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Emotet Tests New Delivery Techniques

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Cybersecurity researchers at Proofpoint have observed brand new tactics used to distribute the notorious Emotet botnet, indicating that the cybercriminal group (TA542) is testing new attack techniques on a small scale before adopting them for larger volume campaigns. Emotet is a prolific botnet and Trojan that targets Windows platforms to distribute follow-on malware. It was considered one of the most prolific cybercriminal threats before its disruption by global law enforcement in January 2021.

In November 2021, 10 months after its disappearance from the threat landscape, Proofpoint observed a reemergence of this notorious botnet, and since then, the group associated with Emotet, TA542, has targeted thousands of customers with tens of thousands of messages in multiple geographic regions. In some cases, the message volume reaches over one million per campaign.

These new TTPs may indicate that TA542 may now be engaged in more selective and limited attacks in parallel to the typical massive scale email campaigns. Sherrod DeGrippo, Vice President of Threat Research and Detection at Proofpoint, said: “After months of consistent activity, Emotet is switching things up. It is likely the threat actor is testing new behaviors on a small scale before delivering them to victims more broadly, or to distribute them via new TTPs alongside its existing high-volume campaigns. Organizations should be aware of the new techniques and ensure they are implementing defenses accordingly.”

According to Proofpoint, it detected a low volume of emails distributing Emotet. The sender emails appeared to be compromised and were not sent by the Emotet spam module. The subjects were simple and contained one word such as “Salary”. The email bodies contained only OneDrive URLs and no other content and the OneDrive URLs hosted zip files containing Microsoft Excel Add-in (XLL) files.

According to a recent Proofpoint research, Business Email Compromise (BEC) topped the list of types of attacks CISOs in UAE and KSA expect to face in the coming months, with 25% and 37% respectively being concerned about potential BEC attacks. The identified Emotet activity differs from previously observed campaigns in the following ways:

  • The low-volume nature of the activity. Typically, Emotet distributes high-volume email campaigns to many customers globally, with some campaigns in recent weeks hitting one million messages total.
  • The use of OneDrive URLs. Typically, Emotet delivers Microsoft Office attachments or URLs (hosted on compromised sites) linking to Office files.
  • The use of XLL files. Typically, Emotet uses Microsoft Excel or Word documents containing VBA or XL4 macros. XLLs are a type of dynamic link library (DLL) file for Excel and are designed to increase the functionality of the application.

Nevertheless, Proofpoint analysts attribute this activity with high confidence to threat actor TA542 because since 2014 the actor closely controlled the Emotet malware and is not rented it to other actors. Proofpoint observed the activity at a time when the widespread Emotet campaigns were on pause (a “spring break”) between April 4, 2022, and April 19, 2022. Emotet has since resumed its high-volume campaigns. Proofpoint researchers assess that while on the break, TA542 continued the development and testing of new attack vectors, specifically OneDrive URLs and XLL files, in preparation for using them on a wider scale.

Additionally, it is notable that TA542 is interested in new techniques that do not rely on macro-enabled documents as Microsoft is making it increasingly difficult for threat actors to use macros as an infection vector. Typically, threat actors including TA542 that use macro-enabled attachments rely on social engineering to convince a recipient the content is trustworthy, and enabling macros is necessary to view it.

Cloud

SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

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SentinelOne today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Workload Migration Program. This initiative supports AWS Partner Network (APN) members with SaaS offerings on AWS to accelerate and streamline workload migrations.

Through the program, SentinelOne will provide AWS customers with accelerated, secure cloud migration support, leveraging modern AI-powered CNAPP capabilities to ensure rapid and protected transitions. With access to AWS funding, technical resources, and go-to-market support, SentinelOne will help organizations reduce migration timelines and costs while maintaining robust security.

SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud Security delivers real-time visibility and protection throughout the migration journey—whether from on-premises or another cloud—enabling a secure, seamless transition to AWS.

“Through our participation in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, SentinelOne is helping customers accelerate secure cloud migrations with end-to-end protection and visibility,” said Ric Smith, President of Product, Technology, and Operations at SentinelOne. “Whether moving from on-prem or another cloud to AWS, organizations can count on us to deliver the security they need throughout their journey—realizing the performance, speed, agility, and cost benefits of the cloud.”

Singularity Cloud Security combines agentless and agent-based protection for deep visibility, continuous posture management, and real-time threat detection across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By collaborating with AWS and ecosystem partners, SentinelOne ensures seamless integration into migration projects, helping customers move faster, reduce risk, and scale confidently in the cloud.

Availability: SentinelOne’s solutions are available globally.

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Cyber Security

Beyond Blocklists: How Behavioural Intent Analysis Can Safeguard Middle East Businesses from Rising AI-Driven Bot Threats

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The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-driven bot attacks, with malicious automation now outpacing traditional defenses. Mohammad Ismail, Vice President for EMEA at Cequence Security, warns that legacy tools like IP blocklists and rate limiting are no match for today’s sophisticated threats (more…)

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Cyber Security

Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

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Sophos has announced a significant update to its Sophos Firewall software, introducing enhanced protection and incident response capabilities. This update notably includes Sophos NDR Essential, a new feature now available free of charge to all customers holding an XStream Protection license for Sophos Firewall.

This integration empowers Sophos Firewall with two dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) engines specifically designed to detect both malware communications and those utilizing algorithmically generated domain names. This advanced functionality, derived from the Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR) probe, aims to identify sophisticated malware communications even if they are previously unknown or not yet indexed. It serves as a powerful complement to the Active Threat Response capabilities already embedded within Sophos firewalls.

Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos

Addressing the technical demands of such advanced detection, Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos, explained the strategic approach, “NDR traffic analysis requires substantial processing power. That’s why we’ve adopted a new approach by deploying an NDR solution in Sophos Cloud to offload the heaviest tasks from the firewall.” This cloud-centric design ensures optimal performance without burdening the firewall’s on-device resources.

Beyond network detection, the update also brings significant improvements to connectivity and user authentication. Sophos Connect now integrates EntraID for Single Sign-On (SSO). This new feature for the VPN client, bundled with Sophos Firewall, is set to enhance both the security and user experience for SSL and IPsec VPN connections. The integration with EntraID (Azure AD) enables users to authenticate and leverage multi-factor authentication for both Sophos Connect and access to the user portal hosted by the firewall, streamlining secure access.

Further VPN-related enhancements include:

  • Improved user interface and usability: Connection types have been renamed for greater clarity, with “site-to-site” now referred to as “policy-based” and tunnel interfaces as “route-based,” making configurations more intuitive.
  • Dynamic validation of the IP address pool: For VPN connections (SSL VPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP), the system now dynamically validates the allocated IP address pool, helping to better resolve potential IP address conflicts.
  • Strict profile enforcement: IPsec profiles now exclude default values to ensure algorithm synchronization, effectively eliminating potential fragmentation of session negotiation packets that could otherwise prevent site-to-site VPN tunnels from being established.
  • Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: The system has been optimized to support up to 3,000 simultaneously established tunnels. Specifically, Sophos Firewall solutions can now manage up to 1,000 SD-RED site-to-site tunnels and connect up to 650 concurrent SD-RED devices.

Additional management improvements enhance administrative flexibility and search capabilities:

  • More flexible DHCP Prefix Delegation (IPv6 DHCP-PD): The system now supports a broader range of prefixes, from /48 to /64, improving compatibility with various internet service providers.
  • Router Advertisement (RA) and DHCPv6 server: These features are now enabled by default, simplifying IPv6 network setup.
  • Resizable table columns: The web admin interface continues its adaptation for ultra-wide screens, with many configuration pages now allowing users to resize columns as needed for improved usability.
  • Enhanced object search functionality: The search field within the SD-WAN routing configuration screen now supports more granular criteria, including route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses and domains. Similarly, local ACL rules now also support object name and value searches, extending to content-based searches for more precise results.
  • Default configuration changes: To streamline initial setups, default firewall rules and rule groups previously created during new firewall deployments have been removed. The initial configuration now only includes the default network rule and MTA rules. Furthermore, the default firewall rule group and the default gateway probe for custom gateways are now set to “None” by default.

Sophos continues its commitment to cybersecurity through a “Secure by Design” approach, enhancing the intrinsic security of its firewalls. This methodology involves the containerization of specific features and rigorous integrity checks on critical operating system files using mathematical checksums. Any detected checksum mismatch triggers a potential compromise alert, enabling monitoring teams to proactively identify possible security incidents affecting the firewall OS integrity. This proactive detection allows incident response and development teams to react swiftly to critical security events.

This update is now available for manual download and deployment by customers with any Sophos Firewall equipped with a valid license.

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