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Black Arrow Admin 19/11/2023 Black Arrow Admin 19/11/2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 17 November 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 17 November 2023:

-Cyber Resilience Requires Maturity, Persistence & Board Engagement

-Security is a Process, Not a Tool

-46% of SMBs and Enterprises Have Experienced a Ransomware Attack

-Cyber Threat Intelligence: Getting on the Front Foot Against Adversaries

-67% of Workers Put Businesses at Risk by Downloading Applications and Software Without Permission

-The Persistent Menace: Understanding And Combating Ransomware, as New Ransomware Groups Account for Quarter of All Leaks in 2023

-Financial Services still Stubbornly Vulnerable to Cyber Disruption

-Worlds Biggest Bank Hit by Ransomware, Workers Forced to Trade With USB Sticks

-NCSC Warns UK Over Significant Threat to Critical Infrastructure

-Ransomware Gang Files SEC Complaint Over Victim’s Undisclosed Breach

-Businesses are Losing Huge Chunks of Their Revenue to Cyber Attacks

-Phishing Emails Are More Believable Than Ever. Here's What to Do About 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.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 6 October 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 06 October 2023:

-Many Cyber Attacks Begin by Breaking Human Trust

-BYOD Should Stand for Bring Your Own Disaster, According to Microsoft Ransomware Data

-SME Cyber Security Knowledge Gap Widens

-UK Security Budgets Under Strain as Cyber Incidents Soar

-Cyber Leaders’ Confidence in Their Organisation’s Defences Plummets, But Costs Mount

-FBI Warns of Dual Ransomware as Data Destruction Dwell Times Hit Low of 24 Hours

-Tech-Savvy Young Workers Might Be the Biggest Cyber Liability to Your Business

-Half of Cyber Security Professionals Report Increase in Cyber Attacks, with 60% of Attacks Going Unreported

-Global Cyber Survey Finds 50% Rise in Cyber Insurance Premiums

-Evolving Conversations: Cyber Security as a Business Risk

-Threats in Cloud Top the List of Executive Cyber Concerns

-Over Half of Phishing Emails Now Use Obfuscation Tactics to Avoid Detection

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 November 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 November 2022:

-Hackers Hit One Third of Organisations Worldwide Multiple Times

-Firms Spend $1,197 Per Employee Yearly to Address Cyber Attacks

-90% of Organisations have Microsoft 365 Security Gaps

-Luna Moth Phishing Extortion Campaign Targets Businesses in Multiple Sectors

-The Real Cost of Cyber Attacks: What Organisations Should Be Prepared For

-34 Russian Cyber Crime Groups Stole Over 50 Million Passwords with Stealer Malware

-“Password” Continues to Be the Most Common Password in 2022

-Lasts Year’s Massive Twitter Data Breach Was Far Worse Than Reported, Reveal Security Researchers

-European Parliament Declares Russia to be a State Sponsor of Terrorism – then Gets Attacked

-The Changing Nature of Nation-State Cyber Warfare

-Is Your Company Covered for a Cyber Security Attack? That’s the £2 Million Question

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Hackers Hit One Third of Organisations Worldwide Multiple Times

Hackers have stolen customer records multiple times from nearly a third of organisations worldwide in the past 12 months, security provider Trend Micro said in its newly released, twice-yearly Cyber Risk Index (CRI) report.

The report features interviews with some 4,100 organisations across North America, Europe, Latin/South America and Asia-Pacific. Respondents stressed that customer records are at increased risk as organisations struggle to profile and defend an expanding attack surface.

Overall, respondents rated the following as the top cyber threats in 1H 2022:

Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Clickjacking
Fileless attacks
Ransomware
Login attacks (Credential Theft)

Here are some key findings from the study:

The CRI calculates the gap between organisational preparedness and the likelihood of being attacked, with -10 representing the highest level of risk. The global CRI index moved from –0.04 in 2H 2021 to –0.15 in 1H 2022, indicating a surging level of risk over the past six months.
This is a slight increase in risk from the second half of 2021, when it was -0.04. Organisations in North America and Asia-Pacific saw an increase in their cyber risk from that period while Europe and Latin/South America’s risk decreased in comparison.
The number of global organisations experiencing a “successful” cyber-attack increased from 84% to 90% over the same period.
The number now expected to be compromised over the coming year has also increased from 76% to 85%.

From the business perspective, the biggest concern is the misalignment between CISOs and business executives, Trend Micro said. The answers given by respondents to the question: “My organisation’s IT security objectives are aligned with business objectives,” only made a score of 4.79 out of 10.0

By addressing the shortage of cyber security professionals and improving security processes and technology, organisations will significantly reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

You can’t protect what you can’t see. But with hybrid working ushering in a new era of complex, distributed IT environments, many organisations are finding it difficult to eradicate growing security coverage and visibility gaps. To avoid the attack surface spiraling out of control, they need to combine asset discovery and monitoring with threat detection and response on a single platform.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/hackers-hit-one-third-of-organizations-worldwide-multiple-times/

Firms Spend $1,197 Per Employee Yearly to Address Cyber Attacks

Companies pay an average of $1,197 per employee yearly to address successful cyber incidents against email services, cloud collaboration apps or services and browsers.

