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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 09 December 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 09 December 2022:
-Economic Uncertainty Will Greatly Impact the Spread of Cyber Crime
-Cyber Security Resilience Emerges as Top Priority as 62% of Companies Say Security Incidents Impacted Business Operations
-Cyber Security Should Focus on Managing Risk
-Fear of Cyber Attacks Drives SMBs to Spend More on Software
-Business Email Compromise (BEC) Fraud Attacks Expand Beyond Email and Toward Mobile Devices
-Ransomware Professionalisation Grows as Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) Takes Hold
-Automated Dark Web Markets Sell Corporate Email Accounts For $2
-Cloud Hosting Provider Rackspace Warns of Phishing Risks Following Ransomware Attack
-Security Concerns Scupper Deals for Two-Thirds of Firms
-Microsoft Encourages 'Strong Cyber Hygiene' in Light of Increasing Russian 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
Economic Uncertainty Will Greatly Impact the Spread of Cyber Crime
Norton released its top cyber trends to watch in 2023, emphasising that the economy will have the greatest impact on the spread of cyber crime next year. Experts predict the pressures associated with economic uncertainty and rising costs will create the perfect environment for scammers to take advantage of people when they are more vulnerable.
It’s expected that cyber criminals will trick victims into surrendering personal information, emptying their bank accounts, or spending money for products, services or “lottery winnings” that never arrive. “We anticipate scammers will continue to prey on the vulnerability of people as economic pressures rise in 2023,” said Norton.
“Cyber criminals love to exploit seasonal opportunities, and consumers are facing a perfect storm of rising prices in the middle of the busiest shopping season of the year when scammers are particularly active. Scams are always harder to detect during the holiday season because consumers expect deep discounts and may believe prices that would normally seem too good to be true. This year, inflation and other unfavourable macroeconomic factors are likely to make people particularly eager to find good deals and they may therefore be at greater risk than in previous years. Taking a few proactive steps today could help you to be safer all year long.”
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/12/06/economic-uncertainty-cybercrime/
Cyber Security Resilience Emerges as Top Priority, as 62% of Companies Say Security Incidents Impacted Business Operations
Cyber security resilience is a top priority for companies as they look to defend against a rapidly evolving threat landscape, according to the latest edition of Cisco's annual Security Outcomes Report.
Resilience has emerged as a top priority as a staggering 62 percent of organisations surveyed said they had experienced a security event that impacted business in the past two years. The leading types of incidents were network or data breaches (51.5 percent), network or system outages (51.1 percent), ransomware events (46.7 percent) and distributed denial of service attacks (46.4 percent).
These incidents resulted in severe repercussions for the companies that experienced them, along with the ecosystem of organisations they do business with. The leading impacts cited include IT and communications interruption (62.6 percent), supply chain disruption (43 percent), impaired internal operations (41.4 percent) and lasting brand damage (39.7 percent).
With stakes this high, it is no surprise that 96 percent of executives surveyed for the report said that security resilience is high priority for them. The findings further highlight that the main objectives of security resilience for security leaders and their teams are to prevent incidents, and mitigate losses when they occur.
Technology is transforming businesses at a scale and speed never seen before. While this is creating new opportunities, it also brings with it challenges, especially on the security front. To be able to tackle these effectively, companies need the ability to anticipate, identify, and withstand cyber threats, and if breached be able to rapidly recover from one. That is what building resilience is all about.
Security, after all, is a risk business. As companies don't secure everything, everywhere, security resilience allows them to focus their security resources on the pieces of the business that add the most value to an organisation, and ensure that value is protected.
Cyber Security Should Focus on Managing Risk
Preventing all data breaches is an unrealistic goal. Instead, focus on finding and minimising the greatest risks.
There is a common misconception that all problems have clear, straightforward solutions — as long as you look hard enough. While this is a bold and ambitious goal, it's misguided when applied to cyber security. Organisations cannot prevent data breaches or cyberattacks altogether, and avoiding a breach or cyber incident is nearly impossible in the modern era. Organisations can, however, take steps to reduce an attack's negative impacts.
Eradicating risk is an impractical goal because you cannot "solve" something that constantly changes. To understand the risks you need to think like an attacker.
Threat actors are, first and foremost, opportunistic. They will always look for the easiest targets to maximise their financial gain. So intimately understanding an organisation's level of risk is the first step to managing and reducing it — and making yourself less of a target.
In line with Verizon’s "Data Breach Investigations Report" (DBIR) the four critical ways that threat actors most frequently use to compromise organisations large and small are credential compromise, phishing, vulnerability exploitation, and botnets, and these are the areas organisations should look reduce risks.
https://www.darkreading.com/edge-articles/cybersecurity-should-focus-on-managing-risk
Fear of Cyber Attacks Drives SMBs to Spend More on Software
Despite fears of a looming recession, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are spending more on software in 2023, according to Capterra’s 2023 SMB Software Buying Trends Survey. 75% of US SMBs estimate they’ll spend more on software in 2023 compared to 2022.
Alongside increased software budgets, Capterra’s survey of over 500 SMBs reveals four other major trends in software buying behaviours and challenges that will impact businesses in 2023:
Fearful of cyber attacks, US businesses rate security as a top motivator for software purchases
Implementation concerns are SMBs’ biggest purchase barrier
Most SMB software purchases are solely handled by IT, disregarding other important stakeholders
Customer reviews sway purchase decisions, and verified reviews are critical
Despite the expected increase in software investments, many US SMBs regret their technology purchases. 61% of US SMBs say they have buyer’s remorse over a technology purchase in the past 12-18 months. Inadequate support services (39%) and higher-than-anticipated costs (34%) are the top reasons behind such regrets.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/12/07/smbs-software-spending-2023/
Business Email Compromise (BEC) Fraud Attacks Expand Beyond Email and Toward Mobile Devices
Business email compromise (BEC) scams have been increasingly targeting mobile devices, particularly with SMS-focused attacks. According to a new advisory by cyber security specialists at Trustwave, the trend indicates a broader shift towards phishing scams via text messages.
“Phishing scams are prevalent in the SMS threat landscape, and now, BEC attacks are also going mobile,” reads the report. Trustwave further added that scammers typically obtain mobile numbers from data breaches, social media and data brokers, among other methods. After that, attackers ask victims for a wire transfer, send a copy of an aging report or change a payroll account, luring them into paying for something that should be reimbursed later (but never will).
BEC attacks will always be here so long as they remain profitable. Their continued profitability proves that employee cyber security behaviour is neglected and mismanaged by the compliance-based approach to security awareness.
Security culture needs a reformation that begins with transforming the human layer into an asset which, when empowered by the right training and platform, augments the protect-detect-respond pillars of the [National Institute of Standards and Technology] NIST framework.
