Information Technology

Cyber criminals are using online adverts for fake versions of popular software to trick users into downloading three forms of malware – including a malicious browser extension with the same capabilites as trojan malware – that provide attackers with usernames and passwords, as well as backdoor remote access to infected Windows PCs.  The attacks, which distribute two forms of seemingly undocumented custom-developed malware, have been detailed by cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Talos who’ve named the campaign ‘magnat’. It appears the campaign has been operating in some capacity since 2018 and the malware has been in continuous development.  

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Over half of the victims are in Canada, but there have also been victims around the world, including in the United States, Europe, Australia and Nigeria. SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report)  Researchers believe that victims are tricked into downloading the malware via malvertising – malicious online adverts – that trick them into downloading fake installers of popular software onto their systems. The users are likely to be looking for the legitimate versions of the software, but get directed to the malicious versions by advertising.  Some of the software that users are tricked into downloading includes fake versions of messaging apps such as Viber and WeChat, as well as fake installers for popular video games like Battlefield.   The installer doesn’t install the advertised software but instead installs three forms of malware – a password stealer, a backdoor and a malicious browser extension, which enables keylogging and taking screenshots of what the infected user is looking at. 

The password stealer being distributed in the attacks is known as Redline, a relatively common malware that steals all the usernames and passwords it finds on the infected system. Magnat previously distributed a different password stealer, Azorult. The switch to Redline likely came because Azorult, like many other forms of malware, stopped working correctly after the release of Chrome 80 in February 2020.  While the password stealers are both commodity off-the-shelf malware, the previously undocumented backdoor installer – which researchers have called MagnatBackdoor – appears to be a more bespoke form of malware that has been distributed since 2019, although there are times where distribution has stopped for months.  MagnatBackdoor configures the infected Windows system to enable stealthy remote desktop protocol (RDP) access, as well as adding a new user and scheduling the system to ping a command and control server run by the attackers at regular intervals. The backdoor allows attackers to secretly gain remote access to the PC when required.  The third payload is a downloader for a malicious Google Chrome extension, which researchers have named MagnatExtension. The extension is delivered by the attackers and doesn’t come from the Chrome Extension Store. SEE: Hackers are turning to this simple technique to install their malware on PCs This extension contains various means of stealing data directly from the web browser, including the ability to take screenshots, steal cookies, steal information entered in forms, as well as a keylogger, which registers anything the user types in the browser. All of this information is then sent back to the attackers.   Researchers have likened the capabilities of the extension to a banking trojan. They suggest the ultimate aim of the malware is to obtain user credentials, either for sale on the dark web or for further exploitation by the attackers. The cyber criminals behind MagnatBackdoor and MagnatExtension have spent years developing and updating the malware and that’s likely to continue.  “These two families have been subject to constant development and improvement by their authors – this is likely not the last we hear of them,” said Tiago Pereira, a security researcher at Cisco Talos.  “We believe these campaigns use malvertising as a means to reach users that are interested in keywords related to software and present them links to download popular software. This type of threat can be very effective and requires that several layers of security controls are in place, such as endpoint protection, network filtering and security awareness sessions,” he added. 
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Twitter has removed another 3,465 state-backed accounts as part of efforts to limit the influence of information manipulation campaigns on the web. The social media platform explained in a blog post that the account sets that have been removed include eight “distinct operations” that can be attributed to China, Mexico, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Venezuela. “Every account and piece of content associated with these operations has been permanently removed from the service,” Twitter said. Listing out the operations, the majority of accounts removed in this round of purges were linked to China, with over 2,000 of them amplifying Chinese Communist Party narratives related to the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. Another network of around 100 accounts were connected to “Changyu Culture”, a private company backed by the Xinjiang regional government. Rounding out the top three governments that had their linked accounts removed was the Ugandan government, which had 418 of its linked accounts that used inauthentic activity to support having the Ugandan presidential incumbent Museveni removed, while 277 Venezuelan accounts amplifying accounts and content that supported the presiding government were removed. In addition to banning these accounts and the content shared by them, Twitter has shared relevant data from this disclosure with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Cazadores de Fake News, and the Stanford Internet Observatory.

The disclosure comes during a week where Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey resigned from the company’s CEO post. Twitter on Wednesday also announced the expansion of its private information policy to include the sharing of private media, such as photos and videos, without permission from the individuals that are depicted in them. Related Coverage More

The federal government has released an updated digital government strategy as part of its goal to make Australia one of the top three digital governments in the world by 2025. It has been working on the refresh for more than a year, and the culmination of consultation is an updated 28-page digital government strategy. Under the strategy, the government has set out three priorities for its services in trying to achieve that goal. These priorities are making all government services digitally available, easily accessible, and people and business-centric.The updated priorities do not steer far from those in the government’s previous digital strategy, which had set out priorities of making government easier to deal through the adoption of myGovID and informing citizens about government’s use of data.On a practical level, delivering the new strategy will entail uplifting digital ecosystems, reusing certain technologies to deliver value for money, and expanding the government’s digital workforce, said Stuart Robert, the minister responsible for whole-of-government data and digital policy.The strategy refresh comes days after a Senate committee blasted the federal government for its lack of progress in auditing its IT capabilities. The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration on Monday said progress on an “urgent audit” that government agreed to undertake was lagging, which has caused delays for its IT advancement. The audit was agreed to based on recommendations made in an independent review of federal government agencies.The committee also noted that the federal government currently has no central data collection process related to IT expenditure across government.  Addressing the independent review, Robert said it uncovered that government needed to approach uplifting digital capabilities differently.

“We need to better align the approaches of agencies to address common challenges, reducing the duplication of effort,” he said. “We need to make data more readily available and accessible to inform evidence-based decision making.”Alongside the strategy refresh, Robert announced a slew of other digital government movements, which included a new whole-of-government architecture, re-use policy and catalogue, whole-of-government digital and IT oversight framework, and trials of cyber hubs. The new whole-of-government architecture consists of standards, guidance, products, and tools to support federal government agencies for designing digital capability and implementing and operating technologies, Robert said.He also claimed the architecture would also give industry guidance on the federal government’s IT direction, including the digital capabilities it wants to be built in a reusable way.”Through the whole-of-government architecture, the DTA has worked in concert with government departments and agencies to map out all the strategic capabilities that we require as a government. They are now working towards identifying the existing digital and ICT assets across whole of government and the capability gaps we need to fill,” Robert said.The architecture will be complemented by a re-use policy and catalogue designed to provide government agencies a more informed view of emerging or existing government platforms and what could potentially be reusable platforms.”Reuse of core tech is now a Cabinet mandated requirement,” Robert said.Outlining the whole-of-government digital and IT oversight framework, Robert said all future digital and IT spending proposals put forward by agencies would be required to comply with various government policies, ranging from its digital service standards to cybersecurity guidelines to the re-use catalogue.In addition, all digital and IT proposals must contain an assurance plan signed off by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) and the relevant department as part of this new oversight framework.”[This] provides an important institutional lever for the government to monitor high cost or high risk digital and ICT-enabled investment proposals, and ensures these proposals align with whole-of-government digital policies from the earliest point in the policy development process,” Robert said.Turning to Robert’s announcement about trials of cyber hubs, he explained that the federal government would develop four cyber hubs that will be tasked with protecting all departments and agencies. The cyber hubs will be modelled off Services Australia’s 24/7 Cyber Ops Centre.The trial is an expansion of the DTA’s cyber hub pilot from earlier this year where Home Affairs, Defence, and Services Australia were providers in the pilot.Services Australia, Tax, Defence, and Home Affairs will each be a provider for one cyber hub in the trial, Robert said. RELATED COVERAGE More

Colorado’s Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) is still struggling to recover from a devastating cyberattack last month that took down 90% of its internal systems and caused 25 years of historic data to be lost. In an update sent to customers this week, the company said it expects to be able to begin accepting payments through its SmartHub platform and other payment kiosks during the week of December 6.”We also tentatively estimate we will be able to resume member billing the week of December 6 – 10. We recognize this will result in members receiving multiple energy bills close together. As a reminder, we will not disconnect services for non-payment or assess any penalties through January 31, 2022,” the company said on a page that has been updated repeatedly over the last month. The company said it began noticing issues on November 7, and the cyberattack eventually brought down most of its internal network services. The attack affected all of the company’s support systems, payment processing tools, billing platforms and other tools provided to customers. DMEA said the hackers were targeting specific parts of the company’s internal network and corrupted saved documents, spreadsheets, and forms, indicating it may have been a ransomware incident. The attack even affected the company’s phone and email systems, but DMEA said the power grid and fiber network were not touched during the attack. The energy company hired cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident, but nearly a month later they are still having issues recovering. 

“We are currently operating with limited functionality and are focused on completing our investigation and restoring services as efficiently, economically, and safely as possible. We are committed to restoring our network and getting back to normal operations, but that will take time and requires a phased approach,” the company explained. They created temporary payment arrangements to deal with the outages and have suspended all penalty fees and disconnections for non-payment through January 31, 2022.Despite the damage to their system, DMEA claimed no sensitive data from customers or employees was breached. But they now have to work through a “phased restoration approach” as they rebuild their systems. DMEA CEO Alyssa Clemsen Roberts said the impact on their systems was “extensive” and that a good portion of their saved data, such as forms and documents, was corrupted. “The path to full restoration will take time, and it may result in many of our members receiving back-to-back energy bills. With colder weather approaching and the holiday season already here, we recognize this incident has come at an unfortunate time,” Roberts said. “This isn’t how we hoped to close out the year, and on behalf of all of us at DMEA, I am grateful for your patience, support, and understanding as we navigate this incident.”Saryu Nayyar, CEO at cybersecurity firm Gurucul, said utilities tend to have complex networks that often comingle enterprise operations with mission control.”It’s a bit of a surprise that we haven’t seen more attacks on public utilities, but there is no question that more are coming,” Nayyar explained. The headline-grabbing ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline earlier this year involved similar issues. Attackers brought down the company’s business technology networks, forcing the energy producing side to struggle as well. SecurityGate CISO Bill Lawrence added that while the term ‘ransomware’ is not in any of the reporting or DMEA’s explanation of events, they had a large portion of their data corrupted and their internal phone system went down too. “It will be interesting to learn a motive behind this attack if there are no ransom demands,” Lawrence said. “Co-ops are owned by their local communities, so the local folks will be dealing with increased costs due to response and recovery from the attack.” More

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced two new cybersecurity directives handed down by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Thursday designed to better protect freight railroads and passenger rail transit in the US.

TSA said rail services are “higher risk” and that the new rules “need to be issued immediately to protect transportation security.”The new rules make it mandatory for rail company owners and operators to have a cybersecurity coordinator, report cybersecurity attacks to CISA in 24 hours or less, and create a cybersecurity incident response plan. The rules also require owners to complete cybersecurity vulnerability assessments.DHS also detailed voluntary measures to improve cybersecurity across the transportation sector following a series of attacks over the last two years. “These new cybersecurity requirements and recommendations will help keep the traveling public safe and protect our critical infrastructure from evolving threats,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “DHS will continue working with our partners across every level of government and in the private sector to increase the resilience of our critical infrastructure nationwide.” These are just the latest cybersecurity directives handed down by DHS this year, as the agency seeks to charge government-adjacent industries to improve their cybersecurity measures. Following multiple attacks on critical infrastructure in the US this year — including oil pipelines, transportation companies, and agricultural organizations — DHS has regularly provided new guidance and mandatory rules. 

