The Good

As ransomware becomes a national security threat, the DHS plans to launch cyber sprints with an aim to address ransomware and other cybersecurity-related issues. With guest personal information and credit card data becoming an attractive target for hackers, the NIST issued a cybersecurity guide to protect hotel property management systems. Moreover, the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center is initiating a call-to-action campaign to spread awareness about supply chain threats and mitigation.

• The DHS will engage in a series of 60-day cyber sprints to focus on ransomware, cybersecurity workforce, and defense of industrial control systems, transportation systems, and election infrastructure. The first sprint will address ransomware, which poses a national security threat.

• The NIST published a cybersecurity guide for the hospitality industry to assist them in reducing security risks related to hotel property management systems. The guide lists security suggestions and recommendations for utilizing commercially available products to better protect guest privacy and payment card information.

• The U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center is raising awareness of supply chain threats and warning against the foreign hackers that are increasingly targeting government vendors and suppliers in an effort to steal intellectual property.

• The U.S. Cyber Command and the DHS are preparing to publish a Malware Analysis Report (MAR) that sheds light on 18 pieces of malicious code allegedly employed by Russian hackers in SolarWinds espionage.

• President Joe Biden sent a letter to the House and the Senate to extend an executive order regarding sanctions issued in response to cyberattacks. It also enables authorities to block the property of entities engaging in “significant malicious cyber-enabled activities.”

The Bad

This week scammers took the road to phishing, fraudulent campaigns, and fake accounts. While a large spearphishing campaign impersonated the MacKenzie Bezos-Scott grant foundation to lure victims with financial benefits, ongoing fraudulent campaigns have been targeting major banks of Indonesia to embezzle customers’ money. On the other hand, North Korean hackers set up a fake company website and associated Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to entice security professionals into a cyberespionage trap.

• A massive phishing campaign impersonated the MacKenzie Bezos-Scott grant foundation, assuring financial benefits to recipients in exchange for a processing fee.

• Network device maker Ubiquiti has confirmed being a target of an extortion attempt following a security breach in January. According to the company, no customer data has been compromised.

• North Korean threat actors have set up a website for a fake company called SecuriElite, along with associated Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, to lure security professionals into a cyberespionage trap. The campaign is similar to the one observed in January that had targeted security researchers.

• An ongoing fraudulent campaign has been found targeting major Indonesian banks to steal customers’ money. To lure victims, cybercriminals pose as bank representatives or customer support team members on Twitter and so far have created over 1600 fake Twitter accounts as a part of the campaign.

• Apart from the University of Maryland and the University of California, the Clop ransomware gang has released data from four more universities. The impacted universities include the Yeshiva University, Stanford University, the University of Miami, and the University of Colorado Boulder.

• An unsecured Microsoft Azure Blob belonging to one of the largest charities in New York has exposed more than 2,000 CSV and TXT files that included entries related to patients’ PII. The leaked files include 13,000 entries on vaccines, administration dates, vaccine types, products, and expiration dates.

• London-based Harris Federation has been severely affected by a ransomware attack, leaving 37,000 students from London and surrounding areas with no connection to IT, phone, and email systems. However, the organization has taken the necessary steps to block the ransomware from spreading further.

• After hitting Shell, the Clop ransomware gang publicly leaked passport and visa scans of selected workers as part of the extortion attempt. Earlier this month, the oil giant’s system was compromised after attackers gained unauthorized access to various files.

• In another extortion attempt, the Clop ransomware gang posted screenshots of confidential documents online allegedly belonging to the University of Maryland and the University of California. These screenshots included sensitive information such as photos, names, home addresses, social security numbers, immigration status, and dates of birth of individuals.

• New York-based Personal Touch Holding Corp. declared a data breach that affected more than 753,000 patients, employees, and former workers. The breach stemmed from a ransomware attack that was executed on its cloud service provider.

• Steam users reported a scam that warns them of their Steam accounts being suspended. The scam, which plays on the fear and curiosity of users, is aimed at harvesting credentials.

• PHP programming language developers suffered a supply chain attack through their Git server. Two malicious commits imitating the signatures of known PHP developers and maintainers were pushed to the php-src Git repository on the git.php.net server.

• Australia’s Channel Nine TV network suffered a cyberattack that disrupted its live broadcast and halted several shows from being on air.

• The email accounts of the members of the German Parliament were targeted in a spearphishing attack. A Russia-linked threat group called Ghostwriter is believed to be behind the attack.