Trustwave’s findings were also confirmed in SlashNext’s State of Phishing 2022 report, which recently highlighted a 50% increase in attacks on mobile devices, with scams and credential theft at the top of the list of payloads. The document also suggested 83% of organisations reported that mobile device threats had been growing more quickly than other device threats.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/bec-attacks-expand-toward-mobile/
Ransomware Professionalisation Grows as Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) Takes Hold
Ransomware groups are getting their acts together, growing in sophistication and business acumen while monetising ransomware beyond encryption, including double and triple extortion, as the market for ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) matures.
In first half of 2022, LockBit, Conti, Alphv, Black Basta, and Vice Society were among the most prolific ransomware gangs, focusing their attack on US-based organisations, according to a LookingGlass report on the topic.
The report confirmed and attributed 1,133 ransomware attacks in the first six months of the year and attributed 207 data leaks across all active threat actor groups throughout the same period. Of the more than 1,300 incidents, the bulk came from the top 15 most active ransomware groups, led by LockBit, Conti, and Alphv.
Ransomware gangs have primarily targeted two sectors during the analysis period: manufacturing and industrial products, followed by engineering and construction and healthcare and life sciences, with the consumer and retail industry rounding out the top five.
The report highlighted the rise of sophisticated software and networks as a principal contributor to the professionalisation of ransomware, with malicious actors now offering RaaS, bug bounties, sales teams, and even customer support.
“This new, more professional ransomware structure can only mean that the problem will continue to grow in the months ahead," the report noted. "We anticipate the adoption of more traditional business practices as the underground economy continues to remain robust”.
Automated Dark Web Markets Sell Corporate Email Accounts For $2
Cyber crime marketplaces are increasingly selling stolen corporate email addresses for as low as $2 to fill a growing demand by hackers who use them for business email compromise and phishing attacks or initial access to networks.
Analysts at Israeli cyber-intelligence firm KELA have closely followed this trend, reporting at least 225,000 email accounts for sale on underground markets.
The largest webmail shops are Xleet and Lufix, claiming to offer access to over 100k breached corporate email accounts, with prices ranging between $2 and $30, if not more, for highly-desirable organisations.
Typically, these accounts were stolen via password cracking (brute-forcing) or credential stuffing, had their credentials stolen through phishing, or were bought from other cyber criminals.
Hackers use their access to corporate email accounts in targeted attacks like business email compromise (BEC), social engineering, spear-phishing, and deeper network infiltration.
Cloud Hosting Provider Rackspace Warns of Phishing Risks Following Ransomware Attack
Cloud computing provider Rackspace warned customers on Thursday of increased risks of phishing attacks following a ransomware attack affecting its hosted Microsoft Exchange environment.
While the company is still investigating the incident and is working on bringing affected systems back online, it says that cyber criminals might also take advantage and exploit this incident for their own purposes.
"If you do receive a message from an individual you do not recognise, do not reply. Please login to your control panel and create a ticket, including details about the message you received," Rackspace said. "We understand that contact such as this may be alarming, but we currently have no evidence to suggest that you are at increased risk as a result of this direct contact."
Rackspace added that customers could easily spot scammers attempting to steal their sensitive information since:
Emails from Rackspace will be sent from @rackspace.com emails (although attackers might still use a spoofed email address and redirect their targets to a landing phishing page)
Rackspace support will not ask for login credentials or personal information (e.g., social security number, driver's license) during phone calls
Even though the company is yet to reveal if it has any evidence that the attackers have stolen data from its systems during the breach, customers were advised to remain vigilant and monitor their credit reports and banking account statements for suspicious activity.
Some customers are also reporting an increase in phishing emails impersonating Rackspace since the ransomware attack. Those affected by the Rackspace ransomware attack and outage should not open any suspicious email attachments or click any suspicious links.
Security Concerns Scupper Deals for Two-Thirds of Firms
Two-thirds (67%) of global organisations have admitted to losing out on acquiring potential customers due to concerns about their security posture, according to LogRhythm.
The security vendor polled 1175 security professionals and executives across five continents to compile its latest report, The State of the Security Team 2022. It found that security due diligence among customers and partners is increasingly rigorous.
Some 91% of respondents said that their security strategy must now align with customers’ security policies and standards, while 85% claimed their company must provide proof that they meet partners’ security requirements.
There was more worrying news from the report: 70% of respondents reported an increase in workplace stress for security teams, with nearly a third (30%) citing a “significant” increase. Among the key stress factors highlighted in the study were growing attack sophistication, greater responsibilities and increasing attack frequency.
Two-fifths (41%) claimed that better integrated solutions would help to relieve these pressures, while a similar number (42%) pointed to the need for more experienced security professionals. The latter would seem unlikely, given the coming recession’s likely impact on budgets, and persistent industry skills shortages. The gap is now 3.4 million globally, including 56,800 in the UK, a massive 73% year-on-year increase, according to ISC2.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/security-concerns-scupper-deals/
Microsoft Encourages 'Strong Cyber Hygiene' in Light of Increasing Russian Cyber Attacks
Microsoft is gearing up for a slew of Russian cyber attacks this winter, and warns others to stay vigilant. Between missiles, drones, and cyber attacks the onslaught against Ukraine has been a brutal one, and reportedly only set to get worse in the coming months.
"Moscow has intensified its multi-pronged hybrid technology approach to pressure the sources of Kyiv’s military and political support," says Microsoft in a recent blog post. "Recent attacks in Poland suggest that Russian state-sponsored cyber attacks may increasingly be used outside Ukraine in an effort to undermine foreign-based supply chains."
In late October, Russian forces were pushed from formerly occupied territory, retaliating with missile, drone, and cyber strikes that left much of Kyiv in need of simple running water.
The Russian group known to Microsoft as IRIDIUM (aka Sandworm) is thought to be working with the Russian intelligence service, the GRU, in coordinated efforts to inflict suffering on the people of Ukraine. The group has been at large for almost a decade, as Microsoft notes, "Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, IRIDIUM launched a series of wintertime operations against Ukrainian electricity providers, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of citizens in 2015 and 2016."
