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Black Arrow Admin 20/08/2021 Black Arrow Admin 20/08/2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 August 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 August 2021:

-Third of Global Companies Have Experienced Ransomware Attack, Survey Finds

-Company Size Is A Nonissue With Automated Cyberattack Tools

-60% Of Employees Reuse Passwords Across Business And Personal Accounts

-LockBit 2.0 Ransomware Proliferates Globally

-Secret Terrorist Watchlist With 2 Million Records Exposed Online

-Phishing Costs Quadruple Over 6 Years

-Security Teams Report Rise In Cyber Risk

-Phishing Attacks Increase In H1 2021, Sharp Jump In Crypto Attacks

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 August 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 August 2021:

-SMBs Increasingly Vulnerable To Ransomware, Despite The Perception They Are Too Small To Target

-440% Increase In Phishing

-Users Can Be Just As Dangerous As Hackers

-With Crime-As-A-Service, Anyone Can Be An Attacker

-Move To Cloud Creating Security Blindspots

-Connected Devices Increasingly At Risk Of Ransomware Attacks

-Ransomware Payments Explode Amid ‘Quadruple Extortion’

-Accenture Hit With $50M Ransomware

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 06 August 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 06 August 2021:

-Ransomware Volumes Hit Record High

-Ransomware Gangs Recruiting Insiders To Breach Corporate Networks

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

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

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

-Kaseya Ransomware Attack Sets Off Race To Hack Service Providers

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 30 July 2021

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 23 July 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 23 July 2021: 40% Fell Victim To A Phishing Attack In The Past Month; Traditional Ransomware Defences Are Failing Businesses; The Number Of Employees Going Around IT Security May Surprise You; 740 Ransomware Victims Named On Data Leak Sites In Q2 2021; A More Dynamic Approach Is Needed To Tackle Today’s Evolving Cyber Security Threats; Law Firm For Ford, Boeing, Exxon, Marriott, Walgreens, And More Hacked In Ransomware Attack; UK And Allies Accuse China Of 'Reckless' Cyber Extortion And Microsoft Hack; Even after Emotet takedown, Office docs deliver 43% of all malware downloads now; Gun owners' fears after firearms dealer data breach

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 09 July 2021

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

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 July 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 02 July 2021: Russian Hackers Target IT Supply Chain In Ransomware Attack Leading To Hundreds Of Firms Being Hit; 71% Of Orgs Experienced BEC Attacks Over The Past Year; Cyber Insurance Making Ransomware Crisis Worse; Breach Exposes 92% Of LinkedIn Users; Users Clueless About Cyber Security Risks; Paying Ransoms Make You A Bigger Target; Cyber Crime Never Sleeps; Classified MOD Docs Found At Bus Stop; Don’t Leave Your Cyber IR Plan To IT, It’s An Organisational Risk

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 June 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 25 June 2021: BEC Losses Top $1.8B As Tactics Evolve; 30M Dell Devices At Risk For Remote BIOS Attacks, Remote Code Exploits; Bad Employee Behaviours Picked Up During Remote Working Pose Serious Security Risks; Ways Technical Debt Increases Security Risk; Orgs Ill-Equipped To Deal With Growing BYOD Security Threats; Firewall Manufacturer Sees 226.3 Million Ransomware Attack Attempts This Year; Ransomware Criminals Look To Other Hackers To Provide Them With Network Access

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 11 June 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 11 June 2021: World’s Biggest Meat Producer JBS Pays $11m Ransom; New Type Of Ransomware Could Be 10 Times As Dangerous; Lewd Phishing Lures Aimed At Business Explode; UK Schools Forced To Shut Following Ransomware; COVID-19 Has Transformed Work, But Cyber Security Is Not Keeping Pace; Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack Stemmed From Old VPN Password; Evil Corp Rebrands Ransomware To Escape Sanctions; Billions Of Passwords Leaked Online From Past Data Breaches

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 May 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 28 May 2021: Cyber Insurance Firms Start Tapping Out As Ransomware Continues To Rise; Irish Health Service Faces Final Bill Of At Least €100M Following Cyber Attack; The 10 Most Dangerous Cyber Threat Actors; Dramatic Increase In Ransomware Attacks Is Causing Harm On A Significant Scale; Deepfakes Could Be The Next Big Security Threat To Businesses; Two-Thirds Of Organisations Say They'll Take Action To Boost Their Ransomware Defences

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 21 May 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 21 May 2021: Ransomware Attacks Are Spiking. Is Your Company Prepared?; Ban Ransom Payments To Hackers, Urges Ex-GCHQ Boss; How Penetration Testing Can Promote A False Sense Of Security; Ransomware’s New Swindle - Triple Extortion; ‘It’s A Battle, It’s Warfare’ - Experts Seek To Defeat Ransomware Attackers; 5 Reasons Why Enterprises Need Cyber Security Awareness And Training; 10 Emerging Cyber Security Trends To Watch In 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 07 May 2021

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 07 May 2021: New Technology Has Enabled Cyber-Crime On An Industrial Scale; Cyber Security Control Failures Listed As Top Emerging Risk; Third Parties Caused Data Breaches At 51% Of Organisations; Apple Devices Under Attack, Update Now; Ransomware Reality Shock - 92% Who Pay Do Not Get Their Data Back; New Vulnerabilities Impact 60% Of Email Servers; Big Rise In Double Extortion Ransomware; Millions At Security Risk From Old Routers; 30% Of All Smartphones Vulnerable To New Bug

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 16 April 2021

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

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Hackers Using Website's Contact Forms to Deliver IcedID Malware

Mobile

Joker Malware Infected 538,000 Huawei Android Devices

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Coronavirus Triggers Epidemic Of Cyber Fraud

Nation State Actors

Privacy

24% Of Workers Spied On By Bosses

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.

Black Arrow Admin 23/01/2021 Black Arrow Admin 23/01/2021

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

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/

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.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-victims-that-have-backups-are-paying-ransoms-to-stop-hackers-leaking-their-stolen-data/

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

Data Breaches

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.

Black Arrow Admin 05/12/2020 Black Arrow Admin 05/12/2020

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 04 December 2020

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 4 December 2020: Covid vaccine supply chain targeted by hackers; Criminals Favour Ransomware and BEC; Bank Employee Sells Personal Data of 200,000 Clients; 2020 Pandemic changing short- and long-term approaches to risk; Cyber risks take the fun out of connected toys; Remote Workers Admit Lack of Security Training

Top Cyber Headlines of the Week

Covid vaccine supply chain targeted by hackers, say security experts

Cyber attackers have targeted the cold supply chain needed to deliver Covid-19 vaccines, according to a report detailing a sophisticated operation likely backed by a nation state.

The hackers appeared to be trying to disrupt or steal information about the vital processes to keep vaccines cold as they travel from factories to hospitals and doctors’ offices.

https://www.ft.com/content/9c303207-8f4a-42b7-b0e4-cf421f036b2f

Criminals to Favour Ransomware and BEC Over Breaches in 2021

The era of the mega-breach may be coming to an end as cyber-criminals eschew consumers’ personal data and focus on phishing and ransomware.

Cyber-criminals are relying less on stolen personal information and more on “poor consumer behaviors” such as password reuse to monetize attacks.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/criminals-favor-ransomware-bec/

Bank Employee Sells Personal Data of 200,000 Clients

South Africa–based financial services group Absa has stated that one of its employees sold the personal information of 200,000 clients to third parties.

The group confirmed on Wednesday that the illegal activity had occurred and that 2% of Absa's retail customer base had been impacted.

