Read on for highlights from DarkOwl’s Product Team for Q1, including new exciting product features. The team is starting the new year off strong and looks forward to an exciting 2024!
Enhanced Forum Structuring
The team made upgrades to forum structuring within the platform, empowering users with unparalleled insights into darknet forums. This latest development enables users to navigate darknet conversations in a structured manner, presenting discussions in chronological order for accurate and effortless reconstruction. The upgraded search capabilities further empower users to pinpoint relevant information swiftly, facilitating comprehensive analysis.
Access to forum data in a structured format is particularly crucial for organizations seeking to bolster their cybersecurity defenses and proactively address emerging threats.
Figures 1 and 2 (left to right): Previous view of a thread versus new enhanced view
Last month, the DarkOwl Marketing team sat down with DarkOwl’s Director of Client Engagement, Caryn Farino and Product Manager, Josh Berman to learn more. You can read that interview here.
Access the Darknet Safely and Securely Directly from DarkOwl Vision
This quarter the team released “Direct to Darknet” within Vision UI in partnership with Authentic8, a leading provider of cloud-based secure browsing solutions. This feature allows users to further investigate Vision UI search results on forums, marketplaces, and other Onion sites. This can be helpful for an investigation to view the original website, view images or advertisements that may be on the sites, take a screenshot for reporting, and more. By combining DarkOwl’s comprehensive darknet database and monitoring capabilities with Authentic8’s Silo cloud browser, which is known for its secure browsing environment, organizations will gain unprecedented visibility and protection against cyber threats surfacing on the darknet.
Figures 3 and 4 (left to right): Vision UI result and associated darknet result for guns in Miami
Context and Enrichments
The team has significantly increased context information for leaks, actors, ransomware, and has added features to make doing research easier than ever.
On the new Leak Explorepage, customers can see information about our leak dataset and get information about an individual leak. Customers can look for a leak that we have in our system, see if it’s relevant to them, pivot to the filetree or original posting, and look at the underlying data. We highlight some of leaks we collected this quarter in the next section – all of the information highlighted below is taken directly from this feature.
Tox ID search and Compare features (Tools/CVEs) have been added to Actor Explore profiles. The compare feature on the Tools and CVEs page allows users to see commonalities between actor groups, including timelines and any commonalities between actor groups.
Site Context on Ransomware search results provide site names, relevant dates, cipher information, and pivoting options to Actor Explore or further research, all provided by the DarkOwl analyst team.
The DarkOwl analyst team has added several new Search Blocktranslations in Arabic, Russian, and Chinese languages.
More Vision UI Updates
Multi-Factor Authentication login option for customers
Alert section enhancements to delete single alerts and display Category in the main table. This makes alerts easier to use and more functional. “Category” has been added as a new column on the Alerts page to more effectively use these tags to organize alerts. One way to use these tags is to classify alerts by organization or category such as “Credentials,” to view related alerts from multiple monitors together.
Collection Stats
This quarter showed tremendous growth in data collection. The team had 5% growth quarter over quarter in added Tor documents, 27% growth in I2P documents, 31% growth in ZeroNet documents, 15% growth in records from Telegram, to highlight a few.
Highlights
Chat platform collection continues to grow as darknet threat actors migrate to darknet adjacent sites. Currently, the platform has coverage of more than 22,000 channels across multiple chat platforms.
The team added 117 data leaks this quarter alone, many of which were requests from customers, which the team always prioritizes. A select few of those are highlighted in the next section – all gathered from the DarkOwl analyst team.
Actor Explore continues to grow – with a total of 307 actor profiles able to searched, compared, and researched within the platform.
Leaks of Interest Collected
As mentioned, the descriptions below are all available in our Leak Context product feature.
Naz.api
The naz.api leak was made available on BreachForums, on January 15, 2024. According to the post, it is a 35 GB collection of public URLs, usernames and passwords. The post also notes that it was originally on xkey.info but was taken down for allegedly not being the real naz.api leak. naz.api is one of the largest credential stuffing lists originally posted in September 9, 2023 by 0x64. According to that post, the database was created by extracting data from stealer logs, and contains over 1 billion unique records of saved logins and passwords in users’ browsers. The post also notes that the original naz.api dataset was donated to 0t.rocks. Infostealer logs are files produced when a trojan is installed on a system that collects information from the infected system. Depending on the infostealer malware, the extracted data can include system information and browser session data (including autofills, credentials, financial information, cookies, browser history, etc.). Some malware will also capture stored local files and install keylogging on the system to exfiltrate data outside of the browser sessions.
USA 500K SSN
Data purported to be of US Social Security numbers was posted on LeakBase, a hacking forum, on September 11, 2023. Data exposed includes full names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and physical addresses. Analyst Note: Three leaks with “500K SSN” included in the leak name were identified during a recent review, with each leak containing the same data format. These leaks may have been parsed from a larger historical leak and reposted in several parts. For this data leak, DarkOwl noted references to the same sample data dating back to December 2021, supporting this leak contains older content. Notwithstanding, given the presence of social security numbers, the recirculation of this data is of concern.
DC Health Link
Data purported to be from DC Health Link was posted on BreachForums, a hacking forum, on July 22, 2023. According to the post, this breach occurred in March 2023. Data exposed includes member names and IDs, policy information, social security numbers, full names, dates of birth, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, employment information, genders, medical records, and other personal identifiers such as ethnicity and citizenship status. Analyst Note: Review of the original post on Breach Forums on March 9, 2023, indicates the original leaker was thekilob. This is further supported by commentary in the Telegram Channel, BreachForums Chat, where they indicate thekilob was removed as a reference from the original post. Analyst Note 2: DC Health Link made a public statement about the breach on their website on March 14, 2023, detailing information about the breach.
AT&T
Data purported to be from AT&T was posted on BreachForums, a hacking forum, on March 17, 2024. According to the post, AT&T’s database was hacked by ShinyHunters in 2021 and contains 70 million lines. Data exposed includes names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, social security numbers, and dates of birth. Analyst Note: According to the information provided in the post, in order to link the SSN and DOB for each record, one will need to grep and replace the encrypted values for these fields in the master file with unencrypted value of these fields provided in a separate file. Analyst Note 2: DarkOwl notes to replicate this connection in the raw indexed files, a search will need to be run using the encrypted value in quotes as the keyword to locate both documents in the leak (i.e. “1lpxFgIp7MlY” would result in both the document that contains the full record with the SSN encrypted value and the file which contains the decrypted SSN value). Analyst Note 3: A high level review of the data indicates the data is from customers in the United States. Analyst Note 4: Research in DarkOwl Vision indicates the data was initially posted for auction on August 22, 2021, for $80,000.
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A new Middle East conflict emerged on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. It rages on to the present day, resulting in physical, digital, and hybrid events that threaten both Israel and Palestine and their borders with multiple surrounding countries. Regional stability is extremely low as actors supporting all sides of the conflict take stances and attack their self-defined opponents on the ground, at sea, and with cyber capabilities. Most recently, Hamas rejected an Israeli offer for a ceasefire on 25 March 2024, ensuring that this conflict continues for an undetermined amount of time.
In the past six months, some of the trending issues the world has witnessed include drastic upticks in maritime and ground-centered activity against Iranian-supported actors, such as the Houthis and Hezbollah. Air attacks and maritime incidents against the Houthis continue all over the Middle East region, impacting civilian vessels in various bodies of water and civilian shipping routes. Telegram remains a vital part of the conflict, with propaganda emerging from Iranian, Arabic, and Israeli Telegram channels, as well as sympathizers and opponents from all sides of the conflict taking a public stance and offering to attack on behalf of their beliefs. A sampling of these activities over the past six months since the start of the conflict is covered in this blog.
Telegram and Choosing Sides
As was previously mentioned and covered extensively in a previous blog, a trend that emerged almost immediately and continues six months later to today, was actors choosing sides in the conflict. No matter what side is supported, whether an entity is pro-Israel or pro-Hamas, supporters publicly emerge and then are targeted by opponents.
Figure 1: Killnet posting their intention to target the Israeli government on Telegram
Figure 2: Anonymous Sudan posting their intention to target the Israeli government on Telegram
Figure 3: The group Garuna Ops made a number of posts on Telegram in support of Israel and stated as well as attacking Palestine they would attack any other countries that supported them
The end of 2023 witnessed a few key events, ensuring the conflict would continue into the new year of 2024. The list below is not exhaustive, and is only meant to provide high-level examples:
Navitas Petroleum, based in Israel, was purportedly hit by BlackBasta ransomware (December, 2023)
However, as of the time of this writing, Navitas had no entry on the BlackBasta ransomware victim blog. It is possible this event was fabricated, or that the impacted entity struck a deal of some kind with the BlackBasta actors to have their data removed from the ransomware website. Either way, the threat of malicious actors coming after an organization because of their country or other allegiance is a continuing trend.
Predatory Sparrow hacking group attacked 70% of Iranian gas stations (December, 2023):
Figure 4: Predatory Sparrow group publicizes their attack of Iranian fuel stations in December, 2023; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Iran issued a statement that the October 07 attack against Israel was in retaliation for the January 2020 assassination of IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani (December, 2023)
Hamas leaders publicly rejected this claim.
In 2024, some incidents included (the list below is not exhaustive, and is only meant to provide high-level examples):
Anonymous Sudan claims to have hit Israel’s telecom company Pelephone (January, 2024):
Figure 5: Anonymous Sudan uses their Telegram channel to advertise the January 2024 attack against Israeli Telecom Pelephone; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Lulzsec group targeted Israeli red-rocket alert system:
Figure 6: Lulzsec hacking group advertises their mid-January 2024 efforts against the Israeli rocket alert system on Telegram
Anonymous Sudan claims to have hit Israel’s Bazan group:
Figure 7: Hacking collective Anonymous Sudan uses their Telegram channel to publicize an attack on Israeli Bazan Group in January, 2024; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Anonymous Sudan also claimed it conducted a cyberattack targeting “critical parts” of healthcare infrastructure in Israel, and adds “more than a thousand devices are completely disconnected.”
Terminator Security hacking group claims to have taken down Israeli Air Force servers.
As of mid-March 2024, Raytheon was again targeted, this time by the Anonymous group due to their supplying weapons to Israel. However, Raytheon and other US defense contractors are frequently targeted by Russian groups, such as this Snatch Ransomware group observation which also came in March 2024:
Figure 8: Snatch ransomware group details attacks against US government contractor Raytheon, which is frequently targeted due to its weapons supplied to Ukraine; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Maritime Activity
Underwater mining conducted by the Houthis and other attacks against maritime vessels continued as recently as mid-March, with this physical element of conflict having cyber implications:
Underwater sea telecom cables that transit approximately 17% of international data were damaged as maritime conflict continued in the Red Sea. Some media outlets blamed Houthi militants, while other experts state the cables were damaged by ships sinking and hitting them, as they are in shallow waters.
Maritime activity in the Red Sea also involved the United States conducting a cyberattack on an Iranian ship that had been gathering intelligence on cargo vessels in the region. This was intended to prevent the ship from sharing intelligence with Houthi members in Yemen, who have been frequently targeting civilian vessels. DarkOwl analysts have observed multiple platforms, including Discord, onion websites, and 8kun, sharing information regarding the hostile situation in the Red Sea:
Figure 9: Users discuss and share videos of Iranian activity in the Red Sea between January to March 2024; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Figure 10: Users discuss and share videos of Iranian activity in the Red Sea between January to March 2024; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Figure 11: Users discuss and share videos of Iranian activity in the Red Sea between January to March 2024; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Hybrid Incidents
Hybrid events, comprised of both digital and physical efforts to have a real-world impact, have also grown. In mid-February 2024, international media reported on an attempt to reroute an Israeli El Al airliner. The original flight path was from Bangkok, Thailand, and Tel Aviv, Israel. However, during the flight, the crew were provided with instructions that derailed them from their set route. These instructions were discarded, and the crew remained on their original flight path, once they contacted other air traffic controllers and compared flight data, and realized actors were trying to intentionally mislead them.
The incident occurred over Somali airspace, and Israeli sources revealed a certain frequency that was consistently trying to change flight paths, indicating a constant attempt to disrupt air activity. Using technology to attempt to derail a plane or any other means of transportation that carries humans who could be used as leverage in a geopolitical situation, or harmed, brings a new level of urgency towards vetting online information tied to any world event, especially a conflict.
Conclusion
As is confirmed by the events above, conflict these days has a new paradigm using technology to influence and increase physical air, ground, and maritime events, such as using a certain frequency to communicate with planes while trying to pull them from a planned, safe route. Global infrastructure such as underwater cables are either accidentally damaged by water mining or intentionally cut, in some cases, to interfere with regional internet access and connectivity. These physical threats to infrastructure and personnel are separate to the propaganda that is quickly spun and shared among all sides via messaging platforms and social media.
Malicious actors use technology to go after petroleum and water supplies, or even put services for human life, such as healthcare, at risk during geopolitical incidents. Even weapons supplies are in danger, as actors try to prevent weapons delivery or jeopardize the providers of the weapons. The technological component to conflict is here to stay, and actors will undoubtedly use any platform they feel is safe – Telegram, social media, or private messaging, or an online collection of supporters who can contribute to research, and disseminating propaganda to try and influence the public to see issues from a certain perspective.
Authentic8, a leading provider of cloud-based secure browsing solutions, and DarkOwl, the leader in darknet data, are proud to announce an innovative partnership that revolutionizes cybersecurity capabilities for organizations globally. This partnership showcases the power of product integration, leveraging DarkOwl’s unparalleled darknet intelligence alongside Authentic8’s secure browsing technology, Silo, to set new standards in threat detection and mitigation.
This partnership brings together the advanced technologies and expertise of both Authentic8 and DarkOwl to address the escalating challenges posed by cyber threats. By combining DarkOwl’s comprehensive darknet database and monitoring capabilities with Authentic8’s Silo cloud browser, which is known for its secure browsing environment, organizations will gain unprecedented visibility and protection against cyber threats surfacing on the darknet.
With this partnership, DarkOwl’s platform serves as the launch point for identifying darknet content and initiating investigations. Once identified, Silo enables full-page analysis for deeper research, providing full isolation from darknet cyber threats and anonymity from malicious actors. This capability enables organizations and government agencies to leverage DarkOwl’s data and Authentic8’s platform to uncover and investigate various threats, including cybercrime, ransomware, malware and other threats arising from the darknet.
“We are excited to partner with Authentic8 to empower organizations to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats,” said Mark Turnage, CEO of DarkOwl. “By combining our unmatched darknet intelligence capabilities with Authentic8’s secure browsing technology, we are enabling organizations to strengthen their defenses and safeguard their digital assets against sophisticated cyber adversaries.”
Ramesh Rajagopal, CEO of Authentic8 adds, “Investigative work in the Silo browser complements DarkOwl’s innovative intelligence solutions, enabling investigators to secure and streamline their dark web intelligence activities across both solutions.”
Together, Authentic8 and DarkOwl demonstrate their shared commitment to driving innovation and excellence in cybersecurity with this partnership. With this, they lead the industry in delivering cutting-edge solutions that address the evolving challenges in the cybersecurity space.
About Authentic8 Authentic8 are the creators of Silo for Research, a purpose-built solution for safely conducting open-source research on the surface, deep or dark web. The cloud-based, isolated browsing environment offers one-click access to Tor and in-region points of presence around the world. To learn more, visit www.authentic8.com.
About DarkOwl DarkOwl uses machine learning and human analysts to collect automatically, continuously, and anonymously, index and rank darknet, deep web, and high-risk surface net data that allows for simplicity in searching. DarkOwl is unique not only in the depth and breadth of its darknet data, but also in the relevance and searchability of its data, its investigation tools, and its passionate customer service. DarkOwl data is ethically and safely collected from the darknet, allowing users secure and anonymous access to information and threats relevant to their mission. For more information, visit www.darkowl.com.
DarkOwl LLC announced today that it has purchased certain assets of Skurio Ltd from the Administrators Keenan CF Ltd, effective March 22, 2024. These assets include certain customer information, source code, and other commercial material.
Mark Turnage, DarkOwl CEO commented that “the purchase of these Skurio assets will enhance DarkOwl’s market presence in the UK and Europe, and add optional new features to the DarkOwl product platform. Supplementing DarkOwl’s unique darknet capabilities with these Skurio improvements will enhance the depth and breadth of our market positioning.”
About DarkOwl DarkOwl uses machine learning and human analysts to collect automatically, continuously, and anonymously index and rank darknet, deep web, and high-risk surface net data. This allows for comprehensive searching, monitoring and alerting of these sites, as well as layering analytical tools on the data for pattern mapping. DarkOwl is unique not only in the depth and breadth of its darknet data, but also in the relevance and searchability of its data, its investigation tools, and its passionate customer service. DarkOwl data is ethically and safely collected from the darknet, allowing users secure and anonymous access to information and threats relevant to their mission. For more information, visit www.darkowl.com.
