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Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 30 April 2024 – New Android Malware Disguised as Chrome Update can Steal Your Data and Access Your Banking Information
Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 30 April 2024 – New Android Malware Disguised as Chrome Update can Steal Your Data and Access Your Banking Information
Executive summary
A new strain of Android mobile malware dubbed “Brokewell” is being used to spread fake browser updates to steal user data. The malware has the ability to overlay banking application screens, capturing credentials without the users knowledge, as well as allowing remote access by an attacker. The malware has also been recorded as using popular ‘buy now, pay later’ service “Klarna” in addition to the fake Google Chrome update. Research indicates that the malware is in active development.
What’s the risk?
Due to the sensitive nature of the information sought by the malware, there is a genuine risk to the confidentiality and integrity of data. Features of the malware include the ability to overlay applications to steal user credentials and allow an attacker remote access, including the commands which record audio, take screenshots, access locations, and send communications from the victim phone.
The list of potential targets is extensive, especially so with many employees using personal devices for corporate purposes, including the storage of corporate credentials. A recent report from Google owned Mandiant found that 10% of intrusions began with evidence of stolen credentials.
What can I do?
It is recommended to employ a multi-layer defence to mitigate the risk of such malware succeeding. This should include only downloading updates from the official application in the Google Play store and enabling Google Play Protect will help to prevent malware. To further bolster defence, it is recommended that anti-virus applications are run in parallel.
Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.
#threatadvisory #threatintelligence #cybersecurity
Further information can be found below:
https://www.threatfabric.com/blogs/brokewell-do-not-go-broke-by-new-banking-malware
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 February 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 February 2021: Masslogger Swipes Outlook & Chrome Credentials; Phishers trick LinkedIn users; Solarwinds Attack ‘Largest And Most Sophisticated Attack’ Ever; Ransomware gangs are running riot, paying them off doesn’t help; Most security bugs in the wild are years old; Hacker Claims Files Stolen from Prominent Law Firm; 100+ Financial Services Firms Targeted in Ransom DDoS Attacks in 2020; 14 million alleged Amazon and eBay account details sold online; Think backups will protect you from ransomware? What do you think gets attacked first?
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
Masslogger Swipes Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome Credentials
Cyber Criminals are targeting Windows users with a new variant of the Masslogger trojan, which is spyware designed to swipe victims’ credentials from Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome and various instant-messenger accounts. Researchers uncovered the campaign targeting users in Italy, Latvia and Turkey starting in mid-January. When the Masslogger variant launched its infection chain, it disguised its malicious RAR files as Compiled HTML (CHM) files. This is a new move for Masslogger, and helps the malware sidestep potential defensive programs, which would otherwise block the email attachment based on its RAR file extension, said researchers on Wednesday.
https://threatpost.com/masslogger-microsoft-outlook-google-chrome/164011/
Phishers tricking users via fake LinkedIn Private Shared Document
The phishing message is delivered via LinkedIn’s internal messaging system and looks like it has been sent by one of the victim’s contacts. The message urges the recipient to follow a third-party link to view a document. If they fail to find this suspicious, they’ll be redirected to a convincingly spoofed LinkedIn login page, and if they enter their login credentials, their account will probably soon be sending out phishing messages to their contacts.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/18/linkedin-private-shared-document/
Solarwinds Attack Hit 100 Companies And Took Months Of Planning’; ‘Largest And Most Sophisticated Attack’ Ever Seen According To Microsoft; Hackers Downloaded Some Azure, Exchange, And Intune Source Code
A hacking campaign that used a tech company as a springboard to compromise a raft of US government agencies has been called “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”, according to Microsoft. Nine US governmental agencies were breached along with 100 different private sector companies , many of which were technology companies, including products that could be used to launch additional intrusions. Microsoft said it has formally completed its investigation into the SolarWinds-related breach and found no evidence that hackers abused its internal systems or official products to pivot and attack end-users and business customers, though it did state that it had discovered that hackers used the access they gained through the SolarWinds Orion app to pivot to Microsoft's internal network, where they accessed the source code of several internal projects.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/solarwinds-attack-hit-100-companies-and-took-months-of-planning-says-white-house/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/solarwinds-us-russia-hacking-b1802299.html https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-says-solarwinds-hackers-downloaded-some-azure-exchange-and-intune-source-code/
Ransomware gangs are running riot – paying them off doesn’t help
In the past five years, ransomware attacks have evolved from rare misfortunes into common and disruptive threats. Hijacking the IT systems of organisations and forcing them to pay a ransom in order to reclaim them, cyber criminals are freely extorting millions of pounds from companies – and they’re enjoying a remarkably low risk of arrest as they do it.
https://theconversation.com/ransomware-gangs-are-running-riot-paying-them-off-doesnt-help-155254
Most security bugs in the wild are years old
Most vulnerabilities exploited in the wild are years old and some could be remedied easily with a readily available patch. This is one of the findings of a new report, which states that two thirds (65 percent) of CVEs found in 2020 were more than three years old, while a third of those (32 percent) were originally identified in 2015 or earlier.
https://www.itproportal.com/news/most-security-bugs-in-the-wild-are-multiple-years-old/
Hacker Claims to Have Stolen Files Belonging to Prominent Law Firm Jones Day
A hacker claims to have stolen files belonging to the global law firm Jones Day and posted many of them on the dark web. Jones Day has many prominent clients, including former President Donald Trump and major corporations. Jones Day, in a statement, disputed that its network has been breached. The statement said that a file-sharing company that it has used was recently compromised and had information taken. Jones Day said it continues to investigate the breach and will continue to be in discussion with affected clients and appropriate authorities.
Former Spy Chief Calls For Military Cyber Attacks On Ransomware Hackers
The state should launch military cyber attacks to shut down ransomware gangs that have extorted millions of pounds from British businesses, a former spy chief has said.
Ciaran Martin, who previously led the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, said the problem of criminal gangs locking and stealing files has become so serious that Government should now seek to disrupt the operations of prolific criminals.
The plans would mark a major change of tack for the UK authorities, who have long downplayed the idea they could routinely use offensive hacking as well as cyber defence.
Think your backups will protect you from ransomware? What do you think the malware attacked first?
If you think your backup strategy means you’re protected from the worst that cyber criminals can throw at you, we’ve got some bad news. Ransomware creators know all about backups, too. So, if you are unlucky enough to get a “pay up or else” notice, there’s a very good chance that the attacker in question has already been stealthily working their way through your systems for some time, ensuring your recovery data has already been comprehensively trashed.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/protect_yourself_from_ransomware_webcast/
100+ Financial Services Firms Targeted in Ransom DDoS Attacks in 2020
More than 100 financial services firms across multiple countries were targeted in a wave of ransom distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks conducted by the same threat actor in 2020. The attacks moved in methodical fashion across Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia, hitting dozens of organizations in the financial sector in each region, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) disclosed this week. Among those targeted were banks, exchanges, payments companies, card issuers, payroll companies, insurance firms, and money transfer services.
14 million alleged Amazon and eBay account details sold online
An unknown user was offering the data of 14 million Amazon and eBay customers’ accounts for sale on a popular hacking forum. The data appears to come from users who had Amazon or eBay accounts from 2014-2021 in 18 different countries. The database was being sold for $800 and the accounts are divided into their respective countries. The leaked data includes the customer’s full name, postal code, delivery address, and shop name, as well 1.6 million phone records.
https://cybernews.com/security/14-million-amazon-and-ebay-accounts-sold-online-in-new-leak/
Threats
Ransomware
BEC
Phishing
This phishing email promises you a bonus - but actually delivers this Windows trojan malware
How Hackers use Phishing to Hijack Sites through Hosting Provider
Malware
Windows and Linux servers targeted by new WatchDog botnet for almost two years
TrickBot's BazarBackdoor malware is now coded in Nim to evade antivirus
Mobile
IOT
Vulnerabilities
WordPress plugin exploit puts more than one million sites at risk
Bug in shared SDK can let attackers join calls undetected across multiple apps
Malvertisers Exploited WebKit 0-Day to Redirect Browser Users to Scam Sites
Microsoft Pulls Bad Windows Update After Patch Tuesday Headaches
Telegram privacy feature failed to delete self-destructing video files
Data Breaches
Organised Crime
Insider Threats
Supply Chain
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation-State Actors
Russian state hackers targeted Centreon servers in years-long campaign
Feds Indict North Korean Hackers for Years of Heists and Scams
MPs sign up to Clubhouse app despite Chinese security concerns
Privacy
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
Most businesses plan to move away from VPNs, adopt a zero-trust access model
20 Common Tools & Techniques Used by macOS Threat Actors & Malware
Discord is fast becoming a favourite tool among cyber criminals
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 January 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 January 2021: Phishing Attacks Show High-Ranking Execs ‘Most Valuable Asset’ and ‘Greatest Vulnerability’; Paying Ransomware Funding Organised Crime; Police take down botnet that hacked millions of computers; After SolarWinds Hack, Who Knows What Cyber Dangers We Face; Russian businesses warned of retaliatory cyber attacks; iOS vulns actively exploited; Top Cyber Attacks of 2020
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities and cyber related news from the last week.
Top Cyber Headlines of the Week
Phishing Attacks Show High-Ranking Execs May Be ‘Most Valuable Asset,’ and ‘Greatest Vulnerability’
Cyber criminals have been using a phishing kit featuring fake Office 365 password alerts as a lure to target the credentials of chief executives, business owners and other high-level corporate leaders. The scheme highlights the role and responsibility upper management plays in ensuring the security of their own company’s assets.
