IT NEWS

The Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team monitors the threat landscape continuously and produces monthly ransomware reports based on a mixture of proprietary and open-source intelligence.

Conti sleight of hand?

Although LockBit remained the most widely-deployed ransomware in May 2022, it was, typically, Conti that sucked all of the air out of the room.

Conti ransomware and the group that distributes it has been a dangerous, noisy presence in the ransomware ecosystem since 2020. It has been involved in hundreds of attacks, including the horrific disabling of Ireland’s Health Service Executive, and according to the FBI, it is “the costliest strain of ransomware ever documented”, having raked in over $150 million in ransom payments.

Recently, the group has had its troubles. On February 27, an individual with access to the group’s inner-workings started leaking a treasure trove of data that included source code, files, and tens of thousands of internal chat messages. Not long after, a hacking group began using the leaked source code to attack targets inside Russia, violating one of ransomware’s unspoken rules. And at the start of this month, the FBI put a $10 million bounty on the group’s head.

On May 8 the newly-inaugurated president of Costa Rica declared a national emergency across the country’s public sector, in response to the continuing effects of a devastating Conti ransomware attack carried out in April. On the same day, an inflammatory message appeared on the group’s leak site, alongside a leak of 672 GB of stolen data.

The message itself is the usual grandiose puffery: It took a swing at US President Joe Biden—”this old fool will soon die”, claimed the attack had been carried out by just two people, and threatened that Costa Rica was just a “Demo version” of what was to come.

You would be forgiven for thinking that despite recent travails, Conti is going strong.

But according to an in-depth analysis by Advintel though, that’s what it wants you to think. It says that far from being in rude health, the Conti brand is in the process of disbanding and that the attacks on Costa Rica were a deliberately showy act from an operation being run by a skeleton crew.

It seems that the decision to offer its “full support of Russian government” in February, following the invasion of Ukraine, may have been a fatal error. By aligning itself to the Russian state it had made ransom payments a potential sanctions violation, killing the group’s income.

Advintel asserts that as a result the Conti group has been “silently creating subdivisions that began operations before the start of the shutdown process.” These subdivisions—said to include KaraKurt, BlackByte, BlackBasta—are supposed to establish themselves before Conti disappears to avoid the kind of shallow and transparent rebrand some other groups have pursued.

Malwarebytes Threat Intel has been able to confirm that there was an internal announcement about the shutdown for affiliates, and that the group’s internal chat servers are down, although the leak site is still operational, and updated almost daily with additional data.

Ransomware attacks in May 2022

Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence builds a monthly picture of ransomware activity by monitoring the information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web leak sites. This information represents victims who were successfully attacked but opted not to pay a ransom.

In May, LockBit remained by far the most widely-used ransomware. Conti remained active, but its activity was significantly reduced compared to recent months. Notably, three of the four groups that have overtaken it—Black Basta, Hive, and ALPHV—are linked to the alleged Conti disbandment. Intriguingly, Hive was named as the ransomware used in an attack on Costa Rica’s national health service on May 31.

The USA remained far and away the country most badly affected by ransomware attacks in May, and services the industry sector more likely to be attacked.

Ransomware mitigations

Source: IC3.gov

• Implement regular backups of all data to be stored as air-gapped, password-protected copies offline. Ensure these copies are not accessible for modification or deletion from any system where the original data resides.
• Implement network segmentation, such that all machines on your network are not accessible from every other machine.
• Install and regularly update antivirus software on all hosts, and enable real-time detection.
• Install updates/patch operating systems, software, and firmware as soon as updates/patches are released.
• Review domain controllers, servers, workstations, and active directories for new or unrecognized user accounts.
• Audit user accounts with administrative privileges and configures access controls with the least privilege in mind. Do not give all users administrative privileges.
• Disable unused remote access/Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) ports and monitor remote access/RDP logs for any unusual activity.
• Consider adding an email banner to emails received from outside your organization.
• Disable hyperlinks in received emails.
• Use double authentication when logging into accounts or services.
• Ensure routine auditing is conducted for all accounts.
• Ensure all the identified IOCs are input into the network SIEM for continuous monitoring and alerts.

