How to Analyze Malware’s Network Traffic in A Sandbox

Malware analysis encompasses a broad range of activities, including examining the malware's network traffic. To be effective at it, it's crucial to understand the common challenges and how to overcome them. Here are three prevalent issues you may encounter and the tools you'll need to address them. Decrypting HTTPS traffic Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), the protocol for secure

Microsoft's Final 2023 Patch Tuesday: 33 Flaws Fixed, Including 4 Critical

Microsoft released its final set of Patch Tuesday updates for 2023, closing out 33 flaws in its software, making it one of the lightest releases in recent years. Of the 33 shortcomings, four are rated Critical and 29 are rated Important in severity. The fixes are in addition to 18 flaws Microsoft addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of Patch

Building a Robust Threat Intelligence with Wazuh

Threat intelligence refers to gathering, processing, and analyzing cyber threats, along with proactive defensive measures aimed at strengthening security. It enables organizations to gain a comprehensive insight into historical, present, and anticipated threats, providing context about the constantly evolving threat landscape. Importance of threat intelligence in the cybersecurity ecosystem

New Stealthy 'Krasue' Linux Trojan Targeting Telecom Firms in Thailand

A previously unknown Linux remote access trojan called Krasue has been observed targeting telecom companies in Thailand by threat actors to main covert access to victim networks at lease since 2021. Named after a nocturnal female spirit of Southeast Asian folklore, the malware is "able to conceal its own presence during the initialization phase," Group-IB said in a report

New Report: Unveiling the Threat of Malicious Browser Extensions

Compromising the browser is a high-return target for adversaries. Browser extensions, which are small software modules that are added to the browser and can enhance browsing experiences, have become a popular browser attack vector. This is because they are widely adopted among users and can easily turn malicious through developer actions or attacks on legitimate extensions. Recent incidents like

Agent Racoon Backdoor Targets Organizations in Middle East, Africa, and U.S.

Organizations in the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S. have been targeted by an unknown threat actor to distribute a new backdoor called Agent Racoon. "This malware family is written using the .NET framework and leverages the domain name service (DNS) protocol to create a covert channel and provide different backdoor functionalities," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researcher Chema Garcia 

Discover How Gcore Thwarted Powerful 1.1Tbps and 1.6Tbps DDoS Attacks

The most recent Gcore Radar report and its aftermath have highlighted a dramatic increase in DDoS attacks across multiple industries. At the beginning of 2023, the average strength of attacks reached 800 Gbps, but now, even a peak as high as 1.5+ Tbps is unsurprising. To try and break through Gcore’s defenses, perpetrators made two attempts with two different strategies.

Zyxel Releases Patches to Fix 15 Flaws in NAS, Firewall, and AP Devices

Zyxel has released patches to address 15 security issues impacting network-attached storage (NAS), firewall, and access point (AP) devices, including three critical flaws that could lead to authentication bypass and command injection. The three vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2023-35138 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A command injection vulnerability that could allow an

Design Flaw in Google Workspace Could Let Attackers Gain Unauthorized Access

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a "severe design flaw" in Google Workspace's domain-wide delegation (DWD) feature that could be exploited by threat actors to facilitate privilege escalation and obtain unauthorized access to Workspace APIs without super admin privileges. "Such exploitation could result in theft of emails from Gmail, data exfiltration from Google Drive, or other

New 'HrServ.dll' Web Shell Detected in APT Attack Targeting Afghan Government

An unspecified government entity in Afghanistan was targeted by a previously undocumented web shell called HrServ in what’s suspected to be an advanced persistent threat (APT) attack. The web shell, a dynamic-link library (DLL) named “hrserv.dll,” exhibits “sophisticated features such as custom encoding methods for client communication and in-memory execution,” Kaspersky security researcher Mert

Discover 2023's Cloud Security Strategies in Our Upcoming Webinar - Secure Your Spot

