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Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 09/09/2022 – Cisco provides patches to address vulnerabilities across product range

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 09/09/2022 – Cisco provides patches to address CVEs across product range

Executive Summary

Cisco has released patches to address two high-severity and one medium severity security flaws within their product range. One vulnerability, which affects Cisco Catalyst 8000V software can allow a remote malicious actor to trigger a denial of service condition. The other high vulnerability could allow for an unauthenticated attacker who has access to a VPN network to change configuration settings, or cause the system to reload. Cisco also disclosed knowledge of an IPSec VPN Server Authentication Bypass vulnerability which could allow a malicious attacker to bypass authentication onto the VPN escalate to administrator privileges on an affected device. As affected devices are now out of support, with an end-of-life notice issued, Cisco will not be providing a patch for these devices.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

The first high vulnerability relates the Cisco cloud virtual routing software, 8000V Edge and Nvidia MLX5 network cards. The vulnerability itself was disclosed by Nvidia, and affects underlying software which is utilised by Cisco, and can be used by a malicious attacker to cause an error condition on the device, which would then cause denial of service. If hybrid business systems are being routed using this product, then there is a possibility of down-time until the issue is patched.

The second vulnerability relates to the CSD-WAN vManage software containers, that could allow an attacker who already has access to the organisations VPN0 network to further compromise critical network infrastructure resulting in a potential loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The third medium severity vulnerability relates to the Cisco Webex Meetings app, which could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to change the content of links and messages within the application interface, which could lead to a phishing or spoofing attack.

Vulnerability that won’t be fixed in End of Life Devices

Separate to this, Cisco says that a new authentication bypass flaw affecting multiple small business VPN routers will not be patched because the devices have reached end-of-life (EoL).

This zero-day bug (CVE-2022-20923) is caused by a faulty password validation algorithm that attackers could exploit to log into the VPN on vulnerable devices using what the company describes as "crafted credentials" if the IPSec VPN Server feature is enabled.

As this vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated malicious attacker to bypass authentication and gain access to the IPSec VPN network and can gain administrative access, compromising the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the network, any unsupported devices should be replaced.

What can I do?

Cisco has released software updates to address the vulnerabilities, which are available for download from their website, and should be applied in line with the organisation’s vulnerability management process to limit availability impact to the business. It is also critical to ensure that all devices in use by an organisation are currently being supported by the vendor, as otherwise like in this case, critical security vulnerabilities could be disclosed without any option but to purchase new equipment. The affected equipment stopped receiving software support from Cisco in December 2020.

Technical Summary

The following is a breakdown of the vulnerabilities with the affected Cisco products.

CVE-2022-28199: A remote denial of service vulnerability relating to the DPDK Nvidia Library feature, with a CVSS 3.0 rating of 8.6, which allows a malicious attacker to cause an error condition on the device, resulting in the device reloading or failing to receive traffic, resulting in a DoS condition. Affected Software:

 ·      Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software

·       Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASAv)

·       Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly FTDv)

 Further information on this specific vulnerability can be found here: Vulnerability in NVIDIA Data Plane Development Kit Affecting Cisco Products: August 2022

 CVE-2022-20696: A remote vulnerability with a CVSS 3.0 rating of 7.5, which allows a malicious attacker who has the ability to send network traffic to interfaces within the VPN0 logical network to exploit the lack of sufficient protection mechanisms on the messaging server container ports, allowing the attacker to view and inject messages into the messaging service, which could allow for configuration changes or cause the system to reload. Affected software:

·       Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software

Further information on this specific vulnerability can be found here: Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software Unauthenticated Access to Messaging Services Vulnerability

CVE-2022-20863: A vulnerability with a CVSS 3.0 rating of 4.3, which allows an unauthenticated malicious attacker to exploit a vulnerability within the character rendering of the Cisco Webex Meetings interface to modify the display of links or other content within the interface, allowing an attacker to potentially conduct phishing or spoofing attackers.

 Further information on this specific vulnerability can be found here: Cisco Webex Meetings App Character Interface Manipulation Vulnerability

 CVE-2022-20923: A vulnerability with a CVSS 3.0 rating of 4.0, which allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to exploit a vulnerability within the password validation algorithm to bypass authentication controls and gain access to the IPSec VPN Network. The attacker may even be able to obtain privileges at administrator level depending on the credentials used. No patch will be released for this vulnerability. Affected products:

 ·      RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall

·       RV130 VPN Router

·       RV130W Wireless-N Multifunction VPN Router

·       RV215W Wireless-N VPN Router

 Further information on this specific vulnerability can be found here: Cisco Small Business RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W Routers IPSec VPN Server Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

 Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 August 2022

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 August 2022

-Three Ransomware Gangs Consecutively Attacked the Same Network

-As The Cost of Cyber Insurance Rises, The Number of Organisations Who Can’t Afford It Is Set to Double

-Identity Cyber Attacks, Microsoft 365 Dominate Cybersecurity Incidents, Expel Research Finds

-Exploit Activity Surges 150% in Q2 Thanks to Log4Shell

-Ransomware Is Not Going Anywhere: Attacks Are Up 24%

-Email Is the Single Biggest Threat to Businesses, And Here’s What You Can Do About It

-Realtek SDK Vulnerability Exposes Routers from Many Vendors to Remote Attacks

-Most Companies Are at An Entry-Level When It Comes to Cloud Security

-The Impact of Exploitable Misconfigurations on Network Security

-Industrial Spy Ransomware: New Threat Group Emerges to Exfiltrate Data, Extort Victims

-UK NHS Service Recovery May Take a Month After MSP Ransomware Attack

-A Single Flaw Broke Every Layer of Security in MacOS

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

  • Three Ransomware Gangs Consecutively Attacked the Same Network

Hive, LockBit and BlackCat, three prominent ransomware gangs, consecutively attacked the same network, according to Sophos. The first two attacks took place within two hours, and the third attack took place two weeks later. Each ransomware gang left its own ransom demand, and some of the files were triple encrypted.

It’s bad enough to get one ransomware note, let alone three. Multiple attackers create a whole new level of complexity for recovery, particularly when network files are triple encrypted. Cyber security that includes prevention, detection and response is critical for organisations of any size and type—no business is immune.

The “Multiple Attackers: A Clear and Present Danger” whitepaper further outlines additional cases of overlapping cyber attacks, including cryptominers, remote access trojans (RATs) and bots. In the past, when multiple attackers have targeted the same system, the attacks usually occurred across many months or multiple years. The attacks described in Sophos’ whitepaper took place within days or weeks of each other—and, in one case, simultaneously—often with the different attackers accessing a target’s network through the same vulnerable entry point.

Typically, criminal groups compete for resources, making it more difficult for multiple attackers to operate simultaneously. Cryptominers normally kill their competitors on the same system, and today’s RATs often highlight bot killing as a feature on criminal forums. However, in the attack involving the three ransomware groups, for example, BlackCat—the last ransomware group on the system—not only deleted traces of its own activity, but also deleted the activity of LockBit and Hive.

In another case, a system was infected by LockBit ransomware. Then, about three months later, members of Karakurt Team, a group with reported ties to Conti, was able to leverage the backdoor LockBit created to steal data and hold it for ransom.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/09/ransomware-gangs-attacks/

  • As The Cost of Cyber Insurance Rises, The Number of Organisations Who Can’t Afford It Is Set to Double

The number of organisations that will be either unable to afford cyber insurance, be declined cover, or experience significant coverage limitations is set to double in 2023, according to Huntsman Security.

Even for those insured, the perfect storm of ongoing attacks, tightening regulations and growing financial pressures is making it more likely that any attack on an organisation will leave it exposed.

Factors like the supply chain crisis, inflation and skill shortages are all adding to the difficulty for organisations trying to execute on their cyber security strategy. At the same time, increases in insurance premiums, limits on coverage, increasing underwriting rigour, and capacity constraints are all limiting the accessibility of cyber insurance, for many.

Loss ratios will not improve until premium incomes better match the current level of pay-outs. With this reduced insurance access alongside increasing cyber threats and tightening regulations, many organisations are losing cyber insurance as an important risk management tool. Even those who can still get insurance are paying a prohibitively high cost.

With a third of UK firms subject to cyber attacks at least once a week, cyber insurance as part of overall risk management is crucial. To bridge this accessibility gap insurers are seeking to improve the quality of risk information, so premiums better reflect the true cost of that risk. Unless organisations can demonstrate they have insurers’ specified controls in place to manage their security risks, insurers will continue to have difficulty quantifying that risk. It’s for these reasons that insurers have changed the basis upon which their products are offered to reflect the risk being underwritten more accurately.

In this environment, improving and demonstrating the effectiveness of security controls will now be essential: both for organisations looking to improve their cyber resilience and oversight while enhancing their eligibility for insurers, and for insurers who need to minimise their own exposure by ensuring the accuracy of their risk pricing process.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/11/afford-cyber-insurance/

  • Identity Cyber Attacks, Microsoft 365 Dominate Cyber Security Incidents, Expel Research Finds

Identity-based cyber attacks (including credential theft, credential abuse and long-term access key theft) accounted for 56% of all incidents in Q2 of 2022, and Microsoft 365 remained the prime target for SaaS attacks, according to Expel’s Quarterly Threat Report.

Among the key findings:

  • Business email compromise (BEC) and business application compromise (BAC) access to application data represented 51% of all incidents.

  • Identity-based attacks in popular cloud environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounted for 5%.

  • Ransomware groups change tactics, with threat groups and their affiliates all but abandoning the use of Visual Basic for Application (VBA) macros and Excel 4.0 macros to gain initial entry to Windows-based environments. In Q1, a macro-enabled Microsoft Word document (VBA macro) or Excel 4.0 macro was the initial attack vector in 55% of all pre-ransomware incidents. In Q2, that figure fell sharply to 9%. Instead, ransomware operators opted to use disk image (ISO), short-cut (LNK) and HTML application (HTA) files to gain initial entry.

  • Cloud attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with 14% of identity attacks against cloud identity providers tackling the multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirement by continuously sending push notifications.

  • Microsoft 365 is a common threat target, with BEC in Microsoft Office 365 (O365) remaining the top threat to organisations in Q2. 45% of all Q2 incidents were BEC attempts in O365. No BEC attempts were identified in Google Workspaces. 19% of BEC attempts bypassed MFA in O365 using legacy protocols, a 16% increase of compared to Q1.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/identity-cyberattacks-targeting-microsoft-365-dominate-cybersecurity-incidents-expel-research-finds/

  • Exploit Activity Surges 150% in Q2 Thanks to Log4Shell

Detections of malware events, botnet activity and exploits all increased significantly in the second quarter of 2022, according to new data from Nuspire.

The managed security services provider (MSSP) gathered the data from its endpoint detection and response (EDR) and managed detection and response (MDR) tools to produce its Q2 2022 Quarterly Threat Report.

The company recorded an increase in malware events of over 25%, a doubling of botnet detections and a rise in exploit activity of 150% versus the first quarter.

Botnet activity in particular surged towards the end of Q2, thanks to the Torpig Mebroot botnet – a banking trojan designed to scrape credit card and payment information from infected devices, the report revealed. Nuspire claimed it is particularly difficult to detect and remove, because it targets a machine’s master boot record.

It attributed much of the surge in exploit activity to the persistent threat posed by the Log4j bugs discovered at the end of December 2021. At the time, experts warned that the ubiquity of the utility, and the difficulty many organisations have in finding all instances of the CVE due to complex Java dependencies, means it may be exploited for years.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/exploit-activity-150-q2-log4shell/

  • Ransomware Is Not Going Anywhere: Attacks Are Up 24%

Avast released a report revealing a significant increase in global ransomware attacks, up 24% from Q1/2022. Researchers also uncovered a new zero-day exploit in Chrome, as well as signals of how cyber criminals are preparing to move away from macros as an infection vector.

After months of decline, global ransomware attacks increased significantly in Q2/2022, up 24% from the previous quarter. The highest quarter-on-quarter increases in ransomware risk ratio occurred in Argentina (+56%), UK (+55%), Brazil (+50%), France (+42%), and India (+37%).

Businesses and consumers should be on guard and prepared for encounters with ransomware, as the threat is not going anywhere anytime soon.

The decline in ransomware attacks observed in Q4/2021 and Q1/2022 were thanks to law enforcement agencies busting ransomware group members, and caused by the war in Ukraine, which also led to disagreements within the Conti ransomware group, halting their operations. Things dramatically changed in Q2/2022. Conti members have now branched off to create new ransomware groups, like Black Basta and Karakurt, or may join other existing groups, like Hive, BlackCat, or Quantum, causing an uptick in activity.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/12/increase-ransomware-attacks/

  • Email Is the Single Biggest Threat to Businesses, And Here’s What You Can Do About It

Email remains one of the most popular methods of communication, particularly for business communications. There were 316.9 billion emails sent and received every day in 2021, and this is set to increase to 376.4 billion by 2025. But despite the scale of its use and how much people exchange confidential information over email, it is not a secure system by design.

