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:
- British Army Twitter and YouTube feeds hijacked by crypto-promos
July 4, 2022
The British Army has apologizsed after its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised by entities that used them to promote NFTs. As recorded by The Wayback Machine, the @BritishArmy Twitter feed hosted content promoting non-fungible tokens described thusly: “The Anomalies is a collection of special Possessed 1/1s”. According to Web3-watcher Web3 is going just great – the ...
- What to do about inherent security flaws in critical infrastructure?
July 3, 2022
The latest threat security research into operational technology (OT) and industrial systems identified a bunch of issues — 56 to be exact — that criminals could use to launch cyberattacks against critical infrastructure. But many of them are unfixable, due to insecure protocols and architectural designs. And this highlights a larger security problem with devices that ...
- Crypto sleuths pin $100 million Harmony theft on Lazarus Group
July 1, 2022
Investigators at a blockchain analysis outfit have linked the theft of $100 million in crypto assets last week to the notorious North Korean-based cybercrime group Lazarus. The company said it had tracked the movement of some of the stolen cryptocurrency to a so-called mixer used to launder such ill-gotten funds. Blockchain startup Harmony announced June 23 ...
- Microsoft finds Raspberry Robin worm in hundreds of Windows networks
July 1, 2022
Microsoft says that a recently spotted Windows worm has been found on the networks of hundreds of organizations from various industry sectors. The malware, dubbed Raspberry Robin, spreads via infected USB devices, and it was first spotted in September 2021 by Red Canary intelligence analysts. Cybersecurity firm Sekoia also observed it using QNAP NAS devices as command ...
- #StopRansomware: MedusaLocker
June 30, 2022
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of the Treasury, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are releasing this CSA to provide information on MedusaLocker ransomware. Observed as recently as May 2022, MedusaLocker actors predominantly rely on vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to access victims’ networks. ...
- Black Basta Ransomware Operators Expand Their Attack Arsenal With QakBot Trojan and PrintNightmare Exploit
June 30, 2022
Since it became operational in April, Black Basta has garnered notoriety for its recent attacks on 50 organizations around the world and its use of double extortion, a modern ransomware tactic in which attackers encrypt confidential data and threaten to leak it if their demands are not met. The emerging ransomware group has continued to ...