Number: AL20-016
Date: 6 May 2020
AUDIENCE
This Alert is intended for IT professionals and managers of notified organizations.
PURPOSE
An Alert is used to raise awareness of a recently identified cyber threat that may impact cyber information assets, and to provide additional detection and mitigation advice to recipients. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security ("Cyber Centre") is also available to provide additional assistance regarding the content of this Alert to recipients as requested.
ASSESSMENT
On 5 May 2020 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) produced a joint alert highlighting the continued efforts of advanced persistent threat (APT) groups to target organizations involved in the response to COVID-19. The Cyber Centre would like to highlight the alert, as it provides important information to system owners and operators responsible for defending their systems and networks from cyber threats. Of note is the alert’s emphasis on APT groups’ use of password spraying in their attempts to infiltrate organizations. The Cyber Centre would like to underline the importance of general security best practices, particularly that of maintaining software applications to the latest patch level. Please refer to the references section, below, for more information related to the reported activity. Should organizations identify similar activity to that described in the referenced Alerts, recipients are encouraged to contact the Cyber Centre by email (contact@cyber.gc.ca) or by telephone (1-833-CYBER-88 or 1-833-292-3788).
REFERENCES
CISA and NCSC joint alert (AA20-126A): https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/AA20126A
Cyber threats to Canadian health organizations (AL20-008 UPDATE 1): https://cyber.gc.ca/en/alerts/cyber-threats-canadian-health-organizations
Active exploitation of VPN vulnerabilities (AL19-016 UPDATE 1): https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/alerts/active-exploitation-vpn-vulnerabilities-0
NOTE TO READERS
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) operates as part of the Communications Security Establishment. We are Canada's national authority on cyber security and we lead the government's response to cyber security events. As Canada's national computer security incident response team, the Cyber Centre works in close collaboration with government departments, critical infrastructure, Canadian businesses and international partners to prepare for, respond to, mitigate, and recover from cyber events. We do this by providing authoritative advice and support, and coordinating information sharing and incident response. The Cyber Centre is outward-facing, welcoming partnerships that help build a stronger, more resilient cyber space in Canada.