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Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 April 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 01 April 2021: Boards Still Aren't Taking Cyber Security Seriously, That Means Everyone Is At Risk; Nearly 40% Of New Ransomware Families Use Both Data Encryption And Data Theft In Attacks; Ransomware - Why We Are Now Facing A Perfect Storm; Nearly A Fifth Of Ransomware Victims Who Pay Off Extortionists Fail To Get Their Data Back; Shadow IT Is Your Organisation's Next Remote-Working Nightmare
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 Jo_Johnston from Pixabay
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Boards Still Aren't Taking Cyber Security Seriously, That Means Everyone Is At Risk
Cyber security still is not taken as seriously as it should be by boardroom executives – and that's leaving organisations open to cyber attacks, data breaches and ransomware, the new boss of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned. In her first speech since taking the helm of the UK cyber security agency, CEO Lindy Cameron said cyber security should be viewed with the same importance to CEOs as finance, legal or any other vital day-to-day part of the enterprise.
Nearly 40% Of New Ransomware Families Use Both Data Encryption And Data Theft In Attacks
2020 saw an explosion of ransomware that also steals data, giving the attackers more leverage over their victims. If organisations first refuse to pay a ransom to decrypt their data, attackers threaten to leak the stolen information, increasing pressure on victims to pay. This evolution, referred to as Ransomware 2.0 in the report, was a significant development in 2020. Only one ransomware group was observed using this type of extortion in 2019. By the end of 2020, 15 different ransomware families had adopted this approach. Furthermore, nearly 40% of ransomware families discovered in 2020, as well as several older families, were known to also steal data from victims by the end of last year.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/03/31/ransomware-families-data-encryption/
Ransomware: Why We Are Now Facing A Perfect Storm
Ransomware is becoming more successful than ever before because of a combination of factors that allow cyber criminals to easily gain access to corporate networks – and they are finding success because a significant number of organisations that fall victim to attacks are willing to pay the ransom. A report warns that the 'perfect storm' of conditions have come together and allowed ransomware attacks to run rampant against organisations around the world.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-why-were-now-facing-a-perfect-storm/
Ransomware: Nearly A Fifth Of Victims Who Pay Off Extortionists Fail To Get Their Data Back
The poll found that close to half (46%) of UK ransomware victims paid the ransom to restore access to their data last year, yet an unfortunate 11% of victims who shelled out did not have their stolen data returned. Whether they paid or not, only 18% of 1,006 UK victims surveyed were able to restore all their encrypted or blocked files following an attack. Internationally the picture is still worse with more than half (56%) paying off extortionists and nearly one in five of whom (17%) failing to get their data back even after paying out.
Billions Of Records Have Been Hacked Already. Make Cyber Security A Priority Or Risk Disaster
More data records have been compromised in 2020 alone than in the past 15 years combined, in what is described as a mounting "data breach crisis" in the latest study from analysis. Over the past 12 months, 31 billion data records have been compromised. This is up 171% from the previous year and constitutes well over half of the 55 billion data records that have been compromised in total since 2005.
Ransomware Gang Urges Victims’ Customers To Demand A Ransom Payment
A ransomware operation known as 'Clop' is applying maximum pressure on victims by emailing their customers and asking them to demand a ransom payment to protect their privacy. A common tactic used by ransomware operations is to steal unencrypted data before encrypting a victim's network. This data is then used in a double-extortion tactic where they threaten to release the data if a ransom is not paid.
Employee Lockdown Stress May Spark Cyber Security Risk
Stressed-out employees in a remote-working world could be a major contributor to poor cybersecurity postures for companies, according to a survey. Among other findings, the survey found that younger employees as well as people caring for children or other family members reported more stress in their lives, as well riskier IT behaviours when compared to other demographics. For instance, 67 percent of employees under 30 said they use shadow IT (unsanctioned apps, services, and equipment) to help them to perform certain tasks more easily, compared to 27 percent of older workers.
https://threatpost.com/employee-lockdown-stress-cybersecurity-risk/165050/
Shadow IT Is Your Organisation's Next Remote-Working Nightmare
Shadow IT refers to the use of devices, systems and software outside of those permitted by an organisational IT department. According to new research by software company Forcepoint, more than a third (37%) of UK employees are now relying on shadow IT at home, increasing companies' exposure to cyber security risks.
The use of personal devices appears to be one of the biggest culprits: 48% of respondents admitted to using their own devices to access work documents and corporate networks while working from home. Meanwhile, 34% of employees reported using private email or file-sharing cloud services for work purposes – again against the advice of employers.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/shadow-it-is-your-organizations-next-remote-working-nightmare/
Threats
Ransomware
Malware
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
5G network slicing flaws pose denial-of-service, data theft risk
Apple fixes an iOS zero-day vulnerability actively used in attacks
SolarWinds patches critical code execution bug in Orion Platform
Facebook for WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Targets +500,000 Sites
Data Breaches
Whistleblower claims Ubiquiti Networks data breach was ‘catastrophic’
Ubiquiti breach puts countless cloud-based devices at risk of takeover
Dark Web
Nation State Actors
Russia suspected of stealing thousands of State Department emails
UK 'must be clear-eyed about Chinese ambition', warns new National Cyber Security Centre chief
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.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 March 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 19 March 2021: Tens Of Thousands Of Microsoft Exchange Customers Under Attack, Targeted By Multiple Hacker Groups; Over $4.2 Billion Officially Lost To Cyber Crime In 2020; Cyber Attacks Multiply On HNWIs; Largest Ransomware Demand Now Stands At $30 Million; 71 Percent Of Office 365 Users Suffer Malicious Account Takeovers; More Than 16 Million Covid-Themed Cyber Attacks Launched In 2020; Cyber Now Key To National Security;
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.
Image by Muhammad Ribkhan from Pixabay
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Tens Of Thousands Of Microsoft Exchange Customers Are Under Assault From Hackers, Experts Warning Of Unprecedented Damage, Exploits Being Targeted By "At Least 10 Hacker Groups"
Four exploits in Microsoft Exchange Server hit the news last week, when we heard that a Chinese hacking group had targeted the email servers of some 30,000 U.S. government and commercial organisations. The exploits had been patched by Microsoft, but the hacking group known as “Hafnium” had doubled-up on efforts targeting unpatched servers. Security researchers found that at least 10 APT groups are taking advantage of the exploits in an attempt to compromise servers around the world. Winniti Group, Calypso, Tick, and more are among the groups identified.
https://www.techspot.com/news/88913-microsoft-exchange-server-exploits-targeted-least-10-hacker.html
Over $4.2 Billion Officially Lost To Cyber Crime In 2020
Cyber crime affecting victims in the U.S., noting a record number of complaints and financial losses in 2020 compared to the previous year. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received last year 791,790 complaints - up by 69% from 2019 - of suspected internet crime causing more than $4 billion in losses. While most complaints were for phishing, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion, about half of the losses are accounted by business email compromise (BEC), romance and confidence scams, and investment fraud.
Cyber Attacks Multiply On Wealthy Investors
An email nearly cost a wealthy British art collector £6m, after hackers monitored email correspondence between the client and an art dealer the client had been negotiating with for a year, with hackers impersonating the genuine art dealer, learning to impersonate the tone and language used — even gleaning private family news and the names of partners and children.
Just when the collector and the art dealer finally reached a conclusion on price, the client received an email to say something along the lines of, I hope the children are recovering from their colds — we have just amended our bank details for security and here they are. As it matched the tone of previous emails the art-loving client didn't think anything was amiss.
Fortunately, his family office phoned the real dealer to check the transaction before approving a transfer and the scam was discovered in time, but many people are not so lucky.
https://www.ft.com/content/cdfe8d97-6431-48e2-a8a7-7d760c6e9ed6
Cyber Strength Now Key To National Security, Says UK
In what has been billed as the largest security and foreign policy strategy revamp since the Cold War, the UK government has outlined new defence priorities – with at their heart, the imperative to boost the use of new technologies to safeguard the country. Prime minister Boris Johnson unveiled the integrated review this week, which has been in the making for over a year and will be used as a guide for spending decisions in the future. Focusing on foreign policy, defense and security, the review sets goals for the UK to 2025; and underpinning many of the targets is the objective of modernizing the country's armed forces.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cyber-strength-now-key-to-national-security-says-uk/
Largest Ransomware Demand Now Stands At $30 Million As Crooks Get Bolder
Ransomware shows no sign of slowing down as the average ransom paid to cyber criminals by organisations that fall victim to these attacks has nearly tripled over the past year. Cyber security researchers analysed ransomware attacks targeting organisations across North America and Europe and found that the average ransom paid in exchange for a decryption key to unlock encrypted networks rose from $115,123 in 2019 to $312,493 in 2020.
