The Guacamaya group is a fairly new hacktivist group based in Latin America. The group was first seen around March 2022 as they released sensitive data of several companies based in Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia. As mentioned, the group is mainly focusing on LATAM but dabbles every now and then with campaigns in Russia. The group is defined as a data leakage threat group, which means they do not encrypt but only leak the stolen data, often they do it for free.

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is essentially any information that can be obtained from publicly available sources. The practice of collecting this information is not new; in fact, in the early 1990s, the Deputy Director of the CIA asserted that over 80% of CIA analysis came from open-source information. Maps, phone books, printed materials, news reports, and other forms of content can provide a lot of information if one knows where and how to look.

Q3 of 2022 has provided us with many interesting insights into the ransomware industry. While the number of incidents this quarter slightly increased compared to the previous quarter.

On September 29, Microsoft Security Threat Intelligence reported two significant zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. The two vulnerabilities, named “ProxyNotShell”, affect Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Server 2016, and Exchange Server 2019.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the Dark Web presents an invaluable opportunity for businesses to flip the script on hackers. The Dark Web remains a relatively hidden digital space that comprises upwards of 5 percent of the entire internet. This is where cybercriminals go to peddle sensitive and valuable data after breaching vulnerable business networks.