BlackMatter Ransomware Attacks on Agriculture, Turla, and Epik: Cybersecurity News for the Week of 09/20/21

Published 9/30/21, 9:30am

In this week’s cybersecurity news recap, we provide an overview of BlackMatter and their multiple attacks on the agricultural sector, explore some of the unintended consequences of the Epik breach, and examine the Turla hacking group’s new attacks against the United States.

• BlackMatter ransomware attacks on agriculture may cause food shortages
• Epik breach includes 15 million email addresses belonging to unaffiliated individuals
• APT-group Turla using newly discovered backdoor in attacks against the U.S.

Final Words

With the autumnal equinox just passed and grocery store fronts grandly exhibiting hay bale displays of perfectly round and ready-for-carving pumpkins, the BlackMatter attacks on the agricultural sector arrived just as people are shifting gears to celebrate the bounty of the harvest in the United States. 

Agricultural entities play a vital role in the U.S. food supply chain. With supply chains already stressed by Covid, shipping problems, and weather impacts, these agricultural attacks could not have come at a worse time. While the size of these attacks represents only a small portion of the country’s fall harvest, the incidents arrived on the heels of the recent attack on JBS Meats, the world’s largest meat producer, suggesting that ransomware criminals view the food and agricultural sector as fair game, with the potential for more attacks.

Equally concerning is that despite public warnings by the FBI in early September of pending attacks specifically on the agricultural and food sector, reports suggest that hundreds of credentials from at least one of the victims were available on the dark web and password reuse was common among staff.

With Cybersecurity Awareness Month just around the corner, there is no better time than now to remind organizations that cybersecurity is not a spectator sport, nor is any company ‘safe’ from attack. Good security begins with the basics, such as frequent password resets and the use of multifactor authentication. Proactive cybersecurity also includes other crucial defensive tools and solutions, such as network security, email security, and endpoint security. 

Remember, you get out of cybersecurity what you put into it.