Threats
Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks
Ransomware Professionalization Grows as RaaS Takes Hold (darkreading.com)
Medibank share price slumps ahead of major shutdown and cyber security overhaul (fool.com.au)
Rackspace confirms ransomware behind days-long email outage • The Register
Vice Society: Profiling a Persistent Threat to the Education Sector (paloaltonetworks.com)
Wiper, Disguised as Fake Ransomware, Targets Russian Orgs (darkreading.com)
Never-before-seen malware is nuking data in Russia’s courts and mayors’ offices | Ars Technica
Rackspace rocked by ‘security incident’ in hosted Exchange • The Register
Open Source Ransomware Toolkit Cryptonite Turns Into Accidental Wiper Malware (thehackernews.com)
Understanding NIST CSF to assess your organisation's Ransomware readiness (thehackernews.com)
New Ransom Payment Schemes Target Executives, Telemedicine – Krebs on Security
South Pacific vacations may be wrecked by ransomware • The Register
Gartner: 5 Considerations for I&O Leaders Planning Against Ransomware Attacks - IT Security Guru
Intersport Data Posted On Hive Dark Web Blog - Information Security Buzz
Vice Society Ransomware Attackers Targeted Dozens of Schools in 2022 (thehackernews.com)
Education sector hit by Hive ransomware in November | TechTarget
Ransomware attack forces French hospital to transfer patients (bleepingcomputer.com)
CommonSpirit Health ransomware attack exposed data of 623,000 patients (bleepingcomputer.com)
Ransomware Gang Steals Employee and Customer Data From LJ Hooker (vice.com)
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Rackspace warns of phishing risks following ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
Phishing in the Cloud: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat (darkreading.com)
Phishing scammers impersonate WhatsApp by buying a top ad spot on Google | PC Gamer
How to Recognize Phishing Emails: Cyber security Experts Give Advice - WSJ
Investment Fraud Gang May Have Made $500m - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
BEC – Business Email Compromise
Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc
Infostealer Malware Market Booms, as MFA Fatigue Sets In (darkreading.com)
Hardening Identities With Phish-Resistant MFA (darkreading.com)
'I had £8,000 stolen but Revolut won't refund it' - BBC News
Malware
Infostealer Malware Market Booms, as MFA Fatigue Sets In (darkreading.com)
Malware Authors Inadvertently Take Down Own Botnet (darkreading.com)
Artifact Poisoning in GitHub Actions Imports Malware via Software Pipelines (darkreading.com)
Mobile
Code of practice for app store operators and app developers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Android malware apps with 2 million installs spotted on Google Play (bleepingcomputer.com)
Privacy changes set Apple at odds with UK government over online safety bill | Apple | The Guardian
Android malware infected 300,000 devices to steal Facebook accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)
Android December 2022 security updates fix 81 vulnerabilities (bleepingcomputer.com)
Telcom and BPO Companies Under Attack by SIM Swapping Hackers (thehackernews.com)
Darknet's Largest Mobile Malware Marketplace Threatens Users Worldwide (thehackernews.com)
SIM swapper gets 18-months for involvement in $22 million crypto heist (bleepingcomputer.com)
Compromised Android keys used to sign info-stealing malware • The Register
Largest mobile malware marketplace identified by Resecurity in the Dark Web - Security Affairs
Internet of Things – IoT
How IoT is changing the threat landscape for businesses - Help Net Security
What's the Matter with digital trust in smart home devices? - Help Net Security
Security Risks Found in Millions of XIoT Devices - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Self-Propagating 'Zerobot' Botnet Targeting Spring4Shell, IoT Vulnerabilities | SecurityWeek.Com
Data Breaches/Leaks
Popular HR and Payroll Company Sequoia Discloses a Data Breach | WIRED
Personal data of 10,000 Australians found for sale online | 7NEWS
Stolen data of 600,000 Indians sold on bot markets so far - study | Reuters
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Of Exploits and Experts: The Professionalization of Cyber Crime (darkreading.com)
Economic uncertainty will greatly impact the spread of cyber crime - Help Net Security
Automated dark web markets sell corporate email accounts for $2 (bleepingcomputer.com)
DHS Cyber Safety Board to review Lapsus$ gang’s hacking tactics (bleepingcomputer.com)
BlackProxies proxy service increasingly popular among hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Chart: Cyber crime Expected To Skyrocket in Coming Years | Statista
Metaparasites: The cyber criminals who rip each other off • Graham Cluley
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
North Korean Hackers Spread AppleJeus Malware Disguised as Cryptocurrency Apps (thehackernews.com)
Microsoft: Hackers target cryptocurrency firms over Telegram (bleepingcomputer.com)
UK finalises plans for regulation of ‘wild west’ crypto sector | Financial Times (ft.com)
North Korean Lazarus Group Linked to New Cryptocurrency Hacking Scheme – Security Bitcoin News
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Even cyber criminals fall for online scams: $2.5m last year • The Register
'I had £8,000 stolen but Revolut won't refund it' - BBC News
Suspects arrested for hacking US networks to steal employee data (bleepingcomputer.com)
Australia arrests 'Pig Butchering' suspects for stealing $100 million (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cyber criminals are scamming each other, tipping off law enforcement - Help Net Security
Elon Musk "Freedom Giveaway" crypto scam promoted via Twitter lists (bleepingcomputer.com)
SIM swapper gets 18-months for involvement in $22 million crypto heist (bleepingcomputer.com)
Metaparasites: The cyber criminals who rip each other off • Graham Cluley
Investment Fraud Gang May Have Made $500m - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Deepfakes
AML/CFT/Sanctions
Insurance
What you should know when considering cyber insurance in 2023 | CSO Online
Cyber Insurance Policy Underwriting Explained (trendmicro.com)
Dark Web
Supply Chain and Third Parties
Antwerp's city services down after hackers attack digital partner (bleepingcomputer.com)
Transport And Shipping Beware – Supply Chains Under Attack - Information Security Buzz
Popular HR and Payroll Company Sequoia Discloses a Data Breach | WIRED
Software Supply Chain
Denial of Service DoS/DDoS
3 Types Of DDoS Attack Types You Should Care About - Information Security Buzz
Microsoft warning after DDoS attack disrupts Russian bank • The Register
Cloud/SaaS
Phishing in the Cloud: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat (darkreading.com)
How to implement least privilege access in the cloud | TechTarget
Hybrid/Remote Working
Encryption
WhatsApp raises threat of UK shutdown in encryption row (telegraph.co.uk)
Governments want to avert quantum's encryption apocalypse (axios.com)
API
Open Source
Ping of death! FreeBSD fixes crashtastic bug in network tool – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Research reveals where 95% of open source vulnerabilities lie - Help Net Security
Critical Ping Vulnerability Allows Remote Attackers to Take Over FreeBSD Systems (thehackernews.com)
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
Social Media
Taiwan bans state-owned devices from running TikTok • The Register
Critical Vulnerabilities Force Twitter Alternative Hive Social Offline | SecurityWeek.Com
Does Hive's Security Problem Make It Unsafe to Use? (lifehacker.com)
Elon Musk "Freedom Giveaway" crypto scam promoted via Twitter lists (bleepingcomputer.com)
US States label TikTok a malicious and menacing threat • The Register
Training, Education and Awareness
Engage your employees with better cyber security training - Help Net Security
Lack of Cyber security Expertise Poses Threat for Public-Safety Orgs (darkreading.com)
4 cyber security predictions for 2023 --- SANS analysts look ahead | VentureBeat
Parental Controls and Child Safety
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
UK finalises plans for regulation of ‘wild west’ crypto sector | Financial Times (ft.com)
What Stricter Data Privacy Laws Mean for Your Cyber security Policies (thehackernews.com)
