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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 April 2024

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing 19 April 2024:

-94% of Ransomware Victims Have Their Backups Targeted by Attackers

-Sharing IT Providers Is a Risk for Financial Services, Says IMF, as Rising Cyber Threats Pose Serious Concerns for Financial Stability

-Hackers are Threatening to Publish a Huge Stolen Sanctions and Financial Crimes Watchlist

-Your Annual Cyber Security Is Not Working, but There is a Solution

-73% of Security Professionals Say They’ve Missed, Ignored or Failed to Act on a High Priority Security Alert

-Russia and Ukraine Top Inaugural World Cyber Crime Index

-Police Takedown Major Cyber Fraud Superstore: Will the Cyber Crime Industry Become More Fragmented?

-Small Businesses See Stable Business Climate; Cite Cyber Security as Top Threat

-The Threat from Inside: 14% Surge in Insider Threats Compared to Previous Year

-Dark Web Sales Driving Major Rise in Credential Attacks as Attackers Pummel Networks with Millions of Login Attempts

-Large Enterprises Experience Breaches, Despite Large Security Stacks - Report Finds 93% of Breaches Lead to Downtime and Data Loss

-Charities Doing Worse than Private Sector in Staving off 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

94% of Ransomware Victims Have Their Backups Targeted by Attackers

Organisations that have backed up sensitive data may believe they are safe from the effects of ransomware attacks; however a new study by Sophos reported that cyber criminals attempted to compromise the backups of 94% of companies hit by ransomware in the past year. The research found that criminals can demand a higher ransom when they compromise an organisation’s backup data, and those victims are twice as likely to pay. The median ransom demand is $2.3 million when backups are compromised, compared to $1 million otherwise.

Additionally, sectors like state and local governments, along with media and entertainment, are particularly vulnerable with nearly all affected organisations experiencing backup compromises.

Source: [Tech Republic]

Sharing IT Providers Is a Risk for Financial Services, Says IMF, as Rising Cyber Threats Pose Serious Concerns for Financial Stability

The International Monetary Fund has found that with greater digitalisation and heightened geopolitical tensions comes a greater risk of cyber attack with systemic consequences. The IMF noted that losses more than quadrupled since 2017 to $2.5 billion.

The push for technology has led to a number of financial services institutions relying on third-party IT firms, increasing their susceptibility to cyber disruption on a wider scale and a potential ripple effect were a third party to be hit. Whilst such third parties can increase the cyber resilience of a financial services institution, they also expose the industry to systemwide shocks, the IMF reports.

The IMF recommend institutions should identify potential systematic risks in their third-party IT firms. If the organisation is unable to perform such risk assessments, they should seek the expert support of an independent cyber security specialist.

Sources: [The Banker] [IMF]

Hackers are Threatening to Publish a Huge Stolen Sanctions and Financial Crimes Watchlist

A cyber crime group named GhostR has claimed responsibility for stealing 5.3 million records from the World-Check database, which companies use for "know your customer" (KYC) checks to screen potential clients for financial crime risks. The data theft occurred in March and originated from a Singapore-based firm with access to World-Check. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), which owns World-Check, confirmed that the breach involved a third-party's dataset and not their systems directly. The stolen data includes sensitive information on individuals identified as high-risk, such as government-sanctioned figures and those linked to organised crime. LSEG is coordinating with the affected third party and authorities to protect the compromised data and prevent its dissemination.

Source: [TechCrunch]

Your Annual Cyber Security Is Not Working, But There is a Solution

Most organisations utilise annual security training in an attempt to ensure every department develops their cyber awareness skills and is able to spot and report a threat. However, this training is often out of date. Additionally, often training has limited interactivity, failing to capture and maintain employees’ attention and retention. On top of this, many training courses fail to connect employees to real-world scenarios that could occur in their specific job.

To get the most return on investment, organisations need to have more regular education, with the aim of long-term behavioural shifts in the work place, nudging employees towards greater cyber hygiene.

Source: [TechRadar]

73% of Security Professionals Say They’ve Missed, Ignored or Failed to Act on a High Priority Security Alert

A new survey from Coro, targeting small medium enterprises (SME) cyber security professionals, reveals that 73% have missed or ignored high priority security alerts due to overwhelming workloads and managing multiple security tools. The 2024 SME Security Workload Impact Report highlights that SMEs are inundated with alerts and responsibilities, which dilute their focus from critical security threats. On average, these professionals manage over 11 security tools and spend nearly five hours daily on tasks like monitoring and patching vulnerabilities. Respondents handle an average of over 2,000 endpoint security agents across 656 devices, more than half dealing with frequent vendor updates.