In 2023, the cloud isn't just a technology—it's a battleground. Zenbleed, Kubernetes attacks, and sophisticated APTs are just the tip of the iceberg in the cloud security warzone. In collaboration with the esteemed experts from Lacework Labs, The Hacker News proudly presents an exclusive webinar: 'Navigating the Cloud Attack Landscape: 2023 Trends, Techniques, and Tactics.' Join us for an

CISA Adds Three Security Flaws with Active Exploitation to KEV Catalog

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added three security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog based on evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-36584 (CVSS score: 5.4) - Microsoft Windows Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2023-1671 (CVSS score: 9.8) -

Urgent: VMware Warns of Unpatched Critical Cloud Director Vulnerability

VMware is warning of a critical and unpatched security flaw in Cloud Director that could be exploited by a malicious actor to get around authentication protections. Tracked as CVE-2023-34060 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability impacts instances that have been upgraded to version 10.5 from an older version. "On an upgraded version of VMware Cloud Director Appliance 10.5, a malicious actor with

The Importance of Continuous Security Monitoring for a Robust Cybersecurity Strategy

In 2023, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million. Beyond the immediate financial loss, there are long-term consequences like diminished customer trust, weakened brand value, and derailed business operations. In a world where the frequency and cost of data breaches are skyrocketing, organizations are coming face-to-face with a harsh reality: traditional cybersecurity

Chinese Hackers Launch Covert Espionage Attacks on 24 Cambodian Organizations

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered what they say is malicious cyber activity orchestrated by two prominent Chinese nation-state hacking groups targeting 24 Cambodian government organizations. "This activity is believed to be part of a long-term espionage campaign," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers said in a report last week. "The observed activity aligns with geopolitical goals of

Russian Hackers Sandworm Cause Power Outage in Ukraine Amidst Missile Strikes

The notorious Russian hackers known as Sandworm targeted an electrical substation in Ukraine last year, causing a brief power outage in October 2022. The findings come from Google's Mandiant, which described the hack as a "multi-event cyber attack" leveraging a novel technique for impacting industrial control systems (ICS). "The actor first used OT-level living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques to

Alert: 'Effluence' Backdoor Persists Despite Patching Atlassian Confluence Servers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a stealthy backdoor named Effluence that's deployed following the successful exploitation of a recently disclosed security flaw in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server. "The malware acts as a persistent backdoor and is not remediated by applying patches to Confluence," Aon's Stroz Friedberg Incident Response Services said in an analysis published

MuddyC2Go: New C2 Framework Iranian Hackers Using Against Israel

Iranian nation-state actors have been observed using a previously undocumented command-and-control (C2) framework called MuddyC2Go as part of attacks targeting Israel. "The framework's web component is written in the Go programming language," Deep Instinct security researcher Simon Kenin said in a technical report published Wednesday. The tool has been attributed to MuddyWater, an Iranian 

Offensive and Defensive AI: Let’s Chat(GPT) About It

ChatGPT: Productivity tool, great for writing poems, and… a security risk?! In this article, we show how threat actors can exploit ChatGPT, but also how defenders can use it for leveling up their game. ChatGPT is the most swiftly growing consumer application to date. The extremely popular generative AI chatbot has the ability to generate human-like, coherent and contextually relevant responses.

Critical Flaws Discovered in Veeam ONE IT Monitoring Software – Patch Now

Veeam has released security updates to address four flaws in its ONE IT monitoring and analytics platform, two of which are rated critical in severity. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2023-38547 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An unspecified flaw that can be leveraged by an unauthenticated user to gain information about the SQL server connection Veeam ONE uses to access its configuration

StripedFly Malware Operated Unnoticed for 5 Years, Infecting 1 Million Devices

An advanced strain of malware masquerading as a cryptocurrency miner has managed to fly the radar for over five years, infecting no less than one million devices around the world in the process. That's according to findings from Kaspersky, which has codenamed the threat StripedFly, describing it as an "intricate modular framework that supports both Linux and Windows." The Russian cybersecurity

