Security researchers at digital rights unit The Citizen Lab say government spyware makers are abusing global advertising networks to target and hack devices by serving malicious online adverts.
A new report published Thursday by the University of Toronto lab, which investigates surveillance and digital rights abuses, said an Israeli company called Discover-Tech allows spyware makers to use its advertising platform to target specific people or devices almost anywhere in the world with spyware capable of invisibly stealing their data.
The researchers say Discover-Tech presents itself as a legitimate advertising firm, but instead serves as a “bridge between ad vendors and the mercenary spyware ecosystem.”
Read more…
Source: TechCrunch News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Exploring the Inner Workings of DuckTail
August 30, 2023
In their persistent quest to decode DuckTail’s maneuvers, Zscaler ThreatLabz began an intelligence collection operation in May 2023. Through an intensive three-month period of monitoring, Zscaler researchers obtained critical details about DuckTail’s operational framework. This expedition granted them unprecedented visibility into DuckTail’s end-to-end operations, spanning the entire kill chain from reconnaissance to post-compromise. Zscaler team yielded valuable ...
- Multiple Threats Target Adobe ColdFusion Vulnerabilities
August 30, 2023
This past July, Adobe responded to reports of exploits targeting pre-authentication remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in their ColdFusion solution by releasing a series of security updates: APSB23-40, APSB23-41, and APSB23-47. An in-depth analysis of those exploits has been documented by Project Discovery, including a significant vulnerability in the WDDX deserialization process within Adobe ColdFusion ...
- Diving Deep into UNC4841 Operations Following Barracuda ESG Zero-Day Remediation (CVE-2023-2868)
August 29, 2023
On June 15, 2023, Mandiant released a blog post detailing an 8-month-long global espionage campaign conducted by a Chinese-nexus threat group tracked as UNC4841. Over the course of this follow up blog post, Mandiant researchers will detail how UNC4841 has continued to show sophistication and adaptability in response to remediation efforts. Specifically, UNC4841 deployed new and ...
- For the win? Offensive research contests on criminal forums
August 29, 2023
If you’re a security researcher who wants to share your innovations and insights with the wider community (and gain some peer recognition into the bargain), you’ve got a few options: present at conferences; write papers, blogs etc. The legitimate side of the house is awash with opportunities. But what if you’re a threat actor, whose research ...
- CISA Releases IOCs Associated with Malicious Barracuda Activity
August 29, 2023
CISA has released additional indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with exploitation of CVE-2023-2868. CVE-2023-2868 is a remote command injection vulnerability affecting Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliance, versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006. Malicious threat actors exploited this vulnerability as a zero day as early as October 2022 to gain access to ESG appliances. Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure ...
- Deconstructing ransomware, cybercriminals and their modus operandi
August 29, 2023
The problem of ransomware is a seemingly age-old problem that is not going away, at least not any time soon. Governments and law enforcement are banding together to try to battle this issue with financial sanctions and takedowns of the groups behind ransomware attacks but they’re like the mythical beast Hydra – take the head ...
