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ICS/SCADA Threat Advisory – Joint Cybersecurity Advisory Regarding Advanced Cyber Tools Targeting ICS/SCADA Devices

Summary: Given the current threat landscape and recent concerns for the potential of cyber attacks against critical infrastructure, members are highly encouraged to review the following Joint Cybersecurity Advisory regarding newly discovered custom attack tools designed to target ICS/SCADA devices and address accordingly. The current advisory warns of tools that have been created to cause damage to the following components:

Microsoft Advises to Patch Now to Address Critical Remote Code Execution Vulnerability for MS-RPC

Action Recommended: Members are strongly encouraged to advise their system administrators to address Microsoft security updates for April 2022. This month’s round of patches includes a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability for an extremely important component of the operating system that allows for arbitrary code execution without authentication or user interaction.

Six Steps to Go Passwordless at Your Organization

While still the most popular method of authentication, passwords suffer significant drawbacks in terms of security and cost as we continue to struggle at creating less crackable ones. Dark Reading has written a piece describing six steps organizations can take to transition to passwordless authentication methods to help reduce the reliance on humans to create strong enough passwords to reduce the occurrence of information and data leaks. First, passwordless programs must start small, instead of attempting to switch the entire organization over at once.

Research Shows BEC Attacks Increased by 84% Between First and Second Half of 2021

Abnormal Security released a blog post on its research into BEC trends, which details the significant rise they’ve observed in BEC attacks between the first and second halves of 2021. Between July and December 2021, 84% more Abnormal customers’ inboxes were targeted by BEC lures, though the tactic itself stayed relatively uncommon, hitting less than one out of one thousand inboxes.

Threat Awareness – Qbot/Qakbot Changes Delivery Tactics

Security researchers have observed the Qbot/Qakbot botnet distributing malware payloads via a new delivery method. The technique involves sending a phishing email that includes a password-protected ZIP archive attachment containing malicious MSI Windows Installer packages. Qakbot, which WaterISAC has reported on numerous times, is a highly modular malware used for many malign activities such as credential harvesting and dropping ransomware.

Another One for the Good Guys – U.S. Government Disrupts Russian Cyclops Blink Botnet Prior to it Being Deployed

Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the disruption of the Cyclops Blink botnet before it could be used for malicious activity. The malware, dubbed Cyclops Blink, targets WatchGuard Firebox firewall appliances and multiple ASUS router models and has reportedly been operated by the Russian-backed Sandworm group since at least June 2019. Cyclops Blink allows threat actors to establish persistence on a device via firmware updates, providing remote access to compromised networks. The malware is modular allowing it to be easily upgraded to target new systems.

Endpoint Security Continues to Be Essential as Remote Work becomes New Normal

Security Intelligence has posted a blog discussing the continued prevalence of remote work and detailing the various components of endpoint security that cybersecurity professionals should be aware of as they mature their endpoint protections to meet this new security landscape. The author reviews over a dozen concerns that network defenders should consider in order to have a truly robust defense, from VPNs to EDR solutions.

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