Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 July 2022

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

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Businesses Urged Not to Give In To Ransomware Cyber Criminals As Authorities See Increase In Payouts

While there have been arguments made for criminalising the payment of ransoms, it poses a number of additional risks such as providing the criminals with an additional factor they could use to extort their victims.

Businesses are being urged not to pay cyber extortionists as authorities say they are seeing evidence of a rise in ransomware payments.

In a joint letter to the Law Society, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Information Commissioner's Office are warning solicitors who may have been advising their clients to pay.

It follows warnings earlier this year by cyber security experts from the UK, US, and Australia of a "growing wave of increasingly sophisticated ransomware attacks" which could have "devastating consequences".

The joint letter states that while ransomware payments are "not unusually unlawful" those who pay them "should be mindful of how relevant sanctions regimes (particularly those related to Russia)" when considering making the payment.

The US sanctioned in December 2019 any financial dealings with a Russian cyber crime group that was accused of working with Russian intelligence to steal classified government documents.

Despite the spillover from the Russian war in Ukraine - in one case knocking 5,800 wind turbines in Germany offline - the NCSC says it has not detected any increase in hostile activity targeting Britain during the conflict.

Businesses however had been warned that there is a heightened threat level when it comes to cyber attacks due to the conflict which is likely to be here "for the long-haul".

https://news.sky.com/story/businesses-urged-not-to-give-in-to-ransomware-cyber-criminals-as-authorities-see-increase-in-payouts-12648253

• People Are the Primary Attack Vector Around the World

With an unprecedented number of employees now working in hybrid or fully remote environments, compounded by an increase in cyber threats and a more overwhelmed, COVID-19 information fatigued workforce, there has never been a more critical time to effectively create and maintain a cyber secure workforce and an engaged security culture.

People have become the primary attack vector for cyber-attackers around the world. Humans, rather than technology, represent the greatest risk to organisations and the professionals who oversee security awareness programs are the key to effectively managing that risk.

Awareness programs enable security teams to effectively manage their human risk by changing how people think about cyber security and help them exhibit secure behaviours, from the Board of Directors on down.

Effective and mature security awareness programs not only change their workforce’s behaviour and culture but also measure and demonstrate their value to leadership via a metrics framework. Organisations can no longer justify an annual training to tick the compliance box, and it remains critical for organisations to dedicate enough personnel, resources, and tools to manage their human risk effectively.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/07/05/people-primary-attack-vector/

• Early Detection Crucial in Stopping Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scams

Cofense Intelligence studied hundreds of business email compromise attacks and found that most scams attempt to establish trust with targeted employees over multiple emails.

Avoiding a costly social engineering attack often requires employees to spot suspicious emails before threat actors request sensitive information or access.

Cofense Intelligence published new research Thursday that showed most business email compromise (BEC) scams can be thwarted in their initial stages when the attackers are not asking for money or a transfer of funds. The cyber security vendor analysed hundreds of BEC emails sent to customers during March and April, and engaged with the threat actors in approximately half the cases.

The company found that only 36% of attackers looking to conduct fraud attacks opened with a cordial greeting and request for cash, gift cards or confidential payment information. Most BEC scams, Cofense found, attempt to slowly build up trust over the course of multiple email exchanges with the target and ingratiate them with common phrases like "sorry to bother you."

Once they realise they can get money out of you, they will do everything they can to drain you dry. For many of the scammers, this becomes a literal hustle, where they will quickly pivot to other cash-out methods. Just because something starts as a wire transfer doesn't mean they won't ask you to send cryptocurrency, gift cards, a cheque, or use your personal Venmo or PayPal to wire them money.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252522493/Early-detection-crucial-in-stopping-BEC-scams

• 54% of SMBs Do Not Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

SMB owners across the globe are still relying only on usernames and passwords to secure critical employee, customer, and partner data, according to the Global Small Business Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Study released by the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI).

Services that enforce MFA require users to present more than one piece of evidence whenever they log in to a business account (e.g., company email, payroll, human resources, etc.).

MFA has been in use for decades and is widely recommended by cyber security experts, yet 55% of SMBs surveyed are not “very aware” of MFA and its security benefits, and 54% do not use it for their business. Of the businesses that have not implemented MFA, 47% noted they either didn’t understand MFA or didn’t see its value. In addition, nearly 60% of small business and medium-sized owners have not discussed MFA with their employees.

Nearly all account compromise attacks can be stopped outright, just by using MFA. It’s a proven, effective way to thwart bad actors.

Of the companies that have implemented some form of MFA, many still seem to have done so haphazardly. Only 39% of those who offer MFA have a process for prioritising critical hardware, software, and data, with 49% merely “encouraging the use of MFA when it is available.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/07/08/smb-implement-mfa/

• New Cyber Threat Emerges from the Inside, Research Report Finds

In its 2022 Insider Risk Intelligence & Research Report, DTEX Systems, a workforce cyber intelligence and security company, identifies a new cyber threat: the “Super Malicious Insider.”

Just what is a Super Malicious Insider and where does it come from? Well, it comes from inside your own organisation or someone who recently worked for you — a threat actor who may be truly of your own making.

“It was the year (2021) we all came to realise the Work-from-Anywhere (WFA) movement was here to stay,” DTEX reports. “For security and risk professionals, this hastened the end of corporate perimeter-centric security, and a requirement to protect hundreds of thousands of ‘remote offices’ outside of traditional corporate controls. To make matters worse, a measurable increase in employee attrition toward the end of 2021 created the perfect storm for insider threats.”

So, if your organisation didn’t observe a proportional increase in attempted or actual data loss, then you were likely not looking, DTEX asserts.

Critically your insiders know your vulnerabilities and can exploit them, for example, when an employee quits to join a competitor, it is often tempting to take proprietary information with them. This can include customer lists, product plans, financial data and other intellectual property.

The Super Malicious Insider is better able to hide their activities, obfuscate data and exfiltrate sensitive information without detection. Importantly, in numerous insider incidents reviewed in 2021, the Super Malicious Insider had made significant efforts to appear normal by not straying outside of their day-to-day routine, DTEX reports.

Here are some key statistics from the report:

• Industrial espionage is at an all-time high. In 2021, 72% of respondents saw an increase in actionable insider threat incidents. IP or data theft led the list at 42% of incidents, followed by unauthorised or accidental disclosure (23%), sabotage (19%), fraud (%) and other (7%). In fact, 42% of all DTEX i3 investigations involved theft of IP or customer data.

• The technology industry (38%), followed by pharma/life sciences (21%), accounted for the most IP theft incidents. In addition, technology (33%) had the most super malicious incidents, followed by critical infrastructure (24%) and government (11%).

• Investigations that led to criminal prosecution occurred within someone’s home 75% of the time. More telling, 32% of malicious incident incidents included sophisticated insider techniques.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/new-cyberthreat-emerges-from-the-inside-research-report-finds/

• Ransomware: Why It's Still A Big Threat, And Where The Gangs Are Going Next

Ransomware attacks are still lucrative for cyber criminals because victims pay ransoms - and the threat is still evolving.

