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Before yesterdaySecurity

Concentric AI Raises Series A Funding Led by Ballistic Ventures to Autonomously Secure Business-Critical Data

Round of $14.5M to support team of AI experts and cybersecurity leaders targeting overshared data with AI-based solutions for data access governance and loss prevention.
  • May 11th 2022 at 17:06

Breaking Down the Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act

By Charles Horton, Chief Operating Officer, NetSPI
New federal cybersecurity rules will set timelines for critical infrastructure sector organizations — those in chemical, manufacturing, healthcare, defense contracting, energy, financial, nuclear, or transportation — to report ransomware payments and cyberattacks to CISA. All parties have to comply for it to work and help protect assets.

  • May 11th 2022 at 17:00

Quantum Ransomware Strikes Quickly, How to Prepare and Recover

NYC-area cybersecurity expert shares the anatomy of a Quantum Ransomware attack and how to prevent, detect and recover from a ransomware attack, in a new article from eMazzanti Technologies.
  • May 11th 2022 at 16:54

Material Security Reaches $1.1 Billion Valuation for ‘Zero Trust’ Security on Microsoft and Google Email

Founders Fund leads $100 million Series-C financing, gaining the email security startup unicorn status two years after its launch.
  • May 11th 2022 at 16:09

SpyCloud Report: Fortune 1000 Employees Pose Elevated Cyber Risk to Companies

Analysis finds 687 million exposed credentials and personally identifiable information (PII) among Fortune 1000 employees, and a 64% password reuse rate.
  • May 11th 2022 at 15:42

Cyber-Espionage Attack Drops Post-Exploit Malware Framework on Microsoft Exchange Servers

By Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
IceApple's 18 separate modules include those for data exfiltration, credential harvesting, and file and directory deletion, CrowdStrike warns.

  • May 11th 2022 at 14:30

The Danger of Online Data Brokers

By Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder & CEO, BlackCloak
Enterprises should consider online data brokers as part of their risk exposure analysis if they don't already do so.

  • May 11th 2022 at 14:00

Vanity URLs Could Be Spoofed for Social Engineering Attacks

By Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
Attackers could abuse the vanity subdomains of popular cloud services such as Box.com, Google, and Zoom to mask attacks in phishing campaigns.

  • May 11th 2022 at 13:00

Novel Nerbian RAT Lurks Behind Faked COVID Safety Emails

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Malicious emails with macro-enabled Word documents are spreading a never-before-seen remote-access Trojan, researchers say.

  • May 11th 2022 at 10:17

What to Patch Now: Actively Exploited Windows Zero-Day Threatens Domain Controllers

By Tara Seals, Managing Editor, News, Dark Reading
Microsoft's May 2022 Patch Tuesday contains several bugs in ubiquitous software that could affect millions of machines, researchers warn.

  • May 10th 2022 at 22:35

US Pledges to Help Ukraine Keep the Internet and Lights On

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
US State Department outlines coordinated government effort to provide Ukraine with cybersecurity intelligence, expertise, and resources amid invasion.

  • May 10th 2022 at 21:37

Lincoln College Set to Close After Crippling Cyberattack

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
COVID-19 and a December 2021 cyberattack combined to put the future of Abraham Lincoln's namesake college in peril.

  • May 10th 2022 at 17:48

Colonial Pipeline facing $1,000,000 fine for poor recovery plans

By Paul Ducklin
How good is your cybersecurity? Are you making the same mistakes as lots of other people? Here's some real-life advice...

Cybercriminals Are Increasingly Exploiting Vulnerabilities in Windows Print Spooler

Kaspersky researchers discovered that cybercriminals made approximately 65,000 attacks between July 2021 and April 2022.
  • May 10th 2022 at 16:21

Arctic Wolf Launches Arctic Wolf Labs Focused on Security Operations Research and Intelligence Reporting

New research-focused division focused on advancing innovation in the field of security operations.
  • May 10th 2022 at 15:41

5-Buck DCRat Malware Foretells a Worrying Cyber Future

By Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
The Dark Crystal remote access Trojan (aka DCRat) breaks a few stereotypes, with coding done by a solo developer, using an obscure Web language and offering it at a frighteningly low price.

