux and Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

Nation State Actors

Russia

Iran

North Korea

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



Tools and Controls




Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.

·         Automotive

·         Construction

·         Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·         Defence & Space

·         Education & Academia

·         Energy & Utilities

·         Estate Agencies

·         Financial Services

·         FinTech

·         Food & Agriculture

·         Gaming & Gambling

·         Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·         Health/Medical/Pharma

·         Hotels & Hospitality

·         Insurance

·         Legal

·         Manufacturing

·         Maritime

·         Oil, Gas & Mining

·         OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems

·         Retail & eCommerce

·         Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·         Startups

·         Telecoms

·         Third Sector & Charities

·         Transport & Aviation

·         Web3


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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 03 November 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 03 November 2023:

-Surviving a Ransomware Attack Begins by Acknowledging it’s Inevitable

-Are You and Your Clients Soft Targets?

-Cyber Attacks Cause Revenue Losses in 42% of Small Businesses

-Executives May be The Biggest Risk to Your Business

-Organisations Can Only Stop 57 Percent of Cyber Attacks

-Many Businesses Remain Unprepared for AI as Phishing Attacks Rise 1,265% Since Launch of ChatGPT

-Business Email Compromise is Most Common Entry Point for Cyber Attack

-US Regulator Charges Firm and its CISO For Fraud and Cyber Security Failures

-Companies Scramble to Integrate Immediate Recovery into Ransomware Plans

-Your End-Users are Reusing Passwords, That’s a Big Problem

-Cyber Workforce Demand is Outpacing Supply

-What the Boardroom Is Missing: CISOs

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.

Surviving a Ransomware Attack Begins by Acknowledging it’s Inevitable

The best defence against a ransomware attack is assuming it will happen before it does.  Research by Visa Inc found that ransomware continues to rapidly rise. One of the main factors is the use of AI services to mass produce highly personalised and plausible emails. The second is the proliferation of highly professional do-it-yourself ransomware kits, which frequently come with 24/7 tech support. These two factors drastically lower the skill level required for cyber criminals to successfully pull off an attack.

Another new ransomware trend is “dual ransomware attacks”. This is where criminals carry out two or more attacks in close proximity of each other, ranging between 48 hours to a maximum of 10 days. With an 80% chance of re-attack, small and medium sized businesses in hard-hit industries including healthcare and manufacturing are primary targets; organisations must be extra vigilant as the holidays approach because this is when cyber criminals are most likely to attack.

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: [Venture Beat] [SC Media] [Help Net Security] [Infosecurity Magazine] [Help Net Security] [Tech Crunch]

Are You and Your Clients Soft Targets?

Cyber attacks are not a matter of "if" but "when," and the question you need to ask yourself is, ‘Are you a soft target?’. A soft target is a network or organisation that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable to cyber attacks.

You may feel confident in your ability to recover from an attack, but if you've never thoroughly tested your backup and recovery procedures, and when the time comes you find that it does not work, the result will leave you more likely to pay a ransom in an encryption based ransomware scenario. Reliance on legacy antivirus, which often fails to detect modern threats, can also render your network a soft target. Additionally, the absence of a rigorous vulnerability scanning and patching process leaves vulnerabilities undiscovered, and attackers are quick to exploit them. If you rely solely on prevention measures like firewalls and endpoint protection platforms, you are making yourself an appealing soft target for cyber criminals.

No organisation is entirely immune to cyber attacks. The key to defending you and your client's information effectively is to anticipate attacks, understand your security posture, recognise potential adversaries, and recover correctly in the event of an attack.

Source: [MSSP Alert]

Cyber Attacks Cause Revenue Losses in 42% of Small Businesses

Small businesses may be discouraged from investing in preventive cyber security measures due to the expense involved and the mistaken belief that only larger companies are the target of cyber crimes. However, according to a recent report nearly 8 in 10 small business leaders admit they are anxious about the safety of their company’s sensitive data and information. The report found that employee and customer data continue to be the most impacted categories of information in data breaches with 42% of small businesses losing revenue due to a cyber event.

The widespread use of internet-connected devices has given rise to a substantial surge in threat actors targeting small and medium-sized businesses, with malware, phishing and botnets being the most common threats. Daily malware activity has doubled year over year, and peaks in holiday seasons.

Sources: [Help Net Security] [Security Magazine] [Help Net Security] [JDSupra]

Executives May be The Biggest Risk to Your Business as One in Five Share Work Passwords Outside the Company

According to a recent report, nearly half (49%) of C-level executives have requested to bypass one or more security measures in the past year, highlighting a concerning disparity between what business leaders say about cyber and what they do. The research reported one in five sharing their work password with someone outside the company, 77% using easy-to-remember passwords including birth dates, and a third admitting to accessing unauthorised files and data with nearly two-thirds having the ability to edit those files/data.

Additionally, the C-suite was found to be more than three times as likely than regular users to share work devices with unauthorised users. An essential approach to reducing the risks is a tailored training programme that enables all users, including the C-suite, to understand the objective of security controls and the risks caused by bypassing them. Black Arrow offers bespoke training to all roles within the organisation as well as upskilling tailored to those at the board level.

Sources: [Infosecurity Magazine] [Tech Radar] [Security Magazine] [Help Net Security]

Organisations Can Only Stop 57 Percent of Cyber Attacks

According to a report from Tenable, over the last two years, the average organisation's cyber security program was prepared to preventatively defend against, or block, just 57 percent of the cyber attacks it encountered. The report found that 58% of respondents focus almost entirely on fighting successful attacks rather than working to prevent them in the first place. This is put down largely to a struggle to obtain an accurate picture of their attack surface. When it came to risks, 75% viewed cloud infrastructure as the greatest source of exposure risk in their organisation.

Source: [Beta News]

Many Businesses Remain Unprepared for AI as Phishing Attacks Rise 1,265% Since Launch of ChatGPT

Generative AI has revolutionised many aspects of life, offering new opportunities that have also greatly benefited malicious actors. A report has found that since the launch of ChatGPT, phishing attacks have increased by 1,265%. A separate report found that many businesses remain unprepared for the impact of AI, with just 16% of respondents satisfied in their organisation’s understanding of these AI tools.

Sources: [Decrypt] [Infosecurity Magazine] [Emerging Risks]

Business Email Compromise is Most Common Entry Point for Cyber Attack

According to cyber insurance provider Hiscox, almost half of UK businesses have experienced a cyber attack in the last year, an increase of 9% from the previous year. Business email compromise was recorded as the most common point of entry, mentioned by 35% of companies who suffered an attack.

The report found that 20% of attacked organisations received a ransomware demand, slightly up from 19% the previous year. The proportion paying the ransom fell from 66% to 63%, but the median ransom rose 13%.

Sources: [Hiscox] [Digital Journal]

US Regulator Charges Firm and its CISO For Fraud and Cyber Security Failures

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced plans to charge a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) with fraud for their role in allegedly lying to investors, overstating cyber security practices, and understating or failing to disclose known risks. A key piece of evidence presented by the SEC involved a presentation that was shared with the CISO, detailing a lack of security in the CISO employer’s setup. The presentation highlighted how exploitation could lead to major reputational and financial loss.

The case represents a larger shift in the dynamics and corporate reporting of security issues and within this, lies the professionalism of the CISO role. It is likely that this incident could become the start of something larger.

Sources: [The Record] [Security Week ] [Forbes]

Companies Scramble to Integrate Immediate Recovery into Ransomware Plans

A survey found that 66% of companies are reevaluating their data protection and cyber resilience strategies. Despite this, 35% are not prioritising recovery and only half (56.6%) focused on both recovery and prevention.

Whilst it is important to prevent attacks, nothing is 100% secure and organisations need to ensure that their ransomware plans include recovery as a part of this. If, or when, you experience an attack, you will not want to improvise your recovery.

Source: [Help Net Security]

Your End-Users are Reusing Passwords: That’s a Big Problem

Password reuse is a difficult vulnerability for IT teams to get full visibility over. The danger is often hidden until it turns up in the form of hackers using compromised credentials as an initial access vector. A recent survey revealed that 53% of people admit to reusing passwords, making it easier for attackers to gain access to multiple applications with a single compromised password.

While it is difficult for organisations to maintain visibility over who is reusing passwords, especially if employees are reusing passwords outside of the organisation, there are still ways to combat this. Implementing tools that can check for compromised passwords, using multi-factor authentication and ensuring all employees carry out cyber security and awareness training are a few methods to help combat password re-use.

Source: [Bleeping Computer]

Cyber Workforce Demand is Outpacing Supply

A study by ISC2 stated that we would need to double the cyber workforce to adequately protect organisations and their critical assets. The study found that the gap between the demand and supply grew 12.6%. For organisations, this can mean a struggle in hiring cyber expertise.

To address the challenge of attracting and retaining quality senior security professionals, Black Arrow offers a fractional CISO service that gives flexible access to a whole team of specialists with wide expertise, experience and backgrounds in technology, governance and transformation, for less than the cost of hiring one individual.

Source: [Cyber Scoop]

What the Boardroom Is Missing: CISOs

According to a new study only 12% of S&P 500 companies have board directors with relevant cyber credentials, highlighting a major gap in expertise needed to keep organisations secure. As most organisations shift to digital and cloud-first strategies, businesses of all shapes and sizes must protect their assets. Unfortunately, there's a considerable gap between security leaders and the board directors responsible for managing businesses. A recent Harvard Business Review survey revealed just 47% regularly interact with their company's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). That's a severe knowledge gap for a company's security and business leaders.

Introducing CISOs to the boardroom is not just about compliance, it's also about ensuring transparency and accountability. CISOs are already building security programs from the ground up. They provide business compliance, hire the right people, and find the right technology to supplement their team's efforts. Security posture is critical to an enterprise's future success, and having a CISO on the board that speaks the language can help a board understand if their business is making suitable security investments.

Source: [Dark Reading]

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs


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

Misc Nation State/Cyber Warfare/Cyber Espionage

Geopolitical Threats/Activity

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea


Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities



Reports Published in the Last Week

Cyber Readiness Report 2023 UK - Hiscox



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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 May 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 May 2023:

-79% of Cyber Pros Make Decisions Without Threat Intelligence

-61% of Business Leadership Overlook the Role of Cyber Security as a Business Enabler and as being Key to Business Success

-Risk Managers Warn Cyber Insurance Could Become ‘Unviable Product’

-Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Don’t Give up on Cyber Security

-AI Has Been Dubbed a 'Nuclear' Threat to Cyber Security, but It Can Also Be Used for Defence

-Paying Cyber Hijackers’ Ransoms Doubles Cost of Recovery, Sophos Study Shows

-Majority of US, UK CISOs Unable to Protect Company 'Secrets'

-Company Executives Can’t Afford to Ignore Cyber Security Anymore

-BEC Campaign via Israel Spotted Targeting Multinational Companies

-CISOs Worried About Personal Liability for Breaches

-UK, US and International Allies Uncover Russian Snake Malware Network in 50+ Countries

-Plug-and-Play Microsoft 365 Phishing Tool 'Democratizes' Attack Campaigns

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

  • 79% of Cyber Pros Make Decisions Without Threat Intelligence

In a recent report, 79% of security pros say they make decisions without adversary insights “at least the majority of the time.” Why aren’t companies effectively leveraging threat intelligence? And does the C-Suite know this is going on?

Threat intelligence helps organisations stay informed about the latest cyber threats and vulnerabilities. By gathering and analysing information about potential attacks, threat intelligence can provide organisations with valuable insights into the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) used by cyber criminals.

Given the deep value provided by threat intelligence, why aren’t more cyber pros taking advantage of it?

https://securityintelligence.com/articles/79-percent-of-cyber-pros-make-decisions-without-threat-intelligence/

  • 61% of Business Leadership Overlook the Role of Cyber Security as a Business Enabler and as being Key to Business Success

A recent report found only 39% of respondents think their company's leadership has a sound understanding of cyber security's role as a business enabler. Cyber security can be a huge business enabler; executive leaders need to think of cyber security in terms of the value it can deliver at a more strategic level.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/global-research-from-delinea-reveals-that-61-of-it-security-decision-makers-think-leadership-overlooks-the-role-of-cybersecurity-in-business-success

  • Risk Managers Warn Cyber Insurance Could Become ‘Unviable Product’

The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA), an umbrella body representing 22 trade associations, said the cyber insurance market is “evolving in isolation from the industries it serves”.

It highlighted a move by Lloyd’s of London, the specialist insurance market and hub for cyber insurance, demanding that standard cyber policies have an exemption for big state-backed attacks.

“Without a more collaborative approach to cyber balancing the risk appetite of the insurance market with the coverage requirements of the corporate buyers, there is a risk that cyber insurance becomes an unviable product for many organisations,” FERMA said in a statement shared with the Financial Times.

The intervention is the strongest yet by the business lobby over the controversial exemption and wider concerns about cyber insurance.

https://www.ft.com/content/401629cc-e68a-41a4-8d50-e7c0d3e27835

  • Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Don’t Give up on Cyber Security

In today’s increasingly hostile environment, every enterprise, big or small, should be concerned about cyber security and have access to protection from hackers, scammers, phishers, and all the rest of the host of bad actors who seem to be sprouting up around the world.

Yet time and again, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are left out in the cold, an unaddressed market segment that finds real protection either too expensive or far too complex to adopt. Thus, cyber security becomes an “afterthought” or “add when we can” kind of service that leaves SMBs far more vulnerable than the corporate giants — just reading the news every day shows even they aren’t immune to ransomware, intrusions, and data theft. If you haven’t already, start thinking about security now.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3695593/small-and-medium-sized-businesses-don-t-give-up-on-cybersecurity.html

  • AI Has Been Dubbed a 'Nuclear' Threat to Cyber Security, but It Can Also Be Used for Defence

Hackers using ChatGPT are faster and more sophisticated than before, and cyber security analysts who don’t have access to similar tools can very quickly find themselves outgunned and outsmarted by these AI-assisted attackers. However, corporations are stumbling to figure out governance around AI, and while they do so, their employees are clearly defying rules and possibly jeopardising company operations. According to a study of 1.6 million workers, 3.1% input confidential company information into ChatGPT. Although the number seems small, 11% of users' questions include private information. This is a fatal flaw for corporate use considering how hackers can manipulate the system into giving them previously hidden information. In another study, it was found that 80% of security professionals used AI, with 46% of these giving specialised capabilities as a reason.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/04/ai-has-been-dubbed-a-nuclear-threat-to-cybersecurity-but-it-can-also-be-used-for-defence

  • Paying Cyber Hijackers’ Ransoms Doubles Cost of Recovery, Sophos Study Shows

In three out of four cyber attacks, the hijackers succeeded in encrypting victims’ data, cyber security provider Sophos said in its newly released State of Ransomware 2023 report.

The rate of data encryption amounted to the highest from ransomware since Sophos first issued the report in 2020. Overall, roughly two-thirds of the 3,000 cyber security/IT leaders’ organisations were infected by a ransomware attack in the first quarter of 2023, or the same percentage as last year.

Much advice has been doled out by cyber security providers and law enforcement urging organisations to not pay a ransom. According to Sophos’ survey, the data shows that when organisations paid a ransom to decrypt their data, they ended up doubling their recovery costs. On average, those organisations paying ransoms for decryption forked out $750,000 in recovery costs versus $375,000 for organisations that used backups to recover their data.

Moreover, paying the ransom usually meant longer recovery times, with 45% of those organisations that used backups recovering within a week, compared to 39% of those that paid the ransom.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/paying-cyber-hijackers-ransoms-doubles-cost-of-recovery-sophos-study-shows/

  • Majority of US, UK CISOs Unable to Protect Company 'Secrets'

A recent study found 75% of organisations have experienced a data leak involving company secrets, including API keys, usernames, passwords, and encryption keys, in the past. It was found that about 52% of chief information and security officers (CISOs) in the US and UK organisations are unable to fully secure their company secrets. The study showed that a huge chunk of the IT sector realises the danger of exposed secrets. Seventy-five percent said that a secret leak has happened in their organisation in the past, with 60% acknowledging it caused serious issues for the company, employees, or both. The report has pointed out that even though secrets management practice across the US and the UK has seen some maturity, it still needs to go a long way.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3695583/majority-of-us-uk-cisos-unable-to-protect-company-secrets-report.html

  • Company Executives Can’t Afford to Ignore Cyber Security Anymore

In a recent survey, when asked about the Board and C-Suite‘s understanding of cyber security across the organisation, only 36% of respondents believe that it is considered important only in terms of compliance and regulatory demands, while 17% said it is not seen as a business priority. The disconnect between business and security goals appears to have caused at least one negative consequence to 89% of respondents’ organisations, with 26% also reporting it resulted in an increased number of successful cyber attacks at their company. On the misalignment of cyber security goals, respondents believed it contributed to delays in investments (35%), delays in strategic decision making (34%), and unnecessary increases in spending (27%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/10/cybersecurity-business-goals-alignment/

  • BEC Campaign via Israel Spotted Targeting Multinational Companies

An Israel-based threat group was discovered carrying out a business email compromise (BEC) campaign primarily targeting large and multinational enterprises. The group has conducted 350 BEC campaigns since February 2021, with email attacks targeting employees from 61 countries across six continents. The group operate through two personas — a CEO and an external attorney and spoofed email addresses using real domains.

https://www.darkreading.com/remote-workforce/bec-attacks-out-of-israel-target-multinational-corporations

  • CISOs Worried About Personal Liability for Breaches

Over three-fifths (62%) of global CISOs are concerned about being held personally liable for successful cyber attacks that occur on their watch, and a similar share would not join an organisation that fails to offer insurance to protect them, according to Proofpoint annual ‘Voice of the CISO’ survey for 2023. The security vendor polled 1600 CISOs from organisations of 200 employees or more across different industries in 16 countries to compile the report.

It revealed that CISOs in sectors with high volumes of sensitive data and/or heavy regulation such as retail (69%), financial services (65%) and manufacturing (65%) are most likely to demand insurance coverage.

Such concerns only add to the mental load on corporate IT security bosses. A combination of high-stress working environments, shrinking budgets and personal liability could be harming CISOs’ quality of life. Some 60% told Proofpoint they’ve experienced burnout in the past 12 months.

CISOs are most likely to experience burnout in the retail (72%) and IT, technology and telecoms (66%) industries.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cisos-worried-personal-liability/

  • UK, US and International Allies Uncover Russian Snake Malware Network in 50+ Countries

The UK NCSC along with the US National Security Agency (NSA) and various international partner agencies have discovered infrastructure connected with the sophisticated Russian cyber-espionage tool Snake in over 50 countries worldwide. Snake operations have been attributed to a specific unit within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Center 16.

Cyber criminals reportedly used Snake to retrieve and remove confidential documents related to international relations and diplomatic communications.

According to an advisory published by the agencies on Tuesday, the FSB targeted various industries, including education, small businesses, media, local government, finance, manufacturing and telecommunications. The Snake malware is installed on external infrastructure nodes for further exploitation.

According to the NSA Russian government actors have used this tool for years for intelligence collection and it is hoped that the technical details shared in the advisory will help many organisations find and shut down the malware globally.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/nsa-uncovers-russian-snake-malware/

  • Plug-and-Play Microsoft 365 Phishing Tool 'Democratizes' Attack Campaigns

A new phishing-as-a-service tool called "Greatness" is being used in attacks targeting manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and other sectors.

Researchers at Cisco Talos detailed their findings on "Greatness," a one-stop-shop for all of a cyber criminal's phishing needs. With Greatness, anyone with even rudimentary technical chops can craft compelling Microsoft 365-based phishing lures, then carry out man-in-the-middle attacks that steal authentication credentials — even in the face of multifactor authentication (MFA) — and much more.

The tool has been in circulation since at least mid-2022 and has been used in attacks against enterprises in manufacturing, healthcare, and technology, among other sectors. Half of the targets thus far have been concentrated in the US, with further attacks occurring around Western Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.

https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/plug-and-play-microsoft-365-phishing-tool-democratizes-attacks


Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Botnets

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Deepfakes

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Attack Surface Management

Identity and Access Management

Asset Management

Encryption

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Artificial Intelligence



Nation State Actors



Tools and Controls




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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 30 September 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 30 September 2022:

-UK Organisations, Ukraine's Allies Warned of Potential "Massive" Cyber Attacks By Russia

-Cyber Criminals See Allure in BEC Attacks Over Ransomware

-Most Hackers Need 5 Hours or Less to Break Into Enterprise Environments

-Global Firms Deal with 51 Security Incidents Each Day

-Phishing Attacks Crushed Records Last Quarter, Driven by Mobile

-Why Paying the Ransom is Still the Most Common Response to a Ransomware Attack?

-Ransomware Attacks Continue Increasing: 20% of All Reported Attacks Occurred in the Last 12 Months

-More Than Half of Security Pros Say Risks Higher in Cloud Than On Premise

-How To Outsmart Increasingly Complex Cyber Attacks

-Top Issues Driving Cyber Security: Growing Number of Cyber Criminals, Variety of Attacks

-Cyber Threats Top Business Leaders' Biggest Concerns

-Fired Admin Cripples Former Employer's Network Using Old Credentials

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

  • UK Organisations, Ukraine's Allies Warned of Potential "Massive" Cyber Attacks By Russia

The head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Lindy Cameron has given an update on Russia’s cyber activity amid its war with Ukraine. Her speech at Chatham House last week came just a few days after Ukraine’s military intelligence agency issued a warning that Russia was “preparing massive cyber attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine and its allies.” This coincides with a new Forrester report that reveals the extent to which the cyber impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has expanded beyond the conflict zone with malware attacks propagating into European entities.

Addressing Russian cyber activity this year, Cameron stated that, while we have not seen the “cyber-Armageddon” some predicted, there has been a “very significant conflict in cyber space – probably the most sustained and intensive cyber campaign on record – with the Russian State launching a series of major cyber attacks in support of their illegal invasion in February.”

Russian cyber forces from their intelligence and military branches have been busy launching a huge number of attacks in support of immediate military objectives.

Since the start of the year, the NCSC has been advising UK organisations to take a more proactive approach to cyber security in light of the situation in Ukraine. “There may be organisations that are beginning to think ‘is this still necessary?’ as in the UK we haven’t experienced a major incident related to the war in Ukraine. My answer is an emphatic yes,” Cameron said.

In response to significant recent battlefield set-backs, Putin has been reacting in unpredictable ways, and so we shouldn’t assume that just because the conflict has played out in one way to date, it will continue to go the same way, Cameron added. “There is still a real possibility that Russia could change its approach in the cyber domain and take more risks – which could cause more significant impacts in the UK.” UK organisations and their network defenders should therefore be prepared for this period of elevated alert with a focus on building long-term resilience, which is a “marathon not a sprint,” she said.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3674871/ncsc-chief-warns-uk-organizations-ukraine-s-allies-of-possible-massive-cyberattacks-by-russia.html#tk.rss_news

  • Cyber Criminals See Allure in BEC Attacks Over Ransomware

While published trends in ransomware attacks have been contradictory — with some firms tracking more incidents and other fewer — business email compromise (BEC) attacks continue to have proven success against organisations.

