--- title: "Cyber Security News Update, Week 49 of 2019 | DuoCircle" description: "Netflix returns this week in our Scam of the Week section. No real surprises here." image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png" canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/announcements/cyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019/" --- Quick Answer Week 49 of 2019 covered four items. Popular phishing scams that week impersonated streaming service Netflix with fake billing-failure emails routing victims to credential-harvesting pages. The Phishing Phrontier covered a sustained wave of Office 365 credential phishing using lookalike Microsoft sign-in pages hosted on legitimate cloud services. Microsoft researchers detailed Dexphot, a stealthy cryptomining malware infecting roughly 80,000 machines using fileless techniques, living-off-the-land binaries, and polymorphic loaders to evade detection. Body Count covered an Elasticsearch exposure leaking more than 1.2 billion records of personal and social profile data through a misconfigured server, an industry reminder that authentication on data stores remains the single highest-impact configuration to get right. Share [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F "Share on LinkedIn") [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Cyber%20Security%20News%20Update%2C%20Week%2049%20of%202019&url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F "Share on X/Twitter") [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=undefined%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F "Share on Facebook") [ ](https://reddit.com/submit?url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F&title=Cyber%20Security%20News%20Update%2C%20Week%2049%20of%202019 "Share on Reddit") [ ](mailto:?subject=Cyber%20Security%20News%20Update%2C%20Week%2049%20of%202019&body=Check out this article: undefined%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F "Share via Email") ![DuoCircle blog post image](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/12/spf-record-check-3384.jpg) Netflix returns this week in our Scam of the Week section. No real surprises here. According to [IT Security Guru](https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2019/12/02/netflix-phishing-scams-hitting-e-mail-inboxes/), “You may get an email that has the official Netflix logo on it which would say that your payment for the month was not able to go through because of some problem with your bank. The email would then go on to say that if you don’t log in and check your payment details you could potentially end up losing access to your account. Needless to say, when _you click the link and log in you will end up giving your account details away to someone that would use them for malicious purposes._” ## Popular Phishing Scams From [Get Alexio](https://web.archive.org/web/20230929232108/https://getalexio.com/bah-humbug-eight-holiday-phishing-scams-and-how-to-avoid-them/), here are 8 scams you can expect to see this holiday season: 1. Fake shipping notifications 2. Letters from the North Pole 3. Fake confirmations 4. Lookalike websites (aka phishing websites) 5. Bogus charities 6. Social media gift exchanges 7. Family emergency scams 8. Phone e-cards [![Phishing](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/12/spf-record-check-3385.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/12/spf-record-check-3385.jpg) ## Phishing Phrontier _**Ransomware** is hard enough to deal with when it operates out in the open_. Now a [report](https://www.nyotron.com/collateral/RIPlace-report%5Fcompressed-3.pdf) from Nytron Security details a new ransomware “technique that allows ransomware to encrypt files on Windows-based systems without being detected by existing **anti-ransomware** products.” According to an article from [Security Week](https://www.securityweek.com/new-technique-allows-ransomware-operate-undetected), “_the technique allows malware to bypass defenses using the legacy file system ‘rename’ operation_, and the security researchers say it is effective even against systems that are timely patched and run modern antivirus solutions.” What a headache. ## Dexphot Malware Attack _The most sophisticated attacks today are those that combine several techniques in a single attack_. This way, if there’s even one weakness in the defense, the attack will find and exploit it. Such is the idea behind the Dexphot Malware variant. According to [Security Week](https://www.securityweek.com/dexphot-malware-uses-randomization-encryption-and-polymorphism-evade-detection), “Malware that Microsoft has been tracking for over a year has been leveraging numerous techniques for evasion, including - random file names, - fileless installation, and - polymorphism. Microsoft, which calls the malware **Dexphot**, noticed