  • May 10th 2022 at 15:37

Onapsis Announces New Offering to Jumpstart Security for SAP Customers

Company delivers new vulnerability management offering to help resource-constrained organizations combat increasing attacks on mission-critical SAP applications .
  • May 10th 2022 at 15:36

Mastering the New CISO Playbook

By Chaim Mazal, Senior VP of Technology and CISO, Kandji
How can you safeguard your organization amid global conflict and uncertainty?

  • May 10th 2022 at 14:00

How to Check If Your F5 BIG-IP Device Is Vulnerable

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
This Tech Tip walks network administrators through the steps to address the latest critical remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2022-1388) in F5's BIG-IP management interface.

  • May 9th 2022 at 23:35

Joker, Other Fleeceware Surges Back Into Google Play

By Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
The infamous Joker threat is back in Google Play, along with other Trojanized mobile apps that secretly sign Android users up for paid subscription services.

  • May 9th 2022 at 22:19

Costa Rica Declares State of Emergency Under Sustained Conti Cyberattacks

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Conti's ransomware attack cripples Costa Rica's Treasury, sparking the US to offer a $15M bounty on the group.

  • May 9th 2022 at 21:09

5 Tips to Protect Your Career Against a Narcissist

By Joshua Goldfarb, Fraud Solutions Architect - EMEA and APCJ, F5
When you find yourself the target of a narcissist, familiarize yourself with their tactics and learn how to survive.

  • May 9th 2022 at 20:00

NFTs Emerge as the Next Enterprise Attack Vector

By Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
Cybersecurity has to be a top priority as enterprises begin incorporating the use of nonfungible tokens into their business strategies, brand-awareness campaigns, and employee-communication efforts, experts say.

  • May 9th 2022 at 19:04

Deloitte Launches Expanded Cloud Security Management Platform

The CSM by Deloitte platform includes cloud security policy orchestration, cyber predictive analytics, attack surface management, and cyber cloud managed services.
  • May 9th 2022 at 17:27

RubyGems supply chain rip-and-replace bug fixed – check your logs!

By Paul Ducklin
Imagine if you could assume the identity of, say, Franklin Delano Roosevelt simply by showing up and calling yourself "Frank".

ruby-1200

Security Stuff Happens: Where Do You Go From Here?

By Tyler Farrar, CISO, Exabeam
Despite what it may feel like when you're in the trenches after a security incident, the world doesn't stop moving. (Part 3 of a series.)

  • May 9th 2022 at 14:00

Post-Quantum Cryptography Set to Replace RSA, ECC

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
In the next 10 years, public-key encryption needs to be replaced by post-quantum techniques that can stand up to the new challenges.

  • May 6th 2022 at 21:10

Ikea Canada Breach Exposes 95K Customer Records

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
An unauthorized employee accessed Ikea's customer database, but it's unclear what the intention was.

  • May 6th 2022 at 19:42

What We've Learned in the 12 Months Since the Colonial Pipeline Attack

By Sue Poremba, Contributing Writer
The attack may have been "a major wake-up call" about the need for greater resilience in IT environments, but have security teams hit the snooze bar one too many times?

  • May 6th 2022 at 19:27

Scammer Infects His Own Machine With Spyware, Reveals True Identity

By Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
An operational slip-up led security researchers to an attacker associated with Nigerian letter scams and malware distribution, after he infected himself with Agent Tesla.

  • May 6th 2022 at 19:25

White House Moves to Shore Up US Post-Quantum Cryptography Posture

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Biden's executive order pushes new NIST quantum-cryptography standards and directs federal government to move toward quantum-resistant cybersecurity.

  • May 6th 2022 at 18:32

AT&T Expands Access to Advanced Secure Edge and Remote Workforce Capabilities

AT&T SASE with Cisco Meraki offers fully integrated network and security tools for convenient, high-performing, and protected access from anywhere
  • May 6th 2022 at 17:39

You didn’t leave enough space between ROSE and AND, and AND and CROWN

By Paul Ducklin
What weird Google Docs bug connects the words THEREFORE, AND, SECONDLY, WHY, BUT and BESIDES?