Kinsing Actors Exploiting Recent Linux Flaw to Breach Cloud Environments

The threat actors linked to Kinsing have been observed attempting to exploit the recently disclosed Linux privilege escalation flaw called Looney Tunables as part of a "new experimental campaign" designed to breach cloud environments. "Intriguingly, the attacker is also broadening the horizons of their cloud-native attacks by extracting credentials from the Cloud Service Provider (CSP)," cloud

HelloKitty Ransomware Group Exploiting Apache ActiveMQ Vulnerability

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of suspected exploitation of a recently disclosed critical security flaw in the Apache ActiveMQ open-source message broker service that could result in remote code execution. "In both instances, the adversary attempted to deploy ransomware binaries on target systems in an effort to ransom the victim organizations," cybersecurity firm Rapid7 disclosed in a

Turla Updates Kazuar Backdoor with Advanced Anti-Analysis to Evade Detection

The Russia-linked hacking crew known as Turla has been observed using an updated version of a known second-stage backdoor referred to as Kazuar. The new findings come from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which is tracking the adversary under its constellation-themed moniker Pensive Ursa. "As the code of the upgraded revision of Kazuar reveals, the authors put special emphasis on Kazuar's ability to

Researchers Uncover Wiretapping of XMPP-Based Instant Messaging Service

New findings have shed light on what's said to be a lawful attempt to covertly intercept traffic originating from jabber[.]ru (aka xmpp[.]ru), an XMPP-based instant messaging service, via servers hosted on Hetzner and Linode (a subsidiary of Akamai) in Germany. "The attacker has issued several new TLS certificates using Let's Encrypt service which were used to hijack encrypted STARTTLS

F5 Issues Warning: BIG-IP Vulnerability Allows Remote Code Execution

F5 has alerted customers of a critical security vulnerability impacting BIG-IP that could result in unauthenticated remote code execution. The issue, rooted in the configuration utility component, has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-46747, and carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10. "This vulnerability may allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the BIG-IP

Critical Flaw in NextGen's Mirth Connect Could Expose Healthcare Data

Users of Mirth Connect, an open-source data integration platform from NextGen HealthCare, are being urged to update to the latest version following the discovery of an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability. Tracked as CVE-2023-43208, the vulnerability has been addressed in version 4.4.1 released on October 6, 2023. "This is an easily exploitable, unauthenticated remote code

Act Now: VMware Releases Patch for Critical vCenter Server RCE Vulnerability

VMware has released security updates to address a critical flaw in the vCenter Server that could result in remote code execution on affected systems. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-34048 (CVSS score: 9.8), has been described as an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the implementation of the DCE/RPC protocol. "A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger an out-of-bounds

Lazarus Group Targeting Defense Experts with Fake Interviews via Trojanized VNC Apps

The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group (aka Hidden Cobra or TEMP.Hermit) has been observed using trojanized versions of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) apps as lures to target the defense industry and nuclear engineers as part of a long-running campaign known as Operation Dream Job. "The threat actor tricks job seekers on social media into opening malicious apps for fake job interviews," Kaspersky

D-Link Confirms Data Breach: Employee Falls Victim to Phishing Attack

Taiwanese networking equipment manufacturer D-Link has confirmed a data breach that led to the exposure of what it said is "low-sensitivity and semi-public information." "The data was confirmed not from the cloud but likely originated from an old D-View 6 system, which reached its end of life as early as 2015," the company said. "The data was used for registration purposes back then. So far, no

Discord: A Playground for Nation-State Hackers Targeting Critical Infrastructure

In what's the latest evolution of threat actors abusing legitimate infrastructure for nefarious ends, new findings show that nation-state hacking groups have entered the fray in leveraging the social platform for targeting critical infrastructure. Discord, in recent years, has become a lucrative target, acting as a fertile ground for hosting malware using its content delivery network (CDN) as

Protecting your IT infrastructure with Security Configuration Assessment (SCA)

Security Configuration Assessment (SCA) is critical to an organization's cybersecurity strategy. SCA aims to discover vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that malicious actors exploit to gain unauthorized access to systems and data. Regular security configuration assessments are essential in maintaining a secure and compliant environment, as this minimizes the risk of cyber attacks. The