BEC cases, as a share of all incident-response cases, more than doubled in the second quarter of the year, to 34% from 17% in the first quarter of 2022. That's according to Arctic Wolf's "1H 2022 Incident Response Insights" report, published on 29 September, which found that specific industries — including financial, insurance, business services, and law firms, as well as government agencies — experienced more than double their previous number of cases, the company said.

Overall, the number of BEC attacks encountered per email box has grown by 84% in the first half of 2022, according to data from cyber security firm Abnormal Security.

Meanwhile, so far this year, threat reports released by organisations have revealed contradictory trends for ransomware. Arctic Wolf and the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) have seen drops in the number of successful ransomware attacks, while business customers seem to be encountering ransomware less often, according to security firm Trellix. At the same time, network security firm WatchGuard had a contrary take, noting that its detection of ransomware attacks skyrocketed 80% in the first quarter of 2022, compared with all of last year.

The surging state of BEC landscape is unsurprising because BEC attacks offer cyber criminals advantages over ransomware. Specifically, BEC gains do not rely on the value of cryptocurrency, and attacks are often more successful at escaping notice while in progress. Threat actors are unfortunately very opportunistic.

For that reason, BEC — which uses social engineering and internal systems to steal funds from businesses — continues to be a stronger source of revenue for cyber criminals. In 2021, BEC attacks accounted for 35%, or $2.4 billion, of the $6.9 billion in potential losses tracked by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), while ransomware remained a small fraction (0.7%) of the total.

https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/cybercriminals-see-allure-bec-attacks-ransomware

  • Most Hackers Need 5 Hours or Less to Break Into Enterprise Environments

A new survey of 300 ethical hackers provides insight into not only the most common means of initial access, but how a complete end-to-end attack happens.

Around 40% of ethical hackers recently surveyed by the SANS Institute said they can break into most environments they test, if not all. Nearly 60% said they need five hours or less to break into a corporate environment once they identify a weakness.

The SANS ethical hacking survey, done in partnership with security firm Bishop Fox, is the first of its kind and collected responses from over 300 ethical hackers working in different roles inside organisations, with different levels of experience and specialisations in different areas of information security. The survey revealed that on average, hackers would need five hours for each step of an attack chain: reconnaissance, exploitation, privilege escalation and data exfiltration, with an end-to-end attack taking less than 24 hours.

The survey highlights the need for organisations to improve their mean time-to-detect and mean-time-to-contain, especially when considering that ethical hackers are restricted in the techniques they're allowed to use during penetration testing or red team engagements. Using black hat techniques, like criminals do, would significantly improve the success rate and speed of attack.

When asked how much time they typically need to identify a weakness in an environment, 57% of the polled hackers indicated ten or fewer hours: 16% responded six to ten hours, 25% three to five hours, 11% one to two hours and 5% less than an hour.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3675535/most-hackers-need-5-hours-or-less-to-break-into-enterprise-environments.html#tk.rss_news

  • Global Firms Deal with 51 Security Incidents Each Day

Security operations (SecOps) teams are struggling to respond to dozens of cyber security incidents every single day, according to a new report from Trellix.

The security vendor polled 9000 security decision makers from organisations with 500+ employees across 15 markets to compile its latest study, ‘XDR: Redefining the future of cyber security’.

It found that the average SecOps team has to manage 51 incidents per day, with 36% of respondents claiming they deal with 50 to 200 daily incidents. Around half (46%) agreed that they are “inundated by a never-ending stream of cyber-attacks.”

Part of the problem is the siloed nature of security and detection and response systems, the study claimed. Some 60% of respondents argued that poorly integrated products mean teams can’t work efficiently, while a third (34%) admitted they have blind spots. It’s perhaps no surprise, therefore, that 60% admitted they can’t keep pace with the rapid evolution of security threats.

This could be having a major impact on the bottom line. The vast majority (84%) of security decision makers that Trellix spoke to estimated that their organisation lost up to 10% of revenue from security breaches in the past year.

Medium size businesses ($50–$100m in revenue) lost an average of 8% in revenue, versus 5% for large businesses with a turnover of $10bn–$25bn. That could mean hundreds of millions of dollars are being thrown away each year due to inadequate SecOps.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/global-firms-51-security-incidents/

  • Phishing Attacks Crushed Records Last Quarter, Driven by Mobile

Last quarter saw a record-shattering number of observed phishing attacks, fuelled in large part by attempts to target users on their mobile devices.

The latest Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) "Phishing Activity Trends Report" for the second quarter of 2022 found 1,097,811 observed phishing attacks, the most the group has ever measured in its history.

The financial sector remained the top target for phishing lures (27.6%), along with other bombarded sectors, including webmail and software-as-a-service providers, social media sites, and cryptocurrency.

But much of the rise in phishing volume is due to a new threat actor focus on mobile devices, specifically vishing (voice phishing) and smishing (SMS phishing) attacks, the report noted.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/phishing-attacks-crushed-records-last-quarter

  • Why Paying the Ransom is Still the Most Common Response to a Ransomware Attack

According to new data from Databarracks, 44% of the organisations who experienced a ransomware assault paid the demanded ransom. 22% made use of ransomware decryption software, while 34% restored data from backups.

The Databarracks 2022 Data Health Check produced the results. The annual report has been collecting data on ransomware, cyber, backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity from more than 400 UK IT decision-makers since 2008.

From the victim’s standpoint, it’s logical why you may pay a ransom. You are unable to handle orders or provide customer support, and losses mount swiftly. Downtime expenses can easily surpass the ransom.

Organisations may believe that paying the ransom will solve the issue more quickly, allowing them to resume operations as usual. This strategy is faulty for a number of causes.

First of all, there is no assurance that your data will be returned. Second, once criminals know an organisation is an easy target, they frequently attack it again. Finally, it conveys the incorrect message. By paying, you are assisting the crooks by demonstrating that their strategies are effective.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/study-research/why-paying-the-ransom-is-still-the-most-common-response-to-a-ransomware-attack/

  • Ransomware Attacks Continue Increasing: 20% of All Reported Attacks Occurred in the Last 12 Months

Nearly a quarter of businesses have suffered a ransomware attack, with a fifth occurring in the past 12 months, according to a latest annual report from cyber security specialist Hornetsecurity.

The 2022 Ransomware Report, which surveyed over 2,000 IT leaders, revealed that 24% have been victims of a ransomware attack, with one in five (20%) attacks happening in the last year.

Cyber attacks are happening more frequently. Last year's ransomware survey revealed one in five (21%) companies experienced an attack; this year it rose by three percent to 24%.

Attacks on businesses are increasing, and there is a shocking lack of awareness and preparation by IT pros. The survey shows that many in the IT community have a false sense of security as bad actors develop new techniques.

The 2022 Ransomware Report highlighted a lack of knowledge on the security available to businesses. A quarter (25%) of IT professionals either don't know or don't think that Microsoft 365 data can be impacted by a ransomware attack.

Just as worryingly, 40% of IT professionals that use Microsoft 365 in their organisation admitted they do not have a recovery plan in case their Microsoft 365 data was compromised by a ransomware attack.

Microsoft 365 is vulnerable to phishing attacks and ransomware attacks, but with the help of third-party tools, IT admins can back up their Microsoft 365 data securely and protect themselves from such attacks.

Industry responses showed the widespread lack of preparedness from IT professionals and businesses. There has been an increase in businesses not having a disaster recovery plan in place if they do succumb to the heightened threat of a cyber attack.

In 2021, 16% of respondents reported having no disaster recovery plan in place. In 2022, this grew to 19%, despite the rise in attacks.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/ransomware-attacks-continue-increasing-20-of-all-reported-attacks-occurred-in-the-last-12-months---new-survey

  • More Than Half of Security Pros Say Risks Higher in Cloud Than On Premise

A recent survey from machine identity solutions provider Venafi aimed to explore the complexity of cloud environments and the resulting impact on cyber security.

Venafi surveyed 1,101 security decision makers (SDMs) in firms with more than 1,000 employees and found that eighty-one percent of companies have experienced a cloud security incident in the last year. Forty-five percent have suffered at least four security incidents in the same period. More than half of security decision makers believe that security risks are higher in the cloud than on-premise.

Twenty-four percent of the firms have more than 10,000 employees. Ninety-two percent of the SDMs are at manager level or above, with 49% at c-suite level or higher.

Most of the firms surveyed believe the underlying issue is the increasing complexity of their cloud deployments. Since these companies already host 41% of their applications in the cloud, and expect to increase this to 57% over the next 18 months, the problem is only likely to worsen in the future.

The ripest target of attack in the cloud is identity management, especially machine identities. Each of these cloud services, containers, Kubernetes clusters and microservices needs an authenticated machine identity – such as a TLS certificate – to communicate securely. If any of these identities is compromised or misconfigured, it dramatically increases security and operational risks.

Respondents reported that the most common cloud incidents are security incidents during runtime (34%), unauthorised access (33%), misconfigurations (32%), vulnerabilities that have not been remediated (24%), and failed audits (19%).

Their primary operational concerns are hijacking of accounts, services or traffic (35%), malware or ransomware (31%), privacy/data access issues such as those from GDPR (31%), unauthorised access (28%), and nation state attacks (26%).

https://www.securityweek.com/more-half-security-pros-say-risks-higher-cloud-premise

  • How To Outsmart Increasingly Complex Cyber Attacks

Threat detection is harder today than it was two years ago. Next year will be harder than this year. Why? It’s a compounding effect from skills shortages and threat varieties that’s making it more challenging for any one product to handle key security wins. And cyber security is a constantly evolving sector with 2022 a devastating year for cyber security. Both hackers and security experts are always in a battle to outsmart each other.

Even for businesses with good IT departments, data protection can too quickly become an afterthought. Today’s threat landscape is growing, not just in the frequency of attacks (and the number of high-profile breaches recorded in the media) but so is the complexity of any given threat. A recent piece of research found that in 93 percent of cases, an external attacker can breach an organisation’s network perimeter and gain access to local network resources. Following increasing levels of cyber-attacks, it’s a case of “not if I will be hit by a ransomware attack,” but “when…” Organisations need to do something to mitigate the risk and protect their businesses, and they need to do it now. 

Planning and executing a better defence to outsmart attackers and win more security battles doesn’t have to feel like a military operation – but it does require the right service coverage to remove blind spots and reduce emerging risks before they escalate. 

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/articles/how-to-outsmart-increasingly-complex-cyber-attacks/

  • Top Issues Driving Cyber Security: Growing Number of Cyber Criminals, Variety of Attacks

Fortifying cyber security defences remains a work in progress for many organisations, who acknowledge their shortcomings but have yet to commit the necessary resources to the effort, according to new research from CompTIA.

While a majority of respondents in each of seven geographic regions feels that their company’s cyber security is satisfactory, CompTIA’s “State of Cybersecurity” shows that a much smaller number rank the situation as “completely satisfactory.” Nearly everyone feels that there is room for improvement.

“Companies are aware of the threats they face and the potential consequences of an attack or breach,” said Seth Robinson, VP of industry research, CompTIA. “But they may be underestimating their exposure and how much they need to invest in cyber security. Risk mitigation is the key, the filter through which everything should be viewed.”

