Tax Season Brings Emotet to the Front
As Americans prepare for tax season, Emotet authors have started a new campaign that imitates a W-9 tax form requested by the target. As with most malicious phishing, an attached document asks users to enable macros when viewing the files. This campaign can be particularly dangerous, because many people don’t spend much time looking at W-9s since they are only sent to contractors and clients who often quickly sign and return them. Emotet infections can further harm companies by downloading additional info-stealing malware and using infected machines to distribute spam campaigns.
Australian Logistics Company Faces Delays After Ransomware Attack
Toll Group, a major transportation company in Australia, fell victim to a ransomware attack this week that forced them to take several vital systems offline. Due to company cybersecurity policies, no customer data was accessed and the damage was minimized by a quick response from their team. While many customers have been able to conduct business as normal, some are still experiencing issues as they wait for all of Toll Group’s systems to return to normal operation.
Cryptomining Botnet Found on DoD Systems
A bug bounty hunter recently found an active cryptocurrency mining botnet hidden within systems belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The bug was also being used as a silent backdoor for additional malware execution. Unfortunately, the misconfigured server had already been illicitly accessed and the attackers had installed a cryptominer to obtain Monero coins, but officials for the DoD worked quickly to secure the system before further damage could be inflicted.
Maze Ransomware Targets Multiple French Industries
At least five French law firms and a construction corporation have fallen victim to the Maze ransomware variant, which is known for quickly exfiltrating sensitive information. Maze authors also made an announcement that they will begin releasing the stolen data if the victims refuse to pay the ransom. Though only two of the law firms have had their data posted so far, the remaining firms are expected to be exposed if the ransom is not paid.
British Charity Falls for Impersonation Scam
The British housing charity Red Kite recently fell victim of an impersonation scam in which nearly $1 million was redirected to a scammer’s account. By disguising their domain and illicitly accessing previous Red Kite email threads, the attackers were able to impersonate a contracting company without payment system safeguards stopping the payment or notifying victims that anything was abnormal until it was too late.
