Industry Intel

Girl Scouts and OpenText empower future leaders of tomorrow with cyber resilience

The transition to a digital-first world enables us to connect, work and live in a realm where information is available at our fingertips. The children of today will be working in an environment of tomorrow that is shaped by hyperconnectivity. Operating in this...

World Backup Day reminds us all just how precious our data is

Think of all the important files sitting on your computer right now. If your computer crashed tomorrow, would you be able to retrieve your important files? Would your business suffer as a result? As more and more of our daily activities incorporate digital and online...

3 Reasons We Forget Small & Midsized Businesses are Major Targets for Ransomware

The ransomware attacks that make headlines and steer conversations among cybersecurity professionals usually involve major ransoms, huge corporations and notorious hacking groups. Kia Motors, Accenture, Acer, JBS…these companies were some of the largest to be...

How Ransomware Sneaks In

Ransomware has officially made the mainstream. Dramatic headlines announce the latest attacks and news outlets highlight the staggeringly high ransoms businesses pay to retrieve their stolen data. And it’s no wonder why – ransomware attacks are on the rise and the...

An MSP and SMB guide to disaster preparation, recovery and remediation

Introduction It’s important for a business to be prepared with an exercised business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan plan before its hit with ransomware so that it can resume operations as quickly as possible. Key steps and solutions should be followed...

Podcast: Cyber resilience in a remote work world

The global pandemic that began to send us packing from our offices in March of last year upended our established way of working overnight. We’re still feeling the effects. Many office workers have yet to return to the office in the volumes they worked in pre-pandemic....

5 Tips to get Better Efficacy out of Your IT Security Stack

If you’re an admin, service provider, security executive, or are otherwise affiliated with the world of IT solutions, then you know that one of the biggest challenges to overcome is efficacy. Especially in terms of cybersecurity, efficacy is something of an amorphous...

How Cryptocurrency and Cybercrime Trends Influence One Another

Typically, when cryptocurrency values change, one would expect to see changes in crypto-related cybercrime. In particular, trends in Bitcoin values tend to be the bellwether you can use to predict how other currencies’ values will shift, and there are usually...

A peek inside a newly launched all-in-one E-shop for cybercrime-friendly services

May 21, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Cybercriminals continue diversifying their portfolios of standardized fraudulent services, in an attempt to efficiently monetize their malicious ‘know-how’, further contributing to the growth of the cybercrime ecosystem. In a series of blog posts highlighting the emergence of the boutique cybercrime-friendly E-shops, we’ve been emphasizing on the over-supply of compromised/stolen accounting data, efficiently aggregated through the TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) described in our “Cybercrime Trends – 2013” observations.

We’ve recently spotted a newly launched all-in-one cybercrime-friendly E-shop, offering a diversified portfolio of managed/DIY services/products, exposing a malicious infrastructure worth keeping an eye on. Let’s take a peek inside the E-shop’s inventory and expose the fraudulent infrastructure behind it.

More details:

Malicious JJ Black Consultancy ‘Computer Support Services’ themed emails lead to malware

May 16, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Relying on the systematic and persistent spamvertising of tens of thousands of fake emails, as well as the impersonation of popular brands for the purpose of socially engineering gullible users into downloading and executing malicious attachments found in these emails, cybercriminals continue populating their botnets.

We’ve recently intercepted a currently circulating malicious campaign, impersonating JJ Black Consultancy.

More details:

Spamvertised ‘Notification of payment received’ themed emails lead to malware

May 13, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

PayPal users, watch what you click on!

We’ve recently intercepted a currently circulating malicious spamvertised campaign which is impersonating PayPal in an attempt to trick socially engineered end users into clicking on the malware-serving links found in the emails.

More details:

Sample screenshot of the spamvertised email:

A peek inside a subscription-based DIY keylogging based type of botnet/malware generating tool

May 12, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Cybercriminals continue to systematically release DIY (do-it-yourself)type of cybercrime-friendly offerings, in an effort to achieve a ‘malicious economies of scale’ type of fraudulent model, which is a concept that directly intersects with our ‘Cybercrime Trends – 2013‘ observations.

We’ve recently spotted yet another subscription-based, DIY keylogging based botnet/malware generating tool. Let’s take a peek inside its Web based interface, and expose the cybercrime-friendly infrastructure behind it.

