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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 January 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 19 January 2024:

-World Economic Forum and UN Warn of Growing ‘Cyber Insecurity’ Amid Heightened Threat Landscape

-Cyber Attacks Reveal Fragility of Financial Markets as Attacks on Financial Services Sector Surge

-Researcher Uncovers One of The Biggest Password Dumps in Recent History

-Email Nightmare: 94% of Firms Hit by Phishing Attacks in 2023

-75% of Organisations Hit by Ransomware in 2023

-The Dangers of Quadruple Blow Ransomware Attacks

-Human Error and Insiders Expose Millions in UK Law Firm Data Breaches

-It’s a New Year and a Good Time for a Cyber Security Checkup

-Applying the Tyson Principle to Cyber Security: Why Attack Simulations are Key to Avoiding Disaster

-Cyber Threats Top Global Business Risk Concern for 2024

-Generative AI has CEOs Worried About Cyber Security, PwC Survey Says

-With Attacks on the Upswing, Cyber Insurance Premiums Poised to Rise Too

-Digital Resilience – a Step Up from Cyber Security

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

World Economic Forum and UN Warn of Growing ‘Cyber Insecurity’ Amid Heightened Threat Landscape

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations (UN) have highlighted “cyber insecurity” as one of the most critical challenges facing organisations worldwide. A recent report reveals that over 80% of surveyed organisations feel more exposed to cyber crime than in the previous year, leading to calls for increased collaboration across sectors and borders to enhance business resilience. The study shows a growing gap in cyber resilience between organisations, with small and medium-sized enterprises facing declines of 30% in cyber resilience. Moreover, the cyber skills shortage continues to widen, with only 15% of organisations optimistic about improvements in cyber education and skills.

The report also underscores the impact of generative AI on cyber security, emphasising the need for ongoing innovation in digital security efforts. According to a separate report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, there has been a significant uptick in the use of large language model-based chatbots, deepfake technology, and automation tools in cyber fraud operations. These technologies pose a significant threat to the formal banking industry and require focused attention from authorities to counter their impact. The convergence of these trends underscores the urgency and complexity of the cyber security landscape.

Sources: [ITPro] [The Debrief]

Cyber Attacks Reveal Fragility of Financial Markets as Attacks on Financial Services Sector Surge

The financial sector is facing an increased risk from cyber attacks, with cyber security now being listed as the top systemic risk according to a Bank of England survey. Cyber attacks rose by 64% in 2023, with a shift towards AI-facilitated ransomware attacks and Vendor Email Compromise (VEC), which rose 137%, and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, which rose by 71%, both of which exploit human error and pose a severe threat to the industry.

However, there is a lack of readiness by financial organisations to manage cyber attacks due to sophisticated attacks, talent shortages, and insufficient cyber defence investments. Ransomware incidents reported to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority doubled in 2023, making up 31% of cyber incidents, up from 11% in 2022. The financial sector remains a prime target for cyber criminals, especially ransomware groups.

Sources: [ITPro] [Law Society] [Security Brief] [Financial Times]  [Infosecurity Magazine]

Researcher Uncovers One of The Biggest Password Dumps in Recent History

Researchers have found that nearly 71 million unique stolen credentials for logging into websites such as Facebook, Roblox, eBay, Coinbase and Yahoo have been circulating on the Internet for at least four months. The massive amount of data was posted to a well-known underground market that brokers sales of compromised credentials.

Whilst there is a large number of re-used passwords in the data dump, it appears to contain roughly 25 million new passwords and 70 million unique email addresses. This serves as a crucial reminder about properly securing accounts, such as not reusing passwords, using a password manager and securing accounts with multi factor authentication.

Source: [Ars Technica]

Email Nightmare: 94% of Firms Hit by Phishing Attacks in 2023

Email security remained at the forefront of cyber related issues for decision-makers, with over nine in ten (94%) having to deal with a phishing attack, according to email security provider Egress. The top three phishing techniques used in 2023 were malicious URLs, malware or ransomware attachments, and attacks sent from compromised accounts. 96% of targeted organisations were negatively impacted by these attacks, up 10% from the previous year.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

75% of Organisations Hit by Ransomware in 2023

A recent report found that 75% of participants suffered at least one ransomware attack last year, and 26% were hit four or more times. The report noted that of the 25% who claimed to not have been hit, some could have been a victim but may not have the facilities to detect and therefore be aware as such. Ransomware remains a security threat and no organisation is immune.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

The Dangers of Quadruple Blow Ransomware Attacks

With the introduction of new regulatory requirements like NIS 2.0 and changes to US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) statutes, organisations are now mandated to promptly report cyber incidents, sometimes with deadlines as tight as four days. However, attackers are evolving their tactics to exploit these regulations. They add a new level of coercion by threatening to report non-compliant organisations to the regulator, thereby increasing the pressure on their victims. This was first seen last year as a ransomware gang AlphV reported one of its victims, MeridianLink, to the SEC for failing to report a successful cyber attack.

This coercive strategy places immense pressure on companies, especially as they grapple with data encryption, data exfiltration, and public exposure threats. In response to these evolving threats and regulatory pressures, organisations must invest in cyber resilience. This enables them to effectively respond to attacks, communicate with regulators, and recover services promptly, ultimately fortifying their defences against future threats.

Source: [TechRadar]

Human Error and Insiders Expose Millions in UK Law Firm Data Breaches

UK law firms are falling victim to data breaches primarily because of insiders and human error, according to an analysis of data from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). According to research, 60% of data breaches in the UK legal sector where the result of insider actions. In total, breaches led to the exposure of information of 4.2 million people. Often, even those organisations that implement measures to prevent breaches will still miss insider risk. Insider risk is not always malicious; it can also be negligence or due to a lack of knowledge, and it is important to protect against it.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

It’s a New Year and a Good Time for a Cyber Security Checkup

2023 brought a slew of high-profile vulnerabilities and data breaches impacting various sectors, including healthcare, government, and education. Notable incidents included ransomware attacks, such as the MOVEit, GoAnywhere, and casino operator breaches, along with the exploitation of unpatched legacy vulnerabilities like Log4j and Microsoft Exchange. Furthermore, new regulatory requirements from the likes of the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), and state security and privacy laws, added to the complexity. As we enter 2024, it is crucial for organisations, regardless of size, to reassess their cyber security strategies, incorporating lessons learned and adapting to new requirements. Comprehensive cyber security programs encompass people, operations and technology, addressing the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

Black Arrow can help with comprehensive and impartial assessments including gap analyses and security testing. These provide you with the objective assurance you need to understand whether your controls are providing you with your intended security and risk management.

Source: [JDSupra]

Applying the Tyson Principle to Cyber Security: Why Attack Simulations are Key to Avoiding Disaster

Mike Tyson’s famous adage “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face," is something we too often see in the world of security. When it comes to cyber security, preparedness is not just a luxury but a necessity. Far too often, unrealistic expectations in cyber defences create a false sense of security, leading to dire consequences when the reality of an attack hits. No-one wants to be testing their defences and implementing their response plan for the first time during a real incident.

In comes the benefit of incident and attack simulations: a reality check of your defences in a safe environment. Regular tabletop war-gaming exercises that simulate the fall out of an attack for senior leadership, can help to build muscle memory for when something does happen. They make sure everyone knows what to do, and crucially also not to do, when such an event happens for real. A deeper exercise would be a simulated attack that can be systematic and controlled, to mimic a real attacker and then adapted as attackers change their tactics, techniques, and procedures. From simulations, organisations can assess how their defences performed, applying insights and measuring and refining their defences for the event of a real attack.

Source: [The Hacker News]

Cyber Threats Top Global Business Risk Concern for 2024

Cyber related incidents, including ransomware attacks, data breaches and IT disruptions are the biggest concern for companies globally in 2024, according to a recent report by Allianz. The report highlights that these risks are a concern for businesses of all sizes, but the resilience gap between large and small companies is widening, “as risk awareness among larger organisations has grown since the pandemic with a notable drive to upgrade resilience.” Smaller businesses lack the time and resources that larger organisations have available, and as such need to carefully select and prioritise their resilience efforts.

Source: [Insurance Journal]

Generative AI has CEOs Worried About Cyber Security, PwC Survey Says

A recent PwC global survey found that when it comes to generative AI risks, 64% of CEOs said they are most concerned about its impact on cyber security, with over half of the total interviewed stating concerns about generative AI spreading misinformation in their company.  When we think of generative AI, we often worry about outside risk and the impact it can have for attackers, but the risk can also be internal, with things such as accidental disclosure by employees to unregulated generative AI. There is a necessity for organisations to govern the usage of AI in their corporate environment, to prevent such risks.

Source: [Quartz]

With Attacks on the Upswing, Cyber Insurance Premiums Poised to Rise Too

As the threat landscape continues to evolve, the cyber insurance market is experiencing significant changes that will impact businesses in the coming months with experts predicting that cyber insurance costs are on the verge of an upward trend. The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work and the cloud disrupted the cyber insurance market, leading to rising costs and reduced coverage options. In 2022, a temporary respite saw lower premiums, but 2023 has seen a resurgence in attacker activity, making it a challenging year for insurers. Cyber insurance remains a critical component of risk management, with the industry expected to continue growing despite higher rates. For businesses, understanding the evolving landscape of cyber insurance and ensuring adequate coverage is crucial in the face of escalating cyber threats.

Source: [Dark Reading]

Digital Resilience: a Step Up from Cyber Security

In today's digital landscape, the focus on digital resilience is paramount for organisations. While cyber security has garnered attention, digital resilience is the new frontier. Digital resilience involves an organisation's ability to maintain, adapt, and recover technology-dependent operations. As we increasingly rely on digital technology and the internet of things, understanding the critical role of technology in core business processes is vital. It goes beyond cyber security, encompassing change management, business resilience, operational risk, and competitiveness. Digital resilience means being ready to adopt new technology and swiftly recover from disruptions. Recognising its value and managing it at the senior level is crucial for long-term success in our rapidly evolving digital world. Moreover, amid a rising number of cyber attacks, addressing the statistic that only 18% of UK businesses provided cyber security training to employees last year is essential. Bridging this knowledge gap through cyber hygiene, a culture of cyber security, and robust safety measures will strengthen an organisation's cyber resilience against evolving threats.

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

Sources: [CSO Online] [Financial Times]

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Backup and Recovery

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

Nation State Actors

China

Russia

Iran

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

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Tools and Controls

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·         Automotive

·         Construction

·         Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·         Defence & Space

·         Education & Academia

·         Energy & Utilities

·         Estate Agencies

·         Financial Services

·         FinTech

·         Food & Agriculture

·         Gaming & Gambling

·         Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·         Health/Medical/Pharma

·         Hotels & Hospitality

·         Insurance

·         Legal

·         Manufacturing

·         Maritime

·         Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·         Retail & eCommerce

·         Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·         Startups

·         Telecoms

·         Third Sector & Charities

·         Transport & Aviation

·         Web3

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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 June 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 June 2023:

-How to Keep Cyber Attacks from Tanking Your Balance Sheet

-Company Size Doesn’t Matter When It Comes to Cyber Attacks

-‘Exceptional’ Cyber Attacks Now Normal, says BT Security Chief

-How State-Sponsored/Advanced Persistent Threat Groups (APTs) Target SMBs

-Phishing Campaigns Thrive as Evasive Tactics Outsmart Conventional Detection

-Don't be Polite When you Get a Text from a Wrong Number

-Capita Cyber Attack: 90 Downstream Organisations Reported Data Breaches

-Travel-Themed Phishing, BEC Campaigns Get Smarter as Summer Season Arrives

-Organisations Spend 100 Hours Battling Post-Delivery Email Threats

-Ransomware Gangs Adopting Business-like Practices to Boost Profits

-The Sobering Truth About Ransomware—For The 80% Who Paid Up

-The Great CISO Resignation: Why Security Leaders are Quitting in Droves

-When is it Time for a Cyber Hygiene Audit?

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

  • How to Keep Cyber Attacks from Tanking Your Balance Sheet

According to a recent Forrester report, last year saw 1 billion records exposed in the top 35 breaches, $2.6 billion stolen in the top nine cryptocurrency breaches, and $2.7 billion in fines levied to the top 35 violators.

The average cost of a data breach reached $4.35 million in 2022, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report for that year, which represents a 2.6% increase over the prior year, and a 12.7% increase from 2020. For ransomware, a report found the average payment in 2021 was approximately $1.85 million, more than double the $760,000 figure from 2020. These are just direct costs; indirect costs are far greater and can include lost business, lost customers, reputational loss and regulatory fines.

When it comes to managing cyber risk, corporate boards should look to understand cyber security as a strategic business enabler, understand the impacts, align risk-management with business needs, ensure the organisation supports cyber security, incorporate cyber security expertise into governance and encourage systemic resilience.

https://hbr.org/2023/06/how-to-keep-cyberattacks-from-tanking-your-balance-sheet

  • Company Size Doesn’t Matter When It Comes to Cyber Attacks

65% of large organisations suffered a cyber attack within the last 12 months, which is similar to the results among companies of all sizes (68%), according to a recent report. The most common security incidents were the same for all companies; these were phishing, ransomware and user account compromise, also known as business email compromise (BEC).

Smaller companies often underestimate their risk, with the reasoning that cyber criminals want the biggest targets as they will likely have more intellectual property, however all businesses have valuable data and are therefore a target. Additionally, smaller organisations can sometimes be seen as a way into larger organisations that use their services.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/29/larger-organizations-cyberattacks/

  • ‘Exceptional’ Cyber Attacks Now Normal, says BT Security Chief

The threat of cyber attacks is growing at an “unprecedented” pace, according to the chief security officer at multinational teleco BT, Howard Watson, but it is not just large organisations such as BT who will be impacted by this increase.

Watson highlighted that the increase in sophisticated technology poses the biggest threat in the long run: “Technological advancement, as ever, is a double-edged sword in security. Quantum and AI have great potential for benefits in the right hands, or to cause massive damage in the wrong hands. But we know that cyber criminals will utilise these technologies, so we have to be able to respond in kind.”  Adding to this, the chief security officer highlighted that events that were previously considered as ‘exceptional’ need to be assessed and planned for as a probability, rather than a possibility.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/exceptional-cyberattacks-now-normal-says-bt-security-chief-nd2kfp3gc

  • How State-Sponsored/Advanced Persistent Threat Groups (APTs) Target SMBs

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are not exempt from being targeted by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors, according to Proofpoint researchers who collected data from over 200,000 SMB customers. Proofpoint identified a rise in phishing campaigns originating from such state-sponsored APT groups, who are highly skilled and typically state-sponsored groups with distinct strategic goals. These goals range from espionage and intellectual property theft to destructive attacks, state-sponsored financial theft, and disinformation campaigns.

Unfortunately, SMBs often lack adequate cyber security measures, making them vulnerable to all kinds of cyber threats. APT actors exploit this weakness by targeting SMBs as a stepping stone towards achieving their larger goals.

Alongside phishing campaigns, it was identified that APTs are increasingly targeting regional outsourced IT providers/Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to mount supply chain attacks. By compromising regional MSPs within geographies that align with the strategic collection requirements of APT actors, threat actors can gain access to multiple SMBs to extract sensitive information or execute further attacks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/31/apt-targeting-smbs/

  • Phishing Campaigns Thrive as Evasive Tactics Outsmart Conventional Detection

According to research, 2022 saw a 25% increase in the use of phishing kits. These phishing kits are a set of tools that enable cyber criminals to effortlessly create and maintain large scale sophisticated phishing campaigns. It is this sophistication that allows cyber criminals to circumnavigate conventional detections; in fact, the research found a 40% increase in the use of anti-bot technologies designed to prevent automated scanners from identifying content as phishing.

In some cases (11% of observed phishing kits) malicious links would not be detected when tested by anti-phishing controls because those controls do not use the exact device parameters, geolocation and referrer of the intended target victim’s profile; therefore the malicious link is allowed to be delivered to the intended target.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/06/01/advanced-detection-evasion-techniques/

  • Don't be Polite When you Get a Text from a Wrong Number

You should immediately be suspicious of any text you get from a number not in your contacts, even if it may be innocent looking. Your first reaction may be to be polite and let them know they have the wrong number, but this person is a stranger. Strangely, despite teaching our children not to talk to strangers, many are comfortable with divulging information to them. Although letting them know they made a mistake seems harmless, responding opens you up to being scammed and you’ve just let them know you’re a real person. Every bit of helpful information you provide has the potential to be leveraged by an attacker.

https://www.kens5.com/article/money/consumer/wrong-number-text-messages/273-c94cd68b-6117-4add-bf16-e010f7e16726

  • Capita Cyber Attack: 90 Downstream Organisations Reported Data Breaches

90 organisations have reported breaches of personal information held by Capita after the outsourcing group had suffered a cyber attack, according to Britain’s data watchdog. The attack on Capita, which occurred in March, is still impacting businesses, with the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) making enquiries. Organisations must notify the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of a personal data breach.

The impact of the attack, and its knock-on effect, highlights the need for organisations to consider their third party security, no matter the size of the third party they use.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/30/capita-cyber-attack-data-breaches-ico

  • Travel-Themed Phishing, BEC Campaigns Get Smarter as Summer Season Arrives

A recent survey from McAfee found that nearly a third (30%) of adults have fallen victim or know someone who has fallen victim to an online scam when bargain hunting for travel deals during the summer season, with a full two-thirds of victims losing up to $1,000.

This has extended to the corporate environment, with threat actors impersonating the HR department and exploiting the trust users place in their employers, a report has found. The attack leverages regular HR procedures associated with holiday requests and taps into the anticipation and excitement surrounding the summer travel season, to capitalise on exploiting the user.

https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/travel-themed-phishing-bec-campaigns-smarter-summer-season

  • Organisations Spend 100 Hours Battling Post-Delivery Email Threats

Nearly every victim of a spear-phishing attack in the last 12 months saw impacts on their organisation, including malware infections, stolen data, and reputational damage, according to Barracuda Networks. The research shows that cyber criminals continue to barrage organisations with targeted email attacks, and many companies are struggling to keep up.

While spear-phishing attacks are low-volume, they are widespread and highly successful compared to other types of email attacks. On average, organisations take nearly 100 hours to identify, respond to, and remediate a post-deliver email threat: 43 hours to detect the attack and 56 hours to respond and remediate after the attack is detected.

Users at companies with more than a 50% remote workforce report higher levels of suspicious emails: 12 per day on average, compared to 9 per day for those with less than a 50% remote workforce. Companies with more than a 50% remote workforce also reported that it takes longer to both detect and respond to email security incidents: 55 hours to detect and 63 hours to respond and mitigate, compared to an average of 36 hours and 51 hours respectively for organisations with fewer remote workers.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/30/2023-spear-phishing-trends/

  • Ransomware Gangs Adopting Business-like Practices to Boost Profits

Ransomware gangs are using a variety of business-like practices to boost profits, making it more difficult for defenders to differentiate various groups, a new report by WithSecure has surmised. This move towards mirroring legitimate businesses practices means that tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) are blurring.

The underground marketplace now includes entities including ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups, Initial Access Brokers (IAB), crypter-as-a-service (CaaS), cryptojackers, malware-as-a-service (MaaS) groups and nation-state actors. This allows nation-states to use tools available on the underground market to gain access to networks and systems without being detected. Ultimately, this trend towards professionalisation makes the expertise and resources to attack organisations accessible to lesser-skilled or poorly resourced threat actors.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-gangs-business-practices/

  • The Sobering Truth about Ransomware—for the 80% Who Paid Up

Newly published research of 1,200 organisations impacted by ransomware reveals a sobering truth that awaits many of those who decide to pay the ransom. According to research, 80% of the organisations surveyed decided to pay the demanded ransom in order to both end the ongoing cyber attack and recover otherwise lost data. This is despite 41% of those organisations having a “do not pay” policy in place, which only goes to reinforce the cold hard fact that cyber crime isn’t an easy landscape to navigate. This is something that’s especially true when your business is facing the real-world impact of dealing with a ransomware attack.

Of the 960 organisations that paid a ransom, 201 of them (21%) were still unable to recover their lost data. The same number also reported that ransomware attacks were now excluded from their insurance policies. Of those organisations with cyber insurance cover, 74% reported a rise in premiums. Another report, published by Sophos, revealed that 32% of those surveyed opted to pay the ransom but a shocking 92% failed to recover all their data and 29% were unable to recover more than half of the encrypted data.

Some groups have switched to stealing sensitive customer or corporate data instead, with the ransom demanded in return for them not selling it to the highest bidder or publishing it online. Many groups combine the two for a double extortion ransomware attack.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2023/05/30/the-sobering-truth-about-ransomware-for-the-80-percent-who-paid-up 

  • The Great CISO Resignation: Why Security Leaders are Quitting in Droves

With the rise in AI tools such as ChatGPT broadening an attacker’s arsenal, this places greater and greater pressure on security leaders who are already dealing with shrinking budgets, skeleton crew staff and a conglomeration of security tools and protocols — so much so that they are increasingly quitting. A recent report found that nearly a third (32%) of CISOs in the US and UK were considering leaving their current organisation and 9 out of 10 reported themselves as “moderately” or “tremendously” stressed.

This so-called Great CISO Resignation is concerning, because what happens when there’s nobody guarding the gate and rallying the troops?

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/analysis/the-great-ciso-resignation-why-security-leaders-are-quitting-in-droves/2023/05/

  • When is it Time for a Cyber Hygiene Audit?

Effective cyber hygiene practices limit threats against your systems, devices and users, preventing breaches that could compromise sensitive business information, database information, and personal data. But cyber hygiene isn’t a static or one-off process. It requires routine execution and, occasionally, a full audit. This audit typically covers a range of aspects including encryption, documentation, authentication, patches, security and ongoing cyber hygiene.

Good cyber hygiene is a necessary part of maintaining IT security. Setting up processes and procedures within your organisation’s regular operating procedures is an effective way to maintain cyber hygiene. Although the responsibilities may differ by position, everyone in the organisation plays a role.

An audit provides important information on where and where you need to improve. It also provides a baseline for measuring improvement and effectiveness. The key to success is to integrate hygiene into routine process starting top down from policies into every part of the business and making use of third party experts to help aid in the process.

https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/devops/23/e/cyber-hygiene-audit-best-practices.html

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Botnets

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Shadow IT

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Travel

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·       Automotive

·       Construction

·       Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·       Defence & Space

·       Education & Academia

·       Energy & Utilities

·       Estate Agencies

·       Financial Services

·       FinTech

·       Food & Agriculture

·       Gaming & Gambling

·       Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·       Health/Medical/Pharma

·       Hotels & Hospitality

·       Insurance

·       Legal

·       Manufacturing

·       Maritime

·       Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·       Retail & eCommerce

·       Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·       Startups

·       Telecoms

·       Third Sector & Charities

·       Transport & Aviation

·       Web3

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 March 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 March 2023:

-Business Email Compromise Attacks Can Take Just Hours

-Research Reveals ‘Password’ is Still the Most Common Term used by Hackers to Breach Enterprise Networks

-Just 10% of Firms Can Resolve Cloud Threats in an Hour

-MSPs in the Crosshair of Ransomware Gangs

-Stolen Credentials Increasingly Empower the Cyber Crime Underground

-It’s Time to Assess the Potential Dangers of an Increasingly Connected World

-Mounting Cyber Threats Mean Financial Firms Urgently Need Better Safeguards

-Developers Leaked 10m Credentials Including Passwords in 2022

-Cyber Threat Detections Surges 55% In 2022

-European Central Bank Tells Banks to Run Cyber Stress Tests after Rise in Hacker Attacks

-Employees Are Feeding Sensitive Business Data to ChatGPT

-Is Ransomware Declining? Not So Fast Experts Say

-Preventing Corporate Data Breaches Starts With Remembering That Leaks Have Real Victims

-Faced With Likelihood of Ransomware Attacks, Businesses Still Choosing to Pay Up

-Experts See Growing Need for Cyber Security Workers as One in Six Jobs go Unfilled

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber threat intelligence 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

Business Email Compromise Attacks Can Take Just Hours

Microsoft’s security intelligence team found that Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are moving rapidly, with some taking mere minutes. Microsoft found the whole process, from signing in using compromised credentials to registering typo squatting domains and hijacking an email thread, took threat actors only a couple of hours. Such a rapid attack leaves minimal time for organisations to identify and take preventative action. This is worrying when considering the cost of BEC is predicted to more than tens of billions.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-business-email-compromise-attacks-can-take-just-hours/

Research Reveals ‘Password’ is Still the Most Common Term used by Hackers to Breach Enterprise Networks

In a report of over 800 million breached passwords, vendor Specops identified some worrying results. Some of the key findings from the report include 88% of passwords used in successful attacks consisting of 12 characters or less and the most common base terms used in passwords involving ‘password’, ‘admin’, ‘welcome’ and ‘p@ssw0rd’. The report found that 83% of the compromised passwords satisfied both the length and complexity requirements of cyber security compliance standards such as NIST, GDPR, HIPAA and Cyber Essentials.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2023/03/08/research-reveals-password-still-the-most-common-term-used-by-hackers-to-breach-enterprise-networks/

Just 10% of Firms Can Resolve Cloud Threats in an Hour

Two-thirds (39%) of global organisations reported a surge in breaches over the past year, with IT complexity increasing and detection and response capabilities worsening, according to Palo Alto Networks. It found that as enterprises move more of their data and workloads to the cloud, they’re finding it increasingly difficult to discover and remediate incidents quickly. Over two-fifths (42%) reported an increase in mean time to remediate, while 90% said they are unable to detect, contain and resolve cyber-threats within an hour. Nearly a third (30%) reported a major increase in intrusion attempts and unplanned downtime. Part of the challenge appears to be the complexity of their cloud security environments – partly caused by tool bloat.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/10-firms-resolve-cloud-threats-hour/

MSPs in the Crosshairs of Ransomware Gangs

Many attacks have heightened attention around third-party risk and the security obligations of MSPs in meeting multiple customers’ IT needs. Attacks such as the ones on RackSpace and LastPass show that some ransomware actors are now intentionally targeting MSPs to access sensitive customer data. It is now believed that some advanced persistent threat (APT) groups could be stepping up their attacks on MSP’s in order to gain sensitive customer data.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/msps-in-the-crosshairs-of-ransomware-gangs/

Stolen Credentials Increasingly Empower the Cyber Crime Underground

Threat Intelligence provider Flashpoint found that last year threat actors exposed or stole 22.62 billion credentials and personal records, which often make their way to underground forums and cyber criminal markets. This follows a significant increase in market activity; just last year Flashpoint recorded 190 new illicit markets emerge and the continual rise in attacks focused on stealing credentials only further empowers cyber crime underground.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3690409/stolen-credentials-increasingly-empower-the-cybercrime-underground.html#tk.rss_news

It’s Time to Assess the Potential Dangers of an Increasingly Connected World

As global conflicts continue, cyber has become the fifth front of warfare. The world is approaching 50 billion connected devices, controlling everything from our traffic lights to our nuclear arsenal and we have already seen large-scale cyber attacks. Adding to this, a multitude of infrastructure runs on services ran by a handful of companies; Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Fortinet control more than 50% of the market for security appliances. As such, an attack on one of these companies could cause a huge ripple effect on their customers.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/it-s-time-to-assess-the-potential-dangers-of-an-increasingly-connected-world-

Mounting Cyber Threats Mean Financial Firms Urgently Need Better Safeguards

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 64% of banks and supervisory authorities do not mandate testing and exercising cyber security and 54% lack dedicated a cyber incident reporting regime. This increases the risk of experiencing a cyber attack. Regularly testing and exercising security will aid any organisation in its cyber resilience.

https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/03/02/mounting-cyber-threats-mean-financial-firms-urgently-need-better-safeguards

Insider Threat: Developers Leaked 10m Credentials Including Passwords in 2022

Security provider GitGuardian found that the rate at which developers leaked critical software secrets jumped by 0.5 to reach 5.5 out of every 1,000 commits to GitHub repositories; overall, this amounted to at least 10 million instances of secrets leaking to a public repository. Generic passwords accounted for the majority of leaked secrets (56%) and more than a third (38%) of leaks involved API keys, random number generator seeds and other sensitive strings. These leaks can have worrying consequences for organisations.

https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/inside-threat-developers-leaked-10m-credentials-passwords-2022

Cyber Threat Detections Surges 55% In 2022

Security Provider Trend Micro has said that it stopped 146 billion cyber threats in 2022, a 55% increase on the previous year and evidence of the increase of attacks ramping up. Trend Micro also found a 242% increase in the number of blocked malicious files and an 86% increase in backdoor malware detections with the latter showing an increase in attackers gaining initial access. Furthermore, the number of critical vulnerabilities in 2022 doubled compared to the previous year. Trend Micro noted that this is all likely due to an ever expanding attack surface of organisations.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberthreat-detections-surge-55/

European Central Bank Tells Banks to Run Cyber Stress Tests after Rise in Hacker Attacks

The European Central Bank (ECB) will ask all major lenders in the Eurozone to detail by next year, how they would respond to and recover from a successful cyber attack. The ECB is in the process of designing a scenario involving a theoretical breach of the financial system’s cyber defences, which will be sent to all of the 111 banks it assesses to see how they would react. The stress test stems from the increasing amount of cyber attacks. If cyber has shown us anything, it’s that anyone can be a target and performing a stress test would help any organisation prepare for the worst.

https://www.ft.com/content/f03d68a4-fdb9-4312-bda3-3157d369a4a6

Employees Are Feeding Sensitive Business Data to ChatGPT

1 in 20 employees have put sensitive corporate data into popular AI tool ChatGPT, raising concerns that this could result in massive leaks of proprietary information. In some cases, this has involved employees cutting and pasting strategic documents and asking ChatGPT to make a PowerPoint.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/employees-feeding-sensitive-business-data-chatgpt-raising-security-fears

Is Ransomware Declining? Not So Fast Experts Say

Security provider CrowdStrike have explained that the perceived decline in ransomware reflects the abilities of threat actors to adapt, splinter and regroup against defensive measures. CrowdStrike expand on this, stating that whilst ransom payments dipped slightly in 2022, there was an uprise in data extortion and ransomware as a service (RaaS).