Security researchers at Perception Point shared the findings with Infosecurity before publishing them in a new white paper this month.

According to the new data, the above figures exclude compliance fines, ransomware mitigation costs and losses from non-operational processes, all of which can cause further spending.

The survey, conducted in conjunction with Osterman Research in June, considers the responses of 250 security and IT decision-makers at various enterprises and reveals additional discoveries regarding today’s enterprise threat landscape.

These findings demonstrate the urgent need for organisations to find the most accurate and efficient cyber security solutions which provide the necessary protection with streamlined processes and managed services.

Among the findings is that malicious incidents against new cloud-based apps and services occur at 60% of the frequency with which they take place on email-based services.

Additionally, some attacks, like those involving malware installed on an endpoint, happen on cloud collaboration apps at a much higher rate (87%) when compared to email-based services.

The Perception Point report also shows that a successful email-based cyber incident takes security staff an average of 86 hours to address.

In light of these figures, the security company added that one security professional with no additional support can only handle 23 email incidents annually, representing a direct cost of $6452 per incident alone.

Conversely, incidents detected on cloud collaboration apps or services take, on average, 71 hours to resolve. In these cases, one professional can handle just 28 incidents yearly at an average cost of $5305 per incident.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/firms-dollar1197-per-employee/

90% of Organisations have Microsoft 365 Security Gaps

A recently published study evaluated 1.6 million Microsoft 365 users across three continents, finding that 90% of organisations had gaps in essential security protections. Managing Microsoft 365 (M365) is complicated. How can IT teams avoid management headaches, stay 100% compliant, and truly take control of their M365 instance?

Research from the study reveals that many common security procedures are not being followed 100% of the time. This leaves gaping holes in most organisations’ security defences. While most companies have strong documented security policies, the research uncovered that most aren’t being implemented consistently due to difficulties in reporting and limited IT resources:

90% of companies had gaps across all four key areas studied – multi-factor authentication (MFA), email security, password policies, and failed logins
87% of companies have MFA disabled for some or all their admins (which are the most critical accounts to protect, due to their higher access levels)
Only 17% of companies had strong password requirements that were being consistently followed.

Overall, nearly every organisation is leaving the door open for cyber security threats due to weak credentials, particularly for administrator accounts.

In addition to security challenges, the study identified key areas for improvement in managing Microsoft 365 licences as well, such as:

The average company had 21.6% of their licenses unassigned or “sitting on the shelf.” Another 10.2% of licenses were inactive, for an average of 31.9% unused licenses.
17% of companies had over 10,000 licenses unassigned or inactive. These cases represent big opportunities to optimise licence spend with better tools.

Overall, the study reveals that reporting challenges make security and licence management incredibly difficult, leading to unnecessary risks and costs.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/11/22/microsoft-365-security-protections/

Luna Moth Phishing Extortion Campaign Targets Businesses in Multiple Sectors

A callback phishing extortion campaign by Luna Moth (aka Silent Ransom Group) has targeted businesses in multiple sectors, including legal and retail.

The findings come from Palo Alto Network’s security team Unit 42, which described the campaign in a new advisory.

“This campaign leverages extortion without encryption, has cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars and is expanding in scope,” reads the technical write-up. At the same time, Unit 42 said that this type of social engineering attack leaves very few artifacts because it relies on legitimate technology tools to carry out attacks. In fact, callback phishing, also known as telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD), is a social engineering method that requires a threat actor to interact with the victim to accomplish their goals.

“This attack style is more resource intensive but less complex than script-based attacks, and it tends to have a much higher success rate,” reads the advisory. According to Unit 42, threat actors associated with the Conti group have extensively used this attack style in BazarCall campaigns. “Early iterations of this attack focused on tricking the victim into downloading the BazarLoader malware using documents with malicious macros,” explained the researchers.

As for the new campaign, which Sygnia security researchers first unveiled in July, it removes the malware portion of the attack. “In this campaign, attackers use legitimate and trusted systems management tools to interact directly with a victim’s computer to manually exfiltrate data [...] As these tools are not malicious, they’re not likely to be flagged by traditional antivirus products,” Unit 42 wrote.

The researchers also said that they expect callback phishing attacks to increase in popularity because of low per-target cost, low risk of detection and fast monetisation factors.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/luna-moth-phishing-target-multiple/

The Real Cost of Cyber Attacks: What Organisations Should Be Prepared For

With each passing year, hackers and cyber criminals of all kinds are becoming more sophisticated, malicious, and greedy conducting brazen and often destructive cyber-attacks that can severely disrupt a company’s business operations. And this is a big problem, because, first and foremost, customers rely on a company’s ability to deliver services or products in a timely manner. Cyber-attacks not only can affect customers’ data, but they can impact service delivery.

In one of the recent incidents, the UK’s discount retailer The Works has been forced to temporarily shut down some of its stores after a ransomware attack. While the tech team quickly shut down the company’s computers after being alerted to the security breach by the firewall system, the attack caused disruption to deliveries and store functionality including till operations.

