Pierluigi Paganini
January 30, 2024
Resecurity conducted a thorough scan of the Dark Web and identified over 1,572 compromised customers of RIPE, Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), and the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center (LACNIC), resulting from infostealer infections. This figure also includes historical records and new artifacts identified in January 2024, following an analysis of Command and Control (C2) servers and underground marketplaces. Following a recent and highly disruptive cyberattack on telecom carrier Orange España, the cybersecurity community needs to rethink its approach to safeguarding the digital identity of staff involved in network engineering and IT infrastructure management.
Resecurity has notified victims whose credentials were compromised by infostealers like Azorult, Redline, Vidar, Lumma, and Taurus and exposed on the Dark Web. Based on the collected feedback, cybersecurity experts were able to build the following statistics:
As an example of compromised accounts, Resecurity outlined exposed access credentials belonging to a major data center and one of the largest vendors providing international-scale network telephony connectivity to governmental and national telecom providers in Africa. Other identified victims were associated with significant organizations, including:
Significantly, most of the network administrators (identified as compromised) managing networks utilized emails registered with free providers, including Gmail, GMX, and Yahoo. These details could be highly valuable to cyberespionage groups that are laser-focused on specific targets, such as network administrators and their circle of contacts. Acquiring information about their personal emails could lead to more sophisticated campaigns and enhance the likelihood of successful reconnaissance.
The actions of bad actors extend beyond simple credential theft. With access to network settings, they may alter existing configurations or introduce deceptive elements, potentially creating havoc on enterprise infrastructure. Such unauthorized modifications could lead to severe disruptions in service and security breaches, underscoring the critical need for heightened vigilance and robust security protocols in safeguarding digital assets.
The collected statistics may confirm the staff involved in network engineering and mission critical IT management operations can also be victimized by malicious code. Their accounts (when compromised) have the potential to act as “low-hanging fruit” for massive cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity experts at Resecurity have highlighted the escalating risks stemming from the Dark Web, where malicious actors may exploit compromised credentials of ISP/Telco engineers, Data-Center Technicians, Network Engineers, IT Infrastructure Managers, and Outsourcing companies that manage networks for their enterprise clients. As such, this employee category represents a high-value target for sophisticated threat actors. Highlighting the risk landscape, Resecurity’s Dark Web analysis identified multiple compromised credentials belonging to network engineers that could grant threat actors access to gateways like: enterprise identity and access management (IAM), virtualization systems, various cloud providers, and backup and disaster recovery systems.
Additional information about the investigation conducted by Resecurity are available here:
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