IT News

Over the weekend we learned more about the sophisticated attack that compromised security firm FireEye, the US Treasury and Commerce departments and likely many more victims.

Threat actors hacked into IT company SolarWinds in order to use its software channel to push out malicious updates onto 18,000 of its Orion platform customers. This scenario, referred to as a supply-chain attack, is perhaps the most devious and difficult to detect as it relies on software that has already been trusted and that can be widely distributed at once.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued an emergency directive to order all federal agencies to take immediate steps in putting affected SolarWinds Orion products offline and reporting back any incident by Monday.

We do know that the threat actors were in for a much bigger prize than the offensive tools stolen from security firm FireEye, although this incident helped to uncover a very advanced operation with deep ramifications. As this story is still unfolding we will keep our customers informed of any newer developments.

Call to action

• Immediately isolate any systems running the Orion platform versions 2019.4 HF 5 through 2020.2.1, released between March 2020 and June 2020.
• Scan your premises using Malwarebytes and look for any detection, and in particular Backdoor.Sunburst and Backdoor.WebShell.
• Use the Indicators of Compromise at the end of this blog to hunt within your logs, telemetry and other SIEM data to give a timeline perspective to any potential intrusion.
• Perform a comprehensive security sweep to review and harden your physical and cloud infrastructure.
• Upgrade to Orion Platform version 2020.2.1 HF 1 and restore systems once you feel confident with the previous steps.

Further reading

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

This list has been put together from several sources. Kudos to FireEye and Microsoft for sharing IOCs and TTPs so quickly.

SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll
32519b85c0b422e4656de6e6c41878e95fd95026267daab4215ee59c107d6c77
dab758bf98d9b36fa057a66cd0284737abf89857b73ca89280267ee7caf62f3b
eb6fab5a2964c5817fb239a7a5079cabca0a00464fb3e07155f28b0a57a2c0ed
c09040d35630d75dfef0f804f320f8b3d16a481071076918e9b236a321c1ea77
ac1b2b89e60707a20e9eb1ca480bc3410ead40643b386d624c5d21b47c02917c
019085a76ba7126fff22770d71bd901c325fc68ac55aa743327984e89f4b0134
ce77d116a074dab7a22a0fd4f2c1ab475f16eec42e1ded3c0b0aa8211fe858d6
a25cadd48d70f6ea0c4a241d99c5241269e6faccb4054e62d16784640f8e53bc
d3c6785e18fba3749fb785bc313cf8346182f532c59172b69adfb31b96a5d0af

CORE-2019.4.5220.20574-SolarWinds-Core-v2019.4.5220-Hotfix5.msp
d0d626deb3f9484e649294a8dfa814c5568f846d5aa02d4cdad5d041a29d5600

appweblogoimagehandler.ashx.b6031896.dll
c15abaf51e78ca56c0376522d699c978217bf041a3bd3c71d09193efa5717c71

Network indicators

avsvmcloud[.]com
deftsecurity[.]com
freescanonline[.]com
thedoccloud[.]com
websitetheme[.]com
highdatabase[.]com
incomeupdate[.]com
databasegalore[.]com
panhardware[.]com
zupertech[.]com

13.59.205[.]66
54.193.127[.]66
54.215.192[.]52
34.203.203[.]23
139.99.115[.]204
5.252.177[.]25
5.252.177[.]21
204.188.205[.]176
51.89.125[.]18
167.114.213[.]199

Additional hunting rules: https://github.com/fireeye/sunburst_countermeasures/tree/main/rules

The post SolarWinds advanced cyberattack: What happened and what to do now appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Even though we hope that this is an unnecessary warning, we do want to put it out there. As soon as there was talk about a vaccine being available against the COVID-19 virus there were vendors on the Dark Web offering Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines for sale. Now that the UK has started its inoculation program, we’ve see the first offers of “tested COVID-19 vaccines” appearing online.

