Be Cyber Safe | Issue 213
March 21, 2025
In this issue of Be Cyber Safe
March Madness is on us! I hope your bracket is doing better than mine. Here is what’s in this week’s Be Cyber Safe!
- Digital Defenders: How Authenticator Apps Fortify Your Data Privacy
- The Cyber Alert Level – GUARDED
- Medusa ransomware affiliate tried triple extortion scam – up from the usual double demand
- Attackers use CSS to create evasive phishing messages
- In Cyber Security Humor – Where are you?
- Commonwealth Sentinel expands our social media presence.
In the next few weeks, we will unveil an exciting opportunity to empower your organization to improve cyber security through training. Look for more information shortly!
Have a great weekend and #BeCyberSafe!
Digital Defenders: How Authenticator Apps Fortify Your Data Privacy
When it comes to protecting your profiles and credentials, using authenticator apps as part of your Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is the best way we currently have to stop hackers from brute-forcing their way into your accounts.
While there are different kinds of MFA, one of the most popular choices is to use an authentication app. These useful programs exist on different devices and produce unique, time-sensitive codes to log in after you enter your password.
Why Do We Need Authenticator Apps?
Weak passwords are the cause behind more than 80% of data breaches. People still use passwords like…
On March 19, the Cyber Threat Alert Level was evaluated and is remaining at Blue (Guarded) due to multiple vulnerabilities in Santesoft and Apache products
Cyber Security News Worth Reading!
FROM THE REGISTER
Medusa ransomware affiliate tried triple extortion scam – up from the usual double demand
A crook who distributes the Medusa ransomware tried to make a victim cough up three payments instead of the usual two, according to a government advisory on how to defend against the malware and the gangs who wield it.
The joint report issued on Wednesday by the FBI, CISA, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) reminds us that Medusa is a globe-spanning ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that recruits third-party affiliates to plant ransomware and negotiate with victims once it’s encrypted data.
Uncle Sam’s infosec agencies prefer to call those affiliates “Medusa actors.” They’re also sometimes labeled “initial access brokers” (IABs) because part of their job is to crack victims’ IT defenses so that systems can be infected.
FROM SECURITY AFFAIRS
Attackers use CSS to create evasive phishing messages
Cisco Talos observed threat actors abusing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to evade detection and track user behavior, raising security and privacy concerns, including potential fingerprinting.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to control the appearance and layout of web pages. It defines styles for HTML elements, including colors, fonts, spacing, and positioning. CSS helps separate content from design, allowing developers to create visually appealing and responsive websites. It also supports animations and themes and works alongside HTML and JavaScript to enhance web experiences.
“The features available in CSS allow attackers and spammers to track users’ actions and preferences, even though several features related to dynamic content (e.g., JavaScript) are restricted in email clients compared to web browsers. In what follows, we provide examples of CSS abuse we’ve identified in the wild for both evading detection and tracking users.” reads the advisory published by Cisco Talos. “These examples have all been observed from the second half of 2024 up until February 2025.”
Cyber Security Humor