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Cyber security Risk Management In The Real World - Information Security Buzz
Economic uncertainty will greatly impact the spread of cyber crime - Help Net Security
Models, Frameworks and Standards
Understanding NIST CSF to assess your organisation's Ransomware readiness (thehackernews.com)
PCI Secure Software Standard 1.2 released - Help Net Security
How compliance leaders can encourage employees to report misconduct - Help Net Security
The changing role of the MITRE ATT@CK framework | CSO Online
Don't Wait to Become CMMC Compliant - Information Security Buzz
Three Ways to Improve Defence Readiness Using MITRE D3FEND | SecurityWeek.Com
Data Protection
Remote workers losing laptops are bigger threat to companies than hackers (telegraph.co.uk)
How companies time data leak disclosures - Help Net Security
What Stricter Data Privacy Laws Mean for Your Cyber security Policies (thehackernews.com)
Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
Suspects arrested for hacking US networks to steal employee data (bleepingcomputer.com)
Australia arrests 'Pig Butchering' suspects for stealing $100 million (bleepingcomputer.com)
Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring
Apple Faces Critics Over Its Privacy Policies | SecurityWeek.Com
Privacy changes set Apple at odds with UK government over online safety bill | Apple | The Guardian
Apple announces new security and privacy measures amid surge in cyber-attacks | Apple | The Guardian
Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
NATO Readies for Cyber War: Simulation Shows Unified Front Against Attack - MSSP Alert
Microsoft warns of Russian cyber attacks throughout the winter (bleepingcomputer.com)
Microsoft warning after DDoS attack disrupts Russian bank • The Register
Russian Espionage APT Callisto Focuses on Ukraine War Support Organisations | SecurityWeek.Com
Russian Actors Use Compromised Healthcare Networks Against Ukrainian Orgs (darkreading.com)
Security Firms Aiding Ukraine During War Could Be Considered Participants in Conflict (substack.com)
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
Microsoft encourages 'strong cyber hygiene' in light of increasing Russian cyber attacks | PC Gamer
Russian Hackers Spotted Targeting US Military Weapons and Hardware Supplier (thehackernews.com)
The surprising ineffectiveness of Russia’s cyber-war | The Economist
Nation State Actors – China
Chinese Hackers Target Middle East Telecoms in Latest Cyber Attacks (thehackernews.com)
Chinese hackers stole millions worth of US COVID relief money, Secret Service says | Reuters
Amnesty International Canada breached by suspected Chinese hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)
China Operates More Than 100 Secret 'Police Stations' Globally: Report (businessinsider.com)
US Congress rolls back proposal to restrict use of Chinese chips | Computerworld
Nation State Actors – North Korea
North Korean tech freelancers' earnings fund nukes, missiles • The Register
North Korean Hackers Spread AppleJesus Malware Disguised as Cryptocurrency Apps (thehackernews.com)
Google Documents IE Browser Zero-Day Exploited by North Korean Hackers | SecurityWeek.Com
APT37 Uses Internet Explorer Zero-Day to Spread Malware (darkreading.com)
Google: State hackers still exploiting Internet Explorer zero-days (bleepingcomputer.com)
North Korean Lazarus Group Linked to New Cryptocurrency Hacking Scheme – Security Bitcoin News
Nation State Actors – Iran
Vulnerabilities
Attackers take over expired domain to deliver web skimming scripts - Help Net Security
Google discovers Windows exploit framework used to deploy spyware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cisco discloses high-severity IP phone bug with exploit code (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google Chrome emergency update fixes 9th zero-day of the year (bleepingcomputer.com)
Google Documents IE Browser Zero-Day Exploited by North Korean Hackers | SecurityWeek.Com
For Cyber attackers, Popular EDR Tools Can Turn into Destructive Data Wipers (darkreading.com)
A new Linux flaw can be chained with other two bugs to gain full root privileges - Security Affairs
Self-Propagating 'Zerobot' Botnet Targeting Spring4Shell, IoT Vulnerabilities | SecurityWeek.Com
Google Chrome Flaw Added to CISA Patch List (darkreading.com)
Fortinet Patches High-Severity Authentication Bypass Vulnerability in FortiOS | SecurityWeek.Com
Research reveals where 95% of open source vulnerabilities lie - Help Net Security
Critical Ping Vulnerability Allows Remote Attackers to Take Over FreeBSD Systems (thehackernews.com)
Google: State hackers still exploiting Internet Explorer zero-days (bleepingcomputer.com)
APT37 Uses Internet Explorer Zero-Day to Spread Malware (darkreading.com)
WAFs of Several Major Vendors Bypassed With Generic Attack Method | SecurityWeek.Com
Google Chrome zero-day exploited in the wild (CVE-2022-4262) - Help Net Security
Sophos fixed a critical flaw in its Sophos Firewall version 19.5 - Security Affairs
Tools and Controls
Security pros feel threat detection and response workloads have increased - Help Net Security
Single Sign-on: It's Only as Good as Your Ability to Use It (darkreading.com)
Leveraging the full potential of zero trust - Help Net Security
Understanding malware analysis and its challenges | TechTarget
Using XDR to Consolidate and Optimize Cyber security Technology (thehackernews.com)
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
Over 4,000 Vulnerable Pulse Connect Secure Hosts Exposed to Internet | SecurityWeek.Com
Where Advanced Cyber attackers Are Heading Next: Disruptive Hits, New Tech (darkreading.com)
43 Trillion Security Data Points Illuminate Our Most Pressing Threats (darkreading.com)
7 reasons why you must embed trust into the core of your business - Help Net Security
Risky online behaviour ‘almost normalised’ among young people, says study | Internet | The Guardian
Top 7 factors boosting enterprise cyber security resilience - Help Net Security
Machine Learning Models: A Dangerous New Attack Vector (darkreading.com)
Consumers want convenience without sacrificing security - Help Net Security
4 cyber security predictions for 2023 --- SANS analysts look ahead | VentureBeat
3 of the Worst Data Breaches in the World That Could Have Been Prevented - Security Affairs
Removing the Barriers to Security Automation Implementation | SecurityWeek.Com
Cyber security Should Focus on Managing Risk (darkreading.com)
Deal with sophisticated bot attacks: Learn, adapt, improve - Help Net Security
Want to detect Cobalt Strike? Look to process memory • The Register
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
· Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
· Defence & Space
· Education & Academia
· Energy & Utilities
· Estate Agencies
· Financial Services
· FinTech
· Food & Agriculture
· Gaming & Gambling
· Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)
· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 October 2022
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 October 2022:
-‘Biggest Cyber Risk Is Complacency, Not Hackers’ - UK Information Commissioner Issues Warning as Construction Company Fined £4.4 Million
-Ransomware Threat Shifts from US to EMEA and APAC
-Phishing Attacks Increase by Over 31% In Third Quarter
-UK Urged to Watch for Fraud as People Aim to Make Extra Cash in Cost of Living Crisis
-HR Departments Play a Key Role in Cyber Security
-The Long-Term Psychological Effects of Ransomware Attacks
-7 Hidden Social Media Cyber Risks for Enterprises
-54% of Staff Would Reconsider Working for a Firm That Had Experienced a Cyber Breach, Research Finds
-Evolve as Fast as the Cyber Criminals: Protect Your Business Now, Before it’s Too Late
-Enterprise Ransomware Preparedness Improving but Still Lacking
-Why Are There So Many Data Breaches? A Growing Industry of Criminals is Brokering in Stolen Data
-How The "pizza123" Password Could Take Down an Organisation
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
‘Biggest Cyber Risk Is Complacency, Not Hackers’ - UK Information Commissioner Issues Warning as Construction Company Fined £4.4 Million
The UK Information Commissioner has warned that companies are leaving themselves open to cyber attack by ignoring crucial measures like updating software and training staff.
