IT NEWS

Question: Who said the sentence below?

“Privacy is at the heart of everything we do.”

Answer: Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and its largest subsidiary Google. And if you look at the recent actions Google has announced, you’d be tempted to take his word for it:

• An initiative to let Chrome hide your IP address.
• Strengthening the safeguard measures for Google Workspace customers.
• Changing data retention practices to make auto-delete the default.

But at the same time, Google is under fire because some of its actions seem half-baked. Allegedly Google’s option to “browse privately” is nothing more than a word play.

Let’s be fair. Google makes lots and lots of money by knowing what we are looking for. And to achieve that goal it needs to gather as much information as possible about us. Maybe not specifically about us as a person, but at least about us as a group.

Data are the most coveted currency of our era, and technology giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are considered the behemoths of the data gathering industry. If they don’t already, they want to know everything about each and every one of us.

We’re not all equally valued though. Certain milestones in a person’s life prompt major changes in buying patterns, whether that’s becoming a parent, moving home, getting married, buying a car, or going through a divorce. Some of the most personal and secretive troves of data rank as the most expensive.

In a recent blog, privacy company Proton explained how Google is spending millions lobbying and actively fighting against privacy laws that would protect you from online surveillance.

Proton used the expression, “privacy washing” which compares Google’s disparity between actions and words to those of the world’s largest environmental polluters who portray themselves as eco-conscious, known as “green washing.“

According to lobbying reports and other records, Alphabet and its subsidiaries have spent more than $125 million on federal lobbying, campaign contributions, and trade associations since 2019.

This is done under the guise that Google wants regulators to let companies decide themselves what’s good for you and for society. But so far, big tech is consistently letting us down in this regard.

A small but telling example was a recent court case where a judge ruled that car manufacturers collecting users’ text messages and call logs did not meet the Washington Privacy Act’s (WPA) standard that a plaintiff must prove that “his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation” has been threatened.

In other words they can steal all the data they want as long as you can’t prove that it doesn’t hurt your business, yourself or your reputation. Does that sound fair to you?

Several US states are going through the process of passing new comprehensive consumer privacy laws, in an attempt to give American citizens more control over their personal data. Privacy advisor IAPP reckons that by 2026, 13 state privacy laws will have taken effect, as newly enacted laws in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas will join California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia.

The European Union (EU) is a pioneer when it comes to privacy laws, so it’s easy to see why Big Tech has spent so much money (about $30 million in 2021) lobbying European lawmakers to protect their data gathering practices. Google has been among the most aggressive to water down or slow down the expansion of consumer protections through additional regulations — in particular the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and ePrivacy Regulation. Google happily bragged about stalling the ePrivacy Regulation, which would crack down on tracking cookies.

It’s common for industries to lobby lawmakers on issues affecting their business. But there is a massive disparity in the state-by-state battle over privacy legislation between well-funded, well-organized tech lobbyists and their opposition of relatively scattered consumer advocates and privacy-minded politicians, The Markup has found.

So, Sundar Pichai, we would like you to put your money where your mouth is. And make some real changes to improve our privacy, rather than engage in privacy washing.

We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your and your family’s personal information by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

Atomic Stealer, also known as AMOS, is a popular stealer for Mac OS. Back in September, we described how malicious ads were tricking victims into downloading this piece of malware under the disguise of a popular application.

In an interesting new development, AMOS is now being delivered to Mac users via a fake browser update chain tracked as ‘ClearFake’. This may very well be the first time we see one of the main social engineering campaigns, previously reserved for Windows, branch out not only in terms of geolocation but also operating system.

With a growing list of compromised sites at their disposal, the threat actors are able to reach out a wider audience, stealing credentials and files of interest that can be monetized immediately or repurposed for additional attacks.

Discovery

ClearFake is a newer malware campaign that leverages compromised websites to distribute fake browser updates. It was originally discovered by Randy McEoin in August and has since gone through a number of upgrades, including the use of smart contracts to build its redirect mechanism, making it one of the most prevalent and dangerous social engineering schemes.

On November 17, security researcher Ankit Anubhav observed that ClearFake was distributed to Mac users as well with a corresponding payload:

The Safari template mimics the official Apple website and is available in different languages:

Since Google Chrome is also popular on Macs, there is a template for it which closely resembles the one used for Windows users:

Atomic Stealer

The payload is made for for Mac users, a DMG file purporting to be a Safari or Chrome update. Victims are instructed on how to open the file which immediately runs commands after prompting for the administrative password.