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/365532201/Is-ransomware-declining-Not-so-fast-experts-say

Preventing Corporate Data Breaches Starts with Remembering that Leaks have Real Victims

The impact a data breach can have on an individual is devastating and ultimately there’s not much an individual can do themselves if the organisation that holds their data isn’t taking the right steps. To best protect themselves and their clients’ data, organisations should look to have appropriate defence in depth controls, including effective asset management, an open security culture, close monitoring of access, utilising strong authentication and maintaining an awareness of the ever changing threat landscape.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/03/07/preventing-corporate-data-breaches/

Faced With Likelihood of Ransomware Attacks, Businesses Still Choosing to Pay Up

In a recent report Proofpoint found that globally 76% of organisations experienced ransomware attempts, with 64% eventually infected. Amongst those that had a cyber insurance policy, 82% of insurers stepped up to pay the ransom either in full or partially. The report found that with the rise in number and sophistication of attacks it is more important than ever for proper security training and awareness in organisations.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/faced-with-likelihood-of-ransomware-attacks-businesses-still-choosing-to-pay-up/

Experts See Growing Need for Cyber Security Workers as One in Six Jobs go Unfilled

A report by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) found that 1 in 6 cyber security jobs are unfulfilled and this is only expected to grow in the coming years. The ICTC stated that “This is not just about education or government funding, but about companies willing to provide hands-on training and experience to the next generation of cyber security experts”.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/article-experts-see-growing-need-for-cybersecurity-workers-as-one-in-six-jobs/

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Deepfakes

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Attack Surface Management

Asset Management

Encryption

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Artificial Intelligence

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

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

Nation State Actors

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·       Automotive

·       Construction

·       Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·       Defence & Space

·       Education & Academia

·       Energy & Utilities

·       Estate Agencies

·       Financial Services

·       FinTech

·       Food & Agriculture

·       Gaming & Gambling

·       Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·       Health/Medical/Pharma

·       Hotels & Hospitality

·       Insurance

·       Legal

·       Manufacturing

·       Maritime

·       Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·       Retail & eCommerce

·       Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·       Startups

·       Telecoms

·       Third Sector & Charities

·       Transport & Aviation

·       Web3

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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 November 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 November 2022:

-Hackers Hit One Third of Organisations Worldwide Multiple Times

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

-90% of Organisations have Microsoft 365 Security Gaps

-Luna Moth Phishing Extortion Campaign Targets Businesses in Multiple Sectors

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

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

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

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

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

-The Changing Nature of Nation-State Cyber Warfare

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

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

  • Hackers Hit One Third of Organisations Worldwide Multiple Times

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

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

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

  • Business Email Compromise (BEC)

  • Clickjacking

  • Fileless attacks

  • Ransomware

  • Login attacks (Credential Theft)

Here are some key findings from the study:

  • The CRI calculates the gap between organisational preparedness and the likelihood of being attacked, with -10 representing the highest level of risk. The global CRI index moved from –0.04 in 2H 2021 to –0.15 in 1H 2022, indicating a surging level of risk over the past six months.

  • This is a slight increase in risk from the second half of 2021, when it was -0.04. Organisations in North America and Asia-Pacific saw an increase in their cyber risk from that period while Europe and Latin/South America’s risk decreased in comparison.

  • The number of global organisations experiencing a “successful” cyber-attack increased from 84% to 90% over the same period.

  • The number now expected to be compromised over the coming year has also increased from 76% to 85%.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • 90% of Organisations have Microsoft 365 Security Gaps

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

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

  • 90% of companies had gaps across all four key areas studied – multi-factor authentication (MFA), email security, password policies, and failed logins

  • 87% of companies have MFA disabled for some or all their admins (which are the most critical accounts to protect, due to their higher access levels)

  • Only 17% of companies had strong password requirements that were being consistently followed.

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

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

  • The average company had 21.6% of their licenses unassigned or “sitting on the shelf.” Another 10.2% of licenses were inactive, for an average of 31.9% unused licenses.

  • 17% of companies had over 10,000 licenses unassigned or inactive. These cases represent big opportunities to optimise licence spend with better tools.

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

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

  • Luna Moth Phishing Extortion Campaign Targets Businesses in Multiple Sectors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • The Changing Nature of Nation-State Cyber Warfare

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Threats

Ransomware and Extortion

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Malware

Mobile

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Insurance

Software Supply Chain

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

API

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Cyber Bullying, Cyber Stalking and Sextortion

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

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

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·       Automotive

·       Construction

·       Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·       Defence & Space

·       Education & Academia

·       Energy & Utilities

·       Estate Agencies

·       Financial Services

·       FinTech

·       Food & Agriculture

·       Gaming & Gambling

·       Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·       Health/Medical/Pharma

·       Hotels & Hospitality

·       Insurance

·       Legal

·       Manufacturing

·       Maritime

·       Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·       Retail & eCommerce

·       Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·       Startups

·       Telecoms

·       Third Sector & Charities

·       Transport & Aviation

·       Web3

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

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

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

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

Read More
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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 August 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 August 2022

-Average Cost of Data Breaches Hits Record High of $4.35 Million: IBM

-Researchers Warns of Large-Scale Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) Attacks Targeting Enterprise Users

-UK NHS Suffers Outage After Cyber Attack on Managed Service Provider

-A Third of Organisations Experience a Ransomware Attack Once a Week

-Ransomware Products, Services Ads on Dark Web Show Clues to Danger

-Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, How Malware Tricks Users and Antivirus

-Microsoft Accounts Targeted with New MFA-Bypassing Phishing Kit

-Cyber Attack Prevention Is Cost-Effective, So Why Aren’t Businesses Investing to Protect?

-Securing Your Move to the Hybrid Cloud

-Lessons from the Russian Cyber Warfare Attacks

-Four Sneaky Attacker Evasion Techniques You Should Know About

-Zero-Day Defence: Tips for Defusing the Threat

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

  • Average Cost of Data Breaches Hits Record High of $4.35 Million: IBM

The global average cost of data breaches reached an all-time high of $4.35 million in 2022 compared with $4.24 million in 2021, according to a new IBM Security report. About 60% of the breached organisations raised product and services prices due to the breaches.

The annual report, conducted by Ponemon Institute and analysed and sponsored by IBM Security, is based on the analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by 550 organisations globally between March 2021 and March 2022.

According to the report, about 83% of the organisations have experienced more than one breach in their lifetime, with nearly half of the costs reported to be incurred more than a year after the breach.

The report revealed that ransomware and destructive attacks represented 28% of breaches among the critical infrastructure organisations studied, indicating that threat actors are specifically targeting the sector to disrupt global supply chains. The critical infrastructure sector includes financial services, industrial, transportation, and healthcare companies.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3668655/average-cost-of-data-breaches-hits-record-high-of-435-million-ibm.html#tk.rss_news

  • Researchers Warns of Large-Scale Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) Attacks Targeting Enterprise Users

A new, large-scale phishing campaign has been observed using adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) techniques to get around security protections and compromise enterprise email accounts.

It uses a technique capable of bypassing multi-factor authentication. The campaign is specifically designed to reach end users in enterprises that use Microsoft's email services.

Prominent targets include fintech, lending, insurance, energy, manufacturing, and federal credit union verticals located in the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

This is not the first time such a phishing attack has come to light. Last month, Microsoft disclosed that over 10,000 organisations had been targeted since September 2021 by means of AitM techniques to breach accounts secured with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

The ongoing campaign, effective June 2022, commences with an invoice-themed email sent to targets containing an HTML attachment, which includes a phishing URL embedded within it.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/08/researchers-warns-of-large-scale-aitm.html

  • UK NHS Suffers Outage After Cyber Attack on Managed Service Provider

The UK National Health Service (NHS) 111 emergency services were affected by a significant and ongoing outage triggered by a cyber attack that hit the systems of British managed service provider (MSP) Advanced.

Advanced's Adastra client patient management solution, which is used by 85% of NHS 111 services, was hit by a major outage together with several other services provided by the MSP, according to a status page.

"There was a major outage of a computer system that is used to refer patients from NHS 111 Wales to out-of-hours GP providers," the Welsh Ambulance Services said. "This system is used by Local Health Boards to coordinate these services for patients. The ongoing outage is significant and has been far-reaching, impacting each of the four nations in the UK."

The UK public was advised to access the NHS 111 emergency services using the online platform until the incident is resolved.

While no details were provided regarding the nature of the cyber attack, based on the wording, it is likely that this was a ransomware or data extortion attack.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/uk-nhs-suffers-outage-after-cyberattack-on-managed-service-provider/

  • A Third of Organisations Experience a Ransomware Attack Once a Week

Ransomware attacks show no sign of slowing. According to new research published by Menlo Security, a third of organisations experience a ransomware attack at least once a week, with one in 10 experiencing them more than once a day.

The research, conducted among 500+ IT security decision makers at US and UK organisations with more than 1,000 employees, highlights the impact this is having on security professionals’ own wellbeing. When asked what keeps them awake at night, 41% of respondents say they worry about ransomware attacks evolving beyond their team’s knowledge and skillset, while 39% worry about them evolving beyond their company’s security capabilities.

Their biggest concern, however, is the risk of employees ignoring corporate security advice and clicking on links or attachments containing malware (46%). Respondents worry more about this than they do their own job security, with just a quarter (26%) of respondents worried about losing their job.

According to the report, around half of organisations (61% US and 44% UK) have been the victim of a successful ransomware attack in the last 18 months, with customers and prospects the most likely entry point for an attack.

Partners/suppliers and employees/contractors are also seen as serious security risks, although one in 10 admit they are unable to identify how the attacks got in. The top three ransomware attack vectors are email (54%), web browsers via a desktop or laptop (49%) and mobile devices (39%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/04/organizations-experience-ransomware-attack/

  • Ransomware Products and Services Ads on Dark Web Show Clues to Danger

Why is ransomware’s destructive potential so daunting? Some clues are in the “for sale” ads. In an examination of some 35 million dark web URLs, a provider of machine identity management and a forensic specialist found some 475 web pages peddling sophisticated ransomware products and services with a number of high profile crews hawking ransomware-as-a-service.

The work is a joint effort between the Salt Lake City-based Venafi and Forensic Pathways, which took place between November 2021 and March 2022. Researchers used Forensic’s Dark Search Engine to carry out the investigation.

Here are some of the research findings:

  • 87% of the ransomware found on the dark web has been delivered via malicious macros to infect targeted systems.

  • 30 different “brands” of ransomware were identified within marketplace listings and forum discussions.

  • Many strains of ransomware being sold — such as Babuk, GoldenEye, Darkside/BlackCat, Egregor, HiddenTear and WannaCry — have been successfully used in high-profile attacks.

  • Ransomware strains used in high-profile attacks command a higher price for associated services. For example, the most expensive listing was $1,262 for a customised version of Darkside ransomware, which was used in the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack.

  • Source code listings for well-known ransomware generally command higher price points. For example, Babuk source code is listed for $950 and Paradise source code is selling for $593.

Ransomware Sold for as Little as $1: In addition to a variety of ransomware at various price points, a wide range of services and tools that help make it easier for attackers with minimal technical skills to launch ransomware attacks are for sale on the dark web, Venafi said. Services with the greatest number of listings include those offering source code, build services, custom development services and ransomware packages that include step-by-step tutorials.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-breaches-and-attacks/ransomware/ransomware-products-services-ads-on-dark-web-show-clues-to-danger/

  • Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: How Malware Tricks Users and Antivirus

One of the primary methods used by malware distributors to infect devices is by deceiving people into downloading and running malicious files, and to achieve this deception, malware authors are using a variety of tricks.

Some of these tricks include masquerading malware executables as legitimate applications, signing them with valid certificates, or compromising trustworthy sites to use them as distribution points.

According to VirusTotal, a security platform for scanning uploaded files for malware, some of these tricks are happening on a much larger scale than initially thought.

The platform has compiled a report presenting stats from January 2021 until July 2022, based on the submission of two million files daily, illustrating trends in how malware is distributed.

  • Abusing legitimate domains: Distributing malware through legitimate, popular, and high-ranking websites allows threat actors to evade IP-based blocklists, enjoy high availability, and provide a greater level of trust.

  • Using stolen code-signing certificates: Signing malware samples with valid certificates stolen from companies is a reliable way to evade AV detection and security warnings on the host. Of all the malicious samples uploaded to VirusTotal between January 2021 and April 2022, over a million were signed, and 87% used a valid certificate.

  • Disguised as popular software: Masquerading a malware executable as a legitimate, popular application has seen an upward trend in 2022. Victims download these files thinking they’re getting the applications they need, but upon running the installers, they infect their systems with malware. The most mimicked applications are Skype, Adobe Acrobat, VLC, and 7zip.

  • Lacing legitimate installers - Finally, there’s the trick of hiding malware inside legitimate application installers and running the infection process in the background while the real apps execute in the foreground. Based on VirusTotal stats, this practice also appears to be on the rise this year, using Google Chrome, Malwarebytes, Windows Updates, Zoom, Brave, Firefox, ProtonVPN, and Telegram as lures.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/wolf-in-sheep-s-clothing-how-malware-tricks-users-and-antivirus/

  • Microsoft Accounts Targeted with New MFA-Bypassing Phishing Kit

A new large-scale phishing campaign targeting credentials for Microsoft email services use a custom proxy-based phishing kit to bypass multi-factor authentication.

Researchers believe the campaign's goal is to breach corporate accounts to conduct BEC (business email compromise) attacks, diverting payments to bank accounts under their control using falsified documents.

The phishing campaign's targets include fin-tech, lending, accounting, insurance, and Federal Credit Union organisations in the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

The campaign was discovered by Zscaler's ThreatLabz researchers, who report that the operation is still ongoing, and the phishing actors register new phishing domains almost daily.

Starting in June 2022, Zscaler's analysts noticed a spike in sophisticated phishing attempts against specific sectors and users of Microsoft email services.

Some of the newly registered domains used in the campaign are typo-squatted versions of legitimate domains.

Notably, many phishing emails originated from the accounts of executives working in these organisations, whom the threat actors most likely compromised earlier.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-accounts-targeted-with-new-mfa-bypassing-phishing-kit/

  • Cyber Attack Prevention Is Cost-Effective, So Why Aren’t Businesses Investing to Protect?

Cyber attacks like ransomware, BEC scams and data breaches are some of the key issues businesses are facing today, but despite the number of high-profile incidents, many boardrooms are reluctant to free up budget to invest in the cyber security measures necessary to avoid becoming the next victim.

In a Help Net Security interview, Former Pentagon Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Reiber, VP Cyber security Strategy and Policy, AttackIQ, discusses how now, more than ever, companies need to protect themselves from cyber threat actors. He offers insight for CISOs, from talking to the Board to proper budget allocation.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/01/cyberattack-prevention-investing/

  • Securing Your Move to the Hybrid Cloud

The combination of private and public cloud infrastructure, which most organisations are already using, poses unique security challenges. There are many reasons why organisations adopt the public cloud, from enabling rapid growth without the burden of capacity planning to leveraging flexibility and agility in delivering customer-centric services. However, this use can leave companies open to threats.

Since regulatory requirements or other preferences dictate that certain applications remain on private (on-prem) infrastructure, many organisations choose to maintain a mix of private and public infrastructure. Additionally, organisations typically use multiple cloud providers simultaneously or preserve the option to move between providers. However, this hybrid approach presents unique and diverse security challenges. Different cloud providers and private cloud platforms may offer similar capabilities but different ways of implementing security controls, along with disparate management tools.