Congress is also mulling a variety of bills related to incident reporting and other cybersecurity measures. While previous administrations sought to promote cybersecurity hygiene through voluntary measures, the Biden Administration has handed down more stringent measures as ransomware incidents continue. DHS has faced backlash from some private sector companies and Republican members of Congress over the cybersecurity rules, with many arguing that they are being forced on companies without advance guidance. In its statement on Thursday, DHS made a point of saying TSA worked with “industry stakeholders,” “federal partners,” and CISA to create the directives. Victoria Newhouse, a TSA deputy assistant administrator, confirmed to Congress on Thursday that private industry experts were consulted on the new rules. Newhouse said she and other officials met with rail companies to discuss the range of threats facing their industry. One of the criticisms Republican lawmakers have levied against DHS is that the directives are being handed down in the absence of detailed, specific threats. On Thursday, DHS said CISA “provided expert guidance on cybersecurity threats to the transportation network and countermeasures to defend against them.”TSA suggested “all other lower-risk surface transportation owners and operators” also institute the rules, although it would be voluntary. TSA already released guidance for aviation industry operators, pipelines, and other enterprises. A DHS official told The Wall Street Journal that Thursday’s directives will affect 90% of passenger rail systems in the US and 80% of freight rail systems that they consider high risk. More

Meta announced on Thursday that it is expanding its Facebook Protect service — which provides specialized security services for certain Facebook accounts being targeted by hackers — to more countries.

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Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Meta, said the company will be rolling out Facebook Protect services to more than 50 countries by the end of 2021. Over 1.5 million accounts have already enrolled since the latest expansion began in September. The program was started in 2018 and expanded during the 2020 US election cycle to include human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials who are highly targeted by hackers. Both Google and Microsoft have created similar programs for groups that tend to be targeted by both cybercriminals and government hackers. Gleicher noted that of the 1.5 million accounts that have already signed up, almost 950,000 have two-factor authentication. He added that no action is required unless you are prompted to enroll. Gleicher encouraged everyone to enable two-factor authentication for their Facebook accounts, but he noted that Meta wants to make it as “frictionless as possible” for certain users. In some cases, they require that users have it. “These people are at the center of critical communities for public debate. They enable democratic elections, hold governments and organizations accountable, and defend human rights around the world,” Gleicher said. “What we’ve seen so far is encouraging: in early testing, simplifying our enrollments flows, improving customer support, and mandating Facebook Protect brought adoption rates to over 90 percent in one month for these groups,” Gleicher added. “Over the next several months, we’re going to carefully expand this requirement globally.”

Facebook will be launching the program in countries like the US, India, Portugal, and others. The news came as Meta released its Adversarial Threat Report, where it detailed a range of threats disrupted by the company’s security team. Meta said it removed malicious networks in Italy, France, Vietnam, Palestine, Poland, Belarus, and China. Facebook, and now parent company Meta, have faced withering criticism for years over lackluster security measures and a general failure to protect certain accounts from malicious activity. Former employees of the company have bashed Facebook for not doing enough to stop — and in some cases actively helping — dictators and others across the world from using the site to attack and harass critics, human rights activists, and others.  More

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles has sent out breach notification letters to about 400,000 patients after the organization suffered from a ransomware incident between October 9 and October 17.

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In a letter shared with the California Attorney General’s office and sent out on November 30, the organization said it identified suspicious activity in its computer network on October 17. “We immediately took our systems offline, notified law enforcement, and a third-party cybersecurity firm was engaged to assist in our investigation. The investigation determined that an unauthorized person gained access to our network between October 9, 2021, and October 17, 2021, and exfiltrated some files from our systems during that time,” the organization said.”On November 4, 2021, we identified files that contained your name and one or more of the following: address, insurance information, date of birth, and clinical information, such as diagnosis, procedure, and/or prescription information.”The organization is not offering any identity protection services for those affected, only urging victims to review statements received from health insurers or healthcare providers. They said they planned to hire a cybersecurity firm to help with the incident and improve their cybersecurity systems. Law enforcement was called in to help with the attack, according to CNN, but it is unclear which group is behind the attack. The attack was first reported by The Washington Post, which noted that other branches of the organization had been hacked in the past, both by opportunistic cybercriminals and anti-abortion activists. Despite the vital role healthcare organizations have played in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals have shown little reticence in attacking hospitals and clinics. Over the last two years, multiple healthcare organizations have announced attacks and breaches involving sensitive patient data, including Social Security Numbers and bank account information. 