Disclaimer: This blog seeks to illuminate the practices used by threat actors that involve the nefarious application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. While the instances discussed herein do not imply that chatbots and similar tools are intrinsically hazardous, they serve to demonstrate the potential for their misuse by cybercriminals. None of the examples generated should be used.
Introduction
Cyberattacks are becoming more and more commonplace, with no one immune from attacks, whether it be corporations suffering from ransomware attacks or individuals falling victim to romance scams. But as people become more educated about the risks of cyberattacks and scams, cyber attackers must change their methods to ensure success.
Last April Fool’s Day, we looked how cyber actors trick us with phishing emails. This April Fool’s Day, we explore some of the ways that cyber actors could use new technology such as AI to fool their victims into allowing them access to their systems or finances.
Phishing
A phishing email is a deceptive email designed to trick the recipient into believing it’s from a trustworthy source, with the aim of stealing sensitive information, such as login credentials, financial details, or personal data. These emails often mimic the appearance and tone of official communications from well-known companies, banks, or government agencies. The emails will often request personal information, include suspicious links or attachments and generic information.
Most people these days are aware that they should not click on links in emails from people they don’t recognize and emails that appear to have spelling or grammar mistakes in them. But phishing emails are becoming more sophisticated, and AI can be used to generate emails that are more believable.
We asked an AI platform to write us an email:
This is the response we got:
This took seconds to generate and could be used to fool people.
Smishing
Smishing is a type of phishing scam conducted through SMS (Short Message Service) text messages. It involves sending deceptive text messages that aim to trick recipients into revealing personal information, clicking on malicious links, or performing actions that compromise their security. These messages often impersonate legitimate companies, organizations, or even acquaintances, creating a sense of urgency or fear to prompt immediate action from the victim.
Smishing campaigns are often used by threat actors to entice people as part of a romance scam or pretending to be customer support asking a user to share a password or click on a push notification. They can take many forms pretending to reward you with a prize or tell you that you missed a package delivery. They are becoming increasingly sophisticated and take many forms. Below we show a sample of these.
Social Engineering
Social engineering is a manipulation technique that exploits people to gain unauthorized access to information, systems, or buildings. Unlike traditional hacking, which often relies on technical vulnerabilities, social engineering targets the human element of security systems. The goal is to trick or deceive people into doing what the attacker wants them to do, whether that be access to systems or obtaining financial reward.
Social engineering can take many forms, from generating a phishing email based on specific information found on social media to make it more targeted to the victim to creating fake social media profiles to target individuals whether on a dating app or networking app to entice people to communicate with them.
We had an AI tool generate us a dating profile:
But we also need a picture to go with the profile to make it more believable, so we asked AI to generate us one of those as well.
These prompts could be tailored in order to create a profile that is more likely to appeal to the desired victim. Research can be conducted, and all of that information can be inputted into an AI generator to create the perfect profile for the job.
Vishing
Vishing, short for “voice phishing,” is a form of social engineering attack where fraudsters use telephone services to scam individuals into disclosing sensitive personal information, such as bank account numbers, credit card details, personal identification numbers (PINs), and passwords. Unlike traditional phishing attacks, which typically occur through email or malicious websites, vishing specifically involves voice or telephone communication.
While threat actors previously had to conduct these calls themselves it is now possible to generate voices using AI. While it is difficult to use this for an actual conversation it can be used to create prompts of voicemails. Using AI, it is also possible to emulate someone’s voice meaning that you could receive a voicemail from someone who sounds just like your boss asking you to send funds or resent a password that sounds really believable. There have also been reported instances of people appearing on video conferencing calls where their image and voice have been manipulated to provide the message the threat actor wants to give.
Using AI, we are able create a voice message. You can select the type of voice you want to hear, the tone of the message, how to pronounce certain words and where to pause in the conversation. Leading to a believable message.
Conclusions
It is worth noting that most AI providers have tried to implement security features and guardrails to prevent threat actors from utilizing their platforms for nefarious purposes. However, systems can be jailbroken and threat actors are also able to use the technology to create their own LLM (large language model) to generate the kinds of responses that they want. There are already dark web AI tools that have been developed such as WormGPT and FraudGPT. AI does not create new scams or ways of working. As it does with all of us, it simply speeds up and improves the activities the prompter is seeking to conduct. In fact, some of the descriptions in this blog were generated using AI highlighting legitimate uses.
There are lots of ways that cyber criminals can trick us into providing information we don’t want to, falling for scams, providing funds or access to profiles. However, this is nothing new and we should continue to be vigilant in the same way we always have been, while understanding that as technology develops, cyber actors are also developing the tools and techniques they use to try and fool us.
Curious how DarkOwl can help with your use case? Contact Us!
Our analyst team shares a few articles each week in our email newsletter which goes every Thursday. Make sure to register! This blog highlights those articles in order of what was the most popular in our newsletter – what our readers found the most intriguing. Stay tuned for a recap every month. We hope sharing these resources and news articles emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity and sheds light on the latest in threat intelligence.
1. LockBit ransomware re-emerges after law enforcement takedown – The Hacker News
Proving resilient, LockBit ransomware came back into operation using new infrastructure just days after a global law enforcement operation took them offline. The actors debuted a new onion address and already had 12 new victims in their post-takedown operations. Additionally, the actors themselves authored a long note explaining what happened from their perspective. Read full article.
2. ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group exit scams – The Hacker News
One of the most active ransomware groups of the past few years, ALPHV/BlackCat, shut down their onion site after their latest big victim, UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare unit, purportedly paid their $22 million ransom. Actors believed to be a part of the gang engaged in conversation on Russian forum RAMP. Read article.
3. US government agencies are impersonated in business email compromise attacks – SC Media
US government agencies have been impersonated in business email compromise (BEC) attacks. The Department of Transportation, Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration have all faced QR codes circulating in PDF documents. The QR codes send victims to phishing sites mimicking portals for the aforementioned agencies. All PDF’s had the same metadata, which indicated creation in Nigeria. Article here.
4. Iranian actors observed targeting aerospace and aviation industries in the Middle East – The Hacker News
Malicious Iranian cyber activity was observed targeting various industries using cloud infrastructure for their command and control (C2) along with social engineering tactics to deliver two backdoors named Minibike and Minibus. Targeting these industries allows for strategic information to be procured and sent back to the Iranian government. Article here.
5. Darknet marketplace Nemesis Market seized by German police – Bleeping Computer
German authorities, using intelligence from Lithuanian and American agencies and partners, captured infrastructure in both Germany and Lithuania, resulting in the take down of popular dark web Nemesis Market. Authorities seized $100,000 in cash as well as digital infrastructure that supported the illicit goods market. No information was provided regarding the status of the platform’s operators being arrested or contacted as of the time of this writing; DarkOwl will continue to monitor for updates. Read article.
6. Cybercrime gangs join forces to launch double extortion ransomware attacks – The Hacker News
GhostSec and Stormous ransomware groups have combined their operations to conduct ransomware attacks against technology, education, government, and many more verticals. Both groups are part of “The Five Families.” In August of 2023, cybercrime conglomerate SiegedSec announced the formation of “The Five Families” to attempt to offer structure to the digital criminal underground on August 28. They named ThreatSec, GhostSec, Stormous, Blackforums, and themselves as the five participants. Read full article.
7. China’s “Earth Krahang” infiltrates organizations throughout 45 countries – Bleeping Computer
Government organizations worldwide were the target of a two-year, Chinese state-sponsored campaign. Spear-phishing is employed to deploy backdoors while exposed internet-facing servers are also attacked, leading to a multi-pronged attack. The group uses open-sourced tools to build VPN servers and then brute-forces email accounts to procure passwords, focusing on compromised Outlook accounts. Article here.
8. Microsoft source code accessed by Russian actors Cozy Bear – CyberScoop
As of January 2024, Russian state-sponsored actors Cozy Bear (who are believed to be part of Russia’s SVR intelligence branch) accessed Microsoft source code and company systems. The actors were able to read the emails of senior Microsoft executives. While the exact nature of this infiltration is still under investigation, Microsoft offered that they do not believe customer-facing systems were accessed/impacted. Read full article here.
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The government, along with Law Enforcement, is heavily impacted by ever-evolving technology and there is a multitude of malicious actors conducting espionage, stealing data, attempting to infiltrate, and shut down systems critical to everyday life.