Passwords: Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words?

By Fahmida Y. Rashid, Managing Editor, Features, Dark Reading
For most of us, passwords are the most visible security control we deal with on a regular basis, but we are not very good at it.

  • May 6th 2022 at 14:46

Colonial Pipeline 1 Year Later: What Has Yet to Change?

By Mariano Nunez, CEO & Co-Founder, Onapsis
The incident was a devastating attack, but it exposed gaps in cybersecurity postures that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

  • May 6th 2022 at 14:00

Microsoft, Apple, and Google Promise to Expand Passwordless Features

By Fahmida Y. Rashid, Managing Editor, Features, Dark Reading
The passwordless future just became closer to reality, as Microsoft, Apple, and Google pledge to make the standard possible across operating systems and browsers.

  • May 5th 2022 at 22:08

Heroku: Cyberattacker Used Stolen OAuth Tokens to Steal Customer Account Credentials

By Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
The same attack that allowed a threat actor to steal data from private Heroku GitHub repositories also resulted in the compromise of customer credentials, the company now says.

  • May 5th 2022 at 21:21

Crypto Scammers Exploit: Elon Musk Speaks on Cryptocurrency

By McAfee Labs

By Oliver Devane 

Editors note: In the past 24 hours (from time of publication)  McAfee has identified 15 more scam sites bringing the total to 26. The combined value of the wallets shared on these sites is over $1,300,000 which is an increase of roughly $1,000,000 since this blog was last published. This highlights the scale of this current scam campaign. The table within this blog has been updated to include the new sites and crypto-wallets.

McAfee has identified several Youtube channels which were live-streaming a modified version of a live stream called ‘The B Word’ where Elon Musk, Cathie Wood, and Jack Dorsey discuss various aspects of cryptocurrency.  

The modified live streams make the original video smaller and put a frame around it advertising malicious sites that it claims will double the amount of cryptocurrency you send them. As the topic of the video is on cryptocurrency it adds some legitimacy to the websites being advertised.  

The original video is shown below on the left and a modified one which includes a reference to a scam site is shown on the right.  

 

 

We identified several different streams occurring at a similar same time. The images of some are shown below: 

 

The YouTube streams advertised several sites which shared a similar theme. They claim to send cryptocurrency worth double the value which they’ve received. For example, if you send 1BTC you will receive 2BTC in return. One of the sites frequently asked questions (FAQ) is shown below: 

Here are some more examples of the scam sites we discovered: 

The sites attempt to trick the visitors into thinking that others are sending cryptocurrency to it by showing a table with recent transactions. This is fake and is generated by JavaScript which creates random crypto wallets and amounts and then adds these to the table. 

The wallets associated with the malicious sites have received a large number of transactions with a combined value of $280,000 as of 5 PM UTC on the 5th of May 2022 

