Threats Without Borders - Issue 49
Matt's Newsletter - Week ending October 24, 2021
As this newsletter grows, I’d like it to become a source of frontline threat intelligence for the cyber-financial crime investigators and security practitioners. I hope to include a section of reader submitted intel - a snapshot of what we’re seeing within community. If you have an item of interest - a fraudulent website, email address, phishing attempt, new fraud scheme - or something else that would make us all better protectors of our industries, send it along in an email and I’ll add it to the newsletter.
twbnewsletter@protonmail.com
Deep faking fraud
Although this case is from the United Arab Emirates, there is no reason it won’t be used here in the states. If not used already. The fraudsters used AI to create a voice machine of the bank president. A quick phone call to a bank manager and the wire transfers started moving. We dismissed deep fakes when it was only affecting porn-stricken celebrities. Not so funny now. https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/10/14/huge-bank-fraud-uses-deep-fake-voice-tech-to-steal-millions/?sh=2fa0264d7559
Excel attachments:Default Deny
Morphisec Labs has identified a new threat actor attacking financial organizations with malicious excel sheets. The exploit is delivered through phishing email and is extremely dangerous because the lightweight excel macro evades anti-virus. The true wisdom in this technical blogpost is “Yet again, it is clear that the market’s reliance on detection and response leaves them open to more attacks than it resolves. A new way forward is needed.” https://blog.morphisec.com/explosive-new-mirrorblast-campaign-targets-financial-companies
It took 10 years?
A Delaware man has been sentenced for stealing more than 3.2 million dollars worth of merchandise from his employer over a 10 year time span. He was a manager at a FedEx facility and was stealing customer packages between 2009 and 2019. How did it take 10 years to catch him? How did someone at FedEx not notice there was a problem at say, 1 million dollars in lost packages? Good grief. https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2021/10/former-fedex-manager-took-325m-worth-of-goods-feds.htmlMain 4
One step ahead…
The cybercrime group known as FIN7 created a facsimile cybersecurity company, hired experienced penetration testers, and then had them hack into companies. All under the guise of doing legitimate security consulting and penetration testing. Once inside the victim companies network, FIN7 would launch a ransomware attack. Some of the proceeds, of course, would pay the salaries of the fraudulently hired pen-testers. Just let that sink in for a minute. And then read this article. https://geminiadvisory.io/fin7-ransomware-bastion-secure/
The Rest…
Three Pennsylvania residents plead guilty to a scheme that netted $700,000 in pandemic relief funds. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/10/three-central-pa-residents-admit-fraudulently-obtaining-almost-700000-in-covid-relief-funds.html
Google finally figures out who was responsible for an attack that hijacked over 4000 Youtube accounts two years ago. Russians of course. https://therecord.media/google-unmasks-two-year-old-phishing-malware-campaign-targeting-youtube-users/
Global anti-money laundering task force set to release new crypto-currency guidance. https://dailyhodl.com/2021/10/22/global-anti-money-laundering-body-to-roll-out-new-crypto-guidance-next-week-heres-what-to-expect/
Federal Trade Commission released a new report titled “What ISPs Know About You: Examining the privacy practices of six major Internet services providers. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/look-what-isps-know-about-you-examining-privacy-practices-six-major-internet-service-providers/p195402_isp_6b_staff_report.pdf
Cool Tools
Because no one ever changes their router password: https://www.routerpasswords.com/
Get all the exif data from that image - https://fotoforensics.com/
Cool Job
Security Intelligence Investigations Manager - TESLA
Homophones are hard
Accessary: someone who helps another person commit a crime.
Accessory: something that can be added to a machine or to clothing, which has a useful or decorative purpose
“Demotivated because of how long it’ll take? Remember the time will pass anyways.” - someone smarter than me.
Thank you for opening the email and spending a few minutes! See next Tuesday with Issue 50!
Matt