There has been an significant increase in PYSA ransomware targeting education institutions in 12 U.S. states and the U.K., according to a joint Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) flash industry alert.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity, while often overhyped, is not a new concept. Hackers have included countermeasures in malware since its inception to detect runtime environments or sense detection attempts. Early actions were primitive compared to what we know today, but they laid the groundwork for more critical thought about adaptive and evasive technologies and sophisticated situational awareness. This lethal combination of research and deep targeting is likely the future of malware as adversaries attempt to outsmart the companies and researchers trying to thwart them.
Sophos has published new research, “Gootloader Expands Its Payload Delivery Options,” that details how the delivery method for the six-year-old Gootkit financial malware has been developed into a complex and stealthy delivery system for a wide range of malware, including ransomware. Sophos researchers have named the platform, “Gootloader.” Gootloader is actively delivering malicious payloads through tightly targeted operations in the U.S., Germany and South Korea. Previous campaigns also targeted internet users in France.
Malwarebytes’ Threat Intelligence analysts introduced a new APT group they have named LazyScripter, presenting in-depth analysis of the tactics, techniques, procedures, and infrastructure employed by this actor group.
Netskope revealed new research showing that the majority of all malware is now delivered via cloud applications, underscoring how attackers increasingly abuse popular cloud services to evade legacy security defenses putting enterprise data increasingly at risk. The findings are part of the February 2021 Netskope Cloud and Threat Report, which analyzes the most interesting trends on enterprise cloud service and app use, web and cloud-enabled threats, and cloud data migrations and transfers.
Nuspire announced the release of its 2020 Q4 and Year in Review Threat Landscape Report. Sourced from its 90 billion traffic logs, the report outlines new cybercriminal activity and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) with additional insight from its threat intelligence partner, Recorded Future.
Malwarebytes announced the findings of its annual “State of Malware” report. The latest report explores how the global pandemic forced many employees to quickly become a remote workforce and confined consumers to their homes. In the wake of this change, cybercriminals ditched many of their old tactics, placing a new emphasis on gathering intelligence, and exploiting and preying upon fears with targeted and sophisticated attacks. As a result, the State of Malware Report found a notable shift in the devices targeted and strategies deployed by cybercriminals.
Palo Alto Unit 42 researchers have detected a new malware campaign targeting Kubernetes clusters. The attackers gained initial access via a misconfigured kubelet that allowed anonymous access.
Symantec's Threat Hunter Team, a group of security experts, have uncovered an additional piece of malware used in the SolarWinds attacks which was used against a select number of victims that were of interest to the attackers.
According to Symantec, the malware, Raindrop is a loader which delivers a payload of Cobalt Strike. Raindrop is very similar to the already documented Teardrop tool, but there are some key differences between the two.
A new Joint Cybersecurity Advisory, coauthored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), assess malicious cyber actors are targeting kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) educational institutions, leading to ransomware attacks, the theft of data, and the disruption of distance learning services.
