Anatsa Android Trojan Bypasses Google Play Security, Expands Reach to New Countries

The Android banking trojan known as Anatsa has expanded its focus to include Slovakia, Slovenia, and Czechia as part of a new campaign observed in November 2023. "Some of the droppers in the campaign successfully exploited the accessibility service, despite Google Play's enhanced detection and protection mechanisms," ThreatFabric said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

MoqHao Android Malware Evolves with Auto-Execution Capability

Threat hunters have identified a new variant of Android malware called MoqHao that automatically executes on infected devices without requiring any user interaction. "Typical MoqHao requires users to install and launch the app to get their desired purpose, but this new variant requires no execution," McAfee Labs said in a report published this week. "While the app is

Hands-On Review: SASE-based XDR from Cato Networks

Companies are engaged in a seemingly endless cat-and-mouse game when it comes to cybersecurity and cyber threats. As organizations put up one defensive block after another, malicious actors kick their game up a notch to get around those blocks. Part of the challenge is to coordinate the defensive abilities of disparate security tools, even as organizations have limited resources and a dearth of

Pegasus Spyware Targeted iPhones of Journalists and Activists in Jordan

The iPhones belonging to nearly three dozen journalists, activists, human rights lawyers, and civil society members in Jordan have been targeted with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, according to joint findings from Access Now and the Citizen Lab. Nine of the 35 individuals have been publicly confirmed as targeted, out of whom six had their devices compromised with the mercenary

AnyDesk Hacked: Popular Remote Desktop Software Mandates Password Reset

Remote desktop software maker AnyDesk disclosed on Friday that it suffered a cyber attack that led to a compromise of its production systems. The German company said the incident, which it discovered following a security audit, is not a ransomware attack and that it has notified relevant authorities. "We have revoked all security-related certificates and systems have been remediated or replaced

INTERPOL Arrests 31 in Global Operation, Identifies 1,900+ Ransomware-Linked IPs

An INTERPOL-led collaborative operation targeting phishing, banking malware, and ransomware attacks has led to the identification of 1,300 suspicious IP addresses and URLs. The law enforcement effort, codenamed Synergia, took place between September and November 2023 in an attempt to blunt the "growth, escalation and professionalization of transnational cybercrime." Involving 60 law

CISA Warns of Active Exploitation Apple iOS and macOS Vulnerability

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added a high-severity flaw impacting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-48618 (CVSS score: 7.8), concerns a bug in the kernel component. "An attacker with

Telegram Marketplaces Fuel Phishing Attacks with Easy-to-Use Kits and Malware

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to the "democratization" of the phishing ecosystem owing to the emergence of Telegram as an epicenter for cybercrime, enabling threat actors to mount a mass attack for as little as $230. "This messaging app has transformed into a bustling hub where seasoned cybercriminals and newcomers alike exchange illicit tools and insights creating a dark and

Microsoft Warns of Widening APT29 Espionage Attacks Targeting Global Orgs

Microsoft on Thursday said the Russian state-sponsored threat actors responsible for a cyber attack on its systems in late November 2023 have been targeting other organizations and that it's currently beginning to notify them. The development comes a day after Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) revealed that it had been the victim of an attack perpetrated by a hacking crew

Kasseika Ransomware Using BYOVD Trick to Disarm Security Pre-Encryption

The ransomware group known as Kasseika has become the latest to leverage the Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack to disarm security-related processes on compromised Windows hosts, joining the likes of other groups like Akira, AvosLocker, BlackByte, and RobbinHood. The tactic allows "threat actors to terminate antivirus processes and services for the deployment of ransomware," Trend

Zero-Day Alert: Update Chrome Now to Fix New Actively Exploited Vulnerability

Google on Tuesday released updates to fix four security issues in its Chrome browser, including an actively exploited zero-day flaw. The issue, tracked as CVE-2024-0519, concerns an out-of-bounds memory access in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which can be weaponized by threat actors to trigger a crash. <!-- adsense --> "By reading out-of-bounds memory, an attacker might be able to

