Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 07 October 2022

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

• Russian Sanctions Instigator Lloyd's Possibly Hit by Cyber Attack

Lloyd’s of London, the London-based insurance market heavily involved in implementing sanctions against Russia, may have been hit by a cyber-attack. On Wednesday, October 5, 2022, the British insurance market revealed it had detected “unusual activity” on its systems and has turned off all external connectivity “as a precautionary measure.”

“We have informed market participants and relevant parties, and we will provide more information once our investigations have concluded,” said a Lloyd’s spokesperson.

The company did not comment on whether or not it has been contacted by hackers, if a ransom demand has been issued, or on the possible source of the attack.

However, the insurance market has been closely involved with the design and implementation of sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine – a potential motive for the attack. Lloyd’s itself has confirmed it was working closely with British and international governments to implement such sanctions.

Around 100 insurance syndicates operate at Lloyd's.

Earlier in 2022, Lloyd’s instructed its 76 insurance syndicates to remove “nation-state-backed cyber attacks” from insurance policies by March 2023, as well as losses “arising from a war.”

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/lloyds-possibly-hit-by-cyberattack/

• Former Uber Security Chief Convicted of Covering Up Data Breach

Uber’s former head of security has been convicted of covering up a 2016 data breach at the rideshare giant, hiding details from US regulators and paying off a pair of hackers in return for their discretion.

The trial, closely watched in cyber security circles, is believed to be the first criminal prosecution of a company executive over the handling of a data breach.

Joe Sullivan, who was fired in 2017 over the incident, was found guilty by a San Francisco jury of obstructing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. At the time of the 2016 breach, the regulator had been investigating the car-booking service over a different cyber security lapse that had occurred two years earlier.

Jurors also convicted Sullivan of a second count related to having knowledge of but failing to report the 2016 breach to the appropriate government authorities. The incident eventually became public in 2017 when Dara Khosrowshahi, who had just taken over as chief executive, disclosed details of the attack.

Prosecutors said Sullivan had taken steps to make sure data compromised in the attack would not be revealed. According to court documents, two hackers approached Sullivan’s team to notify Uber of a security flaw that exposed the personal information of almost 60mn drivers and riders on the platform.

https://www.ft.com/content/051af6a1-41d1-4a6c-9e5a-d23d46b2a9c9

• First 72 Hours of Incident Response Critical to Taming Cyber Attack Chaos

Cyber security professionals tasked with responding to attacks experience stress, burnout, and mental health issues that are exacerbated by a lack of breach preparedness and sufficient incident response practice in their organisations.

A new IBM Security-sponsored survey published this week found that two-thirds (67%) of incident responders suffer stress and anxiety during at least some of their engagements, while 44% have sacrificed the well-being of their relationships, and 42% have suffered burnout, according to the survey conducted by Morning Consult. In addition, 68% of incidents responders often have to work on two or more incidents at the same time, increasing their stress, according to the survey's results.

Companies that plan and practice responding to a variety of incidents can lower the stress levels of their incident responders, employees, and executives, says John Dwyer, head of research for IBM Security's X-Force response team.

"Organisations are not effectively establishing their response strategies with the responders in mind — it does not need to be as stressful as it is," he says. "There is a lot of time when the responders are managing organisations during an incident, because those organisations were not prepared for the crisis that occurs. These attacks happen every day."

The IBM Security-funded study underscores why the cyber security community has focused increasingly on the mental health of its members. About half (51%) of cyber security defenders have suffered burnout or extreme stress in the past year, according to a VMware survey released in August 2021. Cyber security executives have also spotlighted the issue as one that affects the community and companies' ability to retain skilled workers.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/incident-response-s-first-72-hours-critical-to-taming-chaos

• Email Defences Under Siege: Phishing Attacks Dramatically Improve

This week's report that cyber attackers are laser-focused on crafting attacks specialised to bypass Microsoft's default security showcases an alarming evolution in phishing tactics, security experts said this week.

Threat actors are getting better at slipping phishing attacks through the weak spots in platform email defences, using a variety of techniques, such as zero-point font obfuscation, hiding behind cloud-messaging services, and delaying payload activation, for instance. They're also doing more targeting and research on victims.

As a result, nearly 1 in 5 phishing emails (18.8%) bypassed Microsoft's platform defences and landed in workers' inboxes in 2022, a rate that increased 74% compared to 2020, according to research published by cyber security firm Check Point Software. Attackers increasingly used techniques to pass security checks, such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and obfuscate functional components of an e-mail, such as using zero-size fonts or hiding malicious URLs from analysis.

The increasing capabilities of attackers is due to the better understanding of current defences, says Avanan, an email security firm acquired by Check Point in August 2021.

"It is a family of 10 to 20 techniques, but they all lead to the objective of deceiving a company's security layers," he says. "The end result is always an email that looks genuine to the recipient but looks different to the algorithm that analyses the content."

Microsoft declined to comment on the research. However, the company has warned of advanced techniques, such as adversary-in-the-middle phishing (AiTM), which uses a custom URL to place a proxy server between a victim and their desired site, allowing the attacker to capture sensitive data, such as usernames and passwords. In July, the company warned that more than 10,000 organisations had been targeted during one AiTM campaign.

https://www.darkreading.com/remote-workforce/email-defenses-under-siege-phishing-attacks-dramatically-improve

• Remote Services Are Becoming an Attractive Target for Ransomware

Stolen credentials are no longer the number one initial access vector for ransomware operators looking to infect a target network and its endpoints - instead, they’ve become more interested in exploiting vulnerabilities found in internet-facing systems.

A report from Secureworks claims ransomware-as-a-service developers are quick to add newly discovered vulnerabilities into their arsenals, allowing even less competent hackers to exploit them swiftly, and with relative ease.

In fact, the company's annual State of the Threat Report reveals that flaw exploitation in remote services accounted for 52% of all ransomware incidents the company analysed over the last 12 months.

Besides remote services, Secureworks also spotted a 150% increase in the use of infostealers, which became a “key precursor” to ransomware. Both these factors, the report stresses, kept ransomware as the number one threat for businesses of all sizes, “who must fight to stay abreast of the demands of new vulnerability prioritisation and patching”.

All things considered, ransomware is still the biggest threat for businesses. It takes up almost a quarter of all attacks that were reported in the last 12 months, Secureworks says, and despite law enforcement being actively involved, operators remained highly active.

https://www.techradar.com/news/remote-services-are-becoming-an-attractive-target-for-ransomware

• Growing Reliance on Cloud Brings New Security Challenges

There was a time when cloud was just a small subset of IT infrastructure, and cloud security referred to a very specific set of tasks. The current reality is very different, organisations are heavily dependent on cloud technologies and cloud security has become a much more complex endeavour.

Organisations increasingly rely on the cloud to deliver new applications, reduce costs, and support business operations. One in every four organisations already have majority workloads in the cloud, and 44% of workloads currently run in some form of public cloud, says Omdia, a research and advisory group.

Practically every midsize and large organisation now operates in some kind of a hybrid cloud environment, with a mix of cloud and on-premises systems. For most organisations, software-as-a-service constitute the bulk (80%) of their cloud environments, followed by infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service deployments.

In the past, cloud security conversations tended to focus on making sure cloud environments are being configured properly, but cloud security nowadays goes far beyond just configuration management. The sprawling cloud environment means security management has to be centralised, Omdia said. Security functions also need to be integrated into existing application deployment workflows.

