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Eight people allegedly involved in the REvil ransomware gang were hit with charges by a court in Moscow on Saturday, according to the Russian News Agency (TASS). The eight were arrested as part of a larger raid by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on 25 different locations across Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lipetsk on Friday.TASS reported that on Saturday, Moscow’s Tverskoi Court charged the men with violating Part 2 of Article 187 of Russia’s Criminal Code, which covers the “illegal circulation of payments. The men are facing up to seven years in prison and a fine of about $13,150.  “At present, materials are either incoming or have already been examined with regard to Roman Muromsky, Andrey Bessonov and also the following individuals: Golovachuk M.A., Zayets A.N., Khansvyarov R.A., Korotayev D.V., Puzyrevsky D.D. and Malozemov A.V. Overall, the court has materials on eight individuals,” the court said.Muromsky and Bessonov were initially named by Russian news outlets as members of the group and video emerged online of the two in court. The FSB said it moved forward with the raid after receiving information about REvil’s alleged leader and other members of the group from US authorities. The FSB said in a statement that 20 luxury cars, 426 million rubles, $600,000 and Є500,000 in Euros were seized during the raids. Police also took computer equipment and gained access to several crypto wallets.

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The Russian news outlet called REvil “one of the world’s most prominent cybercrime groups,” noting that they have attacked the state government of Texas, companies like Apple and dozens of other organizations. According to the US Department of Justice, in addition to the headlining attacks on Kaseya and JBS, REvil is responsible for deploying its ransomware on more than 175,000 computers. The group allegedly brought in at least $200 million from ransoms. On Friday evening, White House officials told reporters that the person behind the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline last year was arrested as part of the raid but did not reveal the person’s name. While the attack on Colonial Pipeline — which caused a week of gas shortages along the East Coast of the US — was attributed to the DarkSide ransomware group, experts said those involved were closely associated with REvil.Recorded Future ransomware expert Allan Liska told ZDNet that there are multiple connections between REvil and Darkside, which shuttered its operations shortly after the headline-grabbing attack on Colonial Pipeline and reconstituted under the name “BlackMatter.” “First, we think the user Darksup, who was the main organizer of the DarkSide ransomware, started out as an affiliate of REvil. Secondly, there is a lot of code overlap between DarkSide and REvil ransomware. Flashpoint did a good analysis of that,” Liska said. “Finally, after the Colonial Pipeline attack, when DarkSide went into hiding, Unknown (the spokesperson for REvil) was speaking on DarkSide’s behalf on the underground forums.”There has been significant debate about why Russian authorities finally decided to detain members of the REvil ransomware group after US officials spent months pressing the country for help. Digital Shadows’ Chris Morgan told ZDNet that some people on Russian cybercriminal forums said the arrests were part of a larger “political game” between the US and Russia, which has faced backlash in recent weeks for its threatening actions toward Ukraine. “Its possible that the FSB raided REvil knowing that the group were high on the priority list for the US, while considering that their removal would have a small impact on the current ransomware landscape. These arrests could also have served a secondary purpose, as a warning to other ransomware groups,” Morgan explained. “REvil made international news last year in its targeting of organizations such as JBS and Kaseya, which were high profile and impactful attacks; a very public series of raids could be interpreted by some as a message to be mindful of their targeting.” More

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies said more than 70 state websites were attacked on Friday and accused hacker groups associated with Russian secret services of potentially being behind the incident. The attack, which Ukrainian officials initially called “massive,” took down several government websites in Ukraine, including those for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Education and Science.In a statement, the Security Service of Ukraine, State Special Service and Cyber Police said 10 of the government websites “were subjected to unauthorized interference.” Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform said the websites for the country’s energy, treasury, environment, veterans, and state emergency service departments were defaced. The agencies said the content on the sites was not changed and no personal data was taken during the incident, despite the claims made by the hackers. “Our specialists, together with the administrators of ministries and departments, have restored the work of most web resources. Also at the initiative of the SBU, a number of critical state resources were cut off, including public services portal Action, to localize the technical problem and to prevent the spread of the attack. The mobile application Action worked and works in a regular mode,” the statement said. “At the same time, the report that hackers exploited a specific vulnerability of the content management system that appeared in the media during the day was just one of the versions that was being worked out. Now, at the end of the day, we can say with high probability that there was a so-called supply chain attack, among others. The attackers hacked the infrastructure of a commercial company that had access to the rights to administer the web resources affected by the attack.”Law enforcement officials in the country are still in the process of investigating the incident and collecting evidence, noting that their investigation will continue through the weekend. The Ukrainian CERT released its own message saying the attack may have related to a vulnerability in a CMS system that was discovered last year.  

The incident — which took place as Russia threatens to invade Ukraine — caused significant outrage across Europe but led some to question whether the concern over the attack was warranted considering the the lack of tangible damage done. Cybersecurity expert and journalist Kim Zetter, one of the first to notice the attack, said “it helps the perpetrator of the attack spread fear and their misinformation campaign when people make more out of an attack than it merits.”Other experts said even calling the incident an “attack” was an exaggeration. But despite the criticisms, foreign ministers across Europe released statements condemning the incident and pledging support for Ukraine, including officials from Belgium, Bulgaria, Latvia, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Norway and Romania.NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said cyber experts in Brussels were sharing information with Ukrainian officials and others were supporting Ukraine “on the ground.””In the coming days, NATO and Ukraine will sign an agreement on enhanced cyber cooperation, including Ukrainian access to NATO’s malware information sharing platform. NATO’s strong political and practical support for Ukraine will continue,” Stoltenberg said.In addition to the website defacements, Ukraine’s largest gas retail also reported a cyberattack although it is unclear if the two were tied together. Oleg Nykonorov, CEO of РГК, wrote on Facebook that they too were attacked but said it was stopped before any damage could be done. More

Suspected members of the cyber criminal REvil ransomware gang have been detained and the group has been dismantled following raids by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Moscow has said. Joint action by the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was taken at 25 properties across several regions of Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lipetsk, linked to 14 members of the REvil ransomware group.According to a statement from the FSB, several member of REvil have been detained and charged. Computer equipment has been seized along with cryptocurrency and crypto wallets, as well as over 426 million rubles, $600,000 US dollars and Є500,000 in Euros. It said 20 luxury cars bought with money obtained from ransomware attacks has have also been seized.SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report)    The raids took place following requests from the United States, which has been a major victim of ransomware attacks by REvil. Previous action has been taken against REvil, including suspected members being arrested in Romania and Ukraine, but the raids by the FSB is the first time Russian authorities have taken action against the group.One of the most significant alleged REvil attacks targeted Kaseya, an IT solutions developer for MSPs and enterprise clients. REvil was also accused of being responsible for a major ransomware attack against food supplier JBS, which paid $11 million in Bitcoin to the attackers in exchange for the key required to decrypt the network.

Last year, the United States and other G7 countries warned Russia that it needed to take responsibility for ransomware and other cyber criminal groups operating within its borders. Ransomware has become one of the biggest cybersecurity issues facing the world today, with attacks against every sector resulting in disruption.High-profile incidents have seen hospitals and healthcare services, energy suppliers and local governments hit with ransomware attacks, preventing people from being able to access vital services they need. MORE ON CYBERSECURITY More

A new 02 scam targeting customers in the United Kingdom is offering ridiculous discounts and phone plans in return for your one-time security codes. 

Having been the recipient of a cold call from a delightful scam artist today, I’ll hand it to them: the lure is strong. At a time when the cost of living is rising in the United Kingdom, many of us are worried about the looming energy price cap disaster, and finances are often stretched thin — the prospect of being the lucky customer eligible for a discount of 35% to 40% on your phone plan is an attractive one.  At least, that’s what the very nice man on the end of the phone tried to sell me.  The phone call came from Ballygawley in Northern Ireland. The scammer (let’s call him James, since that appears to be one of the personas used, according to reports based on the number), sounded delighted in informing me that I was able to take advantage of a substantial discount on my plan.  Even before he’d finished his pitch, I received a text message which is legitimate 02 communication — a one-time code that customers can use to access their accounts if they forget their password, for example.  This is how the scam works: The cold caller asks if you want to take advantage of the discount At the same time, the scammer visits the 02 sign in page, types in your phone number, and asks for a one-time code to access your accountIn order to apply the discount, they -only- need the code they have just sent to your handsetIf you hand over the code, they can then access your details

To try and make it appear legitimate, James also told me I would receive a paper document in 24 to 48 hours outlining my amazing discount. I had to move quickly though and could I please give him the code. James wasn’t particularly happy when I called him out on the scam and tried to defend himself by saying that they are “only allowed to ask customers if they want the promotion,” but if I didn’t want it, to have a good day.  I said I hoped he had the day he deserves, and after being called some interesting names laden with profanity, that was the end of the call.  He was incredibly pushy and made repeat requests for the code. For those that receive this form of scam call, especially if they are vulnerable, not tech-savvy, or elderly, the immediate ping of a text message could be taken as a legitimate aspect of a carrier service call.  The number, 028 8501 7468, has been searched numerous times since November. Reports suggest the team has also impersonated Carphone Warehouse and Three, and are offering discounts, new phone contracts, and a 100% discount on phone charges. Worth keeping an eye out for — and as always, you should never hand over these details. If in doubt, cut the call and ring your service provider directly.  Previous and related coverage Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0 More

Amazon Web Services has fixed two flaws affecting AWS Glue and AWS CloudFormation. The bug in AWS Glue could allow an attacker using the service to create resources and access data of other AWS Glue customers, according to Orca Security. 

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Orca researchers say it was due to an internal misconfiguration within AWS Glue, which AWS today confirmed it has since fixed.SEE: Cloud security: A business guide to essential tools and best practicesGlue, which launched in 2017, is a managed serverless data integration service for connecting large databases, allowing developers to extract, transform and load (ETL) for machine-learning jobs. Orca researchers discovered a Glue feature could be used to gain the credentials to a role within the AWS service’s own account to give an attack access to the internal service’s application programming interface (API). Using this access with the internal misconfiguration, an attacker could escalate privileges within an account and gain full administrative privileges. 

“We confirmed that we would be able to access data owned by other AWS Glue customers,” Orca researcher Yanir Tsarimi said in a write-up.AWS said in a statement that Glue customers don’t need to update systems and emphasized the bug could not have affected AWS customers who don’t use Glue. “Utilizing an AWS Glue feature, researchers obtained credentials specific to the service itself, and an AWS-internal misconfiguration permitted the researchers to use these credentials as the AWS Glue service,” AWS said. “There is no way that this could have been used to affect customers who do not use the AWS Glue service.” Additionally, AWS said it audited Glue logs going back to its launch in 2017 and confirmed that no customer data had been impacted by the flaw since then. “AWS moved immediately to correct this issue when it was reported. Analysis of logs going back to the launch of the service have been conducted and we have conclusively determined that the only activity associated with this issue was between accounts owned by the researcher,” AWS said. “No other customer’s accounts were impacted. All actions taken by AWS Glue in a customer’s account are logged in CloudTrail records controlled and viewable by customers.”Orca found a second bug in AWS that allowed an attacker to compromise a server within CloudFormation in a way that lets them run as an AWS infrastructure service. AWS customers can use CloudFormation to provision and manage cloud resources.  The company identified an XML external entity injection (XXE) vulnerability that allowed it to read files and perform web requests on behalf of the server. The flaw could be used by an attacker to gain “privileged access to any resource in AWS”, according to Orca. AWS has also remediated this flaw, according to Orca.   More

One of the largest carding platforms in the Dark Web, UniCC, has announced its “retirement” from the criminal industry. 

UniCC has been active since 2013. The platform specialized in what is known as ‘carding’: credit card fraud and the sale of stolen details which can then be used to make unauthorized transactions, to clone cards, and to potentially facilitate identity theft. The retirement notice was posted in both Russian and English on a number of dark web forums.  “Our team retires,” the post read. “Thanks to everyone who has been part of us for years. To loyal partners, clients, and colleagues who assisted us in many ways, I would separately thank each one but it is not professional. If I or some of our team members failed your expectations – we [are] truly sorry.” The operators then gave the apparent reasons for UniCC’s closure: the age and health of its team.  “Don’t build any conspiracy theories about us leaving. It is weighted decision, we are not young and our health do not allow to work like this any longer.” The UniCC team then warned users that they have 10 days to wrap up their business and clear their accounts before the platform, alongside its affiliate domain — LuxSocks — closes. “We ask you to be smart and not follow any fakes tied to our comeback and other things,” the operators added. 

According to an analysis conducted by Elliptic, since 2013, UniCC has generated approximately $358 million in stolen data purchase revenue through cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Dash.  “Tens of thousands of new cards were listed for sale on the market each day, and it was known for having many different vendors — with the fierce competition keeping prices relatively low,” Elliptic noted. “As UniCC retires, focus will now be on who emerges as the main successor. The carding market overall recently surpassed more than $1.4 billion in sales with Bitcoin alone. Meanwhile, the operators behind UniCC will be seeking to cash out their formidable profits.” In February last year, one of the largest carding forums, Joker’s Stash, called it quits. The platform facilitated the trade and sale of stolen payment card data, but following the seizure of a number of domains used by Joker’s Stash several months prior — and the apparent hospitalization of the operator due to COVID-19 — the service closed.  It is estimated that Joker’s Stash also generated millions of dollars in illicit profits during its lifetime.  Whether or not the operators have truly ‘retired’ or are just seeking to cash out, this does not mean it is the end of the story — law enforcement could still knock on their door, one day.  Speaking to the BBC, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA)’s Alex Hudson, intelligence manager, said the closure has created “mixed” feelings. While the operators have left the criminal industry and the potential pool of tradeable stolen data has shrunk slightly, it may also feel like unfinished business. “If there is a regret, it’s that we do need to hold them accountable for it and they need to understand that they will still be held accountable,” Hudson commented.  Previous and related coverage Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0 More

The renewable energy industry is becoming more important as countries attempt to move away from fossil fuels, but the continued growth of the sector must be managed with cybersecurity in mind, or there’s the danger that vulnerabilities in everything from power plants down to smart meters could leave energy providers and their customers open to risk.The energy industry is already a high-profile target for hackers, including those looking to deploy espionage campaigns, ransomware and even attacks with the intent to sabotage systems to cut off power – and the rapid transition towards renewable energy could lead to additional avenues for cyber criminals to exploit.  

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A new report by defence and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has outlined some of the top cyber risks during the transition towards renewable energy from fossil fuels.  SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report) “Renewables offer huge opportunities for the UK to become more self-sufficient in energy production whilst mitigating effects of climate change. This transition has to be taken with cybersecurity in mind, cognisant of future cyber threats to society due to the massive digitalisation of the sector,” said Sneha Dawda, research fellow in cybersecurity at RUSI. One of the main targets for cyber attackers is the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems responsible for managing industrial networks.There are two key security issues in SCADA systems – the first is that many of these networks are old, sometimes to the extent they can’t receive security updates, which means that if they’re linked to internet-facing areas of the network, they can potentially be infiltrated by cyber criminals.  

SCADA systems’ security can also be threatened if there’s a remote element to access, via cloud services and VPNs. Newer systems can lean heavily on remote access, but if secure login credentials or patch management isn’t looked after properly, this can provide another avenue for cyberattacks, particularly if automated systems that might not be intently monitored are involved. Some of the most common cybersecurity advice is to patch systems with security updates to protect against attacks. But the reality is that for many energy providers, the network is based on legacy systems – and in many cases, updating or replacing those systems could potentially affect services or involve rebuilding them completely.  According to the RUSI paper, another of the key concerns facing the renewable energy sector is cybersecurity risks in the supply chain.  “If one vendor within the supply chain is compromised, this can have widespread consequences for all connected organisations,” the report warns, citing the likes of the Kaseya and SolarWinds attacks as examples of how cyber attackers can cause massive disruption through the software supply chain. In order to combat this, some of those consulted by researchers suggest that energy providers should take a more careful approach with supply chains, asking questions of suppliers and even helping them improve their security in some cases.But it isn’t just energy providers themselves that could be affected directly by cybersecurity vulnerabilities – products and devices used in homes and businesses are also potentially at risk. One threat that the report warns about is Lithium-ion batteries, which use a battery management system (BMS) to monitor safety and reliability – and can be connected to networks. However, the paper warns that weaknesses in encryption, authorisation and remote access into these connected devices could be exploited by attackers. What’s more, these aren’t the only connected devices that potentially contain cybersecurity risks that need to be examined. The paper suggests that home car chargers are “a unique point of intrusion because they serve a very specific purpose”. Home chargers are becoming more common as hybrid and electric vehicles increase in popularity – but there’s already examples of connected chargers being found to have firmware vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit, either to gain access to networks or to rope the devices into a botnet. “While these vulnerabilities have been patched, they provide good examples of how this technology is lacking in industry standards,” says the paper. The final cybersecurity risk relating to renewable energy examined by the paper is IoT devices in smart homes and buildings.  Energy companies are increasingly encouraging customers to install smart meters and other sensors. However, smart meters and IoT devices can be vulnerable to cyberattacks, providing cyber criminals with a route into networks and the ability to build botnets. It can also be difficult for users to patch IoT devices – if they can be patched at all.  The paper suggests initiatives like the UK government’s ‘Secure by Design’ legislation could help improve the cybersecurity situation – and concludes that further research into risk-mitigation strategies and policy-focused recommendations are required. MORE ON CYBERSECURITY More

A new campaign focused on emptying the cryptocurrency wallets of organizations in the financial and crypto spaces has been revealed by researchers. 

