Valak Loader Revamped to Rob Microsoft Exchange Servers

Threat actors have revamped a popular malware loader into a stealthy infostealer that targets Microsoft Exchange servers to pilfer enterprise mailing information, passwords and enterprise certificates, researchers have found. Security researchers from Cybereason Nocturnus have discovered Valak, a...

U.N. Hack Stemmed From Microsoft SharePoint Flaw

Hackers breached the United Nations network in July by exploiting a Microsoft SharePoint vulnerability, according to reports. The breach, which appears to be an espionage operation, reportedly gave the hackers access to an estimated 400 GB of sensitive data. The breach was swept under the rug by...

Pwn2Own Miami Contestants Haul in $180K for Hacking ICS Equipment

The very first Pwn2Own hacking competition that exclusively focuses on the industrial control systems ICS has kicked off in Miami. So far, a total of $180,000 has been awarded for pwning five different products. The contest hosts at Trend Micro’s Zero Day initiative ZDI have allocated more than...

The Shady Secrets of Shadow Networks

Shadow networks are side channels to traditional networks, undetected and working quietly in the background alongside what the traditional network was designed to do. Command and Control sometimes referred to as C2 servers maintain links with compromised end points IoT, PCs, Printers etc within a...

Meet ‘TajMahal,’ A New and Highly Advanced APT Framework

SINGAPORE – Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have discovered a new, highly sophisticated advanced persistent threat APT framework targeting a single Central Asian diplomatic agency. Malware samples associated with the APT reveal a complex never-before-seen code base, making it extremely hard to detec...

Phishing Campaign Steals Money From Industrial Companies

Industrial production companies are the targets in a large-scale spear-phishing email campaign aimed at installing legitimate remote administration software on victims’ systems. Researchers with Kaspersky Lab said that emails purporting to be commercial offers were the conduit to enabling attacke...

How smart is my smart TV?

Some weeks ago, my friend asked me the headlining question while we were having a random argument about electronics. I found it to be an interesting one, particularly because it underlines the current mindset towards security of electronic devices communicable over computer networks. We are...

APT Hackers Infect Routers to Covertly Implant Slingshot Spying Malware

Security researchers at Kaspersky have identified a sophisticated APT hacking group that has been operating since at least 2012 without being noticed due to their complex and clever hacking techniques. The hacking group used a piece of advanced malware—dubbed Slingshot—to infect hundreds of...

A state of constant uncertainty or uncertain constancy? Fast flux explained

Last August, WireX made headlines. For one thing, it was dubbed the first-known DDoS botnet that used the Android platform. For another, it used a technique that—for those who have been around in the industry for quite a while now—rung familiar in the ears: fast flux. In the context of...

Newly Discovered Mac Malware with Ancient Code Spying on Biotech Firms

Security researchers have discovered a rare piece of Mac-based espionage malware that relies on outdated coding practices but has been used in some previous real-world attacks to spy on biomedical research center computers. Dubbed Fruitfly, the malware has remained undetected for years on macOS...

LizardStresser IoT Botnets Part of 400Gbps DDoS Attacks

LizardStresser, a distributed denial of service botnet, has found new life leveraging hundreds of internet-based webcams in attacks against Brazilian-based banks, government agencies as well as a handful of U.S.-based gaming companies. Researchers at the Arbor’s Security Engineering and Response...

Underground Market Selling Cheap Access to Hacked Servers

Criminals and advanced attackers for two years have had at their disposal an extensive trading platform selling access to hacked servers worldwide. For as little as $6 USD, attackers can purchase access to a compromised machine and launch attacks or get a one-time peek at all the data on a server...

Unraveling Turla APT Attack Against Swiss Defense Firm

Ever since hackers targeted Swiss defense contractor RUAG, government officials have been tight lipped about the breach. But on Monday Switzerland’s CERT Computer Emergency Readiness Team spilled the beans on the attack against the firm and the how perpetrators pulled it off. While Monday’s repor...

Latest TeslaCrypt Targets New File Extensions, Invests Heavily in Evasion

TeslaCrypt, like many of its ransomware cousins, doesn’t sleep on past success. Researchers at Endgame Inc., have found two updates for the cryptoransomware in the past two weeks that invest heavily in obfuscation and evasion techniques, and also target a host of new file extensions. These sample...

Angler Exploit Kit Spreading Cryptowall 4.0

As expected, it didn’t take long for one of the most popular exploit kits, Angler, to start spreading the latest iteration of Cryptowall ransomware. A drive-by campaign that uses a one-two punch to drop Cryptowall 4.0 has been observed in the wild this week, according to researchers at Heimdal...

Attackers Embracing Steganography to Hide Communication

Encouraged by patterns carried out on a larger scale recently, researchers believe digital steganography has arrived as a legitimate method for attackers to use when it comes to obscuring communication between command and control servers. In a presentation last week at Black Hat Europe researcher...

Netgear Router Vulnerabilities Public Exploits

A vulnerability in Netgear routers, already disclosed by two sets of researchers at different security companies, has been publicly exploited. Netgear, meanwhile, has yet to release patched firmware, despite apparently having built one and confirmed with one of the companies that privately...

New Spam Campaign Pushing CTB-Locker Ransomware

A new run of spam messages this week has been spotted dropping CTB-Locker ransomware. CTB-Locker, also known as Critroni, is a fairly new piece of crypto ransomware that encrypts hard drives and demands a ransom paid in Bitcoin to the attackers in exchange for the decryption key. Two days ago,...

Beebone Botnet Takedown Carried Out

A relatively small yet troublesome botnet has been shut down in a joint operation between U.S. and European law enforcement and a number of private security companies, including Kaspersky Lab. The takedown of Beebone was carried out on Wednesday by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security,...

Built-In Backdoor Found in Popular Chinese Android Smartphones

Chinese smartphone manufacturers have been criticized many times for suspected backdoors in its products, the popular Chinese smartphone brands, Xiaomi and Star N9500 smartphones are the top examples. Now, the China's third-largest mobile and world's sixth-largest phone manufacturer 'Coolpad', ha...