Threat Report: The High Tech Industry Targeted the Most with 46% of NLX-Tagged Attack Traffic

How To Use This Report Enhance situational awareness of techniques used by threat actors Identify potential attacks targeting your industry Gain insights to help improve and accelerate your organization’s threat response Summary of Findings The Network Effect Threat Report offers insights based on unique data from Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF from Q2 2023 (April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023). This report

New Report Uncovers 3 Distinct Clusters of China-Nexus Attacks on Southeast Asian Government

An unnamed Southeast Asian government has been targeted by multiple China-nexus threat actors as part of espionage campaigns targeting the region over extended periods of time. "While this activity occurred around the same time and in some instances even simultaneously on the same victims' machines, each cluster is characterized by distinct tools, modus operandi, and infrastructure," Palo Alto

How to Interpret the 2023 MITRE ATT&CK Evaluation Results

Thorough, independent tests are a vital resource for analyzing provider’s capabilities to guard against increasingly sophisticated threats to their organization. And perhaps no assessment is more widely trusted than the annual MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluation.  This testing is critical for evaluating vendors because it’s virtually impossible to evaluate cybersecurity vendors based on their own

Cyber Group 'Gold Melody' Selling Compromised Access to Ransomware Attackers

A financially motivated threat actor has been outed as an initial access broker (IAB) that sells access to compromised organizations for other adversaries to conduct follow-on attacks such as ransomware. SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) has dubbed the e-crime group Gold Melody, which is also known by the names Prophet Spider (CrowdStrike) and UNC961 (Mandiant). "This financially motivated

Finnish Authorities Dismantle Notorious PIILOPUOTI Dark Web Drug Marketplace

Finnish law enforcement authorities have announced the takedown of PIILOPUOTI, a dark web marketplace that specialized in illegal narcotics trade since May 2022. "The site operated as a hidden service in the encrypted TOR network," the Finnish Customs (aka Tulli) said in a brief announcement on Tuesday. "The site has been used in anonymous criminal activities such as narcotics trade." The agency

Critical Security Flaws Exposed in Nagios XI Network Monitoring Software

Multiple security flaws have been disclosed in the Nagios XI network monitoring software that could result in privilege escalation and information disclosure. The four security vulnerabilities, tracked from CVE-2023-40931 through CVE-2023-40934, impact Nagios XI versions 5.11.1 and lower. Following responsible disclosure on August 4, 2023, They have been patched as of September 11, 2023, with

Nearly 12,000 Juniper Firewalls Found Vulnerable to Recently Disclosed RCE Vulnerability

New research has found that close to 12,000 internet-exposed Juniper firewall devices are vulnerable to a recently disclosed remote code execution flaw. VulnCheck, which discovered a new exploit for CVE-2023-36845, said it could be exploited by an "unauthenticated and remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on Juniper firewalls without creating a file on the system." CVE-2023-36845 refers to a

9 Alarming Vulnerabilities Uncovered in SEL's Power Management Products

Nine security flaws have been disclosed in electric power management products made by Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL). “The most severe of those nine vulnerabilities would allow a threat actor to facilitate remote code execution (RCE) on an engineering workstation,” Nozomi Networks said in a report published last week. The issues, tracked as CVE-2023-34392 and from CVE-2023-31168

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,

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

Critical Vulnerability Alert: VMware Aria Operations Networks at Risk from Remote Attacks

VMware has released software updates to correct two security vulnerabilities in Aria Operations for Networks that could be potentially exploited to bypass authentication and gain remote code execution. The most severe of the flaws is CVE-2023-34039 (CVSS score: 9.8), which relates to a case of authentication bypass arising as a result of a lack of unique cryptographic key generation. "A

Ivanti Warns of Critical Zero-Day Flaw Being Actively Exploited in Sentry Software