Granted, it didn’t take the genius of Shakespeare to come up with that plot.

In a single day, 645 COVID-19 listings were discovered across 12 dark web markets, a study from the Australian National University found.

One example

Below is a screenshot of a Dark Web vendor selling a “Corona virus vaccine” (sic) developed in Israel. The vendor states it will be ready in a few days, most likely to extend the period before they start getting complaints that could drive other potential buyers away. As you can see, they envisioned a vaccine far before anyone thought it was even feasible.

Will you receive a real COVID-19 vaccine?

As I see it, there are a few possible scenarios that might play out should you decide to order a “tested COVID-19 vaccine” on the dark web:

1. You will receive nothing at all. You should be happy, all you lost is some money.
2. Possibly a shipment will be sent to your address, but it will not be a real vaccine. With any luck it will be a harmless placebo.
3. The shipment contains a vaccine, but it isn’t the coveted coronavirus vaccine. You have no idea what it really is. Let’s hope you are not allergic to it.
4. In the very unlikely case you receive an actual COVID-19 vaccine, there’s a good chance that it’s not an FDA approved vaccine. The only approved vaccine to date has to be stored and transported at -94°F (-70’C). Will our Dark Web vendor use the cold chain distribution method?

Seriously, there is a huge demand for the real vaccines, and worldwide logistics experts are working out plans to get these vaccines to those that need them the most, in the safest and fastest way.

Warnings

At Malwarebytes Labs we have warned in the past against buying illegal drugs on the internet. You can heed the same warnings for medicines.

A researcher at CloudSEK contacted one of these vendors and requested proof of what they were selling. In response they sent a stock image. You can read their back and forth here.

A warning was issued after ‘Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine’ was found for sale on the Dark Web – at around £1,000 a dose. As we pointed out earlier, given the controlled temperature required for this vaccine’s storage and transport, these are highly unlikely claims.

Europol warned in April about the potential harm of offline and online scams offering alleged versions of the COVID-19 vaccine. Then, in October, it discovered a Mexico-based operation pushing fake influenza vaccines on the cybercrime underground. It’s likely that the same actors will see another opportunity with the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine, Europol said.

It’s a golden opportunity for cybercriminals, who can use fake vaccine offers as bait. Europol said high demand for the vaccine and potential shortages will likely drive consumers online looking for alternatives.

“Some dark web markets feature advertisements for fake COVID-19 vaccines. The number of offers is limited at this stage but will likely increase once a legitimate vaccine becomes available. Criminals advertise their fake vaccines using the brands of genuine pharmaceutical companies that are already in the final stages of testing.”

The Food and Drug Administration said the first Covid-19 vaccine being considered for US distribution “met the prescribed success criteria” in a clinical study, paving the way for the agency to green-light distribution as early as this weekend. It’s likely this will increase the number of fraudulent offers.

Stolen vaccine data

Documents related to the development of one COVID-19 vaccine have been unlawfully accessed in a cyberattack on the European Medicines Agency  (EMA), which is the EU version of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

You can expect scammers to use this information to give extra credibility to their lures. For example, by claiming they have fabricated a COVID-19 vaccine using the information that was in the stolen documents. Again, this concerns the vaccine that needs to be handled under cold chain conditions, so any vaccine based on those specifications will require the same treatment.

Don’t let panic control your actions

While we understand the reasons why some people may want to get the vaccine before their government decides it’s their turn, panic – and greed – are always bad advisors. They are the exact basic instincts that scammers thrive on.

Don’t add an unfortunate accident with an unlikely vaccine sold by a shady Dark Web vendor to the list of things that went wrong in 2020.

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Buying COVID-19 vaccines from the Dark Web? No thanks! appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Hello folks! If you have not heard yet, the security firm FireEye has had a breach of many red team assessment tools used for identification of vulnerabilities to help protect customers.