Two of the top three issues driving cyber security considerations are the growing volume of cyber criminals, cited by 48% of respondents, and the growing variety of cyber attacks (45%). Additionally, ransomware and phishing have quickly become major areas of concern as digital operations have increased and human error has proven more costly.

“Digital transformation driven by cloud and mobile adoption requires a new strategic approach to cyber security, but this poses significant challenges, both tactically and financially,” Robinson said. “As IT operations and strategy have grown more complex, so has the management of cyber security.”

As cyber security is more tightly integrated with business objectives, zero trust is the overarching policy that should be guiding modern efforts, though its adoption will not take place overnight because it requires a drastically different way of thinking and acting. The report suggests there is small progress in recognising a holistic zero trust approach, but better progress in adopting some elements that are part of an overarching zero trust policy.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/09/30/top-issues-driving-cybersecurity/

  • Cyber Threats Top Business Leaders' Biggest Concerns

Cyber threats are the number one concern for business decision makers, beating worries over economic uncertainty, rising energy costs and hiring, according to insurance provider Travelers. The firm polled over 1200 business leaders to compile its 2022 Travelers Risk Index report.

This is the third time in four years that cyber has emerged as the top concern, with more than half (57%) of respondents believing a future cyber-attack on their organisation is inevitable. A quarter (26%) said their company had already been a breach victim, the seventh successive year this figure has risen.

The top two cyber-related concerns were suffering a security breach (57%), and a system glitch causing computers to crash (55%). Becoming a cyber-extortion victim rose from eighth position to third this year.

However, despite general concern about cyber-threats, business decision-makers may also be guilty of overconfidence in their organisation’s security posture.

Nearly all respondents (93%) said they’re confident their company has implemented best practices to prevent or mitigate a cyber event. Yet most have not deployed endpoint detection and response tools (64%), they haven’t conducted a vendor cyber-assessment (59%), and don’t have an incident response plan (53%). Further, while 90% said they’re familiar with multi-factor authentication (MFA), only 52% had implemented it for remote access. This increasingly matters, not only to mitigate cyber-risk but also to reduce insurance premium costs and increase coverage.

Cyber attacks can shut down a company for a long period of time or even put it out of business, and it’s imperative that companies have a plan in place to mitigate any associated operational and financial disruptions.

Effective measures that have proven to reduce the risk of becoming a cyber victim are available, but based on these survey results, not enough companies are taking action. It’s never too late, and these steps can help businesses avoid a devastating cyber-event.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberthreats-top-business-big/

  • Fired Admin Cripples Former Employer's Network Using Old Credentials

After being laid off, an IT system administrator disrupted the operations of his former employer, a high-profile financial company in Hawaii, hoping to get his job back.

Casey K Umetsu, aged 40, worked as a network admin for the company between 2017 and 2019, when his employer terminated his contract. The US Department of Justice says in a press release that the defendant pled guilty to accessing his former employer's website and making configuration changes to redirect web and email traffic to external computers.

To prolong the business disruption for several more days, Umetsu performed additional actions that essentially locked out the firm's IT team from the website administration panel. In the end, the victimised company learned who was responsible for the sabotage after reporting the cyber security incident to the FBI.

Umetsu is awaiting sentence for his wrongdoings on January 19, 2023. He faces a maximum of 10 years of prison time and a fine of up to $250,000.

While Umetsu's actions are condemnable, the company's security practices cannot be overlooked since Umetsu used credentials that should have been invalidated the moment he got fired.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fired-admin-cripples-former-employers-network-using-old-credentials/


Threats

Ransomware and Extortion

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Malware

Mobile

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Deepfakes

Software Supply Chain

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Cloud/SaaS

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

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






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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 April 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 April 2022

-Nearly Two-Thirds of Ransomware Victims Paid Ransoms Last Year, Finds "2022 Cyberthreat Defense Report"

-New Android Banking Malware Remotely Takes Control of Your Device

-Network Intrusion Detections Skyrocketing

-Organisations Underestimating the Seriousness Of Insider Threats

-Watch Out For Phishing Emails From Genuine Mailing Lists, Following Mailchimp Hack

-SpringShell Attacks Target About One in Six Vulnerable Orgs

-New Threat Group Underscores Mounting Concerns Over Russian Cyber Threats

-Consumer Fraud Tripled in The Last Two Years

-Borat RAT: Multiple Threat of Ransomware, DDoS and Spyware

-Bank Had No Firewall License, Intrusion or Phishing Protection – Guess The Rest

-Global APT Groups Use Ukraine War for Phishing Lures

-Paying Ransom Doesn’t Guarantee Data Recovery

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

  • Nearly Two-Thirds of Ransomware Victims Paid Ransoms Last Year, Finds "2022 Cyberthreat Defense Report"

CyberEdge Group, a leading research and marketing firm serving the cyber security industry’s top vendors, announced the launch of its ninth annual Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR). The award-winning CDR is the standard for assessing organisations’ security posture, gauging perceptions of information technology (IT) security professionals, and ascertaining current and planned investments in IT security infrastructure – across all industries and geographic regions.

A record 71% of organisations were impacted by successful ransomware attacks last year, according to the 2022 CDR, up from 55% in 2017. Of those that were victimised, nearly two-thirds (63%) paid the requested ransom, up from 39% in 2017.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/nearly-two-thirds-of-ransomware-victims-paid-ransoms-last-year-finds-2022-cyberthreat-defense-report-

  • New Android Banking Malware Remotely Takes Control of Your Device

A new Android banking malware named Octo has appeared in the wild, featuring remote access capabilities that allow malicious operators to perform on-device fraud.

Octo is an evolved Android malware based on ExoCompact, a malware variant based on the Exo trojan that quit the cyber crime space and had its source code leaked in 2018.

The new variant has been discovered by researchers at ThreatFabric, who observed several users looking to purchase it on darknet forums.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-android-banking-malware-remotely-takes-control-of-your-device/

  • Network Intrusion Detections Skyrocketing

A WatchGuard report shows a record number of evasive network malware detections with advanced threats increasing by 33%, indicating a higher level of zero day threats than ever before.

Researchers detected malware threats in EMEA at a much higher rate than other regions of the world in Q4 2021, with malware detections per Firebox at 49%, compared to Americas at 23% and APAC at 29%. The trajectory of network intrusion detections also continued its upward climb with the largest total detections of any quarter in the last three years and a 39% increase quarter over quarter.

Researchers suggest that this may be due to the continued targeting of old vulnerabilities as well as the growth in organisations’ networks. As new devices come online and old vulnerabilities remain unpatched, network security is becoming more complex.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/08/network-malware-detections/

  • Organisations Underestimating the Seriousness of Insider Threats

Imperva releases data that shows organisations are failing to address the issue of insider threats during a time when the risk is at its greatest.

New research, conducted by Forrester, found that 59% of incidents in EMEA organisations that negatively impacted sensitive data in the last 12 months were caused by insider threats, and yet 59% do not prioritise insider threats the way they prioritise external threats. Despite the fact that insider events occur more often than external ones, they receive lower levels of investment.

This approach is at odds with today’s threat landscape where the risk of malicious insiders has never been higher. The rapid shift to remote working means many employees are now outside the typical security controls that organisations employ, making it harder to detect and prevent insider threats.

Further, the Great Resignation is creating an environment where there is a higher risk of employees stealing data. This data could be stolen intentionally by people looking to help themselves in future employment, because they are disgruntled and want revenge, or it could be taken unintentionally when a careless employee leaves the business with important information.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/08/organizations-insider-threats-issue/

  • Watch Out for Phishing Emails from Genuine Mailing Lists, Following Mailchimp Hack

A Mailchimp hack means that you’ll want to be even more vigilant than usual about phishing emails. Attackers have taken a clever approach to making their emails appear genuine …

When you subscribe to an email list, there’s a decent chance that the emails you received are actually sent by a company called Mailchimp, rather than directly by the company itself. Mailchimp offers companies a range of tools that make it easy to manage email databases, and send marketing emails and newsletters.

Hackers managed to gain access to more than 100 Mailchimp customer accounts, giving them the ability to send emails that would appear to have come from any one of those businesses.

Users will need to be more vigilant when receiving emails and avoid clicking on links in emails, even if they appear genuine.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/05/mailchimp-hack-phishing-alert/

  • SpringShell Attacks Target About One in Six Vulnerable Orgs

Roughly one out of six organisations worldwide that are impacted by the Spring4Shell zero-day vulnerability have already been targeted by threat actors, according to statistics from one cyber security company.

The exploitation attempts took place in the first four days since the disclosure of the severe remote code execution (RCE) flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-22965, and the associated exploit code.

According to Check Point, who compiled the report based on their telemetry data, 37,000 Spring4Shell attacks were detected over the past weekend alone.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/springshell-attacks-target-about-one-in-six-vulnerable-orgs/

  • New Threat Group Underscores Mounting Concerns Over Russian Cyber Threats

Crowdstrike says Ember Bear is likely responsible for the wiper attack against Ukrainian networks and that future Russian cyber attacks might target the West.

As fears mount over the prospects of a “cyberwar” initiated by the Russian government, the number of identified Russian threat actors also continues to climb. Last week CrowdStrike publicly revealed a Russia-nexus state-sponsored actor that it tracks as Ember Bear.

CrowdStrike says that Ember Bear (also known as UAC-0056, Lorec53, Lorec Bear, Bleeding Bear, Saint Bear) is likely an intelligence-gathering adversary group that has operated against government and military organisations in eastern Europe since early 2021. The group seems “motivated to weaponize the access and data obtained during their intrusions to support information operations (IO) aimed at creating public mistrust in targeted institutions and degrading government ability to counter Russian cyber operations,” according to CrowdStrike intelligence.

Despite its state-sponsored Russia nexus, Ember Bear differs from its better-known kin such as Fancy Bear or Voodoo Bear because CrowdStrike can’t tie it to a specific Russian organisation. Its target profile, assessed intent, and technical tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) are consistent with other Russian GRU cyber operations.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3655976/new-threat-group-underscores-mounting-concerns-over-russian-cyber-threats.html

  • Consumer Fraud Tripled in The Last Two Years

Reported cases of consumer fraud more than tripled in the years 2020-2021 from prior years, finds a new report by Accenture, presenting a growing challenge for public safety agencies to find new strategies to counter the trend.

The report compiled data from eight developed nations (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States) on consumer fraud, defined as any fraud directly targeting citizens and excluding fraud targeting government agencies and companies. Reports of such fraud increased at an estimated 6.8% rate annually during 2013-2019 and then increased to a 22.5% annual growth rate yearly during 2020-2021 in parallel with the large shift of workers and consumers to digital channels and greater use of technology during the pandemic.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/08/consumer-fraud-tripled/

  • Borat RAT: Multiple Threat of Ransomware, DDoS and Spyware

A new remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed "Borat" doesn't come with many laughs but offers bad actors a menu of cyberthreats to choose from.

RATs are typically used by cyber criminals to get full control of a victim's system, enabling them to access files and network resources and manipulate the mouse and keyboard. Borat does all this and also delivers features to enable hackers to run ransomware, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) and other online assaults and to install spyware, according to researchers at cyber security biz Cyble.

"The Borat RAT provides a dashboard to Threat Actors (TAs) to perform RAT activities and also has an option to compile the malware binary for performing DDoS and ransomware attacks on the victim's machine," the researchers wrote in a blog post, noting the malware is being made available for sale to hackers.