How Malwarebytes protects against ransomware

Malwarebytes can protect systems against all ransomware variants in several ways.

The Malwarebytes Anti-Malware technology detects malicious files, browser modifications, and system modifications on Windows PCs using a combination of signature-based and signatureless technologies. This layer of protection detects the Ransomware binary itself. Detections can happen in real-time as the binary is run or the infection can be rooted out from an already-compromised machine by conducting a full system scan.

Anti-Ransomware is a signatureless technology in charge of monitoring system activity of processes against a certain subset of data in specific locations on the endpoint. Using patented technology, Anti-Ransomware assesses changes in those data files. If an internal scoring threshold is crossed by a monitored process, it triggers a detection from the Anti-Ransomware component.

For those already infected, Ransomware Rollback can help recover encrypted files within 72 hours of the attack. Rollback creates a local cache on the endpoint to store changes to files on the system. It can use this cache to help revert changes caused by a threat. The rollback feature is dependent on activity monitoring available in Malwarebytes Endpoint Detection and Response.

The post Ransomware: May 2022 review appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

We’re excited to announce our new EDR for Linux offering, which extends our advanced protection and response capabilities to Linux devices via Nebula and OneView.

In this post, we show you what remediating and isolating threats on Linux servers looks like with Malwarebytes EDR for Linux.

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

• Part 1: Downloading the test tool
• Part 2: Remediating endpoints
• Part 3: Endpoint isolation
• Part 4: Removing endpoint isolation

Part 1: Downloading the test tool

Malwarebytes EDR for Linux provides a test tool to trigger suspicious activity.

Executing a shell script named trigger.sh, we downloaded Ncat from a Github repository and stored it in a temporary folder. We then ran Ncat from the temporary folder, trying to manipulate SSH authorized keys.

We can see that Ncat is now in our temporary folder.

Let’s head back to Nebula and check the “Suspicious activities” tab. At the top, we’ll see that on our DB-demo-2 endpoint, Ncat in our temporary folder is being flagged as suspicious.

You might be wondering though: why exactly is running Ncat from a temporary folder considered suspicious? To find the reason, we can click on the /TMP/NCAT alert and see what detection rule was triggered.

As you can see above, we find that the technique triggered is Command and Scripting Interpreter. The attempt to execute a process from the temp folder – which gives full privileges – has been detected.

We can learn more about this particular adversary behavior, as well as which groups leverage these sorts of attacks, by clicking on the “T1059 – Command Scripting and Interpreter” link. This takes us to a MITRE ATT&CK page on the topic.

Part 2: Remediating endpoints

Now, it’s time to remediate the threat!

Going back to the “Suspicious Activity” tab, we can bulk select the threats we want to remediate. Under the “Bulk Actions” tab on the upper-right, a drop-down menu appears with a “Remediate” option.

The remediation process takes about one to two minutes to complete. We can check on the status of our remediation by going to the “Tasks” tab and clicking on the threat, as shown below.

Let’s confirm by checking back on our temp folder. As you can see, Ncat has been removed by our remediation engine.

Part 3: Endpoint isolation

We can isolate an endpoint by going over to the “Endpoints” tab. After selecting the machine we wish to isolate, we go under the “Actions” tab in the upper-right, a drop-down menu appears with a “Isolate Endpoint(s)” option.

We’re given the option to toggle either “Block network connections” or “Block Processes’‘ for this device. For this example, we only want to do network isolation.

This blocks the endpoint from all outbound and inbound communication – except trusted communication, such as with Nebula servers or OpenVPN. And, as you see below, we are disconnected from the endpoint and no longer able to ping it.

Part 4: Removing endpoint isolation

While we are no longer able to connect to the machine, we are still able to manage it. Going back to the “Endpoints” tab, we’re able to see the status of our device by clicking on it and going to “Tasks”.

We see that the “Isolating Endpoint” task is successful. To remove the isolation, we start by clicking the lock icon in the upper-right corner, which will prompt a “Remove Isolation” button.

When we refresh the page, our “Remove Endpoint Isolation” task appears with a pending status. Again, give this another minute to resolve to complete.

Now, we have reestablished a connection with the endpoint and can ping it.