The warning comes as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a fine of £4,400,000 to Interserve Group Ltd, a Berkshire based construction company, for failing to keep personal information of its staff secure. This is a breach of data protection law.
The ICO found that the company failed to put appropriate security measures in place to prevent a cyber attack, which enabled hackers to access the personal data of up to 113,000 employees through a phishing email.
The compromised data included personal information such as contact details, national insurance numbers, and bank account details, as well as special category data including ethnic origin, religion, details of any disabilities, sexual orientation, and health information.
John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said:
“The biggest cyber risk businesses face is not from hackers outside of their company, but from complacency within their company. If your business doesn't regularly monitor for suspicious activity in its systems and fails to act on warnings, or doesn't update software and fails to provide training to staff, you can expect a similar fine from my office.
“Leaving the door open to cyber attackers is never acceptable, especially when dealing with people’s most sensitive information. This data breach had the potential to cause real harm to Interserve’s staff, as it left them vulnerable to the possibility of identity theft and financial fraud.
“Cyber attacks are a global concern, and businesses around the world need to take steps to guard against complacency. The ICO and NCSC already work together to offer advice and support to businesses, and this week I will be meeting with regulators from around the world, to work towards consistent international cyber guidance so that people’s data is protected wherever a company is based.”
Ransomware Threat Shifts from US to EMEA and APAC
The volume of ransomware detections in Q3 2022 was the lowest in two years, but certain geographical regions have become bigger targets as attacks on US organisations wane, according to SonicWall. The security vendor used its own threat detection network, including over one million security sensors in more than 200 countries, to reveal the current landscape.
The good news is that global malware volumes have remained flat for the past three quarters, amounting to a total of over four billion detections in the year to date. Of these, ransomware is also trending down after a record-breaking 2021. Even so, SonicWall detected 338 million compromise attempts in the first three quarters of the year.
Year-to-date ransomware attempts in 2022 have already exceeded the full-year totals from four of the past five years, the vendor claimed. While attacks on US organisations dipped by 51% year-on-year during the period, they increased significantly in the UK (20%), EMEA (38%) and APAC (56%).
The cyber-warfare battlefront continues to shift, posing dangerous threats to organisations of all sizes. With expanding attack surfaces, growing numbers of threats and the current geopolitical landscape, it should be no surprise that even the most seasoned IT professional can feel overwhelmed.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-threat-shifts-from-us/
Phishing Attacks Increase by Over 31% In Third Quarter
Email security and threat detection company Vade has found that phishing emails in the third quarter this year increased by more than 31% quarter on quarter, with the number of emails containing malware in the first three quarters surpassing the 2021 level by 55.8 million.
Malware emails in the third quarter of 2022 alone increased by 217% compared to same period in 2021. Malware email volume peaked in July, reaching 19.2 million, before month-over-month declines in August and September, with numbers dropping to 16.8 million and 16.5 million respectively.
According to the report, email is the preferred attack vector for phishing and malware, as it gives hackers a direct channel to users, the weakest link in an organisation’s attack surface. The report analyses phishing and malware data captured by Vade, which does business internationally.
As attacks become more sophisticated, Vade said, they also become increasingly capable of evading the basic security offered by email providers, which almost eight in 10 businesses still rely on, according to Vade’s research.
While the activity of threat actors fluctuates, Vade’s research found that impersonating trusted and established brands remains the most popular strategy for hackers. In the third quarter of 2022, Facebook was the most impersonated brand for the second consecutive quarter, followed by Google, MTB, PayPal, and Microsoft.
The financial services sector remains the most impersonated industry, representing 32% of phishing emails detected by Vade, followed by cloud at 25%, social media at 22%, and internet/telco at 13%.
As phishing attacks increase, the techniques used by threat actors continue to evolve. While phishing campaigns were traditionally large scale and random, more recent campaigns seen by Vade suggest that hackers have pivoted to using more targeted campaigns.
UK Urged to Watch for Fraud as People Aim to Make Extra Cash in Cost of Living Crisis
Brits have been warned to “stay alert for fraud” as more people are out to make extra cash as the cost of living rises across the country.
UK Finance said that more than half (56%) of people admitted that they are likely to look for opportunities to make extra money in the coming months, which could leave some people more susceptible to fraud.
According to the trade association’s Take Five To Stop Fraud campaign, one in six, or 16%, of people said the rising cost of living means they are more likely to respond to an unprompted approach from someone offering an investment opportunity or a loan.
Young people were more likely to be at risk, the data suggested, which surveyed 2,000 people across the UK. More than a third (34%) of 18 to 34-year-olds said they are more likely to respond to an unprompted approach from someone, with three in 10 (30%) also more likely to provide their personal or financial details to secure the arrangement.
Overall, three in five people (60%) said they are concerned about falling victim to financial fraud or a scam. It comes as recent figures from UK Finance showed that £609.8m was lost due to fraud and scams in the first half of this year.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-watch-for-fraud-extra-cash-cost-of-living-crisis-230154352.html
HR Departments Play a Key Role in Cyber Security
A common shortcoming of human resources (HR) departments is that — despite being an operation designed to put humans at the centre of how an organisation is run — they often fail to adequately align with their IT counterparts and the core technology systems that define how a business is run and protected from cyber-risk.
Insufficient coordination between HR and IT processes and procedures remains common and gives rise to security gaps that can represent some of the most dangerous vulnerabilities on a company's attack surface. Let's examine the scope of the challenge and some key cyber-asset management priorities that can close the schism for a more robust cyber security posture.
Gone are the days when HR's role in securing the enterprise relied on basic tutorials for employees about protecting passwords on company equipment. Today's threat environment intersects with the workforce in more ways than ever — from bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and authentication gaps to user vulnerabilities that make spear-phishing seem quaint. Traditional social engineering attacks are now being augmented by zero-click exploits that compromise employee devices without the user ever having to click a link or take any action at all.
Beyond malicious threats, even routine HR processes can introduce risk to the organisation when they're not adequately aligned with the IT processes in an organisation. As just one example, when an employee leaves a company, the offboarding goes far beyond just the exit interview to also include removing access to multiple enterprise systems, accounts, and devices — all of which require close coordination between HR and IT personnel and systems.