Ransomware has been a cyber security issue for a long time, but last year it went mainstream. Security threats like malware, ransomware and hacking gangs are always evolving.

Major ransomware attacks like those on Colonial Pipeline, the Irish Healthcare Executive and many others demonstrated how significant the problem had become as cyber attacks disrupted people's lives.

What was once a small cyber-criminal industry based around encrypting files on personal computers and demanding a ransom of a few hundred dollars for a decryption key had evolved into a massive ecosystem designed around holding critical services and infrastructure to ransom - and making extortion demands of millions of dollars.

No wonder Lindy Cameron, head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has described ransomware as "the biggest global cyber threat".

Ransomware is continually evolving, with new variants appearing, new ransomware groups emerging, and new techniques and tactics designed to make the most money from attacks.

And as the recent Conti ransomware leaks showed, the most successful ransomware gangs are organised as if they were any other group of software developers.

They are really acting like a business. Aside from the fact they're not legitimately registered, they really are. They're functioning like a real business and sometimes the number of people within these organisations is bigger than some startups. They have shown a lot of resilience and a lot of agility in adapting to what's new.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-why-its-still-a-big-threat-and-where-the-gangs-are-going-next/

• NCSC: Prepare for Protracted Period of Heightened Cyber Risk

The UK’s leading cyber security agency has urged organisations to follow best practices and take care of their infosecurity staff in order to weather an extended period of elevated cyber risk due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guide, Maintaining A Sustainable Strengthened Cyber Security Posture, comes on the back of warnings that organisations must “prepare for the long haul” as the conflict enters its fifth month.

Alongside basic hygiene controls, the strengthening of cyber-resilience and revisiting of risk-based decisions made in the earlier acute phase of the war, organisations should pay special attention to their security staff, the NCSC said.

“Increased workloads for cyber security staff over an extended period can harm their wellbeing and lead to lower productivity, with a potential rise in unsafe behaviours or errors,” it said.

With this in mind, the guide highlighted several steps IT security managers should consider:

• Empower staff to make decisions in order to improve agility and free-up leaders to focus on medium-term priorities

• Spread workloads evenly across a wider pool of staff to reduce the risk of burnout and enable less experienced employees to benefit from development opportunities

• Provide opportunities for staff to recharge through more frequent breaks and time away from the office, as well as work on less pressured tasks

• Look after each other by watching for signs that colleagues are struggling and ensuring they always have the right resources to hand

• Engage the entire workforce with the right internal communications processes, and support so that all staff are able to identify and report suspicious behaviour

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ncsc-prepare-cyber-risk/

• 69% Of Employees Need to Deal with More Security Measures In A Hybrid Work Environment

Security firm Ivanti worked with global digital transformation experts and surveyed 10,000 office workers, IT professionals, and the C-Suite to evaluate the level of prioritisation and adoption of digital employee experience in organisations and how it shapes the daily working experiences for employees. The report revealed that 49% of employees are frustrated by the tech and tools their organisation provides and 64% believe that the way they interact with technology directly impacts morale.

One of the biggest challenges facing IT leaders today is the need to enable a seamless end user experience while maintaining robust security. The challenge becomes more complex when there is pressure from the top to bypass security measures, with 49% of C-level executives reporting they have requested to bypass one or more security measures in the last year.

Maintaining a secure environment and focusing on the digital employee experience are two inseparable elements of any digital transformation. In the war for talent a key differentiator for organisations is providing an exceptional and secure digital experience. Ivanti, a cyber security software provider, says “We believe that organisations not prioritising how their employees experience technology is a contributing factor for the Great Resignation”.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/07/04/security-measures-hybrid-work-environment/

• FBI and MI5 Leaders Give Unprecedented Joint Warning on Chinese Spying

The head of the FBI and the leader of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency have delivered an unprecedented joint address, raising fresh alarm about the Chinese government, warning business leaders that Beijing is determined to steal their technology for competitive gain.

In a speech at MI5’s London headquarters intended as a show of western solidarity, Christopher Wray, the FBI director, stood alongside the MI5 director general, Ken McCallum. Wray reaffirmed longstanding concerns about economic espionage and hacking operations by China, as well as the Chinese government’s efforts to stifle dissent abroad.

“We consistently see that it’s the Chinese government that poses the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security, and by ‘our’, I mean both of our nations, along with our allies in Europe and elsewhere,” Wray said.

He told the audience the Chinese government was “set on stealing your technology, whatever it is that makes your industry tick, and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market”.

Ken McCallum said MI5 was running seven times as many investigations into China as it had been four years ago and planned to “grow as much again” to tackle the widespread attempts at inference which pervade “so many aspects of our national life”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/06/fbi-mi5-china-spying-cyberattacks-business-economy

• As Cyber Criminals Recycle Ransomware, They're Getting Faster

Like history, ransomware repeats itself. Researchers recently encountered a new variant of a ransomware campaign and observed that it has been improving itself by reusing code from publicly available sources.

Nokoyawa is a new ransomware for Windows that first appeared at the beginning of this year. The first samples found by researchers were gathered in February 2022 and contain significant coding similarities with other older ransomware strains, some going back to 2019.

These new variants had been improving themselves by reusing code from publicly available sources. The April 2022 samples include three new features that increase the number of files that Nokoyawa can encrypt. These features already existed in recent ransomware families, and their addition just indicates that Nokoyawa developers are trying to match pace with other operators in terms of technological capability.

https://www.securityweek.com/cybercriminals-recycle-ransomware-theyre-getting-faster

• UK Military Investigates Hacks on Army Social Media Accounts

British military authorities are trying to find out who hacked the army’s social media accounts over the weekend, flooding them with cryptocurrency videos and posts related to collectible electronic art.

The investigation was launched after authorised content on the army’s YouTube account was replaced with a video feed promoting cryptocurrencies that included images of billionaire Elon Musk. The Army’s Twitter account retweeted a number of posts about non-fungible tokens, unique digital images that can be bought and sold but have no physical counterpart.

“Apologies for the temporary interruption to our feed,” the Army said in a tweet posted after the Twitter account was restored on Sunday. “We will conduct a full investigation and learn from this incident. Thanks for following us, and normal service will now resume.”

The Ministry of Defence said late Sunday that both breaches had been “resolved.”

While internet users were unable to access the Army’s YouTube site on Monday, a spokesperson said the site was down for standard maintenance. The Twitter feed was operating normally.

Although U.K. officials have previously raised concerns about state-sponsored Russian hacking, the military did not speculate on who was responsible for Sunday’s breaches.

“The Army takes information security extremely seriously, and until their investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the Ministry of Defence said.

https://www.securityweek.com/uk-military-investigates-hacks-army-social-media-accounts

Campaign Targeting SOHO Routers Highlights Risks to Remote Workers

A targeted attack campaign has been compromising small office/home office (SOHO) routers since late 2020, with the goal of hijacking network communications and infecting local computers with stealthy and sophisticated backdoors. Attacks against home routers are not new, but the implants used by attackers in this case were designed for local network reconnaissance and lateral movement instead of just abusing the router itself.

"The rapid shift to remote work in spring of 2020 presented a fresh opportunity for threat actors to subvert traditional defence-in-depth protections by targeting the weakest points of the new network perimeter - devices that are routinely purchased by consumers but rarely monitored or patched - small office/home office (SOHO) routers," researchers from Black Lotus Labs, the threat intelligence arm of telecommunications company Lumen Technologies said in a recent report.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3665912/apt-campaign-targeting-soho-routers-highlights-risks-to-remote-workers.html#tk.rss_news

---

Threats

Ransomware

• Lawyers Urged to Stop Advising Clients to Pay Ransomware Demands - Infosecurity Magazine

• Ransomware in 2022: Evolving threats, slow progress (techtarget.com)

• AstraLocker ransomware closes doors to pursue cryptojacking • The Register

• Ransomware gangs are feeling the crypto winter's impact | TechSpot

• LockBit explained: How it has become the most popular ransomware | CSO Online

• Hive ransomware gang turns to Rust, more complex encryption • The Register

• New RedAlert Ransomware targets Windows, Linux VMware ESXi servers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ransomware, hacking groups move from Cobalt Strike to Brute Ratel (bleepingcomputer.com)

• North Korean ransomware dubbed Maui active since May 2021 • The Register

• Hive Ransomware Upgrades to Rust for More Sophisticated Encryption Method (thehackernews.com)

• Ransomware, hacking groups move from Cobalt Strike to Brute Ratel (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New 'HavanaCrypt' Ransomware Distributed as Fake Google Software Update | SecurityWeek.Com

• As New Clues Emerges, Experts Wonder: Is REvil Back? (thehackernews.com)

• Researchers Detail Techniques LockBit Ransomware Using to Infect its Targets (thehackernews.com)

• New 0mega ransomware targets businesses in double-extortion attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Feds wave red flag over Maui ransomware | CSO Online

• Evolution of the LockBit Ransomware operation relies on new techniques - Security Affairs

• AstraLocker ransomware shuts down and releases decryptors (bleepingcomputer.com)

• QNAP warns of new Checkmate ransomware targeting NAS devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Quantum ransomware attack affects 657 healthcare orgs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• How Conti ransomware group crippled Costa Rica — then fell apart | Financial Times (ft.com)

• Researchers Detail Techniques LockBit Ransomware Using to Infect its Targets (thehackernews.com)

• EternalBlue 5 years after WannaCry and NotPetya - SANS Internet Storm Center

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Fake copyright complaints push IcedID malware using Yandex Forms (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Spear Phishing Fake Job Offer Likely Behind Axie Infinity's Lazarus $600m Hack - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Malware

• Hackers Exploiting Follina Bug to Deploy Rozena Backdoor (thehackernews.com)

• Dangerous new malware dances past more than 50 antivirus services | TechRadar

• Raspberry Robin campaign leverages compromised QNAP devicesSecurity Affairs

• Malware knocks IT services vendor SHI offline • The Register

• Near-undetectable malware linked to Russia's Cozy Bear • The Register

• New stealthy OrBit malware steals data from Linux devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Hackers are using YouTube videos to trick people into installing malware | TechRadar

Mobile

• This WhatsApp scam promises big, but just sends you into a spiral | ZDNet

• Android malware subscribes you to premium services without you knowing - GSMArena.com news

• Free smartphone stalkerware detection tool gets dedicated hub (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Four more apps that infected thousands of Android devices with malware removed from Google Play store | ZDNet

• Apple Debuts Spyware Protection for State-Sponsored Cyber Attacks (darkreading.com)

Internet of Things – IoT

• Vulnerability allows hackers to unlock and start Honda cars remotely | TechSpot

Data Breaches/Leaks

• Marriott Data Breach Exposes PII, Credit Cards (darkreading.com)

• Aon Hack Exposed Sensitive Information of 146,000 Customers - Infosecurity Magazine

• Hackers Claim to Have Stolen Police Data in China’s Largest Cyber Security Breach - Bloomberg

• Human Error Blamed for Leak of 1 Billion Records of Chinese Citizens | Threatpost

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

• Ransomware gangs are feeling the crypto winter's impact | TechSpot

• AstraLocker ransomware closes doors to pursue cryptojacking • The Register

• Hackers are using YouTube videos to trick people into installing malware | TechRadar

• PennyWise crypto-stealing malware spreads through YouTube (cointelegraph.com)

• US urges Japan to step up pressure on crypto miners with links to Russia | Financial Times (ft.com)

• Large-scale cryptomining campaign is targeting the NPM repositorySecurity Affairs

• ECB to warn eurozone countries over crypto regulation | Financial Times (ft.com)

• Microsoft Issue Updated Warning Against Known Cloud Threat Actor Group - IT Security Guru

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Human Error Blamed for Leak of 1 Billion Records of Chinese Citizens | Threatpost

• HackerOne incident raises concerns for insider threats (techtarget.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Ukrainian police takes down phishing gang behind payments scam | ZDNet

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• Applying Shift Left principles to third party risk management - Help Net Security

Software Supply Chain

• NPM supply-chain attack impacts hundreds of websites and apps (bleepingcomputer.com)

Cloud/SaaS

• Microsoft Issue Updated Warning Against Known Cloud Threat Actor Group - IT Security Guru

• Cloud Misconfig Exposes 3TB of Sensitive Airport Data in Amazon S3 Bucket: 'Lives at Stake' (darkreading.com)

• What Do All of Those Cloud Cyber Security Acronyms Mean? (darkreading.com)

Identity and Access Management

• 6 signs your IAM strategy is failing, and how to fix it | CSO Online

Asset Management

• How a cyber asset management strategy can help enterprises detect threats - Help Net Security

Encryption

• Encryption is high up on corporate priority lists - Help Net Security

• Quantum-resistant encryption recommended for standardization • The Register

• The threat of quantum computing to sensitive data - Help Net Security

• Inside NIST's 4 Crypto Algorithms for a Post-Quantum World (darkreading.com)

• End-to-end encryption’s central role in modern self-defence | Ars Technica

API

• Why your API gateway is not enough for API security? - Help Net Security

Open Source

• Researchers Warn of New OrBit Linux Malware That Hijacks Execution Flow (thehackernews.com)

Social Media

• British Army Cyber Attack Reminds Businesses That Social Media Accounts Are Prime Targets (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

• Limp Facebook Policies – Do They Ignore Suffering And Crime! (informationsecuritybuzz.com)

Digital Transformation

• Cyber security is driving digital transformation in alternative investment institutions - Help Net Security

Travel

• Marriott suffered a new data breach, attackers stole 20GB of data - Security Affairs

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

• Free smartphone stalkerware detection tool gets dedicated hub (bleepingcomputer.com)

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• ICO Set to Scale Back Public Sector Fines - Infosecurity Magazine

• ECB to warn eurozone countries over crypto regulation | Financial Times (ft.com)

• Wegmans hit with $400,000 data-breach penalty (democratandchronicle.com)

Models, Frameworks and Standards

• PCI DSS 4.0 released, addresses emerging threats and technologies - Help Net Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

