- Star Blizzard increases sophistication and evasion in ongoing attacks
December 7, 2023
Microsoft Threat Intelligence continues to track and disrupt malicious activity attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor we track as Star Blizzard (formerly SEABORGIUM, also known as COLDRIVER and Callisto Group). Star Blizzard has improved their detection evasion capabilities since 2022 while remaining focused on email credential theft against the same targets. Star Blizzard, whose activities we ...
- TA422’s Dedicated Exploitation Loop – the Same Week After Week
December 5, 2023
Starting in March 2023, Proofpoint researchers have observed the Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) TA422 readily use patched vulnerabilities to target a variety of organizations in Europe and North America. TA422 overlaps with the aliases APT28, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and BlueDelta, and is attributed by the United States Intelligence Community to the Russian ...
- New Tool Set Found Used Against Organizations in the Middle East, Africa and the US
December 1, 2023
Unit 42 researchers observed a series of apparently related attacks against organizations in the Middle East, Africa and the U.S. The researchers will discuss a set of tools used in the course of the attacks that reveal clues about the threat actors’ activity. Unit 42 team is sharing this research to provide detection, prevention and hunting ...
- Hellhounds: Operation Lahat
November 30, 2023
In 2023, Positive Technologies Computer Security Incident Response Team (PT CSIRT) discovered that a certain power company was compromised by the Decoy Dog trojan. According to the PT CSIRT investigation, Decoy Dog has been actively used in cyberattacks on Russian companies and government organizations since at least September 2022. This trojan was previously discussed by NCIRCC, Infoblox, ...
- France bans ministers from WhatsApp, Signal; demands French alternatives
November 30, 2023
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has banned widely used messaging apps WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal for ministers and their teams due to security vulnerabilities, according to a memo obtained by French news outlet Le Point. “These digital tools are not devoid of security flaws, and therefore cannot guarantee the security of conversations and information shared via ...
- HrServ – Previously unknown web shell used in APT attack
November 22, 2023
In the course of our routine investigation, we discovered a DLL file, identified as hrserv.dll, which is a previously unknown web shell exhibiting sophisticated features such as custom encoding methods for client communication and in-memory execution. Kaspersky analysis of the sample led to the discovery of related variants compiled in 2021, indicating a potential correlation between ...
- Ukraine sacks ‘corrupt’ cyber defence chiefs
November 21, 2023
Ukraine has sacked two top cyber defence officials after they were charged with orchestrating a multi-million pound embezzlement scheme. Yurii Shchyhol and Viktor Zhora, the head and deputy of the Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP), are accused of inflating the value of a software deal for personal gain by £1.4million ($1.7million). Read ...
- Canada: Current and former public service, RCMP, military members affected by data breach
November 18, 2023
The federal government is warning current and former public service employees and members of the RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces their personal and financial information may have been accessed in a data breach that occurred on Oct. 19. The breach affects federal government data held by Brookfield Global Relocation Services (BGRS) and SIRVA Worldwide Relocation & ...
- Zimbra 0-day used to target international government organizations
November 16, 2023
In June 2023, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) discovered an in-the-wild 0-day exploit targeting Zimbra Collaboration, an email server many organizations use to host their email. Since discovering the 0-day, now patched as CVE-2023-37580, TAG has observed four different groups exploiting the same bug to steal email data, user credentials, and authentication tokens. Most of this ...
- #StopRansomware: Rhysida Ransomware
November 15, 2023
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the MultiState Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) are releasing this joint CSA to disseminate known Rhysida ransomware IOCs and TTPs identified through investigations as recently as September 2023. Rhysida – an emerging ransomware variant – has predominately been deployed against the education, ...
- TA402 Uses Complex IronWind Infection Chains to Target Middle East-Based Government Entities
November 14, 2023
In mid-2023, Proofpoint researchers first identified TA402 (Molerats, Gaza Cybergang, Frankenstein, WIRTE) activity using a labyrinthine infection chain to target Middle Eastern governments with a new initial access downloader Proofpoint has dubbed IronWind. From July through October 2023, TA402 utilized three variations of this infection chain—Dropbox links, XLL file attachments, and RAR file attachments—with each variant ...
- Australia: Defence recalls cybersecurity coordinator Air Marshal Darren Goldie
November 14, 2023
The senior Air Force officer recently appointed as the National Cyber Security Coordinator has been recalled to Defence to deal with what the department describes as a “workplace matter”. The government said in a statement that Department of Home Affairs Deputy Secretary of Cyber and Infrastructure Security Hamish Hansford would act as National Cyber Security Coordinator ...
- UK: Government has never paid a ransomware demand, minister says
November 7, 2023
The government has announced that it has never paid a ransom demanded by cybercriminals – and pledged that it never will. The announcement – made to tie in with last week’s meeting of members of the international Counter Ransomware Initiative – rubber-stamps what the government said “has been a long-standing policy but … the first ...
- Do government sanctions against ransomware groups work?
November 2, 2023
Earlier this year, the U.S. government imposed sanctions against Russian national Mikhail Matveev, an FBI most-wanted cybercriminal, who authorities accuse of being a “prolific ransomware affiliate” involved in cyberattacks in the United States and overseas. Authorities say Matveev played a major role in the development and deployment of the Hive, LockBit and Babuk ransomware variants, ...
- Over the Kazuar’s nest: Cracking down on a freshly hatched backdoor used by Pensive Ursa
October 31, 2023
While tracking the evolution of Pensive Ursa (aka Turla, Uroburos), Unit 42 researchers came across a new, upgraded variant of Kazuar. Not only is Kazuar another name for the enormous and dangerous cassowary bird, Kazuar is an advanced and stealthy .NET backdoor that Pensive Ursa usually uses as a second stage payload. Pensive Ursa is a ...
- Canada bans Chinese app WeChat from government devices
October 30, 2023
Canada has announced it will ban WeChat on government devices. The Chinese-owned app is sometimes referred to as the “everything app” – like WhatsApp, Facebook, Amazon and Tinder all in one. However Western governments have security concerns about it, mainly that the app could be used to spy on users. WeChat is one of the most ...
- Philippines’ cybersecurity failures exposed as hackers leak state secrets, people’s data
October 22, 2023
All it apparently took for one Philippine hacker to break into a government website was “Admin123” – a password that reflects what experts say is the authorities’ lax attitude towards cybersecurity that not only leaves millions of Filipinos vulnerable to identity theft but has exposed some of the country’s top military secrets. On October 3, ...
- Irish-linked spyware used in brazen attacks
October 21, 2023
The Irish government is set to investigate a digital surveillance alliance that has been accused of letting its smartphone spyware “run wild across the world”, BBC News NI understands. It comes after Intellexa Limited and its parent company Thalestris were named in a damning report by a leading human rights body. The firms are registered at ...
- Kaspersky uncovers APT campaign targeting APAC government entities
October 17, 2023
Kaspersky researchers have discovered a persistent campaign compromising a specific type of secure USB drive used to provide encryption for safe data storage. Dubbed “TetrisPhantom,” this espionage effort targets government entities in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), and shows no discernible overlap with any known threat actor. These and other findings are detailed in Kaspersky’s new ...
- Thailand: House of Representatives’ Website Hacked, Cyber Attack Investigation Underway
October 16, 2023
The House of Representatives’ website fell victim to a cyber attack on Sunday, October 15, 2023. The hackers, who go by the name 3MUSKETEERZ, managed to breach the website’s security and display a picture of a troll in the photo journal section. Additionally, the perpetrators altered the press releases and committee schedules featured on the site. ...
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