What's new arround internet
| Src | Date (GMT) | Titre | Description | Tags | Stories | Notes |
 |
2022-04-19 09:00:00 | Ronin Crypto Heist of $618m Traced to North Korea (lien direct) | Lazarus Group blamed by US Treasury | Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2022-04-19 00:02:44 | FBI, U.S. Treasury and CISA Warn of North Korean Hackers Targeting Blockchain Companies (lien direct) | The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Treasury Department, warned of a new set of ongoing cyber attacks carried out by the Lazarus Group targeting blockchain companies. Calling the activity cluster TraderTraitor, the infiltrations involve the North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) | Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2022-04-17 09:53:35 | Security Affairs newsletter Round 361 by Pierluigi Paganini (lien direct) | A new round of the weekly Security Affairs newsletter arrived! Every week the best security articles from Security Affairs free for you in your email box. If you want to also receive for free the newsletter with the international press subscribe here. U.S. Gov believes North Korea-linked Lazarus APT is behind Ronin Validator cyber heist The […] | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2022-04-16 20:30:51 | U.S. Gov believes North Korea-linked Lazarus APT is behind Ronin Validator cyber heist (lien direct) | The U.S. government blames North Korea-linked APT Lazarus for the recent $600 million Ronin Validator cyber heist. The U.S. government attributes the recent $600 million Ronin Validator cryptocurrencty heist to the North Korea-linked APT Lazarus. The U.S. Treasury announced in a notice the sanctions against the Ethereum address used by the APT to receive the […] | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2022-04-16 01:31:45 | Lazarus Group Behind $540 Million Axie Infinity Crypto Hack and Attacks on Chemical Sector (lien direct) | The U.S. Treasury Department has implicated the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group (aka Hidden Cobra) in the theft of $540 million from video game Axie Infinity's Ronin Network last month. On Thursday, the Treasury tied the Ethereum wallet address that received the stolen funds to the threat actor and sanctioned the funds by adding the address to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) | Hack Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2022-04-15 14:24:33 | North Korea APT Lazarus Targeting Chemical Sector (lien direct) | Threat hunters at Symantec have spotted signs that North Korea's Lazarus APT group is targeting companies in the chemical sector in an ongoing cyberespionage campaign that includes fake job lures and clever social engineering. | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2022-04-14 20:07:22 | U.S. Gov Blames North Korea Hackers for $600M Cryptocurrency Heist (lien direct) | The U.S. government says the recent $600 million Ronin Validator cryptocurrency heist was conducted by Lazarus Group, the notorious hacking outfit linked to the North Korean government. | Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2022-04-11 17:26:25 | Microsoft Takes Down Domains Used in Cyberattack Against Ukraine (lien direct) | The APT28 (Advanced persistence threat) is operating since 2009, this group has worked under different names such as Sofacy, Sednit, Strontium Storm, Fancy Bear, Iron Twilight, and Pawn. | APT 28 | ||
|
2022-04-08 09:43:52 | Microsoft disrupted APT28 attacks on Ukraine through a court order (lien direct) | Microsoft obtained a court order to take over seven domains used by the Russia-linked APT28 group to target Ukraine. Microsoft on Thursday announced it has obtained a court order to take over seven domains used by Russia-linked cyberespionage group APT28 in attacks against Ukraine. The APT28 group (aka Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit, and STRONTIUM) has been active since at least 2007 […] | APT 28 | ||
|
2022-04-08 08:45:00 | Microsoft: Nearly All Russian State Actors Now Targeting Ukraine (lien direct) | Tech giant disrupts APT28 but warns of all-out cyber-offensive | APT 28 | ||
|
2022-04-08 00:04:32 | Microsoft Obtains Court Order to Take Down Domains Used to Target Ukraine (lien direct) | Microsoft on Thursday disclosed that it obtained a court order to take control of seven domains used by APT28, a state-sponsored group operated by Russia's military intelligence service, with the goal of neutralizing its attacks on Ukraine. "We have since re-directed these domains to a sinkhole controlled by Microsoft, enabling us to mitigate Strontium's current use of these domains and enable | APT 28 | ||
 |
2022-04-01 14:09:48 | AcidRain Wiper Suspected in Satellite Broadband Outage in Europe (lien direct) | FortiGuard Labs is aware a report that a new wiper malware was deployed and destroyed data on modems and routers for KA-SAT satellite broadband services, resulting in service outages across Europe on February 24th, 2022. The service interruption also caused the disconnection of remote access to 5,800 wind turbines in Europe. According to security vendor SentinelOne, AcidRain wiper shares similarities with a VPNFilter stage 3 destructive plugin. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice disrupted the VPNFilter botnet by seizing a domain that was part of the Command-and-Control (C2) infrastructure. The Russian-connected the Sofacy threat actor (also known as APT28, Sednit, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and Tsar) is believed to have operated the VPNFilter botnet. Why is this Significant?This is significant not only because a new wiper malware was used in the attack but also because the attack caused service interruption for satellite broadband services in Europe, including Ukraine, and 5,800 wind turbines in Europe were knocked offline.Also, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI released a joint advisory on March 17th, 2022, warning of cyberattacks on U.S. and international satellite communication (SATCOM) networks. What Happened?According to the statement released by Viasat, a provider of KA-SAT satellite broadband services, the attack occurred in two phases.1. On February 24th, 2022, "malicious traffic were detected emanating from several SurfBeam2 and SurfBeam 2+ modems and/or associated customer premise equipment (CPE) physically located within Ukraine and serviced by one of the KA-SAT consumer-oriented network partitions. This targeted denial of service attack made it difficult for many modems to remain online." 