Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, February 15 - 19, 2021

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, February 15 - 19, 2021 - Featured Image

Weekly Threat Briefing • February 19, 2021

The Good

North Korean hackers have run amok for a number of years and caused damage wherever they could. But, this week the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) charged three men who are, allegedly, part of the state-backed Lazarus APT group. Brace yourself for one of the best news of the week. The data leak site of Egregor was brought down by French, Ukrainian, and U.S. law enforcement agencies. We are hoping that it would act as a major deterrent for ransomware affiliates.

  • The U.S. DoJ indicted three North Korean (DPRK) state-sponsored hackers for stealing cryptocurrency and funds from banks worth $1.3 billion. In another indictment, a Canadian man was arrested for helping the DPRK in money-laundering.
  • French and Ukrainian Police, along with U.S. law enforcement, detained some individuals for providing logistical and financial support to the gang behind the Egregor Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS).
  • A Nigerian national has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for reportedly coordinating an international spear-phishing campaign, resulting in a loss of $11 million. The scheme lasted from 2015 to 2019 and targeted Unatrac Holding Limited.
  • The Center for Internet Security is launching Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting, a no-cost ransomware protection service, available for every healthcare facility through the MS-ISAC.

The Bad

Every week some new detail keeps popping up about the SolarWinds attack. Apparently, 100 organizations were breached and they might be targeted in the future. Following the recent Oldsmar water treatment plant attack, the FBI has warned against the use of outdated software. So, people listen to the FBI.

  • Singtel has revealed that 129,000 customers were impacted by a recently disclosed breach. This also includes some employees, partners, and corporate customers.
  • A new report from the White House has revealed that the SolarWinds hack had breached almost 100 U.S. companies, making them potential targets for follow-up attacks. Moreover, it has been revealed that more than 1,000 hackers rewrote around 4,000 of the millions of lines of code in the SolarWinds Orion update to launch the attack.
  • Kia Motors America has suffered a ransomware attack by the DoppelPaymer gang. Following the attack, the gang has demanded a ransom of $20 million to decrypt files and not leak them online.
  • Russian internet giant Yandex has revealed a data breach after a malicious insider got access to the accounts of thousands of its customers. The incident has affected around 4,887 mailboxes.
  • The FBI has warned federal government agencies and private companies about the potential threats posed due to the use of outdated Windows 7 systems and TeamViewer software.
  • The Cuba ransomware gang launched an attack against the Automatic Funds Transfer Services (AFTS) leading to several data breach notifications from agencies in Washington and California.
  • Russian-linked threat actor group Sandworm has been linked to a three-year-long stealthy operation that targeted several French entities. The intrusion, which started in late 2017 and lasted until 2020, was carried out by exploiting an IT monitoring tool called Centreon.
  • Cyberattack on Dutch Research Council (NWO) has forced the organization to suspend its research grants. The attackers had compromised servers and made the networks inaccessible.
  • The website of the U.K cryptocurrency exchange EXMO was knocked offline following a DDoS attack. This had affected the whole network infrastructure, including the website, API, Websocket API, and exchange charts.
  • The FBI, CISA, and Department of Treasury have released a joint alert highlighting the threats posed to cryptocurrency by North Korean hackers. These hackers are targeting companies and individuals alike through the propagation of cryptocurrency trading platforms.

New Threats

Mac malware has always been less ubiquitous than its Windows counterpart. However, it’s not the case anymore. Hackers have come up with a malware customized for execution on Apple’s new M1 chips. No one’s on the high chair anymore. Anyhoo, macOS wasn’t the only one that got a malware, Windows did too. Heard about the WatchDog botnet before? No? Now you will. Keep your cryptocurrency guarded.