Insurers 'Funding Organised Crime' by Paying Ransomware Claims
Insurers are inadvertently funding organised crime by paying out claims from companies who have paid ransoms to regain access to data and systems after a hacking attack, Britain’s former top cybersecurity official has warned.
Emotet: Police raids take down botnet that hacked 'millions of computers worldwide'
Emotet, one of the world's most dangerous cyber crime services, has been taken down following one of the largest ever internationally-coordinated actions against cyber criminals. Although it began as banking malware designed to steal financial credentials, Emotet had become an infrastructure tool leased out to cyber criminals to break into victim computer networks and install additional malicious software.
After the SolarWinds Hack, We Have No Idea What Cyber Dangers We Face
Months before insurgents breached the Capitol and rampaged through the halls of Congress, a stealthier invader was muscling its way into the computers of government officials, stealing documents, monitoring e-mails, and setting traps for future incursions. Last March, a hacking team, believed to be affiliated with Russian intelligence, planted malware in a routine software upgrade from a Texas-based I.T. company called SolarWinds, which provides network-management systems to more than three hundred thousand clients.
FSB warns Russian businesses of cyber attacks as retaliation for SolarWinds hack
Russian authorities are alerting Russian organizations of potential cyberattacks launched by the United States in response to SolarWinds attack. The Russian intelligence agency FSB has issued a security alert this week warning Russian organizations of potential cyberattacks launched by the United States in response to the SolarWinds supply chain attack.
Update your iPhone — Apple just disclosed hackers may have 'actively exploited' a vulnerability in its iOS
On Tuesday released a new iOS software update that includes fixes for three security weaknesses in the former version. Its support website that it is aware of the three security bugs and that they "may have been actively exploited. “Also, it does not disclose details regarding security issues "until an investigation has occurred."
Top Cyber Attacks of 2020
"Zoombomb" became the new photobomb—hackers would gain access to a private meeting or online class hosted on Zoom and shout profanities and racial slurs or flash pornographic images. Nation-state hacker groups mounted attacks against organisations involved in the coronavirus pandemic response, including the World Health Organization and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, some in an attempt to politicize the pandemic.
https://thehackernews.com/2021/01/top-cyber-attacks-of-2020.html
Threats
Ransomware
Cyber Criminals use deceased staff accounts to spread Nemty ransomware
US and Bulgarian authorities disrupt NetWalker ransomware operation
Former UK Cyber Security Chief Says Laws Are Needed to Stop Ransomware Payouts
BEC
Phishing
Other Social Engineering
Malware
DreamBus botnet targets enterprise apps running on Linux servers
Trickbot is back again - with fresh phishing and malware attacks
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
Heap-based buffer overflow in Linux Sudo allows local users to gain root privileges
Vulnerability found in top messaging apps let hackers eavesdrop
Experts Detail A Recent Remotely Exploitable Windows Vulnerability
Former LulzSec Hacker Releases VPN Exploit Used to Hack Hacking Team
KindleDrip exploit – Hacking a Kindle device with a simple email
Data Breaches
Charities
Insider Threats
Nation-State Actors
Denial of Service
Privacy
Reports Published in the Last Week
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 11 December 2020
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 11 December 2020: Cyber crime costs the world more than $1 trillion, 50% increase from 2018; One of the world's largest security firms breached; Chinese Breakthrough in Quantum Computing a Warning for Security Teams; Ransom payouts hit record-highs, surging 178% in a year; Ransomware Set to Continue to Evolve
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities and cyber related news from the last week.
Top Cyber Headlines of the Week
Cyber crime costs the world more than $1 trillion, a 50% increase from 2018
Cyber crime costs the world economy more than $1 trillion, or just more than one percent of global GDP, which is up more than 50 percent from a 2018 study that put global losses at close to $600 billion. Beyond the global figure, the report also explored the damage reported beyond financial losses, finding 92 percent of companies felt effects beyond monetary losses.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/12/07/cybercrime-costs-world/
FireEye, one of the world's largest security firms, discloses security breach
FireEye, one of the world largest security firms, said today it was hacked and that a "highly sophisticated threat actor" accessed its internal network and stole hacking tools FireEye uses to test the networks of its customers.
The firm said the threat actor also searched for information related to some of the company's government customers.
The attacker was described as a "highly sophisticated threat actor, one whose discipline, operational security, and techniques lead us to believe it was a state-sponsored attack."
Chinese Breakthrough in Quantum Computing a Warning for Security Teams
China’s top quantum-computer researchers have reported that they have achieved quantum supremacy, i.e., the ability to perform tasks a traditional supercomputer cannot. And while it’s a thrilling development, the inevitable rise of quantum computing means security teams are one step closer to facing a threat more formidable than anything before.
https://threatpost.com/chinese-quantum-computing-warning-security/161935/
Ransom payouts hit record-highs, surging 178% in a year
Average ransom payouts increased by 178% in the third quarter of this year, from $84,000 (£63,000) to almost £234,000, compared with the year before. Ransomware payments reached record-highs in 2020 as employees shifted to remote working to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, creating more attack vectors for hackers.
Ransomware Set for Evolution in Attack Capabilities in 2021
Ransomware is set to evolve into a greater threat in 2021 as service offerings and collaborations increase. The year turned out “different than predicted” and the shift to working from home also impacted the e-crime landscape. “This created an industrialization of e-crime groups and their abilities to extend from single groups into business pipelines”
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-evolution-capabilities/
How Organisations Can Prevent Users from Using Breached Passwords
There is no question that attackers are going after your sensitive account data. Passwords have long been a target of those looking to compromise your environment. Why would an attacker take the long, complicated way if they have the keys to the front door?
https://thehackernews.com/2020/12/how-organizations-can-prevent-users.html
Threats
Ransomware
Hackers demand $34.7 million in Bitcoin after ransomware attack on Foxconn
Ransomware forces hosting provider Netgain to take down data centers
Ransomware-struck schools reject £1m demand from crims in timely reminder to always mind the air-gap
Phishing
IOT
Malware
Qbot malware switched to stealthy new Windows autostart method
Microsoft exposes Adrozek, malware that hijacks Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
Social media sharing icons could harbor info-stealing malware
All-new Windows 10 malware is excellent at evading detection
Rana Android Malware Updates Allow WhatsApp, Telegram IM Snooping
Vulnerabilities
Critical, Unpatched Bugs Open GE Radiological Devices to Remote Code Execution
Amnesia:33 vulnerabilities impact millions of smart and industrial devices
Expert discloses zero-click, wormable flaw in Microsoft Teams
Data Breaches
FireEye, one of the world's largest security firms, discloses security breach
Hackers leak data from Embraer, world's third-largest airplane maker
Threat Actors
Insider Threats
Other News
Reports Published in the Last Week
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Cyber Threat Briefing 16 October 2020: ransomware tidal wave; notable ransomware victims from the last week; BEC Attacks: Nigeria no longer epicentre, losses top $26B; Trickbot back; MS fix 87 vulns
Cyber Threat Briefing 16 October 2020: ransomware tidal wave of attacks; Notable ransomware victims of the last week; BEC Attacks: Nigeria No Longer the Epicentre as Losses top $26B; Trickbot back after disruption attempts; Microsoft October 2020 Patch Tuesday fixes 87 vulnerabilities; Malware gangs love open source offensive hacking tools
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.
Threats
Ransomware
Ransomware is growing and growing and getting worse all the time, with the G7 this week warning of ‘a tidal wave of ransomware attacks’ [source]. It is fast approaching becoming such a problem that it may soon reach epidemic status with few organisations left unaffected as firm after firm falls victim.
The ransomware gangs have turned crime into a multi-million pound business empire, it is estimated that $7.5 billion was extorted from victims last year in the United States alone [source], putting any legitimate industry or business sector to shame in term of meteoric growth. This is not small scale actors working out of their bedrooms, they have customer support centres and 24/7 helplines, they have plush offices and flash cars, paid for by the victims of their crimes, paid for by firms like yours paying ransoms.
And here's how attackers are getting in: in nearly half (47%) of ransomware cases gangs used the open remote desktop protocol, a tool that has been used by many companies to help staff work from home, but which can also give attackers a way in if it is not correctly secured.
More than a quarter (26%) of cases were traced back to a phishing email, and a smaller number used specific vulnerability exploits (17%), including Citrix NetScaler CVE-2019-19781 and Pulse VPN CVE-2019-11510. This was followed by account takeovers, at 10%. [source]
Criminal gangs have earned so much money and power they are now outsourcing much of the labour, allowing them to live of their spoils while their empires continue to grow, while they do next to nothing, with more and more joining their ranks [source]
As long as even a small number of victims pay the ransom this remains highly lucrative for attackers.
The ransom for Software AG is $23m, but they will demand much smaller sums from much smaller firms – so how are they doing this? Are larger firms being specifically targeted with tailored phishing campaigns, where they hope they will get lucky in getting an employee to fall for the bait, where lower value targets are being hit with machine/algorithmic generated phishing attacks, with lower levels of sophistication and more of a ‘spray and pray’ approach, hoping casting a wide enough net will still result in larger numbers of lower value victims.
We keep trying to warn firms how bad this is getting, and we don’t do this to drum up business, we do this because we are hugely concerned about the direction this is going and how damaging this can be for any firm.
Many firms are reluctant to take cyber security seriously, believing it won’t happen to them, but it is happening to firm after firm after firm who believed it wouldn’t happen to them. It’s too late to start thinking about what you should have done after you’ve become a victim, it’s far better, and far cheaper, to take steps to avoid being a victim in the first place than trying to recover or pay the ransom.
