Threat Intelligence Blog

Contact us to discuss any insights from our Blog, and how we can support you in a tailored threat intelligence report.

Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

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.

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 December 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 01 December 2023:

-Law Firms Face Surge in Targeted Attacks as Hundreds Impacted by Single Attack

-Approach Cyber Security Awareness Training by Engaging People at All Levels

-Board Support Remains Critical as Majority of CISOs Experience Repeat Cyber Attacks

-Ransomware Attacks Surge 81% in October as New Threat Actors Emerge

-Hacked Microsoft Word Documents Being Used to Trick Windows Users

-Mitigating Deepfake Threats in The Corporate World

-Black Basta Ransomware Made Over $100 Million From Extortion Alone

-Long Recovery Times After Cyber Attacks Could Annihilate Your Organisation

-Booking.com Customers Scammed in Novel Social Engineering Campaign

-Stop Panic Buying Your Security Products and Start Prioritising

-A Fifth of UK SMBs Unable to Spot Scams

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

Top Strategic Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Law Firms Face Surge in Targeted Attacks as Hundreds Impacted by Single Attack

An estimated 80 to 200 law firms across the UK were impacted by a cyber attack on a third party firm in their supply chain. The attack was on managed service supplier CTS, who provide services to hundreds of law firms across the UK, especially those with conveyancing departments, and many property sales were impacted nationwide as a result of the attack.

This is against a sharp increase in the number of law firms being singled out by cyber threat actors; only recently, magic circle firm Allen & Overy confirmed themselves as a victim of ransomware.

Sources: [SC Media] [Lawyer Monthly] [Scottish Legal News] [Law Gazette] [Dark Reading]

Approach Cyber Security Awareness Training by Engaging People at All Levels

In the cyber security landscape, human-related factors like social engineering, compromised credentials, and errors are the top causes of breaches. Increased investment in threat detection doesn't guarantee foolproof security. Organisations need a proactive strategy focusing on human risks, a security mindset in employees, and a security culture. According to IBM’s latest data security report, high levels of security training can significantly reduce the impact, cost, and frequency of data breaches.

However, most employee training programmes fail due to staff resistance and lack of management support. The key is convincing leadership of its value. To achieve a successful and impactful security awareness programme, it is important that security teams understand their audiences (leaders, managers, and employees), address their requirements, and effectively communicate the benefits of security training.

Source: [CPO Magazine]

Board Support Remains Critical as Majority of CISOs Experience Repeat Cyber Attacks

A recent report found that despite 95% of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) receiving budgetary and other support from their organisation after a cyber attack, this largely fails to prevent future incidents, with over half admitting they have experienced multiple “major cyber security incidents” in the last five years.

The report revealed that after an attack 46% of CISOs were given a bigger tech budget, 42% revised their security strategy, 41% adopted new frameworks, and 38% created new roles. However, incidents come with hidden consequences such as revenue loss, rising insurance premiums and declining reputation. CISOs need to have support from the board and executives from the start so that investments can be made in the right technology, processes, and tools. In doing so, a culture of security and vigilance can be instilled from the top down to help protect organisations against evolving threats.

Sources: [Business Wire] [Silicon UK]

Ransomware Attacks Surge 81% in October as New Threat Actors Emerge

The NCC Group revealed that ransomware attacks have surged by 81% in October 2023, compared to the same period in the previous year. Ransomware gangs have already victimised over 50% more individuals and enterprises in 2023 than during the entirety of 2022. As artificial intelligence, phishing kits and ransomware-as-a-service has improved, so too has the number of threat actors; those who were previously stunted by their technical know-how are now able to gain access to sophisticated attacks.

Source: [Security Brief]

Hacked Microsoft Word Documents Being Used to Trick Windows Users

Active campaigns carried out by cyber criminals are again using macros within Word documents to deploy malware, in spite of Microsoft’s efforts to stop these types of attacks. Most of the time the actor delivers the Word document via phishing emails, with the aim of convincing the user to click and run the macro. Once run, the malware has then achieved its goal of establishing itself on the victims’ machine and executing its malicious payload.

Source: [TechRadar]

Mitigating Deepfake Threats in The Corporate World

Deepfakes are synthetic media that are created or manipulated with the desired outcome of convincing the recipient of their legitimacy; and it’s entering the corporate world. Deepfake technology has already been used to impersonate Presidents and financial experts, however there has been an uprise in the number of these attacks. This has left the corporate world questioning existing operational procedures such as callbacks and how they will need to adjust to encompass the changing landscape.

Some of the ways a corporation can mitigate this, is to promote awareness within the workplace, adjust operational procedures to reflect the current landscape, and utilise advanced detection tools.

Source: [MSSP Alert]

Black Basta Ransomware Made Over $100 Million From Extortion Alone

The cyber crime operator “Black Basta” has raked in at least $100 million in ransom payments from more than 90 victims since it first surfaced in April 2022. In total, 329 victims worldwide were targeted and research has estimated that at least 35% paid a ransom, with multiple payments over $1 million. Black Basta uses double extortion techniques, where data is both ransomed and exfiltrated. This way, victims are forced to pay to get their data back and not have it published online; the latter itself can lead to regulatory fines.

Source: [Bleeping Computer]

Long Recovery Times After Cyber Attacks Could Annihilate Your Organisation

In the evolving cyber security landscape, organisations are increasingly investing in detection and prevention measures. However, there's a growing trend of neglecting post-attack recovery. While advanced security tools and technologies are crucial, recent ransomware incidents have shown that recovery is equally vital. Organisations have faced substantial downtime and financial losses due to attacks. Cyber resilience, the ability to bounce back quickly after an attack, is crucial, especially with the rise of remote work.