To better secure the enterprise, it's mission-critical to get HR and IT more united in a common and advanced understanding of cyber hygiene and risk mitigation. This relies on enhanced awareness of the impact that HR processes have on cyber assets in other parts of the organisation, as well as the HR role in access management for employees and contractors. This requires asset visibility that must be ongoing and in real time, since our roles, devices, and access to data and systems may change multiple times over the course of our employment.
https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/hr-departments-play-a-key-role-in-cybersecurity
The Long-Term Psychological Effects of Ransomware Attacks
Northwave has conducted scientific research into the psychological effects of a ransomware crisis on both organisations and individuals. The findings reveal the deep marks that a ransomware crisis leaves on all those affected. It also shows how their IT and security teams can turn in disarray long after the crisis itself has passed.
The research reveals how the psychological impact of ransomware attacks can persist on people in affected organisations for a very long time. It shows that crisis team members may develop serious symptoms far later. Top management and HR need to take measures against this, in fact right from the very beginning of the crisis. They are the ones bearing responsibility for the well-being of their staff.
They also discovered how teams have fallen apart some time after the crisis, with members leaving or staying home on sick-leave. The study reveals that effects can linger throughout the organisation. All in all the investigation shows that this invisible impact of a cyber crisis is an issue for the general business management, and certainly also for HR.
Northwave regards the response to a cyber attack as occurring in three phases. First comes the actual crisis situation, which evolves into an incident phase after about a week. A plan of action is then in place, and recovery measures are launched. The fire has been largely extinguished after a month or so, with the first (basic) functionalities available again.
Full recovery can take one to two years. Each phase has its specific effects on the minds and bodies of those involved, and by extension, on the organisation or parts of it. “On average a company is down for three weeks following a malware attack,” notes Van der Beijl. “But it surprised us that the impact persists for so long afterwards. Psychological issues are still surfacing a year after the actual crisis.”
One of every seven employees involved in the attack, either directly or indirectly, exhibits severe enough symptoms several months later, at a level considered to be above the clinical threshold at which professional trauma treatment help is needed. One in five employees say they would actually have needed more professional help subsequently in coming to terms with the attack. One in three liked to have more knowledge and concrete tools to deal with the psychological effects of the attack.
A ransomware attack has enduring psychological effects on the way employees view the world. Two-thirds of employees, including those not actually involved in the attack, now believe the world is less safe. As one IT manager pointed out, “I’ve become far more suspicious. The outside world is a dangerous place.”
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/25/psychological-effects-ransomware/
7 Hidden Social Media Cyber Risks for Enterprises
Whether they use it to amplify the brand, recruit new employees, advertise new products, or even sell directly to consumers, corporate brands love social media.
According to recent figures, brand advertising on social media is up by 53% in the last year, and that's not accounting for further investments that brands are making in developing and distributing content. They're pushing viral videos, funny memes, podcasts, written material, and more to increase engagement with their customers.
And brands are doing it across not only the old reliable social networks like Facebook and Twitter, but also emerging platforms like TikTok. In fact, according to another recent study, in 2022 marketers are expanding their horizons, with their increased content investments focused on areas like live streaming, long-form and short-form video content, virtual reality and augmented reality content, experimental content, and live audio chat rooms. The top platforms they're focused on most for increasing spending are now TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
With the broadening of these social-media marketing strategies comes more risk. Whether an organisation uses social media to amplify its brand, or its executives and employees leverage social channels to bolster their professional and personal brands, these marketing platforms are a breeding ground for a wide range of cyber attacks and scams, including in the areas of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and biometrics.
Cyber criminals, fraudsters, spies, and activists work around the clock to take advantage of emerging attack surfaces that arise from enterprise use of social media. The article below presents just a few avenues that organisations may overlook when they double-down on their social media investments.
https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/7-hidden-social-media-cyber-risks-enterprises
54% of Staff Would Reconsider Working for a Firm That Had Experienced a Cyber Breach, Research Finds
Over half (54%) of office workers would reconsider working for a company that had recently experienced a cyber breach. That's according to a new study by cyber security technology provider, Encore.
An independent study of 100 C-level executives, 100 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and 500 office workers in the US and the UK, conducted by Censuswide, sought to uncover the gap that remains between boards and security teams when it comes to addressing cyber demands.
Only a third (33%) of staff said they would be "completely unphased" if their employer suffered a cyber break-in. The majority (57%) of C-level executives polled said they have been breached in the last 12 months alone. Most office workers, however, were unaware, with only 39% believing their organisation had been the victim of a successful attack.
The immediate financial cost of a cyber-attack remains the number one concern for businesses, but security teams are learning that there is a long tail to these breaches, with employees at risk of losing faith in their company, its ethics and values and its overarching responsibilities to the general public. In a competitive market, this is a stark warning to businesses across the world. Keeping your staff in the dark about cyber risk is a fundamental error, not to mention the additional impact of delayed disclosure to customers.
41% of C-level executives polled named reputational damage as one of the biggest costs to their business following a cyber-attack, with 34% agreeing that loss of clientele or their trust was a significant cost.
Despite many admitting to suffering a cyber breach in the last year, the overwhelming majority (92%) of CISOs and C-level executives polled believe their business is secure at any given moment. Encore believes that a mindset shift is needed at an organisational level, treating cyber incidents and the security of employee and customer data as a fundamental part of normal business operations, not a function that sits on the outside, looking in.
Evolve as Fast as the Cyber Criminals: Protect Your Business Now, Before It’s Too Late
According to the 2022 Cyber Threat Report, 2021 saw a global average increase of 105% in the number of ransomware attacks. Proofpoint's 2022 State of the Phish report said that a staggering 82% of UK businesses that experienced a ransomware attack sent payment to the cyber criminals – believing this was the cheapest and easiest way to regain access to their data. However, in many cases criminals simply took the payment without restoring access and the organisation finds itself on criminal target lists as it has demonstrated that attacks pay off. Even when decryption keys are handed over it can take an extended period of time to restore data.
One attack, on a hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany, was implicated in the death of a patient who had to be diverted to an alternative site as the A&E department had been forced to close due to the loss of core computer systems. It appears that the attack had been misdirected, and the hackers – who were quickly apprehended by the police – handed over the encryption keys immediately when they realised what had happened. Nevertheless, the decryption process was slow. It began in the early hours of September 11 and by September 20 the hospital was still unable to add or retrieve information, or even send emails. 30 servers had been corrupted.
The methods and techniques required to conduct a cyber-attack have never been more accessible. Whether it is on the darknet or through open-source content, the ability to purchase material that allows a malicious user to conduct a cyber-attack is readily available. Conducting a ransomware attack and using it to extort money from companies and government services alike, is now viewed as a viable business model by organised criminals.
Enterprise Ransomware Preparedness Improving but Still Lacking
The majority of organisations have made ransomware preparedness a top-five business priority, yet only half believe their preparedness is stronger than it was two years ago. That is according to a recent survey, "The Long Road Ahead to Ransomware Preparedness" by Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget.
