The IT Nerd

Resecurity has released threat research confirming an increased interest to organizations storing PII and genetic information specifically. 

In context of 23andMe incident, it is definitely important to differentiate between a possible data breach on the company side (what can be determined only in the result of throughout investigation and digital forensics performed independently) and actual account takeover (ATO) activity happening on customer side regardless from it. 

For example, Resecurity observed over 11,387 records containing customer artifacts exposed in Dark Web containing reference to 23andMe.

Those artifacts include customer credentials.

Note that some of such records appeared even after the incident has been publicly disclosed. Resecurity tracked several credible actors in Dark Web who confirmed such credentials have been collected using malicious code (password stealers and formgrabbers, like Vidar, Azorult, Red Stealer, etc.) and their investigators acquired multiple samples. 

For now, 23andMe forced all users to change their passwords. Once the user attempts to login with an old password, he will be asked to define a new password. 

You can get into the weeds on this topic here: https://www.resecurity.com/blog/article/hunting-genetics-data-cyberespionage-in-the-context-of-geopolitical-conflicts

Resecurity has uncovered a cybercriminal faction known as “GXC Team”, who have introduced a new tool that incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI) for creating fraudulent invoices used for Wire Fraud and Business E-Mail Compromise (BEC).

In this case, the creator of the tool effectively utilized AI for a specialized task – identifying invoices containing payment details. Additionally, the tool is equipped with multilingual support, enabling it to process and understand data in various languages, a crucial feature for handling invoices written in different languages.

 According to an FBI IC3 report, successful BEC scams (such as invoice fraud) resulted in an average loss of over $120,000 per incident, inflicting a staggering financial toll of more than $2.4 billion on organizations. FINCEN advisory states criminals continue to exploit vulnerable business processes with such schemes – generating over $9 billion in losses affecting financial institutions and their customers since 2016.

Presently, the tools crafted by the “GXC Team” are capable of targeting over 300 entities, including top financial institutions, government services, postal services, cryptocurrency platforms, payment networks, and major international online marketplaces including AMEX, Amazon, Binance, Coinbase, Helifax, Office 365 (Microsoft), PayPal, ING, Santander, Deutsche Bank, Postbank, DKB AG (Das kann Bank), BBBank eG (formerly Badische Beamtenbank) and multiple Spain-based banks specifically including ABANCA, Banca March, Banco de Sabadell, Grupo Caja Rural, Unicaja Banco SA, Caixa Enginyers, Banco Mediolanum, Laboral Kutxa, Eurocaja Dynamic, BBVA, and Santander.

Besides AI to scale operations, in a novel approach to circumvent two-factor authentication (2FA), the perpetrators crafted malicious Android code that mimics official mobile banking applications. Victims are tricked into installing this fake app under the guise of confirming their OTP (One-Time Password), which is then intercepted and transmitted to a command-and-control (C2C) server managed by the attacker. The necessary login credentials for online banking systems are previously harvested through a phishing kit. Once the OTP is intercepted, the malicious actor can access the victim’s banking account, utilizing geographically relevant residential proxies to facilitate the unauthorized access.

The “GXC Team” has also created several kits designed to pilfer identity information from Australian and Spanish citizens through the use of fake government websites. In the case of Australia, the actors impersonated the “my.gov.au” portal, luring victims into providing their personal information, which was then maliciously collected. This tactic underscores their commitment to identity theft and the exploitation of unsuspecting individuals through deceptive online means. In the case of Spain, the “GXC Team” created a landing page that impersonated one of the official “gob.es” websites. This fake page claimed to support payments through multiple banks, all with the aim of gaining the victim’s trust by presenting content that appeared to originate from an official government site. This approach was used to deceive individuals into sharing sensitive information with malicious actors.

According to Resecurity Hunter Unit’s assessment, the most promising areas for applying AI in cybercriminal activities include:

• Content generation for malicious and fraudulent purposes, with the goal of optimizing human resources and scaling operations.
• Recognition of specific objects and targets through text processing and document analysis.
• Decision-making and automation of cybercriminal operations.
• Utilizing AI-driven bots for advanced social engineering techniques.
• Analyzing and scoring potential victims, studying their behavior, and detecting patterns for more effective targeting and exploitation.
• Bypass of anti-fraud filters and cybersecurity controls (for e.g. using Deep Fakes and AI-generated artifacts).
• Influence and interference campaigns where AI will be used for emotional sentiment analysis, targeting activity and actual engagement with the audience (for e.g. in social media networks and alternative digital channels).

You can read more about this here: https://www.resecurity.com/blog/article/cybercriminals-implemented-artificial-intelligence-ai-for-invoice-fraud