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Fake Court Subpoenas Used as Phishing Lure for Malware Distribution

by G Hunt | November 11, 2019 | Email Scams

Phishers are constantly changing tactics and coming up with new ways to fool people into handing over their credentials or installing malware. New campaigns are being launched on a daily basis, with tried and tested lures such as fake package delivery notices, fake invoices and purchase orders, and collaboration requests all very common.

In a departure from these common phishing lures, one threat group has opted for a rarely seen lure, but one that has potential to be very effective: Fake court subpoenas. The emails use fear and urgency and are designed to get users to panic and click quickly.

This campaign has been running for a few weeks and is targeting users in the United Kingdom, although this scam could easily be adapted and used in attacks on users in other countries.

Many phishing scams have the goal of stealing credentials to allow email accounts or Office 365 accounts to be accessed. In this case, the aim of the attack is to spread information stealing malware called Predator the Thief.

The phishing emails appear to have been sent by the Ministry of Justice in the UK. The sender field has Ministry of Justice as the display name and the emails have the Ministry of Justice crest, although the actual email address suggests the email has come from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The emails warn the user that they have been subpoenaed. They are supplied with a case number along with a date when they have been ordered to attend court.

The emails include a hyperlink which the user must click to find out details of the charge and the documents they will need to bring with them to court. Urgency is added by warning the recipient they only have 14 days to respond to provide notice, and that the court case will proceed without them if they do not respond.

The URL in the email is seemingly benign, as it links to Google Docs – a trusted website. Clicking the link will see the user first directed to Google Docs, then redirected to OneDrive. When the user arrives on the OneDrive site, a document is downloaded. That document contains a malicious macro that launches a PowerShell command that downloads Predator the Thief malware.

Predator the Thief is an information stealer that can take screenshots and steals email and FTP credentials, along with cryptocurrency wallets and browser information. In contrast to many browser information stealers, this malware variant doesn’t just target the main browsers, but a host of less popular browsers. Once information has been stolen, the malware cleans up and exits, which makes it harder for the infection to be detected.

Phishing scams such as this highlight the need for layered security. Naturally, an advanced anti-spam solution such as SpamTitan should be implemented to block these threats and ensure and ensure messages are not delivered to end users’ inboxes.  SpamTitan also includes DMARC email authentication to block mail impersonation attempts and a sandbox where email attachments are analyzed for malicious actions.

SpamTItan blocks in excess of 99.9% of all malicious emails, but it is not possible to block 100% of threats no matter what email security solution you use. This is where another layer is required. WebTitan is a DNS filtering solution that blocks threats such as this at the point where a DNS lookup is performed. This allows malicious websites to be blocked before any content is downloaded. WebTitan can also be configured to block downloads of certain file types.

With these two solutions in place, your business will be well protected against phishing emails and web-based malware downloads.

Beware of Thomas Cook Phishing Scams

by G Hunt | October 7, 2019 | Email Scams

The collapse of the package holiday operator Thomas Cook left thousands of holidaymakers stranded, hundreds of thousands of holiday bookings have been cancelled, and more than 9,000 staff have lost their jobs. The company and other UK firms in its group have been forced into compulsory liquidation and cybercriminals have been quick to take advantage. Dozens of Thomas Cook-related domains were registered following the collapse of the firm and several Thomas Cook phishing scams have been detected.

Customer that have incurred out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the collapse of the company and anyone who has paid for a package holiday that has been cancelled may be entitled to a refund or compensation. That has given scammers the perfect opportunity to launch phishing attacks seeking bank account an credit card information.

Customers who have booked Thomas Cook holidays are protected under the ATOL scheme and refunds are being processed by the Civil Aviation Authority, which has set up a subdomain on its website – thomascook.caa.co.uk – where customers can submit claims for refunds. More than 360,000 holidays have been booked for more than 800,000 holidaymakers, who are entitled to refunds. More than 60,000 customers submitted refund forms on the first day that the website was set up and claims for out-of-pocket expenses are being processed by travel insurance firms. The CAA has stated that it will take 60 days for the refunds to be issued.

Anyone who has yet to submit their claim should exercise caution as there are multiple phishing scams being conducted offering money back on canceled holidays, reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, compensation, and fake updates on the status of refund claims. Any email received in relation to Thomas Cook should be treated as a potential scam.

Scams may be conducted with the aim of spreading malware or ransomware. Malicious code is contained in file attachments that trigger a malware download when the attachment is opened. However, far more common in situations when people are demanding refunds is to send phishing emails containing hyperlinks to malicious websites. Those websites require sensitive information such as credit card information and bank account details to be entered. Scammers are well aware that in order for refunds to be processed, bank account information would be required and phishing forms have been set up on fake Thomas Cook domains to do just that.

While there may be some giveaways that emails are not genuine – spelling mistakes and grammatical errors – some Thomas Cook phishing scams are virtually impossible to distinguish from genuine communications. Banks have also been notifying customers by email, which has presented scammers with even more opportunities to hoodwink Thomas Cook customers. There have also been reports of former employees being targeted by scammers offering compensation.

The golden rule to avoid becoming a victim of Thomas Cook phishing scams is never to respond to a request in an unsolicited email. Attachments should not be opened, hyperlinks in emails should not be followed, and contact information included in the message body should not be used. Only use official channels such as the CAA website, and contact banks and travel insurance firms directly using verified contact information.

How to Block Google Calendar Phishing Scams

by G Hunt | September 11, 2019 | Email Scams

Google has acknowledged a vulnerability in the Google Calendar app is being exploited by cybercriminals to inject fake and malicious items into Google Calendar.

Several Google Calendar phishing campaigns were detected over the summer of 2019 which were exploiting this flaw. The campaigns saw Google Calendar spam sent to large numbers of users, including invites to events and other requests and special offers that popped up on unsuspecting users’ screens.

These notifications contained links to webpages where users could find out more information about the events and special offers. If events were accepted, they would be inserted into users’ calendars and would trigger automatic notifications. The offers and invites would keep on appearing until the users’ clicked the link. Those links directed users to phishing pages where credentials were harvested.

Some of the scams required credit card information to be entered, others required the user to login using their Office 365 credentials. Links could also direct users to webpages where drive-by malware downloads take place.

Most people are aware of the threat of phishing emails, malicious text messages, and social media posts that harvest sensitive information, but attacks on calendar services are relatively unheard of. Consequently, many users will fail to recognize these notifications and calendar items as malicious, especially when they appear in a trusted app such as Google Calendar.

Unfortunately, these attacks are possible because in the default setting, anyone can send a calendar event to a user. That event will be inserted into the user’s calendar and will automatically trigger notifications, as is the case with legitimate events.

In addition to events, messages can include special offers, notifications of cash prizes, alerts about money transfers, and all manner of other messages to entice the user to click a malicious link and disclose sensitive information or download malware.

Google Calendar is not the only calendar service that is prone to these attacks. Apple users have also been targeted, as have users of other calendar apps.

How to Block Google Calendar Phishing Attacks

Recently, a Google employee acknowledged the increase in ‘calendar spam’ and confirmed action was being taken by Google to address the problem.

In the meantime, users can prevent these spam and phishing messages from appearing by making a change to the app settings. Users should navigate to Event Settings > Automatically Add Invitations, and select the option “No, only show invitations to which I’ve responded” and uncheck the “show declined events” option in View Options.

Businesses should also consider including Google Calendar phishing scams in their security awareness training programs to ensure employees are aware that phishing attacks are not limited to email, text message, telephone calls, and social media posts.

Business Email Compromise Scams Now the Leading Cause of Losses to Cybercrime

by G Hunt | September 10, 2019 | Email Scams

Business email compromise scams are now the leading cause of cyberattack-related losses. Billion are being lost each year and there are no signs of the attacks abating. In fact, it has been predicted that the number of attacks and losses will continue to increase.

Around 1% of global GDP is lost to cybercrime each year and that figure is increasing rapidly. Currently, around $600 billion is lost each year to cybercrime. A FinCEN report from July 2018 shows that suspicious activity report (SAR) filings have increased from $110 million per month in 2016 to $301 million per month in 2018 and Cybersecurity Ventures predicts losses will increase to $6 trillion globally by 2021. According to the FBI, more than $1.2 billion was lost to business email compromise scams in the United States alone in 2018.

Business email compromise (BEC) scams involve the impersonation of an executive or other individual, whose compromise email account is used to send fraudulent wire transfer requests. A variation sees a business associate of the company spoofed and requests sent demanding outstanding involves be paid.  The latter is now more common than attacks spoofing the CEO.

BEC attacks usually start with a spear phishing attack to obtain email account credentials. Once email credentials are compromised, the account is used to send messages to other individuals in the organization, such as employees in the payroll, HR, or finance department. Since the emails come from a trusted source within the organization and the wire transfer requests are not unusual, payment is often made.

A successful attack can see sizable wire transfers made to accounts controlled by the attackers. Payments are often for tens of thousands of dollars or, in some cases, millions of dollars. A recent attack on a subsidiary of the car manufacturer Toyota Boshoku Corporation saw a fraudulent transfer of $37 million made to the attackers.

