The Good

Creating an infrastructure that addresses the root cause of attacks is crucial for establishing a robust and secure system. A research group has created a groundbreaking framework, Metior, that would play a pivotal role in assessing various security schemes and early identification of promising architectures during the chip design process for microprocessors. Separately, two Middle East nations have joined hands with an aim to better protect against cyberattacks via collaboration and knowledge sharing. The project was named Crystal Ball.

• MIT researchers developed the Metior framework that provides a quantitative assessment of cybersecurity obfuscation schemes, helping engineers evaluate the effectiveness of different security approaches. The framework enables users to analyze the impact of various factors, such as victim programs, attacker strategies, and obfuscation scheme configurations, on the leakage of sensitive information. Microprocessor engineers can hence determine the most promising architecture during the early stages of chip design.

• The UAE and Israel are collaborating on a cybersecurity project called "Crystal Ball" to create a digital platform for sharing information. The project will be backed by Microsoft, Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and Abu Dhabi's CPX, and an unspecified number of countries will also participate.

• Lawmakers introduced the latest version of the Data Elimination and Limiting Extensive Tracking and Exchange (DELETE) Act that would compel companies and data brokers to stop collecting Americans’ private online data. The bill also involves an enforcement mechanism for tracking when individuals submit their information to the FTC for deletion.

• Ukrainian cyber police raided nine fraudulent call centers involving over 200 operators running vishing campaigns, impersonating bank and other financial institution employees to obtain credit and debit card data. In other news, Europol announced the takedown of EncroChat, an encrypted messaging platform used by organized crime groups. The operation led to the arrests of 6,558 individuals worldwide and the confiscation of $985 million in illicit criminal proceeds.

The Bad

Meanwhile, the fallout from the University of Manchester ransomware breach and MOVEit bug seems to be getting worse. According to the latest revelations, it exposed over a million NHS patient data sets, even including records of trauma patients. As we come to the end of the week, the number of victims of the MOVEit flaw exploitation keeps growing. Currently, the attack has impacted 158 organizations and 16 million individuals - a number that is anticipated to rise. In an ironic case, Android stalkerware LetMeSpy suffered a breach in which the attackers wiped off the entire database, reportedly.

• National Health Service (NHS), the U.K, suffered a breach impacting the sensitive personal information of about 1.1 million patients, including trauma patients and victims of terrorism. The attack originally targeted the University of Manchester, which led to the NHS leak. The incident also led to the compromise of student and alumni information, which includes personal details, including demographic data. The university's backup servers were accessed by criminals; however, their identity remains unknown at this time.

• The Cl0p ransomware group, responsible for numerous breaches due to a MOVEit file transfer tool, may have impacted at least 158 organizations. The number of individuals impacted by hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in the MOVEit software has surpassed 16 million, and this count is expected to rise significantly.

• A cyber attack on Suncor, one of the largest energy companies in North America, caused disruptions for Canadian motorists. In the aftermath, payment card transactions at roughly 1,500 gas stations were affected, resulting in customers facing difficulties in making transactions. Additionally, the attack temporarily disabled car wash services. At the moment, it remains uncertain whether the attack was a ransomware incident.

• Major global airlines American Airlines and Southwest Airlines disclosed data breaches resulting from a hack at a third-party vendor, Pilot Credentials. On April 30, an unauthorized individual reportedly infiltrated Pilot Credentials' systems and illicitly obtained documents containing sensitive information. As a result, personal information belonging to 5,745 pilots from American Airlines and 3,009 pilots from Southwest Airlines has been affected.

• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) unwittingly exposed the private addresses of approximately 61,000 individuals in a data breach. The data, which essentially contains an individual’s home address, was in public records between February 2020 and March 2023. It confirmed that this data was also present in bulk datasets that the agency publishes online to aid academic and economic research.

• Radeal, the developer of the Android stalkerware LetMeSpy, disclosed a cyberattack wherein sensitive user information was allegedly stolen and then wiped off from the database. The app operates discreetly by uploading the phone's text messages, call logs, and precise location data to its servers without the user's knowledge or consent. The identity and motive of the perpetrators behind the LetMeSpy hack aren’t clear.

• Maryland-based Atlantic General Hospital revealed that a ransomware breach in January compromised the sensitive data of nearly 137,000 patients, which is five times as compared to the previously disclosed count of 30,700.

• The LockBit ransomware group has made claims of hacking into Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and demanding $70 million in ransom demand. Meanwhile, TSMC has confirmed that one of its IT hardware suppliers was hit by a cyberattack that compromised data related to initial server setup and configuration. The supplier suffered in this is Kinmax Technology, Taiwan.

• An unnamed cryptocurrency exchange in Japan fell victim to a cyberattack wherein threat actors employed an Apple macOS backdoor called JokerSpy to install Swiftbelt (a Swift-based enumeration tool inspired by an open-source utility called SeatBelt) on the compromised network. A crucial element of the toolkit includes a self-signed multi-architecture binary referred to as xcc.

New Threats

The week was also riddled with quite a collection of new threats. Researchers witnessed a new mobile malware campaign that has been targeting online banking users across the U.S. and Europe. The threat landscape was introduced to a new fast-developing info-stealer, named ThirdEye. Presently, it only targets Windows systems. Moreover, Akira ransomware got a makeover in the form of a new Linux version. The threat actor behind the ransomware has amassed 46 victims so far.

• Security researchers stumbled across a new mobile malware campaign targeting online banking customers in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The campaign, active since March 2023, utilizes the Anatsa Android banking trojan embedded within apps posing as PDF scanners, QR code scanners, and fitness tracking apps, among others. The malware has already amassed over 30,000 installations and targets approximately 600 financial apps globally.
• ThirdEye, a previously unseen info-stealer, has been spotted in the wild by FortiGuard Labs. Researchers haven’t found any evidence of the malware being used in real-world attacks, however, warned that it can harvest diverse system information from compromised machines, including BIOS and hardware data. As of now, the information stealer is not categorized as highly advanced, however, it exclusively focuses on Windows users.
• Fabian Hagg, a researcher at SEC Consult, uncovered critical bugs in SAP products that use the SAP Application Server for the ABAP component, including SAP for Oil & Gas, SAP for Utilities, and SAP ERP Central Component. The vulnerabilities reported are identified as CVE-2021-27610, CVE-2021-33677, CVE-2021-33684, and CVE-2023-0014. While each vulnerability poses a certain level of threat, if chained, it enables the possibility of automated exploitation.
• The relatively new Akira ransomware has broadened its operations by including Linux-based platforms as its target. Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs (CRIL) came across the Linux version of the malware and revealed that the group has 46 publicly disclosed victims. The attacks carried out by the group aimed at a broad spectrum of industries, including education, BFSI, professional services, manufacturing, and others.
• miniOrange's Social Login and Register plugin for WordPress was found affected by a critical security vulnerability. The plugin allows users to log in to a WordPress website using a social login through various popular social media platforms and service providers. The authentication bypass flaw could enable a threat actor to log in as any user, as long as they have a user's email address. The affected plugin is utilized on over 30,000 websites.
• Fortinet patches a sensitive security vulnerability in its FortiNAC product. An attacker could abuse the bug, tracked as CVE-2023-33299, for RCE attacks that require no user interaction. No mitigation step was suggested for the critical flaw. Besides, it also fixed a low-severity flaw identified as CVE-2023-33300. The flaw relates to an improper access control problem that impacted FortiNAC versions 9.4.0 through 9.4.3, as well as FortiNAC versions 7.2.0 through 7.2.1.
• According to Microsoft, there’s an active cryptojacking campaign abusing and breaking into Internet-exposed Linux and IoT devices through brute-force attacks. Once inside a system, the attackers utilize a modified OpenSSH package to create a backdoor on the compromised devices and illicitly obtain SSH credentials, enabling them to maintain persistence. Criminals also deploy Reptile and Diamorphine open-source LKM rootkits to conceal their malicious actions.
• Cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct identified a new variant of JavaScript dropper, dubbed PindOS, that can deliver subsequent payloads such as Bumblebee and IcedID. It can, further, retrieve malicious executable files from a remote server. PindOS's source code contained Russian comments, suggesting the potential for ongoing collaboration between Russian cybercrime groups behind Conti, Emotet, and IcedID.
• According to VMware Carbon Black researchers, ransomware threat 8Base has been conducting double extortion attacks for over a year and is behind a noticeable rise in ransomware activities in May and June 2023. 8Base has been connected to 67 attacks by Malwarebytes and NCC Group. Approximately 50% of the targeted victims belong to the business services, manufacturing, and construction sectors.
• Multiple versions of Grafana, an open-source analytics and interactive visualization app, received security updates for a variety of flaws. This includes a critical severity bug that allows attackers to bypass authentication and gain control of any Grafana account through Azure Active Directory. It can potentially expose private customer data and sensitive information from a compromised user's account.
• Cybercriminals are distributing a trojanized Super Mario Bros game installer for Windows users, as uncovered by Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs. The infected version of the game contains multiple forms of malware, including an XMR miner, SupremeBot mining client, and the open-source Umbral stealer. Its wide range of capabilities includes capturing webcam images, acquiring Roblox cookies and Minecraft session files, and more.