Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 15 - 19, 2020

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 15 - 19, 2020 - Featured Image

Weekly Threat Briefing June 19, 2020

The Good

Maintaining security across payment systems is an utmost priority for all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data. Following the spike in attacks against Point of Sale (PoS) systems, the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) has released a new set of security requirements to protect cardholders’ data from being compromised during transactions. Furthermore, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) have set up a new scam ad alert tool to protect online users from ad frauds.

  • The PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) has updated the PCI PTS POI Modular Requirements to enable stronger protections for cardholder data. This will enhance security controls to defend against physical tampering and malware attacks that can compromise card data during payment transactions.
  • The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) have set up a new scam ad alert tool with support from digital ad platforms and tech giants. The tool will help protect UK citizens from online ad frauds.
  • The British government will invest £10 million in the next four years to develop groundbreaking cybersecurity technologies. The declared sum, which is a part of the government’s ‘Digital Security by Design’ program, will be distributed among nine research teams.
  • Google revealed that it is relying on artificial intelligence to combat coronavirus-related threats in the UK, India, and Brazil. The firm has incorporated Safe Browsing protection into Google Search, Chrome, Gmail, and Android to block such threats automatically.
  • Intel unveiled a new security feature, Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (CET), for devices that will use the company’s upcoming Tiger Lake mobile processors. The feature will help prevent Return Oriented Programming/Jump Oriented Programming/Call Oriented Programming malware attacks.

The Bad

Multiple data leaks due to misconfigured AWS S3 buckets caught the attention of security experts this week. In one incident, Ariix Italia exposed more than 36,000 documents of Italian citizens, while some eight dating apps leaked 845 GB of private information on the internet. On the other hand, DeliveryHero confirmed a data breach of its Foodora brand, affecting personal details of 727,000 accounts.

  • Attackers hijacked an Oxford University email server to send phishing emails to harvest Microsoft Office 365 credentials from European, Asian, and Middle Eastern targets. The attackers also made use of an Adobe server hosted on Samsung’s domain.
  • Delivery Hero disclosed a data breach of its Foodora brand. The incident affected users across 14 countries, including personal details of 727,000 accounts.
  • PostBank replaced 12 million cards for its customers due to a security breach that took place in December 2018. Rogue employees of the firm had stolen the 36-digit master key to withdraw more than $3.2 million in fraudulent transactions.
  • Ransomware attackers hacked the computer systems of the City of Keizer, Oregon. They demanded a ransom of $48,000 from the city for the retrieval of stolen data.
  • IT services giant, Cognizant, revealed that Maze ransomware operators pilfered a limited amount of data from its systems. This included social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, tax IDs, and passport numbers of employees.
  • Amazon’s AWS Shield service mitigated the largest-ever DDoS attack that occurred in mid-February this year. The DDoS recorded a range of 2.3 Tbps.
  • An unsecured Amazon S3 bucket belonging to Ariix Italia had leaked more than 36,000 documents of Italian citizens. The exposed documents included scans of national IDs, credit cards, and health insurance cards. The bucket also contained full names, addresses, and signatures of individuals.
  • DraftKings disclosed that its partner SBTech was affected in a ransomware attack during their merger. This had affected the company’s sports betting and iGaming services.
  • MaxLinear Inc. was hit by Maze ransomware this week. Following the attack, the hackers released some proprietary information about the company online. The threat actor group is also behind an attack on a Puerto Rico-based management firm, CSA group.
  • The UK National Health Service (NHS) confirmed that some 113 internal email accounts were compromised to send malicious spam messages outside the organization. The emails sent using the breached account included a link to a fake login page of the NHS.
  • Several websites belonging to different Australian financial institutions, law firms, and entertainment companies were put for sale on MagBo underground forum. The access to these websites was sold at prices up to $10,000.
  • Web skimmer codes were used against Intersport, Claire’s, and Icing in an attempt to harvest credit card details from customers. The malicious code was planted on the checkout pages of the targeted websites.
  • A misconfigured AWS S3 bucket had leaked 845 GB of data belonging to different dating apps. The affected apps include 3somes, CougarD, Gay Daddy Bear, Xpal, BBW Dating, SugarD, GHunt, and Herpes Dating.

