Weekly Intelligence Summary 05 Dec - 12 Dec 2019

A cyber-security firm released a free decryptor for the popular and sophisticated “DarkSide” ransomware.

The cyber-security industry learned some valuable lessons during the unique and unprecedented year of 2020.

The notorious Automated Vending Cart (AVC) website Joker’s Stash allegedly displayed a notification that the site was seized by law-enforcement agencies.

SolarWinds confirmed that its network management system, Orion Platform, was exploited to conduct a highly sophisticated, manual supply-chain attack.

A global spearphishing campaign targeted organizations associated with a COVID-19 vaccine cold chain.

A threat actor recently hijacked a vulnerable WordPress website set up by a security researcher.

The operators of the “RagnarLocker” ransomware began an advertising campaign on Facebook to further extort the victim of one of their recent attacks.

“CostaRicto” has become the fourth cyber-mercenary group to be discovered in 2020.

The North Korean cyber-threat group “Kimsuky” has caught the attention of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), having proved itself a significant advanced persistent threat.

The developers of the infamous “Maze” ransomware claimed to have permanently ceased operations.

After a short hiatus, the “Ryuk” ransomware variant is back with upgrades, including the ability to fully encrypt data in just five hours.

A ruthless, ever-evolving cyber-threat group, “FIN11”, has been discovered deploying “Clop”: ransomware that encrypts and exfiltrates data.

Advanced persistent threat groups linked to China and Iran have conducted cyber espionage through front companies, under the guise of legitimate technology services.

The source code of several operating systems (OS) developed by Microsoft has been published online, sparking public concerns about security.

Ransomware encrypted and disabled the systems of Universal Health Services (UHS) hospitals in the US this week, in yet another example of threat actors targeting the healthcare sector.

Ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting UK educational establishments, according to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Three state-linked threat groups have reportedly conducted cyber attacks aimed at the US Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns.

An operations security (OpSec) failure by the threat group “FIN7” led to an unintentional exposure of their new tools, campaigns, and underground affiliations.

A wave of extortion attacks has interrupted operations in the financial services and retail sectors with threats of distributed denial of service (DDoS) if ransom is not paid.

Remote workers have been falling victim to a voice-phishing (vishing) campaign that involves phone calls and custom phishing pages intended to solicit virtual private network (VPN) credentials.