While it is not known exactly who was behind this attack, a big concern is the sharing and use of these stolen red team tools by both sophisticated and non-sophisticated actors, similar to what we saw in 2017 with the ShadowBrokers group breach of the NSA’s Equation Group.

As soon as we at Malwarebytes found out, we started investigating. However, FireEye has been incredibly transparent and released detection rules and code for the stolen tools, so that vendors across the world can protect their customers from these tools.

So, thanks to the diligence of our own threat research team, as well as the transparency and assistance of FireEye, we’ve been able to incorporate these tools into our detection databases so if they show up on your endpoints, we’ll stop them.

Security firms are a huge target for cyber criminals, from FireEye to even us at Malwarebytes.  Often our software is the first, or last line of defense against sophisticated cybercriminal efforts and even state-sponsored attacks.  Being able to compromise one of these organizations has great value for both nation states as well as commercial cybercriminals.

To that end we commend FireEye for their efforts at quickly recovering and reducing the fallout from this breach and support them in protecting both their internal data and customers moving forward, at the end of the day, we are on the same side and have to deal with the same threats.

Thanks for reading, safe surfing.

The post Malwarebytes detects leaked tools from FireEye breach appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Hello Folks! In this Videobyte, we’re talking about why hospitals are being targeted by the Ryuk ransomware, what tricks they are using to pull this off and what their motivations might be.

Ryuk ransomware is being spread to hospitals using targeted phishing emails that infect systems with the BazarLoader malware, which in turn deploys the Cobalt Strike pen-testing platform, giving attackers greater ability to compromise the network before launching the Ryuk ransomware.

The group has also been observed using the ZeroLogon vulnerability, which allows an attacker to compromise a domain controller server within seconds. That makes lateral infection of corporate endpoints very easy.

According to various law enforcement agencies, attacks are increasing against healthcare organizations:

“‘CISA, FBI, and HHS have credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to US hospitals and healthcare providers. CISA, FBI, and HHS are sharing this information to provide warning to healthcare providers to ensure that they take timely and reasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats,” the advisory states.’”

At the same time, ransomware attacks have been increasing more in the second half of 2020 than the first half, according to a report by Check Point.

The United States saw nearly a 100% increase in ransomware attacks in Q3 compared to Q2.

Overall, this makes for an alarming trend of targeted ransomware attacks that utilize high sophistication and professional tools for attack.  We need to all be on our guard right now.

Links:

• Global Surges in Ransomware Attacks – CheckPoint
• Ransomware threat surge, Ryuk attacks about 20 orgs per week – BleepingComputer
• BazarBackdoor: TrickBot gang’s new stealthy network-hacking malware – BleepingComputer
• Hacking group is targeting US hospitals with Ryuk ransomware – BleepingComputer

The post VideoBytes: Ryuk Ransomware Targeting US Hospitals appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

It may not be tax season in your part of the world right now but you’ll no doubt be pleased to know a prolific tax scammer is on their way to jail for 20 years. If you’re annoyed by tax scam missives, or had the misfortune to hand money over, this is probably satisfying news.

Between 2013 and 2016, Hitesh Patel ran a particularly sophisticated operation. His tax ring called from centers in India, splitting their time between pretending to be the IRS and the US Immigration Services.

Breaking down the scam

Tax scammers typically threaten to revoke a victim’s visa status unless fictitious amounts of money are paid. The scams can range from crude cons, to sophisticated techniques where documents or devices are stolen, and fake websites created.  Those websites then claim to be official Government pages with all the victim’s (stolen) data on them. If the victim doesn’t pay the fake “fine”, they’re threatened with false deportation and imprisonment.

We can assume the fictional USCIS officers would’ve made similar, tax-centric immigration style threats to potential victims. However they did it, money from victims found its way into an elaborate fraud network. Victims are told to wire funds or purchase reloadable cards. US based “runners” then set about liquidating/laundering the money in its newfound forms. Reloadable cards are popular, and a great target for scammers generally. See endnote 50 on this article about how workers get paid for more details.