Of the increasing number of firms that do go hit, many don’t survive, and those that do often find things are never the same again, with impacts on confidence levels in your staff and in your IT and information security departments [source]
Ransomware is not only affecting desktops, laptops and servers, but also now increasingly Android and other mobile platforms [source]
Protecting against ransomware is not a luxury or something that can kicked down the road to look at another day, firms need to ensure they are protecting themselves against this threat now – before they become a victim.
Notable ransomware victims of the last week
There have been a number of high profile victims of ransomware in the last week, notably Software AG, a German conglomerate with operations in more than 70 countries, which was attacked by the Clop group who are threatening to dump stolen data if the $23 million ransom is not paid.
Carnival Cruises were hit with ransomware affecting data and personal information for guests, employees and crew for Carnival Cruises, Holland America and Seabourn as well as casino operations.
Early indications point to the disruption being experiences by Hackney Council with their systems stemming from a ransomware attack, although this has not been confirmed.
BEC
BEC Attacks: Nigeria No Longer the Epicentre as Losses top $26B
Business Email Compromise (BEC) Fraudsters now have bases of operation across at least 39 countries and are responsible for $26 billion in losses annually, and growing.
A study of more than 9,000 instances of BEC attacks all over the world shows that the number has skyrocketed over the past year, and that the social-engineering scam has expanded well beyond its historic roots in Nigeria.
Why this matters:
A recent report entitled The Global Reach of Business Email Compromise, found that these attacks cost businesses a staggering $26 billion every year. And that trend appears to be accelerating. In fact, researchers found BEC attacks currently make up a full 40 percent of cyber crime losses globally, impacting at least 177 countries.
For context, the Anti-Phishing Working Group recently find that the average wire transfer in a BEC scan is around $80,000.
In a BEC attack, a scammer impersonates a company executive or other trusted party and tries to trick an employee responsible for payments or other financial transactions into writing money to a bogus account. Attackers usually conduct a fair amount of recon work, studying executive styles and uncovering the organisations vendors, billing system practices and other information to help mount a convincing attack.
Read more: https://threatpost.com/bec-attacks-nigeria-losses-snowball/160118/
Trickbot back after disruption attempts
The Trickbot botnet looks to be working once again, despite separate efforts in the past few weeks aimed at disrupting its operation.
Earlier this month the Emotet spam botnet – which is often the precursor to TrickBot being loaded onto a system – began receiving spam templates intended for mass distribution. These spam templates contained Microsoft Word document attachments with malicious macros that fetch and load a copy of Emotet onto the victim machine. The Emotet bot reached out to its controllers and received commands to download and execute Trickbot on victim machines.
The Trickbot group tag that researchers identified is tied to a typical infection campaign that information security researchers have been observing for the past 6 months or more.
Additionally, Intel 471 researchers saw an update to the Trickbot plugin server configuration file. Fifteen server addresses were added, and two old servers were retained in the configuration, along with the server’s ‘.onion’ address. This was likely done as a fix that would help operators maintain that their infrastructure remains operational. [link]
Why this matters:
The fix is another round in the back-and-forth between Trickbot’s operators and the separate public and private sector parties that have attempted to disrupt the botnet’s actions. This includes actions by the US Cyber Command and Microsoft, who issued a public statement that it had taken legal action to “combat ransomware ahead of U.S. elections.” The legal action involved Microsoft attempting to disrupt a number of Trickbot command and control server IP addresses in the United States.
The fact that Trickbot has resumed normal operations despite the best efforts of the likes of the US Cyber Command and Microsoft shows how resilient of an operation Trickbot is, and how much more effort is needed to fully take the botnet offline for good. The botnet’s operators have all the IT support of legitimate enterprises – continuity planning, backups, automated deployment, and a dedicated workforce – that allow them to quickly react to disruptive measures.
Read more: https://public.intel471.com/blog/trickbot-online-emotet-microsoft-cyber-command-disruption-attempts/
Vulnerabilities
Microsoft October 2020 Patch Tuesday fixes 87 vulnerabilities
Microsoft this week released its monthly batch of security updates known as Patch Tuesday, and this month the OS maker has patched 87 vulnerabilities across a wide range Microsoft products.
By far, the most dangerous bug patched this month is CVE-2020-16898. Described as a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the Windows TCP/IP stack, this bug can allow attackers to take over Windows systems by sending malicious ICMPv6 Router Advertisement packets to an unpatched computer via a network connection.
Another bug to keep an eye on is CVE-2020-16947, a remote code execution issue in Outlook. Microsoft says this bug can be exploited by tricking a user to open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Microsoft Outlook software. [source1] [source2]
Why this matters:
The bug was discovered internally by Microsoft engineers, and OS versions vulnerable to CVE-2020-16898 include Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.
With a severity score of 9.8 out of a maximum 10, Microsoft considers the bug dangerous and likely to be weaponised, and rightfully so.
Patching the bug is recommended, but workarounds such as disabling ICMPv6 RDNSS support also exist, which would allow system administrators to deploy temporary mitigations until they quality-test this month’s security updates for any OS-crashing bugs.
Critical SonicWall VPN Portal Bug Allows DoS, Worming RCE
A critical security bug in the SonicWall VPN Portal can be used to crash the device and prevent users from connecting to corporate resources. It could also open the door to remote code execution (RCE), researchers said.
The flaw (CVE-2020-5135) is a stack-based buffer overflow in the SonicWall Network Security Applicance (NSA). According to researchers who discovered it, the flaw exists within HTTP/HTTPS service used for product management and SSL VPN remote access. [source]
Why this matters:
An unskilled attacker could trigger a persistent denial-of-service condition using an unauthenticated HTTP request involving a custom protocol handler.
Adding insult to injury, this particular flaw exists in a pre-authentication routine, and within a component (SSL VPN) which is typically exposed to the public internet.
‘More Than A Billion’ Phone Wide Open To ‘Backdoor’ Remote Code Execution in Adtech Company’s Code
Malicious code impacting more than a billion smartphone owners is currently in the wild and enabling remote code execution. [source]
Why this matters:
Remote code execution is a very serious security violation, and basically enables the owner of that code do almost anything they want on your phone.
Miscellaneous Cyber News of the Weeks
Malware gangs love open source offensive hacking tools
In the cyber security field, the term OST (Open Source Tools) refers to software apps, libraries, and exploits that possess offensive hacking capabilities and have been released as either free downloads or under an open source license.
OST projects are usually released to provide a proof-of-concept exploit for a new vulnerability, to demonstrate a new (or old) hacking technique, or as penetration testing utilities shared with the community.
These discussions have been taking place for more than a decade. However, they have always been based on personal experiences and convictions, and never on actual raw data.
That changed this week when a security researcher compiled data on 129 open source offensive hacking tools and searched through malware samples and cyber-security reports to discover how widespread was the adoption of OST projects among hacking groups — such as low-level malware gangs, elite financial crime groups, and even nation-state sponsored APTs. [source]
The results were compiled in an interactive map – available here
Why this matters:
Today, OST is one of the most (if not the most) controversial topics in the information security community.
On one side, you have the people who are in favour of releasing such tools, arguing that they can help defenders learn and prepare systems and networks for future attacks.
On the opposing side, you have the ones who say that OST projects help attackers reduce the costs of developing their own tools and hiding activities into a cloud of tests and legitimate pen-tests.
Fitbit Spyware Steals Personal Data via Watch Face
A researcher has found they can take advantage of lax Fitbit privacy controls to build a malicious spyware watch face.
A wide-open app-building API (Application Programming Interface) could allow an attacker to build a malicious application that could access Fitbit user data, and send it to any server.
A proof-of-concept was created to do just that, after realizing that Fitbit devices are loaded with sensitive personal data. [source]
Why this matters:
Essentially, the API could send device type, location and user information including gender, age, height, heart rate and weight and it could also access calendar information. While this doesn’t include PII profile data, the calendar invites could expose additional information such as names and locations.
The researcher was able to make the app available through the Fitbit Gallery (where Fitbit showcases various third-party and in-house apps). Thus, the spyware appears legitimate, and increase the likelihood it would be downloaded.
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.
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 22 May 2020: EasyJet say 9m customers hacked, firm phishes its own staff and 20% fail, 60% insider threats involve staff planning to leave, 1 in 10 WFH Brits breach GDPR
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 22 May 2020: EasyJet say 9m customers hacked, firm phishes its own staff and 20% fail, 60% insider threats involve staff planning to leave, 1 in 10 WFH Brits breach GDPR
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
If you’re pressed for time watch the 60 second quick fire video summary of the top cyber and infosec stories from the last week:
EasyJet admits data of nine million hacked
EasyJet has admitted that a "highly sophisticated cyber-attack" has affected approximately nine million customers.
It said email addresses and travel details had been stolen and that 2,208 customers had also had their credit and debit card details "accessed".
The firm has informed the UK's Information Commissioner's Office while it investigates the breach.
EasyJet first became aware of the attack in January.
It told the BBC that it was only able to notify customers whose credit card details were stolen in early April.
"This was a highly sophisticated attacker. It took time to understand the scope of the attack and to identify who had been impacted," the airline told the BBC.
Read more here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52722626
To test its security mid-pandemic, GitLab tried phishing its own work-from-home staff. 1 in 5 fell for it
Code hosting site GitLab recently concluded a security exercise to test the susceptibility of its all-remote workforce to phishing – and a fifth of the participants submitted their credentials to the fake login page.
The mock attack simulated a targeted phishing campaign designed to get GitLab employees to give up their credentials.
The GitLab security personnel playing the role of an attacker – obtained the domain name gitlab.company and set it up using the open source GoPhish framework and Google's GSuite to send phishing emails. The messages were designed to look like a laptop upgrade notification from GitLab's IT department.
