The Good

As we wrapped up the month with the celebration of National Computer Security Day, here are some new security initiatives that were also ramped up last month. The CISA formulated playbooks on how to respond to cybersecurity incidents and vulnerabilities. In another streak, the U.S. and Israel announced to combat ransomware threats together. Meanwhile, the DHS set up a website to acquire and retain cybersecurity talent.

• The CISA released a set of playbooks that contain standardized response procedures for U.S. federal agencies to mitigate cybersecurity incidents and vulnerabilities. The playbooks include how agencies should manage cybersecurity incidents and vulnerabilities and manage related processes such as preparation, investigation, containment, reporting, and remediation.

• New guidance was released by Health-ISAC to support healthcare providers in the process of adopting an identity-centered approach to data sharing. This is the fourth installment of the H-ISAC series that assists CISOs with an improved comprehension of such an approach in data sharing processes under the 21st Century Cures Act. In addition, providers would be able to execute robust identity solutions to keep electronic health info secure.

• The DHS launched a new portal to hire and retain cybersecurity professionals, with an aim to recruit 150 employees into priority roles over 2022. The DHS Cyber Talent Management System redefines the way the agency recruits, develops, and retains top-notch and diverse talents.

• The U.S. Treasury Department announced to partner with Israel and launch a joint task force to better deal with ransomware attacks. The task force aims to design a memorandum of understanding that would support information sharing related to the financial sector.

• The Conti ransomware group suffered a security breach temporarily after researchers tracked down the real IP address of one of its most sensitive servers. This was possible by exploiting a vulnerability in the recovery servers that Conti used. As a result, researchers were able to gain access to the gang’s payment portal, the site used for negotiating ransom payments.

The Bad

With cybercriminals launching massive ransomware attacks and a De-Fi firm losing millions in cryptocurrency, the need for implementing robust cyber defenses can’t get graver. Furthermore, millions of customers of GoDaddy and an American financial services firm suffered data exposure this month. In one recent incident, 125 large TikTok accounts were hacked; it is not yet known who was behind the incident.

• New Mexico-based True Health suffered a breach that affected the personal information of over 62,000 U.S. citizens. The incident occurred after attackers gained unauthorized access to the organization’s IT systems in October. The stolen documents may contain information such as policyholders’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home and email addresses, medical data, and insurance details.

• The Cronin digital marketing agency suffered a major data leak due to an unprotected database worth 26.43GB containing 92 million records. The exposed records include Google analytics data, internally logged client ad campaigns, keywords, session ID, client ID, and device data, among other key identifying information. Moreover, usernames, hashed passwords, and emails of internal Cronin employees can possibly be used for phishing attacks in the future or gaining access to restricted areas.

• A hacker stole an estimated $55 million worth of cryptocurrency assets from a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, bZx, by sending a phishing email to one of its employees. The email contained a malicious macro in a Word document and ran a script on the employee’s computer that compromised his mnemonic wallet phrase. The attacker stole two private keys used by bZx for its integration with Polygon and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchains.

• The Cl0p ransomware gang claimed Asia Pacific-based Swire Pacific Offshore as its latest victim. The firm is located in Singapore and has revenues of $3 billion, making it a lucrative target for extortion. The gang has published screenshots of passports, employee personal details, folder lists, and sensitive company documents on its extortion site.

• During an investigation, researchers from Palo Alto Networks found that cybercriminals have sped up the process of compromising poorly configured cloud services. Out of 320 honeypots set up by the researchers, malicious actors had compromised around 256 of the servers that included ones with RDP, SSH, SMB, and Postgres database services. One such attacker compromised 96% of the Postgres honeypots within 30 seconds.

• GoDaddy has disclosed a data breach that exposed the data of 1.2 million customers. The incident occurred after attackers used compromised passwords to access the company’s Managed WordPress hosting environment. The attack is believed to have taken place on September 6.

• Ransomware gangs are showing interest in purchasing zero-day exploits that are available on dark forums. They are ready to offer up to $10 million to compete with state-backed actors, who are the traditional buyers of zero-day exploits. Moreover, instead of selling the vulnerability, the attacker can lease it out to less sophisticated attackers - bringing exploit-as-a-service to the cybercriminal ecosystem.

• The data of almost 7 million Robinhood customers are being sold on a popular hacking forum. The data includes email addresses of 5 million customers; full names of the remaining 2 million; name, zip code, and dates of birth of 300 people; and extensive account details of 10 customers. In a post, the adversary posted that the data is selling for at least five figures.

• StripChat, an adult cam site, underwent a breach in which the personal data of millions of adult models and users was leaked. The breach was caused due to a passwordless Elasticsearch database left exposed between November 4 and 7. Data of 65 million registered users, 421,000 models broadcasting on the site, 134 million transactions, and 719,000 chat messages were leaked.

• Researchers from various firms revealed that TrickBot is aiding Emotet to get back into the swing of things by installing the latter into compromised systems. The campaign has been dubbed Operation Reacharound to reconstruct Emotet by using TrickBot’s infrastructure. Moreover, the new Emotet comes with an updated command buffer and can execute binaries in multiple ways.

• A phishing campaign targeted more than 125 large TikTok accounts across the world. Besides individual account holders, the campaign targeted talent agencies, social media production studios, brand-consultant agencies, and influencer management companies. The accounts had tens of millions of followers and the perpetrators remain unknown.

• A Hive ransomware attack hobbled 3,100 servers of MediaMarkt firm and knocked its IT infrastructure offline in Germany and the Netherlands. The attackers encrypted servers and workstations and demanded $240 million in ransom. Online sales are functional, however, cash registers at affected stores are unable to accept credit cards or print receipts.

New threats

Threats targeting the cryptocurrency community shot to a new peak last month with the discovery of Babadeda and Sharkbot malware. Additionally, BIO-ISAC disclosed a new malware strain targeting Windows systems in the biotech industry. That’s not it. A new Pegasus-like spyware was also spotted.

• Malware authors targeted cryptocurrency enthusiasts using a new crypter dubbed Babadeda. The crypter has been active since May in multiple campaigns targeting crypto, NFT, and DeFi-related communities on Discord. It can bypass signature-based antivirus solutions.
• A newly discovered Iranian threat actor was found exploiting the Microsoft MSHTML RCE bug (CVE-2021-40444) to propagate a PowerShell-based stealer dubbed PowerShortShell. The infostealer pilfers Google and Instagram credentials from Farsi-speaking targets. It is also used for Telegram surveillance and collecting system information from compromised devices, most of which are located in the U.S.
• Dr.Web disclosed that Cynos mobile trojan, which disguises itself as games on Huawei’s AppGallery marketplace, infected at least 9.3 million Android devices to steal data. This new class of malware was found in 190 games—platformers, arcades, simulators, shooters, and strategies—on AppGallery.
• A highly skilled group of threat actors—RedCurl—attacked a large Russian wholesale company for the second time this year. The group focuses on cyberespionage and is responsible for at least 30 attacks in Russia, the U.K, Germany, and Norway, among others. Prior to exfiltrating corporate data, the gang stays undetected for a period of two to six months.
• BIO-ISAC warned of cyberattacks against biomanufacturing facilities. The campaign is launched using a new malware dubbed Tardigrade. It bears resemblance to Smoke Loader and is capable of downloading payloads, including ransomware, and manipulating files on compromised systems.
• Moses Staff, a new politically-motivated threat group, was found targeting Israeli organizations since September, with an aim to leak sensitive data and no ransom demand. First discovered in October, the threat actor followed in the footsteps of Pay2Key and Black Shadow groups. The gang breaches networks by abusing old, unpatched vulnerabilities.
• A new Android banking trojan, dubbed SharkBot, was discovered by Cleafy and ThreatFabric. Active at least since October, the malware has targeted users of 27 banking and cryptocurrency apps in the U.K, the U.S., and Italy to exfiltrate funds. SharkBot exploits Accessibility Services to pilfer login credentials, current account balance, and personal information.
• Researchers demonstrated a set of three new attacks, dubbed Printjack, that can be launched against printers. The attack includes turning printers into an army of botnets to launch DDoS attacks, impose a paper DoS state, and perform MiTM attacks. One of these attack types can be launched by exploiting CVE-2014-3741 RCE vulnerability affecting printers.
• In a new malware campaign, GravityRAT targeted high-profile Indian individuals, disguised as an end-to-end encrypted chat application, dubbed SoSafe Chat. The malware requests 42 permissions, out of which, 13 can be exploited to conduct malicious activities such as reading mobile data and obtaining device location. Earlier reports suggest that GravityRAT previously targeted Windows machines.
• New spyware called PhoneSpy surfaced to infiltrate Android phones. Experts found 23 malicious apps disguised as legitimate ones to give attackers complete control over the targeted devices. The campaign has already claimed more than 1,000 victims in South Korea and gained access to the entire communications, services, and data on the victims’ devices.
• MasterFred, a newly discovered Android trojan, uses fake login overlays to steal card data of Netflix, Instagram, Twitter, and banking individuals. The malware was used against Android users in Poland and Turkey. What makes MasterFred unique is that one of the malicious apps also bundles HTML overlays that exhibit the fake login forms and exfiltrate victims’ login details.
• New BotenaGo botnet targets routers and IoT devices using over 30 different exploits. It is written in Golang and is believed to be used by Mirai operators. The botnet is still under development. It builds a backdoor, waits for the target, and attacks it via port 19412.