Mimecast: SolarWinds Attackers Stole Source Code
Hackers who compromised Mimecast networks as part of the SolarWinds espionage campaign have swiped some of the security firm’s source code repositories, according to an update by the company. The email security firm initially reported that a certificate compromise in January was part of the sprawling SolarWinds supply-chain attack that also hit Microsoft, FireEye and several U.S. government agencies.
https://threatpost.com/mimecast-solarwinds-attackers-stole-source-code/164847/
71 Percent Of Office 365 Users Suffer Malicious Account Takeovers
88 percent of companies have accelerated their cloud and digital transformation projects due to COVID-19. But it also finds that 71 percent of Microsoft Office 365 deployments have suffered an account takeover of a legitimate user's account, not just once, but on average seven times in the last year.
https://betanews.com/2021/03/17/office-365-malicious-account-takeovers/
More Than 16 Million Covid-Themed Cyber Attacks Launched In 2020
COVID-19 dominated everyone's lives throughout 2020 but a new report from a cyber security company found that the pandemic was also the main theme of nearly 16.5 million threats and attacks launched against its customers. Researchers wrote that they dealt with 16,393,564 threats that had a COVID-19-related tint to them, with 88% of the threats coming in spam emails and another 11% coming in the form of URLs. Malware accounted for 0.2%, or nearly 33,000, of the threats
“Expert” Hackers Used 11 0-Days To Infect Windows, iOS, And Android Users
Using novel exploitation and obfuscation techniques, a mastery of a wide range of vulnerability types, and a complex delivery infrastructure, the group exploited four zero-days in February 2020. The hackers’ ability to chain together multiple exploits that compromised fully patched Windows and Android devices led members of Google’s Project Zero and Threat Analysis Group to call the group “highly sophisticated.”
Cyber Attacks: Is The ‘Big One’ Coming Soon?
2020 was the year that the COVID-19 crisis also brought a cyber pandemic. Late last year, the security industry’s top experts from global cyber security company leadership predicted even worse cyber security outcomes for 2021 compared to what we saw in 2020. In December, we learned about how SolarWinds’ Orion vulnerability was compromised, causing one of the worst data breaches in history that is still evolving for about 18,000 organisations.
Threats
Ransomware
Phishing
Ongoing Office 365-themed phishing campaign targets executives, assistants, financial departments
Phishing sites now detect virtual machines to bypass detection
Malware
New botnet targets network security devices with critical exploits
New ZHtrap botnet malware deploys honeypots to find more targets
Latest Mirai Variant Targets SonicWall, D-Link and IoT Devices
IOT
Vulnerabilities
DuckDuckGo browser extension vulnerability leaves Edge users open to potential cyber-snooping
“Expert” hackers used 11 zerodays to infect Windows, iOS, and Android users
Google fixes the third actively exploited Chrome 0-Day since January
Experts found 15 flaws in Netgear JGS516PE switch, including a critical RCE
Microsoft Exchange Server: These quarterly updates include fixes for security flaws
Data Breaches
Journalists’ personal and bank details made public after publisher data breach
This years-old Microsoft Office vulnerability is still popular with hackers, so patch now
Organised Crime & Criminal Actors
18-Year-Old Hacker Gets 3 Years in Prison for Massive Twitter 'Bitcoin Scam' Hack
Criminal data breach site WeLeakInfo just leaked customer payment details
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation-State Actors
Denial of Service
Privacy
As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.
Look out for our weekly ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 March 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 12 March 2021: ‘Really Messy’: Why The Hack of Microsoft’s Email System Is Getting Worse - Attacks Doubling Every Two Hours; Trickbot Malware Becoming Huge Security Headache; Criminals Targeting Browser Zero Days; More Than 1m Small Businesses ‘At Risk Of Collapse’ Due To Cyber Threats; Ransomware Attacks Up 150%; Massive Supply-Chain Cyber Attack Breaches Several Airlines; Millions Of Windows Devices Are Still Infested With Malware; Browser Extensions Looking at Bank Accounts?
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
‘Really Messy’: Why The Hack of Microsoft’s Email System Is Getting Worse, With Attacks Doubling Every Two Hours
The cyber security community sprang into action after Microsoft first announced a series of vulnerabilities that let hackers break into the company's Exchange email and calendar programs. China has used it to spy on a wide range of industries in the United States ranging from medical research to law firms to defence contractors, the company said. China has denied responsibility. In the past 24 hours, the team has observed "exploitation attempts on organizations doubling every two to three hours." The countries feeling the brunt of attack attempts are Turkey, the United States, and Italy, accounting for 19%, 18%, and 10% of all tracked exploit attempts, respectively.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-exchange-server-hacks-doubling-every-two-hours/
Trickbot Malware Is Now Your Biggest Security Headache
Trickbot malware has risen to fill the gap left by the takedown of the Emotet botnet, with a higher number of criminals shifting towards it to distribute malware attacks. Emotet was the world's most prolific and dangerous malware botnet before it was disrupted by an international law enforcement operation in January this year.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-trojan-malware-is-now-your-biggest-security-headache/
Cyber Criminals Are Increasingly Targeting Browser Zero Days
As more and more of our work is done within our browsers, cyber criminals have begun to leverage web browser exploits to compromise endpoint systems, according to new research from Menlo Security. At the same time, enterprises around the world were forced to make an almost overnight transition to remote work last year and this surge in employees working from home along with the shift to cloud computing have resulted in a greatly increased attack surface.
https://www.techradar.com/news/cybercriminals-are-increasingly-targeting-browser-zero-days
More Than 1m Small Businesses ‘At Risk Of Collapse’ Due To Cyber Threats
The research, commissioned by Vodafone, also showed that 16 per cent of firms would likely be forced to lay off staff in the event of a hack. As a result, the report called on ministers to beef up the country’s corporate cyber defences, warning that a failure to do so could hamper the post-pandemic economic recovery. It urged the government to expand a dedicated business cyber security within the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ, and introduce a five per cent VAT cut on cybersecurity products for small companies.
Number Of Ransomware Attacks Grew By More Than 150%
By the end of 2020, the ransomware market, fueled by the pandemic turbulence, had turned into the biggest cyber crime money artery. Based on the analysis of more than 500 attacks observed during Group-IB’s own incident response engagements and cyber threat intelligence activity, researchers estimate that the number of ransomware attacks grew by more than 150% in 2020.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/03/08/ransomware-attacks-grew-2020/
Hackers Are Using Home Office Selfies To Steal Your Personal Data
The pandemic has been the source of plenty of memes and new internet trends, not least the remote working selfie, which involves people taking photos of their home office setup or video conferencing sessions. However, a new blog suggests cyber criminals are capitalizing on this new genre of selfie to steal a range of personal data that could be used to execute identity or financial fraud.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/hackers-are-using-home-office-selfies-to-steal-your-personal-data
Massive Supply-Chain Cyber Attack Breaches Several Airlines
A communications and IT vendor for 90 percent of the world’s airlines, SITA, has been breached, compromising passenger data stored on the company’s U.S. servers in what the company is calling a “highly sophisticated attack.” The affected servers are in Atlanta, and belong to the SITA Passenger Service System (SITA PSS).
https://threatpost.com/supply-chain-cyberattack-airlines/164549/
Millions Of Windows Devices Are Still Infested With Malware
Over 100 million Windows consumer and business devices across the world were infected with malware last year, new analysis has found. While examining the recent Malwarebytes "State of Malware" report, Atlas VPN noted that whilst the number of infected Windows machines seems high, this landmark figure was actually 12% drop when compared to 2019.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/millions-of-windows-devices-are-still-infested-with-malware
Did You Know Browser Extensions Are Looking at Your Bank Account?