Consequently, email is a major attack vector for organisations of all sizes. Deloitte found that 91% of all cyber attacks originate from a phishing email (an email that attempts to steal money, identity or personal information through a spoof website link that looks legitimate). The cost to organisations can be catastrophic with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reporting in August 2021 that phishing email attacks had cost UK organisations more than £5 million in the past 13 months.

It’s not enough for individuals to create complex passwords or rely on the security services of their email provider. Spam filters are not enough to stop malicious emails creeping into inboxes. Fortunately, safeguarding your emails with enterprise-grade email security doesn’t have to cost the earth or be hard to integrate so businesses of any size can protect themselves.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/articles/email-is-the-single-biggest-threat-to-businesses-and-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it/

  • Realtek SDK Vulnerability Exposes Routers from Many Vendors to Remote Attacks

A serious vulnerability affecting the embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) software development kit (SDK) made by Taiwanese semiconductor company Realtek could expose the networking devices of many vendors to remote attacks.

The security hole, tracked as CVE-2022-27255 and rated ‘high severity’, has been described as a stack-based buffer overflow that can allow a remote attacker to cause a crash or achieve arbitrary code execution on devices that use the SDK. An attack can be carried out through the wide area network (WAN) interface using specially crafted session initiation protocol (SIP) packets.

The Realtek eCos SDK is provided to companies that manufacture routers, access points and repeaters powered by RTL819x family SoCs. The SDK implements the base functionalities of the router, including the web administration interface and the networking stack. Vendors can build on top of this SDK to add custom functionality and their branding to the device.

Realtek informed customers about the eCos SDK vulnerability in March, when it announced the availability of a patch. However, it’s up to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) using the SDK to ensure that the patch is distributed to end-user devices.

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely — directly from the internet — to hack affected routers running with default settings. No user interaction is required for successful exploitation.

https://www.securityweek.com/realtek-sdk-vulnerability-exposes-routers-many-vendors-remote-attacks

  • Most Companies Are at An Entry-Level When It Comes to Cloud Security

Ermetic released a study by Osterman Research that found 84% of respondents were at an entry-level (one or two rating, with four being the highest) in terms of their cloud security capabilities.

The study found that only 16% ranked on the Ermetic Cloud Security Model at the top two levels, and 80% of companies said they lack a dedicated security team responsible for protecting cloud resources from threats.

“One of the most unexpected findings that emerged from this study was the lack of cloud security maturity among the largest enterprises surveyed,” said the author of the report. “Less than 10% of companies with more than 10,000 employees reported being at the top two maturity levels, while nearly 20% of smaller enterprises have achieved repeatable or automated & integrated cloud security capabilities.”

The report shows why new cloud data breaches are being reported all the time. Multi-cloud deployments, plus low investment in security, does not make for a good combination.

The new frontiers of cyber security, such as cloud security or internet of things (IoT) security are often at early stages of maturity. Organisations that are mature in their IT and data centre security are already overwhelmed and stretched thin and that’s why automation and simplification will help organisations accelerate their maturity in areas like cloud security.

There’s a mistaken belief that cloud computing environments inherently have security built-in — they don’t.

https://www.scmagazine.com/news/cloud-security/most-companies-are-at-an-entry-level-when-it-comes-to-cloud-security

  • The Impact of Exploitable Misconfigurations on Network Security

Network professionals feel confident with their security and compliance practices but data suggests that they also leave their organisations open to risk, which is costing a significant amount of revenue, according to Titania.

In addition, some businesses are not minimising their attack surface effectively. Companies are prioritising firewall security and chronicle a fast time to respond to misconfigurations when detected in annual audits. However, switches and routers are only included in 4% of audits and these devices play a vital role in reducing an organisation’s attack surface and preventing lateral movement across the network.

Respondents also indicated that financial resources allocated to mitigating network configuration, which currently stands around 3.4% of the total IT budget, and a lack of accurate automation are limiting factors in misconfiguration risk management.

The study, which surveyed 160 senior cyber security decision-makers revealed:

  • Misconfigurations cost organisations millions, up to 9% of their annual revenue but the true cost is likely to be higher.

  • Compliance is a top priority, with 75% of organisations across all sectors saying their business relies on compliance to deliver security. Whilst almost every organisation reported that it is meeting its security and compliance requirements, this is at odds with a number of the other findings from the survey and other reports that show a decline in organisations maintaining full compliance with regulated data security standards.

  • Remediation prioritisation is a challenge. 75% said their network security tools meant they could categorise and prioritise compliance risks ‘very effectively’. However, 70% report difficulties prioritising remediation based on risk and also claim inaccurate automation as the top challenges when meeting security and compliance requirements.

  • Routers and switches are mostly overlooked. 96% of organisations prioritise the configuration and auditing of firewalls, but not routers or switches. This leaves these devices exposed to potentially significant and unidentified risks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/12/impact-exploitable-misconfigurations-network-security/

  • Industrial Spy Ransomware: New Threat Group Emerges to Exfiltrate Data, Extort Victims

A new ransomware group dubbed Industrial Spy that first emerged in April 2022 is specialising in exfiltration and double extortion tactics and has the potential to do significant damage, Zscaler’s threat tracking team said.

The threat crew has shown that it possesses the capability to breach organisations and have been “actively adding unencrypted data from two or three victims every month,” Zscaler said. In some instances, the threat group appears to only exfiltrate and ransom data. In other cases, they encrypt, exfiltrate and ransom the data, the cloud security provider said.

At this point, it’s not clear who’s behind the threat entry or if it’s nation-state affiliated. The group started as a data extortion marketplace where criminals could buy large companies’ internal data, promoting the marketplace through Readme.txt files downloaded using malware downloaders.

In May, 2022, the threat group introduced their own ransomware to create double extortion attacks that combine data theft with file encryption.

What you need to know:

  • Industrial Spy started by ransoming stolen data and more recently has combined these attacks with ransomware.

  • The threat group exfiltrates and sells data on their dark web marketplace, but does not always encrypt a victim’s files.

  • The ransomware utilises a combination of RSA and 3DES to encrypt files.

  • Industrial Spy lacks many common features present in modern ransomware families.

  • The Industrial Spy ransomware family is relatively basic, and parts of the code appear to be in development.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-breaches-and-attacks/ransomware/new-ransomware-family-industrial-spy-emerges-to-exfiltrate-data-extort-victims/

  • UK NHS Service Recovery May Take a Month After MSP Ransomware Attack

Managed service provider (MSP) Advanced confirmed that a ransomware attack on its systems disrupted emergency services (111) from the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS). Customers of seven solutions from the British MSP have been impacted either directly or indirectly, the company said. The first has stated it could take a month to recover systems to full service.

The ransomware attack started to disrupt Advanced systems on Thursday, August 4 and was identified around 7 AM. It caused a major outage to NHS emergency services across the UK.

Advanced did not disclose the ransomware group behind the attack but said that it took immediate action to mitigate the risk and isolated Health and Care environments where the incident was detected. The company is working with forensic experts from Microsoft (DART) and Mandiant, who are also helping bring the affected systems back online securely and with added defences:

  • Implementing additional blocking rules and further restricting privileged accounts for Advanced staff

  • Scanning all impacted systems and ensuring they are fully patched

  • Resetting credentials

  • Deploying additional endpoint detection and response agents

  • Conducting 24/7 monitoring

After implementing the security measures above, Advanced said it would restore connectivity to its environments and assist customers to gradually reconnect safely and securely.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/uk-nhs-service-recovery-may-take-a-month-after-msp-ransomware-attack/

  • A Single Flaw Broke Every Layer of Security in MacOS

Every time you shut down your Mac, a pop-up appears: “Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?” Nestled under the prompt is another option most of us likely overlook: the choice to reopen the apps and windows you have open now when your machine is turned back on. Researchers have now found a way to exploit a vulnerability in this “saved state” feature—and it can be used to break the key layers of Apple’s security protections.

The vulnerability, which is susceptible to a process injection attack to break macOS security, could allow an attacker to read every file on a Mac or take control of the webcam. It's basically one vulnerability that could be applied to three different locations.

https://www.wired.com/story/a-single-flaw-broke-every-layer-of-security-in-macos/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; SMishing, Vishing, etc

Malware

Mobile

Internet of Things – IoT

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Cloud/SaaS

Open Source

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Privacy

Travel

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Models, Frameworks and Standards

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




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


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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 November 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 November 2021

-Insurers Run From Ransomware Cover As Losses Mount

-The Ransomware Threat Is Getting Worse. But Businesses Still Aren't Taking It Seriously

-Ransomware Is Now A Giant Black Hole That Is Sucking In All Other Forms Of Cyber Crime

-52% Of SMBs Have Experienced A Cyber Attack In The Last Year

-Ransomware Phishing Emails Sneak Through SEGs

-Reality Check: Your Security Hygiene Is Worse Than You Think It Is

-The Covid-19 Crisis Has Fueled The Increase Of Cyber Crime In All Its Forms

-Ransomware Attacks Are Getting More Complex And Even Harder To Prevent

-Most Ransomware Attacks Rely On Exploiting Older, Unpatched Vulnerabilities

-Out-Of-Hours Ransomware Attacks Have A Greater Impact On Revenue

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

Insurers Run From Ransomware Cover As Losses Mount

Insurers have halved the amount of cyber cover they provide to customers after the pandemic and home-working drove a surge in ransomware attacks that left them smarting from hefty payouts.

Faced with increased demand, major European and US insurers and syndicates operating in the Lloyd's of London market have been able to charge higher premium rates to cover ransoms, the repair of hacked networks, business interruption losses and even PR fees to mend reputational damage.

But the increase in ransomware attacks and the growing sophistication of attackers have made insurers wary. Insurers say some attackers may even check whether potential victims have policies that would make them more likely to pay out.

"Insurers are changing their appetites, limits, coverage and pricing," Caspar Stops, head of cyber at insurance firm Optio, said. "Limits have halved – where people were offering 10 million pounds ($13.50 million), nearly everyone has reduced to five."

Lloyd's of London, which has around a fifth of the global cyber market, has discouraged its 100-odd syndicate members from taking on cyber business next year, industry sources say on condition of anonymity. Lloyd's declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/insurers-run-ransomware-cover-losses-mount-2021-11-19/

The Ransomware Threat Is Getting Worse. But Businesses Still Aren't Taking It Seriously

Ransomware is the most significant cybersecurity threat facing the country today, but many businesses still aren't taking the threat as seriously as they should be, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned.

In its newly published annual review, the NCSC – the cybersecurity arm of intelligence agency GCHQ – details the incidents and threats the UK has faced during the past 12 months, including cyberattacks against the health service and vaccine developers during the coronavirus pandemic, state-sponsored cyber-espionage campaigns, phishing scams and more.

But, because of the likely impact a successful attack could have on essential services or critical national infrastructure, it's ransomware that is viewed as the most dangerous cyber threat – and one that more leadership teams need to think about.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-ransomware-threat-is-getting-worse-but-businesses-still-arent-taking-it-seriously/

Ransomware Is Now A Giant Black Hole That Is Sucking In All Other Forms Of Cyber Crime

File-encrypting malware is where the money is -- and that's changing the whole online crime ecosystem.

Ransomware is so lucrative for the gangs involved that other parts of the cybercrime ecosystem are being repurposed into a system for delivering potential victims.

"The gravitational force of ransomware's black hole is pulling in other cyberthreats to form one massive, interconnected ransomware delivery system -- with significant implications for IT security," said security company Sophos in a report.

Ransomware is considered by many experts to be most pressing security risk facing businesses -- and its extremely lucrative for the gangs involved, with ransom payouts increasing significantly.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-is-now-a-giant-black-hole-that-is-sucking-in-all-other-forms-of-cybercrime/

52% Of SMBs Have Experienced A Cyber Attack In The Last Year

The consequences of a breach have never been more severe, with global cybercrime collectively totalling $16.4 billion each day, a Devolutions survey reveals.

A recent study by IBM revealed that organizations with fewer than 500 employees had an average data breach cost of $2.98 million per incident in 2021. As has been reported, approximately 60% of SMBs go out of business within six months of getting hacked.

Smaller companies are not exempt from cyberattacks; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Yet many of the tools and resources that larger companies have at their disposal to protect them from cyber attacks are not befitting for smaller companies. There is a gap in the market.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/19/smbs-cyberattack/

Ransomware Phishing Emails Sneak Through SEGs

Secure email gateway (SEG) protections aren’t necessarily enough to stop phishing emails from delivering ransomware to employees, especially if the cybercrooks are using legitimate cloud services to host malicious pages.

Researchers are raising the alarm over a phishing email kicking off a Halloween-themed MICROP ransomware offensive, which they observed making its way to a target’s inbox despite its being secured by an SEG.

https://threatpost.com/ransomware-phishing-emails-segs/176470/

Reality Check: Your Security Hygiene Is Worse Than You Think It Is

Sevco Security published a report which explores the gap between perceptions and realities of security hygiene and asset management. Leveraging findings from ESG’s “Security Hygiene and Posture Management Survey,” Sevco’s report addresses five unfounded perceptions that many security teams assume to be true and the realities that unveil alarming security risks.