The employee allegedly responsible for it was a credit analyst who had access to the group's risk-modeling processes.

Data exposed as a result of the security incident included clients' ID numbers, addresses, contact details, and descriptions of vehicles that they had purchased on finance.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/bank-employee-sells-personal-data/

LastPass review: Still the leading password manager, despite security history

"'Don't put all your eggs in one basket' is all wrong. I tell you 'put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket,'" said industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1885. When it comes to privacy tools, he's usually dead wrong. In the case of password managers, however, Carnegie is usually more dead than wrong. To wit, I have been using LastPass so long I don't know when I started using LastPass and, for now, I've got no reason to change that.

https://www.cnet.com/news/lastpass-review-still-the-leading-password-manager-despite-security-history/

The most significant security innovations of 2020

Who gets access? That is the question that drives every security measure and innovation that’s landed on PopSci’s annual compendium since we launched the category in 2008. Every year, that question gets bigger and bigger. In 2020, the world quaked under a global pandemic that took 1.4 million lives, the US saw a rebirth in its civil rights movement, and a spate of record-breaking wildfires forced entire regions to evacuate. And those are just the new scares. A buildup of angst against ad trackers and app snooping led to major changes in hardware and software alike. It was a year full of lessons, nuances, and mini revolutions, and we strive to match that with our choices.

https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/most-important-security-innovations-2020/

2020 security priorities: Pandemic changing short- and long-term approaches to risk

Security planning and budgeting is always an adventure. You can assess current risk and project the most likely threats, but the only real constant in cybersecurity risk is its unpredictability. Layer a global pandemic on top of that and CISOs suddenly have the nearly impossible task of deciding where to request and allocate resources in 2021.

Show how the COVID pandemic has changed what security focuses on now and what will drive security priorities and spending in 2021. Based on a survey of 522 security professionals from the US, Asia/Pacific and Europe, the study reveals how the pandemic has changed the way organizations assess risk and respond to threats—permanently.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3598393/new-study-shows-pandemic-changing-short-and-long-term-approaches-to-risk.html

Cyber risks take the fun out of connected toys

As Christmas approaches, internet-enabled smart toys are likely to feature heavily under festive trees. While some dolls of decades past were only capable of speaking pre-recorded phrases, modern equivalents boast speech recognition and can search for answers online in real time.

Other connected gadgets include drones or cars such as Nintendo’s Mario Kart Live Home Circuit, where players race each other in a virtual world modelled after their home surroundings.

But for all the fun that such items can bring, there is a risk — poorly-secured Internet of Things toys can be turned into convenient tools for hackers.

https://www.ft.com/content/c653e977-435f-4553-8401-9fa9b0faf632

Remote Workers Admit Lack of Security Training

A third of remote working employees have not received security training in the last six months.

400 remote workers in the UK across multiple industries, while 83% have had access to security best practice training and 88% are familiar with IT security policies, 32% have received no security training in the last six months.

Also, 50% spend two or more hours a week on IT issues, and 42% felt they had to go around the security policies of their organization to do their job.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/remote-workers-training/

Threats

Ransomware

Delaware County Pays $500,000 Ransom After Outages

A US county is in the process of paying half-a-million dollars to ransomware extorters who locked its local government network, according to reports.

Pennsylvania’s Delaware County revealed the attack last week, claiming in a notice that it had disrupted “portions of its computer network.

“We commenced an immediate investigation that included taking certain systems offline and working with computer forensic specialists to determine the nature and scope of the event. We are working diligently to restore the functionality of our systems,” it said.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/delaware-county-pays-500k-ransom/

MasterChef Producer Hit by Double Extortion Ransomware

A multibillion-dollar TV production company has become the latest big corporate name caught out by ransomware, it emerged late last week.

The firm owns over 120 production firms around the world, delivering TV shows ranging from MasterChef and Big Brother to Black Mirror and The Island with Bear Grylls.

In a short update last Thursday, it claimed to be managing a “cyber-incident” affecting the networks of Endemol Shine Group and Endemol Shine International, Dutch firms it acquired in a $2.2bn deal in July.

Although ransomware isn’t named in the notice, previous reports suggest the firm is being extorted.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/masterchef-producer-double/

Sopra Steria to take multi-million euro hit on ransomware attack

The company revealed in October that it had been hit by hackers using a new version of Ryuk ransomware.

It now says that the fallout, with various systems out of action, is likely to have a gross negative impact on operating margin of between €40 million and €50 million.

The group's insurance coverage for cyber risks is EUR30 million, meaning that negative organic revenue growth for the year is now expected to be between 4.5% and five per cent (previously between two per cent and four per cent). Free cash flow is now expected to be between €50 million and €100 million (previously between €80 million and €120 million).

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37020/sopra-steria-to-take-multi-million-euro-hit-on-ransomware-attack

BEC

FBI: BEC Scams Are Using Email Auto-Forwarding

The agency notes in an alert made public this week that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, leading to an increasingly remote workforce, BEC scammers have been taking advantage of the auto-forwarding feature within compromised email inboxes to trick employees to send them money under the guise of legitimate payments to third parties.

This tactic works because most organizations do not sync their web-based email client forwarding features with their desktop client counterparts. This limits the ability of system administrators to detect any suspicious activities and enables the fraudsters to send malicious emails from the compromised accounts without being detected, the alert, sent to organizations in November and made public this week, notes.

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/fbi-bec-scams-are-using-email-auto-forwarding-a-15498

Phishing

Phishing lures employees with fake 'back to work' internal memos

Scammers are trying to steal email credentials from employees by impersonating their organization's human resources (HR) department in phishing emails camouflaged as internal 'back to work' company memos.

These phishing messages have managed to land in thousands of targeted individuals' mailboxes after bypassing G Suite email defences according to stats provided by researchers at email security company Abnormal Security who spotted this phishing campaign.

There is a high probability that some of the targets will fall for the scammers' tricks given that during this year's COVID-19 pandemic most companies have regularly emailed their employees with updates regarding remote working policy changes.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/phishing-lures-employees-with-fake-back-to-work-internal-memos/

Warning: Massive Zoom phishing targets Thanksgiving meetings

Everyone should be on the lookout for a massive ongoing phishing attack today, pretending to be an invite for a Zoom meeting. Hosted on numerous landing pages, BleepingComputer has learned that thousands of users' credentials have already been stolen by the attack.

With many in the USA hosting virtual Thanksgiving dinners and people in other countries conducting Zoom business meetings, as usual, today is a prime opportunity to perform a phishing attack using Zoom invite lures.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/warning-massive-zoom-phishing-targets-thanksgiving-meetings/

Malware

All-new Windows 10 malware is excellent at evading detection

Security researchers at Kaspersky have discovered a new malware strain developed by the hacker-for-hire group DeathStalker that has been designed to avoid detection on Windows PCs.

While the threat actor has been active since at least 2012, DeathStalker first drew Kaspersky's attention back in 2018 because of its distinctive attack characteristics which didn't resemble those employed by cybercriminals or state-sponsored hackers.

https://www.techradar.com/news/all-new-windows-10-malware-is-excellent-at-evading-detection

New TrickBot version can tamper with UEFI/BIOS firmware

The operators of the TrickBot malware botnet have added a new capability that can allow them to interact with an infected computer's BIOS or UEFI firmware.

The new capability was spotted inside part of a new TrickBot module, first seen in the wild at the end of October, security firms Advanced Intelligence and Eclypsium said in a joint report published today.