The question then becomes: How can an organisation maintain consistent governance, policy enforcement and controls across different clouds? And how can it ensure that it maintains its security posture when moving between them? Fortunately, there are steps professionals can take to ensure that applications are continuously secure, starting from the early stages of development and extending throughout the lifecycle.

https://threatpost.com/secure-move-cloud/180335/

  • Lessons from the Russian Cyber Warfare Attacks

Cyber warfare tactics may not involve tanks and bombs, but they often go hand-in-hand with real combat.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a prime example. Before Russian troops crossed the border, Russian hackers had already taken down Ukrainian government websites. And after the conflict started, the hacktivist group Anonymous turned the tables by hacking Russian media to shut down propaganda about the war.

In these unprecedented times of targeted attacks against governments and financial institutions, every organisation should be on heightened alert about protecting their critical infrastructure and digital attack surface.

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a backdrop, two Trend Micro security experts recently discussed cyber warfare techniques and how they’re an important reminder for every business to proactively manage cyber risk.

https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/ciso/22/h/russian-cyber-warfare-attacks.html

  • Four Sneaky Attacker Evasion Techniques You Should Know About

Remember those portrayals of hackers in the 80s and 90s where you just knew when you got pwned? A blue screen of death, a scary message, a back-and-forth text exchange with a hacker—if you got pwned in a movie in the 80s and 90s, you knew it right off the bat.

What a shame that today’s hackers have learned to be quiet when infiltrating an environment. Sure, “loud” attacks like ransomware still exist, but threat actors have learned that if they keep themselves hidden, they can usually do far more damage. For hackers, a little stealth can go a long way. Some attack tactics are inherently quiet, making them arguably more dangerous as they can be harder to detect. Here are four of these attack tactics you should know about.

  1. Trusted Application Abuse: Attackers know that many people have applications that they inherently trust, making those trusted applications the perfect launchpad for cyber attacks. Threat actors know that defenders and the tools they use are often on the hunt for new malware presenting itself in environments. What isn’t so easy to detect is when the malware masquerades under legitimate applications.

  2. Trusted Infrastructure Abuse: Much like trusted application abuse, trusted infrastructure abuse is the act of using legitimate, publicly hosted services and toolsets (such as Dropbox or Google Drive) as part of the attack infrastructure. Threat actors know that people tend to trust Dropbox and Google Drive. As a result, this makes these tools a prime means for threat actors to carry out malicious activity. Threat actors often find trusted infrastructure abuse easy because these services aren’t usually blocked at an enterprise’s gateway. In turn, outbound communications can hide in plain sight.

  3. Obfuscation: Although cyber security has more than its fair share of tedious acronyms, the good news is that many terms can be broken down by their generic dictionary definitions. According to dictionary.com, this is what obfuscate means: “To make something unclear, obscure or difficult to understand.” And that’s exactly what it means in cyber security: finding ways to conceal malicious behaviour. In turn, this makes it more difficult for analysts and the tools they use to flag suspicious or malicious activity.

  4. Persistence: Imagine writing up documentation using your computer, something you may well do in your role. You’ve spent a ton of time doing the research required, finding the right sources and compiling all your information into a document. Now, imagine not hitting save on that document and losing it as soon as you reboot your computer. Sound like a nightmare—or perhaps a real anxiety-inducing experience you’ve been through before? Threat actors agree. And that’s why they establish persistence. They don’t want all of their hard work to get into your systems in the first place to be in vain just because you restart your computer. They establish persistence to make sure they can still hang around even after you reboot.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-guests/four-sneaky-attacker-evasion-techniques-you-should-know-about/

  • Zero-Day Defence: Tips for Defusing the Threat

Because they leave so little time to patch and defuse, zero-day threats require a proactive, multi-layered approach based on zero trust.

The recent Atlassian Confluence remote code execution bug is just the latest example of zero-day threats targeting critical vulnerabilities within major infrastructure providers. The specific threat, an Object-Graph Navigation Language (OGNL) injection, has been around for years but took on new significance given the scope of the Atlassian exploit. And OGNL attacks are on the rise.

Once bad actors find such a vulnerability, proof-of-concept exploits start knocking at the door, seeking unauthenticated access to create new admin accounts, execute remote commands, and take over servers. In the Atlassian case, Akamai's threat research team identified that the number of unique IP addresses attempting these exploits grew to more than 200 within just 24 hours.

Defending against these exploits becomes a race against time worthy of a 007 movie. The clock is ticking and you don't have much time to implement a patch and "defuse" the threat before it's too late. But first you need to know that an exploit is underway. That requires a proactive, multi-layered approach to online security based on zero trust.

What do these layers look like? There are a number of different practices that security teams — and their third-party Web application and infrastructure partners — should be aware of.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/zero-day-defense-tips-for-defusing-the-threat

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; SMishing, Vishing, etc

Malware

Mobile

Internet of Things – IoT

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Dark Web

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Privacy

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

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

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·       Automotive

·       Construction

·       Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·       Defence & Space

·       Education & Academia

·       Energy & Utilities

·       Estate Agencies

·       Financial Services

·       FinTech

·       Food & Agriculture

·       Gaming & Gambling

·       Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·       Health/Medical/Pharma

·       Hotels & Hospitality

·       Insurance

·       Legal

·       Manufacturing

·       Maritime

·       Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·       Retail & eCommerce

·       Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·       Startups

·       Telecoms

·       Third Sector & Charities

·       Transport & Aviation

·       Web3

Other News

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 May 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 May 2022

-UK, US Intelligence Agencies Warn Managed Service Providers, including External IT Providers, Are Now Prime Targets for Cyber Attacks

-Wannacry – 5 Years On, 68% Of Enterprises Are Still At Risk

-You Can’t Eliminate Cyber Attacks, So Focus on Reducing the Blast Radius

-Just In Time? Bosses Are Finally Waking Up to The Cyber Security Threat

-Most Organisations Hit by Ransomware Would Pay Up If Hit Again

-31,000 FTSE 100 Logins Found on Dark Web

-Ransomware: How Executives Should Prepare Given the Current Threat Landscape

-What Your Cyber Insurance Application Form Can Tell You About Ransomware Readiness

-NCSC Shut Down 2.7 Million Scams in 2021

-Top 6 Security Threats Targeting Remote Workers

-Password Reuse Is Rampant Among Employees in All Sectors

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

  • UK, US Intelligence Agencies Warn Managed Service Providers, including External IT Providers, Are Now Prime Targets for Cyber Attacks

The Five Eyes coalition of international cyber security authorities, this week issued an advisory to warn managed service providers (MSPs), including external IT providers, of an escalating threat of attack from both everyday cyber criminals and state-sponsored threat actors.

MSPs provide or operate information and communications technology services.

With input from cyber security leaders from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, the NSA provided recommendations to help bolster their cyber defences, including:

  • Finding and disabling dormant accounts.

  • Implementing and enforcing multifactor authentication on accounts.

  • Ensuring contracts clearly map out who owns and is responsible for securing data.

Malicious actors are targeting MSPs to break into their customers' networks and deploy ransomware, steal data, and spy on them, the Five Eyes authorities have formally warned in a joint security alert.

"The UK, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and US cyber security authorities expect malicious cyber actors — including state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) groups — to step up their targeting of MSPs in their efforts to exploit provider-customer network trust relationships," the alert warned.

These types of supply-chain or "island-hopping" attacks can prove very lucrative for cyber criminals because once they break into an MSP, they gain access to all of the customers' networks and data being managed, and in turn commit computer crimes and fraud against those customers' customers.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/nsa-warns-managed-service-providers-are-now-prime-targets-for-cyberattacks

  • Wannacry – 5 Years On, 68% Of Enterprises Are Still at Risk

5 years on from one of the world’s most damaging ransomware attacks, research from network detection and response leader ExtraHop has found that 68% of enterprises are still running insecure protocol that were exploited by the North Korean ransomware.

The events of 12 May 2017 live on in cyber security lore. WannaCry revealed just how extensive the damage caused by ransomware can be if deployed in large scale – from downtime to ransom paid to reputational damage. Yet despite the danger, huge numbers of organisations are still running SMBv1, the protocol exploited in the WannaCry attacks that has been publicly deprecated since 2014.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/wannacry-5-years-on-68-of-enterprises-are-still-at-risk/

  • You Can’t Eliminate Cyber Attacks, So Focus on Reducing the Blast Radius

Given it is impossible to prevent all cyber attacks, many organisations should look to reduce the size of the company’s attack surface and the limit the “blast radius” of a potential attack.

There is a danger that the biggest risk concerning cyber attacks is that we’re becoming desensitised to them. After all, businesses experience a ransomware attack every 11 seconds—the majority of which the public never hears about. Faced with this reality, it may seem like efforts to safeguard the enterprise are futile. But that’s all the more reason to strengthen your resolve—and switch up your cyber defence strategy.

The core of this strategy should be the concept of “reducing the blast radius” of an attack, and since you can’t completely eliminate cyber attacks, you need to take steps to contain the impact.

This strategy should contain basic blocking and also consider things such as Zero Trust for remote access, traffic inspection, software-based micro-segmentation and other practical measures to reduce your attack surface.

https://threatpost.com/cyberattacks-blast-radius/179612/

  • Just In Time? Bosses Are Finally Waking Up to The Cyber Security Threat

Boardrooms have a reputation for not paying much attention to cyber security, but it could be that executives are finally keen to take more interest in securing the systems and networks their businesses rely on.

Senior figures from American, British and Australian cyber security agencies have said that business execs are now more aware of cyber threats and are actively engaging with their chief information security officer (CISO) and information security teams.

Chief execs are starting to ask their CISOs the right questions, rather than leaving them to it because they don't have to understand complex technology. It does feel like a much more engaging strategic conversation, but there can still be a disconnect between knowing what needs to happen, then actually budgeting for and implementing a cyber security strategy.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/just-in-time-bosses-are-finally-waking-up-to-the-cybersecurity-threat/

  • Most Organisations Hit by Ransomware Would Pay Up If Hit Again

Almost nine in 10 organisations that have suffered a ransomware attack would choose to pay the ransom if hit again, according to a new report, compared with two-thirds of those that have not experienced an attack.

The findings come from a report titled "How business executives perceive ransomware threat" by security company Kaspersky, which states that ransomware has become an ever-present threat, with 64 percent of companies surveyed already having suffered an attack, but more worryingly, that executives seem to believe that paying the ransom is a reliable way of addressing the issue.

The report is based on research involving 900 respondents across North America, South America, Africa, Russia, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The respondents were in senior non-IT management roles at companies between 50 and 1,000 employees.

Kaspersky claims that in 88 percent of organisations that have had to deal with a ransomware incident, business leaders said they would choose to pay the money if faced with another attack. In contrast, among those that have not so far suffered a ransomware attack, only 67 percent would be willing to pay, and they would be less inclined to do so immediately.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/13/organizations_pay_ransomware/

  • 31,000 FTSE 100 Logins Found on Dark Web

Researchers with Outpost24 are reporting over 31,000 corporate credentials for many of the UK’s leading FTSE 100 firms on the dark web. These are the 100 biggest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange by market capitalisation. The researchers used their threat monitoring and auditing tool Blueliv to search dark web sites for the breached credentials.

Key findings from stolen and leaked credentials study:

  • The majority (81%) of the companies within the FTSE 100 had at least one credential compromised and exposed on the dark web

  • 31,135 total stolen and leaked credentials detected for FTSE 100 companies, with 38% disclosed on the underground in the past 12 months

  • Nearly half (42%) of FTSE 100 companies have more than 500 compromised credentials exposed on the dark web

  • Up to 20% of credentials are stolen via malware infection and stealers

  • 11% disclosed in the last 3 months (21% in the last 6 months and over 68% have been exposed for over 12 months)

  • Over 60% of stolen credentials came from 3 industries – IT/Telecom (23%), Energy and Utility (22%) and Finance (21%)

  • IT/Telecoms industry is the most at risk with the highest total amount (7,303) and average stolen credentials per company (730), they are most affected by malware infection and have the most amount of stolen credentials disclosed in the last 3 months

  • On average, healthcare has the highest number of stolen credentials per company (485) from data breach as they found themselves increasingly in the cyber criminals’ crosshairs since the pandemic.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/31000-ftse-100-logins-found-on-dark-web/

  • Ransomware: How Executives Should Prepare Given the Current Threat Landscape

As the number of ransomware attacks continue to increase, the response at C-level must be swift and decisive.

Top executives are increasingly dreading the phone call from their fellow employee notifying them that their company has been hit by a cyber attack. Nearly every week in 2021 and early 2022, a prominent organisation has been in the media spotlight as their public relations team struggles to explain how they were attacked and how they can regain consumer confidence. A recent survey showed that 37 percent of organisations surveyed had been affected by ransomware attacks in the last year.

Worse, the days when executive leadership teams could fully delegate responsibility to a CISO are over. Regardless of reality, surveys have shown that about 40 percent of the public perception of fault for a ransomware attack lands squarely on the CEO’s shoulders, and that 36 percent of attacks result in the loss of C-level talent. While executive involvement in the security program does not guarantee a successful defence, it does give the executive leadership team (ELT) a degree of ownership of the final product, as well as the ability to speak confidently and knowledgeably to the public.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ransomware-how-executives-should-prepare-given-the-current-threat-landscape/

  • What Your Cyber Insurance Application Form Can Tell You About Ransomware Readiness

The annual cyber insurance application form shows what the carriers think you should be doing to best prevent and recover from ransomware attacks. Pay attention.

If it’s the time of year for you to fill out the annual cyber insurance policy application, you will see how the focus for insurance firms is changing. Each year you can get an insight into what insurance vendors are using to rate the risks and threats to your business and what they are stressing firms should have in place as best practice or what they are expecting you should have in place as a baseline set of controls. Not having them in place could affect insurance rates, whether you are able to get cyber coverage at all, or crucially whether they would pay out in the event of you having to make a claim.

This year you might find more questions specifically around ransomware prevention techniques and protections, from Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and email filtering protections to the robustness of your backups.

Make sure to review your cyber insurance policy and its related questionnaire. And ask whether you are doing everything you can to protect your firm and tailoring your actions to align with what your insurance provider has deemed as a best practice.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3659831/what-your-cyber-insurance-application-form-can-tell-you-about-ransomware-readiness.html#tk.rss_news

  • NCSC Shut Down 2.7 Million Scams in 2021

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) removed 2.7 million online scams last year, it was revealed this week, four times as many scams compared to 2020.

The announcement comes as the security agency shared the most recent data from its Active Cyber Defence initiative at the CYBERUK summit earlier in the week.

According to the NCSC, neutralised scams included fake celebrity endorsements and spoof extortion emails.

It has also been revealed that fraud campaigns used common themes, with NHS vaccines and vaccine passports being particularly popular.

Some cyber criminals even posed as NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron – victims received an email claiming the NCSC had prevented £5m of their money from being stolen, and were urged to supply personal information to retrieve the funds.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/05/10/ncsc-shut-down-2-7-million-scams-in-2021/

  • Security Threats Targeting Remote Workers

Remote work offers great benefits, like reduced commute time, increased freedom, and more time to spend with loved ones. But there can be security downsides if sufficient controls are not in place to protect remote workers against the digital threats that come with working via unsecured connections.