2. Then, the company started to observe a gradual decline of the connected modems. Subsequently, a large number of additional modems across much of Europe exited the network and they did not re-enter to the network. The statement continues as saying that the attacker gained remote access to the trusted management segment of the KA-SAT network through a misconfigured VPN appliance. The threat actor moved laterally through the network and ultimately sent "legitimate, targeted management commands on a large number of residential modems simultaneously. Specifically, these destructive commands overwrote key data in flash memory on the modems, rendering the modems unable to access the network, but not permanently unusable."The belief is that "these destructive commands" refer to AcidRain wiper malware.What is VPNFilter malware?VPNFilter is a IoT malware that was first reported in mid-2018 and targeted home and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) routers and Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. The malware is not only capable of performing data exfiltration but also rendering devices completely inoperable.FortiGuard Labs published a research blog series on VPNFilter malware in 2018. See the Appendix for a link to "VPNFilter Malware - Critical Update" and "VPNFilter Update - New Attack Modules Documented".What is the threat actor Sofacy?Sofacy is a threat actor who is believed to operate for Russian interests. The threat actor has been in operation since at least 2007 and targets a wide range of sectors including government, military and security organizations.One of the most infamous activities carried out by the Sofacy group is their alleged involvement in hacking "networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election" in 2016, in which the FBI the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a join advisory on December 29th, 2016.What is the Status of Coverage?FortiGuard Labs provides the following AV coverage against AcidRain wiper malware believed to have been used in the attack:ELF/AcidRain.A!tr | Malware Threat | VPNFilter VPNFilter APT 28 | |
 |
2022-03-15 16:46:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Government and Financially-Motivated Targeting of Ukraine, Conti Ransomware Active Despite Exposure, Carbanak Abuses XLL Files, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Excel add-ins, Phishing, Russia, Ukraine, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Webinar on Cyberattacks in Ukraine – Summary and Q&A
(published: March 14, 2022)
As the military conflict in Ukraine continues, the number of cyberattacks in Ukraine is expected to rise in the next six months, according to Kaspersky researchers. Most of the current attacks on Ukraine are of low complexity, but advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks exist too. Gamaredon (Primitive Bear) APT group continues its spearphishing attacks. Sandworm APT targets SOHO network devices with modular Linux malware Cyclops Blink. Other suspected APT campaigns use MicroBackdoor malware or various wipers and fake ransomware (HermeticRansom, HermeticWiper, IsaacWiper, WhisperGate). Honeypot network in Ukraine detected over 20,000 attacking IP addresses, and most of them were seen attacking Ukraine exclusively.
Analyst Comment: Harden your infrastructure against DDoS attacks, ransomware and destructive malware, phishing, targeted attacks, supply-chain attacks, and firmware attacks. Install all the latest patches. Install security software. Consider strict application white-listing for all machines. Actively hunt for attackers inside the company’s internal network using the retrospective visibility provided by Anomali XDR.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Shared Modules - T1129 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encoding - T1132 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Pre-OS Boot - T1542 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Fallback Channels - T1008 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Application Layer Protocol - T1071 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Disk Content Wipe - T1488 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Inhibit System Recovery - T1490
Tags: Gamaredon, Sandworm, MicroBackdoor, Hades, HermeticWiper, HermeticRansom, IsaacWiper, Pandora, Cyclops Blink, Government, Russia, Ukraine, UNC1151, Ghostwriter, Belarus, Ukraine-Russia Conflict 2022, Operation Bleeding Bear
Alert (AA21-265A) Conti Ransomware (Updated)
(published: March 9, 2022)
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service has updated the alert on Conti ransomware with 98 domain names used in malicious operations. Conti ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation is attributed to the threat group Wizard Spider also known for its Trickbot malware. The group’s internal data and communications were leaked at the end of February 2022 after they announced support for Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
Analyst Comment: Despite the increased attention to Conti ransomware group, it remains extremely active. Ensure t |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat | APT 28 | |
|
2022-03-08 06:10:46 | Google: Russian Hackers Target Ukrainians, European Allies via Phishing Attacks (lien direct) | A broad range of threat actors, including Fancy Bear, Ghostwriter, and Mustang Panda, have launched phishing campaigns against Ukraine, Poland, and other European entities amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said it took down two Blogspot domains that were used by the nation-state group FancyBear (aka APT28) – which is attributed to Russia's GRU military | Threat | APT 28 | |
|
2022-02-25 00:05:00 | Anomali Threat Research Provides Russian Cyber Activity Dashboard (lien direct) | Russian government-sponsored threat actors recently increased their malicious activities[1], which are aligned with Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian retaliation for ongoing economic and diplomatic sanctions imposed by many other countries poses a significant risk of further escalation in the cyber sphere. Russian government-sponsored groups are dangerous cyber-actors that are well-resourced and relentless in their attacks, which include espionage, attacks on critical infrastructure, data destruction, and other malicious activities.
