titanadmin - Page 11
by titanadmin | Sep 8, 2017 | Email Scams, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News, Spam Software, Website Filtering |
Dropbox phishing attacks are relatively common and frequently fool employees into revealing their sensitive information or downloading malware.
Dropbox is a popular platform for sharing files and employees are used to receiving links advising them that files have been shared with them by their colleagues and contacts and phishers are taking advantage of familiarity with the platform.
There are two main types of Dropbox phishing attacks. One involves sending a link that asks users to verify their email address. Clicking the link directs them to a spoofed Dropbox website that closely resembles the official website. They are then asked to enter in their login credentials as part of the confirmation process.
Dropbox phishing attacks are also used to deliver malware such as banking Trojans and ransomware. A link is sent to users relating to a shared file. Instead of accessing a document, clicking the link will result in malware being downloaded.
Over the past few days, there has been a massive campaign using both of these attack methods involving millions of spam email messages. Last week, more than 23 million messages were sent in a single day.
Most of the emails were distributing Locky ransomware, with a smaller percentage used to spread Shade ransomware. There is no free decryptor available to unlock files encrypted by Locky and Shade ransomware. If files cannot be recovered from backups, victioms will have to dig deep.
Due to the rise in value of Bitcoin of late the cost of recovery is considerable. The malicious actors behind these attacks are demanding 0.5 Bitcoin per infected device – Around $2,400. For a business with multiple devices infected, recovery will cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to F-Secure, the majority of malware-related spam messages detected recently – 90% – are being used to distribute Locky. Other security researchers have issued similar reports of a surge in Locky infections and spam email campaigns.
To prevent Locky ransomware attacks, businesses should install an advanced spam filtering solution to prevent malicious emails from being delivered to end users’ inboxes. Occasional emails are likely to make it past spam filtering defenses so it is important that all users receive security awareness training to help them identify malicious emails.
A web filter can be highly effective at blocking attempts to visit malicious websites where malware is downloaded, while up to date antivirus and anti-malware solutions can detect and quarantine malicious files before they are opened.
Backups should also be made of all data and systems and those backups should be stored on an air-gapped device. Ransomware variants such as Locky can delete Windows Shadow Volume Copies and if a backup device remains connected, it is probable that backup files will also be encrypted.
Best practices for backing up data involve three backup files being created, on two different media, with one copy stored offsite and offline. Backups should also be tested to make sure files can be recovered in the event of disaster.
The increase in ransomware attacks has prompted the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop new guidance (NIST SPECIAL PUBLICATION 1800-11) on recovering from ransomware attacks and other disasters. The draft guidance can be downloaded on this link.
by titanadmin | Aug 30, 2017 | Industry News, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
A Netherlands-based spambot has recently been discovered that is being used to send massive volumes of spam email containing ransomware and malware. What sets this spambot aside from the many others in use is the scale of the spamming operations. Paris-based cybersecurity firm Benkow says the spambot contains an astonishing 711,000,000 email addresses.
To put that absurdly high figure into perspective, it corresponds to the entire population of Europe or two email addresses for every resident in the United States and Canada.
The spambot – called Onliner – is being used as part of a massive malware distribution network that has been distributing Ursnif banking malware. Not only are these email addresses being used for spamming and malware distribution, the passwords associated with many of those accounts are also publicly available on the same server. Malicious actors could access the data and use the information to gain access to the compromised accounts to search for sensitive information.
All of the email addresses in the list have now been uploaded to HaveIBeenPwned. Troy Hunt of HaveIBeenPwned recently explained in a blog post that this is the single largest set of email addresses that has ever been uploaded to the database. Hunt said it took 110 separate data breaches and more than two and a half years for the site to amass a database of that size.
Hunt explained that an analysis of some of the email addresses in one of the text files were all present in the data from the LinkedIn breach, another set related to the Badoo breach and another batch were all in the exploit.in list, suggesting this massive collection of email addresses has been amalgamated from past data breaches. That shows data is being extensively bought and sold on forums and darknet marketplaces. However, not all of the email addresses were already in the database, suggesting they came either from previously undisclosed breaches and scrapes of Internet sites.
Some of the lists obtained contained email addresses, corresponding passwords, SMTP servers and ports, which allow spammers to abuse those accounts and servers in their spamming campaigns. Hunt says the list includes approximately 80 million email servers that are being used in spamming campaigns.
The problem is these are legitimate accounts and servers, which the spammers can abuse to send massive amounts of spam and even defeat some spam filters, ensuring malicious messages get delivered. Hunt says authorities in the Netherlands are currently attempting to shut down Onliner.
As a precaution, everyone is recommended to visit HaveIBeenPwned to check if their email addresses/passwords have been added to the database. If they are present, it is important to update the passwords for those email accounts and never to use those passwords again.
by titanadmin | Aug 29, 2017 | Email Scams, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
Defray ransomware is being used in targeted attacks on organizations in the healthcare and education sectors. The new ransomware variant is being distributed via email; however, in contrast to many ransomware campaigns, the emails are not being sent out in the millions. Rather than use the spray and pay method of distribution, small campaigns are being conducted consisting of just a few emails.
To increase the likelihood of infection, the criminals behind Defray ransomware are carefully crafting messages to appeal to specific victims in an organization. Researchers at Proofpoint have captured emails from two small campaigns, one of which incorporates hospital logos in the emails and claims to have been sent by the Director of Information Management & Technology at the targeted hospital.
The emails contain an Microsoft Word attachment that appears to be a report for patients, relatives and carers. The patient report includes an embedded OLE packager shell object. If clicked, this executable downloads and installs Defray ransomware, naming it after a legitimate Windows file.
The ransom demand is considerable. Victims are asked to pay $5,000 per infected machine for the keys to unlock the encryption, although the ransom note does suggest the attackers are prepared to negotiate on price. The attackers suggest victims should backup their files to avoid having to pay ransoms in the future.
There is no known decryptor for defray ransomware. Files are encrypted using AES-256 with RAS-2048 used to encrypt the AES-256 encrypted password while SHA-2 is used to maintain file integrity. In addition to encrypting files, the ransomware variant can cause other disruption and will delete volume shadow copies to prevent the restoration of files without paying the ransom.
The developers of the ransomware have not given their malicious code a name and in contrast to most ransomware variants, the extensions of encrypted files are not changed. Proofpoint named the variant Defray ransomware from the C2 server used by the attackers.
A second campaign has been identified targeting the manufacturing and technology sector. In this case, the email appears to have been sent by a UK aquarium (Sea Life) with facilities around the world. The emails and attachments differ, although the same OLE packager shell object is used to infect end users.
The attackers have been sending these malicious emails to individuals, user groups and distribution lists. Attacks have occurred in both the United States and United Kingdom and are likely to continue.
Protecting against these targeted attacks requires a combination of spam filtering technology and end user training. Organizations in the healthcare, education, technology and manufacturing sectors should consider sending an email alert to end users warning of the risk of ransomware attacks, instructing end users to exercise caution and not to open email attachments from unknown senders and never to click to enable content on email attachments.
by titanadmin | Aug 29, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News |
Scenes of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey are all over the newsstands and Internet. Videos of the devastation are being broadcast around the globe. The hurricane hit the Texas coast two days ago, forcing tens of thousands of Texas residents to flee their homes. While the hurricane has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, meteorologists are predicting the heavy rainfall will continue at lease for a couple more days and flood waters are continuing to rise.
Following any natural disaster, email scams are rife and extra care must be taken. Hurricane Harvey is no exception. While homeowners were preparing for the worst, cybercriminals were developing Hurricane Harvey phishing scams to fool the unwary into revealing their sensitive information or downloading malware.
Just as looters take advantage of abandoned homes, scammers take advantage of interest in the disaster and send malicious emails that direct users to phishing websites and exploit kits that silently download malware. Scammers capitalize on interest in disasters to conduct malicious activities.
The expected deluge of malicious emails has prompted US-CERT to issue a warning about Hurricane Harvey phishing scams, urging Americans to be extra vigilant. Similar warnings have also been issued by the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Hurricane Harvey phishing scams are likely to have eye-catching subject lines offering updates on Hurricane Harvey and stories relating to the disaster or relief efforts. The scam emails contain malicious hyperlinks that will direct users to phishing websites and sites where malware is downloaded. Malicious email attachments are also used to install malware and ransomware.
Users should be extremely wary about opening any emails relating to Hurricane Harvey, especially emails sent from unknown senders. The best advice is not to click on any hyperlink in an email relating to Hurricane Harvey and not to open email attachments sent in those messages.
While email is favored by many scammers, Hurricane Harvey phishing scams can be found on social media sites. Facebook posts and tweets may direct users to phishing websites where credit card details can be obtained or to fake charity websites where donations can be made.
How to Give to Charity to Support the Victims and Avoid Being Scammed
A natural disaster such as this causes devastation for tens of thousands of families. Homes and businesses are lost and families are forced to take refuge in shelters. Displaced families need support and many charities are accepting donations to help the victims.
However, all may not be as it seems. Scammers spoof legitimate charities and set up bogus websites where donations can be made. Oftentimes, legitimate charities are spoofed and donations never make it to the victims.
The advice offered by the Federal Trade Commission is to be wary of any request for donations to support the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Rather than respond directly to email and social media requests for donations, visit the charity webpage directly and independently verify the charity is legitimate.
The Better Business Bureau is maintaining a list of BBB-accredited charities that are accepting donations to support the victims of Hurricane Harvey, as is Guidestar. By checking the legitimacy of the charity, users can make sure their donations reach the victims of the hurricane and do not end up lining criminals’ pockets.
If you are considering donating to a charity that is not on either list, before making a donation, check that the charity is registered by contacting the National Association of State Charity Officials.
by titanadmin | Aug 24, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
What is biggest cybersecurity threat currently faced by organizations? According to a recent survey of government IT professionals, the biggest cybersecurity threat is employees. 100% of respondents to the survey said employees were the biggest cybersecurity threat faced by their organziation.
The survey, conducted by Netwrix, explored IT security and compliance risks at a wide range of organizations around the globe, including government agencies.
Government agencies are an attractive target for cybercriminals. They store vast quantities of sensitive data on consumers and cybersecurity protections are often inferior to private sector organizations. Consequently, cyberattacks are easier to pull off. In addition to a treasure trove of consumer data, government agencies hold highly sensitive information critical to national security. With access to that information, hackers can take out critical infrastructure.
There are plenty of hackers attempting to gain access to government networks and oftentimes attacks are successful. The Office of Personnel Management breach in 2015 resulted in the Social Security numbers of 21.5 million individuals being compromised. In 2015, there was also a 6.2 million record breach at the Georgia Secretary of State Office and 191 million individuals were affected by a hack of the U.S. voter database.
The survey revealed 72% of government entities around the world had experienced at least one data breach in 2016 and only 14% of respondents felt their department was well protected against cyberattacks.
Employees Are the Biggest Cybersecurity Threat
Last year, 57% of data breaches at government entities were caused by insider error, while 43% of respondents from government agencies said they had investigated instances of insider misuse. Given the high percentage of security incidents caused by insiders – deliberate and accidental – it is no surprise that insiders are perceived to be the biggest cybersecurity threat.
How Can Employees be Turned from Liabilities into Security Titans?
Employees may be widely regarded as liabilities when it comes to information security, but that need not be the case. With training, employees can be turned into security titans. For that to happen, a onetime security awareness training program is not going to cut it. Creating a security culture requires considerable effort, resources and investment.
Security awareness training needs to be a continuous process with training sessions for employees scheduled at least twice a year, with monthly updates and weekly security bulletins distributed to highlight the latest threats. Training must also be backed up with testing – both to determine how effective training has been and to provide employees with the opportunity to test their skills. Phishing simulations are highly effective in this regard. If an employee fails a simulation it can be turned into a training opportunity. Studies by security training companies have shown susceptibility to phishing attacks can be reduced by more than 90% with effective training and phishing simulation exercises.
However, fail to invest in an effective security awareness program and employees will remain the biggest cybersecurity threat and will continue to cause costly data breaches.
How to Reduce Exposure to Phishing and Malware Threats
With the workforce trained to respond correctly to phishing emails, employees can be turned into a formidable last line of defense. The defensive line should be tested with simulated phishing emails, but technological solutions should be introduced to prevent real phishing emails from being delivered to end users’ inboxes.
The majority of malware and ransomware attacks start with a phishing email, so it is essential that these malicious messages are filtered out. An advanced spam filtering solution should therefore be at the heart of an organization’s email defenses.
SpamTitan is a highly effective enterprise-class spam filtering solution that blocks malicious messages and more than 99.9% of spam email, helping organizations to mount an impressive defense against email-based attacks. Dual anti-virus engines are used to identity and block malware and ransomware, with each email subjected to deep analysis using Sender Policy Framework (SPF), SURBL’s, RBL’s and Bayesian analysis to block threats.
If you want to improve your defenses against phishing and email-based malware attacks, SpamTitan should be at the heart of your email defenses. To find out more about SpamTitan and how it can prevent your employees having their phishing email identification skills frequently put to the test, contact the TitanHQ team today.
by titanadmin | Aug 23, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
The busiest day of the week for email spam is Tuesday and spammers concentrate on sending messages during working hours, Monday to Friday, according to a 2017 spam study conducted by IBM X-Force.
The study was conducted over a 6-month period from December 2016 to June 2017. The study analyzed more than 20 million spam messages and 27 billion webpages and images a day. The researchers also incorporated data provided by several anti-spam organizations, making the 2017 spam study one of the largest ever conducted.
The 2017 spam study showed the majority of spam emails – 83% – were sent to arrive in inboxes during office hours with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the spammiest days. Spam volume was much lower on Mondays and Fridays.
While spam is sent 24/7, the busiest times are between 1am and 4pm ET. If an email arrives at an inbox when a worker is at his/her desk, it is more likely to be opened. Spammers therefore concentrate their messages during office hours.
Malicious spam messages increase around the holidays and during tax season when email scams are rife. The increase in numbers of individuals heading online to shop for goods means rich pickings for spammers. Spam volume also increases during sporting events such as the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the Football World Cup, with sports-themed spam messages capitalizing on interest in the events.
Malicious messages aim to get email recipients to reveal their banking credentials, logins and passwords and install malware. The researchers found 44% of spam emails contained malicious code, and out of those emails, 85% were used to spread ransomware.
While the majority of spam messages are automated, the IBM researchers point out that spammers work at their campaigns. There is also considerable manual work required to control botnets and spam mailers. The process is not entirely automated. Considerable work is put into malicious messages that spread ransomware and malware, with these campaigns requiring the highest level of manual control. These campaigns also involve extensive planning to maximize the number of victims.
Spam is sent from countries all around the world, although the biggest percentage hails from India, which sends 30% of all spam emails. South America and China also send a high percentage of global spam. Only 7% of spam emails are sent from the United States and Canada.
Companies are getting better at filtering out spam emails and preventing the messages from reaching inboxes. Spam filtering technology has improved enormously in recent years, meaning fewer messages are being delivered; however, spam is still the main method of distributing malware and phishing scams are rife. Spammers are also getting much better at masking their malicious messages and they frequently change delivery vehicles develop new methods of hiding malicious code to avoid detection.
The researchers say spam email volume has increased fourfold over the past 12 months and malicious messages are now being increasingly targeted at organizations and individuals, rather than being sent randomly in huge spamming campaigns. Targeting allows the attackers to send carefully crafted campaigns which are more likely to result in the recipients taking the desired action.
by titanadmin | Aug 21, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News, Spam Software |
Two new Locky ransomware spam campaigns have been detected this month, each being used to spread a new variant of the cryptoransomware. The campaigns have been launched after a relatively quiet period for ransomware attacks, although the latest campaigns show that the threat of ransomware attacks in never far away.
Previously, Locky ransomware spam campaigns have been conducted using the Necurs botnet – one of the largest botnets currently in use. One of the campaigns, spreading the Locky variant Lukitus is being conducted via Necurs. The other campaign, which is spreading the Diablo Locky variant, is being sent via a new botnet consisting of more than 11,000 infected devices. Those devices are located in 133 countries according to Comodo Threat Research Labs. The botnet appears to have been built quickly and is understood to be growing, with most infected devices in Vietnam, India, Mexico, Turkey and Indonesia.
The failure to backup files is likely to prove costly. The ransom demand issued by the attackers ranges between 0.5 and 1 Bitcoin per infected device – approximately $2,150 to $4,300 per machine. There is still no decryptor for Locky ransomware. Victims face file loss if they do not have a viable backup to restore files. Locky ransomware variants remove Shadow Volume Copies to hamper recovery without paying the ransom.
The Diablo Locky variant renames encrypted files with a unique 16-character file name and adds the diablo6 extension, while the Lukitus variant adds the .lukitus extension.
The two new Locky ransomware spam campaigns differ in their method of delivery of the ransomware, although both involve spam email. The Diablo campaign, which started on August 9, uses various attachments including pdf, doc, and docx files, although infection occurs via malicious macros.
Opening the infected documents will present the user with indecipherable data and a prompt to enable macros to view the content of the document. Enabling macro saves a binary to the device, runs it, and downloads the Locky payload.
The email subjects in this campaign are varied, although in many of the emails the attackers claim the attachment is a missed invoice or purchase order.
The Lukitus campaign was first detected on August 16 and has been mostly used in attacks in the United States, UK, and Austria, although there have also been successful attacks in Italy, Sweden, China, Russia, Botswana, Netherlands and Latvia.
This campaign uses zipped (zip and rar) attachments. The zip files contain JavaScript files, which if run, will download the Lukitus Locky variant.
As with all ransomware attacks via spam email, the best defense is an advanced spam filter to block the emails and prevent them from being delivered to end users. Employees should already have been trained on the threat from ransomware. Now would be a good time to issue a reminder via email to all employees of the current threat.
Recovery without paying the ransom depends on viable backup copies existing. Since Locky can encrypt backup files, backup devices should be disconnected after a backup has been made. Organizations should also ensure three copies of backups exist, on two different media, with one copy stored off site – the 3-2-1 approach to backing up.
by titanadmin | Aug 18, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam Software, Website Filtering |
The retail industry is under attack with cybercriminals increasing their efforts to gain access to PoS systems. Retail industry data breaches are now being reported twice as frequently as last year, according to a recent report from UK law firm RPC.
Retailers are an attractive target. They process many thousands of credit card transactions each week and store huge volumes of personal information of consumers. If cybercriminals can gain access to Point of Sale systems, they can siphon off credit and debit card information and stolen consumer data can be used for a multitude of nefarious purposes.
Many retailers lack robust cybersecurity defenses and run complex systems on aging platforms, making attacks relatively easy.
While cyberattacks are common, the increase in data breaches does not necessarily mean hacks are on the rise. RPC points out that there are many possible causes of data breaches, including theft of data by insiders. Retailers need to improve they defenses against attacks by third parties, although it is important not to forget that systems need to be protected from internal threats.
Preventing retail industry data breaches requires a range of cybersecurity protections, but technology isn’t always the answer. Errors made by staff can easily result in cybercriminals gaining easy access to systems, such as when employees respond to phishing emails.
Employees are the last line of defense and that defensive line is frequently tested. It is therefore essential to improve security awareness. Security awareness training should be provided to all employees to raise awareness of the threat from phishing, malware and web-based attacks.
Phishing emails are the primary method of spreading malware and ransomware. Training staff how to identify phishing emails – and take the correct actions when email-based threats are received – will go a long way toward preventing retail industry data breaches. Employees should be taught the security basics such as never opening email attachments or clicking hyperlinks in emails from unknown individuals and never divulging login credentials online in response to email requests.
Employees can be trained to recognize email-based threats, although it is important to take steps to prevent threats from reaching inboxes. An advanced spam filtering solution is therefore a good investment. Spam filters can block the vast majority of spam and malicious emails, ensuring employees security awareness is not frequently put to the test. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of spam and malicious emails, ensuring threats never reach inboxes.
Web-based attacks can be blocked with a web filtering solution. By carefully controlling the types of websites employees can access, retailers can greatly reduce the risk of malware downloads.
As the recent WannaCry and NotPetya malware attacks have shown, user interaction is not always required to install malware. Both of those global attacks were conducted remotely without any input from employees. Vulnerabilities in operating systems were exploited to download malware.
In both cases, patches had been released prior to the attacks that would have protected organizations from the threat. Keeping software up to date is therefore essential. Patches must be applied promptly and regular checks conducted to ensure all software is kept 100% up to date.
This is not only important for preventing retail industry data breaches. Next year, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force and heavy fines await retailers that fail to do enough to improve data security. Ahead of the May 25, 2018 deadline for compliance, retailers need to improve security to prevent breaches and ensure systems are in place to detect breaches rapidly when they do occur.
by titanadmin | Aug 16, 2017 | Email Scams, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
Several domain spoofing spam campaigns have been detected that are targeting customers of popular UK banks. The spam email campaigns include credible messages and realistic spoofed domains and pose a threat to consumers and businesses alike. The domain spoofing email campaigns are targeting customers of HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander.
Domain spoofing is the use of a domain similar to that used by a legitimate entity with the aim of fooling email recipients into believing the email and domain is genuine. Domain spoofing is commonly used in phishing attacks, with email recipients fooled into divulging their login credentials or downloading malware. In addition to a similarly named domain, the malicious websites often include the targeted brand’s logos, layouts and color schemes.
According to a warning issued by the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center, the latest domain spoofing spam campaigns involve the name of the bank and one of the following additional words: docs; documents; secure; communication; securemessage.
Customers of a targeted back who receive an email and a link from the domain ‘securenatwest.co.uk’ or ‘santandersecuremessage.com’ could easily be fooled into thinking the email is genuine. Other domains being used are hsbcdocs.co.uk, hmrccommunication.co.uk, lloydsbacs.co.uk, nationwidesecure.co.uk, natwestdocuments6.ml, and santanderdocs.co.uk. Further, many consumers still believe a website starting with HTTPS is secure. Yet all of these spoofed domains are all encrypted and have SSL certificates.
The domain spoofing spam campaigns involve messages claiming there is a new secure message from the bank along with an attached HTML file. That file downloads a malicious MS Office document containing macros. If those macros are enabled, the malicious payload is delivered. These campaigns are being used to distribute Trickbot malware – a banking Trojan used for man-in-the-middle attacks to steal banking credentials.
HTML documents are used as they download malicious MS documents via an HTTPS connection to reduce the risk of the documents being detected by antivirus software. SANS Institute researcher Brad Duncan pointed out that this method, while not new, can be effective. He also explained that “poorly managed Windows hosts (or Windows computers using a default configuration) are susceptible to infection.”
The domain spoofing spam campaigns were detected by My Online Security, which notes that “A very high proportion are being targeted at small and medium size businesses, with the hope of getting a better response than they do from consumers.”
Businesses can reduce risk by employing a spam filtering solution to prevent the malicious messages from being delivered to end users, ensuring Windows hosts are correctly configured, and ensuring employees are alert to the threat. Macros should be disabled on all devices and employees instructed never to enable macros or enable content on emailed documents.
If you are looking for the best spam filter for business users, be sure to check out SpamTitan – The leading anti-spam solution for SMBs and enterprises. Contact the TitanHQ team today for further information and a product demonstration.
by titanadmin | Aug 14, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Internet Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News, Spam Software |
Security researchers have discovered a wave of cyberattacks on hotel WiFi networks that leverage an NSA exploit – EternalBlue – for a vulnerability that was fixed by Microsoft in March.
The same exploit was used in the WannaCry ransomware attacks in May and the NotPetya wiper attacks in June. Even though the malware campaigns affected hundreds of companies and caused millions (if not billions) of dollars of losses, there are still companies that have yet to apply the update.
The recent cyberattacks on hotel WiFi networks have affected establishments in the Middle East and Europe. Once access is gained to hotel networks, the attackers spy on guests via hotel WiFi networks and steal their login credentials.
Researchers at FireEye discovered the new campaign, which they have attributed to the Russian hacking group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear. Fancy Bear is believed to receive backing from the Russian government and has performed many high profile cyberattacks in recent years, including the cyberattack on the World Anti-Doping agency (WADA). Following that attack, Fancy Bear published athletes’ therapeutic use exemption (TUE) data.
In contrast to the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks that were conducted remotely without any user involvement, the latest campaign is being conducted via a spear phishing campaign. The hacking group sends malicious emails to hotel employees and uses email attachments to download their backdoor – Gamefish. In this case, the attachment appears to be a reservation form for a hotel booking. Gamefish is installed if hotel employees run the macros in the document.
Once the backdoor is installed, the hackers search for internal and guest WiFi networks using EternalBlue and spread to other devices. Once embedded in computers that control the WiFi networks, the attackers can launch attacks on devices that attempt to connect to the hotel WiFi network.
The hackers use the open-source Responder tool to listen for MBT-NS (UDP/137) broadcasts from devices that are attempting to connect to WiFi network resources. Instead of connecting, they connect to Responder which obtains usernames and hashed passwords. That information is transferred to a computer controlled by the attackers. Once the hashed passwords have been cracked they can be used to attack hotel guests.
The names of the affected hotels have not been disclosed, although FireEye has confirmed that at least one Middle Eastern hotel and seven in Europe have been attacked. The hotels were well respected establishments likely to be frequented by high-net worth guests and business travelers.
The advice for travelers is to exercise caution when connecting to hotel WiFi networks, such as avoiding accessing online bank accounts or better still, avoiding connecting to hotel WiFi networks altogether. While the use of a VPN when connecting to hotel WiFi networks is a good idea, in this case the attack can occur before a secure VPN connection is made.
FireEye reports that this type of attack is difficult to detect and block. The attackers passively collect data and leave virtually no traces. Once login credentials have been obtained, guests are vulnerable and not just while they are at the hotel. FireEye believes the credentials are then used to attack individuals when they return home and connect to their home networks.
The best way for hotels to prevent cyberattacks on hotel WiFi networks such as this is by blocking the phishing and spear phishing attacks that lead to installation of the malware. Hotels should ensure all employees are provided with security awareness training and a spam filtering solution such as SpamTitan is deployed to stop malicious emails from being delivered to employees’ inboxes.
A WiFi Security Solution from TitanHQ
Any WiFi access point provider should ensure that controls are implemented to restrict access to illegal or inappropriate website content, block access to known malicious URLs that are used for phishing and malware distribution, and to prevent downloads of files commonly associated with malware.
TitanHQ developed WebTitan Cloud for WiFi to help businesses and service providers secure their WiFi networks, block cyberattacks, and provide a sanitized Internet service to customers. WebTitan Cloud for WiFi is a DNS-based filtering solution that can be used to carefully control the Internet content individuals can access when connected to the business WiFi network, with no impact on Internet speed.
Benefits of WebTitan Cloud for WiFi for Hotels
- Create a family-friendly, safe and secure web browsing environment.
- Accurately filter web content through 53 pre-set categories and up to 10 custom categories.
- Filter by keyword and keyword score.
- Filter content in 200 languages.
- Apply time-based filtering controls.
- Filter the Internet across multiple WiFi hotspots.
- Manage access points through a single web-based administration panel.
- Delegate management of access points.
- Low management overhead.
- Reduce the risk of phishing attacks.
- Block malware and ransomware downloads.
- Inspect encrypted websites with SSL certificates.
- Schedule and run reports on demand with real time-views of Internet activity and extensive drill down reporting.
- Industry-leading customer service and support.
- Highly competitive pricing.
by titanadmin | Aug 9, 2017 | Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam |
Cyberattacks are continuing to rise, according to the latest threat report from NTT Security. Cyberattacks in Q2 2017 jumped considerably, while phishing emails are now being extensively used to spread malware. The majority of cyberattacks in Q2 2017 affected the manufacturing, finance and healthcare industries, which accounted for 72% of all detected attacks.
Cyberattacks in Q2 2017 Increased by Almost a Quarter
Cyberattacks in Q2 2017 were 24% higher than the previous quarter and the manufacturing industry is in hackers’ crosshairs. Manufacturing accounted for 34% of all malicious attacks last quarter, followed by finance with 25% of attacks and healthcare on 13%.
Cyberattacks on manufacturing firms are not limited geographically. Manufacturing was the most attacked industry in five out of the six geographical regions tracked by NTT Security. The attacks have involved ransomware, industrial espionage, sabotage and data theft. Even though cyberattacks on manufacturing firms have increased sharply, 37% of firms in the sector have yet to develop an incident response plan.
Flash Continues to Cause Security Headaches for Businesses
Unpatched vulnerabilities continue to cause headaches for businesses, with Adobe Flash the main culprit. Adobe will finally retire Flash in 2020, but until then, it remains something of a liability. 98% of vulnerabilities corrected by Adobe were in Flash, and in Q2, an Adobe Flash vulnerability was the most commonly exploited. The Adobe Flash remote code execution vulnerability CVE-2016-4116 was exploited in 57% of vulnerability exploitation attacks.
The message to businesses is clear. If Adobe Flash is not essential it should be disabled or uninstalled. If it is necessary, it is essential that patches are applied as soon as humanly possible. NTT Security notes that attacks increase exponentially once proof-of-concept code is published.
Increase in Use of Phishing Emails for Malware Delivery
The NTT Security report shows 67% of malware attacks on organizations were the result of phishing emails. The NTT Security report ties in with the findings of a recent threat report issued by Symantec, which showed that malware emails were at now at the highest levels seen this year.
The use of phishing emails to deliver malware is understandable. The emails target employees – a weak link in most organizations’ defenses. Phishing emails take just a few minutes to craft and can be sent in large volumes quickly and easily. The phishing scams are also highly effective, taking advantages of flaws in human nature.
Many organizations are still only providing annual security awareness training, rather than regular refresher training sessions, ongoing CBT courses and monthly bulletins detailing the new threats. Ineffective spam filtering also results in more messages reaching end users’ inboxes, increasing the chance of one of those emails being opened and malware being downloaded.
Improving defenses against phishing is now critical, yet many organizations are failing to appreciate how serious the threat from phishing really is. The volume of malware infections now occurring via phishing emails should be a wakeup call for organizations.
Technical solutions such as advanced spam filters, link blocking technology such as web filters and employee security awareness training should all now feature in organizations’ cybersecurity defenses.
by titanadmin | Aug 9, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
Global spam email levels have been rising, with spam volume in July soaring to levels not seen since March 2015.
The figures come from the Symantec monthly threat report, which uses data from the Global Intelligence Network (GIN). Last month, global spam email levels increased by 0.6 percentage points to 54.9% of total email volume. The industry that received the most spam emails was the mining sector, with 59.1% of emails categorized as spam.
Spam emails include unsolicited marketing emails, offers of cut price medications and notices about women who have been trawling the internet for a man like you. While many of these emails are simply junk, the volume of malicious messages has been rising. In particular, spam messages containing malware.
Symantec reports that email malware has increased to levels not seen since December 2016. Last month, one in every 359 spam emails was used to deliver malware. The previous month, one in every 451 emails contained malware. The industry that received the most email malware levels was the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, with one in every 152 emails containing malware.
Malware and Phishing Emails at The Highest Level Seen This Year
Malicious emails are being sent in campaigns targeting medium sized businesses, which registered the highest percentage of malware emails. Businesses with between 251 and 500 employees had the highest volume of malware in their inboxes, according to Symantec’s analysis. Large businesses – organizations with between 1,001 and 1,500 employees – had the highest rate of spam delivery as a whole.
While malware emails increased, the number of malware variants used in those emails dropped to 58.7 million variants from 66.3 million the previous month. Symantec notes that several malware families have now started being spread via email, which has contributed to the malware email volume.
In the past month, malware variants have been detected that are capable of generating their own spam emails from the infected device and sending malware copies to the victims’ entire address books. The Emotet banking Trojan now has this functionality and Reyptson malware also, with the latter sending itself to Thunderbird contacts.
This month, Microsoft has discovered a new tech support scam that is being distributed via spam email. Spam emails spoofing brands are being sent in large campaigns with links to websites that generate popups warning of suspicious activity and malware infections.
Symantec notes the volume of phishing emails has also increased with levels now at a 12-month high. One in 1,968 emails are used for phishing. Phishing attacks on the mining industry sector were the most common with one in 1,263 emails used for phishing, indicating targeted attacks are occurring.
Increase in Global Spam Email Levels Highlights Need for Effective Spam Filtering
The rise in global spam email levels highlights the need for an advanced email spam filter. Spam is a major drain on productivity and malware and phishing attacks are costly to mitigate. Employee security awareness programs are effective at preventing employees from falling for phishing scams, although a technological solution should be implemented to prevent spam emails from reaching inboxes. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of spam and dual antivirus engines prevent the delivery of known malware.
If you are looking for the best spam filter for business use and want to protect your users and network from malicious emails, contact the TitanHQ team today for more information on SpamTitan.
by titanadmin | Aug 7, 2017 | Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
Trickbot malware is a banking Trojan that has been around for a few years now, although its authors have recently developed a WannaCry ransomware-style worm module that allows it to spread much more rapidly.
The recent NotPetya attacks also included a similar module enabling the malware to be used in devastating attacks that wiped out entire systems.
This new method of speeding up the spread of malware takes advantage of a vulnerability in Windows Server Message Block, which is used to identify all vulnerable computers on a network that connect via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
Since the exploit is readily available, cybercriminals can use it in conjunction with malware to spread infections more effectively and quickly. Worms were once popular, although their use has died out. The use of worm-like elements with the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks has shown just how effective they can be, and also served as a reminder of why they were popular in the first place.
Far from isolated malware variants, we could be about to see a rise in the use of worm-like modules. Fortunately, for the time being at least, the worm module in Trickbot malware does not appear to be fully operational. That said, the malware is constantly being redeveloped so it is probable the flaws will be fixed soon.
The malware can gain access to online banking accounts enabling the attackers to empty bank accounts. It is fast becoming one of the most prevalent banking Trojans, according to IBM X-Force. It is currently being used in targeted attacks on organizations in the financial sector around the world, with recent campaigns targeting banks in the UK and United States. The ability to spread throughout a network rapidly will make it much more dangerous.
Aside from the new worm-like module another change has been detected. PhishMe reports that it has identified a change to how the Trojan is distributed. Attacks have occurred via malvertising campaigns this year that redirect web users to sites hosting the Rig exploit kit, although Trickbot is primarily distributed via spam email sent via the Necurs botnet.
The latest change to the Trickbot malware campaign is helping the threat actors to evade anti-virus solutions. Previously, the Trojan has been installed via macro scripts in specially crafted office documents. The latest campaign update sees the attackers use a Windows Script Component (WSC) containing XML-format scripts. The same delivery mechanism has also been used to deliver GlobeImposter ransomware.
by titanadmin | Aug 7, 2017 | Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software, Website Filtering |
Ransomware attacks on small businesses can be devastating. Many small businesses have little spare capital and certainly not enough to be handing out cash to cybercriminals, let alone enough to cover the cost of loss of business while systems are taken out of action. Many small businesses are one ransomware attack away from total disaster. One attack and they may have to permanently shut their doors.
A recent research study commissioned by Malwarebytes – conducted by Osterman Research – has highlighted the devastating effect of ransomware attacks on small businesses.
1,054 businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees were surveyed and asked about the number of ransomware attacks they had experienced, the cost of mitigating those attacks and the impact of the ransomware attacks on their business.
Anyone following the news should be aware of the increase in ransomware attacks. Barely a week goes by without a major attack being announced. The latest study has confirmed the frequency of attacks has increased. More than one third of companies that took part in the survey revealed they had experienced at least one ransomware attack in the past 12 months.
22% of Small Businesses Shut Down Operations Immediately Following a Ransomware Attack
The survey also showed the devastating impact of ransomware attacks on small businesses. More than one fifth of small businesses were forced to cease operations immediately after an attack. 22% of businesses were forced to close their businesses.
Those companies able to weather the storm incurred significant costs. 15% of companies lost revenue as a result of having their systems and data locked by ransomware and one in six companies experienced downtime in excess of 25 hours. Some businesses said their systems were taken out of action for more than 100 hours.
Paying a ransom is no guarantee that systems can be brought back online quickly. Each computer affected requires its own security key. Those keys must be used carefully. A mistake could see data locked forever. A ransomware attack involving multiple devices could take several days to resolve. Forensic investigations must also be conducted to ensure all traces of the ransomware have been removed and no backdoors have been installed. That can be a long-winded, painstaking process.
Multiple-device attacks are becoming more common. WannaCry-style ransomware attacks that incorporate a worm component see infections spread rapidly across a network. However, many ransomware variants can scan neworks and self-replicate. One third of companies that experienced attack, said it spread to other devices and 2% said all devices had been encrypted.
Can Ransomware Attacks on Small Businesses be Prevented?
Can ransomware attacks on small businesses be prevented? Confidence appears to be low. Almost half of respondents were only moderately confident they could prevent a ransomware attack on their business. Even though a third of businesses had ‘anti-ransomware’ defenses in place, one third still experienced attacks.
Unfortunately, there is no single solution that can prevent ransomware attacks on small businesses. What organizations must do is employ multi-layered defenses, although that can be a major challenge, especially with limited resources.
A risk assessment is a good place to start. Organizations need to look at their defenses critically and assess their infrastructure for potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
Improving Defenses Against Ransomware
Ransomware attacks on small businesses usually occur via email with employees targeted using phishing emails. Organizations should consider implementing a spam filtering solution to reduce the number of malicious emails that reach inboxes.
Some emails will inevitably slip past these defenses, so it is important for staff to be security aware. Security awareness training should be ongoing and should involve phishing simulations to find out how effective training has been and to single out employees that need further training.
While ransomware can arrive as an attachment, it is usually downloaded via scripts of when users visit malicious websites. By blocking links and preventing end users from visiting malicious sites, ransomware downloads can be blocked. A web filtering solution can be used to block malicious links and sites.
Anti-virus solutions should be kept up to date, although traditional signature-based detection technology is not as effective as it once was. Alone, anti-virus software will not offer sufficient levels of protection.
As was clearly shown by the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks, malware can be installed without any user interaction if systems are not configured correctly and patches and software updates are not applied promptly. Sign up to alerts and regularly check for updated software and don’t delay patching computers.
A ransomware attack need not be devastating. If organizations back up their data to the cloud, on a portable (unplugged) local storage device and have a copy of data off site, in the event of an attack, data will not be lost.
by titanadmin | Jul 31, 2017 | Internet Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News |
Smishing attacks are on the rise. Cybercriminals have been turning to the Short Message Service – SMS – to conduct phishing campaigns to gather personal information for identity theft and fraud. Smishing is also used to fool mobile device users into installing malware.
Like phishing emails, smishing attacks use social engineering techniques to get users to complete a specific action, often to click on a link that will direct them to a webpage where they are asked to provide sensitive information or to download a file to their device. Most commonly, the aim of smishing is to obtain personal information such as usernames and passwords to online bank accounts.
Many organizations have implemented spam filtering solutions that capture phishing emails and prevent them from being delivered to end users’ inboxes. Security awareness training is also provided, with the threat of phishing explained to employees. However, the best practices that are taught are not always applied to SMS messages and spam controls do not block SMS messages.
In contrast to emails, which are often ignored, people also tend to access their SMS messages much more rapidly than emails. Text messages are typically opened within seconds, or minutes, of them being received. Cybercriminals are well aware that their malicious MS messages will be opened and read.
Cybercriminals use the same techniques for smishing attacks that are used on email phishing scams. The messages inject a sense of urgency, requiring an action to be taken quickly. The messages are designed to grab attention, with security threats one of the most common themes. The attackers typically impersonate banks, credit card companies, email providers, social media networks or online retailers and warn of security issues such as potential fraudulent activity, imminent charges that will be applied or they threaten account closure.
Messages may even appear to have been sent by a contact, either using a stolen mobile or by spoofing someone who is known and trusted. Messages may include a link to an interesting article, a photograph or a social media post for example.
Smishing attacks started with SMS messages, although similar scams are now being conducted on other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger.
Blocking smishing attacks is difficult. The key to avoiding becoming a victim is awareness of the threat and adopting the same security best practices that can protect end users on email.
- As with email, when receiving an odd message, stop and think about the request. Could it be a scam?
- Even if the message suggests urgent action is required, take time to consider what is being asked. Smishing attacks work because people respond without thinking.
- It is important not to respond to a SMS message that has been sent from an unknown sender. If you respond, the person who sent the message will be aware that messages are being received.
- If a message containing a hyperlink is received, do not click on the link. Delete the message.
- Never send any sensitive information via text message. Legitimate companies will not ask you to send sensitive information by text message.
- If you are concerned about the contents of a text message, check with the institution concerned, but do not use links or telephone numbers sent in the message. Independently verify the phone number and call or find the correct website via the search engines.
- If you are a business that provides employees with access to a WiFi network, it is possible to prevent employees from visiting malicious websites linked in smishing campaigns. WebTitan Cloud for WiFi is a web filter for WiFi networks that prevents users from visiting malicious websites, such as those used in smishing attacks.
by titanadmin | Jul 31, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
A new survey from CSO shows ransomware and phishing attacks in 2017 have increased, although companies have reported a decline in the number of cyber incidents experienced over the past year. While it is certainly good news that organizations are experiencing fewer cyberattacks, the report suggests that the severity of the attacks has increased and more organizations have reported suffering losses as a result of security incidents.
CSO conducted the annual U.S State of Cybercrime survey on 510 respondents, 70% of whom were at the vice president level or higher. Companies had an average IT security budget of $11 million.
This year’s report suggests organizations are struggling to keep up with the number of patches and software upgrades now being issued, although the consequences of the delays have been clearly shown this year with the NotPetya and WannaCry attacks. The failure to patch promptly has seen many organizations attacked, with some companies still struggling to recover. Nuance Communications was badly affected by NotPetya, and a month after the attacks, only 75% of its customers have regained access to its services. TNT also suffered extensive disruption to services in the weeks following the attacks, although these are just two companies out of many to experience extended disruption.
IT security budgets have increased by an average of 7.5% year over year with 10% of companies saying they have increased IT security spending by 20% or more in the past 12 months. While new technologies are taking up the bulk of the new budgets, organizations are also investing in audits and knowledge assessments, information sharing, redeveloping their cybersecurity strategy, policies and processes and are adding new skills. 67% of respondents said they have now expanded their security capabilities in include mobile devices, the cloud and IoT.
Even though the threat of attack is severe, many companies still believe a cyber response plan should not be part of their cybersecurity strategy, although acceptance that cyberattacks will occur has seen 19% of respondents plan to implement a response strategy in the next 12 months.
Even though there was a fall in the number of security incidents, losses experienced as a result of those attacks have remained constant or have increased over the past 12 months for 68% of respondents. Only 30% of companies said they had experienced no losses as a result of security incidents, down 6 percentage points from last year.
More CSOs and CISOs are now reporting directly to the board on a monthly basis, up 17% since last year. However, as was also confirmed by a recent survey conducted by KPMG, many boards still view cybersecurity as an IT issue – The CSO survey suggests 61% of boards believe cybersecurity is a concern of the IT department not a matter for the board, a drop of just two percentage points since last year.
Phishing attacks in 2017 have increased significantly, with 36% of companies reporting attacks – up from 26% last year. 17% of companies experienced ransomware attacks – up from 14% – and financial fraud increased from 7% to 12%. Business email compromise scams are also increasing, up from 5% to 9% in the past 12 months.
The increase in ransomware and phishing attacks in 2017 highlights the need for security awareness training for employees and an improvement to spam filtering controls. Organizations need to ensure they have sufficient staffing levels to ensure patches are applied promptly, while investment in people must improve to ensure they have the skills, resources and training to respond to the latest threats. Boards must also appreciate that cybersecurity is not just a matter for IT departments, and the CSO survey shows that too much faith is being placed in cybersecurity protections. Currently only 53% of companies are testing the effectiveness of their security programs.
by titanadmin | Jul 21, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
Reyptson ransomware is a new threat that has been discovered in the past few days. The new ransomware variant is currently being used in attacks in Spain, with detected activity rising considerably in the days since its discovery.
There is no free decryptor for Reyptson ransomware at this stage. The ransomware variant encrypts a wide range of file types, including MS Office files and images using AES-128 encryption. Encrypted files will have the file extension .Reyptson appended to the file.
Infection will require files to be recovered from backups or the ransom demand must be paid if no backup exists and victims do not want permanent file loss. Users are told they must pay a ransom of €200 to unlock the encryption, although the payment will increase to €500 after 72 hours.
New cryptoransomware variants are being released on an almost daily basis with the majority spread via spam email. What makes this variant unique is its ability to spread itself following infection. Reyptson is capable of conducting its own email campaigns and spreading itself to a victim’s contacts.
The spam email campaigns are conducted via the Thunderbird email client. Reyptson ransomware searches for contacts and creates new spam email messages and sends them to all contacts using the victim’s credentials.
The emails claim to be invoices and include a link for the recipient to download the invoice. Clicking the link will download a compressed .rar file which contains an executable file that appears to be a PDF file. If that executable file is opened; the user will be infected with the ransomware and the process will repeat. According to an analysis by MalwareHunterTeam, the emails have the subject line Folcan S.L. Facturación.
Recently, global ransomware campaigns have been conducted using exploits stolen from the NSA. Those exploits take advantage of vulnerabilities in software that have not been addressed. Even though patches have been released to correct those vulnerabilities, many companies have yet to update their operating systems. A free scanner called Eternal Blues has been developed that has revealed more than 50,000 computers around the world are still vulnerable and have not been patched.
Patching promptly has always been important, but now even more so. Delaying the updating of software can see organizations infected and the damage can be considerable. In the case of NotPetya, computers are rendered useless and even payment of a ransom cannot undo the damage.
However, spam email remains the most common vector for spreading ransomware. Preventing Reyptson ransomware attacks and other cryptoransomware variants requires an advanced spam filter. A spam filter such as SpamTitan can block these messages and prevent them from being delivered to end users. If the spam emails are not delivered, they cannot be opened by end users.
Prompt patching, user awareness training, spam and web filtering can help organizations reduce the risk of attack. However, it is also essential to ensure multiple backups of data are made to ensure recovery in case of infection. Organizations should adopt the 3-2-1 approach to backups. Ensure there are three copies of data, on 2 different media with one copy stored off site.
One backup copy can be stored locally – on a removable device that is unplugged when backups are completed or are not being used. One copy should be stored in the cloud and one on a backup drive/tape that is stored in a secure location off site that can be used in the event of a disaster.
by titanadmin | Jul 21, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice |
Law firms in Eire and Northern Ireland are being targeted with a new Supreme Court phishing campaign that is being used to fool recipients into visiting a malicious website.
The email appears to have been sent from the Supreme Court and refers to a new/updated Statutory Instrument. The emails that have been detected so far include a PDF file containing further details, although the attachment will divert the recipient to a malicious domain.
The Supreme Court phishing emails add a sense of urgency, as is common in phishing campaigns, telling the recipient to read the information in the attached document by this Friday.
The emails that have been reported have the subject line – Supreme Court (S.I. No691/2017) – although it is possible there are other variations along the same theme. The Courts Service has confirmed that the emails are not genuine and should be deleted without being opened. The phishing scam has been reported to the Gardaí and the Courts Service IT team is also investigating and a warning has been issued.
Supreme Court phishing scams are common. In February this year, the UK Supreme Court also issued a warning after numerous emails were received claiming to be subpoenas for court appearances in relation to a crime that the recipient had committed. In that case, a link was included to provide the court with all of the necessary information about the case. Receipents of the email were told to submit the information within 12 days or the case would proceed in their absence.
As the UK Supreme Court pointed out, it does not issue subpoenas to appear in court for criminal cases, although many law-abiding citizens would be aware of typical procedures associated with criminal cases. The fear generated by a potential court appearance for an unknown crime would likely see many email recipients open the message, click on the link and reveal their personal information.
The purpose of Supreme Court phishing emails is usually to obtain sensitive information under the guise of confirming the recipient’s identity. The information gathered by the phishing emails can be used for identity theft or other forms of fraud. Emails such as this are also used to spread malware or ransomware.
The emails are designed to scare people into responding and they can be highly effective. However, there are usually a variety of telltale signs that the email is not genuine. Before clicking or taking any requested action, it is important to stop, think and not to panic. Check the email for misspellings, grammatical errors and anything out of the ordinary.
If a link is included in the email, hover the mouse arrow over it to find out the true URL to see if it will direct you to a genuine domain. If the email contains an attachment, do not open it. If you are worried about the email, contact the organization that claims to have sent the message by obtaining the correct contact details from the Internet and verify the authenticity of the request.
In the most part, any serious matter such as a subpoena or important change to legislation would be unlikely to be communicated via email, and certainly not in an email attachment or via a link to a domain.
by titanadmin | Jul 20, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
A U.S senator is urging the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to adopt DMARC to prevent impersonation attacks via email. Over the past few months, several government agencies have been targeted by phishers who have used government domains to send huge numbers of spam emails.
The emails appear legitimate as they have been sent from government-owned domains, and while the text in the emails often contains clues to suggest the emails are not genuine, the official domain adds sufficient authenticity to see many email recipients fooled.
The use of official domains by phishers is nothing new of course, but government-owned domains should be protected to prevent them being used in phishing campaigns. The problem is that in the vast majority of cases, insufficient controls have been implemented to prevent impersonation attacks.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) wrote to the Department of Homeland Security voicing his concerns about the problem, and specifically, the failure of federal agencies – including DHS – to use the Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) standard.
DMARC is a proven tool that can help to prevent impersonation attacks via email by allowing email recipients to verify the sender of an email. If DMARC is used, it is possible to determine whether the emails have genuinely been sent from federal agencies or if they have been sent by a third party unauthorized to use the domain. In short, it will prevent impersonation attacks and protect consumers. If DMARC was used, it would make it much harder for government agencies to be impersonated.
The standard is recommended by the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) as well as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). DMARC has also recently been adopted in the UK by the British government with hugely positive results. Since DMARC has been implemented, the UK Tax agency alone has reduced impersonation attacks to the tune of 300 million messages in a single year.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has also created a central system where it processes all of the DMARC reports from all government agencies to monitor impersonation attacks across all government departments
Currently the Department of Homeland Security does not use DMARC and it is not used on the majority of government owned domains. The U.S. government owns approximately 1,300 domains, yet DMARC is only used on an estimated 2% of those domains.
Impersonation attacks are on the rise and numerous government agencies have been impersonated in recent months including the Department of Health and Human Services, the IRS and even the Defense Security Service – part of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Sen. Wyden suggests the Department of Homeland Security should immediately adopt DMARC and mandate its use across all federal agencies. DHS already scans other federal agencies for vulnerabilities under the Cyber Hygiene program. Sen. Wyden says DMARC scanning should be incorporated into that program. As in the UK, Sen. Wyden suggests a central repository should be created for all DMARC reports by the General Services Administration (GSA) to give DHA visibility into impersonation attacks across all federal agencies.
by titanadmin | Jul 20, 2017 | Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
The Ovidiy Stealer is a password stealing malware that will record login credentials and transmit the information to the attacker’s C2 server. As with many other password stealers, information is recorded as it is entered into websites such as banking sites, web-based email accounts, social media accounts and other online accounts.
The good news is that even if infected, the Ovidiy Stealer will not record information entered via Internet Explorer or Safari. The malware is also not persistent. If the computer is rebooted, the malware will stop running.
The bad news is, if you use Chrome or Opera, your confidential information is likely to be compromised. Other browsers known to be supported include Orbitum, Torch, Amigo and Kometa. However, since the malware is being constantly updated it is likely other browsers will be supported soon.
Ovidiy Stealer is a new malware, first detected only a month ago. It is primarily being used in attacks in Russian-speaking regions, although it is possible that multi-language versions will be developed and attacks will spread to other regions.
Researchers at Proofpoint – who first detected the password stealing malware – believe email is the primary attack vector, with the malware packaged in an executable file sent as an attachment. Proofpoint also suggests that rather than email attachments, links to download pages are also being used. Samples have been detected bundled with LiteBitcoin installers and the malware is also being distributed through file-sharing websites, in particular via Keygen software cracking programs.
New password stealers are constantly being released, but what sets the Ovidiy Stealer aside and makes it particularly dangerous is it is being sold online at a particularly low price. Just $13 (450-750 Rubles) will get one build bundled into an executable ready for delivery via a spam email campaign. Due to the low price there are likely to be many malicious actors conducting campaigns to spread the malware, hence the variety of attack vectors.
Would be attackers willing to part with $13 are able to view the number of infections via a web control panel complete with login. Via the control panel they can manage their account, see the number of infections, build more stubs and view the logs generated by the malware.
Protecting against malware such as Ovidiy Stealer requires caution as it takes time before new malware are detected by AV solutions. Some AV solutions are already detecting the malware, but not all. As always, when receiving an email from an unknown sender, do not open attachments or click on hyperlinks.
Organizations can greatly reduce risk from this password-stealer and other malware spread via spam email by implementing an advanced spam filtering solution such as SpamTitan to prevent malicious emails from reaching end users’ inboxes. SpamTitan uses dual AV engines to maximize detections and blocks over 99.9% of spam email.
by titanadmin | Jul 19, 2017 | Industry News, Network Security |
You’ve secured the network perimeter, installed a spam filter, trained your employees to recognize phishing emails and have an intrusion detection system in place, but are you deprovisioning former employees to prevent data theft? According to a new report from OneLogin, 58% of companies are lax when it comes to blocking network access when employees leave the company.
For the study, 600 IT professionals with responsibility or partial responsibility for security decisions about hardware, software or cloud services were interviewed. When asked about the time delay between employees leaving the company and their accounts being deactivated, 58% said that it takes more than a day for that to happen and a quarter said it takes more than a week. 28% of respondents said deprovisioning former employees takes a month or longer.
48% of respondents said they were aware that former employees still had access to applications after they had left the company and 44% said they were not confident that deprovisioning former employees had actually occurred.
Even though there is a significant time delay involved in blocking access for former employees, only four out of ten organizations are using a security information and event management solution (SIEM). A SIEM would allow them to monitor app usage by former employees and would alert them if systems were still being accessed, yet only 45% of respondents said they used such a solution.
Organizations are taking a big risk by not ensuring accounts are deactivated before employees walk through the door for the final time. The study revealed that the risk is considerable. When asked if they had suffered data breaches due to former employees, 24% said they had.
Deprovisioning employees is time consuming, especially when they have been employed for a long time and have access to many business applications and networks. 92% of respondents said it takes up to an hour to deprovision employees and many must complete the process manually. Time may be pressed, but failing to block access promptly is a data breach waiting to happen.
by titanadmin | Jul 14, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News, Spam Software |
Phishing attacks on tax professionals are soaring. Tax professionals across the United States have been extensively targeted by cybercriminals this tax season who fool them into disclosing sensitive information such as login credentials and tax information.
The IRS has received 177 reports from tax professionals that have fallen for the scams this year and have disclosed sensitive information, although the victim count is likely to be much higher since not all phishing attacks are reported. Currently, the IRS is receiving between three and five new reports of successful phishing scams each week.
Many of the victims have reported large data losses as a result of the phishing scams. Tax information is used by cybercriminals to file fraudulent tax returns in the victims’ names. The data can also be used for identity theft.
The IRS says tax professionals are being extensively targeted by highly organized criminal gangs in the United States, as well as international crime rings. The IRS points out that the criminals conducting phishing attacks on tax professionals “are well funded, knowledgeable and creative.”
Targets are researched and information is often included in the emails that is relevant to the recipient. The name and address of the target are often used in the emails and the requests are highly credible. Emails may request data or provide a hyperlink for the recipient to click. Clicking the link results in malware being downloaded that gives the attacker access to the computer. Keyloggers are often downloaded that record and transmit passwords.
The Anti Phishing Working Group tracked 1.2 million unique phishing attacks last year, representing a 65% rise from 2015. Those scams often involve millions of emails. Currently, APWG is tracking an average of 92,564 unique phishing attacks each month.
Phishing attacks on tax professionals can be highly sophisticated, but in the majority of cases it is possible to block attacks by employing basic security measures. Unfortunately, many organizations overlook these steps.
The IRS is working closely with the tax industry and state tax agencies as the ‘Security Summit’. The Security Summit has recently launched a new campaign to help tackle the problem of phishing by raising awareness of the threat via a new “Don’t Take the Bait” campaign.
Over the next 10 weeks, the Security Summit will send weekly emails to raise awareness of the different types of phishing scams and other threats. The Security Summit has kicked off the campaign with spear phishing, which will be followed by education efforts to raise awareness of CEO fraud/BEC scams, ransomware attacks, remote account takeovers, EFIN thefts and business identity theft.
Blocking phishing attacks on tax professionals requires layered defenses, one of the most important being the use of software solutions to prevent phishing emails from being delivered to end users’ inboxes. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of email spam and keeps inboxes free from malicious messages. If emails are not delivered, employees will not be tested.
Even with software solutions in place it is important for all employees to be aware of the threat from phishing. Security training should be provided to teach employees how to recognize the tell-tale signs of phishing emails and organizations should try to develop a culture of security awareness.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said “Doing nothing or making a minimal effort is no longer an option. Anyone who handles taxpayer information has a legal responsibility to protect it.”
The IRS recommends several measures to reduce risk:
- Educate all employees on the risk from spear phishing and phishing in general
- Ensure strong passwords are used
- Always question emails – Never take them at face value
- Never click a link without first checking the destination URL – Hover the mouse arrow over a masked link to find the true URL
- Use two-factor authentication for all email requests to send sensitive data – Confirm with the sender via the telephone
- Use security software to block phishing emails and malware and ensure the software is updated automatically
- Use the security settings in tax preparation software
- Report suspicious emails to the IRS
by titanadmin | Jul 3, 2017 | Industry News, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Software |
Trump Hotels has announced that guests at some of its hotels have been impacted by the Sabre Hospitality Solutions data breach and have had their credit/debit card details stolen. Sabre Hospitality Solutions provides the hotel reservation system used at certain Trump Hotels, and it was this system that was compromised not the systems used at Trump Hotels. Sabre’s system is used by more than 32,000 hotels and lodging establishments around the world.
Attackers gained access to the Sabre SynXis Central Reservations system (CRS) which is used by hotels and travel agencies to make hotel bookings. Sabre discovered the breach on June 5, 2017, with the attacker understood to have obtained account credentials that enabled access to the CRS and the payment card data processed through the system.
The data breach affected 13 Trump Hotels (Central Park, Chicago, Doonbeg, Doral, Las Vegas, Panama, Soho, Toronto, Turnberry, Vancouver, Waikiki, DC, Rio de Janeiro) and the Albemarle Estate. Each hotel was affected at a different time and for a different duration, with the first instance occurring on August 10, 2016. The last data access was on March 9, 2017. The hotel reservation system was compromised at most of the affected hotels for a few days up to three weeks in November 2016, with the exception of Trump Las Vegas, Trump Panama, and Trump DC, which saw systems compromised for around four months.
When the Sabre Hospitality Solutions data breach was detected, the company contracted cybersecurity firm Mandiant to conduct a forensic analysis to determine how the breach occurred, which hotels were affected and to ensure that access to its systems was blocked. Sabre reports that after March 9, 2017, no further unauthorized access to its system has occurred.
During the time that access to data was possible, the attackers were able to obtain the names of card holders, card numbers, expiration dates and in some cases, CVV codes. Other information potentially accessed includes guests’ names, addresses, phone numbers and potentially other information, although not Social Security numbers or driver’s licenses.
The Sabre Hospitality Solutions data breach affected many organizations, with Google recently announcing that some of its employees have had information exposed. In the case of Google, it was a travel agency – Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) – that was affected. CWT was one of the companies used by Google to book hotels for its staff.
The hospitality industry has been hit with numerous POS system breaches over the past few years. The industry is an attractive target for cybercriminals. Most hotel bookings are made with credit and debit cards, cybersecurity protections are often poor and once access is gained to the systems it can be months before a data breach is detected.
A variety of attack vectors are used, although login credentials are commonly stolen in phishing attacks. Phishing emails are sent to company employees and social engineering tricks are used to convince those employees to disclose their login credentials or open malicious email attachments that install malware.
Email security solutions that prevent spam emails from being delivered to end users’ inboxes offer protection against phishing attacks. As an additional precaution, security awareness training should be provided to all hotel employees who have access to corporate email accounts.
With SpamTitan installed, hotel chains are well protected from phishing attacks. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of spam emails, adding an important layer of protection for hotels to prevent data breaches.
by titanadmin | Jun 30, 2017 | Industry News, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
Phishing and social engineering attacks are the biggest cyber risks faced by organizations. Not only are attacks on the rise, they are becoming more sophisticated. The increase in attacks and cost of mitigating cyber incidents is having a major negative impact on businesses.
Organizations can tackle the problem of phishing and social engineering by implementing technologies that preventing phishing emails from reaching end users’ inboxes and ensuring employees know how to identify threats and response when a malicious email arrives in their inbox.
One of the most effective ways of blocking these phishing and social engineering attacks is implementing an advanced spam filtering solution. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of email spam and uses two antivirus engines to identify and block emails with malicious attachments.
Many organizations provide security training to their employees and teach them to be more security aware, although a new report from the Business Continuity Institute calls for businesses to do more in this regard. In order to tackle phishing and improve resilience to attacks BCI says user education needs to improve.
A one-off training program as part of an employee’s induction is no longer sufficient. Training should be an ongoing process with regular refresher training sessions provided throughout the year. Phishing simulation exercises are also highly beneficial for reinforcing training and gauging how effective training has been.
However, the study suggests only 52% of companies conduct awareness-raising seminars and just 55% conduct regular exercises on likely cybersecurity scenarios. Only 46% run desktop exercises such as attack simulations.
The BCI study confirmed just how often phishing and social engineering attacks result in cyber incidents. The report shows that 57% of cyber incidents involve phishing or social engineering emails. Malware is responsible for 41% of cyber disruptions, with spear phishing emails accounting for 30% of attacks. Ransomware has grown into a major issue in recent months and is behind 19% of cyber disruptions.
The survey was conducted on 734 individuals from 69 countries. Two thirds of respondents had experienced a cybersecurity incident in the past 12 months with 15% saying they had experienced 10 or more disruptions in the past year. 5% said they experienced between 11 and 20 incidents in the past 12 months, a further 5% experienced between 21 and 50 incidents and 5% said they experienced 51 or more incidents. Responding to these incidents takes up valuable time. 67% of attacks take more than an hour to resolve with 16% taking more than four hours.
These incidents are costing businesses dearly. 33% of organizations said the cost of those attacks exceeded €50,000, while 13% of respondents said they had spent over €250,000 remediating attacks. It should be noted that 40% of respondents that took part in the survey were from SMEs with an annual turnover of less than €1 million.
Cybercriminals are only likely to increase their efforts and conduct more phishing and social engineering attacks. It is therefore essential for businesses to have a high commitment to cyber resilience and to do more to improve cybersecurity defenses. The survey suggests only 60% of senior management are committed to improving their defenses, so there is still plenty of room for improvement.
by titanadmin | Jun 29, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
NotPetya ransomware attacks have spread globally, with the latest figures from Microsoft suggesting there are now more than 12,500 reported victims spread across 65 countries. The attacks first started to be reported on Tuesday morning with companies in the Ukraine hit particularly hard.
At first it appeared that the attacks involved Petya ransomware, although it has since been confirmed that this is a new ransomware variant. The ransomware has already attracted a variety of names such as GoldenEye, SortaPetya, ExPetr, and NotPetya. We shall use the latter.
Security researchers believe the NotPetya ransomware attacks started in Ukraine. The first attacks occurred the day before a national holiday – a common time to launch an attack. IT staff were unlikely to be working, so the probability of the attacks being halted before the ransomware was allowed to run would be increased.
The NotPetya ransomware attacks have been discovered to have occurred via a variety of vectors. Ukraine was hit particularly hard, which suggested a country-specific attack vector. Some security researchers have suggested the first attacks occurred via a Ukrainian accounting package called M.E. Doc, with the attackers managing to compromise a software update. M.E.Doc hinted that this may be the case initially, but later denied they were the cause of the attack. If it is true that a software update was involved, it would not be the first time M.E.Doc was attacked. A similar ransomware attack occurred via M.E.Doc software updates in May.
However, that is only one potential attack vector used in the NotPetya ransomware attacks. It has been confirmed that the attackers are also using two NSA exploits that were released by Shadow Brokers in April. As was the case with the WannaCry ransomware attacks, the EternalBlue exploit is being used. The latest attacks are also using another exploit released at the same time called EternalRomance.
In contrast to the WannaCry ransomware attacks last month, the exploits used in the NotPetya ransomware attacks only scan for vulnerable devices on local networks, not via the Internet.
Both exploits will not work if computers have already been patched with MS17-010 released by Microsoft in March. Following the WannaCry attacks, Microsoft also issued a patch for older, unsupported Windows versions to prevent further ransomware attacks.
However, patching would not necessarily have prevented infection. In contrast to WannaCry, NotPetya ransomware attacks have been reported by companies that have patched their computers. Security researchers have confirmed that all it takes for infection to occur is for one computer to have been missed when applying the patches. That allows the attackers to attack that machine, and also any other machines connected to the local network, even if the patch has been applied.
The attacks also appear to be occurring via phishing emails containing malicious Microsoft Office documents. As has been the case with many other ransomware attacks, the failure to implement spam defenses can result in infection. The use of an advanced spam filter such as SpamTitan offers excellent protection against email-based ransomware attacks, preventing those emails from reaching end users’ inboxes.
Upon infection, the ransomware waits one hour before executing and forcing a reboot. When the computer restarts, the ransom note appears. The ransom demand is for $300 per infected machine. In contrast to the majority of ransomware variants, NotPetya does not encrypt files. Instead it replaces the Master File Table (MFT). Since the MFT shows the computer where files are located on the hard drive, without it files cannot be found. Files are not encrypted, but they still cannot be accessed.
Preventing ransomware attacks such as this requires regular patching to address vulnerabilities and anti-spam solutions to prevent malicious emails from being delivered.
Fortunately, NotPetya ransomware attacks can be blocked. Cybereason security researcher Amit Serber has found a way to vaccinate computers against this specific ransomware variant. He suggests IT teams “Create a file called perfc in the C:\Windows folder and make it read only.” This method has been confirmed as effective by other security researchers, although it will not work if infection has already occurred.
Unfortunately, recovery following an attack may not be possible if infected computers cannot be restored from backups. Kaspersky Lab reports there is a flaw in the ransomware saying, “We have analyzed the high level code of the encryption routine and we have figured out that after disk encryption, the threat actor could not decrypt victims’ disks.” Further, the email account used by the attacker to verify ransom payments has been shut down by a German email provider.
by titanadmin | Jun 24, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
The WannaCry ransomware attacks may have attracted a lot of press, but Locky ransomware poses a bigger threat to organizations with a new Locky ransomware campaign now a regular event. The ransomware was first seen in February last year and rapidly became the biggest ransomware threat. In recent months, Cerber has been extensively distributed, but Locky is still being used in widespread attacks on organizations.
The actors behind Locky ransomware are constantly changing tactics to fool end users into downloading the malware and encrypting their files.
The Necurs botnet has recently been used to distribute Jaff ransomware, although now that a decryptor has been developed for that ransomware variant, the actors behind Necurs have switched back to Locky. The new Locky ransomware campaign involves millions of spam messages sent via the Necurs botnet, with some reports suggesting approximately 7% of global email volume at the start of the campaign came from the Necurs botnet and was spreading Locky.
The new Locky ransomware campaign uses a new variant of the ransomware which does not encrypt files on Windows operating systems later than XP. This appears to be an error, with new, updated version of the ransomware is expected to be launched soon. As with past campaigns, the latest batch of emails uses fake invoices to fool end users into installing the ransomware.
Fake invoices are commonly used to spread ransomware because they are highly effective. Even though these campaigns often include scant information in the email body, many end users open the attachments and enable macros. Doing so results in Locky being downloaded. There is still no free decryptor available to unlock Locky-encrypted files. Infections can only be resolved by paying a sizeable ransom payment or restoring files from backups.
Training end users to be more security aware will help organizations to reduce susceptibility to ransomware attacks, although the best defense against email-based ransomware attacks is to use an advanced spam filtering solution to prevent the messages from reaching end users’ inboxes. If emails are blocked, there is no chance of end users opening malicious attachments and installing the ransomware.
SpamTitan is an email security solution that can block these ransomware emails. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of spam messages and dual anti-virus engines ensure malicious emails do not reach inboxes. While some anti-spam solutions have a high false positive rate and block genuine emails, SpamTitan’s false positive rate is extremely low at just 0.003%.
SpamTitan requires no additional hardware purchases, no staff training and the solution can be installed in a matter of minutes.
If you are unhappy with your current anti-spam solution or have yet to start protecting your inboxes from malicious messages, contact the TitanHQ team today for further information on how SpamTitan can benefit your business. TitanHQ also offers SpamTitan on a 30-day no-obligation free trial to allow you to see the benefits of the solution for yourself before committing to a purchase.
by titanadmin | Jun 23, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News |
A new Facebook phishing scam has been detected that attempts to fools end users into believing they are on the genuine Facebook site using a technique called URL padding. The attack method is being used in targeted attacks on users of the mobile Facebook website.
As with other Facebook phishing scams, the aim of the attackers is to get end users to reveal their Facebook login credentials. The scam takes advantage of poor security awareness and a lack of attentiveness.
URL padding – as the name suggests – involves padding the URL with hyphens to mask the real website that is being visited. The URLs being used by the attackers start with m.facebook.com, which is the correct domain for the genuine Facebook website. In a small URL bar on mobile phones, this part of the URL will be clearly visible.
What follows that apparent domain is a series of hyphens: m.facebook.com————-. That takes the latter part of the domain outside the viewable area of the address bar. End users may therefore be fooled into thinking they are on the genuine website as they will not see the last part of the URL. If they were to check, they would see that m.facebook.com————- is actually a subdomain of the site they are visiting.
The hyphens would be a giveaway that the site is not genuine, but the attackers add in an additional word into the URL such as ‘validate’ or ‘secure’ or ‘login’ to add authenticity.
The attackers have lifted the login box and branding from Facebook, so the login page that is presented appears to be the same as is used on the genuine site.
One telltale sign that all is not as it appears is the use of hxxp:// instead of https:// at the start of the URL, a sure sign that the site is not genuine. Even so, many Facebook users would be fooled by such a scam. URL padding is also being used to target users of other online services such as Apple iCloud and Comcast.
Facebook accounts contain a wealth of information that can be used in future spear phishing campaigns or attacks on the victims’ contacts. PhishLabs, which discovered the new scam, says the attackers are currently using this phishing scam for the latter and are using the account access to spam end users’ contacts and conduct further phishing campaigns.
While the scam has been detected, it is currently unclear how links to the phishing website are being distributed. While it is possible that they are arriving via spam email, Phishlabs suggests SMS messages or messenger services are being used.
by titanadmin | Jun 23, 2017 | Industry News, Internet Security, Phishing & Email Spam |
A $1 million ransom payment has been made to cybercriminals who used Erebus ransomware to attack the South Korean web hosting firm Nayana.
Erebus ransomware was first detected in September last year and was downloaded via websites hosting the Rig exploit kit. Traffic was directed to the malicious website hosting the Rig EK via malvertising campaigns. Vulnerable computers then had Erebus ransomware downloaded. This Erebus ransomware attack is unlikely to have occurred the same way. Trend Micro suggests the attackers leveraged vulnerabilities on the comapny’s Linux servers, used a local exploit or both.
The infection spread to all 153 Linux servers used by Nayana. Those servers hosted the websites of 3,400 businesses. All of the firm’s customers appear to have been affected, with website files and databases encrypted.
Nayana was attacked on June 10, 2017 in the early hours. The hosting company responded rapidly. Law enforcement was contacted and it was initially hoped that it would be possible to crack the ransomware and decrypt files without paying the ransom. It soon became clear that was not an option.
Companies can avoid paying ransom payments following ransomware attacks by ensuring backups are made of all data. Having multiple backups increases the likelihood of files being recoverable. In this case, Nayana had an internal and external backup; however, both of those backups were also encrypted in the attack. Nayana therefore had no alternative but to negotiate with the attackers.
While ransom payments for businesses are often in the $10,000 to $25,000 price bracket, the gang behind this attack demanded an astonishing 550 Bitcoin for the keys to unlock the encryption – Approximately $1.62 million. On June 14, Nayana reported that it had negotiated a ransom payment of 397.6 Bitcoin – Approximately $1.01 million, making this the largest ransomware ransom payment reported to date.
That payment is being made in three instalments, with keys supplied to restore files on the servers in batches. When one batch of servers was successfully recovered, the second ransom payment was made. Nayana said that the recovery process would take approximately 2 weeks for each of the three batches of servers, resulting in considerable downtime for the company’s business customers. Nayana experienced some problems restoring databases but says it is now paying the final payment.
This incident shows how costly ransomware resolution can be and highlights how important it is to ensure that operating systems and software are updated regularly. Patches should be applied promptly to address vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by cybercriminals.
Simply having a backup is no guarantee that files can be recovered. If the backup device is connected to a networked machine when a ransomware attack occurs, backup files can also be encrypted. This is why it is essential for organizations to ensure one backup is always offline. It is also wise to segment networks to limit the damage caused by a ransomware attack. If ransomware is installed, only part of the network will be affected.
by titanadmin | Jun 20, 2017 | Email Scams, Industry News, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
A recent Southern Oregon University phishing attack has clearly demonstrated why so many cybercriminals have chosen phishing as their main source of income.
Hacking an organization takes considerable planning and effort, typically requiring many hours of hard work and a considerable amount of skill. Phishing on the other hand is easy by comparison, requiring little work. Furthermore, the potential profits from phishing can be considerable.
The Southern Oregon University Phishing Attack Required a Single Email
The Southern Oregon University phishing attack involved a single phishing email. The attackers impersonated a construction company – Andersen Construction – that was building a pavilion and student recreation center at the University.
The attackers spoofed the email address of the construction firm and requested all future payments be directed to a different bank account. The university then wired the next payment to the new account in April. The payment was for $1.9 million.
The university discovered the construction firm had not received the funds three days later. The FBI was contacted as soon as the fraud was discovered and efforts are continuing to recover the funds. The university reports that the attackers have not withdrawn all of the funds from their account, although a sizeable chunk is missing. Joe Mosley, a spokesperson for SOU said, “It’s certainly not all of the money that was transferred, but it’s not just nickels and dimes, either.”
In order to pull off a scam such as this, the attackers would need to know that the construction project was taking place and the name of the firm. Such information is not hard to find and universities often have construction projects taking place.
These attacks are known as Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams. They typically involve a contractor’s email account being hacked and used to send an email to a vendor. It is not clear whether the vendors email account had been hacked, but that step may not be required to pull off a phishing attack such as this.
Rise in BEC Attacks Prompts FBI Warning to Universities
In this case, the payment was substantial but it is far from an isolated incident. Last month, the FBI released a public service announcement warning universities of attacks such as this.
The FBI warned that access to a construction firm’s email account is not necessary. All that is required is for the scammer to purchase a similar domain to the one used by the firm. Accounts department employees may check the email address and not notice that there is a letter different.
By the time the university discovered a payment has not been received, the funds have already been cleared from the scammer’s account and cannot be recovered. Payments are commonly of the order of several hundred thousand dollars.
The FBI informed SOU that there have been 78 such attacks in the past year, some of which have been conducted on universities. However, all organizations are at risk from these BEC scams.
The Southern Oregon University phishing attack shows just how easy it can be for scammers to pull off a BEC attack. Protecting against this time of scam requires employees to be vigilant and to exercise extreme caution when requests are made to change bank accounts. Such a request should always be verified by a means other than email. A telephone call to the construction firm could easily have stopped this scam before any transfer was made.
by titanadmin | Jun 15, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
Cybercriminals have been conducting fileless malware phishing attacks and restaurants are in the firing line. Restaurants are being singled out as they tend to have relatively poor cybersecurity defenses and criminals can easily gain access to the credit card details of thousands of customers.
The phishing attacks are used to install fileless malware – malware that remains in the memory and does not involve any files being written to the hard drive. Consequently, fileless malware is particularly difficult to detect. By switching to fileless malware, which most static antivirus solutions do not detect, the criminals can operate undetected.
While fileless malware can be short-lived, only existing in the memory until the computer is rebooted, the latest variants are also persistent. The purpose of the malware is to allow the attackers to install a backdoor that provides access to restaurants’ computer systems. They can then steal the financial information of customers undetected.
The latest fileless malware phishing attacks involve RTF files. Researchers at Morphisec detected the campaign, which has been attributed to the hacking group FIN7; a group that has close associations with the Carbanak group.
The attacks start with a well-crafted phishing email, with social engineering methods used to encourage end users to open the attached RTF file. RTF files have been discovered that are restaurant themed, named menu.rtf and relating to orders. Some emails appear to have been written to target specific restaurant chains.
One intercepted phishing email claimed to be a catering order, with the attachment containing a list of the items required. In the email, brief instructions explaining when the order is needed and how to view the list of ordered items. The email was brief, but it was particularly convincing. Many restaurants are likely to be fooled by these fileless malware phishing attacks, with access to systems granted for long periods before detection.
As with other phishing campaigns, the user is prompted to enable the content in the attached file. Opening the RTF file presents the user with a large image that they must click in order to view the contents of the document. The document is expertly crafted, appears professional and suggests the contents of the document are protected. Double clicking on the image and confirming with a click on OK will launch the infection process, running JavaScript code.
FIN7 has recently been conducting attacks on financial institutions, but Morphisec reports that the methodology has changed for the malware attacks on restaurants. DNS queries are used to deliver the shellcode stage of infection, but in contrast to past attacks, the DNS queries are launched from the memory, rather than using PowerShell commands. Since the attack does not involve files being written to the hard drive, it is difficult to detect.
