Category: Agency News

Resolve to be Resilient!

Each year, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leads the national recognition of Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (CISR) Month in November. This annual effort focuses on educating and engaging all levels of government, infrastructure owners and operators, and the American public about the vital role critical infrastructure plays in the nation’s wellbeing and why it is important to strengthen critical infrastructure security and resilience.

Weather is becoming more extreme, physical and cyberattacks are a persistent threat, and technology is advancing in ways that will change our future very quickly. We must prepare by accepting that it’s our responsibility to strengthen critical infrastructure and protect the vital services it provides. We can do this by embracing resiliency and building it into our preparedness planning—and then exercising those plans. The safety and security of the nation depends on the ability of critical infrastructure to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions.

President Joe Biden issued the following statement: "Bolstering the Nation’s infrastructure is a cornerstone of my Investing in America agenda. With a combination of funding from the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act, we are investing billions of dollars to enhance the security of our infrastructure by elevating roads and bridges above projected flood zones, supporting community resilience programs, reducing the strain put on our power grids, and so much more. These investments will save lives, protect our families, render a strong and innovative economy, enhance our resilience to disasters, and provide peace of mind to millions of Americans.

We know that to protect our critical infrastructure we must improve our cybersecurity. From the very beginning of my Administration, we have worked tirelessly to strengthen our Nation’s cyber defenses. During my first year in office, I issued an Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, a crucial step toward defending against the increasingly malicious cyber campaigns targeting our infrastructure. My Bipartisan Infrastructure Law builds on this progress by investing $1 billion to bolster cybersecurity for State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments. I am proud to have appointed senior cybersecurity officials who are laser-focused on anticipating and responding to cyber threats and ensuring that the Federal Government leverages all of its resources to improve the cybersecurity of the Nation’s critical infrastructure. These priorities have been catalyzed by my National Cybersecurity Strategy released earlier this year, which lays out our strategy to enhance the cybersecurity and resilience of our Nation’s critical infrastructure and the American people.

While my Administration is investing to protect America’s critical infrastructure, we are also working with our international partners to build sustainable, resilient infrastructure around the globe. At the G20 Summit earlier this year, through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, I was proud to unveil the launch of the landmark United States partnership with the European Union to develop the Trans-African Corridor. We are working with partners to connect the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia to regional and global trade markets through the Port of Lobito in Angola, including by launching feasibility studies for a new greenfield rail line expansion between Zambia and Angola. This reliable and cost-effective corridor will increase efficiencies, secure regional supply chains, enhance economic unity, generate jobs, and decrease the carbon footprint in both countries. We hope to pursue opportunities to connect our initial investments across the continent to Tanzania and, ultimately, the Indian Ocean. Through quality infrastructure investments in key economic corridors like these, we are creating a better future filled with opportunity, dignity, and prosperity for everyone."

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a fact sheet on the effort to revise the National Cyber Incident Response Plan (NCIRP). Through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), CISA will work to ensure that the updated NCIRP addresses significant changes in policy and cyber operations since the initial NCIRP was released.

First published in 2016, the NCIRP was developed in accordance with Presidential Policy Directive 41 (PPD-41) on U.S. Cyber Incident Coordination and describes how federal government, private sector, and state, local, tribal, territorial (SLTT) government entities will organize to manage, respond to, and mitigate the consequences of significant cyber incidents.

NCIRP 2024 will address changes to the cyber threat landscape and in the nation’s cyber defense ecosystem by incorporating principles grounded in four main areas:

- Unification
- Shared Responsibility
- Learning from the Past
- Keeping Pace with Evolutions in Cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released an updated version of the joint #StopRansomware Guide. The update includes new prevention tips such as hardening SMB protocols, revised response steps, and added threat hunting insights.

Developed through the U.S. Joint Ransomware Task Force (JRTF), #StopRansomware Guide is designed to be a one-stop resource to help organizations minimize the risks posed by ransomware incidents through best practices to detect, prevent, respond, and recover, including step-by-step approaches to address potential attacks.

CISA and its partners encourage organizations to implement the recommendations in the guide to reduce the likelihood and impact of ransomware incidents. For more information, visit CISA’s Stop Ransomware page.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outlined a series of actionable recommendations on how the federal government can streamline and harmonize the reporting of cyber incidents to better protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. These recommendations provide a clear path forward for reducing burden on critical infrastructure partners and enabling the federal government to better identify trends in malicious cyber incidents, as well as helping organizations to prevent, respond to, and recover from attacks. The recommendations, delivered to Congress today in a report, are a requirement of the landmark Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA). Key recommendations include establishing model definitions, timelines, and triggers for reportable cyber incidents; creating a model cyber incident reporting form that federal agencies can adopt; and streamlining the reporting and sharing of information about cyber incidents, including the assessment of a potential single reporting web portal. The report also notes that there are situations when incident reporting might be delayed, such as when it would pose a significant risk to critical infrastructure, national security, public safety, or an ongoing law enforcement investigation.

