Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - April 08–12

Weekly Threat Briefing • Apr 12, 2019
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Weekly Threat Briefing • Apr 12, 2019
The Good
We’re back with the most interesting threat intel of the week. Before we get into cybersecurity incidents and new threats, let’s first acknowledge all the positive events that happened over the past week. RSA conference has announced its new innovation program in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region to help cybersecurity startups accelerate its growth. USA.gov has launched an AI-powered chatbot ‘Sam’ that is capable of answering users’ questions on scams and frauds. Meanwhile, two US senators have introduced new bipartisan legislation to ban social networking platforms from using ‘dark patterns’ to trick users into providing their private data.
USA.gov, the official online portal of the U.S federal government, has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot named ‘Sam’ that is capable of answering users’ questions on scams and frauds. In just over a month, Sam interacted with over 4,000 users, with 78% users having successfully asked their question and received an answer.
RSA conference has announced its new innovation program in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region to help cybersecurity startups accelerate their growth. The innovation program will include RSAC Launch Pad, which is designed to give cybersecurity talents a platform to pitch their new businesses and industry solutions to high-profile venture capitalists (VCs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs).
US senators have introduced a bipartisan bill named ‘Cyber Resiliency Act’ that would require DHS to provide grants to support state and local governments in enhancing cyber defenses and addressing cybersecurity threats.
Another two US senators have introduced a new bipartisan legislation to ban social networking platforms from using ‘dark patterns’ to trick users into providing their private data. Social media platforms have long abused dark patterns and have gained access to users’ private data such as geolocation, contacts, call logs, friend lists, and more.
The Bad
Several data breaches and massive cyber attacks have occurred over the past week. Researchers have detected almost 74 Facebook groups that were used to carry out illicit trading of stolen credentials, email addresses, private data, credit card information, and phishing kits. An unprotected database at VoterVoice exposed over 300,000 unique email addresses and other personal information of people. Last but not least, researchers have uncovered a new cybercrime marketplace named ‘Genesis’ where cybercriminals are selling full digital fingerprints of over 60,000 users.
Researchers have detected almost 74 Facebook groups with nearly 385,000 members that were used to carry out illicit trading of stolen credentials, email addresses, private data, credit card information, and phishing kits. Facebook’s security team has removed all the 74 groups from the site.
Kaspersky Lab researchers have revealed the existence of a new cybercrime marketplace named ‘Genesis’ where cybercriminals are selling full digital fingerprints for over 60,000 users. Genesis market sells digital fingerprints, digital identity, cookies, credit card information, sensitive documents, browser user-agent details, WebGL signatures, website user logins, and passwords.
Genesee County has been hit by ransomware attack which led to the shut down of the County’s computers. The ransomware attack impacted its email services and regular operations across all departments. However, Genesee County confirmed that no information has been compromised.
Japanese optical manufacturer Hoya Corporation has suffered a cyber attack which led to the shut down of its factories for almost 3 days. In the attack, almost 100 computers were infected with a virus and user ID - passwords were stolen. However, no data leak was detected due to the attack.
AeroGrow International disclosed that attackers injected malicious code on its website in order to steal customers’ payment card information such as card number, expiration date, and CVV code. However, no personal information such as Social Security number, personal identification number (PIN), and driver’s license number, was leaked in the incident.
An unprotected database at VoterVoice exposed over 300,000 unique email addresses and other personal information of people who have sent messages to legislators or participated in campaigns via ‘the grassroots advocacy system’. The database also contained sensitive information related to political persuasions and religious beliefs.
The official website of the Bangladeshi oil company PetroBangla was initially hacked on April 07, 2019. On April 08, 2019, around 9.30 AM, the company restored its websites. However, hackers managed to successfully compromise the website for the second time around 5 PM.
Researchers have observed a new phishing scheme wherein cybercriminals are using international companies’ official newsletter subscription forms to trick victims into making payments to attackers’ bank account. This phishing scheme targets Russian users with a message written in Russian that states ‘Money for you’.
A new extortion email campaign has been observed wherein scammers claim that they have hacked your computer network and uncovered that you’re hiding your taxes from tax authorities. They then demand 2 bitcoins otherwise threatening to release all the tax-related documents to the tax department, DDoS the network, and installing WannaCry ransomware on the victims’ computers.
Greenville officials have disclosed that the city’s network has been infected with ransomware, forcing the city to shut down a majority of its servers. The city’s communications manager Brock Letchworth confirmed that no public safety is impacted and the city phones are operational.
The UK Home Office has inadvertently leaked the email addresses of almost 240 EU citizens who applied for the EU Settlement Scheme. While communicating with a small group of applicants via email, an administrative error was made. All the recipients’ email addresses were included in the CC field instead of BCC, which exposed the email addresses of the applicants to other applicants.
New Threats
Over the past week, several vulnerabilities and malware strains have emerged. A researcher has spotted Anubis Android trojan that steals PayPal credentials. In another instance, researchers have discovered a sophisticated APT framework dubbed ‘TajMahal’. Meanwhile, researchers have discovered a set of vulnerabilities called Dragonblood in the WiFi Alliance’s WPA3 security and authentication standard.