Every year, we publish our estimates of illicit cryptocurrency activity to demonstrate the power of blockchains’ transparency – these kinds of estimates aren’t possible in traditional finance – and to teach investigators and compliance professionals about the latest trends in cryptocurrency-related crime that they need to know about. What could those estimates look like in a year like 2022? Last year was one of the most tumultuous in cryptocurrency history, with several large firms imploding, including Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, FTX, and others — some amid allegations of fraud.
During Q4 2022, WithSecure™ detected and responded to a cyber attack conducted by a threat actor that WithSecure™ have attributed with high confidence to an intrusion set referred to as Lazarus Group. Attribution with high confidence was based off of overlapping techniques tactics and procedures as well as an operational security mistake by the threat actor. Amongst technical indications, the incident observed by WithSecure™ also contains characteristics of recent campaigns attributed to Lazarus Group by other researchers.
More than 200 local governments, schools and hospitals in the U.S. were affected by ransomware in 2022, according to research conducted by cybersecurity firm Emsisoft.
The annual “State of Ransomware in the US” report found that 105 local governments; 44 universities and colleges; 45 school districts; and 25 healthcare providers operating 290 hospitals dealt with ransomware attacks last year.
On February 23, 2022, the cybersecurity world entered a new age, the age of the hybrid war, as Russia launched both physical and digital attacks against Ukraine. This year’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report provides new detail on these attacks and on increasing cyber aggression coming from authoritarian leaders around the world.
This work is the result of a collaboration with EU DisinfoLab an independent non-profit organization focused on tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the EU.
EU DisinfoLab has during the past three months been investigating a large disinformation campaign targeting western audience with pro-Russian propaganda. While our partner has focused on the actual disinformation being spread, Qurium has looked into the technical infrastructure in use to better understand how the campaign has been setup and operated.
The complete report from EU Disinfo Lab can be found here: Doppelganger.
Below follows the results of Qurium’s digital forensics investigation and a list of more than 50 domains used in the disinformation campaign.
CISA received seven files for analysis. Six Java Server Pages (JSP) webshells and a Bourne Again SHell (bash) file. Five JSP webshell files are designed to parse inbound requests for commands for execution, download files, and upload files. One JSP webshell file contains a form with input fields that prompts the attacker to enter the command in the input box and click "run" to execute. The command output will be displayed in a JSP page. The bash file is designed to perform ldapsearch queries and store the output into a newly created directory.
Cybereason GSOC observed distribution of the Bumblebee Loader and post-exploitation activities including privilege escalation, reconnaissance and credential theft. Bumblebee operators use the Cobalt Strike framework throughout the attack and abuse credentials for privilege escalation to access Active Directory, as well as abusing a domain administrator account to move laterally, create local user accounts and exfiltrate data...
The risk of distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) has never been greater. Over the past several years, organizations have encountered a deluge of DDoS extortion, novel threats, state-sponsored hacktivism, and unprecedented innovation in the threat landscape.
‘Facing reality? Law enforcement and the challenge of deepfakes’ is the first report produced through the Observatory function of the Europol Innovation Lab. The Europol Innovation Lab’s Observatory function monitors technological developments that are relevant for law enforcement and reports on the risks, threats and opportunities of these emerging technologies. The report provides a detailed overview of the criminal use...
This report represents research conducted by Microsoft’s threat intelligence and data science teams with the goal of sharpening our understanding of the threat landscape in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The report also offers a series of lessons and conclusions resulting from the data gathered and analyzed. Notably, the report reveals new information about Russian efforts including an increase in network penetration and espionage activities amongst allied governments, non-profits and other organizations outside Ukraine. This report also unveils detail about sophisticated and widespread Russian foreign influence operations being used among other things, to undermine Western unity and bolster their war efforts. We are seeing these foreign influence operations enacted in force in a coordinated fashion along with the full range of cyber destructive and espionage campaigns. Finally, the report calls for a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to strengthen collective defenses – a task that will require the private sector, public sector, nonprofits and civil society to come together. The foreword of this new report, written by Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, offers additional detail below.