High Profile Organizations that Have Been Phished

Cyber Attack, Hacking, malware, Phishing, Phishing Email, Ransomware, Security, Security Threats, , , , , ,
02
Oct 2018

Phishing is now so prevalent and sophisticated that even the biggest organizations on the planet are likely to be duped by phishing scams.

Immunity from such attacks is a difficult privilege to secure, so any organization that wants to remain productive needs to understand the threats out there. While you would expect most phishing attacks to target smaller, less secure organizations, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, many hackers are taking on high profile organizations due to the challenge on offer and the publicity that such attacks bring.

Understanding how these businesses have been phished is crucial as it helps you to understand exactly why you need good security. To provide you with a foundation of knowledge, we’re going to look at some high profile organizations that have been phished.

Facebook and Google

Two of the biggest names in business on the planet, Facebook and Google found themselves at the center of the same phishing scam a couple of years ago.

Evaldas Rimasauskas, from Lithuania, used a simple phishing campaign whereby he posed as the head of a Taiwanese parts manufacturer called Quanta. Key to this scam was that Facebook and Google both used the genuine Quanta company to conduct business with. Through a combination of compromised emails, forged invoices and a lack of suspicion on the two tech giants’ behalf, around $100 million was paid out to Rimasauskas between 2013 – 2015.

Anthem

Anthem is one of the largest health insurance companies in the US and, as you can imagine, they hold a substantial amount of private and confidential data. However, in 2014 they lost nearly 78.8 million consumer records due to a phishing attack.

It’s believed that a foreign government was behind the attack, but the method employed was still ridiculously straightforward. An employee at an Anthem subsidiary opened a phishing email which allowed malicious content to be downloaded to the employee’s PC. Once these files were executed, hackers were able to take control of the PC by remote access and start making their way deep into the Anthem network. One of the sections that were of most interest was Anthem’s data warehouse where the hackers had access to customers’ medical histories, social security numbers and address details.

Snapchat

The popular social media app Snapchat found one of its employees being targeted by a spear phishing scam in 2016 which compromised confidential data.

A seemingly innocuous email was sent to Snapchat’s payroll department in February 2016 which claimed to have been written by the company’s CEO. The email requested that employee payroll information was forwarded on for internal reference. Unfortunately, one of the payroll employees did not realize this was a less than genuine request. A significant amount of personal information about former and current employees was then emailed to an external party. Due to the nature of the data obtained, hackers then had the potential to use it to engineer identity theft.

RSA Security

Even IT security companies aren’t safe from the threat of phishing emails as RSA security discovered back in 2011.

Hackers designed two separate emails which were sent to four employees at RSA’s parent company EMC. The emails, which appeared to be from a recruitment website, contained an attachment referred to as ‘2011 Recruitment plan.xls” in the email’s subject line. However, this was a malicious attachment and, upon clicking it, a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash would be exploited and lead to the download of a backdoor virus onto the user’s PC. The hackers were then able to access RSA’s network where they had access to 44 million employee records.

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

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4 Ways to Tell If You’re Being Phished

Cyber Attack, Hacking, malware, Password Security, Phishing, Phishing Email, Ransomware, Security, Security Threats, , , , ,
25
Sep 2018

Phishing is big business for hackers and you can rest assured that it’s a niche they’re keen to exploit, but how do you know when you’re being phished?

Kaspersky Lab reported around 246 million phishing attempts being executed in 2017, so it’s fairly clear that phishing is taking place on a monumental scale. And, to provide a little perspective, those 246 million phishing attempts are only the ones that were picked up by Kaspersky’s software. If you factor in all the other security providers’ data then you’re left with a staggering amount.

Phishing, therefore, is something that you’re likely to encounter and, the truth is, your organization is likely to receive a significant number of phishing emails every day. Thankfully, protecting your business from the dangers of phishing emails is relatively easy. And, to help boost your defenses, we’re going to show you four ways to tell if you’re being phished.

1.  Analyze the Email Address

While it’s straightforward to mask an email address with a false one, many hackers simply don’t bother. And that’s why you’re likely to find that most phishing emails are sent from unusual email addresses. Say, for example, you receive an email from your bank asking you to provide sensitive information regarding your account, it’s not going to come from a Hotmail address, is it? However, many people fail to check the sender’s email address and, instead, become distracted by the seemingly genuine contents.

2.  How’s the Grammar?

A tell-tale sign of a phishing email is poor grammar and even worse spelling. Hackers, after all, aren’t too bothered about honing their command of the written word. All they want to do is hack and hack big. Accordingly, their emails will fail to contain the type of language you would expect to receive from a work colleague or another organization. So, remember: if they can’t spell your name in their opening introduction then you should be highly suspicious.