On top of all of this, multicloud is becoming more common among organisations as they shift their workloads to avoid being dependent on a single platform. The three major cloud providers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform – account for 65% of the cloud market.

https://www.darkreading.com/dr-tech/growing-reliance-on-cloud-brings-new-security-challenges

• Many IT Pros Don’t Think a Ransomware Attack Can Impact Microsoft 365 Data

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

Cyber attacks are happening more frequently. Last year’s ransomware survey revealed that 21% of companies experienced an attack. This year it rose by three percent to 24%.

“Attacks on businesses are increasing, and there is a shocking lack of awareness and preparation by IT pros. Our survey shows that many in the IT community have a false sense of security. As bad actors develop new techniques, companies like ours have to do what it takes to come out ahead and protect businesses around the world,” said Hornetsecurity.

The report highlighted a lack of knowledge on the security available to businesses. 25% of IT professionals either don’t know or don’t think that Microsoft 365 data can be impacted by a ransomware attack.

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

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

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/03/ransomware-attack-impact-microsoft-365-data/

• Ransomware Group Bypasses "Enormous" Range of EDR Tools

A notorious ransomware group has been spotted leveraging sophisticated techniques to bypass endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools.

BlackByte, which the US government has said poses a serious threat to critical infrastructure, used a “Bring Your Own Driver” technique to circumvent over 1000 drivers used by commercially available EDR products, according to Sophos. The UK cyber security vendor explained in a new report that the group had exploited a known vulnerability, CVE-2019-16098, in Windows graphics utility driver RTCorec6.sys. This enabled it to communicate directly with a victim system’s kernel and issue commands to disable callback routines used by EDR tools.

The group also used EDR bypass techniques borrowed from open source tool EDRSandblast to deactivate the Microsoft-Windows-Threat-Intelligence ETW (Event Tracing for Windows) provider. This is a Windows feature “that provides logs about the use of commonly maliciously abused API calls such as NtReadVirtualMemory to inject into another process’s memory,” explained Sophos. Neutralising it in this way renders any security tool relying on the feature also useless, the firm argued.

“If you think of computers as a fortress, for many EDR providers, ETW is the guard at the front gate,” said Sophos. “If the guard goes down, then that leaves the rest of the system extremely vulnerable. And, because ETW is used by so many different providers, BlackByte’s pool of potential targets for deploying this EDR bypass is enormous.”

BlackByte is not the only ransomware group using these advanced techniques to get around existing detection tools, illustrating the continued arms race between attackers and defenders. AvosLocker used a similar method in May, Sophos said. “Anecdotally, from what we’re seeing in the field, it does appear that EDR bypass is becoming a more popular technique for ransomware threat groups,” the firm confirmed. “This is not surprising. Threat actors often leverage tools and techniques developed by the ‘offensive security’ industry to launch attacks faster and with minimal effort.”

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-bypasses-enormous-range/

• MS Exchange Zero-Days: The Calm Before the Storm?

Two exploited MS Exchange zero-days that still have no official fix, have been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog.

But mitigating the risk of exploitation until patches are ready will require patience and doggedness, as Microsoft is still revising its advice to admins and network defenders, and still working on the patches.

The two vulnerabilities were publicly documented last Wednesday, by researchers with Vietnamese company GTSC, and Microsoft soon after sprung into (discernible) action by offering customer guidance, followed by an analysis of the attacks exploiting the two vulnerabilities. Several changes have been made to the documents since then, after the company found and other researchers pointed out several shortcomings.

Microsoft says its threat analysts observed “activity related to a single activity group in August 2022 that achieved initial access and compromised Exchange servers by chaining CVE-2022-41040 and CVE-2022-41082 in a small number of targeted attacks,” and that the attackers breached fewer than 10 organisations globally. “MSTIC assesses with medium confidence that the single activity group is likely to be a state-sponsored organisation,” they added.

The other good news is there are still no public exploits for the two vulnerabilities. But, Microsoft says, “Prior Exchange vulnerabilities that require authentication have been adopted into the toolkits of attackers who deploy ransomware, and these vulnerabilities are likely to be included in similar attacks due to the highly privileged access Exchange systems confer onto an attacker.”

Enterprise defenders should expect trouble via this attack path in the near future, it seems, so keeping abreast of the changing situation and springing into action as quickly as possible once the patches are made available is advised. Scammers have since started impersonating security researchers and offering non-existing PoC exploits for CVE-2022-41082 for sale via GitHub

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/03/ms-exchange-cve-2022-41040-cve-2022-41082/

• Average Company with Data in the Cloud Faces $28 Million in Data-Breach Risk

Hard-to-control collaboration, complex SaaS permissions, and risky misconfigurations — such as admin accounts without multi-factor authentication (MFA) — have left a dangerous amount of cloud data exposed to insider threats and cyber attacks, according to Varonis.

For the report, researchers analysed nearly 10 billion cloud objects (more than 15 petabytes of data) across a random sample of data risk assessments performed at more than 700 companies worldwide. In the average company, 157,000 sensitive records are exposed to everyone on the internet by SaaS sharing features, representing $28 million in data-breach risk, Varonis researchers have found.

One out of every 10 records in the cloud is exposed to all employees — creating an impossibly large internal blast radius, which maximises damage during a ransomware attack. The average company has 4,468 user accounts without MFA enabled, making it easier for attackers to compromise internally exposed data.

Out of 33 super admin accounts in the average organisation, more than half did not have MFA enabled. This makes it easier for attackers to compromise these powerful accounts, steal more data, and create backdoors. Companies have more than 40 million unique permissions across SaaS applications, creating a nightmare for IT and security teams responsible for managing and reducing cloud data risk.

“Cloud security shouldn’t be taken for granted. When security teams lack critical visibility to manage and protect SaaS and IaaS apps and services, it’s nearly impossible to ensure your data isn’t walking out the door,” said Varonis. “This report is a true-to-life picture of over 700 real-world risk assessments of production SaaS environments. The results underscore the urgent need for CISOs to uncover and remediate their cloud risk as quickly as possible.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/05/company-data-breach-risk/

• Secureworks Finds Network Intruders See Little Resistance

Attackers who break into networks only need to take a few basic measures in order to avoid detection.

Security vendor Secureworks said in its annual State of the Threat report that it observed several data breaches between June 2021 and June 2022 and found that, by and large, once network intruders gained a foothold on the targets' environment, they had to do relatively little to stay concealed.

"One thing that is notable about them is that none of these techniques are particularly sophisticated," the vendor said. "That is because threat actors do not need them to be; the adversary will only innovate enough to achieve their objectives. So there is a direct relationship between the maturity of the controls in a target environment and the techniques they employ to bypass those controls."

Among the more basic measures taken by the attackers was coding their tools in newer languages such as Go or Rust. This tweak created enough of a difference in the software to evade signature-checking tools, according to Secureworks' report. In other cases, the network intruders hid their activity by packing their malware within a trusted Windows installer or by sneaking it into the Authenticode signature of a trusted DLL. In another case, a malware infection was seen moving data out of the victim's network via TOR nodes. While effective, Secureworks said the techniques are hardly innovative. Rather, they indicate that threat actors find themselves only needing to do the bare minimum to conceal themselves from detection.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252525696/Secureworks-finds-network-intruders-see-little-resistance

• Regulations, Laws and Accountability are Changing the Cyber Security Landscape

As cyber criminals continue to develop new ways to wreak havoc, regulators have been working to catch up. They aim to protect data and consumers while avoiding nation-state attacks that are a risk to national and economic security. But some of these regulations may provide an opportunity for MSSPs.