Budgets often prioritise prevention, leaving organisations ill-prepared for recovery. In 2023, a significant number of companies paid ransoms to regain data. To achieve true cyber resilience, a rebalance in approach is essential, focusing on preparation, response, and recovery alongside detection and prevention, ensuring rapid recovery and safeguarding of valuable assets.

Source: [TechRadar]

Booking.com Customers Scammed in Novel Social Engineering Campaign

According to new research by SecureWorks, Booking.com customers are being targeted by a novel social engineering campaign that is “paying serious dividends” for cyber criminals. Researchers believe the campaign has gone on for at least a year and it begins by deploying the Vidar infostealer to gain access partner hotels’ Booking.com credentials. This information is then used to send phishing emails to Booking.com customers and trick them into handing over their payment details, in many cases leading to money being stolen. The scam is proving so fruitful that sales of Booking.com portal credentials are commanding sale prices of up to $2,000 in two cyber crime forums.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

Stop Panic Buying Your Security Products and Start Prioritising

In the cyber security landscape, impulse buying can lead to costly mistakes. Breaches are now more expensive than ever, underscoring the need to assess cyber security investments. Fear-driven tactics and the quest for a "silver bullet" solution can push organisations, especially smaller ones, into impulsive investments. These decisions may introduce even more risk by failing to integrate with existing systems, or buying systems but failing to configure them properly or utilising them to the fullest extent, leading to a false sense of security. The consequences can be severe, with breaches now costing organisations millions. To navigate this landscape, organisations must assess the real value of cyber security investments. Calculating risk by evaluating likelihood and impact can guide us in making informed decisions. Instead of impulse buying, assign a monetary value to cyber risks for strategic budget decisions in these economic times, ensuring investments align with security and business goals.

Source: [Help Net Security]

A Fifth of UK SMBs Unable to Spot Scams

New data from UK Finance reveals that 17% of UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) struggle to identify online fraud and scam indicators. This is particularly alarming given the rise in authorised push payment (APP) scams in the UK, where fraudsters impersonate trusted entities to deceive victims into transferring money to controlled accounts. In the first half of 2023 alone, criminals stole a reported £42.6 million through such scams, with total losses including consumer impacts reaching £239 million. SMBs are increasingly targeted due to typically fewer anti-fraud and other countermeasures and controls, compared to larger and better protected larger firms. It is important for SMBs to be vigilant and verify payment details directly with suppliers to help avoid these types of scams.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]



Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Artificial Intelligence

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insurance

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud/SaaS

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

Nation State Actors

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea

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



Tools and Controls




Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·         Automotive

·         Construction

·         Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·         Defence & Space

·         Education & Academia

·         Energy & Utilities

·         Estate Agencies

·         Financial Services

·         FinTech

·         Food & Agriculture

·         Gaming & Gambling

·         Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·         Health/Medical/Pharma

·         Hotels & Hospitality

·         Insurance

·         Legal

·         Manufacturing

·         Maritime

·         Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·         Retail & eCommerce

·         Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·         Startups

·         Telecoms

·         Third Sector & Charities

·         Transport & Aviation

·         Web3


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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 27 October 2023

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 27 October 2023:

-More Companies Adopt Board-Level Cyber Security Committees

-Ransomware Attacks Rise by More Than 95% Over 2022, to All Time High

-Security Still Not a Priority for a Third of SMBs Despite 73% Suffering Cyber Attack Last Year

-More Than 46 Million Potential Cyber Attacks Logged Every Day

-Fighting Cyber Attacks Requires Top-Down Approach

-Email Security Threats are More Dangerous This Year as Over 200 Million Malicious Emails Detected in Q3 2023

-98% of Security Leaders Worry About Risks of Generative AI as Fears Drive Spending

-48% of Organisations Predict Cyber Attack Recovery Could Take Weeks

-Cyber Security Awareness Doesn't Cut It; It's Time to Focus on Behaviour

-How Cyber Security Has Evolved in The Past 20 Years

-Rising Global Tensions Could Portend Destructive Hacks

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

More Companies Adopt Board-Level Cyber Security Committees

In a recent CISO Report by Splunk, 78% of CISOs and other security leaders reported a dedicated board-level cyber security committee at their organisations. These committees may be made up of qualified individuals or potentially even third parties - not necessarily company employees - that give guidance to the board around matters like risk assessment and cyber security strategy. These board-level cyber security committees can potentially bridge communication barriers between IT, security teams and boards. Black Arrow supports business leaders in organisations of all sizes to demonstrate governance of their cyber risks, by participating in board meetings to upskill and guide the board in requesting and challenging the appropriate information from their internal and external sources.

Source: [Decipher]

Ransomware Attacks Rise by More Than 95% Over 2022, to All Time High

A recent report by Corvus has found that ransomware attacks continued at a record-breaking pace, with Q3 frequency up 11% over Q2 and 95% year-over-year. Even if there were no more ransomware attacks this year, the victim account has already surpassed what was observed for 2021 and 2022. In a separate report, analysis conducted by Sophos has found that dwell times, which is the length of time an attacker is in a victim’s system before they are discovered, has fallen, leaving less time for organisations to detect attacks.

Sources: [Dark Reading] [SC Magazine] [Reinsurance News]

Security Still Not a Priority for a Third of SMBs Despite 73% Suffering Cyber Attack Last Year

Multiple reports highlighting different aspects of small and medium businesses (SMBs) all have one thing in common: the lack of priority that is given to cyber security. One example is a survey conducted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) which found that cyber security is not even a strategic priority for 35% of SMBs when considering moving to the cloud. This comes as a report by Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that 73% of US SMBs reported a cyber attack last year, with employee and customer data being the target in data breaches. Despite the rise in SMB attacks, relatively few organisations are following cyber security best practices to help prevent a breach in the first place. Every business, regardless of size, should do everything it reasonably can to protect its data and ensure connectivity, and smaller organisations may be more likely to be a victim of a cyber attack. Security is an enabler for the wider IT and business strategy to help users build the organisation in greater security. It should be hard-baked from the outset; seeking expert advice can help ensure the right proportionate security decisions are being made.

Sources: [Insider Media] [Infosecurity Magazine] [IT Reseller Magazine] [Infosecurity Magazine]

More Than 46 Million Potential Cyber Attacks Logged Every Day

New data released by the UK’s BT Group has found that more than 500 potential cyber attacks are logged every second. The BT data showed that over the last 12 months the most targeted sectors by cyber criminals were IT, defence, banking and insurance sectors; this was followed by the retail, hospitality and education industries. According to the figures 785,000 charities fell victim to cyber attacks. The data found that hackers are relentlessly scanning devices for vulnerabilities by using automation, and artificial intelligence is now being included by attackers to identify weaknesses in an organisation’s cyber defences.

Sources: [Evening Standard] [Proactive] [The Independent]

Fighting Cyber Attacks Requires Top-Down Approach

Organisations must move away from the posture that their IT division owns responsibility for safeguarding against cyber attacks. Instead, what we really need is for cyber security to come down from the top of the organisation, into the departments so that we have an enterprise-wide culture of security. It is the board’s responsibility to work with the executive team to ensure it is not just an IT-centric issue. By aligning cyber risk management with business needs, creating a cyber security strategy as a business enabler, and incorporating cyber security expertise into board and governance, the organisation will create a solid foundation for this top-down approach.

Source: [Chief Investment Officer]

Email Security Threats are More Dangerous This Year as Over 200 million Malicious Emails Detected in Q3 2023

The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT has made spam and phishing emails infinitely more dangerous, with over 200 million sent in Q3 2023. A recent report found that link-based malware delivery made up 58% of all malicious emails for the quarter, while attachments made up the remaining 42%. Worryingly, 33% of these were delivered through legitimate but compromised websites.

Phishing does not come through emails alone however, there is also phishing via SMS, QR codes, calls and genuine, but compromised accounts. Black Arrow supports organisations of all sizes in designing and delivering proportionate user education and awareness programmes, including in-person and online training as well as simulated phishing campaigns. Our programmes help secure employee engagement and build a cyber security culture to protect the organisation. 

Sources: [Security Magazine] [MSSP Alert] [TechRadar]

98% of Security Leaders Worry About Risks of Generative AI as Fears Drive Spending

Generative AI is playing a significant role in reshaping the phishing email threat landscape, according to a recent report from Abnormal Security. The report found that 98% of security leaders are highly concerned about generative AI's potential to create more sophisticated email attacks, with four-fifths (80.3%) of respondents confirming that their organisation had already received AI-generated email attacks or strongly suspecting that this was the case. A separate report by IBM found that attackers only needed five simple prompts to get the AI to develop a highly convincing phishing email. In a separate report, Gartner stated that AI has created a new scare, which contributed to 80% of CIO’s reporting that they plan to increase spending on cyber security, including AI.

Sources: [Infosecurity Magazine] [CSO Online] [Business Wire] [Help Net Security]

48% of Organisations Predict Cyber Attack Recovery Could Take Weeks

A recent report has found that 48% of respondents predicted that it would take days or weeks for their company to recover from cyber attacks, representing a potentially devastating risk to their business. Attacks are a matter of when, not if. Organisations should have plans and procedures in place to be able to recover from an attack; this includes having an incident response plan and regularly testing the organisation’s ability to backup and recover.

Black Arrow works with organisations of all sizes and sectors to design and prepare for managing a cyber security incident; this can include an incident response plan and an educational tabletop exercise for the leadership team that highlights the proportionate controls to help the organisation prevent and mitigate an incident.

Sources: [Security Magazine]

Cyber Security Awareness Doesn't Cut It; It's Time to Focus on Behaviour

The human element remains a significant vulnerability in cyber security, as reinforced by recent analysis. Repeated studies show that knowledge alone does not change behaviour, and that simply giving people more training is unlikely to change outcomes. The study underscores that even with heightened cyber security awareness, there has not been a notable decline in successful cyber attacks that exploit human errors.

We need to draw parallels to real-world skills. The report suggests that cyber security education should be as continuous and context-driven as learning to drive: no one learnt to drive by having a single lesson once a year. For instance, rather than educating employees on using multifactor authentication (MFA) in isolation, it's more impactful to provide an explanation of the additional security that that control provides and the reasons why it is being used to protect the organisation. This contextual approach, accentuated with insights on the advantages of these controls, is poised to foster the right behaviours and bolster security outcomes. However, the challenges persist, with many employees still bypassing recommended security protocols, underscoring the need for a more hands-on, real-time approach to cyber security education.

Source: [Dark Reading]

How Cyber Security Has Evolved in The Past 20 Years

Twenty years ago, the cloud as we know it didn’t exist. There were no Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, not even Gmail was around. Cyber threats have evolved significantly since then, but so too have the solutions. We’ve transitioned from manual, on-site vulnerability scanning and lengthy breach investigations, to automated tools and remote work capabilities that have reduced investigation times from months to weeks. Alongside technological advancements, laws and regulations surrounding cyber security have also tightened, imposing stricter rules on organisations to protect customer data and penalties for attackers.

The bigger picture is staying a step ahead of threat actors in the automation race. Whether that’s accomplished with AI or some other yet-to-be-discovered technology remains to be seen. In the meantime, as is always the case in this industry, regardless of the latest innovation, everyone needs to stay vigilant for threat actors’ attacks and remember that what was adequate to protect technology 20 years ago will not be sufficient to defend against the threat landscape today, and certainly not against the threats of tomorrow.

Source: [Forbes]

Rising Global Tensions Could Portend Destructive Hacks

Governments in the West are warning public and private sector organisations to "remain on heightened alert" for disruptive cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure and key sectors amid a series of escalating global conflicts.

Source: [Info Risk Today]



Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Deepfakes

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Backup and Recovery

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda


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

Misc Nation State/Cyber Warfare/Cyber Espionage

Geopolitical Threats/Activity

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea


Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities



Other News


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
Antony Cleal Antony Cleal

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 June 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 June 2022

-Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks Have Risen 53% Year-Over-Year

-Ransomware Attacks Setting New Records

-Hackers Are Now Hiding Inside Networks for Longer. That's Not a Good Sign

-Paying Ransomware Paints Bigger Bullseye on Target’s Back

-Organisations Fix Only 1 in 10 Vulnerabilities Monthly

-Cyber Attack Surface "Spiralling Out of Control"

-Phishing Hits All-Time High in Q1 2022

-Ransomware's ROI Retreat Will Drive More BEC Attacks

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

-Why Smishing and Vishing Attempts Surged In 2021?

-Know Your Enemy! Learn How Cyber Crime Adversaries Get In…

-Small Businesses Struggle with an Increase in Cyber Attacks

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

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

  • Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks Have Risen 53% Year-Over-Year

Armorblox released a report which highlights the use of language-based attacks that bypass existing email security controls. The report uncovers how the continued increase in remote working has made critical business workflows even more vulnerable to new forms of email-based attacks, often resulting in financial fraud or credential theft.

Language-based attacks have become the new normal for business email compromise (BEC) with 74% of these attacks using language as the main attack vector.

Security teams spend a massive amount of time configuring rules and exceptions in their email security solutions to block impersonation emails – both for executives and other employees. Despite all of that manual work and rule writing, 70% of impersonation emails evaded email security controls.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/06/06/language-based-attacks-email-video/

  • Ransomware Attacks Setting New Records

Zscaler released the findings of its annual ThreatLabz Ransomware Report, which revealed an 80 percent increase in ransomware attacks year-over-year.

In 2022, the most prevalent ransomware trends include double-extortion, supply chain attacks, ransomware-as-a-service, ransomware rebranding, and geo-political incited ransomware attacks. The report details which industries are being targeted the most by cyber criminals, explains the damage caused by double-extortion and supply chain attacks, and catalogues the most active ransomware groups operating today.

Modern ransomware attacks require a single successful asset compromise to gain initial entry, move laterally, and breach the entire environment, making legacy VPN and flat networks extremely vulnerable. Attackers are finding success exploiting weaknesses across businesses’ supply chains as well as critical vulnerabilities like Log4Shell, PrintNightmare, and others. And with ransomware-as-a-service available on the darkweb, more and more criminals are turning to ransomware, realising that the odds of receiving a big payday are high.

The tactics and scope of ransomware attacks have been steadily evolving, but the end goal continues to be a disruption of the target organisation and theft of sensitive information for the purposes of ransom. The size of the ransom often depends on the number of systems infected and the value of the data stolen: the higher the stakes, the higher the payment. In 2019, many ransomware groups updated their tactics to include data exfiltration, commonly referred to as a ‘double extortion’ ransomware.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/06/07/ransomware-attacks-increase/

  • Hackers Are Now Hiding Inside Networks for Longer. That's Not a Good Sign

Cyber criminals are spending more time inside networks before they're discovered, and that's allowing them to do more damage.

The amount of time cyber criminal intruders are spending inside victims' networks is increasing, providing them with the ability to carry out higher complexity campaigns and more damaging cyber attacks.

According to analysis by cyber security researchers at Sophos, who examined incidents targeting organisations around the world and across a wide range of industry sectors, the median dwell time that cyber criminals spend inside compromised networks is now 15 days, up from 11 days the previous year.

Dwell time is the amount of time hackers are inside the network before they're discovered or before they leave – and being able to spend an increased amount of time inside a compromised network undetected means they're able to more carefully conduct malicious activity, such as monitoring users, stealing data or laying the foundations for a malware or ransomware attack.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-are-now-hiding-inside-networks-for-longer-thats-not-a-good-sign/

  • Paying Ransomware Paints Bigger Bullseye on Target’s Back

Ransomware attackers often strike targets twice, regardless of whether the ransom was paid.

Paying ransomware attackers doesn’t pay off and often paints a bigger target on a victim’s back. Eighty percent of ransomware victims that paid their attackers were hit a second time by the malware scourge.

New ransomware numbers come from a Cybereason’s April ransomware survey of 1,456 cyber security professionals. According to the gated report (registration required), victims that were successfully extorted were not only targeted a second time, but frequently data encrypted by criminals later became unusable during the decryption process because of corruption issues.

