The Good

In an attempt to bolster information security across federal agencies, the CISA released new Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) guidelines as part of its Continuous Diagnostics Mitigation (CDM) program. The recommendations will help strengthen the security posture of federal networks. In another development, the DHS issued new cyber incident reporting rules to better protect the nation’s critical infrastructure.

• The CISA released new guidance on integrating Identity and Access Management (IDAM) capabilities into Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) architectures. This guidance was released as part of CISA's Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, which aims to enhance the security of federal agency networks through Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) capabilities.

• Australia is in the process of building six cyber shields to defend its organizations' people against cyber threats. Slated to come into force by 2030, the six shields include educating people about cybersecurity, building digital products with minimum cybersecurity standards, threat intelligence sharing, limiting access to critical infrastructure, building cybersecurity skills, and increasing engagement with other countries to improve cybersecurity.

• The DHS, in coordination with the Cyber Incident Reporting Council (CIRC), issued a series of actionable recommendations to simplify federal cyber incident reporting rules in an effort to better protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Some of these recommendations are creating a model cyber incident reporting form; establishing model definitions, timelines, and triggers for reportable cyber incidents; and sharing information about cyber incidents.

The Bad

A security advisory was issued to warn critical infrastructure organizations about ongoing Snatch ransomware attacks. The advisory highlighted that the group is targeting organizations in the agriculture, IT, and defense industries. In a different incident, a sophisticated web skimming attack named Silent Skimmer went undetected for over a year, only to be discovered recently by researchers owing to its massive impact across APAC and NALA. Apart from these, an Android malware scam and a pig-butchering scam were also reported, which enabled threat actors to make profits in millions.

• The government of Nova Scotia, Canada, notified more than 165,000 people that their personal information, such as social insurance numbers and banking details, was stolen in the MOVEit Transfer hack. In addition to notifying people, the government offered free credit monitoring services to affected people.

• Attackers behind the new variant of BlackCat ransomware, named Sphynx, managed to infiltrate a victim’s Sophos Central account and successfully encrypt 39 Azure storage accounts. The action was made possible by pilfering the OTP from the victim's LastPass vault through the LastPass Chrome extension.

• A data breach notification from Pizza Hut Australia revealed that a cyberattack allowed hackers to gain unauthorized access to the personal information of its 193,000 customers. The stolen information included full names, delivery addresses, phone numbers, and masked credit card details. The notice further urged the customers to stay vigilant for phishing attacks and unsolicited links sent via unsolicited communications.

• A financially motivated threat actor has been associated with a sophisticated web-skimming campaign that has been active for over a year, targeting online payment firms across APAC and NALA regions. Tracked as Silent Skimmer, the campaign deploys payment scraping mechanisms to extract sensitive financial data from users.

• An update on an April ransomware attack against one of Australia’s largest law firms, HWL Ebsworth, revealed that attackers swiped off the data of 65 Australian government agencies. BlackCat ransomware group took responsibility for the attack by claiming to have stolen 1.45GB of data from the firm.

• Researchers from Sophos revealed that over $1 million was stolen in a pig-butchering cryptocurrency scam in just three months. The attackers used fake trading pools on DeFi trading applications to make profits by trading from one cryptocurrency to another. A total of 14 domains and dozens of nearly identical fraud sites were used as part of the attack.

• A novel cloud-native cryptojacking operation, codenamed AMBERSQUID, was found targeting uncommon AWS offerings, such as AWS Amplify, AWS Fargate, and Amazon SageMaker, to illicitly mine cryptocurrency. The activity was first noticed in May and remained active throughout August.

• A misconfiguration issue in the T-Mobile app allowed customers to see other people’s personal information, including their names, phone numbers, addresses, account balances, and credit card details. The customers were able to see the details while they logged into their own accounts.

• The FBI and the CISA issued a joint advisory to warn critical infrastructure organizations of ongoing Snatch ransomware attacks. The advisory further mentions that the group has consistently been evolving its tactics since 2021 to take advantage of current trends in the cybercriminal space.

• The Singapore Police issued an advisory to warn citizens about a new Android malware scam that enabled scammers to initiate a factory reset on infected devices. Over 750 users reportedly fell victim to the scam in H1 2023, resulting in losses of at least $7.3 million. The scam leverages social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to advertise various fake services related to home cleaning and pet grooming.

• Scammers were found impersonating the bankruptcy claim agent for crypto lender Celsius in a phishing attack to steal funds from customers’ cryptocurrency wallets. In one such email observed, a recipient was offered a seven-day exit window to claim their frozen funds.

New Threats

The cyber threat landscape witnessed the emergence of many new backdoor malware. While two new backdoors—named HTTPSnoop and PipeSnoop—were used to remotely execute code on Middle East-based telecommunications organizations, a new SprySOCKs backdoor was associated with an Earth Lusca campaign targeting government agencies across multiple countries. In another instance, a newly identified LuaDream malware was found using the LuaJIT platform to spread across networks.

• Chinese hacking group Earth Lusca was discovered using a new Linux backdoor, SprySOCKS, in a campaign targeting government agencies in multiple countries. The malware borrows much of its source code from Trochilus open-source Windows backdoor. The structure of SprySOCK’s C2 protocol is similar to the one used by the RedLeaves backdoor.

• A threat actor employed two new backdoors—HTTPSnoop and PipeSnoop—in a cyberespionage campaign targeting Middle East-based telecommunications organizations. These backdoors masqueraded as popular software products and used extensive anti-detection mechanisms to stay under the radar. Once implanted, the malware executed a shellcode to give the attackers a persistent foothold on the victims’ networks.

• Organizations located in Azerbaijan were targeted by a Rust-based malware in a campaign named Operation Rusty Flag. The malware was deployed by exploiting a six-year-old memory corruption flaw (CVE-2017-11882) in Microsoft Office’s Equation Editor. The exact end goals of the campaign remain unclear.

• A newly discovered ValleyRAT malware is being used alongside Sainbox RAT and Purple Fox malware in an attack campaign to target Chinese-speaking users. These malware are distributed via phishing emails including business-themed content—like invoices, payments, and new products—to lure recipients. Written in C++, ValleyRAT includes the functionalities of a basic RAT.

• A new campaign abusing 4shared WebDAV services was used to distribute a new variant of the Bumblebee malware loader. The variant uses TCP, instead of WebSockets, for C2 communications. Additionally, it uses DGA to generate 100 domains on the ‘.life’ TLD upon execution.

• A new Sandman APT group was identified using a new modular backdoor named LuaDream to target telecom service providers in Europe and Asia. The malware utilizes the LuaJIT platform to propagate on targeted organizations’ systems. According to SentinelOne, it shares similarities with another malware named DreamLand.

• According to Cado Security, the activity of the P2Pinfect botnet has increased by 600 times since August 28, owing to the discovery of new variants of the botnet. A majority of infections were observed in China, followed by the U.S., Germany, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The new variants employ several crafty techniques to launch stealthy attacks.

• ESET observed two OilRig campaigns which occurred throughout 2021 and 2022. These campaigns—dubbed Outer Space and Juicy Mix— used a new C#/.NET backdoor called Solar and its variant Mango to target Israeli organizations. These backdoors were deployed using VBS droppers, presumably spread via spearphishing emails.

• A new version of BBTok banking malware was used to target clients of over 40 Mexican and Brazilian banks in a campaign that employed various file types, including ISO, ZIP, LNK, DOCX, JS, and XLL. The new variant replicates the interfaces of the banking sites and tricks victims into entering 2FA codes to steal payment card details from their bank accounts.