The report reveals that the perception of good security hygiene often leads to gaps in asset inventory that leave organizations open to security incidents. One such gap is the assumption that organizations have an accurate understanding of asset inventory. The reality is that on average, organizations discover 20-30% previously unknown devices once various inventory sources have been analysed and reconciled.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/18/perception-good-security-hygiene/

The Covid-19 Crisis Has Fueled The Increase Of Cyber Crime In All Its Forms

The accelerated digitalization related to the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the development of a number of cyber threats, according to the new edition of Europol’s Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment.

Criminals have been quick to abuse the current circumstances to increase profits, spreading their tentacles to various areas and exposing vulnerabilities, connected to systems, hospitals or individuals.

While ransomware groups have taken advantage of widespread teleworking, scammers have abused COVID-19 fears and the fruitless search for cures online to defraud victims or gain access to their bank accounts. The increase of online shopping in general has attracted more fraudsters. With children spending a lot more time online, especially during lockdowns, grooming and dissemination of self-produced explicit material have increased significantly.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/11/18/covid-19-cybercrime/

Ransomware Attacks Are Getting More Complex And Even Harder To Prevent

Ransomware attackers are probing known common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) for weaknesses and quickly capitalizing on them, launching attacks faster than vendor teams can patch them. Unfortunately, ransomware attackers are also making attacks more complex, costly, and challenging to identify and stop, acting on potential targets’ weaknesses faster than enterprises can react.

Two recent research studies — Ivanti’s latest ransomware report, conducted with Cyber Security Works and Cyware, and a second study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Cyware — show there’s a widening gap between how quickly enterprises can identify a ransomware threat versus the quickness of a cyberattack. Both studies provide a stark assessment of how far behind enterprises are on identifying and stopping ransomware attacks.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/13/ransomware-attacks-are-getting-more-complex-and-even-harder-to-prevent/

Most Ransomware Attacks Rely On Exploiting Older, Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Ransomware attackers exploited a dozen new vulnerabilities in campaigns in Q3 2021, bringing the total number of vulnerabilities associated with ransomware to 278, claims a new report.

Compiled by cybersecurity vendor Ivanti, the report reveals that ransomware groups are continuing to grow in sophistication, boldness, and volume, with numbers up across the board since Q2 2021.

It tracked a 4.5% increase in CVEs associated with ransomware in Q3 2021, along with a similar increase in actively exploited and trending vulnerabilities, along with a 3.4% increase in ransomware families, as compared to Q2 2021.

https://www.techradar.com/news/most-ransomware-attacks-rely-on-exploiting-older-unpatched-vulnerabilities

Out-Of-Hours Ransomware Attacks Have A Greater Impact On Revenue

Ransomware attacks at weekends and holidays are throwing victims into disarray, according to a study released by security company Cybereason.

The report, “Organizations at Risk: Ransomware Attackers Don’t Take Holidays,” surveyed security professionals whose organizations suffered a ransomware attack during a holiday or weekend in the last 12 months. It found 86% of them reported missing holiday or weekend activities with friends and family when responding to these attacks.

Of those surveyed, 60% take longer to assess the scope of an attack that happened over the weekend or on a holiday. Half said out-of-hours attacks led to a slower response overall.

One problem was assembling the right team, with just over a third reporting difficulties in getting the necessary people together. When those people do clock in unexpectedly, they might not be fully fit for duty. In fact, 70% were intoxicated when called in to address the attack, the report added.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/ransomware/361591/out-of-hours-ransomware-attacks-have-a-greater-impact-on-revenue


Threats

Ransomware

BEC - Business Email Compromise

Phishing

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Financial Services Sector

Health Sector


Reports Published in the Last Week



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 10 September 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 10 September 2021

-91% Of IT Teams Have Felt 'Forced' To Trade Security For Business Operations

-Ransomware Attacks Increased Exponentially In 2021

-One In Three Suspect Phishing Emails Reported By Employees Really Are Malicious

-Hackers Shift From Malware To Credential Hijacking

-Attacker Breakout Time Now Less Than 30 Minutes

-Hackers Leak VPN Account Passwords From 87,000 Fortinet FortiGate Devices

-The Impact Of Ransomware On Cyber Insurance Driving The Need For Broader Cyber Security Knowledge

-Hackers Exploit Camera Vulnerabilities To Spy On Parents

-39% Of All Internet Traffic Is From Bad Bots

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

91% Of IT Teams Have Felt 'Forced' To Trade Security For Business Operations

A new survey suggests that most IT staff have felt pressured to ignore security concerns in favour of business operations. On Thursday, a new study report was released, which combines data from an online YouGov survey targeting office workers that adopted WFH and global research conducted with IT decision-makers. In total, 91% of those surveyed said that they have felt "pressured" to compromise security due to the need for business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic. 76% of respondents said that security had taken a backseat, and furthermore, 83% believe that working from home has created a "ticking time bomb" for corporate security incidents. https://www.zdnet.com/article/91-of-it-teams-have-felt-forced-to-trade-security-for-business-operations/

Ransomware Attacks Increased Exponentially In 2021

The growing threat of ransomware has been highlighted by NCC Group's Research Intelligence and Fusion Team (RIFT) analysis. Between January-March 2021 and April-June 2021, the number of ransomware assaults studied by the team climbed by 288%, indicating that enterprises are still facing waves of digital extortion in the form of targeted ransomware. https://www.ehackingnews.com/2021/09/ransomware-attacks-increased.html

Phishing Attacks: One In Three Suspect Emails Reported By Employees Really Are Malicious

All the time spent ticking boxes in cyber security training sessions seems to be paying off after all: according to a new report, about a third of emails reported by employees really are malicious or highly suspect, demonstrating the effectiveness of the well-established maxim "Think before you click".  Researchers analysed over 200,000 emails that were flagged by employees from organisations across the globe in the first half of 2021 and found that 33% of the reports could be classified as phishing. https://www.zdnet.com/article/phishing-attacks-one-in-three-suspect-emails-reported-by-employees-really-are-malicious/

Hackers Shift From Malware To Credential Hijacking

Adversaries are relying less on malware to conduct attacks that are consequently more difficult to detect, according to an annual report conducted by researchers. “According to data from our customer base indexed by Threat Graph, 68% of detections from the last three months were not malware-based,” reads the report released Wednesday. “Attackers are increasingly attempting to accomplish their objectives without writing malware to the endpoint, using legitimate credentials and built-in tools (living off the land)—which are deliberate efforts to evade detection by traditional antivirus products.” https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2021/09/report-hackers-shift-malware-credential-hacking/185209/

Attacker Breakout Time Now Less Than 30 Minutes

The average time it takes threat actors to move from initial access to lateral movement has fallen by 67% over the past year, putting extra pressure on security operations (SecOps) teams, according to researchers. The findings come from researchers own investigations with customers across around 248,000 unique global endpoints. For incidents where this “breakout time” could be derived over the past year, it averaged just 1 hour 32 minutes. However, in over a third (36%) of intrusions, adversaries managed to move laterally to additional hosts in under 30 minutes. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/attacker-breakout-time-now-less/

Hackers Leak VPN Account Passwords From 87,000 Fortinet FortiGate Devices

Network security solutions provider Fortinet confirmed that a malicious actor had unauthorizedly disclosed VPN login names and passwords associated with 87,000 FortiGate SSL-VPN devices. "These credentials were obtained from systems that remained unpatched at the time of the actor's scan. While they may have since been patched, if the passwords were not reset, they remain vulnerable," the company said in a statement on Wednesday. https://thehackernews.com/2021/09/hackers-leak-vpn-account-passwords-from.html

53% Find It Difficult To Prevent An Insider Attack During Data Aggregation

Recent data from researchers found that 53% of companies find it impossible or very difficult to prevent an insider attack when data is being aggregated, a key indicator of intent of an attack. The vast majority of security threats follow a pattern or sequence of activity leading up to an attack, and insider threats are no exception. To fully understand any insider incident, visibility into the entire kill chain of an attack is imperative to preventing the exfiltration of critical data. https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/02/53-find-it-difficult-to-prevent-an-insider-attack-during-data-aggregation/

The Impact Of Ransomware On Cyber Insurance Driving The Need For Broader Cyber Security Knowledge

Not only have ransomware attacks spiked, the amount of ransom demanded has grown exponentially—to somewhere between $50 and $70 million dollars. Cyber Insurers can’t cover “whatever amount the hacker demands”—so major policies lost money. Insurers have responded by raising premiums, restricting coverage, or even getting out of the cyber-insurance game altogether in vulnerable markets. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/09/10/cyber-insurance-ransomware/

Hackers Exploit Camera Vulnerabilities To Spy On Parents

Various zero day vulnerabilities in home baby monitor could be compromised that lets threat actors hack into camera feed and put malicious codes like malware. The security issues were found in the IoT gadgets, made by China based developer Victure, that were found by researchers. In a security report, researchers revealed about the stack-based buffer flaw present in ONVIF server Victure PC420 component camera that allows hackers to plant remote codes on the victim device. When compromised, hacker can discover cameras (not owned by them) and command devices to broadcast camera feeds to third party and exploit the camera firmware. https://www.ehackingnews.com/2021/09/hackers-exploit-camera-vulnerabilities.html

39% Of All Internet Traffic Is From Bad Bots

Automated traffic takes up 64% of internet traffic – and whilst just 25% of automated traffic was made up by good bots, such as search engine crawlers and social network bots, 39% of all traffic was from bad bots, a Barracuda report reveals.

These bad bots include both basic web scrapers and attack scripts, as well as advanced persistent bots. These advanced bots try their best to evade standard defences and attempt to perform their malicious activities under the radar. The report revealed that the most common of these persistent bots were ones that went after e-commerce applications and login portals. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/09/07/bad-bots-internet-traffic/


Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Insider Threats

DoS/DDoS

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy



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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 06 August 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 06 August 2021:

-Ransomware Volumes Hit Record High

-Ransomware Gangs Recruiting Insiders To Breach Corporate Networks

-More Than 12,500 Vulnerabilities Disclosed In First Half Of 2021

-New DNS Vulnerability Allows 'Nation-State Level Spying' On Companies

-Constant Review Of Third Party Security Critical As Ransomware Threat Climbs

-Kaseya Ransomware Attack Sets Off Race To Hack Service Providers

-Joint UK/US Advisory Detailing Top 30 Vulnerabilities Include Plenty Of Usual Suspects

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


Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Ransomware Volumes Hit Record Highs As 2021 Wears On

Ransomware has seen a significant uptick so far in 2021, with global attack volume increasing by 151 percent for the first six months of the year as compared with the year-ago half. Meanwhile, the FBI has warned that there are now 100 different strains circulating around the world. From a hard-number perspective, the ransomware scourge hit a staggering 304.7 million attempted attacks. To put that in perspective, the firm logged 304.6 million ransomware attempts for the entirety of 2020.

https://threatpost.com/ransomware-volumes-record-highs-2021/168327/

Ransomware Gangs Recruiting Insiders To Breach Corporate Networks

The LockBit 2.0 ransomware gang is actively recruiting corporate insiders to help them breach and encrypt networks. In return, the insider is promised million-dollar payouts. Many ransomware gangs operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service, which consists of a core group of developers, who maintain the ransomware and payment sites, and recruited affiliates who breach victims' networks and encrypt devices. Any ransom payments that victims make are then split between the core group and the affiliate, with the affiliate usually receiving 70-80% of the total amount. However, in many cases, the affiliates purchase access to networks from other third-party pentesters rather than breaching the company themselves. With LockBit 2.0, the ransomware gang is trying to remove the middleman and instead recruit insiders to provide them access to a corporate network.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lockbit-ransomware-recruiting-insiders-to-breach-corporate-networks/

More Than 12,500 Vulnerabilities Disclosed In First Half Of 2021

Two new reports were released, covering data breaches and vulnerabilities in the first half of 2021, finding that there was a decline in the overall number of reported breaches but an increase in the number of vulnerabilities disclosed.  The company's data breach report found that there were 1,767 publicly reported breaches in the first six months of 2021, a 24% decline compared to the same period last year. The number of reported breaches grew in the US by 1.5% while 18.8 billion records were exposed year to date, a 32% decline compared to the 27.8 billion records leaked in the first half of 2020.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-than-12500-vulnerabilities-disclosed-in-first-half-of-2021-risk-based-security/

New DNS Vulnerability Allows 'Nation-State Level Spying' On Companies

Security researchers found a new class of DNS vulnerabilities impacting major DNS-as-a-Service (DNSaaS) providers that could allow attackers to access sensitive information from corporate networks.

DNSaaS providers (also known as managed DNS providers) provide DNS renting services to other organisations that do not want to manage and secure yet another network asset on their own.