A cyber security incident can greatly affect a business due to the consequences associated with cyber-attacks like potential lawsuits, hefty fines and damage payments, insurance rate hikes, criminal investigations and bad publicity. For example, shares of Okta, a major provider of authentication services, fell 9% after the company revealed it was a victim of a major supply chain incident via an attack on a third-party contractor’s laptop, which affected some of its customers.

Another glaring example is a 2021 cyber-attack launched by the Russian-speaking ransomware gang called DarkSide against the operator of one of the US’ largest fuel pipelines Colonial Pipeline, which crippled fuel delivery across the Southeastern United States impacting lives of millions due to supply shortages. Colonial paid the DarkSide hackers a $4.4 million ransom soon after the incident. The attackers also stole nearly 100GB of data from Colonial Pipeline and threatened to leak it if the ransom wasn’t paid. It’s also worth noting that the company is now facing a nearly $1 million penalty for failure “to plan and prepare for a manual restart and shutdown operation, which contributed to the national impacts after the cyber-attack.”

Data breaches and costs associated with them have been on the rise for the past few years, but, according to a 2021 report, the average cost per breach increased from $3.86 million in 2020 to $4.24 million in 2021. The report also identified four categories contributing most global data breach costs – Lost business cost (38%), Detection and escalation (29%), Post breach response (27%), and Notification (6%).

Ransomware attacks cost an average of $4.62 million (the cost of a ransom is not included), and destructive wiper-style attacks cost an average of $4.69 million, the report said.

For a business, a data breach is not just a loss of data, it can also have a long-lasting impact on operations and undermine customers’ trust in the company. In fact, a survey revealed that 87% of consumers are willing to take their business elsewhere if they don’t trust a company is handling their data responsibly. Therefore, the reputational damage might be detrimental to a business’ ability to attract new customers.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/the-real-cost-of-cyber-attacks-what-organizations-should-be-prepared-for-2/

34 Russian Cyber Crime Groups Stole Over 50 Million Passwords with Stealer Malware

As many as 34 Russian-speaking gangs, distributing information-stealing malware under the stealer-as-a-service model, stole no fewer than 50 million passwords in the first seven months of 2022.

"The underground market value of stolen logs and compromised card details is estimated around $5.8 million" Singapore-headquartered Group-IB said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

Aside from looting passwords, the stealers also harvested 2.11 billion cookie files, 113,204 crypto wallets, and 103,150 payment cards.

A majority of the victims were located in the US, followed by Brazil, India, Germany, Indonesia, the Philippines, France, Turkey, Vietnam, and Italy. In total, over 890,000 devices in 111 countries were infected during the time frame.

Group-IB said the members of several scam groups who are propagating the information stealers previously participated in the Classiscam operation. These groups, which are active on Telegram and have around 200 members on average, are hierarchical, consisting of administrators and workers (or traffers), the latter of whom are responsible for driving unsuspecting users to info-stealers like RedLine and Raccoon. This is achieved by setting up bait websites that impersonate well-known companies and luring victims into downloading malicious files. Links to such websites are, in turn, embedded into YouTube video reviews for popular games and lotteries on social media, or shared directly with non-fungible token (NFT) artists.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/11/34-russian-hacker-groups-stole-over-50.html

“Password” Continues to Be the Most Common Password in 2022

You would think the time spent working from home in the last two years or so helped netizens across the planet figure out how to master the world of WWW in a more efficient manner.

But new research from NordPass shows that despite so many people relying on an Internet connection for their daily activities, few actually care about the security of their data when they go online.

As a result, “password” continues to be the number one password out there, with the aforementioned company claiming that this particular keyword was detected close to 5 million times in a 3TB database. It takes less than one second to crack this password, the company says.

“123456” is currently the second most-used password worldwide, followed by its longer sibling known as “123456789” because, you know, hackers don’t know how to count to 10.

“There’s more than one way to get swindled on Tinder: using “tinder” as your password is more risky than swiping right on a billionaire. In total, this password was used 36,384 times” NordPass says. “The glitziest film industry event of the year – the Oscars ceremony – inspired many to use not-so-glitzy passwords: the password “Oscars” was used 62,983 times.”

Of course, it’s no surprise that Internet users out there turn to movies to get inspiration for their passwords, so unfortunately, “batman” is currently one of the most used keywords supposed to secure Internet accounts.

“Films and shows like Batman, Euphoria, and Encanto were among the most popular releases in 2021/2022. All are also popular passwords: “batman” was used 2,562,776 times, “euphoria” 53,993, and “encanto” 10,808 times,” the company says.

The most common password in the United States is “guest,” while in the United Kingdom, quite a lot of people go for “liverpool” (despite hackers needing just 1 second to crack it).

https://news.softpedia.com/news/password-continues-to-be-the-most-common-password-in-2022-as-well-536503.shtml

Lasts Year’s Massive Twitter Data Breach Was Far Worse Than Reported, Reveal Security Researchers

A massive Twitter data breach last year, exposing more than five million phone numbers and email addresses, was worse than initially reported. The same security vulnerability appears to have been exploited by multiple bad actors, and the hacked data has been offered for sale on the dark web by several sources.

