Cyber-attacks: the apex of crime-as-a-service (IOCTA 2023)

The Spotlight Report ‘Cyber-attacks: the apex of crime-as-a-service’, examines the developments in cyber-attacks, discussing new methodologies and threats as observed by Europol’s operational analysts. It also outlines the types of criminal structures that are behind cyber-attacks, and how these increasingly Read More …

Peach Sandstorm password spray campaigns enable intelligence collection at high-value targets

Since February 2023, Microsoft has observed password spray activity against thousands of organizations carried out by an actor we track as (HOLMIUM). Peach Sandstorm is an Iranian nation-state threat actor who has recently pursued organizations in the satellite, defense, and Read More …

UK: Greater Manchester Police officers’ details hacked in cyber attack

Police officers’ personal details have been hacked after a company was targeted in a cyber attack. The firm in Stockport, which makes ID cards, holds information on various UK organisations including some of the staff employed by Greater Manchester Police Read More …

China: Identity of NSA hacker behind cyberattack on China’s leading aviation university identified

During the investigation of the cyberattack against Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), a leading Chinese aviation university, China has successfully extracted multiple samples of the spyware named SecondDate, and with the collaborative efforts of partners in various countries, the real identity Read More …

Watch out, this LastPass email with “Important information about your account” is a phish

The consequences of last year’s LastPass breach continue to be felt, with the latest insult to users coming in the form of a highly convincing phishing email. Although the “unauthorized party” that compromised LastPass users’ data was able to steal Read More …

Threat landscape for industrial automation systems. Statistics for H1 2023

In the first half of 2023, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked decreased from H2 2022 by just 0.3 pp to 34%. That said, he percentage of attacked ICS computers dropped in Q1 2023, but Read More …

3AM: New Ransomware Family Used As Fallback in Failed LockBit Attack

A new ransomware family calling itself 3AM has emerged. To date, the ransomware has only been used in a limited fashion. Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, has seen it used in a single attack by a ransomware affiliate Read More …

RedLine/Vidar Abuses EV Certificates, Shifts to Ransomware

Trend Micro researchers have been observing malware families RedLine and Vidar since the middle of 2022, when both were used by threat actors to target victims via spear-phishing scams. Earlier this year, RedLine targeted the hospitality industry with its info Read More …

Sri Lanka: Report called over cyberattack on government sites

The Ministry of Technology said an investigation was called into the cyberattack that transpired on the 26th of August 2023. The statement added that the cyberattack, which targeted email systems under the ‘gov.lk’ domain, resulted in substantial data loss and Read More …

A peek into APT36’s updated arsenal

In July 2023, Zscaler ThreatLabz discovered new malicious activity perpetuated by the Pakistan-based advanced persistent threat group (APT36). APT36 is a sophisticated cyber threat group with a history of conducting targeted espionage operations in South Asia. Zscaler ThreatLabz observed APT36 Read More …