Some of these regulations are a response to what’s generally been a hands-off approach to telling organisations what to do. Unfortunately, cyber security isn’t always prioritised when budgets and resources are allocated. The result is a steadily rising tide of breaches and exploits that have held organisations hostage and made private information available on the dark web.

The new regulations are coming from all directions: at the state and federal levels in the US and around the world. While many of these regulations aren’t yet final, there’s no reason not to start aligning with where trends will ease the impact of changing rules. At the same time, many organisations want to hold the government responsible for some kinds of attacks. It will be interesting to see how regulating works, as most politicians and bureaucrats aren’t known for their technological savvy.

In the US, for example, new regulations are in development in the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Thirty-six states have enacted cyber security legislation, and the count increases as other countries join.

One of the motivating factors for all these new regulations is that most cyber attacks aren’t reported. Lawmakers realise cyber security threats continue to be one of the top national security and economic risks. In the last year and a half (2020-2022), there have been attacks on America’s gas supply, meat supply, and various other companies, courts, and government agencies. One FBI cyber security official estimated the government only learns about 20% to 25% of intrusions at US business and academic institutions.

In March, Congress passed legislation requiring critical infrastructure operators to report significant cyber attacks to CISA within 72 hours of learning about the attack. It also required them to report a ransomware payment within 24 hours. These regulations will also consider reporting “near misses” so that this data can also be studied and tracked. The problem is, how does one define a “near miss”?

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-guests/regulations-laws-and-accountability-are-changing-the-cybersecurity-landscape/

• This Year’s Biggest Cyber Threats

OpenText announced the Nastiest Malware of 2022, a ranking of the year’s biggest cyber threats. For the fifth year running, experts combed through the data, analysed different behaviours, and determined which malicious payloads are the nastiest.

Emotet regained its place at the top, reminding the world that while affiliates may be taken down, the masterminds are resilient. LockBit evolved its tactics into something never seen before: triple extortion. Analysis also revealed an almost 1100% increase in phishing during the first four months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, indicating a possible end to the “hacker holiday,” a hacker rest period following the busy holiday season.

“The key takeaway from this year’s findings is that malware remains centre stage in the threats posed towards individuals, businesses, and governments,” said OpenText.

“Cyber criminals continue to evolve their tactics, leaving the infosec community in a constant state of catch-up. With the mainstream adoption of ransomware payloads and cryptocurrency facilitating payments, the battle will continue. No person, no business—regardless of size—is immune to these threats.”

While this year’s list may designate payloads into different categories of malware, it’s important to note many of these bad actor groups contract work from others. This allows each group to specialise in their respective payload and perfect it.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/10/06/2022-nastiest-malware/

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Threats

Ransomware and Extortion

• Ransomware Attacks On The Rise, Secureworks Reveals in its State of the Threat Report - MSSP Alert

• Ransomware: This is how half of attacks begin, and this is how you can stop them | ZDNET

• Fake adult sites push data wipers disguised as ransomware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ferrari Hit By Ransomware Attack: 7 GB Of Data Published Online – Expert (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• BlackByte Ransomware Abuses Vulnerable Windows Driver to Disable Security Solutions (thehackernews.com)

• BlackByte ransomware abuses legit driver to disable security products (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ransomware attacks ravage schools, municipal governments (techtarget.com)

• Ransomware 3.0: The Next Frontier (darkreading.com)

• More and more ransomware is just data theft, no encryption • The Register

• Netwalker ransomware affiliate sentenced to 20 years in prison (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cheerscrypt ransomware is linked to Chinese DEV-0401 APT group - Security Affairs

• ADATA denies RansomHouse cyber attack, says leaked data from 2021 breach (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Avast releases a free decryptor for some Hades ransomware variants - Security Affairs

• Cyber criminals Leak LA School Data After It Refuses to Ransom (vice.com)

• How Ransomware Is Causing Chaos in American Schools (vice.com)

• Ransomware hunters: the self-taught tech geniuses fighting cyber crime | Cyber crime | The Guardian

BEC – Business Email Compromise

• BEC fraudster and romance scammer sent to prison for 25 years – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Hackers Target Homebuyers’ Life Savings in Real Estate Scam - Bloomberg

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Hackers Can Use 'App Mode' in Chromium Browsers' for Stealth Phishing Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Phishing Campaigns Target KFC, McDonald's in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

• Callback phishing attacks evolve their social engineering tactics (bleepingcomputer.com)

• 3 ways enterprises can mitigate social engineering risks - Help Net Security

Malware

• OpenText Releases List Of The Year’s “Nastiest” Malware - MSSP Alert

• This devious malware is able to disable your antivirus | TechRadar

• Bumblebee Malware Loader's Payloads Significantly Vary by Victim System (darkreading.com)

• Eternity Group Hackers Offering New LilithBot Malware-as-a-Service to Cyber criminals (thehackernews.com)

• Live support service hacked to spread malware in supply chain attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• NullMixer Dropper Delivers a Multimalware Code Bomb (darkreading.com)

• Maggie malware already infected over 250 Microsoft SQL servers - Security Affairs

Mobile

• Android Spyware 'RatMilad' Targets Enterprise Devices in Iran - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Internet of Things – IoT

• 7 IoT Devices That Make Security Pros Cringe (darkreading.com)

• Ikea Smart Light System Flaw Lets Attackers Turn Bulbs on Full Blast (darkreading.com)

• Acronis founder is afraid of his own vacuum cleaner • The Register

Data Breaches/Leaks

• “Egypt Leaks” – Hacktivists are Leaking Financial Data - Security Affairs

• No Shangri-La for you: Top hotel chain confirms data leak • The Register

• Home Office reprimanded after sensitive counter-terror documents left at London venue | The Independent

• NSA: Someone hacked military contractor and stole data • The Register

• City of Tucson discloses data breach affecting over 123,000 people (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Optus Says ID Numbers of 2.1 Million Compromised in Data Breach | SecurityWeek.Com

• Aussie Telco Telstra Breached, Reportedly Exposing 30,000 Employees' Data (darkreading.com)

• 2K warns users their info has been stolen following breach of its help desk | Ars Technica

• Russian retail chain 'DNS' confirms hack after data leaked online (bleepingcomputer.com)

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

• Breaking: Scams Linked To Crypto Soared By 335% (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Hacker steals $566 million worth of crypto from Binance Bridge (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Hackers are breaching scam sites to hijack crypto transactions (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Binance Says $100 Million Stolen in Latest Crypto Hack (gizmodo.com)

• Hackers are breaching scam sites to hijack crypto transactions (bleepingcomputer.com)

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Why Don't CISOs Trust Their Employees? (darkreading.com)

• Meta sues app dev for stealing over 1 million WhatsApp accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)

• To avoid insider threats, try empathy - Help Net Security

• Microsoft publishes report on holistic insider risk management - Microsoft Security Blog

• Unearth offboarding risks before your employees say goodbye - Help Net Security

• Splunk alleges source code theft by former employee • The Register

• Ex-NSA Employee Arrested for Trying to Sell U.S. Secrets to a Foreign Government (thehackernews.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• ICO Fines Four "Predatory" Privacy-Invading Firms - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Consumers Feel Hopeless in Protecting Themselves Against Cyber crime, ISACA Reports - MSSP Alert

