Through a known vulnerability, a threat actor gains access to an organization, and begins to alter the network activity, running unusual enumeration commands. Then, to make a lateral move, the threat actor uses stolen credentials to log into various applications within said network. The cybersecurity monitoring solution at work, in this case Arctic Wolf® Managed Detection and Response, then picks up an IP address associated with Finland connecting to the network.

Where there is money, there are cybercriminals trying to take it. This is especially true for credit unions, which deal with both financial information and the personal identifying information (PII) of every member and connected institution. They are a digital vault of data and dollars and threat actors are all too ready to crack the safe.

If a malware attack is successful, it can result in lost revenue, unexpected down time, stolen data, and more costly consequences. With over 450,000 new malicious programs registered each day by independent IT security institute AV-Test, malware may be the biggest threat to your organization. There are many different types of malware and attackers are continually innovating more complex, harder-to-detect versions. Now is the time to take proactive steps to protect your organization.

Arctic Wolf Labs has been tracking two recent intrusions where threat actors leveraged a new Go-based malware downloader we are calling “CherryLoader” that allowed them to swap exploits without recompiling code. The loader’s icon and name masqueraded as the legitimate CherryTree note taking application to trick the victims.

On January 10, 2024, Juniper Networks released patches to remediate a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-21591) in Junos SRX and EX series devices. CVE-2024-21591 could allow a threat actor to cause a denial of service (DoS) or achieve unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) with root privileges. The vulnerability impacts the J-Web component of Junos OS, the operating system running on the devices. The vulnerability was discovered during external security research.

On January 16, 2024, Citrix published a security bulletin disclosing two zero-day vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-6548 & CVE-2023-6549) being actively exploited in Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway.

Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) may not be a brand-new tactic on the cyber battlefield, but it’s quickly gaining popularity among threat actors. For at least the past five years, cybercriminals have not only realized the monetary effectiveness of ransomware, but have understood that by banding together, and utilizing each other’s strengths, they could expand their ransomware attacks, split the profits, and utilize stolen data to launch future cyber attacks on larger organizations.

The volume of internet of things (IoT) devices is rapidly growing. From manufacturing to healthcare to retail, organizations are turning to these devices as they digitize and expand. In fact, it’s estimated that IoT devices make up 30% of devices on enterprise networks, and there’s an estimated 17 billion IoT devices in the world, from simple consumer devices to complicated enterprise tools.