To assist our customers, Anomali has released a dashboard focused on Russian-origin actors and Russian cyber activity for ThreatStream users, titled “Russian Cyber Activity.”
The Anomali Threat Research team preconfigured this custom dashboard to provide immediate access and visibility into all known Russian government-related indicators of compromise (IOCs) made available through commercial and open-source threat feeds that users manage on Anomali ThreatStream.
Russian Cyber Activity is focused on seven threat actor groups: Six groups are well-known Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) groups: Berserk Bear, Cozy Bear (APT29), Fancy Bear (APT28), Gamaredon (Primitive Bear), Turla (Venomous Bear), and Voodoo Bear (Sandworm).
Additionally, we’ve included Evil Corp (Dridex, Indrik Spider) group. Although typically financially motivated, its leader is known to work for Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB) and has conducted cyber operations on behalf of the Russian government.[2]
Anomali customers using ThreatStream, Match, and Lens are able to immediately detect any IOCs present in their environments and quickly consume threat bulletins containing machine-readable IOCs. This enables analysts to quickly operationalize threat intelligence across their security infrastructures, as well as communicate to all stakeholders if and how they have been impacted.
Anomali recently added thematic dashboards that respond to significant global events as part of ongoing product enhancements that further automate and speed essential tasks performed by threat intelligence and security operations analysts. In addition to Russian Cyber Activity, ThreatStream customers currently have access to multiple dashboards announced as part of our recent quarterly product release.
Customers can easily integrate the Russian Cyber Activity dashboard, among others, in the “+ Add Dashboard” tab in the ThreatStream console:
Endnotes
[1] “Attack on Ukrainian Government Websites Linked to GRU Hackers,” Bellingcat Investigation Team, accessed February 24, 2022, published February 23, 2022, https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/02/23/attack-on-ukrainian-government-websites-linked-to-russian-gru-hackers/; Joe Tidy “Ukraine crisis: 'Wiper' discovered in latest cyber-attacks,” BBC News, accessed February 24, 2022, published February 24, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60500618.
[2] “Treasury Sanctions Evil Corp, the Russia-Based Cybercriminal Group Behind Dridex Malware,” The U.S. Department of the Treasury, accessed February 24, 2022, published December 5, 2019, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm845. |
Threat Guideline | APT 29 APT 29 APT 28 | |
 |
2022-02-09 10:57:38 | Cryptocurrency organisations hit with fake job offers (lien direct) | North Korean threat actors, known as the Lazarus group have been posting fake job listings to target the cryptocurrency vertical in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore and more. Lazarus hackers, also known as HIDDEN COBRA by the United States Intelligence Community and Zinc by Microsoft, have targeted cryptocurrency organisations in the past. The North Koreans are […] | Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | ★★ |
|
2022-01-31 15:41:44 | North Korean Hackers Abuse Windows Update Client in Attacks on Defense Industry (lien direct) | The North Korean threat group Lazarus was observed abusing the Windows Update client for the execution of malicious code during a campaign this month, Malwarebytes reports. | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2022-01-28 01:24:28 | North Korean Hackers Using Windows Update Service to Infect PCs with Malware (lien direct) | The notorious Lazarus Group actor has been observed mounting a new campaign that makes use of the Windows Update service to execute its malicious payload, expanding the arsenal of living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques leveraged by the APT group to further its objectives. The Lazarus Group, also known as APT38, Hidden Cobra, Whois Hacking Team, and Zinc, is the moniker assigned to the North | Malware Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2022-01-27 20:30:53 | North Korea-linked Lazarus APT used Windows Update client and GitHub in recent attacks (lien direct) | North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group uses Windows Update client to deliver malware on Windows systems. North Korea-linked Lazarus APT started using Windows Update to execute the malicious payload and GitHub as a command and control server in recent attacks, Malwarebytes researchers reported. The activity of the Lazarus APT group surged in 2014 and 2015, its members used […] | Malware | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2022-01-25 16:00:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: MoonBounce, AccessPress, QR Code Scams and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Linux Malware, Supply-Chain Attacks, Malspam, Phishing, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
FBI Warns Of Malicious QR Codes Used To Steal Your Money
(published: January 23, 2022)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently released a notice that malicious QR codes have been found in the wild. These codes, when scanned, will redirect the victim to a site where they are prompted to enter personal and payment details. The site will then harvest these credentials for cybercriminals to commit fraud and empty bank accounts. This threat vector has been seen in Germany as of December 2021.
Analyst Comment: Always be sure to check that emails have been sent from a legitimate source, and that any financial details or method of payment is done through the website. While QR codes are useful and being used by businesses more often, it is easy for cybercriminals to perform this kind of scam. If scanning a physical QR code, ensure the code has not been replaced with a sticker placed on top of the original code. Check the final URL to make sure it is the intended site and looks authentic.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566
Tags: EU & UK, Banking and Finance
MoonBounce: The Dark Side Of UEFI Firmware
(published: January 20, 2022)
Kaspersky has reported that in September 2021, a bootloader malware infection had been discovered that embeds itself into UEFI firmware. The malware patches existing UEFI drivers and resides in the SPI flash memory located on the motherboard. This means that it will persist even if the hard drive is replaced. Code snippets and IP addresses link the activity to APT41, a group that is operated by a group of Chinese-speaking individuals. MoonBounce is highly sophisticated and very difficult to detect.
