The following report covers the notable releases and major events for the week of February 21, 2024. Overview of "0-day and Hitlist Week -02-21-2024-"
In the digital comics community, February 21, 2024, was a "New Comic Book Day" (Wednesday), a standard day for new issues to hit the shelves.
0-day Releases: Included the newest weekly titles from major publishers like Marvel, DC, and Image. These are digital "rips" or official digital editions made available the moment they are released to the public.
Hitlist Releases: Included secondary books, back-catalog scans, and international releases (such as French or Manga titles) that were bundled with the week's new content to complete the weekly archive. Notable Comic Releases (Feb 21, 2024)
Based on the industry calendar for that week, several major titles reached fans:
Marvel Comics: Notable for continuing key story arcs in the X-Men and Spider-Man lines.
DC Comics: This week marked several high-profile releases following DC's permanent move back to Wednesday release dates for all titles. 0-day and Hitlist Week -02-21-2024-
Independent Titles: Image and Boom! Studios often feature heavily in the "Hitlist" section for their niche but dedicated followings.
Significant Cybersecurity Event: The Change Healthcare Attack
Coincidentally, February 21, 2024, is a landmark date in actual cybersecurity history. On this exact day, the Change Healthcare ransomware attack was launched by the BlackCat/ALPHV group.
Impact: It became the largest healthcare breach in U.S. history, affecting over 100 million people and disrupting 15 billion annual healthcare transactions.
Method: The attackers initially gained access through a Citrix portal account that lacked multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Financial Loss: Direct damages exceeded $800 million, with total costs estimated to surpass $2.4 billion. Summary of Vulnerabilities The following report covers the notable releases and
Around this week in February 2024, several true zero-day vulnerabilities (unpatched software flaws) were also being addressed by major vendors:
Microsoft: Addressed two zero-days in its February 2024 Patch Tuesday: CVE-2024-21351 (Windows SmartScreen bypass) and CVE-2024-21412 (Internet Shortcut files bypass).
ConnectWise: Attackers exploited two zero-days (CVE-2024-1708 and CVE-2024-1709) in ScreenConnect, a remote management tool.
The comic book release week of February 21, 2024, features key debuts including Ultimate Spider-Man #2, Predator: The Last Hunt #1, and Edge of Spider-Verse #1 from Marvel, alongside Batman #144 from DC and Spawn #350. Digital "0-day" releases and physical "hitlist" titles emphasize a significant lineup of new series and major, ongoing story arcs. For a complete list of releases, visit GoCollect. Predator: The Last Hunt
The upcoming comic, Predator: The Last Hunt, features the long-awaited matchup between the Super Predator and the Ultimate Hunter, Predator: The Last Hunt Alien: Black, White and Blood Treasury Edition
Citrix Bleed refused to die. During the week of February 21, 2024, threat actors shifted from session hijacking to session token replay against federated identity providers. The Statistic: Ransomware groups (LockBit 3
Published: February 26, 2024 | Threat Intelligence Level: Critical
The week of February 21, 2024, will not be remembered for a single, earth-shattering vulnerability. Instead, it will be etched into security logs as a "Perfect Storm" week—a convergence of legacy code churn, hyperscale vendor responses, and the ever-present "hitlist" of high-value targets being actively probed by state-sponsored actors and eCrime syndicates.
In the cybersecurity vernacular, a "Hitlist" refers to the specific set of high-risk vulnerabilities (usually CVSS 9.0+) that ransomware gangs and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) have automated to exploit. The week ending February 21, 2024, saw a dramatic rotation of that hitlist.
Here is the deep dive into the zero-day chaos and the hitlist evolution for the third week of February 2024.
The threat landscape for the week of February 21, 2024, was characterized by the active exploitation of a major infrastructure vulnerability in ConnectWise ScreenConnect and a surge in "Hitlist" targeting against edge devices. Threat actors have moved rapidly from proof-of-concept (PoC) release to mass exploitation, shortening the window for defenders to patch critical systems.
cmd.exe or powershell.exe spawning from wwww or tomcat processesHKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run