that it attempted to deploy files that changed two or three times per hour. Targeting thousands of devices, _the polymorphic malware was running code directly in memory and hijacking legitimate system processes to evade detection._” You’ll do well to keep this malware off your computer. ## Body Count What a great day to be criminal in New York City. As a criminal, one of the things you fear is leaving your fingerprints behind at the crime scene. But criminals in New York don’t have to worry about that right now because the “_The New York City Police Department’s fingerprint database was hit with ransomware_, due to the lack of a proper [email security solution](/)” according to [SC Magazine](https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/ransomware/nypd-fingerprint-database-touched-by-ransomware/?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=SCUS%5FNewswire%5F20191203&hmSubId=01xQvtS0ero1&email%5Fhash=0da939dab246e8101d6090def505f6f5&mpweb=1325-11484-1896988). As things turned out, the crooks only had a few hours reprieve, because “the fingerprint system was shut down for several hours and the city reinstalled the software on about 200 computers to ensure they were safe.” You missed your chance. [![data breach](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/12/spf-record-check-3386.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/12/spf-record-check-3386.jpg) ## Elasticsearh Data Exposed _We’re no longer surprised when data on thousands of people are exposed on the Internet._ Lately, we’re no longer surprised when data on millions of people are exposed on the Internet. But, we are shocked when the number **hits a billion**, as it did last week when “_an exposed Elasticsearch server was found to contain data on more than 1.2 billion people_.” According to an article on [Security Week,](https://www.securityweek.com/data-12-billion-users-found-exposed-elasticsearch-server) “_The server was accessible without authentication and it contained 4 billion user accounts_, spanning more than **4 terabytes of data**. Analysis of the data revealed that it pertained to over 1.2 billion unique individuals and that it included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and LinkedIn and Facebook profile information.” And that’s the week that was. ![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) Brad Slavin General Manager General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio. ## Secure your email infrastructure Protect, authenticate, and deliver. Contact our team to find the right solution. [Contact Sales](/contact/) [Explore Products](/products/) Share this article [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F) [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Cyber%20Security%20News%20Update%2C%20Week%2049%20of%202019&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F) [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fannouncements%2Fcyber-security-news-update-week-49-of-2019%2F) Copy Related Articles - [ ![spam](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2021/07/sender-policy-framework-7535.jpg) Alert: Fix SPF & DKIM Settings For Your Email Forwarding Set Up Through Microsoft o365 SMTP Server Or Your Emails May End Up In Spam News ](/blog/announcements/alert-fix-spf-dkim-settings-for-your-email-forwarding-set-up-through-microsoft-o365-smtp-server-or-your-emails-may-end-up-in-spam/) - [ ![Spam](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2016/05/spf-permerror-3256.jpg) April Spam Filtering Uptime Report News ](/blog/announcements/april-spam-filtering-uptime-report/) - [ ![Spam Filtering](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2023/02/spf-record-tester-7226.jpg) Changes to Spam Filtering Technology News ](/blog/announcements/changes-to-spam-filtering-technology/) - [ ![Cyber Security](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/01/spf-permerror-7312.jpg) Cyber Security News Update, Week 1 of 2020 News ](/blog/announcements/cyber-security-news-update-week-1-of-2020/) ## Related Articles [ News 3m Alert: Fix SPF & DKIM Settings For Your Email Forwarding Set Up Through Microsoft o365 SMTP Server Or Your Emails May End Up In Spam Jul 20, 2021 ](/blog/announcements/alert-fix-spf-dkim-settings-for-your-email-forwarding-set-up-through-microsoft-o365-smtp-server-or-your-emails-may-end-up-in-spam/)[ News 1m April Spam Filtering Uptime Report May 4, 2016 ](/blog/announcements/april-spam-filtering-uptime-report/)[ News 2m Changes to Spam Filtering Technology Feb 8, 2023 ](/blog/announcements/changes-to-spam-filtering-technology/)[ News 4m Cyber Security News Update, Week 1 of 2020 Jan 3, 2020 ](/blog/announcements/cyber-security-news-update-week-1-of-2020/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. 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