Scam Site  Crypto Type  Wallet  Value as on 5PM UTC 5th May 2022 
22ark-invest[.]org  ETH  0x820a78D8e0518fcE090A9D16297924dB7941FD4f  $25,726.46 
22ark-invest[.]org  BTC  1Q3r1TzwCwQbd1dZzVM9mdFKPALFNmt2WE  $29,863.78 
2xEther[.]com  ETH  0x5081d1eC9a1624711061C75dB9438f207823E694  $2,748.50 
2x-musk[.]net  ETH  0x18E860308309f2Ab23b5ab861087cBd0b65d250A  $10,409.13 
2x-musk[.]net  BTC  17XfgcHCfpyYMFdtAWYX2QcksA77GnbHN9  $4,779.47 
arkinvest22[.]net  ETH  0x2605dF183743587594A3DBC5D99F12BB4F19ac74  $11,810.57 
arkinvest22[.]net  BTC  1GLRZZHK2fRrywVUEF83UkqafNV3GnBLha  $5,976.80 
doublecrypto22[.]com  ETH  0x12357A8e2e6B36dd6D98A2aed874D39c960eC174  $0.00 
doublecrypto22[.]com  BTC  1NKajgogVrRYQjJEQY2BcvZmGn4bXyEqdY  $0.00 
elonnew[.]com  ETH  0xAC9275b867DAb0650432429c73509A9d156922Dd  $0.00 
elonnew[.]com  BTC  1DU2H3dWXbUA9mKWuZjbqqHuGfed7JyqXu  $0.00 
elontoday[.]org  ETH  0xBD73d147970BcbccdDe3Dd9340827b679e70d9d4  $18,442.96 
elontoday[.]org  BTC  bc1qas66cgckep3lrkdrav7gy8xvn7cg4fh4d7gmw5  $0.00 
Teslabtc22[.]com  ETH  0x9B857C44C500eAf7fAfE9ed1af31523d84CB5bB0  $27,386.69 
Teslabtc22[.]com  BTC  18wJeJiu4MxDT2Ts8XJS665vsstiSv6CNK  $17,609.62 
tesla-eth[.]org  ETH  0x436F1f89c00f546bFEf42F8C8d964f1206140c64  $5,841.84 
tesla-eth[.]org  BTC  1CHRtrHVB74y8Za39X16qxPGZQ12JHG6TW  $132.22 
teslaswell[.]com  ETH  0x7007Fa3e7dB99686D337C87982a07Baf165a3C1D  $9.43 
teslaswell[.]com  BTC  bc1qdjma5kjqlf7l6fcug097s9mgukelmtdf6nm20v  $0.00 
twittergive[.]net  ETH  0xB8e257C18BbEC93A596438171e7E1E77d18671E5  $25,918.90 
twittergive[.]net  BTC  1EX3dG9GUNVxoz6yiPqqoYMQw6SwQUpa4T  $99,123.42 

Scammers have been using social media sites such as Twitter and Youtube to attempt to trick users into parting ways with their cryptocurrency for the past few years. McAfee urges its customers to be vigilant and if something sounds too good to be true then it is most likely not legitimate.  

Our customers are protected against the malicious sites detailed in this blog as they are blocked with McAfee Web Advisor  

Type  Value  Product  Blocked 
URL – Crypto Scam  twittergive[.]net  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  tesla-eth[.]org  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  22ark-invest[.]org  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  2xEther[.]com  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  Teslabtc22[.]com  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  elontoday[.]org  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  elonnew[.]com  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  teslaswell[.]com  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  2x-musk[.]net  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  doublecrypto22[.]com  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 
URL – Crypto Scam  arkinvest22[.]net  McAfee WebAdvisor  YES 

 

The post Crypto Scammers Exploit: Elon Musk Speaks on Cryptocurrency appeared first on McAfee Blog.

NIST Issues Guidance for Addressing Software Supply-Chain Risk

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Amid ongoing software supply-chain jitters, the US' top tech division is offering a finalized, comprehensive cybersecurity control framework for managing risk.

  • May 5th 2022 at 19:39

A Third of Americans Use Easy-to-Guess Pet Passwords

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Far too many turn to Jingles, Mittens, or Bella for password inspiration, given that these are some of the easiest passwords to crack.

  • May 5th 2022 at 19:27

Critical Cisco VM-Escape Bug Threatens Host Takeover

By Tara Seals, Managing Editor, News, Dark Reading
The vendor also disclosed two other security vulnerabilities that would allow remote, unauthenticated attackers to inject commands as root and snoop on sensitive user information.

  • May 5th 2022 at 18:31

FBI: Bank Losses From BEC Attacks Top $43B

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Law enforcement attributes a recent 65% spike in BEC attack losses to COVID-19 restrictions and the ongoing reality of a remote workforce.

  • May 5th 2022 at 18:03

Magnet Forensics Acquires Cybersecurity Software Firm Comae Technologies

The company will continue the development of Comae’s memory analysis platform and seek to incorporate its capabilities into existing solutions
  • May 5th 2022 at 17:28

Cisco Announces Cloud Controls Framework Is Now Available to Public

The Cisco CCF helps save resources by enabling organizations to achieve cloud security certifications more efficiently.
  • May 5th 2022 at 16:48

Multichannel Phishing Concerns Cybersecurity Leaders in 2022

With 80% of companies using cloud collaboration tools, cybercriminals are using multichannel phishing attacks to exploit security gaps in the hybrid work model.
  • May 5th 2022 at 16:21

1,000+ Attacks in 2 Years: How the SideWinder APT Sheds Its Skin

By Kelly Jackson Higgins, Editor-in-Chief
Researcher to reveal fresh details at Black Hat Asia on a tenacious cyber-espionage group attacking specific military, law enforcement, aviation, and other entities in Central and South Asia.