• BEC fraudster and romance scammer sent to prison for 25 years – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Hackers Target Homebuyers’ Life Savings in Real Estate Scam - Bloomberg

• Russians dodging mobilization behind flourishing scam market (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Scammers and rogue callers – can anything ever stop them? – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Healthcare Company Owners Get Jail Time for $7m Fraud Scheme - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Online romance scam boss netted $9.5m, jailed for 25 years • The Register

Deepfakes

• How a deepfake Mark Ruffalo scammed half a million dollars from a lonely heart • Graham Cluley

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• Live support service hacked to spread malware in supply chain attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Supply Chain Attack Targets Customer Engagement Firm Comm100 | SecurityWeek.Com

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

• DDoS Attacks Spike in First Half of 2022 to Highest Levels in Four Years - MSSP Alert

Cloud/SaaS

• How Will the Metaverse Affect Cloud Security? (trendmicro.com)

• Hardening data security in the cloud • The Register

• Monitoring Your Cloud And Hybrid IT Infrastructure: How To Find The Right Monitoring Solution (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

Encryption

• Loads of connected PostgreSQL systems do not use SSL • The Register

API

• More Than 30% of All Malicious Attacks Target Shadow APIs (darkreading.com)

• APIs are quickly becoming the most popular attack vector - Help Net Security

• The Problem of API Security and How To Fix It (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• API authentication failures demonstrate the need for zero trust - Help Net Security

• Shadow APIs hit with 5 billion malicious requests - Help Net Security

Open Source

• When transparency is also obscurity: The conundrum that is open-source security - Help Net Security

• How Secure is Using Open Source Components? - IT Security Guru

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

• Microsoft warns Basic Auth users over password spray attacks • The Register

• Is mandatory password expiration helping or hurting your password security? - Help Net Security

• Detecting and preventing LSASS credential dumping attacks - Microsoft Security Blog

• Meta Says It Has Busted More Than 400 Login-Stealing Apps This Year | WIRED

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

• The gap between security and privacy, and what it will take to bridge it - Help Net Security

• ICO Fines Four "Predatory" Privacy-Invading Firms - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• New Telecoms Security Framework Comes Into Force (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

Models, Frameworks and Standards

• CIS Controls v8: Safeguards to mitigate the most prevalent cyber-attacks - Help Net Security

Secure Disposal

• The astronomical costs of an asset disposal program gone wrong | CSO Online

• New forensic analysis of electronical devices unveils dangers of inadequate data disposal for individuals and businesses - Business in the News

Backup and Recovery

• Giving Away the Keys to Your Backups? Here’s How to Keep Out Hackers (darkreading.com)

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

• Police arrest teen for using leaked Optus data to extort victims (bleepingcomputer.com)

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

• Relentless Russian Cyber attacks on Ukraine Raise Important Policy Questions (darkreading.com)

• Finnish intelligence warns of Russia's cyber espionage activities - Security Affairs

• Kazakhstan Pins Wave Of Cyber attacks On Foreign Actors | OilPrice.com

• Albania weighed invoking NATO’s Article 5 over Iranian cyber attack - POLITICO

• Russian Hackers Take Aim at Kremlin Targets: Report - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• We breached Russian satellite network, say pro-Ukraine partisans | Cybernews

• Ukrainian forces report Starlink outages during push against Russia | Financial Times (ft.com)

• Android Spyware 'RatMilad' Targets Enterprise Devices in Iran - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Report: Mexico Continued to Use Spyware Against Activists | SecurityWeek.Com

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – China

• US authorities name China's 20 favourite vulns to exploit • The Register

• Cheerscrypt ransomware is linked to Chinese DEV-0401 APT group - Security Affairs

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Lazarus employed an exploit in a Dell firmware driver in recent attacks - Security Affairs

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Vulnerability Management

• CISA mandates vulnerability detection and reporting rules • The Register

• The Zero Day Dilemma | SecurityWeek.Com

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Vulnerabilities

• Microsoft Issues Improved Mitigations for Unpatched Exchange Server Vulnerabilities (thehackernews.com)

• Fortinet warns admins to patch critical auth bypass bug immediately (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cisco Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Communications, Networking Products | SecurityWeek.Com

• Atlassian, Microsoft bugs make CISA’s must-patch list • The Register

• US authorities name China's 20 favourite vulns to exploit • The Register

• October 2022 Patch Tuesday forecast: Looking for treats, not more tricks - Help Net Security

• Fake Microsoft Exchange ProxyNotShell exploits for sale on GitHub (bleepingcomputer.com)

• CISA Warns of Attacks Exploiting Recent Atlassian Bitbucket Vulnerability | SecurityWeek.Com

• No fix in sight for mile-wide loophole plaguing a key Windows defence for years | Ars Technica

• Hackers Exploiting Unpatched RCE Flaw in Zimbra Collaboration Suite (thehackernews.com)

• Lazarus employed an exploit in a Dell firmware driver in recent attacks - Security Affairs

• Unpatched Zimbra flaw under attack is letting hackers backdoor servers | Ars Technica

• macOS Archive Utility Bug Lets Malicious Apps Bypass Security Checks (darkreading.com)

• Fortinet Warns of New Auth Bypass Flaw Affecting FortiGate and FortiProxy (thehackernews.com)

• VMware fixed a high-severity bug in vCenter Server - Security Affairs

• BlackByte Ransomware Abuses Vulnerable Windows Driver to Disable Security Solutions (thehackernews.com)

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• 2022 State of the Threat Report | Secureworks

• Building a Holistic Insider Risk Management Program

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Other News

• Guilty verdict in the Uber breach case makes personal liability real for CISOs | CSO Online

• Cyber attackers view smaller organisations as easier targets - Help Net Security

• Moody's turns up the heat on 'riskiest' sectors for attacks • The Register

• 5 reasons why security operations are getting harder | CSO Online

• Former NSA Employee Faces Death Penalty for Selling Secrets (darkreading.com)

• Fast Company Is Back From the Dead After Being Hacked (gizmodo.com)

• Ready Or Not, Web 3 Is Coming And With It Comes Cybersquatting 2.0 (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Cyber Hygiene: 5 Best Practices for Company Buy-In (trendmicro.com)

• School Is in Session: 5 Lessons for Future Cyber Security Pros (darkreading.com)

• Want More Secure Software? Start Recognizing Security-Skilled Developers (thehackernews.com)

• Incident responders increasingly seek out mental health assistance - Help Net Security

• You Are Not Alone If You're Unclear About Extended Detection and Response (XDR) - MSSP Alert

• Why digital trust is the bedrock of business relationships - Help Net Security

• Incident Responders Driven by Sense of Duty, Handcuffed by Volume of Cyber attacks, IBM Reports - MSSP Alert

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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

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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.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 April 2022

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

• Ransomware Attacks Surged to New Highs in 2021

Ransomware attacks are getting more frequent, more successful and more expensive.

Sixty-six percent of the organisations surveyed by Sophos for its annual State of Ransomware report admitted that they were hit with a ransomware attack last year, up from 37% in 2020. And 65 percent of those attacks were successful in encrypting their victims' data, up from 54 percent the year before.