• While analyzing Docker Hub, Unit 42 researchers found 30 malicious images that were downloaded a total of 20 million times. These images were being used as part of a cryptojacking operation worth $200,000.

New Threats

Vulnerabilities and new malware were in the limelight of this week. A flaw has been identified in Airlift Express’ E-commerce store, which could result in account hacks and abuse by cybercriminals. Furthermore, a new malware operation, dubbed BazarCall, has been discovered that deploys Windows malware via call centers. Another malware that grabbed security researchers' attention is the new Android spyware that is capable of hiding itself and exfiltrating user data.

• An OTP vulnerability discovered in Airlift Express could lead to account hacks and exploits by cybercriminals. The flaw, which resides in Airlift Express’ E-commerce store, was fixed after it was reported by security experts.
• The U.S. DOJ has warned of phishing attacks that use fake post-vaccine surveys to steal money from people. Threat actors promise potential victims of cash or prizes in return for filling the survey.
• Scammers are impersonating stock-trading broker Robinhood in a newly found phishing campaign that is aimed at stealing user credentials and spreading malware. The campaign leverages phishing emails that include fake tax documents.
• Researchers have outlined a privilege escalation issue found in the popular website CMS, Umbraco. The problem resides in an API endpoint and can allow threat actors to view data on websites. The issue has been observed in Umbraco versions 8.9.0 and 8.6.3.
• Security researchers discovered a new malware operation, dubbed BazarCall, that uses call centers to disseminate some of the most malicious Windows malware.
• Gamers are being targeted with backdoor malware—disguised as game tweaks, patches, and cheats—to steal information from infected systems. Threat actors are using social media channels and YouTube to advertise their malware-laced game tools.
• Citrix issued patches for security flaws affecting its Hypervisor. The flaws could allow attackers to deploy arbitrary code on virtual machines. The two vulnerabilities were found to impact all currently supported Hypervisor versions, including version 8.2 LTSR.
• A money-laundering fraud ring, dubbed Cart Crasher, is targeting donation sites to steal money and launder stolen payment cards, taking advantage of the charity drive sparked by the pandemic.
• New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) warned users of an ongoing series of attacks that result in the theft of personal information from New Yorkers. Companies targeted by these attacks have been asked to immediately take action to protect New Yorkers’ data.
• Researchers disclosed details about three new malicious payloads—SodaMaster, P8RAT, and FYAnti—deployed by the Stone Panda threat group. The ultimate purpose of these malware is to exfiltrate information from a number of sectors located in Japan.
• Security researchers spotted fake versions of the jQuery Migrate plugin—used by over 7.2 million WordPress sites—inserted in dozens of websites containing obfuscated code to deliver malware.
• VMware issued patches for two vulnerabilities that could lead to the theft of administrator credentials in vRealize. Tracked as CVE-2021-21983 and CVE-2021-21975, the flaws are related to arbitrary code execution and server-side request forgery, respectively.
• The IRS is warning of ongoing phishing attacks that impersonated the agency in order to target educational institutions. The attack uses the tax refund payment baits to lure universities’ staff and students.
• Two new vulnerabilities discovered in Linux-based operating systems could let attackers bypass mitigations for speculative Spectre attacks and obtain sensitive information from kernel memory. The flaws are tracked as CVE-2020-27170 and CVE-2020-27171, patches for which were issued on March 20.
• Security researchers discovered a new Android spyware that poses as an app called “System Update.” The malware is capable of hiding itself and exfiltrating various user data. It can also record calls and ambient sound from the microphone, and take photos using the phone’s camera.
• A group of researchers disclosed a flaw in the popular netmask networking library. The NPM library has gained over 238 million downloads. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-28918, stems from the way netmask processes a decimal IPv4 address containing a leading zero.
• Apple released security updates in the form of iOS 14.4.2, iPadOS 14.4.2, and watchOS 7.3.3 to patch a zero-day vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2021-1879, the vulnerability was discovered in the Webkit browser engine and can allow attackers to launch universal cross-site scripting attacks.
• Two high-severity security flaws, tracked as CVE-2021-3449 and CVE-2021-3450, in OpenSSL 1.1.1 could be exploited to carry out denial-of-service attacks and bypass certificate verification. The maintainers have released the version OpenSSL 1.1.1k to fix the two flaws.