Software services provider Ivanti is warning of a new critical zero-day flaw impacting Ivanti Sentry (formerly MobileIron Sentry) that it said is being actively exploited in the wild, marking an escalation of its security woes. Tracked as CVE-2023-38035 (CVSS score: 9.8), the issue has been described as a case of authentication bypass impacting versions 9.18 and prior due to what it called an

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

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

Enhancing TLS Security: Google Adds Quantum-Resistant Encryption in Chrome 116

Google has announced plans to add support for quantum-resistant encryption algorithms in its Chrome browser, starting with version 116. "Chrome will begin supporting X25519Kyber768 for establishing symmetric secrets in TLS, starting in Chrome 116, and available behind a flag in Chrome 115," Devon O'Brien said in a post published Thursday. Kyber was chosen by the U.S. Department of Commerce's

New Android 14 Security Feature: IT Admins Can Now Disable 2G Networks

Google has introduced a new security feature in Android 14 that allows IT administrators to disable support for 2G cellular networks in their managed device fleet. The search giant said it's introducing a second user setting to turn off support, at the model level, for null-ciphered cellular connections. "The Android Security Model assumes that all networks are hostile to keep users safe from

Hackers Abusing Cloudflare Tunnels for Covert Communications

New research has revealed that threat actors are abusing Cloudflare Tunnels to establish covert communication channels from compromised hosts and retain persistent access. "Cloudflared is functionally very similar to ngrok," Nic Finn, a senior threat intelligence analyst at GuidePoint Security, said. "However, Cloudflared differs from ngrok in that it provides a lot more usability for free,

AVRecon Botnet Leveraging Compromised Routers to Fuel Illegal Proxy Service

More details have emerged about a botnet called AVRecon, which has been observed making use of compromised small office/home office (SOHO) routers as part of a multi-year campaign active since at least May 2021. AVRecon was first disclosed by Lumen Black Lotus Labs earlier this month as malware capable of executing additional commands and stealing victim's bandwidth for what appears to be an

Hackers Deploy "SUBMARINE" Backdoor in Barracuda Email Security Gateway Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday disclosed details of a "novel persistent backdoor" called SUBMARINE deployed by threat actors in connection with the hack on Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances. "SUBMARINE comprises multiple artifacts — including a SQL trigger, shell scripts, and a loaded library for a Linux daemon — that together enable

IcedID Malware Adapts and Expands Threat with Updated BackConnect Module

The threat actors linked to the malware loader known as IcedID have made updates to the BackConnect (BC) module that's used for post-compromise activity on hacked systems, new findings from Team Cymru reveal. IcedID, also called BokBot, is a strain of malware similar to Emotet and QakBot that started off as a banking trojan in 2017, before switching to the role of an initial access facilitator

New P2PInfect Worm Targeting Redis Servers on Linux and Windows Systems

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new cloud targeting, peer-to-peer (P2P) worm called P2PInfect that targets vulnerable Redis instances for follow-on exploitation. "P2PInfect exploits Redis servers running on both Linux and Windows Operating Systems making it more scalable and potent than other worms," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers William Gamazo and Nathaniel Quist said. "This

CISA and NSA Issue New Guidance to Strengthen 5G Network Slicing Against Threats

U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have released a set of recommendations to address security concerns with 5G standalone network slicing and harden them against possible threats. "The threat landscape in 5G is dynamic; due to this, advanced monitoring, auditing, and other analytical capabilities are required to meet certain levels of network slicing service level requirements over

New SOHO Router Botnet AVrecon Spreads to 70,000 Devices Across 20 Countries

A new malware strain has been found covertly targeting small office/home office (SOHO) routers for more than two years, infiltrating over 70,000 devices and creating a botnet with 40,000 nodes spanning 20 countries. Lumen Black Lotus Labs has dubbed the malware AVrecon, making it the third such strain to focus on SOHO routers after ZuoRAT and HiatusRAT over the past year. "This makes AVrecon one

New Vulnerabilities Disclosed in SonicWall and Fortinet Network Security Products