Being on a home network lacks the layered network security of the company environment. Remote work itself is not new, but the dramatic shift to working from home over the past two years means there are more security-naive people who are not in the office.

Not all security threats are the fault of technology. Much of it also comes from human error.

Remote work greatly exacerbates human-activated risk, and people are working in more distracting environments where they may have to answer the door for deliveries or might multitask with household chores. That means mistakes are more likely to happen, like sending an email to the wrong recipient or falling for a malicious email attack.

Recent research by Egress found that 77% of IT leaders said they have seen an increase in security compromises since going remote two years ago.

https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/top-6-security-threats-targeting-remote-workers

  • Password Reuse Is Rampant Among Employees in All Sectors

SpyCloud published an annual analysis of identity exposure among employees of Fortune 1000 companies in key sectors such as technology, finance, retail and telecommunications.

Drawing on a database of over 200 billion recaptured assets, researchers identified over 687 million exposed credentials and PII tied to Fortune 1000 employees, a 26% increase from last year’s analysis.

Analysis of this data showed a 64% password reuse rate, widespread use of easy-to-guess passwords, and a spike in malware-infected devices –– all sources of cyber risk for both employers and consumers who rely on businesses to safeguard their personal data. With remote work blurring the lines between work and personal device use, a larger attack surface compounds the risk of cyber attacks proliferating beyond compromised employee and consumer identities to penetrate corporate networks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/11/fortune-1000-identity-exposure/

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Malware

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Cloud

Open Source

Travel

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

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

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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 11 March 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 11 March 2022

-Sharp Rise in SMB Cyberattacks By Russia And China

-We're Seeing An 800% Increase in Cyber Attacks, Says One MSP

-Internet Warfare: How The Russians Could Paralyse Britain

-Just 3% Of Employees Cause 92% Of Malware Events

-70% Of Breached Passwords Are Still in Use

-Organisations Taking Nearly Two Months To Remediate Critical Risk Vulnerabilities

-Android Malware Escobar Steals Your Google Authenticator MFA Codes

-Smartphone Malware Is On The Rise - Here's How To Stay Safe

-Russia May Use Ransomware Payouts to Avoid Sanctions’ Financial Harm

-How An 8-Character Password Could Be Cracked in Less Than An Hour

-Cyber Insurance and Business Risk: How the Relationship Is Changing Reinsurance & Policy Guidance

-Security Teams Prep Too Slowly for Cyber Attacks

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Sharp Rise in SMB Cyber Attacks by Russia and China

SaaS Alerts, a cloud security company, unveiled the findings of its latest report which analysed approximately 136 million security events across 2,100 small and medium businesses (SMBs) globally and identified cyber trends negatively impacting businesses.

The findings of the report take into account security events occurring across more than 120,000 user accounts during the period of January 1st to December 31st, 2021 and shows that the vast majority of attacks on top SaaS platforms such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack and Dropbox are originating from Russia and China. The data set is statistically significant and enables solution providers managing a portfolio of SaaS applications with pertinent data and trends to support defensive IT security re-alignments as required.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/09/saas-security-events-smbs/

We're Seeing An 800% Increase in Cyber Attacks, Says One Managed Service Provider

Revenge and inflation are believed to be key drivers behind an 800 percent increase in cyber attacks seen by a single managed services provider since the days before the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month.

The attacks are coming not only from groups inside of Russia but also from elsewhere within the region as well from Russia allies like North Korea and Iran, historically sources of global cyber-threats.

The MSP serves about 2,400 companies around the world, most of them small businesses and midsize enterprises and most in North America. The MSP said it has seen the spike in cyber attacks throughout its customer base.

The sharp rise has been attributed to pro-Russian cyber criminal groups linked to nation states lashing out at countries – first Ukraine and then Western countries – angry at the sanctions being levelled against Russia. At the same time, the sharp inflation that is spreading around the world is also hitting hackers, who need to make money to keep up with rising costs.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/11/russia-invasion-cyber-war-rages/

Internet Warfare: How the Russians Could Paralyse Britain

The collapse of critical national infrastructure is a science fiction staple. Fifty years ago, actively switching off a country’s water and power networks would have required huge physical damage to power stations and the sources of those services. Today, however, many of the tools we use every day are connected to the internet.

All of those things now have remote access — and therefore, all of them could be vulnerable.

Ukraine has been blitzed by cyber attacks since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and they have increased in the lead-up to the invasion. As Russia marched into Ukraine, British officials were concerned about “spillover” from any cyber offensives targeted thousands of miles away.

In today’s interconnected digital world, the reality is that distance from the conflict zone makes no difference.

As the West fears a cyber-reprisal, what would a successful attack look like in Britain — and how likely is a complete “network failure”?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-cyberattack-uk-what-would-happen-l3dt98dmb

Just 3% Of Employees Cause 92% Of Malware Events

A small group of employees is typically responsible for most of the digital risk in an organisation, according to new research.

The report, from cybersecurity company Elevate Security and cyber security research organisation Cyentia, also found that those putting their companies at risk from phishing, malware, and insecure browsing are often repeat offenders.

The research found that 4% of employees clicked 80% of phishing links, and 3% were responsible for 92% of malware events.

Four in five employees have never clicked on a phishing email, according to the research. In fact, it asserts that half of them never see one, highlighting the need to focus anti-phishing efforts on at-risk workers.

The malware that phishing and other attack vectors deliver also affects a small group of employees. The research found that 96% of users have never suffered from a malware event. Most malware events revolve around the 3% of users who suffered from two malware events or more, reinforcing the notion that security awareness messages just aren't getting through to some.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/malware/366011/just-3-of-employees-cause-92-of-malware-events

70% Of Breached Passwords Are Still in Use

A new report examines trends related to exposed data. Researchers identified 1.7 billion exposed credentials, a 15% increase from 2020, and 13.8 billion recaptured Personally Identifiable Information (PII) records obtained from breaches in 2021.

Through its analysis of this data, it was found that despite increasingly sophisticated and targeted cyber attacks, consumers continue to engage in poor cyber practices regarding passwords, including the use of similar passwords for multiple accounts, weak or common passwords and passwords containing easy-to-guess words or phrases connected to pop culture.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/08/exposed-data-trends/

Organisations Taking Nearly Two Months to Remediate Critical Risk Vulnerabilities

Edgescan announces the findings of a report which offers a comprehensive view of the state of vulnerability management globally. This year’s report takes a more granular look at the trends by industry, and provides details on which of the known, patchable vulnerabilities are currently being exploited by threat actors.

The report reveals that organisations are still taking nearly two months to remediate critical risk vulnerabilities, with the average mean time to remediate (MTTR) across the full stack set at 60 days.

High rates of “known” (i.e. patchable) vulnerabilities which have working exploits in the wild, used by known nation state and cybercriminal groups are not uncommon.

Crucially, 57% of all observed vulnerabilities are more than two years old, with as many as 17% being more than five years old. These are all vulnerabilities that have working exploits in the wild, used by known nation state and cybercriminal groups. Edgescan also observed a concerning 1.5% of known, unpatched vulnerabilities that are over 20 years old, dating back to 1999.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/10/state-of-vulnerability-management/

Android Malware Escobar Steals Your Google Authenticator MFA Codes

The Aberebot Android banking trojan has returned under the name 'Escobar' with new features, including stealing Google Authenticator multi-factor authentication codes.

The new features in the latest Aberebot version also include taking control of the infected Android devices using VNC, recording audio, and taking photos, while also expanding the set of targeted apps for credential theft.

The main goal of the trojan is to steal enough information to allow the threat actors to take over victims' bank accounts, siphon available balances, and perform unauthorised transactions.

Like most banking trojans, Escobar displays overlay login forms to hijack user interactions with e-banking apps and websites and steal credentials from victims.

The malware also packs several other features that make it potent against any Android version, even if the overlay injections are blocked in some manner.

The authors have expanded the set of targeted banks and financial institutions to a whopping 190 entities from 18 countries in the latest version.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/android-malware-escobar-steals-your-google-authenticator-mfa-codes/

Smartphone Malware Is on The Rise - Here's How to Stay Safe

The volume of malware attacks targeting mobile devices has skyrocketed so far this year, cyber security researchers are saying.

A new report from security company Proofpoint claims that the number of detected mobile malware attacks has spiked 500% in the first few months of 2022, with peaks at the beginning and end of February.

Much of this malware aims to steal usernames and passwords from mobile banking applications, Proofpoint says. But some strains are even more sinister, recording audio and video from infected devices, tracking the victim's location, or exfiltrating and deleting data.

https://www.techradar.com/nz/news/smartphone-malware-is-coming-for-more-and-more-of-us

Russia May Use Ransomware Payouts to Avoid Sanctions’ Financial Harm

FinCEN warns financial institutions to be wary of unusual cryptocurrency payments or illegal transactions Russia may use to ease financial hurt from Ukraine-linked sanctions.

Russia may ramp up ransomware attacks against the United States as a way to ease the financial hurt it’s under due to sanctions, U.S. federal authorities are warning. Those sanctions have been levied against the nation and Vladimir Putin’s government due to its invasion of Ukraine.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a FinCEN Alert (PDF) on Wednesday advising all financial institutions to remain vigilant against potential efforts to evade the expansive sanctions and other U.S.-imposed restrictions related to the current conflict. One way this may be done is to move cryptocurrency funds through ransomware payments collected after Russian state-sponsored actors carry out cyberattacks.

“In the face of mounting economic pressure on Russia, it is vitally important for financial institutions to be vigilant about potential Russian sanctions evasion, including by both state actors and oligarchs,” said FinCEN Acting Director Him Das in a press statement.

https://threatpost.com/russia-ransomware-payouts-avoid-sanctions/178854/

How An 8-Character Password Could Be Cracked in Less Than an Hour

Security experts keep advising us to create strong and complex passwords to protect our online accounts and data from savvy cybercriminals. And “complex” typically means using lowercase and uppercase characters, numbers and even special symbols. But complexity by itself can still open your password to cracking if it doesn’t contain enough characters, according to research by security firm Hive Systems.

As described in a recent report, Hive found that an 8-character complex password could be cracked in just 39 minutes if the attacker were to take advantage of the latest graphics processing technology. A seven-character complex password could be cracked in 31 seconds, while one with six or fewer characters could be cracked instantly. Shorter passwords with only one or two character types, such as only numbers or lowercase letters, or only numbers and letters, would take just minutes to crack.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-an-8-character-password-could-be-cracked-in-less-than-an-hour/

Cyber Insurance and Business Risk: How the Relationship Is Changing Reinsurance & Policy Guidance

Cyber insurance is a significant industry and growing fast — according to GlobalData, it was worth $7 billion in gross written premiums in 2020. The cyber-insurance market is expected to reach $20.6 billion by 2025. Over the past few years, the cyber-insurance market was competitive, so premiums were low and policies were comprehensive. Over the past year, that has changed — the volume of claims has gone up and led to more payouts, which affected the insurance companies' profitability.

The recent Log4j issue will affect how insurance and reinsurance companies write their policies in future. Already, we're seeing discussions about Log4j-related issues being excluded from reinsurance policies in 2022, as many policies came up for renewal on Dec. 31, 2021. This will affect the policies that insurance companies can offer to their customers.

What does this mean for IT security teams? For practitioners, it will make their work more important than before, as preventing possible issues would be more valuable to the business. Carrying out standard security practices like asset inventory and vulnerability management will be needed, while examining software bills of materials for those same issues will help on the software supply chain security side. These practices will also need to be highly automated, as business must be able to gain accurate insights within hours, not months, to deal with future threats while reducing the cost impact.

For those responsible for wider business risk, these developments around cyber insurance will present a more significant problem. Cyber-insurance policies will still be available — and necessary where needed — but the policies themselves will cover less ground. While the past few years had pretty wide-ranging policies that would pay out on a range of issues, future policies will deliver less coverage.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/cyber-insurance-and-business-risk-how-the-relationship-is-changing-reinsurance-policy-guidance-

Security Teams Prep Too Slowly for Cyber Attacks

Attackers typically take days or weeks to exploit new vulnerabilities, but defenders are slow to learn about critical issues and take action, requiring 96 days on average to learn to identify and block current cyber threats, according to a new report analysing training and crisis scenarios.

The report, Cyber Workforce Benchmark 2022, found that cybersecurity professionals are much more likely to focus on vulnerabilities that have garnered media attention, such as Log4j, than more understated issues, and that different industries develop their security capabilities at widely different rates. Security professionals in some of the most crucial industries, such as transport and critical infrastructure, are twice as slow to learn skills compare to their colleagues in the leisure, entertainment, and retail sectors.

The amount of time it takes for security professionals to get up to speed on new threats matters. CISA says that patches should be applied within 15 days, sooner than that if the vulnerability is being exploited, says Kevin Breen, director of cyber threat research at Immersive Labs.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/security-teams-prep-too-slowly-for-cyberattacks

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email

Malware

Mobile

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Insurance

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare

Vulnerabilities

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 February 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 February 2022

-Small Businesses Facing Upwards of 11 Cyber Threats Per Day Per Device

-As Ukraine Tensions Rise, UK Organisations Should Protect Themselves From Cyber Threats

-Microsoft Teams Targeted With Takeover Trojans

-The European Central Bank is Warning Banks of Possible Russia-Linked Cyber Attack Amid the Rising Crisis With Ukraine

-Companies Face Soaring Prices For Cyber Insurance

-Even When Warned, Businesses Ignore Critical Vulnerabilities And Hope For The Best

-Ransomware-Related Data Leaks Nearly Doubled in 2021: Report

-Online Fraud Skyrocketing: Gaming, Streaming, Social Media, Travel and Ecommerce Hit the Most

-Poor Security Hygiene Organisations and Ransomware Attacks: Painful Math

-Security Teams Expect Attackers to Go After End Users First

-US Warns of Imminent Russian Invasion of Ukraine With Tanks, Jet Fighters, Cyber Attacks

-TrickBot Malware Targeted Customers of 60 High-Profile Companies Since 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 Stories of the Last Week

As Ukraine Tensions Rise, UK Organisations Should Protect Themselves From Cyber Threats

In a world that is so dependent on digital assets, cyber resilience is more important than ever. At the National Cyber Security Centre – a part of GCHQ – the mission is to make the UK the safest place to live and work online, but they have said they cannot do it alone. 

Now, at a time of heightened cyber threats, the NCSC is urging all organisations to follow their advice on the steps they should take to improve their resilience.

The UK is closer to the crisis in Ukraine than you might think. While 2,000-odd miles separate us physically from their borders with Russia, that distance is much shorter in cyber space – and attacks targeting Ukraine’s digital infrastructure could be felt here in Britain.

Cyber attacks do not respect geographic boundaries. On a daily basis, businesses in the UK are targeted by ransomware attacks from criminals overseas.

And as tensions have risen in Ukraine in recent weeks, authorities have already seen a number of cyber attacks occurring. On Friday evening, the UK government judged that the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) was involved in last week’s distributed denial of service attacks against the financial sector in Ukraine.