Browser extensions have full access to all the web pages you visit. It can see which web pages you are browsing, read their contents, and watch everything you type. It could even modify the web pages—for example, by inserting extra advertisements. If the extension is malicious, it could gather all that private data of yours—from web browsing activity and the emails you type to your passwords and financial information—and send it to a remote server on the internet.
https://www.howtogeek.com/716771/did-you-know-browser-extensions-are-looking-at-your-bank-account/
Threats
Ransomware
Capcom reportedly forced employees to work in the office following ransomware attack
Fake Ad Blocker Delivers Hybrid Cryptominer/Ransomware Infection
New ransomware only decrypts victims who join their Discord server
Phishing
Malware
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
Microsoft's March Patch Tuesday: Critical remote code execution flaws, IE zero-day fixed
F5 issues BIG-IP patches to tackle unauthenticated remote code execution, critical flaws
Hackers Exploit QNAP Vulnerabilities to Turn NAS Devices Into Crypto Miners
Malware Can Exploit New Flaw in Intel CPUs to Launch Side-Channel Attacks
Adobe releases batch of security fixes for Framemaker, Creative Cloud, Connect
Critical 0-day that targeted security researchers gets a patch
Intel CPU interconnects can be exploited by malware to leak encryption keys and other info
Organised Crime
Dark Web
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation-State Actors
Researchers Unveil New Linux Malware Linked to Chinese Hackers
United States considering cyber war on Russia in retaliation for SolarWinds hack
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.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 March 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 March 2021: New Strain Of Ransomware Implements Self-Spreading Capabilities; One In Four People Use Work Passwords For Consumer Websites; Massive Rise In Threats Across Expanding Attack Surfaces; Half of Orgs Concerned Remote Working Puts Them at Greater Risk of Cyber Attacks; Microsoft Patches Four Zero-Day Exchange Server Bugs; A Booming Trade In Bugs Is Undermining Cyber Security; Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered; Solarwinds Security Fiasco May Have Started With Simple Password Blunders
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
New Strain Of Ransomware Implements Self-Spreading Capabilities
French experts spotted a new Ryuk ransomware variant that implements self-spreading capabilities to infect other devices on victims’ local networks.
This new version has a new attribute that allows it to self replicate over the local network allowing the malware to propagate itself – machine to machine – within the Windows domain. Once launched, it will spread itself to every Windows machine it can reach.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/115064/reports/ryuk-ransomware-self-spreading-capabilities.html
One In Four People Use Work Passwords For Consumer Websites
The report found that one in four consumers admit to using their work email or passwords to log in to consumer websites and applications such as food delivery apps, online shopping sites and even dating apps. The report found that consumers are neglecting to implement fundamental security safeguards across smart IoT devices at home, which could have serious security ramifications on both the individual and the enterprise amid increased and ongoing remote work spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/26/use-work-passwords-for-consumer-websites/
Massive Rise In Threats Across Expanding Attack Surfaces
New malware samples nearly doubled: New ransomware samples increased 106% year-over-year. Trojans increased 128%, with threat actors using trojans to exploit lower-severity vulnerabilities. Sophisticated, multi-staged attacks and malware-as-a-service have become the norm. Vulnerabilities hit a new high: 18,341 new vulnerabilities in 2020 have been reported. To stay ahead of attacks, security and risk leaders need sophisticated insights into which vulnerabilities are high-risk and remediation options for all assets, including non-patching options.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/26/expanding-attack-surfaces/
Half of Organisations Concerned Remote Working Puts Them at Greater Risk of Cyber Attacks
Half of organizations are concerned that the shift to remote work is putting them a greater risk of Cyber Attacks, according to a new study with IDG. A survey of UK CIOs, CTOs and IT decision makers revealed that insecure practices are regularly taking place among remote workers, providing more opportunities for Cyber Criminals to strike.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/half-orgs-remote-working-risk/
Microsoft Patches Four Zero-Day Exchange Server Bugs
Microsoft has been forced to release out-of-band patches to fix multiple zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited by Chinese state-backed threat actors. The unusual step was taken to protect customers running on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Server.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/microsoft-patch-four-zeroday/
A Booming Trade In Bugs Is Undermining Cyber Security
If you discover that a favourite vending-machine dispenses free chocolate when its buttons are pressed just so, what should you do? The virtuous option is to tell the manufacturer, so it can fix it. The temptation is to gorge.
Is Your Browser Extension A Botnet Backdoor?
A company that rents out access to more than 10 million Web browsers so that clients can hide their true Internet addresses has built its network by paying browser extension makers to quietly include its code in their creations. This story examines the lopsided economics of extension development, and why installing an extension can be such a risky proposition.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/is-your-browser-extension-a-botnet-backdoor/
Cyber Attack Shuts Down Online Learning At 15 UK Schools
A threat actor was able to access the trust's central network infrastructure and while an investigation took place, all existing phone, email, and website communication had to be pulled. Students are still learning remotely in England. Schools are set to reopen on March 8, but in the meantime, only a small subset of children are attending school physically, such as the children of key workers.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cyberattack-shuts-down-online-learning-at-15-uk-schools/
First Fully Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered Online
A fully weaponized exploit for the Spectre CPU vulnerability was uploaded on the malware-scanning website VirusTotal last month, marking the first time a working exploit capable of doing actual damage has entered the public domain. The exploit was discovered and targets Spectre, a major vulnerability that was disclosed in January 2018. According to its website, the Spectre bug is a hardware design flaw in the architectures of Intel, AMD, and ARM processors that allows code running inside bad apps to break the isolation between different applications at the CPU level and then steal sensitive data from other apps running on the same system.
https://therecord.media/first-fully-weaponized-spectre-exploit-discovered-online/
Solarwinds Security Fiasco May Have Started With Simple Password Blunders
We still do not know just how bad the SolarWinds security breach is. We do know over a hundred US government agencies and companies were cracked. "The largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen," with more than a thousand hackers behind it. It may have all started when an intern first set an important password to "'solarwinds123." Then, adding insult to injury, the intern shared the password on GitHub.
Threats
Ransomware
Data analytics agency Polecat held to ransom after server exposed 30TB of records
Ransomware gang hacks Ecuador's largest private bank, Ministry of Finance
Search crimes – how the Gootkit gang poisons Google searches
Qualys hit with ransomware: customer invoices leaked on extortionists' tor blog
Phishing
Malware
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
These Microsoft Exchange Server zero-day flaws are being used by hackers, so update now
Working Windows and Linux Spectre exploits found on VirusTotal
Google shares PoC exploit for critical Windows 10 Graphics RCE bug
If you own a MacBook, download and install macOS Big Sur 11.2.2 ASAP
Data Breaches
Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked—Including Private Data
Singapore Airlines frequent flyer members hit in third-party data security breach
Organised Crime
Dark Web
Supply Chain
Why supply chains are today's fastest growing cyber security threat
Bombardier is latest victim of Accellion supply chain attack
Nation-State Actors
Indian cyber espionage activity rising amid growing rivalry with China, Pakistan
Security News This Week: The SolarWinds Body Count Now Includes NASA and the FAA
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.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 26 February 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 26 February 2021: Cyber Crime Could Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025; 119,000 Threats Per Minute Detected In 2020; 78% Of Top Security Leaders Say Their Organisations Are Unprepared For A Cyber Attack; Uk Faced Millions Of Cyber Attacks Last Year; New Tier Of APT Actors That Behave More Like Cyber Criminals; US Calls North Korean Hackers ‘World’s Leading Bank Robbers’; Sequoia Capital, One Of Silicon Valley's Most Notable VC Firms, Told Investors It Was Hacked; Poor Hardware Disposal Practices Posing A Risk To Data Security
Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities and cyber related news from the last week.
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Cyber Crime Could Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025
In a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, cyber security is an extremely important priority for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses. And it's become even more essential in the wake of the pandemic. In June 2020, a report revealed that small and medium-sized businesses were at an especially high risk of data breaches and cyber attacks during the pandemic.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/364015
119,000 Threats Per Minute Detected In 2020
The number of cyber-threats identified and blocked by Trend Micro rose by 20% in 2020 to more than 62.6 billion. Averaging out at 119,000 cyber-threats per minute, the huge figure was included in the company's annual roundup, Email-borne threats such as phishing attacks accounted for 91% of the 62.6 billion threats blocked by Trend Micro last year. Nearly 14 million unique phishing URLs were detected by the company in 2020, with home networks a primary target.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/119k-threats-per-minute-detected/
78% Of Top Security Leaders Say Their Organisations Are Unprepared For A Cyber Attack
Seventy-eight percent of senior IT and security leaders believe their organizations lack sufficient protection against cyber attacks. The high level of concern expressed by these leaders resulted in 91% of organizations increasing their cyber security budgets in 2021 — a figure that nearly matches the 96% that boosted IT security spending in 2020.
