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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 March 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 29 March 2024:

-Only 3% of Organisations Globally are Fully Prepared for Cyber Threats

-China Cyber Attacks a Reminder Beijing Poses ‘Constant and Sophisticated’ Threat to Western Cyber Security

-Companies With Advanced Cyber Security Performance Deliver Nearly Four Times’ Higher Shareholder Return Than Their Peers

-Hackers Hit High-Risk Individuals’ Personal Accounts

-Cyber Security Threats in International Relations: Are We Prepared for a Digital Pearl Harbour?

-High Net Worths Urged to Improve Digital Hygiene in Fight Against Cyber Crime

-Key Lessons from Microsoft’s Password Spray Hack: Secure Every Account

-Mitigating Third-Party Risk Requires a Collaborative, Thorough Approach

-IT Leaders Struggle to Keep up With Emerging Threats, as 92% of IT Leaders Say Cyber Threats Are on the Rise, 51% See AI Attacks for the First Time

-Only 5% of Boards Have Cyber Security Expertise

-Google’s New AI Search Results Promotes Sites Pushing Malware and Scams

-Report Calls Out Cyber Risks to Financial Sector Fuelled by AI

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

Only 3% of Organisations Globally are Fully Prepared for Cyber Threats

A new report released by Cisco found that only 3% of organisations globally are considered to be at a “mature” level of readiness that is needed to be resilient against today’s cyber threats. In contrast, 80% of the companies surveyed felt moderately to very confident in their ability to defend against a threat.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents expect a cyber incident to disrupt their business in the next 12 to 24 months. For many, this was based on past experience, with more than half of respondents saying that they had experienced a cyber security incident in the last 12 months, and of those, more than half of said it cost them at least $300,000. To address this, 97% of companies expect to increase their cyber security budgets in the next 12 months.

Sources: [PR Newswire] [SiliconANGLE]

China Cyber Attacks a Reminder Beijing Poses ‘Constant and Sophisticated’ Threat to Western Cyber Security

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has now implicated a Chinese-backed hacking group, APT31, in attempts to target a group of MPs. Whilst this shows how advanced the threat from China has become, it should not be a surprise. It has been alleged that the hacking campaign targeted a broad swathe of private individuals, as well as strategically important companies and government officials. Geopolitical tensions are at an all-time high, as Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, one of those targeted by the campaign says, “we must now enter a new era of relations with China, dealing with the contemporary Chinese Communist party as it really is, not as we would wish it to be.”

Sources: [Sky News] [GovInfoSecurity] [The Guardian]

Companies With Advanced Cyber Security Performance Deliver Nearly Four Times’ Higher Shareholder Return Than Their Peers

A recent report underscores the pivotal role of cyber security in financial performance, revealing that companies with genuinely advanced levels of cyber security maturity generate a 372% higher shareholder return compared to those with lower levels of maturity, as observed over a five-year period. Notably, companies with engaged board members and specialised risk committees achieve superior cyber security performance. Despite regulatory requirements, only 3% of UK organisations have a cyber security expert on their board, emphasising the need for greater board-level engagement in cyber risk management. Industries like healthcare and financial services lead in cyber security ratings, underscoring the correlation between regulatory environments and cyber security performance.

Source: [Business Wire] [Computer Weekly]

Hackers Hit High-Risk Individuals’ Personal Accounts

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is warning that attackers faced with well-managed corporate cyber security defences, are instead turning their efforts to compromise high-risk individuals’ devices and accounts.

A high-risk individual is anyone who has access to or influence over sensitive information. For an attacker, these individuals can present a less complex route. They already know the individual has access to the data they want, it is just a case of compromising that individual.

Source: [Gov Info Security]

Cyber Security Threats in International Relations: Are We Prepared for a Digital Pearl Harbour?

Cyber security threats have reached unprecedented levels, posing significant risks to organisations and nations worldwide, with global costs predicted to soar to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, a significant increase from $6 trillion in 2021. Recent reports from IBM Security X-Force reveal that organisations face an average of 270 cyber attacks per year, equivalent to an attack every business day, underlining the persistent nature of the threat and reinforcing the old question of ‘when’ not 'if' an organisation will get hit.

The report warns of the possibility of large-scale, coordinated attacks, akin to a “Digital Pearl Harbor,” on vital infrastructure such as power grids and financial markets, with ransomware-based attacks being identified as a major risk. The emergence of cyber warfare blurs the distinction between espionage and acts of war, underscoring the need for international standards and agreements. Despite the focus on cyber threats, many organisations have risk management gaps.