Targets were asked to click on a link in order to accept their upgrade and this link was instead a fake GitLab.com login page hosted on the domain 'gitlab.company'.
Fifty emails went out and 17 (34 per cent) clicked on the link in the messages that led to the simulated phishing website. Of those, 10 (59 per cent of those who clicked through or 20 per cent of the total test group) went on to enter credentials. And just 6 of the 50 message recipients (12 per cent) reported the phishing attempt to GitLab security personnel.
According to Verizon's 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, 22 per cent of data exposure incidents involved phishing or about 90 per cent of incidents involving social interaction.
Read the original article here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/21/gitlab_phishing_pentest/
60% of Insider Threats Involve Employees Planning to Leave
More than 80% of employees planning to leave an organization bring its data with them. These "flight-risk" individuals were involved in roughly 60% of insider threats analysed in a new study.
Researchers analysed more than 300 confirmed incidents as part of the "2020 Securonix Insider Threat Report." They found most insider threats involve exfiltration of sensitive data (62%), though others include privilege misuse (19%), data aggregation (9.5%), and infrastructure sabotage (5.1%). Employees planning an exit start to show so-called flight-risk behaviour between two weeks and two months ahead of their last day, the researchers discovered.
Most people who exfiltrate sensitive information do so over email, a pattern detected in nearly 44% of cases. The next most-popular method is uploading the information to cloud storage websites (16%), a technique growing popular as more organizations rely on cloud collaboration software such as Box and Dropbox. Employees are also known to steal corporate information using data downloads (10.7%), unauthorized removable devices (8.9%), and data snooping through SharePoint (8%).
Today's insider threats look different from those a few years ago. Cloud tools have made it easier for employees to share files with non-business accounts, creating a challenge for security teams.
Read more here: https://www.darkreading.com/risk/60--of-insider-threats-involve-employees-planning-to-leave/d/d-id/1337876
One in ten home working Brits are not GDPR compliant
Remote working may have improved the work-life balance of many Brits, but it has also made organisations more likely to fall foul of GDPR.
This is according to a new report from IT support company ILUX, which found that a tenth of workers in the UK do not believe their remote working practices are compliant.
Based on a poll of 2,000 UK-based home workers, the report hints the problem could stem from the adoption of BYOD initiatives, explaining that personal technology for work could be the catalyst for respondents' concerns.
There is also the issue of support, with two thirds of respondents feeling they have lacked sufficient support from business owners during the pandemic. One tenth of the respondents considered their managers too busy or stressed to warrant approaching.
Asking employees to work from home and then not providing the right computer systems and security measures is a recipe for disaster.
The last thing any business needs at this time is to lose valuable data, leave themselves open to cyber attacks or phishing and leave themselves vulnerable to the unknown. It may only seem like a small number, but it’s best not to be in that ten percent.
Remote staff should be provided with company devices on which to work, protected with the latest security patches and cyber security solutions.
Read more here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/one-in-ten-home-working-brits-are-not-gdpr-compliant/
SMBs see cyberattacks that rhyme with large enterprises due to cloud shift
Small businesses are increasingly seeing the same cyberattacks and techniques as large enterprises in contrast with previous years, according to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report.
The last time Verizon researchers tracked small business attacks was in the 2013 DBIR. At that time, SMBs were hit with payment card cybercrime. Today, the attacks are aimed at web applications and errors due to configurations. Meanwhile, the external attackers are targeting SMBs just like large enterprises, according to Verizon.
Verizon found that small companies with less than 1,000 employees are seeing the same attacks as large enterprises. Why? SMBs have adjusted their business models to be more cloud based and rhyme more with large companies.
Read the full article: https://www.zdnet.com/article/smbs-see-cyberattacks-that-rhyme-with-large-enterprises-due-to-cloud-shift/
Microsoft warns of huge email phishing scam - here's how to stay protected
Microsoft has issued an alert to users concerning a new widespread Covid-19 themed phishing campaign.
The threat installs a remote administration tool to completely take over a user's system and even execute commands on it remotely.
The Microsoft Security Intelligence team provided further details on this ongoing campaign in a series of tweets in which it said that cybercriminals are using malicious Excel attachments to infect user's devices with a remote access trojan (RAT).
The attack begins with potential victims receiving an email that impersonates the John Hopkins Center. This email claims to provide victims with an update on the number of coronavirus-related deaths in the US. However, attached to the email is an Excel file that displays a chart showing the number of deaths in the US.
Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/microsoft-warns-of-huge-phishing-attack-heres-how-to-stay-safe
Security threats associated with shadow IT
As cyber threats and remote working challenges linked to COVID-19 continue to rise, IT teams are increasingly pressured to keep organisations’ security posture intact. When it comes to remote working, one of the major issues facing enterprises is shadow IT.
End users eager to adopt the newest cloud applications to support their remote work are bypassing IT administrators and in doing so, unknowingly opening both themselves and their organization up to new threats.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” In the case of shadow IT, it’s the exact opposite – what your organisation doesn’t know truly can and will hurt it.
Shadow IT might sound great at surface level if you think of it as tech-savvy employees and departments deploying collaborative cloud apps to increase productivity and meet business goals. However, there’s a lot more going on below the surface, including increased risk of data breaches, regulation violations and compliance issues, as well as the potential for missed financial goals due to unforeseen costs.
One solution to risks associated with shadow IT is to have workers only use cloud apps that have been vetted and approved by your IT department. However, that approach is oftentimes not possible when shadow apps are acquired by non-IT professionals who have little to no knowledge of software standardization. Additionally, when shadow SaaS apps are used by employees or departments the attack area is hugely increased because many are not secure or patched. If IT departments are unaware of an app’s existence, they can’t take measures to protect companies’ data or its users.
Another solution that organisations use is attempting to block access to cloud services that don’t meet security and compliance standards. Unfortunately, there is a vast discrepancy in the intended block rate and the actual block rate, called the “cloud enforcement gap” and represents shadow IT acquisition and usage.
Read more here: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/05/18/security-shadow-it/
Supercomputers hacked across Europe to mine cryptocurrency
Multiple supercomputers across Europe have been infected this week with cryptocurrency mining malware and have shut down to investigate the intrusions.
Security incidents have been reported in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland, while a similar intrusion is rumoured to have also happened at a high-performance computing centre located in Spain.
The first report of an attack came to light on Monday from the University of Edinburgh, which runs the ARCHER supercomputer. The organization reported "security exploitation on the ARCHER login nodes," shut down the ARCHER system to investigate, and reset SSH passwords to prevent further intrusions.
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/supercomputers-hacked-across-europe-to-mine-cryptocurrency/
Powerful Android malware stayed hidden for years, infecting tens of thousands of smartphones
A carefully managed hacking and espionage campaign is infecting smartphones with a potent form of Android malware, providing those behind it with total control of the device, while also remaining completely hidden from the user.
Mandrake spyware abuses legitimate Android functions to help gain access to everything on the compromised device in attacks that can gather almost any information about the user.
The attacker can browse and collect all data on the device, steal account credentials for accounts including banking applications. secretly take recordings of activity on the screen, track the GPS location of the user and more, all while continuously covering their tracks.
Read the original article here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-powerful-android-malware-stayed-hidden-years-infected-tens-of-thousands-of-smartphones/
Strain of ransomware goes fileless to make attacks untraceable
Malicious actors have been spotted using an especially sneaky fileless malware technique — reflective dynamic-link library (DLL) injection — to infect victims with Netwalker ransomware in hopes of making the attacks untraceable while frustrating security analysts.
Instead of compiling the malware and storing it into the disk, the adversaries are writing it in PowerShell and executing it directly into memory making this technique is stealthier than regular DLL injection because aside from not needing the actual DLL file on disk, it also does not need any windows loader for it to be injected. This eliminates the need for registering the DLL as a loaded module of a process, and allowing evasion from DLL load monitoring tools.
Read more here: https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/ransomware/netwalker-ransomware-actors-go-fileless-to-make-attacks-untraceable/
Smartphones, laptops, IoT devices vulnerable to new Bluetooth attack
Academics have disclosed today a new vulnerability in the Bluetooth wireless protocol, broadly used to interconnect modern devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and smart IoT devices.
The vulnerability, codenamed BIAS (Bluetooth Impersonation AttackS), impacts the classic version of the Bluetooth protocol, also known as Basic Rate / Enhanced Data Rate, Bluetooth BR/EDR, or just Bluetooth Classic.
A bug in the bonding authentication process can allow an attacker to spoof the identity of a previously paired/bonded device and successfully authenticate and connect to another device without knowing the long-term pairing key that was previously established between the two.
Once a BIAS attack is successful, the attacker can then access or take control of another Bluetooth Classic device.
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/smartphones-laptops-iot-devices-vulnerable-to-new-bias-bluetooth-attack/
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 15 May 2020: Attacks on UK up 30% in Q1, 238% surge against banks, Microsoft fixes 111 vulns, Adobe patches 36 vulns, Thunderspy, 73m user records for sale on dark web
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 15 May 2020: Attacks on UK up 30% in Q1, 238% surge against banks, Microsoft fixes 111 vulns, Adobe patches 36 vulns, Thunderspy, 73m user records for sale on dark web
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.
Cyber-Attacks on UK Organisations Up 30% in Q1 2020
New research has revealed that the volume of cyber-attacks on UK businesses increased by almost a third in the first three months of 2020.
Analysts identified 394,000 unique IP addresses used to attack UK businesses in the first quarter of 2020, discovering that companies with internet connections experienced 157,000 attacks each, on average – the equivalent of more than one a minute.