If the situation continues to escalate, we could see cyber attacks that have international consequences, intentional or not. Rising tensions in the region, with the risk of overspill, are why the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has said that the UK’s cyber risk has heightened in the last month, although there is no evidence of the UK being specifically targeted.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/19/uk-organisations-should-protect-now-unintended-consequences/

Small Businesses Facing Upwards of 11 Cyber Threats Per Day Per Device

BlackBerry's 2022 Threat Report highlights growing threats to SMBs, calls on government to make cyber security top priority

BlackBerry Limited has released the 2022 BlackBerry Annual Threat Report, highlighting a cybercriminal underground which it says has been optimised to better target local small businesses. Small businesses will continue to be an epicentre for cybercriminal focus as SMBs facing upward of 11 cyber threats per device per day, which only stands to accelerate as cybercriminals increasingly adopt collaborative mindsets.

The report also uncovered cyber breadcrumbs from some of last year’s most notorious ransomware attacks, suggesting some of the biggest culprits may have simply been outsourced labour.  In multiple incidents BlackBerry identified threat actors leaving behind playbook text files containing IP addresses and more, suggesting the authors of this year’s sophisticated ransomware are not the ones carrying out attacks. This highlights the growing shared economy within the cyber underground.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/02/15/small-businesses-facing-upwards-of-11-cyberthreats-per-day-per-device/

Microsoft Teams Targeted With Takeover Trojans

Threat actors are targeting Microsoft Teams users by planting malicious documents in chat threads that execute Trojans that ultimately can take over end-user machines, researchers have found.

Researchers began tracking the campaign in January, which drops malicious executable files in Teams conversations that, when clicked on, eventually take over the user’s computer, according to a report published Thursday.

Using an executable file, or a file that contains instructions for the system to execute, hackers can install DLL files and allow the program to self-administer and take control over the computer. By attaching the file to a Teams attack, hackers have found a new way to easily target millions of users.

Cyber criminals long have targeted Microsoft’s ubiquitous document-creation and sharing suite – the legacy Office and its cloud-based version, Office 365 – with attacks against individual apps in the suite such as PowerPoint as well as business email compromise and other scams.

Now Microsoft Teams – a business communication and collaboration suite – is emerging as an increasingly popular attack surface for cybercriminals.

https://threatpost.com/microsoft-teams-targeted-takeover-trojans/178497/

The European Central Bank is Warning Banks of Possible Russia-Linked Cyber Attack Amid the Rising Crisis With Ukraine

The European Central Bank is warning banks of possible Russia-linked cyber attack amid the rising crisis with Ukraine and is inviting them to step up defences.

The news was reported by Reuters, citing two unnamed sources. The ECB pointed out that addressing cyber security is a top priority for the European agency.

“The European Central Bank is telling euro zone banks zone to step up their defences against cyber attacks, also in the context of geopolitical tensions such as the stand-off between Russia and Ukraine, the ECB’s top supervisor said on Thursday.” reported Reuters.

ECB warned that the rising risk from cyber attacks begun in 2020.

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/128004/breaking-news/european-central-bank-warns-russia-cyberattacks.html

Companies Face Soaring Prices For Cyber Insurance

The cost of cyber insurance has risen steeply over the past year. According to Marsh, the price of cover in the US grew by 130 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, while in the UK it grew by 92 per cent. That has increased pressure on companies who are facing cost inflation in other parts of their business.

The steep hikes in the cost of cyber insurance come against a backdrop of rising prices more broadly. According to Marsh, commercial insurance prices rose 13 per cent in the final quarter of 2021.

The hardening market from reduced capacity allied with increasing cyber fraud are potent forces. Pricing becomes more challenging, reinsurance appetite reduced whilst costs increasing and fraudsters have as much access to the latest technologies as do enterprises, the government sector and the insurance industry.

There may be limits to what insurers can cover. Speaking to the Financial Times last week the chief executive of Zurich said: “A connected economy offers lots of opportunities for cyber attacks.” A major cyber risk, he added, “is something only governments can manage”.

Companies will have to do more themselves to fight cyber fraud with technology partners. Meanwhile brokers and insurers must review underwriting data and practices and government raise effectiveness at prosecuting criminals.

https://www.ft.com/content/60ddc050-a846-461a-aa10-5aaabf6b35a5

Even When Warned, Businesses Ignore Critical Vulnerabilities And Hope For The Best

A Bulletproof research found the extent to which businesses are leaving themselves open to cyber attack. When tested, 28% of businesses had critical vulnerabilities – vulnerabilities that could be immediately exploited by cyber attacks.

A quarter of businesses neglected to fix those critical vulnerabilities, even though penetration testing had highlighted them to the business after a retest was completed.

The research analyzed data from over 3,800 days’ worth of penetration testing services. These tests are a means of identifying vulnerabilities within an organisation’s security systems by simulating how malicious actors would seek to exploit such shortcomings.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/02/18/businesses-critical-vulnerabilities/

Ransomware-Related Data Leaks Nearly Doubled in 2021: Report

There was a significant increase in ransomware-related data leaks and interactive intrusions in 2021, according to the 2022 Global Threat Report released on Tuesday by endpoint security firm CrowdStrike.

The number of ransomware attacks that led to data leaks increased from 1,474 in 2020 to 2,686 in 2021, which represents an 82% increase. The sectors most impacted by data leaks in 2021 were industrial and engineering, manufacturing, and technology.

The growth and impact of big game hunting in 2021 was a palpable force felt across all sectors and in nearly every region of the world. Although some adversaries and ransomware ceased operations in 2021, the overall number of operating ransomware families increased,” CrowdStrike said in its report.

https://www.securityweek.com/ransomware-related-data-leaks-nearly-doubled-2021-report

Online Fraud Skyrocketing: Gaming, Streaming, Social Media, Travel and Ecommerce Hit the Most

An Arkose Labs report is warning UK commerce that it faces its most challenging year ever. Experts analyzed over 150 billion transaction requests across 254 countries and territories in 2021 over 12 months to discover that there has been an 85% increase in login attacks and fake consumer account creation at businesses.

Alongside this, it identified that one in four new online accounts created were fake. A further 21% of all traffic was confirmed as a fraudulent cyber attack.

From the earliest days of online information to the rapid evolution of today’s metaverses, the internet has come a long way. However, this latest data shows that it is more under attack than ever before.

Your digital identity is a currency for fraudsters and wherever there is online commerce, cyber criminals are quick to identify vulnerabilities.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/02/14/fake-consumer-account/

Poor Security Hygiene Organisations and Ransomware Attacks: Painful Math

Poor cyber security hygiene is widely considered to be a major influencing factor for exposure to a ransomware attack. But is that an accurate assessment?

In a new study, RiskRecon, a security best practices specialist, investigated 600+ cyber hijacks to determine if companies victimized by a “detonation” had poor cyber security hygiene at the time and which factors, such as web encryption, application security and email security, are key gaps in coverage.

The answer: Cyber security hygiene does in fact play a large role in an organisation’s vulnerability to a ransomware attack. RiskRecon analyzed the cyber security hygiene on the day of ransomware incident for 622 organisations spanning 633 ransomware events occurring between 2017 and 2021. Based on a comparison population of cyber security ratings and assessments of some 100,000 entities, companies that have very poor cyber security hygiene in their internet-facing systems (a ‘D’ or ‘F’ RiskRecon rating) have about a 40 times higher rate of destructive ransomware events as compared to those with clean cyber security hygiene. Only .03 percent of ‘A-rated’ companies were victims of a destructive ransomware attack, compared with 1.08 percent of ‘D-rated’ and 0.91 percent of ‘F-rated’ companies.

The cyber security conditions underlying the RiskRecon rating reveal just how poor the cyber security hygiene is of companies, on average, that fall victim to a material system-encrypting ransomware attack. For example, ransomware victims have an average of 11 material software vulnerabilities in their internet-facing systems, in comparison with only one issue in the general population. Looking at network services that criminals commonly exploit, ransomware victims expose 3.3 times more unsafe network services to the internet than the general population.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/poor-security-hygiene-organisations-and-ransomware-attacks-painful-math/

Security Teams Expect Attackers to Go After End Users First

Phishing, malware, and ransomware have spurred organisations to increase their investments in endpoint security, according to Dark Reading’s Endpoint Security Survey.

The shift to a more distributed work environment and an increase in digital transformation initiatives have motivated organisations to bolster their endpoint security defences. However, end users continue to be a major source of worry for IT and security decision-makers, according to the latest Dark Reading survey.

Phishing, malware, and ransomware pose major threats to organisations, as do attacks involving credential theft. An overwhelming 93% of IT and security professionals in Dark Reading’s "2022 Endpoint Security Survey" cite the growing number of ransomware attacks as the reason behind increased investments in endpoint security. Similarly, 83% say the increase in attacks using end-user credentials spurred their endpoint investments.

End users pose one of the biggest threats to the organisation, as 87% expect that if attackers wanted to steal the organisation’s data, they would begin by targeting a single end user.

Concerns about the end user are not new. Verizon’s "2021 Data Breach Investigations Report" found that 85% of the breaches it investigated in 2020 involved end users in some way – such as stolen account credentials, incorrectly assigned privileges or elevated privileges, social engineering, and user error.

https://www.darkreading.com/edge-threat-monitor/end-users-remain-one-of-the-biggest-headaches-in-it-security

US Warns of Imminent Russian Invasion of Ukraine With Tanks, Jet Fighters, Cyber Attacks

President Biden said Friday he is convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and that he expects an attack in the coming days, with targets including the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

US officials said a Russian attack could involve a broad combination of jet fighters, tanks, ballistic missiles and cyberattacks, with the ultimate intention of rendering Ukraine’s leadership powerless.

The officials said Mr. Putin has laid the groundwork in recent days through a series of destabilizing activities and false-flag operations, long predicted by U.S. and allied officials and intended to make it look as if Ukraine has provoked Russia into a conflict, thus justifying the Russian invasion.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-troops-told-to-exercise-restraint-to-avoid-provoking-russian-invasion-11645185631

TrickBot Malware Targeted Customers of 60 High-Profile Companies Since 2020

The notorious TrickBot malware is targeting customers of 60 financial and technology companies, including cryptocurrency firms, primarily located in the U.S., even as its operators have updated the botnet with new anti-analysis features.

TrickBot is a sophisticated and versatile malware with more than 20 modules that can be downloaded and executed on demand.

In addition to being both prevalent and persistent, TrickBot has continually evolved its tactics to go past security and detection layers. To that end, the malware's "injectDll" web-injects module, which is responsible for stealing banking and credential data, leverages anti-deobfuscation techniques to crash the web page and thwart attempts to scrutinize the source code.

Also put in place are anti-analysis guardrails to prevent security researchers from sending automated requests to command-and-control (C2) servers to retrieve fresh web injects.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/02/trickbot-malware-targeted-customers-of.html

Threats

Ransomware

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Phishing & Email

Malware

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

DoS/DDoS

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 February 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 February 2022:

-Why Cyber Change Outpaces Boardroom Engagement

-NCSC Alerts UK Orgs To Brace For Destructive Russian Cyber Attacks

-Ransomware: Over Half Of Attacks Are Targeting These Three Industries

-Third of Employees Admit to Exfiltrating Data When Leaving Their Job

-Massive Social Engineering Waves Have Impacted Banks In Several Countries

-Ransomware Is Terrifying – But Never Underestimate The Damage An Employee With Unmonitored Access Can Do

-People Working In IT Related Roles Equally Susceptible To Phishing Attempts As The General Population

-FBI Says More Cyber Attacks Come From China Than Everywhere Else Combined

-Managing Detections Is Not the Same as Stopping Breaches

-From War to Web Security, Protect Your Attack Surface from the Weakest Link

-Number Of Data Compromises Reaching All-Time High

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Cyber Change Outpaces Boardroom Engagement

We all know the story of the past two years. Mass digital investments in SaaS collaboration suites, cloud infrastructure and other tools helped to keep organisations operational when they needed it most. The money continues to flow today, as those same companies realize they must keep on pumping funds into digital to stay competitive amidst rising customer expectations. Gartner predicted public cloud spending growth would hit 23% year-on-year in 2021 and increase 20% this year to top $397bn.

From a cyber security perspective, these business decisions are loaded with risk if protections are not built into projects from the start. A recent global poll revealed that of 90% of business and IT decision makers are concerned about the impact of ransomware. It also found generally poor levels of cyber-awareness among board members. Less than half (46%) of respondents claimed concepts like “cyber risk” and “cyber risk management” were known extensively in their organisation.

The truth is that many board leaders do understand the need for greater investment in security as a strategic growth driver. But they find it hard to keep pace with a threat landscape that moves at the speed of light. Vulnerabilities used to go months or years before they were exploited, for example, but today threat actors are working on exploits for bugs like Log4Shell within hours of their discovery. That makes the fast-changing risk landscape difficult to grasp for even tech-savvy C-suite leaders. As a result, cyber risk continues to be managed reactively, which puts the organisation perpetually on the back foot.

https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/22/b/why-cyber-change-outpaces-boardroom-engagement.html

NCSC Alerts UK Orgs to Brace for Destructive Russian Cyber Attacks

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is urging organisations to bolster security and prepare for a potential wave of destructive cyber attacks after recent breaches of Ukrainian entities.

The NCSC openly warns that Russian state-sponsored threat actors will likely conduct the attacks and reminds of the damage done in previous destructive cyber attacks, like NotPetya in 2017 and the GRU campaign against Georgia in 2019.

These warnings come after Ukrainian government agencies and corporate entities suffered cyber attacks where websites were defaced, and data-wiping malware was deployed to destroy data and make Windows devices inoperable.

The cause for the resurgence of attacks is the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and attempts to negotiate a way out of the Ukraine crisis have failed so far.

Ukraine and Russia have engaged in cyber warfare for many years, but recent Russian military mobilization was accompanied by new waves of attacks, with European countries and the USA expected to be targeted next.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ncsc-alerts-uk-orgs-to-brace-for-destructive-russian-cyberattacks/

Over Half of Ransomware Attacks are Targeting Financial Services, Utilities and Retail

Three sectors have been the most common target for ransomware attacks, but researchers warn "no business or industry is safe".

Over half of ransomware attacks are targeting one of three industries; banking, utilities and retail, according to analysis by cyber security researchers – but they've also warned that all industries are at risk from attacks.

The data has been gathered by Trellix – formerly McAfee Enterprise and FireEye – from detected attacks between July and September 2021, a period when some of the most high-profile ransomware attacks of the past year happened.

According to detections by Trellix, banking and finance was the most common target for ransomware during the reporting period, accounting for 22% of detected attacks. That's followed by 20% of attacks targeting the utilities sector and 16% of attacks targeting retailers. Attacks against the three sectors in combination accounted for 58% of all of those detected.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-over-half-of-attacks-are-targeting-these-three-industries/

Third of Employees Admit to Exfiltrating Data When Leaving Their Job

Nearly one-third (29%) of employees admitted taking data with them when they leave their job, according to new research from Tessian.

The findings follow the ‘great resignation’ of 2021, when workers quit their jobs in huge waves following the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsurprisingly, close to three-quarters (71%) of IT leaders believe this trend has increased security risks in their organisations.

In addition, nearly half (45%) of IT leaders said they had seen incidents of data exfiltration increase in the past year due to staff taking data with them when they left.

