Category: Security Intelligence

Embracing Automation to Unlock New Innovations

My entire career has been driven by automation. I learned early on that automating repetitive tasks using simple scripts allowed me more time to focus on exciting challenges. If I did anything more than twice, I would ask myself if…

How Zero Trust Changed the Course of Cybersecurity

For decades, the IT industry relied on perimeter security to safeguard critical digital assets. Firewalls and other network-based tools monitored and validated network access. However, the shift towards digital transformation and hybrid cloud infrastructure has made these traditional security methods…

Ex-Conti and FIN7 Actors Collaborate with New Domino Backdoor

This blog was made possible through contributions from Christopher Caridi.  IBM Security X-Force recently discovered a new malware family we have called “Domino,” which we assess was created by developers associated with the cybercriminal group that X-Force tracks as ITG14,…

Detection Methods: Do You Know Where Your Credentials are?

Information-stealing malware has become extremely pervasive in recent years. This malware harvests millions of credentials annually from endpoint devices and enterprises across the globe to devastating effects.  Using highly automated and orchestrated attack methods, threat actors and initial access brokers…

2022 Industry Threat Recap: Energy

In 2022, 10.7% of observed cyberattacks targeted the energy industry, according to the X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023. This puts energy in fourth place overall — the same as the year prior and behind manufacturing, finance and insurance and professional…

Can Zero-Knowledge Proofs Save Cryptocurrency?

Blockchain has transformed many industries, from healthcare to real estate to banking. But despite the “unhackable” hype, flaws in Blockchain technology undeniably weaken its goals of bringing greater security, transparency and privacy to the world. Between January and November 2022,…

Four Ways to Harden Your Network Perimeter

With the threat of cyberattacks on the rise worldwide, hardening your organization’s network perimeter has never been more critical. Many organizations have begun to focus more on actively securing and monitoring their externally facing assets to fend off cyberattacks from…

How to Provide Relevant Threat Intelligence

In the evolution of cybersecurity, the threat landscape is ever-changing while the line of defense is ever-shrinking. Security professionals started with securing the perimeters, but now we need to assume a breach in a zero-trust environment. However, providing intelligence to…

How LockBit Changed Cybersecurity Forever

In every industry, visionaries drive progress and innovation. Some call these pioneers “crazy”. The same rule applies to the world of cyber gangs. Most threat groups try to maintain a low profile. They don’t seem to trust anyone and want…

Using a Private Version of ChatGPT as an Enabler for Risk and Compliance

Organizations face many challenges regarding cybersecurity, including keeping up with the ever-evolving threat landscape and complying with regulatory requirements. In addition, the cybersecurity skill shortage makes it more difficult for organizations to adequately staff their risk and compliance functions. According…

Using ChatGPT as an Enabler for Risk and Compliance

Organizations face many challenges regarding cybersecurity, including keeping up with the ever-evolving threat landscape and complying with regulatory requirements. In addition, the cybersecurity skill shortage makes it more difficult for organizations to adequately staff their risk and compliance functions. According…

How to Defend Against Extortion Groups Like Lapsus$

The hacker group Lapsus$ (sometimes referred to as LAPSUS$ or simply Lapsus) is a relatively newer organization in the cyber arena. The group began to garner public attention in December 2021 after some successful attacks on major corporations, where even…

X-Force Identifies Vulnerability in IoT Platform

The last decade has seen an explosion of IoT devices across a multitude of industries. With that rise has come the need for centralized systems to perform data collection and device management, commonly called IoT Platforms. One such platform, ThingsBoard,…

Locks, Stocks and Brokers: Hackers and Insider Trading

On February 14, 2023, a Russian national and owner of Moscow cybersecurity firm M-13 was found guilty of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to computers. Vladislav Klyushin was charged along with four other men —…

The Important Role of SOAR in Cybersecurity

Understaffed security teams need all the help they can get, and they are finding that help through SOAR. SOAR — security orchestration, automation and response — is defined by Gartner as the “technologies that enable organizations to collect inputs monitored…

Is It Time to Start Hiding Your Work Emails?

In this digital age, it is increasingly important for businesses to be aware of their online presence and data security. Many companies have already implemented measures such as two-factor authentication and strong password policies – but there is still a…

2022 Industry Threat Recap: Finance and Insurance

The finance and insurance sector proved a top target for cybersecurity threats in 2022. The IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023 found this sector ranked as the second most attacked, with 18.9% of X-Force incident response cases. If, as…

X-Force Prevents Zero Day from Going Anywhere

This blog was made possible through contributions from Fred Chidsey and Joseph Lozowski. The X-Force Vulnerability and Exploit Database shows that the number of zero days being released each year is on the rise, but X-Force has observed that only…

And Stay Out! Blocking Backdoor Break-Ins

Backdoor access was the most common threat vector in 2022. According to the 2023 IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, 21% of incidents saw the use of backdoors, outpacing perennial compromise favorite ransomware, which came in at just 17%. The…

Cyber Storm Predicted at the 2023 World Economic Forum

According to the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2023, 93% of cybersecurity leaders and 86% of business leaders think a far-reaching, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely in the next two years. Additionally, 43% of organizational leaders think it is likely…

The Role of Human Resources in Cybersecurity

The human resources (HR) department is an integral part of an organization. They work with all departments with a wider reach than even IT. As a highly visible department, HR can support and improve an organization’s security posture through employee…

New Attack Targets Online Customer Service Channels

An unknown attacker group is targeting customer service agents at gambling and gaming companies with a new malware effort. Known as IceBreaker, the code is capable of stealing passwords and cookies, exfiltrating files, taking screenshots and running custom VBS scripts.…

Cybersecurity 101: What is Attack Surface Management?

There were over 4,100 publicly disclosed data breaches in 2022, exposing about 22 billion records. Criminals can use stolen data for identity theft, financial fraud or to launch ransomware attacks. While these threats loom large on the horizon, attack surface…

Container Drift: Where Age isn’t Just a Number

Container orchestration frameworks like Kubernetes have brought about untold technological advances over the past decade. However, they have also enabled new attack vectors for bad actors to leverage. Before safely deploying an application, you must answer the following questions: How…

OneNote, Many Problems? The New Phishing Framework

There are plenty of phish in the digital sea, and attackers are constantly looking for new bait that helps them bypass security perimeters and land in user inboxes. Their newest hook? OneNote documents. First noticed in December 2022, this phishing…

The Role of Finance Departments in Cybersecurity

Consumers are becoming more aware of the data companies collect about them, and place high importance on data security and privacy. Though consumers aren’t aware of every data breach, they are justifiably concerned about what happens to the data companies…

2022 Industry Threat Recap: Manufacturing

It seems like yesterday that industries were fumbling to understand the threats posed by post-pandemic economic and technological changes. While every disruption provides opportunities for positive change, it’s hard to ignore the impact that global supply chains, rising labor costs,…

What Does a Network Security Engineer Do?

Cybersecurity is complex. The digital transformation, remote work and the ever-evolving threat landscape require different tools and different skill sets. Systems must be in place to protect endpoints, identities and a borderless network perimeter. The job role responsible for handling…

The Importance of Modern-Day Data Security Platforms

Data is the backbone of businesses and companies everywhere. Data can range from intellectual property to critical business plans to personal health information or even money itself. At the end of the day, businesses are looking to grow revenue, innovate,…

What is Reverse Tabnabbing and What Can You Do to Stop It?

Tabnabbing is a phishing method in which attackers take advantage of victims’ unattended browser tabs. After hijacking an inactive tab and redirecting it to malicious URLs, an attacker can perform a phishing attack and execute scripts. With reverse tabnabbing, on…

Breaking Down a Cyberattack, One Kill Chain Step at a Time

In today’s wildly unpredictable threat landscape, the modern enterprise should be familiar with the cyber kill chain concept. A cyber kill chain describes the various stages of a cyberattack pertaining to network security. Lockheed Martin developed the cyber kill chain…

Defining the Cobalt Strike Reflective Loader

The Challenge with Using Cobalt Strike for Advanced Red Team Exercises While next-generation AI and machine-learning components of security solutions continue to enhance behavioral-based detection capabilities, at their core many still rely on signature-based detections. Cobalt Strike being a popular…

How to Solve the People Problem in Cybersecurity

You may think this article is going to discuss how users are one of the biggest challenges to cybersecurity. After all, employees are known to click on unverified links, download malicious files and neglect to change their passwords. And then…

Continuous Threat Exposure Management Stops Modern Threats

The modern threat landscape presents serious challenges to businesses struggling to build their security programs.  While these businesses modernize IT and security programs, the attack surface is proliferating. Security leaders must realize that perimeter defenses no longer cope with the…

What is a Red Teamer? All You Need to Know

A red teamer is a cybersecurity professional that works to help companies improve IT security frameworks by attacking and undermining those same frameworks, often without notice. The term “red teaming” is often used interchangeably with penetration testing. While the terms…

Meeting Today’s Complex Data Privacy Challenges

Pop quiz: Who is responsible for compliance and data privacy in an organization? Is it a) the security department, b) the IT department, c) the legal department, d) the compliance group or e) all of the above? If you answered…

SOAR, SIEM, SASE and Zero Trust: How They All Fit Together

Cybersecurity in today’s climate is not a linear process. Organizations can’t simply implement a single tool or strategy to be protected from all threats and challenges. Instead, they must implement the right strategies and technologies for the organization’s specific needs…

The Role of Marketing and PR in Incident Response

Responding to a cyber incident requires teamwork across departments and disciplines. Technical incident responders must work to halt incoming attacks while the communications teams develop a public response. Clear communication is essential.  Communication strategies differ before and after a cyber…

What is a Blue Teamer, and How Can They Protect Your Data?

