From: Microsoft Security Office <admin@ponyrider.com>
\nFrom: Benedict Brown \/ Microsoft Security Office <nacho@szczecin.eu>
\nFrom: Benedict Brown, Microsoft Security Office <sandrab@veco.ru><\/p>\n
They are using email addresses and subjects that will scare or entice a user to read the email and open the attachment. A very high proportion are being targeted at small and medium size businesses, with the hope of getting a better response than they do from consumers.<\/p>\n
Some subjects seen so far in this malspam run include:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Blocking of Bank Accounts and Cards<\/li>\n
- Urgent Info Regarding Your Bank Assets<\/li>\n
- Your Banking Assets Are Blocked<\/li>\n
- Crucial Information \u2013 Block<\/li>\n
- Bank Assets Blocked<\/li>\n
- Please Note \u2013 Urgent<\/li>\n
- Critical Info \u2013 Assets Blocked<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Microsoft have not been hacked or had their email or other servers compromised. They are not sending the emails to you.<\/p>\n
The email looks like:<\/p>\n
From<\/strong>: Benedict Brown <chriswigannewton@vkharkov.ru><\/p>\n
Date:<\/strong> Sun 08\/01\/2021 20:25<\/p>\n
Subject<\/strong>: Urgent Info Regarding Your Bank Assets<\/p>\n
Attachment:<\/strong> link in email body to download word doc<\/p>\n
Body content:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Greetings!<\/em><\/p>\n
It is Benedict Brown representing Microsoft Security Office. The primary<\/em><\/p>\n
function of my Department is to control online activity of users, track<\/em><\/p>\n
data packages exchange, and validate requests sent from user devices. We<\/em><\/p>\n
are working on making Internet yet more secure and more productive. There<\/em><\/p>\n
and then, we have to keep an eye on malicious software distributed on the<\/em><\/p>\n
Internet, and stay on guard of the Network protecting it from any<\/em><\/p>\n
suspicious operations. Also, we analyze bank transactions processed through<\/em><\/p>\n
the online-banking facilities. Nowadays, most of malware is being engaged<\/em><\/p>\n
in operations of this kind. My personal work function is to contact and<\/em><\/p>\n
notify Internet users using their personal devices to process bank<\/em><\/p>\n
transactions on the Internet through online accounts. That is why, I am<\/em><\/p>\n
contacting you in such case. I am afraid there is an unwanted news. Our<\/em><\/p>\n
automated systems have discovered suspicious requests and data packages<\/em><\/p>\n
from your address when validating and processing operations made with your<\/em><\/p>\n
checking accounts and cards.<\/em><\/p>\n
What is that? Maybe your computer is infected with a virus or something<\/em><\/p>\n
that exploits the device when processing banking operations. It may cause<\/em><\/p>\n
truly bad consequences for your counteragents and even the security system<\/em><\/p>\n
of the bank you are communicating with. Our office is contracting with most<\/em><\/p>\n
banks all over the world, so we are entitled to follow security issues<\/em><\/p>\n
pertaining to transactions and other actions performed toward banking<\/em><\/p>\n
software and facilities. In your case, as I have mentioned, we have<\/em><\/p>\n
discovered the flow of suspicious data. This is the topical security<\/em><\/p>\n
problem that must be solved as soon as possible. That is why, we have to<\/em><\/p>\n
temporarily block your checking accounts and cards attached to them. What<\/em><\/p>\n
to do now? Surely, we care of your convenience and productivity. Thus, we<\/em><\/p>\n
have prepared the full report for you containing all relevant information<\/em><\/p>\n
concerning abovementioned suspicious data, and also the set of security<\/em><\/p>\n
tips for further application in order to unblock your assets.<\/em><\/p>\n
The report may be downloaded from our official server here:<\/em><\/p>\n
http:\/\/mallsofjeddah.com\/Microsoft.report.doc<\/em><\/p>\n
Please look into it at the earliest possible time. This is crucial<\/em><\/p>\n
information that may assist you. Unless, you will have your assets \u2013 cards<\/em><\/p>\n
and checking accounts \u2013 permanently blocked in 5 days after informing you<\/em><\/p>\n
by sending this letter. Our duty is to support you, so please follow the<\/em><\/p>\n
recommendations in the file and defend your assets from malicious data and<\/em><\/p>\n
blocking.<\/em><\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n
Best Regards,<\/em><\/p>\n
Benedict Brown,<\/em><\/p>\n
Microsoft Security Office<\/em><\/p>\n
Sites listed to be hosting the word doc included in body of email :<\/p>\n
8 January 2021 : Microsoft.report.doc Current Virus total detections<\/a>: Payload Security<\/a> shows a download from www.endclothing.cu.cc\/nn.exe which is renamed by the script to WwZzDSAfka.exe ( VirusTotal<\/a>) it also contacts loads of other sites, but I can\u2019t quite work out what it is doing. Update: I am informed that it downloads a neutrino bot which in turn downloads August password stealer amongst others. This VirusTotal<\/a> report from a few days ago gives information in the comments section<\/p>\n
