There is a big incentive for both espionage motivated actors and financially motivated actors to set up proxy botnets. These can serve as an anonymization layer, which can provide plausibly geolocated IP addresses to scrape contents of websites, access stolen or compromised online assets, and launch cyber-attacks.
Examples of proxy botnets set up by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors are the VPNFilter botnet and Cyclops Blink, both deployed by Sandworm and disrupted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2018 and 2022, respectively. Another example is the SOHO botnet alleged to be operated by a Chinese company called the Beijing Integrity Technology Group; this botnet was disrupted in September 2024 by the FBI.
Read more…
Source: Trend Micro
Related:
- #StopRansomware: Akira Ransomware summary
April 18, 2024
Since March 2023, Akira ransomware has impacted a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe, and Australia. In April 2023, following an initial focus on Windows systems, Akira threat actors deployed a Linux variant targeting VMware ESXi virtual machines. As of January 1, 2024, the ransomware group has impacted over 250 ...
- How secret rise of zero-day brokers is causing worldwide security risks
April 18, 2024
Zero-day hackers exploit security vulnerabilities in software that the developers of that software are often completely oblivious about. Imagine scrolling through your social media feed when a notification pops up, seemingly from a trusted friend. It contains a funny meme or a scandalous news story, but the link takes you to a different website. Clicking it ...
- Police bust global cyber gang accused of industrial-scale fraud
April 18, 2024
Police have taken down a gang accused of using a technology service that helped criminals use fraudulent text messages to steal from victims. They have arrested 37 people worldwide and are contacting victims. Officers say younger people who grew up with the internet were the most likely to fall for the “phishing” scam. The technology allowed ...
- SoumniBot: the new Android banker’s unique techniques
April 17, 2024
The creators of widespread malware programs often employ various tools that hinder code detection and analysis, and Android malware is no exception. As an example of this, droppers, such as Badpack and Hqwar, designed for stealthily delivering Trojan bankers or spyware to smartphones, are very popular among malicious actors who attack mobile devices. That said, we ...
- Attackers exploiting new critical OpenMetadata vulnerabilities on Kubernetes clusters
April 17, 2024
Attackers are constantly seeking new vulnerabilities to compromise Kubernetes environments. Microsoft recently uncovered an attack that exploits new critical vulnerabilities in OpenMetadata to gain access to Kubernetes workloads and leverage them for cryptomining activity. OpenMetadata is an open-source platform designed to manage metadata across various data sources. It serves as a central repository for metadata lineage, ...
- CVE-2024-3400: Critical Command Injection Vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks Firewalls
April 17, 2024
On Friday, April 12, Palo Alto Networks published an advisory on CVE-2024-3400, a CVSS 10 zero-day vulnerability in several versions of PAN-OS, the operating system that runs on the company’s firewalls. According to the vendor advisory, if conditions for exploitability are met, the vulnerability may enable an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges ...