Category: NCSC

Executive summary

HTTP/2 is a faster and more technically advanced version of the current HTTP 1.1 and is being widely adopted following its approval in February 2015. It is already supported by major browsers – Chrome, Firefox, IE11, Edge, Safari, and Opera – and is thought to be used by about one in ten websites.

Four vulnerabilities rated as severe have been discovered in this new version, but fixes have already been made available through a coordinated approach between the…

Link: HTTP/2
Source: NCSC Alerts

300% increase in attacks on Microsoft cloud services

Microsoft has revealed that the frequency of attacks against users of its cloud services, including Microsoft Azure and Office 365, has increased by 300% over the last year.

“A large majority of these compromises are the result of weak, guessable passwords and poor password management, followed by targeted phishing attacks and breaches of third-party services,” said Microsoft in its ‘Security and Intelligence’…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 1st September 2017
Source: NCSC Reports

International cyber incident affecting the NHS

On Friday a set of global cyber attacks took place against thousands of organisations, including the NHS, and individuals in dozens of countries.

The NCSC statement on the incident can be read here and guidance on how to defend your organisation against ransomware can be found here.
 

US restaurant chain payment process system compromised

A US restaurant chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill, recently announced that unauthorised activity…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 12th May 2017
Source: NCSC Reports

Password security

In November 2016, a study of user passwords exposed by a Yahoo data breach revealed that “123456” was the most common password, followed closely by “password” at number two. A more recent report on the most commonly used passwords revealed that “123456” was still number one, followed by the ‘more complex’ “123456789”.

These reports highlight ongoing problems associated with conventional password policies, which tend to promote the use of complicated passwords that are…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 20th January 2017
Source: NCSC Reports

Our second Annual Report covering the period April 2015 – March 2016 is now live.

The report covers an overview of the incidents we have dealt with this year with a breakdown by type and sector, as well as analysis of malware in the UK, a look at our predictions from last year and a new set for the coming year and a piece on the importance of automated sharing.

CiSP members can also access the Amber Annexe posted on the platform which contains more technical information including…

Link: CERT-UK Annual Report 2015/16
Source: NCSC Reports

Ransomware infects Colorado Department of Transportation IT system

International media reports suggest that ransomware infected computers at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) on 21 February, encrypting files and requesting payment in Bitcoin to restore them. CDOT is responsible for managing and maintaining roads as well as monitoring traffic in the US state of Colorado, but no critical operational IT systems are believed to have been affected.

The organisation has taken 2,000…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 2nd March 2018
Source: NCSC Reports

Executive summary

Multiple critical vulnerabilities have been reported in a number of different security products from Symantec, affecting both enterprise and consumer products.

These vulnerabilities include a ‘100% reliable remote exploit’ and a ‘wormable’ flaw that requires no user interaction by the victim for an attacker to exploit.

The vulnerabilities have been fixed by Symantec and performing a manual ‘LiveUpdate’ will update the software to the…

Link: Symantec Norton Anti-virus and Endpoint Protection – multiple high severity vulnerabilities
Source: NCSC Alerts

Data breach affects NHS administrative information

An individual affiliating themselves with the hacktivist collective Anonymous claims to have stolen UK NHS patient data. The attacker claims to have exploited unpatched vulnerabilities in software provided by SwiftQueue, a vendor responsible for managing a number of hospital appointment booking systems.

SwiftQueue have confirmed an unauthorised party accessed 32,501 lines of administrative data. This is likely to include personally…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 25th August 2017
Source: NCSC Reports

Google and Facebook were victims of Business Email Compromise (BEC) or ‘CEO Fraud’

Google and Facebook have been identified as the victims of an email phishing attack for which a Lithuanian man was charged in March 2017.

The attack relied upon social engineering methods rather than technical intrusion techniques. However, the individual was still able to trick the organisations into transferring over $100 million between 2013-2015, highlighting how cyber-enabled social…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 5th May 2017
Source: NCSC Reports

The year of ransomware…

…is how 2016 has been widely described in the cyber security media.

There has been numerous UK incidents targeting academia, Government departments, industry, CNI sectors and individual users.  Using ransomware as an attack technique has become popular because it is easy to carry out and can be financially lucrative.

Ransomware can infect a system via  unpatched software vulnerabilities or duping unsuspecting users into installing the ransomware…

Link: Weekly Threat Report 13th January 2017
Source: NCSC Reports