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:
- New iOS zero-days actively used against high-profile targets
April 22, 2020
Two zero-day vulnerabilities affecting iPhone and iPad devices were found by cybersecurity startup ZecOps after the discovery of a series of ongoing remote attacks that have targeted iOS users since at least January 2018. “The attack’s scope consists of sending a specially crafted email to a victim’s mailbox enabling it to trigger the vulnerability in the context of iOS ...
- State-backed phishing targets U.S. Government employees with fast food lures
April 22, 2020
More than a dozen state-backed hacking groups are actively targeting U.S. Government employees and healthcare organizations in phishing campaigns that use lures designed to take advantage of the fears surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. “TAG has specifically identified over a dozen government-backed attacker groups using COVID-19 themes as lure for phishing and malware attempts—trying to get their targets to ...
- Loki Delivered as CAB File Attachment
April 22, 2020
We found in our honeypot a spam sample that delivers the info stealer Loki through an attached Windows Cabinet (CAB) file. The email that bears the malicious file poses as a quotation request to trick the user into executing the binary file inside the CAB file. CAB is a compressed archive file format usually associated with various drivers, system ...
- APT32 Targeting Wuhan Government and Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management
April 22, 2020
From at least January to April 2020, suspected Vietnamese actors APT32 carried out intrusion campaigns against Chinese targets that Mandiant Threat Intelligence believes was designed to collect intelligence on the COVID-19 crisis. Spear phishing messages were sent by the actor to China’s Ministry of Emergency Management as well as the government of Wuhan province, where COVID-19 ...
- Security researcher discloses four IBM zero-days after company refused to patch
April 21, 2020
A security researcher has published today details about four zero-day vulnerabilities impacting an IBM security product after the company refused to patch bugs following a private bug disclosure attempt. The bugs impact the IBM Data Risk Manager (IDRM), an enterprise security tool that aggregates feeds from vulnerability scanning tools and other risk management tools to let admins ...
- Oil and Gas Firms Targeted With Agent Tesla Spyware
April 21, 2020
Attackers are targeting energy companies with the Agent Tesla spyware, as seen in recent spearphishing emails with malicious attachments. Researchers say that until now, Agent Tesla has not been associated with campaigns targeting the oil-and-gas vertical. The emails leverage the tumultuous nature of today’s oil and gas markets, which have been under tremendous stress in recent weeks, as ...