It had previously been thought that only one hacker gained access to the data, and Twitter’s belated admission reinforced this impression. HackerOne first reported the vulnerability back in January, which allowed anyone to enter a phone number or email address, and then find the associated twitterID. This is an internal identifier used by Twitter, but can be readily converted to a Twitter handle. A bad actor would be able to put together a single database which combined Twitter handles, email addresses, and phone numbers.

At the time, Twitter admitted that the vulnerability had existed, and subsequently been patched, but said nothing about anyone exploiting it. Restore Privacy subsequently reported that a hacker had indeed used the vulnerability to obtain personal data from millions of accounts.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/11/25/massive-twitter-data-breach/

European Parliament Declares Russia to be a State Sponsor of Terrorism – Then Gets Attacked

On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the latest developments in Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. MEPs highlight that the deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of international and humanitarian law amount to acts of terror and constitute war crimes. In light of this, they recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state that “uses means of terrorism”.

As the EU currently cannot officially designate states as sponsors of terrorism, the European Parliament calls on the EU and its member states to put in place the proper legal framework and consider adding Russia to such a list. This would trigger a number of significant restrictive measures against Moscow and have profound restrictive implications for EU relations with Russia.

In the meantime, MEPs call on the Council to include the Russian paramilitary organisation ‘the Wagner Group’, the 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the “Kadyrovites”, and other Russian-funded armed groups, militias and proxies, on the EU’s terrorist list.

Almost immediately after the vote the European Parliament suffered a sustained denial of service attack that shut down email services and disrupted internet access for more than an hour. A pro-Russian group called KILLNET then claimed responsibility in a Telegram post.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20221118IPR55707/european-parliament-declares-russia-to-be-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/comment-european-parliament-hit-by-cyberattack-after-vote-on-russia/

The Changing Nature of Nation-State Cyber Warfare

Military conflict is ever shifting from beyond the battlefield and into cyber space. Ever more sophisticated and ruthless groups of nation-state actors and their proxies continue to target critical systems and infrastructure for political and ideological leverage. These criminals’ far-reaching objectives include intelligence gathering, financial gain, destabilising other nations, hindering communications, and the theft of intellectual property.

The risks to individuals and society are clear. Due to its importance to daily life and the economy, the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI) is a natural target for malicious nation-state cyber-attacks. We only need look at the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in the US – at the hands of the Russia-affiliated DarkSide group – to appreciate the potential for one criminal act to escalate and cause large-scale societal impact: panic and disruption. Even though the pipeline was shut down for less than a week, the havoc caused by suspending fuel supplies gave CNI operators everywhere a worrying taste of things to come.

Closer to home, the recent cyber attack on South Staffordshire Water highlights the need for all utilities providers to take proactive measures and precautions to better secure essential human sustenance supplies. With the risk of coordinated attacks by criminals backed by nation states rising, the potential for human casualties if attacks against CNI go unchecked is becoming starkly clear.

The Russia-Ukraine war has heightened awareness of the cyber threats posed by all nation-state adversaries. Unsurprisingly, challenges and conflicts in the physical world tend to bleed through into the cyber domain. And with relations between Western nations and Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea more fraught than ever, UK organisations can expect to see further increases in cyber threats at the hands of hostile nation-state actors.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/the-changing-nature-of-nation-state-cyber-warfare/

Is Your Company Covered for a Cyber Security Attack? That’s the £2 Million Question

Cyber crime continues to be a persistent and pressing issue for all sized businesses, particularly smaller organisations. In fact, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance, nearly 60% of small businesses that experience a cyber attack shut their doors within six months.

Despite the continuing rise in risk, many small businesses remain vulnerable to cyber attacks due to a lack of resources and – surprisingly – a lack of knowledge of the existing threats. Moreover, companies are now being exposed to cyber risks even further as they struggle to get appropriate cyber insurance, which, if needed, can be devastating should bad actors circumvent your company’s defences.

Cyber insurance is a policy that helps an organisation pay for any financial losses incurred following a data breach or cyber attack. It also helps cover any costs related to the remediation process, such as paying for the investigation, crisis communication, legal services, and customer refunds.

With the constant – and ever-increasing – threat of potential cyber attacks and the need to protect their assets, many companies are applying for cyber insurance, which generally covers a variety of different types of cyber-attacks, including data breaches; business email compromises; cyber extortion demands; malware infections and ransomware.

But, despite the benefits of cyber insurance, it remains surprisingly undervalued. The UK government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2022 found that only 43% of businesses have a cyber insurance policy in place.