Previous campaigns over the last few weeks have delivered numerous different download sites and malware versions. There are frequently 5 or 6 and even up to 150 download locations on some days, sometimes delivering the exactly same malware from all locations and sometimes slightly different malware versions. Dridex \/Locky does update at frequent intervals during the day, sometimes as quickly as every hour, so you might get a different version of these nasty Ransomware or Banking password stealer Trojans.<\/p>\n
All the alleged senders, companies, names of employees, phone numbers, amounts, reference numbers etc. mentioned in the emails are all innocent and are just picked at random. Some of these companies will exist and some won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t try to respond by phone or email, all you will do is end up with an innocent person or company who have had their details spoofed and picked at random from a long list that the bad guys have previously found . The bad guys choose companies, Government departments and other organisations with subjects that are designed to entice you or alarm you into blindly opening the attachment or clicking the link in the email to see what is happening.<\/p>\n
This email attachment contains what appears to be a genuine word doc or Excel XLS spreadsheet with either a macro script or an embedded OLE object that when run will infect you.<\/p>\n
Modern versions of Microsoft office, that is Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and Office 365 should be automatically set to higher security to protect you.<\/p>\n
By default protected view<\/a> is enabled and macros are disabled, UNLESS you or your company have enabled them. If protected view<\/a> mode is turned off and macros are enabled then opening this malicious word document will infect you, and simply previewing it in windows explorer or your email client might well be enough to infect you. Definitely DO NOT follow the advice they give to enable macros or enable editing to see the content.<\/p>\n
Most of these malicious word documents either appear to be totally blank or look something like these images when opened in protected view<\/a> mode, which should be the default in Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and 365. Some versions pretend to have a digital RSA key and say you need to enable editing and Macros to see the content. Do NOT enable Macros or editing under any circumstances.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/myonlinesecurity.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/New-Macro-malware-instructions.png\")
<\/p>\nWhat Can Be Infected By This<\/strong><\/h3>\n
At this time, these malicious macros only infect windows computers. They do not affect a Mac, IPhone, IPad, Blackberry, Windows phone or Android phone.<\/p>\n
The malicious word or excel file can open on any device with an office program installed, and potentially the macro will run on Windows or Mac or any other device with Microsoft Office installed. BUT the downloaded malware that the macro tries to download is windows specific, so will not harm, install or infect any other computer except a windows computer. You will not be infected if you do not have macros enabled in Excel or Word. These Macros do not run in \u201cOffice Online<\/a>\u201d Open Office, Libre Office, Word Perfect or any other office program that can read Word or Excel files.<\/p>\n
Please read our How to protect yourselves page<\/a> for simple, sensible advice on how to avoid being infected by this sort of socially engineered malware. Also please read our post about word macro malware and how to avoid being infected by them<\/p>\n
Be very careful with email attachments. All of these emails use Social engineering<\/a> tricks to persuade you to open the attachments that come with the email. It might be a simple message saying \u201clook at this picture of me I took last night\u201d that appears to come from a friend. It might be a scare ware message that will make you open the attachment to see what you are accused of doing.<\/p>\n
Frequently it is more targeted at somebody ( small companies etc.) who regularly receive PDF attachments or Word .doc attachments or any other common file that you use every day, for example an invoice addressed to sales@victimcompany.com.<\/p>\n
The basic rule is NEVER open any attachment to an email, unless you are expecting it. Now that is very easy to say but quite hard to put into practice, because we all get emails with files attached to them. Our friends and family love to send us pictures of them doing silly things, or even cute pictures of the children or pets. Many of us routinely get Word, Excel or PowerPoint attachments in the course of work or from companies that we already have a relationship with.<\/p>\n
Never just blindly click on the file in your email program. Always save the file to your downloads folder, so you can check it first. A lot of malicious files that are attached to emails will have a faked extension. That is the 3 letters at the end of the file name.<\/p>\n