The fact that ransomware gangs strike so quickly a second and third time isn’t surprising, because they will try to profit in any possible way so why not hit the same company, demand a higher ransom, and get paid again?

https://threatpost.com/paying-ransomware-bullseye-back/179915/

  • Organisations Fix Only 1 in 10 Vulnerabilities Monthly

New research from SecurityScorecard features a couple of eye-popping “only” findings: Only 10 percent of vulnerabilities are remediated each month, and only 60 percent of companies have improved their security profile despite a 15-fold increase in the number of cyber incidents in the last three years.

That’s not good. The research, which sought to measure how long it took the 1.6 million organisations assessed to remediate vulnerabilities in the three-year period from 2019 to 2022, also found the following:

·       53% had at least one exposed vulnerability to the internet, while 22% of organisations amassed more than 1,000 vulnerabilities each, confirming more progress is required to protect organisations’ critical assets.

·       The financial sector is among the slowest remediation rates (median to fix 50% = 426 days), while utilities ranked among the fastest (median = 270 days).

·       Despite a 15-fold increase in exploitation activity for vulnerabilities with published exploit code, there was little evidence that organisations in the financial sector fixed exploited flaws faster.

·       The IT sector (62.6%) and public sector (61.6%) had the highest prevalence of open vulnerabilities.

·       The financial sector (48.6%) exhibited the lowest proportion of open vulnerabilities; however, there is less than a 10% difference between this and other sectors in terms of industries with the most open vulnerabilities.

·       It typically takes organisations 12 months to remediate half of the vulnerabilities in their internet-facing infrastructure.

·       When firms have fewer than 10 open vulnerabilities, it can take about a month to close just half of them, but when the list grows into the hundreds, it takes up to a year to reach the halfway point.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/organizations-fix-only-1-in-10-vulnerabilities-monthly/

  • Cyber Attack Surface "Spiralling Out of Control"

Global organisations are still beset with cyber visibility and control challenges, with two-fifths (43%) admitting their digital attack surface is out of control as a result, according to new Trend Micro research.

The security vendor polled over 6200 IT and business decision-makers to compile its new study, ‘Mapping the digital attack surface: Why global organisations are struggling to manage cyber risk’.

It revealed that nearly three-quarters (73%) are concerned about the increasing size of their attack surface. Over a third (37%) said it is “constantly evolving and messy,” and just half (51%) thought they were able to fully define its extent.

These visibility challenges are greatest in cloud environments, although problems persist across the board. The report highlights complex supply chains, tool bloat and home working-driven shadow IT as additional contributory factors.

On average, respondents estimated having just 62% visibility of their attack surface.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberattack-surface-out-of-control/

  • Phishing Hits All-Time High in Q1 2022

The first quarter of 2022 saw phishing attacks hit a record high, topping one million for the first time, according to data from the Anti Phishing Working Group (APWG).

The industry, law enforcement and government coalition’s new Phishing Activity Trends Report also revealed that March was the worst month on record for phishing, with 384,291 attacks detected.

The financial sector was the worst hit, accounting for 24% of all detected attacks, although webmail and SaaS providers were also popular targets.

Attacks spoofing retailers dropped 17% from the previous quarter to 15% following the busy holiday shopping season, while those against social media services rose significantly, from nearly 9% percent of all attacks to 13% over the same period.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/phishing-hits-all-time-high-q1/

  • Ransomware's ROI Retreat Will Drive More BEC Attacks

Law enforcement crackdowns, tighter cryptocurrency regulations, and ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operator shutdowns are driving down the return on investment for ransomware operations across the globe.

A presentation at the RSA Conference last week laid out analysis of the ransomware threat landscape, predicting that there will be a pivot from ransomware toward renewed interest in basic business email compromise (BEC) attacks in the next 6 to 12 months.

Ransomware attacks grab headlines and have been supercharged by a few prolific RaaS operators, but crackdowns on just one group can make an enormous dent.

Ransomware is a centralised ecosystem with small numbers of operators responsible for the majority of attacks.

The recent disappearance of Pysa, left just two groups, Conti and Lockbit, with more than 50% of the share of the total ransomware attacks in the first half of 2022. BEC groups, on the other hand, are diffuse and scattered, making them much harder to eradicate.

Although they're not as quick to make the headlines, BEC attacks have cost business more than $43 billion since 2016, according to the FBI, and make up $1 out of every $3 lost to cyber attacks, far outpacing ransomware losses.

Ransomware has had a moment over the past couple of years, in part because once threat actors were able to abandon arcane wire transfers to collect ransoms and rely on cryptocurrency, caps on transactions were lifted and it became simple to collect much larger amounts. But new crypto regulations are chilling the ability of these cyber criminals to rely on its infrastructure to do business, adding "friction" to the transactions.

BEC attacks, by comparison, rely on social engineering to corrupt a business's financial supply chain to get employees to willingly part with the cash, making them exponentially harder to track and stop. 

https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/retreat-of-ransomware-roi-will-drive-bec-attacks-analyst-warns

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Why Smishing and Vishing Attempts Surged In 2021

In The Human Factor Report 2022, security vendor Proofpoint found that SMS phishing (smishing) attacks more than doubled year-on-year in 2021. The report is based on their analysis of over 2.6 billion email messages, 49 billion URLs, 1.9 billion attachments, 28 million cloud accounts and 1.7 billion mobile messages.

The study details the most common attack surfaces and methods including categories of risk, vulnerabilities, attacks, Russian Aligned APT’s, and Privilege as a vector.

