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Cyware Monthly Threat Intelligence

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Monthly Threat Briefing Aug 3, 2020

The Good

Despite a spike in cybersecurity incidents in July, security experts and researchers have managed to make progress in the right direction. In a recent development, Microsoft added a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) feature in Office 365 to prevent data leaks and inappropriate data sharing. On a tangent, Google added 11 new security features to its G Suite products and a Zoom-Bombing prevention feature to Google Meet to thwart growing threats.

  • Microsoft Office 365 now includes a DLP feature, making it easier for organizations to prevent data leaks, inappropriate data sharing, and other similar risks. The new extension will protect sensitive data and details on devices running Windows 10.

  • The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the U.K., released a new set of free tools and roleplay exercises to protect remote workers from cyberattacks. The exercises focus on safe access to networks, securing employee collaboration, and managing cyber incidents remotely.

  • A group of academics developed a new SSO algorithm that aims at securing user information, including usernames and passwords, from being accessed by third-party services and applications.

  • Google Cloud announced 11 new G Suite security features to help IT administrators manage and secure their devices more effectively. The updates also apply to other G Suite products: Gmail, Chat, and Meet.

  • Google Meet added a ‘Zoom-Bombing’ prevention feature to protect educators from unwanted intrusion. This will be especially useful for users joining Google Meet video conferences organized through G Suite.

The Bad

Last month, several firms confirmed being targeted by cyber adversaries and spilling confidential details. According to reports, Xerox Corporation, Blackbaud, Promo[.]com, IndieFlix, and a few other organizations underwent a massive data breach. Meanwhile, the ShinyHunters group was offering over 386 million user records of 18 companies on a hacker forum for free. In other news, a hacker laid bare data from 8,200 databases in a revenge attack.

  • Blackbaud, the cloud computing provider, notified dozens of charities, organizations, and universities about a data breach it suffered in May. The company had to pay a ransom to stop threat actors from infecting the network further. The Blackbaud breach has affected at least 125 organizations and the victim count is expected to rise.

  • Xerox Corporation was targeted by the Maze ransomware group. The attackers had breached one of the company’s branches in Europe and stole nearly 100GB worth of data. The group threatened to leak the data if the company doesn’t participate in negotiations for a ransom.

  • A research team discovered an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket belonging to IndieFlix leaking over 90,000 files related to scans of confidential motion picture acquisition agreements, tax ID requests, and contact details of film professionals.

  • ShinyHunters was spotted offering data of 18 companies—containing over 386 million user records—on a hacker forum for free. It also contains data from some of the latest breaches, including Promo[.]com and a Microsoft private GitHub repository.

  • Cosmetic giant, Avon, leaked 19 million records containing personal information and technical logs, due to a misconfigured Elasticsearch database. Among the personal data exposed, it included full names, phone numbers, dates of birth, and email addresses of users.

  • A trove of 4.8 million records belonging to a well-known U.K.-based ticketing provider was put up for sale on the dark web. The data was sold at a price of $2500 by a user named ‘Jamescarter.’ The affected users are located mainly in the U.K, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Germany, and France.

  • FireEye uncovered a pro-Russia disinformation-focused group, dubbed Ghostwriter, that has been spreading fake news about the NATO and the U.S. troops stationed in Poland and the Baltics, by infiltrating Eastern European media outlets. The methods included pushing fake stories on authentic but compromised websites using made-up personas.

  • McAfee researchers revealed details about Operation North Star that lured employees through fake job offers in the U.S. defense and aerospace sectors via spearphishing campaigns. The operation began in late March and ended around May end.

  • Drizly, an online alcohol delivery startup, suffered a data breach that affected its 2.5 million customers. Leaked details include email IDs, birth dates, hashed passwords, and delivery addresses. It wasn’t clear how the hack happened; however, the firm has advised users to change their passwords.

  • A hacker took over nearly 23,000 unsecured MongoDB databases with an intent to get ransom from victim companies. The affected companies were given two days to pay the ransom, failing which the data would be leaked online. Additionally, the hacker threatened to contact the local GDPR authorities to report the leak.

  • Four misconfigured AWS S3 buckets and one unsecured Elasticsearch database belonging to five e-learning platforms leaked nearly one million records of online students. The five affected platforms were Okoo, Square Panda, Playground Sessions, MyTopDog, and Escola Digital.