Dubbed SnatchCrypto, Kaspersky researchers said on Thursday that the campaign is the work of BlueNoroff, an advanced persistent threat (APT) group suspected of being connected to the larger Lazarus APT. Lazarus is a North Korean hacking unit tied to cyberattacks against banks and financial services. The APT specializes in SWIFT-based intrusions in countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Taiwan. Alongside Cobalt and FIN7, Blueliv recently branded the group as one of the top threats faced by FinTech firms today.  “The group [BlueNoroff] seems to work more like a unit within a larger formation of Lazarus attackers, with the ability to tap into its vast resources: be it malware implants, exploits, or infrastructure,” the researchers say. According to Kaspersky, BlueNoroff has conducted a series of attacks against both small and medium-sized companies tied to cryptocurrency, virtual assets, the blockchain, smart contracts, decentralized finance (DeFI), and FinTech in general.  BlueNoroff focuses on building — and abusing — trust to infiltrate company networks. Whether this is business communication and chats or wider social engineering techniques, the APT spends a lot of time and effort learning about its victims. As of November 2021, Kaspersky says the group has been “stalking and studying” cryptocurrency startups. BlueNoroff aims to create ‘maps’ of current topics of interest in the target organization and then uses this information as a springboard to launch social engineering attacks that appear to be legitimate and trustworthy. 

“BlueNoroff compromises companies through precise identification of the necessary people and the topics they are discussing at a given time,” the researchers note. “A document sent from one colleague to another on a topic, which is currently being discussed, is unlikely to trigger any suspicion.” For example, an email may be sent that pretends to be a shared document hosted on Google Drive from a ‘colleague’ to an employee of a startup. In a sample obtained by Kaspersky, a notification was sent at the time the trap document was opened.  In another example, an email was pushed as a forward that appears to have been sent by a colleague — potentially increasing trust as the message looked as though it had already been checked.

The APT also impersonates legitimate companies in phishing emails, including Coinsquad, Emurgo, Youbi Capital, and Sinovation Ventures.  CVE-2017-0199, a remote code execution (RCE) flaw, is used to trigger a remote script linked to the malicious documents. The exploit will fetch a payload from a URL embedded in these files, and a remote template is also pulled. When they combine, base64-encoded binary objects and a VBA macro become available, then used to spawn a process for privilege escalation before the main payload is executed on a target system.  “Interestingly, BlueNoroff shows improved opsec at this stage,” Kaspersky says. “The VBA macro does a cleanup by removing the binary objects and the reference to the remote template from the original document and saving it to the same file. This essentially de-weaponizes the document leaving investigators scratching their head during analysis.” Other infection chains observed include the use of zipped Windows shortcut files or malicious Word documents that are used to fetch secondary-stage payloads.  At this point, a PowerShell agent is used to deploy a backdoor. The malware is able to remotely connect to its operator’s command-and-control (C2) server, manipulate processes and the registry, execute commands, and steal data stored by the Chrome browser, Putty, and WinSCP. In addition, a secondary backdoor, keylogger, and screenshot taker may also be launched on the machine.  The final payload is a custom backdoor that has only been seen in attacks conducted by BlueNoroff. This malware will collect system data and configuration related to cryptocurrency software and will attempt to interject between transactions stemming from hardware wallets.  Of particular note is when victims use browser extensions to manage their crypto, The Metamask extension, for example, will be tampered with to monitor transactions and allow the attackers to choose the right moment to strike.  The researchers explained how these attacks take place: “When the compromised user transfers funds to another account, the transaction is signed on the hardware wallet. However, given that the action was initiated by the user at the very right moment, the user doesn’t suspect anything fishy is going on and confirms the transaction on the secure device without paying attention to the transaction details.  The user doesn’t get too worried when the size of the payment he/she inputs is low and the mistake feels insignificant. However, the attackers modify not only the recipient address, but also push the amount of currency to the limit, essentially draining the account in one move.” Victims have been traced to Russia, Poland, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and other countries.  Previous and related coverage Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0 More