While that incident stands out due to the scale of the loss, fraudulent transfers of millions of dollars are far from unusual. In many cases, only a small percentage of the transferred funds are recovered. Since these attacks can be extremely profitable, it is no surprise that the so many cybercriminal gangs are getting in on the act and are conducting campaigns.

A new report from the insurer AIG shows BEC attacks are now the leading reason for cybersecurity-related insurance claims, having overtaken ransomware attacks for the first time. 23% of all cyberattack-related claims are due to BEC scams.

In the most part, these BEC attacks can be prevented with basic cybersecurity measures. AIG attributes the rise in claims to poor security measures at the targeted organizations. Investigations have uncovered numerous basic cybersecurity failures such as not providing security awareness training to employees, the failure to enforce the use of strong passwords, no multi-factor authentication, and poor email security controls.

If businesses fail to implement these basic cybersecurity measures, attacks are inevitable. Cyber-insurance policies may cover some of the losses, but many SMBs will not be in a position to make a claim. For them, BEC attacks can be catastrophic.

If you run a business and are concerned about your defenses against phishing, spear phishing, and BEC attacks, contact TitanHQ to find out more about effective cybersecurity solutions that can block BEC attacks.

New CAPTCHA Phishing Scam Targets Android Users and Steals SMS Security Codes

by G Hunt | August 23, 2019 | Email Scams

A new CAPTCHA phishing scam has been detected which is being used to trick users into downloading a malicious file that intercepts multi-factor authentication codes on a user’s smartphone. With the codes, hackers can perform a more extensive attack and gain access to a much wider range of resources such as email and bank accounts.

When a visitor lands on the phishing page, a check is performed to determine what device is being used. If the user is on an Android device, a malicious APK file is downloaded to their device. Any other platform will receive a zip file containing malware.

A fake version of the familiar Google reCAPTCHA is displayed on the phishing page. It closely resembles the legitimate version, although it does not support sound and the images do not change when they are clicked. The fake reCAPTCHA is housed on a PHP webpage and any clicks on the images are submitted to the PHP page, which triggers the download of the malicious file. This campaign appears to be focused on mobile users.

On an Android device, the malicious APK intercepts PIN codes from two-factor authentication messages, which allow the attackers to gain access to the user’s bank account.  With these PIN codes, an email account can also be compromised, which would allow further accounts to be compromised by requesting password resets.

A successful attack could see several accounts used by an individual subjected to unauthorized access. Businesses are also attacked in a similar manner. Successful attacks on businesses could give the attackers access to huge volumes of sensitive company data and even infrastructure resources.

This method of delivering malware is nothing new and has been around since 2009. A CAPTCHA phishing campaign was detected in February 2018 attempting to download a malicious file, and a similar campaign was run in 2016.

A method of attack is adopted for a while then dropped. While it is possible to prepare the workforce for phishing attacks such as this through training, security awareness training alone is not enough as tactics frequently change, and new methods of attack are frequently developed.

As this attack shows, two-factor authentication is far from infallible. In addition to this method of obtaining 2FA codes, the SS7 protocol used to send SMS messages has flaws that can be exploited to intercept messages.

Security awareness training and 2FA are important, but what is required on top of these protections is a powerful anti-spam and anti-phishing solution. Such a solution will block phishing emails at the gateway and make sure they are not delivered to inboxes.

It is important to choose a solution that provides protection against impersonation attacks. Many phishing campaigns spoof a familiar brand or known individual. A solution that incorporates Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) will help to ensure that the sender of the message is genuine, by performing checks to make sure that the sender of the message is authorized to send messages from that domain.

Most anti-phishing solutions incorporate an anti-virus component that scans all incoming attachments for malware and malicious code, but cybercriminals are using sophisticated methods to evade detection by AV solutions. Files may include malicious code that is hard to detect. A sandbox is therefore required to execute suspicious attachments in a safe environment where they can be monitored for malicious activity. By testing attachments in the sandbox, malicious files can be identified and more genuine emails and attachments will arrive in inboxes.

SpamTitan incorporates these features and more. Together they help to ensure a catch rate in excess of 99.9%, with a low false positive rate of 0.03%. With SpamTitan in place, you will be well protected against phishing attacks such as the latest CAPTCHA scam.

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Business Email Compromise Attacks Cost $310 Million a Month in 2018

by G Hunt | July 29, 2019 | Email Scams

New figures have been released by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on 2018 Business Email Compromise attacks. The latest FinCEN report highlighted the pervasiveness of the threat and potential for the attacks to result in serious financial harm.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are concerned with gaining access to a business email account and using that account to send messages to other individuals in an organization and business contacts. While compromised email accounts can be used for a variety of purposes, with BEC the primary goal is usually to convince an employee to make a fraudulent wire transfer or send sensitive information such as employee W-2 Forms.

Social engineering techniques are used to obtain the credentials of a high-level executive and convince an employee to make a fraudulent transfer. While at face value these scams are simplistic – they involve sending an email that requests a bank transfer be made – the scams are often highly sophisticated.

More than $300 Million a Month Was Lost to 2018 Business Email Compromise Attacks

The FinCEN report shows why these attacks are worth the effort. The average fraudulent transaction value in 2018 was $125,439 and $310 million per month was lost to BEC scams in 2018.

FinCEN received approximately 1,100 suspicious activity reports in 2018 that were attributed to BEC scams. It should be taken into consideration that many businesses are not obliged to report security breaches such as BEC scams, so the total losses will be considerably higher.

BEC attacks are also being conducted far more frequently and losses to the scams have skyrocketed. The 2016 FinCEN report indicates at least $110 million was lost to BEC scams. Losses to BEC scams have increased by 172% increase in just two years.

There has been a marked change in BEC scam tactics over the last two years, which has helped to increase the dollar amount of each fraudulent transaction.

As previously mentioned, the scams involve compromising an email account, which was commonly the email account of the CEO or CFO. The email accounts were used to send wire transfer requests and the average transaction value was $50,272. The 2018 figures show that there has been a shift from attacks that impersonate the CEO to attacks impersonating contractors and other vendors.

If a vendor’s email account is compromised, fake invoices can be sent to all companies that the vendor works for. Further, the typical amount of a vendor invoice is substantially higher than the transfer amounts typically requested by CEOs.

FinCEN’s figures show the average fake invoice transaction value was $125,439 for fake invoices from contractors, which is $75,167 more than the typical CEO email request.

FinCEN’s 2017 figures indicate 33% of BEC attacks involved impersonation of the CEO, but the percentage had fallen to just 12% in 2018. 39% of all BEC attacks in 2018 involved the impersonation of an outside entity such as a business associate, contractor, or vendor.

How to Improve Defenses Against BEC Attacks

With attacks increasing and losses spiraling, businesses need to take steps to reduce risk by improving email security and providing further training to employees. Employees should be made aware of the risk of BEC attacks, told about the latest threats, and should be taught how to identify a scam email. Policies should also be developed and implemented which require verification of all emailed transfer requests and bank account changes.

Training and policies will help to create a strong last line of defense, but the primary goal should be blocking the scam emails at the email gateway to ensure end users are not tested. That requires a powerful anti-spam service such as SpamTitan. SpamTitan blocks more than 99.97% of all spam and malicious emails to keep business inboxes threat free.

For further information on SpamTitan and other cybersecurity protections to reduce the risk of phishing and BEC attacks, contact TitanHQ today.

New Office 365 Phishing Scams Detected

by G Hunt | July 22, 2019 | Email Scams

Two new Office 365 phishing scams have been detected in the past few days. One scam uses a fake Office 365 site to deliver the Trickbot Trojan and the other is a spear phishing campaign targeting Office 365 administrators to capture their credentials.

The Trickbot campaign uses a realistic domain – get.office365.live – that has all the typical elements of a genuine Microsoft website, including links to Microsoft resources. The website, identified by MalwareHunterTeam, detects the visitor’s browser and displays a popup within a few seconds of landing on the website.

A different warning is displayed for Firefox and Chrome users, with the associated logos. The warning comes from either the Chrome or Firefox Update Center. The message states that the user has an older version of the browser, which may cause incorrect site mapping, loss of all stored and personal data, and browser errors. An update button is supplied to download the browser update.

If the update button is clicked, it triggers the download of an executable file called upd365_58v01.exe. If that executable is run, the Trickbot Trojan will be downloaded and inserted into a svchost.exe process. That makes it harder for the user to detect the information stealer through Task Manager.

The Trickbot Trojan has several capabilities. It is a banking Trojan that can intercept banking credentials using webinjects. It also contains a password grabbing module which steals saved login credentials, autofill information, browsing history, and Bitcoin wallets. The malware also serves as a downloader for other malware variants and a module also been developed for propagation which includes the EternalBlue exploit.

Once installed, the malware stays in continuous contact with its C2. Due to the obfuscation methods used, the infection is unlikely to be detected by an end user, but the network admin may notice unusual traffic or attempts to connect to blacklisted domains.

