Cybersecurity

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published a one-page document addressing considerations in light of the outbreak of ransomware attacks against the nation’s networks. CISA observes that the ransomware infections being reported and discussed in the news are just part of the picture, as many more incidents are not being disclosed.

On Friday, August 16, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) reports 23 local governments in the state were infected with ransomware in what it described as a coordinated attack. "It appears all entities that were actually or potentially impacted have been identified and notified," DIR said.

Back in the day, data found in malware was much more generic, or at least much less specific. Today, with phishing-based scams, BEC, and CEO-fraud leading the pack of cyber attack techniques, the malware samples being uploaded to free malware scanning services reveal far more specific company data than they used to. The Register posted a reminder about the dangers of uploading malware to public online sandbox services. Malware samples certainly provide valuable data for cyber analysts, but malicious actors also view the data.

The NCCIC has published an advisory on reusing a nonce, key pair in encryption and on the use of hard-coded cryptographic key vulnerabilities in Johnson Controls Metasys. Versions prior to 9.0 are affected. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could be leveraged by an attacker to decrypt captured network traffic. Johnson Controls recommends users upgrade to version 9.0 or later and configure sites with trusted certificates. The NCCIC also recommends a series of measures to mitigate the vulnerabilities.