Source: [Business Wire]

Russia and Ukraine Top Inaugural World Cyber Crime Index

The inaugural World Cybercrime Index (WCI) identifies Russia, Ukraine, and China as the top sources of global cyber crime. This index, the first of its kind, was developed over four years by an international team from the University of Oxford and the University of New South Wales, with input from 92 cyber crime experts. These experts ranked countries based on the impact, professionalism, and technical skills of their cyber criminals across five cyber crime categories, including data theft, scams, and money laundering. Russia topped the list, followed by Ukraine and China, highlighting their significant roles in high-tech cyber criminal activities. The index, expected to be updated regularly, aims to provide a clearer understanding of cyber crime's global geography and its correlation with national characteristics like internet penetration and GDP. Of note the UK and US also made the top ten list, so it is not just other countries we need to worry about.

Top ten Countries in full:

1.       Russia

2.       Ukraine

3.       China

4.       United States

5.       Nigeria

6.       Romania

7.       North Korea

8.       United Kingdom

9.       Brazil

10.   India

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine]

Police Takedown Major Cyber Fraud Superstore: Will the Cyber Crime Industry Become More Fragmented?

The London Metropolitan Police takedown of online fraud service LabHost serves as a reminder of the industrial scale on which cyber crimes are being performed, with the service amassing 480,000 debit or credit card numbers and 64,000 PINs: all for the subscription price of £300 a month. The site even included tutorial videos on how to commit crime and offered customer service.

Such takedowns can lead to fragmentation. The 2,000 individuals subscribed to LabHost may have lost access but where there is demand, supply will be found. The takedown of one service allows other, small services to fill the gap. As the saying goes ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ and it is especially true when it comes to cyber crime; there is too much business for empty spaces not to be filled.

Sources: [ITPro] [The Guardian]

Small Businesses See Stable Business Climate; Cite Cyber Security as Top Threat

Small businesses are experiencing a stable business climate, as reflected by the Small Business Index, indicating an increasing optimism about the economy. However, the recent surge in cyber attacks, including major assaults on UnitedHealth Group and MGM Resorts, has underscored the growing vulnerability of these businesses to cyber crime. Despite 80% of small to medium-sized enterprises feeling well-protected by their IT defences, a Devolutions survey reveals that 69% of them still fell victim to cyber attacks last year. This has led to cyber security being viewed as the greatest threat by 60% of small businesses, even surpassing concerns over supply chain disruptions and the potential for another pandemic.

The average cost of these attacks ranges from $120,000 to $1.24 million, leading to 60% of affected businesses closing within six months. This vulnerability is further compounded by a common underestimation of the ransomware threat. While 71% of businesses feel prepared for future threats, the depth of this preparedness varies, with only 23% feeling very prepared for cyber security challenges.

Sources: [Claims Journal] [Inc.com]

The Threat from Inside: Insider Threats Surge 14% Annually as Cost-of-Living Crisis Bites

Employee fraud grew significantly last year thanks to the opportunities afforded by remote working and the pressures of a cost-of-living crisis in the UK, according to Cifas, an anti-fraud non-profit. The number of individuals recorded in its cross-sector Insider Threat Database (ITD) increased 14% year-on-year (YoY) in 2023, with the most common reason being “dishonest action to obtain benefit by theft or deception” (49%).

Insider threats – both by accident or with malicious intent – by their own employees are overlooked, despite accounting for 58% of cybersecurity breaches in recent years. As a result, a large proportion of businesses may lack any strategy to address insider risks, leaving them vulnerable to financial, operational and reputational harm.

Source: [Infosecurity Magazine] [TechRadar]

Dark Web Sales Driving Major Rise in Credential Attacks as Attackers Pummel Networks with Millions of Login Attempts

Dark web sales are driving a major rise in credential attacks, with a surge in infostealer malware attacks over the last three years significantly heightening the cyber crime landscape. Kaspersky reports a sevenfold increase in data theft attacks, leading to the compromise of over 26 million devices since 2022. Cyber criminals stole roughly 400 million login credentials last year alone, often sold on dark web markets for as low as $10 per log file. These stolen credentials have become a lucrative commodity, fostering a complex economy of initial access brokers who facilitate broader corporate network infiltrations. The Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions have been particularly affected, with millions of credentials stolen annually.

Simultaneously, Cisco’s Talos team warns of a current credential compromise campaign targeting networks via mass login attempts to VPN, SSH, and web apps. Attackers use a mix of generic and specific usernames with nearly 100 passwords from about 4,000 IP addresses, likely routed through anonymising services (such as TOR). These attacks pose risks like unauthorised access, account lockouts, and potential denial-of-service. The attack volume has increased since 18 March this year mirroring a previous alert by Cisco about a similar campaign affecting VPNs. Despite method and infrastructure similarities, a direct link between these campaigns is yet to be confirmed.