This rate of attack was 30% higher than the same period in 2019 when UK businesses received 120,000 internet-borne attempts to breach their systems each.
IoT applications were cited as the most common targets for cyber-criminals in the first quarter, attracting almost 19,000 online attacks per company. Company databases and file-sharing systems were also targeted frequently, with companies experiencing approximately 5000 attacks for each application, on average.
Read more here: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberattacks-uk-orgs-up-30-q1/
COVID-19 blamed for 238% surge in cyber attacks against banks
The coronavirus pandemic has been connected to a 238% surge in cyber attacks against banks, new research claims.
On Thursday, VMware Carbon Black released the third edition of the Modern Bank Heists report, which says that financial organizations experienced a massive uptick in cyber attack attempts between February and April this year -- the same months in which COVID-19 began to spread rapidly across the globe.
The cyber security firm's research, which includes input from 25 CIOS at major financial institutions, adds that 80% of firms surveyed have experienced more cyber attacks over the past 12 months, an increase of 13% year-over-year.
VMware Carbon Black data already indicates that close to a third -- 27% -- of all cyber attacks target either banks or the healthcare sector.
An interesting point in the report is how there appears to have been an uptick in financially-motivated attacks around pinnacles in the news cycle, such as when the US confirmed its first case of COVID-19.
In total, 82% of chief information officers contributing to the report said that alongside a spike in attacks, techniques also appear to be improving -- including the use of social engineering and more advanced tactics to exploit not only the human factor but also weak links caused by processes and technologies in use by the supply chain.
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/covid-19-blamed-for-238-surge-in-cyberattacks-against-banks/
May 2020 Patch Tuesday: Microsoft fixes 111 vulnerabilities, 13 Critical
Microsoft's May 2020 Patch Tuesday fell this week, and Microsoft have released fixes for 111 vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. Of these vulnerabilities, 13 are classified as Critical, 91 as Important, 3 as Moderate, and 4 as Low.
This month there are no zero-day or unpatched vulnerabilities.
Users should install these security updates as soon as possible to protect Windows from known security risks.
Read more here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/may-2020-patch-tuesday-microsoft-fixes-111-vulnerabilities-13-critical/
Adobe issues patches for 36 vulnerabilities in DNG, Reader, Acrobat
Adobe has released security patches to resolve 36 vulnerabilities present in DNG, Reader, and Acrobat software.
On Tuesday, the software giant issued two security advisories (1, 2) detailing the bugs, the worst of which can be exploited by attackers to trigger remote code execution attacks and information leaks.
The first set of patches relate to Adobe Acrobat and Reader for Windows and macOS, including Acrobat / Acrobat Reader versions 2015 and 2017, as well as Acrobat and Acrobat Reader DC.
In total, 12 critical security flaws have been resolved. Six of the bugs, a single heap overflow problem, two out-of-bounds write errors, two buffer overflow issues, and two use-after-free vulnerabilities can all lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user.
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/adobe-issues-patches-for-36-vulnerabilities-in-dng-reader-acrobat/
Thunderbolt flaw ‘Thunderspy’ allows access to a PC’s data in minutes
Vulnerabilities discovered in the Thunderbolt connection standard could allow hackers to access the contents of a locked laptop’s hard drive within minutes, a security researcher from the Eindhoven University of Technology has announced. Reports state that the vulnerabilities affect all Thunderbolt-enabled PCs manufactured before 2019.
Although hackers need physical access to a Windows or Linux computer to exploit the flaws, they could theoretically gain access to all data in about five minutes even if the laptop is locked, password protected, and has an encrypted hard drive. The entire process can reportedly be completed with a series of off-the-shelf components costing just a few hundred dollars. Perhaps most worryingly, the researcher says the flaws cannot be patched in software, and that a hardware redesign will be needed to completely fix the issues.
Read more here: https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/11/21254290/thunderbolt-security-vulnerability-thunderspy-encryption-access-intel-laptops
A hacker group is selling more than 73 million user records on the dark web
A hacker group going by the name of ShinyHunters claims to have breached ten companies and is currently selling their respective user databases on a dark web marketplace for illegal products.
The hackers are the same group who breached last week Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest online store. Hackers initially leaked 15 million user records online, for free, but later put the company's entire database of 91 million user records on sale for $5,000.
Encouraged and emboldened by the profits from the Tokopedia sale, the same group has, over the course of the current week, listed the databases of 10 more companies.
This includes user databases allegedly stolen from organizations such as:
· Online dating app Zoosk (30 million user records)
· Printing service Chatbooks (15 million user records)
· South Korean fashion platform SocialShare (6 million user records)
· Food delivery service Home Chef (8 million user records)
· Online marketplace Minted (5 million user records)
· Online newspaper Chronicle of Higher Education (3 million user records)
· South Korean furniture magazine GGuMim (2 million user records)
· Health magazine Mindful (2 million user records)
· Indonesia online store Bhinneka (1.2 million user records)
· US newspaper StarTribune (1 million user records)
The listed databases total for 73.2 million user records, which the hacker is selling for around $18,000, with each database sold separately.
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-hacker-group-is-selling-more-than-73-million-user-records-on-the-dark-web/
A cybercrime store is selling access to more than 43,000 hacked servers
MagBo, a shadowy online marketplace where hackers sell and buy hacked servers, is doing better than ever and has soared in popularity to become the largest criminal marketplace of its kind since its launch in the summer of 2018.
Two years later, the MagBo portal has grown more than 14 times in size and is currently selling access to more than 43,000 hacked websites, up from the 3,000 sites listed in September 2018.
Today, MagBo has become the de-facto go-to marketplace for many cybercrime operations. Some groups register on the MagBo platform to sell hacked servers, while others are there just to buy.
Those who buy, do it either in bulk (for black-hat SEO or for malware distribution) or selectively, for intrusions at high-value target (e-commerce stores for web skimming, intranets for ransomware).
All in all, the MagBo platform cannot be ignored anymore, as it appears to be here to stay, and is placing itself at the heart of many of today's cybercrime operations.
Ransomware: Why paying the crooks can actually cost you more in the long run
Ransomware is so dangerous because in many cases the victim doesn't feel like they have any other option other than to pay up – especially if the alternative is the whole organisation being out of operation for weeks, or even months, as it attempts to rebuild the network from scratch.
But handing over a bitcoin ransom to cyber criminals can actually double the cost of recovery according to analysis by researchers at Sophos, published in the new State of Ransomware 2020 report, which has been released three years to the day from the start of the global WannaCry ransomware outbreak.
A survey of organisations affected by ransomware attacks found that the average total cost of a ransomware attack for organisations that paid the ransom is almost $1.4m, while for those who didn't give into ransom demands, the average cost is half of that, coming in at $732,000.
Often, this is because retrieving the encryption key from the attackers isn't a simple fix for the mess they created, meaning that not only does the organisation pay out a ransom, they also have additional costs around restoring the network when some portions of it are still locked down after the cyber criminals have taken their money.
According to the report, one in four organisations said they paid the ransom in order to get their files back. It's one of the key reasons why ransomware remains a successful tactic for crooks, because victims pay up – often sums of six-figures or more – and are therefore encouraging cyber criminals to continue with attacks that often can't be traced back to a culprit.
Read the full article here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-why-paying-the-crooks-can-actually-cost-you-more-in-the-long-run/
This powerful Android malware stayed hidden for years, infecting tens of thousands of smartphones
A carefully managed hacking and espionage campaign is infecting smartphones with a potent form of Android malware, providing those behind it with total control of the device, while also remaining completely hidden from the user.
Mandrake spyware abuses legitimate Android functions to help gain access to everything on the compromised device in attacks that can gather almost any information about the user.
The attacker can browse and collect all data on the device, steal account credentials for accounts including banking applications. secretly take recordings of activity on the screen, track the GPS location of the user and more, all while continuously covering their tracks.
The full capabilities of Mandrake – which has been observed targeting users across Europe and the Americas – are detailed in a paper released by cybersecurity researchers this week. Mandrake has been active since 2016 and researchers previously detailed how the spyware operation was specifically targeting Australian users – but now it's targeting victims around the world.
Companies wrestle with growing cyber security threat: their own employees
Businesses deploy analytic tools to monitor staff as remote working increases data breach risk
As cyber criminals and hackers ramp up their attacks on businesses amid coronavirus-related disruption, companies are also facing another equally grave security threat: their own employees.
Companies are increasingly turning to Big Brother-style surveillance tools to stop staff from leaking or stealing sensitive data, as millions work away from the watchful eyes of their bosses and waves of job cuts leave some workers disgruntled.
In particular, a brisk market has sprung up for cyber security groups that wield machine learning and analytics to crunch data on employees’ activity and proactively flag worrying behaviours.
Read more here: https://www.ft.com/content/cae7905e-ced7-4562-b093-1ab58a557ff4
Cognizant: Ransomware Costs Could Reach $70m
IT services giant Cognizant has admitted that a ransomware attack it suffered back in April may end up costing the company as much as $70m.
The firm announced revenue of $4.2bn for the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 2.8% year-on-year. In this context, the $50-70m hit it expects to take in Q2 from the ransomware attack will not make a huge impact on the company.
However, the big numbers involved are illustrative of the persistent financial threat posed by ransomware, not to mention the reputational impact on customers.
The firm claimed on an earnings call that the company responded immediately to the threat, proactively taking systems offline after some internal assets were compromised. However, the resulting downtime and suspension of some customer accounts took their toll financially.
“Some clients opted to suspend our access to their networks,” they explained. “Billing was therefore impacted for a period of time, yet the cost of staffing these projects remained on our books.”