The new module has security researchers worried as its features would allow the TrickBot malware to establish more persistent footholds on infected systems, footholds that could allow the malware to survive OS reinstalls.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-trickbot-version-can-tamper-with-uefibios-firmware/

Russia-linked APT Turla used a new malware toolset named Crutch

Russian-linked APT group Turla has used a previously undocumented malware toolset, named Crutch, in cyberespionage campaigns aimed at high-profile targets, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of a European Union country.

The Turla APT group (aka Snake, Uroburos, Waterbug, Venomous Bear and KRYPTON) has been active since at least 2007 targeting diplomatic and government organizations and private businesses in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and former Soviet bloc nations.

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/111813/apt/turla-crutch-malware-platform.html

MacBooks under attack by dangerous malware: What to do

a recent spate of malware attacks targeting macOS of late that installs backdoors to steal sensitive personal information. The security firm discovered that a new malware variant is being used online and backed by a rogue nation-state hacking group known as OceanLotus, which also operates under the name AKTP2 and is based in Vietnam.

The new malware was created by OceanLotus due to the “similarities in dynamic behavior and code” from previous malware connected to the Vietnamese-based hacking group.

https://www.laptopmag.com/news/macbooks-under-attack-by-dangerous-malware-what-to-do

Hackers Using Monero Mining Malware as Decoy, Warns Microsoft

The company’s intelligence team said a group called BISMUTH hit government targets in France and Vietnam with relatively conspicuous monero mining trojans this summer. Mining the crypto generated side cash for the group, but it also distracted victims from BISMUTH’s true campaign: credential theft.

Crypto-jacking “allowed BISMUTH to hide its more nefarious activities behind threats that may be perceived to be less alarming because they’re ‘commodity’ malware,” Microsoft concluded. It said the conspicuousness of monero mining fits BISMUTH’s “hide in plain sight” MO.

Microsoft recommended organizations stay vigilant against crypto-jacking as a possible decoy tactic.

https://www.coindesk.com/hackers-using-monero-mining-malware-as-decoy-warns-microsoft

Vulnerabilities

Zerologon is now detected by Microsoft Defender for Identity

There has been a huge focus on the recently patched CVE-2020-1472 Netlogon Elevation of Privilege vulnerability, widely known as ZeroLogon. While Microsoft strongly recommends that you deploy the latest security updates to your servers and devices, we also want to provide you with the best detection coverage possible for your domain controllers. Microsoft Defender for Identity along with other Microsoft 365 Defender solutions detect adversaries as they try to exploit this vulnerability against your domain controllers.

https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2020/11/30/zerologon-is-now-detected-by-microsoft-defender-for-identity/

Privacy

'We've heard the feedback...' Microsoft 365 axes per-user productivity monitoring after privacy backlash

If you heard a strange noise coming from Redmond today, it was the sound of some rapid back-pedalling regarding the Productivity Score feature in its Microsoft 365 cloud platform.

Following outcry from subscribers and privacy campaigners, the Windows giant has now vowed to wind back the functionality so that it no longer produces scores for individual users, and instead just summarizes the output of a whole organization. It was feared the dashboard could have been used by bad bosses to measure the productivity of specific employees using daft metrics like the volume of emails or chat messages sent through Microsoft 365.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/01/productivity_score/

Other News

Think-Tanks Under Attack by Foreign APTs, CISA Warns

AI needed to vet 100 billion cyber threat items per day

Cloud native security: A maturing and expanding arena

MOD Corsham seeks new recruits to combat cyber warfare

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.

Black Arrow Admin 21/11/2020 Black Arrow Admin 21/11/2020

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 November 2020

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

Top Cyber Headlines of the Week

Cyber crime is 'a constant threat' to SMEs

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

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

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

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

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

The most common passwords of 2020 are atrocious

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CISOs say a distributed workforce has critically increased security concerns

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

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

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

Threats

Ransomware

Capcom confirms Ragnar Locker ransomware attack, data exposure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phishing

Office 365 phishing campaign detects sandboxes to evade detection

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

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

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

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

Malware

Adult site users targeted with ZLoader malware via fake Java update

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

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

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

Lazarus malware strikes South Korean supply chains

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

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

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

Malware activity spikes 128%, Office document phishing skyrockets

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

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

Cloud

Attackers can abuse a misconfigured IAM role across 16 Amazon services

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

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

Vulnerabilities

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

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

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

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

Windows Kerberos authentication breaks due to security updates

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

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

Cisco Patches Critical Flaw After PoC Exploit Code Release

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

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

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

Widespread Scans Underway for RCE Bugs in WordPress Websites

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

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

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

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

Webex fixed some seriously spooky security flaws

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

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

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

Data Breaches

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

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

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

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

Crown Prosecution Service guilty of ‘serious’ data breaches

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

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

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

Privacy

MacOS Big Sur reveals Apple secretly hates your VPN and firewall

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

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

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

Server failure unearths massive macOS tracking plans

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

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

Employee surveillance software demand increased as workers transitioned to home working

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nation State Actors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other News

Hackers are leaning more heavily on cloud resources

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reports Published in the Last Week

Sophos 2021 Threat Report: Navigating cybersecurity in an uncertain world

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

Verizon Releases First Cyber-Espionage Report

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

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

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

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

Black Arrow Admin 14/11/2020 Black Arrow Admin 14/11/2020

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 November 2020

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

Top Cyber Headlines of the Week

Five Emerging Cyber-Threats to Watch Out for in 2021

What was the driving force behind your company’s digital strategy in 2020? Was it your CEO? Probably not. Your CTO or CISO? Perhaps.

For most organisations, it was COVID-19. In 2019, one company after another said: “work-from-home isn’t an option for us” or “we aren’t interested in shifting operations to the cloud.”

Then everything changed. The pandemic drove a massive shift towards remote work. For many companies, this wasn’t even an option — it was a case of ‘do or die.’

By April 2020, almost half of the American workforce was working from home. As organisations and employees become more comfortable with this, we shouldn’t expect a full return to the traditional in-office model anytime soon, if ever. Work-from-anywhere is the new way of doing business, with employees accessing cloud services, collaborative tools and remote systems from home and public networks – and not always through the safety of a VPN.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/five-cyber-threats-2021/

Guernsey law firm fined £10,000 for data security breach

Trinity Chambers LLP sent private details about an individual and their family via emails and post, the Data Protection Authority (ODPA) found.

It said a lack of security had given "unconnected" third parties access to the data.

The breach of data by Trinity was the result of "repeated human error", an investigation found.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-54854333

Every employee has a cyber security blind spot

80% of companies say that an increased cyber security risk caused by human factors has posed a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in times of heightened stress.

This is a new report that explores the role employees and their personality play in keeping organisations safe from cyber threats. Including that:

· Cyber crime has increased by 63% since the COVID-19 lockdown was introduced

· Human error has been the biggest cyber security challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CISOs

· Just a quarter of businesses consider their remote working strategy effective

· 47% of people are concerned about their ability to manage stress during the coronavirus crisis

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/11/09/cybersecurity-blind-spot/

Zoom settles FTC charges for misleading users about security features

Video conferencing software maker Zoom has reached a deal today with the US Federal Trade Commission to settle accusations that its misled users about some of its security features.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom had attracted users to its platform with misleading claims that its product supported "end-to-end, 256-bit encryption" and that its service would store recorded calls in an encrypted format.

However, in a complaint filed earlier this year, the investigators found that Zoom's claims were deceptive.

