A technique that hostile nation-states and financially motivated ransomware groups are using to hide their operations poses a threat to critical infrastructure and national security, the National Security Agency has warned.
The technique is known as fast flux. It allows decentralized networks operated by threat actors to hide their infrastructure and survive takedown attempts that would otherwise succeed. Fast flux works by cycling through a range of IP addresses and domain names that these botnets use to connect to the Internet. In some cases, IPs and domain names change every day or two; in other cases, they change almost hourly. The constant flux complicates the task of isolating the true origin of the infrastructure.
Read more…
Source: ArsTechnica
Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Conti ransomware uses 32 simultaneous CPU threads for blazing-fast encryption
July 9, 2020
A lesser-known ransomware strain known as Conti is using up to 32 simultaneous CPU threads to encrypt files on infected computers for blazing-fast encryption speeds, security researchers from Carbon Black said in a report on Wednesday. Conti is just the latest in a long string of ransomware strains that have been spotted this year. Just like ...
- More pre-installed malware has been found in budget US smartphones
July 9, 2020
Pre-installed malware has been discovered on another budget handset connected to Assurance Wireless by Virgin Mobile. Back in January, cybersecurity researchers from Malwarebytes discovered unremovable malware bundled with the Android operating systems on the Unimax (UMX) U686CL, a low-end handset sold by Assurance Wireless as part of the Lifeline Assistance program, a 1985 US initiative which subsidizes telephone services for ...
- New Mirai Variant Expands Arsenal, Exploits CVE-2020-10173
July 8, 2020
Researchers at Trend Micro discovered a new Mirai variant (detected as IoT.Linux.MIRAI.VWISI) that exploits nine vulnerabilities, most notable of which is CVE-2020-10173 in Comtrend VR-3033 routers which we have not observed exploited by past Mirai variants. This discovery is a new addition to the Mirai variants that appeared in the past few months, that include SORA, UNSTABLE, and Mukashi. The case, ...
- 15 Billion Credentials Currently Up for Grabs on Hacker Forums
July 8, 2020
Fifteen billion usernames and passwords for a range of internet services are currently for sale on underground forums – shedding light on the sheer scope of compromised credentials that are fueling account takeovers on the internet. A report released Wednesday — “From Exposure to Takeover” by the Digital Shadows Photon Research Team — found that 100,000 separate data ...
- Patch Now: F5 Vulnerability with CVSS 10 Severity Score
July 7, 2020
F5 Networks, a provider of networking devices and services, urges users to patch their BIG-IP networking systems as soon as possible, after the provider disclosed two vulnerabilities. First of these is CVE-2020-5902, a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability found in BIG-IP device’s Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI). CVE-2020-5902 received a 10 out of 10 score on the Common ...
- ‘Keeper’ hacking group behind hacks at 570 online stores
July 7, 2020
A hacking group known as “Keeper” is responsible for security breaches at more than 570 online e-commerce portals over the last three years. The Keeper gang broke into online store backends, altered their source code, and inserted malicious scripts that logged payment card details entered by shoppers in checkout forms. These types of attacks are what the ...