  • A Safari adware extension called GoSearch22 is the first-ever malware designed to target Macs powered by ARM-based M1 chips. Distributed as an extension, the adware is a variant of the Pirrit advertising malware.
  • Researchers have tracked a cryptojacking campaign that was active for almost two years and involved the use of the WatchDog botnet. The operators had used 33 different exploits to target 32 vulnerabilities in Drupal, Elasticsearch, Redis, SQL Server, ThinkPHP, Oracle WebLogic, and Spring Data Commons.
  • A new variant of the Masslogger trojan is being used in attacks aimed at stealing Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome, and Messenger service account details. The campaign is currently focused on victims in Turkey, Latvia, Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Romania, and Italy.
  • The IRS has alerted U.S. taxpayers about an ongoing phishing campaign that steals both personal and financial information. Scammers are using the IRS name and/or logo to dupe people into giving access to their data.
  • Security researchers have detected a new Office malware builder, called ApoMacroSploit, that is capable of evading detection by Windows Defender.
  • Threat actors have been found abusing the Ngrok platform in a new wave of phishing attacks. Some of the malware samples used in the campaign are Njrat, DarkComet, Quasar, Asynrat, and Nanocore.
  • Security experts are warning of a new COVID-19 vaccine phishing scam that tricks users into handing over their personal and financial information. The recipients are informed that they have been selected for a job based on their family and medical history.
  • The New York State Department of Financial Services issued an alert against hackers targeting flaws in websites offering instant quotes. The attackers are specifically targeting websites providing auto insurance rates to steal driver’s license numbers and other PII.

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May 23, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 19–23, 2025

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May 16, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 12–16, 2025

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May 9, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 05–09, 2025

Another blow to DDoS-for-hire networks. Europol has shut down six services used to launch global cyberattacks, arresting suspects in Poland and seizing domains in the U.S. The UN has launched a new framework to help policymakers make sense of cyber intrusions. Called UNIDIR Intrusion Path, it complements models like MITRE ATT&CK but simplifies the technical details. It breaks down attacker activity into three layers, making it easier to evaluate threats in a policy context. Old routers are becoming cybercrime goldmines. The FBI has warned that end-of-life routers are being hijacked with malware like TheMoon and sold on proxy networks such as 5Socks and Anyproxy. These compromised devices are used for crypto theft, cybercrime-as-a-service, and even espionage. Crypto users on Discord are the latest targets of a phishing campaign tied to Inferno Drainer. Attackers were found impersonating the Collab.Land bot to trick users into signing malicious transactions. The Play ransomware group has joined the list of actors exploiting CVE-2025-29824. This Windows zero-day in the CLFS driver enables privilege escalation via a race condition during file operations. Linked to the Balloonfly group, the attacks targeted a U.S. organization and included deployment of the Grixba infostealer. COLDRIVER’s latest malware, LOSTKEYS, is now in play. The Russian state-backed group is deploying this tool to steal files and system data from advisors, journalists, NGOs, and individuals linked to Ukraine. Agenda’s playbook just got upgraded. The ransomware group has added two new tools: SmokeLoader and a stealthy .NET-based loader called NETXLOADER. The latter leverages techniques like JIT hooking and AES decryption to deploy ransomware. Corporate HR teams are the latest target in a spear-phishing spree by Venom Spider. Disguised as job applications, these emails deliver More_eggs backdoor, now upgraded with advanced features.

May 2, 2025

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Apr 25, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 21–25, 2025

AI security finally has a global playbook. ETSI has released TS 104 223, a first-of-its-kind technical specification outlining how to secure AI systems across their entire lifecycle - from design to decommissioning. MITRE’s latest update is catching up with the cloud. ATT&CK v17 expands the framework to include ESXi and adds more than 140 defensive analytics. Platform-specific data collection advice, improved mitigation mapping, and deeper coverage of mobile threats like SIM swaps round out the upgrade. An APT group with deep roots in Southeast Asia is quietly siphoning data through everyday cloud platforms. Earth Kurma has been active since late 2020, targeting government and telecom entities across the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Signal and WhatsApp are the new frontline for cloud compromise. Russian actors are running OAuth phishing campaigns against Microsoft 365 users tied to Ukraine and human rights work. A forged email that passes every security check - that’s the new phishing trick. Attackers are using DKIM replay tactics to forward legitimate Google security alerts to unsuspecting victims. It starts with a fake sales order and ends with FormBook silently stealing your data. A recent phishing campaign has been abusing a long-patched Microsoft flaw to deliver a fileless variant of the malware. Docker containers aren’t always what they seem. A new threat named TenoBot is targeting systems running outdated Teneo Web3 node software, deploying malicious containers to hijack environments. A stealthy new RAT is slipping through Ivanti Connect Secure devices in Japan. Dubbed DslogdRAT, the malware exploits a zero-day flaw to execute commands via web shell and quietly exfiltrate data using encoded C2 traffic.