ESET Analysis, Risk Reviews

A view of the H2 2023 menace panorama as seen by ESET telemetry and from the angle of ESET menace detection and analysis consultants

19 Dec 2023
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2 min. learn

The second half of 2023 witnessed important cybersecurity incidents. Cl0p, a infamous cybercriminal group recognized for finishing up ransomware assaults on a serious scale, garnered consideration by way of its intensive “MOVEit hack”, which surprisingly didn’t contain ransomware deployment. The assault focused quite a few organizations, together with international companies and US governmental businesses. A key shift in Cl0p’s technique was its transfer to leak stolen data to open worldwide web pages in instances the place the ransom was not paid, a pattern additionally seen with the ALPHV ransomware gang. Different new methods within the ransomware scene, in accordance with the FBI, have included the simultaneous deployment of a number of ransomware variants and using wipers following information theft and encryption.

Within the IoT panorama, our researchers have made a notable discovery. They’ve recognized a kill change that had been used to efficiently render the Mozi IoT botnet nonfunctional. It’s price mentioning that the Mozi botnet is without doubt one of the largest of its variety we’ve got monitored over the previous three years. The character of Mozi’s sudden downfall raises the query of whether or not the kill change was utilized by the botnet creators or Chinese language regulation enforcement. A brand new menace, Android/Pandora, surfaced in the identical panorama, compromising Android units – together with good TVs, TV bins, and cellular units – and using them for DDoS assaults.

Amidst the prevalent dialogue concerning AI-enabled assaults, we’ve got recognized particular campaigns focusing on customers of instruments like ChatGPT. We additionally seen a substantial variety of makes an attempt to entry malicious domains with names resembling “chapgpt”, seemingly in reference to the ChatGPT chatbot. Threats encountered through these domains additionally embrace internet apps that insecurely deal with OpenAI API keys, emphasizing the significance of defending the privateness of your OpenAI API keys.

We’ve got additionally noticed a major enhance in Android adware instances, primarily attributed to the presence of the SpinOk adware. This malicious software program is distributed as a software program improvement equipment and is discovered inside numerous professional Android functions. On a distinct entrance, one of the vital recorded threats in H2 2023 is three-year-old malicious JavaScript code detected as JS/Agent, which continues to be loaded by compromised web sites. Equally, Magecart, a menace that goes after bank card information, has continued to develop for 2 years by focusing on myriads of unpatched web sites. In all three of those instances, the assaults may have been prevented if builders and admins had applied acceptable safety measures.

Lastly, the growing worth of bitcoin has not been accompanied by a corresponding enhance in cryptocurrency threats, diverging from previous developments. Nonetheless, cryptostealers have seen a notable enhance, brought on by the rise of the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) infostealer Lumma Stealer, which targets cryptocurrency wallets. These developments present an ever-evolving cybersecurity panorama, with menace actors utilizing a variety of ways.

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