Royal Mail Group Hit By Massive GB Data Leak From Infostealer Log

A significant data breach has impacted Royal Mail Group, with 144GB of sensitive data leaked online by hacker “GHNA.” The stolen data includes customer personally identifiable information (PII) such as names and addresses, Zoom recordings, and Mailchimp lists. This incident follows a similar attack on Samsung Electronics, where 270,000 tickets were exposed by the same threat actor.

The breach has been linked to a third-party service provider, Spectos, and traces back to credentials stolen in a 2021 Infostealer infection of a Spectos employee. These credentials were later exploited by GHNA, highlighting the long-term risks of stolen credentials. Hudson Rock had identified these exposed credentials in their Cavalier database as early as 2021, underscoring the importance of proactive credential monitoring.

You Should Know: Preventing Infostealer Attacks

Infostealers are malware designed to harvest sensitive data, including login credentials, financial information, and system details. Below are key steps and commands to detect and mitigate such threats:

1. Detecting Infostealer Infections

Check for Suspicious Processes (Linux/Windows):

ps aux | grep -i "stealer|keylogger|credential"

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.ProcessName -match "stealer|keylogger|credential" }

Analyze Network Connections:

netstat -tulnp | grep -i "unknown"

Get-NetTCPConnection | Where-Object { $<em>.State -eq "Established" -and $</em>.RemoteAddress -notmatch "192.168|10.0" }

2. Securing Stolen Credentials

Scan for Exposed Credentials in Databases:
Use tools like Have I Been Pwned (https://haveibeenpwned.com/) or Hudson Rock’s Cavalier to check for leaked credentials.

Force Password Resets:

chage -l <username>  Check password expiry (Linux)

net user <username> /logonpasswordchg:yes  Force password change (Windows)

3. Mitigating Infostealer Risks

Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
```
google-authenticator  Linux MFA setup
```
Use Microsoft Authenticator for Windows environments.

Monitor for Unusual Logins:

last -i | grep -v "192.168|10.0"  Check remote logins (Linux)

Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName='Security'; ID=4624,4625} | Select-Object -First 20

4. Removing Malware Persistence

Check Cron Jobs (Linux):
```
crontab -l
```

Scan Windows Startup Entries:

Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand | Select-Object Name, Command, Location

What Undercode Say

Infostealer attacks remain a critical threat due to credential reuse and delayed detection. Organizations must:
– Regularly audit credentials in breach databases.
– Enforce MFA and password rotations.
– Monitor endpoints for unusual activity.
– Isolate and analyze infected systems immediately.