Analyst Comment: Systems should be configured to take advantage of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware security chips to secure their systems' boot image and firmware, where available. Secure boot is also a viable option to mitigate against attacks that would patch, reconfigure, or flash existing UEFI firmware to implant malicious code.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Pre-OS Boot - T1542 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Obfuscation - T1001 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encoding - T1132 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploitation of Remote Services - T1210 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Remote Services - T1021 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Shared Modules - T1129 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Hijack Execution Flow - T1574 | |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Guideline | APT 41 APT 28 | |
|
2022-01-19 22:45:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Russia-Sponsored Cyber Threats, China-Based Earth Lusca Active in Cyberespionage and Cybertheft, BlueNoroff Hunts Cryptocurrency-Related Businesses, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, China, HTTP Stack, Malspam, North Korea, Phishing, Russia and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Earth Lusca Employs Sophisticated Infrastructure, Varied Tools and Techniques
(published: January 17, 2022)
The Earth Lusca threat group is part of the Winnti cluster. It is one of different Chinese groups that share aspects of their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) including the use of Winnti malware. Earth Lusca were active throughout 2021 committing both cyberespionage operations against government-connected organizations and financially-motivated intrusions targeting gambling and cryptocurrency-related sectors. For intrusion, the group tries different ways in including: spearphishing, watering hole attacks, and exploiting publicly facing servers. Cobalt Strike is one of the group’s preferred post-exploitation tools. It is followed by the use of the BioPass RAT, the Doraemon backdoor, the FunnySwitch backdoor, ShadowPad, and Winnti. The group employs two separate infrastructure clusters, first one is rented Vultr VPS servers used for command-and-control (C2), second one is compromised web servers used to scan for vulnerabilities, tunnel traffic, and Cobalt Strike C2.
Analyst Comment: Earth Lusca often relies on tried-and-true techniques that can be stopped by security best practices, such as avoiding clicking on suspicious email/website links and or reacting on random banners urging to update important public-facing applications. Don’t be tricked to download Adobe Flash update, it was discontinued at the end of December 2020. Administrators should keep their important public-facing applications (such as Microsoft Exchange and Oracle GlassFish Server) updated.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Drive-by Compromise - T1189 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploit Public-Facing Application - T1190 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Command and Scripting Interpreter - T1059 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Task - T1053 | [MITRE ATT&CK] System Services - T1569 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Windows Management Instrumentation - T1047 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Account Manipulation - T1098 | [MITRE ATT&CK] BITS Jobs - T1197 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Create Account - T1136 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Create or Modify System Process - T1543 | [MITRE ATT&CK] External Remote Services - T1133 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Hijack Execution Flow |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Patching Guideline | APT 41 APT 38 APT 29 APT 28 APT 28 | |
 |
2022-01-18 16:59:26 | North Korean Cryptocurrency Theft Relies on Social Engineering (lien direct) |
A North Korean threat actor being called “BlueNoroff,” a subunit of Pyongyang's Lazarus Group, has been targeting cryptocurrency startups with financially motivated attacks, researchers at Kaspersky have found. The campaign, “SnatchCrypto,” is using malicious documents to gain access to internal communications, then using social engineering to manipulate employees. |
Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2022-01-14 15:46:18 | North Korea-linked APT BlueNoroff focuses on crypto theft (lien direct) | The North Korea-linked APT group BlueNoroff has been spotted targeting cryptocurrency startups with fake MetaMask browser extensions. The North Korea-linked APT group BlueNoroff has been spotted targeting cryptocurrency startups with fake MetaMask browser extensions. The nation-state actor is considered a group that operates under the control of the notorious North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group. The […] | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2022-01-14 15:29:16 | North Korean Hackers Stole $400 Million Worth of Cryptocurrency in 2021 (lien direct) | North Korea-linked hacking group Lazarus stole close to $400 million worth of crypto-assets last year, Chainalysis reports. | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2022-01-14 06:16:30 | North Korean Hackers Stole Millions from Cryptocurrency Startups Worldwide (lien direct) | Operators associated with the Lazarus sub-group BlueNoroff have been linked to a series of cyberattacks targeting small and medium-sized companies worldwide with an aim to drain their cryptocurrency funds, in what's yet another financially motivated operation mounted by the prolific North Korean state-sponsored actor. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which is tracking the intrusions | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
 |
2021-12-30 09:27:18 | APT28 SKINNYBOY: Cheat Sheet (lien direct) | APT28, also known as Sofacy Group is an (in)famous threat actor. It is a cyber espionage group believed to have ties to the Russian government. Likely operating since 2007, the group is known to target government, military, and security organizations and it has been characterized as an advanced persistent threat over the past years from […] | Threat | APT 28 | |
|
2021-12-21 16:57:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: \'PseudoManuscrypt\' Mass Spyware Campaign Targets 35K Systems, APT31 Intrusion Set Campaign: Description, Countermeasures and Code, State-sponsored hackers abuse Slack API to steal (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT31, Magecart, Hancitor, Pakdoor, Lazarus, and Vulnerabilities CVE-2021-21551.. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
NSW Government Casual Recruiter Suffers Ransomware Hit
(published: December 17, 2021)
Finite Recruitment suffered a ransomware attack during the month of October 2021, resulting in the exfiltration of some data. Their incident responders (IR) identified the ransomware as Conti, a fast encrypting ransomware commonly attributed to the cybercriminal group Wizard Spider. The exfiltrated data was published on the dark web, however the firm remains fully operational, and affected customers are being informed.