Looking at the strings from the malicious application, we can see those commands which include password and file grabbing capabilities:

find-generic-password -ga 'Chrome' | awk '{print $2}' SecKeychainSearchCopyNext:
/Chromium/Chrome /Chromium/Chrome/Local State FileGrabber tell application "Finder"
set desktopFolder to path to desktop folder
set documentsFolder to path to documents folder
set srcFiles to every file of desktopFolder whose name extension is in {"txt", "rtf", "doc", "docx", "xls", "key", "wallet", "jpg", "png", "web3", "dat"}
set docsFiles to every file of documentsFolder whose name extension is in {"txt", "rtf", "doc", "docx", "xls", "key", "wallet", "jpg", "png", "web3", "dat"}

In the same file, we can find the malware’s command and control server where the stolen data is sent to:

Macs need protection too

Fake browser updates have been a common theme for Windows users for years, and yet up until now the threat actors didn’t expand onto MacOS in a consistent way. The popularity of stealers such as AMOS makes it quite easy to adapt the payload to different victims, with minor adjustments.

Because ClearFake has become one of the main social engineering campaigns recently, Mac users should pay particular attention to it. We recommend leveraging web protection tools to block the malicious infrastructure associated with this threat actor.

Malwarebytes users are protected against Atomic Stealer:

Indicators of Compromise

Malicious domains

longlakeweb[.]com
chalomannoakhali[.]com
jaminzaidad[.]com
royaltrustrbc[.]com

AMOS stealer

4cb531bd83a1ebf4061c98f799cdc2922059aff1a49939d427054a556e89f464
be634e786d5d01b91f46efd63e8d71f79b423bfb2d23459e5060a9532b4dcc7b

AMOS C2

194.169.175[.]117

In an advisory aimed at the protection of customers’ personal data, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has emphasized that businesses should only collect personal data from customers that they need in order to operate effectively.

While that may seem like kicking in an open door, it’s really not. It’s relatively easy to decide which personal data you need to have for a new customer. It’s a bit harder to stop there. Many small business use pre-formatted questionnaires that ask for information they don’t actually need for day to day operations, and it’s hard to keep track of data they no longer need.

The advisory, titled Securing Customer Personal Data for Small and Medium Businesses, is written for small and medium businesses, but many larger corporations could benefit from it as well. The guide was written because data breaches against Australian businesses and their customers are increasing in complexity, scale, and impact.

It outlines a few steps businesses can take to organize, minimize, and control the personal data they collect, in order to contain the impact of a data breach. With the growing tendency to do business online, businesses have a responsibility to keep the personal data they collect safe.

The ACSC recommends implementing 10 steps to secure customer personal data:

• Create a register of personal data. Keep an inventory of the types of data you have collected and where they are stored. For example, a register of databases and data assets.
• Limit the personal data you collect. Do not collect data “just in case.” You don’t have to worry about what you don’t have stored.
• Delete unused personal data. Probably the hardest step, it takes policies stipulating how long customers’ personal data should be stored before it is deleted.
• Consolidate personal data repositories. Consolidating customers’ personal data into centralized locations or databases allows businesses to focus on key data repositories and apply enhanced security practices.
• Control access to personal data. Employees should only have access to customers’ personal data that they need in order to do their job.
• Encrypt personal data. Full disk encryption should be applied to devices that access or store customers’ personal data, such as servers, mobile phones and laptops. Customers’ personal data should be protected by encryption when communicated between different devices over the internet. Additionally, businesses may choose to implement file-based encryption to add an extra layer of protection in the event that systems are compromised as part of a cyberattack.
• Backup personal data. Backups are an essential measure to ensure an organization can recover important business data in case of damage, loss or destruction. Backups are also critical in protecting customers’ personal data from common incidents such as ransomware attacks or physical damage to devices.
• Log and monitor access to personal data. Implementing logging and monitoring practices can assist businesses in detecting unauthorized access to customers’ personal data.
• Implement secure Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) practices. Businesses that employ BYOD policies need to have appropriate protections in place to ensure that this is done securely and does not increase the risk of data breaches. It’s important to have a clear policy and rules to enforce it.
• Report data breaches involving personal data. Make sure you are aware of the existing local reporting obligations in case you are the victim of a data breach involving customers’ personal data.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

Scammers are abusing an Apple feature that allows websites to create push notifications that look like they’re coming from macOS, or apps. The notifications try to scare users into clicking a link with fake virus alerts or messages saying their account has been hacked.