• Ukrainian police takes down phishing gang behind payments scam | ZDNet

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

• Apple's New "Lockdown Mode" Protects iPhone, iPad, and Mac Against Spyware (thehackernews.com)

• Pro-Kremlin hackers Killnet hit Latvia with biggest cyber attack in its history | World | The Times

• TrickBot Gang Shifted its Focus on "Systematically" Targeting Ukraine (thehackernews.com)

• UK to combat Russia’s ‘hostile online warfare’ by forcing internet firms to remove disinformation | TechCrunch

• NATO Announce Plans to Develop Cyber Rapid Response Capabilities - IT Security Guru

• FBI and MI5 bosses: China cheats and steals at massive scale • The Register

• Hackers linked to the Chinese government increasingly target Russia, analysis suggests - CyberScoop

• In Switch, Trickbot Group Now Attacking Ukrainian Targets (darkreading.com)

• Apple Debuts Spyware Protection for State-Sponsored Cyber Attacks (darkreading.com)

---

Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Russian Info Ops Ramp Up Effort to Divide West on Ukraine - Infosecurity Magazine

• Near-undetectable malware linked to Russia's Cozy Bear • The Register

Nation State Actors – China

• US and UK intelligence chiefs call for vigilance on China’s industrial spies | Financial Times (ft.com)

• China Censors What Could Be Biggest Data Hack in History (gizmodo.com)

• Hackers linked to the Chinese government increasingly target Russia, analysis suggests - CyberScoop

• China’s Cabinet Stresses Cyber Security After Data Leak - Bloomberg

• Security warning after sale of stolen Chinese data - BBC News

• Five accused of trying to silence China critics in US • The Register

• 50 Chinese students leave UK in three years after spy chiefs’ warning | Espionage | The Guardian

• More UK calls for ban of CCTV makers Hikvision, Dahua • The Register

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Russian information operations focus on dividing Western coalition supporting Ukraine - CyberScoop

• North Korean ransomware dubbed Maui active since May 2021 • The Register

• Feds wave red flag over Maui ransomware | CSO Online

• Spear Phishing Fake Job Offer Likely Behind Axie Infinity's Lazarus $600m Hack - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Nation State Actors – Iran

• Hacktivists claiming attack on Iranian steel facilities dump tranche of 'top secret documents' - CyberScoop

• Latest Cyber Attack Against Iran Part of Ongoing Campaign | Threatpost

---

Vulnerability Management

• Google: Half of zero-day exploits linked to poor software fixes | ZDNet

• Why Browser Vulnerabilities Are a Serious Threat — and How to Minimize Your Risk (darkreading.com)

---

Vulnerabilities

• Cisco and Fortinet Release Security Patches for Multiple Products (thehackernews.com)

• Google Patches Actively Exploited Chrome Bug | Threatpost

• OpenSSL version 3.0.5 fixes a flaw that could potentially lead to RCE - Security Affairs

• Apache “Commons Configuration” patches Log4Shell-style bug – what you need to know – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Cisco fixed a critical arbitrary File Overwrite flaw in Enterprise Communication solutions - Security Affairs

• Cisco Releases 10 Security Patches For Expressway Series and TelePresence VCS Products - Infosecurity Magazine

• Django fixes SQL Injection vulnerability in new releases (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Google fixes the fourth Chrome zero-day in 2022 - Security Affairs - Security Affairs

• Tens of Jenkins plugins are affected by zero-day vulnerabilities - Security Affairs

• OpenSSL fixes two “one-liner” crypto bugs – what you need to know – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Fortinet addressed multiple vulnerabilities in several products - Security Affairs

• There’s a Nasty Security Hole in the Apache Webserver – The New Stack

---

Sector Specific

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

We currently provide tailored threat intelligence based on the following sectors, additional sectors by arrangement:

• 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

---

Other News

• These are the cyber security threats of tomorrow that you should be thinking about today | ZDNet

• Rising threats spark scramble for cyber workers | The Hill

• Why Browser Vulnerabilities Are a Serious Threat — and How to Minimize Your Risk (darkreading.com)

• Microsoft rolls back plan to block macros by default • Graham Cluley

• Attacker groups adopt new penetration testing tool Brute Ratel | CSO Online

• Security tester says he broke into datacenter via toilets • The Register

• SQL injection, XSS vulnerabilities continue to plague organisations | CSO Online

• Endless cyber-threat pressure could leave security staff burnt out. Here's what you need to change | ZDNet

• Top 7 types of data security technology (techtarget.com)

• Imagination is key to effective data loss prevention - Help Net Security

• The Age of Collaborative Security: What Tens of Thousands of Machines Witness (thehackernews.com)

• Maintaining a sustainable strengthened cyber security posture - NCSC.GOV.UK

• Hacking the Crypto-Monetized Web (trendmicro.com)

• Reflections Of A Former Hacker: How Leaders Can Protect Their Business From Cyber Threats (forbes.com)

• Zero Trust Bolsters Our National Defence Against Rising Cyber Threats (darkreading.com)

• Security advisory accidentally exposes vulnerable systems (bleepingcomputer.com)

---

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 07 January 2022

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

---

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Microsoft Sees Rampant Log4j Exploit Attempts, Testing

Microsoft says it’s only going to get worse: It’s seen state-sponsored and cyber-criminal attackers probing systems for the Log4Shell flaw through the end of December.

No surprise here: The holidays bought no Log4Shell relief.

Threat actors vigorously launched exploit attempts and testing during the last weeks of December, Microsoft said on Monday, in the latest update to its landing page and guidance around the flaws in Apache’s Log4j logging library.

“We have observed many existing attackers adding exploits of these vulnerabilities in their existing malware kits and tactics, from coin miners to hands-on-keyboard attacks,” according to Microsoft.

https://threatpost.com/microsoft-rampant-log4j-exploits-testing/177358/

Warning: Log4j Still Lurks Where Dependency Analysis Can’t Find It

The best programming practice to include a third-party library in source code is to use the import command. It is the easiest way to do it, and it is also the way that most dependency analysis programs work to determine if a vulnerable library is in play. But any time code is included without calling it as an external package, traditional dependency analysis might not be enough to find it — including when Java coders use a common trick to resolve conflicting dependencies during the design process.

A new study by jFrog found that 400 packages on repository Maven Central used Log4j code without calling it as an external package. Around a third of that came from fat jars — jar files that include all external dependencies to make a more efficient product. The remainder came from directly inserting Log4j code into the source code, including shading, a work-around used when two or more dependencies call different versions of the same library in a way that might conflict.

While 400 may not seem like a lot for Maven Central, where Google found 17,000 packages implementing the vulnerable Log4j library, some of the 400 packages unearthed by JFrog are widely used.

https://www.scmagazine.com/analysis/devops/warning-log4j-still-lurks-where-dependency-analysis-cant-find-it

Hackers Sending Malware-Filled USB Sticks to Companies Disguised as Presents

The "malicious USB stick" trick is old but apparently it's still wildly popular with the crooks.

Word to the wise: If a stranger ever offers you a random USB stick as a gift, best not to take it.

On Thursday, the FBI warned that a hacker group has been using the US mail to send malware-laden USB drives to companies in the defence, transportation and insurance industries. The criminals’ hope is that employees will be gullible enough to stick them into their computers, thus creating the opportunity for ransomware attacks or the deployment of other malicious software, The Record reports.

The hacker group behind this bad behaviour—a group called FIN7—has gone to great lengths to make their parcels appear innocuous. In some cases, packages were dressed up as if they were sent by the US Department of Health and Human Services, with notes explaining that the drives contained important information about COVID-19 guidelines. In other cases, they were delivered as if they had been sent via Amazon, along with a “decorative gift box containing a fraudulent thank you letter, counterfeit gift card, and a USB,” according to the FBI warning.

https://gizmodo.com/hackers-have-been-sending-malware-filled-usb-sticks-to-1848323578

Patch Systems Vulnerable To Critical Log4j Flaws, UK And US Officials Warn

One of the highest-severity vulnerabilities in years, Log4Shell remains under attack.

Criminals are actively exploiting the high-severity Log4Shell vulnerability on servers running VMware Horizon in an attempt to install malware that allows them to gain full control of affected systems, the UK’s publicly funded healthcare system is warning.

CVE-2021-44228 is one of the most severe vulnerabilities to come to light in the past few years. It resides in Log4J, a system-logging code library used in thousands if not millions of third-party applications and websites. That means there is a huge base of vulnerable systems. Additionally, the vulnerability is extremely easy to exploit and allows attackers to install Web shells, which provide a command window for executing highly privileged commands on hacked servers.

The remote-code execution flaw in Log4J came to light in December after exploit code was released before a patch was available. Malicious hackers quickly began actively exploiting CVE-2021-44228 to compromise sensitive systems.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/01/patch-systems-vulnerable-to-critical-log4j-flaws-uk-and-us-officials-warn/

‘Elephant Beetle’ Lurks For Months In Networks

The group blends into an environment before loading up trivial, thickly stacked, fraudulent financial transactions too tiny to be noticed but adding up to millions of dollars.

Researchers have identified a threat group that’s been quietly siphoning off millions of dollars from financial- and commerce-sector companies, spending months patiently studying their targets’ financial systems and slipping in fraudulent transactions amongst regular activity.

The Sygnia Incident Response team has been tracking the group, which it named Elephant Beetle, aka TG2003, for two years.

In a Wednesday report, the researchers called Elephant Beetle’s attack relentless, as the group has hidden “in plain sight” without the need to develop exploits.

https://threatpost.com/elephant-beetle-months-networks-financial/177393/

Sonicwall: Y2k22 Bug Hits Email Security, Firewall Products

SonicWall has confirmed today that some of its Email Security and firewall products have been hit by the Y2K22 bug, causing message log updates and junk box failures starting with January 1st, 2022.

The company says that email users and administrators will no longer be able to access the junk box or un-junk newly received emails on affected systems.

They will also no longer be able to trace incoming/outgoing emails using the message logs because they're no longer updated.

On January 2nd, SonicWall deployed updates to North American and European instances of Hosted Email Security, the company's cloud email security service.

It also released fixes for its on-premises Email Security Appliance (ES 10.0.15) and customers using firewalls with the Anti-Spam Junk Store functionality toggled on (Junk Store 7.6.9).

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/sonicwall-y2k22-bug-hits-email-security-firewall-products/

Hackers Use Video Player To Steal Credit Cards From Over 100 Sites

Hackers used a cloud video hosting service to perform a supply chain attack on over one hundred real estate sites that injected malicious scripts to steal information inputted in website forms.

These scripts are known as skimmers or formjackers and are commonly injected into hacked websites to steal sensitive information entered into forms. Skimmers are commonly used on checkout pages for online stores to steal payment information.

In a new supply chain attack discovered by Palo Alto Networks Unit42, threat actors abused a cloud video hosting feature to inject skimmer code into a video player. When a website embeds that player, it embeds the malicious script, causing the site to become infected.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-use-video-player-to-steal-credit-cards-from-over-100-sites/

Cyber World Is Starting 2022 In Crisis Mode With The Log4j Bug

The cyber security world is starting off 2022 in crisis mode.

The newest culprit is the log4j software bug, which cyber security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly called “the most serious vulnerability I have seen in my decades-long career.” It forced many cyber security pros to work through the holidays to protect computer systems at Big Tech firms, large and small companies and government agencies.

But crises like log4j have become the norm rather than the exception during the past few years.

Last year kicked off with the SolarWinds hack — a Russian government operation that compromised reams of sensitive information from U.S. government agencies and corporations.

Digital threats of all sorts are growing far faster than the capability to defend against them. If past is prologue, 2022 is likely to be a year of big hacks, big threats and plenty more crises.

“We’re always in crisis is the long and short of it,” Jake Williams, a former National Security Agency (NSA) cyber operator and founder of the firm Rendition Infosec, told me. “Anyone looking for calm rather than the storm in cyber is in the wrong field.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/03/cyber-world-is-starting-2022-crisis-mode-with-log4j-bug/

Everything You Need To Know About Ransomware Attacks and Gangs In 2022

Ransomware is a lucrative business for criminals. It is paying off, and it is working.

According to a recent Trend Micro report, a staggering 84% of US organisations experienced either a phishing or ransomware attack in the last year. The average ransomware payment was over $500,000.

Bad actors want to keep cashing in. So they’re going as far as creating ransomware kits as a service (Ransomware as a Service) to be sold on the dark web and even setting up fake companies to recruit potential employees.

Many ransomware gangs function like real companies — with marketing teams, websites, software development, user documentation, support forums and media relations.

If the “companies” run by ransomware gangs can operate with minimal expenses and mind-blowing revenues, what’s stopping them from growing in number and size?

https://securityintelligence.com/articles/ransomware-attacks-gangs-2022/

Why the Log4j Vulnerability Makes Endpoint Visibility and Zero Trust Security More Important Than Ever

The Apache Log4j vulnerability is one of the most serious vulnerabilities in recent years—putting millions of devices at risk.

IT organisations worldwide are still reeling from the discovery of a major security vulnerability in Apache Log4j, an open-source logging utility embedded in countless internal and commercial applications.

By submitting a carefully constructed variable string to log4j, attackers can take control of any application that includes log4j. Suddenly, cyber criminals around the world have a blueprint for launching attacks on everything from retail store kiosks to mission-critical applications in hospitals.

If security teams overlook even one instance of log4j in their software, they give attackers an opportunity to issue system commands at will. Attackers can use those commands to install ransomware, exfiltrate data, shut down operations — the list goes on.