Organisations must always seek cost-effective ways to address the cyber security risks they face – as no business is safe in the modern security landscape from a cyber threat. One of the most common ways to mitigate the risk of a cyber security incident is cyber insurance. While all-sized businesses can benefit from having cyber insurance, small businesses frequently lack the knowledge and importance of securing it. This is usually because of the cost, the time involved in finding a provider, and a lack of understanding of the importance of a cyber insurance policy.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/is-your-company-covered-for-a-cybersecurity-attack-thats-the-2-million-question/

Threats

Ransomware and Extortion

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Ten Charged in $11m Healthcare BEC Plots - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Malware

Mobile

Internet of Things – IoT

Vulnerable SDK components lead to supply chain risks in IoT and OT environments - Microsoft Security Blog

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

API

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Cyber Bullying, Cyber Stalking and Sextortion

Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors will return • The Register

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

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

Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

Nation State Actors – China

Vulnerability Management

EPSS explained: How does it compare to CVSS? | CSO Online

Vulnerabilities

Tools and Controls

Reports Published in the Last Week

Threat actors extend attack techniques to new enterprise apps and services - Help Net Security

Other News

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

· 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.

Black Arrow Admin 18/09/2022 Black Arrow Admin 18/09/2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 September 2022

-CFOs’ Overconfidence in Cyber Security Can Cost Millions

-Cyber Security Outflanks Inflation, Talent, Logistics in Business Worries

-Attackers Can Compromise Most Cloud Data in Just 3 Steps

-Cyber Insurance Premiums Soar 80% As Claims Surge

-One In 10 Employees Leaks Sensitive Company Data Every 6 Months

-Business Application Compromise & the Evolving Art of Social Engineering

-SMBs Are Hardest-Hit By Ransomware

-65% Say Legacy Backup Solutions Aren’t Up To Ransomware Challenges

-Four-Fifths of Firms Hit by Critical Cloud Security Incident

-Homeworkers Putting Home and Business Cyber Safety at Risk

-Uber Hacked, Internal Systems Breached and Vulnerability Reports Stolen

-IHG hack: 'Vindictive' couple deleted hotel chain data for fun

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

CFOs’ Overconfidence in Cyber Security Can Cost Millions

Kroll announced its report entitled ‘Cyber Risk and CFOs: Over-Confidence is Costly’ which found chief financial officers (CFOs) to be woefully in the dark regarding cyber security, despite confidence in their company’s ability to respond to an incident.

The report, conducted by StudioID of Industry Dive, exposed three key themes among the 180 senior finance executives surveyed worldwide:

Ignorance is bliss. Eighty-seven percent of CFOs are either very or extremely confident in their organisation’s cyber attack response. This is at odds with the level of visibility CFOs have into cyber risk issues, given only four out of 10 surveyed have regular briefings with their cyber teams.
Wide-ranging damages. 71% of the represented organisations suffered more than $5 million in financial losses stemming from cyber incidents in the previous 18 months, and 61% had suffered at least three significant cyber incidents in that time. Eighty-two percent of the executives in the survey said their companies suffered a loss of 5% or more in their valuations following their largest cyber security incident in the previous 18 months.
Increasing investment in cyber security. Forty-five percent of respondents plan to increase the percentage of their overall IT budget dedicated to information security by at least 10%.

According to Kroll: “We often see that CFOs are not aware enough of the financial risk presented by cyber threats until they face an incident. At that point, it’s clear that they need to be involved not only in the recovery, including permitting access to emergency funds and procuring third-party suppliers, but also in the strategy and investment around cyber both pre- and post-incident.”

“Ultimately, cyber attacks represent a financial risk to the business, and incidents can have a significant impact on value. It is, therefore, critical that this is included in wider business risk considerations. A CFO and CISO should work side-by-side, helping the business navigate the operational and financial risk of cyber.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/09/14/cfos-cybersecurity-confidence/

Cyber Security Outflanks Inflation, Talent, Logistics in Business Worries

Nearly six in 10 IT leaders in a new study view cyber security as their top business concern, ranking it higher than inflation, retaining talent and supply chain/logistics management.

Less than half of respondents (43%) believe their critical data and assets are protected from cyber threats despite increased cyber security investments by their organisations, greater board visibility and increased collaboration between the security team and the C-suite, Rackspace said in its new survey of 1,420 IT professionals worldwide.

The multi-cloud technology services specialist said that a “large majority” of the survey respondents report being either unprepared or only “somewhat prepared” to respond to major threats, such as identifying and mitigating threats and areas of concern (62%), recovering from cyber attacks (61%) or preventing lapses and breaches (63%).

Cloud native security is where organisations are most likely to rely on an outside partner, such as a managed security service provider, for expertise.

Here are more of the survey’s findings:

The top three cyber security challenges their organisation is facing: migrating and operating apps (45%); shortage of workers with cyber security skills (39%); lack of visibility of vulnerabilities across all infrastructure (38%).
70% of survey respondents report that their cyber security budgets have increased over the past three years.
The leading recipients of new investment are cloud native security (59%); data security (50%), consultative security services (44%); and application security (41%).
Investments align closely with the areas where organisations perceive their greatest concentration of threats, led by network security (58%), closely followed by web application attacks (53%) and cloud architecture attacks (50%).
70% of respondents said there has been an increase in board visibility for cyber security over the past five years, while 69% cite better collaboration between the security team and members of the C-suite.
Only 13% of respondents said there were significant communications gaps between the security team and C-suite, while 69% of IT executives view their counterparts in the C-suite as advocates for their concerns.