Sources: [Ars Technica] [Data Breach Today]

Large Enterprises Experience Breaches, Despite Large Security Stacks; Report Finds 93% of Breaches Lead to Downtime and Data Loss

93% of enterprises admitting to having had a breach have suffered significant consequences, ranging from unplanned downtime to data exposure or financial loss, according to a recent report. 73% of organisations made changes to their IT environment at least quarterly, however only 40% tested their security at the same frequency. Unfortunately, this means that many organisations are facing a significant gap in which changes in the IT environment are untested, and therefore their risk unknown.

Security tools can aid this, however as the report finds, despite having a large number of security stacks, 51% still reported a breach in the past 24 months. Organisations must keep in mind that security extends beyond the technical realm, and it needs to include people and operations.

Sources: [Infosecurity Magazine] [Help Net Security]

Charities Doing Worse than Private Sector in Staving off Cyber Attacks

Recent UK Government data reveals a significant cyber security challenge for charities, with about a third experiencing breaches this past year, equating to nearly 924,000 cyber crimes. Notably, 83% of these incidents involved phishing, with other prevalent threats including fraud emails and malware. The data found that 63% of charities said cyber security was a high priority for senior management, however, charities lag behind the private sector in adopting security monitoring tools and conducting risk assessments.

Additionally, while half of the charities implement basic cyber hygiene defences like malware protection and password policies, only about 40% seek external cyber security guidance.

Source: [TFN]

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Ransomware Victims

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Insurance

Cloud/SaaS

Identity and Access Management

Linux and Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Malvertising

Training, Education and Awareness

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Models, Frameworks and Standards

Backup and Recovery

Data Protection

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

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

Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage

China

Russia

Iran

North Korea

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

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·         Automotive

·         Construction

·         Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·         Defence & Space

·         Education & Academia

·         Energy & Utilities

·         Estate Agencies

·         Financial Services

·         FinTech

·         Food & Agriculture

·         Gaming & Gambling

·         Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·         Health/Medical/Pharma

·         Hotels & Hospitality

·         Insurance

·         Legal

·         Manufacturing

·         Maritime

·         Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·         Retail & eCommerce

·         Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·         Startups

·         Telecoms

·         Third Sector & Charities

·         Transport & Aviation

·         Web3

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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 October 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 October 2021:

-Cyber Second Only To Climate Change As Biggest Global Risk

-Businesses Unsure Which Tech Is Essential Against Ransomware

-Cyber Crime Awareness Heightened, Yet People Still Engage In Risky Online Behaviours

-Attacks Against Remote Desktop Protocol Endpoints Have Exploded This Year

-Ransomware Attacks Up 1,070% Year Over Year

-Baby’s Death Alleged To Be Linked To Ransomware

-Ransomware Shame: More Than Half Of Business Owners Conceal Cyber-Breach

-More Than 90% Of Q2 Malware Was Hidden In Encrypted Traffic

-Cyber Attack Floors British Payroll Firm

-GriftHorse Malware Infected More Than 10 Million Android Phones From 70 Countries

-50% Of Servers Have Weak Security Long After Patches Are Released

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

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Cyber Second Only To Climate Change As Biggest Global Risk

Cyber security has been ranked as the second largest threat to our way of life in a major new survey of 23,000 people, comprised of both experts and members of the public. Cyber came second only to climate change on the world stage, but was ranked as the number one risk in the Americas and second in Asia, Africa, and Europe. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyber-second-biggest-global-risk/

Businesses Unsure Which Tech Is Essential Against Ransomware

As ransomware attacks grow in number, a new report finds that many organisations are under the impression they have things in hand but most are unsure what protections they should have in place. The report, based on a survey of 455 business leaders and cyber security professionals, claims businesses are on top of employee training, risk assessments and cyber insurance. Where firms fall flat however is their “clear gap” in thinking, in what many respondents see as “essential tech” in the fight against ransomware – nearly half of respondents (49%) thought paying up was their best option. https://www.techradar.com/news/businesses-unsure-which-tech-is-essential-against-ransomware

Cyber Crime Awareness Heightened, Yet People Still Engage In Risky Online Behaviours

A survey of over 2,000 adults suggests that 76% of respondents recognise the severity of data breaches. This heightened awareness may be driven by constant news of major consumer, enterprise and infrastructural breaches over the last year alone. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/10/01/risky-online-behaviors/