UK Faced Millions Of Cyber Attacks Last Year
The UK faced millions of Covid-19-related cyber security threats last year, but generally managed to mitigate attacks effectively. A total of 16.4 million Covid-19-related threats were recorded last year, with four percent (563,571) identified in the UK. The US suffered the highest volume of attacks by a significant margin: more than 6.5 million. Germany was second with 2.3 million, and France rounded out the top three with just over one million attacks.
https://www.itproportal.com/news/uk-faced-millions-of-cyberattacks-last-year/
New Malformed URL Phishing Technique Can Make Attacks Harder To Spot
Warning of a new form of phishing attack that makes malicious messages more likely to get through filters and harder for the average person to detect by sight. By hiding phishing information in the prefixes of URLs, attackers can send what looks like a link to a legitimate website, free of misspellings and all, with a malicious address hidden in the prefix of the link.
Hackers Share Details Of Canadian Military Spy Plane On Dark Web
Hackers have shared details of a Canadian military spy plane after its manufacturers seemingly refused to pay a cyber ransom. Aerospace firm Bombardier, whose Global 6000 plane is used for Saab’s GlobalEye spy system, says it was the victim of a “limited cyber security breach.” That saw detailed plans of the airborne early warning system developed by the Swedish defence company Saab being dumped on the dark web site CLOP^_-LEAKS.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hackers-spy-plane-bombardier-saab-b1807037.html
Cisco Points To New Tier Of APT Actors That Behave More Like Cyber Criminals
Cisco Talos suggests that maybe it is time to start thinking of hacker groups as more than either advanced persistent threat or criminal attackers. It is already well established that some APTs operate as criminals. Several international governments, including the United States, have identified North Korean state-sponsored hackers as stealing on behalf of the government, and other groups have been identified by vendors as state-sponsored groups with actors who occasionally freelance as criminals.
These Hackers Sell Network Logins To The Highest Bidder. And Ransomware Gangs Are Buying
A growing class of cyber criminals are playing an important role on underground marketplaces by breaching corporate networks and selling access to the highest bidder to exploit however they please. The buying and selling of stolen login credentials and other forms of remote access to networks has long been a part of the dark web ecosystem, but according to analysis by cyber security researchers, there has been a notable increase in listings by 'Initial Access Brokers' over the course of the past year.
U.S. Calls North Korean Hackers ‘World’s Leading Bank Robbers’
North Korea was accused of being behind the 2014 hack of an internal computer network of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., an audacious attack that exposed Hollywood secrets and destroyed company data.
Sequoia Capital, One Of Silicon Valley's Most Notable VC Firms, Told Investors It Was Hacked
One of Silicon Valley's oldest and most venerable VC firms was hacked. Sequoia Capital told its investors on Friday that some personal and financial information may have been accessed by a third party after one of its employees fell victim to a successful. Phishing attack, according to a report in Axios Friday. Sequoia told investors that it has not yet seen any indication that compromised information is being traded or otherwise exploited on the dark web, Axios reported.
Poor Hardware Disposal Practices Posing A Risk To Data Security
Many business leaders are not paying much attention to the way they dispose of old and obsolete hardware, opening their organizations up to possible data breaches. Of the 1,029 people polled for the report, a fifth said their employer disposed of various IT hardware over the last 12 months. However, less than half (40 percent) thought this hardware did not contain confidential data when it was disposed of.
https://www.itproportal.com/news/poor-hardware-disposal-pratice-posing-a-risk-to-data-security/
Threats
Ransomware
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certification giant hit by ransomware
Ransomware Gang Says It's Selling Data from Cyber attack That California DMV Warned About
Phishing
Malware
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
Critical RCE Flaws Affect VMware ESXi and vSphere Client — Patch Now
Code-execution flaw in VMware has a severity rating of 9.8 out of 10
Shadow Attacks Let Attackers Replace Content in Digitally Signed PDFs
Recently fixed Windows zero-day actively exploited since mid-2020
Clubhouse Chats Are Breached, Raising Concerns Over Security
Organised Crime
The bitcoin blockchain is helping keep a botnet from being taken down
New Hack Lets Attackers Bypass Mastercard Pin by Using Them As Visa Card
Dark Web
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Hackers Tied to Russia's GRU Targeted the US Grid for Years, Researchers Warn
The U.S. Has Released the Most Comprehensive Catalog of North Korean Cyber Crimes Ever Made Public
Nation-State Actors
Denial of Service
Privacy
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
This phishing email promises you a bonus - but actually delivers this Windows trojan malware
How Hackers use Phishing to Hijack Sites through Hosting Provider
Malware
Windows and Linux servers targeted by new WatchDog botnet for almost two years
TrickBot's BazarBackdoor malware is now coded in Nim to evade antivirus
Mobile
IOT
Vulnerabilities
WordPress plugin exploit puts more than one million sites at risk
Bug in shared SDK can let attackers join calls undetected across multiple apps
Malvertisers Exploited WebKit 0-Day to Redirect Browser Users to Scam Sites
Microsoft Pulls Bad Windows Update After Patch Tuesday Headaches
Telegram privacy feature failed to delete self-destructing video files
Data Breaches
Organised Crime
Insider Threats
Supply Chain
OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA
Nation-State Actors
Russian state hackers targeted Centreon servers in years-long campaign
Feds Indict North Korean Hackers for Years of Heists and Scams
MPs sign up to Clubhouse app despite Chinese security concerns
Privacy
Reports Published in the Last Week
Other News
Most businesses plan to move away from VPNs, adopt a zero-trust access model
20 Common Tools & Techniques Used by macOS Threat Actors & Malware
Discord is fast becoming a favourite tool among cyber criminals
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 05 February 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 February 2021: Ransomware Gangs Made At Least $350 Million In 2020; Widening Security Shaped Gulf Between Firms And Remote Workers; 3.2 Billion Emails And Passwords Exposed; Account Takeover and Data Leakage Attacks Spiked In 2020; Automated Tools Increasingly Used to Launch Cyber Attacks; 93% Of Workers Overshare Online, Causing Social Engineering 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.
Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash
Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week
Ransomware Gangs Made At Least $350 Million In 2020
Ransomware gangs made at least $350 million in ransom payments last year, in 2020, blockchain analysis. The figure was compiled by tracking transactions to blockchain addresses linked to ransomware attacks. Although Chainalysis possesses one of the most complete sets of data on cryptocurrency-related cybercrime, the company said its estimate was only a lower bound of the true total due.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-gangs-made-at-least-350-million-in-2020/
Home Working Increases Cyber Security Fears
"We see tens of different hacking attacks every single week. It is never ending."A senior computer network manager says they are bombarded from all directions. "We see everything," he says. "Staff get emails sent to them pretending to be from the service desk, asking them to reset their log-in passwords. "We see workers being tricked into downloading viruses from hackers demanding ransoms, and we have even had employees sent WhatsApp messages pretending to be from the CEO, asking for money transfers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55824139
3.2 Billion Emails And Passwords Exposed Online
A whopping 3.2 billion password-username pairs are up for grabs in an unnamed online hacking forum. But don't panic — the data is nothing new. It's a compilation of stolen credentials from dozens of old data breaches, some going back ten years. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware that your old passwords are floating out there. Yes, your passwords, and ours too. Pretty much anyone who's ever created more than three online accounts has had a password compromised by now.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/3-2-billion-passwords-leaked
Account Takeover Attacks Spiked In 2020
Occurring whenever a bad actor can steal login credentials and seize control of an online account, takeover attacks rose from 34% of fraud detected in 2019 to 54% by the end of December 2020. Other methods of fraud were blips on the radar compared to account takeovers: The next most popular method, at just 16% of detected fraud, was money laundering/mule transactions, followed by new account fraud (14%), and a mere 12% of instances used remote access or hacking tools to accomplish their goals.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/account-takeover-attacks-spiked-in-2020-kaspersky-says/
30% Of “Solarwinds Hack” Victims Didn’t Actually Use Solarwinds
When security last week that it had been targeted by the same attacker that compromised SolarWinds' Orion software, it noted that the attack did not use SolarWinds itself. According to Malwarebytes, the attacker had used "another intrusion vector" to gain access to a limited subset of nearly a third of the organizations attacked had no direct connection to SolarWinds.
