Earlier this week, US-led sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have sparked considerable concern about retaliatory and spillover cyberattacks from the region on US organizations and those based in other allied nations. Many expect the attacks to run the gamut from destructive campaigns involving the use of disk-wipers and ransomware to distributed-denial-of-service attacks, phishing, disinformation, misinformation, and influence campaigns.
Cyber threats are evolving every day, keeping up with them is a full-time job. The WESTprotect Cyber News is your source for how these changes affect you in the real estate, title, mortgage, and settlement services industry. From cyber threats to new Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP’s) we’ve got you covered.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned US organizations that data wiping attacks targeting Ukraine could spill over to targets from other countries. The two federal agencies issued this warning in the form of a joint cybersecurity advisory published over the weekend following the unwarranted Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Security researchers warn that some attackers are compromising Microsoft Teams accounts to slip into chats and spread malicious executables to participants in the conversation. Researchers found that hackers started to drop malicious executable files in conversations on Microsoft Teams communication platform. The attacks started in January, the threat actor inserts in a chat an executable file called “User Centric” to trick the user into running it.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that the BlackByte ransomware group has breached the networks of at least three organizations from US critical infrastructure sectors in the last three months. "As of November 2021, BlackByte ransomware had compromised multiple US and foreign businesses, including entities in at least three US critical infrastructure sectors (government facilities, financial, and food & agriculture).," the federal law enforcement agency said.
Threat actors are creating accounts within the Adobe Cloud suite and sending images and PDFs that appear legitimate to target Office 365 and Gmail users. WESTprotect recommends organizations analyze emails for signs of phishing, maintain a robust security awareness program, and implement network monitoring tools that can identify malicious activity.