Dryad and RedSkyAlliance continue monitor attempted attacks within the maritime sector, examining how email is used to deceive the recipient and potentially expose the target organisations.
Email subject line Motor Vessel (MV) or Motor Tanker (MT) keyword usage is a common lure to entice users in the maritime industry to open emails containing malicious attachments.
The two partners identify emails that attempted to deliver malware or phishing links to compromise the vessels and/or parent companies. Users should be aware of the subject lines used and the email addresses that are attempting to deliver the messages.
Those who work in the security industry can quickly identify the suspicious aspects of these emails, but the targets often cannot. Even if attackers can only get 10% of people to open their malicious email attachments, they can send thousands out in a day using similar templates resulting in hundreds of victims per day. They can also automate parts of this process for efficiency.
This week a wide variety of maritime-related subject lines was observed. Some of the new vessel names used this week include “MV PVT Sea Lion” and “MT SARANGA” among others.
Analysts also observed malicious subject line, “Freight Statement Of Outstanding As Of 12_07_2020” used this week. This email leverages a few techniques to get the targeted users to open the malicious attachments.
The sender of the malicious email appears to have been sent from “[email protected]”. Open-source data does not show anyone with that name or email address working for the company, so it is likely that this email address is spoofed.
It should be noted that msc.com is owned by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) which was the victim of a cyber-attack earlier this year. Attackers often impersonate large companies such as Maersk, CMA CGM, MSC, and others to raise the level of trust that victims have when opening malicious email attachments/links.
The target of the malicious email in this case is an employee at PC Pursuit. This company (which dissolved in 2018) protected digital assets by preventing people from logging into computers unless they were physically in the building. Specifically, the attackers were targeting the founder of the company. It is unclear if the founder is still using this email address since the company has closed, but pcpursuit.com is not an active website at this time.
As is the case with the majority of malicious emails, this email uses a generic “Dear Valued Customer” greeting. The email signature is generic as well – “Credit and Collections Dept” whereas most professional email signatures contain the specific name of the email sender (which would be Dante Parker in this case). The email claims that there is an overdue bill that needs to be paid which creates a sense of urgency. Interestingly, the email also provides a bank account to transfer money to, which is unique.
The malicious attachment “MSC printouts of outstanding as of 73155_12_09_2020.xlsm” contains TrojanDownloader:O97M/Dridex.DR!MTB malware. This malware is part of the Dridex family of malware. This banking trojan first appeared in 2011 but analysts have seen an increase in the use of this malware over the past year. Dridex communicates with a command & control (C2) server, sends information about the infected host, and can also download and execute additional modules.
Fraudulent emails designed to make recipients hand over sensitive information, extort money or trigger malware installation on shore-based or vessel IT networks remains one of the biggest day-to-day cyber threats facing the maritime industry
says Dryad.
These threats often carry a financial liability to one or all those involved in the maritime transportation supply chain.
Preventative cyber protection offers a strong first-line defence by preventing deceptive messages from ever reaching staff inboxes, but malicious hackers are developing new techniques to evade current detection daily.
In addition, recent studies suggest that cyber-criminals are researching their targets and tailoring emails for staff in specific roles.
Another tactic is to spoof emails from the chief executive or other high-ranking maritime contemporaries in the hope staff lower down the supply chain will drop their awareness and follow the spoofed email obediently.