Despite warnings and available preparedness resources, ransomware continues to distress companies. Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents said they suffered a successful attack within the last year, and 73% reported they had one or more attacks that caused negative financial impact or disrupted business operations in the same time period.
The good news is the board and the C-suite are finally getting the message that more needs to be done to address impending ransomware attempts. In fact, 79% of respondents said business leaders made ransomware preparedness a top business priority, and 82% of organisations plan to invest more in ransomware preparedness over the next 12 to 18 months.
With preparedness investments expected to grow, the survey asked how organisations currently tackle ransomware. Respondents said the most important prevention tactics involve efforts in the following:
network security (43%)
backup infrastructure security (40%)
endpoint security (39%)
email security (36%)
data encryption (36%)
Ongoing activities cited included data recovery testing, employee security awareness training, response readiness assessments, incident response functional exercises, penetration testing, incident planning and playbook development, phishing simulation programs, tabletop exercises, and blue/red/purple team engagements.
Why Are There So Many Data Breaches? A Growing Industry of Criminals is Brokering in Stolen Data
New details have emerged on the severity of the Australian Medibank hack, which has now affected all users. Optus, Medibank, Woolworths, and, last Friday, electricity provider Energy Australia are all now among the Australian household names that have fallen victim to a data breach.
If it seems like barely a week goes by without news of another incident like this, you would be right. Cyber crime is on the rise – seven major Australian businesses were affected by data breaches in the past month alone.
But why now? And who is responsible for this latest wave of cyber attacks?
In large part, the increasing number of data breaches is being driven by the growth of a global illicit industry that trades in your data. In particular, hackers known as “initial access brokers” specialise in illegally gaining access to victim networks and then selling this access to other cyber criminals.
Hackers and initial access brokers are just one part of a complex and diversifying cyber crime ecosystem. This ecosystem contains various cyber criminal groups who increasingly specialise in one particular aspect of online crime and then work together to carry out the attacks.
Ransomware attacks are complex, involving up to nine different stages. These include gaining access to a victim’s network, stealing data, encrypting a victim’s network, and issuing a ransom demand. Increasingly, these attacks are carried out not by lone cyber criminal groups, but rather by networks of different cyber crime groups, each of which specialises in a different stage of the attack.
Initial access brokers will often carry out the first stage of a ransomware attack. Described by Google’s Threat Analysis Group as “the opportunistic locksmiths of the security world”, it’s their job to gain access to a victim’s network.
How The "pizza123" Password Could Take Down an Organisation
Criminal hackers took responsibility for a recent FastCompany breach, saying they exploited an easily guessed default password, "pizza123." The business magazine reused the weak password across a dozen WordPress accounts, according to the hackers, who described the attack in their own article on FastCompany.com before the publication took the site down.
The breach, the bitter taste of pizza123, and the plight of malicious push notifications, demand caution when selecting and managing passwords.
The hackers claimed to have used the vulnerable password pizza123 to access authentication tokens, Apple News API keys, and Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) tokens. Then they sent offensive push notifications to the home screens of subscribers of the FastCompany channel on the Apple News service.
After decades of investment in sculpting the organisation's brand image, a business can watch its reputation flounder in the face of an obscene push notification. The sentiment of millions of faithful customers can turn sour in an instant. By the time organisations block the messages and make public apologies, the harm is done.
Customers can swap to a competitor, or even sue for the offence when they have entrusted a publisher to provide safe content. Regulatory bodies can fine organisations. The company can spend time and money defending itself in court and restoring its image. But malicious push notifications can do a lot worse than offend customers—criminal hackers can load messages with malware and infect consumer devices, leading to privacy violations and consumer financial fraud.
People often build passwords using the first word that comes to mind and a brief series of numbers. Pizza123 is a perfect example of an easy-to-guess password. Employees will create passwords already appearing on breached password lists. Criminal hackers use brute force attacks to confirm working passwords from the same lists.
Nearly two-thirds of employees reuse their passwords. The more they reuse them across business and personal accounts, the more likely criminal hackers will breach them and test them on the organisation. Hackers know to try the same passwords on different companies they hack because of password reuse.
Robust password management enables fine-grained password policies and policy customisation. With a custom password policy, organisations can increase complexity requirements, like length and previous-password change minimums. A custom password policy with increased complexity requirements will block 95% of weak and breached passwords.
Password length is a particularly critical component of strong passwords. Ninety-three percent of the passwords used in brute force attacks include eight or more characters. A custom password policy can require a minimum password length, decreasing password entropy.
Threats
Ransomware and Extortion
SonicWall: Ransomware down this year, but there’s a catch • The Register
Health insurer Medibank's infosec diagnosis is getting worse • The Register
Microsoft links Raspberry Robin worm to Clop ransomware attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
How to detect Windows worm that now distributes ransomware • The Register
Ransomware Barrage Aimed at US Healthcare Sector, Feds Warn (darkreading.com)
BlackByte ransomware affiliate also steals victims' data • The Register
Cuba ransomware affiliate targets Ukraine, CERT-UA warns - Security Affairs
OldGremlin Ransomware Fierce Comeback Against Russian Targets (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
CISA warns of ransomware attacks on healthcare providers (techtarget.com)
Ransom Cartel - REvil Rebrand? (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Addressing Ransomware in Hospitals & Medical Devices (trendmicro.com)
Australian Clinical Labs says patient data stolen in ransomware attack (bleepingcomputer.com)
Vice Society Hackers Confess To Education Sector Ransomware Attacks (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Why Ransomware in Education on the Rise and What That Means for 2023 (thehackernews.com)
Largest EU copper producer Aurubis suffers cyber attack, IT outage (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hive Ransomware Hackers Begin Leaking Data Stolen from Tata Power Energy Company (thehackernews.com)
Ransomware Gangs Ramp Up Industrial Attacks in US (darkreading.com)
Phishing & Email Based Attacks
Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc
Social engineering attacks anybody could fall victim to - Help Net Security
Twilio Says Employees Targeted in Separate Smishing, Vishing Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com
Malware
Threat Groups Repurpose Banking Trojans into Backdoors (darkreading.com)
Types of cloud malware and how to defend against them (techtarget.com)
Chrome extensions with 1 million installs hijack targets’ browsers (bleepingcomputer.com)
Hackers use Microsoft IIS web server logs to control malware (bleepingcomputer.com)