These malicious actors with a proven state-sponsored tie are often called Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). The digital realm is heavily involved in geopolitical conflict, and its role and that of adversarial actors must be explored.
In this session, we will dive into the big 4 cyber adversaries:
Explain how cyber experts are trained
Explore the use of front companies and technology to online activities
Examine ties to their governments
Cover common offensive and defensive capabilities
Glimpse into the possible future with AI used in operations
For those that would rather read the presentation, we have transcribed it below.
NOTE: Some content has been edited for length and clarity.
Mark: My name is Mark Turnage, I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of DarkOwl and with me, I have Erin Brown, who’s our Director of Intelligence. We’re pleased that you joined us here this morning. I’m just going to make some introductory remarks, and we’re going to conduct this webinar as a sort of fireside chat between me and Erin and talk about four cyber countries – powerful cyber countries: Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia.
Just a couple of introductory remarks from me, we live in very interesting times. It’s a very famous Chinese curse and I think it’s fair to say that over the last several years, the world has become considerably more uncertain and more unstable. We have wars being waged in Ukraine, in the Middle East, we have a considerable amount of tension in East Asia, between China and Taiwan, and against that backdrop, there are a number of elections taking place this year around the world, including here in the United States, our presidential election. All that means that the cyber sphere has become even more important and more deserving of our attention as we think about that instability and how to better manage that instability. And against that background, four countries are continually mentioned: Iran, Russia, China, North Korea. Interestingly enough, two of those, China and Russia, are quite large countries and powerful in their own right. Two of them, North Korea and Iran, are cyber superpowers, in spite of being relatively small and in the case certainly of North Korea, having quite a small economy. So, we thought it would be useful to talk, to have a conversation about those four countries and talk about their cyber capabilities and how they use the cyber sphere, both for their own purposes and to sow instability and discord. So, with that, I’m going to just start asking Erin some questions.
What are the main cyber threats posed by these four countries?
Erin: There are a lot of different threats that they’re posing, and it really depends on what they’re trying to achieve. We see them conducting cyber espionage, we see intellectual property theft, attacks on infrastructure. It really depends on what their motivations are and they have many groups within their countries that are conducting these types of attacks – but most of them, all four of them, I would say, have a joint desire to advance their global influence. They all want to be the superpower of the world and they want to do that in both the digital and the physical world. We’re seeing that overlap, as you just mentioned in your introduction, as there’s more and more real-world conflicts happening. We’re seeing a huge cyber element to that. But then they do have their own distinct motivations as well in terms of what operations they’re conducting. North Korea, for example, we’ve seen them conducting a lot of attacks that lead to financial gain because they’re using those funds to finance other operations that they’re doing and things that they’re doing within the country. So, they all pose a huge amount of risk to both countries and organizations in terms of what they’re trying to achieve to advance their global power, basically.
And is it fair to say that of those four, North Korea is the most quote unquote, financially oriented in terms of their cyber activities? Or is the same true, say, of Russia?
I would say so. I think we know North Korea from a government perspective, is doing that financial motivation and gain. I think with Russia, especially and Iran, to a certain extent as well, we see that overlap and bleeding between who is the state-sanctioned, state-sponsored groups, and those actors that maybe the state is allowing them to operate. So obviously, you know, the ransomware gangs in Russia are making a huge amount of money off of corporations worldwide and there are suggestions that they’re at least allowed to conduct their activities by the Russian government. One could infer from that that the Russian government may be getting kickbacks from them and from that type of activity, but we don’t see necessarily the state-sponsored groups that are the military groups necessarily having that financial motivation and other countries. But Iran and Russia certainly have that criminal overlap.
Which brings us to the question of how these countries actually organize their cyber operations. You mentioned that some of them may or may not incorporate private actors in those operations, and others are more official. So, how do they organize their operations?
It’s quite a complex makeup across all the different countries and they all do it slightly differently. You do get those differences between what is state-sponsored, what is state-sanctioned, what is state-allowed. So, there are all of these distinctions within how you group them, but primarily, we see that the countries have military and civilian intelligence services. So, they’ll have military operators that are part of their armed forces that are going out and conducting these cyberattacks, and then you’ll also have intelligence agencies. So similar to how we have the CIA in the US, they have their equivalents that will also be conducting cyber operations on their behalf as well and depending on who’s conducting the attack, you’ll see different types of attacks and different victims as well in terms of what they’re trying to achieve.
But then we do also see civilians that are somewhat separated from the government being utilized. So, we do see a lot of front companies being used by these countries. This will be a seemingly legitimate company that is set up in country that has government backing behind it. That’s not necessarily obvious, so that they can have that air of conducting activity and not being linked to the government, even though they are. Then also we do see, as we just mentioned, with the financial motivation, we do see in especially North Korea, around countries that don’t have as much stability and financial security. We’ll see these actors that are doing a day job with the government and then in the evening, they’ll be using those skills that they’ve learned with the government to conduct cyber activities and criminal activities. So, it’s a murky infrastructure in terms of how these are set up but I would say is all of these countries do have set up groups and organizations that are there to conduct cyber espionage and cyberattacks on other countries.
Mark: This odd mixture of official and unofficial criminal gangs must make attribution really difficult when you’re looking at an activity, trying to attribute who the actor is who is behind the actual action.
Erin: Yeah, it’s incredibly difficult. And I would say it’s probably more difficult for people like ourselves that are outside of the government remit to identify that information because it’s very noisy in terms of what’s being conducted, who’s doing what attacks, and then things like the malware that they use. A lot of countries will use off the shelf malware, but lots of other groups use that as well. So, just because a malware is being used doesn’t mean that it’s attributed to one particular group. Even if that group invented it. For instance, Stuxnet is a good example of that – it was developed by the US and the Israelis, but it has been utilized far and wide by other nation-states, and by criminal actors since then. So, it’s really difficult to know who is conducting these activities and mistakes are made in terms of these attributions as well between different groups. Whenever we’re looking at this attribution, whenever we’re looking at this activity, the attacks that are happening, we’ll make assumptions about what we think that’s connected to you don’t really know unless you’re in those groups and being able to see that. So attribution is incredibly difficult and when we’re talking about APTs and we’re talking about nation-states, we’re talking about probably the most sophisticated cyber actors that are out there, that most of the time are trying very hard to obfuscate their activities and obfuscate who they are and who is conducting them. It’s a very tricky thing to be able to attribute that activity. So, one of the things I would say about it is it’s more about knowing what the techniques are than knowing who is doing it so that you can protect yourself from those techniques and those vulnerabilities within your organization. I guess some might say it doesn’t really matter who’s doing it when it comes down to attribution, it just matters that you stop it. So, it’s an interesting balance.
Mark: Yeah. Although, if you’re a foreign leader, say, the president of the United States, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the President of France, and your country is in some fashion attacked by a cyber operator, attribution becomes important in terms of how you respond. So that’s a challenge I’m sure that many leaders face.
Let me switch gears a little bit and talk specifically about China. The Great Firewall of China – what’s the impact of that on both their capabilities and on the ability of outsiders to see what’s happening in China?
Erin: For those who don’t know, I’m sure most people do, but the Great Firewall is what we refer to as the operations that China put in place to silo their internet from the rest of the world. So, it means that most of their citizens aren’t able to access the internet in the same way that we do and they’re not allowed to access certain things. So, it means that the government can really lock down the messaging and the news that citizens are being able to access. And as part of that, they do also have their own apps and search engines and things like that. A lot of social media like Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp can’t be accessed in China. Instead, they have WeChat and WeChen and Weibo and other ways that they’re, doing that. It always from the outside is seen as a way of controlling the citizens and the messaging that they’re getting and what they’re able to do, but it does also highlight the sophistication that the Chinese government have in terms of cyber activities, in terms of how they’re able to monitor their own citizens and lock down that information and how sophisticated their surveillance and censorship is. So, it really highlights some of the skills that they have. It’s the same cyber operators influencing the Great Firewall as conducting some of these attacks that are happening, and it shows how they want to have their world order and what some of their motivations are in terms of the cyber operations that they’re targeting.
It’s worth mentioning that they aren’t the only country that’s doing that. Russia has Runet – they are expanding and trying to lock down what their citizens are able to see. And Iran and North Korea have very similar methodologies in place. I would say with North Korea, we know even less about that, just because of the isolationist way that North Korea operates. It’s very hard to know how that functions but I think it just demonstrates the sophistication that they have and the abilities that they have of surveillance and censorship that they utilize outside of the firewall as well as inside it.
Mark: So, from an adversarial perspective, we’re in an environment where these four countries have unencumbered access to the world’s internet. It’s open. We’ve made it open deliberately, but we have very limited access, on a variable basis to their internal country networks and I would put, you would put China at the top of that at the top of that list.
Erin: Yeah, definitely. So, it’s very hard as analysts. Going back to that attribution point as well, to know what’s going on inside of that firewall because they’re locking down that information. What messages are they sharing? What is it that they’re putting out about adversaries when there is a campaign that is publicly reported or Chinese actors are indicted, which has happened several times? What is the messaging that they’re putting inside internally? And I think, with Russia, we’ve seen this with the Ukraine war and the messaging that they’ve put forward about Ukraine to their citizens in terms of “they’re saving the country, it’s not a war, it’s a defensive position,” like very different to what we’re seeing outside of, of that realm. So, it definitely impacts on that attribution and what we’re able to understand about what they’re doing. One thing I would mention, just as well, because we’re a dark web company, but this is one of the ways that Tor can be used in a very legitimate way. I think we tend to focus on the dark web being a bad thing for criminal activities, but it’s a way that a lot of citizens are in these countries that have lockdown internet, are able to access Western and outside media and this is the reason that a lot of social media companies will have mirrors on the dark web. X, formerly Twitter, has it, Facebook has it, some governments have websites on the dark web. So, people are able to access that information. It’s a useful way for people to be able to get that outside information as well.
Can you talk about some of the notable cyber campaigns that have been conducted by these four countries?
Sure. There are a lot, and as we’ve already covered attribution is tricky in terms of how we associate particular campaigns that we’re seeing to particular countries and the groups within them. China has had some very significant operations in recent years targeting a lot of countries in their region. We’ve seen them spying on Cambodia, the Philippines, South Korea, and they do this using phishing techniques to gain access. So, you know, they are using some of the same techniques that we’re seeing criminals using that we’re all warned about at our companies in terms of “don’t click on a link.” Those sophisticated users are using those methodologies as well and we have seen things like when they recently targeted Japan’s space agency and one of the things that China is well known for is targeting companies in stealing intellectual property, and then taking that information back and using it to develop their own technologies and issue patents on their technologies. So, that is a thing that they continue to do in terms of expanding their power and what they have access to. That’s something that we’ve seen China doing a lot of recently.
With Russia, probably the most significant one that is fairly recent was that they targeted Microsoft’s corporate systems. They targeted the executives and I believe the legal team and were able to access some emails and documents, and they did this again with fairly simple methodology. It was a password spray attack. So basically, they just took lots of different ways that people might use a password and put it across all of their systems. This really highlights why you need to have good password hygiene across your corporation, and governments everywhere because that is a way, not just with nation-states, but across the whole adversarial cyber field that we’re seeing people get access is through credentials. So, it’s a really important thing to identify. And then I think you can’t talk about Russia’s activities without mentioning the war in Ukraine, because there definitely is a cyber war going on as well as the on the ground war. One of the things we’ve seen fairly recently was they hacked into webcams in Kiev, so that they could look at what air defenses were being used in the city and they did that ahead of a missile attack. They wanted to see where their missiles would be defended and where they wouldn’t. That is a real-world example of how the cyber and the real world are linked together and they’re utilizing cyber tools to help them with military campaigns.
In terms of Iran, there is a group known as, Mint Sandstorm. So again, using phishing techniques, but social engineering as well. This is something we see a lot with Iranian actors – utilizing social media and fake social media accounts to lure people into giving them what they want. We saw them on a large recruitment and job networking sites that were creating these accounts, creating several levels of personas that knew each other to make them look as, as real as possible and then we’re using that to identify people that they wanted to target as part of the Israel-Gaza conflict. They were using this as an espionage dash intelligence gathering campaign. With these campaigns, it’s not just about disruptive action or getting access, sometimes it’s just understanding things that are going on to help them with other areas.
Then North Korea, again, is a trickier one just because of their isolationism and the groups that we see. Probably the most prominent group that’s been mentioned in recent years, and they have been around for a long time now is Lazarus. They have been involved in significant financial thefts as well as espionage. So, a lot of cryptocurrency, ransomware attacks, etc. They were responsible for the Sony hack way back when, I believe it was 2016, but as recently as this year, they’re still operating. They were seen conducting cyber espionage campaigns, targeting defense technologies, again creating fake social media profiles, and then deploying malware once they’ve got access to individuals. So, you know, there’s a range of activities that are going on and that very much is a high-level overview of some of the activities. There’s probably a lot more going on that we don’t know about, and a lot more going on that we do know about, but it hopefully gives you a sense of the types of campaigns that they’re conducting and also the variety of people that they’re targeting. I think you said earlier about governments obviously care about attribution, and they should, and their governments hopefully are better at attribution, but I think there’s an old world view that nation-states and spying and espionage is a thing between governments and these days with cyber, it just isn’t like everyone is vulnerable to attacks. Everyone has information worth stealing, so everyone has to be vigilant.
Mark: It’s notable that in your answer, in talking about the various cyber campaigns conducted by these countries that many, if not most of them, are using basic password access, phishing, social engineering, as opposed to, Zero-day exploits that they have access to on an exclusive basis. That’s quite notable.
Erin: Zero-day exploits are really hard to develop and they’re really expensive to develop. If you don’t need them, because you can get in by a weak link of a person clicking on a link or believing a phishing email, then then why waste your time and infrastructure? I would say they still definitely do utilize those Zero-day attacks and that is something that’s developed, especially Russia and China, but those are the ones that it’s harder to hear about, right? Those are the ones that they don’t want people to know what that capability is and who they’re targeting. And they would save that for their most important victims.
Mark: We, in the cyber security industry, live in evolving times. There’s a lot of changes in technologies and I would include in that, by the way, artificial intelligence, the rise of artificial intelligence. How does that affect how these four countries are both organizing themselves and conducting their cyber operations?
Erin: I think in the same way that the rest of us are, right, they’re still learning. They’re still coming to grips with these new technologies and how they can utilize them and how they’re going to work, but they definitely are. I think they definitely want to utilize them and there is a growing sophistication. We have seen particular countries trying to target AI companies. I think there was an article, a month or two ago about OpenAI reporting, I think it was 4 or 5 specific APT actors that they had kicked off of their site and they were using AI to do the things that a lot of other people are doing, like help them with their work, but also create phishing emails and ask it questions to do research for them about the capabilities that other countries and their victims have. So, we know that they’re using AI, we know that that’s happening.
There are also, I believe it was China, I’m trying to remember – it was either China or North Korea, but they’re actually investing in companies that are developing AI in certain areas of the world so that they can own that technology for themselves as well. What I would say with AI and those technologies is the US and Europe and the likes of OpenAI, oh, I can’t their name is escaping me. But, you know, the prominent AI providers at the moment, they are far and above, ahead of Russia, and China at the moment. But I was actually at a talk with someone from those companies a couple of weeks ago, and they were saying, we’re only a couple of months ahead and they are going to catch up, like it is going to happen. So, it’s something that everyone needs to be aware of and needs to be vigilant about. I think the takeaway point from that is that they are using it. They are keeping an eye on emerging technologies. They themselves as well have to constantly evolve to remain relevant and successful because people’s defense gets better all the time. So, you need to constantly evolve to get around those defenses and those ways of operating. It’s definitely something that they focus on.
Mark: You mentioned earlier, by the way we’re a darknet company and we cover the darknets, and we cover darknet adjacent sites. You mentioned earlier in one of your answers the use of the darknet by citizens in countries which are behind firewalls or where they have limited access to the outside internet. But how do the countries themselves use darknet and these other online platforms in their own operations?