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AV Isn’t Dead. It’s Evolving.

May 9, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Since the WSJ report was released, endpoint security solutions have received a lot of media attention. As many have started to ask “Is AV really dead?”, I felt it was a good idea to talk about it from my perspective.

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: no, AV is not dead. However, what is dead, and has been for many years now, is the traditional, reactive AV protection approach that uses signature-based detection. Within the security industry, it is common knowledge that this approach to threat prevention doesn’t scale to address the tactics used by today’s cybercriminals.

In the realm of providing defenses from an increasingly sophisticated adversary, endpoint protection has never been more important. The endpoint is the primary point of entry in most corporate compromises. To keep up with modern malware, the methods for discovering and addressing new endpoint threats needs to change. AV isn’t dead; it’s evolving.

From our perspective at Webroot, we recognized the inadequacies of traditional AV many years ago, which is why our current endpoint security products are vastly different from traditional technology. When we released our SecureAnywhere™ product family in 2011, we also discontinued our legacy technology offerings as they represented the traditional signature-based security model, which we could see was nearing obsolescence.

Providing defense against today’s cybercriminal tactics required a complete rethink of how to approach the problem. When it comes to defending against an attack, it is crucial to be able to realize when an attack has occurred. The traditional model was not well equipped to handle massive scale distribution of new malware variants at very low volume. The result is very low detection rates due to a lack of awareness. To successfully defend against this tactic, you need visibility into every application on every endpoint. This is a core component to the success of SecureAnywhere solutions: granularity and actionable insight into applications encountered by every Webroot user worldwide.

Beyond rapidly identifying new incidents, our threat intelligence engine resides in the cloud so there is no need for definition updates. All endpoints are always up to date, and as new threats are identified, all users are protected in real time.

There are many other topics I could discuss – remediation, compromise prevention in the face of an active infection, and the impact on system performance – which have undergone complete rethinks for Webroot SecureAnywhere® solutions. The end result speaks for itself. In the third fiscal quarter in 2014 Webroot added 1.4 million new endpoint customers, increasing the contextual awareness of our intelligence network even further and, thereby, improving our capacity to identify never-before-seen attacks as they emerge. Our bookings from new business grew by nearly 200%, and 5,000 businesses trust Webroot technology to secure their networks and endpoints.

Clearly, AV is not dead. In fact, endpoint security has never been more important! The issue at hand is that we can’t let our technology get stagnant. Organizations need a layered protection approach, as well as cloud-based security technology that is designed to grow, learn and continue to evolve to combat the tactics used by today’s cybercriminals. After all, the malware writers don’t rest. Neither should we.

Spamvertised ‘Error in calculation of your tax’ themed emails lead to malware

May 9, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Cybercriminals continue populating their botnets through the persistent spamvertising of tens of thousands of legitimately looking malicious emails, impersonating popular brands, in an attempt to trick socially engineered users into clicking on the malicious links found within the emails.

We’ve recently intercepted an actively circulating spamvertised campaign which is impersonating HM’s Revenue & Customs Department and enticing users into clicking on the malware-serving links found in the emails.

More details:

Symantec’s “AV is Dead” Is Not News

May 8, 2014 | Industry Intel

On Monday, an executive at Symantec declared “AV is dead.” He went on to repeat to several media outlets that protecting customers on their PC and Mac computers had become an impossible battle that they were ready to concede. He indicated that Symantec desktop AV products are only able to stop viruses and malware about 45% of the time. Based on this analysis, what the exec was really saying was “Symantec AV is dead!”

What really should have been communicated was that traditional signature-based AV protection does not work – the criminals have figured out how to get around it. Symantec, like all signature-based security products for PC and Mac computers, uses a nearly identical methodology for determining whether a file is malicious or safe. This approach has changed very little since it was developed in the 1980s. Criminals identified the chinks in this armor long ago and have been developing more clever, more aggressive and more dangerous strains of malware for years.

Symantec is not alone in declaring the end of desktop AV solutions. There has been increasing product investment in the industry into solutions that are not focused on protection, but on after-the-breach detection and remediation. We see this as a disturbing trend. If your internet security company is no longer focused on protection, but has signaled surrender to the cybercriminals, they are exposing millions of customers to serious financial and data loss.