Analyst Comment: Always check to see if there is a decryptor available for the ransomware before considering payment. Enforce a strong backup policy to ensure that data is recoverable in the event of encryption or loss.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Transfer - T1029
Tags: Conti, Wizard Spider, Ransomware, Banking and Finance
Phorpiex botnet is back with a new Twizt: Hijacking Hundreds of crypto transactions
(published: December 16, 2021)
Check Point Research has uncovered a new variant of the Phorpiex botnet named Twizt. Historically, Phorpiex utilized sextortion, ransomware delivery, and cryptocurrency clipping. Twizt however, appears to be primarily focused on stealing cryptocurrency and have stolen half a million dollars since November 2020 in the form of Bitcoin, Ether and ERC20 tokens.The botnet features departure from it’s traditional command and control (C2) infrastructure, opting for peer-to-peer (P2P) communications between infected hosts, eliminating the need for C2 communication as each host can fulfill that role.
Analyst Comment: Bots within a P2P network need to communicate regularly with other bots to receive and share commands. If the infected bots are on a private network, private IP addresses will be used. Therefore, careful monitoring of network traffic will reveal suspicious activity, and a spike in network resource usage as opposed to the detection of C2 IP addresses.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encoding - T1132 | [MITRE ATT&CK] File and Directory Discovery - T1083 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Clipboard Data - T1115
Tags: Phorpiex, Twizt, Russia, Banking and Finance, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin
‘PseudoManuscrypt’ Mass Spyware Campaign Targets 35K Systems
(published: December 16, 2021)
Kaspersky researchers have documented a spyware that has targeted 195 countries as of December 2021. The spyware, named PseudoManuscrypt, was developed and deployed by Lazarus Group |
Ransomware Malware Vulnerability Threat Guideline Medical | APT 41 APT 38 APT 28 APT 31 | |
 |
2021-12-16 10:00:19 | PseudoManuscrypt: a mass-scale spyware attack campaign (lien direct) | Kaspersky ICS CERT experts identified malware whose loader has some similarities to the Manuscrypt malware, which is part of the Lazarus APT group's arsenal. | Malware | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2021-12-15 12:28:28 | Squirrelwaffle, Fancy Bear, EggshellCheetah : Infoblox publie son rapport d\'analyse des cybermenaces trimestriel (lien direct) | Élément fondamental de la protection des données et des systèmes informatiques, la threat intelligence vise à identifier et à analyser les cybermenaces. En tant que spécialiste de la cybersécurité, Infoblox est convaincu que des informations actualisées sur les cybermenaces sont essentielles pour protéger la communauté des fournisseurs et utilisateurs de technologies dans son ensemble. The post Squirrelwaffle, Fancy Bear, EggshellCheetah : Infoblox publie son rapport d'analyse des cybermenaces trimestriel first appeared on UnderNews. | Threat | APT 28 | |
|
2021-11-15 15:34:25 | North Korea-linked Lazarus group targets cybersecurity experts with Trojanized IDA Pro (lien direct) | North Korea-linked APT Lazarus targets security researchers using a trojanized pirated version of the popular IDA Pro reverse engineering software. ESET researchers reported that the North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group is targeting cyber security community with a trojanized pirated version of the popular IDA Pro reverse engineering software. Threat actors bundled the IDA Pro 7.5 […] | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2021-11-10 12:08:04 | Lazarus hackers target researchers with trojanized IDA Pro (lien direct) | A North Korean state-sponsored hacking group known as Lazarus is again trying to hack security researchers, this time with a trojanized pirated version of the popular IDA Pro reverse engineering application. [...] | Hack | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2021-10-27 16:06:53 | North Korean Hackers Targeting IT Supply Chain: Kaspersky (lien direct) | The North Korea-linked state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus has started to target the IT supply chain in recent attacks, according to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2021-10-27 09:30:00 | North Korean Lazarus APT Targets Software Supply Chain (lien direct) | Prolific threat group take a leaf out of the SolarWinds campaign | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | ★★★★ |
|
2021-10-27 09:03:08 | North Korea-linked Lazarus APT targets the IT supply chain (lien direct) | North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group is extending its operations and started targeting the IT supply chain on new targets. North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group is now targeting also IT supply chain, researchers from Kaspersky Lab warns. The activity of the Lazarus APT group surged in 2014 and 2015, its members used mostly custom-tailored malware in their attacks. […] | Malware | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2021-10-27 00:14:47 | Latest Report Uncovers Supply Chain Attacks by North Korean Hackers (lien direct) | Lazarus Group, the advanced persistent threat (APT) group attributed to the North Korean government, has been observed waging two separate supply chain attack campaigns as a means to gain a foothold into corporate networks and target a wide range of downstream entities.