Further, the researchers checked the RTF file against VirusTotal and discovered none of the 56 AV vendors are currently detecting the file as malicious.
by titanadmin | Jun 14, 2017 | Email Scams, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News, Spam Software |
Corporate phishing emails are one of the biggest cybersecurity risks faced by organizations. Cybercriminals are well aware that even companies with robust cybersecurity defenses are vulnerable to phishing attacks.
Phishing email volume is higher than at any other time in history. Employees are being targeted with threat actors now using sophisticated social engineering techniques to maximize the probability of employees clicking on links, opening infected email attachments or disclosing their login credentials. If corporate phishing emails are delivered to end users’ inboxes, there is a high chance that at least one employee will be fooled. All it takes is for one employee to click on a malicious link or open an infected attachment for malware to be installed or access to sensitive data be provided.
The threat from phishing attacks has been steadily increasing in recent years, although this year has seen phishing attacks soar. A recent study conducted by Mimecast has shown that cybercriminals have been stepping up their efforts in recent months. Last quarter, there was a 400% increase in corporate phishing emails according to the study.
A phishing trends & intelligence report for Q1, 2017 from the security awareness training firm PhishLabs showed that in the first quarter of 2017, overall phishing email volume increased by 20% compared to the previous quarter. 88% of phishing attacks were concentrated on five industries: payment services, financial institutions, cloud storage/file hosting firms, webmail/online services and e-commerce companies.
The anti-phishing training and phishing simulation platform provider PhishMe also noted a major increase in phishing emails in Q1, 2017. The firm’s Q1, 2017 malware review also showed there had been a 69.2% increase in botnet malware usage in the first quarter of this year.
Business email compromise attacks are also on the rise. Proofpoint’s annual Human Factor report showed BEC email attacks rose from 1% of message volume to 42% of message volume relative to emails bearing Trojans. Those attacks have cost businesses $5 billion worldwide.
These studies clearly show that corporate phishing emails are on the rise, highlighting the need for organizations to improve their defenses. The best defense against phishing emails and ransomware attacks is to ensure messages are intercepted and blocked. It is therefore essential for organizations to implement a robust spam filtering solution to prevent malicious messages from reaching end users’ inboxes.
SpamTitan conducts more than 100 checks of incoming emails, ensuring more than 99.98% of spam and malicious emails are blocked. Dual anti-virus engines are used to ensure 100% of known malware and ransomware is intercepted and prevented from being delivered to end users’ inboxes.
If you have yet to implement an advanced spam filtering solution or you are unhappy with your current provider, contact TitanHQ today to find out more about SpamTitan and how it can be used to protect your business from email attacks. SpamTitan is also available on a no obligation, 30-day free trial, allowing you to try the solution for yourself before committing to a purchase.
by titanadmin | Jun 14, 2017 | Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security |
Microsoft took the decision to issue emergency Windows XP updates to prevent exploitation of the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) vulnerability used to infect worldwide computers with ransomware on May 12, 2017.
The move came as a surprise since the operating system is no longer supported. Extended support came to an end on April 8, 2014. Yesterday, saw further Microsoft Windows XP updates released. The patches prevent further flaws in the operating system from being exploited by cybercriminals in WannaCry ransomware-style attacks.
Microsoft’s Cyber Defense Operations Center head, Adrienne Hall, said “Due to the elevated risk for destructive cyber-attacks at this time, we made the decision to take this action because applying these updates provides further protection against potential attacks with characteristics similar to WannaCrypt.”
In total, nearly 100 vulnerabilities were patched this Patch Tuesday, including 18 critical flaws that can be remotely exploited by cybercriminals to take full control of vulnerable systems. In some cases, as was the case with the WannaCry ransomware attacks, no user interaction is required for the flaws to be exploited.
One of the flaws – tracked as CVE-2017-8543 – similarly affects the Windows Server Message Block service. Microsoft says CVE-2017-8543 is being actively exploited in the wild, with Windows Server 2008, 2012, and 2016 all affected as well as more recent versions of Windows – v7, 8.1 and Windows 10. It is this flaw that has been patched for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. As was the case on May 12, once the attackers infect one device, they can search for other vulnerable devices. Infection can spread incredibly quickly to many other networked devices.
Some security experts have criticized Microsoft for issuing yet more Windows XP updates, arguing that this sends a message to users of outdated operating systems that it is OK not to upgrade the OS. Windows XP has many unpatched flaws, but the recent Windows XP updates suggest that if a particularly serious vulnerability is discovered that is being actively exploited, patches will be issued.
While Microsoft Windows XP updates have been released, this should not be taken as signaling a change in Microsoft’s standard servicing policies. Further patches may not be released for unsupported Windows versions, so organizations should not delay upgrading their OS. Microsoft’s general manager of its Security Response Center, Eric Doerr, said “The best protection is to be on a modern, up-to-date system that incorporates the latest defense-in-depth innovations. Older systems, even if fully up-to-date, lack the latest security features and advancements.”
In total, there were 95 updates issued this patch Tuesday. Like CVE-2017-8543, a LNK remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2017-8464) is also being exploited in the wild.
The latest round of updates also includes a patch for a serious flaw in Microsoft Outlook (CVE-2017-8507). Typically, in order to exploit vulnerabilities an end user would be required to open a specially crafted email attachment. However, if an attacker were to send a specially crafted message to an Outlook user, simply viewing the message would allow the attacker to take full control of the machine.
Adobe has also issued a slew of updates to address 21 vulnerabilities spread across four products (Flash, Shockwave Player, Captivate and Adobe Digital editions). 15 of those vulnerabilities have been marked as critical and would allow remote code execution.
As the WannaCry ransomware attacks clearly showed, the failure to apply patches promptly leaves the door wide open to cybercriminals. These updates should therefore not be delayed, especially since two of the flaws are being actively exploited.
by titanadmin | Jun 13, 2017 | Email Scams, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
Mac users are better protected from ransomware than Windows users, although they now face a new threat: MacRansom. The new ransomware variant may not be particularly advanced, although it is capable of encrypting files.
MacRansom is being offered under a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model with the RaaS advertised to cybercriminals on a Tor network portal. In contrast to many RaaS offerings that require payment to be made before the RaaS can be used, the threat actors behind MacRansom are offering the RaaS free of charge.
Any would-be cybercriminal looking to conduct ransomware attacks can email the creators of the ransomware via a secure Protonmail email address and a version of MacRansom will be created according to the user’s specifications.
The authors of MacRansom claim they are professional engineers and security researchers with extensive experience in software development and a thorough understanding of the MacOS. They claim they have previously worked at Yahoo and Facebook.
The authors claim that MacRansom can be installed and will remain invisible to the victim until the scheduled execution time, when it will complete its encryption routine in under a minute. The ransomware variant uses a 128-bit industrial standard encryption algorithm that cannot be beaten unless the ransom is paid. The authors claim the ransomware leaves no digital traces and that it can be scheduled to run at a specific time set by the user. It can even be triggered when an individual plugs in an external drive into an infected machine to maximize the number of files that are encrypted. However, the ransomware is only capable of encrypting a maximum of 128 files.
The Ransomware is capable of checking if it is in a virtual environment, whether it is being debugged or if it has been installed in a non-Mac environment, in which case it will exit.
Security researchers at Fortinet – Rommel Joven and Wayne Chin Low – signed up for the RaaS and obtained a sample, but noted that under some circumstances it may not be possible to decrypt encrypted files even if the ransom is paid. They said, “A remarkable thing we observed when reverse-engineering the encryption/decryption algorithm is that the TargetFileKey is permuted with a random generated number. In other words, the encrypted files can no longer be decrypted once the malware has terminated.” However, to find out, victims will be required to pay a ransom payment of 0.25 Bitcoin – around $700.
Fortunately, infection requires the victim to run a file with an unidentified developer. They will therefore need to confirm they wish to do that before the file is run. This warning should be sufficient to prevent many end users from proceeding.
by titanadmin | Jun 6, 2017 | Email Scams, Internet Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam News |
A University of Alaska phishing attack has potentially resulted in attackers gaining access to the sensitive information of 25,000 staff, students and faculty staff.
The University of Alaska phishing attack occurred in December last year, although affected individuals have only just been notified. The phishing emails were sent to university employees. One or more individuals responded and were fooled into following the threat actors’ instructions.
Details of the exact nature of the phishing emails were not disclosed; however, as with other phishing scams, the emails appeared genuine and looked professional. By responding to the emails, the employees accidentally disclosed their usernames and passwords to the attackers. The attack resulted in ‘several’ email accounts being compromised.
The emails in the compromised accounts contained a range of sensitive information including names and Social Security numbers. In total, around 25,000 staff, students and faculty members had their information exposed.
The investigation into the University of Alaska phishing attack could not confirm whether any of the emails in the accounts were accessed or if information was copied by the attackers, although it remains a distinct possibility.
Due to the sensitive nature of data in the accounts, the University of Alaska had to inform all affected individuals by mail and offer credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. Victims will also be protected by a $1 million identity theft insurance policy.
A forensic analysis had to be conducted to determine the exact nature of the attack and which individuals had been affected – A process that took around 5 months. Staff had to be provided with additional training to improve awareness of credential phishing scams and were retrained correct handling of sensitive information. The notifications and mitigations came at a considerable cost.
The University of Alaska phishing attack was just one of many phishing attacks that have taken place in the United States over the past few months. The phishing attacks all have a common denominator. Employees were targeted, phishing emails reached inboxes, and end users followed the instructions in the emails.
Training staff to be aware of the threat of phishing can reduce susceptibility, although training did not prevent the University of Alaska phishing attack.
Even after receiving security awareness training, employees can make mistakes. A technology solution should therefore be implemented to stop phishing emails from being delivered to end users’ inboxes.
SpamTitan from TitanHQ offers excellent protection against phishing attacks, blocking more than 99.9% of spam, phishing emails and other malicious messages. SpamTitan is quick and easy to install, cost effective to implement and easy to maintain.
With SpamTitan installed, organizations can protect themselves against phishing attacks and avoid the considerable cost of data breaches.
For more information on SpamTitan and other TitanHQ security products, contact the sales team today and take the first step toward improving your defences against phishing attacks.
by titanadmin | Jun 6, 2017 | Email Scams, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam Software |
The Texas-based online hotel booking website Hotels.com is notifying customers that some of their sensitive information has been exposed. The Hotels.com breach potentially involved usernames and passwords, email addresses, and the last four digits of site users’ credit card numbers.
Users’ accounts were hacked between May 22 and May 29, although at this stage it is unclear exactly how many individuals have been affected. While full credit card numbers were not obtained, the Hotels.com breach will see users face an elevated risk of phishing attacks.
Phishing emails come in many guises, although it is common for users of a site that has experienced a data breach or security incident to receive warning emails about the attack. The emails rightly claim that a user’s sensitive information has been compromised; however, the emails do not come from the company that experienced the breach. Instead, it is the cybercriminals who conducted the attack, or individuals who have bought stolen data from the attackers, that send the emails.
A typical phishing scenario sees individuals informed that their usernames and passwords have been compromised. A link is included in the emails to allow the user to reset their password or activate additional security controls on their account.
That link will direct the user to a phishing website where further information is obtained – the missing digits from their credit card number for example – or other personal information. Alternatively, the link could direct the user to a malicious website containing an exploit kit that downloads malware onto their computer.
Hotels.com customers were targeted in a 2015 phishing campaign which resulted in many site users divulging information such as names, phone numbers, email addresses and travel details. That information could be used in further scams or even for robberies when victims are known to be on vacation.
The Hotels.com breach is the latest in a number of attacks on online companies. While it is currently unclear how access to customers’ accounts was gained, a letter emailed to affected users suggests the attacks could be linked to breaches at other websites. The letter suggests access to online accounts could have resulted from password reuse.
Reusing passwords on multiple online platforms is a bad idea. While it is easier to remember one password, a breach at any online website means the attackers will be able to access accounts on multiple sites.
To prevent this, strong, unique passwords should be used for each online account. While these can be difficult to remember, a password manager can be used to store those passwords. Many password managers also help users generate strong, unique passwords. Users should also take advantage of two-factor authentication controls on sites whenever possible to improve security.
Since many businesses use hotel booking websites such as Hotels.com, they should be particularly vigilant for phishing emails over the coming weeks, especially any related to hotels.com. To protect against phishing attacks, we recommend using SpamTitan. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.9% of phishing and other spam emails, reducing the risk of those messages being delivered to end users. Along with security awareness training and phishing simulation exercises, businesses can successfully defend against phishing attacks.
by titanadmin | May 30, 2017 | Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security |
A critical Samba flaw has been discovered that has potential to be exploited and used for network worm attacks similar to those that resulted in more than 300,000 global WannaCry ransomware infections.
Samba is used to provide Windows-like file and print services on Unix and Linux servers and is based on the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) protocol that was exploited in the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks. The wormable remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in versions 3.5.0 an above.
The Samba flaw – tracked as CVE-2017-7494 – has existed for around 7 years, although no known attacks are understood to have occurred. That may not remain the case for long.
Samba is commonly installed on enterprise Linux servers, with around 104,000 machines believed to be vulnerable, per a recent search conducted by Rapid7 researchers. The Samba flaw can be exploited easily, requiring just a single line of code.