Erin: Yeah, that’s a difficult one and it’s a bit murky. Again, going back to that attribution problem and especially on the dark web where everyone is trying to stay as anonymous as possible to know who is doing what. We know that they definitely do utilize it. We know that there are probably actors on there that are sowing disinformation and details on the dark web and sharing them. But, you know, one of the things that we’ve seen more in recent years and is a bit more obvious is hacktivist groups and criminal groups that are associated or in somewhat sanctioned by governments. So, we’ve seen this with Killnet in Russia and a handful of other groups that came out in support of Russia when the invasion of Ukraine happened, and they are very active on things like Telegram. They will say who they’re targeting. They will say why they’re targeting them. They’re often going after NATO participants. They will show evidence of defacements or DDoS attacks. So, they’re very vocal and they want people to know what they’re doing, and they do have those links or at least a nationalist fervor that is very clear. And we see that other groups linked to North Korea and Iran also have telegram channels and other channels that are very vocal. One of the interesting things that we’ve seen, though, that is less how they’re operating but gives us more insight into how they’re operating, is we have seen a lot of data leaks relating to some of these countries and their governments. Everyone’s falling victim to data leaks in recent years. It’s big business on the dark web – selling that data, but there’s been a huge increase in the last probably 6 to 9 months, especially for China in terms of government data being leaked. There was a huge leak of the Shanghai police late last year that was assessed to be one of the biggest breaches ever, data breaches ever, and it had a huge amount of information about their law enforcement, but also their tools that they were using to target their citizens. So, it gave security analysts insight into what they’re doing that the governments wouldn’t necessarily want them to have and there was another recent one as well on a GitHub repository. So slightly not the dark web, but where it was one of the front companies that was conducting cyberattacks on behalf of China. All of their information was released, and we’ve seen large scale releases of Russian data, Israeli data as well, talking about those conflicts. There is information like that and while we’re all looking at that dark web data and saying, oh, this is giving us insights into these countries that we don’t know as much about. You can believe that they are also doing the same. So, when there are leaks of US, UK, European data, those countries are definitely going to have individuals that are on those dark websites collecting that data and reviewing it as well.
What do we do about this? It’s not like these four countries are going to wake up tomorrow and become parliamentary democracies and decide to conform to rules of international law. So, what do we do? What do we do about this?
Erin: I think it’s points we’ve already mentioned. You just have to be vigilant, and you have to have as much security as possible. I think there’s education that needs to happen to people about how you should operate, as you said, like these phishing techniques, password spray attacks, things like that. They’re fairly simple and they’re things that we can educate people about and I think we’ve been too focused in recent years on; okay, people know that if you get a bad email that you shouldn’t click on it, hopefully most of the time, but we’re seeing more and more smishing attacks, so text messaging and with the advent of AI, you can develop someone’s voice and get them to say anything you want them to say. So, you can get like a voicemail from your boss telling you to send you money or to click on a link. Things are becoming way more sophisticated in terms of how attacks can be conducted and therefore, our education to people about how to combat those attacks needs to be more sophisticated and I think it’s just staying up to date with what these threat actors are doing and this isn’t just the nation-states, it’s across the board, like what tools and techniques are being utilized, and are your systems set up to protect against those vulnerabilities? So I think it’s trying to be as proactive as possible and not just reacting when attacks happen.
Ransomware continues to be a threat globally. While it is difficult to track complete ransomware statistics because criminals cannot be counted as a reputable reporting source, 2023 was the year that broke several records in ransomware according to what attacks were reported by both ransomware actor blog sites and publicly reported incidents.
According to the cyber threat intelligence industry and government metrics made publicly available, the United States remained the top targeted nation, with 55% of ransomware incidents targeting the country. In the majority of months, the number of monthly attacks soared, with November 2023 clocking in at 89 reported attacks, the record set for reported incidents within a month. But the number of incidents is not the only significant increase – ransomware data exfiltration rates exploded, with notable data exfiltration to China. Likely due to the increase in the use of the double extortion technique, payments also increased, with traceable payments exceeding one billion dollars for the first time. In this blog, we review the key ransomware trends of 2023 as well as the notable events.
2023 Ransomware Trends
Commonly observed ransomware trends throughout 2023 included:
Ransomware actors intentionally use two different ransomware variants in the same attack on the same victim, which often results in data destruction at various, close-together time periods.
Double extortion, where threat actors demand a payment or threaten to release data, has been a trend for years; this new trend of a different ransomware variant entering an already-compromised network results in significantly more financial loss, reputational damage, data loss, and exfiltration, making recovery even more difficult.
Extortion increased
Multiple layers of extortion, including triple and quadruple, became part of regular ransomware operations instead of only sporadically included in ransomware campaigns.
Encryption Decreased
Intermittent encryption became more common than complete encryption to reduce the time needed for successful operations. Encryption is a time-consuming process. Partially encrypting data allows for less time needed in malicious operations, and less time for possibly exposing malicious actor presence in a network. By reducing the amount and frequency of encryption, actors can exfil data more quickly and then exit the network.
PII continues to appear on data leak and ransomware victim Leak sites, and a increase in other documents being shared has also been observed.
Ransomware actors are increasingly targeting Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CI/KR) blueprints and documents to move towards damaging physical structures and sectors needed for everyday life services, such as water, power, electric, food supplies, and more.
Most Active Groups
LockBit ransomware gang were the top actors of 2023, with BlackCat/ALPHV coming in second as most active. The latter was temporarily taken offline by law enforcement operations in December 2023, while the former was also temporarily taken offline in February 2024. Both groups, however, came back online almost as quickly as they were removed, resuming operations under new infrastructure.
Summer of Ransomware
Originally observed in 2019, Cl0p ransomware gang began their use of the MOVEit vulnerability to target victims in May 2023, and continued this campaign all summer long. Also known as TA505, the ransomware group exploited SQL injection vulnerability CVE-2023-34362, the MOVEit transfer; MOVEit is used to manage file transfer operations in thousands of organizations. Cl0p’s use of this vulnerability impacted many big-name brands and firms and received a high level of media attention. One of the final estimates is that about 2,000 installations of the MOVEit vulnerability were installed impacting ~60 million individuals globally. Numbers will remain uncertain due to unreported incidents and entities trying to cover up the impact of a network intrusion (Figure 1). However, experts estimated that the group could receive $100 million in payments from exploiting this vulnerability.
Figure 1: Cl0p actors communicate with the public via one of their many messages on their leaks site, from summer 2023
ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware group were one of the most active ransomware groups throughout 2023. In September 2023 they claimed responsibility for the MGM cybersecurity incident that occurred through a post on their leak site. Down slot machines, non-functioning key cards, and more services were interrupted at MGM resorts and hotels nationwide. News articles broke Wednesday, 13 September, that ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware gang was responsible. On 14 September, new rumors emerged that “Scattered Spider” was also involved in the incident. Scattered Spider is assessed to be an English-speaking cybercrime group which is an affiliate of ALPHV. Additionally, Scattered Spider reportedly hit Caesars Entertainment on 7 September 2023. Caesars paid tens of millions to remain operational and did not experience an outage. Actors addressed the MGM outage on the ALPHV blog (Figure 2):
Figure 2: Actors discuss the summer 2023 MGM incident, for which Scattered Spider, an ALPHV affiliate, took responsibility; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Most Targeted Sectors
Healthcare
The healthcare sector was the most targeted sector of 2023. The healthcare industry is a valuable target, and in the words of cyber professionals is a “Target rich, security poor” industry, which is why some malicious actors so frequently target it. While some ransomware gangs swear off medical/healthcare industry entities, others actively go after this industry and view it as an easy target. Examples are not exhaustive and are only meant to provide a high level of observed trends:
Rhysida ransomware, a group that emerged in August 2023, targeted Prospect Medical Holdings (PMH) in early August 2023, and recently released the claim that they procured upwards of 500,000 corporate documents and patient information, including social security numbers.
This incident established Rhysida as a serious ransomware gang, as this is a notable target and the data procured is quite sensitive.
AlphV/BlackCat ransomware attacked Henry Schein Healthcare for the second consecutive month. The first incident was in October 2023, and in November 2023, they remained a victim. Henry Schein declined to speak to reporters about the multiple incidents but did acknowledge (after each incident, and after each appearance on the ransomware blog) that they were working quickly to reestablish the customer-facing services which were impacted.
30 hospitals in the Ardent Health Services system were successfully targeted by a ransomware attack in November 2023 by an unknown group, resulting in all emergency services being redirected. While Ardent is headquartered in Tennessee, the impact has been felt throughout six states. Ardent Health issued a public statement about their “around the clock” efforts to restore services. For the initial three days after the incident, ambulances were re-routed to other providers and Ardent Health also advised patients to call their providers directly for any help. In January 2024, they began mailing letters directly to impacted patients.
The impact on healthcare as a whole was so large, CISA authored guidelines specifically for the health sector to improve cybersecurity practices and reduce the chances of becoming a victim.
Defense
While healthcare was the most targeted sector, the defense industrial base was not far behind as a ransomware target. Many large incidents involved governments as well as defense contractors who provide weapons and technology for world governments. As the Ukraine-Russia conflict continued, and then a new Middle East conflict emerged, in October 2023, the defense sector remains at an elevated risk for cyber-meddling and incidents. Examples are not exhaustive and are only meant to provide a high level of trends observed:
UK-based Zaun Ltd, which specializes in physical and perimeter security, revealed on 1 September 2023 they were a victim of LockBit ransomware.
