Threat actors are actively exploiting new vulnerabilities of Microsoft, Oracle, Apache, and Apple, according to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Based on information that threat actors are actively exploiting 15 vulnerabilities, the national cyber-security agency created a list.
These vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for all types of malicious cyber actors, and /they pose a major risk to the federal enterprise.
One of the security vulnerability, a Microsoft Windows SAM local privilege escalation flaw, has a February 24 deadline for patching.
The CISA said “The catalog is a living list of known CVEs that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. It requires FCEB agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats,”
The CISA recommended all organisations to mimimise their exposure to cyberattacks and to prioritize timely remediation of vulnerabilities as part of vulnerability management practice.
It added “CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the meet the specified criteria,”
Meanwhile, cybersecurity authorities in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom reported a surge in sophisticated, high-impact ransomware incidents against critical infrastructure organisations in 2021, according to the agency.
The FBI, CISA, and the National Security Agency (NSA) have observed ransomware attacks targeting 14 of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors in the United States.
It warned “Ransomware tactics and techniques continued to evolve in 2021, which demonstrates ransomware threat actors’ growing technological sophistication and an increased ransomware threat to organisations globally,”
In 2021, the ransomware market got more “professional,” and the criminal business model for ransomware has now become well-established.
Ransomware threat actors used independent services to negotiate payments, aid victims with payment, and arbitrate payment disputes between themselves and other cyber criminals, in addition to increasing their usage of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS).