Hero Researcher Who Halted WannaCry Ransomware Arrested by FBI

By Waqas An IT security researcher going by the Twitter handle of This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Hero Researcher Who Halted WannaCry Ransomware Arrested by FBI...

Petya-like Ransomware Explained

TL;DR summary June 28 and beyond: A major ransomware attack started in Ukraine yesterday and has spread around the world. The ransomware, which was initially thought to be a modified Petya variant, encrypts files on infected machines and uses multiple mechanisms to both gain entry to target...

WannaCry Hero Arrested, One of Two Charged with Distribution of Kronos Malware

Marcus Hutchins, the researcher hailed for his work in blunting the WannaCry ransomware outbreak in May, was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas and charged with creating and distributing the Kronos banking malware. Hutchins, known online as Malwaretech, is a U.K. citizen and arrived in Las Vegas las...

WannaCry Bitcoin Withdrawn; 'Killswitch' Researcher Detained in Nevada

Someone on Wednesday began withdrawing Bitcoin from three wallets connected to the WannaCry ransomware attacks. According to a Twitter bot that tracks the status of each wallet, seven withdrawals were made yesterday starting at around 11 a.m. Eastern time. The wallets contained a little more than...

FBI Arrests Researcher Who Found 'Kill-Switch' to Stop Wannacry Ransomware

The 22-year-old British security researcher who gained fame for discovering the "kill switch" that stopped the outbreak of the WannaCry ransomware—has been reportedly arrested in the United States after attending the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas. Marcus Hutchins, operates under the ali...

Hackers Behind WannaCry Ransomware Withdraw $143,000 From Bitcoin Wallets

The cyber criminals behind the global WannaCry ransomware attack that caused chaos worldwide have finally cashed out their ransom payments. Nearly three months ago, the WannaCry ransomware shut down hospitals, telecom providers, and many businesses worldwide, infecting hundreds of thousands of...

Enemy at the gates: Reviewing the Magnitude exploit kit redirection chain

Over the last few months, we have been keeping an eye on the Magnitude exploit kit which is mainly used to deliver the Cerber ransomware to specific countries in Asia. Our telemetry shows that South Korea is most impacted via ongoing malvertising campaigns. When a visitor goes to a website that...

WannaCry Inspires Banking Trojan to Add Self-Spreading Ability

Although the wave of WannaCry and Petya ransomware has now been slowed down, money-motivated hackers and cyber criminals have taken lessons from the global outbreaks to make their malware more powerful. Security researchers have now discovered at least one group of cyber criminals that are...

Pharmaceutical Giant Still Feeling NotPetya's Sting

NotPetya was massive shift in malware tactics as what was initially believed to be another global ransomware attack on par with WannaCry was instead a wiper in disguise. It claimed thousands of victims worldwide, including some of the highest profile manufacturers, critical infrastructure provide...

ShieldFS Can Detect Ransomware, Recover Files

LAS VEGAS—Researchers from Italy’s Politecnico di Milano unveiled at Black Hat last week an add-on Windows driver and filesystem that detects ransomware and recovers files. ShieldFS was officially unveiled during the hacker conference by researchers Andrea Continella and Federico Maggi, who said...

Android Banking Trojan Svpeng Adds Keylogger

The authors behind the Android banking malware family Svpeng have added a keylogger to a recent strain, giving attackers yet another way to steal sensitive data. Roman Unuchek, a senior malware analyst with Kaspersky Lab, said Monday he spotted a new variant of the Trojan in mid-July. Unuchek say...

Healthcare Clinic Suffers Ransomware Attack; 300K Patients Impacted

By Waqas This without a doubt is the second largest health data This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Healthcare Clinic Suffers Ransomware Attack; 300K Patients Impacted...

How A Coffee Machine Infected Factory Computers with Ransomware

By Waqas Its no surprise that the Internet of Things IoT devices This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: How A Coffee Machine Infected Factory Computers with Ransomware...

This Week in Security News

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. Below you’ll find a quick recap of topics followed by links to news articles and/or our blog posts providing additional insight. Be sure to check back...

How Hackers Cash Out Thousands of Bitcoins Received in Ransomware Attacks

Digital currencies have emerged as a favourite tool for hackers and cyber criminals, as digital currency transactions are nearly anonymous, allowing cyber criminals to use it in underground markets for illegal trading, and to receive thousands of dollars in ransomware attacks—WannaCry, Petya,...

The state of ransomware among SMBs

In a report conducted by Osterman Research and sponsored by Malwarebytes, more than 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses were surveyed in June 2017 about ransomware and other critical security issues. What we discovered was surprising—ransomware authors aren’t only targeting enterprise...

The real problem with ransomware

Ransomware – a specialized form of malware that encrypts files and renders them inaccessible until the victim pays a ransom – is an extremely serious problem and it’s quickly getting worse. The FBI estimated that ransomware payments were $1 billion in 2016, up from “just” $24 million a year...

Google StuGoogle Study Quantifies Ransomware Profitsdy Quantifies Ransomware Revenue

LAS VEGAS—Over the past two years, 35 unique ransomware strains earned cybercriminals $25 million, with Locky and its many variants being the most profitable. The data comes from a study debuted Wednesday at Black Hat by Google, Chainalysis, UC San Diego, and the NYU Tandom School of Engineering...

6 billion records hacked in 2017 so far; ransomware victims paid $25 million

By Waqas With every passing day, hackers and cyber criminals are becoming This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 6 billion records hacked in 2017 so far; ransomware victims paid $25 million...

Part 1: Reading SPAM for Research

I recently wrote an article for Information Security Magazine where I explained how internet security researchers could use their spam folders as a resource tool. It got me thinking about going into greater detail on what I've found in my inbox. Phishing Sites I noticed an increase in "free gift...