The report shares statistics and observations from incident response practice in 2023, analyzes trends and gives cybersecurity recommendations. #Cybersecurity #Incident #Internal #LockBit #Ransomware #Security #Statistics #Threats #response #services
he year 2023 turned out to be quite rich in events and trends in the field of cybersecurity. We witnessed a new term "white noise", the development of artificial intelligence led to increased bot activity, which significantly affected commercial companies. We detected signs of a resurgence in popularity of commercial DDoS attacks. The implementation of "remote office" technologies led to the expansion of communication channels and, as a result, increased intensity of attacks. But first things first. DDoS Attacks by Vectors The fourth quarter of the past year didn't bring any surprises in terms of the distribution of mixed attacks by vectors. UDP flood once again topped the list with a rate of 60.20%. IP flood came in second at 16.86%. Multivector attacks also made it into the top three with 13.36%. Overall, the distribution was as follows: UDP flood - 60.20% SYN flood - 7.26% IP flood - 16.86% Multivector attacks - 13.36%
In 2023, threat actors continued to exploit a variety of vulnerabilities — both newly discovered weaknesses and unresolved issues — to carry out sophisticated attacks on global organizations. The number of documented software vulnerabilities continued to rise, and threat actors were quick to capitalize on new vulnerabilities and leverage recent releases of publicly available vulnerability research and exploit code to target entities. However, while there was a high number of vulnerabilities released in the reporting period, only a handful actually were weaponized in attacks. The ones of most interest are those that threat actors use for exploitation. In this report, we’ll analyze the numbers and types of vulnerabilities in 2023 with a view to understanding attack trends and how organizations can better defend themselves.
From OneNote to RansomNote: An Ice Cold Intrusion - The DFIR Report
In late February 2023, threat actors rode a wave of initial access using Microsoft OneNote files. In this case, we observed a threat actor deliver IcedID using this method. After loading IcedID and establishing persistence, there was no further actions, other than beaconing for over 30 days. The threat actor used Cobalt Strike and AnyDesk to target a file server and a backup server. * The threat actor used FileZilla to exfiltrate data from the network before deploying Nokoyawa ransomware.
Google: Spyware vendors behind 50% of zero-days exploited in 2023
Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Google subsidiary Mandiant said they've observed a significant increase in the number of zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in attacks in 2023, many of them linked to spyware vendors and their clients.
Google Online Security Blog: Vulnerability Reward Program: 2023 Year in Review
Last year, we again witnessed the power of community-driven security efforts as researchers from around the world contributed to help us identify and address thousands of vulnerabilities in our products and services. Working with our dedicated bug hunter community, we awarded $10 million to our 600+ researchers based in 68 countries.
Google Paid Out $10 Million via Bug Bounty Programs in 2023
Google on Tuesday announced that it paid out a total of $10 million through its bug bounty programs in 2023, bringing the total amount awarded by the tech giant for vulnerabilities found in its products since 2010 to $59 million. The total paid out in 2023 is less than the $12 million handed out in 2022, but it’s still a significant amount. The money was earned last year by 632 researchers from 68 countries. The highest single reward was $113,337.
In 2023, ransomware actors intensified their operations, targeting high-profile institutions and critical infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and government agencies. Major ransomware supply chain attacks were carried out exploiting the ubiquitous file transfer software MOVEit, impacting companies ranging from the BBC to British Airways. As a result of these attacks and others, ransomware gangs reached an unprecedented milestone, surpassing $1 billion in extorted cryptocurrency payments from victims. Last year’s developments highlight the evolving nature of this cyber threat and its increasing impact on global institutions and security at large.
As we move further into 2024, we must be cautious (maybe even fearful!) of ransomware cases increasing even more than in previous years. Though governments around the world are taking more interest in the worldwide threat, we can see from the increase of cases that our actions have not been enough to thwart the ransomware threat. As new groups continue to form, former groups continue to evolve into new brands, and the big players continue to ramp up their efforts, we must remain vigilant and focus on our preparation and early detection capabilities.
An “unauthorized party” hijacked the cell phone number of the person running the SEC’s X account before taking over the social media feed and posting messages. In a statement on Monday, an SEC spokesperson explained that two days after the January 9 account takeover, the government agency spoke to its telecom carrier and discovered that someone “obtained control of the SEC cell phone number associated with the account in an apparent ‘SIM swap’ attack.”
