The head of counterintelligence for a division of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for accepting a USD $1.7 million bribe to ignore the activities of a prolific Russian cybercrime group that hacked thousands of e-commerce websites. The protection scheme was exposed in 2022 when Russian authorities arrested six members of the group, which sold millions of stolen payment cards at flashy online shops like Trump's Dumps.

The head of counterintelligence for a division of the Russian **Federal Security Service** (FSB) was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for accepting a USD $1.7 million bribe to ignore the activities of a prolific Russian cybercrime group that hacked thousands of e-commerce websites. The protection scheme was exposed in 2022 when Russian authorities arrested six members of the group, which sold millions of stolen payment cards at flashy online shops like **Trump’s Dumps**.

A now-defunct carding shop that sold stolen credit cards and invoked 45’s likeness and name.

As reported by _The Record_, a Russian court last week sentenced former FSB officer **Grigory Tsaregorodtsev** for taking a $1.7 million bribe from a cybercriminal group that was seeking a “roof,” a well-placed, corrupt law enforcement official who could be counted on to both disregard their illegal hacking activities and run interference with authorities in the event of their arrest.

Tsaregorodtsev was head of the counterintelligence department for a division of the FSB based in Perm, Russia. In February 2022, Russian authorities arrested six men in the Perm region accused of selling stolen payment card data. They also seized multiple carding shops run by the gang, including **Ferum Shop**, **Sky-Fraud**, and **Trump’s Dumps**, a popular fraud store that invoked the 45th president’s likeness and promised to “make credit card fraud great again.”

All of the domains seized in that raid were registered by an IT consulting company in Perm called **Get-net LLC**, which was owned in part by **Artem Zaitsev** — one of the six men arrested. Zaitsev reportedly was a well-known programmer whose company supplied services and leasing to the local FSB field office.

The message for Trump’s Dumps users left behind by Russian authorities that seized the domain in 2022.

Russian news sites report that Internal Affairs officials with the FSB grew suspicious when Tsaregorodtsev became a little too interested in the case following the hacking group’s arrests. The former FSB agent had reportedly assured the hackers he could have their case transferred and that they would soon be free.

But when that promised freedom didn’t materialize, four the of the defendants pulled the walls down on the scheme and brought down their own roof. The FSB arrested Tsaregorodtsev, and seized $154,000 in cash, 100 gold bars, real estate and expensive cars.

At Tsaregorodtsev’s trial, his lawyers argued that their client wasn’t guilty of bribery per se, but that he did admit to fraud because he was ultimately unable to fully perform the services for which he’d been hired.

The Russian news outlet _Kommersant_ reports that all four of those who cooperated were released with probation or correctional labor. Zaitsev received a sentence of 3.5 years in prison, and defendant **Alexander Kovalev** got four years.

In 2017, KrebsOnSecurity profiled Trump’s Dumps, and found the contact address listed on the site was tied to an email address used to register more than a dozen domains that were made to look like legitimate Javascript calls many e-commerce sites routinely make to process transactions — such as “js-link\[dot\]su,” “js-stat\[dot\]su,” and “js-mod\[dot\]su.”

Searching on those malicious domains revealed a 2016 report from RiskIQ, which shows the domains featured prominently in a series of hacking campaigns against e-commerce websites. According to RiskIQ, the attacks targeted online stores running outdated and unpatched versions of shopping cart software from **Magento**, **Powerfront** and **OpenCart**.

Those shopping cart flaws allowed the crooks to install “web skimmers,” malicious Javascript used to steal credit card details and other information from payment forms on the checkout pages of vulnerable e-commerce sites. The stolen customer payment card details were then sold on sites like Trump’s Dumps and Sky-Fraud.

Russian FSB Counterintelligence Chief Gets 9 Years in Cybercrime Bribery Scheme

The irony is lost on few, as a nation-state threat actor used eight MITRE techniques to breach MITRE itself — including exploiting the Ivanti bugs that attackers have been swarming on for months.

Source: Kristoffer Tripplaar via Alamy Stock Photo

Foreign nation-state hackers have used vulnerable Ivanti edge devices to gain three months' worth of "deep" access to one of MITRE Corp.'s unclassified networks.

MITRE, steward of the ubiquitous ATT&CK glossary of commonly known cyberattack techniques, previously went 15 years without a major incident. The streak snapped in January when, like so many other organizations, its Ivanti gateway devices were exploited.

The breach affected the Networked Experimentation, Research, and Virtualization Environment (NERVE), an unclassified, collaborative network the organization uses for research, development, and prototyping. The extent of the NERVE damage (pun intended) is currently being assessed.

Dark Reading reached out to MITRE to confirm the timeline and details of the attack. MITRE did not provide further clarification.

**MITRE's ATT&CK**

Stop me if you've heard this one before: In January, after an initial reconnaissance period, a threat actor exploited one of the company's virtual private networks (VPNs) through two Ivanti Connect Secure zero-day vulnerabilities (ATT&CK technique T1190, Exploit Public-Facing Applications).

According to a blog post from MITRE's Center for Threat-Informed Defense, the attackers bypassed the multifactor authentication (MFA) protecting the system with some session hijacking (MITRE ATT&CK T1563, Remote Service Session Hijacking).

