Banking and Finance


  • Sodinokibi Ransomware Now Scans Networks For PoS Systems

    June 23, 2020

    Cybercriminals behind recent Sodinokibi ransomware attacks are now upping their ante and scanning their victims’ networks for credit card or point of sale (PoS) software. Researchers believe this is a new tactic designed to allow attackers to get the biggest bang for their buck – ransom payments and credit card data. The compromise of PoS software ...

  • IcedID Banker is Back, Adding Steganography, COVID-19 Theme

    June 18, 2020

    A new version of the IcedID banking trojan has debuted that notably embraces steganography – the practice of hiding code within images – in order to stealthily infect victims. It has also changed up its process for eavesdropping on victims’ web activity. Researchers at Juniper Threat Labs have uncovered an email spam campaign circulating in the ...

  • US bank customers targeted in ongoing Qbot campaign

    June 15, 2020

    Security researchers at F5 Labs have spotted ongoing attacks using Qbot malware payloads to steal credentials from customers of dozens of US financial institutions. Qbot (also known as Qakbot, Pinkslipbot, and Quakbot) is a banking trojan with worm features  used to steal banking credentials and financial data, as well as to log user keystrokes, deploy backdoors, and drop additional ...

  • FBI warns of increased hacking risk if using mobile banking apps

    June 10, 2020

    The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today warned mobile banking app users that they will be increasingly targeted by hackers trying to steal their credentials and take over their banking accounts. The alert, published on the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), says that the increased usage of such apps during the pandemic could lead to ...

  • Silent Night Banking Trojan Charges Top Dollar on the Underground

    May 21, 2020

    A descendant of the infamous Zeus banking trojan, dubbed Silent Night by the malware’s author, has emerged on the scene, with a host of functionalities available in a spendy malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model. Custom builds can run as much as $4,000 per month to use, which researchers say is now placing the code out of the range ...

  • Zeus Sphinx revamped as coronavirus relief payment attack wave continues

    May 11, 2020

    The Zeus Sphinx banking Trojan is now receiving frequent updates and upgrades to its malicious arsenal while being deployed in active coronavirus scams. On Monday, IBM Security researcher Nir Shwarts said the company has been tracking the evolution of the malware which is based on the leaked codebase of the well-known Zeus v.2 Trojan. Zeus Sphinx — also referred ...

  • Spear-phishing campaign compromises executives at 150+ companies

    April 30, 2020

    A cybercrime group operating since mid-2019 has breached the email accounts of high-ranking executives at more than 150 companies, cyber-security firm Group-IB reported today. The group, codenamed PerSwaysion, appears to have targeted the financial sector primarily, which accounted for more than half of its victims; although, victims have been recorded at companies active across other verticals ...

  • A look at the ATM/PoS malware landscape from 2017-2019

    April 23, 2020

    From remote administration and jackpotting, to malware sold on the Darknet, attacks against ATMs have a long and storied history.  And, much like other areas of cybercrime, attackers only refine and grow their skillset for infecting ATM systems from year-to-year. So what does the ATM landscape look like as of 2020? Let’s take a look. ATM attacks aren’t ...

  • Financial Cyberthreats in 2019

    April 16, 2020

    Financial cyberthreats are malicious programs that target users of services such as online banking, e-money, and cryptocurrency, or that attempt to gain access to financial organizations and their infrastructure. These threats are usually accompanied by spam and phishing activities, with malicious users creating fake financial-themed pages and emails to steal victims’ credentials. In order to study ...

  • Threat Spotlight: Gootkit Banking Trojan

    April 14, 2020

    Gootkit is a sophisticated banking Trojan which can perform various malicious activities such as: web injection, taking screenshots, video recording, email parsing, and so on. Gootkit emerged during the summer of 2014 but is still active, making it a viable threat to financial institutions to this day. BlackBerry most recently observed a Gootkit campaign via AZORult infostealer ...

