X-Industry

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said SpaceX’s high-speed Internet service, Starlink, has held out against Russia’s cyberwar tactics amid the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

What Happened - Musk said last week that Starlink has resisted Russia’s “jamming & hacking attempts,” even as the Vladimir Putin-led country is ramping up efforts.  Musk linked his comment to a Reuters report that said Russia was behind a massive cyberattack against a satellite internet network that took tens of thousands of

Just yesterday, I gave a very brief talk on the ethics and morals of hackers.  My focus was centered on the criminality of hacking, but the same holds true with nation-state level cyber actors.  The Russia Matters publication has provided a series of opinions on why Russia has not initiated a full scale cyber-attack, often called ‘cybergeddon’ upon its adversaries.  Russia’s war in Ukraine, now nearing its 10-week mark, has been devastating, killing thousands of civilians, and forcing millions t

When one of your enemies begins attacking another one of your other enemies, does this mean that your first enemy is now an ally?   I will let the philosophers answer this question.  A China-linked state-sponsored cyberespionage group has started targeting the Russian military in recent attacks, which aligns with China’s interests in the Russia-Ukraine war.  Tracked as Mustang PANDA, Bronze President, RedDelta, HoneyMyte, Red Lichand TA416, the government-backed hacking group previously focused

Activity Summary - Week Ending on 29 April 2022:

• Red Sky Alliance identified 10, 907 connections from new IP’s checking in with our Sinkholes
• msk.ru has issues
• Analysts identified 3,698 new IP addresses participating in various Botnets
• Vice & Industrial Spy
• US Agriculture under Attack
• T-Mobile Hit (again)
• Oil India LTD
• Getting Annoyed?
• Lapsus$

Link to full report: IR-22-119-001_weekly119.pdf

The financial sector is a prime target for criminal cartels and nation-state actors. Criminals seek a lucrative market, and nation-states treat profit as a form of sanctions-busting. The high volume of Russian-speaking gangs and the current sanctions against the Russian state makes Russia a major threat to financial institutions today.

The reason that financial institutions are under constant attack is simple: that’s where the money is today.  This is no different than the statement made by the

The Sandworm Group, a Russian based APT, which recently made headlines after their botnet of machines infected with Cyclops Blink malware, was taken down by the US Department of Justice, has been busy crafting attacks targeting the Ukrainian power grid.  The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA), had to step in and take action to thwart the attack on the country’s energy facilities.  Blame for the attack has been placed on Sandworm in support of Russian military actions in Easter

The international Anonymous hacktivists group has targeted the Russian Ministry of Culture and leaked 446 GB worth of data online.  The cyberattack was carried out as part of their collective’s ongoing operation OpRussia against the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Anonymous is a group of hacktivists that publicly announced a cyberwar against Russia after the country invaded Ukraine in late February 2022.  The latest to suffer a data leak is Russia’s Ministry of Culture.  As seen by Hackread.com,

Any cyber professionals, at any level, will attest that what they desperately need is coffee to stay awake while working.  Russian analysts, both good and bad, are now in serious trouble.  Commodity traders are diverting coffee shipments that were initially expected to go to Russia, and some have stopped selling to that market altogether, attendees at a US coffee conference said. 

Although food trade is not included in sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, difficulties in pr

A spokesman from the United States said on 07 April 2022 that it had secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world in recent weeks, a step to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks and send a message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.  The actions, made public by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, comes as U.S. officials warn that Russia could try to strike American critical infrastructure including financial firms, pipelines and the electric grid in response to the sanctions

Understandable fears of an unparalleled Russian cyberwar began to grow around the same time Russia began staging its military on their border with Ukraine.  Some people pictured a Russian digital assault not just on Ukraine but on all the West. At least a few people thought the Kremlin might team up with ransomware gangs to punish those who defied the invasion. Others were afraid that conflict between Putin’s hackers and Ukraine might spin out of control and spur a broader cyber melee around the