“In the critical period immediately following a cyber-attack, our private sector partners need clear, consistent information-sharing guidelines to help us quickly mitigate the adverse impacts,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “The recommendations that DHS is issuing today provide needed clarity for our partners. They streamline and harmonize reporting requirements for critical infrastructure, including by clearly defining a reportable cyber incident, establishing the timeline for reporting, and adopting a model incident reporting form.  These recommendations can improve our understanding of the cyber threat landscape, help victims recover from disruptions, and prevent future attacks. I look forward to working with Congress and partners across every level of government and the private sector to implement these recommendations and strengthen the resilience of communities across the country.”

The recommendations reflected in the DHS report were developed in coordination with the Cyber Incident Reporting Council (CIRC), which was established in 2022 and is chaired by DHS Under Secretary for Policy Robert Silvers on behalf of the Secretary of Homeland Security, to coordinate, deconflict, and harmonize existing and future federal cyber incident reporting requirements.

“To develop these recommendations, the Cyber Incident Reporting Council analyzed over 50 different federal cyber incident reporting requirements and engaged with numerous industry and private sector stakeholders,” said DHS Under Secretary for Policy and CIRC Chair Robert Silvers. “It is imperative that we streamline these requirements. Federal agencies should be able to receive the information they need without creating duplicative burdens on victim companies that need to focus on responding to incidents and taking care of their customers. We look forward to working with Congress and across the Executive Branch to implement these recommendations.”

“Reporting cyber incidents is critical to the nation’s cybersecurity: It allows us to spot trends in real-time, rapidly render assistance to victims, and share information to warn other potential targets before they become victims,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly. “We also recognize that the need for this information must be balanced with the burdens placed on industry, ensuring that requirements are harmonized and streamlined as effectively as possible. As the Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Agency (CISA) implements reporting requirements as part of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act, these recommendations – along with the extensive input from stakeholders submitted as part of our rulemaking process – will help inform our proposed rule.”

The CIRC includes representation from 33 federal agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Energy, the Office of the National Cyber Director, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission.

The report’s recommendations will inform CISA’s ongoing rulemaking process to implement landmark cyber incident reporting requirements applicable to covered critical infrastructure entities, as mandated under CIRCIA.

Europol has supported the coordination of a large-scale international operation that has taken down the infrastructure of the Qakbot malware and led to the seizure of nearly EUR 8 million in cryptocurrencies. The international investigation, also supported by Eurojust, involved judicial and law enforcement authorities from France, Germany, Latvia, The Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom and the United States. Qakbot, operated by a group of organised cybercriminals, targeted critical infrastructure and businesses across multiple countries, stealing financial data and login credentials. Cybercriminals used this persistent malware to commit ransomware, fraud, and other cyber-enabled crimes.

Active since 2007, this prolific malware (also known as QBot or Pinkslipbot) evolved over time using different techniques to infect users and compromise systems. Qakbot infiltrated victims’ computers through spam emails containing malicious attachments or hyperlinks. Once installed on the targeted computer, the malware allowed for infections with next-stage payloads such as ransomware. Additionally, the infected computer became part of a botnet (a network of compromised computers) controlled simultaneously by the cybercriminals, usually without the knowledge of the victims. However, Qakbot’s primary focus was on stealing financial data and login credentials from web browsers.

How does Qakbot work?

- The victim receives an email with an attachment or hyperlink and clicks on it;
- Qakbot deceives the victim into downloading malicious files by imitating a legitimate process;
- Qakbot executes and then installs other malware, such as banking Trojans;
- The attacker then steals financial data, browser information/hooks, keystrokes, and/or credentials;
- Other malware, such as ransomware, is placed on the victim’s computer.

Over 700 000 infected computers worldwide

A number of ransomware groups used Qakbot to carry out a large number of ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure and businesses. The administrators of the botnet provided these groups with access to the infected networks for a fee. The investigation suggests that between October 2021 and April 2023, the administrators have received fees corresponding to nearly EUR 54 million in ransoms paid by the victims. The lawful examination of the seized infrastructure uncovered that the malware had infected over 700 000 computers worldwide. Law enforcement detected servers infected with Qakbot in almost 30 countries in Europe, South and North America, Asia and Africa, enabling the malware’s activity on a global scale.

Over the course of the investigation, Europol facilitated the information exchange between participating agencies, supported the coordination of operational activities, and funded operational meetings. Europol also provided analytical support linking available data to various criminal cases within and outside the EU. The Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) at Europol also supported the operation. This standing operational team consists of cybercrime liaison officers from different countries who work on high-profile cybercrime investigations.

Eurojust actively facilitated the cross-border judicial cooperation between the national authorities involved. The Agency hosted a coordination meeting in July 2023 to facilitate evidence sharing and to prepare for this joint operation.

Following the Internet Organised Crime Assessment (IOCTA) 2023, Europol published the spotlight report “Cyber Attacks: The Apex of Crime-as-a-Service”. It examines developments in cyber-attacks, discussing new methodologies and threats as observed by Europol’s operational analysts. The report also outlines the types of criminal structures that are behind cyber-attacks, and how these increasingly professionalised groups are exploiting changes in geopolitics as part of their modi operandi.