How should enterprises respond to this pervasive threat?

https://www.cio.com/article/302868/why-the-log4j-vulnerability-makes-endpoint-visibility-and-zero-trust-security-more-important-than-ever.html

---

Threats

Ransomware

• Night Sky Is The Latest Ransomware Targeting Corporate Networks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Counties In New Mexico, Arkansas Begin 2022 With Ransomware Attacks | ZDNet

• Ransomware Attack Affects The Websites Of 5,000 Schools - CNNPolitics

Phishing

• Google Docs Comments Weaponized in New Phishing Campaign (darkreading.com)

• US Arrests Suspect Who Stole Unpublished Books In Phishing Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

Malware

• FluBot Malware Now Targets Europe Posing As Flash Player App (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New Mac Malware Samples Underscore Growing Threat (darkreading.com)

• Purple Fox Rootkit Now Bundled With Telegram Installer | Malwarebytes Labs

• ‘Malsmoke’ Exploits Microsoft’s E-Signature Verification | Threatpost

Mobile

• Apple iPhone Malware Tactic Causes Fake Shutdowns to Enable Spying | Threatpost

IoT

• IoT's Importance is Growing Rapidly, But Its Security Is Still Weak | SecurityWeek.Com

Data Breaches/Leaks

• List Of Data Breaches And Cyber Attacks In December 2021 | 219M records (itgovernance.co.uk)

• Have I Been Pwned Warns Of DatPiff Data Breach Impacting Millions (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Morgan Stanley To Pay $60 Million To Resolve Data Security Lawsuit (Yahoo.Com)

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

• Report: $2.2 Billion In Cryptocurrency Stolen From DeFi Platforms In 2021 | ZDNet

• UK Police Seize £322m of Cryptocurrency in Past Five Years - Infosecurity Magazine

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Broker-Dealers Impersonators Stole $50 Million Using Spoofed Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

• 'Sextortion' Leads To Financial Losses And Psychological Trauma. Here's What To Look Out For On Dating Apps (theconversation.com)

DoS/DDoS

• CDN Cache Poisoning Allows DoS Attacks Against Cloud Apps (darkreading.com)

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• Why The UK’s Energy Sector Is Fragile And Ripe To Cyber Attacks - Help Net Security

Nation State Actors

• Should Businesses Be Concerned About APT-Style Attacks? - Help Net Security

• MI6 Chief Thanks China For ‘Free Publicity’ After James Bond Spoof | China | The Guardian

• Log4j Vulnerabilities: New Patches And Nation-State Exploitation. (thecyberwire.com)

• North Korea-Linked Konni APT Targets Russian Diplomatic Bodies - Security Affairs

Privacy

• Swiss Army Bans All Chat Apps But Locally-Developed Threema (bleepingcomputer.com)

• France Fines Google, Facebook €210 Million Over Privacy Violating Tracking Cookies (thehackernews.com)

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

• 1.1M Compromised Accounts Found at 17 Major Companies | Threatpost

Spyware and Espionage

• US Counterintelligence Shares Tips To Block Spyware Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

---

Vulnerabilities

• Google Chrome Update Includes 37 Security Fixes | ZDNet

• Emergency Windows Server Update Fixes Remote Desktop Issues (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Microsoft Rolled Out Emergency Fix For Y2k22 Bug In Exchange Servers - Security Affairs

• VMware Fixed CVE-2021-22045 Heap-Overflow In Workstation, Fusion and ESXi - Security Affairs

• Latest WordPress Security Release Fixes XSS, SQL Injection Bugs | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• Internet Bug Bounty: High Severity Vulnerability In Apache HTTP Server Could Lead To RCE | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• QNAP: Get NAS Devices Off the Internet Now | Threatpost

• New Ubuntu Linux Kernel Security Updates Fix 9 Vulnerabilities, Patch Now - 9to5Linux

• JFrog Researchers Find JNDI Vulnerability In H2 Database Consoles Similar To Log4Shell | ZDNet

• Unpatched HomeKit Vulnerability Exposes iPhones, iPads to DoS Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com

---

Sector Specific

Defence

• FBI: Hackers Use BadUSB To Target Defence Firms With Ransomware (bleepingcomputer.com)

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• Are Medical Devices at Risk of Ransomware Attacks? (thehackernews.com)

Estate Agents

• Hackers Target Real Estate Websites with Skimmer in Latest Supply Chain Attack (thehackernews.com)

---

Other News

Log4j Flaw Attack Levels Remain High, Microsoft Warns | ZDNet

Cyber Attack Against UK Ministry of Defence Training Academy Revealed | ZDNet

API Security: Understanding The Next Top Attack Vector - Help Net Security

E-Waste Is a Cybersecurity Problem, Too - IEEE Spectrum

The Log4j Debacle Showed Again That Public Disclosure Of 0-Days Only Helps Attackers - Help Net Security

---

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 04 June 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

Cyber Insurers Recoil As Ransomware Attacks ‘Skyrocket’

The Great Fire of London helped forge the property insurance market, as residents feared a repeat of the savage destruction of 1666. In the absence of a state-backed fire service, some insurers even employed their own brigades, betting that limiting the damage to a property would be cheaper than rebuilding it. After a wave of high-profile cyber assaults, Graeme Newman, chief innovation officer at London-based insurance provider CFC, draws a parallel with today’s rapidly evolving market for cyber coverage. Insurance companies now provide emergency support services as well as financial compensation, so “the insurers own the digital fire trucks”, he said.

https://www.ft.com/content/4f91c4e7-973b-4c1a-91c2-7742c3aa9922

US Puts Cyber Crime On Par With Terror After Ransomware Attacks

The US government is raising the fight against cyber criminals to the same level as the battle against terrorists after a surge of ransomware attacks on large corporations. Internal guidance circulated by the Department of Justice instructs prosecutors to pool their information about hackers. The idea, said John Carlin, of the attorney-general’s office, is to “make the connections between actors and work your way up to disrupt the whole chain”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-cybercrime-terror-ransomware-attacks-joe-biden-pzrqbkfwt

Russia Under Fire As Cyber Attack Leaves 7,000 Out Of Work

An attack this week on JBS meatworks in North America and Australia brought the firm to a standstill, and now threatens to turn into a diplomatic row with Russia. JBS are reported to supply 20% of the world meat market and the ransomware attack has left 7,000 workers unable to do their jobs.

https://www.afr.com/politics/russia-under-fire-as-ransomware-attack-leaves-7000-out-of-work-20210602-p57xha

Irish Health Service Confirms Data Of Nearly 520 Patients Is Online After Cyber Attack

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed the data of nearly 520 patients is online after media reports of their publication. In a statement, the HSE said the data contains correspondence with patients, minutes of meetings and includes sensitive patient data. The HSE also confirmed corporate documents are among the HSE data illegally accessed.  Confirmation of the authenticity of this data follows an analysis carried out by the agency and comments from the Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, that reports of patient data being shared online are "very credible".