Learn more about Malwarebytes EDR for Linux.

The post Introducing EDR for Linux: Remediating and isolating threats on Linux servers appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

We’re happy to announce Malwarebytes DNS Filtering, a new module for the Nebula platform which helps block access to malicious websites and limit threats introduced by suspicious content.

But how exactly does it work, you ask?

In this post, we give a basic walkthrough of the module, starting off with how to create DNS filtering rules. We’ll then show you how to set exclusions to rules and filter by certain categories, as well as how to monitor and delete the rules that you create.

Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

• Part 1: Accessing the module
• Part 2: Creating rules
• 2.1: Setting rule exclusions
• 2.2: Naming rules and setting policies
• 2.3: Filtering categories
• 2.4: Allowing and blocking domains
• Part 3: Monitoring

Part 1: Accessing the module

Once you add DNS filtering to your Nebula subscription, you can access the DNS filtering page on the left hand navigation.

Part 2: Creating rules

First, let’s take a look at the Rules tab.

2.1: Setting rule exclusions

Start by adding global exclusions. Add your private and local domains here to prevent them from being blocked by any DNS filtering rules you create.

2.2: Naming rules and setting policies

Give this DNS rule a name and then select the policies you want to include.

2.3: Filtering categories

By default, Use preconfigured settings is enabled for Categories.

For further customization click on the arrow to expand the categories. Each security category has an additional description and details.

Under Content categories, you can expand each one for a more granular level of customization.

2.4: Allowing and blocking domains

Under allow lists you can add domains to exclude from this DNS rule. For now we’ll leave it blank.

You can also add domains to block certain domains. Remember that while allowing or blocking the domain will include the subdomains, allowing or blocking subdomain will not include the full domain.

Part 3: Monitoring

Now all the endpoints under the selected policies will follow this new DNS rule. Back on the Rules tab, you can disable and enable and also clone and delete rules.

On the Activity page, you can monitor and export data based on the rules you create.

And at the bottom, there’s a table where you can review each individual block and allow. Just like you can already do in Nebula, you can use column filter filters to create group level filters.

Elevate threat prevention for safer web browsing today

Malwarebytes DNS Filtering module makes it easy to block websites and content, helping you align internet access with your organization’s cybersecurity and any published “acceptable use” policies.

The post Introducing Malwarebytes DNS Filtering module: How to block sites and create policy rules appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Today we took a look at a phishing mail pinning its hopes on a QR code linking to a bogus website. Scammers claim that your mail address has “not been registered for the 3D Secure Security Update”.

The mail reads as follows:

Dear Sir / Madam,

Our administration has shown that the data linked to this email address: {redacted} has not yet been registered for the 3D Secure security update. From May 30, 2022, the new security system has come into effect.
We therefore request that you activate the 3D Secure security.

Scan the QR code below with the camera of your smartphone to be redirected to the security form.

You can then use the new 3D Secure password for online payments with your credit card.

For even more payment convenience, you can download the ICS App. You can then approve your online payments via the app and no longer have to remember a password.

We wish you a lot of ease of payment with your Card!

What is 3D Secure?

3D Secure is an additional layer of security for online payments. The name “3D Secure” refers to the 3 domains which interact whenever you make use of the protocol: Merchant, issuer, interoperability domain. 3DS2 is due to replace 3DS sometime in 2022 as the original is slowly phased out.

Encouraging potential victims to strengthen their security by inadvertently walking into a trap is a common tactic. Tying it in with 3D Secure is arguably more original than most, especially as it’s perhaps a bit of a niche aspect of secure payments. Perhaps confusing victims with some very specific technobabble is the point.

The rogue website

Victims arrive on the site via a redirect URL.

The site emulates a well known organisation which issues credit cards in the Netherlands. It asks for name, date of birth, postcode and house number, mobile, and email.

After this, victims arrive on a “please wait while we check your details” notification. The details entered have already been sent, and they’ll be waiting on that page for a very long time. Curiously, no request for card details is made. We suspect whoever runs the site will follow up by mail or phone and finish the scam off by asking for payment information.