Data Leakage Attacks Saw Huge Rise In 2020
The number of data leakage incidents grew by an “unprecedented” rate in 2020, a new report from Imperva argues. Through online means alone, not counting leaks caused by lost hardware or word of mouth, Imperva researchers tracked a 93 percent rise. By the end of the year, Imperva had identified a total of 1.7 million leaks, with the the number growing even faster in the second half of the year. Between Q3 and Q4, there was a 47 percent increase.
https://www.itproportal.com/news/data-leakage-attacks-saw-huge-rise-in-2020/
Automated Tools Increasingly Used to Launch Cyber Attacks
Cyber-criminals are increasingly making use of automation and bots to launch attacks, according to a new analysis. revealed that over half (54%) of all cyber-attacks it blocked in November and December were web application attacks which involved the use of automated tools. The most prevalent form was fuzzing attacks, making up around one in five (19.5%). This uses automation to detect and exploit the points at which applications break. This was followed by injection attacks (12%), in which cyber-criminals make use of automation tools such as sqlmap to gain access to applications.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/automated-tools-launch-cyber/
A Second SolarWinds Hack Deepens Third-Party Software Fears
It’s been more than two months since revelations that alleged Russia-backed hackers broke into the IT management firm SolarWinds and used that access to launch a massive software supply chain attack. It now appears that Russia was not alone; Reuters reports that suspected Chinese hackers independently exploited a different flaw in SolarWinds products last year at around the same time, apparently hitting the US Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center.
https://www.wired.com/story/solarwinds-hack-china-usda/
93% Of Workers Overshare Online, Causing Security Risks
Reveals just how much, and how often, people divulge about their lives online and how attackers take advantage of it. With insights from both professionals and hackers, the report explores how cybercriminals use an abundant and seemingly cheap resource — the personal information people share on social media and in out-of-office alerts — to craft social engineering attacks.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/03/workers-overshare-online/
Is There A Widening Gulf Between You And Your Remote Workers? Yes – And It’s Security Shaped
It’s been almost a year since large parts of the workforce beat a hasty retreat from their offices, and began a mass experiment in working from home, often courtesy of Microsoft 365. And after 12 or so months, it’s safe to say that the case for productive remote working has been proved, and that many workers will continue to do so even when the all clear sounds. But is there a question as to whether remote working is as secure as the traditional, office bound, hard perimeter setup? Well, yes, and it’s fair to say the jury is still very much out.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/04/mind_the_security_gap_regcast/
Threats
Ransomware
Blockchain Analysis Shows Connections Between Four of 2020’s Biggest Ransomware Strains
2021's First Big Ransomware Gang Launches Sleek and Bigoted 'Leak' Site
Ransomware gangs now have industrial targets in their sights. That raises the stakes for everyone
Other Social Engineering
Malware
This malware abuses Tor and Telegram infrastructure to evade detection
Tiny Kobalos malware seen backdooring SSH tools, menacing supercomputers, an ISP, and more – ESET
Experts discovered a new Trickbot module used for lateral movement
Agent Tesla ramps up its game in bypassing security walls, attacks endpoint protection
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
Data Breaches
Security firm Stormshield discloses data breach, theft of source code
Female escort review site data breach affects 470,000 members
Nation-State Actors
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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
Cyber Criminals use deceased staff accounts to spread Nemty ransomware
US and Bulgarian authorities disrupt NetWalker ransomware operation
Former UK Cyber Security Chief Says Laws Are Needed to Stop Ransomware Payouts
BEC
Phishing
Other Social Engineering
Malware
DreamBus botnet targets enterprise apps running on Linux servers
Trickbot is back again - with fresh phishing and malware attacks
Mobile
Vulnerabilities
Heap-based buffer overflow in Linux Sudo allows local users to gain root privileges
Vulnerability found in top messaging apps let hackers eavesdrop
Experts Detail A Recent Remotely Exploitable Windows Vulnerability
Former LulzSec Hacker Releases VPN Exploit Used to Hack Hacking Team
KindleDrip exploit – Hacking a Kindle device with a simple email
Data Breaches
Charities
Insider Threats
Nation-State Actors
Denial of Service
Privacy
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.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 January 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 January 2021: Ransomware Biggest Cyber Concern; Ransomware Payments Grew 311% In 2020; Cyber Security Spending To Soar In 2021; Ransomware Provides The Perfect Cover For Other Attacks; Gdpr Fines Skyrocket As Eu Gets Tough On Data Breaches; Popular Pdf Reader Has Database Of 77 Miliion Users Leaked Online; Malware Incidents On Remote Devices Increase
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
Ransomware is now the biggest Cyber Security concern for CISOs
Ransomware is the biggest cyber security concern facing businesses, according to those responsible for keeping organisations safe from hacking and cyberattacks. A survey of chief information security officers (CISOs) and chief security officers (CISOs found that ransomware is now viewed as the main cyber security threat to their organisation over the course of the next year. Almost half – 46% – of CISOs and CISOs surveyed said that ransomware or other forms of extortion by outsiders represents the biggest cyber security threat.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-is-now-the-biggest-cybersecurity-concern-for-cisos/
Crypto ransomware payments grew 311% in 2020
Crypto payments associated with ransomware grew at least 311% in 2020. “Ransomware” refers to a category of malicious computer programs that force users into paying ransoms. Just 0.34% of all cryptocurrency transactions last year were criminal, down from 2.1% in 2019. But that number is bound to go up, said the firm.
https://decrypt.co/54648/crypto-crime-ransomware-chainalysis-report-2020
The SolarWinds hackers used tactics other groups will copy
One of the most chilling aspects of Russia's recent hacking spree—which breached numerous United States government agencies among other targets—was the successful use of a “supply chain attack” to gain tens of thousands of potential targets from a single compromise at the IT services firm SolarWinds. But this was not the only striking feature of the assault. After that initial foothold, the attackers bored deeper into their victims' networks with simple and elegant strategies. Now researchers are bracing for a surge in those techniques from other attackers.
https://www.wired.com/story/solarwinds-hacker-methods-copycats/
Global Cyber Security spending to soar in 2021
The worldwide cyber security market is set to grow by up to 10% this year to top $60bn, as the global economy slowly recovers from the pandemic. Double-digit growth from $54.7bn in 2020 would be its best-case scenario. However, even in the worst case, cyber security spending would reach 6.6%. That would factor in a deeper-than-anticipated economic impact from lockdowns, although the security market has proven to be remarkably resilient thus far to the pandemic-induced global economic crisis. That said, SMB spending was hit hard last year, along with certain sectors like hospitality, retail and transport.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/global-cybersecurity-spending-to/
Cyber criminals publish more than 4,000 stolen Sepa files
Sepa rejected a ransom demand for the attack, which has been claimed by the international Conti ransomware group. Contracts, strategy documents and databases are among the 4,000 files released. The data has been put on the dark web - a part of the internet associated with criminality and only accessible through specialised software.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55757884
Ransomware provides the perfect cover for other attacks
Look at any list of security challenges that CISOs are most concerned about and you’ll consistently find ransomware on them. It’s no wonder: ransomware attacks cripple organizations due to the costs of downtime, recovery, regulatory penalties, and lost revenue. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have added an extra sting to these attacks: they are using ransomware as a smokescreen to divert security teams from other clandestine activities behind the scenes
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/01/21/ransomware-cover/
Popular PDF reader has database of 77 million users hacked and leaked online
A threat actor has leaked a 14 GB database online containing over 77 million records relating to thousands of users of the Nitro PDF reader software, with users' email addresses, full names, hashed passwords, company names, IP addresses, and other system-related information.
Ransomware victims that have backups are paying ransoms to stop hackers leaking their stolen data
Some organisations that fall victim to ransomware attacks are paying ransoms to cyber-criminal gangs despite being able to restore their own networks from backups, in order to prevent hackers publishing stolen data. Over the course of the past year, many of the most successful ransomware gangs have added an additional technique in an effort to coerce victims into paying ransoms after compromising their networks – publishing stolen data if a payment isn't received.
