The Comedy of Errors That Let China-Backed Hackers Steal Microsoft’s Signing Key

After leaving many questions unanswered, Microsoft explains in a new postmortem the series of slipups that allowed attackers to steal and abuse a valuable cryptographic key.

Big Tech Has Failed To Police Russian Disinformation

Alert: Phishing Campaigns Deliver New SideTwist Backdoor and Agent Tesla Variant

The Iranian threat actor tracked as APT34 has been linked to a new phishing attack that leads to the deployment of a variant of a backdoor called SideTwist. “APT34 has a high level of attack technology, can design different intrusion methods for different types of targets, and has supply chain attack capability,” NSFOCUS Security Labs said in a report published last week. APT34, also known by

How China Demands Tech Firms Reveal Hackable Flaws in Their Products

Some foreign companies may be complying—potentially offering China’s spies hints for hacking their customers.

Generative AI’s Biggest Security Flaw Is Not Easy to Fix

Chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are vulnerable to indirect prompt injection attacks. Security researchers say the holes can be plugged—sort of.

Ukraine's CERT Thwarts APT28's Cyberattack on Critical Energy Infrastructure

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) on Tuesday said it thwarted a cyber attack against an unnamed critical energy infrastructure facility in the country. The intrusion, per the agency, started with a phishing email containing a link to a malicious ZIP archive that activates the infection chain. “Visiting the link will download a ZIP archive containing three JPG images (

New Python Variant of Chaes Malware Targets Banking and Logistics Industries

Banking and logistics industries are under the onslaught of a reworked variant of a malware called Chaes. "It has undergone major overhauls: from being rewritten entirely in Python, which resulted in lower detection rates by traditional defense systems, to a comprehensive redesign and an enhanced communication protocol," Morphisec said in a new detailed technical write-up shared with The Hacker

Way Too Vulnerable: Join this Webinar to Understand and Strengthen Identity Attack Surface

In today's digital age, it's not just about being online but how securely your organization operates online. Regardless of size or industry, every organization heavily depends on digital assets. The digital realm is where business takes place, from financial transactions to confidential data storage. While organizations have quickly adopted tools like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA),

Hackers Exploit MinIO Storage System Vulnerabilities to Compromise Servers

An unknown threat actor has been observed weaponizing high-severity security flaws in the MinIO high-performance object storage system to achieve unauthorized code execution on affected servers. Cybersecurity and incident response firm Security Joes said the intrusion leveraged a publicly available exploit chain to backdoor the MinIO instance. The comprises CVE-2023-28432 (CVSS score: 7.5) and 

Everything You Wanted to Know About AI Security but Were Afraid to Ask

There’s been a great deal of AI hype recently, but that doesn’t mean the robots are here to replace us. This article sets the record straight and explains how businesses should approach AI. From musing about self-driving cars to fearing AI bots that could destroy the world, there has been a great deal of AI hype in the past few years. AI has captured our imaginations, dreams, and occasionally,

2 Polish Men Arrested for Radio Hack That Disrupted Trains

Plus: A major FBI botnet takedown, new Sandworm malware, a cyberattack on two major scientific telescopes—and more.

Cybercrime To Cost Germany 206 Billion Euros In 2023, Survey Finds

VMConnect Campaign Linked To North Korea's Lazarus Group

Beware of MalDoc in PDF: A New Polyglot Attack Allowing Attackers to Evade Antivirus

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a new antivirus evasion technique that involves embedding a malicious Microsoft Word file into a PDF file. The sneaky method, dubbed MalDoc in PDF by JPCERT/CC, is said to have been employed in an in-the-wild attack in July 2023. "A file created with MalDoc in PDF can be opened in Word even though it has magic numbers and file structure of PDF,"