The QR Code factor

Quick Response (QR) code scams come around every so often. Sometimes rogue codes are pasted over, or close to, genuine codes. Other times, codes are tampered with. They’re also a feature of Bitcoin ATM scams.

Where phishing is concerned, it’s important to not misunderstand how these attacks work and cause unnecessary panic. Most QR code scanners on mobile devices will show you a preview of the URL you’re about to visit, so it boils down to being able to recognise the signs of a dubious URL, just as it would if the attackers had incldued a link. (This is probably why the attack used a redirect.)

As a result, best practices for regular phishing attacks still apply.

The post Phishing mail claims a 3D Secure upgrade is required appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

If you’re an SMB, chances are that you’re already well-aware of the fact that cyber threats can wreak havoc on your business. 

Everything from rootkits to ransomware threaten not just financial losses, but also significant network downtime and reputational damage as well. Couple this with the fact that many cyberthreats are web-based, and you might be stuck wondering how best to secure your business online. 

That’s where DNS filtering comes in. 

But first, DNS in a nutshell. So normally, every time your customer types in your web address, their computer makes a request to a DNS server. The DNS server, in turn, tells the computer where to go. If all goes well, then voila, your customer is at your website. 

A DNS filter stops you from accessing unsafe websites—including those posing a strong malware risk. But which web-based cyberthreats in particular does DNS filtering stop, you ask? 

In this post, we’ll break down three ways DNS filtering can help save your business from cyberattacks. 

1. Blocks phishing websites

Let’s say someone at your company gets an email from their “bank” asking them to update their password.  

Not knowing it’s a fake, this employee clicks a link taking them to a malicious website that looks exactly like the original. Your employee then fills in some  sensitive info, maybe even downloads a malicious file — and bam, just like that, criminals now have access to your network, allowing them to install malware, steal data and spread ransomware. 

You might recognize this as one example of phishing, an attack where cybercriminals trick potential victims into sharing sensitive information or giving the perpetrator privileged access to a network. 

Luckily, by blocking the domain names of phishing sites, a DNS filter can nip attacks in the bud. 

Here’s how it works: DNS filtering references databases of known nefarious domain names. Databases of malicious websites can also be sorted into threat categories, such as spyware, typosquatting, cryptomining, and so on. From there, your organization can block malicious sites like these sites to secure their environment against phishing attacks.  

In other words, if you have a DNS filter, as soon as that same employee clicks a link to a malicious website —they’re prevented from visiting it. 

2. Secures you against machine-in-the-middle attacks 

Imagine you’re at a cafe chatting with a trusted friend, sharing private details about your lives with one another. You probably wouldn’t appreciate it if some random stranger was tuning into the conversation, listening carefully to every word. 

Such a scenario roughly analogous to what a machine-in-the-middle attack (MITM, also referred to as a man-in-the-middle attack) is — except in a MITM attack, the stakes are much higher. Cybercriminals in MITM attacks can steal your personal information, passwords, or banking details by intercepting the data sent between you and an application.  

One type of man-in-the-middle attack businesses should worry about is DNS spoofing. 

In a DNS spoofing attack, a hacker sits in the middle of this process. So when the computer of that same customer makes a request to a DNS server, asking where your website is, a hacker can instead redirect your computer to a malicious website! 

From there, hackers can phish sensitive customer or business information — as described above. These types of attacks are where DNS encryption, included in any good DNS filter, is essential. It secures the connection between your computer and the DNS resolver, so that cybercriminals not sit between you and and feed you spoofed DNS entries.

3. Detects potential DDoS attacks 

The last thing any business wants is to suffer from a Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) attack. 

You can think of a DDos attack as being kind of like a zombie invasion. Using an army of bots called a botnet, a cybercriminal can use thousands or even millions of “zombie” computers to flood your website, ultimately overloading it and bringing it down. 

The end result? Brand damage, angry customers — and often even lost revenue. 

One type of DDos attack is called a DNS flood, where the cybercriminal uses their army of bots to overwhelm a DNS server and prevent it from directing legitimate requests to your website. 

And, as is the case with most cyberthreats, the earlier you spot a potential DNS DDos attack, the better. Being able to continuously monitor DNS activity is a great way to catch the warning signs of a DNS DDoS attack — and with a DNS filter, you can do exactly that. 