Between 2013 and 2016, the people at the heart of this scam made millions from their victims. 24 of 60 people charged involved in the scam have been found guilty. The guy at the top pleaded guilty to a wide variety of crimes, including access device fraud, money laundering, impersonation of a federal officer/employee, general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, and wire fraud conspiracy.

Avoiding the tax scammers

As above, be very cautious around claims of immigration fraud or money owed no matter what reasons are given. Contact relevant immigration authorities directly using known/trusted details or go through your immigration adviser, should you have one.

• For more general tax tips related to 2020, we’ve got you covered.
• If you need examples of tax scam mails, you’re in luck.
• Tax scams also wrap themselves in fake tech support calls, of which we have an example.

Avoid missives in your mailbox mentioning mystery refunds, late payments, or “unlock fees” to re-access your online account. Take a similar approach should the tax organisation you deal with be suddenly asking for your login details. There’s no good reason at all why they’d be asking for these details.

Additional lockdowns

Many government tax services offer online portals, and a fair few of those permit additional security protocols. UKGOV’s HMRC portal, for example, is happy for you to use 2FA to keep details secure. Scammers tend to know this and will rely on potential victims using text-based 2FA. This method is vulnerable to “SIM swap” attacks, where scammers trick support staff into porting your mobile number to their own SIM. This means the next time a 2FA code is sent, it’ll go to the fraudster and not the potential victim.

If you’re using an authentication app instead of text codes, this is no longer a problem. Even if someone has grabbed your logins by some other method, they won’t be able to do anything with them. You can go change everything without the imminent threat of someone checking out the nitty-gritty of your account.

If 2FA isn’t available at all, then you’ll need to follow the usual best practices regarding passwords. Perhaps ask the relevant organisation when 2FA may be implemented. Not ideal, but it’s something proactive to get on with while you wait for them to fill the 2FA void.

Forewarned is forearmed

As you may be aware, tax season is almost upon us in many places. Whether it begins in January, April, or another month altogether? It’s worth digging into the online portion of your tax services. See what’s secure, what isn’t, and where the organisation you deal with could perhaps stand to make some improvements.

Scammers are out there making big bucks, and they don’t care who gets crushed in their dash for cash. It’s inevitable that plenty more groups are gearing up for tax time in the few weeks’ quiet before the storm. Start laying down some plans and ground-rules now.

It’s just possible you may help keep both yourself and others safe when the scam wave breaks.

The post Get a head start on defending against tax scams appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Education in the United States faced a crisis this year. The looming threat of the coronavirus—which spreads easily in highly-populated, enclosed rooms—forced schools across the country to develop new strategies for education.

The dramatic stress of this transition is known. Teachers are working more hours than ever and parents are pulled between their jobs and 24/7 childcare. But perhaps for the first time, Malwarebytes has revealed how this transition has stressed the cybersecurity posture of schools and school districts.

Our full report, “Lessons in cybersecurity: How education coped in the shift to distance learning,” shows how schools across the United States are suffering, sometimes through inaction of their own.

Nearly half of all schools did not change anything about their cybersecurity preparations in transitioning to distance learning. The end result is that schools have faced a number of cybersecurity and IT issues that are dramatically increasing IT workload and putting undue strain on teachers’ lives. Some schools have even suffered cyberattacks that have delayed their distance learning plans for a day. More individuals learned that a colleague suffered a malware attack on a school-owned device.

Our report also reveals that cyberattacks do not just threaten the safety of teachers, students, and administrators, though—they also dramatically impact students’ perceptions of schools. Malwarebytes found that many students themselves said a cyberattack would significantly impact their decision to either apply to a school or transfer to that school. Cyberattacks also significantly impacted these students’ trust in their own schools.

Crucially, our report shows that the more cybersecurity best practices that a school put into place, the fewer cybersecurity and IT issues they suffered.