Borat – named after the character made famous by actor Sacha Baron Cohen in two comedy films – comes with the standard requisite of RAT features in a package that includes such functions as builder binary, server certificate and supporting modules.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/04/borat-rat-ransomware-ddos/

  • Bank Had No Firewall License, Intrusion or Phishing Protection – Guess the Rest

An Indian bank that did not have a valid firewall license, had not employed phishing protection, lacked an intrusion detection system and eschewed use of any intrusion prevention system has, shockingly, been compromised by criminals who made off with millions of rupees.

The unfortunate institution is called the Andra Pradesh Mahesh Co-Operative Urban Bank. Its 45 branches and just under $400 million of deposits make it one of India's smaller banks.

It certainly thinks small about security – at least according to Hyderabad City Police, which last week detailed an attack on the Bank that started with over 200 phishing emails being sent across three days in November 2021. At least one of those mails succeeded in fooling staff, resulting in the installation of a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).

Another technology the bank had chosen not to adopt was virtual LANs, so once the RAT went to work the attackers gained entry to the Bank's systems and were able to roam widely – even in its core banking application

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/mahesh_bank_no_firewall_attack/

  • Global APT Groups Use Ukraine War for Phishing Lures

Security researchers have detected multiple APT campaigns leveraging Ukraine war-themed documents and news sources to lure victims into clicking on spear-phishing links.

Check Point Research said victim locations ranged from South America to the Middle East, with malware downloads designed to perform keylogging and screenshotting and execute commands.

The threat groups in question include El Machete, which is targeting the financial and government sectors in Nicaragua and Venezuela with malicious macro-laden Word documents containing articles on the war.

One of the docs was an article written by the Russian ambassador to Nicaragua titled: “Dark plans of the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.”

Another is Lyceum, an Iranian state-linked group targeting the energy sector with emails about war crimes in Ukraine that link to a malicious document hosted elsewhere. Its victims so far have been in Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to Check Point.

One email contained a link to an article from The Guardian hosted on the news-spot[.]live domain, alongside several malicious docs about the war.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/global-apt-ukraine-war-phishing/

  • Paying Ransom Doesn’t Guarantee Data Recovery

OwnBackup announced the findings of a global survey conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) that reveals a staggering 79% of respondent organisations have been targeted by ransomware within the past 12 months. Of those organisations, nearly three quarters said the attack was successful, meaning that it disrupted business operations.

Other key findings

·       Of the respondents that said their organisation paid a cyber ransom to regain access to data, applications, and/or systems after an attack, only 14% were able to recover all of their data.

·       87% of respondents who made ransom payments said that they experienced additional extortion attempts beyond the initial ransomware demand.

·       31% of respondent organisations targeted by ransomware indicated that application user and permission misconfigurations were the initial point of compromise.

·       87% of respondents are very or somewhat concerned about their backups being infected by ransomware attacks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/07/organizations-targeted-by-ransomware/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Insurance

Supply Chain

Cloud

Privacy

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

Travel

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







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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 March 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 March 2022

-Guernsey Cyber Security Warning For Islanders And Businesses

-CISOs Face 'Perfect Storm' Of Ransomware And State-Supported Cyber Crime

-Four Key Risks Exacerbated By Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine

-These Four Types Of Ransomware Make Up Nearly Three-Quarters Of Reported Incidents

-Critical Infrastructure Threat as Ransomware Groups Target 'Enemies of Russia'

-Cyber Insurance War Exclusions Loom Amid Ukraine Crisis

-Zelenskyy Deepfake Crude, But Still Might Be A Harbinger Of Dangers Ahead

-Cyber Crooks’ Political In-Fighting Threatens the West

-Cloud-Based Email Threats Surge 50% in 2021

-Millions of New Mobile Malware Strains Blitzed Enterprise in 2021

-UK Criminal Defence Lawyer Hadn't Patched When Ransomware Hit

-Russian Ransomware Gang Retool Custom Hacking Tools Of Other APT Groups

-The Massive Impact of Vulnerabilities In Critical Infrastructure

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

Guernsey Cyber Security Warning for Islanders and Businesses

There has been a rise in cyber-attacks since the war in Ukraine began, according to the States of Guernsey and a cyber-security firm.

The States said: "We have seen a noticeable increase in the number of phishing emails since the war began."

The Channel Islands see more than 10 million cyber attacks every month, according to research by Guernsey firm Black Arrow Cyber Consulting.

It encouraged vigilance, as the islands are not immune to these attacks.

A States spokesman said: "The whole community needs to remain vigilant against such emails, which are designed to appear to be from reputable sources in order to dupe people into providing personal information or access to their device via the clicking of a link."

Bruce McDougall, from Black Arrow Cyber Consulting, said: "Criminals don't let a good opportunity go to waste. So they're conducting scams encouraging people to make false payments in the belief they're collecting for charities."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-60763398

CISOs Face 'Perfect Storm' Of Ransomware and State-Supported Cyber Crime

As some nations turn a blind eye, defence becomes life-or-death matter

With ransomware gangs raiding network after network, and nation states consciously turning a blind eye to it, today's chief information security officers are caught in a "perfect storm," says Cybereason CSO Sam Curry.

"There's this marriage right now of financially motivated cyber crime that can have a critical infrastructure and economic impact," Curry said during a CISO roundtable hosted by his endpoint security shop. "And there are some nation states that do what we call state-ignored sanctioning," he continued, using Russia-based REvil and Conti ransomware groups as examples of criminal operations that benefit from their home governments looking the other way. 

"You get the umbrella of sovereignty, and you get the free license to be a privateer in essence," Curry said. "It's not just an economic threat. It's not just a geopolitical threat. It's a perfect storm."

It's probably not a huge surprise to anyone that destructive cyber attacks keep CISOs awake at night. But as chief information security officers across industries — in addition to Curry, the four others on the roundtable spanned retail, biopharmaceuticals, electronics manufacturing, and a cruise line — have watched threats evolve and criminal gangs mature, it becomes a battle to see who can innovate faster; the attackers or the defenders.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/18/ciso_security_storm/

Four Key Risks Exacerbated by Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has altered the emerging risk landscape, and it requires enterprise risk management (ERM) leaders to reassess previously established organisational risk profiles in at least four key areas, according to Gartner.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased the velocity of many risks we have tracked on a quarterly basis in our Emerging Risks survey,” said Matt Shinkman, VP with the Gartner Risk and Audit Practice.

“As ERM leaders reassess their organisational risk models, they must also ensure a high frequency of communication with the C-Suite as to the critical changes that require attention now.”

There are four major areas of risk that ERM leaders should continually monitor and examine their mitigation strategies as part of a broader aligned assurance approach as the war continues: Talent Risk, Cyber Security Risk, Financial Risk and Supply Chain Risk

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/17/erm-leaders-risk/

These Four Types of Ransomware Make Up Nearly Three-Quarters of Reported Incidents

Any ransomware is a cyber security issue, but some strains are having more of an impact than others.

Ransomware causes problems no matter what brand it is, but some forms are noticeably more prolific than others, with four strains of the malware accounting for a combined total of almost 70% of all attacks.

According to analysis by cyber security company Intel 471, the most prevalent ransomware threat towards the end of 2021 was LockBit 2.0, which accounted for 29.7% of all reported incidents. Recent victims of LockBit have included Accenture and the French Ministry of Justice. 

Almost one in five reported incidents involved Conti ransomware, famous for several incidents over the past year, including an attack against the Irish Healthcare Executive. The group recently had chat logs leaked, providing insights into how a ransomware gang works. PYSA and Hive account for one in 10 reported ransomware attacks each.

"The most prevalent ransomware strain in the fourth quarter of 2021 was LockBit 2.0, which was responsible for 29.7% of all reported incidents, followed by Conti at 19%, PYSA at 10.5% and Hive at 10.1%," said the researchers.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/these-four-types-of-ransomware-make-up-nearly-three-quarters-of-reported-incidents/

Critical Infrastructure Threat as Ransomware Groups Target 'Enemies of Russia'

The cyber crime underground has fractured into pro-Ukraine and pro-Russia camps, with the latter increasingly focused on critical national infrastructure (CNI) targets in the West, according to a new report from Accenture.

The consulting giant’s Accenture Cyber Threat Intelligence (ACTI) arm warned that the ideological schism could spell mounting risk for Western organisations as pro-Kremlin criminal groups adopt quasi-hacktivist tactics to choose their next victims.

Organisations in the government, media, finance, insurance, utilities and resources sectors should be braced for more attacks, said ACTI.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/critical-infrastructure-threat/

Cyber Insurance War Exclusions Loom Amid Ukraine Crisis

An expanding threat landscape is testing the limits of cyber insurance coverage.

The industry experienced a rapid maturation over the past three years as enterprises required a broader umbrella of insurance coverage to combat increasing cyber risks. While demands and premiums continue to rise, one recent area of contention involves war and hostile acts, an exclusion that's becoming harder to categorize.

A judgment in December, coupled with the Russian invasion last month that posed potential cyber retaliations to Ukraine allies, highlighted shortcomings in insurance policies when it comes to cyber conflicts.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252514592/Cyber-insurance-war-exclusions-loom-amid-Ukraine-crisis

Zelenskyy Deepfake Crude, But Still Might Be a Harbinger of Dangers Ahead

Several deepfake video experts called a doctored video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that went viral this week before social media platforms removed it a poorly executed example of the form, but nonetheless damaging.

Elements of the Zelenskyy deepfake — which purported to show him calling for surrender — made it easy to debunk, they said. But that won’t always be the case.

https://www.cyberscoop.com/zelenskyy-deepfake-troubles-experts/

Cyber Crooks’ Political In-Fighting Threatens the West

They’re choosing sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, beckoning previously shunned ransomware groups and thereby reinvigorating those groups’ once-diminished power.

A rift has formed in the cyber crime underground: one that could strengthen, rather than cripple, the cyber-onslaught of ransomware.

According to a report, ever since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, “previously coexisting, financially motivated threat actors divided along ideological factions.”

“Pro-Ukrainian actors are refusing to sell, buy, or collaborate with Russian-aligned actors, and are increasingly attempting to target Russian entities in support of Ukraine,” wrote researchers from Accenture’s Cyber Threat Intelligence (ACTI). “However, pro-Russian actors are increasingly aligning with hacktivist-like activity targeting ‘enemies of Russia,’ especially Western entities due to their claims of Western warmongering.”

What might otherwise seem like a good thing – bad guys fighting bad guys – may in fact pose an increased threat to the West.

https://threatpost.com/cybercrooks-political-in-fighting-threatens-the-west/178899/

Cloud-Based Email Threats Surge 50% in 2021

There was a 50% year-on-year surge in cloud-based email threats in 2021, but a drop in ransomware and business email compromise (BEC) detections as attacks became more targeted, according to Trend Micro.

The security vendor’s 2021 roundup report, Navigating New Frontiers, was compiled from data collected by customer-installed products and cloud-based threat intelligence.

It revealed that Trend Micro blocked 25.7 million email threats targeting Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 users last year, versus 16.7 million in 2020.

The number of phishing attempts almost doubled during the period, as threat actors continued to target home workers. Of these, 38% were focused on stealing credentials, the report claimed.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cloudbased-email-threats-surge-2021/

Millions of New Mobile Malware Strains Blitzed Enterprise in 2021

Researchers uncovered more than two million new mobile malware samples in the wild last year, Zimperium said in a new report.