Source: [Eurasia Review]

High Net Worths Urged to Improve Digital Hygiene in Fight Against Cyber Crime

High net worth individuals and their families are often targets for cyber criminals who seek to steal their money, identity, intellectual property and corporate data, and attacks are increasing. With the current state of the world, there is significant information that is publicly available. This, added to the fact that many high-net-worth individuals have lesser security controls than corporations, makes them a more lucrative target.

As these types of attacks continue to increase, it is important for individuals to ensure they are demonstrating good cyber hygiene through actions including the adoption of multi-factor authentication, limiting unnecessary social media from themselves and their family (including holidays) and understanding current tactics to be able to spot and mitigate them.

Source: [Financial Times]

Key Lessons from Microsoft’s Password Spray Hack: Secure Every Account

Earlier this year, Microsoft discovered they had been the victim of a hack orchestrated by Russian-state hackers. The attack was not highly sophisticated; in fact, it involved simply spraying passwords into an old, inactive account. Password spraying is a simple brute force technique, which has the attacker trying the same password against multiple accounts. In this case, it was enough to be able to allow attackers to commit further exfiltration.

Picture your organisation: can you guarantee that no account is using the password “Password123”? Whilst organisations may focus on protecting privileged accounts, the attack shows that every account needs to be secured, as they are all entry points to your organisation. To combat this, organisations should look to implement robust password policies and multi-factor authentication.

Source: [The Hacker News]

Mitigating Third-Party Risk Requires a Collaborative, Thorough Approach

Mitigating third-party risk may seem daunting when considering the slew of incoming regulations coupled with the increasingly advanced tactics of cyber criminals. However, most organisations have more agency and flexibility than they think they do. Third-party risk management can be built on top of existing risk governance practices and security controls that are currently implemented in the organisation. Understanding the vendor landscape, categorising vendors based on criticality, and developing tailored governance plans are crucial steps. Contractual obligations, tailored to industry standards, play a pivotal role in ensuring security measures are upheld. Additionally, establishing a robust exit strategy is imperative to safeguard data integrity post-partnership. By fostering a culture of shared responsibility and continuous improvement, organisations can navigate the complexities of third-party risk management effectively.

Source: [Dark Reading]

IT Leaders Struggle to Keep up With Emerging Threats, as 92% of IT Leaders Say Cyber Threats Are on the Rise, 51% See AI Attacks for the First Time

A recent survey of over 800 IT and security leaders highlights the escalating threat landscape fuelled by emerging technologies, with AI-powered attacks identified as the most serious and challenging. 92% of respondents report a year-over-year increase in cyber attacks with 95% noting heightened sophistication.

Organisations reported facing AI-powered attacks (51%), deepfake technology and supply chain attacks (both 36%), cloud jacking (35%), Internet of Things (IoT) attacks and 5G network exploits (both 34%), and fileless attacks (24%). But it is not just newer attacks; organisations are still contending with prevalent attacks like phishing, malware, and ransomware. The survey found that 84% of respondents say that phishing and smishing have become more difficult to detect with the rise in popularity of AI-powered tools, revealing that AI-powered phishing is their top concern (42%) when it comes to AI security.

With so many constantly evolving threats, and with new ones being added to the mix all the time, it is becoming more and more difficult for IT leaders to keep on top of these emerging threats.

Source: [Beta News] [The Fast Mode]

Only 5% of Boards Have Cyber Security Expertise

There is a concerning gap in cyber expertise on corporate boards, with only 5% of businesses having a cyber expert onboard, despite a direct correlation between strong cyber security and higher financial performance. Countries like France have 10% representation while Canada lags behind at just 1%. Integration of cyber experts into specialised risk committees significantly boosts cyber security performance. Furthermore, advanced security ratings translate to significantly better financial returns over three and five-year periods, underlining the pivotal role of cyber security in overall business health.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

Google’s New AI Search Results Promotes Sites Pushing Malware and Scams

Earlier this month, Google began rolling out a feature called Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) in its search results, which provides AI-generated quick summaries, including site recommendations. These results, however, are pushing scams and malware. BleepingComputer found that the listed sites promoted by SGE tend to use the .online top level domain, the same HTML templates, and the same sites to perform redirects, stating “This similarity indicates that they are all part of the same SEO [search engine optimisation] poisoning campaign that allowed them to be part of the Google index.” When clicking on the site in the Google search results, visitors will go through a series of redirects until they reach a scam site. This matter highlights the need for users to stay cognisant, even when using AI to improve quality of life.