Attacks Against Remote Desktop Protocol Endpoints Have Exploded This Year

A recent report warns of a huge increase in attacks on the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), an almost universal protocol used by nearly every business in operation today. The figures show attacks on RDP have jumped 103.9% since its T1 report in June and represents around 55 billion devices. The RDP protocol is leveraged by threat actors to deploy ransomware and has become a popular target due to both heavy use by IT service providers and common misconfigurations.  https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/30/eset_threat_report/

Ransomware Attacks Up 1,070% Year Over Year

The prevalence of ransomware is growing rapidly, according to the 2021 Ransomware Survey Report. The report shockingly found many of the ransom demands are paid, and comes as a result in the rise of “ransomware as-a-service”. The report found 94% of businesses are concerned about ransomware, with 49% stating they would simply pay the ransom outright. Respondents in Europe were more concerned than those in North America, and around 67% felt they had already been the target of ransomware.  https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/fortinet-report-ransomware-attacks-up-1070-year-over-year/

Baby’s Death Alleged To Be Linked To Ransomware

A US hospital paralyzed by ransomware in 2019 will be defending itself in court this November over the death of a newborn. The baby was born amid the hospital’s eighth day of fending off the attack. Court filings show the hospital – Springhill Medical Center in Alabama – believes wireless tracking systems and heartbeat monitoring equipment were compromised by the ransomware, leading to the death.

https://threatpost.com/babys-death-linked-ransomware/175232/

Ransomware Shame: More Than Half Of Business Owners Conceal Cyber-Breach

Around a third (32%) of enterprises experienced a six-figure breach last year, but well over half (61%) admitted to concealing it. The findings come as a global survey of 1,400 decision makers in cyber is released. https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/ransomware-cyber-breach-concealed

More Than 90% Of Q2 Malware Was Hidden In Encrypted Traffic

Around 91.5% of malware detections in Q1 2021 were concealed in HTTPS-encrypted connections. A ubiquitous protocol – used to secure traffic any time you open a web page – only 20% of organisations have mechanisms in place to scan the arriving HTTPS traffic. The terrifying result found that most firms are missing over nine-tenths of malware hitting their networks every day. https://www.darkreading.com/perimeter/more-than-90-of-q2-malware-was-hidden-in-encrypted-traffic

Cyber Attack Floors British Payroll Firm

A "sophisticated" cyber attack has forced a British payroll company to shut down its entire network, leaving some contractors without pay.  Giant Group confirmed on September 24 that it had taken its network, fully integrated IT infrastructure, phone, and email systems offline last Wednesday after detecting suspicious activity. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberattack-floors-british-payroll/#.YVQiuXlCjOA.twitter

GriftHorse Malware Infected More Than 10 Million Android Phones From 70 Countries

A malicious trojan has been making its way through the Google Play Store since at least November of 2020. The app, purportedly harmless on the surface, hijacks payments on the victim device, resulting in a series of hidden charges and a nasty surprise at the end of the month. Researchers who discovered the malware estimate its impact to be over 10 million victims in 70 countries, and several hundreds of millions of Euros in losses. https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/122730/malware/grifthorse-malware-campaign.html

50% Of Servers Have Weak Security Long After Patches Are Released

Over 50% of servers scanned still have weak security, a new study suggests, even after patches have been issued. Researchers found that servers were still vulnerable weeks and even months after critical updates, leaving many businesses wide open to attack. https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/50-of-servers-have-weak-security-long-after-patches-are-released

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Insider Threats

Dark Web

DoS/DDoS

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy

Reports Published in the Last Week

ESET Threat Report T2 2021

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 14 May 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 14 May 2021: Two Thirds Of CISOs Expect Damaging Cyber Attack In Next 12 Months; Ransomware - Don't Pay, It Just Shows Cyber Criminals That Attacks Work; Most Significant Cyber Attacks 2006-2020; The Shape Of Fraud And Cyber Crime, 10 Things We Learned From 2020; US Pipeline Ransomware Serves As Warning To Persistent Corporate Inertia Over Security; Ransomware Attackers Now Using Triple Extortion Tactics; AXA Pledges To Stop Reimbursing French Ransomware Victims; Cyber Experts Warn Over Online Wine Scams

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

Two Thirds Of CISOs Across World Expect Damaging Cyber Attack In Next 12 Months

More than 1,000 CISOs around the world have expressed concerns about the security ramifications of the massive shift to remote work since the beginning of the pandemic. One hundred CISOs from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Japan, and Singapore were interviewed for the report, with many highlighting significant problems in the current cyber security landscape.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/two-thirds-of-cisos-across-world-expect-damaging-cyberattack-in-next-12-months/

