- Surge of MegaCortex ransomware attacks detected
May 6, 2019
UK cyber-security firm Sophos reported detecting a spike in ransomware attacks at the end of last week from a new strain named MegaCortex. Sophos said the ransomware appears to have been designed to target large enterprise networks as part of carefully planned targeted intrusions –in a tactic that is known as “big-game hunting.” The modus operandi is ...
- Mysterious hacker has been selling Windows 0-days to APT groups for three years
May 1, 2019
For the past three years, a mysterious hacker has been selling Windows zero-days to at least three cyber-espionage groups, as well as cyber-crime gangs, researchers from Kaspersky Lab have told ZDNet. The hacker’s activity reinforces recent assessments that some government-backed cyber-espionage groups –also known as APTs (advanced persistent threats)– will regularly buy zero-day exploits from third-party entities, ...
- APT trends report Q1 2019
April 30, 2019
For just under two years, the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky Lab has been publishing quarterly summaries of advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. The summaries are based on our threat intelligence research and provide a representative snapshot of what we have published and discussed in greater detail in our private APT reports. ...
- Source code of Carbanak trojan found on VirusTotal
April 23, 2019
The source code of one of the world’s most dangerous malware strains has been uploaded and left available on VirusTotal for two years, and almost nobody has noticed. It was discovered by security researchers from US cyber-security firm FireEye, analyzed for the past two years, and made public today, so other members of the cyber-security community ...
- Old-school cruel: Dodgy PDF email attachments enjoying a renaissance
April 19, 2019
The last few months have seen a big increase in malware attacks using PDF email attachments, according to security firm SonicWall. “Increasingly, email, Office documents and now PDFs are the vehicle of choice for malware and fraud in the cyber landscape,” said the outfit’s Bill Conner. There’s nothing new in this, of course, but many recent attacks ...
- Cyber-security firm Verint hit by ransomware
April 17, 2019
The Israel offices of US cyber-security firm Verint have been hit by ransomware, according to a screenshot taken by a Verint employee that started circulating online earlier today. “There is currently a critical issue affecting the on premise Email and Green zone VDI services,” read a warning message that was displayed earlier today ...
- Pirates of Brazil: Integrating the Strengths of Russian and Chinese Hacking Communities
April 16, 2019
Each country’s hackers are unique, with their own codes of conduct, forums, motives and payment methods. Recorded Future’s Portuguese-speaking analysts, with a long-standing background in the Brazilian underground, have analyzed underground markets and forums tailored to the Brazilian Portuguese audience over the past decade and discovered a number of particularities in content hosted on forums, ...
- APAC consumers have little trust in digital services
April 16, 2019
Just 31% of consumers in Asia-Pacific believe their personal information will be managed in a trustworthy way by businesses offering digital services, with only 5% willing to transact with companies that offer cheaper but less trusted digital platforms. The apparent lack of trust in digital companies is understandable, considering almost 40% have had their trust ...
- Malspam Campaigns Distribute HawkEye Keylogger, Post Ownership Change
April 16, 2019
After the HawkEye malware kit underwent an ownership change and new development, researchers are spotting the keylogger used in several malicious email campaigns. The HawkEye malware kit and information-stealer has been spotted in a newfound slew of campaigns after a recent ownership change. While the keylogger has been in continuous development since 2013, in December a thread ...
- New zero-day vulnerability CVE-2019-0859 in win32k.sys
April 15, 2019
CVE-2019-0859 is a Use-After-Free vulnerability that is presented in the CreateWindowEx function. During execution CreateWindowEx sends the message WM_NCCREATE to the window when it’s first created. By using the SetWindowsHookEx function, it is possible to set a custom callback that can handle the WM_NCCREATE message right before calling the window procedure. In win32k.sys all windows are ...