Despite claiming to support end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) calls, Zoom didn't support E2EE calls in the classic meaning of the word.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/zoom-settles-ftc-charges-for-misleading-users-about-security-features/

Threats

Ransomware

How Ryuk Ransomware operators made $34 million from one victim

One hacker group that is targeting high-revenue companies with Ryuk ransomware received $34 million from one victim in exchange for the decryption key that unlocked their computers.

The threat actor is highly proficient at moving laterally inside a compromised network and erasing as much of their tracks as possible before detonating Ryuk ransomware.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/how-ryuk-ransomware-operators-made-34-million-from-one-victim/

Ransomware hits e-commerce platform X-Cart

E-commerce software vendor X-Cart suffered a ransomware attack at the end of October that brought down customer stores hosted on the company's hosting platform.

The incident is believed to have taken place after attackers exploited a vulnerability in a third-party software to gain access to X-Cart's store hosting systems.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-hits-e-commerce-platform-x-cart

Linux version of RansomEXX ransomware discovered

A Linux version of the RansomEXX ransomware, marking the first time a major Windows ransomware strain has been ported to Linux to aid in targeted intrusions.

RansomEXX is a relatively new ransomware strain that was first spotted earlier this year in June.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-version-of-ransomexx-ransomware-discovered/

Laptop mega-manufacturer Compal hit by DoppelPaymer ransomware – same one that hit German hospital

Compal, the world’s second-largest white-label laptop manufacturer, has been hit by the file-scrambling DoppelPaymer ransomware gang – and the hackers want $17m in cryptocurrency before they'll hand over the decryption key.

The Taiwanese factory giant, which builds systems for Apple, Lenovo, Dell, and HP, finally admitted malware infected its computers and encrypted its documents after first insisting it had suffered no more than an IT "abnormality" and that its staff had beaten off a cyber-attack.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/09/compal_ransomware_report/

Capcom hit by ransomware attack, is reportedly being extorted for $11 million

Earlier this week it emerged that third-party giant Capcom's internal systems had been hacked, though the company claimed that no customer data was affected.

It has now emerged that the publisher was targeted by the Ragnar Locker ransomware, software designed to exfiltrate information from internal networks before encrypting the lot: at which point the victim is locked-out, contacted, and extorted.

https://www.pcgamer.com/capcom-hit-by-ransomware-attack-is-reportedly-being-extorted-for-pound11-million/

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Jersey business targeted in £130,000 invoice scam

A Jersey building company has been targeted by a sophisticated impersonation scam, which saw fraudsters intercept more than £130,000 in invoice payments.

The owners, who wish to remain anonymous, said they were "left reeling" after realising their email correspondence with a customer had been hacked, and payments diverted to a scam bank account.

After taking swift action, they were able to recover all their money, but they now want to make sure other islanders do not fall victim. They are encouraging businesses in particular to be "extra vigilant".

https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2020-11-13/jersey-business-targeted-in-130000-invoice-scam

Phishing

Smishing attack tells you “mobile payment problem” – don’t fall for it!

As we’ve warned before, phishing via SMS, or smishing for short, is still popular with cybercriminals.

Sure, old-fashioned text messages have fallen out of favour for personal communications, superseded round the world by instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, Telegram and Signal.

But for brief, one-off business communications such as “Your home delivery will arrive at 11:30 today” or “Your one-time login code is 217828”, SMS is still a popular and useful messaging system.

That’s because pretty much every mobile phone in the world can receive text messages, regardless of its age, feature set or ability to access the internet.

Even if you’ve got no credit to send messages or make calls, no third-party apps installed, and no Wi-Fi connectivity, SMSes sent to you will still show up.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/11/10/smishing-attack-tells-you-mobile-payment-problem-dont-fall-for-it/

Malware

Play Store identified as main distribution vector for most Android malware

The official Google Play Store has been identified as the primary source of malware installs on Android devices in a recent academic study — considered the largest one of its kind carried out to date.

Using telemetry data, researchers analysed the origin of app installations on more than 12 million Android devices for a four-month period between June and September 2019.

In total, researchers looked at more than 34 million APK (Android application) installs for 7.9 million unique apps.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/play-store-identified-as-main-distribution-vector-for-most-android-malware/

This new malware wants to add your Linux servers and IoT devices to its botnet

A new form of malware is targeting Linux servers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and adding them to a botnet in what appears to be the first stage of a hacking campaign targeting cloud-computing infrastructure – although the purpose of the attacks remains unclear.

The malicious worm has been dubbed Gitpaste-12, reflecting on how it uses GitHub and Pastebin for housing component code and has 12 different means of compromising Linux-based x86 servers, as well as Linux ARM- and MIPS-based IoT devices.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-new-malware-wants-to-add-your-linux-servers-and-iot-devices-to-its-botnet/

New 'Ghimob' malware can spy on 153 Android mobile applications

Security researchers have discovered a new Android banking trojan that can spy and steal data from 153 Android applications.

Named Ghimob, the trojan is believed to have been developed by the same group behind the Astaroth (Guildma) Windows malware, according to a report published.

Distribution was never carried out via the official Play Store.

Instead, the Ghimob group used emails or malicious sites to redirect users to websites promoting Android apps.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-ghimob-malware-can-spy-on-153-android-mobile-applications/

Microsoft Teams Users Under Attack in ‘Fake Updates’ Malware Campaign

Attackers are using ads for fake Microsoft Teams updates to deploy backdoors, which use Cobalt Strike to infect companies’ networks with malware.

The campaign is targeting various types of companies, with recent targets in the K-12 education sector, where organisations are currently dependent on using apps like Teams for videoconferencing due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Cobalt Strike is a commodity attack-simulation tool that’s used by attackers to spread malware, particularly ransomware. Recently, threat actors were seen using Cobalt Strike in attacks exploiting Zerologon, a privilege-elevation flaw that allows attackers to access a domain controller and completely compromise all Active Directory identity services.

https://threatpost.com/microsoft-teams-fakeupdates-malware/161071/

DDoS

DDoS attacks are cheaper and easier to carry out than ever before

DDoS attacks are getting more complex and more sophisticated while also getting cheaper and easier to carry out as cyber criminals take advantage of the sheer number of insecure internet-connected devices.

Distributed Denial of Service attacks have been a problem for many years, with cyber attackers gaining control of armies of devices and directing their internet traffic at targets in order to take the victim offline.

The disruption causes problems for both businesses and individual users who are prevented from accessing digital services they require – and that's especially a problem as 2020's coronavirus pandemic has forced people to be more reliant on digital services than ever before.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ddos-attacks-are-cheaper-and-easier-to-carry-out-than-ever-before/

IoT

IoT security is a mess. These guidelines could help fix that

The supply chain around the Internet of Things (IoT) has become the weak link in cyber security, potentially leaving organisations open to cyber attacks via vulnerabilities they're not aware of. But a newly released set of guidelines aims to ensure that security forms part of the entire lifespan of IoT product development.

The Guidelines for Securing the IoT – Secure Supply Chain for IoT report from the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) sets out recommendations throughout the entire IoT supply chain to help keep organisations protected from vulnerabilities that can arise when building connected things.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/iot-security-is-a-mess-these-guidelines-could-help-fix-that/

Vulnerabilities

Windows 10 update created a major password problem

A temporary fix for a frustrating Windows 10 bug that prevents software from storing account credentials, meaning the user must re-enter their username and password each time they log-in.

The flaw is also said to delete cookies held in web browsers, preventing websites from memorising credentials and serving bespoke content to the user.