Ransomware: Don't Pay Up, It Just Shows Cyber Criminals That Attacks Work, Warns Home Secretary

For victims of ransomware attacks, paying the ransom does not guarantee that their network will be restored – and handing money to criminals only encourages them to try their luck infecting more companies with the file-encrypting malware. The impact of ransomware attacks continues to rise as cyber criminals encrypt networks, while also blackmailing victims with the prospect of stolen data being published, to generate as much money as possible from extortion.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-dont-pay-the-ransom-it-just-encourage-cyber-criminals-that-attacks-work-warns-home-secretary/

The Most Significant Cyber Attacks From 2006-2020, By Country

Committing a cyber crime can have serious consequences. In the US, a cyber criminal can receive up to 20 years in prison for hacking into a government institution if it compromises national security. Yet, despite the consequences, cyber criminals continue to wreak havoc across the globe. But some countries seem to be targeted more than others. Using data from SpecOps Software, this graphic looks at the countries that have experienced the most significant cyber attacks over the last two decades.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cyber-attacks-worldwide-2006-2020/

The Shape Of Fraud And Cyber Crime: 10 Things We Learned From 2020

While it remains true that the older you are, the greater the financial loss, why would fraudsters target the young, who are arguably less well off? The answer lies in volume. Criminals have been offsetting higher monetary gain for higher attack rates, capitalising on the fact that the young are perhaps both more liberal with personal information (and privacy in general) and, at the same time, heavy digital users (social media, surveys, games, and so on). In fact, it is scary to see how much value the humble email address can have for criminals. We often forget that once obtained, it can be used further down the line to commit more fraud.

https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/The-shape-of-fraud-and-cyber-crime-10-things-we-learned-from-2020

Is Third-Party Software Leaving You Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks?

When companies buy digital products, they expect them to be secure. In most cases, they do not test for vulnerabilities down the digital supply chain — and do not even have adequate processes or tools to do so. Hackers have taken note, and incidents of supply chain cyber attacks, which exploit weaknesses within the digital supply chain to break into organisations’ internal networks, are on the rise. As a result, there have been many headline incidents that not only bring shame to the companies involved, but rachet up the visibility of these threats to top executives who want to know their offerings are secure.

https://hbr.org/2021/05/is-third-party-software-leaving-you-vulnerable-to-cyberattacks

US Pipeline Ransomware Attack Serves As Fair Warning To Persistent Corporate Inertia Over Security

Organisations that continue to disregard the need to ensure they have adopted basic cyber security hygiene practices should be taken to task. This will be critical, especially as cyber criminals turn their attention to sectors where cyber threats can result in real-world risks, as demonstrated in the US Colonial Pipeline attack. In many of my conversations with cyber security experts, there is a shared sense of frustration that businesses still are failing to get some of the most basic things right. Default passwords are left unchanged, frontline staff and employees are still falling for common scams and phishing attacks, and major businesses think nothing of using technology that are decades old.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-pipeline-ransomware-attack-serves-as-fair-warning-to-persistent-corporate-inertia-over-security/

Ransomware Attackers Are Now Using Triple Extortion Tactics

The number of organisations affected by ransomware so far this year has more than doubled, compared with the same period in 2020, according to the report. Since April, Check Point researchers have observed an average of 1,000 organisations impacted by ransomware every week. For all of 2020, ransomware cost businesses worldwide around $20 billion, more than 75% higher than the amount in 2019. The healthcare sector has been seeing the highest volume of ransomware with around 109 attacks per organization each week. Amid news of a ransomware attack against gas pipeline company Colonial Pipeline, the utilities sector has experienced 59 attacks per organization per week. Organisations in the insurance and legal sector have been affected by 34 such attacks each week.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ransomware-attackers-are-now-using-triple-extortion-tactics/

AXA Pledges To Stop Reimbursing Ransom Payments For French Ransomware Victims

Insurance company AXA has revealed that, at the request of French government officials, it will end cyber insurance policies in France that pay ransomware victims back for ransoms paid out to cyber criminals. While unconfirmed, the Associated Press reported that the move was an industry first. AXA is one of the five biggest insurers in Europe and made the decision as ransomware attacks become a daily occurrence for organisations across the world.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/axa-pledges-to-stop-reimbursing-ransom-payments-for-french-ransomware-victims/