They attempted to leverage several different remote services (T1021, Remote Services), including the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell (SSH), to gain access to a valid administrator account (T1078, Valid Accounts). With it, they pivoted and "dug deep" into the network's VMware virtualization infrastructure.

There, they deployed Web shells (T1505.003, Server Software Component: Web Shell) for persistence, and backdoors to run commands (T1059, Command and Scripting Interpreter) and steal credentials, exfiltrating any stolen data to a command-and-control server (T1041, Exfiltration Over C2 Channel). To hide this activity, the group created its own virtual instances to run within the environment (T1564.006, Hide Artifacts: Run Virtual Instance).

**MITRE's Defense**

"The impact of this cyberattack should not be taken lightly," says Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder at Keeper Security, highlighting "both the foreign ties of the attackers and the ability of the attackers to exploit two serious zero-day vulnerabilities in their quest to compromise MITRE’s NERVE, which could potentially expose sensitive research data and intellectual property."

He posits, "Nation-state actors often have strategic motivations behind their cyber operations, and the targeting of a prominent research institution like MITRE, that works on behalf of the US government, could be just one component of a larger effort."

Whatever its goals were, the hackers had ample time to carry them out. Though the compromise occurred in January, MITRE was only able to detect it in April, leaving a quarter-year gap in between.

"MITRE followed best practices, vendor instructions, and the government’s advice to upgrade, replace, and harden our Ivanti system," the organization wrote on Medium, "but we did not detect the lateral movement into our VMware infrastructure. At the time we believed we took all the necessary actions to mitigate the vulnerability, but these actions were clearly insufficient."

Editor's note: An earlier version of the story attributed the attacks to UNC5221. That attribution has not been made at this time.

**About the Author(s)**

Nate Nelson is a freelance writer based in New York City. Formerly a reporter at Threatpost, he contributes to a number of cybersecurity blogs and podcasts. He writes "Malicious Life" -- an award-winning Top 20 tech podcast on Apple and Spotify -- and hosts every other episode, featuring interviews with leading voices in security. He also co-hosts "The Industrial Security Podcast," the most popular show in its field.

MITRE ATT&amp;CKED: InfoSec's Most Trusted Name Falls to Ivanti Bugs

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden signed legislation not only reauthorizing a major FISA spy program but expanding it in ways that could have major implications for privacy rights in the US.

The ability of the United States to intercept and store Americans’ text messages, calls, and emails in pursuit of foreign intelligence was not only extended but enhanced over the weekend in ways likely to remain enigmatic to the public for years to come.

On Saturday, US president Joe Biden signed a controversial bill extending the life of a warrantless US surveillance program for two years, bringing an end to a months-long fight in Congress over an authority that US intelligence agencies acknowledge has been widely abused in the past.

At the urging of the agencies and with the help of powerful bipartisan allies on Capitol Hill, the program has also been extended to cover a wide range of new businesses, including US data centers, according to recent analysis by legal experts and civil liberties organizations that were vocally opposed to its passage.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), among other agencies, to eavesdrop on calls, texts, and emails traveling through US networks, so long as one side of the communication is foreign.

Americans caught up in the program face diminished privacy rights.

While the government requires a foreign target to commence a wiretap, Americans are often party to those intercepted conversations. And although US attorney general Merrick Garland insisted in a statement on Saturday that the updates to the 702 program “ensure the protection of Americans' privacy and civil liberties,” and that the government never intentionally targets Americans, the government nevertheless reserves the right to store their communications and access them later without probable cause.

“Section 702 is supposed to be used only for spying on foreigners abroad,” says Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Instead, sadly, it has enabled warrantless access to vast databases of Americans’ private phone calls, text messages, and emails.”

Under the law, the government can retain communications captured by the 702 program for half a decade or more—indefinitely, so long as the government makes no effort to decrypt them.

A trade organization representing some of the world’s largest tech companies came out against plans to expand Section 702 in the final hours of the debate, claiming that a new provision authored by House Intelligence Committee members would damage the competitiveness of US technologies, “arguably imperiling the continued global free flow of data between the US and its allies.”

US intelligence obtains its vast surveillance power through yearly certifications doled out by a secret court. The certifications permit the NSA in particular to force businesses in the US—categorized as “electronic communications service providers,” or ECSPs—to cooperate with the program, collecting data and installing wiretaps on the agency’s behalf.

Years ago, the government sought to unilaterally expand the definition of ECSP under the law, seeking to compel the cooperation of whole new categories of businesses. That effort was beaten back by the FISA court in 2022, in a ruling that stated only Congress has the “competence and constitutional authority” to rewrite the law.

On the spy community’s behalf, the House Intelligence Committee introduced an amendment last year to codify the sought-after expansion of the 702 program, broadening the definition of what it means to be an ECSP.

With the backing of party leaders, the House and Senate intel committees maintained an outsize influence over the bill’s trajectory through Congress, lobbying lawmakers hand-in-hand with the intelligence community to defeat a slate of popular reforms, including a House amendment that would have required the FBI to obtain search warrants before accessing the communications of Americans collected under Section 702.

The House and Senate judiciary committees, which oversee the work of the US Justice Department, have traditionally held jurisdiction over FISA. However, much of their authority was sapped after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, adopted the pro-surveillance views of the intel committee members, which align with those of the White House.

Legal experts—including a rare few attorneys who’ve argued cases before the FISA court in the past—say the new ECSP text ensnares owners of facilities housing equipment used to store and carry data, as well as commercial landlords and virtually anyone with access to communications equipment in those spaces. The text, they argue, may be interpreted by the government as granting it authority to compel the assistance of “delivery personnel, cleaning contractors, and utility providers,” among others.

Criticism of the 702 program largely stems from revelations of abuse in a declassified court filing from 2022, which describes rampant misuse of the 702 database by the FBI. Investigators at the bureau have been caught unlawfully scouring 702 data for information on American protesters, journalists, and political donors. On at least one occasion, an FBI analyst worked to access the communications of a sitting member of Congress.

The FBI instituted scores of new procedures in an attempt to clamp down on the abuse internally, practices that are now codified under the law. House and Senate intelligence members say codifying the policies will serve as a sufficient bulwark against further abuse. Civil libertarians who have pursued new warrant requirements under FISA—an amendment that was dropped after a tie vote in the House of Representatives last week—argue, conversely, that the FBI should not be trusted to oversee itself in the wake of recent scandal.

Liza Goitein, a FISA expert and senior director at the Brennan Center of Justice at New York University School of Law, says the bill signed by Biden on Saturday represents “a gift to any president who may wish to spy on political enemies.”

“Although some senators fought valiantly to protect Americans’ civil liberties, they could not overcome the barrage of false and misleading statements from the administration and surveillance hawks on the congressional intelligence committees,” says Goitein. “This is a truly shameful episode in the history of the US Congress, and sooner or later, the American people will pay the price.”

The Next US President Will Have Troubling New Surveillance Powers

The five intelligence sources that power social engineering scams.

Source: LightField Studios Inc. via Alamy Stock Photo

COMMENTARY

Social engineering is one of the most prevalent attack vectors used by cyber scammers to infiltrate organizations. These manipulative attacks typically are executed in four phases: 

1.  Information gathering (attacker gathers information about the target)
    
2.  Relationship development (attacker engages the target and earns their trust)
    
3.  Exploitation (attacker persuades the target to carry out an action)
    
4.  Execution (the information collected through exploitation is operationalized to execute the attack)
    

The first phase obviously is the most important — without the right information, it can be difficult to execute a targeted social engineering attack. 

**Five Sources of Intelligence**

So how do attackers gather data about their targets? There are five sources of intelligence cybercriminals can use to gather and analyze information about their targets. They are:

1\. OSINT (open source intelligence)

OSINT is a technique hackers use to collect and assess publicly available information about organizations and their people. Threat actors can use OSINT tools to learn about their target's IT and security infrastructure; exploitable assets such as open ports and email addresses; IP addresses; vulnerabilities in websites, servers, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices; leaked or stolen credentials; and more. Attackers weaponize this information to launch social engineering attacks.

2\. SOCMINT (social media intelligence)

Although SOCMINT is a subset of OSINT, it deserves a mention. Most people voluntarily expose personal and professional details about their lives on popular social media platforms: their headshot, their interests and hobbies, their family, friends and connections, where they live and work, their current job position, and lots of other details. Using SOCINT tools such as Social Analyzer, Whatsmyname, and NameCheckup.com, attackers can filter social media activity and information about an individual and design targeted social engineering scams. 

3\. ADINT (advertising intelligence)

Say you download a free chess app on your phone. There's a small area on the app that serves location-based ads from sponsors and event organizers, updating users on local players, events, and chess meetups. Whenever this ad gets displayed, the app shares certain details about the user with the advertising exchange service, which includes things like IP addresses, the type of operating system in use (iOS or Android), the name of the mobile phone carrier, the user's screen resolution, GPS coordinates, etc. Typically, ad exchanges store and process this information for serving up relevant ads based on user interest, activity, and location. Ad exchanges also sell this valuable data. What if a threat actor or a rogue government buys this information? That's exactly what intelligence agencies and adversaries have been doing to track activity and hack their targets. 

4\. DARKINT (Dark Web intelligence)

The Dark Web is a billion-dollar illicit marketplace transacting corporate espionage services, DIY ransomware kits, drugs and weapons, human trafficking, et al. Billions of stolen records (personally identifiable information, healthcare records, banking and transaction data, corporate data, compromised credentials) are available for purchase on the Dark Web. Threat actors can purchase off-the-shelf data and mobilize it for their social engineering schemes. They can also choose to outsource professionals who will socially engineer people on their behalf or discover hidden vulnerabilities in target organizations. In addition, there are hidden online forums and instant messaging platforms (such as Telegram) where people can access information about potential targets. 

5\. AI-INT (AI intelligence)

Some analysts are calling AI the sixth intelligence discipline, on top of the five core disciplines. With recent advancements in generative AI technology like Google Gemini and ChatGPT, it's not hard to imagine cybercriminals deploying AI tools to mine, assimilate, process, and filter information about their targets. Threat researchers are already reporting the presence of malicious AI-based tools that are popping up in Dark Web forums such as FraudGPT and WormGPT. Such tools can significantly reduce the research time for social engineers and provide actionable information they can use to execute social engineering schemes. 

**What Can Businesses Do to Mitigate Social Engineering Attacks?**

The root cause of all social engineering attacks is information and the careless handling of it. If businesses and employees can reduce their information exposure, they will lower social engineering attacks by a significant degree. Here's how:

*   Train staff monthly: Using phishing simulators and classroom training, teach employees to avoid posting sensitive or personal information about themselves, their families, their coworkers, or the organization.
    
*   Draft AI-use policies: Make it clear to employees what is acceptable and unacceptable online behavior. For example, prompting ChatGPT with a line of code or proprietary data is unacceptable; responding to unusual or suspicious requests without proper verification is unacceptable.
    
*   Leverage the same tools hackers use: Use the same intelligence sources highlighted above to proactively understand how much information about your organization, your people, and your infrastructure is available online. Develop an ongoing process to reduce that exposure.
    

Good cybersecurity hygiene begins with clamping down on root causes. The root cause behind 80% to 90% of all cyberattacks is attributed to social engineering and bad judgement. Organizations must focus on two things primarily: reducing information exposure and controlling human behavior via training exercises and education. By applying efforts in these two areas, organizations can significantly reduce their threat exposure and the potential downstream impact of that exposure.

**About the Author(s)**

Founder & CEO, KnowBe4, Inc.

Stu Sjouwerman is founder and CEO of KnowBe4, provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform used by more than 65,000 organizations around the globe. He was co-founder of Sunbelt Software, the anti-malware software company acquired in 2010. He is the author of four books, including Cyberheist: The Biggest Financial Threat Facing American Businesses.

Where Hackers Find Your Weak Spots

Microsoft has revealed that North Korea-linked state-sponsored cyber actors has begun to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make its operations more effective and efficient.
"They are learning to use tools powered by AI large language models (LLM) to make their operations more efficient and effective," the tech giant said in its latest report on East Asia hacking groups.
The company

Microsoft Warns: North Korean Hackers Turn to AI-Fueled Cyber Espionage

By Deeba Ahmed
Veriti Research exposes surge in Androxgh0st attacks, exploiting CVEs and building botnets for credential theft. Patch systems, monitor for web shells, and use behavioral analysis to protect yourself.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Androxgh0st Malware Compromises Servers Worldwide for Botnet Attack

Veriti Research has discovered a surge in attacks from operators of the Androxgh0st malware family, uncovering over 600 servers compromised primarily in the U.S., India and Taiwan.

According to Veriti’s blog post, the adversary behind Androxgh0st had their C2 server exposed, which could allow for a counterstrike by revealing the impacted targets. The researchers then went on to alert the victims.

Further research revealed that Androxgh0st operators are exploiting multiple CVEs, including **CVE-2021-3129** and **CVE-2024-1709** to deploy a web shell on vulnerable servers, granting remote control capabilities. Moreover, evidence suggests active web shells associated with **CVE-2019-2725**. 

Image: Veriti

****Androxgh0st Threat Actor Ramps Up Activity****

Hackread.com has been tracking Androxgh0st operations since was first noticed in December 2022. The malware operator is known for deploying **Adhublika ransomware** and was previously observed communicating with an IP address associated with the Adhublika group.

Androxgh0st operators prefer exploiting Laravel applications to steal credentials for cloud-based services like AWS, SendGrid, and Twilio. They exploit vulnerabilities in Apache web servers and PHP frameworks, deploying webshells for persistence. 

However. their recent focus seems to be building botnets to exploit more systems. Recently, the FBI and CISA issued a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) advisory, **warning** about Androxgh0st constructing a botnet to carry out credential theft and establish backdoor access. 

Last year, Cado Security Ltd. **revealed** the details of a Python-based credential harvester and a hacking tool called Legion, linked to the AndroxGh0st malware family. Legion is designed to exploit email services for abuse.

****The Way Forward****

Veriti’s research goes onto show the importance of proactive exposure management and threat intelligence in cyber security. Organizations must regularly update their security measures, including patch management for known vulnerabilities, strong web shell deployment monitoring, and behavioural analysis tools to prevent breaches and protect against similar vulnerabilities.

1.  Russian Hackers Hit Ubiquiti Routers for Botnet Creation
2.  ActiveMQ Flaw Exploited to Spread GoTitan Botnet, PrCtrl Rat
3.  Mirai-based NoaBot Botnet Hit Linux Systems with Cryptominer
4.  Qakbot Botnet Disrupted, Infected 700,000 Computers Globally
5.  OracleIV DDoS Botnet Malware Targets Docker Engine API Instances

Androxgh0st Malware Compromises Servers Worldwide for Botnet Attack

Plus: New York’s legislature suffers a cyberattack, police disrupt a global phishing operation, and Apple removes encrypted messaging apps in China.

Looking for love? Be careful what you wish for.

A loose-knit community of con artists known as Yahoo Boys has begun using real-time face-swap technology to woo victims with romance scams. Using a variety of tools and techniques, the scammers use AI-powered apps to make themselves look like entirely different people on video calls. Just remember: If someone you’ve never met IRL is asking you for money, just say no.

Elsewhere in the world of harmful deepfakes, two major websites used for creating fake nude images of people are now blocked in the United Kingdom. The censorship, which appears to be self-imposed, comes just days after the UK proposed legislation that would ban nonconsensual, sexualized AI-generated images.