Key Findings:

  • Managers and executives make up only 10% of users, but almost 50% of the most severe attack risk

  • Attackers attempt to initiate more than 100,000 telephone-oriented attacks every day.

  • Malicious URLS are 3-4x more common than malicious attachments.

  • Smishing attempts more than doubled in the US over the year, while in the UK over 50% of lures are themed around delivery notification.

  • More than 20 million messages attempted to deliver malware linked to eventual ransomware attack

  • Data loss prevention alerts have stabilised as businesses adopt permanent hybrid work models.

  • 80% of businesses are attacked by a compromised supplier account in any given month.

  • 35% of cloud tenants that received a suspicious login also saw suspicious post-access activity.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/why-smishing-and-vishing-attempts-surged-in-2021/

  • Know Your Enemy! Learn How Cyber Crime Adversaries Get In…

Cyber security vendor Sophos dug into the incident reports of 144 real-life cyber attacks investigated by its Rapid Response team during 2021.

What they found might not surprise you, but it’s vital information nevertheless, because it’s what really happened, not merely what might have.

Notably:

  • Unpatched vulnerabilities were the entry point for close to 50% of the attackers.

  • Attackers stuck around for more than a month on average when ransomware wasn’t their primary goal.

  • Attackers were known to have stolen data in about 40% of incidents. (Not all data thefts can be proved, of course, given that there isn’t a gaping hole where your copy of the data used to be, so the true number could be much higher.)

  • RDP was abused to circumnavigate the network by more than 80% of attackers once they’d broken in.

Intriguingly, if perhaps unsurprisingly, the smaller the organisation, the longer the crooks had generally been in the network before anyone noticed and decided it was time to kick them out.

In businesses with 250 staff and below, the crooks stuck around (in the jargon, this is known by the quaintly archaic automotive metaphor of dwell time) for more than seven weeks on average.

This compared with an average dwell time of just under three weeks for organisations with more than 3000 employees.

As you can imagine, however, ransomware criminals typically stayed hidden for much shorter periods (just under two weeks, instead of just over a month), not least because ransomware attacks are inherently self-limiting.

After all, once ransomware crooks have scrambled all your data, they’re out of hiding and straight into their in-your-face blackmail phase.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2022/06/07/know-your-enemy-learn-how-cybercrime-adversaries-get-in/

  • Small Businesses Struggle with an Increase in Cyber Attacks

Part of the problem: They don’t believe they are targets, so they don’t make security a priority. Cyber attacks are becoming more common for small businesses, and many aren’t prepared to deal with an attack.

As small businesses have accelerated their adoption of new technologies for remote work, communication, production and sales during the pandemic, their expanded computer networks have created new vulnerabilities to phishing and ransomware attacks. But many small businesses still don’t expect to be targeted by hackers, so preparing for a cyber attack is well down their list of priorities.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/small-business-cyberattacks-increase-11654540786


Threats

Ransomware

BEC – Business Email Compromise

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Software Supply Chain

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

Cloud/SaaS

Attack Surface Management

Open Source

Privacy

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

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








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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 April 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 April 2022:

-Why Ransomware Attacks Prefer Small Business Targets Rather Than Rich Enterprises

-Ransomware Plagues Finance Sector as Cyber Attacks Get More Complex

-76% of Organisations Worldwide Expect to Suffer a Cyber Attack This Year

-Most Email Security Approaches Fail to Block Common Threats

-Financial Leaders Grappling with More Aggressive and Sophisticated Attack Methods

-Hackers Sneak Malware into Resumes Sent to Corporate Hiring Managers

-West Warns of Russian Cyber-Attacks As Concerns Rise Over Putin’s Nuclear Rhetoric

-Criminals Adopting New Methods To Bypass Improved Defences, Says Zscaler

-Cyber Criminals Are ‘Drinking the Tears’ Of Ukrainians

-Hackers For Hire Attempt to Destroy Hedge Fund Manager's Reputation

-New Threat Groups and Malware Families Emerging

-Economic Warfare: Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Part of Geopolitical Conflict

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

  • Why Ransomware Attacks Prefer Small Business Targets Rather Than Rich Enterprises

Enterprise businesses with 25,000 employees+ are less likely to get hit by a ransomware attack than smaller businesses — even though big companies typically can afford to pay higher ransoms, the 2022 CyberEdge Cyberthreat Defense Report concluded.

What explains hackers taking aim at small businesses more frequently than enterprise giants?  The answer: Damaging a critical infrastructure facility or similar disruptions are certain to catch the eye of federal law enforcement, or national governments — something that no hacker wants, CyberEdge said. Smaller to medium-sized firms, as it turns out, get hit more frequently by ransomware attacks, on average at roughly 70 percent, the report said.

Overall, some 71 percent of organisations have been bitten by ransomware in 2022, up a point and a half from last year and by 8.5 points in 2020. It’s companies of 10,000 to 24,999 employees that are the sweet spot for ransomware hackers, nearly 75 percent of which are victimised by cyber extortionists.

The extensive study, which surveyed 1,200 security decision makers and practitioners employed by companies of greater than 500 people in 17 countries across 19 industries, is geared to helping gauge their internal practices and investments against those of their counterparts in other parts of the world.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/why-ransomware-attacks-prefer-small-business-targets-rather-than-rich-enterprises/

  • Ransomware Plagues Finance Sector as Cyber Attacks Get More Complex

Cyber criminals have evolved from hacking wire transfers to targeting market data, as ransomware continues to hit financial firms, says a new VMware report. Here's what to do about it.