The Dystopic Future Of Cyber Security And The Importance Of Empowering CISOs

Over a decade ago, in 2007, the first iPhone was released and with it emerged an ecosystem of apps that continues to expand to this day. This was a watershed moment, not solely for the technology industry, but civilization. It was a catalyst for what was to come. Suddenly, every consumer could access the internet at a touch of a button, and the accumulation of their data by private companies began en masse. It was at this point that data was established as an increasingly valuable commodity, and in turn, became a heightened exploitation risk. It also instigated a wave of innovation that has yet to break and is only growing rapidly in pace. In this state, technology providers, users, and manufacturers get excited about new functionalities, new features, new developments, while little thought is given to the negative consequences that could arise as a result. Indeed, fear has no place in the state of innovation as it is this primal thinking that inhibits creativity.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/the-dystopic-future-of/

Cyber Security Experts Warn Over Online Wine Scams

Online wine scams became a bigger threat as cyber criminals sought to take advantage of more people and businesses organising virtual drinks and ordering bottles on the internet in the wake of Covid-19 restrictions, suggests the report. So-called ‘phishing emails’ were a particular concern, according to findings published in April by US-based group Recorded Future in partnership with Area 1 Security. From January 2020 onwards, the authors found a significant rise in legitimate wine-themed web domain registrations using terms like Merlot, Pinot, Chardonnay or Vino.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/cyber-security-experts-warn-over-online-wine-scams-457647/

Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Supply Chain

Nation State Actors

Privacy

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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 23 April 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 23 April 2021: Cyber Attacks Rise For Businesses, Pushing Many To The Brink; MI5 Warns Of Spies Using LinkedIn To Trick Staff; Sonicwall Warns Customers To Patch 3 Zero-Days Exploited In The Wild; FBI Removed Backdoors From Vulnerable Exchange Servers, Not Everyone Likes The Idea; Pulse Secure VPN Zero-Day Used To Hack Defense Firms & Govt Orgs; Solarwinds Hack Could Cost Insurance Firms $90M; Mount Locker Ransomware Aggressively Changes Up Tactics; QR Codes Offer Easy Cyber Attack Avenues as Usage Spikes

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

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Cyber Attacks On The Rise For Businesses, Pushing Many To The Brink

The proportion of businesses targeted by cyber criminals in the past year increased from 38% to 43%, with over a quarter of those targeted (28%) experiencing five attacks or more. Those attacks are pushing many firms to the brink, with one in six businesses attacked (17%) saying the financial impact materially threatened the company’s future. On a more positive note, the report shows firms are responding to the cyber challenge: mean spending per business on cyber security has more than doubled in the last two years.

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2021/04/19/610514.htm

MI5 Warns Of Spies Using Linkedin To Trick Staff Into Spilling Secrets

At least 10,000 UK nationals have been approached by fake profiles linked to hostile states, on the professional social network LinkedIn, over the past five years, according to MI5. It warned users who had accepted such connection requests might have then been lured into sharing secrets. A campaign has been launched to educate government workers about the threat. The 10,000-plus figure includes staff in virtually every government departments as well as key industries, who might be offered speaking or business and travel opportunities that could lead to attempts to recruit them to provide confidential information.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56812746

SonicWall Warns Customers To Patch 3 Zero-Days Exploited In The Wild

Security hardware manufacturer SonicWall is urging customers to patch a set of three zero-day vulnerabilities affecting both its on-premises and hosted Email Security products. "In at least one known case, these vulnerabilities have been observed to be exploited 'in the wild,'" SonicWall said in a security advisory published earlier today. The company said it is "imperative" that organisations using its Email Security hardware appliances, virtual appliances, or software installations on Microsoft Windows Server machines immediately upgrade to a patched version.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/sonicwall-warns-customers-to-patch-3-zero-days-exploited-in-the-wild/

The FBI Removed Hacker Backdoors From Vulnerable Microsoft Exchange Servers. Not Everyone Likes The Idea

The FBI had worked to remove malicious web shells from hundreds of computers in the United States that were running vulnerable versions of Microsoft Exchange Server. While the move will have helped keep many organisations secure, it has also raised questions about the direction of cyber security. Earlier this year, four zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server, which were being actively exploited by a nation-state-backed hacking operation, were uncovered. Microsoft released a critical security update to protect Exchange Server customers from cyber attacks exploiting the vulnerabilities in March, but a significant number of organisations have yet to apply the security patch.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-fbi-removed-hacker-backdoors-from-vulnerable-microsoft-exchange-servers-not-everyone-likes-the-idea/

Pulse Secure VPN Zero-Day Used To Hack Defense Firms, Govt Organisations

A zero-day authentication bypass vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) SSL VPN appliance actively exploited in attacks against worldwide organisations and focused on US Defence Industrial base networks. As a workaround, the vulnerability can be mitigated on some gateways by disabling Windows File Share Browser and Pulse Secure Collaboration features using instructions available in the security advisory published earlier today.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pulse-secure-vpn-zero-day-used-to-hack-defense-firms-govt-orgs/