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40301054.html

Enterprise Networks Vulnerable To 20-Year-Old Exploits

While the industry focuses on exotic attacks – like the SolarWinds incident — the real risk to enterprises comes from older exploits, some as much as 20-years old. “While organisations always need to keep up with the latest security patches, it is also vital to ensure older system and well-known vulnerabilities from years past are monitored and patched as well,” says Etay Maor, senior director of security strategy at Cato Networks. “Threat actors are attempting to take advantage of overlooked, vulnerable systems.” Our research showed that attackers often scanned for end-of-life and unsupported systems. Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVE) identified were exploits targeting software, namely vSphere, Oracle WebLogic, and Big-IP, as well as routers with remote administration vulnerabilities.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/05/27/enterprise-networks-vulnerable/

US Authorities Seize Two Domains Used By SolarWinds Intruders For Malware Spear-Phishing Operation

Uncle Sam on Tuesday said it had seized two web domains used to foist malware on victims using spoofed emails from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The domain takeovers, which occurred on Friday, followed a court order issued in the wake of a Microsoft report warning about the spear-phishing campaign. The phishing effort relied on malware-laden messages sent via marketing service Constant Contact. "Cyber intrusions and spear-phishing email attacks can cause widespread damage throughout affected computer networks, and can result in significant harm to individual victims, government agencies, NGOs, and private businesses,” said Acting US Attorney Raj Parekh for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a statement. "As demonstrated by the court-authorized seizure of these malicious domains, we are committed to using all available tools to protect the public and our government from these worldwide hacking threats."

https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/02/feds_seize_nobelium/

Hacker Group DarkSide Operates In A Similar Way To A Franchise

DarkSide, the hacker group behind the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, has a business model that’s more familiar than people think, according to New York Times correspondent Andrew Kramer, “It operates something like a franchise, where individual hackers can come and receive the ransomware software and use it, as well as, use DarkSide’s reputation, as it were, to extract money from their targets, mostly in the United States,” Kramer said in an interview that aired Wednesday night.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/hacker-group-darksides-operates-in-a-similar-way-to-a-franchise-new-york-times-reporter-says.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar

Interpol Intercepts $83 Million Fighting Financial Cyber Crime

The Interpol (short for International Criminal Police Organisation) has intercepted $83 million belonging to victims of online financial crime from being transferred to the accounts of their attackers. Over 40 law enforcement officers specialized in fighting cyber crime across the Asia Pacific region took part in the Interpol-coordinated Operation HAECHI-I spanning more than six months. Between September 2020 and March 2021, law enforcement focused on battling five types of online financial crimes: investment fraud, romance scams, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, online sextortion, and voice phishing.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/interpol-intercepts-83-million-fighting-financial-cyber-crime/

Is It Really The Wild West In Cyber Crime? Why We Need To Re-Examine Our Approach To Ransomware

Once again, cyber security has become a headline topic within and well outside technology circles, along with the little-known operator of a significant fuel pipeline: Colonial Pipeline. A ransomware attack, and ensuing panic buying of gasoline, resulted in widespread fuel shortages on the east coast, thrusting the issue of cyber security into the lives of everyday Americans. Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount later acknowledged that his company ultimately paid the cybercriminals $4.4 million to unlock company systems, generating a great deal of controversy around the simple question (and associated complex potential answers), of whether companies should pay when their systems are held hostage by ransomware.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/is-it-really-the-wild-west-in-cybercrime-why-we-need-to-re-examine-our-approach-to-ransomware/

---

Threats

Ransomware

• Anti-Ransomware Biz Exagrid ‘Paid $2.6M Ransomware Demand’

• White House Contacts Russia After Hack Of World’s Largest Meatpacking Company

• This New Ransomware Is Targeting Unpatched Microsoft Exchange Servers

• Fujifilm Becomes Latest Ransomware Victim As White House Urges Business Leaders To Take Action

• Cyber Crime Forum Advertises Alleged Database, Source Code From Russian Firm That Helped Parler

• On The Taxonomy And Evolution Of Ransomware

Phishing

• Phishing Emails Remain in User Inboxes Over 3 Days ... (darkreading.com)

Other Social Engineering

• The Bizarro Streaming Site That Hackers Built From Scratch

Malware

• Malware Can Use This Trick To Bypass Ransomware Defense In Antivirus Solutions

• Exchange Servers Targeted By ‘Epsilon Red’ Malware

Mobile

IOT

• Amazon Sidewalk Poised To Sweep You Into Its Mesh

 Vulnerabilities

• XSS Vulnerability Found In Popular WYSIWYG Website Editor

• Huawei USB LTE Dongles Are Vulnerable To Privilege Escalation Attacks

• Hackers Actively Exploiting 0-Day In WordPress Plugin Installed On Over 17,000 Sites

• EPUB Vulnerabilities: Electronic Reading Systems Riddled With Browser-Like Flaws

• SonicWall Urges Customers To 'Immediately' Patch NSM On-Prem Bug

Data Breaches

• GDPR: EU Privacy Watchdog Probing The Use Of AWS And Azure Cloud Services

Supply Chain

• What Is A Supply Chain Attack?

• Microsoft Office 365 A Major Supply Chain Attack Vector

Nation State Actors

• Chinese Cyber Criminals Spent Three Years Creating A New Backdoor To Spy On Governments

• Kimsuky APT Continues To Target South Korean Government Using Appleseed Backdoor

• Russian Hacker Pavel Sitnikov Arrested For Sharing Malware Source Code

Privacy

• You Have A Week To Opt-Out Of Amazon Sidewalk, Do It Now

---

Other News

• “Have I Been Pwned” Breach Site Partners With… The FBI!

• 17 Cyber Insurance Application Questions You'll Need To Answer

• Cyber Criminals Go Corporate As Hacking Becomes A Business

• The Human Cost Of Understaffed SOCs

• Security Ops Teams Struggle To Switch Off At Home

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.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 May 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

Cyber Insurance Firms Start Tapping Out As Ransomware Continues To Rise

In early May, global insurer AXA made a landmark policy decision: The company would stop reimbursing French companies for ransomware payments to cyber criminals. The decision, which reportedly came after French authorities questioned whether the practice had fuelled the current epidemic in ransomware attacks, may be just the beginning of a general retreat that will force companies to reconsider their attempts to outsource cyber-risk to insurance firms. Already, the massive damages from one damaging crypto worm, NotPetya, caused multiple lawsuits when insurers refused to pay out on cyber insurance claims.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/cyber-insurance-firms-start-tapping-out-as-ransomware-continues-to-rise/d/d-id/1341109

Irish Health Service Faces Final Bill Of At Least €100M Following Cyber Attack

The cyber attack on IT systems in the health service will cost it at least €100 million, according to chief executive Paul Reid. This is at the lower end of estimates of the total cost, he indicated, and includes the cost of restoring the network, upgrading systems to Microsoft 365 and the disruption caused to patients. Appointments for about 7,000 patients a day are being cancelled, almost two weeks after a criminal gang hacked the HSE systems. Mr Reid said the HSE was keen to see an independent and objective assessment of the cyber attack.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/cyberattack-hse-faces-final-bill-of-at-least-100m-1.4577076

Ransomware: Dramatic Increase In Attacks Is Causing Harm On A Significant Scale

A dramatic increase in the number of ransomware attacks and their severity is causing harm on a significant scale, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned. The NCA's annual National Strategic Assessment (NSA) of Serious and Organised Crime details how the overall threat from cyber crime has increased during the past year, with more severe and high-profile attacks against victims. Ransomware attacks have grown in frequency and impact over the course of the last year, to such an extent that they rank alongside other major crimes "causing harm to our citizens and communities on a significant scale," warns the report.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-dramatic-increase-in-attacks-is-causing-harm-on-a-significant-scale/

