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Hey there, it's your weekly dose of " what the heck is going on in cybersecurity land " – and trust me, you NEED to be in the loop this time. We've got everything from zero-day exploits and AI gone rogue to the FBI playing crypto kingpin – it's full of stuff they don't 🤫 want you to know. So let's jump in before we get FOMO. ⚡ Threat of the Week GoldenJackal Hacks Air-Gapped Systems: Meet GoldenJackal, the hacking crew you've probably never heard of – but should definitely know about now. They're busting into super-secure, air-gapped computer systems with sneaky worms spread through infected USB drives (yes, really!), proving that even the most isolated networks aren't safe. ESET researchers caught them red-handed using two different custom-made tools to target high-profile victims, including a South Asian embassy in Belarus and a European Union government organization. 🔔 Top News Mozilla Patches Firefox 0-Day: Mozilla patched a

Threat actors with ties to North Korea have been observed targeting job seekers in the tech industry to deliver updated versions of known malware families tracked as BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret. The activity cluster, tracked as CL-STA-0240, is part of a campaign dubbed Contagious Interview that Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 first disclosed in November 2023. "The threat actor behind CL-STA-0240 contacts software developers through job search platforms by posing as a prospective employer," Unit 42 said in a new report. "The attackers invite the victim to participate in an online interview, where the threat actor attempts to convince the victim to download and install malware." The first stage of infection involves the BeaverTail downloader and information stealer that's designed for targeting both Windows and Apple macOS platforms. The malware acts as a conduit for the Python-based InvisibleFerret backdoor. There is evidence to suggest that the activity

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Microsoft is warning of cyber attack campaigns that abuse legitimate file hosting services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Dropbox that are widely used in enterprise environments as a defense evasion tactic. The end goal of the campaigns are broad and varied, allowing threat actors to compromise identities and devices and conduct business email compromise ( BEC ) attacks, which ultimately result in financial fraud, data exfiltration, and lateral movement to other endpoints. The weaponization of legitimate internet services (LIS) is an increasingly popular risk vector adopted by adversaries to blend in with legitimate network traffic in a manner such that it often bypasses traditional security defenses and complicates attribution efforts. The approach is also called living-off-trusted-sites (LOTS), as it leverages the trust and familiarity of these services to sidestep email security guardrails and deliver malware. Microsoft said it has been observing a new trend in phishing c

A new wave of international law enforcement actions has led to four arrests and the takedown of nine servers linked to the LockBit (aka Bitwise Spider) ransomware operation, marking the latest salvo against what was once a prolific financially motivated group. This includes the arrest of a suspected LockBit developer in France while on holiday outside of Russia, two individuals in the U.K. who allegedly supported an affiliate, and an administrator of a bulletproof hosting service in Spain used by the ransomware group, Europol said in a statement. In conjunction, authorities outed a Russian national named Aleksandr Ryzhenkov (aka Beverley, Corbyn_Dallas, G, Guester, and Kotosel) as one of the high-ranking members of the Evil Corp cybercrime group, while simultaneously painting him as a LockBit affiliate. Sanctions have also been announced against seven individuals and two entities linked to the e-crime gang. "The United States, in close coordination with our allies and part

The threat actor known as Storm-0501 has targeted government, manufacturing, transportation, and law enforcement sectors in the U.S. to stage ransomware attacks. The multi-stage attack campaign is designed to compromise hybrid cloud environments and perform lateral movement from on-premises to cloud environment, ultimately resulting in data exfiltration, credential theft, tampering, persistent backdoor access, and ransomware deployment, Microsoft said. "Storm-0501 is a financially motivated cybercriminal group that uses commodity and open-source tools to conduct ransomware operations," according to the tech giant's threat intelligence team. Active since 2021, the threat actor has a history of targeting education entities with Sabbath (54bb47h) ransomware before evolving into a ransomware-as-a-service ( RaaS ) affiliate delivering various ransomware payloads over the years, including Hive, BlackCat (ALPHV), Hunters International, LockBit, and Embargo ransomware. A n

Russian-speaking users have been targeted as part of a new campaign distributing a commodity trojan called DCRat (aka DarkCrystal RAT) by means of a technique known as HTML smuggling . The development marks the first time the malware has been deployed using this method, a departure from previously observed delivery vectors such as compromised or fake websites, or phishing emails bearing PDF attachments or macro-laced Microsoft Excel documents. "HTML smuggling is primarily a payload delivery mechanism," Netskope researcher Nikhil Hegde said in an analysis published Thursday. "The payload can be embedded within the HTML itself or retrieved from a remote resource." The HTML file, in turn, can be propagated via bogus sites or malspam campaigns. Once the file is launched via the victim's web browser, the concealed payload is decoded and downloaded onto the machine. The attack subsequently banks on some level of social engineering to convince the victim to ope

Threat actors with ties to North Korea have been observed leveraging two new malware strains dubbed KLogEXE and FPSpy. The activity has been attributed to an adversary tracked as Kimsuky , which is also known as APT43, ARCHIPELAGO, Black Banshee, Emerald Sleet (formerly Thallium), Sparkling Pisces, Springtail, and Velvet Chollima. "These samples enhance Sparkling Pisces' already extensive arsenal and demonstrate the group's continuous evolution and increasing capabilities," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers Daniel Frank and Lior Rochberger said . Active since at least 2012, the threat actor has been called the "king of spear-phishing" for its ability to trick victims into downloading malware by sending emails that make it seem like they are from trusted parties. Unit 42's analysis of Sparkling Pisces' infrastructure has uncovered two new portable executables referred to as KLogEXE and FPSpy. "These malware strains are known to be de

