Malware

09 Feb

VMware ESXi server ransomware evolves, after recovery script released

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

After the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday released a recovery script for organizations affected by a massive ransomware attack targeting VMWare ESXi servers worldwide, reports surfaced that the malware evolved in a way that made earlier recovery procedures ineffective. The attacks, aimed at VMware’s ESXi bare metal hypervisor, were first made public February 3 by the French Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR), and target ESXi instances running older versions…

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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,…

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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…

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09 Feb

OpenSSL Releases Security Advisory

Attacks, Insights, Malware

Original release date: February 9, 2023 OpenSSL has released a security advisory to address multiple vulnerabilities affecting OpenSSL versions 3.0.0, 2.2.2, and 1.0.2. An attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to obtain sensitive information. CISA encourages users and administrators to review the OpenSSL advisory and make the necessary updates. This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

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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…

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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…

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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…

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08 Feb

CISA and FBI Release ESXiArgs Ransomware Recovery Guidance

Attacks, Insights, Malware

Original release date: February 8, 2023 Today, CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory, ESXiArgs Ransomware Virtual Machine Recovery Guidance. This advisory describes the ongoing ransomware campaign known as “ESXiArgs.” Malicious cyber actors may be exploiting known vulnerabilities in unpatched and out-of-service or out-of-date versions of VMware ESXi software to gain access to ESXi servers and deploy ESXiArgs ransomware. The ransomware encrypts configuration files on ESXi servers, potentially rendering…

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08 Feb

New QakNote Attacks Push Qakbot Malware via Microsoft OneNote Files

Attacks, Malware

Since the disabling of Office macros by Microsoft, a variety of new techniques have arisen to gain remote code execution on a host, with OneNote attachments becoming one of the more prominent techniques seen. As it is rather uncommon for OneNote files to be sent through email, many researchers recommend blocking these extensions altogether. However, for organizations where that is not possible, other options are available. One potential monitoring solution would be to monitor all…

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08 Feb

Research Reveals 12% of Online Stores Expose Backup Data

Attacks, Malware

Administrators of websites, and especially online stores, should regularly evaluate possible data exposure on their sites. Any time sensitive data is found by an administrator, passwords should be rotated for not only users but databases as well. Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) can help mitigate any exposure of administrator login information. Analyzing logs for the web-server software in use can reveal unusually high activity from individual IP addresses. Rate limiting based on IP addresses and using…

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