A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, November 2020.
Manchester United FC remains impacted by a seemly major cyber-attack, which I covered in a blog post titled The Multi-Million Pound Manchester United Hack. At this point, United have provided few details about their cyber-attack which has been impacting club's IT systems for well over a week. However, the UK media are widely reporting United's leaky IT defences was unable to prevent a ransomware attack and data theft. London's Hackney Borough Council have also been tight-lipped about what they describe as "a serious cyber-attack" which has impacted its service delivery to Londoners. Like United, this attack has all the hallmarks of a mass ransomware outbreak. Both Manchester United and Hacknet Council said they are working UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
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| Man.Utd hit by ransomware, who's next? |
Street Fighter games maker Capcom also reported to be compromised by a ransomware attack, with up to 350,000 people said to be affected, along some of Capcom's financial information stolen. The Ragnar locker hacker group were said to be behind the attack, although indications are that Capcom hasn't given in to their ransom demands after an ominous message appeared on the Ragnar group's website, which said Capcom didn't "make a right decision and save data from leakage".
The ransomware attacks will be going from bad to worse in 2021 according to Sophos. In its annual threat report, Sophos anticipates ransomware tactics, techniques and procedures are to become more evasive, with criminal threat actor operating more like nation-state attackers. Sophos also expects an increase in the number of entry-level, apprentice-type attackers looking for menu-driven, ransomware-for-rent, meaning the technical barrier preventing general nefarious folk orchestrating ransomware attacks is getting lower.
Its likely COVID-19 has saved Ticketmaster from a more substantial DPA/GDPR fine after the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) announced it had fined the gig ticket selling company a mere £1.25 million for failing to keep 9 million of its customer's personal data and payment cards secure. The ICO investigation concluded a vulnerability in a third-party chatbot installed on Ticketmaster's online payments page was exploited and used to access its customer card payment details. Following the breach, 60,000 Barclays bank customers were victims of fraud, while online bank Monzo had to replace 6,000 payment cards due to fraud. Ticketmaster said it would appeal against the ICO ruling.
An interesting new UK law is in the offing which proposes fines of 10% of turnover or more than £100,000 a day for telecoms operators that use of Huawei network equipment within their 5G networks. The bill provides the UK government new powers to force out Huawei usage with the UK telecoms giants, the threatened sum of £100,000 a day would only be used in the case of "continuing contravention" according to number 10.
Consumer group Which warned security flaws in popular smart doorbells are placing UK consumers at risk. The watchdog tested 11 smart doorbell (IoT) devices purchased from popular online marketplaces like Amazon, the dodgy products were said to have been made by Qihoo, Ctronics and Victure. The most common security flaws found by Which were weak password policies and a lack of data encryption. Two of the devices could be manipulated to steal network WiFi passwords, providing the opportunity for an attacker to then hack other smart devices within the home.
The NCSC released its annual review, confirming what we already know about the commonality of ransomware attacks on UK organisations. The NCSC also accused Russia of trying to steal vaccine-related information through cyber-espionage, advising an "ongoing threat" of nation-states targeting the UK vaccine research-and-delivery programmes. The NCSC were not alone in pointing the finger at nation-state threat actors going after COVID-19 vaccines, Microsoft also reported state-backed hackers from Russian and North Korea were targeting organisations working on a coronavirus vaccine. The Russian group "Fancy Bear" and North Korean groups "Zinc" and "Cerium" were fingered by Microsoft as the culprits behind a spate recent cyber-attacks. Microsoft said Fancy Bear were brute-forcing accounts with millions of different passwords combinations, while North Korean groups sent spear-phishing emails posing as World Health Organisation officials, in an attempt to trick researchers into handing over their login credentials and research data.
- The Multi-Million Pound Manchester United Hack
- Advice: Protecting Lone Workers Through Covid Restrictions
- Seven Debunked Myths of Cybersecurity
- Check, Please! Adding up the Costs of a Financial Data Breach
- One Step Beyond: Using Threat Hunting to Anticipate the Unknown
- Cyber Security Roundup for November 2020
- Manchester United Impacted by a Ransomware Attack
- Huawei Ban: UK Networks Facing £100,000 a Day Fines
- Capcom Hit by Ransomware with 350,000 Personal Records Taken from the Game-maker
- Ticketmaster fined £1.25m over Payment Data Breach
- Smart Doorbells ‘Easy Target for Hackers’ study finds
- Cyber Space will become 'most contested domain', warns UK Security Chief
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