A Russian cybercriminal gang called Cyber Army of Russia Reborn appears to have been created with the help of Sandworm, the notorious Russian military hacking unit that has carried out devastating cyberattacks against Ukraine for years. The difference? Cyber Army of Russia Reborn is even more brazen, taking credit for attacks against critical infrastructure in Europe and the United States.

Change Healthcare’s ransomware saga entered a new chapter this week. A cybercriminal group called RansomHub claims to be selling highly sensitive patient information stolen from the company. The sale follows RansomHub’s claims that it possesses terabytes of data stolen in a February attack by another ransomware gang known as AlphV or Black Cat, which received a $22 million payment in March. Change Healthcare says it has spent $872 million response to the ransomware attack as of March 31.

The biggest global surveillance program carried out by the US may be about to get bigger. A two-year renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which technically expired on Friday, will soon go up for a vote by the US Senate after passing the House last week. Included in the legislation is a provision that would greatly expand the number of businesses that could be conscripted to spy on behalf of the US government, which critics have called the “Stasi provision.” One of the largest lobbying firms for Big Tech companies has opposed the provision over fears that tech industry workers could be forced to become informants.

That’s not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

There’s a kernel of truth in every good fiction, which is why the very real Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, is a constant go-to for shows like the _X-Files_ and games like _Metal Gear Solid_. It tends to pop up whenever a shadowy government agency is needed to reverse engineer a stolen alien artifact or construct a giant killer robot. A Darpa announcement this Thursday, however, sounds almost too much like the opening sequence of a Hideo Kojima game: With the help of the US Air Force Test Pilot School, the agency says an experimental aircraft known as the X-62 was successfully flown by artificial intelligence during a simulated dogfight against a human pilot in an F-16. “The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades,” US Air Force secretary Frank Kendall says, “but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now.”

**New York State Legislature Hit by Cyberattack**

Details are scant as to the impact, but for at least several hours this week, hackers felled computer systems supporting the work of New York’s state legislature. While an attack on something called the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission isn’t quite as jaw-dropping as one against a power plant or a naval base, the LBDC is one of a dozen required stops that legislation in New York must make en route to becoming law. Bills can’t be introduced, amended, or reviewed by committee without it, much less get a vote. Luckily, the agency reports it was able to get back on its feet within a few hours using a “backup system.” An investigation of the attack is ongoing.

**Police Disrupt Global Phishing Operation**

An armada of law enforcement agencies arrested 37 suspects around the world last weekend in an operation targeting LabHost, reportedly one of the world’s largest phishing-as-a-service platforms. The investigation was spearheaded by the London Metropolitan Police in cooperation with Europol. Investigators uncovered a whopping 40,000 phishing domains being operated by as many as 10,000 users worldwide, Europol says. LabHost charged a monthly fee of $249. That cybercriminals have discovered the psychological benefits of just-below pricing is yet another sign of the growing popularity and sophistication of these markets.

**Apple Removes Encrypted Messaging Apps in China**

Encrypted messaging apps WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram have gone the way of Winnie the Pooh. Citing “national security concerns,” China ordered Apple to delete “certain apps” from its Chinese App Store this week, the tech behemoth announced (while neglecting to specify which ones). Apple reportedly met with Chinese authorities to express concern over how banning the apps would impact its users but relented after being met with a stone wall. “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” the company said, “even when we disagree.” Apple is heavily dependent on China’s workforce to manufacture its products, and sales in the region have topped $70 billion in recent years. That Apple has become beholden to the Chinese government because of this is no longer much of a secret.

AI-Controlled Fighter Jets Are Dogfighting With Human Pilots Now

SecOps highlights this week include the executive role in "cyber readiness;" Cisco's Hypershield promise; and Middle East cyber ops heat up.

Source: Panther Media GmbH via Alamy Stock Photo

Welcome to CISO Corner, Dark Reading's weekly digest of articles tailored specifically to security operations readers and security leaders. Every week, we'll offer articles gleaned from across our news operation, The Edge, DR Technology, DR Global, and our Commentary section. We're committed to bringing you a diverse set of perspectives to support the job of operationalizing cybersecurity strategies, for leaders at organizations of all shapes and sizes.

**In This Issue of CISO Corner:**

*   GPT-4 Can Exploit Most Vulns Just by Reading Threat Advisories
    
*   Break Security Burnout: Combining Leadership With Neuroscience
    
*   Global: Cyber Operations Intensify in Middle East, With Israel the Main Target
    
*   Cisco's Complex Road to Deliver on Its Hypershield Promise
    
*   Rebalancing NIST: Why 'Recovery' Can't Stand Alone
    
*   3 Steps Executives and Boards Should Take to Ensure Cyber Readiness
    
*   Rethinking How You Work With Detection and Response Metrics
    

**GPT-4 Can Exploit Most Vulns Just by Reading Threat Advisories**

By Nate Nelson, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading

A slicker phishing lure and some basic malware was about all threat actors have been able to squeeze out of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language model (LLM) tools so far — but that's about to change, according to a team of academics.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated that by using GPT-4 they can automate the process of gathering threat advisories and exploiting vulnerabilities as soon as they are made public. In fact, GPT-4 was able to exploit 87% of vulnerabilities it was tested against, according to the research. Other models weren't as effective.