  • Overlay Malware Leverages Chrome Browser, Targets Banks and Heads to Spain

    April 14, 2020

    Researchers are warning of a remote overlay malware attack that leverages a fake Chrome browser plugin to target the accounts of banking customers in Spain. Grandoreiro is a type of remote overlay banking trojan, designed to help attackers overtake devices and display a full-screen overlay image when victim accesses their online banking account. In the background, meanwhile, the ...

  • Travelex Pays $2.3M in Bitcoin to Hackers Who Hijacked Network in January

    April 10, 2020

    Travelex has paid out $2.3 million in Bitcoin to hackers to regain access to its global network after a malware attack at the new year knocked the global currency exchange offline and crippled its business during the month of January. The move—reported by the Wall Street Journal—may seem counterintuitive, as experts in the past have typically recommended that companies ...

  • FIN6 and TrickBot Combine Forces in ‘Anchor’ Attacks

    April 7, 2020

    Researchers say, two cybercriminal groups, FIN6 and the operators of the TrickBot malware, have paired up together to target several organizations with TrickBot’s malware framework called “Anchor.” The two threat groups joining forces is a “new and dangerous twist” in an existing trend of cybercrime groups working together, say researchers with IBM X-Force. The FIN6 group (also known as “ITG08”) has ...

  • Zeus Sphinx Banking Trojan Arises Amid COVID-19

    March 30, 2020

    According to researchers Amir Gandler and Limor Kessem at IBM X-Force, Sphinx (a.k.a. Zloader or Terdot) began resurfacing in December. However, the researchers observed a significant increase in volume in March, as Sphinx’s operators looked to take advantage of the interest and news around government relief payments. First seen in August 2015, Sphinx is a modular ...

  • Operation Overtrap Targets Japanese Online Banking Users Via Bottle Exploit Kit and Brand-New Cinobi Banking Trojan

    March 11, 2020

    Trend Micro recently discovered a new campaign that we dubbed “Operation Overtrap” for the numerous ways it can infect or trap victims with its payload. The campaign mainly targets online users of various Japanese banks by stealing their banking credentials using a three-pronged attack. Based on our telemetry, Operation Overtrap has been active since April 2019 ...

  • SMS Attack Spreads Emotet, Steals Bank Credentials

    February 19, 2020

    Attackers are sending SMS messages purporting to be from victims’ banks – but once they click on the links in the text messages, they are asked to hand over their banking credentials and download a file that infects their systems with the Emotet malware. Emotet has continued to evolve since its return in September, including a new, ...

  • Nedbank says 1.7 million customers impacted by breach at third-party provider

    February 14, 2020

    Nedbank, one of the biggest banks in the South Africa region, has disclosed a security incident yesterday that impacted the personal details of 1.7 million users. The bank says the breach occurred at Computer Facilities (Pty) Ltd, a South African company the bank was using to send out marketing and promotional campaigns. In a security notice posted on its ...

  • Over 30 Million Stolen Credit Card Records Being Sold on the Dark Web

    January 30, 2020

    Cybercriminals were found selling over 30 million credit card records on the dark web, purportedly from a data breach suffered by a U.S.-based gas station and convenience store chain last year. The sale of the data collection, advertised under the name BIGBADABOOM-III on the dark marketplace Joker’s Stash, comes in the wake of the company’s data security incident ...

  • Security Analysis of Devices That Support SCPI and VISA Protocols

    January 28, 2020

    When a legacy protocol is connected via Ethernet, and subsequently to the internet, security issues arise. Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) is a legacy protocol that many advanced measurement instruments support. It can be issued via General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB), Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART), Universal Serial Bus (USB), or Ethernet. However, it is ...

  • Mobile Banking Trojan FakeToken Resurfaces, Sends Offensive Messages Overseas from Victims’ Accounts

    January 16, 2020

    Researchers recently discovered an updated version of mobile banking trojan FakeToken after detecting around 5,000 smartphones sending offensive text messages overseas. They noted the unusual development this malware has taken, compared to its previously reported update that disguised itself as a ride-hailing app capable of stealing personally identifiable information (PII) as well as its expanded ransomware capabilities. However, ...