Modern-day cybersecurity isn’t just about preventing and responding to threats; it’s about setting up defenses that can detect and respond to suspicious activity before it can do any damage. But to adequately protect an organization’s systems, a team of cybersecurity…

The Digital World is Changing Fast: Data Discovery Can Help

The rise in digital technology is creating opportunities for individuals and organizations to achieve unprecedented success. It’s also creating new challenges, particularly in protecting sensitive personal and financial information. Personally identifiable information (PII) is trivial to manage. It’s often spread…

How Breached Companies Become the Face of Change

I’ve always told my kids that everyone makes mistakes. What really matters is how you handle them and that you learn from what happened.  SolarWinds followed the same thinking in how it handled its 2020 breach. Not only did the…

What is an Incident Response Professional?

As part of our ongoing series highlighting various roles in the cybersecurity industry, this article shines the light on the incident response professional. While there are many misconceptions surrounding the role, let’s examine a few frequently asked questions. How In-Demand…

Direct Kernel Object Manipulation (DKOM) Attacks on ETW Providers

Overview In this post, IBM Security X-Force Red offensive hackers analyze how attackers, with elevated privileges, can use their access to stage Windows Kernel post-exploitation capabilities. Over the last few years, public accounts have increasingly shown that less sophisticated attackers…

Will Charging Station Cyberattacks Impact the EV Boom?

During a recent get-together, my friend arrived late. She apologized, quickly explaining that she’d had trouble finding a charging station for her electric vehicle (EV). While she knew where the stations in her hometown were, she couldn’t easily find them…

The Growing Threat to Critical Infrastructure

In August 2022, the threat intelligence and cybersecurity company Cyble found 8,000 virtual network computing (VNC) instances exposed online. Additionally, this research revealed that most of these ports are in the United States, China and Sweden — putting many critical…

How Falling Crypto Prices Impacted Cyber Crime

Some rare good news in the world of cyber crime trends: Certain crimes declined in 2022 after years of constant rises. Should we credit crypto? Some estimates say that cryptocurrencies have lost $2 trillion in value since November 2021. During…

Detecting the Undetected: The Risk to Your Info

IBM’s Advanced Threat Detection and Response Team (ATDR) has seen an increase in the malware family known as information stealers in the wild over the past year. Info stealers are malware with the capability of scanning for and exfiltrating data…

What are the Duties of a Malware Analyst?

Malware breaches begin in many ways. Recently, multiple fake antivirus apps in the Google Play Store were infected with malware. Earlier this year, malware deployed through satellites shut down modems in Ukraine. Destructive malware attacks have an average lifecycle of…

Reverse Tabnabbing

Reverse Tabnabbing is an attack where a page linked from the target page is able to rewrite that page, for example to replace it with a phishing site. Here, the redirection happens through links  from the parent site to attacker’s…

Avoid Being a Downstream Victim of Service Provider Attacks

Attacks on service providers are mounting — and so are downstream victims. Earlier this year, some customers of the cloud service provider DigitalOcean received emails instructing them to reset their passwords. These users hadn’t actually forgotten their passwords — their…

Six Common Ways That Malware Strains Get Their Names

You’re likely familiar with the names of common malware strains such as MOUSEISLAND, Agent Tesla and TrickBot. But do you know how new malware threats get their names? As a cybersecurity writer, I quickly add new strains to my vocabulary.…

What is a Pentester, and Can They Prevent Data Breaches?

With the cost of data breaches at an all-time high, organizations are working to proactively identify areas of risk on the network. Using pentesters to conduct penetration (pen) testing is becoming more common. To protect themselves, businesses must know their…

What CISOs Should Know About Hacking in 2023

The art of cyber crime is in a constant state of flux and evolution. Simply staying on pace with these trends is a significant part of the CISO’s job. Today’s modern CISO must ensure they are always prepared for the…

How to Spot a Nefarious Cryptocurrency Platform

Do you ever wonder if your cryptocurrency platform cashes in ransomware payments? Maybe not, but it might be worth investigating. Bitcoin-associated ransomware continues to plague companies, government agencies and individuals with no signs of letting up. And if your platform…

The Evolution of Antivirus Software to Face Modern Threats

Over the years, endpoint security has evolved from primitive antivirus software to more sophisticated next-generation platforms employing advanced technology and better endpoint detection and response.   Because of the increased threat that modern cyberattacks pose, experts are exploring more elegant ways…

How Do Threat Hunters Keep Organizations Safe?

