DHS Issues Recommendations to Harmonize Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Entities

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.

Qakbot botnet infrastructure shattered after international operation

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.

IOCTA spotlight report on malware-based cyber-attacks published

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.

CISA Releases Update to Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519 to Implant Webshells

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.

International Partners Release Malware Analysis Report on Infamous Chisel Mobile Malware

The United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), the United States’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ), Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) published a joint Malware Analysis Report (MAR), on Infamous Chisel a new mobile malware targeting Android devices with capabilities to enable unauthorized access to compromised devices, scan files, monitor traffic, and periodically steal sensitive information.

Infamous Chisel mobile malware has been used in a malware campaign targeting Android devices in use by the Ukrainian military.

Infamous Chisel is a collection of components targeting Android devices and is attributed to Sandworm, the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate’s (GRU’s) Main Centre for Special Technologies, GTsST. The malware’s capability includes network monitoring, traffic collection, network backdoor access via The Onion Router (Tor) and Secure Shell (SSH), network scanning and Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) file transfer.

The authoring organizations urge users, network defenders, and stakeholders to review the malware analysis report for indicators of compromise (IOCs) and detection rules and signatures to determine system compromise. For more information about malware, see CISA’s Malware, Phishing, and Ransomware page. The joint MAR can also be read in full on the NCSC-UK website. Associated files relating to this report can also be accessed via the NCSC's Malware Analysis Reports page.

CISA and FBI Publish Joint Advisory on QakBot Infrastructure

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Identification and Disruption of QakBot Infrastructure, to help organizations detect and protect against newly identified QakBot-related activity and malware. QakBot—also known as Qbot, Quackbot, Pinkslipbot, and TA570—is responsible for thousands of malware infections globally.

Originally used as a banking trojan to steal banking credentials for account compromise, QakBot—in most cases—was delivered via phishing campaigns containing malicious attachments or links to download the malware, which would reside in memory once on the victim network. QakBot has since grown to deploy multiple types of malware, trojans, and highly-destructive ransomware variants targeting the United States and other global infrastructures, including the Election Infrastructure Subsector, Financial Services, Emergency Services, and Commercial Facilities Sectors.

CISA and FBI urge organizations to implement the recommendations contained within the joint CSA to reduce the likelihood of QakBot-related activity and promote identification of QakBot-facilitated ransomware and malware infections.

Download latest Preliminary Conference Programme Guide for CIPRE

As someone responsible in your organisations for critical assets and/or infrastructure, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Europe is the leading conference that will keep you abreast of the changes in legislation, current threats and latest developments.

Download the Preliminary Conference Programme Guide at www.cipre-expo.com/guide.

What is the new directive on the Resilience of Critical Entities...

The Directive on the Resilience of Critical Entities entered into force on 16 January 2023. Member States have until 17 October 2024 to adopt national legislation to transpose the Directive.

The Directive aims to strengthen the resilience of critical entities against a range of threats, including natural hazards, terrorist attacks, insider threats, or sabotage, as well as public health emergencies.

Are you up to date on this legislation, and do you know what you need to do to be compliant?

Get updated on the NIS2 Directive and what it means to you...

An important discussion will centre around the EU cybersecurity rules introduced in 2016 and updated by the NIS2 Directive that came into force in 2023. It modernised the existing legal framework to keep up with increased digitisation and an evolving cybersecurity threat landscape.

By expanding the scope of the cybersecurity rules to new sectors and entities, it further improves the resilience and incident response capacities of public and private entities, competent authorities and the EU as a whole.

Businesses identified by the Member States as operators of essential services in the above sectors will have to take appropriate security measures and notify relevant national authorities of serious incidents. Key digital service providers, such as search engines, cloud computing services and online marketplaces, will have to comply with the security and notification requirements under the Directive.

What will this mean for you and how can you meet the Directives goals?

Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Europe is Europe's leading discussion that brings together leading stakeholders from industry, operators, agencies and governments to collaborate on securing Europe's critical infrastructures.
The conferences top quality programme looks at these developing themes and help create better understanding of the issues and the threats, to help facilitate the work to develop frameworks, good risk management, strategic planning and implementation.

The packed event themes include:

- Interdependencies and Cascading Effects
- Emerging Threats against CI
- Crisis Management, Coordination & Communication
- Power & Energy Sector Symposium
- Government, Defence & Space Sector Symposium
- Communications Sector Symposium
- Information Technology (CIIP) Sector Symposium
- Transport Sector Symposium
- CBRNE Sector Symposium
- Technologies to Detect and Protect
- Risk Mitigation and Management
- The Insider Threat
- Business Continuity Management
- EU Horizon Projects Overviews

You are invited to be a part of this program, where you can meet, network and learn from the experiences of over 40 expert international speakers, as well as industry colleagues who share the same challenges and goals.

Please join us and the CI industry in the beautiful city of Prague, on 3rd-5th October, for a great programme of discussions that can help you to deliver enhanced security and resilience for your organisation.

Visit www.cipre-expo.com for further details

 

CISA Publishes JCDC Remote Monitoring and Management Systems Cyber Defense Plan

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.”

Your latest issue of Critical Infrastructure Protection & Resilience News has arrived

Please find here your downloadable copy of the Summer 2023 issue of Critical Infrastructure Protection & Resilience News for the latest views and news at www.cip-association.org/CIPRNews.

- The CNI / Crowded Places Security Debate
- Beyond Physical Protection
- Hybrid Threats
– A Comprehensive Resilience Ecosystem
- Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Research
- Resilience in action
- An Interview with EU-CIP Project
- IBM Report: Half of Breached Organizations Unwilling to Increase Security Spend Despite Soaring Breach Costs
- Using the EU Space Programme for disaster risk management in Hungary
- An Interview with TIEMS
- Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Europe Preview
- Agency and Industry News

Download your Critical Infrastructure Protection & Resilience News at www.cip-association.org/CIPRNews

Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience News is the official magazine of the International Association of Critical Infrastructure Protection Professionals (IACIPP), a non-profit organisation that provides a platform for sharing good practices, innovation and insights from Industry leaders and operators alongside academia and government and law enforcement agencies.

#CriticalInfrastructureProtection #CriticalInfrastructure #cybersecurity #help2protect #cisa #ciprna #cipre #resilience #cooperation #emergencymanagement #emergencyresponse #crisismanagement #businesscontinuity #crisisresponse #mitigation

CISA, NSA, and NIST Publish Factsheet on Quantum Readiness

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a joint factsheet, Quantum-Readiness: Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), to inform organizations—especially those that support Critical Infrastructure—of the impacts of quantum capabilities, and to encourage the early planning for migration to post-quantum cryptographic standards by developing a Quantum-Readiness Roadmap.

CISA, NSA, and NIST urge organizations to review the joint factsheet and to begin preparing now by creating quantum-readiness roadmaps, conducting inventories, applying risk assessments and analysis, and engaging vendors. For more information and resources related to CISA’s PQC work, visit Post-Quantum Cryptography Initiative.

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