Morphisec Cyber Security Blog

GandCrab Ransomware

These days, most malware employs long chain attack and anti-analysis techniques to make it more difficult to detect the payload and harder to analyze by security researchers. Such is the case with GandCrab, a new ransomware strain that entered the scene late last month and is currently active.

Ransomware remained a major cybersecurity threat in 2017, leaving a trail of victims across all industries, company sizes and geographical borders. Phishing emails are the top ransomware delivery mechanism and they grow in number and sophistication daily. According to IBM, the number of ransomware-infected emails increased 6,000% this year. And the days of easily spotted spelling mistakes and obvious scams are long gone. Today’s phishing attacks are clever and subtle enough to trick even security veterans. 

In the last 48 hours, a hurricane of e-mails has crossed my Inbox, with breathless and self-congratulatory subject lines like "Our latest release detects Bad Rabbit" and "XYZ now protects XYZ customers from Bad Rabbit." In other words, "If you use our product, you were exposed to Bad Rabbit, but now that we know about it (from someone else) we deployed an update." Once you decode the messages, it’s clear that the content is not newsworthy, differentiating or exciting, it’s just an excuse to partake in the latest frenzy.

Last week, a massive wave of spam email that infects victims with a new type of ransomware, dubbed "Jaff", flooded networks across Europe, North America and Australia. Estimates put the number of malicious emails in the tens of millions.

Last week’s news about cyberattacks was sobering. Cybercrime is rampant and notorious. “WannaCry,” “Jaff,” and “Cerber” - the names of the attacks that got the most publicity - read like names of gangsters from the days of Prohibition, with unique personalities, techniques that range from brutal to devious, and a lurid line-up of targets and victims. Only the wanted posters are missing.

Cerber ransomware is one of the most sophisticated and popular ransomware families, attacking victims across the globe. Additional popular ransomware families in the cybercriminal’s arsenal include Locky (Osiris), Spora, Shade and several others.

Cybersecurity had a turbulent 2016, to say the least. We saw the rise of ransomware, the emergence of IoT botnets, landmark security legislation and Yahoo’s disclosure about its 1-billion-record-hack, the largest in history.

As an eventful 2016 draws to a close, what should we expect in cybersecurity for 2017? In this blog series, Morphisec’s security experts predict trends and technologies in 2017. Today’s post is from Netta Schmeidler, Morphisec VP Product.

Morphisec Prevents Major Malspam campaign - Again

In our report at the beginning of September about a large-scale malspam campaign discovered and stopped by Morphisec, we pointed out the central role that malware spam plays for hackers and the difficulties signature-based and behavioral security products can have in coping with them in real-time.

During October 10-12, 2016, Morphisec stopped yet another malspam campaign that again showed an extremely low detection rate on VirusTotal.

Ransomware has grabbed mainstream media attention recently but it’s nothing new – in fact, its origins can be traced back to floppy disk times. Part of ransomware’s new found notoriety is certainly due to the criminals’ latest target of choice, the healthcare industry, which is considered sacrosanct to most. And ransomware’s very nature lends itself to news-worthy headlines. Unlike other types of malware which rely on stealth to infiltrate systems or quietly siphon off data, ransomware boldly declares its presence and intent, often with a clever name to go with it.