Press ReleaseCloud SecurityCyber Crime & Forensic

Nation-States Masquerade as Insiders in New Cyber Attacks

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) released the 2024 Threat Hunting Report, highlighting the latest adversary trends, campaigns and tactics based on the frontline intelligence from CrowdStrike’s elite threat hunters and intelligence analysts. The report reveals a rise in nation-state and eCrime adversaries exploiting legitimate credentials and identities to evade detection and bypass legacy security controls, as well as a rise in hands-on- keyboard intrusions, cross-domain attacks, and cloud control plane exploits.

Nation-States Hide as Threats?

Key findings include:

  • North Korea-Nexus Adversaries Pose as Legitimate U.S. Employees: FAMOUS CHOLLIMA infiltrated over 100 primarily U.S. technology companies. Leveraging falsified or stolen identity documents, malicious insiders gained employment as remote IT personnel to exfiltrate data and carry out malicious activity.
  • Hands-on-Keyboard Intrusions Increase by 55%: More threat actors are engaging in hands-on-keyboard activities to blend in as legitimate users and bypass legacy security controls. 86% of all hands-on intrusions are executed by eCrime adversaries seeking financial gains. These attacks increased by 75% in healthcare and 60% in technology, which remained the most targeted sector for seven years in a row.
  • RMM Tool Abuse Grows by 70%: Adversaries including CHEF SPIDER (eCrime) and STATIC KITTEN (Iran-nexus) are using legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools like ConnectWise ScreenConnect for endpoint exploitation. RMM tool exploitation accounted for 27% of all hands-on-keyboard intrusions.
  • Cross-Domain Attacks Persist: Threat actors are increasingly exploiting valid credentials in order to breach cloud environments and eventually use that access-to-access endpoint. These attacks leave minimal footprints in each of those domains, like separate puzzle pieces, making them harder to detect.
  • Cloud Adversaries Target the Control Plane: Cloud-conscious adversaries like SCATTERED SPIDER (eCrime) are leveraging social engineering, policy changes and password manager access to infiltrate cloud environments. They exploit connections between the cloud control plane and endpoints to move laterally, maintain persistence and exfiltrate data.
Nation-State
Infographic from The CrowdStrike 2024 Threat Hunting Report

“For over a decade, we’ve vigilantly tracked the most prolific hacktivist, eCrime, and nation-state adversaries,” said Adam Meyers, Head of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike. “In tracking nearly 250 adversaries this past year, a central theme emerged—threat actors are increasingly engaging in interactive intrusions and employing cross-domain techniques to evade detection and achieve their objectives. Our comprehensive, human-led threat hunting directly informs the algorithms that power the AI-native Falcon platform, ensuring that we stay ahead of these evolving threats and continue to deliver the industry’s most effective cybersecurity solutions.”

CSA Editorial

Launched in Jan 2018, in partnership with Cyber Security Malaysia (an agency under MOSTI). CSA is a news and content platform focusing on key issues in cybersecurity in the region. CSA is targeted to serve the needs of cybersecurity professionals, IT professionals, Risk professionals and C-Levels who have an obligation to understand the impact of cyber threats.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *