Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 11 - 15, 2020

Weekly Threat Briefing • May 15, 2020
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Weekly Threat Briefing • May 15, 2020
The Good
The cyber ecosystem witnessed many organizations and agencies making strides in enhancing their approaches toward malware and vulnerabilities detection. Microsoft, along with Intel, launched a new tactic called STAMINA to analyze malware using deep learning. On the other hand, Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) released an updated version of ‘The Guidelines for Multi-Party Vulnerability Coordination and Disclosure’ to improve the coordination and communication of vulnerability disclosure.
Microsoft and Intel jointly released a new malware detection approach, dubbed STAMINA. Referred to as STAtic Malware-as-Image Network Analysis, the approach consists of four steps, viz. preprocessing, transfer learning, evaluation, and interpretation.
FIRST released an updated version of ‘The Guidelines for Multi-Party Vulnerability Coordination and Disclosure’. The purpose of the guidelines is to improve coordination and communication across different stakeholders during a vulnerability disclosure.
Microsoft is open-sourcing its threat knowledge to help the security community build protective solutions for users. The initiative has been taken following the increase in Coronavirus-related threats.
The Bad
Security breaches that resulted in the compromise of millions of records also grabbed headlines this week. In one incident, databases belonging to twenty-nine companies were put for sale on the dark web. On the other hand, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks lost 756 GB of data on celebrities, in an attack.
As many as 550 million stolen user records belonging to twenty-nine different companies were put up for sale on a dark web forum. Out of these, the oldest breached database dates back to 2012.
Pitney Bowes became the latest victim of Maze ransomware though it partially prevented the attack by not letting the attackers encrypt their files. However, some of the firm’s data was stolen in the attack.
The database of WeLeakData[.]com was published on the dark web for sale. It included private chats, login names, email addresses, and IP addresses of hackers.
Around 756 GB of documents and correspondence belonging to high-profile personalities were stolen after an attack at Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. The attackers demanded a ransom of $21 million to stop the release of the documents on the internet.
Magellan Healthcare reported a ransomware attack, which resulted in the compromise of sensitive data. This included the personal data of some of its employees.
Stadler disclosed a security breach that might have led to a data leak. To execute the attack, hackers deployed malware on some of the company's machines.
Diebold Niixford, a major provider of ATMs and payment technology for banks and retailers, suffered an attack from ProLock ransomware. This hampered operations across its corporate network.
Fraudsters swindled off $10 million from Norfund in a sophisticated BEC scam. The miscreants hijacked an email account to draw cash from the Norwegian sovereign investment fund.
The IT office of the Texas judicial system was hit by a ransomware attack. As a result, the court took down its websites and halted legal proceedings.
ARCHER, one of Britain’s most powerful supercomputers, fell victim to a cyberattack that exploited its login nodes. This forced the admin to reset passwords and SSH keys for all users.
Two phishing attacks were also witnessed by the New South Wales Government and The West Australian newspaper. While the attack at the NSW affected the emails accounts of 47 staff members, the security breach at The West Australian resulted in the compromise of its subscribers’ personal data.
Elexon’s internal IT network and employee laptops were affected in a cyberattack. The company identified the root cause of the attack and worked on it to restore the impact.
New threats
Talking of new threats reported this week, Ako ransomware operators added a new tactic to extort more money from victims. They demanded additional ransom from organizations to delete their stolen files. Moreover, a new malware, called Ramsay, was found stealing sensitive data from air-gapped systems.