Protect your end users and your organization from web-based threats 

The web is full of dangerous corners.  

It’s a breeding ground for phishing attacks, spyware, common viruses and malware, not to mention ransomware. And as these attacks continue to increase in frequency and sophistication, it’s never been more important for SMBs to secure themselves online.  

But while having a DNS filter is great way to do that, many small and mid-size organizations don’t invest in one — leaving them exposed. 

The Malwarebytes DNS Filtering module for the Nebula platform helps block access to malicious websites and limit threats introduced by suspicious content. It blocks phishing sites, encrypts all DNS requests, and tracks website traffic to detect potential DDoS attacks. 

To top it all off, Malwarebytes DNS Filtering controls are available in the same platform used for powerful threat prevention and trusted remediation — including our Incident Response, Endpoint Protection, and Endpoint Detection and Response offerings. 

The post 3 ways DNS filtering can save SMBs from cyberattacks appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

German ISPs are considering the introduction of TrustPid, a new type of “supercookie” that comprises of a unique identifier which will be issued for each customer that will be able to track what that customer is doing online.

The providers are trying to sell this idea by telling the public that the identifier can never be tracked back to an individual and that something needs to be done to keep the internet free.

The end of the tracking cookie

Where does this attempt come from, you may ask. Advertisers are seeing the end of the tracking cookie on the horizon and it’s coming closer.

Google has announced that it will stop the use of third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2023, joining a growing list of browsers that are saying farewell to the tracking cookies. And Apple already blocks default tracking everywhere.

Social media and tech giants, including Google, are already looking at other business models to replace tracking cookies since they are the ones that benefited the most from targeted advertising, by providing the most useful information to the advertisers.

What makes supercookies different is that they are unique identifiers that are inserted into the HTTP header by a service provider. Unlike normal cookies they do not get stored in browsers or browser plug-ins.

Free internet

The idea of a free internet—as communicated by some of these companies—is not that they are signing you up as a customer free of charge. Wouldn’t that be nice? No, the idea is that websites that are providing content need to make a living. And the usual income for most of those sites comes from advertising. Why the ISP providers feel that it is part of their job description to enable targeted advertising escapes me. But undoubtedly the goal is to improve the bottom line.

Targeted advertising is more rewarding than regular advertising since it supposedly enormously enhances the effect of the advertisement. At least, that’s the idea that most advertisers live by, and sell to their customers. But here’s something to consider: According to research by Cloudflare, 20 percent of websites that serve ads receive visits almost exclusively by fraudulent click bots, and that bots comprise roughly 50 percent of all Internet traffic. Imagine how much money advertisers could save by effectively tackling ad fraud. Plus, that sounds a lot better than tagging another tracker on us.

Hiding consent

The worst bit of your ISP enabling the tracking is that every user has to sign some sort of agreement with them. In this agreement the ISP can hide the TrustPid consent in a long End-user License Agreement (EULA) that almost no-one ever reads and which can probably not be declined partially. It’s all or nothing if you want or need this provider. And if one provider successfully monetizes this idea, I’m afraid others will quickly follow suite.

Another advantage of an ISP is that they know if and when the IP of your home connection changes and for mobile devices they can even enumerate the users within a household by identifying the individual devices.

History

The idea of ISPs issuing supercookies is certainly not new. Verizon was the example that should have served as a history lesson here. In 2016, Verizon had to settle with the FCC over its use of a supercookie, which tracked the websites visited by phones on its network. They were fined because they forgot to inform the customers or give them an opt-out option. Verizon had to pay a fine of $1.35 million and was ordered to receive customer permission before sharing tracking data with other companies or even within its own organization.

How it works

The network provider will first combine your mobile number and IP address to generate a pseudonymous network identifier, after which using that identifier they will generate a pseudonymous unique token (TrustPid).

This TrustPid is used to create additional marketing tokens for the websites of advertisers and publishers you visit (website specific tokens). Advertisers and publishers aren’t (shouldn’t be) able to identify you as a person via the website specific tokens.