Remote workers were also affected as the attack hit the firm’s system for supporting its distributed workforce during the current pandemic.
Read more: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cognizant-ransomware-costs-could/
Package delivery giant Pitney Bowes confirms second ransomware attack in 7 months
Package and mail delivery giant Pitney Bowes has suffered a second ransomware attack in the past seven months, ZDNet has learned.
The incident came to light earlier in the week after a ransomware gang known as Maze published a blog post claiming to have breached and encrypted the company's network.
The Maze crew provided proof of access in the form of 11 screenshots portraying directory listings from inside the company's computer network.
Pitney Bowes confirmed the incident stating they had detected a security incident related to Maze ransomware.
The company said it worked with third-party security consultants to take steps to stop the attack before any of its data was encrypted.
This is the second ransomware incident for Pitney Bowes in seven months.
In October 2019, Pitney Bowes disclosed a first ransomware attack. At the time, the company said it had some critical systems infected and encrypted by the Ryuk ransomware gang. The incident caused limited downtime to some package tracking systems.
Both the Ryuk and Maze ransomware gangs are what experts call "human-operated" ransomware strains. These types of ransomware infections take place after hackers breach a company's network, and take manual control of the malware to expand access to as many internal systems as possible before executing the actual ransomware to encrypt data and demand a ransom.
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/package-delivery-giant-pitney-bowes-confirms-second-ransomware-attack-in-7-months/
Law Firm Representing Drake, Lady Gaga, Madonna And More Hit By Cyber Attack As Hackers Claim To Have Stolen Personal Information And Contracts
A law firm representing many of the world's most famous celebrities has been hacked.
The website of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks has been taken offline, and hackers claim to have stolen some 756GB of data relating to its clients.
Singers, actors and other stars have worked with the law firm, according to old versions of its website, with more than 200 very high-profile celebrities and companies said to have used its services.
They include Madonna, Lady Gaga, Elton John and Drake.
The hackers behind the attack claim to have person information on celebrities including letters, as well as official contracts.
Hackers have already released a purported screenshot of a Madonna contract in an attempt to prove they have access to personal files.
It is not known what the hackers are demanding in return for the files, or whether negotiations are ongoing.
"We can confirm that we've been victimised by a cyber-attack," the firm said in a media statement. "We have notified our clients and our staff.
"We have hired the world's experts who specialise in this area, and we are working around the clock to address these matters."
The hack used a piece of software known as REvil or Sodinokibi. Similar software took foreign exchange company Travelex offline in January, as part of a major hack.
Traditionally, such ransomware has been used to lock down computers and demand money from their owners to unlock them again, and grant access to files.
Increasingly, hackers threaten to release those files to the public if their demands are not met.
Read the original article: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/celebrity-hack-law-firm-cyber-attack-drake-madonna-lady-gaga-a9511976.html
Lights stay on despite cyber-attack on UK's electricity system
Britain’s energy system has fallen victim to a cyber-attack targeting the IT infrastructure used to run the electricity market.
The electricity system’s administrator, Elexon, confirmed that it was affected by a cyber-attack on Thursday afternoon but that the key systems used to govern the electricity market were not affected.
National Grid is investigating whether the attack could affect the part of its business tasked with keeping the lights on.
A spokesman for the energy system operator said electricity supplies had not been affected, and there were “robust cybersecurity measures in place” to make sure the UK continues to receive reliable electricity.
“We’re aware of a cyber intrusion on Elexon’s internal IT systems. We’re investigating the matter and any potential impact on our own IT networks,” he said.
Elexon is a vital part of the UK electricity market because it carefully monitors the electricity generated by energy companies to match this with what National Grid expects to receive, and to make sure that generators are paid the correct amount for the energy they generate.
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 01 May 2020 – 50% of users feel vulnerable WFH, yet many have had no infosec training in last year, spear-phishing compromises execs in 150+ companies, Sophos zero-day
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing for 01 May 2020 – Half of users feel vulnerable WFH and many have had no infosec training in last year, spear-phishing compromises execs in 150+ companies, Chrome vulns, Sophos firewall zero-day exploited
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
If you’re pressed for time watch the 60 second video version:
Half of remote workers feel vulnerable to growing cyber attacks
New research has revealed that almost half (49%) of employees working remotely feel vulnerable online due to the insecurity of the company laptops and PCs they are using to connect to corporate networks.
1,550 UK employees working from home during the pandemic were surveyed to better understand the security issues they've faced while working remotely.
The survey found that 42 percent of respondents received suspicious emails while 18 percent have dealt with a security breach while working from home. Of those who suffered a cyberattack, over half (51%) believed it was because they clicked on a malicious link and 18 percent believed an infected attachment was responsible.
Additionally, 42 percent of respondents reported that someone else in their household had experienced a hack of their social media accounts during the lockdown.
Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/half-of-remote-workers-feel-vulnerable-to-growing-cyberattacks
Many remote workers given no cyber security training
Two in three remote workers have not received any cyber security training in the past 12 months, according to a new report.
Based on a poll of 2,000 remote workers in the UK, the report states that more than three quarters (77 percent) are unconcerned about cyber security. Further, more than six in ten said they use personal devices when working from home, which poses a distinct threat to business data.
The report highlights the dangers associated with working from home and the fact cyber criminals are capitalising on the coronavirus outbreak to infect unwitting victims with malware.
With most businesses transitioning to remote working in response to lockdown measures, IT and security teams have been left with a network of unsecured, often naive workers who are easy prey for various forms of attack - especially phishing.
Read the full article here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/many-remote-workers-given-no-cybersecurity-training/
Spear-phishing campaign compromises executives at 150+ companies
A cyber crime group operating since mid-2019 has breached the email accounts of high-ranking executives at more than 150 companies, cyber-security firm Group-IB reported today.
The group, codenamed PerSwaysion, appears to have targeted the financial sector primarily, which accounted for more than half of its victims; although, victims have been recorded at companies active across other verticals as well.
PerSwaysion operations were not sophisticated, but have been extremely successful, nonetheless. Group-IB says the hackers didn't use vulnerabilities or malware in their attacks but instead relied on a classic spear-phishing technique.
They sent boobytrapped emails to executives at targeted companies in the hope of tricking high-ranking executives into entering Office 365 credentials on fake login pages.
Read the full article here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/spear-phishing-campaign-compromises-executives-at-150-companies/
Microsoft: Ransomware gangs that don't threaten to leak your data steal it anyway
Just because ransomware attackers haven't threatened to leak your company's data, it doesn't mean they haven't stolen it, Microsoft warns.
And human-operated ransomware gangs – typically associated with multi-million dollar ransom demands – haven't halted activity during the global coronavirus pandemic.
In fact, they launched more of the file-encrypting malware on target networks in the first two weeks of April than in earlier periods, causing chaos at aid organizations, medical billing companies, manufacturing, transport, government institutions, and educational software providers, according to Microsoft.
Google Confirms New Security Threat For 2 Billion Chrome Users
Google has warned of yet more security vulnerabilities in Chrome 81, which was only launched three weeks ago.
Google has confirmed two new high-rated security vulnerabilities affecting Chrome, prompting yet another update since the release of Chrome 81 on April 7. These new security threats could enable an attacker to take control of an exploited system, which is why the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has advised users to apply that update now.
These popular antivirus tools share a major security flaw
More than two dozen popular antivirus solutions contain a flaw that could enable hackers to delete files, trigger crashes and install malware, according to a new report.
Popular antivirus solutions such as Microsoft Defender, McAfee Endpoint Security and Malwarebytes all feature the bug, which is described as “trivial” to abuse.
The report refers to the shared vulnerability as “symlink race” – the use of symbolic links and directory junctions to link malicious files to legitimate counterparts. This all occurs in the short space of time between an antivirus scanning and deleting a file.
"Make no mistake about it, exploiting these flaws was pretty trivial and seasoned malware authors will have no problem weaponising the tactics outlined in this blog post," said the report.
Read more: https://www.itproportal.com/news/these-popular-antivirus-tools-could-have-major-security-flaws/
Hackers are exploiting a Sophos firewall zero-day
Cyber-security firm Sophos has published an emergency security update on Saturday to patch a zero-day vulnerability in its XG enterprise firewall product that was being abused in the wild by hackers.
Sophos said it first learned of the zero-day on late Wednesday, April 22, after it received a report from one of its customers. The customer reported seeing "a suspicious field value visible in the management interface."
After investigating the report, Sophos determined this was an active attack and not an error in its product.
Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-are-exploiting-a-sophos-firewall-zero-day/
This sophisticated new Android trojan threatens hundreds of financial apps
Researchers have discovered a sophisticated new Android trojan that bypasses security measures and scrapes data from financial applications.
First identified in March, the EventBot banking trojan abuses Android’s accessibility features to harvest financial data and intercept SMS messages, allowing the malware to circumvent two-factor authentication.
According to the firm responsible for the discovery, EventBot targets over 200 financial applications, spanning banking, money transfer and cryptocurrency wallet services.
Affected applications include those operated by major players such as HSBC, Barclays, Revolut, Paypal and TransferWise - but many more are thought to be at risk.
Microsoft Office 365: US issues security alert over rushed remote deployments
The US Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published security advice for organizations that may have rushed out Office 365 deployments to support remote working during the coronavirus pandemic.
CISA warns that it continues to see organizations that have failed to implement security best practices for their Office 365 implementation. It is concerned that hurried deployments may have lead to important security configuration oversights that could be exploited by attackers.
"In recent weeks, organizations have been forced to change their collaboration methods to support a full 'work from home' workforce," CISA notes in the new alert.