Those threats spanned some 10 million mobile devices in at least 214 countries, the Dallas, Texas-based solution provider said in its newly released 2022 Global Mobile Threat Report. Indeed, mobile malware proved in 2021 to be the most prevalent security threat to enterprises, encountered by nearly 25 percent mobile endpoints among Zimperium’s customers worldwide. The 2.3 million new mobile strains Zimperium’s researchers located amount to nearly 36,000 new strains of malware weekly and roughly 5,000 each day.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-services-and-products/mobile/millions-of-new-mobile-malware-strains-blitzed-enterprises-in-2021/

UK Criminal Defence Lawyer Hadn't Patched When Ransomware Hit

Criminal defence law firm Tuckers Solicitors is facing a fine from the UK's data watchdog for failing to properly secure data that included information on case proceedings which was scooped up in a ransomware attack in 2020.

The London-based business was handed a £98,000 penalty notice by the Information Commissioner's Office under Article 83 of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation 2018.

The breach was first noted by Tuckers on August 23 2020 when part of its IT system became unavailable. On closer inspection, resident techies found a note from the attackers confirming they had compromised part of the infrastructure. The Microsoft Exchange server was out of action and two days' worth of emails were lost, as detailed by the company blog at the time.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/15/brit_solicitor_fined_for_failing/

Russian Ransomware Gang Retool Custom Hacking Tools of Other APT Groups

A Russian-speaking ransomware outfit likely targeted an unnamed entity in the gambling and gaming sector in Europe and Central America by repurposing custom tools developed by other APT groups like Iran's MuddyWater, new research has found.

The unusual attack chain involved the abuse of stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to the victim network, ultimately leading to the deployment of Cobalt Strike payloads on compromised assets, said Felipe Duarte and Ido Naor, researchers at Israeli incident response firm Security Joes, in a report published last week.

Although the infection was contained at this stage, the researchers characterized the compromise as a case of a suspected ransomware attack.

The intrusion is said to have taken place in February 2022, with the attackers making use of post-exploitation tools such as ADFind, NetScan, SoftPerfect, and LaZagne. Also employed is an AccountRestore executable to brute-force administrator credentials and a forked version of a reverse tunneling tool called Ligolo.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/03/russian-ransomware-gang-retool-custom.html

The Massive Impact of Vulnerabilities in Critical Infrastructure

Recent cyber events have shown how extremely vulnerable critical infrastructure is. What are the biggest security concerns?

In any world conflict, one of the primary threats posed is cyber actors disabling or destroying the core infrastructure of the adversary. Based on the global reaction to the current world conflict, countries fear reprisals. The worry is that there will be collateral damage to the critical infrastructure of other countries not directly involved in the current conflict.

Today, services such as healthcare systems, power grids, transportation and other critical industries are increasingly integrating their operational technology with traditional IT systems in order to modernize their infrastructure, and this has opened up a new wave of cyber attacks. Though businesses are ramping up their security initiatives and investments to defend and protect, their efforts have largely been siloed, reactive, and lack business context. Lack of visibility of risk across the estate is a huge problem for this sector.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/15/critical-infrastructure-security/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email

Malware

Mobile

IoT

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

Cloud

Privacy

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare


Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

Nation State Actors – China

Nation State Actors – Iran






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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 December 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 December 2021

-Beware Of Ransomware Attacks Between Christmas and New Year’s!

-Why Holidays Put Your Company at Risk of Cyber Attack (And How to Take Precautions)

-Security Experts Sound Alarm on Zero-Day in Widely Used Log4j Tool

-SolarWinds Attackers Spotted Using New Tactics, Malware

-Cyber Crime Supply Chain: Fueling The Rise In Ransomware

-Weak Passwords Caused 30% Of Security Breaches

-Work-from-Anywhere Requires "Work-from-Anywhere Security"

-Just 3% of UK Firms Escaped a Supply Chain Breach in 2021

-Critical Flaw In ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP Tool Exploited In The Wild

-New Financial Services Industry Report Reveals Major Gaps in Storage and Backup Security

-UK’s Poor Cyber Risk Planning Could “Wreak Havoc”

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

Beware Of Ransomware Attacks Between Christmas And New Year’s!

Darktrace reported that its security researchers discovered a 30% increase in the average number of attempted ransomware attacks globally over the holiday season in every consecutive year from 2018 to 2020 compared to the monthly average.

The researchers also observed a 70% average increase in attempted ransomware attacks in November and December compared to January and February. Following a record number of ransomware attacks this year, the company expects the spike to be higher over the 2021 holiday period.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/09/ransomware-attacks-holiday/

Why Holidays Put Your Company at Risk of Cyber Attack (And How to Take Precautions)

It is a time when many are thinking of their families and loved ones, time off work, and gift-giving – the holidays. However, while many have their minds outside the realm of work during the holiday season, often, this is when attackers plan their most sinister attacks.

So how can you take precautions to protect your organisation during these times?

Attackers today do not have a soft spot for businesses and give companies a break at any time of the year, especially not during holidays. On the contrary, any time of the year where companies may be less prepared to fend off a cyberattack is an opportunity for successful compromise. As a result, the holidays put your company at a higher risk of cyberattack.

https://thehackernews.com/2021/12/why-holidays-put-your-company-at-risk.html

Security Experts Sound Alarm on Zero-Day in Widely Used Log4j Tool

Security experts are sounding the equivalent of a five-alarm fire on a critical new zero-day vulnerability in Log4j, a logging framework that is ubiquitously present in Java software.

The flaw (CVE-2021-44228) could allow remote attackers to run arbitrary code on any application that uses Log4j and is already being actively exploited. Some vendors have observed mass scanning activity — presumably by threat actors — for vulnerable applications, and there are some reports of exploit activity against organisations. Attacks against the flaw take little skill to execute and are being fueled by proof-of-concept code in the wild.

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/security-experts-sound-alarm-on-zero-day-in-widely-used-log4j-tool

SolarWinds Attackers Spotted Using New Tactics, Malware

One year after the disruptive supply-chain attacks, researchers have observed two new clusters of activity from the Russia-based actors that signal a significant threat may be brewing.

One year after the notorious and far-reaching SolarWinds supply-chain attacks, its orchestrators are on the offensive again. Researchers said they’ve seen the threat group – which Microsoft refers to as “Nobelium” and which is linked to Russia’s spy agency – compromising global business and government targets with novel tactics and custom malware, stealing data and moving laterally across networks.

https://threatpost.com/solarwinds-attackers-new-tactics-malware/176818/

Cyber Crime Supply Chain: Fuelling The Rise In Ransomware

Trend Micro released a research detailing the murky cybercrime supply chain behind much of the recent surge in ransomware attacks. Demand has increased so much over the past two years that many cybercriminal markets now have their own “Access-as-a-Service” sections.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/06/cybercrime-supply-chain/

Weak Passwords Caused 30% Of Security Breaches

A recent survey assessed the risk factors associated with password management and how to safeguard them from attacks or breaches. The results revealed that 30% of respondents reported password leaks and security breaches as a result of poor password practices. Respondees admitted to making poor password choices, such as sharing them with colleagues, family members or friends; writing them on sticky notes, papers, planners; re-using passwords across multiple sites and only changing them when prompted.

Consequently, researchers revealed some of the best password practices to create unhackable passwords. These practices include using secure VPNs, two-factor authentication, using a password management software and creating unique passwords that aren’t easily deduced .

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2021/12/10/weak-passwords-caused-30-of-security-breaches/

Work-from-Anywhere Requires "Work-from-Anywhere Security"

Securing today's expanding networks often includes adding additional technologies to an already overburdened security environment. With organisations already struggling to manage an average of 45 security tools, with each incident requiring coordination across 19 different devices, adding new technologies to the mix may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

The most recent example of the rapid expansion of the network's attack surface has been remote work. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for a work-from-anywhere (WFA) strategy. And now, as workers begin to return to the office, a hybrid approach to work has become the new status quo. According to Accenture, 83% of workers prefer a hybrid work model that allows them to work remotely between 25% and 75% of the time. And businesses are listening. 63% of high-revenue growth companies have already enabled productivity anywhere workforce models.

One of the biggest security challenges of a hybrid workforce is that employees need to move seamlessly between the corporate office, their home network, and other remote locations. Applications, whether deployed in the data centre, SaaS, or cloud, not only need to be available from anywhere, but user experience—and security—needs to be consistent from any location as well.

https://www.securityweek.com/work-anywhere-requires-work-anywhere-security

Just 3% of UK Firms Escaped a Supply Chain Breach in 2021

Some 97% of UK organisations suffered a supply chain breach over the past year, up from 82% in 2020 and the second highest figure globally, according to BlueVoyant.

The security firm polled 1200 C-level executives with responsibility for managing risk in supply chains, across the UK, US, Singapore, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

UK firms also experienced a higher-than-average percentage of breaches: 59% suffered between two and five supply chain incidents compared to an overall average of 49%. The average number of breaches in the country grew from 2.64 in 2020 to 3.57 in 2021.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given these figures, only a quarter (27%) of UK respondents said they consider third-party cyber risk a key priority versus a 42% global average.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/just-3-uk-firms-escaped-supply/

Critical Flaw In ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP Tool Exploited In The Wild

News of this latest zero-day vulnerability comes after hackers exploited at least two other flaws in ManageEngine products this year. Attacks against MSPs and their tools have seen a rise over the past several years due to hackers realizing that compromising such organisations can provide an easy way into the networks of thousands of businesses that rely on them to manage their IT assets.

News of this latest zero-day vulnerability comes after hackers exploited at least two other flaws in ManageEngine products this year. Attacks against MSPs and their tools have seen a rise over the past several years due to hackers realizing that compromising such organisations can provide an easy way into the networks of thousands of businesses that rely on them to manage their IT assets.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3643928/critical-flaw-in-manageengine-desktop-central-msp-tool-exploited-in-the-wild.html

New Financial Services Industry Report Reveals Major Gaps in Storage and Backup Security

Continuity™, the first dedicated storage and backup security provider, this week announced findings from its Security Intelligence Report: Analysis of Storage and Backup Security in the Financial Services & Banking Sector. This extensive study – the first of its kind – explores the security posture of storage and backup environments in the global financial services industry.

The survey of 200 financial services firms and banks from 45 countries revealed that most of these organisations have not yet reached a satisfactory level of storage and backup maturity. Notably, more than half (52%) of the respondents were not strongly confident about their storage and backup security, and a quarter (25%) noted they were significantly concerned (low or no confidence).

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/new-financial-services-industry-report-reveals-major-gaps-in-storage-and-backup-security

UK’s Poor Cyber Risk Planning Could “Wreak Havoc”

The UK’s long-term risk planning is under-powered and could expose the nation if it is struck by a serious cyber-threat, a new House of Lords (HoL) report has found.

The study, Preparing for Extreme Risks: Building a Resilient Society, was produced by the upper chamber’s Select Committee on Risk Assessment and Risk Planning after interviews with 85 expert witnesses.

It claimed that the government spends too much of its time reacting to crises and emergencies, neglecting the kind of long-term planning which would have prepared the country better for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The UK’s unpreparedness to manage the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus was and is clear. More broadly, our inquiry has analyzed the UK’s risk assessment process and found that our current system is deficient at assessing and addressing future threats and hazards,” it argued.

“However, pandemics are only one of a number of extreme risks facing the UK. Severe space weather events could render smart technologies on which much of society relies inoperable for weeks or longer; this would include GPS, the internet, communications systems and power supplies. A cyber or physical attack on our critical national infrastructure could wreak havoc.”