The survey of 2000 UK workers also looked at employees' motives for taking such information. The most common reason was that the data would help them in their new job (58%). This was followed by the belief that the information belonged to them because they worked on the document (53%) and to share it with their new employer (44%).

The employees most likely to take data with them when leaving their job worked in marketing (63%), HR (37%) and IT (37%).

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/third-employees-exfiltrating-data/

Massive Social Engineering Waves Have Impacted Banks in Several Countries

A massive social engineering campaign has been delivered in the last two years in several countries, including Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, the UK, and France. According to Segurança Informática publication, the malicious waves have impacted banking organisations with the goal of stealing the users’ secrets, accessing the home banking portals, and also controlling all the operations on the fly via Command and Control (C2) servers geolocated in Brazil.

In short, criminal groups are targeting victims’ from different countries to collect their home banking secrets and payment cards. The campaigns are carried out by using social engineering schemas, namely smishing, and spear-phishing through fake emails.

Criminals obtain lists of valid and tested phone numbers and emails from other malicious groups, and the process is performed on underground forums, Telegram channels or Discord chats.

The spear-phishing campaigns try to lure victims with fake emails that impersonate the banking institutions. The emails are extremely similar to the originals, exception their content, mainly related to debts or lack of payments.

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/127516/cyber-crime/massive-social-engineering-banks.html

Ransomware is Terrifying – But Never Underestimate the Damage an Employee with Unmonitored Access Can Do

Is the biggest threat to your data a mysterious ransomware merchant or an advanced persistent threat cartel?

Or is it a security system that will show you that data has been exfiltrated from your organisation – but only after the fact, leaving open the possibility that your valuable IP could have already been shared with unauthorized parties?

It was the latter scenario that allegedly resulted in 12,000 internal documents being lifted from Pfizer’s systems by a soon-to-depart employee last year. Those documents reportedly included details of COVID-19 vaccine research and a new melanoma drug.

The incident shows how today’s cloud infrastructure can exacerbate security gaps and why simply detecting a potential data leak isn’t enough. Companies need to have deep insight into what their employees are doing, as well as technology that can actively enforce policy and prevent unencrypted data from ever leaving the enterprise.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/ransomware_terrifying/

People Working in IT Related Roles Equally Susceptible to Phishing Attempts as the General Population

Phishing emails that mimic HR announcements or ask for assistance with invoicing get the most clicks from recipients, according to a study from F-Secure.

The study, which included 82,402 participants, tested how employees from four different organisations responded to emails that simulated one of four commonly used phishing tactics.

22% of recipients that received an email simulating a human resources announcement about vacation time clicked, making emails that mimic those sent by HR the most frequent source of clicks in the study.

An email asking the recipient to help with an invoice (referred to as CEO Fraud in the report) was the second most frequently engaged with email type, receiving clicks from 16% of recipients.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/02/03/phishing-emails-clicks/

FBI Says More Cyber Attacks Come from China than Everywhere Else Combined

US Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray has named China as the source of more cyber-attacks on the USA than all other nations combined.

In a Monday speech titled Countering Threats Posed by the Chinese Government Inside the US, Wray said the FBI is probing over 2,000 investigations of incidents assessed as attempts by China's government "to steal our information and technology."

"The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries – so much so that, as you heard, we're constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations, about every 12 hours or so."

Wray rated China's online offensive as "bigger than those of every other major nation combined," adding it has "a lot of funding and sophisticated tools, and often joining forces with cyber criminals – in effect, cyber mercenaries."

https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/fbi_china_threat_to_usa/

Managing Detections is Not the Same as Stopping Breaches

Enterprises interested in managed detection and response (MDR) services to monitor endpoints and workloads should make sure the providers have rock-solid expertise in detecting and responding to threats.

The fundamental challenge in cyber security is that adversaries move quickly. We know from observation that attackers go from initial intrusion to lateral movement in a matter of a couple hours or less.

If security teams are going to successfully stop a breach, they need to operate within the same timeframe, containing and remediating threats within minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Such constant vigilance can be challenging for in-house staff. This is why many organisations engage a provider of managed detection and response (MDR) security services, which monitors endpoints, workloads, and other systems to detect and monitor threats.

Unfortunately, even most managed services have several fundamental flaws that prevent them from executing on the core mission of stopping breaches.

https://www.darkreading.com/crowdstrike/managing-detections-is-not-the-same-as-stopping-breaches

From War to Web Security, Protect Your Attack Surface from the Weakest Link

With the rapid proliferation of data, increasing number of domains and subdomains as well as rise in third-party providers, the number of entry points through which attackers can infiltrate a company’s web environment is endless. Attacks are increasingly causing consequences felt beyond the perimeter of an organisation, as demonstrated earlier this year with the Colonial Pipeline breach, which caused fuel prices along the US East Coast to soar, and the attack on software provider Kaseya that forced hundreds of grocery stores in the Nordics to shut down business for days.

Security breaches often happen through an avenue that no one saw coming — a server no one knew existed, an old landing page, weak passwords or an application that was missing a patch. It’s perhaps never been clearer than today that a company is only as strong as the weakest link in its growing attack surface.

https://thenewstack.io/from-war-to-web-security-protect-your-attack-surface-from-the-weakest-link/

Number of Data Compromises Reaching All-Time High

According to an Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) report, the overall number of data compromises (1,862) is up more than 68 percent compared to 2020.

The new record number of data compromises is 23 percent over the previous all-time high (1,506) set in 2017. The number of data events that involved sensitive information (Ex: Social Security numbers) increased slightly compared to 2020 (83 percent vs. 80 percent). However, it remained well below the previous high of 95 percent set in 2017.

The number of victims continues to decrease (down five (5) percent in 2021 compared to the previous year) as identity criminals focus more on specific data types rather than mass data acquisition. However, the number of consumers whose data was compromised multiple times per year remains alarmingly high.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/01/31/data-compromises-up/

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Data Breaches/Leaks

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 17 December 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 17 December 2021:

-Employees Think They’re Safe From Cyber Threats On Company Devices

-Internet Is Scrambling To Fix Log4shell, The Worst Hack In History

-Apache Log4j Flaw: A Fukushima Moment for the Cyber Security Industry

-60% of UK Workers Have Been Victim of a Cyber-Attack, Yet Awareness Remains Low

-Ransomware in 2022: We're All Screwed

-Attacks on UK Firms Increase Five-Fold During Pandemic

-The Log4J Software Flaw Is ‘Christmas Come Early’ for Cyber Criminals

-Why Cloud Storage Isn't Immune to Ransomware

-400 Banks’ Customers Targeted with Anubis Trojan

-Sites Hacked With Credit Card Stealers Undetected For Months

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

Employees Think They’re Safe From Cyber Threats On Company Devices

A research launched by Menlo Security reveals increased cyber security risks posed to employees and organisations during the 2021 holiday shopping season.

The research – which surveyed 2,000 employed people in the United States and the United Kingdom – found that while employees are concerned about threats and are taking some measures to mitigate them, they often have false confidence in their security posture.

There are now more threats to corporate devices and networks than ever as hybrid work models blur the boundaries between work and home. More than half of respondents (56% US; 53% UK) reported performing non-work-related tasks – such as online shopping – on company devices.

Furthermore, the survey found that 65% of people in the US (63% UK) are doing more online holiday shopping in 2021 compared to previous years, and nearly half of respondents (48% US; 45% UK), reported shopping for gifts this holiday season on a work-issued device such as a laptop or mobile phone.

Workers are also noticing a rise in cyber threats this holiday season, with 58% of respondents in the US (48% UK) observing an increase in scams and fraudulent messages, exemplifying that threats are rampant worldwide. This is worrying many people, as the vast majority of respondents (80% US & UK) report being somewhat to very concerned about their personal data being stolen while online shopping.

However, despite workers’ recognition and concern of cyber threats, 60% of people (65% UK) still believe they’re secure from cyberthreats if they’re using a company device.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/14/employees-cybersecurity-risks/

Internet Is Scrambling To Fix Log4shell, The Worst Hack In History

Massive data breaches have become so common that we’ve gotten numb to reports detailing another hack or 0-day exploit. That doesn’t reduce the risk of such events happening, as the cat-and-mouse game between security experts and hackers continues. As some vulnerabilities get fixed, others pop up requiring attention from product and service providers. The newest one has a name that will not mean anything to most people. They call the hack Log4Shell in security briefings, which doesn’t sound very scary. But the new 0-day attack is so significant that some people see it as the worst internet hack in history.

Malicious individuals are already exploiting the Log4Shell attack, which allows them to get into computer systems and servers without a password. Security experts have seen Log4Shell in action in Minecraft, the popular game that Microsoft owns. A few lines of text passed around in a chat might be enough to penetrate the defences of a target computer. The same ease of access would allow hackers to go after any computer out there using the Log4J open-sourced java-based logging utility.

https://bgr.com/tech/internet-is-scrambling-to-fix-log4shell-the-worst-hack-in-history/

Apache Log4j Flaw: A Fukushima Moment for the Cyber Security Industry

Organisations around the world will be dealing with the long-tail consequences of this vulnerability, known as Log4Shell, for years to come.

The discovery of a critical flaw in the Apache Log4j software is nothing short of a Fukushima moment for the cybersecurity industry.

Ten years ago, an earthquake and subsequent tidal wave triggered the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant that continues to plague the region today. Similarly, the early exploitation of Log4j, during which attackers will go after the low-hanging fruit exposed by the vulnerability, will evolve over time to take the form of more complex attacks on more sensitive systems that have less exposure to the internet. And, just as Fukushima brought to light significant issues with longstanding processes in place at the plant, so too does the Log4j vulnerability, known as Log4Shell, highlight two crucial practices of concern:

·       How organisations capture and protect their massive troves of log data; and

·       The use of open-source code libraries as the building blocks for major enterprise applications.

The paradox of Log4j: the more you log, the worse it gets

We’re discovering new apps every minute which use Log4j in one way or another. It affects not only the code you build, but also the third-party systems you have in place. Everything from the new printer you’ve bought for the office to the ticketing system you’ve just deployed is potentially affected by this flaw. Some affected systems may be on premises, others may be hosted in the cloud but no matter where they are, the flaw is likely to have an impact.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/17/vmware_criticial_uem_flaw/

60% of UK Workers Have Been Victim of a Cyber-Attack, Yet Awareness Remains Low

There is a “dangerous” lack of awareness among UK workers towards cybersecurity, leaving businesses at risk of attacks, according to a new study by Armis. This is despite 60% of workers admitting they have fallen victim to a cyber-attack.

The nationwide survey of 2000 UK employees found that only around a quarter (27%) are aware of the associated cyber risks, while one in 10 (11%) don’t worry about them at all.

Even more worryingly, just one in five people said they paid for online security, putting businesses at high risk of attacks amid the shift to remote working during COVID-19.

The most prevalent types of attacks experienced by workers or their organisations were phishing (27%), data breaches (23%) and malware (20%).

The study also revealed growing concerns about the scale of the cyber-threats facing the UK. A large-scale cyber-attack was ranked as the fourth biggest future concern (21%) among the respondents, equal to the UK going to war. Two-fifths (40%) said they would like to see a minister for cyber security installed to ensure the issue is focused on more at a government level.

Russian-backed cyber-criminals were considered the biggest threat to the UK’s cybersecurity (20%) by the respondents, followed by financially motivated cyber-criminals (17%) and Chinese-backed cyber-criminals (16%).

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-workers-victim-cyber-attack/

Ransomware in 2022: We're All Screwed

Ransomware is now a primary threat for businesses, and with the past year or so considered the "golden era" for operators, cybersecurity experts believe this criminal enterprise will reach new heights in the future.

Kronos. Colonial Pipeline. JBS. Kaseya. These are only a handful of 2021's high-profile victims of threat groups including DarkSide, REvil, and BlackMatter.

According to Kela's analysis of dark web forum activity, the "perfect" prospective ransomware victim in the US will have a minimum annual revenue of $100 million and preferred access purchases include domain admin rights, as well as entry into Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) services.

Over the past few years, we've seen ransomware operators evolve from disorganised splinter groups and individuals to highly sophisticated operations, with separate teams collaborating to target everything from SMBs to software supply chains.

Ransomware infection is no longer an end goal of a cyberattack. Instead, malware families in this arena -- including WannaCry, NotPetya, Ryuk, Cerber, and Cryptolocker -- can be one component of attacks designed to elicit a blackmail payment from a victim organisation.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-in-2022-were-all-screwed/

Attacks on UK Firms Increase Five-Fold During Pandemic

Attacks on UK firms surged five-fold during the pandemic and now cost way more than the global average, according to Accenture.

The global consultancy polled 500 UK executives to compile its State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2021 study.

It found that large organisations experienced 885 attempted cyber-attacks in 2020 – up from 156 the previous year and more than triple the global average of 270.

They’re also more expensive than elsewhere. Accenture calculated that incidents and breaches cost over £1.3m a year – £350,000 more than the global average.

Over 80% of respondents said the cost of staying ahead of cyber-criminals is unsustainable, a fifth more than the previous year, and a quarter said they’ve been forced to increase cybersecurity budgets by 10% or more.

Worryingly, supply chain attacks accounted for 64% of breaches in the UK last year, up by a quarter (26%) from the previous year.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/attacks-on-uk-firms-increase/

The Log4J Software Flaw Is ‘Christmas Come Early’ for Cyber Criminals

Researchers have just identified a security flaw in a software program called Log4J, widely used by a host of private, commercial and government entities to record details ranging from usernames and passwords to credit card transactions. Since the glitch was found last weekend, the cybersecurity community has been scrambling to protect applications, services, infrastructure and even Internet of Things devices from criminals—who are already taking advantage of the vulnerability.

“For cybercriminals this is Christmas come early, because the sky’s the limit,” says Theresa Payton, a former White House chief information officer and the CEO of Fortalice Solutions, a cybersecurity consulting company. “They’re really only limited by their imagination, their technical know-how and their own ability to exploit this flaw.” Payton spoke with Scientific American about what Log4J does, how criminals can use its newly discovered weakness, and what it will take to repair the problem.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-log4j-software-flaw-is-christmas-come-early-for-cybercriminals/

Why Cloud Storage Isn't Immune to Ransomware

Ransomware is the flavour of the month for cybercriminals. The FBI reports that ransomware attacks rose 20% and losses almost tripled in 2020. And our increased use of the cloud may have played a part in that spike. A survey of CISOs conducted by IDC earlier this year found that 98% of their companies suffered at least one cloud data breach in the previous 18 months as opposed to 79% last year, and numbers got worse the more exposure they had to the cloud.

Organisations now use hundreds of cloud-based apps, which adds thousands of new identities logging in to their systems. This opens almost unlimited possibilities for hackers. Even if cloud vendors have their own identity and access management controls, vulnerabilities will emerge. In fact, recent research into cloud security found that over 70% of organisations had machines open to the public that were linked to identities whose permissions were vulnerable, under the right conditions, to being exploited to launch ransomware attacks.

A number of reasons could explain why security falls through the cracks of many cloud systems, and leaves them more vulnerable to ransomware attacks.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/why-cloud-storage-isn-t-immune-to-ransomware

400 Banks’ Customers Targeted with Anubis Trojan

Customers of Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Capital One, along with nearly 400 other financial institutions, are being targeted by a malicious app disguised to look like the official account management platform for French telecom company Orange S.A.

