Threat Roundup for June 5 to June 12

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 5 and June 12. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

TAU Threat Analysis: Relations to Hakbit Ransomware

See part one of TAU's Hakbit Ransomware analysis here. Many blue team defenders out there will attest to the fact that ransomware is on the rise, and that ransomware doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. Ransomware is only one of the numerous types of commodity-based emerging threats whi...

Trump, Biden Campaign Staffers Targeted By APT Phishing Emails

With the U.S. presidential election months away, advanced persistent threat APT groups are targeting the campaign staffers of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden in recent phishing attacks. On Thursday, Shane Huntley with Google’s Threat Analysis Group said on Twitter that two separate phishing...

TAU Threat Analysis: Medusa Locker Ransomware

In recent weeks Carbon Black’s Threat Analysis Unit TAU has seen an increase in the number of infections attributed to the Medusa Locker ransomware family. There were notable traits exhibited by Medusa Locker in these attacks that warranted further investigation to determine behavioral tactics th...

TAU Threat Analysis: Medusa Locker Ransomware

In recent weeks Carbon Black’s Threat Analysis Unit TAU has seen an increase in the number of infections attributed to the Medusa Locker ransomware family. There were notable traits exhibited by Medusa Locker in these attacks that warranted further investigation to determine behavioral tactics th...

‘Hack-For-Hire’ Firms Spoof WHO To Target Google Credentials

“Hack-for-hire” organizations are the latest group of cybercriminals to take advantage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, using COVID-19 as a lure in phishing emails bent on stealing victims’ Google credentials. Researchers with Google’s Threat Analysis Group TAG warned that they’ve spotted a...

TAU Technical Report: New Attack Combines TinyPOS With Living-off-the-Land Techniques for Scraping Credit Card Data

In April of 2020 VMware Carbon Black Threat Analysis Unit TAU researchers worked with an Incident Response IR partner on a piece of malware that was discovered during an ongoing PCI investigation. The combined analysis showed that attackers who previously leveraged a malware family called TinyPOS...

Threat Roundup for May 1 to May 8

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 1 and May 8. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

A Dozen Nation-Backed APTs Tap COVID-19 to Cover Spy Attacks

Cybercriminals have seized on the novel coronavirus as a theme in their attacks, and it turns out that the most sophisticated players on that scene are no exception. According to Google’s Threat Analysis Group TAG, more than a dozen nation-state-backed APTs are using the COVID-19 pandemic as a...

Threat Roundup for April 3 to April 10

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 3 and April 10. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristic...

Threat Roundup for March 13 to March 20

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between March 13 and March 20. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Cyber Criminals using Coronavirus Fears to Spread Information-Stealing Malware

Cyber criminals have been leveraging trending cultural and viral news items that drive interest from millions of individuals as mechanisms to target and distribute malware easily and effectively. In the past, cyber criminals have used topics including international sports championships, celebrity...

Threat Analysis: CVE-2020-0796 – EternalDarkness (ghostSMB)

On March 10, 2020 analysis of a SMB vulnerability was inadvertently shared, under the assumption that Microsoft was releasing a patch for that vulnerability CVE-2020-0796. As of March 12, Microsoft has since released a patch for CVE-2020-0796, which is a vulnerability specifically affecting SMB3...

Beware of 'Coronavirus Maps' – It's a malware infecting PCs to steal passwords

Cybercriminals will stop at nothing to exploit every chance to prey on internet users. Even the disastrous spread of SARS-COV-II the virus, which causes COVID-19 the disease, is becoming an opportunity for them to likewise spread malware or launch cyber attacks. Reason Labs recently released a...

2020 Cybersecurity Outlook Report

In case you missed it, we are excited to release our latest report from the VMware Carbon Black Threat Analysis Unit TAU, the “2020 Cybersecurity Outlook Report”. In the search for clarity in the modern attacker vs. defender battle, it’s all about behaviors. More broadly, we explore the age-old...

Mac adware is more sophisticated and dangerous than traditional Mac malware

As the data revealed in our State of Malware report showed, Mac threats are on the rise, but they are not the same type of threats experienced by Windows users. Most notably, more traditional forms of malware, such as ransomware, spyware, and backdoors account for over 27 percent of all Windows...

Invoke-APT29: Adversarial Threat Emulation

MITRE recently conducted its second ATT&CK exercise in their ongoing annual series of Endpoint Security Efficacy testing and evaluation. This test focuses on assessing the behavioral capabilities of multiple endpoint security vendors against a simulated adversary, based closely around...

Threat Roundup for January 17 to January 24

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Jan. 17 and Jan. 24. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

Threat Analysis Unit (TAU) Technical Report: The Prospect of Iranian Cyber Retaliation

Several different events in the Middle East ME region have escalated in the last several weeks between Iran and the United States. After a series of military operations between the two countries, several alerts were released from the U.S. government of a potential for cyberattacks. Traditionally...

VMware Carbon Black TAU Threat Research: Visualizing Ransomware with MITRE ATT&CK

If no one had ever heard of ransomware prior to May 2017, then one thing that is fairly certain is that the WannaCry ransomware outbreak unquestionably put ransomware on the security radar, and sent shivers up CISO’s and analysts’ spines for the weeks and months that followed. Only a few weeks...