- EKANS Ransomware and ICS Operations
February 3, 2020
EKANS ransomware emerged in mid-December 2019, and Dragos published a private report to Dragos WorldView Threat Intelligence customers early January 2020. While relatively straightforward as a ransomware sample in terms of encrypting files and displaying a ransom note, EKANS featured additional functionality to forcibly stop a number of processes, including multiple items related to ICS ...
- Emotet Uses Coronavirus Scare in Latest Campaign, Targets Japan
January 31, 2020
Threat actors behind the Emotet malware used the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) scare as a hook for their spam email campaign against targets in Japan. 2019-nCoV, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, in the past month, has caused hundreds of deaths and thousands of confirmed cases in China alone. The virus has already spread to ...
- U.S. Government Agency Targeted With Malware-Laced Emails
January 23, 2020
A U.S. government agency was targeted with spear phishing emails harboring several malware strains – including a never-before-seen malware downloader that researchers call “Carrotball.” The campaign, which researchers observed occurring from July to October and code-named “Fractured Statue,” involved six unique malicious document lures being sent as attachments from four different Russian email addresses to 10 ...
- Shlayer Trojan attacks one in ten macOS users
January 23, 2020
For close to two years now, the Shlayer Trojan has been the most common threat on the macOS platform: in 2019, one in ten of our Mac security solutions encountered this malware at least once, and it accounts for almost 30% of all detections for this OS. The first specimens of this family fell into ...
- European Energy Sector Organization Targeted by PupyRAT Malware in Late 2019
January 23, 2020
Over the course of the last year, Recorded Future research has demonstrated that Iran-nexus groups, possibly including APT33 (also called Elfin), have been prolific in amassing operational network infrastructure throughout 2019. Additionally, in November 2019, Microsoft disclosed that APT33 had shifted focus from targeting IT networks to physical control systems used in electric utilities, manufacturing, and oil refineries. We ...
- Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince’
January 22, 2020
The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian. The encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated ...
- Microsoft discovers new sLoad 2.0 (Starslord) malware
January 21, 2020
After thoroughly having its secrets laid bare last month in a Microsoft exposé report, the operators of the sLoad malware have put into circulation a revamped 2.0 version earlier this month. This new sLoad version (also known as Starslord) doesn’t change much, but the fact that the sLoad gang shipped a new version in less than a ...
- FTCODE Ransomware Now Steals Chrome, Firefox Credentials
January 21, 2020
FTCODE, a PowerShell-based ransomware that targets Italian-language users, has added new capabilities, including the ability to swipe saved web browser and email client credentials from victims. Samples of the ransomware, which has been around since 2013, were recently observed in September 2019. After further analysis, researchers say new versions of the ransomware now aim to steal credentials from Internet Explorer ...
- Emotet Malware Dabbles in Extortion With New Spam Template
January 20, 2020
The Emotet malware has started using a spam template that pretends to be an extortion demand from a “Hacker” who states that they hacked the recipient’s computer and stole their data. Emotet is spread through spam emails that commonly use templates based around a particular theme such as shipping information, voice mails, scanned documents, reports, and ...
- New JhoneRAT Malware Targets Middle East
January 17, 2020
Researchers are warning of a new remote access trojan (RAT), dubbed JhoneRAT, which is being distributed as part of an active campaign, ongoing since November 2019, that targets victims in the Middle East. Once downloaded, the RAT gathers information on the victims’ computers and is also able to download additional payloads. Evidence shows that the attackers behind JhoneRAT ...