Agent Raccoon Malware Strikes Targets Across the Globe

Agent Raccoon, backdoor attack, malware, network traffic, Ophtek, Phishing Email, trusted updates, , , , , ,
23
Jan 2024

A new strain of malware called Agent Raccoon has been discovered, and it appears to have been launched by nation-state threat actors.

A wide range of different organizations – based in sectors such as education, government, non-profit, and telecommunications – have fallen victim to Agent Raccoon. And these organizations aren’t based purely in the US, with attacks also discovered in African and the Middle East. Clearly, Agent Raccoon is an ambitious piece of malware and, given the nation-state approach of the attack, it’s one to be on your guard against.

How Does Agent Raccoon Work?

Although the exact identity of the threat actors behind Agent Raccoon remains unknown, security researchers have been able to detail how the malware works. Disguised as either a Microsoft OneDrive Update or Google Update, Agent Raccoon tricks unwitting victims into downloading an executing it. Once initiated, Agent Raccoon launches its backdoor attack. Using Domain Name Service protocols, Agent Raccoon can communicate directly with the command-and-control server set up by its creators.

Primarily, Agent Raccoon focuses its malicious attention on three main areas:

  • Opening up remote access to the infected PC
  • Incoming and outgoing file transfers
  • Remote command execution

However, Agent Raccoon’s activities do not appear to be set in stone. Researchers have discovered numerous variants of Agent Raccoon, suggesting that the threat actors are regularly updating it.

Can Agent Raccoon Be Stopped?

Agent Raccoon isn’t the most persistent piece of malware to have been developed, but it remains a major problem for those that it infects. As ever, maintaining strict security practices is vital for protecting your IT infrastructure. Accordingly, you need to make sure that all members of your organization are fully versed in the following:

  • Question all emails and links: even if an email appears to have been sent by a trusted source, this can easily be faked. Therefore, all incoming emails should be scrutinized closely. This means hovering your mouse cursor over any links to reveal their true destination, double checking email addresses to confirm they are correct and not a close variation, and contacting the sender of emails to double check they are genuine.
  • Only accept updates from genuine sources: software updates are an important aspect of PC security but should only even be downloaded directly from the developer. Online adverts and emails suggesting that you download these from alternative sources should never be trusted. Often, the files at the heart of these downloads are nothing but malware. So, stick to legitimate downloads and rest assured that they will be safe.
  • Monitor network traffic: Agent Raccoon communicates with a remote server and also transmits significant amounts of data. This means that you should be monitoring your network activity for any unusual traffic. If, for example, an unknown destination regularly starts connecting with your network, it could be a sign that your network has been compromised. In these situations, connections to this destination should be terminated and fully investigated.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals

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Safeguarding Your Business Against Social Engineering 

complex passwords, malware, multi factor authentication, Ophtek, Phishing Email, Ransomware, social engineering, vulnerability, , , , , , ,
05
Dec 2023

One of the biggest threats to your organization’s IT comes in the form of social engineering attacks. Therefore, you need to keep your business protected. 

In the digital age, there are many threats to your IT infrastructure. These can include ransomware, software vulnerabilities and malware. However, perhaps the most dangerous, and easiest to launch, attack involves social engineering. This attack relies on exploiting human psychology to gain a foothold within a targeted network. In many ways, it’s an age-old deception strategy from the physical world, but simply transferred over to the digital world. This article looks deep into the world of social engineering and should provide you with a better understanding of how to safeguard your business. 

What is Social Engineering? 

The main objective of social engineering, for a threat actor, is to convince individuals that divulging sensitive information or performing network actions is the right thing to do. Often, this strategy relies on phishing emails. These are emails which are sent to targets and claim to have been sent from someone they know e.g. a work colleague or a supplier. However, what the threat actor is trying to do here is either extract confidential information – such as login credentials – or encourage the target to click a malicious link. 