  • May 5th 2022 at 15:04

Docker Under Siege: Cybercriminals Compromise Honeypots to Ramp Up Attacks

By Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
Cloud containers are increasingly part of the cybercrime playbook, with researchers flagging ongoing scanning for Docker weaknesses along with rapid exploitation to infect systems with coin-miners, denial-of-service tools, and ransomware.

  • May 5th 2022 at 14:16

Why Security Matters Even More in Online Gaming

By Pascal Geenens, Director, Threat Intelligence, Radware
As the gaming sector booms, game publishers and gaming networks have been heavily targeted with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in the last year.

  • May 5th 2022 at 14:00

This World Password Day, Here’s How a Password Manager Can Simplify Your Life

By McAfee

Passwords: we entrust our most important data to these strings of letters, numbers, and special characters. So, we should make sure our passwords are words or phrases that we can easily remember, right? While this might be the most convenient option, there are more secure ways to digitally lock up your most sensitive personally identifiable information (PII). In celebration of World Password Day, we’re diving into how you can practice top-notch password security without compromising convenience.1  

The Nature of the Password 

Over the years, the password has remained a good first line of defense against cyberattacks. However, most of us tend to choose passwords based on memorable things from our lives, like family names or our pets’ birthdays. As it turns out, these details are easy for hackers to find on social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn. It’s also human nature to opt for convenience, and for many people that means setting easy-to-remember and easy-to-guess passwords. Plus, out of convenience, people often reuse passwords across multiple accounts and services. The downside is that if one account becomes compromised, all accounts become compromised. 

As an alternative to single-word passwords, many security experts advocate for passphrases over passwords. Passphrases are longer strings of words and characters that are easier for you to remember and harder for nefarious software and cybercriminals to guess than random strings of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. But, according to a study, the average American internet user was projected to have 300 online accounts by 2022.2 Can you imagine memorizing 300 different passphrases? We can all agree that sounds pretty unrealistic, so users tend to look for other solutions.  

Do You Save Your Password in a Browser?  

If the answer is yes, you may want to reconsider, as there are several risks associated with this practice. Although it’s convenient to have your browser save your passwords, they tend to do a lousy job of safeguarding your passwords, credit card numbers and personal details, such as your name and address. 

Let’s take Google Chrome, for example. Unlike most dedicated password managers, Chrome doesn’t use a primary password to encrypt all your credentials. (Note that some browsers do use one, and are therefore more secure, though you’ll still need to trust your browser provider.) This makes your Chrome-stored passwords relatively weak to “local” attacks. For example, if someone gets hold of—or guesses—your Windows password, they can then see all the logins stored in your browser’s password manager. 

Another consideration to note is that the security of all your accounts is tied to your browser account’s security. Let’s say you use the sync option to make your credentials available on all your devices. This means that logins are stored in the cloud and, though encrypted, if someone manages to hack into your browser account, they will gain access to all your logins.  

Keep Your Accounts Secure Without Compromising Convenience 

What can you do to help ensure your online profiles are kept safe without spending hours managing a complex list of passwords? Here are some easy ways to lock down your digital life without sacrificing convenience:  

Use a password manager to store unique, complex passwords for all your accounts 

A password manager is a software application that stores your passwords and other sensitive information. You can install it on computers or mobile devices and store all passwords in an encrypted file (or database). The best option is to use a password manager like McAfee True Key to store and create strong, random passwords for each site you visit. You’ll have one primary password that grants access to the rest of them—ideally, a long and random passphrase that you can remember. Once everything is set up, it should be seamless. As you log in to new sites, the password manager will offer to save your credentials for later use. 