Garret Grajek, CEO of YouAttest, listed off multiple recent healthcare-related cyberattacks, including ones involving the Tardigrade malware, which was released upon vaccine manufacturers. He added that the DeepBlueMagic hackers recently shut down the computer system in a major Israeli hospital. “The PII/PHI that has been stolen from Planned Parenthood go beyond the usual threat actor’s desire for identity data to resell on the dark web. Given that not only was standard identity information stolen, but the theft was coupled with medical background and procedure data, the ramifications of malicious use of this data are easy to imagine,” Grajek said.  “The mechanism has not been revealed, but previous hacks on medical institutions have shown a proclivity to both social and technical hacking methods, given the amount of personnel involved and the difficulty of enacting safe security conduct by all team members.”Ekram Ahmed, spokesperson at cybersecurity firm Check Point, said those affected should be watchful for a hacker technique called ‘Triple Extortion’. “In this tactic, hackers are not only encrypting files and then ransomware, but they go to patients directly, threatening to reveal sensitive information unless paid. Here, over 400,000 patients, which is a staggering number for a data breach, can potentially become victims to Triple Extortion, which could be devastating,” Ahmed said. “Healthcare records are known to be one of the most valuable types of information that hackers look for. The reason being is that cybercriminals can use this data to create false identities, commit health insurance fraud and illegally obtain prescription drugs. Furthermore, stolen patient information can be stolen for top dollar on the dark web. This year, the healthcare sector sees 752 ransomware attacks a week on average, marking a 55% increase compared to last year.”Gurucul vice president Jane Grafton noted that the ransomware attack on Planned Parenthood Los Angeles occurred right as the Supreme Court actively debates a direct challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. “Women’s personal procedures and diagnosis are just that: personal. Having them stolen for potential exposure puts women in the political crosshairs,” Grafton said. “Securing medical records has never been more important. We can only hope that this information stays out of the public eye.”  More

Meta has detailed takedowns of what it described as six ‘adversarial networks’ from across the world that were using Facebook for behaviour including spreading false information, harassment and trying to have genuine information taken down.It said the groups violated its rules around Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior and two new policies: Brigading and Mass Reporting.

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Facebook defines Brigading as networks of people work who together to mass comment, mass post or engage in other types of repetitive mass behaviors to harass others or silence them. Mass Reporting is when people work together to mass-report an account or content to get it incorrectly taken down by Facebook.SEE: Facebook: Here comes the AI of the MetaverseMeta said it had removed a network in Italy and France for Brigading: “We removed a network of accounts that originated in Italy and France and targeted medical professionals, journalists, and elected officials with mass harassment,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s Head of Security Policy in its Adversarial Threat Report. “Our investigation linked this activity to an anti-vaccination conspiracy movement.”In Vietnam, Meta targeted networks attempting to use mass reporting, via duplicated but legitimate accounts, to have accurate news reports criticizing the government taken down. “The network coordinated to falsely report activists and other people who publicly criticized the Vietnamese government for various violations in an attempt to have these users removed from Facebook,” explained Gleicher. 

Meta also removed four networks from Palestine, Poland, Belarus, and China for violating its policy on Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior: each of these networks targeted people in multiple countries at once. The report also notes the shifting environment Facebook faces, what it deems to be a security threat, and how it responds to them.”In this environment, we build our defenses with the expectation that adversarial groups will not stop, but rather adapt and try new tactics to persist,” wrote Gliecher with other Meta security leads. “Our focus has been to study malicious behaviors and add new layers of defense to our arsenal to make sure we prevent and address potential gaps from multiple angles. Our goal over time is to make these behaviors more costly and difficult to hide, and less effective. It is a significant, ongoing effort that spans teams, departments and time zones across Meta.”Facebook has in the past been criticized for its slow response to groups using its platform to spread disinformation. This report follows claims by a former employee about the negative impact of Instagram on the wellbeing of some young users.Meta says it will share its findings with industry peers, independent researchers, law enforcement agencies, and policymakers.  More