Emotet: A Year in the Life of a Malware

Overview Emotet malware has been around since 2014, but 2020 saw a resurgence of attacks. In September 2020, Emotet affected 14% of organizations worldwide. So, what is Emotet? And why is it so dangerous? Emotet is a sophisticated trojan that is most commonly used as a dropper for other malware...

New Surface PCs enable virtualization-based security (VBS) by default to empower customers to do more, securely

VBS and HVCI-enabled devices help protect from advanced attacks Escalation of privilege attacks are a malicious actor’s best friend, and they often target sensitive information stored in memory. These kinds of attacks can turn a minor user mode compromise into a full compromise of your OS and...

New Surface PCs enable virtualization-based security (VBS) by default to empower customers to do more, securely

VBS and HVCI-enabled devices help protect from advanced attacks Escalation of privilege attacks are a malicious actor’s best friend, and they often target sensitive information stored in memory. These kinds of attacks can turn a minor user mode compromise into a full compromise of your OS and...

A week in security (January 4 – January 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we released survey results about VPN usage and found that 36 percent of our respondents use it. We also talked about Adobe Flash Player reaching its end of life—meaning, Adobe wont be supporting the updating and patching of its Flash Player software; covered the...

A Look Ahead at 2021: SolarWinds Fallout and Shifting CISO Budgets

The new year started off with a bang, with the SolarWinds hack revealed in late December acting as a jarring reminder to companies and U.S. government departments alike that cybercriminals continue to successfully exploit security lapses in technology. But beyond the SolarWinds supply-chain...

Ryuk Rakes in $150M in Ransom Payments

The Ryuk ransomware has earned its operators an estimated $150 million, according to an examination of the malware’s money-laundering operations. Joint research released this week from Brian Carter, principal researcher at HYAS, and Vitali Kremez, CEO at Advanced Intelligence, took a the look und...

FBI Warns of Egregor Attacks on Businesses Worldwide

The FBI has alerted companies in the private sector to a spate of attacks using the Egregor ransomware. The malware currently is raging a warpath across businesses worldwide and has already compromised more than 150 organizations. The agency issued an advisory PDF that also shed new light and...

Threatpost Poll: Weigh in on Ransomware Security

It’s no secret that ransomware attacks continue to rise – with the number of attacks jumping by 350 percent since 2018. Healthcare systems have been hit particularly hard over the past year by ransomware actors, with a recent report saying that healthcare organizations have seen a 45 percent...

New Year, New Ransomware: Babuk Locker Targets Large Corporations

Only a few days into the new year, one of the first new ransomware strains of 2021 has been discovered. Dubbed Babuk Locker, the ransomware appears to have successfully compromised five companies thus far, according to new research. The research author, Chuong Dong, a computer science student at...

Threat Source newsletter (Jan. 7, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers and welcome to the first Threat Source newsletter of 2021. We hit the ground running already this year with a new Beers with Talos episode. It was recorded back in 2020, but the lessons regarding ransomware attacks and how actors...

Funke Media Group suffers nationwide ransomware attack in Germany

On December 22, Germany’s third largest publisher fell victim to a cyberattack that affected systems in offices all around the country. The Funke Media Group publishes dozens of newspapers, like Berliner Morgenpost, Hamburger Abendblatt, and Bergedorfer Zeitung, as well as magazines, several loca...

Activists Publish a Vast Trove of Ransomware Victims' Data

WikiLeaks successor DDoSecrets has amassed a controversial new collection of corporate secrets and is sharing them in the name of transparency...

Cyberattacks on Healthcare Spike 45% Since November

As COVID-19 ravages international healthcare systems, cybercriminals have decided to leverage the increasingly dire circumstances to squeeze a few bucks out of the human suffering. According to new findings from Check Point Software, healthcare organizations have seen a 45-percent increase in...

The dynamic duo: How to build a red and blue team to strengthen your cybersecurity, Part 1

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyber threats. In the first post of our new Voice of the Community blog series, Microsoft Product Marketing Manager Natalia Godyla talks with Jake Williams, Founder of...

The dynamic duo: How to build a red and blue team to strengthen your cybersecurity, Part 1

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyber threats. In the first post of our new Voice of the Community blog series, Microsoft Product Marketing Manager Natalia Godyla talks with Jake Williams, Founder of...

Major Gaming Companies Hit with Ransomware Linked to APT27

A recent slew of related ransomware attacks on top videogame companies has been associated with the notorious Chinese-linked APT27 threat group, suggesting that the advanced persistent threat APT is swapping up its historically espionage centralized tactics to adopt ransomware, a new report says...

Healthcare Industry Witnessed 45% Spike in Cyber Attacks Since Nov 20

Cyberattacks targeting healthcare organizations have spiked by 45% since November 2020 as COVID-19 cases continue to increase globally. According to a new report published by Check Point Research today and shared with The Hacker News, this increase has made the sector the most targeted industry b...

Healthcare Industry Witnessed 45% Spike in Cyber Attacks Since Nov 20

Cyberattacks targeting healthcare organizations have spiked by 45% since November 2020 as COVID-19 cases continue to increase globally. According to a new report published by Check Point Research today and shared with The Hacker News, this increase has made the sector the most targeted industry b...

Ransomware Gang Collects Data from Blood Testing Lab

Apex Laboratory, which provides blood work at home for patients in New York City, Long Island and South Florida, has been hit with a ransomware attack that also resulted in patient data being stolen. Though the company just disclosed the attack, it took place on July 25, when “certain systems in...

Leading Game Publishers Hit Hard by Leaked-Credential Epidemic

Leading gaming companies, such as Ubisoft, have become big targets for cybercriminals that aim to turn a profit by selling leaked insider-credentials tied to the top game publishers. Over 500,000 stolen credentials tied to the top 25 gaming firms were found on caches of breached data online and u...