Years ago we warned our readers about the introduction of browser push notifications because we felt they were a feature waiting to be abused. At the time we focused on Windows users, but recently we are seeing examples of macOS users being plagued by this pest.

As Apple proudly announced:

Use the Apple Push Notifications Service to send notifications to your website users, right on their Mac desktop — even when Safari isn’t running. Safari Push Notifications work just like push notifications for apps. They display your website icon and notification text, which users can click to go right to your website.

Do you see the problems?

• “Even when Safari isn’t running.” So how are users supposed to know where the notifications are coming from?
• “Work just like push notifications for apps.” My point exactly. How can we distinguish them from actual system notifications?
• “They display your website icon.” Website icons are controlled by the website owner, so they can used the system settings icon for their website, making their notifications look like system notifications.

These settings can appear in Safari Settings or System Settings, and you can remove them by following the instructions below.

Application Notifications

Open your Apple System Settings and then select the Notifications tab along the left.

Scroll down the list under Application Notifications and look for any websites that have permission to send you notifications. The entry may have a name designed to mislead you, such as “ask you” or “Notifications”.

Under each item you will be able to see what type of notification permissions it has. To stop these, just click on the entry and turn off the slider at the top which will disable notifications for this item.

Safari Settings

In the Safari app on your Mac, choose Safari and click Settings. Click Websites, then click Notifications.

Scroll through the list of websites and look for websites that don’t want to receive notifications from. Anything that shows Allow can send you messages, so switch them to Deny if you do not want to see their messages.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

Sometimes it’s all in the name. The Nothing Chats beta has been pulled from the Google Play Store after reports that the company behind it has access to your (unencrypted) messages.

Nothing Phone 2 owners were promised a first-of-its-kind app developed in partnership with Sunbird, which allowed them to message other iMessage users via blue bubbles on their Nothing Phone.

And, as promised, the beta version was made available for download in the Play Store on Friday November 17, 2023. But today the Nothing Chats page says:

We’ve removed the Nothing Chats beta from the Play store and will be delaying the launch until further notice to work with Sunbird to fix several bugs. We apologize for the delay and will do right by our users.

Now, it’s pretty normal for beta releases to have some bugs that need ironing out. That’s what they are in beta for. But these weren’t some mildly annoying bugs.

Basically, Nothing Chats is just a reskinned version of the existing Sunbird application, which is currently available on the Google Play Store. In essence the Nothing Chats app routes your messages through a macOS virtual machine that sends them on as iMessages. But to do this the Nothing Chats application is required to send your Apple ID credentials to its servers, so it can authenticate on your behalf.

According to Nothing, Sunbird’s architecture provides a system to deliver a message from one user to another without ever storing it at any point in its journey. But only one day after the release of the beta, Texts.com published a blog titled Sunbird / ‘Nothing Chats’ is Not Secure.

Members of the Texts.com reverse engineering team took it upon themselves to take a look into the Sunbird application and its security practices, and found a few vulnerabilities and implementation issues.

While Sunbird tries to implement end-to-end-encryption (E2EE), its implementation is overshadowed by decrypting, and then storing the unencrypted payloads in its database.

The apps route all data relating to a message sent by Sunbird, and Nothing Chat, including the contact information, message contents, and attachment URLs to the Sunbird’s Sentry. This Sentry acts as a debugging platform, which allows access to the data in plaintext by authorized parties within the company.

Which is not what Nothing promised:

All Chats messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning neither we nor Sunbird can access the messages you’re sending and receiving.

Other investigators found that Nothing Chats sends all media attachments, including user images, to Sentry with links to those attachments visible in plain text.

Nothing Chats sends all media attachments, including user images, to Sentry with links to those attachments visible in plain text. Further, researchers found all data was sent and stored through Firebase. They found over 630,000 media files currently stored by Sunbird via Firebase including images, videos, PDFs, audio, and more. So, while it may be true that Sunbird doesn’t store user data on its own servers, the data does get stored.

This isn’t a major problem for everyone, but the authentication is. By sending our Apple ID to a third-party service, we are not only trusting the third-party with our texts, but should they become compromised, our photos, videos, contacts, notes, keychain, and more are at risk.