Threat Actors Targeting Microsoft SQL Servers to Deploy FreeWorld Ransomware

Threat actors are exploiting poorly secured Microsoft SQL (MS SQL) servers to deliver Cobalt Strike and a ransomware strain called FreeWorld. Cybersecurity firm Securonix, which has dubbed the campaign DB#JAMMER, said it stands out for the way the toolset and infrastructure is employed. “Some of these tools include enumeration software, RAT payloads, exploitation and credential stealing software

Five Eyes Report: New Russian Malware Targeting Ukrainian Military Android Devices

Stealthy APT Exposed: TTPs Spill Secrets Of Sophisticated Campaigns

Qakbot Botnet Brought Down In Major Global Operation Led By US

Classiscam Scam-as-a-Service Raked $64.5 Million During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Classiscam scam-as-a-service program has reaped the criminal actors $64.5 million in illicit earnings since its emergence in 2019. "Classiscam campaigns initially started out on classified sites, on which scammers placed fake advertisements and used social engineering techniques to convince users to pay for goods by transferring money to bank cards," Group-IB said in a new report. "Since

SapphireStealer Malware: A Gateway to Espionage and Ransomware Operations

An open-source .NET-based information stealer malware dubbed SapphireStealer is being used by multiple entities to enhance its capabilities and spawn their own bespoke variants. “Information-stealing malware like SapphireStealer can be used to obtain sensitive information, including corporate credentials, which are often resold to other threat actors who leverage the access for additional

Google Fixes Serious Security Flaws in Chrome and Android

Plus: Mozilla patches more than a dozen vulnerabilities in Firefox, and enterprise companies Ivanti, Cisco, and SAP roll out a slew of updates to get rid of some high-severity bugs.

Numbers Don't Lie: Exposing the Harsh Truths of Cyberattacks in New Report

How often do cyberattacks happen? How frequently do threat actors target businesses and governments around the world? The BlackBerry® Threat Research and Intelligence Team recently analyzed 90 days of real-world data to answer these questions. Full results are in the latest BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report, but read on for a teaser of several interesting cyber attack statistics.

Unmasking Trickbot, One of the World’s Top Cybercrime Gangs

A WIRED investigation into a cache of documents posted by an unknown figure lays bare the Trickbot ransomware gang’s secrets, including the identity of a central member.

Cybersecurity Experts Say The West Has Failed To Learn Lessons From Ukraine

Earth Estries' Espionage Campaign Targets Governments and Tech Titans Across Continents

A hacking outfit nicknamed Earth Estries has been attributed to a new, ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting government and technology industries based in the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany, and the U.S. "The threat actors behind Earth Estries are working with high-level resources and functioning with sophisticated skills and experience in cyber espionage and illicit

China-Linked BadBazaar Android Spyware Targeting Signal and Telegram Users

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered malicious Android apps for Signal and Telegram distributed via the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store that are engineered to deliver the BadBazaar spyware on infected devices. Slovakian company ESET attributed the campaign to a China-linked actor called GREF. "Most likely active since July 2020 and since July 2022, respectively, the campaigns

The Weird, Big-Money World of Cybercrime Writing Contests

The competitions, which are held on Russian-language cybercrime forums, offer prize money of up to $80,000 for the winners.

The Cheap Radio Hack That Disrupted Poland's Railway System

The sabotage of more than 20 trains in Poland by apparent supporters of Russia was carried out with a simple “radio-stop” command anyone could broadcast with $30 in equipment.

The Low-Stakes Race to Crack an Encrypted German U-Boat Message

A ramshackle team of American scientists scrambled to decode the Nazi cipher before the time ran out. Luckily, they had a secret weapon.

This Tool Lets Hackers Dox Almost Anyone in the US

The US Secret Service’s relationship with the Oath Keepers gets revealed, Tornado Cash cofounders get indicted, and a UK court says a teen is behind a Lapsus$ hacking spree.

Kroll Suffers Data Breach: Employee Falls Victim to SIM Swapping Attack

Risk and financial advisory solutions provider Kroll on Friday disclosed that one of its employees fell victim to a "highly sophisticated" SIM swapping attack. The incident, which took place on August 19, 2023, targeted the employee's T-Mobile account, the company said. "Specifically, T-Mobile, without any authority from or contact with Kroll or its employee, transferred that employee's phone

North Korean APT Hacks Internet Infrastructure Provider Via ManageEngine Flaw

Learn How Your Business Data Can Amplify Your AI/ML Threat Detection Capabilities

In today's digital landscape, your business data is more than just numbers—it's a powerhouse. Imagine leveraging this data not only for profit but also for enhanced AI and Machine Learning (ML) threat detection. For companies like Comcast, this isn't a dream. It's reality. Your business comprehends its risks, vulnerabilities, and the unique environment in which it operates. No generic,

Navigating Legacy Infrastructure: A CISO's Actionable Strategy for Success

Every company has some level of tech debt. Unless you’re a brand new start-up, you most likely have a patchwork of solutions that have been implemented throughout the years, often under various leadership teams with different priorities and goals. As those technologies age, they can leave your organization vulnerable to cyber threats. While replacing legacy technologies can be costly, those

Urgent FBI Warning: Barracuda Email Gateways Vulnerable Despite Recent Patches

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning that Barracuda Networks Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances patched against a recently disclosed critical flaw continue to be at risk of potential compromise from suspected Chinese hacking groups. It also deemed the fixes as "ineffective" and that it "continues to observe active intrusions and considers all affected Barracuda ESG

S3 Ep149: How many cryptographers does it take to change a light bulb?

Latest episode - listen now! Full transcript inside...

Tornado Cash Crypto Mixer Devs Charged With Money Laundering

Why The Chainsmokers Invest in—and Party With—Niche Cybersecurity Companies

Musician Alex Pall spoke with WIRED about his VC firm, the importance of raising cybersecurity awareness in a rapidly digitizing world, and his surprise that hackers know how to go hard.

WinRAR Security Flaw Exploited in Zero-Day Attacks to Target Traders

A recently patched security flaw in the popular WinRAR archiving software has been exploited as a zero-day since April 2023, new findings from Group-IB reveal. The vulnerability, cataloged as CVE-2023-38831, allows threat actors to spoof file extensions, thereby making it possible to launch malicious scripts contained within an archive that masquerades as seemingly innocuous image or text files.

Tornado Cash Founders Charged in Billion-Dollar Crypto Laundering Scandal

The U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) on Wednesday unsealed an indictment against two founders of the now-sanctioned Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer service, charging them with laundering more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds. Both the individuals, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and

North Korean Affiliates Suspected in $40M Cryptocurrency Heist, FBI Warns

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday warned that threat actors affiliated with North Korea may attempt to cash out stolen cryptocurrency worth more than $40 million. The law enforcement agency attributed the blockchain activity to an adversary the U.S. government tracks as TraderTraitor, which is also known by the name Jade Sleet. An investigation undertaken by the FBI found

Syrian Threat Actor EVLF Unmasked as Creator of CypherRAT and CraxsRAT Android Malware

A Syrian threat actor named EVLF has been outed as the creator of malware families CypherRAT and CraxsRAT. "These RATs are designed to allow an attacker to remotely perform real-time actions and control the victim device's camera, location, and microphone," Cybersecurity firm Cyfirma said in a report published last week. CypherRAT and CraxsRAT are said to be offered to other cybercriminals as

CISOs Tout SaaS Cybersecurity Confidence, But 79% Admit to SaaS Incidents, New Report Finds

A new State of SaaS Security Posture Management Report from SaaS cybersecurity provider AppOmni indicates that Cybersecurity, IT, and business leaders alike recognize SaaS cybersecurity as an increasingly important part of the cyber threat landscape. And at first glance, respondents appear generally optimistic about their SaaS cybersecurity. Over 600 IT, cybersecurity, and business leaders at

New Supply Chain Attack Hit Close to 100 Victims—and Clues Point to China

The hackers, who mostly targeted victims in Hong Kong, also hijacked Microsoft’s trust model to make their malware harder to detect.