LockBit further claimed to have infiltrated Boeing’s systems using a zero-day. Boeing appeared on the LockBit leak site at the end of October 2023, but they offered no proof of data or material belonging to Boeing.
Australia-based Austal USA, a shipbuilding company, revealed it was the victim of a cyberattack as of December 6, 2023. Austal USA itself is a subsidiary of Austal and has contracts and multiple programs working with the US Navy. Ransomware gang Hunters International group claimed responsibility for the incident.
Going Offline: Ransomware Operations that Shut Down Throughout 2023, Early 2024
Whether to preserve their operations and profits, or because law enforcement finally caught up to them, several high-profile ransomware groups went offline throughout 2023, and this trend continued into the first part of 2024 (Table 1):
Date Observed Offline
LE Involvement?
Intentional Rebrand?
Sold Source Code?
Reestablished Operations?
Hive
Jan 2023
Y
N
Y
Y, as “Hunters Int’l“
Royal
Fall 2023
N
Y
Unconfirmed if code was sold, but the overlap between Royal and Black Suit is publicly documented
Y, as “Black Suit”
RansomedVC
Oct 2023
N
Y
Y
Y, as “Raznatovic“
Ragnar Locker
Oct 2023
Y
N
N
N
BlackByte
Dec 2023
ALPHV/BlackCat
Dec 2023
Y
N
N
Y
LockBit
Feb 2024
Y
N
N
Y
Knight
Feb 2024
N
N
Y
TBD, as the post selling the code has been taken down, but no purchase or rebranding has yet been announced.
ALPHV/BlackCat
Mar 2024
N
N
TBD, affiliates could have access to what infrastructure was used post law enforcement takedown. If they aren’t paid part of their profits, they could expose what information they have for profit, revenge, or both.
No, exit scammed.
In March 2024, ALPHV/BlackCat continued to make news when they shut down their onion site after their latest big victim, UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare unit, purportedly paid their $22 million ransom (Figure 3):
Figure 3: ALPHV affiliates discuss the shutdown of BlackCat/ALPHV operations; Source: DarkOwl Vision
More of the groups who shut down of their own volition issued public statements or sentiment on various platforms (Figures 4 and 5). RansomedVC announced their source code sale on Telegram after pulling out of the project for “…personal reasons” while Knight ransomware group offered their source code for sale on RAMP forums:
Figure 5: Knight ransomware source code is offered for sale on RAMP forum. The post remained available for under 24 hours, and then was taken down. It is unknown if the source code was purchased.
Newly Emerged: Ransomware Forums and Tactics
In October 2023, DarkOwl analysts identified a new darkweb ransomware forum when the admin of Ramp posted an in-depth advertisement and endorsement for Ransomed Forums. This forum advertises topics related to ransomware, such as RaaS offerings and more, advertised in Figures 6 and 7 below. DarkOwl analysts additionally identified Ransomed Forums chatter on other platforms has increased during the fall of 2023, so anticipation from the wider threat actor community is likely high as this forum gains users and momentum online.
Figures 6 and 7: Ransomed forums, a new ransomware focused online community, emerged in October 2023 and had an advertisement on similar forum Ramp.
New websites and forum offerings such as these will give alternatives to the traditional onion websites used to advertise victims as well as data for sale. Actors have espoused, on multiple platforms, that onion websites may no longer be safe, and that certain forums or online communities are better options for malicious operations. These include direct messaging platforms, such as Tox or Jabber (Figure 8).
Figure 8: An actor discusses not using onion websites for certain kinds of hacking activities; Source: DarkOwl Vision.
Figure 9: Actors discuss Tox being a safe chatting option on the DDW; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Copycat Operations
When the notorious ransomware group Conti ceased operations in 2022 and one of their disgruntled affiliates leaked internal documents and chats, the CTI community gained important insight into ransomware processes and operations. Their setup as a business with recruitment operations was confirmed; they had penetration testers and coders, as well as financial incentives for their employees.
In a similar vein, LockBit 3.0’s ransomware builder leaked in 2022 but 2023 was the year that cybercrime groups and threat actors alike put hundreds of new variants out using the builder. Variants were sold to other cybercriminals and used against multiple victims. This new version was more evasive, able to escape detection tools, than its predecessors. The CTI community noticed that it also shared overlap with BlackCat source code.
After these series of events, the community was able to take a few observed incidents and confirm them as trends moving forward:
Tox was confirmed as the preferred method of contact versus DDW forums, even the messaging options contained in those forums.
Ransomware actors appear to want to sell their ransomware operations to other actors for financial gain and are less willing to carry out operations themselves due to law enforcement actions and the possibility of unhappy affiliates leaking sensitive information or turning in the primary operators of ransomware.
Other groups reusing complete or partial source code of famous ransomware operations will likely continue. They can take source code and improve it on their own, adding language exceptions, tool evasion techniques, and more personalized instructions to improve speed and efficiency of ransomware campaigns instead of starting from scratch coding their own operations.
A new group, NATIONAL HAZARD AGENCY(NHA), debuted using a new kind of ransom note, a Tox ID and an email address (Figure 10). As National Hazard Agency continues to define their operations and TTPs, the community will inevitably monitor and learn more about preferred communication methods and platforms, and best operational practices for newly formed ransomware groups who have ties to older groups no longer operating:
Figure 10: Purported aliases of a LockBit ransomware actor are discussed online, as are the links between LockBit and newly formed National Hazard Agency; Source: DarkOwl Vision
Conclusion
While 2023 witnessed several high-profile ransomware gangs shutdown operations, the context and intelligence gained from these events better informs future possibilities and trends surrounding ransomware activities. Based on observed conversations on DDW forums and DDW adjacent chat platforms such as Telegram, the criminal underground wants to continue to capitalize on the fear caused by ransomware. Actors know that financial opportunities abound by going after large companies and organizations, and they are especially encouraged by large payments. Furthermore, geopolitical conflicts allow hacktivist groups to choose sides and further their beliefs and values by targeting their opponents; so, ransomware leads to both fruitful financial opportunities as well as fame and attention for hacktivism.
After reviewing online discussions and exchanges between malicious cyber actors, analysts expect continued reuse and repurposing of ransomware source code from older groups that is purchased or stolen, with actors making their own tweaks to said code to both personalize and capitalize on their operations and campaigns. On platforms such as Telegram, actors have been openly discussing reuse of groups’ source code who are no longer active, the pricing that this code should have, and generally sharing ideas about gaining entry to desired sectors such as healthcare, tech, and supply chains of weapons providers as well as the global defense industrial base.
Ransomware remains an efficient criminal operation yielding high profits. Even with increased disruption of ransomware groups, throughout 2023 and into 2024, the criminal actors stay informed and move infrastructure to protect their profits and operations. Critical infrastructure, academic, technology, and government sectors must all raise awareness and assist in protection from ongoing ransomware campaigns. With the advent of AI, ransomware operations will become even more robust due to the automation of spear phishing templates and emails being able to reach several thousand, versus several hundred, of possible entry points into organizations. Continuous monitoring allows for identifying events like ransomware attacks earlier. By detecting your brand, employee name, intellectual property, or other material on a leak site before the actors auction it off to the highest bidder or make it publicly available, you can reduce the reputational damage and avoid the degradation of trust that occurs during cyber incidents.
DarkOwl Vision allows organizations to monitor these ransomware groups on the darknet, to identify more information about their tactics, techniques, and procedures and the sectors they are targeting. DarkOwl analysts continuously monitor the darknet to identify emerging new groups and who the most recent victims are to best track and predict potential attacks.
Since the dawn of the internet thirty years ago, its underpinning technology and networks have been adopted and used by billions of people worldwide. This includes academic and medical institutions sharing cutting-edge research at lightning speed, social platforms meant to engage communities and share photos, memories, and culture, as well as its use by our governments, commerce, and work environments – the internet enters every part of our lives.
However, along with all the good the internet has brought, there are unfortunately a multitude of malicious actors who operate on the internet and in the cyber realm. They conduct espionage, steal data, attempt to infiltrate, and shut down systems critical to everyday life: water and power supplies, financial infrastructure, the medical sector, and more. As of late, the medical sector has been a prominent target, facing attacks from actors trying to disrupt treatment and hospital systems crucial for patient care.
Since the start of notable cyber operations and programs circa the early 2000s, the United States and its Western allies consistently identify four primary nation-state adversaries in cyber: Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea, or “The Big 4.”