On top of that, the average ransom paid by organisations for their most significant ransomware attack grew by nearly five times, to just over $800,000, while the number of organisations that paid ransoms of $1 million or more tripled to 11%, the UK-based cybersecurity company said. For its annual report, Sophos surveyed 5,600 organisations from 31 countries. A total of 965 of those polled shared details of their ransomware attacks.

The numbers aren't a huge surprise after a year of epic ransomware attacks that shut down everything from a major oil pipeline to one of the largest meat processors in the US. While both Colonial Pipeline and JBS US Holdings paid millions in ransom, the attacks paused their operations long enough to spark panic buying and drive prices up for consumers.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ransomware-attacks-surged-to-new-highs-in-2021/#ftag=CAD-09-10aai5b

• NCSC and Allies Publish Advisory on The Most Commonly Exploited Vulnerabilities In 2021

The UK and international partners have published an advisory for public and private sector organisations on the 15 most commonly exploited vulnerabilities in 2021.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, has jointly published an advisory with agencies in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, showing that malicious cyber actors aggressively targeted newly disclosed critical software vulnerabilities across the public and private sectors worldwide.

Threat actors often geared their efforts towards targeting internet-facing systems, such as email and virtual private network (VPN) servers.

It also indicates that, to a lesser extent, actors continue to exploit publicly known – and often dated – vulnerabilities, some of which were routinely exploited in 2020 or earlier.

The advisory directs organisations to follow specific mitigation advice to protect against exploitation, which includes applying timely patches, using a centralised patch management system and replacing any software no longer supported by the vendor.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/ncsc-and-allies-publish-advisory-on-the-most-commonly-exploited-vulnerabilities-in-2021

•  Network Attacks Increased to a 3-Year High

WatchGuard Technologies’ Internet Security Report for Q4 2021 revealed all threats were up, whether they’re network attacks or malware.

When the pandemic started, their research team saw a big drop in malware being detected by network security devices. In this period, tech based jobs moved to remote work, which meant a lot of users were no longer browsing the internet and encountering bad things through the network security control at the office. That’s probably why network detection for malware dropped quite a bit at the beginning of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, network attacks continued to rise even through the pandemic, since the servers still lived at the offices and the cloud, and network security still protected those.

The big takeaway in Q4 2021 is that malware rose significantly, returning to normal levels. The reason might be the holiday season, but it’s most probably the fact that, at the end of last year, a lot of tech-based offices started reopening and offering employees to come back in, and thus there’s a bigger chance for network security controls to catch malware.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/25/network-attacks-q4-2021-video/

• World War Three Is Far More Likely Than Anyone Is Prepared to Admit

A Telegraph article looks at the Russia-Ukraine conflict and considers risks posed by new weapons and how the West’s failure to understand our enemies are raising the chances of a horrific conflict.

The fact is the world is becoming more, rather than less, dangerous: there are plenty of other wannabe Putins, and they are better equipped to sow death and destruction. Not only traditional and nuclear threats but bioterrorism is a growing worry and a major cyber attack or assault on transatlantic cables could be so devastating to an internet-based economy as to be seen as a declaration of war.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/27/world-war-three-far-likely-anyone-prepared-admit/

• The Ransomware Crisis Deepens, While Data Recovery Stalls

Higher probabilities of attack, soaring ransoms, and less chance of getting data back — the ransomware plague gets worse, and cyber insurance fails to be a panacea.

When it comes to ransomware, more companies are seeing attacks and have had data encrypted, according to research out this week. And even though more companies are backing up or paying ransom demands, less data was recovered in 2021 compared with the previous year.

For instance, in its "State of Ransomware 2022" report, cybersecurity firm Sophos found that 66% of surveyed companies had encountered ransomware in 2021, with two-thirds of those firms — or 43% overall — suffering from an actual attack that encrypted data. In its previous report covering 2020, the frequency of successful attacks was much smaller, with about 20% overall resulting in encryption.

The deteriorating cyberthreat landscape is largely due to the evolution of ransomware groups and their techniques, says Sean Gallagher, senior threat researcher with Sophos.

"Over the past couple of years, there has been a massive transition from ransomware to ransomware-as-a-service," he says. "There are very well-established [groups] that are doing these attacks, and as a result, the number of attacks companies are seeing has gone up."

Ransomware continues to plague companies with business-disrupting attacks and defy efforts by cybersecurity experts to rein in the operators behind the criminals’ campaigns. Not only did the portion of companies affected by ransomware more than double last year, but the mean ransomware payment more than quadrupled to $812,000, according to the Sophos report.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/ransomware-crisis-deepens-data-recovery-stalls

• Ransoms Only Make Up 15% of Ransomware Costs

New research suggests that paying ransoms is only the tip of the cost iceberg when it comes to ransomware attacks.

Researchers at Check Point have revealed that the collateral damage of ransomware attacks make up costs roughly seven times higher than the ransom demanded by threat actors.

The costs include financial implications caused by incident response efforts, system restoration, legal fees, monitoring costs and the overall impact of business disruption.

Ransomware attacks are an increasingly popular attack method, typically involving stealing data from the victim, encrypting data and forcing them to pay for decryption and avoiding a data leak.

Check Point said in the report:

“Most other losses, including response and restoration costs, legal fees, monitoring costs, etc., are applied whether the extortion demand was paid or not. The year 2020 showed that the average total cost of a ransomware attack was more than seven times higher than the average ransom paid.”

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/04/28/ransoms-only-make-up-15-of-ransomware-costs/

• Defending Your Business Against Russian Cyber Warfare

We are likely to see Russian state sponsored attacks escalate as the West continues to increase sanctions and support Ukraine.

The eyes of the world are focused on the war in Ukraine. As expected, Russia has targeted Ukraine with cyber attacks first, and much of the West is wondering when Russia will also retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine. Most agree that some attacks are already in progress, and the attacks against western entities are sure to escalate as the war continues and more sanctions are put in place. 

The first wave of companies targeted by the Russian state, and threat actors it supports, will be those that suspend Russian operations or take direct action to support Ukraine. Information operations and subversion against these companies will likely ensue. In the event of Russian cyberwarfare, reviewing the industries, styles, and objectives of their attacks can help organisations to prepare and implement more robust defences. These defences include actions both inside and outside an enterprise's perimeter.

https://www.securityweek.com/defending-your-business-against-russian-cyberwarfare

• 5-Year Vulnerability Trends Are Both Surprising and Sadly Predictable

What 5,800+ pentests show us: Companies have been struggling with the same known and preventable security bugs year over year. Bandwidth stands at the heart of the problem.

Cyber crime can cause major disruption when it comes to the sustainability and long-term success of companies. Teams want to have robust security but often struggle to meet that objective. It's crucial for security professionals to leverage insights into emerging trends in cybersecurity to pinpoint which vulnerabilities put organisations at the greatest risk, and Cobalt's "State of Pentesting" reports explore how to achieve efficiency to strengthen security.

The "State of Pentesting 2022" surveyed 602 cybersecurity and software development professionals and analysed data from 2,380 pentests conducted over the course of 2021 to pull key insights that are relevant to security and development teams when it comes to fixing vulnerabilities.

As a result of the data collected, the top five most common vulnerability categories outlined in this year's "State of Pentesting" report include:

·       Server Security Misconfigurations

·       Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

·       Broken Access Control

·       Sensitive Data Exposure

·       Authentication and Sessions

Surprisingly — yet predictably — these vulnerability categories have stayed at the top of the list for at least the last five years in a row. They're also recognisable to those who are familiar with OWASP Top 10 list for Web Application Security Risks.

