Security News
Ransomware attacks decrease, operators started rebrandingPositive Technologies experts have analyzed the Q3 2021 cybersecurity threatscape and found a decrease in the number of unique cyberattacks. How can SMBs extend their SecOps capabilities without adding headcount?While cybersecurity budgets are rising, most small and some midsize organizations looking to employ skilled cybersecurity professionals are often unable to match salaries offered by big enterprises in a job market where demand outstrips supply.
As we enter 2022, organizations are re-evaluating their cybersecurity strategies to lower risks and best defend against potential threats. Two things to consider in that planning - in addition to the ever-growing threats of ransomware, phishing, and zero-day vulnerabilities - are nation-state and Advanced Persistent Threat-style attacks.
Cyber criminals, under the moniker Aquatic Panda, are the latest advanced persistent threat group to exploit the Log4Shell vulnerability. Researchers from CrowdStrike Falcon OverWatch recently disrupted the threat actors using Log4Shell exploit tools on a vulnerable VMware installation during an attack that involved of a large undisclosed academic institution, according to research released Wednesday.
A never-before-seen China-based targeted intrusion adversary dubbed Aquatic Panda has been observed leveraging critical flaws in the Apache Log4j logging library as an access vector to perform various post-exploitation operations, including reconnaissance and credential harvesting on targeted systems. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the infiltration, which was ultimately foiled, was aimed at an unnamed "Large academic institution." The state-sponsored group is believed to have been operating since mid-2020 in pursuit of intelligence collection and industrial espionage, with its attacks primarily directed against companies in the telecommunications, technology, and government sectors.
An APT group is leveraging a critical vulnerability in Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus to compromise organizations in a variety of sectors, including defense and tech. CVE-2021-44077 is an authentication bypass vulnerability that affects ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus installations using versions 11305 and earlier.
The North Korea-linked ScarCruft advanced persistent threat group has developed a fresh, multiplatform malware family for attacking North Korean defectors, journalists and government organizations involved in Korean Peninsula affairs. ScarCruft specifically controls the malware using a PHP script on a compromised web server, directing the binaries based on HTTP parameters.
A threat actor known for striking targets in the Middle East has evolved its Android spyware yet again with enhanced capabilities that allow it to be stealthier and more persistent while passing off as seemingly innocuous app updates to stay under the radar. The new variants have "Incorporated new features into their malicious apps that make them more resilient to actions by users, who might try to remove them manually, and to security and web hosting companies that attempt to block access to, or shut down, their command-and-control server domains," Sophos threat researcher Pankaj Kohli said in a report published Tuesday.
A threat actor has been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in FatPipe's virtual private network devices as a way to breach companies and gain access to their internal networks, since at least May, the FBI has warned. "As of November 2021, FBI forensic analysis indicated exploitation of a 0-day vulnerability in the FatPipe MPVPN device software going back to at least May 2021," the bureau said in a flash alert on Tuesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned of an advanced persistent threat compromising FatPipe router clustering and load balancer products to breach targets' networks. "As of November 2021, FBI forensic analysis indicated exploitation of a 0-day vulnerability in the FatPipe MPVPN device software going back to at least May 2021," the FBI said in a flash alert issued this week.
The Iranian APT has been exploiting Fortinet vulnerabilities since at least March 2021 and a Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell vulnerability since at least October 2021, according to the alert. In keeping with what CISA described on Wednesday, MSTIC has seen the Iran-linked Phosphorous group - aka a number of names, including Charming Kitten, TA453, APT35, Ajax Security Team, NewsBeef and Newscaster - globally target the Exchange and Fortinet flaws "With the intent of deploying ransomware on vulnerable networks."