Beware! YouTube Videos Promoting Cracked Software Distribute Lumma Stealer

Threat actors are resorting to YouTube videos featuring content related to cracked software in order to entice users into downloading an information stealer malware called Lumma. “These YouTube videos typically feature content related to cracked applications, presenting users with similar installation guides and incorporating malicious URLs often shortened using services like TinyURL and Cuttly,

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Sinbad Cryptocurrency Mixer Used by North Korean Hackers

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions against&nbsp;Sinbad, a virtual currency mixer that has been put to use by the North Korea-linked&nbsp;Lazarus Group&nbsp;to launder ill-gotten proceeds. "Sinbad has processed millions of dollars' worth of virtual currency from Lazarus Group heists, including the Horizon Bridge and Axie Infinity heists," the department said. "Sinbad is

Iranian Hackers Exploit PLCs in Attack on Water Authority in U.S.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealed that it's responding to a cyber attack that involved the active exploitation of Unitronics programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to target the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania. The attack has been attributed to an Iranian-backed hacktivist collective known as Cyber Av3ngers. "Cyber threat

Stop Identity Attacks: Discover the Key to Early Threat Detection

Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems are a staple to ensure only authorized individuals or entities have access to specific resources in order to protect sensitive information and secure business assets. But did you know that today over 80% of attacks now involve identity, compromised credentials or bypassing the authentication mechanism? Recent breaches at MGM and Caesars have

Stealthy Kamran Spyware Targeting Urdu-speaking Users in Gilgit-Baltistan

Urdu-speaking readers of a regional news website that caters to the Gilgit-Baltistan region have likely emerged as a target of a watering hole attack designed to deliver a previously undocumented Android spyware dubbed Kamran. The campaign, ESET has discovered, leverages Hunza News (urdu.hunzanews[.]net), which, when opened on a mobile device, prompts visitors of the Urdu version to install its

Iran's MuddyWater Targets Israel in New Spear-Phishing Cyber Campaign

The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has been linked to a new spear-phishing campaign targeting two Israeli entities to ultimately deploy a legitimate remote administration tool from N-able called Advanced Monitoring Agent. Cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct, which disclosed details of the attacks, said the campaign "exhibits updated TTPs to previously reported MuddyWater activity,"

Researchers Find 34 Windows Drivers Vulnerable to Full Device Takeover

As many as 34 unique vulnerable Windows Driver Model (WDM) and Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF) drivers could be exploited by non-privileged threat actors to gain full control of the devices and execute arbitrary code on the underlying systems. "By exploiting the drivers, an attacker without privilege may erase/alter firmware, and/or elevate [operating system] privileges," Takahiro Haruyama, a

Alert: F5 Warns of Active Attacks Exploiting BIG-IP Vulnerability

F5 is warning of active abuse of a critical security flaw in BIG-IP less than a week after its public disclosure, resulting in the execution of arbitrary system commands as part of an exploit chain. Tracked as CVE-2023-46747 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the BIG-IP system through the management port to achieve code execution. A

Hackers Using MSIX App Packages to Infect Windows PCs with GHOSTPULSE Malware

A new cyber attack campaign has been observed using spurious MSIX Windows app package files for popular software such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Grammarly, and Cisco Webex to distribute a novel malware loader dubbed GHOSTPULSE. "MSIX is a Windows app package format that developers can leverage to package, distribute, and install their applications to Windows users," Elastic

Malvertisers Using Google Ads to Target Users Searching for Popular Software

Details have emerged about a malvertising campaign that leverages Google Ads to direct users searching for popular software to fictitious landing pages and distribute next-stage payloads. Malwarebytes, which discovered the activity, said it's "unique in its way to fingerprint users and distribute time sensitive payloads." The attack singles out users searching for Notepad++ and PDF converters to