These DNS flaws provide threat actors with nation-state intelligence harvesting capabilities with a simple domain registration.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-dns-vulnerability-allows-nation-state-level-spying-on-companies/

Constant Review Of Third Party Security Critical As Ransomware Threat Climbs

Enterprises typically would give their third-party suppliers "the keys to their castle" after carrying out the usual checks on the vendor's track history and systems, according to a New York-based Forrester analyst who focuses on security and risk. They believed they had done their due diligence before establishing a relationship with the supplier, but they failed to understand that they should be conducting reviews on a regular basis, especially with their critical systems suppliers. Third-party suppliers should have the ability to deal with irregular activities in their systems and the appropriate security architecture in place to prevent any downstream effects, he added.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/constant-review-of-third-party-security-critical-as-ransomware-threat-climbs/

Kaseya Ransomware Attack Sets Off Race To Hack Service Providers

A ransomware attack in July that paralyzed as many as 1,500 organisations by compromising tech-management software from a company called Kaseya has set off a race among criminals looking for similar vulnerabilities, cyber security experts said. An affiliate of a top Russian-speaking ransomware gang known as REvil used two gaping flaws in software from Florida-based Kaseya to break into about 50 managed services providers (MSPs) that used its products, investigators said. Now that criminals see how powerful MSP attacks can be, "they are already busy, they have already moved on and we don’t know where," said head of the non-profit Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure, which warned Kaseya of the weaknesses before the attack.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/kaseya-ransomware-attack-sets-off-race-hack-service-providers-researchers-2021-08-03/

‘It’s Quite Feasible To Start A War’: Just How Dangerous Are Ransomware Hackers?

Secretive gangs are hacking the computers of governments, firms, even hospitals, and demanding huge sums. But if we pay these ransoms, are we creating a ticking time bomb? They have the sort of names that only teenage boys or aspiring Bond villains would dream up (REvil, Grief, Wizard Spider, Ragnar), they base themselves in countries that do not cooperate with international law enforcement and they don’t care whether they attack a hospital or a multinational corporation. Ransomware gangs are suddenly everywhere, seemingly unstoppable – and very successful.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/01/crypto-criminals-hack-the-computer-systems-of-governments-firms-even-hospitals

Joint UK/US Advisory Detailing Top 30 Vulnerabilities Include Plenty Of Usual Suspects

A joint advisory from law enforcement agencies in the US, UK, and Australia this week tallied the 30 most-frequently exploited vulnerabilities. Perhaps not surprisingly, the list includes a preponderance of flaws that were disclosed years ago; everything on the list has a patch available for whoever wants to install it. But as we've written about time and again, many companies are slow to push updates through for all kinds of reasons, whether it's a matter of resources, know-how, or an unwillingness to accommodate the downtime often necessary for a software refresh. Given how many of these vulnerabilities can cause remote code execution—you don't want this—hopefully they'll start to make patching more of a priority.

https://www.wired.com/story/top-vulnerabilities-russia-nso-group-iran-security-news/

Average Total Cost Of A Data Breach Increased By Nearly 10% Year Over Year

Based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by over 500 organisations, the global study suggests that security incidents became more costly and harder to contain due to drastic operational shifts during the pandemic, with costs rising 10% compared to the prior year. Businesses were forced to quickly adapt their technology approaches last year, with many companies encouraging or requiring employees to work from home, and 60% of organisations moving further into cloud-based activities during the pandemic. The new findings suggest that security may have lagged behind these rapid IT changes, hindering organizations’ ability to respond to data breaches.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/07/29/total-cost-data-breach/

65% Of All DDoS Attacks Target US And UK

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are common for cyber criminals who want to disrupt online-dependent businesses. According to the data analysed by a VPN team, 65% of all distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are directed at the US or UK. Computers and the internet industry are the favourite among cyber criminals. The United States was a target for 35% of all DDoS attacks in June 2021. Cyber criminals launched DDoS attacks against Amazon Web Services, Google, and other prominent US-based companies in the past. The United Kingdom comes second as it fell victim to 29% of all DDoS attacks. As the UK has many huge businesses, they often are targeted by hackers for valuable data or even a ransom. China was threatened by 18% of all DDoS attacks in June 2021. Assaults from and to China happen primarily due to political reasons, to interrupt some government agency.

https://www.pcr-online.biz/2021/08/05/65-of-all-ddos-attacks-target-us-and-uk/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptojacking

Supply Chain

Nation State Actors

Cloud


Reports Published in the Last Week



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 30 July 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 30 July 2021: Many Workers Ignore Security Risks To Maximize Productivity; Financial Services Accounting For Nearly 40% Of All Phishing URLs; Half Of Organisations Are Ineffective At Countering Phishing And Ransomware Threats; 36% Of Organisations Suffered A Serious Cloud Security Data Leak Or A Breach In The Past Year; HP Finds 75% Of Threats Were Delivered By Email In First Six Months Of 2021

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


Many Workers Ignore Security Risks To Maximize Productivity

A large proportion of employees often take shortcuts to optimize productivity at work, despite understanding the security risks, new data suggests. According to a survey which polled 8,000 workers worldwide, almost four in five (79%) have engaged in one or more “risky activity” in the past twelve months. In a third of cases (35%), this involved saving passwords to their browser. A similar percentage admitted to using a single password across multiple online accounts, while 23% connected personal devices to corporate networks.

https://www.itproportal.com/news/many-workers-ignore-security-risks-to-maximize-productivity/

Financial Services Accounting For Nearly 40% Of All Phishing URLs

A report was released for H1 2021, which revealed that there has been a major jump in phishing attacks since the start of the year with a 281 percent spike in May and another 284 percent increase in June, for a total of 4.2 billion phishing emails detected for June alone. For this 6-month window researchers identified Crédit Agricole as the most impersonated brand, with 17,555 unique phishing URLs, followed by Facebook, with 17,338, and Microsoft, with 12,777.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/07/22/financial-services-phishing/

Half Of Organisations Are Ineffective At Countering Phishing And Ransomware Threats

Half of organisations are not effective at countering phishing and ransomware threats. The findings come from a study compiled from interviews with 130 cyber security professionals in mid-sized and large organisations. “Phishing and ransomware were already critical enterprise security risks even before the pandemic hit and, as this report shows, the advent of mass remote working has increased the pressure of these threats,”. “Organisations need multi-layered defences in place to mitigate these risks.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/07/19/countering-phishing-and-ransomware/

36% Of Organisations Suffered A Serious Cloud Security Data Leak Or A Breach In The Past Year

As cloud adoption accelerates and the scale of cloud environments grows, engineering and security teams say that risks—and the costs of addressing them—are increasing. The findings are part of the State of Cloud Security 2021 survey. The survey of 300 cloud pros (including cloud engineers; security engineers; DevOps; architects) found that 36% of organisations suffered a serious cloud security data leak or a breach in the past 12 months, and eight out of ten are worried that they’re vulnerable to a major data breach related to cloud misconfiguration. 64% say the problem will get worse or remain unchanged over the next year.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/07/27/cloud-security-data-leak/

HP Finds 75% Of Threats Were Delivered By Email In First Six Months Of 2021

According to the latest HP Report, email is still the most popular way for malware and other threats to be delivered, with more than 75% of threats being sent through email messages.  The report -- covering the first half of 2021 -- is compiled based on customers who opt to share their threat alerts with the company. HP's researchers found that there has been a 65% rise in the use of hacking tools downloaded from underground forums and filesharing websites from H2 2020 to H1 2021. Some of the tools can solve CAPTCHA challenges using computer vision techniques.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/hp-finds-75-of-threats-were-delivered-by-email-in-first-six-months-of-2021/

Data Breach Costs Hit Record High Due To Pandemic

Data breaches have always proved costly for victimized organisations. But the coronavirus pandemic made a bad situation even worse. A report released Wednesday looks at how and why the average cost of dealing with a data breach has jumped to a new high. The average cost of a data breach among companies surveyed reached $4.24 million per incident, the highest in 17 years.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/data-breach-costs-hit-record-high-due-to-pandemic/

Top 30 Critical Security Vulnerabilities Most Exploited By Hackers

Intelligence agencies in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. issued a joint advisory on Wednesday detailing the most exploited vulnerabilities in 2020 and 2021, once again demonstrating how threat actors can swiftly weaponize publicly disclosed flaws to their advantage. The top 30 vulnerabilities span a wide range of software, including remote work, virtual private networks (VPNs), and cloud-based technologies, that cover a broad spectrum of products from Microsoft, VMware, Pulse Secure, Fortinet, Accellion, Citrix, F5 Big IP, Atlassian, and Drupal.

https://thehackernews.com/2021/07/top-30-critical-security.html

Average Time To Fix High Severity Vulnerabilities Grows From 197 Days To 246 Days In 6 Months: Report

A recent report has found that the remediation rate for severe vulnerabilities is on the decline, while the average time to fix is on the rise. The report, which is compiled monthly, covers window of exposure, vulnerability by class and time to fix. The latest report found that the window of exposure for applications has increased over the last six months while the top-5 vulnerability classes by prevalence remain constant, which the researchers behind the report said was a "systematic failure to address these well-known vulnerabilities." According to researchers, the time to fix vulnerabilities has dropped 3 days, from 205 days to 202 days. The average time to fix is 202 days, the report found, representing an increase from 197 days at the beginning of the year. The average time to fix for high vulnerabilities grew from 194 days at the beginning of the year to 246 days at the end of June.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/average-time-to-fix-high-vulnerabilities-grows-from-197-days-to-246-days-in-6-months-report/

Why Remote Working Leaves Us Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

An industry survey found 56% of senior IT technicians believe their employees have picked up bad cyber security habits while working from home. For Example. A cyber-crime group known as REvil took meticulous care when picking the timing for its most recent attack - US Independence Day, 4 July. They knew many IT specialists and cyber-security experts would be on leave, enjoying a long weekend off work. Before long, more than 1,000 companies in the US, and at least 17 other countries, were under attack from hackers. Many firms were forced into a costly downtime period as a result. Among those targeted during the incident was a well-known software provider, Kaseya. REvil used Kaseya as a conduit to spread its ransomware - a malware that can scramble and steal an organisation's computer data - through other corporate and cloud-based networks that use the software.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57847652

Stop Mitigating Cyber Security Threats And Start Preventing Them

The impacts of a successful cyber attack can be devastating. Through multiple forms of extortion, criminals can use stolen data and other business-critical assets, including sensitive financial and customer data to hold companies hostage with just one campaign. The average cost of a phishing attack last year was $832,500, with zero-day attacks costing around $1,238,000. Spending this amount of money to recover from a cyber attack could bring a company to its knees. Today’s cyber attacks present very real existential threats to businesses and C-level executives are beginning to fully realize the gravity of these threats. It is critical that organizations invest in solutions that are going to help stop these attackers before they enter their environments.

https://www.itproportal.com/features/stop-mitigating-cybersecurity-threats-and-start-preventing-them/


Threats

Ransomware

Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Dark Web

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

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 09 July 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 09 July 2021: Hackers Demand $70 Million To End Biggest Ransomware Attack On Record; Zero Day Malware Reached An All-Time High In Q1 2021; New Trojan Malware Steals Millions Of Login Credentials; MacOS Targeted In WildPressure APT Malware Campaign; The Cost Of Cyber Insurance Increased 32% Last Year And Shows No Signs Of Easing; Critical Flaws In Windows Print Spooler Service Could Allow For Remote Attacks; British Airways Settles Over Record Claim For Data Breach; Hackers On Loose As 9,000 Data Leaks A Year Recorded

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


Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Hackers Demand $70 Million To End Biggest Ransomware Attack On Record

An affiliate of the notorious REvil gang, best known for extorting $11 million from the meat-processor JBS after a Memorial Day attack, infected thousands of victims in at least 17 countries on Friday, largely through firms that remotely manage IT infrastructure for multiple customers. REvil was demanding ransoms of up to $5 million, the researchers said. But late Sunday it offered in a posting on its dark web site a universal decryptor software key that would unscramble all affected machines in exchange for $70 million in crypto currency.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ransomware-attack-revil-hackers-demand-70-million/


Zero Day Malware Reached An All-Time High Of 74% In Q1 2021

74% of threats detected in Q1 2021 were zero day malware – or those for which a signature-based antivirus solution did not detect at the time of the malware release – capable of circumventing conventional antivirus solutions. The report also covers new threat intelligence on rising network attack rates, how attackers are trying to disguise and repurpose old exploits, the quarter’s top malware attacks, and more.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/29/zero-day-malware-q1-2021/


New Trojan Malware Steals Millions Of Login Credentials

There is a new custom Trojan-type malware that managed to infiltrate over three million Windows computers and steal nearly 26 million login credentials for about a million websites. The findings suggest that the Trojan classifies the websites into a dozen categories, which include virtually all popular email services, social media platforms, file storage and sharing services, ecommerce platforms, financial platforms, and more. In all, the unnamed malware managed to siphon away 1.2 terabytes of personal data including over a million unique email addresses, over two billion cookies, and more than six million other files.

https://www.techradar.com/news/malware-steals-millions-of-login-credentials-for-popular-websites


Ransomware As A Service: Negotiators Are Now In High Demand

The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) ecosystem is evolving into something akin to a corporate structure, with new openings available for "negotiators" -- a role focused on extorting victims to pay a ransom. A study in RaaS trends has recently come out saying that one-man-band operations have almost "completely dissolved" due to the lucrative nature of the criminal ransomware business. Showing the potential financial gains squeezed from companies desperate to unlock their systems have given rise to specialists in cyber crime and extortion and have also led to a high demand for individuals to take over the negotiation part of an attack chain.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-as-a-service-negotiators-between-hackers-and-victims-are-now-in-high-demand/


MacOS Targeted In WildPressure APT Malware Campaign

Recently, threat actors known as WildPressure have added a MacOS malware variant to their latest campaign targeting energy sector businesses, while enlisting compromised WordPress websites to carry out attacks. Furthermore, known novel malware, initially identified in March 2020 and dubbed Milum, has now been retooled with a PyInstaller bundle containing a trojan dropper compatible with Windows and MacOS systems, according to researchers. Compromised endpoints allow the advanced persistent threat (APT) group to download and upload files and executing commands.

https://threatpost.com/macos-wildpressure-apt/167606/


The Cost Of Cyber Insurance Increased 32% Last Year And Shows No Signs Of Easing

The cost of insurance to protect businesses and organisations against the ever-increasing threat of cyber crimes has soared by a third in the last year. Also adding that global cyber insurance pricing has increased by an average of 32 percent in the year to June. Not only are premiums going through the roof, insurers are also attaching more strings to their policies, demanding ever more assurances that firms taking out cover have the necessary systems and processes in place to prevent a cyber mishap. Previous research also suggests that the upward squeeze on premiums shows no sign of easing, which, in turn, is putting more strain on the sector.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/05/cyber_insurance_report/


Critical Flaws In Windows Print Spooler Service Could Allow For Remote Attacks

Administrators are urged to apply the latest patches from Microsoft and disable the Windows Print spooler service in domain controllers and systems not used for printing. This is because Microsoft is currently grappling with a couple of security holes in its Windows Print spooler service that could allow attackers to remotely control an affected system. Anyone able to exploit the more recent vulnerability of the two would be able to run code on the compromised computer with full system privileges. That attacker could then install software, modify data and create new user accounts.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/critical-flaws-in-windows-print-spooler-service-could-allow-for-remote-attacks/


End Users In The Dark About Latest Cyber Threats, Attacks

According to a recent survey, which polled consumers and end users, high-profile incidents such as the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Co. and the breach of a Florida city's water utilities were either overlooked or ignored by many outside the IT and information security fields. As a result, the responsibility for keeping users informed and aware of the need for heightened security appears to fall on administrators and IT staff.

https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/252503223/End-users-in-the-dark-about-latest-cyber-threats-attacks


British Airways Settles Over Record Claim For Data Breach

British Airways has settled what is thought to be the biggest claim for a data breach in British legal history, involving 16,000 victims. However, the amount was not disclosed. When The breach took place three years ago, multiple data sources and customer data was leaked, including the leakage of names, addresses and card payment details which affected 420,000 customers and staff. As a result, in 2019 the Information Commissioner’s Office hit BA with its largest ever fine at £20 million.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-airways-settles-over-record-claim-for-data-breach-g0f63dnst


Hackers On Loose As 9,000 Data Leaks A Year Recorded

Public bodies and the private sector suffered nearly 9,000 data security incidents in 12 months with sensitive and private information hacked, lost or accidentally given to the wrong people. This Data was seen to lists more than 500 organisations hit by ransomware attacks and a further 562 incidents of hacking. There was also a total of 8,815 data security incidents in 2020/21 with the most breaches in the health and education sectors. Furthermore, over the past three years, police forces across England and Wales suffered an average eight breaches a week. Even security experts announced that these figures were “alarming” and that the public would be “disturbed” to learn how often important information/data was being lost.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hackers-9000-data-leaks-recorded-cyber-crime-56nvs7t6w


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Malware

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Supply Chain

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy



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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 June 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 June 2021: Ransomware Now Ranks As UK’s Top Cyber Security Danger; 54% of all employees reuse passwords across accounts; Most Firms Face Second Ransomware Attack After Paying Off First; Bad Cyber Security Behaviours Plaguing The Remote Workforce; VPN Attacks Up Nearly 2000% As Companies Embrace A Hybrid Workplace; Over 65,000 Ransomware Attacks Expected In 2021; Business Leaders Now Feel More Vulnerable To 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

Ransomware Now Ranks As UK’s Top Cyber Security Danger

Ransomware hackers are now the biggest cyber security threat in the UK for the majority of individuals and businesses in the region, Lindy Cameron, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said in a speech. “For the vast majority of UK citizens and businesses, and indeed for the vast majority of critical national infrastructure providers and government service providers, the primary key threat is not state actors but cyber criminals,” Cameron said in the speech at the second annual cyber security meeting at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the oldest independent defense and security think tank worldwide.

https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2021/ransomware-now-ranks-as-uks-top-cybersecurity-danger/

54% of all employees reuse passwords across multiple work accounts

Results of a study into current attitudes and adaptability to at-home corporate cyber security, employee training, and support in the current global hybrid working era revealed some interesting results. The report surveyed 3,006 employees, business owners, and C-suite executives at large organisations (250+ employees), who have worked from home and use work issued devices in the UK, France and Germany.

According to the findings 54% of all employees use the same passwords across multiple work accounts. 22% of respondents still keep track of passwords by writing them down, including 41% of business owners and 32% of C-level executives.

42% of respondents admit to using work-issued devices for personal reasons daily while working from home. Of these, 29% are using work devices for banking and shopping, and 7% admit to watching illegal streaming services. Senior workers are among the biggest offenders, as 44% of business owners and 39% of C-level executives admit to performing personal tasks on work-issued devices every day since working from home, with 23% of business owners and 15% of C-level respondents using them for illegal streaming/watching TV.

A year after the pandemic began and work-from-home policies were implemented, 37% of all employees across all sectors are yet to receive cyber security training to work from home, leaving businesses largely exposed to evolving risks. 43% of all employees suggest that cyber security isn’t the responsibility of the workforce, with 60% believing this should be handled by IT teams.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/10/employees-reuse-passwords-across-multiple-work-accounts/

VPN Attacks Up Nearly 2000% As Companies Embrace A Hybrid Workplace

In Q1 2021, there was a 1,916% increase in attacks against Fortinet’s SSL-VPN and a 1,527% increase in Pulse Connect Secure VPN. These vulnerabilities allow a threat actor to gain access to a network. Once they are in, they can exfiltrate information and deploy ransomware. “2020 was the era of remote work and as the workforce adjusted, information technology professionals scrambled to support this level of remote activity by enabling a wide variety of remote connectivity methods,” said J.R. Cunningham, CSO at Nuspire. “This added multiple new attack vectors that enabled threat actors to prey on organisations, which is what we started to see in Q1 and are continuing to see today.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/15/vpn-attacks-up/

Most Firms Face Second Ransomware Attack After Paying Off First

Most businesses that choose to pay to regain access to their encrypted systems experience a subsequent ransomware attack. And almost half of those that pay up say some or all their data retrieved were corrupted. Some 80% of organisations that paid ransom demands experienced a second attack, of which 46% believed the subsequent ransomware to be caused by the same hackers. Amongst those that paid to regain access to their systems, 46% said at least some of their data was corrupted, according to a survey released Wednesday. The study polled 1,263 security professionals in seven markets worldwide, including 100 in Singapore, as well as respondents in Germany, France, the US, and UK.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/most-firms-face-second-ransomware-attack-after-paying-off-first/

Over 65,000 Ransomware Attacks Expected In 2021: Former Cisco CEO

U.S. companies are expected to endure over 65,000 ransomware attacks this year — and that's “a conservative number,” according to John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco Systems. With McDonald’s, JBS, and Colonial Pipeline Co. all recently coming under cyber attacks, Chambers does not foresee an end to the onslaught of cyber security threats anytime soon. He estimated that the number of ransomware attacks in 2021 could end up being as high as 100,000, with each one costing companies an average of $170,000. In the case of Colonial, just one password was needed for hackers to compromise the entire company’s IT infrastructure. This led to Colonial and JBS paying a combined $15 million in ransom against FBI advice.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/over-65000-ransomware-attacks-expected-in-2021-former-cisco-ceo-125100793.html

Business Leaders Now Feel More Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

Geographically speaking, 55% of US and 49% of UK respondents have experienced the most severe impact to their network security due to these attacks (suggesting that their businesses are more of a target than those in continental Europe) which, in turn, has resulted in a clear majority of respondents (60%) increasing their investment in this area. A sizeable 68% of leaders said their company has experienced a DDoS attack in the last 12 months with the UK (76%) and the US (73%) experiencing a significantly higher proportion compared to 59% of their German and 56% French counterparts. Additionally, over half of the leaders who participated in the survey confirmed that they specifically experienced a DDoS ransom or extortion attack in that time, with a large number of them (65%) targeted at UK companies, compared with the relatively low number in France (38%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/14/business-leaders-feel-vulnerable-cyber-attacks/

Ransomware Gang Turns To Revenge Porn

At least one ransomware gang has taken a rare and highly invasive step in order to convince its victims to pay: leaking nude images allegedly uncovered as part of their hack of a target company. The news presents an escalation in the world of ransomware and digital extortion, and comes as the U.S. government and other countries discuss new measures to curb the spike in ransomware incidents. Ransomware groups have recently targeted, and in some cases extracted payment from, the Colonial Pipeline Company, meat producer JBS, and the Irish healthcare system. Locking down computers with ransomware can already have a substantial impact on business operations; leaking information on top of that can present victims with another risk. But posting nude images publicly on the internet threatens to make extortion of organisations a much more personal matter.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xzby/ransomware-gang-revenge-porn-leaks-nude-images

Bank Of America Spends Over $1 Billion Per Year On Cyber Security

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said Monday that the company has ramped its cyber security spending to over $1 billion a year. “I became CEO 11 and a half years ago, and we probably spent three to $400 million [per year] and we’re up over a billion now,” Moynihan said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The institutions around us, other institutions and my peers, spend like amounts, and our contracting parties spend like amounts,” he added. “In other words, we cause spending in third parties that provide services to us to protect us in the same way. So there’s a lot of money being spend on this, and I think one of the things our industry has done a great job of is work together.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/14/bank-of-america-spends-over-1-billion-per-year-on-cybersecurity.html

Bad Cyber Security Behaviours Plaguing The Remote Workforce

According to the report, younger employees are most likely to admit they cut cyber security corners, with 51% of 16-24 year olds and 46% of 25-34 year olds reporting they’ve used security workarounds. In addition, 39% say the cyber security behaviours they practice while working from home differ from those practiced in the office, with half admitting it’s because they feel they were being watched by IT departments. IT leaders are optimistic about the return to office, with 70% believing staff will more likely follow company security policies around data protection and privacy. However, only 57% of employees think the same.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/06/16/cybersecurity-behaviors/


Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Malware

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency

Supply Chain

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Denial of Service

Cloud

Privacy



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

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

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

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

Read More
Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 April 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 April 2021: 61% Of Employees Fail Basic Cyber Security Quiz; More Than 1,900 Hacking Groups Active Today; Ransomware Crisis Worsens; Enterprise Security Attackers Are One Password Away From Your Worst Day; Microsoft’s April Update Patches 114 Bugs; Nation-State Attacks Targeting Businesses Rise; Criminals Installing Cryptojacking Malware On Unpatched Exchange Servers; Network Vulns Affect Over 100 Million Devices; Brits Still Confused By Multi-Factor Authentication

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

61 Percent Of Employees Fail Basic Cyber Security Quiz

Nearly 70% of employees polled in a new survey said they recently received cyber security training from their employers, yet 61% nevertheless failed when asked to take a basic quiz on the topic. This was one of the leading findings of a research study that sought to understand the cyber security habits of some 1,200 workers, as well as their knowledge of best practices and ability to recognize security threats.

https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/61-percent-of-employees-fail-basic-cybersecurity-quiz/

More Than 1,900 Distinct Hacking Groups Are Active Today

There are currently more than 1,900 distinct hacking groups that are active today, a number that grew from 1,800 groups recorded at the end of 2019. In its yearly cyber crime report, the company said it discovered 650 new threat actors during 2020, but new evidence also allowed it to remove 500 groups from its threat actor tracker due to overlaps in activity and hacking infrastructure with previously known clusters.

https://therecord.media/fireeye-more-than-1900-distinct-hacking-groups-are-active-today/

Ransomware: The Internet's Biggest Security Crisis Is Getting Worse

Organisations continue to fall victim to ransomware, and yet progress on tackling these attacks, which now constitute one of the biggest security problems on the internet, remains slow. From small companies to councils, government agencies and big business, the number and range of organisations hit by ransomware is rising. One recent example; schools with 36,000 students have been hit, leaving pupils without access to email as attempts were made to get systems back online. That is at least four chains of schools attacked in the last month.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-the-internets-biggest-security-crisis-is-getting-worse-we-need-a-way-out/?&web_view=true

Enterprise Security Attackers Are One Password Away From Your Worst Day

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, then one might say the cyber security industry is insane.

Criminals continue to innovate with highly sophisticated attack methods, but many security organisations still use the same technological approaches they did 10 years ago. The world has changed, but cyber security hasn’t kept pace.

Distributed systems, with people and data everywhere, mean the perimeter has disappeared. And the hackers couldn’t be more excited. The same technology approaches, like correlation rules, manual processes and reviewing alerts in isolation, do little more than remedy symptoms while hardly addressing the underlying problem.