Ransomware plagues financial institutions as they face increasingly complex threats over previous years owing to the changing behaviour of cyber criminal cartels, according to VMware's latest Modern Bank Heists report.

This has happened as the cyber crime cartels have evolved beyond wire transfer frauds to target market strategies, take over brokerage accounts, and island-hop into banks, according to the report.

For the report, VMware surveyed 130 financial sector CISOs and security leaders from across different regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, and Africa.

Report findings were consistent with observations by other security experts. "The Secret Service, in its investigative capacity to protect the nation's financial payment systems and financial infrastructure, has seen an evolution and increase in complex cyber-enabled fraud," says Jeremy Sheridan, former assistant director at the US Secret Service. "The persistent, inadequate security of systems connected to the internet provides opportunity and methodology."

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3657875/ransomware-plagues-finance-sector-as-cyberattacks-get-more-complex.html

  • 76% of Organisations Worldwide Expect to Suffer a Cyber Attack This Year

Ransomware, phishing/social engineering, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and the business fallout of a data breach rank as the top concerns of global organisations, a new study shows.

The newly published Cyber Risk Index, a study by Trend Micro and the Ponemon Institute, shows that more than three-quarters of global organisations expect to suffer a cyber attack in the next 12 months — 25% of which say an attack is "very likely."

More than 80% of the 3,400 CISO and IT professionals and managers surveyed say their organisations were hit with one or more successful cyber attacks in the past 12 months, and 35% suffered seven or more attacks, according to the report, which covers the second half of 2021.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/76-of-organizations-worldwide-expect-to-suffer-a-cyberattack-this-year

  • Most Email Security Approaches Fail to Block Common Threats

A full 89 percent of organisations experienced one or more successful email breaches during the previous 12 months, translating into big-time costs.

On overwhelming number of security teams believe their email security systems to be ineffective against the most serious inbound threats, including ransomware.

That’s according to a survey of business customers using Microsoft 365 for email commissioned by Cyren and conducted by Osterman Research, which examined concerns with phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and ransomware threats, attacks that became costly incidents, and preparedness to deal with attacks and incidents.

“Security team managers are most concerned that current email security solutions do not block serious inbound threats (particularly ransomware), which requires time for response and remediation by the security team before dangerous threats are triggered by users,” according to the report, released Wednesday.

Less than half of those surveyed said that their organisations can block delivery of email threats. And, correspondingly, less than half of organisations rank their currently deployed email security solutions as effective.

https://threatpost.com/email-security-fail-block-threats/179370/

  • Financial Leaders Grappling with More Aggressive and Sophisticated Attack Methods

VMware released a report which takes the pulse of the financial industry’s top CISOs and security leaders on the changing behaviour of cyber criminal cartels and the defensive shift of the financial sector.

The report found that financial institutions are facing increased destructive attacks and falling victim to ransomware more than in years past, as sophisticated cyber crime cartels evolve beyond wire transfer fraud to now target market strategies, take over brokerage accounts and island hop into banks.

In the Modern Bank Heists report, 63% of financial institutions admitted experiencing an increase in destructive attacks, with cyber criminals leveraging this method as a means to burn evidence as part of a counter incident response.

Additionally, 74% experienced at least one ransomware attack over the past year, with 63% paying the ransom. When asked about the nation-state actors behind these attacks, the majority of financial instructions stated that Russia posed the greatest concern, as geopolitical tension continues to escalate in cyberspace.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/21/cybercriminal-cartels-financial-sector/

  • Hackers Sneak Malware into Resumes Sent to Corporate Hiring Managers

A new set of phishing attacks delivering the ‘more_eggs’ malware has been observed striking corporate hiring managers with bogus resumes as an infection vector, a year after potential candidates looking for work on LinkedIn were lured with weaponised job offers.

"This year the more_eggs operation has flipped the social engineering script, targeting hiring managers with fake resumes instead of targeting jobseekers with fake job offers," eSentire's research and reporting lead, Keegan Keplinger, said in a statement.

The Canadian cyber security company said it identified and disrupted four separate security incidents, three of which occurred at the end of March. Targeted entities include a US-based aerospace company, an accounting business located in the UK, a law firm, and a staffing agency, both based out of Canada.

The malware, suspected to be the handiwork of a threat actor called Golden Chickens (aka Venom Spider), is a stealthy, modular backdoor suite capable of stealing valuable information and conducting lateral movement across the compromised network.

"More_eggs achieves execution by passing malicious code to legitimate windows processes and letting those windows processes do the work for them," Keplinger said. The goal is to leverage the resumes as a decoy to launch the malware and sidestep detection.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/04/hackers-sneak-moreeggs-malware-into.html

  • West Warns of Russian Cyber Attacks as Concerns Rise Over Putin’s Nuclear Rhetoric

Cyber crime groups have publicly pledged support for Russia, western officials worry about Putin’s reliance on nuclear threats and the battle for Mariupol in Ukraine grinds on.

The US and four of its closest allies have warned that “evolving intelligence” shows that Russia is contemplating cyber attacks on countries backing Ukraine, as the Kremlin’s frustration grows at its failure to make military gains.

Vladimir Putin used the launch on Wednesday of a powerful new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of carrying ten or more warheads, to make nuclear threats against western countries.

