Yearly Archives: 2022

News

9 most important steps for SMBs to defend against ransomware attacks

Read Time:1 Minute, 15 Second

What is the best way for a small- to medium-sized business (SMB) to protect itself from ransomware? Ransomware is impacting firms around the world. Mandiant has indicated that ransomware is on the rise and doesn’t appear to be slowing down one bit. These are the nine tasks that SMBs should focus on to mitigate risk from ransomware attacks.

1. Have a backup plan and tested recovery process

Some might argue that multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the best way to protect a firm, but I’d argue that having a tested backup and recovery process would be better. Too often businesses overlook having a backup and a tested recovery process. Especially for firms with on-premises servers and domain controllers, have a process where someone – in the firm or a consultant or managed service provider — perform a dry run of an actual recovery process. When I’ve done a dry run, I often find that I need to perform some step that I’ve forgotten to restore from a bare metal process. You may find that a HyperV parent needs additional steps or you need to take ownership of the restoration image to fully restore a Hyper V server or virtual machine to full working condition. Ensure that you have a recovery script or manual in place so that staff tasked to recover know the steps. The documented steps will help lower the stress of the event.

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Advisories

New Ransomware “Black Basta” in the Wild

Read Time:1 Minute, 50 Second

FortiGuard Labs is aware of a new ransomware variant called “Black Basta” discovered in the wild. The ransomware employs a double-extortion tactic in which it encrypts files and exfiltrates confidential information from the victim, then demands a ransom for decrypting the affected files and threatens to publicize the exfiltrated data if a ransom is not paid.Black Basta ransomware is reported to have victimized several organizations in multiple countries.Why is this Significant?This is significant because Black Basta is a new ransomware that is reported to have victimized several organizations in multiple countries.What is Black Basta ransomware?Black Basta is a new ransomware that demands ransom from the victim for decrypting victim’s files it encrypted and not to release the stolen data to the public.Black Basta ransomware deletes shadow copies from the compromised machine, which prevents the victim from being able to recover any files that have been encrypted. The ransomware also replaces the desktop wallpaper with an image with a black background that has the following ransom message:Your network is encrypted by the Black Basta group.Instructions in the filereadme.txt.The ransomware then will then restart the compromised machine in safe mode with the Windows Fax service running. After the reboot, the service launches the ransomware in order to start encrypting files. Files that are encrypted by Black Basta ransomware have “.basta” file extension and also have the ransomware’s own file icon. Readme.txt, also dropped by the ransomware, contains a ransom note to instruct the victim to use a specific TOR address to contact the attacker.What does the Windows Fax service have to do with this? Is it Vulnerable?The Windows Fax Service is not vulnerable. The Windows Fax service is attacked to maintain persistence and in this variant of Black Basta, it is hijacking an existing service name (in this case Windows Fax), deleting it, and spawning a new service with the same name.What is the Status of Coverage?FortiGuard Labs provides the following AV coverage against known samples of Black Basta ransomware: W32/Filecoder.OKW!tr W32/Kryptik.HPHI!trW32/Filecoder.OKT!trW32/Filecoder.OKW!tr.ransomW32/Filecoder.OKT!tr.ransomW32/Malicious_Behavior.VEX

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