The Samba vulnerability has been rated as critical, although the good news is Samba has already issued an update that addresses the vulnerability. The patch can be applied to versions 4.4 and above. Any organization that is using an unsupported version of Samba, or is unable to apply the patch, can use a workaround to address the Samba vulnerability and secure their Linux and Unix servers.
The workaround is straightforward, requiring the addition of the following parameter to the [global] section of your smb.conf
nt pipe support = no
After the parameter has been added, the smbd daemon must be restarted. This will prevent clients from accessing any named pipe endpoints.
US-CERT has advised all organizations to apply the patch or use the workaround as soon as possible to prevent the vulnerability from being exploited.
If a threat actor were to exploit the Samba flaw, it would allow them to “upload a shared library to a writable share, and then cause the server to load and execute it.” A malicious file could be remotely uploaded on any vulnerable device. That could be ransomware, a network worm, or any other malicious file. That file could then be executed with root access privileges.
NAS devices also use Samba and may also be vulnerable to attack. Malicious actors could target NAS devices and access or encrypt stored data. Many organizations use NAS devices to store backups. An attack on those devices, using ransomware for instance, could be devastating. Bob Rudis, chief data scientist at Rapid7, said “A direct attack or worm would render those backups almost useless. Organizations would have little choice but to pay the ransom demand.
A proof-of-concept exploit for the Samba vulnerability is available to the public. It is therefore only a matter of time before the vulnerability is exploited. The patch or workaround should therefore be applied ASAP to mitigate risk.
by titanadmin | May 25, 2017 | Industry News, Website Filtering |
TitanHQ announced a new partnership with Purple, the intelligent spaces company, which is now using the WebTitan WiFi filtering solution to control the content that can be accessed through its WiFi networks.
Businesses are now realizing they can attract more customers by providing free WiFi access, with Purple allowing businesses to get something back from providing free WiFi access to customers.
Purple provides WiFi analytics and marketing solutions allowing businesses to get more out of their WiFi networks. Those services have proven incredibly popular, with Purple rapidly expanding its business to serve clients in more than 70 countries.
Businesses are facing increasing pressure not only to provide Internet access to customers, but also to ensure that the Internet can be accessed safely and securely. The recent WannaCry ransomware attacks have highlighted just how important Internet security has now become. An Internet content filtering solution is therefore necessary to ensure inappropriate website content can be filtered out and malicious websites are blocked.
TitanHQ’s website content filtering solution – WebTitan – is the global leading content filtering solution for WiFi networks. Each day, WebTitan detects and blocks more than 60,000 different types of malware and ransomware, preventing users from infecting their devices. The solution is managed from a web-based control panel and can instantly be applied to any number of global WiFi access points.
The solution can be easily configured, has no latency, and allows precise control over the types of content that can be accessed through WiFi networks.
Following the rollout of WebTitan, which took just a few days, Purple customers have started benefitting from the industry-leading WiFi filtering solution.
James Wood, Head of Integration at Purple, communicated Purple’s unique requirements to TitanHQ which was able to provide a solution that exactly matched the company’s needs. Wood said, “From day one it was evident that they were capable of not only providing what we needed but were very responsive and technically adept.”
The solution was ideal for Purple. Woods explained that “Along with superior protection, WebTitan also allows us to extend the control to our customers via their API. Our customers can now manage their own filtering settings directly from the Purple Portal.”
More and more companies are realizing that it is no longer sufficient to just offer free WiFi access to customers. Customers now want to be reassured that they can access the Internet securely. TitanHQ CEO Ronan Kavanagh said “Content filtering for Wi-Fi will be a given in service terms over the next few years. Purple again is leading the way with their focus on this area.”
Why WebTitan Cloud for WiFi is Such a Popular Choice for Service Providers
Managed Service Providers, ISPs , and Resellers can join the TitanShield program and gain important benefits that are lacking in many other WiFi filtering solutions. These include:
- Accurately filter web content through 53 pre-set categories and up to 10 custom categories.
- Filter by keyword and keyword score.
- Filter content in 200 languages.
- Multiple hosting options, including within your own data center
- No limit on access points or users
- manage multiple access points through a single web-based administration portal
- Easy integration into existing billing, auto provisioning and monitoring systems through a suite of APIs
- WebTitan Cloud for WiFi can be provided as a white label ready to take your own branding
- World class customer service with dedicated account managers
- Highly competitive pricing and a fully transparent pricing policy
- Flexible pricing to meet the needs of MSPs as seats fluctuate
- Easy delegation of access point management
- Extensive reporting suite including report scheduling, real-time views of Internet activity, and drill down reporting
by titanadmin | May 25, 2017 | Email Scams, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam Software |
In the United States, the healthcare industry is being targeted by cybercriminals, with phishing attacks on healthcare organizations one of the easiest and most common methods of gaining access to email accounts and protected health information. A phishing email is sent to a healthcare employee along with a seemingly legitimate reason for revealing their login credentials. Doing so will give the attackers access to an email account and the protected health information of patients in those emails. Emails accounts contain a wealth of information that can be used for further attacks. A compromised email account can be used to send further phishing emails within a company. One response to a phishing email can see many email accounts compromised. A single phishing email can result in a major security incident and costly data breach.
There have been many phishing attacks on healthcare organizations this year and the past 12 months has seen numerous phishing-related data breaches added to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Breach Portal. Any breach of protected health information that results in more than 500 records being exposed is investigated by OCR. During investigations of phishing attacks on healthcare organizations, OCR often finds that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Rules have been violated. Healthcare organizations are discovered not to have performed risk assessments – as is required by the HIPAA Security Rule – and have failed to identify the risk of phishing and take appropriate steps to reduce risk to an acceptable level.
When organizations are found to have violated HIPAA Rules, heavy fines may follow. Recently, OCR has investigated several healthcare phishing attacks and has taken some cases forward to settlement. The HIPAA fines can be considerable.
In 2015, OCR announced its first HIPAA settlement for a phishing attack. University of Washington Medicine was fined $750,000 as a result of a malware installation that occurred when an employee responded to a phishing email. In that case, 90,000 patients had their information revealed to the attackers. A HIPAA penalty for a phishing attack was also announced last month, with the Colorado based Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN) having to pay OCR $400,000 to resolve HIPAA violations discovered during the investigation of the phishing attack. The phishing attack resulted in an email account being compromised, and along with it, the protected health information of 3,200 patients. The employee did not reveal their email credentials in that case, at least not directly. Instead, the response to the email resulted in a malware installation that gave the attacker access to the email account. Phishing attacks on healthcare organizations are to be expected. OCR is aware that it may not be possible to prevent 100% of phishing attacks, 100% of the time. Not all phishing attacks on healthcare organizations will therefore result in a HIPAA fine. However, failing to reduce risk to an acceptable level is another matter. If healthcare organizations do not do enough to prevent phishing attacks, fines are likely to result.
So, how can phishing attacks on healthcare organizations be prevented and what can healthcare organizations do to reduce risk to a level that will be deemed acceptable by OCR? The HIPAA Security Rule requires protections to be put in place to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI. While the Security Rule does not specify exactly which security solutions should be used, there are two essential anti-phishing controls that should be employed.
A spam filtering solution should be used to prevent phishing and other malicious emails from being delivered to end users’ inboxes. It would be hard to argue that the threat from phishing has been reduced to an acceptable level if no controls are in place to block phishing emails from being delivered. Healthcare employees must also receive security awareness training. All employees should be informed of the risk of phishing and the methods used by cybercriminals to gain access to computers and data. They should be taught best practices and shown how to identify phishing emails and other malicious email threats. By blocking phishing emails and training end users, the risk from phishing can be significantly reduced.
by titanadmin | May 25, 2017 | Email Scams, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Advice, Spam News, Spam Software |
Cybercriminals have started sending WannaCry phishing emails, taking advantage of the fear surrounding the global network worm attacks.
An email campaign has been identified in the United Kingdom, with BT customers being targeted. The attackers have spoofed BT domains and made their WannaCry phishing emails look extremely realistic. BT branding is used, the emails are well written and they claim to have been sent from Libby Barr, Managing Director, Customer Care at BT. A quick check of her name on Google will reveal she is who she claims to be. The WannaCry phishing emails are convincing, cleverly put together, and are likely to fool many customers.
The emails claim that BT is working on improving its security in the wake of the massive ransomware campaign that affected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries on May 12, 2017. In the UK, 20% of NHS Trusts were affected by the incident and had data encrypted and services majorly disrupted by the ransomware attacks. It would be extremely hard if you live in the UK to have avoided the news of the attacks and the extent of the damage they have caused.
The WannaCry phishing emails provide a very good reason for taking prompt action. BT is offering a security upgrade to prevent its customers from being affected by the attacks. The emails claim that in order to keep customers’ sensitive information secure, access to certain features have been disabled on BT accounts. Customers are told that to restore their full BT account functionality they need to confirm the security upgrade by clicking on the upgrade box contained in the email.
Of course, clicking on the link will not result in a security upgrade being applied. Customers are required to disclose their login credentials to the attackers.
Other WannaCry phishing emails are likely to be sent claiming to be from other broadband service providers. Similar campaigns could be used to silently download malware or ransomware.
Cybercriminals often take advantage of global news events that are attracting a lot of media interest. During the Olympics there were many Olympic themed spam emails. Phishing emails were also rife during the U.S. presidential elections, the World Cup, the Zika Virus epidemic, and following every major news event.
The golden rule is never to click on links sent in email from individuals you do not know, be extremely careful about clicking links from people you do know, and assume that any email you receive could be a phishing email or other malicious message.
A single phishing email sent to an employee can result in a data breach, email or network compromise. It is therefore important for employers to take precautions. Employees should be provided with phishing awareness training and taught the tell-tale signs that emails are not genuine. It is also essential that an advanced spam filtering solution is employed to prevent the vast majority of phishing emails from reaching end users inboxes.
On that front, TitanHQ is here to help. Contact the team today to find out how SpamTitan can protect your business from phishing, malware and ransomware attacks.
by titanadmin | May 24, 2017 | Email Scams, Internet Security, Network Security, Phishing & Email Spam, Spam Software |
The cost of ransomware attacks cannot be totaled by the amounts illegally earned by cybercriminals through ransom payments. In fact, the ransom payments are just a tiny fraction of the costs experienced by businesses that have been attacked with ransomware.
Take the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks as an example. The individuals behind that campaign were charging $300 per infected device to supply the keys to decrypt data. The amount gathered by those individuals was a little over $100,000 on Monday this week, even though the attacks involved data being encrypted on approximately 300,000 devices.
However, the cost of ransomware attacks is far higher. The biggest cost of ransomware attacks for most businesses is downtime while the infection is dealt with. Even if the ransom is paid, businesses often lose a week or more while the infection is removed and systems are brought back online. One Providence law firm suffered 3 months of downtime while systems remained locked!
Then there is the continued disruption while businesses catch up from the loss of productivity in the aftermath following the attack. The NHS was still experiencing disruption more than a week after the attacks on Friday 12, May.
Ransomware attacks can also involve loss of data and damage a company’s reputation. Typically, following a ransomware attack, a forensic analysis of IT systems must be conducted to ensure all traces of malware have been removed. Checks also must be performed to look for backdoors that may have been installed. Many businesses do not have the staff to perform those tasks. Cybersecurity experts must therefore be brought in. Additional cybersecurity solutions must also be purchased to ensure further attacks are prevented. The cost of ransomware attacks is therefore considerable.
The WannaCry ransomware attacks have been estimated to have cost businesses more than $1 billion. KnowB4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman said “The estimated damage caused by WannaCry in just the initial 4 days would exceed a billion dollars, looking at the massive downtime caused for large organizations worldwide.”
The cost of ransomware attacks in 2015 was an estimated $325 million, although figures from the FBI suggest that total was reached in the first quarter of the year. The final cost of ransomware attacks in the year was estimated to have reached $1 billion. Recently, Cybersecurity Ventures predicted the cost of ransomware attacks in 2017 will reach an incredible $5 billion. Given the expected costs of the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks, that could turn out to be an incredibly conservative estimate.
Cybercriminals are not concerned about the damage caused by the attacks, only the amount they can extort from businesses. The returns may be relatively low, but they are sufficiently high to make the attacks profitable. More and more individuals are also getting in on the act by using ransomware-as-a-service. Not only are ransomware attacks likely to continue, major cybercriminal gangs are likely to increase the scale of the attacks.
Businesses should be aware of the huge cost of ransomware attacks and take appropriate action to prevent those attacks from occurring. Having a backup of data may ensure that a ransom payment does not need to be made, but it will do little to prevent huge losses from being suffered if ransomware is installed.
Preventing ransomware attacks requires security awareness training for employees, advanced spam filters to stop ransomware from being delivered to end users’ inboxes, web filters to block individuals from accessing malicious URLs, endpoint protection systems to detect and block ransomware downloads, advanced firewalls and antivirus and antimalware solutions.
Fortunately, with appropriate defenses in place, it is possible to block ransomware attacks. Those solutions do come at a cost, but considering the losses from a successful ransomware attack, they are a small price to pay.