GDPR fines skyrocket as EU gets tough on data breaches
Europe’s new privacy protection regime has led to a surge in fines for bad actors, according to research published today. Law firm DLA Piper says that, since January 28th, 2020, the EU has issued around €158.5 million (around $192 million) in financial penalties. That’s a 39-percent increase on the previous 20-month period Piper examined in its report, published this time last year. And as well as the increased fines, the number of breach notifications has shot up by 19 percent across the same 12-month period.
https://www.engadget.com/gdpr-fines-dla-piper-report-144510440.html
Malware incidents on remote devices increase
Devices compromised by malware in 2020, 37% continued accessing corporate emails after being compromised and 11% continued accessing cloud storage, highlighting a need for organizations to better determine how to configure business tools to ensure fast and safe connectivity for all users in 2021.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/01/18/malware-incidents-remote-devices/
Threats
Phishing
Malware
Vulnerabilities
Signal and other video chat apps found to have some major security flaws
Automated exploit of critical SAP SolMan vulnerability detected in the wild
List of DNSpooq vulnerability advisories, patches, and update
Dnsmasq vulnerabilities open networking devices, Linux distros to DNS cache poisoning
New FreakOut botnet targets Linux systems running unpatched software
Data Breaches
Denial of Service
Cloud
Privacy
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.
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 15 January 2021
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 15 January 2021: Two Thirds of Employees Don’t Consider Security Whilst Working from Home; Ransomware Gangs Targeting Top Execs; Microsoft emits 83 security fixes – and miscreants are already exploiting vulnerabilities in Windows Defender; Android malware gives hackers full control of your smartphone; Massive fraud campaign sees millions vanish from online bank accounts
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
Two-Thirds of Employees Don’t Consider Security Whilst Home Working
More than two-thirds (68%) of UK workers do not consider the cyber security impact of working from home, according to a new study. The survey of 2043 employees in the UK demonstrated a lack of awareness about how to stay secure whilst working remotely, which is putting businesses at risk of attacks. The shift to home working as a result of COVID-19 means that staff in many organizations are operating across insecure devices and networks, providing opportunities for cyber-criminals.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/two-thirds-employees-security-home/
Ransomware Gangs Scavenge for Sensitive Data by Targeting Top Executives
In their attempt to extort as much money as quickly as possible out of companies, ransomware gangs know some effective techniques to get the full attention of a firm’s management team. And one of them is to specifically target the sensitive information stored on the computers used by a company’s top executives, in the hope of finding valuable data that can best pressure bosses into approving the payment of a sizeable ransom.
Microsoft emits 83 security fixes – and miscreants are already exploiting one of the vulnerabilities in Windows Defender
83 vulnerabilities in its software, which does not include the 13 flaws fixed in its Edge browser last week. That's up from 58 repairs made in December, 2020, a relatively light month by recent standards. Affected applications include: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML-based), Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office Services and Web Apps, Microsoft Windows Codecs Library, Visual Studio, SQL Server, Microsoft Malware Protection Engine, .NET Core, .NET Repository, ASP .NET, and Azure.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/12/patch_tuesday_fixes/
This Android malware claims to give hackers full control of your smartphone
The 'Rogue' remote administration tool (RAT) infects victims with a keylogger, allowing attackers to easily monitor the use of websites and apps in order to steal usernames and passwords, as well as financial data. The low cost of the malware reflects the increasing sophistication of the criminal ecosystem that is making it possible for wannabe crooks with limited technical skills to acquire the tools to stage attacks.
Massive fraud campaign sees millions vanish from online bank accounts
Researchers have uncovered an extensive fraud campaign that saw millions of dollars drained from victims’ online bank accounts. The operation was discovered by experts at IBM Trusteer, the IT giant’s security division, who described the attack as unprecedented in scale. To gain access to online banking accounts, the fraudsters are said to have utilized a piece of software known as a mobile emulator, which creates a virtual clone of a smartphone.
SolarWinds Hack Followed Years of Warnings of Weak Cyber Security
Congress and federal agencies have been slow or unwilling to address warnings about cyber security, shelving recommendations that are considered high priority while investing in programs that have fallen short. The massive cyber-attack by suspected Russian hackers, disclosed in December, came after years of warnings from a watchdog group and cyber security experts. For instance, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which was created by Congress to come up with strategies to thwart sizable cyber-attacks, presented a set of recommendations to Congress in March that included additional safeguards to ensure more trusted supply chains.
Threats
Ransomware
Hacker used ransomware to lock victims in their IoT chastity belt
Ransomware Attack Costs Health Network $1.5m a Day
Dassault Falcon Jet reports data breach after ransomware attack
IOT
Cyber experts say advice from breached IoT device company Ubiquiti falls short
Phishing
Iranian cyber spies behind major Christmas SMS spear-phishing campaign
Malware
macOS malware used run-only AppleScripts to avoid detection for five years
Going Rogue – a Mastermind Behind Android Malware Returns with a New Remote Access Trojan (RAT)
Emotet Tops Malware Charts in December After Reboot
Vulnerabilities
Windows 10 bug corrupts your hard drive on seeing this file's icon
Sophisticated Hacks Against Android, Windows Reveal Zero-Day Trove
Adobe fixes critical code execution vulnerabilities in 2021's first major patch round
Data Breaches
Over 16,000 customers seeking compensation for British Airways data breach
New Zealand Central Bank Breach Hit Other Companies
Massive Parler data leak exposes millions of posts, messages and videos
Millions of Social Profiles Leaked by Chinese Data-Scrapers
Hackers leak stolen Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine data online
United Nations data breach exposed over 100k UNEP staff records
Organised Crime
Europol shuts down the world's largest dark web marketplace
Nation State Actors
Third malware strain discovered in SolarWinds supply chain attack
Privacy
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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 31 December 2020
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 31 December 2020: SolarWinds hack may be much worse than originally feared; Threat actor selling 368.8 million records from 26 data breaches; The Worst Hacks of 2020; Nasty Strain of malware is back and hits 100K recipients per day; Ransomware in 2020: A Banner Year for Extortion; Russia’s global hacking efforts are going to unwind in 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 Headlines of the Week
SolarWinds hack may be much worse than originally feared
The Russia-linked SolarWinds hack which targeted US government agencies and private corporations may be even worse than officials first realized, with some 250 federal agencies and business now believed affected.
Microsoft has said the hackers compromised SolarWinds’ Orion monitoring and management software, allowing them to “impersonate any of the organisation’s existing users and accounts, including highly privileged accounts.” The Times reports that Russia exploited layers of the supply chain to access the agencies’ systems.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/2/22210667/solarwinds-hack-worse-government-microsoft-cybersecurity
Threat actor is selling 368.8 million records from 26 data breaches
Security experts reported that a threat actor is selling user records allegedly stolen from twenty-six companies on a hacker forum.
The total volume of data available for sale is composed of 368.8 million stolen user records.
For some of these companies, the data breaches have not been previously disclosed, including Teespring.com, MyON.com, Chqbook.com, Anyvan.com, Eventials.com, Wahoofitness.com, Sitepoint.com, and ClickIndia.com.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/112842/data-breach/data-breaches-records-sale.html
The Worst Hacks of 2020, a Surreal Pandemic Year
WHAT A WAY to kick off a new decade. 2020 showcased all of the digital risks and cybersecurity woes you've come to expect in the modern era, but this year was unique in the ways Covid-19 radically and tragically transformed life around the world. The pandemic also created unprecedented conditions in cyberspace, reshaping networks by pushing people to work from home en masse, creating a scramble to access vaccine research by any means, generating new fodder for criminals to launch extortion attempts and scams, and producing novel opportunities for nation-state espionage.
https://www.wired.com/story/worst-hacks-2020-surreal-pandemic-year/
A Nasty Strain of malware is back and hits 100K recipients per day
The Emotet banking trojan has been active at least since 2014, the botnet is operated by a threat actor tracked as TA542. In the middle-August, the malware was employed in fresh COVID19-themed spam campaign Recent spam campaigns used messages with malicious Word documents, or links to them, pretending to be an invoice, shipping information, COVID-19 information, resumes, financial documents, or scanned documents.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/112650/malware/december-emotet-redacted.html
Ransomware in 2020: A Banner Year for Extortion
From attacks on the UVM Health Network that delayed chemotherapy appointments, to ones on public schools that delayed students going back to the classroom, ransomware gangs disrupted organizations to inordinate levels in 2020. Remote learning platforms shut down. Hospital chemotherapy appointments cancelled. Ransomware attacks in 2020 dominated as a top threat vector this past year. Couple that with the COVID-19 pandemic, putting strains on the healthcare sector, and we witnessed ransomware exact a particularly cruel human toll as well. Attacks had an impact on nearly all sectors of the global economy – costing business $20 billion collectively and creating major cybersecurity headaches for others.
https://threatpost.com/ransomware-2020-extortion/162319/
Ransomware Is Headed Down a Dire Path
AT THE END of September, an emergency room technician in the United States gave WIRED a real-time account of what it was like inside their hospital as a ransomware attack raged. With their digital systems locked down by hackers, health care workers were forced onto backup paper systems. They were already straining to manage patients during the pandemic; the last thing they needed was more chaos. "It is a life-or-death situation," the technician said at the time.