The authors stated “We are seeing a major shift in how organisations are allocating resources to address cyber threats, even as budgets increase. The cloud brings with it a new array of security challenges that require new expertise, and often reliance on external partners who can help implement cloud native security tools, automate security, provide cloud native application protection, offer container security solutions and other capabilities”.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/cybersecurity-outflanks-inflation-talent-logistics-in-business-worries-rackspace-research/

Attackers Can Compromise Most Cloud Data in Just 3 Steps

An analysis of cloud services finds that known vulnerabilities typically open the door for attackers, while insecure cloud architectures allow them to gain access to the crown jewels.

Companies and their cloud providers often leave vulnerabilities open in their system and services, gifting attackers with an easy path to gain access to critical data.

According to an Orca Security analysis of data collected from major cloud services, attackers only need on average three steps to gain access to sensitive data, the so-called "crown jewels," starting most often — in 78% of cases — with the exploitation of a known vulnerability.

While much of the security discussion has focused on the misconfigurations of cloud resources by companies, cloud providers have often been slow to plug vulnerabilities.

The key is to fix the root causes, which is the initial vector, and to increase the number of steps that they attacker needs to take. Proper security controls can make sure that even if there is an initial attack vector, you are still not able to reach the crown jewels.

The report analysed data from Orca's security research team using data from a "billions of cloud assets on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud," which the company's customers regularly scan. The data included cloud workload and configuration data, environment data, and information on assets collected in the first half of 2022.

https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/cyberattackers-compromise-most-cloud-data-3-steps

Cyber Insurance Premiums Soar 80% As Claims Surge

Cyber insurance premiums have soared in the past year as claims surged in response to a rise in damaging attacks by hackers.

The cost of taking out cyber cover had doubled on average every year for the past three years, said global insurance broker Marsh. Honan Group, another broker, pointed to an 80 per cent rise in premiums in the past 12 months, following a 20 per cent increase in the cost of cover in each of the previous two years.

Brokers are calling cyber “the new D&O”, referring to sharp rises in directors and officers insurance premiums since 2018. Brokers were hopeful premiums would ease, but have warned insurers would continue to demand companies prove they had strong security systems and policies in place before agreeing to sell them insurance.

There’ll be a number of insurance companies that won’t even look at a business that doesn’t have a bunch of security measures in place. They’ll just turn around and say, ‘we’re not going to insure you’. The chief reason for the price rises is the increase in the number and size of claims relating to ransomware, where criminals use malicious software to block access to an organisation’s computer system until a sum of money is paid. In addition, some insurers left the market, while remaining players attempted to recoup the cost of under-priced contracts written in previous years.

The rise in the premiums is mainly due to ransomware and cyber attacks across the board have risen sharply over the past few years.

https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/management/cyber-insurance-premiums-soar-80pc-as-claims-surge-20220908-p5bglo

One In 10 Employees Leaks Sensitive Company Data Every 6 Months

Departing employees are most likely to leak sensitive information to competitors, criminals or the media in exchange for cash.

Insider threats are an ongoing menace that enterprise security teams need to handle. It's a global problem but especially acute in the US, with 47 million Americans quitting their jobs in 2021. The threat of ex-employees taking sensitive information to competitors, selling it to criminals in exchange for cash, and leaking files to media is making data exfiltration a growing concern.

About 1.4 million people who handle sensitive information in their organisation globally were tracked over the period from January to June 30 this year by cyber security firm Cyberhaven to find out when, how and who is involved in data exfiltration.

On average, 2.5% of employees exfiltrate sensitive information in a month, but over a six-month period, nearly one in 10, or 9.4% of employees, do so, Cyberhaven noted in its report. Data exfiltration incidents occur when data is transferred outside the organisation in unapproved ways.

Among employees that exfiltrated data, the top 1% most prolific “super stealers” were responsible for 7.7% of incidents, and the top 10% were responsible for 34.9% of incidents.

North America accounted for the highest number of incidents at 44%, followed by the Asia Pacific region at 27%. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa accounted for 24% of incidents while 5% of incidents were recorded in South America.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3673260/one-in-10-employees-leaks-sensitive-company-data-every-6-months-report.html#tk.rss_news

Business Application Compromise and the Evolving Art of Social Engineering

Social engineering is hardly a new concept, even in the world of cyber security. Phishing scams alone have been around for nearly 30 years, with attackers consistently finding new ways to entice victims into clicking a link, downloading a file, or providing sensitive information.

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks iterated on this concept by having the attacker gain access to a legitimate email account and impersonate its owner. Attackers reason that victims won't question an email that comes from a trusted source — and all too often, they're right.

But email isn't the only effective means cyber criminals use to engage in social engineering attacks. Modern businesses rely on a range of digital applications, from cloud services and VPNs to communications tools and financial services. What's more, these applications are interconnected, so an attacker who can compromise one can compromise others, too. Organisations can't afford to focus exclusively on phishing and BEC attacks — not when business application compromise (BAC) is on the rise.

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/business-application-compromise-the-evolving-art-of-social-engineering

SMBs Are Hardest-Hit By Ransomware

Coalition announced the mid-year update to its 2022 Cyber Claims Report detailing the evolution of cyber trends, revealing that small businesses have become bigger targets, overall incidents are down, and ransomware attacks are declining as demands go unpaid.