SolarWinds Hack Could Cost Cyber Insurance Firms $90 Million

Cyber insurance vendors are expected to spend $90 million on incident response and forensic services for clients who were compromised by the SolarWinds hackers. “Although the SolarWinds attack is a cyber catastrophe from a national security perspective, insurers may have narrowly avoided a catastrophic financial incident to their businesses,” The Russian hackers behind the SolarWinds attack appear to have avoided large scale exploitation of victims, instead opting to maintain access and collect sensitive data. But if the SolarWinds hackers had been focused on interrupting business and destroying networks, the campaign could have been catastrophic for insurers.

https://www.crn.com/news/security/solarwinds-hack-could-cost-cyber-insurance-firms-90-million

Mount Locker Ransomware Aggressively Changes Up Tactics

The Mount Locker ransomware has shaken things up in recent campaigns with more sophisticated scripting and anti-prevention features, according to researchers. And, the change in tactics appears to coincide with a rebranding for the malware into “AstroLocker.” According to researchers, Mount Locker has been a swiftly moving threat. Having just hit the ransomware-as-a-service scene in the second half of 2020, the group released a major update in November that broadened its targeting capabilities (including searching for file extensions utilized by TurboTax tax-return software to encrypt). It also added improved detection evasion. Attacks have continued to escalate, and now, another major update signals “an aggressive shift in Mount Locker’s tactics,”.

https://threatpost.com/mount-locker-ransomware-changes-tactics/165559/

QR Codes Offer Easy Cyber Attack Avenues as Usage Spikes

The use of mobile quick-response (QR) codes in daily life, for both work and personal use, continues to rise – and yet, most people are not aware that these handy mobile shortcuts can open them up to savvy cyber attacks. A survey of 4,157 consumers across China, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. It found that 57 percent of respondents have increased their QR code usage since mid-March 2020, mainly because of the need for touchless transactions in the wake of COVID-19. In all, three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) said they have scanned a QR code before, with 43 percent having scanned a QR code in the past week.

https://threatpost.com/qr-codes-cyberattack-usage-spikes/165526/

Google Alerts Continues To Be A Hotbed Of Scams And Malware

Google Alerts continues to be a hotbed of scams and malware that threat actors are increasingly abusing to promote malicious websites. While Google Alerts has been abused for a long time, a significant increase in activity over the past couple of weeks. People use Google Alerts to monitor for various terms related to cyber attacks, security incidents, malware, etc. In one Google Alert, almost every new article shared with people today by the service led to a scam or malicious website.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-alerts-continues-to-be-a-hotbed-of-scams-and-malware/

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Malware

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency

Supply Chain

Nation State Actors

Denial of Service

Other News

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

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

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

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

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 March 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 March 2021: Tens Of Thousands Of Microsoft Exchange Customers Under Attack, Targeted By Multiple Hacker Groups; Over $4.2 Billion Officially Lost To Cyber Crime In 2020; Cyber Attacks Multiply On HNWIs; Largest Ransomware Demand Now Stands At $30 Million; 71 Percent Of Office 365 Users Suffer Malicious Account Takeovers; More Than 16 Million Covid-Themed Cyber Attacks Launched In 2020; Cyber Now Key To National Security;

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

Image by Muhammad Ribkhan from Pixabay

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Tens Of Thousands Of Microsoft Exchange Customers Are Under Assault From Hackers, Experts Warning Of Unprecedented Damage, Exploits Being Targeted By "At Least 10 Hacker Groups"

Four exploits in Microsoft Exchange Server hit the news last week, when we heard that a Chinese hacking group had targeted the email servers of some 30,000 U.S. government and commercial organisations. The exploits had been patched by Microsoft, but the hacking group known as “Hafnium” had doubled-up on efforts targeting unpatched servers. Security researchers found that at least 10 APT groups are taking advantage of the exploits in an attempt to compromise servers around the world. Winniti Group, Calypso, Tick, and more are among the groups identified.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88913-microsoft-exchange-server-exploits-targeted-least-10-hacker.html

Over $4.2 Billion Officially Lost To Cyber Crime In 2020

Cyber crime affecting victims in the U.S., noting a record number of complaints and financial losses in 2020 compared to the previous year. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received last year 791,790 complaints - up by 69% from 2019 - of suspected internet crime causing more than $4 billion in losses. While most complaints were for phishing, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion, about half of the losses are accounted by business email compromise (BEC), romance and confidence scams, and investment fraud.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-over-42-billion-officially-lost-to-cybercrime-in-2020/

Cyber Attacks Multiply On Wealthy Investors

An email nearly cost a wealthy British art collector £6m, after hackers monitored email correspondence between the client and an art dealer the client had been negotiating with for a year, with hackers impersonating the genuine art dealer, learning to impersonate the tone and language used — even gleaning private family news and the names of partners and children.

