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LockBit ransomware gang most apt to leak stolen victim data

Trellix has released The Threat Report: February 2023 from its Advanced Research Centre, examining cybersecurity trends from the final quarter of 2022. Trellix combines telemetry collected from the world’s largest network of endpoint protection installs and its complete XDR product line with data gathered from open- and closed-source intelligence reports to deliver the report insights.

Carlo Bolzonello.

“Q4 saw malicious actors push the limits of attack vectors,” said John Fokker, Head of Threat Intelligence, at Trellix Advanced Research Centre. “Grey zone conflict and hacktivism led to an increase in cyber as statecraft and activity across threat actor leak sites. As the economic climate changes, organisations need to make the most effective security out of scarce resources.”

In South Africa, the threats and vulnerabilities follow similar targets and methods of infiltration, where human error, rather than system flaws, is exploited. Country lead for Trellix South Africa, Carlo Bolzonello, points to our most important institutions as the most attractive prey for international syndicates.

“The South African context for our findings overlaying the global results shows that ransomware and email threats are still top of the biggest threats to South Africa, with government a large focus followed by financial organisations,” Bolzonello says.

The report includes evidence of malicious activity linked to ransomware and nation-state backed advanced persistent threat (APT) actors, and examines threats to email, the malicious use of legitimate security tools, and more. Key findings include:

• LockBit 3.0 most aggressive with ransom demands: While no longer the most active ransomware group (based on Trellix telemetry) – Cuba and Hive ransomware families generated more detections in Q4 – the LockBit cybercriminal organisation’s leak site reported the most victims. This makes LockBit the most vehement in pressuring their victims to comply with ransom demands. These cybercriminals use a variety of techniques to execute their campaigns, including exploiting vulnerabilities found as far back as 2018.

• Nation-state activity led by China: APT actors linked to China, including Mustang Panda and UNC4191, were the most active in the quarter, generating a combined 71% of detected nation-state backed activity. Actors tied to North Korea, Russia, and Iran followed. The same four countries ranked the most active APT actors in public reports.

• Critical infrastructure sectors most targeted: Sectors across critical infrastructure were most impacted by cyberthreats. Trellix observed 69% of detected malicious activity linked to nation-state backed APT actors targeting transportation and shipping, followed by energy, oil, and gas. According to Trellix telemetry, finance and healthcare were among the top targeted sectors by ransomware actors, and telecom, government and finance among the top sectors targeted via malicious email.

• Fake CEO emails led to business email compromise: Trellix determined that 78% of business email compromise (BEC) involved fake CEO emails using common CEO phrases. This was a 64% increase from Q3 to Q4 2022. Tactics included asking employees to confirm their direct phone number to execute a voice-phishing – or vishing – scheme. 82% were sent using free email services, meaning threat actors need no special infrastructure to execute their campaigns.

The Threat Report: February 2023 includes proprietary data from Trellix’s sensor network, investigations into nation-state and cybercriminal activity by the Trellix Advanced Research Centre, open- and closed-source intelligence, and threat actor leak sites. The report is based on telemetry related to detection of threats, when a file, URL, IP-address, suspicious email, network behaviour or other indicator is detected and reported by the Trellix XDR platform.

Find more at https://www.trellix.com/en-us/advanced-research-center.html

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