ExelaStealer: A New Low-Cost Cybercrime Weapon Emerges

A new information stealer named ExelaStealer has become the latest entrant to an already crowded landscape filled with various off-the-shelf malware designed to capture sensitive data from compromised Windows systems. "ExelaStealer is a largely open-source infostealer with paid customizations available from the threat actor," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher James Slaughter said in a

U.S. DoJ Cracks Down on North Korean IT Scammers Defrauding Global Businesses

The U.S. government has announced the seizure of 17 website domains used by North Korean information technology (IT) workers as part of an illicit scheme to defraud businesses across the world, evade sanctions, and fund the country's ballistic missile program. The Department of Justice (DoJ) said the U.S. confiscated approximately $1.5 million of the revenue that these IT workers collected from

Pro-Russian Hackers Exploiting Recent WinRAR Vulnerability in New Campaign

Pro-Russian hacking groups have exploited a recently disclosed security vulnerability in the WinRAR archiving utility as part of a phishing campaign designed to harvest credentials from compromised systems. "The attack involves the use of malicious archive files that exploit the recently discovered vulnerability affecting the WinRAR compression software versions prior to 6.23 and traced as CVE-

Chinese Hackers TAG-74 Targets South Korean Organizations in a Multi-Year Campaign

A "multi-year" Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage campaign has been observed targeting South Korean academic, political, and government organizations. Recorded Future's Insikt Group, which is tracking the activity under the moniker TAG-74, said the adversary has been linked to "Chinese military intelligence and poses a significant threat to academic, aerospace and defense, government,

From Watering Hole to Spyware: EvilBamboo Targets Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Taiwanese

Tibetan, Uyghur, and Taiwanese individuals and organizations are the targets of a persistent campaign orchestrated by a threat actor codenamed EvilBamboo to gather sensitive information. "The attacker has created fake Tibetan websites, along with social media profiles, likely used to deploy browser-based exploits against targeted users," Volexity security researchers Callum Roxan, Paul

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

Sophisticated Phishing Campaign Targeting Chinese Users with ValleyRAT and Gh0st RAT

Chinese-language speakers have been increasingly targeted as part of multiple email phishing campaigns that aim to distribute various malware families such as Sainbox RAT, Purple Fox, and a new trojan called ValleyRAT. "Campaigns include Chinese-language lures and malware typically associated with Chinese cybercrime activity," enterprise security firm Proofpoint said in a report shared with The

ShroudedSnooper's HTTPSnoop Backdoor Targets Middle East Telecom Companies

Telecommunication service providers in the Middle East are the target of a new intrusion set dubbed ShroudedSnooper that employs a stealthy backdoor called HTTPSnoop. "HTTPSnoop is a simple, yet effective, backdoor that consists of novel techniques to interface with Windows HTTP kernel drivers and devices to listen to incoming requests for specific HTTP(S) URLs and execute that content on the

Earth Lusca's New SprySOCKS Linux Backdoor Targets Government Entities

The China-linked threat actor known as Earth Lusca has been observed targeting government entities using a never-before-seen Linux backdoor called SprySOCKS. Earth Lusca was first documented by Trend Micro in January 2022, detailing the adversary's attacks against public and private sector entities across Asia, Australia, Europe, North America. Active since 2021, the group has relied on

Cybercriminals Combine Phishing and EV Certificates to Deliver Ransomware Payloads

The threat actors behind RedLine and Vidar information stealers have been observed pivoting to ransomware through phishing campaigns that spread initial payloads signed with Extended Validation (EV) code signing certificates. "This suggests that the threat actors are streamlining operations by making their techniques multipurpose," Trend Micro researchers said in a new analysis published this

Rust-Written 3AM Ransomware: A Sneak Peek into a New Malware Family

A new ransomware family called 3AM has emerged in the wild after it was detected in a single incident in which an unidentified affiliate deployed the strain following an unsuccessful attempt to deliver LockBit (attributed to Bitwise Spider or Syrphid) in the target network. "3AM is written in Rust and appears to be a completely new malware family," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of