Although the AI technology is new, the report advises that in response, organizations should tighten up tried-and-true best security practices, particularly patching, to defend against automated exploits enabled by AI. Moving forward, as adversaries adopt more sophisticated AI and LLM tools, security teams might consider using the same technologies to defend their systems, the researchers added. The report pointed to automating malware analysis a promising use-case example.

Read more: GPT-4 Can Exploit Most Vulns Just by Reading Threat Advisories

Related: First Step in Securing AI/ML Tools Is Locating Them

**Break Security Burnout: Combining Leadership With Neuroscience**

By Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading

Widely reported burnout among cybersecurity professionals is only getting worse. It starts at the top with pressure on CISOs mounting from all sides — regulators, boards, shareholders, and customers — to assume all the responsibility for an entire organization's security, without much control of budgeting or priorities. Wider enterprise cybersecurity teams are wearing down too under the weight of putting in long, stressful hours to prevent seemingly inevitable cyberattacks.

Certainly awareness of the stress and strain driving talent away from the cybersecurity profession is widely acknowledged, but workable solutions have been elusive.

Now two professionals looking to break what they call the "security fatigue cycle" say leaning on neuroscience can help. Peter Coroneros, founder of Cybermindz and Kayla Williams, CISO of Devo, have come together to advocate for more empathetic leadership informed by a better understanding of mental health, and will be presenting their ideas in more detail at this year's RSA Conference.

For example, they found tools like iRest (Integrative Restoration) attention training techniques, which have been used for 40 years by US and Australian militaries help people under chronic stress get out of the "flight-or-flight" state and relax. iRest could also be a useful tool for frazzled cybersecurity teams, they said.

Read more: Break Security Burnout: Combining Leadership With Neuroscience

**Global: Cyber Operations Intensify in Middle East, With Israel the Main Target**

By Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading

The unraveling crisis in the Middle East continues to produce historic volumes of cyberattacks to support military operations.

There are two categories of adversary groups at work, according to experts — nation-state threat actors working as an arm of a military operation and hacktivist groups attacking willy-nilly based on opportunity and a victim's perceived proximity to the group's enemies.

Israel's National Cyber Directive boss said Iranian- and Hezbollah-affiliated groups have been trying to take down the country's networks "around the clock."

Cybersecurity experts warns Israel should prepare for destructive cyberattacks to continue as the Iran-Israel cyber conflict escalates.

Read more: Cyber Operations Intensify in Middle East, With Israel the Main Target

Related: Iran-Backed Hackers Blast Out Threatening Texts to Israelis

**Cisco's Complex Road to Deliver on Its Hypershield Promise**

By Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer

Cisco's big reveal of its AI-powered cloud security platform Hypershield was big on buzzwords and left industry watchers with questions about how the tool is going to deliver on its pitch.

Automated patching, anomalous behavior detection and blocking, AI-agents maintaining real-time security controls around every workload, and a new "digital twin" approach are all touted as Hypershield features.

The modern approach would be a major step forward "If they pull it off," David Holmes, a principal analyst with Forrester Research said.

Jon Oltisk, analyst emeritus at Enterprise Strategy Group, compared Hypershield's ambitions to the development of driver-assist features in cars, "The trick is how it comes together."

Cisco Hypershield is scheduled for release in August.

Read more: Cisco's Complex Road to Deliver on Its Hypershield Promise

Related: First Wave of Vulnerability-Fixing AIs Available for Developers

**Rebalancing NIST: Why 'Recovery' Can't Stand Alone**

Commentary By Alex Janas, Field Chief Technology Officer, Commvault

Although NIST's new guidance on data security is an important basic overview, but falls short on offering best practices for how to recover from a cyberattack once it's already happened.

Today, organizations need to assume they have been, or will be, breached and plan accordingly. That advice is perhaps even more important than the other elements of the new NIST framework, this commentary argues.

Companies should immediately work to address any gaps in cybersecurity preparedness and response playbooks.

Read more: Rebalancing NIST: Why 'Recovery' Can't Stand Alone

Related: NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: 4 Steps to Get Started

**3 Steps Executives and Boards Should Take to Ensure Cyber Readiness**

Commentary By Chris Crummey, Director, Executive & Board Cyber Services, Sygnia

Working to develop an effective and tested incident response plan is the best thing executives can do to prepare their organization for a cyber incident. Most major mistakes happen in the first "golden hour" of a cyber incident response, the commentary explains. That means ensuring every member of the team has a well-defined role and can get to work quickly on finding the best path forward, and crucially, not making remediation errors that can upend recovery timelines.

Read more: 3 Steps Executives and Boards Should Take to Ensure Cyber Readiness

Related: 7 Things Your Ransomware Response Playbook Is Likely Missing

**Rethinking How You Work With Detection and Response Metrics**

By Jeffrey Schwartz, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading

During the recent Black Hat Asia conference Allyn Stott, senior staff engineer with Airbnb challenged every security professional to rethink the role metrics play in their organization's threat detection and response.

Metrics drive better performance and help cybersecurity managers demonstrate how detection and response program investment translates into less business risk to leadership.