Credentials are supposed to be the front gates of the castle, but as the SOC is failing to change, it is failing to detect. The cyber security industry must rethink its strategy to analyse how credentials are used and stop breaches before they become bigger problems.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/16/enterprise-security-attackers-are-one-password-away-from-your-worst-day/

Microsoft’s April Update Patches 114 Bugs—Half Of Which Allow Remote Code Execution

The fourth Patch Tuesday of 2021 is another big one. Today, Microsoft revealed 114 vulnerabilities fixed in the monthly security, over half of which could potentially be exploited for remote code execution by attackers. Of the 55 remote execution bugs, over half were tied to Windows’ Remote Procedure Call (RPC) interface. Four more were Microsoft Exchange bugs (all urgent fixes) reported to Microsoft by the National Security Agency. In addition, six Chrome vulnerabilities that were previously addressed by Google are included in the roll-up.

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/04/13/microsofts-april-update-patches-114-bugs-more-than-half-of-which-allow-remote-code-execution/

Nation-State Cyber Attacks Targeting Businesses Are On The Rise

Businesses are increasingly coming under fire from nation state-backed hackers as governments around the world engage in attacks to steal secrets or lay the foundations for future attacks. Nation States, Cyberconflict and the Web of Profit, a study by cyber security researchers at HP and criminologists at the University of Surrey, warns that the number of key nation-state attacks has risen significantly over the past three years – and that enterprises and businesses are increasingly being targeted. An analysis of nation-state cyber attacks between 2017 and 2020 reveals that just over a third of organisations targeted were businesses: cyber defence, media, government, and critical infrastructure are all also common targets in these attacks, but enterprise has risen to the top of the list.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/nation-state-cyber-attacks-targeting-businesses-are-on-the-rise/

Cyber Criminals Are Installing Cryptojacking Malware On Unpatched Microsoft Exchange Servers

Cyber criminals are targeting vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers with cryptocurrency mining malware in a campaign designed to secretly use the processing power of compromised systems to make money. Zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server were detailed last month when Microsoft released critical security updates to prevent the exploitation of vulnerable systems. Cyber attackers ranging from nation-state-linked hacking groups to ransomware gangs have rushed to take advantage of unpatched Exchange servers -- but they are not the only ones.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-money-cyber-criminals-are-installing-cryptojacking-malware-on-unpatched-microsoft-exchange-servers/

NAME:WRECK DNS Vulnerabilities Affect Over 100 Million Devices

Security researchers have disclosed nine vulnerabilities affecting network communication stacks running on at least 100 million devices. Collectively referred to as NAME: WRECK, the flaws could be leveraged to take offline affected devices or to gain control over them. The vulnerabilities were found in a wide range of products, from high-performance servers and networking equipment to operational technology (OT) systems that monitor and control industrial equipment. According to researchers threat actors could exploit NAME:WRECK vulnerabilities to deal significant damage to government or enterprise servers, healthcare facilities, retailers, or companies in the manufacturing business by stealing sensitive data, modifying or taking equipment offline for sabotage purposes.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/name-wreck-dns-vulnerabilities-affect-over-100-million-devices/

Brits Still Confused By Multi-Factor Authentication

The British public are still woefully underinformed and unaware of the security benefits of multi-factor authentication (MFA). The industry association, founded in 2012 to promote authentication standards and reduce global reliance on passwords, recently polled over 4000 consumers in the UK, France, Germany, and the US. It revealed that half (49%) UK consumers have had their social media accounts compromised or know a friend or family member who has. However, despite a continued number of high-profile account takeovers, 43% said this does not make them enhance security on their accounts, even though they “feel like” they should. Part of the problem seems to be a general lack of understanding about the benefits of MFA in protecting account holders from phishing, as well as credential stuffing and other brute force attack types. Although such features are offered by all social media companies today, over a quarter (26%) of respondents said they were not using or didn’t know about them.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/brits-still-confused-by/

623K Payment Cards Stolen From Cyber Crime Forum

The Swarmshop cyber underground “card shop” has been hit by hackers, who lifted the site’s database of stolen payment-card data and leaked it online. That is according to researchers, who said that the database was posted on a rival underground forum. Card shops, are online cyber criminal forums where stolen payment-card data is bought and sold. Researchers said the database in question contains 623,036 payment-card records from card-issuers in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.

https://threatpost.com/623m-payment-cards-stolen-from-cybercrime-forum/165336/


Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

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 19 February 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 February 2021: Masslogger Swipes Outlook & Chrome Credentials; Phishers trick LinkedIn users; Solarwinds Attack ‘Largest And Most Sophisticated Attack’ Ever; Ransomware gangs are running riot, paying them off doesn’t help; Most security bugs in the wild are years old; Hacker Claims Files Stolen from Prominent Law Firm; 100+ Financial Services Firms Targeted in Ransom DDoS Attacks in 2020; 14 million alleged Amazon and eBay account details sold online; Think backups will protect you from ransomware? What do you think gets attacked first?

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 Lukas Bieri from Pixabay

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Masslogger Swipes Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome Credentials

Cyber Criminals are targeting Windows users with a new variant of the Masslogger trojan, which is spyware designed to swipe victims’ credentials from Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome and various instant-messenger accounts. Researchers uncovered the campaign targeting users in Italy, Latvia and Turkey starting in mid-January. When the Masslogger variant launched its infection chain, it disguised its malicious RAR files as Compiled HTML (CHM) files. This is a new move for Masslogger, and helps the malware sidestep potential defensive programs, which would otherwise block the email attachment based on its RAR file extension, said researchers on Wednesday.

https://threatpost.com/masslogger-microsoft-outlook-google-chrome/164011/

Phishers tricking users via fake LinkedIn Private Shared Document

The phishing message is delivered via LinkedIn’s internal messaging system and looks like it has been sent by one of the victim’s contacts. The message urges the recipient to follow a third-party link to view a document. If they fail to find this suspicious, they’ll be redirected to a convincingly spoofed LinkedIn login page, and if they enter their login credentials, their account will probably soon be sending out phishing messages to their contacts.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/18/linkedin-private-shared-document/

Solarwinds Attack Hit 100 Companies And Took Months Of Planning’; ‘Largest And Most Sophisticated Attack’ Ever Seen According To Microsoft; Hackers Downloaded Some Azure, Exchange, And Intune Source Code

A hacking campaign that used a tech company as a springboard to compromise a raft of US government agencies has been called “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”, according to Microsoft. Nine US governmental agencies were breached along with 100 different private sector companies , many of which were technology companies, including products that could be used to launch additional intrusions. Microsoft said it has formally completed its investigation into the SolarWinds-related breach and found no evidence that hackers abused its internal systems or official products to pivot and attack end-users and business customers, though it did state that it had discovered that hackers used the access they gained through the SolarWinds Orion app to pivot to Microsoft's internal network, where they accessed the source code of several internal projects.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/solarwinds-attack-hit-100-companies-and-took-months-of-planning-says-white-house/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/solarwinds-us-russia-hacking-b1802299.html https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-says-solarwinds-hackers-downloaded-some-azure-exchange-and-intune-source-code/

Ransomware gangs are running riot – paying them off doesn’t help

In the past five years, ransomware attacks have evolved from rare misfortunes into common and disruptive threats. Hijacking the IT systems of organisations and forcing them to pay a ransom in order to reclaim them, cyber criminals are freely extorting millions of pounds from companies – and they’re enjoying a remarkably low risk of arrest as they do it.

https://theconversation.com/ransomware-gangs-are-running-riot-paying-them-off-doesnt-help-155254

Most security bugs in the wild are years old

Most vulnerabilities exploited in the wild are years old and some could be remedied easily with a readily available patch. This is one of the findings of a new report, which states that two thirds (65 percent) of CVEs found in 2020 were more than three years old, while a third of those (32 percent) were originally identified in 2015 or earlier.

https://www.itproportal.com/news/most-security-bugs-in-the-wild-are-multiple-years-old/

Hacker Claims to Have Stolen Files Belonging to Prominent Law Firm Jones Day

A hacker claims to have stolen files belonging to the global law firm Jones Day and posted many of them on the dark web. Jones Day has many prominent clients, including former President Donald Trump and major corporations. Jones Day, in a statement, disputed that its network has been breached. The statement said that a file-sharing company that it has used was recently compromised and had information taken. Jones Day said it continues to investigate the breach and will continue to be in discussion with affected clients and appropriate authorities.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hacker-claims-to-have-stolen-files-belonging-to-prominent-law-firm-jones-day-11613514532?reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter

Former Spy Chief Calls For Military Cyber Attacks On Ransomware Hackers

The state should launch military cyber attacks to shut down ransomware gangs that have extorted millions of pounds from British businesses, a former spy chief has said.

Ciaran Martin, who previously led the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, said the problem of criminal gangs locking and stealing files has become so serious that Government should now seek to disrupt the operations of prolific criminals.

The plans would mark a major change of tack for the UK authorities, who have long downplayed the idea they could routinely use offensive hacking as well as cyber defence.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/02/15/former-spy-chief-calls-military-cyber-attacks-ransomware-hackers/

Think your backups will protect you from ransomware? What do you think the malware attacked first?

If you think your backup strategy means you’re protected from the worst that cyber criminals can throw at you, we’ve got some bad news. Ransomware creators know all about backups, too. So, if you are unlucky enough to get a “pay up or else” notice, there’s a very good chance that the attacker in question has already been stealthily working their way through your systems for some time, ensuring your recovery data has already been comprehensively trashed.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/protect_yourself_from_ransomware_webcast/

100+ Financial Services Firms Targeted in Ransom DDoS Attacks in 2020

More than 100 financial services firms across multiple countries were targeted in a wave of ransom distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks conducted by the same threat actor in 2020. The attacks moved in methodical fashion across Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia, hitting dozens of organizations in the financial sector in each region, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) disclosed this week. Among those targeted were banks, exchanges, payments companies, card issuers, payroll companies, insurance firms, and money transfer services.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/100+-financial-services-firms-targeted-in-ransom-ddos-attacks-in-2020/d/d-id/1340165

14 million alleged Amazon and eBay account details sold online

An unknown user was offering the data of 14 million Amazon and eBay customers’ accounts for sale on a popular hacking forum. The data appears to come from users who had Amazon or eBay accounts from 2014-2021 in 18 different countries. The database was being sold for $800 and the accounts are divided into their respective countries. The leaked data includes the customer’s full name, postal code, delivery address, and shop name, as well 1.6 million phone records.

https://cybernews.com/security/14-million-amazon-and-ebay-accounts-sold-online-in-new-leak/


Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime

Insider Threats

Supply Chain

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation-State Actors

Privacy


Reports Published in the Last Week


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 29 January 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 January 2021: Phishing Attacks Show High-Ranking Execs ‘Most Valuable Asset’ and ‘Greatest Vulnerability’; Paying Ransomware Funding Organised Crime; Police take down botnet that hacked millions of computers; After SolarWinds Hack, Who Knows What Cyber Dangers We Face; Russian businesses warned of retaliatory cyber attacks; iOS vulns actively exploited; Top Cyber Attacks of 2020

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

Top Cyber Headlines of the Week

Phishing Attacks Show High-Ranking Execs May Be ‘Most Valuable Asset,’ and ‘Greatest Vulnerability’

Cyber criminals have been using a phishing kit featuring fake Office 365 password alerts as a lure to target the credentials of chief executives, business owners and other high-level corporate leaders. The scheme highlights the role and responsibility upper management plays in ensuring the security of their own company’s assets.

https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/phishing/phishing-scheme-shows-ceos-may-be-most-valuable-asset-and-greatest-vulnerability/

Insurers 'Funding Organised Crime' by Paying Ransomware Claims

Insurers are inadvertently funding organised crime by paying out claims from companies who have paid ransoms to regain access to data and systems after a hacking attack, Britain’s former top cybersecurity official has warned.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jan/24/insurers-funding-organised-by-paying-ransomware-claims

Emotet: Police raids take down botnet that hacked 'millions of computers worldwide'

Emotet, one of the world's most dangerous cyber crime services, has been taken down following one of the largest ever internationally-coordinated actions against cyber criminals. Although it began as banking malware designed to steal financial credentials, Emotet had become an infrastructure tool leased out to cyber criminals to break into victim computer networks and install additional malicious software.

https://news.sky.com/story/emotet-police-raids-take-down-botnet-that-hacked-millions-of-computers-worldwide-12200460

After the SolarWinds Hack, We Have No Idea What Cyber Dangers We Face

Months before insurgents breached the Capitol and rampaged through the halls of Congress, a stealthier invader was muscling its way into the computers of government officials, stealing documents, monitoring e-mails, and setting traps for future incursions. Last March, a hacking team, believed to be affiliated with Russian intelligence, planted malware in a routine software upgrade from a Texas-based I.T. company called SolarWinds, which provides network-management systems to more than three hundred thousand clients.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/after-the-solarwinds-hack-we-have-no-idea-what-cyber-dangers-we-face

FSB warns Russian businesses of cyber attacks as retaliation for SolarWinds hack

Russian authorities are alerting Russian organizations of potential cyberattacks launched by the United States in response to SolarWinds attack. The Russian intelligence agency FSB has issued a security alert this week warning Russian organizations of potential cyberattacks launched by the United States in response to the SolarWinds supply chain attack.