3.  Did You Ask For Those Attachments?

Hackers love to catch their victims out with attachments that contain a nasty payload, so any attachments should always be treated with caution. Sometimes these attachments can be easily identified as malicious, but it’s not always simple. First of all, ask yourself whether the attachment is relevant to your job. If you work in the service department and you’ve been sent a spreadsheet relating to company finances then there’s no need for you to open it. Secondly, keep an eye out for file extensions you don’t recognize as opening these could easily lead to executing malware.

4.  Deceptive Links

One of the main objectives of a phishing email is to take the recipient away from the security of their PC and onto dangerous websites which are riddled with malware. And the best way they can do this is through the use of a deceptive link. While a link may look genuine on the surface, it can easily direct you somewhere else altogether. The best way to verify a link’s true destination is by hovering your mouse cursor over the link to reveal the true URL address.

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

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4 Questions You Should Ask Before Clicking an Email Link

Cyber Attack, cyber attacks, email links, malware, Phishing, Ransomware, security, Security
14
Aug 2018

We receive so many emails in business now that they’re a keen target for hackers. As a result, your organization needs to be more wary than ever with email.

The most common way for a hacker to take advantage of emails is by loading them with malicious links. These can be used to extract personal information, activate ransomware or send users to dangerous websites. And these emails are more than likely hitting your organization every day. Whilst the majority of emails with links embedded in them are genuine, it only takes one rogue email to cause severe problems.

To help you avoid the wrath of hackers, we’ve put together four questions you should ask before clicking an email link.

  1. Do You Recognize the Sender?

Trust is crucial when it comes to dealing with links contained within emails. If you don’t recognize the sender then the link should definitely be treated with caution as it could easily be a malicious link. Emails from work colleagues should be more trustworthy, but it’s always possible that their email account has been hijacked. So, even if you recognize the sender, there are still plenty of questions you need to ask.

  1. Does the Link Look Genuine?

If you received an email advising you to visit the Ophtek website then it would look something like www.ophtek.com or ophtek.com. However, if a hacker is trying to trick you into visiting a malicious website then the link may read slightly different e.g. ophtek.org or ophteksupport.com. If you’re ever unsure about the URL listed in a link then try Googling the URL and see whether it brings up a genuine website.

The other factor to look out for is whether the link written in the email is genuine. While the link could say www.ophtek.com the actual destination contained within the link could be completely different. Thankfully, you can double check this by hovering your cursor over any email link to display a popup window that lists the genuine destination.

  1. Do You Even Need to Click the Link?

A high number of malicious links prey on our worries, so, for example, emails that claim your bank account has been hacked are very common. The email will usually contain a link that promises to start an authentication process to secure your account, but these links are never genuine. More often than not, the email will reference a bank that you don’t even have an account with, so there’s absolutely no need to click any links inside it.

  1. Why is it a Shortened Link?

Shortened links may save space in emails, but there’s no reason why they should be used in business emails. More importantly, shortened links – provided by platforms such as Bit.ly and Goo.gl – are yet another way that hackers can disguise the destination of a link. Shortened links are particularly difficult to judge as, even if you hover your cursor over them, it’s impossible to tell where they will send you. Help is at hand, though, from platforms such as CheckShortURL which can expand shortened links to show their true destination.

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

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The 5 Most Important IoT Security Concerns Coming in 2018

Cyber Attack, Hacking, Internet of things, IOT, IoT Attacks, malware, Phishing, Ransomware, Security, Security Threats, , , ,
20
Feb 2018

If you want to keep the IoT (Internet of Things) secure in 2018 then you’re going to have your work cut out due to the number of threats on the horizon.

Significant progress has been made in the last couple of years when it comes to understanding the security concerns presented by IoT devices, but this is only encouraging hackers to become more innovative. And 2018 is going to deliver more IoT security threats than ever before, so you’re going to need to be ready for this surge in activity and the new hacking methods employed.

Let’s take a look at the most pressing IoT security concerns coming in 2018.

  1. IoT Attacks Being Undetectable

Many IoT attacks take place on a micro scale compared to large scale attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service Attacks. The problem with micro attacks is that conventional security systems are unlikely to recognize them as a threat, whereas major attacks are likely to ring alarm bells very quickly. Therefore, investing in highly sensitive security systems and manual monitoring may become vital to any organization using IoT devices.

  1. Automation Will Become More Important

Some organizations can have thousands of IoT devices operating on their network at any one time, so manually monitoring this activity is virtually impossible. And that’s why automation and artificial intelligence could prove highly popular in 2018 when it comes to providing a front line defence against IoT attacks e.g. installing crucial firmware upgrades immediately.