At Webroot, we reject the notion that a highly effective desktop AV solution cannot be created. We did it three years ago. Our Webroot SecureAnywhere products for consumers and businesses are radically different and extraordinarily effective at protecting customers from viruses, malware, rootkits, ransomware, identity theft, phishing attacks, and advanced persistent threats. SecureAnywhere solutions turned the old traditional 1980s model on its ear by doing nearly everything in a different way – no signatures, no huge malware definition files to update every day. Just real-time, worldwide protection for every customer using the power of cloud computing, threat intelligence, and some fiendishly clever data modeling.

Our cloud-based security approach has resulted in very happy customers (95% customer satisfaction rates) and outstanding levels of protection (over 99% as measured by actual customer support incidents.)

Desktop and mobile AV solutions should still be a critical part of any company’s layered security model. Otherwise, if you truly think AV is dead, you might just have the wrong AV solution.

To quote Neil Rubenking, editor of Security Watch at PCMag.com, “AV is not dead, and saying so is not news.”

Malicious DIY Java applet distribution platforms going mainstream – part two

May 8, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

In a cybercrime ecosystem, dominated by client-side exploits serving Web malware exploitation kits, cybercriminals continue relying on good old fashioned social engineering tricks in an attempt to trick gullible end users into knowingly/unknowingly installing malware. In a series of blog posts, we’ve been highlighting the existence of DIY (do-it-yourself), social engineeringdriven, Java drive-by type of Web based platforms, further enhancing the current efficient state of social engineering driven campaigns.

Let’s take a peek inside yet another Web based DIY Java applet distribution platform, discuss its features, and directly connect to the Rodecap botnet, whose connections with related malicious campaigns have been established in several previously published posts.

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Android.Koler – Android based ransomware

May 7, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Recently, a new Android threat named Android.Koler has begun popping up in the news. According to an article by ARS Technica, it reacts similar to other pieces of ransomware often found on Windows machines. A popup will appear and state “Your Android phone viewed illegal porn. To unlock it, pay a $300 fine”. This nasty little piece of malware is infecting people who visit certain adult websites on their phone. The site claims you need to install a video player to view the adult content. Although I can’t say for sure since I haven’t seen the malicious sites, I’m guessing there is a nice walk through on how to allow the installation of apps from unknown sources, or anything not in the Google Play store.

If you have Webroot SecureAnywhere® Mobile installed, it will detect Android.Koler on the internal storage if you run a scan before installing or after you open the app to install it. If you didn’t have SecureAnywhere Mobile installed, things are going to get a bit trickier. The app will open itself very often, so when you press the home button and try to install WSA, or do anything else, it’s near impossible before the screen of shame pops back up. The app claims you are viewing banned/illegal adult content. It then demands you pay a fine of $300 to unblock your device, or it will remain blocked on top of facing felony charges; which, of course, is false. A researcher at BitDefender claims he was able to quickly uninstall the app before it popped back up, but I was unsuccessful with this myself. This is the screen that keeps popping up, and icon you should be looking for:

There is a legitimate “BaDoink” app, which uses the same icon however. This will make it tricky if you’re hoping to get the real version.

What should you do if this happens to you? Many manufacturers have a built-in “safe mode” on their devices’ version of Android. With a little bit of searching on the internet using your device’s model and “safe mode”, you may be able to find instructions on how to get there on that particular device. For example, “Motorola Droid 4 Safe Mode” was all it took to find instructions for the Droid 4 phone.

Once booted into safe mode, you will able to uninstall the malicious app easily because safe mode stops any non system apps from starting on boot up. Once this is done, power off the phone and power it back on to get out of safe mode.

To ensure preventative protection, installing security software such as Webroot SecureAnywhere® Mobile will prevent these issues before they even happen.

DIY cybercrime-friendly (legitimate) APK injecting/decompiling app spotted in the wild

May 6, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

With millions of Android users continuing to acquire new apps through Google Play, cybercriminals continue looking for efficient and profitable ways to infiltrate Android’s marketplace using a variety of TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures). Largely relying on the ubiquitous for the cybercrime ecosystem, affiliate network based revenue sharing scheme, segmented cybercrime-friendly underground traffic exchanges, as well as mass and efficient compromise of legitimate Web sites, for the purpose of hijacking legitimate traffic, the market segment for Android malware continues flourishing.

We’ve recently spotted, yet another, commercially available DIY cybercrime-friendly (legitimate) APK injecting/decompiling app. The tool is capable of facilitating premium-rate SMS fraud on a large scale through the direct modification of legitimate apps to be later on embedded on Google Play through compromised/data mined publisher accounts.

Let’s take a peek at the tool, discuss its features, and relevance in an Android malware market segment which is largely dominated by DIY mobile malware generating revenue sharing affiliate based networks.

Evolution of Encrypting Ransomware

May 5, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Recently we’ve seen a big change in the encrypting ransomware family and we’re going to shed light on some of the newest variants and the stages of evolution that have led the high profile malware to where it is today. For those that aren’t aware of what encrypting ransomware is, its a crypto virus that encrypts all your data from local hard drives, network shared drives, removable hard drives and USB. The encryption is done using an RSA -2048 asymmetric public key which makes decryption without the key impossible. Paying the ransom will net you the key which in turn leads to getting your data back.

Cryptolocker

In it’s first evolution of what we know as “Cryptolocker” the encryption key was actually stored on the computer and the victim, with enough effort could retrieve said key. Then you could use tools submitted on forums to put in your key and decrypt all your data without paying the ransom. In future improvements malware authors made sure that the only place the key was stored was on a secure server so that you were forced to pay. However, more often than not the malicious dropper didn’t delete the VSS (Volume Shadow Service) and victims still had the option to manually restore files from a previous date using programs like Shadow explorer (OS drive only). For those that don’t know what the VSS is it’s a restorative feature that is included in XP sp2 and later versions of windows. Essentially it is a technology that allows taking manual or automatic backup copies of data and is related to system restore. In newer variants of Cryptolocker the VSS is almost always deleted at deployment. Malware authors also give the victim a special extended period of time to get their files they waited past the deadline, but the price usually doubles of triples.

CryptoDefense

In one of the more recent variants of encryption ransomware dubbed “CryptoDefense” it no longer has a graphical user interface (GUI). Instead the malware will just open a webpage after encryption and leave a text file at every directory that was encrypted. The instructions to get the key to decrypt your files have you install anonymous tor or other layered encryption browsers so you can pay them directly and securely. this enables malware authors to circumvent a portion of the Zeus fraud avoid the need for money mules (middle man) and increasing the percentage of profit.

DirCrypt

In this most recent change in encrypting ransomware. Instead of going after various file extensions, all files are encrypted into RTF documents with a *.enc.rtf extension. This one really blind sides the victim as you’ll get no pop up GUI or web page once encryption completes; you have to open one of your documents to find that it was encrypted. All documents will have the same content similar to what is shown. One big improvement that is quite nasty for victims is the encryption is no longer a static one time deal. This variant will actively seek out and encrypt any new or modified files written to drives. We noticed while testing a collected sample that when we attempted to save screenshots, that it immediately encrypted them. We expect future encrypting ransomware variants to include these tactics as the evolution continues.

Webroot SecureAnywhere users are proactively protected from the variants shown. We are constantly working with the evolving threat landscape to protect against the newest variants as they progress.

Webroot support is always more than happy to help with removal and any questions regarding infections.

Legitimate software apps impersonated in a blackhat SEO-friendly PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application) serving campaign

May 2, 2014 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Deceptive vendors of PUAs (Potentially Unwanted Applications) continue relying on a multitude of traffic acquisition tactics, which in combination with the ubiquitous for the market segment ‘visual social engineering‘, continue tricking tens of thousands of users into installing the privacy-violating applications. With the majority of PUA campaigns, utilizing legitimately looking Web sites, as well as deceptive EULAs (End User License Agreements), in 2014, the risk-forwarding practice for the actual privacy-violation, continues getting forwarded to the socially engineered end user.

We’ve recently intercepted a rogue portfolio consisting of hundreds of thousands of blackhat SEO friendly, legitimate applications, successfully exposing users to the Sevas-S PUA, through a layered monetization relying on OpenCandy/Conduit affiliate based revenue sharing networks.

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