Symantec Cyber Security Brief Podcast

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss the Symantec Threat Hunter Team’s latest blog detailing a recent campaign by the Billbug espionage group, in which it targeted a certificate authority and multiple government agencies in various countries in Asia. We also discuss a new strain of ransomware called Prestige, which is being used in attacks against Ukraine, while we also take a look some recent arrests of suspects that are alleged to have been involved in major cyber crime groups - with one suspect alleged to have been involved in the JabberZeus gang arrested in Switzerland, while an alleged member of the LockBit ransomware group was apprehended in Canada.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien are joined by Symantec threat researcher Kevin Sovey to discuss a blog we recently published about the Budworm espionage group targeting organizations in the U.S. We also discuss another blog we published this week about the Spyder Loader malware being deployed on the machines of government agencies in Hong Kong. We also talk about apparent links between the operators behind Ransom Cartel and the REvil/Sodinokibi ransomware family.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief podcast, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien are joined by Symantec threat researcher Alan Neville to discuss some of the recent blogs that the Symantec Threat Hunter team has published. We discuss a new wave of espionage activity targeting Asian governments by attackers who were formerly associated with the ShadowPad malware but who appear to have now adopted a new toolset to mount an ongoing campaign against a range of government and state-owned organizations in a number of Asian countries. We also examine the current activities of a group we call Webworm, which has developed customized versions of three older remote access Trojans (RATs), including Trochilus, Gh0st RAT, and 9002 RAT. We also discuss a blog we have published about the Noberus (aka BlackCat ) ransomware, and the recent tactics, tools, and procedures we have seen deployed alongside that ransomware recently.

In this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Dick O’Brien and Brigid O Gorman are joined by Symantec threat researcher Chris Kiefer to discuss our latest blog about the Bumblebee loader. We discuss this new malware’s place on the cyber crime landscape, its capabilities, and how it is being leveraged by ransomware actors. We also discuss the appearance of new versions of both Raccoon Stealer and LockBit, as well as an FBI warning about deepfakes being used in job interviews. The podcast will be taking a short break for the summer and we will be back with new episodes in September.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss the recently discovered Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Office, as well as some recent ransomware stories. One thing we talk about is the apparent break up of the Conti ransomware gang, with evidence pointing to the group folding itself into other ransomware gangs, including Hive, which carried out a recent attack on the health service in Costa Rica. The Clop and REvil names have also appeared in news reports in recent weeks, but are these ransomware gangs really back? And what are the signs of pre-ransomware activity that organizations need to look out for on their networks because they may indicate a ransomware attack in preparation?

In the latest Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss some of the recent research published by Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team, including our blog about the activity of North Korean APT group Stonefly, and our latest whitepaper on the topic of Commodity Malware. We also talk about some stories that were in the news over the last week or so, including the possible return of the REvil/Sodinokibi ransomware gang, a new loader called Bumblebee that might be a successor to BazarLoader, and a China-on-Russia intelligence-gathering attack.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss some of the research published by Symantec’s Threat Hunter team over the past couple of weeks, including a new Cicada/APT10 espionage campaign targeting government organizations and NGOs in multiple countries worldwide. We discuss the new Verblecon malware, which is being deployed in sophisticated campaigns that appear to have the relatively low-reward goal of cryptocurrency mining as their main objective. We also talk about the Spring4Shell vulnerability that briefly caused a lot of consternation last week, and give an update about the latest information that has emerged about the cyber activity that has been seen targeting organizations in Ukraine.

In this special edition of the podcast, Dick O’Brien is joined by Symantec threat researchers and analysts Piotr Krysiuk and Vikram Thakur to discuss the Symantec Threat Hunter team’s discovery of Daxin, which is the most advanced piece of malware we have seen from China-linked actors. We published a blog about the discovery of Daxin last week, as well as two in-depth technical blogs with more information on the tool this week. Piotr discusses his work analyzing the malware, and when he realized the significance of this discovery, while Vikram talks about liaising with customers impacted by the malware as well as working with the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to engage with multiple foreign governments targeted with Daxin to assist with detection and remediation.

In this week’s Cyber Security Brief podcast, Dick O’Brien and Alan Neville discuss how Chinese state-backed advanced persistent threat (APT) group Antlion targeted financial institutions in Taiwan in a persistent campaign over the course of at least 18 months. Also up for discussion is the recent arrest of a New York couple and the seizure of $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency allegedly linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack, as well as continuing attacks carried out by the Russia-linked Shuckworm APT group against targets in Ukraine.

Welcome to the first Cyber Security Brief of 2022! In this week’s podcast, Dick O’Brien and Brigid O Gorman chat about some of the biggest news stories of the last couple of weeks. The topics up for discussion in this episode include: FIN7 BadUSB attacks return, an interesting new multi-platform backdoor, and the latest way attackers are attempting to abuse Google Docs. Also, a jump in the number of extortion DDoS attacks, how payments to suspicious cryptocurrency wallets have exploded in recent months, corruption of open source libraries as a form of protest, and how one APT group managed to infect itself with its own malware.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss the latest Symantec blog, some updated research about the Yanluowang ransomware gang, with fresh activity appearing to show that this ransomware isn’t a flash-in-the-pan. We also discuss how quickly exposed cloud services are compromised by malicious actors, how off-putting strong passwords are for attackers employing brute-forcing techniques, and apparent attempts by Russian hackers to collaborate with Chinese-speaking actors. Also, the Conti gang’s possible role in the return of Emotet, and North Korean actors continue to target security researchers with fake job offers.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss some of our recent blogs, including at least one BlackMatter ransomware affiliate using a new data exfiltration tool in attacks, and also the breaking news that the BlackMatter ransomware operation is apparently winding down. We also discuss another recent blog we published about banking Trojan activity in Latin America, while recent law enforcement activity cracking down on ransomware criminals is also up for discussion. Elsewhere, we also talk about SquirrelWaffle, a reasonably new malware that is used as a loader and has been mentioned as a potential successor to the notorious Emotet for the delivery of threats.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss how the UK and the U.S. are planning to increase their efforts to tackle cyber crime, ransomware being blamed in court for the death of a baby, and the arrests of some ransomware criminals in Ukraine. Also, the Conti ransomware gang makes some threats, evidence of the Pegasus spyware allegedly found on the phones of French cabinet ministers, and an interesting targeted phishing campaign.