Turn on two-factor authentication for every site that offers it 

One of the best ways to protect your accounts against unauthorized access is to turn on two-factor authentication for every site that offers it. Using two-factor authentication means a site will prompt you for a unique security code, in addition to your password, whenever you log in to an account for which you have enabled this feature.  

Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security by requiring another form of identification after you enter your username and password. Some services send a temporary passcode over a text message. Others require the user to approve login attempts from new devices using an app. If someone steals your device or gains access to your account details, they’re out of luck unless they also have access to this second piece of information. Two-factor authentication is available on a wide range of websites and can help keep your accounts safe from would-be hackers, so you should always use it when available.  

Use a virtual private network (VPN) when out and about 

A VPN, or virtual private network, encrypts your data and masks your online behavior from snooping third parties. When you go to a website, your computer connects to the server where the site is hosted, and that website can see a certain amount of data about you and your computer. With a VPN, you connect to a private server first, which scrambles your data and makes it more difficult for digital eavesdroppers to track what you’re doing online. 

VPNs can provide users with greater peace of mind when on the go. Say you’re traveling on a business trip and need to connect to the Wi-Fi network provided by your hotel. Shifty characters often lurk on unprotected, free networks (such as those provided by hotels, coffee shops, airports, etc.) to lift PII from people handling sensitive emails, making banking transactions, or shopping online.  encrypts your online activity with bank-grade encryption to protect your data from prying eyes. With a premium paid plan, you can protect up to five devices at once and enjoy unlimited data protection.  

The Best of Both Worlds: Security and Convenience 

With your growing number of accounts all requiring passwords—emails, social media profiles, online banking—it’s no wonder that people tend to reuse passwords across multiple sites. This may be convenient, but it creates significant security risks if a suspicious actor manages to obtain one of your passwords and attempts to use it elsewhere. That’s why having strong passwords matters. 

Do yourself a favor and opt for a dedicated password manager that will auto-save and store your credentials for you, so you only have one password to remember. Who says security and simplicity can’t coexist?  

The post This World Password Day, Here’s How a Password Manager Can Simplify Your Life appeared first on McAfee Blog.

World Password Day – the 1960s just called and gave you your passwords back

By Paul Ducklin
Yes, passwords are going away. No, it won't happen tomorrow. So it's still worth knowing the basics of picking proper passwords.

GitHub to Developers: Turn on 2FA or Lose Access

By Fahmida Y. Rashid, Managing Editor, Features, Dark Reading
All active GitHub users who contribute code will be required to enable at least one form of two-factor authentication by the end of 2023.

  • May 4th 2022 at 22:50

China-Backed Winnti APT Siphons Reams of US Trade Secrets in Sprawling Cyber-Espionage Attack

By Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer
Operation CuckooBees uncovered the state-sponsored group's sophisticated new tactics in a years-long campaign that hit more than 30 tech and manufacturing companies.

  • May 4th 2022 at 20:07

Microsoft Releases Defender for SMBs

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Microsoft's stand-alone version of Defender for SMBs promises to help SecOps teams automate detection, response, and recovery.

  • May 4th 2022 at 19:56

Q&A: How China Is Exporting Tech-Based Authoritarianism Across the World

By Julianne Pepitone, Contributing Writer
The US has to adapt its own policies to counter the push, warns former DocuSign CEO and Under Secretary of State Keith Krach.

  • May 4th 2022 at 19:36

Instagram Hack Results in $1 Million Loss in NFTs

By McAfee

Imagine – your favorite brand on Instagram just announced a giveaway. You’ll receive a free gift! All you have to do is provide your credit card information. Sounds easy, right? This is a brand you’ve followed and trusted for a while now. You’ve engaged with them and even purchased some of their items. The link comes directly from their official page, so you don’t think to question it. 

This is the same mindset that led to several Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs being stolen by a cybercriminal who had hacked into the company’s official Instagram account. Let’s dive into the details of this scam.  

Sneaking Into the Bored Ape Yacht Club 

Bored Ape Yacht Club, the NFT collection, disclosed through Twitter that their Instagram account had been hacked, and advised users not to click on any links or link their crypto wallets to anything. The hacker managed to log into the account and post a phishing link promoting an “airdrop,” or a free token giveaway, to users who connected their MetaMask wallets. Those who linked their wallets before BAYC’s warning lost a combined amount of over $1 million in NFTs. 