Deepfakes Could Be The Next Big Security Threat To Businesses

An overwhelming majority of businesses say that manipulated online content and media such as deepfakes are a serious security risk to their organisation. Deepfakes have already been shown to pose a threat to people portrayed in the manipulated videos, and could have serious repercussions when the individual holds a position of importance, be it as a leader of a country, or a leader of an enterprise. Earlier in 2021, the FBI’s cyber division warned that deepfakes are a critical emerging threat that can be used in all manners of social engineering attacks including ones aimed at businesses.

https://www.techradar.com/news/deepfakes-could-be-the-next-big-security-threat-to-businesses

Ransomware: Two-Thirds Of Organisations Say They'll Take Action To Boost Their Defences

The severe disruption caused by the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack has alerted organisations to the need to bolster their defences against cyber attacks – and two-thirds are set to take actions required to prevent them becoming another ransomware victim following the incident. The ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline – one of the largest pipeline operators in the United States, providing almost half of the East Coast's fuel – caused disruption to operations and led to gas shortages, demonstrating how cyber attacks can have physical consequences.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-two-thirds-of-organisations-say-theyll-take-action-to-boost-their-defences/

The 10 Most Dangerous Cyber Threat Actors

When hacking began many decades ago, it was mostly the work of enthusiasts fuelled by their passion for learning everything they could about computers and networks. Today, nation-state actors are developing increasingly sophisticated cyber espionage tools, while cyber criminals are cashing in millions of dollars targeting everything from Fortune 500 companies to hospitals. Cyber attacks have never been more complex, more profitable, and perhaps even more baffling. At times, drawing clear lines between different kinds of activities is a challenging task. Nation-states sometimes partner with each other for a common goal, and sometimes they even appear to be working in tandem with cyber criminal gangs.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3619011/the-10-most-dangerous-cyber-threat-actors.html

Cyber Security Leaders Lacking Basic Cyber Hygiene

Constella Intelligence released the results of a survey that unlocks the behaviours and tendencies that characterize how vigilant organisations’ leaders are when it comes to reducing cyber vulnerability, allowing the industry to better understand how social media is leveraged as an attack vector and how leaders are responding to this challenge. The findings from the survey, which polled over 100 global cyber security leaders, senior-level to C-suite, across all major industries, including financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications, revealed that 57% have suffered an account takeover (ATO) attack in their personal lives—most frequently through email (52%), followed by LinkedIn (31%) and Facebook (26%).

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/05/26/cybersecurity-leaders-cyber-hygiene/

Watch Out: Crypto Jacking Is On The Rise Again

During the last year, though, malicious crypto mining has seen a resurgence, with NTT’s 2021 Global Threat Intelligence Report, published this month, revealing that crypto miners have now overtaken spyware as the world’s most common malware. Crypto miners, says NTT, made up 41% of all detected malware in 2020, and were most widely found in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. The most common coinminer variant was XMRig, which infects a user’s computer to mine Monero, accounting for 82% of all mining activity. Others included Crypto miner and XMR-Stack.

https://cybernews.com/security/watch-out-cryptojacking-is-on-the-rise-again/

---

Threats

Ransomware

• Ransomware Attacks Are Becoming More Common – How Do We Stop Them?

• Ryuk Ransomware Operators Shift Tactics To Target Victims

• Bose Confirms Ransomware Attack That Exposed Employee Data

• Russian To Be Deported After Failed Tesla Ransomware Plot

• Ransomware Attack Halts Child Protection Court Cases

• FBI Warns Of Conti Ransomware Attacks Against Healthcare Organisations

• HSE Cyber Attack Has Had ‘Devastating Impact’, Cancer Services Director Says

Phishing

• Financial Spear-Phishing Campaigns Pushing RATs

• This Massive Phishing Campaign Delivers Password-Stealing Malware Disguised As Ransomware

Other Social Engineering

• NatWest Launches 'Urgent' Crypto Currency Scam Alert

• Eight Men Arrested Over Royal Mail Delivery Scam Texts

• Fake Amazon Order Emails Lead To Vishing

Malware

• This Fake Streaming Service Will Spread Malware

• This Ransomware-Spreading Malware Botnet Just Will Not Go Away

Mobile

• New Malware Plunders Dutch Android Users’ Bank Accounts

IOT

• Hackers Can Use Smart Plugs To Break Into Your Home Network

Vulnerabilities

• VMware Sounds Ransomware Alarm Over Critical Severity Bug

• Trend Micro Bugs Threaten Home Network Security

• Digging Into A Ubiquiti Firmware Update Bug

• “Unpatchable” Vuln In Apple’s New MAC Chip – What You Need To Know

• PDF Feature ‘Certified’ Widely Vulnerable To Attack

• SonicWall urges customers to 'immediately' patch NSM On-Prem bug

• FBI Issues Warning About Fortinet Vulnerabilities After Apt Group Hacks Local Gov’t Office

• Restaurant Reservation System Patches Easy-To-Exploit XSS Bug

• Bluetooth Flaws Allow Attackers To Impersonate Legitimate Devices

Data Breaches

• UK Police Suffered Thousands Of Data Breaches In 2020

• Air India Cyber Attack: Personal Data Of Over 4.5 Million Passengers Leaked

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• ‘Privateer’ Threat Actors Emerge From Cyber Crime Swamp

Cryptocurrency

• Crypto Currency Crackdown Will not Stop Ransomware, CISA Official Says

• Watch Out: Crypto Jacking Is On The Rise Again

• Bitcoin Mine Found Stealing Electricity

Dark Web

• French Authorities Seize Their Third Dark Web Marketplace

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• Cyber Attacks On Operational Technology Are On The Rise

• UK Prepares For Ransomware Attacks On Pipelines

Nation State Actors

• Threat Actor ‘Agrius’ Emerges To Launch Wiper Attacks Against Israeli Targets

• Russian Group Behind SolarWinds Spy Campaign Conduct New Cyber Attacks

• Belgium Uproots Cyber Espionage Campaign With Suspected Ties To China

Privacy

• Employers Are Watching Remote Workers And They Are Monitoring These Activities

• GCHQ’s Mass Data Interception Violated Right To Privacy, Court Rules

• Amazon Devices Will Soon Automatically Share Your Internet With Neighbours

---

Reports Published in the Last Week

• Report: Cloud Security Breaches Surpass On-Prem Ones For The First Time

---

Other News

• Enemy Hackers Target NATO With Constant Cyber Attacks

• Security Is An Architectural Issue: Why The Principles Of Zero Trust And Least Privilege Matter So Much Right Now

• GDPR Is Being Used As A Bureaucratic Dodge To Avoid Public Scrutiny

• UK Universities To Be Offered Advice On National Security Threats

• How Hacking Became A Professional Service In Russia

• A Chinese Hacking Competition May Have Given Beijing New Ways To Spy On The Uyghurs

• 'Did Weak WiFi Password Lead The Police To Our Door?'

• How Much Economic Damage Would Be Done If A Cyber Attack Took Out The Internet?

• German Cyber Security Chief Fears Hackers Could Target Hospitals

• How The Post-Pandemic World Will Challenge CISOs

---

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.