The latest ransomware-as-a-service attack leaves the well-known retailer, Kmart, with service outages and a compromised Active Directory. In the wake of Maze ransomware "retiring" last month, many of its affiliates have moved to the new kid on the ransomware block, Egregor. Named after an occult term meaning the collective energy or force…
In the healthcare industry, cybersecurity issues have consequences that go well beyond the loss of data. Recently, the FBI and other federal agencies warned of a credible threat of "increased and imminent cybercrime" to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers. Criminal groups target the healthcare sector to carry out "data theft…
10,000-foot view: Many of us are familiar with the variety of tools, attacks, and adversaries that focus on breaching Active Directory. With the release in 2018 of DCShadow, another highly effective vector was added to that ever-increasing list. To the credit of the research team, along with the exploit, they…
The latest development in the 2017 NotPetya Attack saga should be a reminder for organizations that it only takes a handful of cybercriminals to take down all of your operations. Last week, the US Department of Justice announced charges including computer fraud and conspiracy against six hackers of the cybercriminal group known…
Like never before, Active Directory (AD) is in the attackers’ crosshairs. In this blog, we'll examine how ransomware attacks are abusing AD and how enterprises can evolve their defensive strategies to stay ahead of attackers. First, a quick note about the recent privilege escalation vulnerability dubbed Zerologon, which allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to…
If there was ever a time to re-examine the security of your Active Directory, it’s now. In response to rising concerns about the notorious Zerologon vulnerability (CVE-2020-1472), the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued an "Emergency Directive" to federal agencies to apply Microsoft's patch immediately. Enterprises would…
When a storm hits, the one who is most prepared is the one who will weather it best. For IT, this storm is digital, a flurry of cyberattacks that routinely touches down on the shores of Microsoft Active Directory (AD). AD is a juicy target, and we all know why.…
Understanding how compromises occur is a fundamental part of forming a cybersecurity defense. With that in mind, I recently joined Andy Robbins, co-creator of the open source attack path discovery tool, BloodHound, for a webinar that outlined how attackers target Active Directory (AD). During the presentation, we spotlighted an uncomfortable truth: the center of enterprise identity services…