This is a professional Office 365 phishing campaign that is likely to fool many end users. It is currently unclear whether traffic is being directed to the site through malvertising redirects or phishing emails.

Office 365 Admins Targeted

A phishing campaign has been detected which is targeting Office 365 administrators. Fake browser warnings are used to trick admins into disclosing their login credentials.

Emails have been constructed using the Microsoft and Office 365 logos which contain a warning about an aspect of Office 365 which requires the admin’s immediate attention. One message warns the admin about a mail redirect on an Office 365 inbox which indicates there has been an account compromise. Another advises the admin that the company’s Office 365 licenses have expired.

The emails contain a link for the admin to use to login to their Office 365 account to address the problem. The user will be directed to a webpage on the windows.net domain which has a valid certificate from Microsoft. The Microsoft login box is identical to that used on the Microsoft site.

Most admins will be vigilant and wary of warnings such as these. Even if the links are clicked, admins are likely to check the domain to make sure it is genuine. However, these scams are conducted because they do work. Some admins will be fooled and will disclose their credentials.

Admin credentials are highly valuable as they allow an attacker to create new office 365 accounts, access other user’s mailboxes, and send phishing emails from other accounts on the domain. These targeted attacks on admins are becoming more common due to the high value of the accounts and the range of attacks they allow a hacker to perform.

There is no single cybersecurity solution that will provide total protection from phishing attacks. What is needed is a defense in depth approach. End users should be provided with ongoing security awareness training to ensure they are aware of the most common threats and know how to identify potential scams. Phishing simulations are useful for gauging how effective training has been.

However, the priority must be to block these attacks and prevent end users from being tested. An advanced spam filter such as SpamTitan blocks more than 99.97% of spam and phishing emails. SpamTitan scans all incoming messages for malware and uses dual anti-virus engines for greater accuracy. A sandboxing feature has also now been added to allow the safe execution and analysis of suspicious email attachments.

WebTitan serves as an additional security layer that prevents end users from visiting malicious websites. The DNS filter can be used to exercise control over the types of websites that can be visited by employees and blocks all attempts to visit blacklisted websites, such as those that have been used for malware distribution, scams, or phishing.

Contact TitanHQ today to find out more about how SpamTitan and WebTitan can block Office 365 phishing attacks, the different deployment options, pricing information, and to book a product demonstration.

New Office 365 Phishing Scams FAQs

Will a spam filter block all spam and phishing emails?

No spam filter will be 100% effective, 100% of the time, which is why it is important to implement layered defenses. Many spam filters block around 99% of spam. SpamTitan is an advanced spam filter that has been independently verified as blocking 99.97% of spam email with a low false positive rate of just 0.03%.

How does email content filtering work?

Once initial checks have been performed to identify malware and emails from known spam sources, message content filtering takes place. Email content is analyzed, and each email is assigned a spam score based on phrases, keywords, images, and hyperlinks. A threshold is set and if that score is reached, the message will be rejected or quarantined.

What is greylisting and why is it important?

Greylisting is an important spam filtering mechanism for detecting new sources of spam. Greylisting initially rejects an email and requests the message is resent. Since email servers being used for spamming are busy sending huge volumes of messages, they do not respond to these requests or there is a significant delay. The delay is a good indicator that the message is spam.

Why should I scan outbound emails?

Outbound scanning is important for several reasons. By scanning outbound emails, email account compromises can be detected quickly to block business email compromise attacks. Attempts to use internal email accounts for sending malware and spam will be blocked, and tags can be applied to certain data types to identify attempted data theft by malicious insiders.

Increase in Cyberattacks on Ships Prompts U.S. Coast Guard Warning

by G Hunt | July 11, 2019 | Email Scams

The past few months have seen an increase in reported cyberattacks on ships. The rise in cyberattacks on the commercial shipping network has prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to issue a warning.

This is the second such warning to be issued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the past three months. Together with a recent shipping industry report, they confirm that shipping companies and commercial vessels are being targeted by hackers and many of those attacks are succeeding.

Ships are now largely controlled by computers and mouse clicks and there is increasing reliance on electronic navigation systems. It is now common for operational technology and information technology to be linked together via onboard networks and certain systems are now connected to the internet. When devices are networked and connect to the Internet, hackers are given the opportunity to attack.

The cyberattack that prompted the latest warning occurred in February 2019. A ship bound for the Port of New York started experiencing severe disruption to its shipboard network. Vessel control systems were not affected, although the functionality of the network was severely degraded. The U.S. Coast Guard led a forensic investigation which revealed malware had been installed on the network.

The ship was known to be vulnerable to attack so the crew did not typically use the network for personal matters such as email. The network was only used for business purposes, which involved contact with third parties to maintain charts, manage cargo data, and communicate with shore-side facilities. It is currently unclear how the malware was installed, but what is clear is that cybersecurity defenses were nowhere near sufficient.

The advice from the Coast Guard is to implement network segmentation to limit the harm that can be caused in the event of an attack. Network profiles should be created for each user, and the rule of least privilege should be applied. Anti-virus software should be installed, all software should be kept up to date, and care should be taken connecting any external device to a networked computer due to the risk of malware.

If hackers can gain access to the network, they can steal sensitive data, cause serious disruption to internal networks, and systems could even be rendered inoperable. An extortion attack involving ransomware, for instance, could leave shipping firms with no alternative other than to pay up.

These attacks are the latest in a string of cyberattacks on commercial vessels. In December 2018, 21 shipping associations and industry groups produced a set of guidelines on cybersecurity onboard ships to help commercial vessel operators improve security, secure their networks, and make it difficult for hackers.

The report details recent USB-based attacks, RDP-based attacks, phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, and attacks involving malware, viruses, and worms. The attacks have caused major delays to shipping firms, financial losses, and in some cases have jeopardized safety.

Just as captains must make sure that access to the engine room is restricted, the same should be the case for computer systems. If systems are not secured, cyberattacks are inevitable.

TitanHQ can help shipping firms protect against email and web-based attacks and block the two main vectors that are used to attack commercial vessels.

Contact the team today to ask about SpamTitan and WebTitan: TitanHQ’s award winning antispam and DNS filtering solutions.

IRS Issues Warning About Tax Phishing Scams

by G Hunt | March 6, 2019 | Email Scams

During tax season, tax phishing scams are rife. If cybercriminals can steal personal information such as the information contained on W2 forms, they can use the information to file fraudulent tax returns. Each set of credentials can net cybercriminals thousands of dollars. Attacks on businesses can be even more profitable. If an attack results in the theft of the tax credentials of a company’s entire workforce, hundreds of fraudulent tax returns can be filed.

The IRS works hard to combat fraud, but even so, many of these attacks are successful and fraudulent tax refunds are issued. This week, as part of its efforts to combat tax fraud, the IRS has launched its 2019 Dirty Dozen campaign. The campaign raises awareness of the threat of tax fraud and encourages taxpayers, businesses, and tax professionals to be vigilant.

The campaign features 12 common tax scams that attempt to obtain personal information or access to systems that contain such information. The campaign will see a different scam highlighted for 12 consecutive days. The campaign was launched on March 4 with the biggest threat in tax season: Tax phishing scams.

Common Tax Phishing Scams

Tax phishing scams are constantly evolving and each year several new tax phishing scams are identified. The most common scams and attacks are:

• Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks
• Business Email Spoofing (BES) attacks
• Email impersonation attacks
• Malware

BEC attacks involve the use of a genuine business email account to send messages to employees requesting the W2 form information of employees, changes to business account information, requests to reroute direct deposits and make fraudulent wire transfers. The attackers often gain access to a high-level executive’s email account through a spear phishing campaign. BEC is one of the most common business tax phishing scams.

BES attacks are similar, except that no email account has been compromised. The email address of an executive or other employee is spoofed so that emails appears to have been sent from within an organization.

Email impersonation attacks are common during tax season. Scammers impersonate the IRS and use a variety of lures to obtain personal information. Common lures are threats of legal action or fines for outstanding taxes and offers of tax refunds. They often direct users to a website where they are required to enter their personal information. These phishing webpages are also linked to on social media websites. The clients of tax professionals may also be impersonated. Emails often request changes be made to direct deposit accounts or contain requests for sensitive information.

Malware is often used to gain access to the computers of tax professionals, and employees in the payroll and HR departments. Keyloggers are commonly used as they allow the attackers to steal login credentials. Malware can also transfer files containing sensitive information to the attackers’ servers. Malware is often installed via scripts in email attachments – malicious macros for instance – or via drive-by downloads from malicious websites.

New Phishing Scam Targeting Tax Professionals

One of the new tax phishing scams to emerge this year targets tax professionals. First the attackers gain access to tax professionals’ computers, either through spear phishing campaigns or by installing malware. Client tax information is then stolen and fraudulent tax returns are files in the clients’ names. When the IRS processes the refunds, payments are sent to taxpayers’ bank accounts. Those taxpayers then receive a call or an email demanding the return of the funds which have been paid in error. The attackers claim to be from a debt collection agency used by the IRS or the IRS itself.