Each country covered in this paper has military and civilian intelligence services that conduct cyber operations. Their specific strengths and skills vary, but they all have a common goal: to establish a new digital and physical world order in which they are the global leader.
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DarkOwl analysts regularly follow threat actors on the darknet who openly discuss cyberattacks and disseminate stolen information such as critical corporate or personal data. Such analysis helps DarkOwl’s collection team direct crawlers and technical resources to potentially actionable and high-value content for the Vision platform and its clients.
Introduction
In the digital age there are many groups of threat actors that operate in the cyber realm targeting different industries, countries and have different motivations. It is important to monitor these groups in order to identify who they are likely to target, what methods they are using and how they are operating. In this blog, we explore one such group known as SCATTERED SPIDER (SS) by security researchers.
Who is SCATTERED SPIDER?
SCATTERED SPIDER are assessed by cyber security researchers to be a cybercriminal group who have been known to target large companies and their supply chain. Reporting indicates that they have largely engaged in data theft, which they have then used for extortion purposes and have also been known to use ransomware which is associated with BlackCat/ALPHV. Although, cyber security researchers assess this activity to be attributed to several groups. All of these groups are part of a larger group known as the Com. In addition to conducting cyber attacks, SCATTERED SPIDER are also reported to be involved in violent activity, Doxing and Swatting.
Although the group appear to have been active since 2022, it is unclear who the individuals behind the activities are, how many individuals are involved, or how they select their victims. However, their motivations do appear to be for financial gain. There have been some indications that some of the individuals in the group may be based in the USA or the UK, but this has not yet been confirmed. The group have recently become the focus of US law enforcement investigations due to their high-profile activities.
Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs)
By analyzing TTPs, cybersecurity professionals can attribute attacks to specific threat actors or groups. Understanding the tactics used by these adversaries can provide insights into their motivations, capabilities, and potential targets. This information can be invaluable in understanding how attacks are executed and identifying potential vulnerabilities in an organization’s defense.
According to a threat alert from CISA, the group are known to use social engineering techniques including phishing, push bombing, and SIM swap attacks, which they use to obtain credentials, install remote access tools (RAT) and bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Social engineering is a very effective way for threat actors to conduct attacks – they use information that is available through social media and other open sources in order to create attacks that look legitimate. They can also be used outside of the cyber realm to convince individuals to take an action. SCATTERED SPIDER have successfully posed as IT/helpdesk staff to convince employees to share credentials with them or to run RATs to enable initial access and share one-time passwords (OTP) to bypass MFA.
CISA reports that broad phishing attacks have been observed using domains associated with the target. They will then use SIM swapping against those individuals who respond to the phishing attack. Then, they will utilize this to conduct an account takeover.
SCATTERED SPIDER are also known to conduct Living off the Land (LotL) attacks. LotL attacks refer to a strategy employed by cyber attackers to carry out malicious activities using legitimate tools and resources already present on a compromised system, rather than relying on traditional malware. This approach makes LotL attacks harder to detect by security tools since they leverage trusted processes and utilities, blending in with normal system behavior. Researchers report that the group have adopted tools such as PowerShell to conduct reconnaissance as well as exploiting identity providers and modifying security systems to conduct their malicious activities.
According to CISA and FBI investigations the following legitimate tools have been used by the group to conduct malicious activities and the malware types.
Tool
Intended Use
Fleetdeck.io
Enables remote monitoring and management of systems.
Level.io
Enables remote monitoring and management of systems.
Mimikatz
Extracts credentials from a system.
Ngrok
Enables remote access to a local web server by tunneling over the internet.
Pulseway
Enables remote monitoring and management of systems.
Screenconnect
Enables remote connections to network devices for management.
Splashtop
Enables remote connections to network devices for management.
Tactical.RMM
Enables remote monitoring and management of systems.
Tailscale
Provides virtual private networks (VPNs) to secure network communications.
Teamviewer
Enables remote connections to network devices for management.
Table 1: Legitimate Tools Used by Scattered Spider; Source
Malware
Intended Use
AveMaria (also known as WarZone)
Enables remote access to a victim’s systems.
Raccoon Stealer
Steals information including login credentials, browser history, cookies, and other data.
VIDAR Stealer
Steals information including login credentials, browser history, cookies, and other data.
Table 2: Malware used by Scattered Spider
The group have also been reported to use extortion techniques, this is becoming a more and more popular method of attack for groups, particularly those associated with ransomware. The threat actor will steal data from the victim and then threaten to release the data if the victim does not pay a set amount of money. In the case of ransomware, the groups will often manage a “shame site” where they will publish a list of victims and sometimes provide them with a set amount of time that they have to pay the fee or the data will be released.
Researchers believe that SCATTERED SPIDER are an affiliate of the BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group who are one of the most active groups and were subject to law enforcement action in late 2023. As an affiliate, SCATTERED SPIDER will have access to their ransomware binaries, support, negotiations, and leak site. It is worth noting that Russian ransomware-as-a-service operations do not usually allow affiliates from Western countries. The fact that they have in this case highlights the impact that this group are having and the success that they are having, meaning the ransomware group will be able to profit from their actions. It is worth noting that BlackCat/ALPHV appear to have recently conducted a exit scam. DarkOwl will continue to monitor to see if SS affiliates with another ransomware group in the wake of this.
Victims
SCATTERED SPIDER have targeted a number of different types of victims. According to MITRE, when they emerged in 2022 they targeted customer relationship management and business process outsourcing firms as well as telecommunications and technology companies. Recent activity has shown them targeting other sectors including critical infrastructure organizations.
In August 2022, the telecommunications company Twilio was a victim of SCATTERED SPIDER activities – their customer details were accessed as well as internal applications. This allowed SS to access a dashboard which gave them access to Okta authentication through SMS. It is likely that the group used this access to conduct other attacks.
In September 2023, MGM resorts in Las Vegas was the victim of a cyber attack that lead to computer shutdowns within the organization across the US. There were reports of empty casino floors and issues entering rooms and in the aftermath, MGM expected a $100 million hit to his 3rd quarter results. Soon after the attack, a post was made on the BlackCat/ALPHV leak site taking responsibility for the attack. However it was widely reported that it was actually an affiliate group that was responsible for the attacks – SCATTERED SPIDER.
Figure 1: BlackCat/ALPHV leak site statement on MGM
Cyber researchers from VX-Underground reported that SS were allegedly able to breach MGM by impersonating an employee in a phone call to the company’s helpdesk. It was also reported that they had successfully targeted Western Digital and Caesars Entertainment. In the latter case, it was reported that a $30 million ransom was paid to avoid customer data being shared. These high-profile attacks have lead the group to come under more scrutiny from law enforcement.
Online Communications
Actors assessed to be connected to this group are active on both Telegram and Discord where they interact with each other, boast about their activities, and share tools and techniques. There are many different channels and servers where these groups operate depending on who they are affiliated with and what activity they are seeking to discuss.
In an upcoming blog, we will review the activity on one of these Telegram channels and the main actors active on them. Subscribe to email to get that blog delivered straight to your inbox.
Conclusion
SCATTERED SPIDER have successfully targeted a number of high profile victims, drawing the attention of cyber security experts and law enforcement. They have secured a large sum of money from their victims and continue to adopt social engineering techniques to target their victims. The fact that they contact helpdesks highlights the need to ensure that those individuals working in these areas need to be trained on the threat. While companies often provide training around the risk of phishing emails, less attention has been paid to vishing, smishing and OTP techniques. It is imperative that this training is conducted widely.
It is also likely that the individuals perpetrating these crimes are young and Western based. While many assume that cyber criminals operate from Russia and Eastern Europe, this group shows that cybercrime in the Western world is also prevalent. However, this does leave them open to law enforcement action from the FBI or UK police. It is likely, given the attention they have recently received, that arrests will be forthcoming.
DarkOwl Sources
DarkOwl is an open-source intelligence (OSINT) platform that aggregates information from various underground sources to discern actionable and meaningful intelligence that can be utilized across multiple industry sectors including commercial applications, law enforcement, and national security initiatives.
Remembering the subtle differentiations between data, information, and intelligence, DarkOwl’s key sources of raw data are described here.
DarkOwl is a Denver-based company that provides the world’s largest index of darknet content and the tools to efficiently find leaked or otherwise compromised sensitive data. We shorten the timeframe to detection of compromised data on the darknet, empowering organizations to swiftly detect security gaps and mitigate damage prior to misuse of their data.