SonicWall on Wednesday urged customers of Global Management System (GMS) firewall management and Analytics network reporting engine software to apply the latest fixes to secure against a set of 15 security flaws that could be exploited by a threat actor to circumvent authentication and access sensitive information. Of the 15 shortcomings (tracked from CVE-2023-34123 through CVE-2023-34137), four

How to Apply MITRE ATT&CK to Your Organization

Discover all the ways MITRE ATT&CK can help you defend your organization. Build your security strategy and policies by making the most of this important framework. What is the MITRE ATT&CK Framework? MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge) is a widely adopted framework and knowledge base that outlines and categorizes the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)

Alert: 330,000 FortiGate Firewalls Still Unpatched to CVE-2023-27997 RCE Flaw

No less than 330,000 FortiGate firewalls are still unpatched and vulnerable to CVE-2023-27997, a critical security flaw affecting Fortinet devices that has come under active exploitation in the wild. Cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox, in a report published last week, said that out of nearly 490,000 Fortinet SSL-VPN interfaces exposed on the internet, about 69 percent remain unpatched. CVE-2023-27997

Who’s Behind the DomainNetworks Snail Mail Scam?

If you’ve ever owned a domain name, the chances are good that at some point you’ve received a snail mail letter which appears to be a bill for a domain or website-related services. In reality, these misleading missives try to trick people into paying for useless services they never ordered, don’t need, and probably will never receive. Here’s a look at the most recent incarnation of this scam — DomainNetworks — and some clues about who may be behind it.

The DomainNetworks mailer may reference a domain that is or was at one point registered to your name and address. Although the letter includes the words “marketing services” in the upper right corner, the rest of the missive is deceptively designed to look like a bill for services already rendered.

DomainNetworks claims that listing your domain with their promotion services will result in increased traffic to your site. This is a dubious claim for a company that appears to be a complete fabrication, as we’ll see in a moment.  But happily, the proprietors of this enterprise were not so difficult to track down.

The website Domainnetworks[.]com says it is a business with a post office box in Hendersonville, N.C., and another address in Santa Fe, N.M. There are a few random, non-technology businesses tied to the phone number listed for the Hendersonville address, and the New Mexico address was used by several no-name web hosting companies.

However, there is little connected to these addresses and phone numbers that get us any closer to finding out who’s running Domainnetworks[.]com. And neither entity appears to be an active, official company in their supposed state of residence, at least according to each state’s Secretary of State database.

The Better Business Bureau listing for DomainNetworks gives it an “F” rating, and includes more than 100 reviews by people angry at receiving one of these scams via snail mail. Helpfully, the BBB says DomainNetworks previously operated under a different name: US Domain Authority LLC.

Copies of snail mail scam letters from US Domain Authority posted online show that this entity used the domain usdomainauthority[.]com, registered in May 2022. The Usdomainauthority mailer also featured a Henderson, NC address, albeit at a different post office box.

Usdomainauthority[.]com is no longer online, and the site seems to have blocked its pages from being indexed by the Wayback Machine at archive.org. But searching on a long snippet of text from DomainNetworks[.]com about refund requests shows that this text was found on just one other active website, according to publicwww.com, a service that indexes the HTML code of existing websites and makes it searchable.

That other website is a domain registered in January 2023 called thedomainsvault[.]com, and its registration details are likewise hidden behind privacy services. Thedomainsvault’s “Frequently Asked Questions” page is quite similar to the one on the DomainNetworks website; both begin with the question of why the company is sending a mailer that looks like a bill for domain services.

Thedomainsvault[.]com includes no useful information about the entity or people who operate it; clicking the “Contact-us” link on the site brings up a page with placeholder Lorem Ipsum text, a contact form, and a phone number of 123456789.

However, searching passive DNS records at DomainTools.com for thedomainsvault[.]com shows that at some point whoever owns the domain instructed incoming email to be sent to ubsagency@gmail.com.