The majority of these findings are connected to missing configurations, outdated software, and a lack of access management controls — all common and easily preventable security flaws. So, what's holding companies back from preventing well-known security flaws? Why does this come as a surprise?

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/5-year-vulnerability-trends-are-both-surprising-and-sadly-predictable

• Cisco Talos Observes 'Novel Increase' in APT Activity in Q1

Advanced persistent threat actors have been busy over the past few months, according to Cisco Talos.

The security vendor released its Quarterly Trends report, which examined incident response trends from engagements in the first quarter of 2022. While ransomware remained the top threat, as it has for the past two years now, Cisco observed a new trend of increased APT activity. The Cisco Talos Incident Response (CTIR) team attributed some of the increase to groups like Iranian state-sponsored Muddywater and China-based Mustang Panda.

One suspected Chinese APT, dubbed "Deep Panda," was connected to exploitation of the Log4j flaw that was discovered last year in the widely used Java logging tool. Log4j exploitation was the second most common threat for Q1 behind ransomware, indicating the bug is a growing threat despite a patch being available.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252516380/Cisco-Talos-observes-novel-increase-in-APT-activity-in-Q1

• Deepfakes Set to Be Used in Organised Crime

New research from Europol suggests that deepfakes will be used extensively in organised crime operations.

Europol has warned of a projected rise in the use of deepfake technology by organised crime organisations.

Deepfakes involve the use of artificial intelligence to create realistic audio and audio-visual content “that convincingly shows people saying or doing things they never did, or create personas that never existed in the first place.”

Law enforcement and the challenge of deepfakes is the first published analysis of the Europol Innovation Lab’s Observatory function, warning that law enforcement agencies must rapidly improve skills and technologies utilised by officers in order to keep up with criminal deepfake use.

The analysis report highlighted how deepfakes are used primarily in disinformation, non-consensual pornography and document fraud campaigns, which will grow more realistic in years to come.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/04/29/deepfakes-set-to-be-used-in-organised-crime/

• Smart Contract Developers Not Really Focused on Security. Who Knew?

"Smart contracts," which consist of self-executing code on a blockchain, are not nearly as smart as the label suggests.

They are at least as error-prone as any other software, where historically the error rate has been about one bug per hundred lines of code.

And they may be shoddier still due to disinterest in security among smart contract developers, and perhaps inadequate technical resources.

Multi-million dollar losses attributed to smart contract bugs – around $31m stolen from MonoX via smart contract exploit and ~$34m locked into a contract forever due to bad increment math, to name a few – illustrate the consequences.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/smart_contract_losses/

• Tractor-Trailer Brake Controllers Vulnerable to Remote Hacker Attacks

We’ve been predicting this for a while now and the move to more and more connected systems, autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, how long until someone is subject to threats to disconnect a vehicle’s brakes as they are driving along a motorway? Who wouldn’t pay the ransom demand in that scenario?

A report this week is related to articulated lorries but this is something that will be affecting all vehicles unless safeguards are put in place.

Researchers have analysed the cyber security of heavy vehicles and discovered that the brake controllers found on many tractor-trailers in North America are susceptible to remote hacker attacks.

The research was conducted by the US National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA), which is a non-profit organisation that represents roughly 500 motor freight carriers, in collaboration with Assured Information Security, Inc.

NMFTA has been analysing the cyber security of heavy vehicles since 2015 and it has periodically disclosed its findings. The latest report from the organisation came in early March, when the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also issued an advisory to describe two vulnerabilities affecting trailer brake controllers.

The flaws described in the CISA advisory are related to the power line communications (PLC) between tractors and trailers, specifically the PLC4TRUCKS technology, which uses a standard named J2497 for bidirectional communications between the tractor and trailer without adding new wires.

https://www.securityweek.com/tractor-trailer-brake-controllers-vulnerable-remote-hacker-attacks

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Threats

Ransomware

• Prevent HEAT Attacks to Foil Ransomware Incidents - Help Net Security

• 4-Hour Time-to-Ransom Seen in Quantum Attack as Accelerated Ransomware Increasingly Common | SecurityWeek.Com

• Conti Ransomware Operations Surge Despite Recent Leak - Security Affairs

• Beware: Onyx Ransomware Destroys Files Instead of Encrypting Them (bleepingcomputer.com)

• FBI says BlackCat Rust-Based Ransomware Scratched 60+ Orgs • The Register

• REvil Ransomware Attacks Resume, But Operators Are Unknown (techtarget.com)

• Fake Windows 10 Updates Infect You with Magniber Ransomware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New Black Basta Ransomware Springs into Action with A Dozen Breaches (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Companies Can't Get Enough of Good Ol' Tape Storage For Ransomware Resistance | PC Gamer

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Phishing Goes KISS: Don’t Let Plain and Simple Messages Catch You Out! – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Phishing Attacks Benefiting from Shady SEO Practices (techtarget.com)

• Cyber Criminals Deliver IRS Tax Scams and Phishing Campaigns by Mimicking Government Vendors - Help Net Security

Malware

• Emotet Malware Now Installs Via Powershell in Windows Shortcut Files (bleepingcomputer.com)

• It’s Called BadUSB for a Reason - Security Affairs

• New RIG Exploit Kit Campaign Infecting Victims' PCs with RedLine Stealer (thehackernews.com)

• Emotet Tests New Attack Techniques: Sign of Things to Come? | CSO Online

• Cyber Criminals Using New Malware Loader 'Bumblebee' in the Wild (thehackernews.com)

• New Powerful Prynt Stealer Malware Sells for Just $100 Per Month (bleepingcomputer.com)

Mobile

• These Are Signs That Your Phone Could Be Infected with Malware - PhoneArena

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Interpol: We Can't Arrest Our Way Out of Cyber Crime • The Register

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

• Scammers Are Copying News Sites To Push Elon Musk-themed Crypto Scams - Information Security Buzz

• Why Did Hackers Target DeFi L1, L2 Solutions for a $1.2 Billion Theft in 2022? (watcher.guru)

• Intuit Sued Over Phishing Attack Targeting Trezor Crypto Wallet Users - Decrypt

• Crypto Trading Fund Partners Accused of Fraud - Infosecurity Magazine

• LemonDuck Botnet Evades Detection in Cryptomining Attacks (techtarget.com)

• Bored Ape Yacht Club Instagram Hacked, NFTs Worth Millions Stolen (vice.com)

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Don't Ignore Risks Lurking Within Your Own Network - Help Net Security

AML/CFT

• Two More Indicted Over North Korean Sanctions Evasion Plot - Infosecurity Magazine

• FCA: Challenger Banks Failing to Spot Money Launderers - Infosecurity Magazine

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

• Cloudflare Stomps On 15.3 Million Requests Per Second DDoS • The Register

• How a New Generation of IoT Botnets Is Amplifying DDoS Attacks | CSO Online

• Attackers Remain Persistent and Indiscriminate As Multi-Vector DDoS Attacks Continue To Rise - Help Net Security

• DDoS Attacks Target Healthcare, Education Markets, Research Finds - MSSP Alert

Cloud

• Is Cloud Critical Infrastructure? Prep Now for Provider Outages (techtarget.com)

