DeadLock is a ransomware family discovered in July 2025. It is notable for not being associated with any known affiliate programs and for lacking a Data Leak Site (DLS). This, combined with the limited number of reported victims, has resulted in low exposure for the group. However, Group-IB specialists have discovered an interesting use of Polygon smart contracts for proxy server address rotation or distribution.
This finding warrants public attention, especially since the abuse of this specific blockchain for malicious purposes has not been widely reported. In addition, the recent discovery of similar techniques show that the abuse of smart contracts for malicious purposes could become an emerging trend.
Read more…
Source: Group IB
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Google blocks third record-breaking DDoS attack in as many months
August 18, 2022
Google says it has blocked the largest ever HTTPS-based distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in June, which peaked at 46 million requests per second. To put things in perspective, this is about 76 percent larger than the previous record DDoS attack that Cloudflare thwarted earlier that same month. As Googlers Emil Kiner and Satya Konduru explain: “That is like ...
- LockBit claims ransomware attack on security giant Entrust
August 18, 2022
The LockBit ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for the June cyberattack on digital security giant Entrust. Last month, BleepingComputer broke the story that Entrust suffered a ransomware attack on June 18th, 2022. Starting in early June, Entrust had begun to tell customers that they suffered a cyberattack where data was stolen from internal systems. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- Janet Jackson music video declared a cybersecurity vulnerability
August 18, 2022
The music video for Janet Jackson’s 1989 pop hit Rhythm Nation has been recognized as a cybersecurity vulnerability after Microsoft reported it can crash old laptop computers. “A colleague of mine shared a story from Windows XP product support,” wrote Microsoft blogger Raymond Chen. The story detailed how “a major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music ...
- Apple security updates fix 2 zero-days used to hack iPhones, Macs
August 17, 2022
Apple has released emergency security updates today to fix two zero-day vulnerabilities previously exploited by attackers to hack iPhones, iPads, or Macs. Zero-day vulnerabilities are security flaws known by attackers or researchers before the software vendor has become aware or been able to patch them. In many cases, zero-days have public proof-of-concept exploits or are actively ...
- Estonia hit by ‘most extensive’ cyberattack since 2007 amid tensions with Russia over Ukraine war
August 17, 2022
Estonia was subject to “the most extensive cyberattack” since 2007, the Baltic state’s government said on Thursday, a day after it started removing Soviet-era war monuments from public areas in the wake of Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. The Russia-based and pro-Russia hacker group Killnet said on the messaging app Telegram that it was responsible for ...
- Switching side jobs: Links between ATMZOW JS-sniffer and Hancitor
August 17, 2022
The hacker group ATMZOW and its JavaScript-sniffer became known in 2020, thanks to the Malwarebytes researchers, when the group installed a JS sniffer on a website that was collecting donations for victims of the Australia bushfires. However, based on a specific obfuscation technique used by the group, we can track its activities back to 2015 as ...