Financial sector is seeing more credential stuffing than DDoS attacks
The financial sector has seen more brute-force attacks and credential stuffing incidents than DDoS attacks in the past three years according to a report published this week.
Statistics about attacks carried out against banks, credit unions, brokers, insurance, and the wide range of organizations that serve them, such as payment processors and financial Software as a Service (Saas).
The report's findings dispel the notion that DDoS attacks are one of today's most prevalent threats against the financial vertical.
The report states that brute force attacks, credential stuffing, and all the other account takeover (ATO) attacks have been a much bigger threat to the financial sector between 2017 and 2019. This includes all the ATO variations such as:
· Brute-force attacks - attackers try common or weak username/passwords pairs (from a preset list) to brute-force their way into an account
· Credential stuffing - attackers try username/password pairs leaked at other sites
· Password spraying - attackers try the same password, but against different usernames
Read more here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/financial-sector-has-been-seeing-more-credential-stuffing-than-ddos-attacks-in-recent-years/
This buggy WordPress plugin allows hackers to lace websites with malicious code
Security researchers have identified a flaw in the Real-Time Find and Replace WordPress plugin that could allow hackers to lace websites with malicious code.
The affected plugin affords WordPress users the ability to edit website code and text content in real-time, without having to go into the backend - and reportedly features on over 100,000 sites.
The exploit manipulates a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) flaw in the plugin, which the hacker can use to push infected content to the website and create new admin accounts.
Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/this-buggy-wordpress-plugin-allows-hackers-to-lace-websites-with-malicious-code
Zoom Gets Stuffed: Here’s How Hackers Got Hold Of 500,000 Passwords
At the start of April, the news broke that 500,000 stolen Zoom passwords were up for sale. Here's how the hackers got hold of them.
More than half a million Zoom account credentials, usernames and passwords were made available in dark web crime forums earlier this month. Some were given away for free while others were sold for as low as a penny each.
Researchers at a threat intelligence provider obtained multiple databases containing Zoom credentials and got to work analysing exactly how the hackers got hold of them in the first place.
Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/04/28/zoom-gets-stuffed-heres-how-hackers-got-hold-of-500000-passwords/#6586d7be5cdc
Sophisticated Android Spyware Attack Spreads via Google Play
The PhantomLance espionage campaign is targeting specific victims, mainly in Southeast Asia — and could be the work of the OceanLotus APT.
A sophisticated, ongoing espionage campaign aimed at Android users in Asia is likely the work of the OceanLotus advanced persistent threat (APT) actor, researchers said this week.
Dubbed PhantomLance by Kaspersky, the campaign is centered around a complex spyware that’s distributed via dozens of apps within the Google Play official market, as well as other outlets like the third-party marketplace known as APKpure.
The effort, though first spotted last year, stretches back to at least 2016, according to findings released at the SAS@home virtual security conference on Tuesday.
Read more here: https://threatpost.com/sophisticated-android-spyware-google-play/155202/
Skype phishing attack targets remote workers
Remote workers have been warned to take extra care when using video conferencing software after a new phishing scam was uncovered.
Researchers from a security firm have revealed hackers are using emails pretending to be from Skype, the popular Microsoft-owned video calling tool, in order to trick home workers into handing over their login details.
Criminals could then use these logins to access corporate networks to spread malware or steal valuable information.
Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/skype-phishing-attack-targets-remote-workers
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing for 11 April 2020 – NCSC advisory on COVID activity, Travelex pays $2.3M ransom, Zoom tries to get better, Shadow IT risks, Unkillable Android malware, Bot traffic up
Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing for 11 April 2020 – NCSC advisory on COVID activity, Travelex pays $2.3M ransom, Zoom tries to get better, Shadow IT risks, Unkillable Android malware, Bot traffic up
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.
60 second video flash briefing
UK NCSC and US CISA issue joint Advisory: COVID-19 exploited by malicious cyber actors
A joint advisory was put out from the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) relating to information on exploitation by cyber criminal and advanced persistent threat (APT) groups of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic. It includes a non-exhaustive list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) for detection as well as mitigation advice.
Read more here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/covid-19-exploited-by-cyber-actors-advisory
Download the advisory notice here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/files/Final%20Joint%20Advisory%20COVID-19%20exploited%20by%20malicious%20cyber%20actors%20v3.pdf
Travelex paid $2.3M in Bitcoin to get its systems back from hackers
Travelex paid hackers $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin to regain access to its computer systems after a devastating ransomware attack on New Year’s Eve.
The London-based company said it decided to pay the 285 BTC based on the advice of experts, and had kept regulators and partners in the loop throughout the recovery process.
Although Travelex, which manages the world’s largest chain of money exchange shops and kiosks, did confirm the ransomware attack when it happened, it hadn’t yet disclosed a Bitcoin ransom had been paid to restore its systems.
Travelex previously blamed the attack on malware known as Sodinokibi, a ‘Ransomware-as-a-Service’ tool-kit that has recently begun publishing data stolen from companies that don’t pay up.
Travelex‘ operations were crippled for almost all of January, with its public-facing websites, app, and internal networks completely offline. It also reportedly interrupted cash deliveries to major banks in the UK, including Barclays and Lloyds.
At the time, BBC claimed that Travelex‘ attackers had demanded $6 million worth of Bitcoin to unlock its systems.
Zoom sets up CISO Council and hires ex-CSO of Facebook to clean up its privacy mess
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has seen people relying on work collaboration apps like Teams and Slack to talk to others or conduct meetings. Zoom, in particular, has seen incredible growth over the past few weeks but it came at a cost. The company has been under a microscope after various researchers discovered a number of security flaws in the app. To Zoom’s credit, the company responded immediately and paused feature updates to focus on security issues.
The company announced that it’s taking help from CISOs to improve the security and patch the flaws in the app. Zoom will be taking help from CISOs from HSBC, NTT Data, Procore, and Ellie Mae, among others. Moreover, the company is also setting up an Advisory Board that will include security leaders from VMware, Netflix, Uber, Electronic Arts, and others. Lastly, the company has also asked Alex Stamos, ex-CSO of Facebook to join as an outside advisor. Alex is a well-known personality in the cybersecurity world who left Facebook after an alleged conflict of interest with other executives about how to address the Russian government’s use of its platform to spread disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Read more here: https://mspoweruser.com/zoom-ciso-hires-ex-facebook-cso-clean-its-mess/
Researchers discover IoT botnet capable of launching various DDoS attacks
Cyber security researchers have found a new botnet comprised of more than a thousand IoT devices, capable of launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
According to a report, researchers have named the botnet Dark Nexus, and believe it was created by well-known malware developer greek.Helios - a group that has been selling DDoS services and botnet code for at least the past three years.
Analysing the botnet through a honeypot, the researchers found it is comprised of 1,372 bots, but believe it could grow extremely quickly.
Dark Nexus is based on Mirai and Qbot, but has seen some 40 iterations since December 2020, with improvements and new features added almost daily.
Read the original article here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/researchers-discover-iot-botnet-capable-of-launching-various-ddos-attacks/
Microsoft: Cyber-Criminals Are Targeting Businesses Through Vulnerable Employees
Microsoft has warned that cyber-criminals are preying on people’s vulnerable psychological states during the COVID-19 pandemic to attack businesses. During a virtual press briefing, the multinational technology company provided data showing how home working and employee stress during this period has precipitated a huge amount of COVID-19-related attacks, particularly phishing scams.
Working from home at this time is very distracting for a lot of people, particularly if they are looking after children. Additionally, many individuals are in a stressful state with the extra pressures and worries as a result of COVID-19. This environment is providing new opportunities for cyber-criminals to operate.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in COVID-related phishing lures for our customers,” confirmed Microsoft. “We’re blocking roughly 24,000 bad emails a day with COVID-19 lures and we’ve also been able to see and block through our smart screen 18,000 malicious COVID-themed URLs and IP addresses on a single day, so the volume of attacks is quite high.”
Read the original article here: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cybercriminals-targeting/
Stolen Zoom account credentials are freely available on the dark web
Loved, hated, trusted and feared in just about equal measure, Zoom has been all but unavoidable in recent weeks. Following on from a combination of privacy and security scandals, credentials for numerous Zoom account have been found on the dark web.
The credentials were hardly hidden -- aside from being on the dark web. Details were shared on a popular forum, including the email address, password, meeting ID, host key and host name associated with compromised accounts.
Read more: https://betanews.com/2020/04/08/zoom-account-credentials-dark-web/
Shadow IT Represents Major #COVID19 Home Working Threat
Rising threat levels and remote working challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic are putting increased pressure on IT security professionals, according to new data.
A poll of over 400 respondents from global organisations with over 500 employees was conducted to better understand the current challenges facing security teams.
It revealed that 71% of security professionals had reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the start of the virus outbreak. Phishing (55%), malicious websites (32%), malware (28%) and ransomware (19%) were cited as the top threats.
These have been exacerbated by home working challenges, with 95% of respondents claiming to be under new pressures.
Top among these was providing secure remote access for employees (56%) and scalable remote access solutions (55%). However, nearly half (47%) of respondents complained that home workers using shadow IT solutions represented a major problem.
These challenges are only going to grow, according to the research.
Read more here: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/shadow-it-covid19-home-working/
'Unkillable' Android malware gives hackers full remote access to your phone
Security experts are warning Android users about a particularly nasty strain of malware that's almost impossible to remove.
A researcher has written a blog post explaining how the xHelper malware uses a system of nested programs, not unlike a Russian matryoshka doll, that makes it incredibly stubborn.
The xHelper malware was first discovered last year, but the researcher has only now established exactly how it gets its claws so deeply into your device, and reappears even after a system restore.