Users worried about a spill of sensitive data should read our guide: Involved in a data breach? Here’s what you need to know.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

As you may have read in our November Ransomware Review, Scattered Spider is a relatively new, albeit dangerous, ransomware gang who made headlines in September for attacking MGM Resorts and Caesar Entertainment. For small security teams, one of the most important findings about the group is their use of Living Of The Land (LOTL) techniques to avoid detection: Scattered Spider aka Octo Tempest employs everyday tools like PowerShell for reconnaissance and stealthily alters network settings to bypass security measures. They also exploit identity providers and modify security systems, blending their malicious activities with normal network operations.

In a joint cybersecurity advisory (CSA) on Tuesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provided detailed information about the techniques leveraged by Scattered Spider. The advisory was issued in response to the recent activity by Scattered Spider against the commercial facilities sector and subsectors.

CISA and the FBI consider Scattered Spider to be experts that use multiple social engineering techniques, especially phishing, push bombing, and SIM swap attacks, to obtain credentials, install remote access tools, and bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Push bombing is a targeted MFA attack in which an attacker triggers multiple login attempts against the target’s single-sign-on (SSO) portal or publicly exposed corporate apps and services. The objective is that the target will grow tired of the notifications or make a mistake and allow the access.

SIM swapping, also known as SIM jacking, is the act of illegally taking over a target’s cell phone number. This can be done in a number of ways, but one of the most common methods involves tricking the target’s phone carrier into porting the phone number to a new SIM under the control of the attacker.

Scattered Spider is a group that typically targets large companies and their contracted information technology (IT) help desks. To lend credibility to their phishing mails they often register domains like victimname-sso[.]com, victimname-servicedesk[.]com or victimname-okta[.]com.

Once the groups establish access, Scattered Spider often searches the victim’s Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Exchange online for emails or conversations regarding the intrusion, along with any security response to see if their attack has been discovered.

The advisory describes how elaborate these efforts can be:

“The threat actors frequently join incident remediation and response calls and teleconferences, likely to identify how security teams are hunting them and proactively develop new avenues of intrusion in response to victim defenses.”

According to several sources, Scattered Spider has a relationship to ALPHV/BlackCat and has recently started using their ransomware for data exfiltration and file encryption.

The FBI seemingly struggles to arrest group members, even though they’re believed to be based in the US and other Western countries, because victims don’t come forward and share details about their incidents. For that reason, the FBI and CISA have urged victim organizations to share information about attacks with the agencies.

Another initiative that may hinder Scattered Spider’s tactics is the fact that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new rules to protect US consumers from SIM-swapping attacks and port-out scams. These new rules require US wireless providers to use secure methods of authenticating a customer when they request porting a SIM card to a new device or their phone number to a new carrier.

How to avoid ransomware

• Block common forms of entry. Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
• Prevent intrusions. Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
• Detect intrusions. Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
• Stop malicious encryption. Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like Malwarebytes EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
• Create offsite, offline backups. Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
• Don’t get attacked twice. Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

Technology is now an indispensable part of student life, used for everything from socialising and calling home, to writing and researching essays. Unfortunately, that makes students taking their first steps into adult life a prime target for cybercrime.

But how can you be sure the Wi-Fi network you’re connecting to at your library or local coffee shop is safe? What about when you’re inside college walls? More than that, your social media accounts likely hold a lot of information about you, information you don’t want to get into the wrong hands.

It’s hard to know who to trust online, and one click on a dodgy link could lead to compromised accounts, identity theft or even malware.

And, as one student we spoke to said “Nothing is worse than losing a school essay”.

We know you need to protect yourself and your important files online, but we also know that you’re probably feeling strapped for cash at the moment.

We’ve got good news. Malwarebytes is now offering 50% off our products to students, wherever you are in the world.

Here’s what we can help with:

• Protect your important essays from ransomware and other nasties with Premium Security
• Help you shop online safer, with protection against infected ad and credit card skimmers in Browser Guard
• Keep your identity safe and protect your social media accounts with Identity Theft Protection
• Block trackers and ads with Browser Guard
• Work safely in coffee shops, libraries and other public places with Privacy VPN
• Game faster and in peace while staying protected by using Play mode to suspend notifications

Find out more and see pricing on our student discount page.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs:

• Signal is testing usernames so you don’t have to share your phone number
• State of Maine data breach impacts 1.3 million people
• Credit card skimming on the rise for the holiday shopping season
• Update now! Microsoft patches 3 actively exploited zero-days
• Ransomware review: November 2023
• Alarm system cyberattack leaves those in need struggling to call for help
• 3 benefits of ThreatDown bundles
• Ransomware gang files SEC complaint about victim

Stay safe!

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

Traditional approaches to endpoint security today have a three-fold complexity problem—with big consequences.

First, complexity in deployment causes long delays in protection, directly impacting ROI and leaving organizations vulnerable to breaches. In fact, almost 10 percent of small security teams cite such complexity as a primary reason for deployment setbacks. (Global Surveyz, 2022)

Second, lack of integrated security tools can lead security teams to overcompensate by buying and operating additional security platforms. This complexity multiplies operational overhead and creates gaps in security.

Dealing with day-to-day complexity with endpoint security is a third challenge. A survey of 200 CISOs by Global Surveyz found that nearly half (45 percent) of small IT teams flag issues like excessive alerts and multiple dashboards as chief product concerns, culminating in alert fatigue and drops in productivity.

To save time, money, and to stop more threats, it’s clear IT teams need an approach to endpoint security that resists complexity—a suite that’s easy to implement, cost-effective, and straightforward to operate.

Enter: ThreatDown bundles

ThreatDown combines the technologies and services that resource constrained IT teams need into four streamlined, cost-effective bundles that take down threats, take down complexity and take down costs:

• ThreatDown Core Bundle: Next-gen AV and threat surface reduction. A simple yet superior solution integrating award-winning endpoint protection technologies.
• ThreatDown Advanced Bundle: Everything included in core plus Managed Threat Hunting and Ransomware Rollback. Tailored for smaller security teams with limited resources.
• ThreatDown Elite Bundle: Everything in Advanced plus 24/7/365 expert monitoring and response by Malwarebytes MDR analysts. Purpose-built for organizations with small (to non-existent) security teams that lack the resources to address all security alerts.
• ThreatDown Ultimate Bundle: Everything in Elite plus protection from whole categories of malicious websites. Perfect for teams looking for a one-and-done shortcut to cybersecurity done right.

Each bundle comes with ThreatDown Security Advisor, which analyzes an organization’s cybersecurity health—such as by assessment of current inventory and which assets are vulnerable—and generates a score based off what it finds, illuminating gaps in defenses and providing actionable recommendations for improvements that can be made in minutes.

ThreatDown Nebula dashboard view. Security Advisor enables organizations to visualize and improve their organization’s security posture in just a few minutes.

1. Seamless Deployment

With the average deployment timeline for traditional EDRs stretching up to 18 months for small security teams, the need for a swifter solution is clear.

Simply put, smaller teams just can’t afford extensive learning curves, which perhaps is why, from a financial standpoint, they prioritize implementation costs (50 percent) in their endpoint security more than anything else. (Global Surveyz)

ThreatDown EDR, the cornerstone of every ThreatDown bundle excluding Core, takes the complexity out of endpoint security deployment as evidenced by an average time to become fully operational that is two times shorter than the industry average.

Cloud-hosted on the Nebula platform, ThreatDown bundle core technology can deploy within minutes and has won multiple G2 awards for its unique combination of rapid time to go live and time to ROI, all delivered via an agent deployed with a small footprint.

2. All-In-One Integration

Managing too many platforms is challenging. Each additional security tool requires its own set of configurations, updates, and management protocols, ultimately translating to longer response times, inefficient workflows, and an inability to have a unified view of the threat landscape.

According to Global Surveyz, 77 percent of small security teams ranked a ‘one-stop’ product with the ‘most integrated’ features as one of their top considerations when choosing a new security technology. In addition, 80 percent of CISOs recognize vendor consolidation as an avenue for more efficient security.

And, once you consider that over 5 percent of breaches in 2022 came from known vulnerabilities that had yet to be patched—and that the average cost of those breaches was $4.17 million—it goes without saying that Vulnerability and Patch Management needs to be part of any all-in-one security solution today.

By combining Endpoint Protection (EP), EDR, an award-winning Vulnerability and Patch Management solution, and more, ThreatDown Advanced, Elite, and Ultimate bundles give IT teams the ‘one-stop’ product they need to streamline detection and response through a single pane of glass.

Patch Management in ThreatDown Nebula.

3. Increased Protection

ThreatDown bundles don’t just simplify the deployment and administration of endpoint security; they simplify the take down of threats as well.

Traditional EDR is inherently exhausting. Without additional context, alerts become just too ambiguous to be actionable, meaning IT teams inevitably end up over-prioritizing less urgent threats while also overlooking severe ones—increasing their risk of a breach.

