Red Sky Alliance monthly queries our backend databases, identifying all new data containing Motor Vessel (MV) and Motor Tanker (MT) in the subject line of malicious emails. Malicious actors use emails with Motor Vessel (MV) or Motor Tanker (MT) in the subject line as a lure to entice users in the maritime industry to open emails containing malicious attachments. Red Sky Alliance is providing this list of Motor Vessels in which we directly observed the vessel being impersonated, with associated malicious emails. The identified emails attempted to deliver malware or phishing links to compromise the vessels, parent companies, ports and the entire Transportation Supply Chain. Full report available here.
Significant Vessel Keys Words:
Figure 1. Map displaying location of attacker domains
Figure 2. Map displaying location of victim domains
Figure 3. Distribution of attacker and target domains
Common Transportation Attack Chain Overview
Table 1: List of dates, subject lines, malware detections, and sender data seen in Red Sky Alliance’s malicious email collection from last 30 days. Information extrapolated from the Subject Line. Full table attached.
Analysis
Five prevalent subject lines seen in our recent query are as follows:
- #001TW Purchase Order FG-20220831 for Air & Sea Shipments FOB & CIF
- [External Mail] AGENCY APPOINTMENT // PDA REQUEST
- RE: Ship date improvement PO 113159
- RE: New Order 4x60ft container RFQ
- RE: INQUIRY FOR FULL CONTAINER 20FT/40FT//7389927367/UAE
There are several themes generally represented by the subject lines seen. Specifically, in this month’s query we see primarily notifications for documents, shipments, and invoices. These emails are seen to utilize common terminology to establish credibility. This credibility can make for a solid lure. In terms of the sending emails themselves, we can see impersonations of companies in many industries. In our most recent query, we multiple shipping and logistics companies, an automation manufacturer, a Californian property management company, and a fabrication supply storefront.
In addition to impersonating these companies and various types of communication, these emails are also seen to be impersonating specific vessels. Some of the vessels we have seen being impersonated by these emails in recent weeks include the following:
- Efendi Baba (pictured above), which is a container ship that has not been in service since 2017.
- Feng De Hai (pictured below), which is a bulk carrier currently en route to the port of Gibraltar and is sailing under the flag of Hong Kong.
As one might expect, fabricating a vessel name is not difficult, but using a real ship’s name does not take much effort and could result in an increase of credibility.
The top five most prevalent malware detections associated with these emails are as follows:
- Win32.Office_Dl.11024199 – Tencent
- Generic.D43ED54B – Arcabit
- Outbreak – Ikarus
- Troj/Krypt-ABH – Sophos
- HEUR:Trojan.Script.Generic - Kaspersky
As is generally the case with these emails, malware detections found generally belong to families of generic trojans. Trojan.Win32.Office detections are generally associated with malicious Office files with exploits intended for remote code execution or information stealing. We have seen these related detections since early 2016, with the heaviest spike of activity occurring in early 2021. The case is similar with the other generic trojans listed such as the Trojan.Generic variant or the Win32.Outbreak. Interestingly, we see that variants of all the detections listed appeared to have higher levels of activity in early to mid 2001.
Vessel Flag of Convenience – All shipping size vessels which fall under international law, must fly a country flag where it is registered. The flag of convenience (FOC) is the system that allows the vessel owners to avoid burdensome international legal regulations. When the ships are involved in this system, they are not connected to the laws of the countries where they are registered. The top five (5) flag states with the largest number of registered vessels are: Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Hong Kong and Singapore.[1]
Supply Chain Spoofing: In 2023, our analyst began looking into the transportation supply chain, as often these transportation companies are used to gain cyber access to valuable targets. Maritime shipping is just one portion of the entire commercial transportation supply chain. By querying our data with numerous important supply chain keywords, we can also extract some more general supply chain related malicious emails. The five most prevalent subject lines seen with a general supply chain focus are as follows:
- RE: Invoice
- PURCHASE ORDER
- Proforma Invoice
- SWIFT invoice corrections
- DHL SHIPMENT ARRIVAL PARCEL NO: 116466788
Much like maritime related emails, we can see several themes emerge in the subject lines of these malicious emails. Most prevalently in the last month, we can see invoice notifications, purchase orders, and shipping document notifications. These emails can also contain impersonations of companies in many industries. In our most recent query, we saw multiple shipping companies, the city council of Kamianske in Ukraine, a sustainable building material manufacturer, a medical supply and training provider, and an electronics manufacturer.
The five most prevalent detections associated with these emails are as follows:
- HTML/Phish.GLC – Varist
- Other:Malware-gen [Trj] – Avast
- Outbreak - Ikarus
- Ks.Malware.6115 – Kingsoft
- Zmutzy.1305 - ALYac
In general, malware detections associated with more general supply chain emails often have more of a phishing focus, which we can see from the HTML/Phish detection. We have seen HTML/Phish variant detections since early 2016, though the number of detections has been relatively light since the summer of 2022. The Script.Ks.Malware detection is worthy of note here because these detections have surfaced only in the last few months and are only detected by Kingsoft. In many cases, these detections are false positives.
Table 2: List of dates, subject lines, malware detections, and sender data seen in Red Sky Alliance’s malicious email collection from last 30 days. Information extrapolated from the Subject Line. Full table attached.
Closing: These analytical results illustrate how a recipient could be fooled into opening an infected email and what sorts of dangers can accompany these emails. It is common for attackers to specifically target pieces of a company’s supply chain to build up cyber-attacks targeting larger companies. Doing so could cause the recipient to become an infected member of the maritime supply chain and thus possibly infect victim vessels, port facilities and/or shore companies in the marine, agricultural, and other industries with additional malware. With approximately 90% of products being shipped in the maritime related supply chain, this is a serious cyber matter.
Fraudulent emails designed to make recipients hand over sensitive information, extort money, or trigger malware installation on shore-based or vessel IT networks remains one of the biggest day-to-day cyber threats facing the maritime industry and associated transportation supply line. These threats often carry a financial liability to one or all those involved in the Transportation Supply Chain. Preventative cyber protection offers a strong first-line defense by preventing deceptive messages from ever reaching staff inboxes, but malicious hackers are daily developing new techniques to evade current detection. This supports our recommendation of daily cyber diligence.
The more convincing an email appears, the greater the chance employees will fall victim to a scam. To address this residual risk, software-based protection should be treated as one constituent of a wider strategy that also encompasses the human-element as well as organizational workflows and procedures.
It is important to:
- Train all levels of the marine supply chain to realize they are under constant cyber-attack.
- Emphasize maintaining constant attention to real-world cyber consequences of careless cyber practices or general inattentiveness.
- Provide practical guidance on how to identify a potential phishing attempt.
- Use direct communication to verify emails and supply chain email communication.
About Red Sky Alliance
Red Sky Alliance strongly recommends ongoing monitoring from both internal and external perspectives. Internal monitoring is common practice. However, external threats are often overlooked and can represent an early warning of impending cyber-attacks. Red Sky Alliance can provide both internal monitoring in tandem with RedXray notifications on external threats to include, botnet activity, public data breaches, phishing, fraud, and general targeting. All emails connected to the Transportation Supply Chain, to include Vessels, should be viewed with scrutiny.
Red Sky Alliance is in New Boston, NH USA. We are a Cyber Threat Analysis and Intelligence Service organization. We have been tracking vessel impersonation for over 5 years (and maintain historical reports). For questions, comments or assistance, please contact the lab directly at 1-844-492-7225, or feedback@wapacklabs.com
- Reporting: https://www.redskyalliance.org/
- Website: https://www.wapacklabs.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/64265941
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