Don’t Become a Victim of a Tax Phishing Scam

Many taxpayers and businesses fall victim to tax phishing scams each year, especially during tax season when attacks increase; however, by taking some simple steps and being vigilant it is possible to identify scams and keep financial and personal data secure.

Any email, text, or telephone call that requests personal/tax information should be treated as a potential scam. If an email or text message is received that claims to be from the IRS demanding payment of outstanding taxes, an offer of a tax refund, or a threat of legal action, bear in mind that the IRS does not initiate contact via email or text message asking for personal information. If such a message is received, forward the email to phishing@irs.gov and contact the IRS or check your online tax account to find out if there is a genuine problem. Never use the contact information or links in an email and do not open an email attachment in an email that appears to have been sent by the IRS.

Businesses can include information about tax phishing scams in their security awareness training sessions, but departments that are likely to be targeted by cybercriminals – payroll, human resources, finance and accounting Etc.) should receive specific training ahead off the start of tax season. Sending monthly reminders about phishing attacks and other tax scams each month via email is also a good best practice.

Since most attacks start with a phishing email, businesses should ensure that they have an advanced spam filtering solution in place to block phishing and other emails at the gateway before they can be delivered to end users. SpamTitan is an ideal anti-spam solution for businesses and tax professionals to protect against tax phishing scams. The solution blocks more than 99.9% of spam and phishing emails and includes outbound email scanning to ensure that compromised email accounts cannot be used for spamming.

To protect against internet phishing scams, a web filtering solution is ideal. WebTitan prevents end users from visiting phishing websites, including blocking visits to malicious websites via hyperlinks in scam emails. The solution also blocks drive-by malware downloads and other web-based threats.

If you are a tax professional or you run a business and are unhappy with your current anti-spam or web filtering solution provider, or you have yet to implement either of these solutions, give the TitanHQ team a call today for further information on how these solutions can protect your business, details of pricing, and to book a product demonstration.

How Does Business Email Get Hacked?

by G Hunt | January 22, 2019 | Email Scams

Barely a day goes by without an announcement being made about an email account compromise, especially in the healthcare industry, but how does business email get hacked? What are the main ways that email account access is gained by unauthorized individuals?

Four Ways Business Email Gets Hacked

There four main ways that business email gets hacked, although fortunately there are simple steps that can be taken to improve email security and reduce the risk of an email account compromise at your business.

Phishing Attacks

The easiest way for a hacker to access business email accounts is to ask the account holder for their password. This method is incredibly simple, costs next to nothing, and is very effective. Phishing, like fishing, uses a lure to achieve its aim. An attacker only needs to craft an email with a plausible reason for divulging a password.

The attack could be as simple as spoofing an email from the IT department that requests the user change his or her password for security reasons. A link is supplied in the email that directs the user to a site where they have to enter their password and a replacement. Office 365 phishing scams are now common. A user is directed to a spoofed website where they are presented with a standard Office 365 login box, which they need to enter to open a shared file for example.

The lures are diverse, although there is usually a valid reason for providing login credentials, urgency, and often a threat – The failure to take action will result in harm or loss.

Brute Force Attacks

An alternative method of hacking business email accounts is for the attacker to attempt to guess a user’s password. This is a much more long-winded approach that can require thousands of attempts before the password is guessed. This technique is automated and made easier by poor password choices and the failure to change default passwords. Passwords obtained in previous breaches can be used, which will catch out people who use the same passwords for multiple platforms. Information about a person can also be found on social media – A partner’s name, child’s name, pet name, or dates of birth – Information that is commonly used to create passwords.

Man-In-The-Middle Attacks

A man-in-the-middle attack involves an attacker intercepting information such as a password when it is sent between two parties. Information can be intercepted in unencrypted emails or when a user logs into a web-based platform via their browser. Man-in-the-middle attacks are common on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks and evil twin Wi-Fi hotspots – Hotspots that mimic a genuine hotspot provider, such as a coffee shop or hotel. Any information transmitted via that hotspot can be easily intercepted.

Writing Down Passwords

Many businesses have implemented password polices that require the use of strong and difficult to remember passwords. As a result, some employees write their passwords down on post-it notes, tape a password to their computer, or keep a note under their keyboard where any visitor to an office could discover it.

How to Stop Business Email Getting Hacked

These methods of hacking business email accounts are easy and inexpensive to block through low-cost cybersecurity solutions, policies and procedures, and staff training.

For businesses, the most important control to implement to protect against phishing is an advanced spam filter. A spam filter inspects all incoming emails for common spam signatures and malicious links and blocks messages before they are delivered to end users. Some spam filters also inspect outgoing email, which helps to prevent a breached email account from being used for further phishing attacks on contacts.

Even the best spam filters will not block every single phishing email so security awareness training for staff is essential. Regular training sessions should be provided – at least twice annually – and these should be augmented with more regular reminders about security and newsletters about the latest threats. Phishing simulations are useful for testing the effectiveness of training and to condition employees how to respond to email threats.

Brute force attacks are best prevented with good password policies that prevent weak passwords from being set. To prevent employees from writing passwords down, consider paying for a password manager or allowing the use of long passphrases, which are easy to remember but difficult to guess. Ensure two-factor authentication is enabled and rate limiting is applied to block login attempts after a set number of failed password guesses.

Man-in-the-middle attacks can be prevented in a number of ways. Remote workers should be provided with a VPN to access work networks and email. Some web filters, WebTitan for instance, can be used to protect remote workers online and prevent man-in-the-middle attacks and can also to prevent users from visiting malicious websites, such as those used for phishing.

If you want to improve email security, TitanHQ can help. Contact the team today for information on spam filters to block phishing attacks and to find out more about the benefits of web filtering.

How Does Business Email Get Hacked FAQ

Will a spam filter block ransomware attacks?

A spam filter is effective at identifying and blocking malicious files sent by email. SpamTitan uses dual antivirus engines that detect all known malware and ransomware and sandboxing to subject email attachments to in-depth analysis to identify new malware and ransomware variants. However, ransomware can be deployed in many different ways, not just via email, so other cybersecurity measures will also be required.

How can I justify the cost of an additional spam filter for Office 365?

Consider the cost of mitigating a successful malware or phishing attack, data theft/loss, notifying customers, and the harm caused to your company’s reputation. The cost of an additional spam filter is several orders of magnitude lower. Take advantage of a free trial of a new solution to find out what additional threats are blocked to help determine if the cost is justified.

Can I block 100% of all spam and phishing emails?

It is possible to block 100% of spam and phishing emails but doing so may see an unacceptable number of genuine emails blocked. The best spam filters block in excess of 99.9% of spam emails and allow spam tolerance thresholds to be set lower for higher risk departments such as finance to almost reach 100% without blocking genuine emails.

Why is sandboxing important in a spam filter?

Spam filters scan for malicious email attachments using one or more antivirus engines. This ensures 100% of known malware is blocked. However, new malware variants are constantly being released and signature-based mechanisms do not identify these new threats. Sandboxing sees email attachments that pass initial checks sent for deep analysis to identify the malicious actions of unknown malware.

Why do I need a web filter if I have a spam filter?

Phishing emails usually have an email and web component. A spam filter will block the majority of phishing emails but should be combined with a web filter for greater protection. A web filter provides time-of-click protection to prevent users from visiting known malicious websites. A web filter protects also protects against phishing and malware downloads through general web browsing.

Love Letter Email Scam Delivers Cocktail of Malware

by G Hunt | January 21, 2019 | Email Scams

A new email campaign is being conducted in the run up to Valentine’s Day which attempts to get users to open email attachments by fooling them into thinking they are love letters. The love letter email scam includes enticing subject lines such as ‘Love Letter’, ‘I Love You’, ‘This is my love letter to you’, ‘Always thinking about you’, and other love and love letter themes.

These types of scams are common in the run up to Valentine’s Day, and as the day draws closer, the likelihood of the scams succeeding grows.

The emails contain a zip file containing a JavaScript file with a variety of names, all of which start with Love_You. Extracting and running the file will result in the download of ransomware and other malware variants.

If the JavaScript file is run, it launches a PowerShell command that downloads and runs a malware variant named krablin.exe. Krablin.exe is also copied to USB thumb drives that are plugged into the computer.

A further four malware variants are subsequently downloaded to the victim’s device: The Phorpiex spambot, a Monero cryptocurrency miner (XMRig), a further malware downloader, and the latest version of GandCrab ransomware: A particularly nasty combination of malware.

The malspam campaign was detected by SANS ISC researcher Brad Duncan who determined the campaign has been running since at least November 2018. Several different subject lines and attachments have been identified and multiple spoofed sending addresses are used in this campaign.

Word documents and Excel spreadsheets containing malicious macros are more commonly used to spread malware, although JavaScript based malspam is nothing new. Most individuals are not familiar with .js files so may choose not to open them, although the theme of this love letter email scam may tempt people into making an exception. JavaScript malware may also be executed by Windows, without the user having to open the file. Simply saving a JavaScript file may be all that is required to trigger the infection process.

To prevent email scams such as this from succeeding, businesses should ensure that their employees receive ongoing security awareness training. Regular email security alerts should be sent to the workforce to keep them abreast of the latest techniques that are being used by scammers to install malware and phish for sensitive information.

It is also essential for an advanced spam filter to be implemented. This will ensure the majority of malicious messages are blocked and not delivered to end users. SpamTitan scans all incoming and outgoing messages and uses a variety of techniques to identify spam and malicious messages. Those controls ensure a block rate in excess of 99.9%, while dual antivirus engines provide total protection against all known malware variants.

SpamTitan is available on a free trial with options to suit all businesses and managed service providers. For further information, to register for the no-obligation free trial, or to book a product demonstration, contact TitanHQ today.

Novel Phishing Scam Uses Custom Web Fonts to Evade Detection

by G Hunt | January 10, 2019 | Email Scams

A new phishing scam has been detected that uses a novel method to evade detection – The use of custom fonts to implement a substitution cipher that makes the source code of the phishing page appear as plaintext.

Many phishing web pages obfuscate their source code to make it harder for automated security solutions to uncover malicious actions and make the phishing pages appear harmless. As such, the phishing sites are not blocked and users may be fooled into supplying their credentials as requested. The phishing web pages used in this scam will display what appears to be a genuine website when the page is rendered in the browser. Users will be presented with a spoofed web page that closely resembles the standard login page of their bank. To the user, apart from the domain name, there is nothing to indicate that the site is not genuine. If credentials are entered, they will be harvested by the scammer and used to gain access to the users’ bank account.

In this case, a substitution cipher is used to obfuscate the source code. To security solutions, the text is encoded, which makes it difficult to determine what that code does. This tactic has been used in previous phishing campaigns, with the substitution cipher applied using JavaScript. While users may be fooled, automated security solutions can detect the JavaScript fairly easily and can block access to the web page.

The latest campaign uses custom fonts – termed woff files – which are present on the page and hidden through base64 encoding.  These custom fonts are used to implement the cipher and make the source code appear as plaintext, while the actual source code is encrypted and remains hidden.  The substitution is performed using CSS on the landing page, rather than JavaScript. This technique has not been seen before and is much harder to detect.

The substitution cipher results in the user being displayed the correct text when the page is rendered in the browser, although that text will not exist on the page. Solutions that search for certain keywords to identify whether a site is malicious will therefore not find those keywords and will not block access to the page. This technique substitutes individual letters such as abcd with alternate letters jehr for example using woff and woff2 fonts. While the page is rendered correctly for the user, when a program reads the source code it is presented with jumbled, gibberish letters.

As an additional measure to avoid detection, the logos that have been stolen from the targeted bank are also obfuscated. It is common for bank logos to be stolen and included on phishing pages to convince visitors they are on a genuine site, but the use of the logos can be detected. By rendering the graphics using scalable vector graphics (SVG) files, the logos and their source do not appear in the source code of the page and are hard to detect.

These new techniques show just how important it is to block phishing emails at source before they are delivered to end users’ inboxes and the need for comprehensive cybersecurity training to be provided to employees to help them identify potentially malicious emails. A web filtering solution is also important to prevent users from visiting phishing pages, either through general browsing, redirects via malvertising, or blocking users when they click embedded hyperlinks in phishing emails.

To find out more about cybersecurity solutions that can protect against phishing attacks, contact the TitanHQ team today.

Does 2-Factor Authentication Stop Phishing Attacks?

by G Hunt | January 10, 2019 | Email Scams

2-factor authentication is an important safeguard to prevent unauthorized account access, but does 2-factor authentication stop phishing attacks?

What is 2-Factor Authentication?

2-Factor authentication is commonly used as an additional protection measure to prevent accounts from being accessed by unauthorized individuals in the event that a password is compromised.

If a password is disclosed in a phishing attack or has otherwise been obtained or guessed, a second authentication method is required before the account can be accessed.

Two-factor authentication uses a combination of two different methods of authentication, commonly something a person owns (device/bank card), something a person knows knows (a password or PIN), and/or something a person has (fingerprint, iris scan, voice pattern, or a token).

The second factor control is triggered if an individual, authorized or otherwise, attempts to login from an unfamiliar location or from a device that has not previously been used to access the account.

For instance, a person uses their laptop to connect from a known network and enters their password. No second factor is required. The same person uses the same device and password from an unfamiliar location and a second factor must be supplied. If the login credentials are used from an unfamiliar device, by a hacker for instance that has obtained a username and password in a phishing attack, the second factor is also required.

A token or code is often used to verify identity, which is sent to a mobile phone. In such cases, in addition to a password, an attacker would also need to have the user’s phone.

Does 2-Factor Authentication Stop Phishing Attacks?

So, does 2-factor authentication stop phishing attacks from succeeding? In many cases, it does, but 2-factor authentication is not infallible. While it was once thought to be highly effective at stopping unauthorized account access, opinion is now changing. It is certainly an important additional, low-cost layer of security that is worthwhile implementing, but 2-factor authentication alone will not prevent all phishing attacks from succeeding.

There are various methods that can be used to bypass 2-factor authentication, for instance, if a user is directed to a phishing page and enters their credentials, the hacker can then use those details in real-time to login to the legitimate site. A 2FA code is sent to the user’s device, the user then enters that code into the phishing page. The attacker then uses the code on the legitimate site.

This 2-factor authentication bypass is somewhat cumbersome, but this week a phishing tool has been released that automates this process. The penetration testing tool was created by a Polish researcher named Piotr Duszynski, and it allows 2FA to be bypassed with ease.

The tool, named Modlishka, is a reverse proxy that has been modified for handling login page traffic. The tool sits between the user and the target website on a phishing domain. When the user connects to the phishing page hosting this tool, the tool serves content from the legitimate site – Gmail for instance – but all traffic passes through the tool and is recorded, including the 2FA code.

The user supplies their credentials, a 2-factor code is sent to their phone, and that code is entered, giving the attacker account access.

It is an automated version of the above bypass that only requires a hacker to have a domain to use, a valid TLS certificate for the domain, and a copy of the tool. No website phishing templates need to be created as they are served from the genuine site. Since the tool has been made available on Github, the 2FA bypass could easily be used by hackers.

Additional Controls to Stop Phishing Attacks

To protect against phishing, a variety of methods must be used. First, an advanced spam filter is required to prevent phishing emails from reaching inboxes. SpamTitan, for instance, blocks more than 99.9% of spam and phishing emails.

Fewer than 0.1% of emails may make it past the spam filter, but any one could result in an account compromise. Security awareness training should therefore be provided to employees to help them identify suspicious emails.

Unfortunately, people do make mistakes and phishing emails can be highly realistic, so it is wise to also implement a web filter.

A web filter will block attempts to connect to known phishing sites and can assess sites in real time to help determine their authenticity. If the checks fail, the user will be prevented from accessing the site.

These anti-phishing controls are now essential cybersecurity measures for businesses to protect against phishing attacks, and are all the more important since 2FA cannot be relied upon to protect against unauthorized access once a password has been compromised.

You can find out more about SpamTitan and WebTitan by contacting TitanHQ.

Office 365 Phishing Emails Masquerade as Non-Delivery Notifications

by G Hunt | December 18, 2018 | Email Scams

campaign is to obtain users’ Office 365 passwords.

The phishing campaign was detected by ISC Handler Xavier Mertens and the campaign appears to still be active.

The phishing emails closely resemble legitimate Office 365 non-delivery notifications and include Office 365 branding. As is the case with official non-delivery notifications, the user is alerted that messages have not been delivered and told that action is required.

The Office 365 phishing emails claim that “Microsoft found Several Undelivered Messages” and attributes the non-delivery to “Server Congestion.” The emails ask the sender to retype the recipient’s email address and send the message again, although conveniently they include a Send Again button.

If users click the Send Again button, they will be directed to a website that closely resembles the official Office 365 website and includes a login box that has been auto-populated with the user’s email address.

If the password is entered, a JavaScript function sends both the email address and password to the scammer. The user will then be redirected to the genuine outlook.office365.com website where they will be presented with a real Office 365 login box.

While the Office 365 phishing emails and the website look legitimate, there are signs that all is not what it seems. The emails are well written and the sender’s email – postmaster@us.ibm.com – looks official but there is irregular capitalization of the warning message: Something that would not occur on an official Microsoft notification.

The clearest sign that this is a phishing scam is the domain to which users are directed if they click on the Send Again button. It is not an official Microsoft domain (agilones.com).

While the error in the email may be overlooked, users should notice the domain, although some users may proceed and enter passwords as the login box is identical to the login on the official Microsoft site.

The campaign shows just how important it is to carefully check every message before taking any action and to always check the domain before disclosing any sensitive information.

Scammers use Office 365 phishing emails because so many businesses have signed up to use Office 365. Mass email spam campaigns therefore have a high probability of reaching an Outlook inbox. That said, it is easy to target office 365 users. A business that is using Office 365 broadcasts it through their public DNS MX records.

Businesses can improve their resilience to phishing attacks through mandatory security awareness training for all employees. Employees should be told to always check messages carefully and should be taught how to identify phishing emails.