During the first half of 2022, the average cost of a claim for a small business owner increased to $139,000, which is 58% higher than levels during the first half of 2021.

“Across industries, we continue to see high-profile attacks targeting organisations with weak or exposed infrastructure — which has become exacerbated by today’s remote working culture and companies’ dependence on third-party vendors,” said Coalition’s Head of Claims.

“Small businesses are especially vulnerable because they often lack resources. For these businesses, avoiding downtime and disruption is essential, and they must understand that Active Insurance is accessible.”

The good news: both Coalition and the broader insurance industry observed a decrease in ransomware attack frequency and the amount of ransom demanded between the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022. Ransomware demands decreased from $1.37M in H2 2021 to $896,000 in H1 2022.

“Organisations are increasingly aware of the threat ransomware poses. They have started to implement controls such as offline data backups that allow them to refuse to pay the ransom and restore operations through other means,” said Coalition’s Head of Incident Response. “As ransomware is on the decline, attackers are turning to reliable methods. Phishing, for example, has skyrocketed – and only continues to grow.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/09/15/small-businesses-ransomware-targets/

65% Say Legacy Backup Solutions Aren’t Up To Ransomware Challenges

HYCU researchers are reporting 65% of respondents lack full confidence in their legacy backup solutions (HYCU is a multi-cloud backup-as-a-service provider).

According to the report, 65% of surveyed enterprise organisations are increasing spending on detection, prevention and recovery, and respondents are beginning to understand that air-gapped or immutable backups are the only ways to ensure that the backups themselves don’t fall prey to encryption worms when ransomware hits.

Key findings include:

52% of ransomware victims suffered data loss
63% of victims suffered an operational disruption
Just 41% air gap their backups
Just 47% routinely test their backups
Only 35% of respondents believe their current backup and recovery tools are sufficient.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/65-say-legacy-backup-solutions-arent-up-to-ransomware-challenges/

Four-Fifths of Firms Hit by Critical Cloud Security Incident

Some 80% of organisations suffered a “severe” cloud security incident over the past year, while a quarter worry they’ve suffered a cloud data breach and aren’t aware of it, according to new research from Snyk.

The developer security specialist polled 400 cloud engineering and security practitioners from organisations of various sizes and sectors, to compile its State of Cloud Security Report.

Among the incidents flagged by respondents over the past 12 months were breaches, leaks, intrusions, crypto-mining, compliance violations, failed audits and system downtime in the cloud.

Startups (89%) and public sector organisations (88%) were the most likely to have suffered such an incident over the period.

The bad news is that 58% of respondents predict they will suffer another severe incident in the cloud over the coming year. Over three-quarters (77%) of those questioned cited poor training and collaboration as a major challenge in this regard.

“Many cloud security failures result from a lack of effective cross-team collaboration and team training. When different teams use different tools or policy frameworks, reconciling work across those teams and ensuring consistent enforcement can be challenging,” the report argued.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/fourfifths-firms-critical-cloud/

Homeworkers Putting Home and Business Cyber Safety at Risk

BlackBerry published a European research report exposing the cyber security risk created by cost-conscious homeworkers who prioritise security behind price, usability and ease of set up in their purchase of domestic smart devices.

32% of European home workers who own a smart device surveyed said security was a top three factor when choosing a smart device, compared to 50% who prioritised price. 28% of businesses aren’t putting adequate security provisions in place to extend cyber protection as far as homes. This heightens the risk of cyber attacks for businesses and their employees, as hybrid and home working become the norm.

The survey of 4,000 home workers in the UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands revealed that 28% of people say that their employer has not done or communicated anything about protecting their home network or smart devices, or they don’t know if they are protected.

Furthermore, 75% of Europeans say their employers have taken no steps to secure the home internet connection or provide software protection for home devices. This failure to extend network security to home devices increases risk of the vulnerabilities created by hybrid and home working being successfully exploited. These are particularly sobering findings for small and mid-sized businesses who face upwards of eleven cyber attacks per device, per day, according to the research.

Through even the most innocent of devices, bad actors can access home networks with connections to company devices – or company data on consumer devices – and seize the opportunity to steal data and intellectual property worth millions. It’s likely businesses will bear the brunt of cyber attacks caused by unsecured home devices, with knock-on effects to employees themselves.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/09/12/homeworkers-smart-devices-security/

Uber Hacked, Internal Systems Breached and Vulnerability Reports Stolen

Uber suffered a cyber attack Thursday afternoon with an allegedly 18-year-old hacker downloading HackerOne vulnerability reports and sharing screenshots of the company's internal systems, email dashboard, and Slack server.

The screenshots shared by the hacker and seen by BleepingComputer show what appears to be full access to many critical Uber IT systems, including the company's security software and Windows domain.

Other systems accessed by the hacker include the company's Amazon Web Services console, VMware vSphere/ESXi virtual machines, and the Google Workspace admin dashboard for managing the Uber email accounts.

The threat actor also breached the Uber Slack server, which he used to post messages to employees stating that the company was hacked. However, screenshots from Uber's slack indicate that these announcements were first met with memes and jokes as employees had not realised an actual cyber attack was taking place.

Uber has since confirmed the attack, tweeting that they are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional information as it becomes available. "We are currently responding to a cyber security incident. We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available," tweeted the Uber Communications account.

The New York Times, which first reported on the breach, said they spoke to the threat actor, who said they breached Uber after performing a social engineering attack on an employee and stealing their password. The threat actor then gained access to the company's internal systems using the stolen credentials.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/uber-hacked-internal-systems-breached-and-vulnerability-reports-stolen/

IHG Hack: 'Vindictive' Couple Deleted Hotel Chain Data for Fun

Hackers have told the BBC they carried out a destructive cyber-attack against Holiday Inn owner Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) "for fun".

Describing themselves as a couple from Vietnam, they say they first tried a ransomware attack, then deleted large amounts of data when they were foiled. They accessed the FTSE 100 firm's databases thanks to an easily found and weak password, Qwerty1234. An expert says the case highlights the vindictive side of criminal hackers.

UK-based IHG operates 6,000 hotels around the world, including the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Regent brands. On Monday last week, customers reported widespread problems with booking and check-in. For 24 hours IHG responded to complaints on social media by saying that the company was "undergoing system maintenance".

Then on the Tuesday afternoon it told investors that it had been hacked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62937678

Threats

Ransomware and Extortion

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Serious Breach at Uber Spotlights Hacker Social Deception | SecurityWeek.Com

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

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Spanish police arrest ‘one of Europe’s biggest money launderers’ | Financial Times (ft.com)

Insurance

Coalition Cyber Insurance - Small Businesses Prime Targets (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

Dark Web

Documents For Sale on the Dark Web - IT Security Guru

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Cloud/SaaS

Attack Surface Management

Shadow IT

Use shadow IT discovery to find unauthorized devices and apps (techtarget.com)

Encryption

Keep Today's Encrypted Data From Becoming Tomorrow's Treasure (darkreading.com)

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

IHG Was Hacked Using Password “Qwerty1234” - LoyaltyLobby

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Security Awareness Training Must Evolve to Align With Growing E-Commerce Security Threats (darkreading.com)

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Cyber Crime Fears for Children as Cost-of-Living Bites - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

10 Steps to Successfully Navigate Cyber Security Compliance - MSSP Alert

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Don’t Put Preparation on Pause: CMMC 2.0 is Coming Quicker Than You Think - MSSP Alert

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

Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

Nation State Actors – North Korea

North Korea-linked APT spreads tainted versions of PuTTY via WhatsApp - Security Affairs

Nation State Actors – Iran

Vulnerability Management

Backlogs larger than 100K+ vulnerabilities but too time-consuming to address - Help Net Security

Vulnerabilities

Reports Published in the Last Week

Other News

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

· 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.

Threat Intelligence Blog

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 17 November 2023

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Cyber Resilience Requires Maturity, Persistence & Board Engagement

Security is a Process, not a Tool

46% of SMBs and Enterprises Have Experienced a Ransomware Attack

Cyber Threat Intelligence: Getting on the Front Foot Against Adversaries

67% of Workers Put Businesses at Risk by Downloading Applications and Software Without Permission

The Persistent Menace: Understanding and Combating Ransomware, as New Ransomware Groups Account for Quarter of All Leaks in 2023

Financial Services Still Stubbornly Vulnerable to Cyber Disruption

World’s Biggest Bank Hit by Ransomware; Workers Forced to Trade with USB Sticks

NCSC Warns UK Over Significant Threat to Critical Infrastructure

Ransomware Gang Files SEC Complaint Over Victim’s Undisclosed Breach

Businesses are Losing Huge Chunks of Their Revenue to Cyber Attacks

Phishing Emails Are More Believable Than Ever. Here's What to Do About It.

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

Backup and Recovery

Data Protection

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 Activity

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

Nation State Actors

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea

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

Vulnerabilities

Tools and Controls

Reports Published in the Last Week

Other News

Sector Specific

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 6 October 2023

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Many Cyber Attacks Begin by Breaking Human Trust

BYOD Should Stand for Bring Your Own Disaster, According to Microsoft Ransomware Data

SME Cyber Security Knowledge Gap Widens

UK Security Budgets Under Strain as Cyber Incidents Soar

Cyber Leaders’ Confidence in Their Organisation’s Defences Plummets, But Costs Mount

FBI Warns of Dual Ransomware as Data Destruction Dwell Times Hit Low of 24 Hours

Tech-Savvy Young Workers Might Be the Biggest Cyber Liability to Your Business

Half of Cyber Security Professionals Report Increase in Cyber Attacks, with 60% of Attacks Going Unreported

Global Cyber Survey Finds 50% Rise in Cyber Insurance Premiums

Evolving Conversations: Cyber Security as a Business Risk

Threats in Cloud Top the List of Executive Cyber Concerns

Over Half of Phishing Emails Now Use Obfuscation Tactics to Avoid Detection

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Artificial Intelligence

Malware