Security News
Cyber attacks using infected USB infection drives as an initial access vector have witnessed a three-fold increase in the first half of 2023,. SOGU is the "Most prevalent USB-based cyber espionage attack using USB flash drives and one of the most aggressive cyber espionage campaigns targeting both public and private sector organizations globally across industry verticals," the Google-owned threat intelligence firm said.
What's old is new again, with researchers seeing a threefold increase in malware distributed through USB drives in the first half of 2023. Previously, in November 2022, the cybersecurity company highlighted a China-nexus campaign leveraging USB devices to infect entities in the Philippines with four distinct malware families.
Malware intended to spread on USB drives is unintentionally infecting networked storage devices, according to infosec vendor Checkpoint. "Upon returning to his home hospital in Europe, the employee introduced the infected USB drive to the hospital's computer systems, which led the infection to spread.".
The Chinese cyber espionage actor known as Camaro Dragon has been observed leveraging a new strain of self-propagating malware that spreads through compromised USB drives. The cybersecurity company, which found evidence of USB malware infections in Myanmar, South Korea, Great Britain, India, and Russia, said the findings are the result of a cyber incident that it investigated at an unnamed European hospital in early 2023.
Symantec's threat research team, part of Broadcom, reports today that the threat actors have recently begun using USB malware to propagate to additional systems inside infected networks. Symantec's analysts report that Gamaredon's 2023 activity spiked between February and March 2023, while the hackers continued to maintain a presence on some compromised machines until May 2023.
In the port city of Guayaquil, journalist Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa private TV station received an envelope containing a pen drive which exploded when he inserted it into a computer, his employer said. Artieda sustained slight injuries to one hand and his face, said police official Xavier Chango.
Police in Ecuador are investigating attacks on media organizations across the country after a journalist was injured by an exploding USB flash drive. Lenin Artieda, a journalist and presenter for an Ecuavisa TV program, was reportedly injured as a result of a USB drive that blew up when he inserted it into a computer.
Automakers Hyundai and KIA are rolling out an emergency software update on several of their car models impacted by an easy hack that makes it possible to steal them."In response to increasing thefts targeting its vehicles without push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices in the United States, Hyundai is introducing a free anti-theft software upgrade to prevent the vehicles from starting during a method of theft popularized on TikTok and other social media channels," reads Hyundai's announcement.
Security researchers have analyzed a variant of the PlugX malware that can hide malicious files on removable USB devices and then infect the Windows hosts they connect to. Looking for similar samples, Unit 42 also discovered a PlugX variant on Virus Total that locates sensitive documents on the compromised system and copies them to a hidden folder on the USB drive.
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a PlugX sample that employs sneaky methods to infect attached removable USB media devices in order to propagate the malware to additional systems. "This PlugX variant is wormable and infects USB devices in such a way that it conceals itself from the Windows operating file system," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers Mike Harbison and Jen Miller-Osborn said.