Mobile
Internet of Things – IoT
IoT Fingerprinting Helps Authenticate and Secure All Those Devices (darkreading.com)
IoT security strategy from enterprises using connected devices | Network World
Your CCTV devices can be hacked and weaponized - Help Net Security
Data Breaches/Leaks
Thomson Reuters leaked at least 3TB of sensitive data | Cybernews
See Tickets discloses 2.5 years-long credit card theft breach (bleepingcomputer.com)
Twilio discloses another hack from June, blames voice phishing (bleepingcomputer.com)
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
Ukrainian charged for operating Raccoon Stealer malware service (bleepingcomputer.com)
Interpol says metaverse opens up new world of cyber crime | Reuters
From Bounty to Exploit Observations About Cyber criminal Contests (trendmicro.com)
Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain
Purpleurchin: Cryptocurrency miners scour GitHub, Heroku • The Register
Cryptomining campaign abused free GitHub account trials (techtarget.com)
Insider Risk and Insider Threats
Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime
Dealers Report Dramatic Increase in Identity Fraud: Most Lack Effective Protection (darkreading.com)
LinkedIn Releases New Security Features To Combat Fraud (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Beware Of SCAMS As Cost Of Living Bites Finances, Expert Comments (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Insurance
Health insurer Medibank's infosec diagnosis is getting worse • The Register
Cyber Insurance Market 2022: FAQs & Updates with iBynd (trendmicro.com)
Dark Web
Notorious ‘BestBuy’ hacker arraigned for running dark web market (bleepingcomputer.com)
Student arrested for running one of Germany’s largest dark web markets (bleepingcomputer.com)
British hacker arraigned for running The Real Deal dark web marketplace - Security Affairs
Software Supply Chain
How the Software Supply Chain Security is Threatened by Hackers (thehackernews.com)
Open Source Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Software Supply Chain Security (darkreading.com)
Consumer behaviours are the root of open source risk - Help Net Security
Denial of Service DoS/DDoS
Key observations on DDoS attacks in H1 2022 - Help Net Security
Meet the Windows servers that have been fuelling massive DDoSes for months | Ars Technica
Cloud/SaaS
Everything you Need to Know about Cloud Hacking and its Methodologies (analyticsinsight.net)
Top Cloud Security Challenges & How to Beat Them (trendmicro.com)
Atlassian Vulnerabilities Highlight Criticality of Cloud Services (darkreading.com)
Threat Actors Target AWS EC2 Workloads to Steal Credentials (trendmicro.com)
Cloud and Hybrid Working Security Concerns Surge - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
4 Reasons Open Source Matters for Cloud Security (darkreading.com)
Cloud Providers Throw Their Weight Behind Confidential Computing (darkreading.com)
Hybrid Working
Balancing remote work privacy vs. productivity monitoring (techtarget.com)
Cloud and Hybrid Working Security Concerns Surge - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Attack Surface Management
Attack Surface Management 2022 Midyear Review Part 2 (trendmicro.com)
Asset risk management: Getting the basics right - Help Net Security
Encryption
New Critical Vuln In Component That Allow Encryption Across Internet - (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
API
Open Source
Open Source Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Software Supply Chain Security (darkreading.com)
4 Reasons Open Source Matters for Cloud Security (darkreading.com)
Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks
Why it's time to expire mandatory password expiration policies (techtarget.com)
Feds say Ukrainian man running malware service amassed 50M unique credentials | Ars Technica
Biometrics
Social Media
LinkedIn Phishing Spoof Bypasses Google Workspace Security (darkreading.com)
LinkedIn's new security features combat fake profiles, threat actors (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cyber security event cancelled after scammers disrupt LinkedIn live chat (bitdefender.com)
Expert Opinion: What Does Musk's Takeover Mean For Cyber security? (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Cyber attackers Target Instagram Users With Threats of Copyright Infringement (darkreading.com)
Cyber Bullying, Cyber Stalking and Sextortion
Regulations, Fines and Legislation
Data Protection
Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs
Spyware, Cyber Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Ukraine: Russian cyber attacks aimless and opportunistic (techtarget.com)
Unknown Actors are Deploying RomCom RAT to Target Ukrainian Military (thehackernews.com)
Slovak, Polish Parliaments Hit by Cyber attacks | SecurityWeek.Com
Cuba ransomware affiliate targets Ukraine, CERT-UA warns - Security Affairs
Ukraine Warns of Cuba Ransomware Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)
Nation State Actors
Nation State Actors – Russia
Russia says Starlink satellites could become military target • The Register
Calls for inquiry mount after reports that Truss’s phone was hacked | Financial Times
OldGremlin Ransomware Fierce Comeback Against Russian Targets (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Nation State Actors – China
Chinese Connected Cyber Crew Unleashes Disinformation Campaign Ahead of US Elections - MSSP Alert
Federal bans don't stop US states from buying Chinese kit • The Register
Nation State Actors – North Korea
Nation State Actors – Iran
Vulnerabilities
OpenSSL to fix the second critical flaw ever - Security Affairs
Urgent: Google Issues Emergency Patch for Chrome Zero-Day (darkreading.com)
ConnectWise fixes RCE bug exposing thousands of servers to attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Apple megaupdate: Ventura out, iOS and iPad kernel zero-day – act now! – Naked Security (sophos.com)
Windows Mark of the Web Zero-Days Remain Patchless, Under Exploit (darkreading.com)
22-Year-Old Vulnerability Reported in Widely Used SQLite Database Library (thehackernews.com)
Cisco warns admins to patch AnyConnect flaws exploited in attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)
Exploit released for critical VMware RCE vulnerability, patch now (bleepingcomputer.com)
Cisco Confirms In-the-Wild Exploitation of Two VPN Vulnerabilities | SecurityWeek.Com
Incoming OpenSSL critical fix: Organisations, users, get ready! - Help Net Security
Cisco Users Informed of Vulnerabilities in Identity Services Engine | SecurityWeek.Com
VMware fixes critical RCE in VMware Cloud Foundation - Security Affairs
VMware Patches Critical Vulnerability in End-of-Life Product | SecurityWeek.Com
Multiple vulnerabilities affect the Juniper Junos OS - Security Affairs
Other News
Cyber Security Risks & Stats This Spooky Season (darkreading.com)
Cyber Certification Skills Are For Life, Not Just For Linkedin (informationsecuritybuzz.com)
Implementing Defence in Depth to Prevent and Mitigate Cyber Attacks (thehackernews.com)
Cyber security’s importance and impact reaches all levels of the tech workforce - Help Net Security
Stress Is Driving Cyber Security Professionals to Rethink Roles (darkreading.com)
Equifax's Lessons Are Still Relevant, 5 Years Later (darkreading.com)
Why dark data is a growing danger for corporations - Help Net Security
Know the dangers you're facing: 4 notable TTPs used by cyber criminals worldwide - Help Net Security
Sector Specific
Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.
Contact us to receive tailored reports specific to the industry/sector and geographies you operate in.
· Automotive
· Construction
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· FinTech
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· Health/Medical/Pharma
· Hotels & Hospitality
· Insurance
· Legal
· Manufacturing
· Maritime
· Oil, Gas & Mining
· OT, ICS, IIoT, SCADA & Cyber-Physical Systems
· Retail & eCommerce
· Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
· Startups
· Telecoms
· Third Sector & Charities
· Transport & Aviation
· Web3
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
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