New Variant of XLoader macOS Malware Disguised as 'OfficeNote' Productivity App

A new variant of an Apple macOS malware called XLoader has surfaced in the wild, masquerading its malicious features under the guise of an office productivity app called "OfficeNote." "The new version of XLoader is bundled inside a standard Apple disk image with the name OfficeNote.dmg," SentinelOne security researchers Dinesh Devadoss and Phil Stokes said in a Monday analysis. "The application

Interpol Arrests 14 Who Scammed $40m From Victims In Cyber Surge

HiatusRAT Malware Resurfaces: Taiwan Firms and U.S. Military Under Attack

The threat actors behind the HiatusRAT malware have returned from their hiatus with a new wave of reconnaissance and targeting activity aimed at Taiwan-based organizations and a U.S. military procurement system. Besides recompiling malware samples for different architectures, the artifacts are said to have been hosted on new virtual private servers (VPSs), Lumen Black Lotus Labs said in a report

Karma Catches Up to Global Phishing Service 16Shop

You’ve probably never heard of “16Shop,” but there’s a good chance someone using it has tried to phish you.

The international police organization INTERPOL said last week it had shuttered the notorious 16Shop, a popular phishing-as-a-service platform launched in 2017 that made it simple for even complete novices to conduct complex and convincing phishing scams. INTERPOL said authorities in Indonesia arrested the 21-year-old proprietor and one of his alleged facilitators, and that a third suspect was apprehended in Japan.

The INTERPOL statement says the platform sold hacking tools to compromise more than 70,000 users in 43 countries. Given how long 16Shop has been around and how many paying customers it enjoyed over the years, that number is almost certainly highly conservative.

Also, the sale of “hacking tools” doesn’t quite capture what 16Shop was all about: It was a fully automated phishing platform that gave its thousands of customers a series of brand-specific phishing kits to use, and provided the domain names needed to host the phishing pages and receive any stolen credentials.

Security experts investigating 16Shop found the service used an application programming interface (API) to manage its users, an innovation that allowed its proprietors to shut off access to customers who failed to pay a monthly fee, or for those attempting to copy or pirate the phishing kit.

16Shop also localized phishing pages in multiple languages, and the service would display relevant phishing content depending on the victim’s geolocation.

For example, in 2019 McAfee found that for targets in Japan, the 16Shop kit would also collect Web ID and Card Password, while US victims will be asked for their Social Security Number.

“Depending on location, 16Shop will also collect ID numbers (including Civil ID, National ID, and Citizen ID), passport numbers, social insurance numbers, sort codes, and credit limits,” McAfee wrote.

In addition, 16Shop employed various tricks to help its users’ phishing pages stay off the radar of security firms, including a local “blacklist” of Internet addresses tied to security companies, and a feature that allowed users to block entire Internet address ranges from accessing phishing pages.

The INTERPOL announcement does not name any of the suspects arrested in connection with the 16Shop investigation. However, a number of security firms — including Akamai, McAfee and ZeroFox, previously connected the service to a young Indonesian man named Riswanda Noor Saputra, who sold 16Shop under the hacker handle “Devilscream.”

According to the Indonesian security blog Cyberthreat.id, Saputra admitted being the administrator of 16Shop, but told the publication he handed the project off to others by early 2020.

Nevertheless, Cyberthreat reported that Devilscream was arrested by Indonesian police in late 2021 as part of a collaboration between INTERPOL and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Still, researchers who tracked 16Shop since its inception say Devilscream was not the original proprietor of the phishing platform, and he may not be the last.

RIZKY BUSINESS

It is not uncommon for cybercriminals to accidentally infect their own machines with password-stealing malware, and that is exactly what seems to have happened with one of the more recent administrators of 16Shop.

Constella Intelligence, a data breach and threat actor research platform, now allows users to cross-reference popular cybercrime websites and denizens of these forums with inadvertent malware infections by information-stealing trojans. A search in Constella on 16Shop’s domain name shows that in mid-2022, a key administrator of the phishing service infected their Microsoft Windows desktop computer with the Redline information stealer trojan — apparently by downloading a cracked (and secretly backdoored) copy of Adobe Photoshop.