Source: [Bleeping Computer]

Report Calls Out Cyber Risks to Financial Sector Fuelled by AI

A recent report by the US Department of the Treasury has identified AI-driven cyber fraud as the primary concern for financial institutions. Smaller firms, in particular, struggle with AI development, which intensifies security concerns. Despite a focus on cyber security, risk management lapses are common across institutions. The report further notes that nearly a third of these institutions are yet to address the evolving tactics of threat actors, including social engineering, malvertising, and QR code phishing. More than 2 in 5 have pointed to the increasing use of generative AI for scaling and automating attacks as a lingering risk factor. The report emphasises that, even without mandates, there’s an urgent need for financial institutions to bolster their risk management and cyber security practices to counter these AI-driven threats.

Source: [CyberScoop]

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

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

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

Nation State Actors

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Reports Published in the Last Week

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 10 February 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 February 2023:

-Companies Banned from Paying Hackers After Attacks on Royal Mail and Guardian

-Fraud Set to Be Upgraded as a Threat to National Security

-98% of Attacks are Not Reported by Employees to their Employers

-UK Second Most Targeted Nation Behind America for Ransomware

-Financial Institutions are Suffering from Increasingly Sophisticated Cyber Attacks

-An Email Attack Can End Up Costing You Over $1 Million

-Cyber Crime Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

-Surge of Swatting Attacks Targets Corporate Executive and Board Members

-Phishing Surges Ahead, as ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence Loom

-Pro-Russian Hacktivist Group is Only Getting Started, Experts Warn

-Crypto Investors Lost Nearly $4 Billion to Hackers in 2022

-PayPal and Twitter Abused in Turkey Relief Donation Scams

-Mysterious Leak of Booking.com Reservation Data is Being Used to Scam Customers

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 Companies Banned from Paying Ransomware Hackers After Attacks on Royal Mail and Guardian

British companies have been banned from paying ransomware hackers after a spate of attacks on businesses including Royal Mail and the Guardian newspaper.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday unveiled sanctions on seven Russian hackers linked to a gang called Conti, effectively banning any payments to the group.

Thursday’s sanctions are the first of their kind to be specifically targeted against Russian ransomware gang members.

The actions follow a spate of high-profile attacks on businesses and amid warnings from GCHQ that Russian and Iranian hackers are stepping up actions in Britain.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/09/companies-banned-paying-hackers-attacks-royal-mail-guardian/

  • Fraud Set to Be Upgraded as a Threat to National Security

Fraud is to be reclassified as a threat to national security under UK government plans that will force police chiefs to devote more officers to solving the crime.

It will be elevated to the same status as terrorism, with chief constables mandated to increase resources and combine capabilities in a new effort to combat a fraud epidemic that now accounts for 30 per cent of all crime.

It will be added to the strategic policing requirement, which means that forces will be required by ministers to treat fraud as a major priority alongside not only terrorism, but also public disorder, civil emergencies, serious and organised crime, cyber attacks and child sexual abuse.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/04/fraud-set-upgraded-threat-national-security/

  • 98% of Attacks are Not Reported by Employees to their Employers

Cyber attackers are increasingly using social engineering tactics to lure employees into opening malicious emails in an attempt to trick them into providing login credentials, updating bank account information and paying fraudulent invoices. Worryingly, research conducted by security provider Abnormal has found that 98% of attacks on organisations are not reported to the organisation’s security team. In addition to this, the report found that the volume of business email compromise attacks are spiking, growing by 175% over the past two years. The report also found that nearly two-thirds of large enterprises experiencing a supply chain compromise attack in the second half of 2022.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/employees-fail-to-report-98-of-email-cyber-hacks-to-security-teams-study-finds/

  • UK Second Most Targeted Nation Behind America for Ransomware

Security research team Kraken Labs released their report earlier this week, which found that of the 101 different countries that registered victims of ransomware, the UK had registered the second highest number of victims behind the US. Currently, there are over 60 ransomware groups, with the top 3 accounting for a third of all ransomware attacks.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2023/02/07/uk-second-most-targeted-nation-behind-america-for-ransomware/

  • Financial Institutions are Suffering from Increasingly Sophisticated Cyber Attacks

This week security provider Contrast Security released its Cyber Bank Heists report, an annual report that exposes cyber security threats facing the financial sector. The report warns financial institutions that security must be a top-of-mind issue amid rising geopolitical tensions, increased destructive attacks utilising wipers and a record-breaking year of zero-day exploits. The report involved a series of interviews with financial sector security leaders and found some notable results. Some of the results include 64% of leaders seeing an increase in application attacks, 72% of respondents planning to increase investment in application security in 2023, 60% of respondents falling victim to destructive attacks and 50% of organisations detecting campaigns which aimed to steal non-public market information.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/financial-institutions-are-suffering-from-increasingly-sophisticated-cyberattacks-according-to-contrast-security