Malware-based cyber-attacks, specifically ransomware, remain the most prominent threat. These attacks can attain a broad reach and have a significant financial impact on industry. Europol’s spotlight report takes an in-depth look at the nature of malware attacks as well as the ransomware groups’ business structures. The theft of sensitive data could establish itself as the central goal of cyber-attacks, thereby feeding the growing criminal market of personal information.

As well as shedding light on the most common intrusion tactics used by criminals, the report also highlights the significant boost in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against EU targets. Lastly, among the report’s key findings are the effects the war of aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s internal politics have had on cybercriminals.
Key findings in “Cyber Attacks: The Apex of Crime-as-a-Service”

- Malware-based cyber-attacks remain the most prominent threat to industry;
- Ransomware affiliate programs have become established as the main form of business organisation for ransomware groups;
- Phishing emails containing malware, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) brute forcing and Virtual Private Network (VPN) vulnerability exploitation are the most common intrusion tactics;
- The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine led to a significant boost in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against EU targets;
- Initial Access Brokers (IABs), droppers-as-a-service and crypter developers are key enablers utilised in the execution of cyber-attacks;
- The war of aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s internal politics have uprooted cybercriminals, pushing them to move to other jurisdictions.

Europol’s response in fighting cyber-attacks

Europol provides dedicated support for cybercrime investigations in the EU and thus helps protect European citizens, businesses and governments from online crime. Europol offers operational, strategic, analytical and forensic support to Member States’ investigations, including malware analysis, cryptocurrency-tracing training for investigators, and tool development projects. Based in Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the Analysis Project Cyborg focuses on the threat of cyber-attacks and supports international investigations and operations into cyber criminality affecting critical computer and network infrastructures in the EU.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released an update to a previously published Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519 to Implant Webshells. The CSA—originally released to warn network defenders of critical infrastructure organizations about threat actors exploiting CVE-2023-3519, an unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting NetScaler (formerly Citrix) Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and NetScaler Gateway—contains victim information gathered in August 2023. Since July 2023, the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) has facilitated continuous, real-time threat information sharing with and between partners on post-exploitation activity of CVE-2023-3519. JCDC consolidated and shared detection methods, threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and indicators of compromise (IOCs) received from industry and international partners. The updated CSA contains new TTPs as well as IOCs received from some of these partners and an additional victim.
CISA strongly urges all critical infrastructure organizations to review the advisory and follow the mitigation recommendations—such as prioritizing patching known exploited vulnerabilities like Citrix CVE-2023-3519.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published the Cyber Defense Plan for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM), the first proactive Plan developed by industry and government partners through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) as part of our 2023 Planning Agenda. This Plan provides a clear roadmap to advance security and resilience of the RMM ecosystem and further specific lines of effort in the National Cyber Strategy to scale public-private collaboration and in the CISA Cybersecurity Strategic Plan to drive adoption of the most impactful security measures.

Organizations across sectors leverage RMM products to gain efficiencies and benefit from scalable services. These same benefits, however, are increasingly targeted by adversaries – from ransomware actors to nation-states – to compromise large numbers of downstream customer organizations. By targeting RMM products, threat actors attempt to evade detection and maintain persistent access, a technique known as living off the land.

Part of our 2023 Planning Agenda, the RMM Cyber Defense Plan provides a clear roadmap to advance security and resilience of this critical ecosystem, including RMM vendors, managed service providers (MSPs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), and critical infrastructure operators. This Plan was developed through a multi-month process that leveraged deep expertise by vendors, operators, agencies, and other stakeholders, and has already resulted in a significant deliverable with publication of our joint advisory on Protecting Against Malicious Use of Remote Monitoring and Management Software.

The RMM Cyber Defense Plan is built on two foundational pillars, operational collaboration and cyber defense guidance, and contains four subordinate lines of effort:

(1) Cyber Threat and Vulnerability Information Sharing: Expand the sharing of cyber threat and vulnerability information between U.S. government and RMM ecosystem stakeholders.

(2) Enduring RMM Operational Community: Implement mechanisms for an enduring RMM operational community that will continue to mature scaled security efforts.

(3) End-User Education: Develop and enhance end-user education and cybersecurity guidance to advance adoption of strong best practices, a collaborative effort by CISA, interagency partners and other RMM ecosystem stakeholders.

(4) Amplification: Leverage available lines of communication to amplify relevant advisories and alerts within the RMM ecosystem.

“As envisioned by Congress and the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, JCDC Cyber Defense Plans are intended to bring together diverse stakeholders across the cybersecurity ecosystem to understand systemic risks and develop shared, actionable solutions. The RMM Cyber Defense Plan demonstrates the criticality of this work and the importance of both deep partnership and proactive planning in addressing systemic risks facing our country,” said Eric Goldstein,CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity. “These planning efforts are dependent on trusted collaboration with our partners, and this Plan was a true partnership with the RMM community, industry and interagency partners that contributed time and effort towards this important work. The collaboration established to develop this plan has already achieved several accomplishments for RMM stakeholders and ecosystem. As the JCDC leads the execution of this plan, we are confident that this public-private collaboration in the RMM ecosystem will further reduce risk to our nation’s critical infrastructure.”