For all of these findings, we went straight to the source.

We conducted two, parallel surveys, the first of which targeted IT decision-makers at schools across the United States. The second survey targeted students enrolled in K–12; students working on obtaining a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree, or attending trade school; and students enrolled in any post-graduate program.

Key takeaways

• 50.7 percent of IT decision-makers said that no one—not students, teachers, staff, or guests (including parents)—were required to enroll in cybersecurity training before the new school year began
• 46.7 percent of IT decision-makers said their schools developed “no additional requirements”—no distanced learning policy read-throughs, no cybersecurity training, no antivirus tool installations—for the students, faculty, or staff who connected to the school’s network
• 46.2 percentof students said their schools suffered a cyberattack
• 61 percent of students said a cyberattack resulted in a significant or strong impact on their trust in their school
• Schools that engaged in a variety of cybersecurity best practices before transitioning to a distance learning model reported zero school-wide cyberattacks, and zero instruction days lost because of a cyberattack
  • 63.6 percent of these schools said they suffered “sustained, excess IT workload” compared to the 72.0 percent of all respondents
  • 18.2 percent of these schools said “teachers or students have suffered a Zoom-bombing attack” compared to the 29.3 percent of all respondents
• With distance learning in full swing, concerns remain with device shortages:
  • 28 percent of IT respondents said their schools are missing laptops, computers or tablets for teachers
  • 40 percent are missing those tools for parents and students
  • 38.7 percent worry that teachers or students are too quickly using up the data on school-provided WiFi hotspots

Study hard

Though we’re halfway through the school year, it is never too late to improve a school’s cybersecurity. In fact, there are several best practices that a school can implement to protect itself from a cybersecurity incident. Not only that, but some of those same practices can help a school’s faculty focus on what matters most—educating students.

Cybersecurity, it turns out, is a lot like school. You’ve got to do your homework. 

To learn more about the increasing risks uncovered in today’s distance learning environment, and about tips and advice that all schools can act on during 2021, read our full report:

Lessons in cybersecurity: How education coped in the shift to distance learning

The post 50 percent of schools did not prepare for secure distance learning, Labs report reveals appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs and around the Internet. In addition, we talk to Doug Levin, founder of the K12 cybersecurity resource center and advisor to the K12 Security Information Exchange, about how schools can plan for a cybersecure 2021.

Education faced a crisis in the US this year, as the looming threat of the coronavirus forced schools across the country to develop new strategies for teaching. At Malwarebytes, we wanted to discover how these shifts impacted education cybersecurity.

Revealed for the first time in our newest report published today, “Lessons in cybersecurity: How schools coped in the shift to distance learning,” what we found concerned us.

Tune in to hear about how schools fared in transitioning to distance learning models, what cybersecurity precautions they did not adopt, and how they can prepare for the second half of the school year, on the latest episode of Lock and Code, with host David Ruiz.

You can also find us on the Apple iTunes store, Google Play Music, and Spotify, plus whatever preferred podcast platform you use.

We cover our own research on:

• Spam roundup for November
• Germans targeted by return of banking Trojan
• Baltimore schools struck by Ransomware
• Deep learning: what the future holds
• Facebook scams, and how to avoid them
• VideoBytes: is it goodbye for Maze Ransomware?

Other cybersecurity news

• Investment fund leaves files wide open to all (Source: The Register)
• Three years jail time for hacker told to leave Nintendo alone (Source: Justice(dot)Gov)
• How to keep healthcare safe from Ransomware (Source: Help Net Security)
• MacOS users under fire from updated malware (Source: ZDnet)
• Hunger relief org scammed out of close to a million dollars (Source: The Non Profit Times)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Lock and Code S1Ep21: Lesson planning your school’s cybersecurity with Doug Levin appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

There it is again—that annoying message that pops up when your email client informs you that a file is too big to attach. Those of us that are confronted with this problem on a regular basis—and those of us that want to attach files that could get picked up by anti-malware scanners along the way—have probably resorted to using file-sharing sites to help solve this issue. But is file-sharing secure?

How do file-sharing sites work?

The procedure for such file-sharing sites is simple enough. You upload the file, copy the download link, and send that link to the person you want to have the file. Some sites offer you a range of options to prevent your files from falling in the wrong hands like encryption, password protection, and others.

Closely related and more than a few times used for the same purpose are cloud storage sites. These could be ideal to backup those files you can’t do without should your hard-drive fail. Personally, I prefer a physical hard drive to backup my more personal files, but I would have no reservations about storing my installers and configuration files online.

Follow the money

It’s not hard to imagine that it will cost money to run such a site. So, when this service is provided to you for free you would be wise to ask yourself how they pay the bills. As in many other online services, when they are offered for free there is a good chance that your data are used to pay the bills.

But there are other means for these sites to earn revenue:

• Advertising: Sometimes it’s easy to see how the bills are paid. It is hard to find the controls between the advertisements, though.

• Web push notifications: A special form of advertising that can be very annoying. Often used in conjunction with regular advertising. Depending on the advertising network these can vary from slightly annoying to downright malicious.

• Altered files: The file you download is not the same as the file that was uploaded. This can be very embarrassing. You don’t want to send your business relations a link that gets them infected with adware or some potentially unwanted program.
• Not the requested file at all: Some file-sharing sites simply replace the requested files with malware. This often happens on sites that are notorious for sharing cracks and keygens. Sometimes they don’t replace all the files to give the visitor the idea that he could “get lucky.”
• Some sites require you to register and provide an email address, social media account, or to install a program that enables the usage of the site. All these options could result in additional advertising.

• Some file sharing sites offer free accounts for small files but will ask a fee if you want to store bigger files. Or they will offer an improved user experience for paid users, for example higher speeds, simultaneous uploads, or an ad-free site. This seems like a fair deal and a good alternative for the users that only need this occasionally.

Inform yourself beforehand

To keep your data and computer secure, before you decide on which site to use for sharing files or storing online for yourself, follow these pointers:

• Look at reviews about the site and skip the ones that are all good

Even with an outstanding product people will find flaws and complain about them. If you can’t find any negative reviews, there is a good chance these will be barred or removed, or in some cases buried by good reviews posted by the people running the site.

• Check out the security options you can use as a free user.

The more the better, obviously. Look for encryption, limited number of downloads, password protection, or anything else you would like to see. There are many providers out there and it’s worth looking for the one that is ideal for you.

• Try the service out yourself before sending someone else a file.

Upload a file and then download it again, preferably from a different computer and other IP address. Sites may treat the uploader different from other downloaders. Don’t embarrass yourself by using an untested service and getting someone you know infected.

Finally, when you download something uploaded by another user, there are some pointers to minimize the privacy and security risks involved:

• Make sure to click the correct button on the site. PUPs love using those big green buttons that tell you to “start here” when in fact that’s not where you want to go at all.
• Check the file extension, does the filetype match with what you are expecting? When you were promised an mp3 and get a file with the .exe extension that should raise all kinds of alarms? In fact, executable files are best avoided entirely unless you know and trust the sender.
• Check the file size. A movie with a size of 8 MB is not likely to be what it claims to be.
• Scan the downloaded file with a trusted antimalware solution before running it.
• Should you decide to run a file, read the installation or download screens carefully. Sometimes there are additional surprises announced in small print.

So, what’s the end verdict on file-sharing?

We feel it’s not our place to make recommendations about which ones are the best, but we feel it is our duty to make you aware of the risks and pitfalls that are very common in this area, most of which you can spot easily by doing a test round or two.

Basic services for limited use are available for free if you are willing to look for them. With an ad blocker or Browser Guard you can navigate the sites that would normally be full of advertisements a lot easier.

Further, web push notifications can easily be controlled and managed form within the browser. If you want to know how, you should read our blogpost about web push notifications.

Also, a quick inspection of the downloaded file can save you some occasional grief as well.

All in all, we think it is possible to share files or use online storage for non-professional purposes without paying for these services. For more regular and professional usage there are many paid options available. The only thing we do want to warn about is downloading desirable files from “unknown” sources. Sites offering cracks, keygens, movies, music, and other desirable files do have a bad reputation for a reason.

Stay safe everyone!

The post File-sharing and cloud storage sites: How safe are they? appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Hello Folks! In this Videobyte we’re talking about Maze ransomware and whether or not its shutting down, and what that means for the cybercrime world.

The notorious Maze ransomware group, known for its corporate targeting and data leaking extortion schemes is, apparently, shutting down operations.

Rumors began months ago that Maze was shutting down, as many affiliates who helped distribute Maze have been spotted switching to a different, new ransomware family called Egregor.

Then, on November 1, the group behind Maze released a statement claiming that it was closing its doors. The author also went on a rant about how the future will entirely be lived online and Maze ransomware attacks were meant to help prepare companies by forcing them to increase their security.

Typical rhetoric among delusional criminals who want to see their effort as beneficial rather than something which hurts lives.

We will have to wait and see if Maze is truly gone. After all, we thought Ryuk had vanished earlier this year, only to see it return. At the same time, the affiliate shift to Egregor ransomware is somewhat like the shift away from GandCrab to Sodinokibi in 2018-2019.

Unfortunately, history has shown us that when a crime group decides to close their doors, it’s rarely because they have seen the error in their ways and it’s more often due to a new, more powerful threat that these actors would prefer to use.

Links:

• Maze ransomware is shutting down its cybercrime operation – BleepingComputer
• Maze ransomware shuts down operations, denies creating cartel – BleepingComputer

The post VideoBytes: Is it goodbye forever to Maze ransomware? appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Scams can be found anywhere, and Facebook is no exception. And, with the holiday season just around the corner, and the world still weathering a pandemic, it pays to know what Facebook scams you, those close to you, and those you have professional relationships with could potentially encounter.

We’ll look at those that pose a notable risk to either your banking account or your personal information in this two-part series.

“How do I scam thee, let me count the ways“

Plain, ol’ data mining schemes

According to Vade Secure, a company specializing in email defense, Facebook ranks second in its list of most impersonated brands in phishing campaigns, which it details more in its annual Phishers’ Favorites Q1 2020 report.

Facebook phishing campaigns can take many forms—including Facebook apps and SMS messages—and can come via many avenues. It could be a link on Messenger from a connection or stranger, an email asking you to verify your “legal ownership” of your Facebook account, or a simple public post designed to either entice or scare recipients to act, which usually involves the handing over of data.

Take, for example, a campaign where recipients are told their account has been reported for abuse, thus in violation of Facebook’s standards. This is then coupled with a link to a page that tells users to enter their credentials to prove that the account in question is theirs.

One thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to phishing campaigns on Facebook, it doesn’t matter whether it first appeared 10 years ago or 10 days ago. We see similarities in past and present campaigns because phishers find them effective against users as they continue to fall for the same tricks.

Here’s a tip: If you find it difficult to spot a phishing attempt, a password manager could help you by not automatically pre-filling credentials on sites you know it’s supposed to pre-fill. Once this happens, report this to your password manager support team so they can investigate. Meanwhile, avoid manually entering information to the site that your password manager refuses to pre-fill, as it might likely be a phishing page.

Scam ad campaigns

Although this may sound new to the average consumer, those who have established an online business presence on Facebook are quite familiar with scam ad campaigns.

Scam ads are, essentially, false or fake ads designed to reel people in to con them out of their money. This type of campaign has made Facebook their home by hijacking business, community, or “public figure” accounts and buying ad campaigns to run.

