A new form of phishing has been discovered by CyberInt that targets the energy industry. The actual phishing email and attached document have no malicious code and are therefore undetectable. The word document contains a template reference that, when the document is loaded, connects to an attacker’s server via Server Message Block (SMB) to download a Word template which can include embedded malicious payloads.The connection to the SMB server also provides the attacker with the victim’s credentials, which can be s used to acquire information and/or infiltrate the control systems used by the targeted personnel. Andrea Carcano, Founder and Chief Product Officer at Nozomi Networks commented below.
Andrea Carcano, Founder and Chief Product Officer at Nozomi Networks:
“Targeting critical infrastructure providers with spear-phishing messages could indeed have damaging consequences. That is why it is so crucial to train employees not to click on links, attachments and fraudulent emails that are professionally manufactured to target specific individuals. Plant managers also need to be able to identify and close down anomalous behaviour before damage is done. In addition, the risk posture of critical infrastructure can be greatly fortified with real-time anomaly detection that immediately identifies suspicious network communications and incidents, speeding up containment and mitigation efforts. However, it is also crucial that companies provide information about cyberattacks as well as get data on what the government or other organizations already know about certain threats, as this will then enable security teams to detect and remediate situations faster and more efficiently.”
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