Starting with ThreatDown Advanced, organizations get access to next-level alert prioritization and threat protection with Managed Threat Hunting (MTH). For customers looking for 24x7x365 cybersecurity protection with proactive alert investigation and threat hunting, ThreatDown Elite and Ultimate offer Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services.

With ThreatDown bundles, organizations no longer need an advanced cybersecurity model and a well-staffed security operations center (SOC) to take down threats. Through a combination of superior EDR technology and human-delivered security, ThreatDown empowers organizations to keep up with the volume of EDR alerts and respond to threats on the fly.

ThreatDown MDR workflow.

Try ThreatDown bundles today

For IT teams plagued by the triad of complex deployment, scattered tooling, and excessive alert noise, ThreatDown bundles emerge as a superior solution that caters to the needs of today’s security teams.

Discover the difference with ThreatDown Bundles and elevate your organization’s defense against cyber threats. Get in touch for a free trial and experience the benefits of a simplified, yet robust, security framework.

Learn more about ThreatDown bundles here.

In what seems to be a new twist on the ransomware theme, the notorious ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group has filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the software company MeridianLink.

ALPHV is one of the most active ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operators and regularly appears in our monthly ransomware reviews. MeridianLink supplies “digital lending solutions” to banks, credit unions, fintechs, and other financial institutions.

Since September 5, 2023 the SEC has required public companies to disclose within four days all cybersecurity breaches that could impact their bottom lines. Apparently ALPHV is aware of the new rules and in this screenshot of the SEC complaint form it wrote:

“We want to bring to your attention a concerning issue regarding MeridianLink’s compliance with the recently adopted cybersecurity incident disclosure rules.

It has come to our attention that MeridianLink, in light of a significant breach compromising customer data and operational information, has failed to file the requisite disclosure under Item 1.05 of Form 8-K within the stipulated four business days, as mandated by the new SEC rules.”

The referenced item (Form 8-K Item 1.05) states:

“Registrants must disclose any cybersecurity incident they experience that is determined to be material, and describe the material aspects of its:

– Nature, scope, and timing; and

– Impact or reasonably likely impact.

An Item 1.05 Form 8-K must be filed within four business days of determining an incident was material. A registrant may delay filing as described below, if the United States Attorney General (“Attorney General”) determines immediate disclosure would pose a substantial risk to national security or public safety.

Registrants must amend a prior Item 1.05 Form 8-K to disclose any information called for in Item 1.05(a) that was not determined or was unavailable at the time of the initial Form 8-K filing. “

As you can see, there are possible exceptions and for all we know, the investigation into the nature and gravity of the data breach is still ongoing. Or far from as material as ALPHV wants us to believe.

In a statement to databreaches.net MeridianLink  said:

“Safeguarding our customers’ and partners’ information is something we take seriously. MeridianLink recently identified a cybersecurity incident that took place on Nov 10. Upon discovery on the same day, we acted immediately to contain the threat and engaged a team of third-party experts to investigate the incident. Based on our investigation to date, we have identified no evidence of unauthorized access to our production platforms, and the incident has caused minimal business interruption.

We have no further details to offer currently, as our investigation is ongoing.”

Apparently the ransomware operators like to pretend that what they are doing is their civic duty. This tile is posted on the landing page of the gang’s leak site.

Clicking through, we found the screenshot of the form and a non-explanatory statement why they filled the form out.

“Despite this requirement, MeridianLink has not fulfilled this obligation regarding the breach it experienced a week ago. We have therefore reported this non-compliance by MeridianLink, who was involved in a material breach impacting customer data and operational information, for failure to file the required disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It appears MeridianLink reached out, but we are yet to receive a message on their end. Maybe this was their DFIR, Mandiant, who did so without authorization from their client. Whatever the reason is…..we are giving you 24 hours before we publish the data in its entirety.”

Whatever the reason is behind MeridianLink’s apparent decision not to report the cyber-incident (yet), the action taken by ALPHV certainly is something we haven’t seen before. It may be a warning or an attempt to gain extra leverage. Knowing how hard it can be to determine the scope of a cyberattack in just a few days, we can expect to see this happen more often.

How to avoid ransomware

• Block common forms of entry. Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
• Prevent intrusions. Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
• Detect intrusions. Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
• Stop malicious encryption. Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like Malwarebytes EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
• Create offsite, offline backups. Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
• Don’t get attacked twice. Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.