Vietnamese Hackers Deploy Python-Based Stealer via Facebook Messenger

A new phishing attack is leveraging Facebook Messenger to propagate messages with malicious attachments from a "swarm of fake and hijacked personal accounts" with the ultimate goal of taking over the targets' Business accounts. "Originating yet again from a Vietnamese-based group, this campaign uses a tiny compressed file attachment that packs a powerful Python-based stealer dropped in a

North Korean Hackers Exploit Zero-Day Bug to Target Cybersecurity Researchers

Threat actors associated with North Korea are continuing to target the cybersecurity community using a zero-day bug in an unspecified software over the past several weeks to infiltrate their machines. The findings come from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), which found the adversary setting up fake accounts on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Mastodon to forge

Mirai Botnet Variant 'Pandora' Hijacks Android TVs for Cyberattacks

A Mirai botnet variant called Pandora has been observed infiltrating inexpensive Android-based TV sets and TV boxes and using them as part of a botnet to perform distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Doctor Web said the compromises are likely to occur either during malicious firmware updates or when applications for viewing pirated video content are installed. "It is likely that this

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

Vietnamese Cybercriminals Targeting Facebook Business Accounts with Malvertising

Malicious actors associated with the Vietnamese cybercrime ecosystem are leveraging advertising-as-a-vector on social media platforms such as Meta-owned Facebook to distribute malware. “Threat actors have long used fraudulent ads as a vector to target victims with scams, malvertising, and more,” WithSecure researcher Mohammad Kazem Hassan Nejad said. “And with businesses now leveraging the reach

Russian State-Backed 'Infamous Chisel' Android Malware Targets Ukrainian Military

Cybersecurity and intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. on Thursday disclosed details of a mobile malware strain targeting Android devices used by the Ukrainian military. The malicious software, dubbed Infamous Chisel and attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor called Sandworm, has capabilities to “enable unauthorized access to compromised

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.

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

Alert: Juniper Firewalls, Openfire, and Apache RocketMQ Under Attack from New Exploits

Recently disclosed security flaws impacting Juniper firewalls, Openfire, and Apache RocketMQ servers have come under active exploitation in the wild, according to multiple reports. The Shadowserver Foundation said that it's "seeing exploitation attempts from multiple IPs for Juniper J-Web CVE-2023-36844 (& friends) targeting /webauth_operation.php endpoint," the same day a proof-of-concept (PoC)

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

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

New Telegram Bot "Telekopye" Powering Large-scale Phishing Scams from Russia

A new financially motivated operation is leveraging a malicious Telegram bot to help threat actors scam their victims. Dubbed Telekopye, a portmanteau of Telegram and kopye (meaning "spear" in Russian), the toolkit functions as an automated means to create a phishing web page from a premade template and send the URL to potential victims, codenamed Mammoths by the criminals. "This toolkit is

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

Spacecolon Toolset Fuels Global Surge in Scarab Ransomware Attacks

A malicious toolset dubbed Spacecolon is being deployed as part of an ongoing campaign to spread variants of the Scarab ransomware across victim organizations globally. "It probably finds its way into victim organizations by its operators compromising vulnerable web servers or via brute forcing RDP credentials," ESET security researcher Jakub Souček said in a detailed technical write-up

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

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

Guide: How Google Workspace-based Organizations can leverage Chrome to improve Security

More and more organizations are choosing Google Workspace as their default employee toolset of choice. But despite the productivity advantages, this organizational action also incurs a new security debt. Security teams now have to find a way to adjust their security architecture to this new cloud workload. Some teams may rely on their existing network security solutions. According to a new guide

Monti Ransomware Returns with New Linux Variant and Enhanced Evasion Tactics

The threat actors behind the Monti ransomware have resurfaced after a two-month break with a new Linux version of the encryptor in its attacks targeting government and legal sectors. Monti emerged in June 2022, weeks after the Conti ransomware group shut down its operations, deliberately imitating the tactics and tools associated with the latter, including its leaked source code. Not anymore.