• Shadow IT Is A Top Concern Related To SaaS Adoption - Help Net Security

• Security Turbulence in the Cloud: Survey Says… | Threatpost

Travel

• Finnish Hotels' Data Compromised - Infosecurity Magazine

Parental Controls and Child Safety

• Hackers Sexually Extort Kids with Stolen Data: Report (gizmodo.com)

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

• The Hybrid War in Ukraine - Microsoft On the Issues

• Data-Wiper Malware Strains Surge Amid Ukraine Invasion • The Register

• Russia Is Being Hacked at an Unprecedented Scale | WIRED

• Chinese Hackers Targeting Russian Military Personnel with Updated PlugX Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Cyber Attacks Rage in Ukraine, Support Military Operations | Threatpost

• Ongoing DDoS Attacks from Compromised Sites Hit Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Anonymous Hacked Russian PSCB Commercial Bank and Energy Firms - Security Affairs

• Russia-Linked Threat Actors Launched Hundreds of Cyber Attacks on Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Russian Hacktivists Launch DDoS Attacks on Romanian Govt Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cyber Espionage APT Now Identified as Three Separate Actors | Threatpost

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Microsoft Documents Over 200 Cyber Attacks by Russia Against Ukraine (thehackernews.com)

• Russian Govt Impersonators Target Telcos in Phishing Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• The Subject of Trusting ‘Russian’ Applications - Information Security Buzz

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Nation-state Hackers Target Journalists with Goldbackdoor Malware | Threatpost

Nation State Actors – Iran

• Iran's Rocket Kitten Likely Behind VMware Exploitation • The Register

Nation State Actors – Misc

• Case Study: Why It's Difficult To Attribute Nation-State Attacks (techtarget.com)

• Experts Detail 3 Hacking Teams Working Under the Umbrella of TA410 Group (thehackernews.com)

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Vulnerability Management

• Five Eyes Nations Reveal 2021's Fifteen Most-Exploited Flaws • The Register

• Experts Warn of A Surge In Zero-Day Flaws Observed And Exploited in 2021 - Security Affairs

• Cyber Criminals are Feasting Over 'Zero-day Hacks' While the World Watches (analyticsinsight.net)

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Vulnerabilities

• CISA Adds 7 Vulnerabilities to List Of Bugs Exploited In Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cisco Patches 11 High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Security Products | SecurityWeek.Com

• Update Now! Critical Patches for Chrome and Edge | Malwarebytes Labs

• Microsoft Patches Pair of Dangerous Vulnerabilities in Azure PostgreSQL (darkreading.com)

• Log4j Attack Surface Remains Massive (darkreading.com)

• Microsoft Discovers New Privilege Escalation Flaws in Linux Operating System (thehackernews.com)

• Millions of Java Apps Remain Vulnerable to Log4Shell | Threatpost

• Organisations Warned of Attacks Exploiting WSO2 Vulnerability | SecurityWeek.Com

• Critical Vulnerabilities Leave Some Network-Attached Storage Devices Open to Attack (darkreading.com)

• Vulnerability Found in WordPress Anti-Malware Firewall (searchenginejournal.com)

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Sector Specific

Financial Services Sector

• Private Investigator Admits Role in Hedge Fund Hack - Infosecurity Magazine

Government

• Governments Under Attack Must Think Defensively - Help Net Security

• Data Breach Disrupts UK Army Recruitment - Infosecurity Magazine

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• French Hospital Group Disconnects Internet After Hackers Steal Data (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Medical Software Firm Fined €1.5M for Leaking Data of 490k Patients (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Data breach at US healthcare provider ARcare impacts 345,000 individuals | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• DDoS Attacks Target Healthcare, Education Markets, Research Finds - MSSP Alert

• Smile Brands Breach Impacts 2.5 Million Individuals - Infosecurity Magazine

CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• Why Is It So Easy To Break Into The Systems That Run The World’s Most Critical, Expert Weighs In - Information Security Buzz

• Chickens Baked Alive Due to Computer Glitch - Infosecurity Magazine

Education and Academia

• Universities Lose Over £2m to Ransomware - IT Security Guru

• DDoS Attacks Target Healthcare, Education Markets, Research Finds - MSSP Alert

Gaming/Gambling

• New APT Group Earth Berberoka Targets Gambling Websites With Old and New Malware (trendmicro.com)

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• Cisco Talos Intelligence Group - Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Quarterly Report: Incident Response trends in Q1 2022

• Internet Security Report - Q4 2021 | WatchGuard Technologies

• State of Pentesting Report 2022 | Cobalt

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Other News

• SolarWinds Breach Lawsuits: 6 Takeaways for CISOs | CSO Online

• 41% Of Businesses Had an API Security Incident Last Year - Help Net Security

• Security Leaders Relying More Heavily on MSPs Amid Talent Crunch - Help Net Security

• 2022 Security Priorities: Staffing and Remote Work (darkreading.com)

• GitHub: How Stolen OAuth Tokens Helped Breach Dozens of Orgs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Why Companies Should Focus on Preventing Privilege Escalation (techtarget.com)

• German Wind Turbine Firm Hit by 'Targeted, Professional Cyber Attack' | SecurityWeek.Com

• 308,000 Exposed Databases Discovered, Proper Management Is Key - Help Net Security

• Lapsus$ targeting SharePoint, VPNs and virtual machines (techtarget.com)

• Indian Govt Orders Organisations to Report Security Breaches Within 6 Hours to CERT-In (thehackernews.com)

• Top Five Post-Pandemic Priorities for Cyber Security Leaders - Help Net Security

• Security Spending Set to Hit $198bn by 2025 - Infosecurity Magazine

• Companies Poorly Prepared to Meet CCPA, CPRA and GDPR Compliance Requirements - Help Net Security

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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.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 December 2020

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

Top Cyber Headlines of the Week

The great hack attack: SolarWinds breach exposes big gaps in cyber security

Until this week, SolarWinds was a little known IT software group from Texas. Its deserted lobby has a framed magazine article from a few years ago when it was on a list of America’s “Best Small Companies”.

Now the Austin-based company is at the heart of one of the biggest and most startling cyber hacks in recent history, with ramifications that extend into the fields of geopolitics, espionage and national security.

For nine months, sophisticated state-backed hackers have exploited a ubiquitous SolarWinds software product in order to spy on government and business networks around the world, including in the US, UK, Israel and Canada. Wielding innovative tools and tradecraft, the cyber spies lurked in email services, and posed as legitimate staffers to tap confidential information stored in the cloud.

The bombshell revelations have sent 18,000 exposed SolarWinds customers scrambling to assess whether outsiders did indeed enter their systems, what the damage was and how to fix it.

https://www.ft.com/content/c13dbb51-907b-4db7-8347-30921ef931c2

A wake-up for the world on cyber security

Imagine intruders break into your home and loiter undetected for months, spying on you and deciding which contents to steal. This in essence is the kind of access that hackers, assumed to be Russian, achieved in recent months at US government institutions including the Treasury and departments of commerce and homeland security, and potentially many US companies. If the fear in the Cold War was of occasional “moles” gaining access to secrets, this is akin to a small army of moles burrowing through computer systems. The impact is still being assessed, but it marks one of the biggest security breaches of the digital era.

https://www.ft.com/content/d3fc0b14-4a82-4671-b023-078516ea714e

US government, thousands of businesses now thought to have been affected by SolarWinds security attack

Thousands of businesses and several branches of the US government are now thought to have been affected by the attack on software firm SolarWinds.