The first result that currently pops up when searching for “ubsagency” in Google is ubsagency[.]com, which says it belongs to a Las Vegas-based Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and digital marketing concern generically named both United Business Service and United Business Services. UBSagency’s website is hosted at the same Ann Arbor, Mich. based hosting firm (A2 Hosting Inc) as thedomainsvault[.]com.

UBSagency’s LinkedIn page says the company has offices in Vegas, Half Moon Bay, Calif., and Renton, Wash. But once again, none of the addresses listed for these offices reveal any obvious clues about who runs UBSagency. And once again, none of these entities appear to exist as official businesses in their claimed state of residence.

Searching on ubsagency@gmail.com in Constella Intelligence shows the address was used sometime before February 2019 to create an account under the name “Sammy\Sam_Alon” at the interior decorating site Houzz.com. In January 2019, Houzz acknowledged that a data breach exposed account information on an undisclosed number of customers, including user IDs, one-way encrypted passwords, IP addresses, city and ZIP codes, as well as Facebook information.

Sammy\Sam_Alon registered at Houzz using an Internet address in Huntsville, Ala. (68.35.149.206). Constella says this address was associated with the email tropicglobal@gmail.com, which also is tied to several other “Sammy” accounts at different stores online.

Constella also says a highly unique password re-used by tropicglobal@gmail.com across numerous sites was used in connection with just a few other email accounts, including shenhavgroup@gmail.com, and distributorinvoice@mail.com.

The shenhavgroup@gmail.com address was used to register a Twitter account for a Sam Orit Alon in 2013, whose account says they are affiliated with the Shenhav Group. According to DomainTools, shenhavgroup@gmail.com was responsible for registering roughly two dozen domains, including the now-defunct unitedbusinessservice[.]com.

Constella further finds that the address distributorinvoice@mail.com was used to register an account at whmcs.com, a web hosting platform that suffered a breach of its user database several years back. The name on the WHMCS account was Shmuel Orit Alon, from Kidron, Israel.

UBSagency also has a Facebook page, or maybe “had” is the operative word because someone appears to have defaced it. Loading the Facebook page for UBSagency shows several of the images have been overlaid or replaced with a message from someone who is really disappointed with Sam Alon.

“Sam Alon is a LIAR, THIEF, COWARD AND HAS A VERY SMALL D*CK,” reads one of the messages:

The logo in the UBSagency profile photo includes a graphic of what appears to be a magnifying glass with a line that zig-zags through bullet points inside and outside the circle, a unique pattern that is remarkably similar to the logo for DomainNetworks:

Constella also found that the same Huntsville IP address used by Sam Alon at Houzz was associated with yet another Houzz account, this one for someone named “Eliran.”

The UBSagency Facebook page features several messages from an Eliran “Dani” Benz, who is referred to by commenters as an employee or partner with UBSagency. The last check-in on Benz’s profile is from a beach at Rishon Letziyon in Israel earlier this year.

Neither Mr. Alon nor Mr. Benz responded to multiple requests for comment.

It may be difficult to believe that anyone would pay an invoice for a domain name or SEO service they never ordered. However, there is plenty of evidence that these phony bills often get processed by administrative personnel at organizations that end up paying the requested amount because they assume it was owed for some services already provided.

In 2018, KrebsOnSecurity published How Internet Savvy are Your Leaders?, which examined public records to show that dozens of cities, towns, school districts and even political campaigns across the United States got snookered into paying these scam domain invoices from a similar scam company called WebListings Inc.

In 2020, KrebsOnSecurity featured a deep dive into who was likely behind the WebListings scam, which had been sending out these snail mail scam letters for over a decade. That investigation revealed the scam’s connection to a multi-level marketing operation run out of the U.K., and to two brothers living in Scotland.

Cybercrime Group 'Muddled Libra' Targets BPO Sector with Advanced Social Engineering

A threat actor known as Muddled Libra is targeting the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry with persistent attacks that leverage advanced social engineering ploys to gain initial access. "The attack style defining Muddled Libra appeared on the cybersecurity radar in late 2022 with the release of the 0ktapus phishing kit, which offered a prebuilt hosting framework and bundled templates,"