Cyberattack

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OARC-40: Notes on the Recent DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Centre Workshop

OARC held a 2-day meeting in February, with presentations on various DNS topics. Here are some observations I picked up from the presentations in that meeting... In a world where every DNS name is DNSSEC-signed, and every DNS client validates all received DNS responses, we wouldn't necessarily have the problem of DNS spoofing. Even if we concede that universal use of DNSSEC is a long time off ... more

Brand Impersonation Online is a Multidimensional Cybersecurity Threat

Brand impersonation happens much more often than people realize. In CSC's latest Domain Security Report, we found that 75% of domains for the Global 2000 that contained more than six characters from the brand names were not actually owned by the brands themselves. The intent of these fake domain registrations is to leverage the trust placed on the targeted brands to launch phishing attacks, other forms of digital brand abuse, or IP infringement... more

DNSAI Compass: Six Months of Measuring Phishing and Malware

The DNS Abuse Institute recently published our sixth monthly report for our project to measure DNS Abuse: DNSAI Compass ('Compass'). Compass is an initiative of the DNS Abuse Institute to measure the use of the DNS for phishing and malware. The intention is to establish a credible source of metrics for addressing DNS Abuse. We hope this will enable focused conversations, and identify opportunities for improvement. more

How to Avoid Insider Threats Such as the Latest New York Post Hacking

New York Post has been "hacked" by an employee. To protect themselves from insider threats, companies can deploy zero trust and restrict access. On October 27, the New York Post published a string of racist and sexist articles on its website. Fabricated news about politicians, such as pieces concerning racist comments of a New York City mayor, has been headlining the publication. more

The Hack Will Be a Costly Affair for Optus

More and more information is becoming available about the breach of Optus (Australia's second-largest telco). It looks like the hacker is more of an amateur than a professional criminal or a "state actor." This makes the hack even more worrisome. It looks as though Optus didn't have its security house in order. This makes the issue all the more painful for the company. It will dent its reputation, and customers could become somewhat wary about dealing with the company. more

Branded Domains Are the Focal Point of Many Phishing Attacks

As a long-established online attack strategy, phishing remains a popular tool for fraudsters because of its effectiveness. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported more than 300,000 distinct phishing attacks in December 2021 -- more than three times the number reported in early 2020, and the highest monthly total ever identified. more

Securing Weak Links in Supply Chain Attacks

We've all heard the term, "you're only as strong as your weakest link." Whether talking about a tug of war on the playground, a sports team, or a business, this rings as true as ever. Every business relies on a series of suppliers and vendors -- be it the dairy farm supplying milk to the multinational food manufacturer or the payment systems that retailers use. These links form supply chains that every business, large and small, deals with. There is simply no way around it. more

Ukraine: What Are the Likely Implications for Norms and Discussions in Cyberspace?

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February, and the events since, have shocked and horrified the world. The immediate focus must be on protecting the safety, security and human rights of the Ukrainian population. But we can already see how the war will also impact broader global events, discussions and behaviour, particularly relating to the digital environment. more

New Research from CSC on the Impact of COVID-19 on Internet Security and Safety

Hackers are using company domain names for malicious attacks more than ever before. Established research shows that phishing and related malware attacks most commonly occur from a compromised or hijacked legitimate domain name, a maliciously registered, confusingly similar domain name, or via email header spoofing. Domain security intelligence is the first line of defense in preventing domain cyberattacks. more

The UK Seeks to Enforce Tougher Standards on MSPs

The UK government is proposing new regulations to strengthen cyber resilience in the private sector. Their intention is to expand cybersecurity rules for critical infrastructure (CI) operators to include managed service providers (MSPs), more stringent breach notification requirements, and legislation to establish the UK Cyber Security Council as the standards development organization for the cybersecurity profession. This is a welcomed development, but more details about implementation and enforcement are needed. more

We Must Keep Track of How Countries Will Confront Cybercrime in a New UN Convention

As a designated committee of experts prepares to draft a new treaty to combat the use of information and communications technologies in cybercrime at the UN in January 2022, it is paramount that other stakeholders oversee these discussions to avoid violating human rights on the Internet. This initiative was kickstarted by a 2019 resolution led by Russia and endorsed by other countries considered by many to behavior controversially on cybersecurity matters, such as China, Venezuela, Cambodia, North Korea, and others. more