The single most important security operations center metric: alert volume, Stott explained. He added looking back over his past work, he regrets how much he leaned on the MITRE ATT&CK framework. He recommends incorporating others including SANS SABRE framework and Hunting Maturity Model.

Read more: Rethinking How You Work With Detection and Response Metrics

Related: SANS Institute Research Shows What Frameworks, Benchmarks, and Techniques Organizations Use on their Path to Security Maturity

CISO Corner: Breaking Staff Burnout, GPT-4 Exploits, Rebalancing NIST

Chinese actors are ready and poised to do "devastating" damage to key US infrastructure services if needed, he said.

Source: KaimDH via Shutterstock

FBI Director Christopher Wray this week delivered what might be the starkest warning yet on the threat that China-backed hackers pose to US national and economic security.

In remarks at a Vanderbilt University\-hosted summit on modern conflict and emerging threats, Wray described Chinese hackers as outnumbering FBI personnel by at least 50 to 1 and standing poised to "wreak havoc" on US critical infrastructure at a moment's notice.

**Immediate and Imminent Threat**

Stakeholders across private industry and government need to treat the threat as immediate and implement plans to fortify networks and respond to attacks now, the nation's leading law enforcement official said.

"The \[People's Republic of China\] has made it clear that it considers every sector that makes our society run as fair game in its bid to dominate on the world stage," Wray said. "Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic and break America's will to resist."

Wray's comments build on repeated warnings in recent months from US officials — and the FBI itself — about a dangerous and systematic escalation in Chinese targeting of networks and systems belonging to organizations in critical infrastructure sectors. Wray and others have repeatedly described the intrusions as attempts by Chinese hackers to methodically pre-position themselves for attacks designed to disrupt telecommunications, energy, water, technology and other critical infrastructure services when needed.

China's cyberattackers are "giving the Chinese government the ability to wait for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow," Wray said. Beijing, he added, is building a capability to deter any US attempts to intervene in the event of a crisis between China and Taiwan.

**Multifaceted Attacks**

The ongoing attempts by Chinese hackers to establish and maintain a presence on critical infrastructure adds to the pressure that US organizations have had to deal with for more than a decade from China-backed cyber-espionage and cybercriminal groups. To support economic initiatives like Made in China 2025 and multiple separate five-year plans, Beijing has for years deployed cyber groups to systematically steal intellectual property and trade secrets from companies in key competitive sectors, Wray said.

Targets have included organizations in fields as diverse as biotech, aviation, artificial intelligence, agriculture, and healthcare. "The PRC is engaged in the largest and most sophisticated theft of intellectual property and expertise in the history of the world," Wray noted. "You could close your eyes and pull an industry or sector out of a hat and, chances are, Beijing has targeted it."

In recent months, the Volt Typhoon group has been one of the most visible faces of what the US regards as China's untrammeled aggression in cyberspace. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and security vendors have, on multiple occasions this year, reported on the threat actor's intrusions into US critical infrastructure networks and operational technology environments with a view to gaining a presence on these networks and lying in wait for instructions to attack. Last year, The New York Times identified Volt Typhoon hitting military bases, prompting worried Biden administration officials to admit that the threat actor's malware was more endemic on US networks than previously thought.

**"Scattershot" and "Indiscriminate" Attacks**

Wray pointed to widespread attacks in 2021 that exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server as one of the "most egregious examples" of China's "scattershot, indiscriminate, cyber campaigns," in recent memory. Those attacks involved China-backed Hafnium group deploying Web shells for remote access on thousands of corporate systems. The FBI — in an unprecedented move at the time — later obtained a court order to remotely remove those Web shells from thousands of infected systems before the threat actor could use them to inflict further damage.

In response to the growing threat, the FBI has mobilized its own field offices in the US and around the world to address the threat, Wray said. The agency is also working with US Cyber Command, the CIA, and foreign law enforcement agencies to disrupt Chinese hacking operations. The effort has included going after known hackers, malware developers, and the owners of support infrastructure like bulletproof hosting services and money launderers.

Private sector organizations can do their part by being more diligent about their cyber defense and response mechanisms and by sharing information that can prevent nascent threats from "metastasizing to other sectors" and businesses, Wray said. "We've seen the best outcomes in situations where a company made a habit of reaching out to their local FBI field office even before there was any indication of a problem, because that put everyone on the same page and contributed to the company's readiness."

**About the Author(s)**

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

FBI Director Wray Issues Dire Warning on China's Cybersecurity Threat

CryptoChameleon attackers trade quantity for quality, dedicating time and resources to trick even the most diligent user into handing over their high-value credentials.

Source: II.studio via Shutterstock

An ongoing, highly sophisticated phishing campaign may have led some LastPass users to give up their all-important master passwords to hackers.

Password managers store all of a user's passwords — for Instagram, their job, and everything in between — in one place, protected by one "master" password. They unburden users from having to remember credentials for hundreds of accounts, and empower them to use more complicated, unique passwords for each account. On the other hand, if a threat actor gains access to the master password, they'll have keys to every single one of the accounts within.

Enter CryptoChameleon, a new, hands-on phishing kit of unparalleled realism. 

