A supply chain attack that targets customers of the 3CX Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) desktop client has been discovered. Threat actors have created a digitally signed and malicious version of the software, which is being used to target both Windows and macOS users of the app. The threat actors are deploying second-stage payloads and are believed to be linked to a North Korean state-backed hacking group, , although this attribution has not been confirmed.

On Wednesday, March 29, 2023, details of unexpected malicious activity observed from the legitimate and cryptographically signed 3CX SoftPhone Desktop App application were shared in a blog post by security researchers at Crowdstrike.

Banks are entrusted with a great deal of personal information, money, and more by their customers. When a bank isn't able to secure those things, it's a major issue. This is an issue that the Tri-Counties Bank in Chico faced earlier this year. It wasn't money that the bank failed to protect, but customer information. The bank suffered from a serious cyber attack and lost confidential information in the process.

We will continue to update on this dynamic situation as more details become available. CrowdStrike’s Intelligence team is in contact with 3CX. On March 29, 2023, CrowdStrike observed unexpected malicious activity emanating from a legitimate, signed binary, 3CXDesktopApp — a softphone application from 3CX. The malicious activity includes beaconing to actor-controlled infrastructure, deployment of second-stage payloads, and, in a small number of cases, hands-on-keyboard activity.

Over the past 24 hours, Cloudflare has observed HTTP DDoS attacks targeting university websites in Australia. Universities were the first of several groups publicly targeted by the pro-Russian hacker group Killnet and their affiliate AnonymousSudan, as revealed in a recent Telegram post. The threat actors called for additional attacks against 8 universities, 10 airports, and 8 hospital websites in Australia beginning on Tuesday, March 28.

The details in this thwarted VEC attack demonstrate how the use of just a few key details can both establish credibility and indicate the entire thing is a scam. It’s not every day you hear about a purely social engineering-based scam taking place that is looking to run away with tens of millions of dollars. But, according to security researchers at Abnormal Security, cybercriminals are becoming brazen and are taking their shots at very large prizes.

Most dynamic web applications and sites — ones that store and process user information — use some sort of database implementation. One of the most common implementations involves SQL. Structured Query Language is a standard language for relational database management systems (RDBMS). It lets you query database records, change and modify them, set permissions, create custom views and storage procedures.