  • Cybercriminals dumped a stolen database of Bhinneka, Indonesia’s largest online store, in the underground marketplace. The database contained over 1.2 million account records with users’ personal information such as full names, addresses, emails, gender, contact numbers, social media IDs, and salted passwords.

  • Around 15 billion credentials, which could give access to individuals’ bank accounts and companies’ networks, were found for sale on the dark web. These credentials were harvested from over 100,000 discrete data breaches.

  • A hacker, under the alias NightLion, hijacked more than 8,200 databases and exposed billions of information from the servers of DataViper, a data leak monitoring service firm run by a researcher working at Night Lion Security, in a revenge attack.

  • Unsecured databases belonging to two Chinese firms—Xiaoxintong and Shanghai Yahua Smartech—had leaked millions of user records. The compromised information included mobile numbers, hashed passwords, and more.

New Threats

Though cybercriminals are known to work on new threats, they may sometimes return to their old tricks. Recently, researchers disclosed about an old EMV-Bypass cloning technique in use by threat actors to abuse card transactions. In another revelation, security experts said seven ransomware families could be expanding activities to target processes within Operation Technology (OT) software. Moreover, a new Android malware, dubbed BlackRock, was found affecting at least 337 apps.

  • The newly discovered Meow attack wiped over 1800 unsecured Elasticsearch and MongoDB databases without leaving any explanation or even a ransom note. It is presumed that the operators behind the attack intend to give administrators a hard lesson in security by destroying the unsecured data.
  • An old technique from 2008 called EMV-Bypass Cloning was found to be exploited in the wild. The method can allow attackers to conduct fraudulent purchases by copying the information stored on the magnetic stripes present on EMV chip cards.
  • The latest intel on Dacls trojan, which Kaspersky refers to as MATA, revealed that the trojan is capable of distributing VHD ransomware and exfiltrating data from databases. The malware is associated with the Lazarus threat actor group and has been employed against users in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Korea, Japan, and India.
  • A total of seven ransomware families could be targeting around 2,500 processes associated with OT software. The ransomware in question included SNAKE, DoppelPaymer, LockerGoga, Maze, MegaCortex, CLOP, and Nefilim.
  • A hacking group, dubbed Keeper, has been held responsible for the attacks on more than 570 online e-commerce portals over the last three years. The gang conducted the attacks by inserting malicious scripts into the checkout pages of the sites.
  • According to security experts, the terror of Snake ransomware is spreading far and wide. The ransomware is expected to pose a unique threat to companies with industrial control systems. Since its inception, Snake has struck two giants—Honda and Enel Group.
  • Researchers claimed that the Valak information stealer is being distributed in ongoing campaigns targeted at enterprises in North America, South America, and Europe. The malware is propagated via malicious spam alongside secondary payloads, such as Gozi and IcedID.
  • The FBI warned against the abuse of new network protocols being used to launch large scale DDoS attacks. The three new attack vectors are Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), Web Services Dynamic Discovery (WS-DD), and Apple Remote Management Service (ARMS), along with the Jenkins web-based automation software.
  • Researchers exposed a malicious cyber operation being carried out by 29 fake photo editing apps. These apps, downloaded 3.5 million times in total from the Google Play store, enabled their operators to compromise devices as a part of a nefarious cyber scheme named Chartreuse Blur.
  • Researchers reported a new Bazar backdoor malware that exhibits behavior similar to previous TrickBot campaigns. The malware first emerged in April 2020 and can be used to deploy additional malware and ransomware and steal sensitive data from organizations.
  • Cerberus banking trojan made a comeback disguised as the Calculadora de Moneda app. The trojan’s capabilities included logging keystrokes and stealing credentials from Google Authenticator and SMS messages.
  • A survey revealed that 127 routers from seven different vendors are affected by several vulnerabilities. The vendors have failed to fix these flaws despite the available security patches. The affected vendor names are AVM, D-Link, Linksys, TP-Link, Zyxel, and Netgear.
  • Experts spotted a new Android malware strain named BlackRock, which includes a wide range of data theft capabilities, targeting a whopping 337 Android applications related to banking, dating, social media, and instant messaging. The malware is based on the leaked source code of Xerxes.
  • New details reveal that the Evilnum threat actor group has shifted its focus on targets located in Europe. Some of its victims are also located in Australia and Canada. The APT group is specialized in targeting financial firms.

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Dec 4, 2024

Cyware Monthly Threat Intelligence, November 2024

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