The same scenario was repeated around the country this year, as waves of ransomware attacks crashed down on hospitals and health care provider networks, peaking in September and October. School districts, meanwhile, were walloped by attacks that crippled their systems just as students were attempting to come back to class, either in person or remotely. Corporations and local and state governments faced similar attacks at equally alarming rates.
https://www.wired.com/story/ransomware-2020-headed-down-dire-path/
Russia’s global hacking efforts are going to unwind in 2021
Russia has become adept at using cyberattacks and digital-media manipulation to influence events in other countries. We know there was Russian digital interference in the 2016 US general election and the 2017 presidential election in France: both involved fake social-media accounts and “hack-and-leak” operations to steal emails. The UK government has not investigated whether, as must be probable, Russia had also been using its tools of covert subversion during the Scottish independence and Brexit referenda, but it has said that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online dissemination of illicitly acquired government documents, thought to relate to US/UK trade negotiations.
Threats
IOT
FBI Warn Hackers are Using Hijacked Home Security Devices for ‘Swatting’
Malware
New Golang worm turns Windows and Linux servers into monero miners
Emotet malware hits Lithuania's National Public Health Centre
GitHub-hosted malware calculates Cobalt Strike payload from Imgur pic
Vulnerabilities
Cross-layer attacks: New hacking technique raises DNS cache poisoning, user tracking risk
Windows Zero-Day Still Circulating After Faulty Fix
Backdoor account discovered in more than 100,000 Zyxel firewalls, VPN gateways
Data Breaches
T-Mobile warns customers of second data breach in less than a year
Kawasaki discloses security breach, potential data leak
Finland says hackers accessed MPs' emails accounts
Organised Crime
21 arrests in nationwide cyber crackdown
Nation State Actors
India: A Growing Cyber Security Threat
Denial of Service
Citrix devices are being abused as DDoS attack vectors
Privacy
Mapped: The Top Surveillance Cities Worldwide
Cryptocurrency
Voyager cryptocurrency broker halted trading due to cyber attack
Other News
Brexit deal mentions Netscape browser and Mozilla Mail
6 Questions Attackers Ask Before Choosing an Asset to Exploit
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 25 December 2020
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 December 2020: The Cyber Threat Is Real and Growing; Ransomware Attacks Surge in Q3; In 2021 there will be a cyber attack every 11 seconds; The West has suffered a massive cyber breach and it's hard to overstate how bad it is; Big tech companies including Intel, Nvidia, and Cisco were all infected during the SolarWinds hack
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
The Cyber Threat Is Real and Growing
The SolarWinds breach could be one of the most significant cyber incidents in history. Russian intelligence—likely the SVR, the foreign-intelligence branch—infiltrated and sat undetected on U.S. and other government networks for nearly 10 months. It was a sophisticated, smart and savvy attack that should alarm the public and private sectors.
We may not know the full extent of the damage for some time. Don’t be surprised if more government entities disclose that they too were victims of this attack. Don’t be surprised either if it emerges that private companies were hit. SolarWinds says it has more than 300,000 customers, including 400 companies in the Fortune 500. That’s a lot of potential victims.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cyber-threat-is-real-and-growing-11608484291
Ransomware Attacks Surge in Q3 as Cyber Criminals Shift Tactics
A record growth in ransomware attacks took place in Q3 of 2020 compared to Q2, from 39% to 51% of all malware attempts according to a new study. The study also found that hacking accounted for 30% of all attacks during Q3, with cyber criminals reducing their emphasis on social engineering tactics compared with earlier this year. The researchers noted that the percentage of social engineering attacks using COVID-19 as a lure fell from 16% in Q2 to just 4% in Q3, which they attribute to people becoming more accustomed to this crisis. Additionally, social engineering attacks targeting organizations fell from 67% of all attempts in Q1 to under half (45%) in Q3.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-attacks-surge-q3/
In 2021, there will be a cyber attack every 11 seconds. Here’s how to protect yourself
Experienced outdoor athletes know that with winter rapidly approaching, the secret to success lies in protecting the core. That is, the body’s core temperature through layering, wicking and a host of ever-improving technical fabrics that prevent the cold, snow and ice from affecting performance. The same could be said for cyber security. With organizations and workers now in their ninth month of COVID-19, the time has come to prepare as the threat of cyber attacks becomes even more menacing.
The US, and much of the West, has suffered a massive cyber breach. It's hard to overstate how bad it is
Recent news articles have all been talking about the massive Russian cyber-attack against the United States, but that’s wrong on two accounts. It wasn’t a cyber-attack in international relations terms, it was espionage. And the victim wasn’t just the US, it was the entire world. But it was massive, and it is dangerous.
Espionage is internationally allowed in peacetime. The problem is that both espionage and cyber-attacks require the same computer and network intrusions, and the difference is only a few keystrokes. And since this Russian operation isn’t at all targeted, the entire world is at risk – and not just from Russia. Many countries carry out these sorts of operations, none more extensively than the US. The solution is to prioritize security and defense over espionage and attack.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/23/cyber-attack-us-security-protocols
Big tech companies including Intel, Nvidia, and Cisco were all infected during the SolarWinds hack
Last week, news broke that IT management company SolarWinds had been hacked, possibly by the Russian government, and the US Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy, and Homeland Security departments have been affected — two of which may have had emails stolen as a result of the hack. Other government agencies and many companies are investigating due to SolarWinds’ extensive client list. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that some big tech companies have been infected, too.
Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Belkin, and VMware have all had computers on their networks infected with the malware. There could be far more: SolarWinds had stated that “fewer than 18,000” companies were impacted, as if that number is supposed to be reassuring, and it even attempted to hide the list of clients who used the infected software. Today’s news takes some of SolarWinds’ big-name clients from “possibly affected’’ to “confirmed affected.”
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/21/22194183/intel-nvidia-cisco-government-infected-solarwinds-hack
Researchers share the lists of victims of SolarWinds hack
Security experts started analyzing the DGA mechanism used by threat actors behind the SolarWinds hack to control the Sunburst/Solarigate backdoor and published the list of targeted organizations. Researchers from multiple cybersecurity firms published a list that contains major companies, including Cisco, Deloitte, Intel, Mediatek, and Nvidia. The researchers decoded the DGA algorithm used by the backdoor to assign a subdomain of the C2 for each of the compromised organizations.
https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/112555/hacking/solarwinds-victims-lists.html
Threats
Ransomware
Ransomware: Attacks could be about to get even more dangerous and disruptive
IOT
New Critical Flaws in Treck TCP/IP Stack Affect Millions of IoT Devices
Malware
Emotet Returns to Hit 100K Mailboxes Per Day
Microsoft has discovered yet more SolarWinds malware
3 million users hit with infected Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extensions
Vulnerabilities
Windows zero-day with bad patch gets new public exploit code
Script for detecting vulnerable TCP/IP stacks released
New SUPERNOVA backdoor found in SolarWinds cyberattack analysis
Smart Doorbell Disaster: Many Brands Vulnerable to Attack
Zero-day exploit used to hack iPhones of Al Jazeera employees
Signal: Cellebrite claimed to have 'cracked' chat app's encryption
Data Breaches
There's been a Nintendo Switch data leak, according to reports
Data breach hits 30,000 signed up to workplace pensions provider
Thousands of customer records exposed after serious data breach
Organised Crime
Cyber criminals have started indexing the dark web
Joker’s Stash Carding Site Taken Down
International sting shuts down 'favourite' VPN of cyber criminals
Dark Web Pricing Skyrockets for Microsoft RDP Servers, Payment-Card Data
NSA Warns of Hacking Tactics That Target Cloud Resources
Denial of Service
Cloudflare has identified a new type of DDoS attack inspired by an acoustic beat
Privacy
The pandemic has taken surveillance of workers to the next level
Other News
Dozens of Al Jazeera journalists allegedly hacked using Israeli firm's spyware
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 18 December 2020
Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 18 December 2020: The great hack attack - SolarWinds breach exposes big gaps in cyber security; A wake-up for the world on cyber security; White House activates cyber emergency response; US nuclear weapons agency targeted; UK companies targeted; Increasing Risk of Cyber Attacks; millions of users install malicious browser extensions; C19 Vaccines sold on dark web
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
The great hack attack: SolarWinds breach exposes big gaps in cyber security
Until this week, SolarWinds was a little known IT software group from Texas. Its deserted lobby has a framed magazine article from a few years ago when it was on a list of America’s “Best Small Companies”.