Businesses should also ensure they have an advanced spam filtering solution in place. While Microsoft does offer anti-phishing protection for Office 365 through its Advanced Threat Protection (APT) offering, businesses should consider using a third-party spam filtering solution with Office 365.

SpamTitan provides superior protection against phishing and zero-day attacks, an area where APT struggles.

Office 365 Spam Filtering Controls Failed to Prevent Costly Malware Infection

by G Hunt | December 14, 2018 | Email Scams

A U.S. school system had Office 365 spam filtering controls in place and other cybersecurity solutions installed, but still experienced a costly 6-week malware infection. In this post we explore what went wrong and how you can improve security in your organization.

Multi-Layered Defenses Breached

If you want to mount a solid defense and prevent hackers from gaining access to your networks and data, multi-layered cybersecurity defenses are required, but for one Georgia school district that was not enough. On paper, their defenses looked sound. Office 365 spam filtering controls had been applied to protect the email system, the school district had a firewall appliance protecting the network, and a web filter had been installed to control what users could do online. Endpoint security had also been installed.

The school district was also updating its desktops to Windows 10 and its servers to Windows Server 2012 or later. Everything looked nice and secure.

However, the transportation department delayed the upgrades. The department was still sharing files on a local Windows 2003 server and some of the desktops were still running Windows XP, even though support for the OS had long since ended. The outdated software and lack of patching was exploited by the attackers.

How Was the Malware Installed?

The investigation has not yet determined exactly how the attack was initiated, but it is believed that it all started with an email. As a result of the actions of an end user, a chain of events was triggered that resulted in a 6-week struggle to mitigate the attack, the cost of which – in terms of time and resources – was considerable.

The attack is believed to have started on a Windows XP machine with SMBv1 enabled. That device had drives mapped to the Windows 2003 server. The malware that was installed was the Emotet Trojan, which used the EternalBlue exploit to spread across the network to other vulnerable devices. The attackers were able to gain control of those devices and installed cryptocurrency mining malware.

The cryptocurrency mining slowed the devices to such an extent that they were virtually unusable, causing many to continually crash and reboot. The network also slowed to a snail’s pace due to the streams of malicious traffic. While the upgraded Windows 10 machines were not affected initially, the attackers subsequently downloaded keyloggers onto the compromised devices and obtained the credentials of an IT support technician who had domain administration rights. The attackers then used those privileges to disable Windows Defender updates on desktops, servers, and domain controllers.

Over the course of a week, further Trojan modules were downloaded by creating scheduled tasks using the credentials of the IT support worker. A spam module was used to send malicious messages throughout the school district and several email accounts were compromised as a result and had malware downloaded. Other devices were infected through network shares. The TrickBot banking Trojan was downloaded and was used to attack the systems used by the finance department, although that Trojan was detected and blocked.

Remediation Took 6 Weeks

Remediating the attack was complicated. First the IT department disabled SMBv1 on all devices as it was not known what devices were vulnerable. Via a Windows Group Policy, the IT team then blocked the creation of scheduled tasks. Every device on the network had Windows Defender updates downloaded manually, and via autoruns for Windows, all processes and files run by the Trojan were deleted. The whole process of identifying, containing, and disabling the malware took 6 weeks.

The attack was made possible through an attack on a single user, although it was the continued use of unsupported operating systems and software that made the malware attack so severe.

The attack shows why it is crucial to ensure that IT best practices are followed and why patching is so important. For that to happen, the IT department needs to have a complete inventory of all devices and needs to make sure that each one is updated.

While Microsoft released a patch to correct the flaw in SMBv1 that was exploited through EternalBlue, the vulnerable Windows XP devices were not updated, even though Microsoft had released an update for the unsupported operating system in the spring of 2017.

Additional Protection is Required for Office 365 Inboxes

The attack also shows how the actions of a single user can have grave repercussions. By blocking malicious emails at source, attacks such as this will be much harder to pull off. While Office 365 spam filtering controls block many email-based threats, even with Microsoft’s Advanced Threat Protection many emails slip through and are delivered to inboxes.

Hackers can also see whether Office 365 is being used as it is broadcast through DNS MX records, which allows them to target Office 365 users and launch attacks.

Due to the additional cost of APT, the lack of flexibility, and the volume of malicious emails that are still delivered to inboxes, many businesses have chosen to implement a more powerful spam filtering solution on top of Office 365.

One such solution that has been developed to work seamlessly with Office 365 to improve protection against email threats is SpamTitan.

Sextortion Scams Now Combine Threat of Exposure with Multiple Malware Infections

by G Hunt | December 14, 2018 | Email Scams

Sextortion scams have proven popular with cybercriminals this year. A well written email and an email list are all that is required. The latter can easily be purchased for next to nothing via darknet marketplaces and hacking forums. Next to no technical skill is required to run sextortion scams and as scammers’ Bitcoin wallets show, they are effective.

Many sextortion scams use the tried and tested technique of threatening to expose a user’s online activities (pornography habits, dating/adultery site usage) to all their contacts and friends/family unless a payment is made. Some of the recent sextortion scams have added credibility by claiming to have users’ passwords. However, new sextortion scams have been detected in the past few days that are using a different tactic to get users to pay up.

The email template used in this scam is similar to other recent sextortion scams. The scammers claim to have a video of the victim viewing adult content. The footage was recorded through the victim’s webcam and has been spliced with screenshots of the content that was being viewed at the time.

In the new campaign the email contains the user’s email account in the body of the email, a password (Most likely an old password compromised in a previous breach), and a hyperlink that the victim is encouraged to click to download the video that has been created and see exactly what will soon be distributed via email and social media networks.

Clicking the link in the video will trigger the downloading of a zip file. The compressed file contains a document including the text of the email along with the supposed video file. That video file is actually an information stealer – The Azorult Trojan.

This form of the scam is even more likely to work than past campaigns. Many individuals who receive a sextortion scam email will see it for what it really is: A mass email containing an empty threat. However, the inclusion of a link to download a video is likely to see many individuals download the file to find out if the threat is real.

If the zip file is opened and the Azorult Trojan executed, it will silently collect information from the user’s computer – Similar information to what the attacker claims to have already obtained: Cookies from websites the user has visited, chat histories, files stored on the computer, and login information entered through browsers such as email account and bank credentials.

However, it doesn’t end there. The Azorult Trojan will also download a secondary payload: GandCrab ransomware. Once information has been collected, the user will have their personal files encrypted: Documents, spreadsheets, digital photos, databases, music, videos, and more. Recovery will depend on those files having been backed up and not also encrypted by the ransomware. Aside from permanent file loss, the only other alternative will be to pay a sizeable ransom for the key to decrypt the files.

If the email was sent to a business email account, or a personal email account that was accessed at work, files on the victim’s work computer will be encrypted. Since a record of the original email will have been extracted on the device, the reason why the malware was installed will be made clear to the IT department.

The key to not being scammed is to ignore any threats sent via email and never click links in the emails nor open email attachments.

Businesses can counter the threat by using cybersecurity solutions such as spam filters and web filters. The former prevents the emails from being delivered while the latter blocks access to sites that host malware.

Thanksgiving Themed Spam Emails Used to Spread Emotet Malware

by G Hunt | November 21, 2018 | Email Scams

There has been an increase in malspam campaigns spreading Emotet malware in recent weeks, with several new campaigns launched that spoof financial institutions – the modus operandi of the threat group behind the campaigns.

The Emotet malware campaigns use Word documents containing malicious macros. If macros are enabled, the Emotet malware payload is downloaded. The Word documents are either sent as email attachments or the spam emails contain hyperlinks which direct users to a website where the Word document is downloaded.

Various social engineering tricks have been used in these campaigns. One new tactic that was identified by Cofense is the wrapping of malicious hyperlinks in Proofpoint’s (PFPT) TAP URL Defense wrapping service to make the email appear benign.

According to Cofense, the campaign delivers Emotet malware, although Emotet in turn downloads a secondary payload. In past campaigns, Emotet has been delivered along with ransomware. First, Emotet steals credentials, then the ransomware is used to extort money from victims. In the latest campaign, the secondary malware is the banking Trojan named IcedID.

A further campaign has been detected that uses Thanksgiving themed spam emails. The messages appear to be Thanksgiving greetings for employees, and similarly contain a malicious hyperlink or document. The messages claim the document is a Thanksgiving card or greeting. Many of the emails have been personalized to aid the deception and include the user’s name. In this campaign, while the document downloaded appears to be a Word file, it is actually an XML file.

Emotet malware has been updated recently. In addition to stealing credentials, a new module has been added that harvests emails from an infected user. The previous 6 months’ emails – which include subjects, senders, and message content – are stolen. This new module is believed to have been added to improve the effectiveness of future phishing campaigns, for corporate espionage, and data theft.

The recent increase in Emotet malware campaigns, and the highly varied tactics used by the threat actors behind these campaigns, highlight the importance of adopting a defense in depth strategy to block phishing emails. Organizations should not rely on one cybersecurity solution to provide protection against email attacks.