Microsoft says it's blocked GRU cyber operations directed against US, European, and Ukrainian targets. Redmond calls the group "Strontium," in its metallic naming convention for threat groups, but the threat actor is also known as APT28 and, of course, Fancy Bear. The disruption was a familiar (and entirely praiseworthy) takedown. Microsoft explained, "On Wednesday April 6th, we obtained a court order authorizing us to take control of seven internet domains Strontium was using to conduct these a

They say “Birds of a Feather, Flock Together.”  This holds true with criminal hackers.  Threat analysts have recently compiled a detailed technical report on FIN7 operations from late 2021 to early 2022, showing that the adversary continues to be very active, evolving, and trying new monetization methods.[1]

Link to full report: TR-22-095-002_Fin7.pdf

[1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fin7-hackers-evolve-toolset-work-with-multiple-ransomware-gangs/

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has added Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to its list of entities that pose an “unacceptable risk to US national security,” according to a report from Bloomberg.  This is the first time a Russian company has been added to the list, which is otherwise made up of Chinese companies, like Huawei and ZTE.[1]

Businesses in the US are barred from using federal subsidies provided through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to purchase any products

Activity Summary - Week Ending on 25 March 2022:

• Red Sky Alliance identified 15,245 connections from new IP’s checking in with our Sinkholes
• Malicious Keylogger data is back with 24 Keylogged emails
• Analysts identified 1,081 new IP addresses participating in various Botnets
• CaddyWiper
• CryptBot
• Russian Cyber Attacks – Train your Machine
• IssacWiper
• A 3rd Wipper (after HermeticWiper and IzaakWiper)
• Wiper remediation

Link to full report: IR-22-084-001_weekly084.pdf

Since declaring cyberwar on Russia through the #OpRussia campaign, the hacktivist group Anonymous has been busy.  It has been three weeks since the Anonymous collective tweeted their declaration of war, and in that time the decentralized group has been a mainstay of news headlines.   

Since Russia invaded Ukraine the Anonymous twitter account, @YourAnonNews has gained close to 500,000 followers.  In the hybrid war format where both acts of kinetic war and cyber war have been documented many hack

A provocative piece from Vox, explains the current state of the Russian Cyber War.   After three weeks of fighting, Russia is beginning to deploy increasingly brutal tactics in Ukraine, including indiscriminate shelling of cities and “medieval” siege warfare. Other elements of its military strategy, however, are conspicuously absent in cyberwarfare.  Russia has a history of employing cyberwarfare tactics, which some experts believed could feature prominently in its invasion of Ukraine. The cyber

Activity Summary - Week Ending on 18 March 2022:

• Red Sky Alliance identified 16,707 connections from new IP’s checking in with our Sinkholes
• Malicious Keylogger data is back with 20 Keylogged emails
• Analysts identified 3,8171 new IP addresses participating in various Botnets
• Soul Searcher
• SharkBot
• Blue, Yellow and Gray Zones
• Open-Source Reverse Tunneling Tool
• Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act
• Vessel Impersonation

Link to full report: IR-22-077-001_weekly077.pdf

The US president signed an executive order (E.O.) on 9 March for “ensuring responsible innovation in digital assets.”  The E.O. is designed to, among other things, crack down on the use of cryptocurrency among cybercriminals.[1]

This long-awaited directive orders federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department, to coordinate their approach to the booming cryptocurrency sector.  Although the order does not lay out specific policy suggestions, it takes aim at cons

At the start of March, residents of Kyiv had been bracing themselves for a 40-mile-long convoy of Russian tanks, armored vehicles, and towed artillery to arrive for an assault on the Ukrainian capital.  Days later, they are still waiting.   Perhaps Russian men are too disinclined to ask for directions

On 03 March 2022, US intelligence suggested that the convoy was still stalled some distance from Kyiv, backing claims made by both the Ukrainian government and UK's defense ministry.  "We still ass

The Russian government announced on 04 March 2011 that it will begin to “partially restrict” access to Facebook, according to an announcement from its internet regulatory agency Roskomnadzor.  Russia claimed that it would implement the measures, which were not specified after Facebook put its own restrictions on four Russian state-linked media outlets, the television network Zvezda, news agency RIA Novosti, and the websites Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.

“On 24 February 2022, Roskomnadzor sent requests