Where you have given consent, advertisers and publishers will use the website specific tokens to provide you with targeted online marketing, or conduct analytics. The advertisers and publishers that you’ve consented to could be drawn up in a list that will be in the hands of the ISP, but you can manage your consent for those parties at any time via the Privacy Portal.

I inserted the “shouldn’t be” since we are all too aware that many good intentions have unexpected consequences. Let’s suppose that you fill out your details on one of the websites that you decided to trust. Introduce one XSS vulnerability and all your personal details could be linked back to your TrustPid.

Mitigation

Because of the lack of technical details provided about TrustPid, we are not completely clear how a user can avoid being tracked. But I asked German privacy expert Andreas Dewes and he responded:

“a device level VPN with integrated DNS should be able to block this kind of tracking.”

Once we know more, there might be easier and simpler ways to get around this. We’ll keep you posted.

The post TrustPid is another worrying, imperfect attempt to replace tracking cookies appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

More and more Americans have been falling victim to phone scams since 2019. According to the latest report from Truecaller (Google Docs upload of the entire report, separate blog here), a known spam blocker and caller ID app, 68.4 million Americans were victimized in the last 12 months, a substantial increase from the 59.4 million victims tallied up in 2021.

Collectively, victims lost a staggering $39.5 billion, a 32.5 percent increase from the previous year. In the report, Truecaller compared this amount to the budget specifically set aside in the American Rescue Plan Act—already a wide-ranging package of $1.9 billion—for child care services, a figure approaching some $39 billion.

“The total money lost to scams is also comparable to the entire child care budget of $39 billion for the American Rescue Plan Act. If phone scam fraud was somehow eliminated, the amount saved could fund federally subsidized child care across the U.S. for a full year to help families and employers.”

Truecaller Insights 2022 US Spam and Scam Report

This increase in victims directly correlates with the increased number of scam calls received by Americans. More than half of these scam calls (61.1 percent) came from robocallers. This could mean two things: scammers have found a way to beat the framework, or the STIR/SHAKEN program is just not that effective.

STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) and SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) is an Federal Trade Commission (FCC) framework that “digitally validates the handoff of phone calls passing through the complex web of networks, allowing the phone company of the consumer receiving the call to verify that a call is in fact from the number displayed on Caller ID.” This framework was fully implemented on June 30, 2021.

A change in attitude towards phone calls

Truecaller has noted Americans’ change in preference when it comes to communication. Robocalls and spam calls have created “an environment of great distrust” regarding phone calls, the report said. As such, 60 percent of Americans have preferred communicating with people via other means, such as text, email, and social media.

Unfortunately, this learned habit of avoiding calls from unknown numbers has other side effects. According to the Truecaller report, because Americans attempt to avoid phone calls from numbers they don’t recognize, 63 percent also feel like they missed important calls. On top of that, people find it more difficult than ever to reach anyone via a phone call because calls are often ignored just to avoid spam.

Despite this, robocall scams persist, emphasizing the scale and severity of the problem.

The post More than a quarter of Americans fell for robocall scam calls in past year appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

1977 was quite the year. Led Zeppelin! Jimmy Carter! Saturday Night Fever!

We can now add “a ransomware attack” to this once static list. Somerset County, New Jersey, has been hit so hard by a network assault that they’ve ended up in the direst straits imaginable, with county databases unavailable to provide information on land records and probate records, and with title searches only available for paper records that were entered before 1977.

When a ransomware attack takes out an organization, they often revert to pen and paper to keep things ticking over. This is a common feature of healthcare compromises. Everything slows down a little, but they’re still able to function in the here and now for the most part. When ransomware locks down a chunk of historical data, things apparently become much more convoluted.

Of probates and land records

Somerset County’s statement reads as follows in relation to the attack which happened last Tuesday:

Somerset County offices and buildings remain open for business as the County continues to evaluate the severity of yesterday’s ransomware cyberattack. Network-linked computers remain turned off, and county emails cannot be received or responded to by county personnel.

Somerset County Clerk and Surrogate services that depend on access to county databases are temporarily unavailable, such as land records, vital statistics, and probate records. Title searches are possible only on paper records dated before 1977.

There’s several possibilities as to why everything post 1977 is now unavailable. Perhaps records after that date have all made the leap to digital status only, with no backups available. Maybe there are backups, but those have been encrypted by ransomware too.