First reported in April, the issue is present in specific builds of Windows 10 version 2004 and affects applications such as Outlook, Chrome, Edge, OneDrive and more.

https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-10-update-made-a-right-mess-of-this-basic-password-feature

Colossal Intel Update Anchored by Critical Privilege-Escalation Bugs

A massive Intel security update this month addresses flaws across a myriad of products – most notably, critical bugs that can be exploited by unauthenticated cyber criminals in order to gain escalated privileges.

These critical flaws exist in products related to Wireless Bluetooth – including various Intel Wi-Fi modules and wireless network adapters – as well as in its remote out-of-band management tool, Active Management Technology (AMT).

Overall, Intel released 40 security advisories on Tuesday, each addressing critical-, high- and medium-severity vulnerabilities across various products. That by far trumps October’s Intel security update, which resolved one high-severity flaw.

https://threatpost.com/intel-update-critical-privilege-escalation-bugs/161087/

Hackers are exploiting unpatched VoIP flaws to compromise business accounts

A hacking campaign has compromised VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone systems at over 1,000 companies around the world over the past year in a campaign designed to make profit from selling compromised accounts.

While the main purpose appears to be dialling premium rate numbers owned by attackers or selling phone numbers and call plans that others can use for free, access to VoIP systems could provide cyber criminals with the ability to conduct other attacks, including listening to private calls, cryptomining, or even using compromised systems as a steppingstone towards much more intrusive campaigns.

One hacking group has compromised the VoIP networks of almost 1,200 organisations in over 20 countries by exploiting the vulnerability, with over half the victims in the UK. Industries including government, military, insurance, finance and manufacturing are believed to have fallen victim to the campaign

https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-are-exploiting-unpatched-voip-flaws-to-compromise-business-accounts/

Google patches two more Chrome zero-days

Google has released today Chrome version 86.0.4240.198 to patch two zero-day vulnerabilities that were exploited in the wild.

These two bugs mark the fourth and fifth zero-days that Google has patched in Chrome over the past three weeks.

The difference this time is that while the first three zero-days were discovered internally by Google security researchers, these two new zero-days came to Google's attention after tips from anonymous sources.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-patches-two-more-chrome-zero-days/

Data Breaches

Ticketmaster fined £1.25m over payment data breach

Ticketmaster UK has been fined £1.25m for failing to keep its customers' personal data secure.

The fine was issued by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) following a cyber-attack on the Ticketmaster website in 2018.

The ICO said personal information and payment details had potentially been stolen from more than nine million customers in Europe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54931873

Millions of Hotel Guests Worldwide Caught Up in Mass Data Leak

A cloud misconfiguration affecting users of a popular reservation platform threatens travellers with identity theft, scams, credit-card fraud and vacation-stealing.

A widely used hotel reservation platform has exposed 10 million files related to guests at various hotels around the world, thanks to a misconfigured Amazon Web Services S3 bucket. The records include sensitive data, including credit-card details.

Prestige Software’s “Cloud Hospitality” is used by hotels to integrate their reservation systems with online booking websites like Expedia and Booking.com.

https://threatpost.com/millions-hotel-guests-worldwide-data-leak/161044/

DWP exposed 6,000 people’s data online for two years

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has removed the personal details of thousands of people after they were exposed online for two years.

The files, published in March and June 2018, listed routine payments to the outsourcing giant Capita and included the National Insurance (NI) numbers of approximately 6,000 people, according to the Mirror. These individuals were believed to be applying for the disability benefit, PIP. No other personal data was exposed in the incident.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/data-breaches/357724/dwp-data-breach-exposed-6000-ni-numbers

Data breach at Mashable leaks users’ personal information online

Technology and culture news website Mashable have announced that the personal data of users has been discovered in a leaked database posted on the internet.

In a statement issued this week, Mashable confirmed that a database containing information from readers who made use of the platform’s social media sign-in feature had been found online.

The media company said that “a hacker known for targeting websites and apps” was responsible for the breach. The suspect has not been named.

Leaked data is said to include the full names, locations, email addresses, genders, IP addresses, and links to social media profiles of users.

https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/data-breach-at-mashable-leaks-users-nbsp-personal-information-online

Other News

Try to avoid thinking of the internet as a flashy new battlefield, warns former NCSC chief

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/11/ciaran_martin_speech_cyber_policy/

Microsoft says three APTs have targeted seven COVID-19 vaccine makers

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-says-three-apts-have-targeted-seven-covid-19-vaccine-makers/

New stealthy hacker-for-hire group mimics state-backed attackers

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-stealthy-hacker-for-hire-group-mimics-state-backed-attackers/

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.

Black Arrow Admin 15/08/2020 Black Arrow Admin 15/08/2020

Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 14 August 2020: Travelex goes bust following ransomware, Microsoft fix 120 vulns inc two zero-days, more ransomware victims paying up, Cloud misconfigurations create risks

Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 14 August 2020: Travelex Forced into Administration After Ransomware Attack, Microsoft fixes 120 vulnerabilities inc two zero-days, More ransomware victims are paying up, Misconfiguration #1 Cloud Security Threat, Beware What You Ask Amazon Alexa, Ex-Uber engineer sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing driverless car secrets from Google, Google and Amazon are now the most imitated brands for phishing

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.

Travelex Forced into Administration After Ransomware Attack

Ransomware victim Travelex has been forced into administration, with the loss of over 1000 jobs.

PwC announced late last week that it had been appointed joint administrators of the currency exchange business.

The Sodinokibi (REvil) ransomware variant is believed to have struck the firm on New Year’s Eve last year, forcing its website offline and impacting its bricks-and-mortar stores and banking services. It took until January 17 for the firm to get its first customer-facing systems live again in the UK.

Why this matters:

Firms of any size can call victim to ransomware and many firms will not survive a significant cyber event such as this. Unconfirmed reports at the time suggested that a critical unpatched vulnerability in a VPN (Virtual Private Network) may have allowed attackers to remotely execute malicious code. A security researcher said he reached out to the firm in September 2019 to flag the issue but was ignored. This again shows the importance of ensuring all security updates are applied quickly. Has this software had the security updates applied those vulnerabilities would not have been able to be used in this attack.

Microsoft August 2020 Patch Tuesday fixes 120 vulnerabilities, two zero-days

Microsoft’s August 2020 Patch Tuesday security updates fell this week and this month the company has patched 120 vulnerabilities across 13 different products, from Edge to Windows, and from SQL Server to the .NET Framework.

Among these 120 vulnerabilities, 17 bugs have received the highest severity rating of "Critical," and there are also two zero-days — vulnerabilities that have been exploited by hackers before Microsoft was able to provide a fix.

Why this matters:

All security updates should be applied as soon as possible to prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited in attacks. When vulnerabilities are announced criminals will waste no time in weaponizing them (creating exploits to use in attacks) so the quicker the vulnerabilities are closed the safer you will be.

More ransomware victims are paying up, even when data recovery is possible

The proportion of ransomware attack victims actually paying ransoms increased in the last quarter, even in instances where ransomed data could be recovered, new figures have revealed.

According to a commercial ransomware recovery service, data exfiltration attacks are becoming more common and blending with traditional ransomware hacks. Data exfiltration extortion involves an attacker taking possession of stolen data and putting it up for sale on forums or marketplaces. Once monetised, the hacker asks the victim to pay a ransom to prevent the information’s release.

The recover firm added that tools currently on the market vary wildly when it comes to data recovery success following a ransomware attack. What’s more, the company has noted an uptick in the number of companies experiencing operating system and registry corruption even after ransomed data is restored.

Why this matters:

It used to be that backups were the best defence against ransomware attacks, but if your data is stolen a backup won’t help you avoid having to pay out to keep your sensitive or confidential data out of the public domain.