The latest intelligence-gathering operation involved the use of MATA malware framework as well as backdoors dubbed BLINDINGCAN |
Malware Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
|
2021-10-26 13:23:54 | North Korean state hackers start targeting the IT supply chain (lien direct) | North Korean-sponsored Lazarus hacking group has switched focus on new targets and was observed by Kaspersky security researchers expanding its supply chain attack capabilities. [...] | APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2021-10-12 17:41:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Aerospace and Telecoms Targeted by Iranian MalKamak Group, Cozy Bear Refocuses on Cyberespionage, Wicked Panda is Traced by Malleable C2 Profiles, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Data leak, Ransomware, Phishing, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Russian Cyberattacks Pose Greater Risk to Governments and Other Insights from Our Annual Report
(published: October 7, 2021)
Approximately 58% of all nation-state attacks observed by Microsoft between July 2020 and June 2021 have been attributed to the Russian-sponsored threat groups, specifically to Cozy Bear (APT29, Nobelium) associated with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The United States, Ukraine, and the UK were the top three targeted by them. Russian Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors increased their effectiveness from a 21% successful compromise rate to a 32% rate comparing year to year. They achieve it by starting an attack with supply-chain compromise, utilizing effective tools such as web shells, and increasing their skills with the cloud environment targeting. Russian APTs are increasingly targeting government agencies for intelligence gathering, which jumped from 3% of their targets a year ago to 53% – largely agencies involved in foreign policy, national security, or defense. Following Russia by the number of APT cyberattacks were North Korea (23%), Iran (11%), and China (8%).
Analyst Comment: As the collection of intrusions for potential disruption operations via critical infrastructure attacks became too risky for Russia, it refocused back to gaining access to and harvesting intelligence. The scale and growing effectiveness of the cyberespionage requires a defence-in-depth approach and tools such as Anomali Match that provide real-time forensics capability to identify potential breaches and known actor attributions.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Supply Chain Compromise - T1195 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Server Software Component - T1505 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Brute Force - T1110
Tags: Fancy Bear, APT28, APT29, The Dukes, Strontium, Nobelium, Energetic Bear, Cozy Bear, Government, APT, Russia, SVR, China, North Korea, USA, UK, Ukraine, Iran
Ransomware in the CIS
(published: October 7, 2021)
Many prominent ransomware groups have members located in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - and they avoid targeting this region. Still, businesses in the CIS are under the risk of being targeted by dozens of lesser-known ransomware groups. Researchers from Kaspersky Labs have published a report detailing nine business-oriented ransomware trojans that were most active in the CIS in the first half of 2021. These ransomware families are BigBobRoss (TheDMR), Cryakl (CryLock), CryptConsole, Crysis (Dharma), Fonix (XINOF), Limbozar (VoidCrypt), Phobos (Eking), Thanos (Hakbit), and XMRLocker. The oldest, Cryakl, has been around since April 2014, and the newest, XMRLocker, was first detected in August 2020. Most of them were mainly distributed via the cracking of Remote Deskto |
Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Guideline Prediction | APT 41 APT 41 APT 39 APT 29 APT 29 APT 28 | |
|
2021-10-08 09:09:54 | Google warns of APT28 attack attempts against 14,000 Gmail users (lien direct) | Google warned more than 14,000 Gmail users that they have been the target of nation-state spear-phishing campaigns. On Wednesday, Google announced to have warned approximately 14,000 Gmail users that they had been targeted by nation-state hackers. Shane Huntley, the head of the Threat Analysis Group (TAG), wrote on Twitter that his group had sent an above-average batch […] | Threat | APT 28 | ★★★ |
|
2021-10-07 19:38:57 | Google warns 14,000 Gmail users targeted by Russian hackers (lien direct) | Google has warned about 14,000 of its users about being targeted in a state-sponsored phishing campaign from APT28, a threat group that has been linked to Russia. [...] | Threat | APT 28 | |
|
2021-07-20 15:00:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: China Blamed for Microsoft Exchange Attacks, Israeli Cyber Surveillance Companies Help Oppressive Governments, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: China, APT, Espionage, Ransomware, Targeted Campaigns, DLL Side-Loading, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
UK and Allies Accuse China for a Pervasive Pattern of Hacking, Breaching Microsoft Exchange Servers
(published: July 19, 2021)
On July 19th, 2021, the US, the UK, and other global allies jointly accused China in a pattern of aggressive malicious cyber activity. First, they confirmed that Chinese state-backed actors (previously identified under the group name Hafnium) were responsible for gaining access to computer networks around the world via Microsoft Exchange servers. The attacks took place in early 2021, affecting over a quarter of a million servers worldwide. Additionally, APT31 (Judgement Panda) and APT40 (Kryptonite Panda) were attributed to Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicted four APT40 members, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) shared indicators of compromise of the historic APT40 activity.
