Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 May 2023

Written By Black Arrow Admin

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

  • Triple Threat: Insecure Economy, Cyber Crime Recruitment and Insider Threats

Across all sectors employees are feeling the ramifications of economic uncertainty, coupled with ransomware attacks continuing to evolve and become more sophisticated, and with this, cyber crime gangs are increasing their recruitment efforts. All the while, the cyber security skills gap persists and continues to widen for most organisations. This has the potential to create a perfect storm in terms of insider threats.

Insider threats can be malicious or unintentional, and they might come from current or former employees, business partners, board members or consultants. A recent report found that the past two years have seen a 44% rise in insider incidents. There is no quick fix to solve the insider threat problem. At a time when many businesses are struggling with visibility issues brought on by digital transformation and vendor sprawl, what’s needed is planning. Reducing the risk associated with insider threats requires a multifaceted approach.

https://www.securityweek.com/triple-threat-insecure-economy-cybercrime-recruitment-and-insider-threats/

  • Ensuring Security Remains/Becomes Everyone’s Responsibility

In the same way as organisations believe that everyone is somewhat responsible for keeping costs reasonable, why would an organisation not think the same of cyber security, especially as cyber security is not just a technology problem: it is a business problem. One of the best methods for ensuring that security is everyone’s responsibility is to make cyber a top-down issue, with the board and C-suite setting the tone for security; they should provide clear direction and guidance, prioritising security as a business objective.

Other methods that can help ensure security as everyone’s responsibility include integrating it into the functions of roles, creating a security culture, providing awareness and training and rewarding employees for responses such as reporting phishing attacks.

https://cisoseries.com/20-ways-to-ensure-security-remains-becomes-everyones-responsibility/

  • Insured Companies More Likely to be Ransomware Victims, Sometimes More Than Once

Companies with cyber insurance are more likely to get hit by ransomware, more likely to be attacked multiple times, and more likely to pay ransoms, according to a recent survey of IT decision makers.

According to the survey by Barracuda Networks, 77% of organisations with cyber insurance were hit at least once, compared to 65% without insurance. Of those with insurance, 39% paid the ransom. Worryingly, the survey found that insured companies were also 70% more likely to be hit multiple times. Repeat victims were also more likely to pay the ransom, and less likely to use backup systems to help them recover.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3696350/insured-companies-more-likely-to-be-ransomware-victims-sometimes-more-than-once.html

  • Software Supply Chain Attacks Hit 61% of Firms

More than three-fifths (61%) of businesses have been directly impacted by a software supply chain threat over the past year, according to a new report. The report pointed to open source software as a key source of supply chain risk. Open source is now used by 94% of companies in some form, with over half (57%) using multiple open source platforms, the report revealed.

Organisations may be putting themselves at further risk by not having a full view of the software which is used within their corporate environment. One of the first things an organisation seeking to reduce their risk of a software supply chain attack should do is to understand their attack surface and maintain a record of the software which they use.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/software-supply-chain-attacks-hit/

  • More than 2.25 Million Exposed Assets on the Dark Web Tied to Fortune 1000 Employees

In a newly released 2023 Fortune 1000 Identity Exposure Report, an analysis of the dark net exposure of employees across 21 industries, including technology, financial, retailing and media, researchers analysed 2.27 billion exposed dark web assets. These assets included more than 423 million records containing personally identifiable information (PII) found in data breaches and exfiltrated from malware-infected devices tied directly to Fortune 1000 employees’ email addresses.  

Additional findings include 27.48 million pairs of credentials with Fortune 1000 corporate email addresses and plain text passwords, and a 62% re-use rate of passwords amongst Fortune 1000 employees. Whilst the research focuses on Fortune 1000 employees, it is unlikely that these are the only employees who are exposed on the dark web. Organisations should be aware of how such PII could include their own employees, and how to avoid password re-use in the corporate environment.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/more-than-2-25-million-exposed-assets-on-the-dark-web-tied-to-fortune-1000-employees/

  • Law Enforcement Crackdowns and New Techniques are Forcing Cyber Criminals to Pivot

Researchers say that law enforcement crackdowns and new investigative tools are putting pressure on cyber criminals, but challenges for defenders remain. It can seem like cyber criminals are running rampant across the world's digital infrastructure, launching ransomware attacks, scams, and outright thefts with impunity. Over the last year, however, US and global authorities seized $112 million from cryptocurrency investment scams, disrupted the Hive ransomware group, broke up online illegal drug marketplaces, and sanctioned crypto money launderers, among other operations to crack down on internet-enabled crimes. With such pressure, financially motivated threat actors are pivoting to crimes that have a higher rate of success, such as selling data instead of extorting, and romance scams and pig butchering (building rapport and trust with victims over time only to steal from them) are replacing the old get-rich schemes.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3696748/law-enforcement-crackdowns-and-new-techniques-are-forcing-cybercriminals-to-pivot.html

  • Talking Security Strategy: Why Cyber Security Requires a Seat at the Boardroom Table

Cyber security is no longer a fringe issue for businesses. What was once a siloed function is now woven into the fabric of any successful business. Any business still treating its cyber security initiatives as a side project is setting itself up to fail. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has laid to rest any doubts about the importance of cyber security with new regulations around how boards of directors should approach it. The regulations, which are in the process of being finalised, will require companies to openly report any serious cyber security attack and explain who on their board is responsible for dealing with it. The regulations also will require businesses to include board of directors' cyber security experience and credentials as part of any public disclosure.