Intel, SAP, and Citrix release critical security updates

Intel released 18 advisories, including fixes for Denial of Service, Information Disclosure and Elevation of Privilege flaws affecting various products on Windows, Chrome OS and Linux OS.

SAP’s released 15 security notes and an update to a previously released one to address flaws in a variety of offerings, including SAP ERP, SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence Platform, SAP S/4 HANA and various SAP NetWeaver components.

Citrix’s has released patches for a set of vulnerabilities in certain on-premises instances of Citrix Endpoint Management (aka XenMobile Server).

Why this matters:

Security upgrades should always be applied as soon as possible. Whether announced vulnerabilities are already being exploited or not as they become known they likely will be exploited and patching them (applied the fixes made available) prevent them from being exploited.

IT Pros Name Misconfiguration #1 Cloud Security Threat

Configuration errors are the number one threat to cloud security, according to a new poll of IT and security professionals.

A security vendor interviewed 653 industry professionals to compile its 2020 Cloud Security Report.

Three-quarters (75%) claimed to be “very” or “extremely” concerned about cloud security, with most (52%) believing that the risks are higher in the public cloud than on-premises.

The top four threats were cited as: misconfiguration (68%), unauthorized cloud access (58%), insecure interfaces (52%), and account hijacking (50%).

These security concerns have created multiple barriers to further adoption of cloud services. The top inhibitor of adoption was a lack of qualified staff (55%), up from fifth place last year.

This may go some way to explaining respondents’ concerns around configuration errors, especially as 68% of these organisations are using two or more public cloud providers — adding to the complexity.

Why this matters?

Organisations’ cloud migrations and deployments are racing ahead of their security teams’ abilities to defend them against attacks and breaches. Their existing security solutions only provide limited protections against cloud threats, and teams often lack the expertise needed to improve security and compliance processes

RedCurl cybercrime group has hacked companies for three years

Security researchers have uncovered a new Russian-speaking hacking group that they claim has been focusing on the past three years on corporate espionage, targeting companies across the world to steal documents that contain commercial secrets and employee personal data.

Named RedCurl, the activities of this new group have been detailed in a 57-page report released this week.

Researchers have been tracking the group since the summer of 2019 and have since identified 26 other RedCurl attacks, carried out against 14 organisations, going as far back as 2018.

Why this matters:

This Russian group have targeted victims across different countries and industry sectors, and included construction companies, retailers, travel agencies, insurance companies, banks, and law and consulting firms from countries like Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Norway, and the UK. Many firms could fall victim to cyber crime groups like this if their defences are not able to withstand such attackers.

Why You Must Beware What You Ask Amazon Alexa

The same cyber team that cracked open TikTok, WhatsApp, Microsoft’s cloud and even Philips lightbulbs has just turned its attention to Amazon’s Alexa. And, unsurprisingly, it hasn’t disappointed. After “speculating” that Amazon’s 200 million devices “could be a prime entry-point for hackers,” Check Point Research has just lifted the lid to unmask “serious security flaws in Alexa.” According to the team, “in just one click, a user could have given up their voice history, home address and control of their Amazon account.”

Why this matters:

Warnings about the dangers of smart speakers and their extended families of virtual assistants are not new. These are the same devices that causes such scandal last year, when it transpired humans were listening to conversations to better train the AI. The issue here is different, much more akin to the broader problem of IoT security. Every different gadget you connect to the internet becomes a potential vulnerability and the methods needed to crack Amazon’s devices were not particularly sophisticated.

Ex-Uber engineer sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing driverless car secrets from Google

A star engineer who admitted stealing self-driving car secrets from Google has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Anthony Levandowski, who helped found Google's self-driving car project, now known as Waymo, pleaded guilty to downloading documents containing data about the company's work and accessing one of them after he had left to found his own trucking startup.

Sentencing him in a San Francisco court, the judge said he was imposing prison time as a deterrent.

An early star in the self-driving car scene, Mr Levandowski pushed for Google to develop the technology but later became disillusioned, leaving in early 2016 to start trucking company Otto, which was bought by Uber less than eight months later.

Waymo sued Uber, a case which was settled in 2018, with Uber paying out $245m (£187m) in equity and agreeing not to use its technology.

Uber had signed an indemnification agreement with Mr Levandowski, forcing it to pay his legal fees, but has refused to pay a $179m debt he owes to the Google spin-out, a consequence of separate legal action relating to his departure.

Why this matters:

Your staff present one of your biggest risks, and a disgruntled or disillusioned employee can be very dangerous. The theft of intellectual property for personal gain is a classic example of this kind of behaviour. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) systems can help to spot unusual behaviour in employees and detect sensitive data being extracted from corporate systems.

Google and Amazon are now the most imitated brands for phishing

You may want to think twice about opening that email claiming to be from Google or Amazon, after new research found the tech giants were being used as lures for phishing scams.

Earlier this year, Check Point revealed that Apple was the most imitated brand for phishing, but over the course of the last few months, the iPhone maker has fallen to seventh place with Google and Amazon now taking the top spots.

Why this matters:

Phishing is estimated to be the starting point of over 90 percent of all cyberattacks and according to Verizon's 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, nearly one third (32%) of all data breaches involved phishing activity. Additionally phishing was present in 78 percent of cyber espionage incidents and the installation and use of backdoors in company networks.

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.

Black Arrow Admin 10/07/2020 Black Arrow Admin 10/07/2020

Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 10 July 2020: firms concerned by cloud security: most already breached, 15 Billion passwords on sale, routers present huge risk, BMW cust breach, NK hackers target retail

Majority of firms concerned about public cloud security, most have suffered breach

Most businesses are worried about the current state of their public cloud security, with 70% admitting they have experienced a breach over the past year including 93% in India, where this figure is highest worldwide. Companies that used more than one public cloud platforms reported more security incidents than their peers that used only one platform.

In addition, system misconfigurations enabled 66% of cyber attacks either because attackers were able to exploit a misconfigured system or tap flaws in the firewall applications to steal credentials of cloud provider accounts. Data loss or leak was the biggest security concern, with 44% of organisations pointing to this as a top focus area, according to Sophos' State of Cloud Security 2020 study.

The survey polled 3,521 IT managers across 26 markets including 158 in Singapore, 227 in India, 162 in China, 148 in Australia, 126 in Japan, 191 in the UK, and 413 in the US. These respondents used services from at least one of the following public cloud providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMWare Cloud on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. They also might have used Google Cloud and IBM Cloud.

15 Billion Stolen Passwords On Sale On The Dark Web, Research Reveals

There are more than 15 billion stolen account credentials circulating on criminal forums within the dark web, a new study has revealed.

Researchers discovered usernames, passwords and other login information for everything from online bank accounts, to music and video streaming services.

The majority of exposed credentials belong to consumers rather than businesses, the researchers found, resulting from hundreds of thousands of data breaches.

Unsurprisingly, the most expensive credentials for sale were those for bank and financial services. The average listing for these was £56 on the dark web – a section of the internet notorious for criminal activity that is only accessible using specialist software.

Researched stated that the sheer number of credentials available is staggering.

Check your router now - it could be a huge security risk

Many of the most popular home routers available to buy today feature a worrying number of security flaws and vulnerabilities, new research has found and your router might be the biggest security hole in your network.

A report from Germany discovered that the firmware present in a large number of leading routers was susceptible to hugely damaging security issues.

Many routers were found to never have received a single security firmware update in their lifetime, despite the risk that this could pose to users at home and at work, and were vulnerable to hundreds of well-known security issues.

