Email scams aimed at business users are becoming increasingly sophisticated and increasingly tough to detect. Threat actors are now using artificial intelligence to research their targets in advance of an attack, a process known as ‘social engineering.’ Phishing attacks and email scams that appear to come from a trusted source make up 35.5% of all socially engineered threats, according to a report from cybersecurity firm Barracuda: Top Email Threats and Trends. Although these types of attacks have been around for some time, cybercriminals have recently devised ingenious new methods to avoid detection and being blocked by email-scanning technologies.
Over half of all companies worldwide quote inadequate cybersecurity budgets as a key factor underpinning a dramatic rise in global cybercrime in the first three quarters of 2023. According to a survey of almost 2,000 cybersecurity practitioners worldwide undertaken by the Ponemon Institute and commissioned by cybersecurity firm Barracuda: “There are a number of common factors that contribute to organizations’ exposable security postures. These include significant IT security budget shortfalls, a general lack of consistent enterprise-wide security policies and programs, ineffective (or no) incident response plans, and an inability to protect against automated security attacks criminals create using generative AI technology.” Fifty-five percent of respondents quoted inadequate IT security budgets as the chief cause of their growing vulnerability to cyber-attacks. A further 42 percent highlighted inadequate enterprise-wide security policies and programs. A lack of inventory of third parties with access to sensitive and confidential data adversely impacted 38 percent. Another key factor is a lack of support from senior leadership, with 25 percent of respondents saying that management teams fail to regard cyberattacks as a significant risk.
In today's roundup; a Chinese cyberespionage group deploys malware, new Android malware, MMRat, unlocks phones, and DreamBus malware targets RocketMS servers.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway devices have again been violated, this time through a novel backdoor malware named 'Whirlpool.' The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has identified the breach to be the work of a pro-China group of hackers. The threat actors have targeted a zero-day remote command injection vulnerability through the malware. Reports say this vulnerability was used to plant malware payloads of Seapsy and Whirlpool backdoors on compromised devices.
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