Now the Austin-based company is at the heart of one of the biggest and most startling cyber hacks in recent history, with ramifications that extend into the fields of geopolitics, espionage and national security.
For nine months, sophisticated state-backed hackers have exploited a ubiquitous SolarWinds software product in order to spy on government and business networks around the world, including in the US, UK, Israel and Canada. Wielding innovative tools and tradecraft, the cyber spies lurked in email services, and posed as legitimate staffers to tap confidential information stored in the cloud.
The bombshell revelations have sent 18,000 exposed SolarWinds customers scrambling to assess whether outsiders did indeed enter their systems, what the damage was and how to fix it.
https://www.ft.com/content/c13dbb51-907b-4db7-8347-30921ef931c2
A wake-up for the world on cyber security
Imagine intruders break into your home and loiter undetected for months, spying on you and deciding which contents to steal. This in essence is the kind of access that hackers, assumed to be Russian, achieved in recent months at US government institutions including the Treasury and departments of commerce and homeland security, and potentially many US companies. If the fear in the Cold War was of occasional “moles” gaining access to secrets, this is akin to a small army of moles burrowing through computer systems. The impact is still being assessed, but it marks one of the biggest security breaches of the digital era.
https://www.ft.com/content/d3fc0b14-4a82-4671-b023-078516ea714e
US government, thousands of businesses now thought to have been affected by SolarWinds security attack
Thousands of businesses and several branches of the US government are now thought to have been affected by the attack on software firm SolarWinds.
The Austin-based company has fallen victim to a massive supply chain attack believed to be the work of state-sponsored hackers.
Along with the US treasury and commerce departments, the Department of Homeland Security is now thought to have been affected by the attack. In a statement to the SEC today, SolarWinds said it had notified 33,000 customers of its recent hack, but that only 18,000 of these used the affected version of its Orion platform.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/solarwinds-suffers-massive-supply-chain-attack
White House activates cyber emergency response under Obama-era directive
In the wake of the SolarWinds breach, the National Security Council has activated an emergency cyber security process that is intended to help the government plan its response and recovery efforts, according to White House officials and other sources.
The move is a sign of just how seriously the Trump administration is taking the foreign espionage operation, former NSC officials told CyberScoop.
The action is rooted in a presidential directive issued during the Obama administration known as PPD-41, which establishes a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) that is intended to help the U.S. government coordinate multiple agencies’ responses to the significant hacking incident.
The UCG is generally led by the Department of Justice — through the FBI and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force — as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security.
https://www.cyberscoop.com/solarwinds-white-house-national-security-council-emergency-meetings/
Hackers targeted US nuclear weapons agency in massive cyber security breach, reports say
The National Nuclear Security Administration and Energy Department, which safeguard the US stockpile of nuclear weapons, have had their networks hacked as part of the widespread cyber espionage attack on a number of federal agencies.
Politico reports that officials have begun coordinating notifications about the security breach to the relevant congressional oversight bodies.
Suspicious activity was identified in the networks of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation, and the Richland Field Office of the Department of Energy.
Officials with direct knowledge of the matter said hackers have been able to do more damage to the network at FERC, according to the report.
Microsoft warns UK companies were targeted by SolarWinds hackers
Microsoft has warned that some of its UK customers have been exposed to the malware used in the Russia-linked SolarWinds hack that targeted US states and government agencies.
More than 40 of the tech giant's customers are thought to have used breached SolarWinds software, including clients in Britain, the US, Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, Israel, and the UAE.
The company would not name the victims, but said they include government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organisations and IT firms. Microsoft said four in five were in the US, with nearly half of them tech companies.
“This is not ‘espionage as usual,’ even in the digital age,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president. “Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world.”
The attackers, believed to be working for the Russian government, got into computer networks by installing a vulnerability in Orion software from SolarWinds.
Society at Increasingly High Risk of Cyber Attacks
Cyber attacks are becoming easier to conduct while conversely security is getting increasingly difficult, according to Kevin Curran, senior IEEE member and professor of cyber security, Ulster University, during a virtual media roundtable.
“Any company you can think of has had a data breach,” he commented. “Whenever a data breach happens it weakens our credentials because our passwords are often reused on different websites.”
He observed that the art of hacking doesn’t necessarily require a significant amount of technical expertise anymore, and bad actors can receive substantial help from numerous and readily accessible tools online. “You don’t have to spend seven years in college to learn how to hack, you just have to know about these sites and what terms to use,” noted Curran.
A number of legitimate online mechanisms that can help damaging attacks to be launched by hackers were highlighted by Curran in his presentation. These include Google Dorks, which are “search strings which point to website vulnerabilities.” This means vulnerable accounts can be identified simply via Google searches.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/society-increasingly-risk-cyber/
Three million users installed 28 malicious Chrome or Edge extensions
More than three million internet users are believed to have installed 15 Chrome, and 13 Edge extensions that contain malicious code, security firm Avast said today.
The 28 extensions contained code that could perform several malicious operations, including:
-redirect user traffic to ads
-redirect user traffic to phishing sites
-collect personal data, such as birth dates, email addresses, and active devices
-collect browsing history
-download further malware onto a user's device
But despite the presence of code to power all the above malicious features, Avast researchers said they believe the primary objective of this campaign was to hijack user traffic for monetary gains.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/three-million-users-installed-28-malicious-chrome-or-edge-extensions/
Vaccines for sale on dark web as criminals target pandemic profits
Black market vendors were offering coronavirus vaccines for sale on hidden parts of the internet days after the first Covid-19 shot was approved this month, as criminals seek to profit from global demand for inoculations.
One such offer on the so-called dark web, traced by cyber security company Check Point Software, was priced at $250 with the seller promising “stealth” delivery in double-wrapped packaging. Shipping from the US via post or a leading courier company would cost $20, with an extra $5 securing overnight delivery.
https://www.ft.com/content/8bfc674e-efe6-4ee0-b860-7fcb5716bed6
Threats
Ransomware
FBI says DoppelPaymer ransomware gang is harassing victims who refuse to pay
House purchases in Hackney fall through following cyber attack against council
Mount Locker Ransomware Offering Double Extortion Scheme to Other Hackers
Ransomware operators use SystemBC RAT as off-the-shelf Tor backdoor
Phishing
Subway Sandwich Loyalty-Card Users Suffer Ham-Handed Phishing Scam
Microsoft Office 365 Credentials Under Attack By Fax ‘Alert’ Emails
IoT
Malware
New iOS and Android spyware responsible for multi-layered sextortion campaign
Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge hijacked by massive malware attack: What you need to know
This nasty malware is infecting every web browser — what to do now
Tor malware is becoming a worryingly popular ransomware tool
Vulnerabilities
Israeli Phone-hacking Firm Claims It Can Now Break Into Encrypted Signal App
PgMiner botnet exploits disputed CVE to hack unsecured PostgreSQL DBs
Zero-day in WordPress SMTP plugin abused to reset admin account passwords
Sophos fixes SQL injection vulnerability in their Cyberoam OS
Wormable code-execution flaw in Cisco Jabber has a severity rating of 9.9 out of 10
Data Breaches
Twitter hit with €450,000 GDPR fine nearly two years after disclosing data breach
Data Leak Exposes Details of Two Million Chinese Communist Party Members
Organised Crime
Nation State Actors
Privacy
UK police unlawfully processing over a million people’s data on Microsoft 365
Sci-fi surveillance: Europe's secretive push into biometric technology
Other News
Reports Published in the Last Week
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