Phishing campaigns target a weak link in security defenses: Employees. It is therefore important to ensure that all employees with corporate email accounts are taught how to recognize phishing threats. Training needs to be ongoing and should cover the latest tactics used by cybercriminals to spread malware and steal credentials. Employees are the last line of defense. Through security awareness training, the defensive line can be significantly strengthened.

As a frontline defense, all businesses and organizations should deploy an advanced spam filtering solution. While Office 365 email includes a basic level of protection against phishing attacks, a powerful third-party anti-phishing and spam filtering solution is required to provide protection against more sophisticated email attacks.

SpamTitan is an advanced email filtering solution that uses predictive techniques to provide superior protection against phishing attacks, zero-day attacks, and new malware variants that bypass signature-based defenses.

In addition to scanning message content, headers, attachments, and hyperlinks for spam and malware signatures, SpamTitan uses heuristics, machine learning, and Bayesian analysis to identify emerging threats. Greylisting is used to identify and block large scale spam campaigns, such as those typically conducted by the threat actors spreading banking Trojans and Emotet malware.

How SpamTitan Protects Businesses from Email Threats

A web filter – such as WebTitan – adds an additional layer of protection against web-based attacks by preventing end users from visiting malicious websites where malware is downloaded. A web filter assesses all attempts to access web content, checks sites against blacklists, assesses the domain, scans web content, and blocks access to sites that violate its policies.

For further information on how you can improve your defenses against web-based and email-based attacks and block malware, ransomware, botnets, viruses, phishing, and spear phishing attacks, contact TitanHQ today.

Cyberattacks on Universities Rise as Hackers Search for Valuable Research Data

by G Hunt | October 25, 2018 | Email Scams

Hackers have been going back to school and entering higher education. Quite literally in fact, although not through conventional channels. Entry is gained through cyberattacks on universities, which have increased over the course of the past 12 months, according to figures recently released by Kaspersky Lab.

Cyberattacks on Universities on the Rise

Credit cards information can be sold for a few bucks, but universities have much more valuable information. As research organizations they have valuable proprietary data. The results of research studies are particularly valuable. It may not be possible to sell data as quickly as credit cards and Social Security numbers, but there are certainly buyers willing to pay top dollar for valuable research. Nation state sponsored hacking groups are targeting universities and independent hacking groups are getting in on the act and conducting cyberattacks on universities.

There are many potential attack vectors that can be used to gain access to university systems. Software vulnerabilities that have yet to be patched can be exploited, misconfigured cloud services such as unsecured S3 buckets can be accessed, and brute force attempts can be conducted to guess passwords. However, phishing attacks on universities are commonplace.

Phishing is often associated with scams to obtain credit card information or login credentials to Office 365 accounts, with businesses and healthcare organizations often targeted. Universities are also in the firing line and are being attacked.

The reason phishing is so popular is because it is often the easiest way to gain access to networks, or at least gain a foothold for further attacks. Universities are naturally careful about guarding their research and security controls are usually deployed accordingly. Phishing allows those controls to be bypassed relatively easily.

A successful phishing attack on a student may not prove to be particularly profitable, at least initially. However, once access to their email account is gained, it can be used for further phishing attacks on lecturers for example.

Spear phishing attacks on lecturers and research associates offer a more direct route. They are likely to have higher privileges and access to valuable research data. Their accounts are also likely to contain other interesting and useful information that can be used in a wide range of secondary attacks.

Email-based attacks can involve malicious attachments that deliver information stealing malware such as keyloggers, although many of the recent attacks have used links to fake university login pages. The login pages are exact copies of the genuine login pages used by universities, the only difference being the URL on which the page is located.

More than 1,000 Phishing Attacks on Universities Detected in a Year

According to Kaspersky Lab, more than 1,000 phishing attacks on universities have been detected in the past 12 months and 131 universities have been targeted. Those universities are spread across 16 countries, although 83/131 universities were in the United States.

Preventing phishing attacks on universities, staff, and students requires a multi layered approach. Technical controls must be implemented to reduce risk, such as an advanced spam filter to block the vast majority of phishing emails and stop them being delivered to end users. A web filtering solution is important for blocking access to phishing websites and web pages hosting malware. Multi-factor authentication is also essential to ensure that if account information is compromised or passwords are guessed, an additional form of authentication is required to access accounts.

As a last line of defense, staff and students should be made aware of the risk from phishing. Training should be made available to all students and cybersecurity awareness training for researchers, lecturers, and other staff should be mandatory.

Spear Phishing Attack Results in $16 Million Anthem Data Breach Settlement

by G Hunt | October 17, 2018 | Email Scams

In 2015, Anthem Inc., experienced a colossal data breach. 78.8 million health plan records were stolen. This year, the health insurer settled a class action data breach for $115 million and OCR has now agreed a $16 million Anthem data breach settlement.

It Started with a Spear Phishing Email…

The Anthem data breach came as a huge shock back in February 2015, due to the sheer scale of the breach. Healthcare data breaches were common, but the Anthem data breach in a different league.

Prior to the announcement, the unenviable record was held by Science Applications International Corporation, a vendor used by healthcare organizations, that experienced a 4.9 million record breach in 2011. The Anthem data breach was on an entirely different scale.

The hacking group behind the Anthem data breach was clearly skilled. Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm that assisted with the investigation, suspected the attack was a nation-state sponsored cyberattack. The hackers managed to gain access to Anthem’s data warehouse and exfiltrated a huge volume of data undetected. The time of the initial attack to discovery was almost a year.

While the attack was sophisticated, a foothold in the network was not gained through an elaborate hack or zero-day exploit but through phishing emails.

At least one employee responded to a spear phishing email, sent to one of Anthem’s subsidiaries, which gave the attackers the entry point they needed to launch a further attack and gain access to Anthem’s health plan member database.

The Anthem Data Breach Settlement is the Largest Ever Penalty for a Healthcare Data Breach

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigates healthcare data breaches that result in the exposure or theft of 500 or more records. An in-depth investigation of the Anthem breach was therefore a certainty given its scale. A penalty for non-compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules was a very likely outcome as HIPAA requires healthcare organizations to safeguard health data. The scale of the breach also made it likely that it would result in the largest ever penalty for a healthcare data breach.

Before the Anthem data breach settlement, the largest penalty for a healthcare data breach was $5.55 million, which was agreed between OCR and Advocate Health Care Network in 2016. The Anthem data breach settlement was almost three times that amount, which reflected the seriousness of the breach, the number of people impacted, and the extent to which HIPAA Rules were alleged to have been violated.

OCR alleged that Anthem Inc., had violated five provisions of HIPAA Rules, and by doing so failed to prevent the breach and limit its severity. The Anthem data breach settlement was however agreed with no admission of liability.

The regulatory fine represents a small fraction of the total cost of the Anthem data breach. On top of the Anthem data breach settlement with OCR, Anthem faced multiple lawsuits in the wake of the data breach. The consolidated class action lawsuit was settled by Anthem in January 2018 for $115 million.

The class action settlement document indicated Anthem had already paid $2.5 to consultants in the wake of the breach, $31 million was spent mailing notification letters, $115 million went on improvements to security, and $112 million was paid to provide identity theft protection and credit monitoring services to affected plan members.

With the $115 million class action settlement and the $16 million OCR settlement, that brings the total cost of the Anthem data breach to $391.5 million.

At $391.5 million, that makes this the most expensive healthcare phishing attack by some distance and the cost clearly highlights just how important it is to adopt a defense-in-depth strategy to protect against phishing attacks.

Une attaque de spear phishing donne lieu à une amende de 16 millions de dollars dans l’affaire Anthem

Iceland Police Spoofed in Sophisticated Phishing Scam

by G Hunt | October 16, 2018 | Email Scams

Police in Iceland have said a highly sophisticated phishing attack is the largest ever cyberattack the country has ever experienced. The campaign saw thousands of messages sent that attempted to get Icelanders to install a remote access tool that would give the attackers full access to their computers.

The software used in this campaign is a legitimate remote access tool called Remcos. Remcos is used to allow remote access to a computer, often for the purpose of providing IT support, for surveillance, or as an anti-theft tool for laptop computers. However, while it was developed for legitimate use, because it gives the administrator full control over the computer once installed, it has significant potential to be used for malicious purposes. Unsurprisingly, Remcos has been used by cybercriminals in several malware campaigns in the past, often conducted via spear phishing campaigns. One notable attack involved the spoofing of the Turkish Revenue Administration, Turkey’s equivalent of the IRS, to get the RAT installed to provide access to victim’s computers.

The use of Remcos for malicious purposes violates the terms and conditions of use. If discovered, the developer can block the customer’s license to prevent use of the software. However, during the time that Remcos is present on a system, considerable harm can be caused – sabotage, theft of sensitive information, installation of malicious software, and file encryption with ransomware to name but a few.

As was the case in Turkey, the phishing campaign in Iceland attempted to fool end users into installing the program through deception. In this case, the emails claimed to have come from the Icelandic Police. The emails used fear to get recipients of the message to click a link in the email and download the remote access tool.

The emails informed the recipients that they were required to visit the police for questioning. Urgency was added by informing the recipient of the message that an arrest warrant would be issued if they failed to respond. Clicking the link in the email directed the user to what appeared to be the correct website of the Icelandic police. The website was a carbon copy of the legitimate website and required the visitor to enter their Social Security number along with an authentication code sent in the email to find out more information about the police case.

In Iceland, Social Security numbers are often required on websites to access official services, so the request would not appear unusual. On official websites, Social Security numbers are checked against a database and are rejected if they are not genuine. In this case, the attacker was also able to check the validity of the SSN, which means access to a database had been gained, most likely an old database that had been previously leaked or the attacker may have had legitimate access and misused the database.

After entering the information, a password protected archive was downloaded which allegedly contained documents with details of the case. The webpage provided the password to unlock the password protected archive, which contained a .scr file disguised as a Word document.

In this case, the RAT was augmented with a VBS script to ensure it ran on startup. The RAT had keylogging and password stealing capabilities and was used to steal banking credentials. After gaining access to banking credentials, the information was sent back to command and control servers in Germany and the Netherlands.

While the campaign looked entirely legitimate, a common trick was used to fool recipients of the email, which number in the thousands. The domain used in the attack closely resembled the official police website, logreglan.is but contained a lower case i instead of the second l – logregian.is.  A casual glance at the sender of the email or the domain name in the address bar would unlikely reveal the domain was not genuine. Further, the link in the email replaced the lower case i with a capital I, which is almost impossible to distinguish from a lower-case L.

The Icelandic police responded quickly to the attack and the malicious domain was taken down the following day. It is unknown how may people fell for the scam.

Office 365 Phishing Attacks Are Abusing Cloud Service Providers’ SSL Certificates

by G Hunt | October 6, 2018 | Email Scams

Office 365 phishing attacks are commonplace, highly convincing, and Office 365 spam filtering controls are easily being bypassed by cybercriminals to ensure messages reach inboxes. Further, phishing forms are being hosted on webpages that are secured with valid Microsoft SLL certificates to convince users the websites are genuine.

Office 365 Phishing Attacks Can Be Difficult to Identify

In the event of a phishing email making it past perimeter defenses and arriving in an inbox, there are several tell-tale signs that the email is not genuine.

There are often spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar, and the messages are sent from questionable senders or domains. To improve the response rate, cybercriminals are now spending much more time carefully crafting their phishing emails and they are often virtually indistinguishable from genuine communications from the brand they are spoofing. In terms of formatting, they are carbon copies of genuine emails complete with the branding, contact information, sender details, and logos of the company being spoofed. The subject is perfectly believable and the content well written. The actions the user is requested to take are perfectly plausible.

Hyperlinks are contained in emails that direct users to a website where they are required to enter their login credentials. At this stage of the phishing attack there are usually further signs that all is not as it seems. A warning may flash up that the website may not be genuine, the website may start with HTTP rather than the secure HTTPS, or the SSL certificate may not be owned by the company that the website is spoofing.

Even these tell-tale signs are not always there, as has been shown is several recent Office 365 phishing attacks, which have the phishing forms hosted on webpages that have valid Microsoft SSL certificates or SSL certificates that have been issued to other cloud service providers such as CloudFlare, DocuSign, or Google.

Microsoft Azure Blog Storage Phishing Scam

One recent phishing scam uses Azure blob storage to obtain a valid SSL certificate for the phishing form. Blob storage can be used for storing a variety of unstructured data. While it is possible to use HTTP and HTTPS, the phishing campaign uses the latter, which will show a signed SSL certificate from Microsoft.

In this campaign, end users are sent an email with a button that must be clicked to view the content of a cloud-hosted document. In this case, the document appears to be from a Denver law firm. Clicking the button directs the user to an HTML page hosted on Azure blog storage that requires Office 365 credentials to be entered to view the document. Since the document is hosted on Azure blob storage, a Microsoft service, it has a valid SSL certificate that was issued to Microsoft adding legitimacy to the scam.

Entering login credentials into the form will send them to the attackers. The user will then be directed to another webpage, most likely unaware that they have been phished.

CloudFlare IPFS Gateway Abused

A similar campaign has been detected that abuses the CloudFlare IPFS gateway. Users can access content on the IPFS distributed file system through a web browser. When connecting to this gateway through a web browser, the HTML page will be secured with a CloudFlare SSL certificate. In this case, the login requires information to be entered including username, password, and recovery email address and phone number – which will be forwarded to the attacker, while the user will be directed to a PDF file unaware that their credentials have been stolen.

Office 365 Phishing Protections are Insufficient

Office 365 users are being targeted by cybercriminals as they know Office 365 phishing controls can be easily bypassed. Even with Microsoft’s Advanced Threat Protection for Office 365, phishing emails are still delivered. A 2017 study by SE Labs showed even with this additional anti-phishing control, Office 365 anti-phishing measures were only rated in the low-middle of the market for protection. With only the basic Exchange Online Protection, the protection was worse still.

Whether you run an SMB or a large enterprise, you are likely to receive high volumes of spam and phishing emails and many messages will be delivered to end users’ inboxes. Since the emails can be virtually impossible for end users to identify as malicious, it is probable that all but the most experienced, well trained, security conscious workers will be fooled. What is therefore needed is an advanced third-party spam filtering solution that will work alongside Office 365 spam filtering controls to provide far greater protection.

How to Make Office 365 More Secure

While Office 365 will block spam emails and phishing emails (Osterman Research showed it blocks 100% of known malware), it has been shown to lack performance against advanced phishing threats such as spear phishing.

Office 365 does not have the same level of predictive technology as dedicated on-premises and cloud-based email security gateways which are much better at detecting zero-day attacks, new malware, and advanced spear phishing campaigns.

To greatly improve protection what is needed is a dedicated third-party spam filtering solution for Office 365 such as SpamTitan. SpamTitan focuses on defense in depth, and provides superior protection against advanced phishing attacks, new malware, and sophisticated email attacks to ensure malicious messages are blocked or quarantined rather than being delivered to end users’ inboxes. Some of the additional protections provided by SpamTitan against Office 365 phishing attacks are detailed in the image below:

Sextortion Phishing Emails Proving Lucrative for Scammers

by G Hunt | August 9, 2018 | Email Scams

A new sextortion phishing threat has been detected that is proving to have the desired effect. Many recipients of the emails have paid up to avoid being exposed.

On the face of it, this sextortion phishing scam is as simple as it gets. A threat actor claims to have taken control of the target’s computer and recorded them via their webcam while they were visiting an adult website. A threat is made to publicly release the video of them viewing pornography unless a payment is made.

For some recipients of such an email, such a threat would be enough to get them opening their Bitcoin wallet and making the payment without a second’s hesitation. Most people would likely see the email for what it really is. A scam and an empty threat.

However, a second variant of the email is being used that is a lot more personalized and includes a snippet of information to add credibility to the scam. The message includes the user’s password as ‘confirmation’ that it is not an empty threat. The attacker also claims, through compromising the target’s computer, to have obtained all the victim’s contacts including contacts in their social media accounts.

While the threat actor claims to have control of the user’s computer, that is not the case. The password has been obtained from a previous data breach and a list has likely been purchased on the darknet.

For many of the email recipients, the password will be old and will have been changed long ago. That may be enough in some cases to see payment made. However, for those who are still using that password, the threat may seem very real.

This is in reality a very simple scam that in many cases only works because despite the risk of failing to change passwords frequently, recycling old passwords, and reusing passwords on multiple sites, the practice is still commonplace.

It is not known how many emails have been sent by the scammers – most likely millions – but it only takes a handful of people to respond and make payment for the scheme to be profitable.

So far, at least 151 people have responded to the sextortion phishing scam and made a payment to one of 313 Bitcoin addresses known to be used by the scammers. So far, at least 30.08 BTC had been raised – Approximately $250,000 – from the scam as of July 26 and it has only been running for a few weeks. The researcher tracking the payments (SecGuru) pointed out that the attackers have made three times as much as the individuals behind the WannaCry ransomware attacks last year.

Even without the password, the sextortion phishing scam has proved effective. Payments have been made in both versions of the scam. The standard scam asks for a payment of a few hundred dollars, although the inclusion of a password sees the payment rise considerably. Some individuals have been told it will cost them $8,000 to prevent the release of the video. Some individuals have paid thousands to the scammers.

Given the widespread coverage of the scam, and its success rate, it is probable that many more similar schemes will be conducted. Variations along the same theme could direct recipients to a phishing website where they are enticed into disclosing their current password, to an exploit kit that downloads malware, or to another scam site.

Protecting against a scam such as this is easiest by using strong passwords, regularly changing them, and never reusing passwords on multiple sites. It is also worthwhile periodically checking to find out if their credentials have been exposed in a data breach on HaveIBeenPwned.com and immediately changing passwords if they have.

Anyone receiving a sextortion phishing email such as this should be aware that this is a scam. If the password included is currently being used, it is essential to change it immediately across all sites. And of course, set a strong, unique password for each account.