How fiends abuse an out-of-date Microsoft Windows driver to infect victims

Ransomware spreaders have built a handy tool that abuses an out-of-date Microsoft Windows driver to disable security defenses before dropping malware into the targeted systems. This detection evasion utility, which Sophos X-Ops researchers are calling AuKill, is the latest example Read More …

Microsoft SQL servers hacked to deploy Trigona ransomware

Attackers are hacking into poorly secured and Interned-exposed Microsoft SQL (MS-SQL) servers to deploy Trigona ransomware payloads and encrypt all files. The MS-SQL servers are being breached via brute-force or dictionary attacks that take advantage of easy-to-guess account credentials. Read Read More …

Microsoft, Fortra are this fed up with cyber-gangs abusing Cobalt Strike

Microsoft and Fortra are taking legal and technical actions to thwart cyber-criminals from using the latter company’s Cobalt Strike software to distribute malware. Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DUC), Fortra, and Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC) filed a 223-page Read More …

Untitled Goose Tool Aids Hunt and Incident Response in Azure, Azure Active Directory, and Microsoft 365 Environments

Today, CISA released the Untitled Goose Tool to help network defenders detect potentially malicious activity in Microsoft Azure, Azure Active Directory (AAD), and Microsoft 365 (M365) environments. The Untitled Goose Tool offers novel authentication and data gathering methods for network Read More …

Hackers mostly targeted Microsoft, Google, Apple zero-days in 2022

Hackers continue to target zero-day vulnerabilities in malicious campaigns, with researchers reporting that 55 zero-days were actively exploited in 2022, most targeting Microsoft, Google, and Apple products. Most of these vulnerabilities (53 out of 55) enabled the attacker to either Read More …

Emotet malware now distributed in Microsoft OneNote files to evade defenses

The Emotet malware is now distributed using Microsoft OneNote email attachments, aiming to bypass Microsoft security restrictions and infect more targets. Emotet is a notorious malware botnet historically distributed through Microsoft Word and Excel attachments that contain malicious macros. If Read More …