Just when the collector and the art dealer finally reached a conclusion on price, the client received an email to say something along the lines of, I hope the children are recovering from their colds — we have just amended our bank details for security and here they are. As it matched the tone of previous emails the art-loving client didn't think anything was amiss.

Fortunately, his family office phoned the real dealer to check the transaction before approving a transfer and the scam was discovered in time, but many people are not so lucky.

https://www.ft.com/content/cdfe8d97-6431-48e2-a8a7-7d760c6e9ed6

Cyber Strength Now Key To National Security, Says UK

In what has been billed as the largest security and foreign policy strategy revamp since the Cold War, the UK government has outlined new defence priorities – with at their heart, the imperative to boost the use of new technologies to safeguard the country. Prime minister Boris Johnson unveiled the integrated review this week, which has been in the making for over a year and will be used as a guide for spending decisions in the future. Focusing on foreign policy, defense and security, the review sets goals for the UK to 2025; and underpinning many of the targets is the objective of modernizing the country's armed forces.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/cyber-strength-now-key-to-national-security-says-uk/

Largest Ransomware Demand Now Stands At $30 Million As Crooks Get Bolder

Ransomware shows no sign of slowing down as the average ransom paid to cyber criminals by organisations that fall victim to these attacks has nearly tripled over the past year. Cyber security researchers analysed ransomware attacks targeting organisations across North America and Europe and found that the average ransom paid in exchange for a decryption key to unlock encrypted networks rose from $115,123 in 2019 to $312,493 in 2020.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/largest-ransomware-demand-now-stands-at-30-million-as-crooks-get-bolder/

Mimecast: SolarWinds Attackers Stole Source Code

Hackers who compromised Mimecast networks as part of the SolarWinds espionage campaign have swiped some of the security firm’s source code repositories, according to an update by the company. The email security firm initially reported that a certificate compromise in January was part of the sprawling SolarWinds supply-chain attack that also hit Microsoft, FireEye and several U.S. government agencies.

https://threatpost.com/mimecast-solarwinds-attackers-stole-source-code/164847/

71 Percent Of Office 365 Users Suffer Malicious Account Takeovers

88 percent of companies have accelerated their cloud and digital transformation projects due to COVID-19. But it also finds that 71 percent of Microsoft Office 365 deployments have suffered an account takeover of a legitimate user's account, not just once, but on average seven times in the last year.

https://betanews.com/2021/03/17/office-365-malicious-account-takeovers/

More Than 16 Million Covid-Themed Cyber Attacks Launched In 2020

COVID-19 dominated everyone's lives throughout 2020 but a new report from a cyber security company found that the pandemic was also the main theme of nearly 16.5 million threats and attacks launched against its customers. Researchers wrote that they dealt with 16,393,564 threats that had a COVID-19-related tint to them, with 88% of the threats coming in spam emails and another 11% coming in the form of URLs. Malware accounted for 0.2%, or nearly 33,000, of the threats

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/more-than-16-million-covid-themed-cyberattacks-launched-in-2020/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

“Expert” Hackers Used 11 0-Days To Infect Windows, iOS, And Android Users

Using novel exploitation and obfuscation techniques, a mastery of a wide range of vulnerability types, and a complex delivery infrastructure, the group exploited four zero-days in February 2020. The hackers’ ability to chain together multiple exploits that compromised fully patched Windows and Android devices led members of Google’s Project Zero and Threat Analysis Group to call the group “highly sophisticated.”

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/03/expert-hackers-used-11-zerodays-to-infect-windows-ios-and-android-users/

Cyber Attacks: Is The ‘Big One’ Coming Soon?

2020 was the year that the COVID-19 crisis also brought a cyber pandemic. Late last year, the security industry’s top experts from global cyber security company leadership predicted even worse cyber security outcomes for 2021 compared to what we saw in 2020. In December, we learned about how SolarWinds’ Orion vulnerability was compromised, causing one of the worst data breaches in history that is still evolving for about 18,000 organisations.

https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/cyber-attacks-is-the-big-one-coming-soon.html

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Malware

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation-State Actors

Denial of Service

Privacy

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

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

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

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

Read More