A recent attempt to bribe BBC News reporter Joe Tidy to assist a cybercriminal in breaching the BBC’s cyber defenses highlights the growing threat all organizations now face from within. Tidy was offered millions of pounds and told he need never work again if he assisted the threat actor. With the permission of his editor, the BBC reporter played along with the cybercriminals without actually assisting them in order to discover more about their methods.
The Walt Disney Company, which has long had a history of troubled labor relations, recently found itself the victim of a disgruntled former employee. According to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against the former employee, Michael Scheuer, Disney discovered a security breach allegedly used to make its menus unusable, together with the redirection of QR codes to direct Disney customers to a website calling for a boycott of Israel.
More seriously, it alleged that the threat actor manipulated allergen information on Disney menus, indicating that certain menu items were safe for people with peanut allergies when, in fact, they could have been potentially deadly for some diners. Scheuer is also alleged to have conducted denial of service attacks on four former colleagues and to have paid visits outside the home of one of them.
The US New Jersey District Court has arrested a man accused of conducting a ransomware attack on a former employer, highlighting the growing “insider threat” organizations increasingly face from disgruntled or former employees.
It is alleged that Daniel Rhyne, 57, described in court documents as “a core infrastructure engineer,” is alleged to have conducted a $750, 000 ransomware attack on a New Jersey-based industrial company. The as-yet-unidentified organization provides services to various industries, including aquaculture, biopharmaceuticals, chemistry, electronics, food and beverage, healthcare, hydrogen mobility, manufacturing and industrial processing, metals, oil and gas, and pulp and paper companies.
Zscaler discovered a new remote access trojan (RAT) campaign that lures victims through fake online meeting links.
Once the victims are lured into downloading the RAT through the meeting links impersonating Skype, Google Meet, and Zoom, the RAT payload may enable threat actors to steal sensitive information.
As we predicted earlier this year, harsh economic conditions across Western democracies are acting as a catalyst for cybercrime – particularly those cyber-attacks that target staff inside the organization. As cybersecurity becomes more effective, cybercriminals are finding ways to bypass digital security barriers by victimizing and sometimes terrorizing key personnel within the target organization.
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Editorial Team