Neil Wyler started his job amid an ongoing cyberattack. As a threat hunter, he helped his client discover that millions of records had been stolen over four months. Even though his client used sophisticated tools, its threat-hunting technology did not…

Contain Breaches and Gain Visibility With Microsegmentation

Organizations must grapple with challenges from various market forces. Digital transformation, cloud adoption, hybrid work environments and geopolitical and economic challenges all have a part to play. These forces have especially manifested in more significant security threats to expanding IT…

Bridging the 3.4 Million Workforce Gap in Cybersecurity

As new cybersecurity threats continue to loom, the industry is running short of workers to face them. The 2022 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study identified a 3.4 million worldwide cybersecurity worker gap; the total existing workforce is estimated at 4.7 million.…

CEO, CIO or CFO: Who Should Your CISO Report To?

As we move deeper into a digitally dependent future, the growing concern of data breaches and other cyber threats has led to the rise of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). This position is essential in almost every company that…

The Evolution of Antivirus Software to Face Modern Threats

Over the years, endpoint security has evolved from primitive antivirus software to more sophisticated next-generation platforms employing advanced technology and better endpoint detection and response.   Because of the increased threat that modern cyberattacks pose, experts are exploring more elegant ways…

How Do Threat Hunters Keep Organizations Safe?

Neil Wyler started his job amid an ongoing cyberattack. As a threat hunter, he helped his client discover that millions of records had been stolen over four months. Even though his client used sophisticated tools, its threat-hunting technology did not…

Contain Breaches and Gain Visibility With Microsegmentation

Organizations must grapple with challenges from various market forces. Digital transformation, cloud adoption, hybrid work environments and geopolitical and economic challenges all have a part to play. These forces have especially manifested in more significant security threats to expanding IT…

CEO, CIO or CFO: Who Should Your CISO Report To?

As we move deeper into a digitally dependent future, the growing concern of data breaches and other cyber threats has led to the rise of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). This position is essential in almost every company that…

How the Silk Road Affair Changed Law Enforcement

The Silk Road was the first modern dark web marketplace, an online place for anonymously buying and selling illegal products and services using Bitcoin.  Ross Ulbricht created The Silk Road in 2011 and operated it until 2013 when the FBI…

Why Zero Trust Works When Everything Else Doesn’t

The zero trust security model is proving to be one of the most effective cybersecurity approaches ever conceived.  Zero trust — also called zero trust architecture (ZTA), zero trust network architecture (ZTNA) and perimeter-less security — takes a “default deny”…

5 Golden Rules of Threat Hunting

When a breach is uncovered, the operational cadence includes threat detection, quarantine and termination. While all stages can occur within the first hour of discovery, in some cases, that’s already too late. Security operations center (SOC) teams monitor and hunt…

Third-Party App Stores Could Be a Red Flag for iOS Security

Even Apple can’t escape change forever. The famously restrictive company will allow third-party app stores for iOS devices, along with allowing users to “sideload” software directly. Spurring the move is the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA), which looks…

Who Will Be the Next National Cyber Director?

After Congress approved his nomination in 2021, Chris Inglis served as the first-ever National Cyber Director for the White House. Now, he plans to retire. So who’s next?  As of this writing in January of 2023, there remains uncertainty around…

Everyone Wants to Build a Cyber Range: Should You?

In the last few years, IBM X-Force has seen an unprecedented increase in requests to build cyber ranges. By cyber ranges, we mean facilities or online spaces that enable team training and exercises of cyberattack responses. Companies understand the need…

Too Much Caffeine? Phishing-as-a-Service Makes Us Jittery

Recently, investigators at Mandiant discovered a new software platform with an intuitive interface. The service has tools to orchestrate and automate core campaign elements. Some of the platform’s features enable self-service customization and campaign tracking.  Sounds like a typical Software-as-a-Service…

An IBM Hacker Breaks Down High-Profile Attacks

On September 19, 2022, an 18-year-old cyberattacker known as “teapotuberhacker” (aka TeaPot) allegedly breached the Slack messages of game developer Rockstar Games. Using this access, they pilfered over 90 videos of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI game. They then…

Synthetic Media Creates New Social Engineering Threats

Social engineering attacks have challenged cybersecurity for years. No matter how strong your digital security, authorized human users can always be manipulated into opening the door for a clever cyber attacker.  Social engineering typically involves tricking an authorized user into…