Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - January 03–07

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - January 03–07 - Featured Image

Weekly Threat Briefing • January 7, 2022

The Good

Let us welcome you to the first weekly threat briefing of the year. The week started with the display of a new technique by a group of academics from UCSB to detect and mitigate inconsistencies in smart contracts. We are quite aware of the dire situation of the healthcare sector when it comes to ransomware threats. Therefore, the HSCA trade group published two guides that would help healthcare providers and manufacturers ensure patient safety.

  • The Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA) rolled out two guides that discuss privacy and cybersecurity in medical devices. The guides are aimed at healthcare delivery organizations and manufacturers. They would encourage providers and manufacturers to ensure patient privacy and safety and contain recommendations for medical terms and conditions.
  • Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, (UCSB) developed a scalable technique to scrutinize smart contracts and remove state-inconsistency vulnerabilities. The process assisted them in identifying 47 zero-day bugs in the Ethereum blockchain. Dubbed Sailfish, the technique audits the smart contract’s source pre-deployment and delivers a bug-free contract as smart contracts are not readily upgradable.
  • The DHS and DOT received a letter from various U.S. senators requesting details about the nation’s transportation infrastructure cybersecurity. The letter seeks information on the steps taken by the DHS and DOT to meet their six responsibilities as per the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.

The Bad

Platforms for online collaboration and productivity have become an innate part of the lives of most professionals in recent times. Now, cybercriminals were found exploiting Google Docs to deliver malicious phishing websites to users through a quite innovative method that leverages the Comment feature. A New Mexico County government fell prey to a ransomware attack, resulting in the shutdown of public offices in three major cities. It was not very sunny in the healthcare sector as the Broward Health hospital system underwent a huge data breach incident.

  • An AWS S3 bucket leak affected the sensitive data—API keys, user data, internal messaging systems, and cloud systems—of gaming giant SEGA. in addition to this, other leaked data include multiple sets of AWS keys providing access to all of SEGA Europe’s cloud systems, MailChimp and Steam API keys, and hundreds of thousands of the Football Managers forum members’ data.
  • A ransomware attack crippled the IT network of the Bernalillo County government in New Mexico, resulting in the shutdown of government buildings and public offices across Albuquerque, Los Ranchos, and Tijeras. The name of the ransomware remains unknown and the attack has severed county employees from accessing local government databases, making it impossible to work with the public.
  • A report by New York’s OAG states that around 17 well-known online retailers, restaurant chains, and food delivery services were targeted in credential stuffing attacks over the past several months. The OAG confirmed the attacks after investigating thousands of posts containing credentials of more than 1.1 million customer accounts.
  • A wave of phishing attacks identified in December was found targeting Outlook users by exploiting a flaw in Google Docs’ Comments feature. This enabled the attackers to send malicious links to more than 500 inboxes across 30 tenants, while the attackers used over 100 different Gmail accounts.
  • Nearly 70 investors fell victim to a long-running internet-based fraud operation that tricked them with various investment opportunities. The victims were directed to 150 different fraudulent sites as a part of the scam carried out by a cybercriminal posing as FINRA broker-dealers. The scam went on for eight long years and the attackers gained over $50 million from the investors.
  • Researchers decoded the modus operandi of a malicious hacking group Elephant Beetle that has been active in several organized financial-theft operations for at least four years. The attackers targeted organizations in the retail and banking sector to steal funds by diverting transactions. The threat actor leverages an arsenal of 80 novel tools and scripts.
  • The Broward Health hospital system notified more than 1.3 million patients and staff members about a data breach that affected their personal data. The incident took place in October 2021 and the compromised data included names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and bank account information of individuals.
  • Russian embassy diplomats were targeted by a cyberespionage campaign linked to the Konni threat group, over the New Year holiday. The campaign was active since December 20, 2021, and propagated via phishing emails that used the New Year Eve 2022 festivity as a decoy theme.
  • More than 100 real estate websites belonging to Sotheby’s were infected with web skimmer malware via the Brightcove cloud video platform. The skimmer was designed to gather users’ personal information and credit card details. The threat actors appended the skimmer scripts in a video.
  • Finalsite, a U.S.-based digital marketing and communications solutions provider to schools, suffered a ransomware attack resulting in thousands of school websites going offline. Around 8,000 schools across 110 countries are claimed to use services provided by the company. However, no evidence of data theft has yet been found.