Get Your Team to Recognize Social Engineering 

Social engineering attacks will always be targeted at your employees, so this means that you need to invest in educating your employees. While an IT induction represents a good opportunity to warn them of the telltale signs of social engineering, the sheer range of social engineering strategies requires something more intensive. Accordingly, regular training courses which are followed up with refresher courses are highly recommended. Even better, sending randomised ‘spoof’ phishing emails internally can indicate which employees require tailored training. 

Strengthen Your Authentication Processes 

If you want to add an extra layer of defense to your IT infrastructure, strengthening your authentication processes is an excellent way of achieving this. Not only will this thwart social engineering campaigns, but it will also protect you against almost all other security threats. Therefore, make sure you focus on the following: 

  • Integrate password rules which require your employees to create complex passwords e.g. using a mixture of case types, numbers and symbols. 
  • Bring in multi-factor authentication to help protect your employees’ existing login credentials and place a further obstacle in the way of unauthorized access. 
  • Put a time limit on passwords and ensure that they have to be updated within a set time e.g. every two months. 

Secure Your Communication Channels 

Applications such as Microsoft Outlook and Teams have revolutionized the way that businesses communicate, but they also represent a rich source of data. With this in mind, you need to secure these communication channels against the threat of social engineering. Encrypting data flowing in and out of these applications is paramount to protect the type of data that social engineering is hungry for. So, use VPN’s where possible and make sure your employees avoid using their devices on public Wi-Fi. 

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals. 

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Latin America Banks Targeted by BBTok Malware Variant

anti malware, antivirus software, banking malware, banking trojan, BBTok Malware, firewall, Ophtek, Phishing Email, , , , , , ,
21
Nov 2023

Back in 2020, a new banking trojan by the name of BBTok emerged into the digital landscape and was responsible for numerous attacks. And now it’s back.

Banks in Brazil and Mexico appear to be the main targets of BBTok’s new campaign, and it’s a variant which is far more powerful than any of its previous incarnations. Its main deceptive threat is that it is able to spoof the interfaces of 40 different banks in Brazil and Mexico. This means that it’s perfectly placed to harvest sensitive data. In particular, this new strain of BBTok is deceiving victims into disclosing their credit card details and authentication codes. This gives the campaign a financial angle and highlights the serious threat it poses.

How Does BBTok Launch Its Attacks?

BBTok’s latest strategy begins with a phishing email, one that contains a malicious link which kickstarts the attack by launching the malware alongside a dummy document. BBTok is particularly successful as it has been coded to deal with multiple versions of Windows, and it also tailors the content of the attack to both the victim’s country and operating system. BBTok also allows the threat actors behind it to execute remote commands and steal data without the victim being aware.

Most notably, however, is the way in which BBTok replicates the interface of numerous banking websites – such as Citibank and HSBC – to truly deceive the victim. Appearing to be genuine at first glance, these interfaces are used to trick victims into entering security codes and passwords associated with their accounts. This gives the threat actors full access to their financial data and, more disturbingly, full control over their finances. This means that unauthorized payments and bank transfers can quickly land the victim in severe financial trouble.

How to Stay Safe from Banking Malware

In an increasingly digital world, where we all make numerous financial transactions online every week, it’s important to remain guarded against banking malware. As well as the financial damage that malware such as BBTok can cause, it can also create a foothold for threat actors to delve deep into your networks. And this represents a major threat to the security of both your data and your customer’s data. Accordingly, you need to stay safe, and here are some crucial tips to help you:

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals. 

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What is a Remote Access Trojan? 

malicious downloads, malware, NginRAT, Ophtek, Phishing Email, QwixxRAT, RAT, Remote Access Trojan, Updates, ZuoRAT Malware, , , , , , , ,
07
Nov 2023

A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is one of the most common forms of malware you are likely to encounter, and it’s crucial you understand what they are. 

It’s important for all organizations to be aware of the danger posed by a RAT in terms of cybersecurity. After all, a RAT could easily take down your entire IT infrastructure or compromise your business data. And all it takes is one mistake for your team to fall victim to a RAT. Due to the severity posed by RATs, we’re going to define what a RAT is, how they work, and the best way to defend and protect against this threat. 

The Basics of a RAT 

A RAT is a strain of malware which is designed to give threat actors unauthorized access and control over a victim’s PC from a remote location. This is always completed without the victim’s consent, a fact made possible by the stealthy nature of a RAT. 

For a RAT to succeed, it first needs to infect the victim’s PC, and this can be achieved in the following ways: 

RATs are stealthy types of malware and this cloak of invisibility is put in place by changes that the RAT makes to system settings and registry entries. With this deception in place, a RAT is then able to communicate to a command and control (C&C) server located in a remote location. This C&C server allows the RAT to transmit stolen data and, at the same time, gives the threat actor the opportunity to send commands directly to the RAT. 

Some notable examples of RATs are ZuroRat from 2022, NginRAT from 2021 and, more recently, the QwixxRAT attack. All of these examples share one key thing in common: their main objective is to cause digital chaos for all those who fall victim. Accordingly, your organization needs to understand how to defend themselves against these threats. 

Detecting and Protecting Against RATs 

Protecting your IT infrastructure is far from difficult. In fact, as long as you implement the following measures, it’s relatively easy: 

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals. 

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New Malware Spies on Gmail and AOL Inboxes

malicious browser extension, Ophtek, Phishing Email, SHARPEXT, Volexity, , , ,
16
Aug 2022

Webmail remains a crucial way in which you can keep on top of your digital communication, but what happens when people start spying on it?

While AOL email addresses are far from a popular choice in 2021, there are still significant numbers in use. Gmail, however, is much more in demand, with an estimated 1.8 billion users. So, it doesn’t take a genius to see why these platforms would turn a hacker’s head. Protecting such huge amounts of data, therefore, should be paramount. Unfortunately, both AOL and Gmail have fallen short in this respect due to a malicious browser extension. And the main impact of this is that their users have found their webmail accounts compromised.

With such significant data passing through webmail accounts, it’s important that you understand any relevant threats. This slice of malware – dubbed SHARPEXT – is the perfect example of one you need to be on your guard against, so let’s take a look at it.

How Does SHARPEXT Peer Over Your Shoulder?

The infected browser extensions are believed to target three specific browsers: Chrome, Edge and Naver Whale (a South Korean browser). Judging by the evidence on offer, security researchers have determined that SHARPEXT is the work of a North Korean cybercrime group known as SharpTongue. Once the malicious browser extension is activated, it works in a novel way. Whereas similar strains of malware focus on harvesting login credentials, SHARPEXT browses its victims mail and extracts individual emails from the inbox.

You may be wondering how the SHARPEXT extension finds its way into your browser, after all, who would knowingly install a sophisticated piece of spyware on their PC? Well, as ever, it’s down to a stealthy approach by the threat actors. After sending the victim an infected document, SharpTongue use social engineering techniques to convince the recipient to open it; this installs the spyware in the background, where it remains unseen by antivirus software.

How Do You Avoid the Threat of SHARPEXT?

No one wants their email compromised and, for an organization, this can be particularly troubling due to the data at risk. And SHARPEXT is unlikely to be the last attack which uses similar techniques. Therefore, it’s vital that you know how to protect yourself and your PC against it:

  • Understand the threat of phishing emails: it’s important that your staff know how to identify a phishing email; these are one of the most common methods employed by hackers to compromise PCs. A phishing attack can be activated in seconds and, in a worst-case scenario, turn over complete control of a PC or network to a hacker.
  • Block any SHARPEXT identifiers: the coding used within SHARPEXT is innovative as it uses coding unfamiliar to security tools. Thankfully, security experts Volexity have compiled a list of identifying code which IT professionals can use to identify extensions running SHARPEXT.
  • Restrict the Installation of Extensions: in a work-based setting, there’s little reason for your employees to be installing browser extensions onto their PCs. Accordingly, it makes sense for your organization to restrict who can install extensions. If a specific extension is required, then an employee should submit a request to their IT team.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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