Threat Source newsletter (Aug. 25, 2022) — We're still not talking about Ukraine enough

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was once the most talked about story in the world. Six months into the conflict, modern attention spans have moved on to other news stories. But Ukraine Independence Day yesterday should...

Microsoft Warns About Phishing Attacks by Russia-linked Hackers

Microsoft on Monday revealed it took steps to disrupt phishing operations undertaken by a "highly persistent threat actor" whose objectives align closely with Russian state interests. The company is tracking the espionage-oriented activity cluster under its chemical element-themed moniker...

Russian State Hackers Continue to Attack Ukrainian Entities with Infostealer Malware

Russian state-sponsored actors are continuing to strike Ukrainian entities with information-stealing malware as part of what's suspected to be an espionage operation. Symantec, a division of Broadcom Software, attributed the malicious campaign to a threat actor tracked Shuckworm, also known as...

jpeg-quantsmooth 安全漏洞

jpeg-quantsmooth is a quantization coefficient-based JPEG artifact removal by the individual developer Ilya Kurdyukov in Russia. A security vulnerability exists in jpeg-quantsmooth in versions prior to commit 8879454, which stems from a floating point exception in /jpeg-quantsmooth/jpegqs+0x4f5d6...

Disrupting SEABORGIUM’s ongoing phishing operations

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC has observed and taken actions to disrupt campaigns launched by SEABORGIUM, an actor Microsoft has tracked since 2017. SEABORGIUM is a threat actor that originates from Russia, with objectives and victimology that align closely with Russian state...

Disrupting SEABORGIUM’s ongoing phishing operations

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC has observed and taken actions to disrupt campaigns launched by SEABORGIUM, an actor Microsoft has tracked since 2017. SEABORGIUM is a threat actor that originates from Russia, with objectives and victimology that align closely with Russian state...

SOVA Android Banking Trojan Returns With New Capabilities and Targets

The SOVA Android banking trojan is continuing to be actively developed with upgraded capabilities to target no less than 200 mobile applications, including banking apps and crypto exchanges and wallets, up from 90 apps when it started out. That's according to the latest findings from Italian...

U.S. Government Offers $10 Million Reward for Information on Conti Ransomware Gang

The U.S. State Department on Thursday announced a $10 million reward for information related to five individuals associated with the Conti ransomware group. The reward offer is also notable for the fact that it marks the first time the face of a Conti associate, known as "Target," has been...

New Hacker Forum Takes Pro-Ukraine Stance

A new hacker forum is taking a unique political stance to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, entertaining only topics and threat activity focused against Russia and Belarus, researchers have found. The Russian-language site, DUMPS Forum, has been around since late May, and at first glance...

DDoS attacks in Q2 2022

News overview Politically-motivated cyberattacks dominated the DDoS landscape in the second quarter of 2022 just as they did in the previous reporting period. ALtahrea Team, a group targeting NATO and its partners, attacked public transportation websites in Israel and the United Kingdom. Israel s...

Experts Uncover New 'CosmicStrand' UEFI Firmware Rootkit Used by Chinese Hackers

An unknown Chinese-speaking threat actor has been attributed to a new kind of sophisticated Unified Extensible Firmware Interface UEFI firmware rootkit called CosmicStrand. "The rootkit is located in the firmware images of Gigabyte or ASUS motherboards, and we noticed that all these images are...

Russia Is Quietly Ramping Up Its Internet Censorship Machine

Since Vladimir Putin blocked Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in March, Russia has been pushing away from the global internet at a rapid pace...

The January 6 Secret Service Text Scandal Turns Criminal

Plus: The FCC cracks down on car warranty robocalls, Thai activists get targeted by NSO's Pegasus, and the Russia-Ukraine cyberwar continues...

Ukrainian Radio Stations Hacked to Broadcast Fake News About Zelenskyy's Health

Ukrainian radio operator TAVR Media on Thursday became the latest victim of a cyberattack, resulting in the broadcast of a fake message that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was seriously ill. "Cybercriminals spread information that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is allegedly in...

DDoS App Meant to Hit Russia Infected Android Phones of Ukrainian Activists

By Deeba Ahmed The pro-Ukraine groups thought they were fighting back against Russia with a new DDoS app, but it turns… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: DDoS App Meant to Hit Russia Infected Android Phones of Ukrainian Activists...

Russia Creates Malware False-Flag App

The Russian hacking group Turla released an Android app that seems to aid Ukrainian hackers in their attacks against Russian networks. Its actually malware, and provides information back to the Russians: The hackers pretended to be a "community of free people around the world who are fighting...

Russia Hackers Abusing BRc4 Red Team Penetration Tool in Recent Attacks

By Deeba Ahmed Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 security researchers have discovered that Russian state-sponsored hackers are abusing the latest Brute… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Russia Hackers Abusing BRc4 Red Team Penetration Tool in Recent Attacks...

Ransomware review: June 2022

Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence builds a monthly picture of ransomware activity by monitoring the information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web leak sites. This information represents victims who were successfully attacked but opted not to pay a ransom. In June, LockBit was the mos...

Google cracks down on sites with ties to hack-for-hire groups in UAE, Russia, India

By Deeba Ahmed Currently, over 30 sites have been marked as malicious by Googles Safe Browsing feature. Google TAG Threat Analysis… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Google cracks down on sites with ties to hack-for-hire groups in UAE, Russia, India...

Google Blocks Dozens of Malicious Domains Operated by Hack-for-Hire Groups

Google's Threat Analysis Group TAG on Thursday disclosed it had acted to block as many as 36 malicious domains operated by hack-for-hire groups from India, Russia, and the U.A.E. In a manner analogous to the surveillanceware ecosystem, hack-for-hire firms equip their clients with capabilities to...