Gigabud RAT Android Banking Malware Targets Institutions Across Countries

Account holders of over numerous financial institutions in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Peru are being targeted by an Android banking malware called Gigabud RAT. "One of Gigabud RAT's unique features is that it doesn't execute any malicious actions until the user is authorized into the malicious application by a fraudster, [...] which makes it harder to detect," Group-IB

New Financial Malware 'JanelaRAT' Targets Latin American Users

Users in Latin America (LATAM) are the target of a financial malware called JanelaRAT that's capable of capturing sensitive information from compromised Microsoft Windows systems. "JanelaRAT mainly targets financial and cryptocurrency data from LATAM bank and financial institutions," Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers Gaetano Pellegrino and Sudeep Singh said, adding it "abuses DLL side-loading

Researchers Uncover Years-Long Cyber Espionage on Foreign Embassies in Belarus

A hitherto undocumented threat actor operating for nearly a decade and codenamed MoustachedBouncer has been attributed to cyber espionage attacks aimed at foreign embassies in Belarus. "Since 2020, MoustachedBouncer has most likely been able to perform adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attacks at the ISP level, within Belarus, in order to compromise its targets," ESET security researcher Matthieu

Patchwork Hackers Target Chinese Research Organizations Using EyeShell Backdoor

Threat actors associated with the hacking crew known as Patchwork have been spotted targeting universities and research organizations in China as part of a recently observed campaign. The activity, according to KnownSec 404 Team, entailed the use of a backdoor codenamed EyeShell. Patchwork, also known by the names Operation Hangover and Zinc Emerson, is suspected to be a threat group that

BlueBravo Deploys GraphicalProton Backdoor Against European Diplomatic Entities

The Russian nation-state actor known as BlueBravo has been observed targeting diplomatic entities throughout Eastern Europe with the goal of delivering a new backdoor called GraphicalProton, exemplifying the continuous evolution of the threat. The phishing campaign is characterized by the use of legitimate internet services (LIS) for command-and-control (C2) obfuscation, Recorded Future said in

New SEC Rules Require U.S. Companies to Reveal Cyber Attacks Within 4 Days

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday approved new rules that require publicly traded companies to publicize details of a cyber attack within four days of identifying that it has a "material" impact on their finances, marking a major shift in how computer breaches are disclosed. "Whether a company loses a factory in a fire — or millions of files in a cybersecurity

Fenix Cybercrime Group Poses as Tax Authorities to Target Latin American Users

Tax-paying individuals in Mexico and Chile have been targeted by a Mexico-based cybercrime group that goes by the name Fenix to breach targeted networks and steal valuable data. A key hallmark of the operation entails cloning official portals of the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) in Mexico and the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII) in Chile and redirecting potential victims to

North Korean Nation-State Actors Exposed in JumpCloud Hack After OPSEC Blunder

North Korean nation-state actors affiliated with the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) have been attributed to the JumpCloud hack following an operational security (OPSEC) blunder that exposed their actual IP address. Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant attributed the activity to a threat actor it tracks under the name UNC4899, which likely shares overlaps with clusters already

Azure AD Token Forging Technique in Microsoft Attack Extends Beyond Outlook, Wiz Reports

The recent attack against Microsoft's email infrastructure by a Chinese nation-state actor referred to as Storm-0558 is said to have a broader scope than previously thought. According to cloud security company Wiz, the inactive Microsoft account (MSA) consumer signing key used to forge Azure Active Directory (Azure AD or AAD) tokens to gain illicit access to Outlook Web Access (OWA) and

Mallox Ransomware Exploits Weak MS-SQL Servers to Breach Networks

Mallox ransomware activities in 2023 have witnessed a 174% increase when compared to the previous year, new findings from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 reveal. "Mallox ransomware, like many other ransomware threat actors, follows the double extortion trend: stealing data before encrypting an organization's files, and then threatening to publish the stolen data on a leak site as leverage to convince