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Opportunistic threat actors are leveraging trusted tools, like PowerShell, to retrieve and execute malicious code from remote sources. According to a new cyber threat report from eSentire, Inc., a pure-play Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, 91% of endpoint incidents detected in Q1 2018 involved known, legitimate binaries, such as PowerShell or mshta.exe. These processes are used by opportunistic and targeted threats alike, allowing them to circumvent basic controls to deliver and install malware.

"eSentire Threat Intelligence data shows heavy use of legitimate Microsoft binaries, such as PowerShell and mshta.exe, popular tools for downloading and executing malicious code in the initial stages of a malware infection," said Eldon Sprickerhoff, founder and chief security strategist, eSentire. "PowerShell can also be leveraged by adversaries to reduce their on-disk footprint and evade detective controls by operating in memory and obfuscating command-line parameters."

In late January 2018, an eSentire advanced threat analytics operation (powered by machine learning and coined "Blue Steel"), detected an adversary leveraging an unknown exploit in Kaseya’s Virtual System Administrator (VSA) product to deploy crypto miners across the infrastructure of a small number of eSentire customers. The attack broadly targeted the trusted system of MSPs and cloud platforms through Kaseya VSA endpoint agents for initial access to deliver malicious scripts. eSentire discovered the threat and notified Kaseya of the intrusions, resulting in multiple security fixes.

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539% Increase in Consumer-Grade Router Attacks

The report also indicates a dramatic increase in attacks targeting popular consumer-grade routers, like Netgear and Linksys (both of whom own a significant share of the consumer network device market, at 51% and 26% respectively*), – eSentire saw a 539% increase from Q4 2017 to Q1 2018.

Trending in router exploitations was first observed in late 2017 when the Reaper Botnet gained media attention. Additionally, intrusion attempts across industries grew 36%, mostly due to DNS manipulation in consumer-grade routers. These manipulations allow attackers to redirect victims to malicious infrastructure to achieve a variety of results, including malware and phishing landing pages. Other exploits focused on consumer-grade routers.

"The increase in attacks against consumer network devices can be attributed to the perceived value in recruiting devices for attacks against businesses, as opposed to leveraging them as potential network entry-points," said Sprickerhoff.

Additional Report Findings:

• Phishing rose 39% across industries, with DocuSign, Office 365, and OneDrive as the most popular lures. Office 365 showed the highest success rate and popularity, growing 5x over 2017 despite DocuSign being the most popular lure used.
  
  
• Education, retail, biotechnology, construction, and non-profit organizations saw the greatest rise in exploit attempts due to a high degree of consumer-grade router exploit attempts, brute forcing, and web server exploit attempts.
  
  
• Most brute force attacks originated from infrastructure based in China, followed by the United States, Germany, and Russia.
  
  
• Malicious code (+35%) and phishing (+39%) saw increases in the first quarter of 2018 with malicious code incidents continuing to favor email as a delivery vector.
  
  

"While industry sentiment is focused on the ever-changing threat landscape, the data suggests that it’s the cybercriminal landscape that’s shifting. As we continue to see successful efforts in disrupting malicious infrastructure and comprehensive threat blocking, cybercriminals are forced to diversify their hacking methods. They’re pivoting to use new methods for sustaining infrastructure," said Sprickerhoff. "Technology is changing rapidly, and as it does, attackers are shifting their techniques to match. The increase in router-based attacks is a prime example."

Methodology

The eSentire Threat Intelligence team used data gathered from 1,500+ proprietary network and host-based detection sensors distributed globally across multiple industries. Raw data was normalized and aggregated using automated machine-based processing methods. Processed data was reviewed by a visual data analyst applying quantitative analysis methods. Quantitative intelligence analysis results were further processed by a qualitative intelligence analyst resulting in a written analytical product.

eSentire’s 2018 Q1 Threat Report provides a quarterly snapshot, analyzing all cyber threat events investigated by the eSentire Security Operations Center (SOC), while addressing three key areas: threat types, threat volume, and attack types. Each topic is divided into multiple sections, including visual data analysis, written analytical analysis, practical recommendations, and key assumptions. The report concludes with takeaways and recommended actions that organizations can take to protect their business networks from compromise, including protecting against vulnerability exploit and router compromise, revisiting organizational awareness training programs to protect against phishing, and protecting against opportunistic threat like PowerShell-based attacks.

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