Starting January 10, 2024, multiple parties (Ivanti, Volexity, and Mandiant) disclosed the existence of a zero-day exploit chain affecting Ivanti Connect Secur…
Le CHU de Nantes est sous le coup d’une cyberattaque depuis la nuit de dimanche 14 à lundi 15 janvier 2024. Le centre hospitalier a vu son réseau internet coupé ce lundi 15 janvier, et ne peut plus recevoir et envoyer de mails en externe.
CVE-2023-36025 Exploited for Defense Evasion in Phemedrone Stealer Campaign
This blog delves into the Phemedrone Stealer campaign's exploitation of CVE-2023-36025, the Windows Defender SmartScreen Bypass vulnerability, for its defense evasion and investigates the malware's payload.
Attack of the week: Airdrop tracing – A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering
It's been a while since I wrote an "attack of the week" post, and the fault for this is entirely mine. I've been much too busy writing boring posts about Schnorr signatures! But this week's news brings an exciting story with both technical and political dimensions: new reports claim that Chinese security agencies have developed…
SharePoint Pre-Auth RCE chain (CVE-2023–29357 & CVE-2023–24955) | STAR Labs
Brief I may have achieved successful exploitation of a SharePoint target during Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023. While the live demonstration lasted only approximately 30 seconds, it is noteworthy that the process of discovering and crafting the exploit chain consumed nearly a year of meticulous effort and research to complete the full exploit chain. This exploit chain leverages two vulnerabilities to achieve pre-auth remote code execution (RCE) on the SharePoint server: Authentication Bypass – An unauthenticated attacker can impersonate as any SharePoint user by spoofing valid JSON Web Tokens (JWTs), using the none signing algorithm to subvert signature validation checks when verifying JWT tokens used for OAuth authentication.
Active Exploitation of Two Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure VPN
Volexity has uncovered active in-the-wild exploitation of two vulnerabilities allowing unauthenticated remote code execution in Ivanti Connect Secure VPN appliances. An official security advisory and knowledge base article have been released by Ivanti that includes mitigation that should be applied immediately. However, a mitigation does not remedy a past or ongoing compromise. Systems should simultaneously be thoroughly analyzed per details in this post to look for signs of a breach.
Ransomware gang takes credit for Christmas attack on global Lutheran organization
The World Council of Churches reported an incident in December, and the Lutheran World Federation said it experienced a related incident. The Rhysida gang claimed it carried out the attack on the federation.
Compromising Google Accounts: Malwares Exploiting Undocumented OAuth2 Functionality for session hijacking
A detailed blog on Analysis of the Global Malware Trend: Exploiting Undocumented OAuth2 Functionality to Regenerate Google Service Cookies Regardless of IP or Password Reset.
LastPass to enforce a 12-character requirement for master passwords
Security pros say while the 12-character requirement by LastPass is a step in the right direction, teams still need to enforce multi-factor authentication and practice continuous monitoring.
Veeam Backup & Replication is a data backup and replication solution. On March 7, 2023, Veeam published an advisory, along with patches, for https://nvd.nist.g…
ALPHV Ransomware Claims Cyberattack on US Firm Ultra Intelligence and Communications
Russian-speaking BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group has claimed to have carried out a cyberattack on Ultra Intelligence and Communications, a US-based company
Three New Malicious PyPI Packages Deploy CoinMiner on Linux Devices | FortiGuard Labs
FortiGuard Labs cover the attack phases of three new PyPI packages that bear a resemblance to the culturestreak PyPI package discovered earlier this year. Learn more.
Canton de Berne: Suite à une faille de sécurité dans un système informatique: plusieurs personnes prévenues identifiées et perquisitions effectuées
Suite à une faille de sécurité, l’été dernier, dans l’application «MobileIron», également utilisée par la Police cantonale bernoise, des données d’utilisatrices et d’utilisateurs avaient manifestement pu être téléchargées et consultées. Une enquête a permis d’identifier plusieurs personnes prévenues. De plus amples investigations sont en cours.
The biggest cybersecurity and cyberattack stories of 2023
2023 was a big year for cybersecurity, with significant cyberattacks, data breaches, new threat groups emerging, and, of course, zero-day vulnerabilities.