The Sarmat has long been in development and test flights were initially due to start in 2017. The Pentagon confirmed that the US had been given notice of the test and was not alarmed. Western officials are more concerned by the increasing emphasis Moscow puts on its nuclear arsenal as its conventional forces have faltered in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian army continued to put up resistance in the besieged and devastated city of Mariupol, but Putin’s Chechen ally, Ramzan Kadyrov, predicted that the last stand of the port’s defenders at the Azovstal steel works would fall on Thursday.

The Kremlin has made repeated threats against the many countries that have been supplying Ukraine’s army with modern weapons, and members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing network – the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – predicted Moscow could also work with cyber crime groups to launch attacks on governments, institutions and businesses.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/21/west-warns-of-russian-cyber-attacks-as-concerns-rise-over-putins-nuclear-rhetoric

  • Criminals Adopting New Methods To Bypass Improved Defences, Says Zscaler

The number of phishing attacks worldwide jumped 29 percent last year as threat actors countered stronger enterprise defences with newer methods, according to researchers with Zscaler's ThreatLabz research team.

Cyber criminals have adapted to multi-factor authentication (MFA), employee security awareness training, and security controls by broadening who and where they will attack.

While the United States remained the country with the most phishing attempts, others are seeing faster growth in the number of incidents – exploiting new vectors like SMS and lowering the barrier of entry for launching attacks through pre-built tools made available on the market.

"Phishing attacks continue to remain one of the most prevalent attack vectors, often serving as a starting point for more advanced next stage attacks that may result in a large-scale breach," Deepen Desai, CISO and vice president of security research and operations at Zscaler, told The Register.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/20/phishing-attempts-on-rise-zscaler/

  • Cyber Criminals Are ‘Drinking the Tears’ of Ukrainians

In biology, when an insect drinks the tears of a large creature, it is called lachryphagy. And in cyberspace, malicious actors are likewise “drinking tears” by exploiting humanitarian concerns about the war in Ukraine for profit. Different forms of deception include tricking people into donating to bogus charities, clicking on Ukraine-themed malicious links and attachments, and even impersonating officials to extort payment for rescuing loved ones.

It is an unfortunate reality that cyber opportunists are engaging in lachryphagy to exploit humanitarian concerns about the war for profit or data collection. To date, one of the largest cryptocurrency scams involving fraudulent Ukrainian relief payments totalled $50 million in March, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cybersecurity companies warned the public that criminals were preying on Ukrainian relief fundraising efforts with cryptocurrency scams. Bitdefender Labs reports that cyber criminals have impersonated Ukrainian government entities and charitable organisations such as UNICEF, and the Australian humanitarian agency, Act for Peace. “Some [scammers] are even pretending to be Wladimir Klitschko, whose brother Vitali is mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv,” according to the BBC.

https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/3273636-cyber-criminals-are-drinking-the-tears-of-ukrainians/?rl=1

  • Hackers For Hire Attempt to Destroy Hedge Fund Manager's Reputation

Hackers bombarded a British hedge fund manager with 3,000 emails and fake news stories about his mortgage in an effort to destroy his reputation after being hired by a corporate rival.

Criminals even sought to gain personal information about Matthew Earl by pretending to be his sister in a three-year campaign when he raised concerns over the controversial German payments company Wirecard.

Mr Earl, a former City analyst who runs the hedge fund ShadowFall, said he was targeted by a group called Dark Basin.

This group has been linked to Aviram Azari, who this week pleaded guilty in New York to a conspiracy to target journalists and critics of Wirecard using phishing emails.

Mr Earl said the hacking attempts started in 2016 after ShadowFall, nicknamed the “dark destroyer” in the City, criticised the financial performance of Wirecard. The German company was later mired in a series of accounting scandals and went bust.

He said: “I was being sent very targeted emails, which were crafted with personal information about my interests, friends and family’s details. They were very specific.”

Mr Earl received news stories that appeared to be from media outlets such as Reuters and Bloomberg. Another email appeared to be sent by his sister, sharing family photographs, he added.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/21/reign-terror-hackers-hire-ramp-corporate-espionage/

  • New Threat Groups and Malware Families Emerging

Mandiant announced the findings of an annual report that provides timely data and insights based on frontline investigations and remediations of high-impact cyber attacks worldwide. The 2022 report––which tracks investigation metrics between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021—reveals over 1,100 new threat groups and 733 new malware families.

The report also notes a realignment and retooling of China cyber espionage operations to align with the implementation of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan in 2021. The report warns that the national-level priorities included in the plan “signal an upcoming increase in China-nexus actors conducting intrusion attempts against intellectual property or other strategically important economic concerns, as well as defence industry products and other dual-use technologies over the next few years.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/22/adversaries-innovating-and-adapting/

Economic Warfare: Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Part of Geopolitical Conflict

We’ve known for years that since at least March of 2016, Russian government threat actors have been targeting multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and other agencies have acknowledged this for quite some time in many of their technical alerts and statements.

In the intervening years, with the acceleration of digital transformation, cyber criminals and nation-state actors have increasingly set their sights on these sectors. The convergence of physical and digital assets brings competitive advantage but also inevitable risks. Attacks against hospitals, oil pipelines, food supply chains, and other critical infrastructure, have brought into sharp focus the vulnerability of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the impact on lives and livelihoods when they are disrupted. Now, overwhelming signs indicate critical infrastructure companies are in the bullseye of geopolitical conflict.

https://www.securityweek.com/economic-warfare-attacks-critical-infrastructure-part-geopolitical-conflict


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Malware

Mobile

BYOD

IoT

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Cloud

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

Digital Transformation

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








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

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

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

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

Read More