Data Breaches

09 Feb

UK/US cybercrime crackdown sees 7 ransomware criminals sanctioned

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

A UK/US campaign to tackle international cybercrime has seen Seven Russian cybercriminals linked to a notorious ransomware group exposed and sanctioned. The sanctions were announced today by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) alongside the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This follows a lengthy investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) into the crime group behind Trickbot malware, as well as the Conti and RYUK ransomware strains,…

Read More
09 Feb

HTML smuggling campaigns impersonate well-known brands to deliver malware

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Trustwave SpiderLabs researchers have cited an increased prevalence of HTML smuggling activity whereby cybercriminal groups abuse the versatility of HTML in combination with social engineering to distribute malware. The firm has detailed four recent HTML smuggling campaigns attempting to lure users into saving and opening malicious payloads, impersonating well-known brands such as Adobe Acrobat, Google Drive, and the US Postal Service to increase the chances of users falling victim. HTML smuggling uses HTML5 attributes that…

Read More
09 Feb

What is business email compromise?

Attacks, Data Breaches

In this article, Cyber Security Hub explores how cyber attackers use threat vectors like phishing, social engineering and ransomware to enact business email compromise (BEC). Cybercrime is an ever-growing issue across virtually every industry. Expected to have a global cost as much as US$10trn by 2025, companies must fight to combat malicious actors seeking to gain from cyber attacks against them. Threat actors increasingly use multiple threat vectors during attacks to overwhelm companies and make…

Read More
09 Feb

Yes, CISOs should be concerned about the types of data spy balloons can intercept

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

The recent kerfuffle surrounding the Chinese surveillance balloon that sailed above Canada and the United States before meeting its demise off the southeastern coast of the United States has tongues wagging and heads scratching in equal measure. While some may write this off as geopolitical shenanigans by China and nothing to fret about, I submit that it is emblematic of a nation-state using all resources available to acquire pieces of information and fill in the…

Read More
09 Feb

How to unleash the power of an effective security engineering team

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Security teams are comprised primarily of operations, compliance, and policy-related roles. Security engineering teams, on the other hand, are builders. They build services, automate processes, and streamline deployments to support the core security team and its stakeholders. Security engineering teams are typically made up of software and infrastructure engineers, architects, and product managers. The collective security/security engineering team mindset is also that of a builder, quite different from that of a penetration tester or third-party…

Read More
08 Feb

Threat group targets over 1,000 companies with screenshotting and infostealing malware

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Researchers warn that a new threat actor has been targeting over a thousand organizations since October with the goal of deploying credential-stealing malware. The attack chain also involves reconnaissance components including a Trojan that takes screenshots of the desktops of infected computers. Tracked as TA866 by researchers from security firm Proofpoint, the group’s tooling seems to have similarities to other campaigns reported in the past under different names going as far back as 2019. Even…

Read More
08 Feb

Growing number of endpoint security tools overwhelm users, leaving devices unprotected

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Enterprises that use endpoint security and management technologies face a problem of growing marketplace “sprawl,” as new tools proliferate and options multiply, according to a study released today by the Enterprise Services Group. Between the ongoing influence of remote work and IoT, the number and diversity of devices that have to be managed by endpoint security tools is on the rise. As a consequence, the number of available tools to manage them has also risen.…

Read More
08 Feb

What is the difference between cyber risk management and cyber resilience?

Attacks, Data Breaches

Cyber Security Hub speaks to Sourabh Haldar, threat policy implementation lead of information and cyber security at Standard Chartered Bank about the importance of cyber resilience in the face of emerging threats. Cyber Security Hub: What do you think will be the biggest threat vector and/or threat target in 2023? Sourabh Haldar: From a sector-wide perspective, phishing and social engineering-based attacks are definitely a concern. Phishing is the easiest way for malicious actors to gain…

Read More
08 Feb

Cohesity Data Cloud 7.0 enhances privileged access authentication, ransomware recovery

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Data security and management vendor has announced the 7.0 software release of its Cohesity Data Cloud platform. The release provides customers with enhanced cyber resiliency capabilities to help protect and secure data against cyberattacks, the firm stated in its announcement. Expanded features include privileged access hardening, accelerated ransomware recovery for files and objects, and attack surface reduction via AWS GovCloud support, Cohesity added. Cohesity 7.0 focuses on a “data-centric” approach to cyber resilience In a…

Read More
08 Feb

Surge of swatting attacks targets corporate executives and board members

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

At around 8:45 pm on February 1, 2023, a caller to the Groveland, Massachusetts, 911 emergency line told dispatchers that he harmed someone in a home on Marjorie Street in the upscale small town 34 miles north of Boston. The caller also said he would harm first responders, too. Groveland police chief Jeffrey Gillen summoned the police, fire, and emergency mutual aid of the nearby towns of Ipswich, Rowley, Topsfield, and Haverhill. Police evacuated neighboring…

Read More