Despite the large price tag attached to NFTs, they are often held in smartphone wallets rather than more secure alternatives. MetaMask, the crypto wallet application, only allows NFT display through mobile devices and encourages users to use the smartphone app to manage them. While it may be a good method for display purposes, this limitation provides hackers with a new and effective way to easily steal from users’ mobile wallets. 

BAYC does not yet know how the hacker was able to gain access to their Instagram account, but they are following security best practices and actively working to contact the users affected. 

 N.F.T. – Not For Taking 

This scam was conducted through the official BAYC account, making it appear legitimate to BAYC’s followers. It is incredibly important to stay vigilant and know how to protect yourself and your assets from scams like these. Follow the tips below to steer clear of phishing scams and keep your digital assets safe:  

Ensure wallet security 

A seed phrase is the “open sesame” to your cryptocurrency wallet. The string of words is what grants you access to all your wallet’s assets. Ensuring that your seed phrase is stored away safely and not easily accessible by anyone but yourself is the first step to making sure your wallet is secure. 

Protect your privacy 

With all transactional and wallet data publicly available, scammers can pick and choose their targets based on who appears to own valuable assets. To protect your privacy and avoid being targeted, refrain from sharing your personal information on social media sites or using your NFT as a social media avatar. 

Look out for phishing scams 

Phishing scams targeting NFT collectors are becoming increasingly common. Be wary of any airdrops offering free tokens in exchange for your information or other “collectors” doing the same. 

Phishing scams tend to get more sophisticated over time, especially in cases like the Bored Ape Yacht Club where the malicious links are coming straight from the official account. It is always best to remain skeptical and cautious, but when in doubt, here are some extra tips to spot phishing scams: 

  • Is it written properly? A few spelling or grammar mistakes can be common, but many phishing messages will contain glaring errors that professional accounts or companies wouldn’t make. If you receive an error-filled message or promotion that requires giving your personal information, run in the other direction. 
  • Does the logo look right? Scammers will often steal the logo of whatever brand or company they’re impersonating to make the whole shtick look more legitimate. However, rarely do the logos look exactly how they’re supposed to. Pay close attention to any logo added in a message or link. Is the quality low? Is it crooked or off-center? Is it almost too small to completely make out? If yes, it’s most likely not the real deal. 
  • Is the URL legit? In any phishing scam, there will always be a link involved. To check if a link is actually legitimate, copy and paste the URL into a word processor where you can examine it for any odd spelling or grammatical errors. If you receive a strange link via email, hover over it with your mouse to see the link preview. If it looks suspicious, ignore and delete it. Even on mobile devices, you can press and hold the link with your finger to check out the legitimacy of the URL. 

As crypto and NFTs continue to take the world by storm, hackers and scammers are constantly on the prowl for ways to steal and deceive. No matter the source or how trustworthy it may seem at first glance, always exercise caution to keep yourself and your assets safe! 

The post Instagram Hack Results in $1 Million Loss in NFTs appeared first on McAfee Blog.

VHD Ransomware Variant Linked to North Korean Cyber Army

By Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading
Researchers use code, Bitcoin transactions to link ransomware attacks on banks to DPRK-sponsored actors.

  • May 4th 2022 at 17:08

Security Stuff Happens: What Will the Public Hear When You Say You've Been Breached?

By Tyler Farrar, CISO, Exabeam
A company's response to a breach is more important than almost anything else. But what constitutes a "good" response following a security incident? (Part 2 of a series.)

  • May 4th 2022 at 17:00

Android monthly updates are out – critical bugs found in critical places!

By Paul Ducklin
Android May 2022 updates are out - with some critical fixes in some critical places. Learn more...

AI for Cybersecurity Shimmers With Promise, but Challenges Abound

By Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer
Companies see AI-powered cybersecurity tools and systems as the future, but at present nearly 90% of them say they face significant hurdles in making use of them.

  • May 4th 2022 at 15:01
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