The Austin-based company has fallen victim to a massive supply chain attack believed to be the work of state-sponsored hackers.

Along with the US treasury and commerce departments, the Department of Homeland Security is now thought to have been affected by the attack. In a statement to the SEC today, SolarWinds said it had notified 33,000 customers of its recent hack, but that only 18,000 of these used the affected version of its Orion platform.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/solarwinds-suffers-massive-supply-chain-attack

White House activates cyber emergency response under Obama-era directive

In the wake of the SolarWinds breach, the National Security Council has activated an emergency cyber security process that is intended to help the government plan its response and recovery efforts, according to White House officials and other sources.

The move is a sign of just how seriously the Trump administration is taking the foreign espionage operation, former NSC officials told CyberScoop.

The action is rooted in a presidential directive issued during the Obama administration known as PPD-41, which establishes a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) that is intended to help the U.S. government coordinate multiple agencies’ responses to the significant hacking incident.

The UCG is generally led by the Department of Justice — through the FBI and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force — as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security.

https://www.cyberscoop.com/solarwinds-white-house-national-security-council-emergency-meetings/

Hackers targeted US nuclear weapons agency in massive cyber security breach, reports say

The National Nuclear Security Administration and Energy Department, which safeguard the US stockpile of nuclear weapons, have had their networks hacked as part of the widespread cyber espionage attack on a number of federal agencies.

Politico reports that officials have begun coordinating notifications about the security breach to the relevant congressional oversight bodies.

Suspicious activity was identified in the networks of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation, and the Richland Field Office of the Department of Energy.

Officials with direct knowledge of the matter said hackers have been able to do more damage to the network at FERC, according to the report.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/hackers-nuclear-weapons-cybersecurity-b1775864.html

Microsoft warns UK companies were targeted by SolarWinds hackers

Microsoft has warned that some of its UK customers have been exposed to the malware used in the Russia-linked SolarWinds hack that targeted US states and government agencies.

More than 40 of the tech giant's customers are thought to have used breached SolarWinds software, including clients in Britain, the US, Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, Israel, and the UAE.

The company would not name the victims, but said they include government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organisations and IT firms. Microsoft said four in five were in the US, with nearly half of them tech companies.

“This is not ‘espionage as usual,’ even in the digital age,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president. “Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world.”

The attackers, believed to be working for the Russian government, got into computer networks by installing a vulnerability in Orion software from SolarWinds.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/12/18/microsoft-warns-uk-companies-targeted-solarwinds-hackers/

Society at Increasingly High Risk of Cyber Attacks

Cyber attacks are becoming easier to conduct while conversely security is getting increasingly difficult, according to Kevin Curran, senior IEEE member and professor of cyber security, Ulster University, during a virtual media roundtable.

“Any company you can think of has had a data breach,” he commented. “Whenever a data breach happens it weakens our credentials because our passwords are often reused on different websites.”

He observed that the art of hacking doesn’t necessarily require a significant amount of technical expertise anymore, and bad actors can receive substantial help from numerous and readily accessible tools online. “You don’t have to spend seven years in college to learn how to hack, you just have to know about these sites and what terms to use,” noted Curran.

A number of legitimate online mechanisms that can help damaging attacks to be launched by hackers were highlighted by Curran in his presentation. These include Google Dorks, which are “search strings which point to website vulnerabilities.” This means vulnerable accounts can be identified simply via Google searches.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/society-increasingly-risk-cyber/

Three million users installed 28 malicious Chrome or Edge extensions

More than three million internet users are believed to have installed 15 Chrome, and 13 Edge extensions that contain malicious code, security firm Avast said today.

The 28 extensions contained code that could perform several malicious operations, including:

-redirect user traffic to ads

-redirect user traffic to phishing sites

-collect personal data, such as birth dates, email addresses, and active devices

-collect browsing history

-download further malware onto a user's device

But despite the presence of code to power all the above malicious features, Avast researchers said they believe the primary objective of this campaign was to hijack user traffic for monetary gains.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/three-million-users-installed-28-malicious-chrome-or-edge-extensions/

Vaccines for sale on dark web as criminals target pandemic profits

Black market vendors were offering coronavirus vaccines for sale on hidden parts of the internet days after the first Covid-19 shot was approved this month, as criminals seek to profit from global demand for inoculations.

One such offer on the so-called dark web, traced by cyber security company Check Point Software, was priced at $250 with the seller promising “stealth” delivery in double-wrapped packaging. Shipping from the US via post or a leading courier company would cost $20, with an extra $5 securing overnight delivery.

https://www.ft.com/content/8bfc674e-efe6-4ee0-b860-7fcb5716bed6

Threats

Ransomware

• FBI says DoppelPaymer ransomware gang is harassing victims who refuse to pay

• House purchases in Hackney fall through following cyber attack against council

• Ransomware masterminds claim to have nabbed 53GB of data from Intel's Habana LabsRansomware masterminds claim to have nabbed 53GB of data from Intel's Habana Labs

• Mount Locker Ransomware Offering Double Extortion Scheme to Other Hackers

• PLEASE_READ_ME Ransomware Attacks 85K MySQL Servers

• Ransomware operators use SystemBC RAT as off-the-shelf Tor backdoor

Phishing

• Subway Sandwich Loyalty-Card Users Suffer Ham-Handed Phishing Scam

• Microsoft Office 365 Credentials Under Attack By Fax ‘Alert’ Emails

IoT

• Millions of Unpatched IoT, OT Devices Threaten Critical Infrastructure

Malware

• New iOS and Android spyware responsible for multi-layered sextortion campaign

• Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge hijacked by massive malware attack: What you need to know

• New Windows malware may soon target Linux, macOS devices

• This nasty malware is infecting every web browser — what to do now

• Tor malware is becoming a worryingly popular ransomware tool

Vulnerabilities

• Total Published CVEs Hits Record High for Fourth Year

• Israeli Phone-hacking Firm Claims It Can Now Break Into Encrypted Signal App

• F5 warns over ‘critical’ XSS flaw in BIG-IP

• PgMiner botnet exploits disputed CVE to hack unsecured PostgreSQL DBs

• Zero-day in WordPress SMTP plugin abused to reset admin account passwords

• Sophos fixes SQL injection vulnerability in their Cyberoam OS

• Wormable code-execution flaw in Cisco Jabber has a severity rating of 9.9 out of 10

• HPE discloses critical zero-day in Systems Insight Manager

Data Breaches

• Twitter hit with €450,000 GDPR fine nearly two years after disclosing data breach

• Data Leak Exposes Details of Two Million Chinese Communist Party Members

• Spotify Changes Passwords After Another Data Breach

• Massive Instagram 'click farm' found following data breach

• Tech unicorn UiPath discloses data breach

• People's Energy data breach affects all 270,000 customers

Organised Crime

• Lithuania Suffers "Most Complex" Cyber-attack in Years

Nation State Actors

• Enough is enough. Here’s what we should do to defend against the next Russian cyber attacks.

• Facebook Shutters Accounts Used in APT32 Cyber attacks

Privacy

• UK police unlawfully processing over a million people’s data on Microsoft 365

• Sci-fi surveillance: Europe's secretive push into biometric technology

Other News

• Analysis of 5G Network Security Reveals Attack Possibilities

Reports Published in the Last Week

• ENISA Threat Landscape for 5G Networks Report

• ENISA AI Threat Landscape Report Unveils Major Cyber Security Challenges

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