Endpoint Rollbacks & Data Shadow Copies

Recently I was asked by a customer how they can easily set up rollback capabilities on the endpoints in their corporate network. They had seen the marketing hype by various security technology providers that their products included rollback capabilities they could utilize if/when one of their workstations or servers was infected by malware. Having gotten this question more than once, I thought it would be a good subject to share with a broader audience. more

Key Findings from the 2021 Domain Security Report

With cybercrime on the rise, companies in 2021 have experienced increased ransomware attacks, business email compromise (BEC), phishing attacks, supply chain attacks, and online brand and trademark abuse. While domain cyber risk is rising, the level of action being taken by Forbes Global 2000 companies to improve their domain security posture has remained unchanged, leaving these companies exposed to even more risk. The risk of not addressing your domain security can be catastrophic. more

It’s Time to Rethink Outage Reports

Much has been said about the criticality of the small coterie of large-scale content distribution platforms and their critical role in today's Internet. These days when one of the small set of core content platforms experiences a service outage, then it's mainstream news, as we saw in June of this year with outages reported in both Fastly and Akamai. In the case of Akamai, the June outage impacted three of Australia's largest banks, their national postal service, the country's reserve bank, and one airline... more

The Importance of Understanding Attacker Target Selection

There's a bit of a debate going on about whether the Kaseya attack exploited a 0-day vulnerability. While that's an interesting question when discussing, say, patch management strategies, I think it's less important to understand attackers' thinking than understand their target selection. In a nutshell, the attackers have outmaneuvered defenders for almost 30 years when it comes to target selection. more

News Briefs

Dish Network Confirms Network Outage Was a Cybersecurity Breach Impacting Customers and Employees

GoDaddy Reveals Its Network Suffered a Multi-Year Security Compromise

Ukraine Conflict Transformed the Cyber Threat Landscape, Says Google

Healthcare Industry Was the Most Common Victim of Third-Party Breaches in 2022

Feds Confirm Cyberattack Caused Nation’s Critical Suicide Helpline Outage

Close to Half of US East Coast Fuel Supply Shutdown Due to Ransomware Cyberattack

DDoS Attacks Are Surging Both in Frequency and Sophistication

Over 360 Security Experts Around the World From Group to Combat COVID-19 Hackers, Protect Hospitals

U.S. Health Agency Suffers From Cyberattack, COVID-19 Disruptions by Foreign Actors Suspected

Microsoft Takes Legal Action Against North Korean Cybercrime Group, Takes Down 50 Domains

More Than 500 Schools in the U.S. Hit by Ransomware in 2019, Says Report

27 Countries Issue Joint Statement on ‘Advancing Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace’

Cyber Risk Now on Top of Corporate Risk Agendas, Cyber Insurance Expanding

The Insecurity of the IoT is Only Getting More Profound, Says Principal Researcher at F-Secure

Ransomware Causes 15 Schools in Arizona To Stay Closed For a Second Day

Phishing Attacks Targeting Executives Now Top Cybersecurity Insurance Claims, Says AIG

Close to 200K Phishing Domains Discovered in a 5-Month Span, 66% Targetted Consumers, Akamai Reports

A 60% Rise Reported on Malware Designed to Harvest Consumers’ Digital Data, aka Password Stealers

Equifax Announces Comprehensive Consumer Settlement for the 2017 Data Breach

Florida Cities Are Paying Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Ransom to Get Their Data Back

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SocGholish IoCs and Artifacts: Tricking Users to Download Malware

Profiling a Massive Portfolio of Domains Involved in Ransomware Campaigns

Gauging How Big a Threat Gigabud RAT Is Through an IoC List Expansion Analysis

Catching Batloader Disguised as Legit Tools through Threat Vector Identification

Tracing Connections to Rogue Software Spread through Google Search Ads

Malware Persistence versus Early Detection: AutoIT and Dridex IoC Expansion Analysis

Sifting for Digital Breadcrumbs Related to the Latest Zoom Attack

Cloud Atlas May Hide Their Tracks but 1,800+ Unpublicized Artifacts Can Help Orgs Tag Them

Exposing Chat Apps Exploited for Supply Chain Attacks

From Data Breach to Phishing to Lapsus$: Cyber Attacks That Echoed in 2022

Supply Chain Security: A Closer Look at the IconBurst and Material Tailwind Attacks

Is Aurora as Stealthy as Its Operators Believe?

Australian Government Steps In

From Counties to Banks: Tracing the Footprint of Ransomware Attack IoCs

Beware That Software Update, It Could Be Magniber in Disguise

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