Although the Google Play Store isn't foolproof, unofficial third party app stores are much more likely to harbour malicious apps. App-screening service Google Play Protect blocked more than 1.9 million malware-laced app installs last year, including many side-loaded or installed from unofficial sources, but it's not foolproof.
xHelper is often distributed through third-party stores disguised as a popular cleanup or maintenance app to boost your phone's performance, and once there, is amazingly stubborn.
Decade of the RATs (Remote Access Trojan): Novel APT Attacks Targeting Linux, Windows and Android
BlackBerry researchers have released a new report that examines how five related APT groups operating in the interest of the Chinese government have systematically targeted Linux servers, Windows systems and Android mobile devices while remaining undetected for nearly a decade.
The report comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice announcing several high-profile indictments from over 1,000 open FBI investigations into economic espionage as part of the DOJ’s China Initiative.
The BlackBerry report, titled Decade of the RATs: Cross-Platform APT Espionage Attacks Targeting Linux, Windows and Android, examines how APTs have leveraged the “always on, always available” nature of Linux servers to establish a “beachhead” for operations. Given the profile of the five APT groups involved and the duration of the attacks, it is likely the number of impacted organisations is significant.
The cross-platform aspect of the attacks is also of particular concern in light of security challenges posed by the sudden increase in remote workers. The tools identified in these ongoing attack campaigns are already in place to take advantage of work-from-home mandates, and the diminished number of personnel onsite to maintain security of these critical systems compounds the risks. While the majority of the workforce has left the office as part of containment efforts in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, intellectual property remains in enterprise data centres, most of which run on Linux.
Most large organizations rely on Linux to run websites, proxy network traffic and store valuable data. While Linux may not have the visibility that other front-office operating systems have, it is arguably the most critical where the security of critical networks is concerned. Linux runs nearly all of the top 1 million websites, 75% of all web servers, 98% of the world’s supercomputers and 75% of major cloud service providers (Netcraft, 2019, Linux Foundation, 2020).
More here: https://blogs.blackberry.com/en/2020/04/decade-of-the-rats
Bot traffic fueling rise of fake news and cybercrime
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted daily life around the world and the WHO recently warned that an overabundance of information about the virus makes it difficult for people to differentiate between legitimate news and misleading information.
At the same time, EU security services have warned that Russia is aggressively exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to push disinformation and weaken Western society through its bot army.
A cyber security firm has been using its bot manager to monitor internet traffic in an attempt to track the “infodemic” that both the WHO and EU security services have issued warnings on.
According to the data, bots have upped their game and organisations in the social media, ecommerce and digital publishing industries have experienced a surge in bad bot traffic following the coronavirus outbreak.
The bots have been found to be executing various insidious activities including spreading disinformation, spam commenting and more. In February, 58.1 percent of bots had the capability to mimic human behaviour. This means that they can disguise their identities, create fake accounts on social media sites and post their masters' propaganda while appearing as a genuine user.
Read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/bot-traffic-fueling-rise-of-fake-news-and-cybercrime
Week in review 27 October 2019: gang posing as Russian Government hackers are extorting financial service companies, ransomware & mobile malware to surge in 2020, younger staff pose security risk
Week in review 27 October 2019: gang posing as Russian Government hackers are extorting financial service companies, ransomware & mobile malware to surge in 2020, younger staff pose security risk
Round up of the most significant open source stories of the last week
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.
A criminal gang posing as Russian Government hackers are extorting companies in the financial services sector
Fake "Fancy Bear" group is demanding money from companies in the financial sector, threatening DDoS attacks
For the past week, a group of criminals has been launching DDoS attacks against companies in the financial sector and demanding ransom payments while posing as "Fancy Bear," the infamous hacking group associated with the Russian government, known for hacking the White House in 2014 and the DNC in 2016.
The group is launching large scale, multi-vector demo DDoS attacks when sending victims the ransom letter and demanding ransom payments of 2 bitcoin, which is about $15,000 at today's exchange rate.
Full article here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-ddos-gang-is-extorting-businesses-posing-as-russian-government-hackers/
Ransomware, Mobile Malware Attacks to Surge in 2020
Targeted ransomware, mobile malware and other attacks will surge, while companies will adopt AI, better cloud security and cyber insurance to help defend and protect against them.
Cyber threats like targeted ransomware, mobile malware and sophisticated phishing attacks will escalate in 2020, researchers warn.
However, defences like artificial intelligence (AI), cyber insurance and faster security response will also increase, helping defend companies against imminent threats, according to new predictions by Check Point Software.
Check Point outlined “key security and related trends” it expects to see in 2020 in a blog post Wednesday, including a series of technology trends that can both be used to attack systems and mitigate against threats. Some of the predictions are for technologies that have already both surged in popularity and increased in sophistication this year, including targeted ransomware and phishing attacks that go beyond email.
Read the full article on ThreatPost here: https://threatpost.com/ransomware-mobile-malware-attacks-to-surge-in-2020/149539/
Mobile malware may be the greatest security threat around
BlackBerry uncovers new mobile threats and actors targeting various industries
Mobile malware is more prevalent and popular that first thought and researchers are only now learning just how much it is in use for surveillance and espionage campaigns. In reality, there are many active actors and advanced persistent threats we never knew existed.
Blackberry’s new report, called Mobile Malware and APT Espionage: Prolific, Pervasive, and Cross-Platform, says the company’s researchers identified three new advanced persistent threat campaigns, originating mostly in China, Iran, North Korea and Vietnam, which leveraged mobile malware, in combination with desktop malware.
The end goal is cyber-espionage and intelligence gathering, mostly for economic and political objectives.
Full article here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/mobile-malware-may-be-the-greatest-security-threat-around/
Phishing attacks are a complex problem that requires layered solutions
Most cyber attacks start with a social engineering attempt and, more often than not, it takes the form of a phishing email.
It’s easy to understand the popularity of phishing as an attack vector of choice: phishing campaigns are relatively inexpensive (money and time-wise), yet are often very successful. Attackers don’t need to create or buy technical exploits that may or may not work – instead, they exploit what they can always count on: users’ emotions, fears, desires, and the fact that, despite knowing better, it only takes a moment of inattention to make a mistake.
Cybercriminals play on users’ expectations of trust in email communications, and the human instinct – despite training and warnings to the contrary – to click on malicious links, give away credentials or even install malware and ransomware on endpoint devices. The reality is that people are always soft targets, and social engineering and phishing attacks are outpacing legacy technologies and training-only solutions.
More info here: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/10/24/phishing-attacks-solutions/
Younger workers could be putting your security at risk
They're bigger risk takers and aren't as security-conscious as their older colleagues.
One might think that the younger generation, those that have grown up surrounded by technology, would be more conscious about the dangers lurking in the internet's depths, and would have adopted cybersecurity best practices from an early age.
The truth is quite different, at least according to NTT's new report about cybersecurity in the workplace. The report says that employees over the age of 30 generally score better when it comes to securing their data and services, compared to those below the age of 30.
The argument is that the older generation has spent more time at the office and has thus acquired “digital DNA”.
Read the full article here: https://www.itproportal.com/news/younger-workers-could-be-putting-your-security-at-risk/
More Companies Adopt Multi Factor Authentication (MFA), but It’s Still Not Enough
Organisations face ever-increasing threats, and password security is paramount. But employees don’t usually use robust password protocols or multi-factor authentication to secure valuable information.
A survey from LogMeIn, which makes the LastPass password manager, shows that the number of companies adopting a multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution is on the rise, with 57% of businesses choosing MFA in 2018, compared with 45% in 2017.
94% of employees chose a smartphone for MFA, while only 4% opted for a hardware-based solution and just 1% wanted biometrics. The trend is set by the abundant availability of smartphones, as opposed to the rest of the options.
Although MFA is used widely, it’s not uniformly distributed across the globe, with some countries leading the change, a few of them by considerable margins. First place is occupied by Denmark, with a 46% adoption rate, followed by the Netherlands with 41% and Switzerland with 38%. The United States is somewhere in the middle, with 28% adoption. Last place is taken by Italy, with only 20%.
More here: https://securityboulevard.com/2019/10/more-companies-adopt-mfa-but-its-still-not-enough/
Amazon’s AWS Hit by DDoS Attack – Google Cloud Issues Unrelated
Google Cloud also faced issues in a separate incident
AWS was hit by a sustained DDoS attack earlier this week, which appears to have lasted some eight hours. The incident hit several different services and raises many questions about the nature of the attack and about AWS’s own DDoS mitigation service, “Shield Advanced”.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) had a range of issues at a similar time. The two are not understood to be linked. In a status update GCP cited interruptions to multiple different Google cloud services at a similar time although a Google spokesperson stated the service disruptions were unrelated to any kind of DDoS attempt.
Motive doesn't matter: The three types of insider threats
In information security, outside threats can get the lion's share of attention. Insider threats to data security, though, can be more dangerous and harder to detect because they are strengthened by enhanced knowledge and/or access.
Not only is it vital, therefore, to distinguish and prepare for insider threats, but it is just as vital to distinguish between different types of insider threats. A lot has been written about the different profiles for insider threats and inside attackers, but most pundits in this area focus on insider motive. Motive, however, doesn't matter. A threat is a threat, a breach is a breach. A vulnerability that can be exploited by one party for profit can be exploited by another for pleasure, by another for country, and so on. Instead of analyzing motives and reasons, it is far more useful to compare insider threats by action and intent.
Insider threats come in three flavors:
Compromised users,
Malicious users, and
Careless users.
Get the full breakdown of the three types here: https://betanews.com/2019/10/21/3-types-of-insider-threats/