Hackers and fraudsters particularly target Facebook accounts that can run ads as everything is already set up for them to use and abuse. And while some cybercriminals deliberately create and leave Facebook accounts to “mature” over time—we’re talking about years here—before they get sold, most scammers just couldn’t wait that long.

Why do they do this? Because Facebook’s system is on the lookout for scammery involving new accounts. Leaving accounts to mature is a way to circumvent the system.

Running scam ads can net fraudsters huge sums of money, even if they only run for a few hours before getting shut down. In fact, a few hours are all they need to see a return on their investment of time and effort.

Last year, Henry Lau, co-founder of Privolta, a company that specializes in privacy focused ads, had his Facebook ads account compromised by hackers via a third-party, who then used it to run a 13-second video campaign of a red toy wagon that was seen by Facebook users in Australia, North America, and Mexico. Interested users who clicked it were taken to a sale site with card skimmer code embedded in it.

Although Facebook had raised a red flag on his account when the fraudsters set a campaign budget of 10,000 USD, the social network didn’t notify Lau and allowed the campaign to play out anyway. Wilson said that Facebook’s model is “approve first, ask questions later”.

On the radar: After compromising and installing ransomware on the systems of Campari Group, a well-known Italian beverage maker, the Ragnar Locker ransomware group took to Facebook’s ad campaigns to further pressure the company. The account the group used to run the ad campaign belongs to a deejay based in Chicago. Read more about it in this KrebsOnSecurity post.

Live stream and music festival scam

The current pandemic has pretty much made every form of contact with the outside world virtual—including attending concerts. Yes, live stream concerts are indeed a thing today, but unfortunately, concert tickets scams that have plagued such music gatherings have evolved with the times, too.

There are several types of this scam that have been observed in the wild. According to Celebrity Access, fraudsters have set up several Facebook pages with a list of fake live streaming events to come. This, apparently, is a front for a phishing campaign as those who are interested in attending these streams would have to register with their PII.

Another flavor of the live stream scam involves fake donation links. Since local musicians have migrated their live performance events online, cybercriminals have bombarded their official pages with fraudulent links in the hope of directing stream attendees to a site where fans are asked for “donations”. This was what happened to Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums featuring Carmen Getit, popular mainstays in the Bay Area music scene, when they announced a Saturday live stream in April.

Several music festivals in the UK were also victims of scammers who employ similar tactics. Kevin Tate, the Festival & Events UK editor, has uncovered nearly a hundred fraudulent links to legitimate events, such as the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the Love Saves the Day Festival in Bristol, and the Noisily Festival. These links, Tate said, were created a few days before the event, and charges interested parties with varying amounts to view content that is, essentially, free.

Fake concert ads are also pushed out via ad campaigns on Facebook.

PayPal fund transfer scam

Facebook Messenger is no stranger to messages containing a copious level of fakery. From across the pond, county police in North West England issued a warning in August about a spate of messages sent via Facebook from accounts that were believed to have been hijacked by hackers.

According to detectives, once scammers take over a legitimate Facebook account, they then proceed to contact friends and family of the account owner, asking them to receive payment from a buyer for an item—usually a camera, based on collected reports—they have purportedly sold on eBay.

They then claim they couldn’t receive the payment themselves because their PayPal account isn’t working, or they don’t have one. They instruct the family or friend that once they receive the cash into their own PayPal account, they are to transfer it to their own bank account before forwarding it to an account controlled by the fraudster.

After the family member or friend arranges a money transfer from their bank account to the scammer’s, the scammer then reverses the PayPal transaction. So no money reaches the family member or friend’s PayPal account, and they have just knowingly given part of their savings to fraudsters.

In part 2, we’ll be moving forward with our list and include tips on how to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from these Facebook scams, too. Until then: eyes open, and stay safe!

The post The many ways you can be scammed on Facebook, part I appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.