Switching to Plan B

In an effort to keep some services moving, temporary email addresses have been brought into play:

To ensure residents can reach the County we have created temporary Gmail addresses for the public to use to reach critical departments such as the County Commissioners, Health, Emergency Operations, the County Clerk, Sheriff, and Surrogate.

This is certainly better than doing nothing. However, there are several concerns with approaches such as this.

• Are the email addresses secure? Hopefully “temporary” would still mean “locked down.” At the very least, 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) is needed here. The last thing they need is several email breaches due to weak passwords or other security concerns.
• Introducing uncertainty into what official email addresses are supposed to look like can confuse customers. A wily phisher could easily set up their own fake temporary addresses. An even smarter one would create fake Gmail addresses which look like the temporary efforts.

Good news and bad news…

Somerset County have confirmed the following:

• An upcoming Primary Election is unaffected as voting machines are “never connected to the county system.”
• Courts and Jails are functioning as normal and 911/emergency services are unaffected.
• According to The Register, systems may be offline for “at least” the rest of this week. This isn’t great, but the ad-hoc replacement system offered currently is better than nothing.

Tips to avoid ransomware

• Encrypt and back up your data. Keep your data encrypted whenever possible, and back up your files regularly. Store your backups externally away from the main network. Ensure your backups are stored in a logical way and not a confused mess of folders and files. You can’t get to work on recovery if you’ve no idea where everything is.
• Update your security software. Help what is often your first line of defense by ensuring it’s as up to date as possible. Automate your scans and updates.
• Avoid strange attachments. Malicious Word/Excel documents are a common threat, especially where Macros are concerned.
• Keep devices updated. Secure devices with the latest patches. Updating your Operating System is great, but that’s not where your updating journey ends. Outdated software and applications are frequently a launchpad for exploits leading to ransomware attacks.
• Strengthen remote access. Unsecured remote services are hugely popular with ransomware authors. Provide a limit on password guess attempts for remote desktops. You can also combine remote services with multifactor authentication.
• Use browser controls for bad ads. Malvertising is another technique to place ransomware where it shouldn’t be. Restricting certain features like JavaScript can help, though this may make some sites unusable. Dedicated extensions which control tracking, scripts, and untrustworthy ad networks will also help.

The post Ransomware attack turns 2022 into 1977 for Somerset County appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The FBI is warning academics to be on their guard, as an embattled education sector continues to experience attacks and breaches, with data spilling onto the so-called dark web. The government agency’s Private Industry Notification [PDF] cites US academic credentials up for grabs from a variety of sources.

A stepping stone to compromise

From the summary:

The FBI is informing academic partners of identified US college and university credentials advertised for sale on online criminal marketplaces and publicly accessible forums. This exposure of sensitive credential and network access information, especially privileged user accounts, could lead to subsequent cyber attacks against individual users or affiliated organizations.

Data for sale is not unusual. Phishing, social engineering, and credential stuffing are often the end result. Dumps of education/university data can offer specific in-roads into campus networks, or further harvesting of student and employee credentials or personal information. Additionally, the FBI warns:

If attackers are successful in compromising a victim account, they may attempt to drain the account of stored value, leverage or re-sell credit card numbers and other personally identifiable information, submit fraudulent transactions, exploit for other criminal activity against the account holder, or use for subsequent attacks against affiliated organizations.

A wide range of data possibilities

Private sites and regular forums aren’t the only cause for concern. The FBI also observed data sitting on instant messaging platforms too. Some of their findings:

• Late 2020: 2,000 unique username/password .edu combinations were up for sale on the dark web. Payment for this was made via donations to an unspecified Bitcoin wallet.
• May 2021: Over 36,000 email/password combinations for .edu addresses were observed on a “publicly available instant messaging platform.” This apparently fed into other unnamed illegal activities.
• January 2022: “Russian cyber criminal forums” were offering network and VPN credentials, both for sale or free to access. Screenshots showing the attacker’s proof of access is common on portals such as this. Prices of stolen accounts ranged from “a few to multiple thousands of US dollars.”