New Threats

Coming to new threats, a set of 19 vulnerabilities, collectively known as Ripple20, was found affecting a TCP/IP software library developed by Treck Inc. These flaws can be exploited to pilfer data from millions of IoT devices. Additionally, new versions of the Shlayer Mac malware and IcedID trojan capable of sneaking past security solutions more efficiently, were also uncovered this week.

  • The Ginp mobile malware, which is well-known for targeting banking customers in Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom, expanded its attack campaign to Turkey. Researchers found several fake web pages, mimicking banks in Turkey, designed to distribute the malware.
  • Researchers tracked a new cyberespionage campaign associated with the infamous Lazarus group. Codenamed as Operation In(ter)ception, the campaign was carried out via LinkedIn to target personnel at European aerospace and military organizations.
  • Google removed 106 malicious Chrome extensions that were involved in collecting user keystrokes, clipboard content, cookies, and more. The primary connection between all the extensions was that they sent user data back to domains registered through the GalComm domain registrar.
  • Shlayer Mac malware returned with a new variant that sneaked past security solutions by purporting to be an Adobe Flash Player installer. The malicious installer is distributed by poisoning Google search results to lure victims.
  • A multi-stage attack, distributed via a malicious Word document, disguised as a resume to users worldwide. In the last stage, the threat actors used Cobalt Strike’s Malleable C2 feature to download the final payload and perform C2 communication.
  • An unpatched vulnerability in USB for Remote Desktop can allow attackers to elevate privileges on a target machine by adding fake devices. The flaw affects a bus driver for the Remote Desktop developed by FabulaTech.
  • Research revealed that the Turla threat actor group had abused a vulnerability in Oracle’s VirtualBox software to spread a malware named AcidBox. The malware was used by the gang twice against the Russian organization in 2017.
  • Google Alerts picked up a new trend of fake data breach notifications pushed by fraudsters. The attackers are leveraging black SEO techniques,Google sites, and spam pages to redirect users to fake notifications from well-known brands to distribute malware and scams.
  • A collection of 19 vulnerabilities, known as Ripple20, has been found in a TCP/IP software library developed by Treck Inc. These flaws affect millions of IoT devices using the software and can be abused to steal data and take control of devices.
  • Malware distributors abused a DLL hijacking vulnerability in Apple's APSDaemon.exe, AnyToIso, and CrystalBit software to install coin miners. The campaign starts with users being redirected to sites that make false claims to offer copyrighted software.
  • A new version of the IceID banking trojan was spotted using steganography to stealthily infect victims. It is distributed via phishing emails that pretend to be related to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
  • The Black Kingdom ransomware group exploited an RCE vulnerability in Pulse Secure VPN to gain access to corporate networks. The vulnerability in question is identified as CVE-2019-11510.

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Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 23–27, 2025

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Jun 20, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 16–20, 2025