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/113752/cyber-warfare-2/fsb-fears-retaliation-solarwinds-hack.html

Update your iPhone — Apple just disclosed hackers may have 'actively exploited' a vulnerability in its iOS

On Tuesday released a new iOS software update that includes fixes for three security weaknesses in the former version.  Its support website that it is aware of the three security bugs and that they "may have been actively exploited. “Also, it does not disclose details regarding security issues "until an investigation has occurred."

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ios-14-update-hackers-security-bugs-iphone-software-2021-1?utmSource=twitter&utmContent=referral&utmTerm=topbar&referrer=twitter

Top Cyber Attacks of 2020

"Zoombomb" became the new photobomb—hackers would gain access to a private meeting or online class hosted on Zoom and shout profanities and racial slurs or flash pornographic images. Nation-state hacker groups mounted attacks against organisations involved in the coronavirus pandemic response, including the World Health Organization and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, some in an attempt to politicize the pandemic.

https://thehackernews.com/2021/01/top-cyber-attacks-of-2020.html


Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Charities

Insider Threats

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.

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Black Arrow Admin Black Arrow Admin

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 January 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 January 2021: Ryuk gang estimated to have made more than $150 million from ransomware; China's hackers move to ransomware; Amid hardened security, attackers seek softer targets; Hackney Council files leaked online after cyber attack; PayPal users targeted in new SMS phishing campaign; the rise of cyber-mercenaries; Declutter Your Devices to Reduce Security Risks

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


Top Cyber Headlines of the Week

Ryuk gang estimated to have made more than $150 million from ransomware attacks

In a joint report published today, threat intel company Advanced Intelligence and cyber security firm HYAS said they tracked payments to 61 Bitcoin addresses previously attributed and linked to Ryuk ransomware attacks. "Ryuk receives a significant amount of their ransom payments from a well-known broker that makes payments on behalf of the ransomware victims," the two companies said. "These payments sometimes amount to millions of dollars and typically run in the hundreds of thousands range."

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ryuk-gang-estimated-to-have-made-more-than-150-million-from-ransomware-attacks/

China's APT hackers move to ransomware attacks

Security researchers investigating a set of ransomware incidents at multiple companies discovered malware indicating that the attacks may be the work of a hacker group believed to operate on behalf of China. Although the attacks lack the sophistication normally seen with advanced threat actors, there is strong evidence linking them to APT27, a group normally involved in cyber espionage campaigns, also known as TG-3390, Emissary Panda, BRONZE UNION, Iron Tiger, and LuckyMouse.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/chinas-apt-hackers-move-to-ransomware-attacks/

SolarWinds hack: Amid hardened security, attackers seek softer targets

Reported theories by SolarWinds hack investigators that federal agencies and private companies were too busy focusing on election security to recognize vulnerabilities tied to the software supply chain are unfair and misleading. And yet, those same experts acknowledge that such accusations offer an important cyber security lesson for businesses: organizations must ensure that their entire attack surface receives attention.

https://www.scmagazine.com/home/solarwinds-hack/solarwinds-hack-amid-hardened-security-attackers-seek-softer-targets/

Hackney Council files including alleged passport documents leaked online after cyber attack

The council in East London was hit by what it described as a "serious cyber attack" in October. It reported itself to the data watchdog due to the risk criminals accessed staff and residents' data. The council said it was working with the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Ministry of Housing to investigate and understand the impact of the incident.

https://news.sky.com/story/hackney-council-files-including-alleged-passport-documents-leaked-online-after-cyber-attack-12181017

PayPal users targeted in new SMS phishing campaign

Now, at first glance the message may not seem all that suspicious since PayPal may, in fact, impose limits on sending and withdrawing money. The payment provider usually does so when it suspects that an account has been accessed by a third party without authorization, when it has detected high-risk activities on an account, or when a user has violated its Acceptable Use Policy. However, in this case it really is a case of SMS-borne phishing, also known as Smishing. If you click on the link, you will be redirected to a login phishing page that will request your access credentials. Should you proceed to “log in”, your credentials will be sent to the scammers behind the ruse and the fraudulent webpage will attempt to gather further information, including the full name, date of birth address, and bank details.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2021/01/04/paypal-users-targeted-new-sms-phishing-campaign/

SolarWinds, top executives hit with class action lawsuit over Orion software breach

SolarWinds and some of its top executives have been hit with a class action lawsuit by stockholders, who allege the company lied and materially misled them about security practices leading up to a massive breach of its Orion management software that has reverberated throughout the public and private sector.

https://www.scmagazine.com/home/solarwinds-hack/solarwinds-top-executives-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-orion-software-breach/

The rise of cyber-mercenaries poses a growing threat for both governments and companies

These days, 21st century mercenaries are as likely to be seated behind a computer screen, wreaking havoc for their paymasters’ enemies as slugging it out on a real-world battlefield. But the rapid rise of cyber-mercenaries - or Private Sector Offensive Actors (PSOAs) - is vexing some of the biggest names in the global technology industry, and for good reason. Globally, the cyber security industry is already vast, raking in an estimated $156bn in revenues in 2019. It is set to nearly double in size by 2027.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/01/07/privatisation-cyber-security-growing-threat-governments-companies/

Declutter Your Devices to Reduce Security Risks

Everyone should set aside time to review what they’ve installed on their various devices—typically apps, but that can also include games and addons. In fact, this should be an annual cleaning, at minimum.

You’re not just doing this because you want your device to look good. That’s one benefit you get from cleaning up your digital life, but it’s not the most important one. You’re also doing this to bolster your digital security. Yes, security.

https://lifehacker.com/declutter-your-devices-to-reduce-security-risks-1845991606


Threats

Ransomware

New Year, New Ransomware: Babuk Locker Targets Large Corporations

Phishing

This new phishing attack uses an odd lure to deliver Windows trojan malware

Facebook ads used to steal 615000+ credentials in a phishing campaign

Malware

North Korean hackers launch RokRat Trojan in campaigns against the South

Thousands infected by trojan that targets cryptocurrency users on Windows, Mac and Linux

A hacker’s predictions on enterprise malware risk

Vulnerabilities

Google Warns of Critical Android Remote Code Execution Bug

Hackers are actively exploiting this leading VPN, so patch now

Data Breaches

Hacker posts data of 10,000 American Express accounts for free

Vodafone's ho. Mobile admits data breach, 2.5m users impacted

The gaming industry under attack, Over 500,000 credentials for the top two dozen leading gaming firms, including Ubisoft, leaked on online.

T-Mobile data breach: ‘Malicious, unauthorized’ hack exposes customer call information
Exclusive Networks hit by cyberattack on New Year's Eve

Up to half a million victims of BA data breach could be eligible for compensation

Nation State Actors

Even Small Nations Have Jumped into the Cyber Espionage Game

Denial of Service

Ransom DDoS attacks target a Fortune Global 500 company

Privacy

Telegram feature exposes your precise address to hackers

Whatsapp Competitor Signal Stops Working Properly As Users Rush To Leave Over Privacy Update

Google Chrome browser privacy plan investigated in UK

Singapore police can access COVID-19 contact tracing data for criminal investigations

Other News

Feds Issue Recommendations for Maritime Cybersecurity


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 20 November 2020

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 November 2020

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

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


Top Cyber Headlines of the Week


Cyber crime is 'a constant threat' to SMEs

Criminals are diversifying and growing more dangerous, while SMEs remain complacent and mostly oblivious to the threats.

With a quarter of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) falling victim to a cyberattack in the last 12 months, the threat towards these organizations is constant. This is according to a new report from Direct Line – Business, which claims that businesses aren't doing all they can to stay safe.

The report states that, if a cyber attack were to occur, many organisations would find themselves in a seriously dangerous position given they hold less than $13,000 in cash reserves. Besides financial damage, many should also expect damaged client and customer relationships due to eroded trust.

With cybercriminals diversifying into different methods of attack, SMEs need to stay vigilant on multiple fronts. Phishing is still the most popular weapon for criminals, the report states, but malware and ransomware, as well as DDoS attacks, are also notable mentions.

https://www.itproportal.com/features/cybercrime-is-a-constant-threat-to-smes/

The most common passwords of 2020 are atrocious

Bottom line: Choosing secure passwords has never been humanity’s strong suit and let’s face it, it’s never going to be. People simply have too many accounts to protect these days, leading to poor practices such as simplifying passwords to make them easier to remember and reusing the same password across multiple accounts.

https://www.techspot.com/news/87657-most-common-passwords-2020-atrocious.html#Share

Why ransomware is still so successful: Over a quarter of victims pay the ransom

Over a quarter of organisations that fall victim to ransomware attacks opt to pay the ransom as they feel as if they have no other option than to give into the demands of cyber criminals – and the average ransom amount is now more than $1 million.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-ransomware-is-still-so-successful-over-a-quarter-of-victims-pay-the-ransom/

Cyber crime is maturing. Here are 6 ways organisations can keep up

In 2020, the world has experienced many challenges. Among them, hastened digitalisation has brought new opportunities but also new risks. According to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2020, cyber attacks rank first among global human-caused risks and RiskIQ predicts that by 2021 cyber crime will cost the world $11.4 million each minute.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/how-to-protect-companies-from-cybercrime/

Ransomware-as-a-service: The pandemic within a pandemic

Ransomware is a massive problem. But you already knew that.

Technical novices, along with seasoned cyber security professionals, have witnessed over the past year a slew of ransomware events that have devastated enterprises around the world. Even those outside of cyber security are now familiar with the concept: criminals behind a keyboard have found a way into an organization’s system, prevented anyone from actually using it by locking it up, and won’t let anyone resume normal activity until the organization pays a hefty fee.

https://public.intel471.com/blog/ransomware-as-a-service-2020-ryuk-maze-revil-egregor-doppelpaymer/

CISOs say a distributed workforce has critically increased security concerns

73% of security and IT executives are concerned about new vulnerabilities and risks introduced by the distributed workforce, Skybox Security reveals.

The report also uncovered an alarming disconnect between confidence in security posture and increased cyberattacks during the global pandemic.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/11/18/distributed-workforce-security/


Threats


Ransomware

Capcom confirms Ragnar Locker ransomware attack, data exposure

Capcom has confirmed that a recent security incident was due to a Ragnar Locker ransomware infection, potentially leading to the exposure of customer records.

This week, the Japanese gaming giant confirmed that the company had fallen prey to "customized ransomware" which gave attackers unauthorised access to its network -- as well as the data stored on Capcom Group systems.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/capcom-confirms-ransomware-attack-potential-theft-of-customer-employee-data/

Ransomware attack forces web hosting provider Managed.com to take servers offline

One of the biggest providers of managed web hosting solutions, has taken down all its servers in order to deal with a ransomware attack.

The ransomware impacted the company's public facing web hosting systems, resulting in some customer sites having their data encrypted.

The incident only impacted a limited number of customer sites, which the company said it immediately took offline.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/web-hosting-provider-managed-shuts-down-after-ransomware-attack/


Phishing

Office 365 phishing campaign detects sandboxes to evade detection

Microsoft is tracking an ongoing Office 365 phishing campaign that makes use of several methods to evade automated analysis in attacks against enterprise targets.

"We’re tracking an active credential phishing attack targeting enterprises that uses multiple sophisticated methods for defence evasion and social engineering," Microsoft said.

"The campaign uses timely lures relevant to remote work, like password updates, conferencing info, helpdesk tickets, etc."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/office-365-phishing-campaign-detects-sandboxes-to-evade-detection/


Malware

Adult site users targeted with ZLoader malware via fake Java update

A malware campaign ongoing since the beginning of the year has recently changed tactics, switching from exploit kits to social engineering to target adult content consumers.

The operators use an old trick to distribute a variant of ZLoader, a banking trojan that made a comeback earlier this year after an absence of almost two years, now used as an info stealer.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/adult-site-users-targeted-with-zloader-malware-via-fake-java-update/

Lazarus malware strikes South Korean supply chains

Lazarus malware has been tracked in new campaigns against South Korean supply chains, made possible through stolen security certificates.

Cyber security researchers reported the abuse of the certificates, stolen from two separate, legitimate South Korean companies.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/lazarus-malware-strikes-south-korean-supply-chains/

Malware activity spikes 128%, Office document phishing skyrockets

The report demonstrates threat actors becoming even more ruthless. Throughout Q3, hackers shifted focus from home networks to overburdened public entities, including the education sector and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Malware campaigns, like Emotet, utilized these events as phishing lure themes to assist in delivery.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/11/13/malware-activity-q3-2020/


Cloud

Attackers can abuse a misconfigured IAM role across 16 Amazon services

Researchers at Palo Alto’s Unit 42 have confirmed that they have compromised a customer’s AWS cloud account with thousands of workloads using a misconfigured identity and access management (IAM) role.

https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/cloud-security/attackers-can-abuse-a-misconfigured-iam-role-across-16-aws-services/


Vulnerabilities

More than 245,000 Windows systems still remain vulnerable to BlueKeep RDP bug

A year and a half after Microsoft disclosed the BlueKeep vulnerability impacting the Windows RDP service, more than 245,000 Windows systems still remain unpatched and vulnerable to attacks.