**New Threats **

It is time to pay closer attention to iPhone security as a new attack technique, dubbed NoReboot, was revealed that enables attackers to fake a restart on your iPhone, impeding the deletion of the malware from your device. New year, new scams. This week, a scam was found targeting Austin inhabitants, leveraging fake QR codes at public parking meters. A new Zloader campaign was also observed exploiting Microsoft’s Signature Verification.

  • The newly discovered Lapsus$ ransomware gang is currently extorting the Portuguese media group, Impresa. The ransomware made its first appearance in December 2021, with an attack on Brazil’s Ministry of Health. The latest attack on Impresa has affected the company’s online information technology server infrastructure, including the websites for SIC and Expresso.
  • A new email phishing campaign was found tricking users with a fake McAfee antivirus subscription. The email appeared to come from McAfee and notified recipients about an expired subscription. The lure aimed to create a sense of urgency by offering the users a huge discount on a new subscription for a limited period of time.
  • Austin citizens are being targeted in a scam that leverages fake QR codes placed at public parking meters to siphon financial information from users. The police are urging people to be cautious of such scams and look out for any tampering on the parking meter while making a payment.
  • A threat actor named MalSmoke was found exploiting Microsoft’s digital signature verification method to deploy Zloader malware. Active since November 2021, the campaign has affected thousands of victims from 111 countries and is being used to steal user credentials. The attackers used legitimate Remote Management software named Atera to gain initial access to the target machine.
  • A new, critical, JNDI-based security flaw impacting H2 database consoles has been identified. Tracked as CVE-2021-42392, it is related to remote code execution similar to the Log4Shell vulnerability. It affects h2 database versions 1.1.100 to 2.0.204 and has been patched in version 2.0.206.
  • A new ransomware, dubbed Night Sky, has been targeting corporate networks and exfiltrating data, with double extortion tactics. The attack started on December 27, 2021, and the group has already published the data of two victims.
  • Researchers demonstrated a new PoC that fakes reboot of iPhones to stop malware from being removed from the device. Named NoReboot, the PoC enables threat actors to collect sensitive information and snoop on microphones. It is a persistence tactic that interrupts the normal rebooting process to delete malicious activity from memory.

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May 23, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 19–23, 2025

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May 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

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 28–May 02, 2025

The FBI just dropped a massive breadcrumb trail. Details of 42,000 phishing domains tied to the LabHost platform have been released to help defenders investigate potential breaches. The service enabled the theft of 500,000 credit cards and over a million credentials. The takedown of JokerOTP has exposed just how far phishing has evolved. The tool was used in more than 28,000 attacks across 13 countries, tricking victims into handing over 2FA codes by mimicking trusted brands. The operation cost victims £7.5 million and has now led to serious criminal charges, thanks to a joint effort involving Europol and Dutch authorities. Malware’s now hitching a ride on Go modules. Socket has uncovered three malicious packages hiding disk-wiping payloads, designed to cause irreversible data loss, especially on Linux systems. These modules take advantage of Go’s decentralized ecosystem. In the shadows of the cybersecurity landscape, MintsLoader emerges as a formidable adversary, orchestrating a multi-faceted infection strategy that deploys the notorious GhostWeaver RAT. Some PyPI packages are doing more than importing functions. Researchers uncovered seven malicious Python packages under the “Coffin” naming scheme, using Gmail’s SMTP service as a stealthy C2 channel. Ransomware groups aren’t always the ones breaking the door open. Researchers have uncovered ToyMaker, an initial access broker selling network entry to ransomware groups. Using a custom malware strain called LAGTOY, ToyMaker establishes reverse shells and executes commands on compromised systems. New vulnerabilities in Apple’s AirPlay protocol, collectively dubbed AirBorne, expose billions of devices to remote code execution without user interaction. Sharp and TX stealers are back, donning a new cloak - named Hannibal Stealer. It is going after credentials from browsers, crypto wallets, FTP clients, and VPN apps. It even captures Discord tokens and Steam sessions.

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.