As many as 25 websites linked to the Kurdish minority have been compromised as part of a watering hole attack designed to harvest sensitive information for over a year and a half. French cybersecurity firm Sekoia, which disclosed details of the campaign dubbed SilentSelfie, described the intrusion set as long-running, with first signs of infection detected as far back as December 2022. The strategic web compromises are designed to deliver four different variants of an information-stealing framework, it added. "These ranged from the simplest, which merely stole the user's location, to more complex ones that recorded images from the selfie camera and led selected users to install a malicious APK, i.e an application used on Android," security researchers Felix Aimé and Maxime A said in a Wednesday report. Targeted websites include Kurdish press and media, Rojava administration and its armed forces, those related to revolutionary far-left political parties, and organizatio

Nation-state threat actors backed by Beijing broke into a "handful" of U.S. internet service providers (ISPs) as part of a cyber espionage campaign orchestrated to glean sensitive information, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The activity has been attributed to a threat actor that Microsoft tracks as Salt Typhoon, which is also known as FamousSparrow and GhostEmperor. "Investigators are exploring whether the intruders gained access to Cisco Systems routers, core network components that route much of the traffic on the internet," the publication was quoted as saying, citing people familiar with the matter. The end goal of the attacks is to gain a persistent foothold within target networks, allowing the threat actors to harvest sensitive data or launch a damaging cyber attack. GhostEmperor first came to light in October 2021, when Russian cybersecurity company Kasperksy detailed a long-standing evasive operation targeting Southeast Asian targets in

Ukraine has restricted the use of the Telegram messaging app by government officials, military personnel, and other defense and critical infrastructure workers, citing national security concerns. The ban was announced by the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity (NCCC) in a post shared on Facebook. "I have always advocated and advocate for freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a question of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security," Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, said . Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) said that Telegram is "actively used by the enemy" to launch cyber attacks, spread phishing messages and malicious software, track users' whereabouts, and gather intelligence to help the Russian military target Ukraine's facilities with drones and missiles. To that end, the use of Telegram has been proscribed on official devices of employees of state

Microsoft has revealed that a financially motivated threat actor has been observed using a ransomware strain called INC for the first time to target the healthcare sector in the U.S. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the activity under the name Vanilla Tempest (formerly DEV-0832). "Vanilla Tempest receives hand-offs from GootLoader infections by the threat actor Storm-0494, before deploying tools like the Supper backdoor, the legitimate AnyDesk remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool, and the MEGA data synchronization tool," it said in a series of posts shared on X. In the next step, the attackers proceed to carry out lateral movement through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and then use the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Provider Host to deploy the INC ransomware payload. The Windows maker said Vanilla Tempest has been active since at least July 2022, with previous attacks targeting education, healthcare, IT, and manufacturing secto

The threat actor known as CosmicBeetle has debuted a new custom ransomware strain called ScRansom in attacks targeting small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, while also likely working as an affiliate for RansomHub . "CosmicBeetle replaced its previously deployed ransomware, Scarab, with ScRansom, which is continually improved," ESET researcher Jakub Souček said in a new analysis published today. "While not being top notch, the threat actor is able to compromise interesting targets." Targets of ScRansom attacks span manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, legal, education, healthcare, technology, hospitality, leisure, financial services, and regional government sectors. CosmicBeetle is best known for a malicious toolset called Spacecolon that was previously identified as used for delivering the Scarab ransomware across victim organizations globally. Also known as NONAME, the adversary has a track record of experimenting w

The U.S. government and a coalition of international partners have officially attributed a Russian hacking group tracked as Cadet Blizzard to the General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 161st Specialist Training Center ( Unit 29155 ). "These cyber actors are responsible for computer network operations against global targets for the purposes of espionage, sabotage, and reputational harm since at least 2020," the agencies said . "Since early 2022, the primary focus of the cyber actors appears to be targeting and disrupting efforts to provide aid to Ukraine." Targets of the attacks have focused on critical infrastructure and key resource sectors, including the government services, financial services, transportation systems, energy, and healthcare sectors of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members, the European Union, Central American, and Asian countries. The joint advisory, released last week as part of a coordinated exercise dubbed Operatio

A hacktivist group known as Head Mare has been linked to cyber attacks that exclusively target organizations located in Russia and Belarus. "Head Mare uses more up-to-date methods for obtaining initial access," Kaspersky said in a Monday analysis of the group's tactics and tools. "For instance, the attackers took advantage of the relatively recent CVE-2023-38831 vulnerability in WinRAR, which allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system via a specially prepared archive. This approach allows the group to deliver and disguise the malicious payload more effectively." Head Mare, active since 2023, is one of the hacktivist groups attacking Russian organizations in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that began a year before. It also maintains a presence on X , where it has leaked sensitive information and internal documentation from victims. Targets of the group's attacks include governments, transportation, energy, manufacturing,

The FBI and CISA Issue Joint Advisory on New Threats and How to Stop Ransomware Note: on August 29, the FBI and CISA issued a joint advisory as part of their ongoing #StopRansomware effort to help organizations protect against ransomware. The latest advisory, AA24-242A , describes a new cybercriminal group and its attack methods. It also details three important actions to take today to mitigate cyber threats from ransomware – Installing updates as soon as they are released, requiring phishing-resistant MFA (i.e. non-SMS text-based), and training users. The growth in the number of victims of ransomware attacks and data breaches has become so profound that the new cyber defense challenge is just keeping up with the number of new attacks and disclosures from victims. This is the product of stunning advancements in cybercriminal attack methods combined with a too-slow response by many organizations in adjusting to new attack methods. As predicted, Generative AI has indeed been a game ch