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uks-poor-cyber-risk-planning-could/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud & Financial Crime

Dark Web

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud





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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 26 November 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 26 November 2021

-70% Of IT Pros Say Security Hygiene Has Gotten Harder Over Past Two Years

-As Digital Shopping Surges, Researchers Predict 8 Million Daily Attacks

-More Ransomware Attacks Up to September Than Whole of 2020

-Ransomware Warning: Hackers See Holidays And Weekends As A Great Time To Attack

-Suspect Arrested In 'Ransom Your Employer' Criminal Scheme

-The Newer Cyber Crime Triad: Trickbot-Emotet-Conti

-Threat Actors Find And Compromise Exposed Services In 24 Hours

-Does Your Company Employ A CISO? Many Are Operating Without Security Leadership

-New Malware Is Capable Of Evading Almost All Antivirus Products

-Interpol Arrests Over 1,000 Suspects Linked To Cyber Crime

-Researchers Warn Of Severe Risks From ‘Printjack’ Printer Attacks

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

70% Of IT Pros Say Security Hygiene Has Got Harder Over Past Two Years

A new report from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) and JupiterOne warns of inadequate security hygiene and posture management practices at many organizations. The research found that 86% of organizations believe they follow best practices for security hygiene and posture management. However, 70% of organizations said they use more than ten security tools to manage security hygiene and posture management, which raises concerns about data management and operations overhead.

In addition, 73% of security professionals admitted that they still depend on spreadsheets to manage security hygiene and posture at their organizations. As a result, 70% of respondents said that security hygiene and posture management had become more difficult over the past two years as their attack surfaces have grown.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/19/report-70-of-it-pros-say-security-hygiene-has-gotten-harder-over-past-two-years/

As Digital Shopping Surges, Researchers Predict 8 Million Daily Attacks

Arkose Labs released new data on the latest fraud trends, revealing increased threats during the holidays, rising bot attacks, and a resurgence in attacks on travel companies. As shoppers fill their online carts, account takeover (ATO) attacks and gift-card fraud remain persistent.

The report shares the top six fraud-fighting trends from the previous 3 months and provides data highlighting that no digital business is immune from attack. Financial industries saw 32 percent more attacks than in the first half of 2021.

Retail and travel attacks increased 63 percent in Q3, and gaming saw a spate of fake new accounts being set up for fraudulent purposes. Media and streaming businesses saw 60 percent of malicious activity targeting logins, and 20 percent of these attacks originating from human fraud farms.

Technology platforms see 91 percent of all attacks powered by bots. Overall, attacks are increasing in every industry, and they are growing more sophisticated.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/22/threats-during-holidays/

More Ransomware Attacks Up to September Than Whole of 2020

Most UK business leaders expect cyber-threats to surge next year, with ransomware, business email compromise (BEC), cloud and supply chain attacks all predicted to increase, according to PwC.

The findings come from the consulting giant’s 2022 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey and were distilled from interviews with 257 business and technology executives in the UK.

Although most (63%) respondents said they expect security budgets to increase next year, even more (66%) predicted cyber-threats would rise. Ransomware (61%), BEC (61%), malware via software updates (63%), and cloud compromise (64%) were among the most notable.

Bobbie Ramsden-Knowles, crisis and resilience partner at PwC UK, claimed the firm’s threat intelligence team has tracked more ransomware incidents globally up to September this year than for the whole of 2020.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/more-ransomware-attacks-september/

Ransomware Warning: Hackers See Holidays And Weekends As A Great Time To Attack

Just because you're taking a break, that doesn't mean hackers will be too.

Ahead of the holidays cyber agencies have released a warning to stay vigilant on holidays and weekends, because hackers don't plan on taking a holiday break.

Warnings remind organisations that ransomware attackers often choose to launch attacks on holidays and weekends, specifically when businesses are likely to be closed.

Recent history tells us that this could be a time when these persistent cyber actors halfway across the world are looking for ways—big and small—to disrupt the critical networks and systems belonging to organizations, businesses, and critical infrastructure.

Some of the worst ransomware attacks happened on holidays and weekends.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/security-warning-ransomware-attackers-are-working-on-the-holidays-even-if-you-arent/

Suspect Arrested In 'Ransom Your Employer' Criminal Scheme

A Nigerian man has been arrested in connection to a scheme attempting to lure insiders to deploy ransomware on employer systems.

On November 22, security expert Brian Krebs reported that the man, Oluwaseun Medayedupin, was arrested by Nigerian authorities on Friday.

The suspect is allegedly linked to a 'ransom your employer' scheme investigated by Abnormal Security in August.

Customers of the cybersecurity firm were sent emails with the subject "Partnership affiliate offer," requesting that the recipient considered becoming an accomplice in a cyberattack.

The emails offered a 40% cut of an anticipated $2.5 million ransomware payment in Bitcoin (BTC), made after the recipients installed the DemonWare ransomware on their employer's systems.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/suspect-arrested-in-ransom-your-employer-criminal-scheme/

The Newer Cyber Crime Triad: Trickbot-Emotet-Conti

Advanced Intelligence researchers argue that the restarting of the Emotet botnet was driven by Conti ransomware gang.

Early this year, law enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide conducted a joint operation, named Operation Ladybird, which disrupted the EMOTET botnet. At the time the investigators have taken control of its infrastructure in an international coordinated action.

This operation was the result of a joint effort between authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, Canada and Ukraine, with international activity coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.

The law enforcement agency was able to take over at least 700 servers used as part of the Emotet botnet’s infrastructure. The FBI collected millions of email addresses used by Emotet operators in their malware campaigns as part of the cleanup operation.

The Emotet banking trojan has been active at least since 2014, the botnet is operated by a threat actor tracked as TA542. The infamous banking trojan was also used to deliver other malicious code, such as Trickbot and QBot trojans, or ransomware such as Conti, ProLock, Ryuk, and Egregor.

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/124807/cyber-crime/trickbot-emotet-conti-triad.html

Threat Actors Find And Compromise Exposed Services In 24 Hours

Researchers set up 320 honeypots to see how quickly threat actors would target exposed cloud services and report that 80% of them were compromised in under 24 hours.

Malicious actors are constantly scanning the Internet for exposed services that could be exploited to access internal networks or perform other malicious activity.

To track what software and services are targeted by threat actors, researchers create publicly accessible honeypots. Honeypots are servers configured to appear as if they are running various software as lures to monitor threat actors' tactics.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/threat-actors-find-and-compromise-exposed-services-in-24-hours/

Does Your Company Employ A CISO? Many Are Operating Without Security Leadership

45% of companies do not employ a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), a Navisite research found. Of this group, 58% think their company should hire a CISO.

Only 40% of respondents stated their cybersecurity strategy was developed by a CISO or member of the security team, with 60% relying on other parts of their organization, including IT, executive leadership and compliance.

130 security, IT and compliance professionals were polled in the US to determine their perceptions on the state of cybersecurity leadership and readiness within their organizations. More than 80% of respondents described their job title as either executive leadership or management, with more than 60% of respondents coming from mid-sized organizations between 100-5,000 employees.

Why you should employ a CISO?

·       21% of respondents admit their company does not have a dedicated person or staff whose sole responsibility is security/cybersecurity.

·       75% of respondents said their company experienced an increase in overall cybersecurity threat volume in the last year.

·       80% of respondents felt their company exhibited strong cybersecurity leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

·       70% of respondents expressed confidence in the effectiveness of their cybersecurity program—but that confidence dropped to 58% for companies without a CISO.

·       47% of survey takers believe their company spends too little on cybersecurity.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/23/employ-ciso/

New Malware Is Capable Of Evading Almost All Antivirus Products

There’s a new JavaScript downloader on the prowl that not only distributes eight different Remote Access Trojans (RATs), keyloggers and information stealers, but is also able to bypass detection by a majority of security tools, experts have warned.

Cyber security researchers at HP Wolf Security named the malware RATDispenser, noting that while JavaScript downloaders typically have a lower detection rate than other downloaders, this particular malware is more dangerous since it employs several techniques to evade detection.

“It’s particularly concerning to see RATDispenser only being detected by about 11% of antivirus systems, resulting in this stealthy malware successfully deploying on victims’ endpoints in most cases,” noted Patrick Schlapfer, Malware Analyst at HP.

https://www.techradar.com/news/new-malware-is-capable-of-evading-almost-all-antivirus-products

Interpol Arrests Over 1,000 Suspects Linked To Cyber Crime

Interpol has coordinated the arrest of 1,003 individuals linked to various cyber-crimes such as romance scams, investment frauds, online money laundering, and illegal online gambling.

This crackdown results from a four-month action codenamed ‘Operation HAEICHI-II,’ which took place in twenty countries between June and September 2021.

These were Angola, Brunei, Cambodia, Colombia, China, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Korea (Rep. of), Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, and Vietnam.

On the financial aspect of the operation, the authorities have also intercepted nearly $27,000,000 and froze 2,350 banking accounts linked to various online crimes.

As the Interpol announcement details, at least ten new criminal modus operandi were identified in HAEICHI-II, indicative of the evolving nature of cyber-crime.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/legal/interpol-arrests-over-1-000-suspects-linked-to-cyber-crime/

Researchers Warn Of Severe Risks From ‘Printjack’ Printer Attacks

A team of Italian researchers has compiled a set of three attacks called 'Printjack,' warning users of the significant consequences of over-trusting their printer.

The attacks include recruiting the printers in DDoS swarms, imposing a paper DoS state, and performing privacy breaches.

As the researchers point out, modern printers are still vulnerable to elementary flaws and lag behind other IoT and electronic devices that are starting to conform with cybersecurity and data privacy requirements.

By evaluating the attack potential and the risk levels, the researchers found non-compliance with GDPR requirements and the ISO/IEC 27005:2018 (framework for managing cyber-risks).

This lack of in-built security is particularly problematic when considering how omnipresent printers are, being deployed in critical environments, companies, and organizations of all sizes.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/researchers-warn-of-severe-risks-from-printjack-printer-attacks/


Threats

Ransomware

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Phishing

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Fraud & Financial Crime

Insurance

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Passwords

Parental Controls





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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 July 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 July 2021: 84% Of Orgs Experienced Phishing Or Ransomware Attacks In The Last Year; Phishing continues to be one of the easiest paths for ransomware; Only Half Of Orgs Can Defend Against Ransomware; MI5 Chief Warns Public Of Cyber-Threat From Hostile States Such As China & Russia; Almost All Orgs Suffered Insider Data Breaches; Cyber Crime Costs Orgs Nearly $1.79 Million Per Minute; Sonicwall Releases Urgent Notice About 'Imminent' Ransomware Targeting Firmware; Google Finds Zero-Day Security Flaws In All Your Favourite Browsers

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

 84% Of Organisations Experienced Phishing Or Ransomware Attacks In The Last Year

A new report from Trend Micro has found that 84% of organisations have reported phishing or ransomware security incidents in the last 12 months.

The findings come from an Osterman Research study commissioned by Trend Micro that was compiled from interviews with cyber security professionals in midsize and large organisations nationwide. The research also found that half of organisations are not effective at countering phishing and ransomware threats.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/ransomware/360191/84-of-organizations-experienced-phishing-or-ransomware-attacks-in-last

 

Phishing continues to be one of the easiest paths for ransomware

Ransomware gangs are still using phishing as one of the main ways to attack an organisation, according to a new survey from Cloudian featuring the insights of 200 IT decision-makers who experienced a ransomware attack over the last two years.

More than half of all respondents have held anti-phishing training among employees, and 49% had perimeter defenses in place when they were attacked.