  1. The Irresistible Allure of Cryptocurrency

You only have to take a quick look at the financial headlines to understand just how valuable cryptocurrencies are at the moment. And, to a hacker, the financial rewards on offer are hard to resist. The Satori botnet, for example, takes control of IoT devices and also allows the hackers to exploit Bitcoin mining software. So, if your organization is involved with cryptocurrencies in any capacity, it’s going to pay to monitor your activity very closely.

  1. More and More Devices Will Be Targeted

Automobiles, security cameras and baby monitors are just a small selection of the IoT devices which have been hacked in the last couple of years, but this is set to increase further in 2018. In particular, devices which come with weak passwords (or even no password) are constantly being scouted by hackers. And, when they discover one, this can easily be leaked online, so the need to enforce a strong password culture remains essential.

  1. Privacy Concerns

Trusting IoT devices to transmit and receive personal and sensitive data is going to come under serious scrutiny in 2018. Due to the recent IoT attacks which have exploited weak passwords and poor security protocols in IoT devices, the public concern is growing over how their data is handled. Naturally, hackers are excited by the prospect of being given a free run at such a huge number of vulnerable devices without adequate security frameworks in place. 2018, therefore, is going to find organizations having to soothe customer concerns by only working with secure hardware and software.

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

 

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Mamba Highlights a Change in Ransomware

Mamba, Ransomware, Security, ,
12
Sep 2017

MAMBA-RANSOMWARE

We’re all aware that ransomware can hit you financially, but ransomware is now changing its modus operandi for causing chaos and becoming more dangerous.

The Mamba ransomware first appeared in September 2016 and, rather than just scrambling certain file extensions, it scrambles every single disk sector on your hard drive. And in layman’s terms this means that your whole PC will be next to useless. However, whilst ransomware usually offers you a way out of this mess through a ransom payment, this is where Mamba differs.

In recent attacks on organizations in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, the Mamba ransomware doesn’t specifically demand a ransom. Instead, it merely provides two email addresses and an ID number for you to use in correspondence. The ransom note also asks those infected to enter a key which, we can only assume, could be provided once contact has been made with the aforementioned email addresses.

Of course, much like the NotPetya attack, this could be a form of ransomware which simply sabotages a hard drive by making all its data inaccessible. Regardless of this, it’s not a situation that you want to find yourself in, so let’s take a look at what Mamba consists of. 

The Mamba Attack

There’s a lot of concern that Mamba may be another piece of ‘wiper’ malware which simply dumps data once encrypting it rather than offering a decryption service. It’s also difficult to determine who has been authoring this new Mamba variant – sure, a Russian email address is used, but it would be foolhardy to assume that the attack comes from Russia simply because of an email address.

The attack itself seems to execute the Mamba ransomware by exploiting the PSEXEC application – a piece of software which allows communication between remote systems and crucial for organizations networks to operate effectively. The malware works in two stages with the first line of attack seeing DiskCryptor – a free encryptor – installed on the infected system before rebooting the system. Upon bootup, DiskCryptor begins encrypting disk partitions and, once the hard drive is fully encrypted, the system is rebooted once more.

It’s at this point that the ‘ransom’ note is delivered to the user. It’s too early to say exactly what correspondence with the emails provided will result in, but it’s fair to assume that the hackers aren’t just going to hand over the key. Now, each infected computer has a specific password generated for it, so this hints that, perhaps Mamba isn’t a piece of wiper malware and that payment will result in your hard drive being decrypted. However, it could also just be a diversionary tactic and your files could be lost forever. 

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Combatting Mamba

The level of encryption carried out by Mamba through DiskCryptor is exceptionally strong, so there’s currently no way of retrieving your files without somehow receiving help from the hackers. Whether this help will be forthcoming is debatable, so it in no way represents a way out from this particularly difficult hack.

Good security practices, as ever, are essential to prevent your organization falling foul of ransomware, particularly when it’s one which appears to be very enigmatic and provides little light at the end of the tunnel. Such attacks are likely to increase, so make sure you practice the following:

  • Always backup your files and data to ensure they’re not compromised on an infected system. It’s also recommended that these are backed up to a system not connected to your network to prevent falling foul of malware which can spread throughout a network.
  • Use multi-layered security in the form of firewalls, web filtering and antivirus software in order to stop malware from either activating or even reaching your network.
  • Restrict user privileges and access on your network as, again, this can stop ransomware spreading through your network once it has started to gain a foothold in your network.

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

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