The study looked at 127 home routers from seven brands (Netgear, ASUS, AVM, D-Link, Linksys, TP-Link and Zyxel), examining the product firmware for any known security vulnerabilities.

46 of the products it tested had not received any kind of security update within the past 12 months, with some vendors shipping firmware updates without fixing known vulnerabilities, and one set of products not seeing a firmware update for more than five years.

Data Breach Affects 384,319 BMW Customers in the U.K.

Researchers at an intelligence firm discovered that a hacker group “KelvinSecurity” compromised the personal information of 384,319 BMW customers in the U.K. and put them for sale on various darknet forums.

The hacker group claimed that they got the BMW database from a call centre that handles customers’ information of various automobile brands. The stolen database contains over 500,000 customer records dated between 2016 and 2018, affecting U.K. owners of other car manufacturers, including Honda, Mercedes, SEAT, and Hyundai in the U.K.

The exposed BMW owners’ information included sensitive information such as surnames, emails, vehicle registration numbers, residential address, dealer names, car registration information, names of dealerships. The researchers also discovered multiple databases exposed by KelvinSecurity, including data related to the U.S. government contractors and the Russian military weapons development. The hacker group also exposed over 28 databases on various darknet forums for free, affecting organizations in Iran, Australia, Mexico, U.S., Sweden, Indonesia, and France.

SurveyMonkey Phishers Go Hunting for Office 365 Credentials

Security researchers are warning of a new phishing campaign that uses malicious emails from legitimate SurveyMonkey domains in a bid to bypass security filters.

The phishing emails in question are sent from a real SurveyMonkey domain but crucially have a different reply-to domain.

Within the body of the email is a hidden redirect link appearing as the text ‘Navigate to access statement’ with a brief message ‘Please do not forward this email as its survey link is unique to you’” it explained. Clicking on the link redirects to a site hosted on a Microsoft form submission page. This form asks the user to enter their Office 365 email and password. If the user is not vigilant and provides their credentials, the user account would be compromised.

The attack is effective for several reasons: its use of a legitimate SurveyMonkey email sender, the concealing of the phishing site URL and the description of the email as unique to every user.

Microsoft takes legal action against COVID-19-related cybercrime

This week a Court in the US unsealed documents detailing Microsoft’s work to disrupt cybercriminals that were taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to defraud customers in 62 countries around the world. The civil case has resulted in a court order allowing Microsoft to seize control of key domains in the criminals’ infrastructure so that it can no longer be used to execute cyberattacks.

Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) first observed these criminals in December 2019, when they deployed a sophisticated, new phishing scheme designed to compromise Microsoft customer accounts. The criminals attempted to gain access to customer email, contact lists, sensitive documents and other valuable information. Based on patterns discovered at that time, Microsoft utilized technical means to block the criminals’ activity and disable the malicious application used in the attack. Recently, Microsoft observed renewed attempts by the same criminals, this time using COVID-19-related lures in the phishing emails to target victims.

North Korea's Lazarus hackers are planting skimmers on US and European retail websites, researchers warn

Researchers claim to have found evidence to suggest that North Korean state-sponsored actors are planting skimmers on the web stores of many American and European retailers in efforts to steal payment card details of unsuspecting shoppers.

The activities have been ongoing since at least May 2019, the researchers say, and can be attributed to hackers linked with the North Korean-backed Lazarus group.

The new research shows that in the last year, Lazarus has been able to infiltrate web stores of many retailers, such as international fashion chain Claire's. The group has also developed a global exfiltration network that uses authentic websites to transfer stolen assets to attackers. These websites are first hijacked and then repurposed to mask the malicious activities of the hackers.

British Army ‘to be slashed by 20,000 troops to make way for cyber warfare’

In a clear indication of the expectations of how future conflicts will be fought the British Army could be cut by more than a quarter under spending review plans dawn up by UK defence chiefs.

Up to 20,000 troops could be let go, while airfields are closed and helicopters are taken out of service. The Royal Marines commando brigade may also be disbanded and Royal Navy minesweepers could also be axed.

Security sources have claimed Johnson’s top adviser Dominic Cummings has been pushing to divert a sizeable amount of money from the army to fund cyber warfare, space and artificial intelligence projects.

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.

Black Arrow Admin 05/06/2020 Black Arrow Admin 05/06/2020

Cyber Weekly Flash Briefing 05 June 2020: half of WFH staff cutting security corners, C-Level weak link in security, 80% of firms suffer cloud breach, NSA warn of Kremlin attacks, malware-laced CVs

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.

If you’re pressed for time watch the 60 second quick fire video summary of the top cyber and infosec stories from the last week:

Half of employees admit they are cutting corners when working from home

Half of employees are cutting corners with regards to cyber security while working from home – and could be putting their organisation at risk of cyber attacks or data breaches as a result.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced both employers and employees to quickly adjust to remote working – and, often without the watchful eyes of IT and information security teams, workers are taking more risks online and with data than they would at the office.

Analysis by researchers reveals that 52% of employees believe they can get away with riskier behaviour when working from home, such as sharing confidential files via email instead of more trusted mechanisms.

Some of the top reasons employees aren't completely following the same safe data practices as usual include working from their own device, rather than a company issued one, as well as feeling as if they can take additional risks because they're not being watched by IT and security.

In some cases, employees aren't purposefully ignoring security practices, but distractions while working from home are having an impact on how people operate.

Meanwhile, some employees say they're being forced to cut security corners because they're under pressure to get work done quickly.

Half of those surveyed said they've had to find workarounds for security policies in order to efficiently do the work they're required to do – suggesting that in some cases, security policies are too much of a barrier for employees working from home to adapt to.

C-Level Executives the Weakest Link in Organisations’ Mobile Security

C-suite executives are the people most susceptible to mobile-based cyber-attacks in businesses, according to a new study. The report found that while these executives are highly targeted by cyber-criminals in attacks on organisations, they are also more likely than anyone else to have a relaxed attitude to mobile security.

In the analysis, research from 300 enterprise IT decision makers across Benelux, France, Germany, the UK and the US was combined with findings from 50 C-level executives from the UK and the US. It revealed that many C-level executives find mobile security protocols frustrating, with 68% feeling IT security compromises their personal privacy, 62% stating it limits the usability of their device and 58% finding it too complex to understand.

As a result of these issues, 76% of C-suite executives had asked to bypass one or more of their organisation’s security protocols last year. This included requests to: gain network access to an unsupported device (47%), bypass multi-factor authentication (45%) and obtain access to business data on an unsupported app (37%).

These findings are concerning because all of these C-suite exemptions drastically increase the risk of a data breach. Accessing business data on a personal device or app takes data outside of the protected environment, leaving critical business information exposed for malicious users to take advantage of. Meanwhile, multi-factor identification – designed to protect businesses from the leading cause of data breaches, stolen credentials – is being side-stepped by C-suite execs.

To exacerbate this issue, IT decision makers included in the study overwhelmingly stated that C-suite is the group most likely to both be targeted by (78%), and fall victim to (71%), phishing attacks.

These findings highlight a point of tension between business leaders and IT departments. IT views the C-suite as the weak link when it comes to cyber security, while execs often see themselves as above security protocols.

Majority of companies suffered a cloud data breach in the past 18 months

Nearly 80% of companies have experienced at least one cloud data breach in the past 18 months, and 43% reported 10 or more breaches, a new survey reveals.