Researchers say this is just the beginning.

Once downloaded, the malware – a variant of banking trojan Anubis – steals the user’s personal data to rip them off, researchers at Lookout warned in a new report. And it’s not just customers of big banks at risk, the researchers added: Virtual payment platforms and crypto wallets are also being targeted.

“As a banking trojan malware, Anubis’ goal is to collect significant data about the victim from their mobile device for financial gain,” the Lookout report said. “This is done by intercepting SMSs, keylogging, file exfiltration, screen monitoring, GPS data collection and abuse of the device’s accessibility services.”

https://threatpost.com/400-banks-targeted-anubis-trojan/177038/

Sites Hacked With Credit Card Stealers Undetected For Months

Threat actors are gearing up for the holidays with credit card skimming attacks remaining undetected for months as payment information is stolen from customers.

Magecart skimming is an attack that involves the injection of malicious JavaScript code on a target website, which runs when the visitor is at the checkout page.

The code can steal payment details such as credit card number, holder name, addresses, and CVV, and send them to the actor.

Threat actors may then use this information for purchasing goods online or sold to other actors on underground forums and dark web marketplaces known as "carding" sites.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/sites-hacked-with-credit-card-stealers-undetected-for-months/

Threats

Ransomware

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud & Financial Crime

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy

Spyware and Espionage

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 November 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 November 2021:

-Covid Impact Heightens Risk Of Cyber Security Breaches

-81% of Organisations Experienced Increased Cyber-Threats During COVID-19

-Phishing Attacks Grow 31.5% Over 2020, Social Media Attacks Continue To Climb

-Threat from Organised Cybercrime Syndicates Is Rising

-Ransomware Gangs Are Using These 'Ruthless' Tactics As They Aim For Bigger Payouts

-Firms Will Struggle to Secure Extended Attack Surface in 2022

-Millions Of Home Wi-Fi Routers Threatened By Malware — What To Do

-Vulnerabilities Associated With Ransomware Increased 4.5% In Q3 2021

-80% Of Organisations Experienced Employees Misusing And Abusing Access To Business Apps

-Gen Z Is Behaving Recklessly Online - And Will Live To Regret It

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Covid Impact Heightens Risk Of Cyber Security Breaches

CYBER SECURITY breaches are the biggest staff-related risk as Covid-19 and recruitment difficulties continue to impact workplaces, according to a survey of Channel Island employers.

Seven out of ten senior HR professionals and business leaders saw a cyber security breach as the greatest staff-related risk for a regulated financial services business – way ahead of employees leaving (16%) and employees working from home (10%). Some 57% of employers said Covid-19 had changed their policies, procedures and systems ‘moderately’, with 29.5% reporting ‘significant’ changes, according to the research undertaken at a virtual employment conference organised by Walkers last month.

https://guernseypress.com/news/2021/11/12/covid-impact-heightens-risk-of-cyber-security-breaches/

81% of Organisations Experienced Increased Cyber Threats During COVID-19

More than four in five (81%) organisations experienced increased cyber-threats during the COVD-19 pandemic, according to a new study by McAfee and FireEye.

The global survey of 1451 IT and line of business decision-makers found that close to half (43%) have suffered from downtime due to a cyber concern. This resulted in costs of $100,000 for some organisations.

Despite the increased threat landscape and the fact that over half (57%) of organisations saw a rise in online/web activity, 24% of respondents revealed they have had their technology and security budgets reduced over this period.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/81-orgs-cyber-threats-covid19/

Phishing Attacks Grow 31.5% Over 2020, Social Media Attacks Continue To Climb

Phishing remains the dominant attack vector for bad actors, growing 31.5 percent over 2020, according to a PhishLabs report. Notably, attacks in September 2021 were more than twice as high as the previous year.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/11/phishing-attacks-grow-2020/

Threat from Organised Cyber Crime Syndicates Is Rising

Europol reports that criminal groups are undermining the EU’s economy and its society, offering everything from murder-for-hire to kidnapping, torture and mutilation.

From encrypting communications to fencing ill-gotten gains on underground sites, organised crime is cashing in on the digital revolution.

The latest organised crime threat assessment from Europol issues a dire warning about the corrosive effect the rising influence of criminal syndicates is having on both the economy and society of the European Union. And it’s all happening online.

https://threatpost.com/organised-cybercrime-syndicates-europol/176326/

Ransomware Gangs Are Using These 'Ruthless' Tactics As They Aim For Bigger Payouts

More sophisticated ransomware attacks are on the way as cyber criminals tailor campaigns to raise the chances of a ransom payment.

Ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated as cyber criminals continue to develop new techniques to make campaigns more effective and increase their chances of successfully demanding a ransom payment.

According to the European law enforcement agency Europol there was a 300% increase in the number of ransom payments between 2019 and 2020 alone – and that doesn't account for 2021 being another bumper year for cyber criminals launching ransomware attacks, as they've taken advantage of security vulnerabilities presented by the rise in remote working. 

Europol's Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCT) shows that while cybercrime, including malware and DDoS attacks, continues to evolve, it's ransomware attacks that have been a significant amount of disruption over the course of the past year.

https://www.ZDNet.com/article/ransomware-gangs-are-now-using-ruthless-tactics-as-they-aim-for-bigger-payouts/

Firms Will Struggle to Secure Extended Attack Surface in 2022

Companies are relying more heavily on third parties, remote employees, and partners, expanding their attack surface area beyond traditional boundaries.

In 2022, much of cybersecurity will boil down to managing the security of relationships, as companies adapt to the post-pandemic remote workforce and the increased use of third-party providers, a panel of analysts stated at the Forrester Research Security & Risk 2021 Conference.

Among five predictions for the coming year, the analysts argued that companies' attempts to manage remote employees would stray into intrusive territory, causing workers to push back and hampering security-focused monitoring, such as that for insider threats. Other predictions maintain that 60% of security incidents in the next year will come from issues with third parties, while the cybersecurity workforce will suffer from burnout and join what's been called the "Great Resignation," the recent trend of workers leaving the workforce.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/firms-will-struggle-to-secure-extended-attack-surface-in-2022

Millions Of Home Wi-Fi Routers Threatened By Malware — What To Do

Netgear, Linksys, D-Link routers among those targeted

There's a nasty new piece of malware out there targeting Wi-Fi routers, and you'll want to make sure yours is fully updated so it doesn't get infected.

The AT&T researchers who discovered the malware are calling it BotenaGo, and it's apparently different from the Mirai botnet malware that's been attacking routers since 2016. BotenaGo packs in exploits for 33 different known vulnerabilities in 12 different router brands, including D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Tenda, Totolink, Zyxel and ZTE. A full list is on the AT&T Cybersecurity blog post.

To avoid infection, ensure you update your router with the latest firmware.

https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/news/botenago-router-malware

Vulnerabilities Associated With Ransomware Increased 4.5% In Q3 2021

Ransomware groups are continuing to grow in sophistication, boldness, and volume, with numbers up across the board since Q2 2021, a report by Ivanti, Cyber Security Works and Cyware reveals.

This last quarter saw a 4.5% increase in CVEs associated with ransomware, a 4.5% increase in actively exploited and trending vulnerabilities, a 3.4% increase in ransomware families, and a 1.2% increase in older vulnerabilities tied to ransomware compared to Q2 2021.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/10/vulnerabilities-associated-with-ransomware/

80% Of Organisations Experienced Employees Misusing And Abusing Access To Business Apps

Organisations continue to operate with limited visibility into user activity and sessions associated with web applications, despite the ever-present risk of insider threats and credential theft, a CyberArk research reveals.

While the adoption of web applications has brought flexibility and increased productivity, organisations often lag in implementing the security controls necessary to mitigate risk of human error or malicious intent.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/08/user-activity-visibility/

Gen Z Is Behaving Recklessly Online - And Will Live To Regret It

Handing out personal information could be a slippery slope

Members of Generation Z, the cohort of people born in the first decade of the 21st century, care about digital privacy, but their desire for online fame and popularity is greater, a new study from ExpressVPN suggests.

The VPN provider surveyed 1,500 young adults from the US to evaluate their online habits and attitudes towards social media, and identified a troubling pattern that could have dire consequences.

The survey found that Generation Z isn’t trusting of the social media platforms they frequent, expressing concern that platforms may be using their images for facial recognition (67%) and wariness about oversharing personal information (66%).

https://www.techradar.com/news/gen-z-is-behaving-recklessly-online-and-will-live-to-regret-it

Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Insider Threats

DoS/DDoS

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy

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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 27 August 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 27 August 2021

-Cyber Crime Losses Triple To £1.3bn In 1h 2021

-New Ransomware Wake-Up Call

-22% Of Cyber Security Incidents In H1 2021 Were Ransomware Attacks

-Key Email Threats And The High Cost Of Business Email Compromise

-Microsoft Warns Thousands Of Cloud Customers Of Exposed Databases

-58% Of IT Leaders Worried Their Business Could Become A Target Of Rising Nation State Attacks

-Cyber Insurance Market Encounters ‘Crisis Moment’ As Ransomware Costs Pile Up

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Cyber Crime Losses Triple To £1.3bn In H1 2021

Individuals and organisations lost three times more money to cyber crime and fraud in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2020, as incidents soared, according to new figures. The report revealed that between January 1 and July 31 2020, victims lost £414.7m to cyber crime and fraud. However, the figure surged to £1.3bn for the same period in 2021. This can be partly explained by the huge increase in cases from last year to this. In the first half of 2020, there were just 39,160 reported to Action Fraud, versus 289,437 in the first six months of 2021. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cybercrime-losses-triple-to-13bn/

Ransomware On A Rampage; A New Wake-Up Call

The ransomware rampage is continuing at pace and continues to create significant cyber security challenges. The use of ransomware by hackers to leverage exploits and extract financial benefits is not new. Ransomware has been around for over 2 decades, (early use of basic ransomware malware was used in the late 1980s) but as of late, it has become a trending and more dangerous cybersecurity threat. The inter-connectivity of digital commerce and expanding attack surfaces have enhanced the utility of ransomware as cyber weapon of choice for bad actors. Like bank robbers, cyber criminals go where the money is accessible. And it is now easier for them to reap benefits from extortion. Hackers can now demand cryptocurrencies payments or pre-paid cards that can be anonymously transacted. Those means of digital payments are difficult to trace by law enforcement. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckbrooks/2021/08/21/ransomware-on-a-rampage-a-new-wake-up-call/?sh=64a622362e81

22% Of Cyber Security Incidents In H1 2021 Were Ransomware Attacks

A report uncovered the number and nature of UK cyber security breaches reported to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2020 and 2021. So far in 2021 phishing was to blame for most incidents, accounting for 40% of all cyber security cases reported to the ICO, slightly down from 44% the year before. However, ransomware is surging, up from 11% of all reported incidents in the first half of 2020 to 22% in 2021. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/25/cybersecurity-incidents-h1-2021/

Ransomware: These Four Rising Gangs Could Be Your Next Major Cyber Security Threat

In recent months some significant ransomware operators have seemingly disappeared. But that doesn't mean that ransomware is any less of a problem, quite the opposite – new groups are emerging to fill the gaps and are often worse than the gangs that went before them. Cyber security researchers have detailed four upcoming families of ransomware discovered during investigations – and under the right circumstances, any of them could become the next big ransomware threat. One of these is LockBit 2.0, a ransomware-as-a-service operation that has existed since September 2019 but has gained major traction over the course of this summer. Those behind it revamped their dark web operations in June – when they launched the 2.0 version of LockBit – and aggressive advertising has drawn attention from cyber criminals. https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-these-four-rising-threats-could-be-the-next-major-cybersecurity-risk-facing-your-business/

Key Email Threats And The High Cost Of Business Email Compromise

Researchers published the results of a study analysing over 31 million threats across multiple organisations and industries, with new findings and warnings issued by technical experts that every organisation should be aware of. A key aspect to preventing attacks is having a deep understanding of cyber actor patterns and continuously monitoring and deconstructing campaigns to anticipate future ones. Phishing can be a profitable business model, and most breaches begin with a phishing email. What appears to be an innocent email from a trusted vendor or internal department can lead to firm-wide shutdowns, loss of crucial data, and millions in financial costs. As detailed in the report, threats ranging from ransomware, credential harvesters to difficult-to-discover but costly Business Email Compromise (BEC) targeted inboxes, could have resulted in over $354 million in direct losses had they been successful. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/23/key-email-threats/

Microsoft Warns Thousands Of Cloud Customers Of Exposed Databases

Microsoft on Thursday warned thousands of its cloud computing customers, including some of the world's largest companies, that intruders could have the ability to read, change or even delete their main databases, according to a copy of the email and a cyber security researcher. The vulnerability is in Microsoft Azure's flagship Cosmos DB database. A research team at security a company discovered it was able to access keys that control access to databases held by thousands of companies. https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-microsoft-warns-thousands-cloud-customers-exposed-databases-emails-2021-08-26/

58% Of IT Leaders Worried Their Business Could Become A Target Of Rising Nation State Attacks

Researchers released the findings of a global survey of 1,100 IT decision makers (ITDMs), examining their concerns around rising nation state attacks. 72% of respondents said they worry that nation state tools, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) could filter through to the dark net and be used to attack their business. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/23/rising-nation-state-attacks/

Cyber Insurance Market Encounters ‘Crisis Moment’ As Ransomware Costs Pile Up

It’s a sure sign of trouble when leading insurance industry executives are worried about their own prices going up. Ransomware now accounts for 75% of all cyber insurance claims, up from 55% in 2016, according to the credit ratings agency. The percentage increase in claims is outpacing that of premiums, said a June report which concluded that “the prospects for the cyber insurance market are grim.” Fitch Ratings in April found that the ratio of losses to premiums earned was at 73% last year, jeopardizing the profitability of the industry. https://www.cyberscoop.com/cyber-insurance-ransomware-crisis/

Security Teams Report Rise In Cyber Risk

Do you feel like you are gaining in your ability to protect your data and your network? If you are like 80% of respondents to the a recent report, you expect to experience a data breach that compromises customer data in the next 12 months. The report surveyed more than 3,600 businesses of all sizes and industries across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America for their thoughts on cyber risk. Despite an increased focus on security due to high-profile ransomware and other attacks in the past year, respondents reported a rise in risk due to inadequate security processes like backing up key assets. https://www.csoonline.com/article/3629477/security-teams-report-rise-in-cyber-risk.html

WARNING: Microsoft Exchange Under Attack With ProxyShell Flaws

The U.S. Cyber security and Infrastructure Security Agency is warning of active exploitation attempts that leverage the latest line of "ProxyShell" Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities that were patched earlier this May, including deploying LockFile ransomware on compromised systems. The vulnerabilities enable adversaries to bypass ACL controls, elevate privileges on the Exchange PowerShell backend, effectively permitting the attacker to perform unauthenticated, remote code execution. While the former two were addressed by Microsoft on April 13, a patch for CVE-2021-31207 was shipped as part of the Windows maker's May Patch Tuesday updates. https://thehackernews.com/2021/08/microsoft-exchange-under-attack-with.html

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Insider Threats

DoS/DDoS

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy

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

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

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

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

Read More