Redline infections steal gobs of data from the victim machine, including a list of recent downloads, stored passwords and authentication cookies, as well as browser bookmarks and auto-fill data. Those records indicate the 16Shop admin used the nicknames “Rudi” and “Rizki/Rizky,” and maintained several Facebook profiles under these monikers.

It appears this user’s full name (or at least part of it) is Rizky Mauluna Sidik, and they are from Bandung in West Java, Indonesia. One of this user’s Facebook pages says Rizky is the chief executive officer and founder of an entity called BandungXploiter, whose Facebook page indicates it is a group focused mainly on hacking and defacing websites.

A LinkedIn profile for Rizky says he is a backend Web developer in Bandung who earned a bachelor’s degree in information technology in 2020. Mr. Rizky did not respond to requests for comment.

S3 Ep148: Remembering crypto heroes

Celebrating the true crypto bros. Listen now (full transcript available).

Malicious QR Codes Used In Phishing Attack Targeting US Energy Company

HHS Launches 'Digiheals' Project to Better Protect US Hospitals From Ransomware

An innovation agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services will fund research into better defenses for the US health care system’s digital infrastructure.

WoofLocker Toolkit Hides Malicious Codes in Images to Run Tech Support Scams

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed an updated version of an advanced fingerprinting and redirection toolkit called WoofLocker that's engineered to conduct tech support scams. The sophisticated traffic redirection scheme was first documented by Malwarebytes in January 2020, leveraging JavaScript embedded in compromised websites to perform anti-bot and web traffic filtering checks to serve

New Juniper Junos OS Flaws Expose Devices to Remote Attacks - Patch Now

Networking hardware company Juniper Networks has released an "out-of-cycle" security update to address multiple flaws in the J-Web component of Junos OS that could be combined to achieve remote code execution on susceptible installations. The four vulnerabilities have a cumulative CVSS rating of 9.8, making them Critical in severity. They affect all versions of Junos OS on SRX and EX Series. "By

14 Suspected Cybercriminals Arrested Across Africa in Coordinated Crackdown

A coordinated law enforcement operation across 25 African countries has led to the arrest of 14 suspected cybercriminals, INTERPOL announced Friday. The exercise, conducted in partnership with AFRIPOL, enabled investigators to identify 20,674 cyber networks that were linked to financial losses of more than $40 million. "The four-month Africa Cyber Surge II operation was launched in April 2023

Over 120,000 Computers Compromised by Info Stealers Linked to Users of Cybercrime Forums

A "staggering" 120,000 computers infected by stealer malware have credentials associated with cybercrime forums, many of them belonging to malicious actors. The findings come from Hudson Rock, which analyzed data collected from computers compromised between 2018 to 2023. "Hackers around the world infect computers opportunistically by promoting results for fake software or through YouTube

“Grab hold and give it a wiggle” – ATM card skimming is still a thing

The rise of tap-to-pay and chip-and-PIN hasn't rid the world of ATM card skimming criminals...

Federal Board Investigating Microsoft Email Hacks By Chinese Group

A Huge Scam Targeting Kids With Roblox and Fortnite 'Offers' Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

The wide-ranging scams, often disguised as game promotions, can all be linked back to one network.

Identity Threat Detection and Response: Rips in Your Identity Fabric

Why SaaS Security Is a Challenge In today's digital landscape, organizations are increasingly relying on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to drive their operations. However, this widespread adoption has also opened the doors to new security risks and vulnerabilities. The SaaS security attack surface continues to widen. It started with managing misconfigurations and now requires a

An Apple Malware-Flagging Tool Is ‘Trivially’ Easy to Bypass

The macOS Background Task Manager tool is supposed to spot potentially malicious software on your machine. But a researcher says it has troubling flaws.