As cybercriminals weave intricate webs in the digital underworld, global defenders are cutting through the chaos. Six nations toppled Archetyp Market, a darknet drug bazaar with €250 million ($288 million) in Monero deals, nabbing its admin and vendors while seizing €7.8 million ($9 million) in assets. The U.K unveiled a Cyber Growth Action Plan, injecting £16m ($21.2m) to fortify its £13.2bn ($17.5bn) cybersecurity industry after attacks bled retailers like M&S. Stateside, the U.S. reclaimed $225 million in crypto from investment scams, marking the Secret Service’s biggest digital heist bust yet. Cloud services are being quietly turned into covert attack channels. The Serpentine#Cloud campaign is abusing Cloudflare Tunnels and Python to deploy fileless malware via invoice-themed phishing lures. A popular WordPress plugin is exposing sites to full takeover. It affects the AI Engine plugin, impacting over 100,000 websites and opening the door to site-wide compromise. An official-looking email from the tax department may be anything but. Silver Fox APT is targeting Taiwanese users with phishing emails posing as the National Taxation Bureau, delivering malware like Winos 4.0, HoldingHands RAT, and Gh0stCringe. A new Android trojan is turning devices into data-harvesting tools under attackers’ full control. Attributed to the LARVA-398 group, AntiDot has infected thousands of devices through phishing and malicious ads. A fake job offer could now come bundled with custom-built spyware. PylangGhost is targeting crypto professionals in India. Delivered through spoofed job sites, the malware includes registry tampering, remote control, and data exfiltration modules aimed at compromising Windows systems. One compromised travel site is now a launchpad for infostealer infections. A new ClickFix variant, LightPerlGirl, is using fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA prompts and clipboard hijacking to deliver the Lumma infostealer.

Jun 6, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 02–06, 2025

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Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 26–30, 2025

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May 23, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 19–23, 2025

Operation Endgame just dealt a major blow to the ransomware supply chain. Europol led the charge in dismantling malware infrastructure tied to multiple malware families, seizing 300 servers and more. Japan has officially gone on the cyber offense. The new Active Cyberdefense Law allows preemptive strikes against foreign cyber threats. It enables traffic analysis and takedowns of hostile servers. Think twice before clicking on that Ledger update. A new macOS malware campaign is deploying fake versions of the Ledger Live app to steal cryptocurrency seed phrases. A Turkish phishing lure leads straight to SnakeKeylogger. Fake AI tools are the new phishing lures and they’re convincing. Cybercriminals cloned Kling AI’s brand through Facebook ads and spoofed websites to trick users into downloading malware. The DBatLoader (aka ModiLoader) malware is making the rounds again - this time disguised as a Turkish bank email. The copyright threat in your inbox might be bait. A phishing campaign sweeping across central and eastern Europe is using fake legal complaints to deliver the Rhadamanthys Stealer. Two years of silence, 6,200 downloads later - the malware is finally found. A malicious campaign targeting JavaScript developers slipped past detection by disguising harmful npm packages as plugins for frameworks like React, Vue.js, Vite, and Quill Editor. Researchers uncovered a stealthy new backdoor paired with a Monero coinminer, using the PyBitmessage library for encrypted peer-to-peer communications.

May 9, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 05–09, 2025

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May 2, 2025

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

Apr 11, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 07–11, 2025

The U.K. government rolled out a Cyber Governance Code of Practice aimed at directors and board members, not just CISOs. Backed by the NCSC and other national bodies, the code includes practical actions, modular training, and a board-level toolkit. Startups building the future of cyber defense are getting serious backing. The British Business Bank has committed most of a £50 million fund to Osney Capital, which will invest in early-stage cybersecurity companies across the U.K. A torrent download might be doing more than delivering cracked software. A campaign has been distributing ViperSoftX to Korean users, likely run by Arabic-speaking threat actors. Invasive spyware campaigns are zeroing in on high-risk communities. MOONSHINE and BADBAZAAR are being deployed through trojanized mobile apps to surveil Uyghur, Tibetan, and Taiwanese individuals, as well as civil society groups. Search for QuickBooks during tax season, and you might land on a trap. Threat actors are placing deceptive Google Ads that link to phishing pages almost identical to the real QuickBooks login portal. It starts with a PDF search and ends with malware on your machine. A new campaign is using fake CAPTCHAs and Cloudflare Turnstile to lure users into downloading LegionLoader. Seed phrases aren’t supposed to come from strangers. The PoisonSeed campaign is targeting crypto holders and enterprise users by compromising bulk email services. Victims are lured with fake wallet setup instructions that embed attacker-controlled recovery phrases - giving threat actors full access once the wallets are used. A Chinese-linked threat group, ToddyCat, has been exploiting a security vulnerability in ESET's software to deliver a new malware, TCESB, in Asia.