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/talking-security-strategy-cybersecurity-has-a-seat-at-the-boardroom-table

  • How Incident Response Rehearsals and Readiness Exercises Can Aid Incident Response

Incident response rehearsals and readiness exercises can aid organisations by identifying security gaps, testing communications in the event of a cyber attack, and understanding roles in reducing response times. All of which benefits the business objectives of the organisation.

The importance for organisations to understand who their adversaries are and how they operate against their enterprise environments cannot be overstated. An organisation's approach to cyber security testing and resilience improvements in the face of an increasingly volatile threat landscape must be underpinned around this perspective.

Rehearsals should look to leverage scenarios based on evolving and emerging attacker techniques, tactics and procedures (TTPs), with different levels of complexity; this allows an organisation to constantly sharpen their technique and update rehearsals to reflect the current attack environment. These TTPs should be driven by an intelligence-led and risk-based approach. Additionally, organisations need to set metrics for understanding the results of rehearsals, which in turn should be used in established feedback channels to drive improvement in the organisation’s incident response.

https://www.darkreading.com/edge-articles/5-ways-security-testing-can-aid-incident-response 

  • Ransomware’s Real Goals are to Exploit Internet Facing Apps, Mine Intellectual Property and Grab Sensitive Information

The majority of ransomware attacks in 2022 were intended to unearth personal data, mine intellectual property and grab other sensitive information rather than financial extortion or data encryption, Kaspersky said in a new report.

Most attacks started off as exploiting public facing applications (43%), data from compromised user accounts (24%) and malicious emails (12%). The goal was to snatch information the cyber crews could leverage into bigger and more lucrative scores. The report also revealed that the longest-running ransomware attacks began with the exploitation of public-facing applications, with just over 2% of them lasting for a year and more.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/ransomwares-real-goals-are-exploit-internet-facing-apps-mine-intellectual-property-grab-sensitive-info/

  • Organisations’ Cyber Resilience Efforts Fail to Keep Up with Evolving Threats

A steady increase in cyber attacks and an evolving threat landscape are resulting in more organisations turning their attention to building long-term cyber resilience; however, many of these programs are falling short and fail to prove teams’ real-world cyber capabilities, according to Immersive Labs. The report found that while 86% of organisations have a cyber resilience program, 52% of respondents say their organisation lacks a comprehensive approach to assessing cyber resilience.

Organisations have taken steps to deploy cyber resilience programs; however, 53% of respondents indicate the organisation’s workforce is not well-prepared for the next cyber attack and just over half say they lack a comprehensive approach to assessing cyber resilience. These statistics indicate that although cyber resilience is a priority and programs are in place, their current structure and training are ineffective.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/18/cyber-resilience-programs-shortcomings/

  • Fraudsters Send Fake Invoice, Follow Up with Fake Executive Confirmation

Fraudsters are trying out a new approach to convince companies to pay bogus invoices: instead of hijacking existing email threads, they are creating convincing ones themselves. The fraud attempt begins with an email containing a payment request for a fake invoice. The recipient, an employee in a company’s finance department, reads the email and checks who sent it. The sender’s email address looks like it belongs to one of the company’s trusted vendors, and the VP of Finance has been CC-ed. Soon after, the “VP of Finance” replies to the email thread, and asks the employee (by name) to pay this at the earliest convenience.

Most organisations view social engineering methods as a one step process; however, threat actors are employing multiple layers. In this case, adding management to increase authenticity. Businesses looking to bolster their resilience should look to ensure that these kinds of attacks are addressed in their organisation’s user education and awareness training.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/16/payment-request-fraud/

  • Capita Warns Customers They Should Assume Data was Stolen

Outsourcing giant Capita is warning customers to assume that their data was stolen in a cyber attack that affected its systems in early April. This includes the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the largest private pension scheme in the UK, which holds pensions of over 500,000 individuals. A total of 350 UK corporate retirement schemes are believed to be impacted. The cyber attack, originally described to be a technical problem, has been reported to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/capita-warns-customers-they-should-assume-data-was-stolen/

Threats

Ransomware, Extortion and Destructive Attacks

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

Other Social Engineering; Smishing, Vishing, etc

Artificial Intelligence

2FA/MFA

Malware

Mobile

Botnets

Denial of Service/DoS/DDOS

Internet of Things – IoT

Data Breaches/Leaks

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs/Blockchain

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

AML/CFT/Sanctions

Insurance

Dark Web

Supply Chain and Third Parties

Software Supply Chain

Cloud/SaaS

Encryption

API

Open Source

Passwords, Credential Stuffing & Brute Force Attacks

Social Media

Training, Education and Awareness

Parental Controls and Child Safety

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

Secure Disposal

Careers, Working in Cyber and Information Security

Law Enforcement Action and Take Downs

Privacy, Surveillance and Mass Monitoring

Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda

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

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerabilities

Tools and Controls

Sector Specific

Industry specific threat intelligence reports are available.

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

·       Automotive

·       Construction

·       Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)

·       Defence & Space

·       Education & Academia

·       Energy & Utilities

·       Estate Agencies

·       Financial Services

·       FinTech

·       Food & Agriculture

·       Gaming & Gambling

·       Government & Public Sector (including Law Enforcement)

·       Health/Medical/Pharma

·       Hotels & Hospitality

·       Insurance

·       Legal

·       Manufacturing

·       Maritime

·       Oil, Gas & Mining

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

·       Retail & eCommerce

·       Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)

·       Startups

·       Telecoms

·       Third Sector & Charities

·       Transport & Aviation

·       Web3

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

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

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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 Admin
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