  • An Email Attack Can End Up Costing You Over $1 Million

According to a report by security provider Barracuda Network, 75% of organisations had fallen victim to at least one successful email attack in the last 12 months, with those affected facing potential costs of over $1 million for their most expensive attack. The fallout from an email security attack can be significant, with the report finding 44% of those hit had faced significant downtime and business disruption. Additionally financial services greatly impacted by the loss of valuable data (59%) and payments made to attackers (51%). When it came to organisations preparation, 30% felt underprepared when dealing with account takeover and 28% felt unprepared for dealing with business email compromise.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/02/10/email-attack-damage-1-million/

  • Cyber Crime Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

Global risks from population pressures and climate change to political conflicts and industrial supply chain challenges characterised 2022. Cyber criminals used this turmoil to exploit these trending topics, including significant events, public affairs, social causes, and anywhere else opportunity appeared. According to security researchers at Zscaler TheatLabz, 2023 will see a rise in Crime-as-a-service (CaaS), supply chains will be bigger targets than ever, there will be a greater need for defence in depth as endpoint protection will not be enough and finally, there will be a decrease in the time between initial compromise and the final stage of an attack.

https://www.darkreading.com/zscaler/cybercrime-shows-no-signs-of-slowing-down

  • Surge of Swatting Attacks Targets Corporate Executive and Board Members

Swatting is the act of deceiving an emergency service with the purpose of the service then sending an emergency response, often armed, to a targeted persons address. Security provider Black Cloak has found that swatting incidents are now beginning to target C-suite executives and corporate board members, with the number of incidents increasing over the last few months. Malicious actors are using information from the dark web, company websites and property records to construct their swatting attacks.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3687177/surge-of-swatting-attacks-targets-corporate-executives-and-board-members.html#tk.rss_news

  • Phishing Surges Ahead, as ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence Loom

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making it easier for threat actors to create sophisticated and malicious email campaigns. In their report, security provider Vade found that Q4 of 2022 saw a 36% volume increase in phishing campaigns compared to the previous quarter, with over 278.3 million unique phishing emails in that period. The researchers found in particular, new AI tools such as ChatGPT had made it easy for anyone, including those with limited skills, to conduct a sophisticated phishing campaign. Furthermore, the ability of ChatGPT to tailor phishing to different languages is an area for concern.

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/bolstered-chatgpt-tools-phishing-surged-ahead

  • Pro-Russian Hacktivist Group is Only Getting Started, Experts Warn

A pro-Russian hacktivist group's low-level distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on US critical infrastructure could be a precursor to more serious cyber attacks, health care and security officials warned this week. A DDoS attack involves overwhelming a targeted service, service or network with traffic in an attempt to disrupt it. Earlier this week Killnet, a politically motivated Russian hacking group, overloaded and took down some US healthcare organisations. The attack came after threatening western healthcare organisations for the continued NATO support of Ukraine.

https://www.axios.com/2023/02/03/killnet-russian-hackers-attacks

  • Crypto Investors Lost Nearly $4 Billion to Hackers in 2022

Last year marked the worst year on record for cryptocurrency hacks, according to analytic firm Chainalysis’ latest report. According to the report, hackers stole $3.8 billion in 2022, up from $3.3 billion the previous year. De-centralised finance products, which are products that have no requirement for an intermediary or middle-man accounted for about 82% of all crypto stolen.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/04/crypto-investors-lost-nearly-4-billion-dollars-to-hackers-in-2022.html

  • PayPal and Twitter Abused in Turkey Relief Donation Scams

Scammers are now exploiting the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Turkey and Syria. This time, stealing donations by abusing legitimate platforms such as PayPal and Twitter. It has been identified that multiple scams are running which call for fundraising, linking the victim to a legitimate PayPal site. The money however, is kept by the scammer.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/paypal-and-twitter-abused-in-turkey-relief-donation-scams/

  • Mysterious Leak of Booking.com Reservation Data is Being Used to Scam Customers

For almost 5 years, Booking.com customers have been on the receiving end of a continuous series of scams that demonstrate criminals have obtained travel plans amongst other personally identifiable information that were provided to Booking.com. The scams have involved users receiving fake emails purporting to be from Booking.com with genuine travel details that victims had provided. These emails contain links to malicious URL’s that look nearly identical to the Booking.com website. These then display the victim’s expected travel information, requiring them to input their card details. Some of the scams have developed and involve scammers sending WhatsApp messages after payment has been made, purporting to be from hotels which have been booked by the victims.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/mysterious-leak-of-booking-com-reservation-data-is-being-used-to-scam-customers/

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

BEC – Business Email Compromise

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

Impersonation Attacks

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Hybrid/Remote Working

Identity and Access Management

Encryption

API

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Biometrics

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Artificial Intelligence

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.

Read More