Analyst Comment: Network defense-in-depth and adherence to information security best practices can assist organizations in reducing the risk. Pay special attention to the patch and vulnerability management, protecting credentials, and continuing network hygiene and monitoring. When possible, enforce the principle of least privilege, use segmentation and strict access control measures for critical data. Organisations can use Anomali Match to perform real time forensic analysis for tracking such attacks.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Drive-by Compromise - T1189 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploit Public-Facing Application - T1190 | [MITRE ATT&CK] External Remote Services - T1133 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Server Software Component - T1505 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploitation of Remote Services - T1210
Tags: Hafnium, Judgement Panda, APT31, TEMP.Jumper, APT40, Kryptonite Panda, Zirconium, Leviathan, TEMP.Periscope, Microsoft Exchange, CVE-2021-26857, CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-27065, CVE-2021-26858, Government, EU, UK, North America, China
NSO’s Spyware Sold to Authoritarian Regimes Used to Target Activists, Politicians and Journalists
(published: July 18, 2021)
Israeli surveillance company NSO Group supposedly sells spyware to vetted governments bodies to fight crime and terrorism. New research discovered NSO’s tools being used against non-criminal actors, pro-democracy activists and journalists investigating corruption, political opponents and government critics, diplomats, etc. In some cases, the timeline of this surveillance coincided with journalists' arrests and even murders. The main penetration tool used by NSO is malware Pegasus that targets both iPho |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Studies Guideline Industrial | APT 41 APT 40 APT 28 APT 31 | |
 |
2021-07-06 10:00:00 | Lazarus campaign TTPs and evolution (lien direct) |
Executive summary
AT&T Alien Labs™ has observed new activity that has been attributed to the Lazarus adversary group potentially targeting engineering job candidates and/or employees in classified engineering roles within the U.S. and Europe. This assessment is based on malicious documents believed to have been delivered by Lazarus during the last few months (spring 2021). However, historical analysis shows the lures used in this campaign to be in line with others used to target these groups.
The purpose of this blog is to share the new technical intelligence and provide detection options for defenders. Alien Labs will continue to report on any noteworthy changes.
Key Takeaways:
Lazarus has been identified targeting defense contractors with malicious documents.
There is a high emphasis on renaming system utilities (Certutil and Explorer) to obfuscate the adversary’s activities (T1036.003).
Background
Since 2009, the known tools and capabilities believed to have been used by the Lazarus Group include DDoS botnets, keyloggers, remote access tools (RATs), and drive wiper malware. The most publicly documented malware and tools used by the group actors include Destover, Duuzer, and Hangman.
Analysis
Several documents identified from May to June 2021 by Twitter users were identified as being linked to the Lazarus group. Documents observed in previous campaigns lured victims with job opportunities for Boeing and BAE systems. These new documents include:
Rheinmetall_job_requirements.doc: identified by ESET Research.
General_motors_cars.doc: identified by Twitter user @1nternaut.
Airbus_job_opportunity_confidential.doc: identified by 360CoreSec.
The documents attempted to impersonate new defense contractors and engineering companies like Airbus, General Motors (GM), and Rheinmetall. All of these documents contain macro malware, which has been developed and improved during the course of this campaign and from one target to another. The core techniques for the three malicious documents are the same, but the attackers attempted to reduce the potential detections and increase the faculties of the macros.
First iteration: Rheinmetall
The first two documents from early May 2021 were related to a German Engineering company focused on the defense and automotive industries, Rheinmetall. The second malicious document appears to include more elaborate content, which may have resulted in the documents going unnoticed by victims.
The Macro has base64 encoded files, which are extracted and decoded during execution. Some of the files are split inside the Macro and are not combined until the time of decoding. One of the most distinctive characteristics of this Macro is how it evades detections of a MZ header encoded in base64 (TVoA, TVpB, TVpQ, TVqA, TVqQ or TVro), by separating the first two characters from the rest of the content, as seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Concealing of MZ header, as captured by Alien Labs.
The rest of the content is kept together in lines of 64 characters, and because of this, YARA rules can be used to detect other, typical executable content encoded in base64 aside of the MZ header. In this case, up to nine different YARA rules alerted to suspicious encoded strings in our Alien Labs analysis, like VirtualProtect, GetProcAddress, IsDe |
Malware Threat Guideline Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2021-07-03 11:00:33 | (Déjà vu) Russian hackers are trying to brute-force hundreds of networks (lien direct) | Moscow's Fancy Bear group has been on a password-guessing spree this whole time. | APT 28 | ||
|
2021-07-02 16:14:14 | Widespread Brute-Force Attacks Tied to Russia\'s APT28 (lien direct) | The ongoing attacks are targeting cloud services such as Office 365 to steal passwords and password-spray a vast range of targets, including in U.S. and European governments and military. | APT 28 | ||
|
2021-07-02 08:42:00 | Russia\'s APT28 Blamed for Brute Force Campaign Using Kubernetes (lien direct) | Threat actors have targeted hundreds of US and European organizations | Threat | Uber APT 28 | |
 |
2021-07-02 03:55:00 | Ces hackers russes utilisent des VPN grand public pour perpétrer leur attaques (lien direct) | Les pirates d'APT28 tentent de rentrer par force brute dans les réseaux de centaines d'organisations aux États-Unis et en Europe. Leurs outils : un cluster de serveurs Kubernetes, le réseau Tor et des services VPN.  |
Uber APT 28 | ||
|
2021-07-01 21:49:14 | UK, US agencies warn of large-scale brute-force attacks carried out by Russian APT (lien direct) | US and UK cybersecurity agencies said the Russia-linked APT28 group is behind a series of large-scale brute-force attacks.US and UK cybersecurity agencies said today that a Russian military cyber unit has been behind a series of brute-force attacks that have targeted the cloud IT resources of government and private sector companies across the world. US […] | APT 28 | ||
 |
2021-07-01 17:21:46 | Fancy Bear Is Trying to Brute-Force Hundreds of Networks (lien direct) | While SolarWinds rightly drew attention earlier this year, Moscow's Fancy Bear group has been on a password-guessing spree this whole time. | APT 28 | ||
|
2021-06-22 18:18:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Klingon RAT Holding on for Dear Life, CVS Medical Records Breach, Black Kingdom Ransomware and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: Black Kingdom, Darkside, Go, Klingon Rat, Microsoft PowerApps, Ransomware and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Andariel Evolves to Target South Korea with Ransomware
(published: June 15, 2021)
Researchers at securelist identified ransomware attacks from Andariel, a sub-group of Lazarus targeting South Korea. Attack victims included entities from manufacturing, home network service, media and construction sectors. These attacks involved malicious Microsoft Word documents containing a macro and used novel techniques to implant a multi-stage payload. The final payload was a ransomware custom made for this specific attack.