Keeping the education sector safe: an uphill struggle

This warning comes at a time of sustained cyber attacks in and around education. Last year, the FBI warned of an increase in ransomware targeting institutions. Sure enough, in 2022 we’ve seen colleges close down and data lost. There’s also constant concerns over cyber security funding to contend with.

The FBI recommends colleges, universities, and other academic entities establish and maintain strong relationships with the FBI field office in their region, along with observing the various mitigation strategies in their notification alert. We expect to see more data dumps and breaches over the coming months, but hopefully careful observation of security procedures and mitigations will make a dent in some criminal’s plans.

Tips from the FBI

• Keep operating systems up to date, and patch in a timely fashion. Beware of End of Life (EOL) support for systems and applications.
• Implement user training to reduce the risk of phishing and social engineering.
• Use strong passwords, avoid password reuse, and establish lock-out rules for incorrect attempts.
• Encourage the use of multifactor authentication (MFA) for as many services as possible, including webmail, VPN, and critical systems.
• Reduce credential exposure by restricting where accounts can be used alongside local device credential protection features.
• Segment networks to help prevent spread of malware and unauthorized access.
• Automate security scanning, and use monitoring tools to help identify network abnormalities and compromise attempts.
• Secure and closely monitor remote desktop protocol (RDP) use, alongside restricting login attempts and using additional authentication measures for logging in remotely.

The post FBI warns of education sector credentials on dark web forums appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A Runescape-themed missive landed in our email inbox today, claiming action is required to secure our account.

The malicious email and the scam behind it are perfect examples of one of the more reliable tactics in the world of phishing—fooling a victim into thinking they need to take some action as part of a larger, ongoing process. With this tactic, phishing email recipients could ask themselves: Is this a mis-sent mail? Should I jump in halfway through whatever’s being proposed and course correct? Will I be sent additional worrying emails if I don’t?

As bait, it’s perfect.

The scam

This email is being fired out to random addresses; it’s not a targeted attack. The phisher is simply hoping that of all the recipients, a few have an account with the service they’re imitating. In this case, the mail is spoofing players of Runescape, the popular free MMORPG title from Jagex. It reads as follows:

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
HAS BEEN CHANGED

You have successfully changed the registered email address for your RuneScape and Old School RuneScape account.

Your account log-in details remain unchanged but your registered email address for all future password resets will be: [email removed]

To cancel this change, please click on the button below.

CANCEL CHANGE

Button not working for you? Copy the URL below into your browser:

Recipients may panic that their address has been accidentally added to someone else’s account and want to fix it as soon as possible. Alternatively, they may actually have a Runescape account and worry at the sight of seeing an unfamiliar email address as the “new” address for the account. Either way, people will click the link to see what this is all about.

The scam site

The site claims to be Old School Runescape, making use of a URL similar to the real thing. It asks visitors for a variety of data. First up is email / username and password.

Secondly, it asks for the visitor’s authenticator code. Lastly, the site asks for their bank PIN.

In Runescape, the “bank” is where the player stores their items. Someone with access to all of this can perform a fairly comprehensive clean-out of the victim’s account.

Discordant behaviour

The manner of sending the victim’s information is quite interesting. Looking at the code on the final submission page reveals the following reference to Discord:

This is a technique where JavaScript is used to send automated messages to Bots in Discord channels via Webhooks. The email, password, authenticator code, and bank PIN will in theory all be posted to whichever channel the Bot resides. From there, people may be sitting waiting for new messages to pop up and then steal the account manually before the authentication codes expire.

Avoiding Runescape phishing attempts

Runescape has plentiful support guides to help steer players away from harm. A list of the most popular scam attempts can be found on their forum. Note that “Your email address has been changed” is listed, along with the following explainer:

Note how a phishing email says the change will be made unless you click something. If someone tries to change your email, Jagex will send an email to confirm the change before any changes are made. No changes are made if you don’t confirm it.

There’s also a dedicated phishing report centre, and several support articles which cover:

• Suspicious emails
• Fake websites
• Staff impersonation

For a more detailed dive into phishing and tips for avoiding all manner of phish attack techniques, read our in-depth guide.

The post Runescape phish claims your email has been changed appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.