Government and military among most cyber-attacked

Check Point Research (CPR) has published its latest Global Threat Index for September 2022. The index shows that while Formbook is still the most prevalent malware — impacting 3% of organisations worldwide — Vidar is now in eighth position, up seven places from August.

Vidar is an infostealer designed to give threat actors backdoor access, enabling them to steal sensitive banking information, login credentials, IP addresses, browser history and crypto wallets from infected devices. The increase in its prevalence follows a malicious campaign whereby fake Zoom websites were used to lure innocent users into downloading the malware. Formbook, an infostealer targeting Windows OS, remains in first place.

Since the onset of the Russia–Ukraine war, CPR has continued to monitor the impact on cyber attacks in both countries. While the conflict intensifies, CPR’s Global Threat Index for September noted a significant change in the ‘threat rank’ of many Eastern European countries. The threat rank represents how much an organisation is being attacked in a specific country compared to the rest of the world. During September, Ukraine had jumped 26 places, Poland and Russia moved up 18 places each, and both Lithuania and Romania moved up 17 places, among others. All these countries are now among the top 25, with the biggest degradation in their ranking occurring in the past month.

“As the war on the ground continues, so too does the war in cyberspace. It’s likely no coincidence that the threat ranks of many Eastern European countries have increased this last month. All organisations are at risk and must shift to a prevent-first cybersecurity strategy before it’s too late,” said Maya Horowitz, VP Research at Check Point.

“In terms of the most prevalent malwares in September, it’s interesting to see Vidar leap into the top 10 after a long absence. Users of Zoom need to stay alert to fraudulent links as this is how the Vidar malware has been distributed lately. Always keep an eye out for inconsistencies or misspelled words in URLs. If it looks suspicious, it probably is.”

CPR also revealed that “Web Server Exposed Git Repository Information Disclosure” is the most commonly exploited vulnerability, impacting 43% of organisations worldwide, closely followed by “Apache Log4j Remote Code Execution”, which dropped from first place to second, with an impact of 42%. September also saw Education/Research remain in first place as the most attacked industry globally.

Top malware families in Australia

This month, Formbook is still the most prevalent malware impacting 2.96% of organisations worldwide and 5.10% of organisations in Australia, followed by Emotet with an impact of 2.09% of organisations globally and 1.38% in Australia, and Zegost with an impact of 0.92% of organisations globally and 1.10% in Australia.

• FormBook is an Infostealer targeting Windows OS and was first detected in 2016. It is marketed as a malware as a service (MaaS) in underground hacking forums for its strong evasion techniques and relatively low price. FormBook harvests credentials from various web browsers, collects screenshots, monitors and logs keystrokes and can download and execute files according to orders from its C&C.
• Emotet is an advanced, self-propagating and modular Trojan that was once used as a banking Trojan, and currently distributes other malware or malicious campaigns. Emotet uses multiple methods, for maintaining persistence and evasion techniques to avoid detection and can be spread via phishing spam emails containing malicious attachments or links.
• Zegost is a backdoor targeting the Windows platform. This malware provides unauthorised remote access to the infected host.

Top malware families in New Zealand

This month, XMRig returned to top spot as the most widespread malware in September, impacting 2.59% of NZ organisations as well as 2.73% of organisations worldwide. This is followed by Chapak with 0.28% impact globally and 1.29% in New Zealand, equalling Crackonosh with 1.29% impact in New Zealand and 0.70% impact for global organisations.

• XMRig — XMRig is open-source CPU software used to mine Monero cryptocurrency. Threat actors often abuse this open-source software by integrating it into their malware to conduct illegal mining on victims’ devices.
• Chapak — Chapak is a malware dropper essentially designed to launch a malware by installing it on the victim’s machine after being installed itself. Unlike a downloader, which contacts a remote server in order to receive access to the files it is aimed to install, the dropper already contains the malware when installed on the machine. Chapa dropper does not damage the infected computer directly but delivers a malware payload or a number of types of malware with various features.
• Crackonosh — Crackonosh is a miner malware that was injected into popular software products that had been cracked and made available on distribution platforms known for hosting pirated software. In order to open up a large number of potential victims, the threat operators weaponise cracked video games. Once Crackonosh is initiated, it would replace essential Windows services. The threat is also equipped with anti-detection routines and can delete anti-malware solutions from the compromised system.

Top attacked industries in Australia

This month the Education/Research sector remains in first place as the most attacked industry in Australia, followed by Government/Military and Leisure/Hospitality.

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