According to the 300 CISOs that participated in the survey, security misconfiguration (67%), lack of adequate visibility into access settings and activities (64%) and identity and access management (IAM) permission errors (61%) were their top concerns associated with cloud production environments.

Meanwhile, 80% reported they are unable to identify excessive access to sensitive data in IaaS/PaaS environments. Only hacking ranked higher than misconfiguration errors as a source of data breaches.

Even though most of the companies surveyed are already using IAM, data loss prevention, data classification and privileged account management products, more than half claimed these were not adequate for protecting cloud environments.

Read the original article here: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/06/03/cloud-data-breach/

NSA and NCSC publicly warn of attacks by Kremlin hackers – so take this critical Exim flaw seriously

The NSA has raised the alarm over what it says is Russia's active exploitation of a remote-code execution flaw in Exim for which a patch exists.

The American surveillance agency said last week that the Kremlin's military intelligence hackers are actively targeting some systems vulnerable to CVE-2019-10149, a security hole in the widely used Exim mail transfer agent (MTA) that was fixed last June.

Because Exim is widely used on millions of Linux and Unix servers for mail, bugs in the MTA are by nature public-facing and pose an attractive target for hackers of all nations.

Cisco's warning: Critical flaw in IOS routers allows 'complete system compromise’

Cisco has disclosed four critical security flaws affecting router equipment that uses its IOS XE and IOS software.

The four critical flaws are part of Cisco's June 3 semi-annual advisory bundle for IOS XE and IOS networking software, which includes 23 advisories describing 25 vulnerabilities.

Malware-laced CVs steal banking credentials from users' PCs

If you work for a financial institution that happens to be hiring, be extra careful when downloading and opening CVs - many could be carrying a password-stealing banking malware.

This is according to a new report which identified the new malware distribution campaign in the wild.

According to the report, criminals are sending out emails with the subject lines “applying for a job” and “regarding job”, containing an Excel attachment with a malicious macro. Once the file is opened, the victim is prompted to “enable content”, which triggers the download of ZLoader malware.

ZLoader is capable of stealing credentials from the infected PC, as well as passwords and cookies stored in the target’s browser. With the stolen intel, the attacker could also use the victim’s device to make illicit financial transactions.

Hackers are targeting your smartphone as way into the company network, mobile phishing up a third in a few months

The number of phishing attacks targeting smartphones as the entry point for attempting to compromise enterprise networks has risen by more than a third over the course of just a few months.

Analysis by cyber security company Lookout found that there's been a 37% increase in mobile phishing attacks worldwide between the last three months of 2019 and the first few months of 2020 alone.

Phishing emails have long been a problem for desktop and laptop users, but the increased use of mobile devices – especially as more people are working remotely – has created an additional attack vector for cyber criminals who are targeting both Android and IOS phones.

Attacks targeting desktop email applications can leave tell-tale signs that something might not be quite right, such as being able to preview links and attachments, or see email addresses and URLs that might look suspicious.

However, this is harder to spot on mobile email, social media and messaging applications because the way they're designed for smaller screens.

Tens of thousands of malicious Android apps flooding user devices

Tens of thousands of dangerous Android apps are putting mobile users at heightened risk of fraud and cyber attack, a report has claimed.

A mobile security firm identified over 29,000 malicious Android apps in active use during Q1 2020, double the number logged in the same quarter last year (just over 14,500).

The investigation also showed that almost all (90%) of the ten most malicious apps were - or are still - present on the official Google Play Store. This suggests that hackers consistently found ways to dance their way through Google’s vetting system.

In line with this trend, this time period also saw a 55% rise in fraudulent transactions on Android platforms, as well as a spike in the number of malware-infected devices.

George Floyd: Anonymous hackers re-emerge amid US unrest

As the United States deals with widespread civil unrest across dozens of cities, "hacktivist" group Anonymous has returned from the shadows.

The hacker collective was once a regular fixture in the news, targeting those it accused of injustice with cyber-attacks.

After years of relative quiet, it appears to have re-emerged in the wake of violent protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, promising to expose the "many crimes" of the city's police to the world.

However, it's not easy to pin down what, if anything, is genuinely the mysterious group's work.

The "hacktivist" collective has no face, and no leadership. Its tagline is simply "we are legion", referring to its allegedly large numbers of individuals.

Without any central command structure, anyone can claim to be a part of the group.

This also means that members can have wildly different priorities, and there is no single agenda.

But generally, they are activists, taking aim at those they accuse of misusing power. They do so in very public ways, such as hijacking websites or forcing them offline.

Their symbol is a Guy Fawkes mask, made famous by Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta, in which an anarchist revolutionary dons the mask to topple a corrupt fascist government.

Read the original article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52879000

EasyJet Cyber Attack Likely the Work of Chinese Hackers

The recent high-profile cyber attack that struck British budget airline easyJet may have been carried out by Chinese hackers, new research and multiple sources have suggested.

The cyber attack, which saw the email addresses and travel details of millions of passengers being robbed—as well as the credit card details of some 2,000—was reportedly conducted by the very same group of Chinese hackers responsible for other attacks on a number of airlines in recent months.

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.

Threat Intelligence Blog

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 August 2021

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

A Third of Global Companies Have Experienced Ransomware Attack, Survey Finds

Company Size Is A Nonissue With Automated Cyber Attack Tools

Over 60% Of Employees Reuse Passwords Across Business And Personal Accounts

LockBit 2.0 Ransomware Proliferates Globally

Secret Terrorist Watchlist With 2 Million Records Exposed Online

Phishing Costs Nearly Quadrupled Over 6 Years

Security Teams Report Rise In Cyber Risk

Organisations Aware Of The Importance Of Zero Trust, Yet Still Relying On Passwords

Reliance On Third Party Workers Making Companies More Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

The Cyber Security Skills Gap Persists For The Fifth Year Running

T-Mobile Hack Is A Return To The Roots Of Cyber Crime

Phishing Attacks Increase In H1 2021, Sharp Jump In Crypto Attacks

Connected Devices Increasingly At Risk As New Ransomware Attacks Are Reported Almost Daily

Threats

Ransomware

BEC

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Data Breaches/Leaks

Dark Web

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Other News

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 August 2021

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

SMBs Increasingly Vulnerable To Ransomware, Despite The Perception They Are Too Small To Target

May 2021 Saw A 440% Increase In Phishing, The Single Largest Phishing Spike On Record

Users Can Be Just As Dangerous As Hackers

With Crime-As-A-Service, Anyone Can Be An Attacker

The Rise Of Cloud Is Creating Security Blindspots

Connected Devices Increasingly At Risk As New Ransomware Attacks Are Reported Almost Daily

The Value Of PII And How It Still Fuels Malign Activities In The Digital Ecosystem

Ransomware Payments Explode Amid ‘Quadruple Extortion’

Hackers Netting Average Of Nearly $10,000 For Stolen Network Access

1M Stolen Credit Cards Hit Dark Web For Free

Ransomware Group Demanding $50M In Accenture Security Breach

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile

IOT

Vulnerabilities

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

Dark Web

Supply Chain

DoS/DDoS

Nation State Actors

Cloud

Privacy

Other News

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 06 August 2021

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

Ransomware Volumes Hit Record Highs As 2021 Wears On

Ransomware Gangs Recruiting Insiders To Breach Corporate Networks

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

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

Constant Review Of Third Party Security Critical As Ransomware Threat Climbs

Kaseya Ransomware Attack Sets Off Race To Hack Service Providers

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

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

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

65% Of All DDoS Attacks Target US And UK

Threats

Ransomware

Phishing

Other Social Engineering

Malware

Mobile