CryptoChameleon attacks tend not to be so widespread, but they're successful at a clip largely unseen across the cybercrime world, "which is why we typically see this targeting enterprises and other very high-value targets," explains David Richardson, vice president of threat intelligence at Lookout, which first identified and reported the latest campaign to LastPass. "A password vault is a natural extension, because you're obviously going to be able to monetize that at the end of the day."

Thus far, CryptoChameleon has managed to ensnare at least eight LastPass customers — but likely more — potentially exposing their master passwords.

**A Brief History of CryptoChameleon**

At first, CryptoChameleon looked like any other phishing kit.

Its operators had been around since late last year. In January, they began by targeting the cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance. This initial targeting, plus its highly customizable toolset, earned it its name.

The picture changed in February, though, when they registered the domain fcc-okta\[.\]com, mimicking the Okta Single Sign On (SSO) page belonging to the US's Federal Communications Commission (FCC). "That suddenly made this rise from one of many consumer phishing kits that we see out there, to something that's going to pivot into targeting the enterprise, going after corporate credentials," Richardson recalls.

Richardson confirmed to Dark Reading that FCC employees were impacted, but could not say how many or whether the attacks led to any consequences for the agency. It was a sophisticated attack, he notes, that he expects to have worked even on trained employees.

The problem with CryptoChameleon wasn't just who it was targeting, but how well it did at defeating them. Its trick was thorough, patient, hands-on engagement with victims.

Consider, for example, the current campaign against LastPass.

It begins when a customer receives a call from an 888 number. A robo caller informs the customer that their account has been accessed from a new device. It then prompts them to press "1" to allow access, or "2" to block it. After pressing "2," they're told that they'll be receiving a call shortly from a customer service representative in order to "close the ticket."

Then the call comes in. Unbeknownst to the recipient, it's from a spoofed number. On the other end of the line is a live person, typically with an American accent. Other CryptoChameleon victims have also reported speaking with British agents.

"The agent has professional call center communication skills, and offers genuinely good advice," Richardson recalls from his many conversations with victims. "So, for example, they might say: 'I want you to write down this support phone number for me.' And they have victims write down the real support phone number for whoever they're impersonating. And then they give them a whole lecture: 'Only call us on this number.' I had a victim report that they actually said, 'For quality and training purposes, this call is being recorded.' They're using the full call script, everything that you can think of to make someone believe that they're really talking to this company right now."

This supposed support agent informs the user that they'll be sending an email shortly, allowing the user to reset access to their account. In fact, this is a malicious email containing a shortened URL, directing them to a phishing site.

The helpful support agent watches in real time as the user enters their master password into the copycat site. Then they use it to log into their account, and immediately change the primary phone number, email address, and master password, thereby locking the victim out for good.

All the while, Richardson says, "They don't realize it's a scam — none of the victims I talked to. One person said, 'I don't think I ever entered my master password in there.' \[I told them\] 'You spent 23 minutes on the phone with these guys. You probably did.'"

**The Damage**

LastPass shut down the suspicious domain used in the attack — help-lastpass\[.\]com — shortly after it went live. The attackers have been persistent, though, continuing their activity under a new IP address.

With visibility into the attackers' internal systems, Richardson was able to identify at least eight victims. He also offered evidence (which Dark Reading is keeping confidential) indicating that there may have been more than that.

When asked for further information, LastPass senior intelligence analyst Mike Kosak told Dark Reading, "We do not disclose details on the number of customers who are impacted by this type of campaign, but we support any customer who may be a victim of this and other scams. We encourage people to report potential phishing scams and other nefarious activity impersonating LastPass to us at \[email protected\]."

**Is There Any Defense?**

Because hands-on CryptoChameleon attackers talk their victims through any potential security barriers like multifactor authentication (MFA), defending against them begins with awareness.

"People need to be aware that attackers can spoof phone numbers — that just because an 800 or 888 number calls you, it doesn't mean that it's legitimate," Richardson says, adding that  "just because there's an American on the other end of the line also does not mean that it's legitimate."

In fact, he says, "Don't answer the phone from unknown callers. I know that's a sad reality of the world that we live in today."

Even with all the awareness and precautionary measures known to business users and consumers, though, a particularly sophisticated social engineering attack might still get through.

"One of the CryptoChameleon victims I talked to was a retired IT professional," Richardson recalls. "He said, 'I've gotten training my whole life to not fall for these kinds of attacks. Somehow I fell for it'."

LastPass has asked Dark Reading to remind customers of the following:

*   Ignore any unsolicited or unprompted incoming phone calls (automated or with a live individual) or texts claiming to be from LastPass related to a recent attempt to change your password and/or account information. These are part of an ongoing phishing campaign. 
    
*   If you do see this activity and are concerned you may have been compromised, contact the company at \[email protected\].
    
*   And finally, LastPass will never ask you for your password.
    

**About the Author(s)**

Nate Nelson is a freelance writer based in New York City. Formerly a reporter at Threatpost, he contributes to a number of cybersecurity blogs and podcasts. He writes "Malicious Life" -- an award-winning Top 20 tech podcast on Apple and Spotify -- and hosts every other episode, featuring interviews with leading voices in security. He also co-hosts "The Industrial Security Podcast," the most popular show in its field.

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