The number represents around 25% of the 950,000 systems that were initially discovered to be vulnerable to BlueKeep attacks during a first scan in May 2019.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-than-245000-windows-systems-still-remain-vulnerable-to-bluekeep-rdp-bug/

Windows Kerberos authentication breaks due to security updates

Microsoft is investigating a new known issue causing enterprise domain controllers to experience Kerberos authentication problems after installing security updates released to address CVE-2020-17049 during this month's Patch Tuesday, on November 10.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-kerberos-authentication-breaks-due-to-security-updates/

Cisco Patches Critical Flaw After PoC Exploit Code Release

A critical path-traversal flaw exists in Cisco Security Manager that lays bare sensitive information to remote, unauthenticated attackers.

A day after proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code was published for a critical flaw in Cisco Security Manager, Cisco has hurried out a patch.

https://threatpost.com/critical-cisco-flaw-sensitive-data/161305/

Widespread Scans Underway for RCE Bugs in WordPress Websites

WordPress websites using buggy Epsilon Framework themes are being hunted by hackers.

Millions of malicious scans are rolling across the internet, looking for known vulnerabilities in the Epsilon Framework for building WordPress themes, according to researchers.

According to the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team, more than 7.5 million probes targeting these vulnerabilities have been observed, against more than 1.5 million WordPress sites, just since Tuesday.

https://threatpost.com/widespread-scans-rce-bugs-wordpress-websites/161374/

Webex fixed some seriously spooky security flaws

Cisco has patched several troubling security vulnerabilities in its Webex video conferencing service.

The flaws in the video conferencing software were flagged. Researchers took a deeper look at the collaboration tools being used for day-to-day work to better understand how they could impact sensitive meetings now being held virtually. During its investigation, the company's security researchers discovered three vulnerabilities in Webex.

https://www.techradar.com/news/cisco-webex-had-some-very-spooky-security-flaws


Data Breaches

Animal Jam was hacked, and data stolen; here’s what parents need to know

WildWorks,  the gaming company that makes the popular kids game Animal Jam, has confirmed a data breach.

Animal Jam is one of the most popular games for kids, ranking in the top five games in the 9-11 age category in Apple’s App Store in the U.S., according to data provided by App Annie. But while no data breach is ever good news, WildWorks has been more forthcoming about the incident than most companies would be, making it easier for parents to protect both their information and their kids’ data.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/animal-jam-data-breach/

Crown Prosecution Service guilty of ‘serious’ data breaches

Prosecutors are routinely guilty of “serious” data breaches that can endanger the public by disclosing addresses of people who report crimes, a watchdog has revealed.

Independent assessors of the Crown Prosecution Service found that prosecutors in England and Wales were responsible for “a significant number of data security breaches”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/crown-prosecution-service-guilty-of-serious-data-breaches-k7vhl0hnf


Privacy

MacOS Big Sur reveals Apple secretly hates your VPN and firewall

If you're using a Mac VPN and recently updated your device to Big Sur, your privacy may be at risk as it was discovered that Apple apps are able to bypass both firewalls and VPN services in the company's latest version of macOS.

Twitter user mxswd first spotted the issue back in October and provided more details in a tweet which reads: “Some Apple apps bypass some network extensions and VPN Apps. Maps for example can directly access the internet bypassing any NEFilterDataProvider or NEAppProxyProviders you have running”.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/macos-big-sur-reveals-apple-secretly-hates-your-vpn-and-firewall

Server failure unearths massive macOS tracking plans

More serious doubts have been raised about Apple's snooping tactics following fresh revelations about the company's macOS software. We’ve already reported how apps in the latest release of macOS can bypass firewalls and VPNs and how the release was bricking some older MacBook Pro machines.

https://www.techradar.com/news/server-failure-unearths-massive-macos-tracking-plans

Employee surveillance software demand increased as workers transitioned to home working

As people hunkered down to work from home during COVID-19, companies turned to employee surveillance software to track their staff.

What does the rise of intrusive tools such as employee surveillance software mean for workers at home?

A new study shows that the demand for employee surveillance software was up 55% in June 2020 compared to the pre-pandemic average. From webcam access to random screenshot monitoring, these surveillance software products can record almost everything an employee does on their computer.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/employee-surveillance-software-demand-increased-as-workers-transitioned-to-home-working/

Los Angeles police ban facial recognition software and launch review after officers accused of unauthorized use

The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) has banned commercial facial recognition software and launched a review after 25 officers were accused of using it unofficially to try to identify people.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/lapd_facial_recogntion/


Nation State Actors

More than 200 systems infected by new Chinese APT 'FunnyDream'

A new Chinese state-sponsored hacking group (also known as an APT) has infected more than 200 systems across Southeast Asia with malware over the past two years.

The malware infections are part of a widespread cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a group named FunnyDream, according to a new report published today by security firm Bitdefender.

The attacks have primarily targeted Southeast Asian governments. While Bitdefender has not named any victim countries, a report published earlier this spring by fellow security firm Kaspersky Lab has identified FunnyDream targets in Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines, with the most victims being located in Vietnam.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-than-200-systems-infected-by-new-chinese-apt-funnydream/

Massive, China-state-funded hack hits companies around the world, report says

Attacks are linked to Cicada, a group believed to be funded by the Chinese state.

Researchers have uncovered a massive hacking campaign that’s using sophisticated tools and techniques to compromise the networks of companies around the world.

The hackers, most likely from a well-known group that’s funded by the Chinese government, are outfitted with both off-the-shelf and custom-made tools. One such tool exploits Zerologon, the name given to a Windows server vulnerability, patched in August, that can give attackers instant administrator privileges on vulnerable systems.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/massive-china-state-funded-hack-hits-companies-around-the-word-report-says/


Other News

Hackers are leaning more heavily on cloud resources

Underground cloud services may seem like an oxymoron, but they are quite real, and criminals are using them to speed up attacks and leave very little room for compromised businesses to react.

This is according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which found terabytes of internal business data and logins - including for Google, Amazon and PayPal - for sale on the dark web.

https://www.itproportal.com/news/hackers-are-leaning-more-heavily-on-cloud-resources/

CEOs Will Be Personally Liable for Cyber-Physical Security Incidents by 2024

Digital attack attempts in industrial environments are on the rise. In February 2020, IBM X-Force reported that it had observed a 2,000% increase in the attempts by threat actors to target Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) assets between 2018 and 2020. This surge eclipsed the total number of attacks against organizations’ industrial environments that had occurred over the previous three years combined.

https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/risk-based-security-for-executives/ceo-personally-liable-cyber-physical-security-incidents/


Reports Published in the Last Week

Sophos 2021 Threat Report: Navigating cybersecurity in an uncertain world

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/11/18/sophos-threat-report-2021/

Verizon Releases First Cyber-Espionage Report

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/verizon-releases-first-cyber/


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
Antony Cleal Antony Cleal

Week in review 08 December 2019: 5,183 breaches in first nine months of 2019, 44 million Microsoft customers found using compromised passwords, US charges Russians over hacking attacks

Week in review 08 December 2019: 5,183 breaches in first nine months of 2019, 44 million Microsoft customers found using compromised passwords, US charges Russians over hacking attacks, VPN vulnerabilities, ransomware attacks on network storage devices, Europol take down counterfeit websites, reward offered for Russian hackers largest yet

Week in review 08 December 2019

Round up of the most significant open source stories of the last week

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.


5,183 breaches in first nine months of 2019 exposed 7.9b data records

As many as 7.9 billion data records were leaked, stolen or exposed as a result of 5,183 data breaches that took place in the first nine months of 2019, making it the worst year ever for data breaches.

This alarming statistic was revealed by security firm Risk Based Security which observed that based on recent trends, the number of breached data records could touch 8.5 billion by the end of the year.

The firm also noted that the total number of data breaches worldwide rose by 33.3 percent compared to the mid-year of 2018 and the number of records breached also rose by 112 percent. As many as 3.1 million data records were breached as a result of six data breach incidents that took place between 1 July and 30 September.

The majority of data records were exposed or leaked as a result of accidental exposure of data on the internet by organisations. The fact that hackers are quite willing to take advantage of such data exposure has also led to a rise in the number of breached records.

https://www.teiss.co.uk/data-records-breached-2019/ 


44 million Microsoft customers found using compromised passwords

Microsoft's identity threat researchers have revealed that 44 million of its users are still using passwords that have previously been compromised in past data breaches.

The 44 million weak accounts comprised both Microsoft Services Accounts (regular users) and Azure AD accounts too, suggesting businesses are not adopting proper password hygiene.

A total of three billion user credentials were checked in a database populated from numerous sources including law enforcement and public databases.

Using the data set of three billion credentials, Microsoft was able to identify the number of users who were reusing credentials across multiple online services.

Microsoft forced a password reset for all of those users who were found to have leaked credentials during the scan which took place between January and March 2019.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/identity-and-access-management-iam/354289/44-million-microsoft-customers-found-using


Evil Corp: US charges Russians over hacking attacks

US authorities have filed charges against two Russian nationals alleged to be running a global cyber crime organisation named Evil Corp.

An indictment named Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev - who remain at large - as figures in a group which used malware to steal millions of dollars in more than 40 countries.

Those affected by the hacks include schools and religious organisations. It is also alleged that Mr Yakubets worked for Russian intelligence.

The attacks are said to be amongst the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the past decade. The $5m reward being offered for information leading to their arrest and prosecution is the largest yet for catching cyber criminals.

Thursday's indictment came after a multi-year investigation by the US and British law enforcement agencies.

Authorities allege that the group stole at least $100m (£76m) using Bugat malware - known as Dridex.

The malware was spread through so-called "phishing" campaigns, which encouraged victims to click on malicious links sent by email from supposedly trusted entities.

Once a computer was infected, the group stole personal banking information which was used to transfer funds.

A network of money launderers - targeted by the NCA and Britain's Metropolitan Police - were then utilised to funnel the criminal proceeds to members of Evil Corp. Eight members of this network have been sentenced to a total of over 40 years in prison.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50677512 


New ransomware attacks target your NAS devices, backup storage

New ransomware that targets Network Attached Storage devices and other backup devices has surged in recent months with many users unprepared for the increased level of threat.

As with all ransomware paying the ransom is no guarantee of getting data back and should only ever be an absolute last resort.

With networked and backup storage devices falling victim to ransomware infections that emphasises the need to ensure firms have offline copies of backups. Backups that are that are disconnected from systems cannot themselves be corrupted or fall victim to ransomware and would therefore be a firm’s best bet in being able to recover from such an attack.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-ransomware-attack-targets-your-nas-devices-backup-storage/ 


New vulnerability lets attackers sniff or hijack VPN connections

Academics have disclosed this week a security flaw impacting Linux, Android, macOS, and other Unix-based operating systems that allows an attacker to sniff, hijack, and tamper with VPN-tunneled connections. OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2/IPSec VPNs are all vulnerable to attacks.

The vulnerability -- tracked as CVE-2019-14899 -- resides in the networking stacks of multiple Unix-based operating systems, and more specifically, in how the operating systems reply to unexpected network packet probes.

According to the research team, attackers can use this vulnerability to probe devices and discover various details about the user's VPN connection status.

Whilst this vulnerability affects Linux, Android, Mac and other Unix-based operating systems this vulnerability is not currently believed to affect Windows based systems.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-vulnerability-lets-attackers-sniff-or-hijack-vpn-connections/  


Newly discovered Mac malware uses “fileless” technique to remain stealthy

Hackers believed to be working for the North Korean government have upped their game with a recently discovered Mac trojan that uses in-memory execution to remain stealthy.

In-memory execution, also known as fileless infection, never writes anything to a computer hard drive. Instead, it loads malicious code directly into memory and executes it from there. The technique is an effective way to evade antivirus protection because there’s no file to be analyzed or flagged as suspicious.

In-memory infections were once the sole province of state-sponsored attackers. By 2017, more advanced financially motivated hackers had adopted the technique. It has become increasingly common since then.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/12/north-koreas-lazarus-hackers-up-their-game-with-fileless-mac-malware/ 


Europol seizes more than 30,000 counterfeit sites on Cyber Monday

Europol has taken down more than 30,000 different web domains which allowed cyber criminals to sell counterfeit and pirated items online.

The joint operation between 18 member states and the US National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre, with help Eurojust and INTERPOL, included the seizure of articles such as fake medicines, pirated movies, music, software and counterfeit electronics.

In addition, officials identified and froze more than €150 000 (£128,000) in several bank accounts and online payment platforms.

As a result of the coordinated operation, codenamed IOS X (In Our Sites), three arrests have been made and 26,000 "luxury products" have been seized along with the swathe of illicit websites.

The IOS campaign launched in 2014, one that Europol has gained in strength year-on-year, and aims to "make the internet a safer place for consumers by recruiting more countries and private sector partners to participate in the operation and providing referrals".


You can 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.

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