Analyst Comment: Users should be wary of documents that request Macros to be enabled. All employees should be educated on the risk of opening attachments from unknown senders. Anti-spam and antivirus protections should be implemented and kept up-to-date with the latest version to better ensure security.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] System Network Connections Discovery - T1049 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Process Discovery - T1057 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Screen Capture - T1113 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Standard Non-Application Layer Protocol - T1095 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exfiltration Over Command and Control Channel - T1041 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encrypted for Impact - T1486
Tags: Lazarus group, Lazarus, Andariel, Hidden Cobra, tasklist, Manuscrypt, Banking And Finance, Malicious documents, Macros
Matanbuchus: Malware-as-a-Service with Demonic Intentions
(published: June 15, 2021)
In February 2021, BelialDemon advertised a new malware-as-a-service (MaaS) called Matanbuchus Loader and charged an initial rental price of $2,500. Malware loaders are malicious software that typically drop or pull down second-stage malware from command and control (C2) infrastructures.
Analyst Comment: Malware as a Service (MaaS) is a relatively new development, which opens the doors of crime to anyone with the money to pay for access. A criminal organization that wants to carry out a malware attack on a target no longer requires in-house technical expertise or infrastructure. Such attacks in most cases share tactics, techniques, and even IOCs. This highlights the importance of intelligence sharing for proactive protection.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] System Network Configuration Discovery - T1016
Tags: BelialDemon, Matanbuchus, Belial, WildFire, EU, North America
Black Kingdom ransomware
(published: June 17 |
Ransomware Data Breach Malware Vulnerability Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
 |
2021-06-11 11:34:28 | Fake Lazarus DDoS Gang Launches New \'Attacks\' (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: Black Kingdom, Darkside, Go, Klingon Rat, Microsoft PowerApps, Ransomware and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Andariel Evolves to Target South Korea with Ransomware
(published: June 15, 2021)
Researchers at securelist identified ransomware attacks from Andariel, a sub-group of Lazarus targeting South Korea. Attack victims included entities from manufacturing, home network service, media and construction sectors. These attacks involved malicious Microsoft Word documents containing a macro and used novel techniques to implant a multi-stage payload. The final payload was a ransomware custom made for this specific attack.
Analyst Comment: Users should be wary of documents that request Macros to be enabled. All employees should be educated on the risk of opening attachments from unknown senders. Anti-spam and antivirus protections should be implemented and kept up-to-date with the latest version to better ensure security.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] System Network Connections Discovery - T1049 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Process Discovery - T1057 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Screen Capture - T1113 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Standard Non-Application Layer Protocol - T1095 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exfiltration Over Command and Control Channel - T1041 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encrypted for Impact - T1486
Tags: Lazarus group, Lazarus, Andariel, Hidden Cobra, tasklist, Manuscrypt, Banking And Finance, Malicious documents, Macros
Matanbuchus: Malware-as-a-Service with Demonic Intentions
(published: June 15, 2021)
In February 2021, BelialDemon advertised a new malware-as-a-service (MaaS) called Matanbuchus Loader and charged an initial rental price of $2,500. Malware loaders are malicious software that typically drop or pull down second-stage malware from command and control (C2) infrastructures.
Analyst Comment: Malware as a Service (MaaS) is a relatively new development, which opens the doors of crime to anyone with the money to pay for access. A criminal organization that wants to carry out a malware attack on a target no longer requires in-house technical expertise or infrastructure. Such attacks in most cases share tactics, techniques, and even IOCs. This highlights the importance of intelligence sharing for proactive protection.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] System Network Configuration Discovery - T1016
Tags: BelialDemon, Matanbuchus, Belial, WildFire, EU, North America
Black Kingdom ransomware
(published: June 17 |
APT 38 APT 28 | ||
|
2021-06-10 12:33:45 | L\'acteur Fancy Lazarus spécialiste des extorsions DDoS fait son grand retour (lien direct) | Les chercheurs Proofpoint suivent de près une nouvelle activité malveillante : la menace d'extorsion par déni de service distribué (DDoS) avec demande de rançon connue sous le nom de "Fancy Lazarus". The post L'acteur Fancy Lazarus spécialiste des extorsions DDoS fait son grand retour first appeared on UnderNews. | APT 38 APT 28 |
To see everything:
Our RSS (filtrered)