Nearly 25% of all survey respondents said their ransomware attacks started through phishing, and of those victims, 65% had conducted anti-phishing training sessions. For enterprises with fewer than 500 employees, 41% said their attacks started with phishing. About one-third of all victims said their public cloud was the entry point ransomware groups used to attack them.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/phishing-continues-to-be-one-of-the-easiest-paths-for-ransomware-report/

Ransomware: Only Half Of Organisations Can Effectively Defend Against Attacks, Warns Report

Around half of firms don't have the technology to prevent or detect ransomware attacks, according to research by cybersecurity company Trend Micro. It suggests that many organisations don't have the cybersecurity capabilities required to prevent ransomware attacks, such as the ability to detect phishing emails, remote desktop protocol (RDP) compromise or other common techniques deployed by cyber attackers during ransomware campaigns. 

For example, the report warns that many organisations struggle with detecting the suspicious activity associated with ransomware and attacks that could provide early evidence that cyber criminals have compromised the network. That includes failing to identify unusual lateral movement across corporate networks, or being able to spot unauthorised users gaining access to corporate data.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-only-half-of-organisations-can-effectively-defend-against-attacks-warns-report/

MI5 Chief Warns Public Of Cyber-Threat From Hostile States Such As China & Russia

Head of Britain's MI5, Ken McCallum, is urging the public to be as vigilant about threats from "hostile states" as from terrorism.

These include disruptive cyber-attacks, misinformation, espionage and interference in politics - and are usually linked to Russia and China.

McCallum is warning that "less visible threats... have the potential to affect us all," affecting UK jobs and public services and could even lead to a loss of life.

The head of the Security Service wants to challenge the idea that activity by so-called "hostile states", usually taken to mean primarily Russia and China, only affects governments or certain institutions.

Instead, he is to argue in an annual threat update, that the British public are not immune to the "tentacles" of covert action by other states.

In the speech at MI5's Thames House headquarters, Mr McCallum will warn the "consequences range from frustration and inconvenience, through loss of livelihood, potentially up to loss of life".

https://eutoday.net/news/security-defence/2021/uk-mi5-chief-ken-mccallum-warns-public-of-cyber-threat-from-hostile-states-such-as-china-russia

Almost All Organisations Have Suffered Insider Data Breaches

Egress’ Insider Data Breach Survey 2021 claims that 94 percent of organisations have experienced insider data breaches in the last year. Human error was the top cause of serious incidents, according to 84 percent of IT leaders surveyed.

However, IT leaders are more concerned about malicious insiders, with 28 percent indicating that intentionally malicious behaviour is their biggest fear. Despite causing the most incidents, human error came bottom of the list, with just over one-fifth (21 percent) saying that it’s their biggest concern.

Additionally, almost three-quarters (74 percent) of organisations have been breached because of employees breaking security rules, and 73 percent have been the victim of phishing attacks.

The survey, independently conducted by Arlington Research on behalf of Egress, surveyed 500 IT leaders and 3,000 employees in the US and UK across vertical sectors including financial services, healthcare and legal.

https://workplaceinsight.net/almost-all-organisations-have-suffered-insider-data-breaches/

Cyber Crime Costs Organisations Nearly $1.79 Million Per Minute

Cybercrime costs organisations an incredible $1.79m every minute, according to RiskIQ’s 2021 Evil Internet Minute Report.

The study, which analysed the volume of malicious activity on the internet, laid bare the scale and damage of cyber-attacks in the past year, finding that 648 cyber-threats occurred every minute.

The researchers calculated that the average cost of a breach is $7.2 per minute, while the overall predicted cybersecurity spend is $280,060 every minute.

E-commerce has been heavily hit by online payment fraud in the past year, with cyber-criminals taking advantage of the shift to online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the e-commerce industry saw a record $861.1bn in sales, it lost $38,052 to online payment fraud every minute.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cybercrime-costs-orgs-per-minute/

Phishing, Ransomware Driving Wave of Data Breaches

Data compromises have increased every month this year except May.

If that trend continues, or even if there is only an average of 141 new compromises per month for the next six months, the total will still exceed the previous high of 1,632 breaches set in 2017.

These were among the findings of the nonprofit organization Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) latest data breach analysis report, which revealed publicly reported U.S. data breaches are up 38% in the second quarter of 2021, for a total of 491 compromises, compared to Q1.

https://securityboulevard.com/2021/07/phishing-ransomware-driving-wave-of-data-breaches/

Top CVEs Trending with Cybercriminals

An analysis of criminal forums reveal what publicly known vulnerabilities attackers are most interested in.

Criminal small talk in underground forums offer critical clues about which known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) threat actors are most focused on. This, in turn, offers defenders clues on what to watch out for.

An analysis of such chatter, by Cognyte, examined 15 cybercrime forums between Jan. 2020 and March 2021. In its report, researchers highlight what CVEs are the most frequently mentioned and try to determine where attackers might strike next.

“Our findings revealed that there is no 100 percent correlation between the two parameters, since the top five CVEs that received the highest number of posts are not exactly the ones that were mentioned on the highest number of Dark Web forums examined,” the report said. “However, it is still enough to understand which CVEs were popular among threat actors on the Dark Web during the time examined.”

https://threatpost.com/top-cves-trending-with-cybercriminals/167889/

Sonicwall Releases Urgent Notice About 'Imminent' Ransomware Targeting Firmware

Networking device maker SonicWall sent out an urgent notice to its customers about "an imminent ransomware campaign using stolen credentials" that is targeting Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 series and Secure Remote Access (SRA) products running unpatched and end-of-life 8.x firmware.

In addition to the notice posted to its website, SonicWall sent an email to anyone using SMA and SRA devices, urging some to disconnect their devices immediately. They worked with Mandiant and other security companies on the issue, according to the release.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/sonicwall-releases-urgent-notice-about-imminent-ransomware-targeting-firmware/

Google Finds Zero-Day Security Flaws In All Your Favourite Browsers

Researchers at Google have shared insight into four zero-day security vulnerabilities in popular web browsers which were exploited in the wild earlier this year.

DIscovered by Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), the four vulnerabilities in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and WebKit, the browser engine used by Apple's Safari, were used as a part of three different campaigns.

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-finds-zero-day-security-flaws-in-all-your-favorite-browsers


Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Insider Threats

Dark Web

Supply Chain

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Privacy

User Education, Awareness and Training



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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 May 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 May 2021: Cyber Insurance Firms Start Tapping Out As Ransomware Continues To Rise; Irish Health Service Faces Final Bill Of At Least €100M Following Cyber Attack; The 10 Most Dangerous Cyber Threat Actors; Dramatic Increase In Ransomware Attacks Is Causing Harm On A Significant Scale; Deepfakes Could Be The Next Big Security Threat To Businesses; Two-Thirds Of Organisations Say They'll Take Action To Boost Their Ransomware Defences

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 Insurance Firms Start Tapping Out As Ransomware Continues To Rise

In early May, global insurer AXA made a landmark policy decision: The company would stop reimbursing French companies for ransomware payments to cyber criminals. The decision, which reportedly came after French authorities questioned whether the practice had fuelled the current epidemic in ransomware attacks, may be just the beginning of a general retreat that will force companies to reconsider their attempts to outsource cyber-risk to insurance firms. Already, the massive damages from one damaging crypto worm, NotPetya, caused multiple lawsuits when insurers refused to pay out on cyber insurance claims.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/cyber-insurance-firms-start-tapping-out-as-ransomware-continues-to-rise/d/d-id/1341109

Irish Health Service Faces Final Bill Of At Least €100M Following Cyber Attack

The cyber attack on IT systems in the health service will cost it at least €100 million, according to chief executive Paul Reid. This is at the lower end of estimates of the total cost, he indicated, and includes the cost of restoring the network, upgrading systems to Microsoft 365 and the disruption caused to patients. Appointments for about 7,000 patients a day are being cancelled, almost two weeks after a criminal gang hacked the HSE systems. Mr Reid said the HSE was keen to see an independent and objective assessment of the cyber attack.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/cyberattack-hse-faces-final-bill-of-at-least-100m-1.4577076

Ransomware: Dramatic Increase In Attacks Is Causing Harm On A Significant Scale

A dramatic increase in the number of ransomware attacks and their severity is causing harm on a significant scale, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned. The NCA's annual National Strategic Assessment (NSA) of Serious and Organised Crime details how the overall threat from cyber crime has increased during the past year, with more severe and high-profile attacks against victims. Ransomware attacks have grown in frequency and impact over the course of the last year, to such an extent that they rank alongside other major crimes "causing harm to our citizens and communities on a significant scale," warns the report.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-dramatic-increase-in-attacks-is-causing-harm-on-a-significant-scale/

Deepfakes Could Be The Next Big Security Threat To Businesses

An overwhelming majority of businesses say that manipulated online content and media such as deepfakes are a serious security risk to their organisation. Deepfakes have already been shown to pose a threat to people portrayed in the manipulated videos, and could have serious repercussions when the individual holds a position of importance, be it as a leader of a country, or a leader of an enterprise. Earlier in 2021, the FBI’s cyber division warned that deepfakes are a critical emerging threat that can be used in all manners of social engineering attacks including ones aimed at businesses.

https://www.techradar.com/news/deepfakes-could-be-the-next-big-security-threat-to-businesses

Ransomware: Two-Thirds Of Organisations Say They'll Take Action To Boost Their Defences

The severe disruption caused by the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack has alerted organisations to the need to bolster their defences against cyber attacks – and two-thirds are set to take actions required to prevent them becoming another ransomware victim following the incident. The ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline – one of the largest pipeline operators in the United States, providing almost half of the East Coast's fuel – caused disruption to operations and led to gas shortages, demonstrating how cyber attacks can have physical consequences.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-two-thirds-of-organisations-say-theyll-take-action-to-boost-their-defences/

The 10 Most Dangerous Cyber Threat Actors

When hacking began many decades ago, it was mostly the work of enthusiasts fuelled by their passion for learning everything they could about computers and networks. Today, nation-state actors are developing increasingly sophisticated cyber espionage tools, while cyber criminals are cashing in millions of dollars targeting everything from Fortune 500 companies to hospitals. Cyber attacks have never been more complex, more profitable, and perhaps even more baffling. At times, drawing clear lines between different kinds of activities is a challenging task. Nation-states sometimes partner with each other for a common goal, and sometimes they even appear to be working in tandem with cyber criminal gangs.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3619011/the-10-most-dangerous-cyber-threat-actors.html

Cyber Security Leaders Lacking Basic Cyber Hygiene

Constella Intelligence released the results of a survey that unlocks the behaviours and tendencies that characterize how vigilant organisations’ leaders are when it comes to reducing cyber vulnerability, allowing the industry to better understand how social media is leveraged as an attack vector and how leaders are responding to this challenge. The findings from the survey, which polled over 100 global cyber security leaders, senior-level to C-suite, across all major industries, including financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications, revealed that 57% have suffered an account takeover (ATO) attack in their personal lives—most frequently through email (52%), followed by LinkedIn (31%) and Facebook (26%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/05/26/cybersecurity-leaders-cyber-hygiene/

Watch Out: Crypto Jacking Is On The Rise Again

During the last year, though, malicious crypto mining has seen a resurgence, with NTT’s 2021 Global Threat Intelligence Report, published this month, revealing that crypto miners have now overtaken spyware as the world’s most common malware. Crypto miners, says NTT, made up 41% of all detected malware in 2020, and were most widely found in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. The most common coinminer variant was XMRig, which infects a user’s computer to mine Monero, accounting for 82% of all mining activity. Others included Crypto miner and XMR-Stack.

https://cybernews.com/security/watch-out-cryptojacking-is-on-the-rise-again/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency

Dark Web

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Privacy




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

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

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

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

Read More