CISA is warning us (again) about the threat to critical infrastructure networks

Government-run water systems and other critical infrastructure are still at risk from state-sponsored actors, according to a renewed warning from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA released an advisory last week on the matter of days after a small water treatment...

Ransomware Groups Demystified: CyberVolk Ransomware

As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor emerging cyber threats, we have analyzed the activities of CyberVolk, a politically motivated hacktivist group that transitioned into using ransomware and has been active since June 2024. Unlike traditional ransomware groups, CyberVolk initially positione...

Ransomware Groups Demystified: CyberVolk Ransomware

As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor emerging cyber threats, we have analyzed the activities of CyberVolk, a politically motivated hacktivist group that transitioned into using ransomware and has been active since June 2024. Unlike traditional ransomware groups, CyberVolk initially positione...

Threat actor believed to be spreading new MedusaLocker variant since 2022

Cisco Talos has discovered a financially motivated threat actor, active since 2022, recently observed delivering a MedusaLocker ransomware variant. Intelligence collected by Talos on tools regularly employed by the threat actor allows us to see an estimate of the amount and countries of origin of...

LockBit Ransomware and Evil Corp Members Arrested and Sanctioned in Joint Global Effort

A new wave of international law enforcement actions has led to four arrests and the takedown of nine servers linked to the LockBit aka Bitwise Spider ransomware operation, marking the latest salvo against what was once a prolific financially motivated group. This includes the arrest of a suspecte...

Threat Brief: Understanding Akira Ransomware

Overview Akira is a prolific ransomware that has been operating since March 2023 and has targeted multiple industries, primarily in North America, the UK, and Australia. It functions as a Ransomware as a Service RaaS and exfiltrates data prior to encryption, achieving double extortion. According ...

Andariel Hacking Group Shifts Focus to Financial Attacks on U.S. Organizations

Three different organizations in the U.S. were targeted in August 2024 by a North Korean state-sponsored threat actor called Andariel as part of a likely financially motivated attack. "While the attackers didn't succeed in deploying ransomware on the networks of any of the organizations affected,...

Notorious Evil Corp Hackers Targeted NATO Allies for Russian Intelligence

UK law enforcement and international partners have released new details about the cybercriminal gang Evil Corp, including its use of the Lockbit ransomware platform and ties to Russian intelligence...

Key Group: another ransomware group using leaked builders

Key Group, or keygroup777, is a financially motivated ransomware group primarily targeting Russian users. The group is known for negotiating with victims on Telegram and using the Chaos ransomware builder. The first public report on Key Group's activity was released in 2023 by BI.ZONE, a...

A Hacker's Era: Why Microsoft 365 Protection Reigns Supreme

Imagine a sophisticated cyberattack cripples your organization's most critical productivity and collaboration tool — the platform you rely on for daily operations. In the blink of an eye, hackers encrypt your emails, files, and crucial business data stored in Microsoft 365, holding it hostage usi...

A week in security (September 23 – September 29)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Millions of Kia vehicles were vulnerable to remote attacks with just a license plate number Privacy watchdog files complaint over Firefox quietly enabling its Privacy Preserving Attribution Telegram will hand over user details to law enforcement Don’t share the vir...

How to Plan and Prepare for Penetration Testing

As security technology and threat awareness among organizations improves so do the adversaries who are adopting and relying on new techniques to maximize speed and impact while evading detection. Ransomware and malware continue to be the method of choice by big game hunting BGH cyber criminals, a...

Microsoft Identifies Storm-0501 as Major Threat in Hybrid Cloud Ransomware Attacks

The threat actor known as Storm-0501 has targeted government, manufacturing, transportation, and law enforcement sectors in the U.S. to stage ransomware attacks. The multi-stage attack campaign is designed to compromise hybrid cloud environments and perform lateral movement from on-premises to...

U.S. Sanctions Two Crypto Exchanges for Facilitating Cybercrime and Money Laundering

The U.S. government on Thursday sanctioned two cryptocurrency exchanges and unsealed an indictment against a Russian national for his alleged involvement in the operation of several money laundering services that were offered to cybercriminals. The virtual currency exchanges, Cryptex and PM2BTC,...

Threat landscape for industrial automation systems, Q2 2024

Statistics across all threats In the second quarter of 2024, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked decreased by 0.9 pp from the previous quarter to 23.5%. The percentage has decreased by 3.3 pp compared to the second quarter of 2023, when the indicator reached it...

DragonForce Ransomware Expands RaaS, Targets Firms Worldwide

DragonForce ransomware is expanding its RaaS operation and becoming a global cybersecurity threat against businesses. Companies must implement…...

Discover Latest Ransomware Tactics and Zero Trust Strategies in This Expert Webinar

Ransomware is no longer just a threat; it's an entire industry. Cybercriminals are growing more sophisticated, and their tactics are evolving rapidly. This persistent danger is a major concern for business leaders. But there's good news: you don't have to be defenseless. What if you could gain a...

A week in security (September 16 – September 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: "Simply staggering" surveillance conducted by social media and streaming services, FTC finds Tor anonymity compromised by law enforcement. Is it still safe to use? Walmart customers scammed via fake shopping lists, threatened with arrest Snapchat wants to put your...

Hacktivist Group Twelve Targets Russian Entities with Destructive Cyber Attacks

A hacktivist group known as Twelve has been observed using an arsenal of publicly available tools to conduct destructive cyber attacks against Russian targets. "Rather than demand a ransom for decrypting data, Twelve prefers to encrypt victims' data and then destroy their infrastructure with a...

-=TWELVE=- is back

In the spring of 2024, posts with real people's personal data began appearing on the -=TWELVE=- Telegram channel. Soon it was blocked for falling foul of the Telegram terms of service. The group stayed off the radar for several months, but as we investigated a late June 2024 attack, we found that...