In today's expanding cyber threat landscape, infiltrating a system goes beyond unauthorized access or malware installation. To achieve their ultimate objectives, cybercriminals need to maintain an undetected presence in the system or network to control or extract data according to their needs. Command and Control attacks, also known as C&C or C2 attacks, create a covert link between the compromised system and a C2 server.

A brute-force attack is a trial-and-error method hackers use to guess login information, and encryption keys, or find hidden web pages. In a brute force attack, an attacker tries as many combinations as possible, systematically incrementing through all possibilities until the correct password is discovered. This can be done manually, but it is usually automated using specialized software tools designed for this purpose.

Azure customers are facing the biggest threat to their privileged accounts. A cybersecurity firm has identified the spread of a new phishing campaign aimed at privileged users like sales directors, account managers, finance managers, vice presidents, presidents, chief financial officers, and CEOs. The campaign’s first set of attacks started around November 2023 and is still a looming threat. The good thing is that you can safeguard against and mitigate this attack.

Analysis of the second half of 2023 shows attackers are getting more aggressive with email-based phishing attacks in both frequency and execution. Until there’s a catch-all way to stop malicious emails from being an effective means of initial attack, phishing will continue to grow as the primary initial attack vector for cybercriminals.

Password spraying and credential stuffing have a lot in common, but the main difference is in the way the attack is executed. With credential stuffing, the cybercriminal already has a set of verified login credentials, whereas, with password spraying, the cybercriminal has to guess the login credentials by matching a list of usernames with a commonly used password.

Over the last two years, CrowdStrike Services has run several incident response (IR) engagements — in both pre- and post-ransomware situations — in which different ALPHA SPIDER affiliates demonstrated novel offensive techniques coupled with more commonly observed techniques. The events described in this blog have been attributed to ALPHA SPIDER affiliates by CrowdStrike Counter Adversary Operations.

Credential stuffing is a cyberattack method where attackers use lists of compromised user credentials to breach into a system. These credentials, often obtained from previous data breaches and available on various dark web forums, include combinations of usernames, email addresses, and passwords.

Some of the most common ways ransomware is delivered are through phishing emails, drive-by downloads, exploit kits and RDP exploits. According to Malwarebytes’ 2024 State of Malware report, in 2023 the number of known ransomware attacks increased by 68% from the previous year. The report also found that the largest ransom demanded in 2023 was $80 million.