Mirai Botnet Creators Helping FBI Fight Cybercrime to Stay Out of Jail

Three young hackers who were sentenced late last year for creating and spreading the notorious Mirai botnet are now helping the FBI to investigate other "complex" cybercrime cases in return to avoid their lengthy prison terms. Paras Jha, 21 from New Jersey, Josiah White, 20 from Washington, and...

Mirai Botnet Creators Helping FBI Fight Cybercrime to Stay Out of Jail

Three young hackers who were sentenced late last year for creating and spreading the notorious Mirai botnet are now helping the FBI to investigate other "complex" cybercrime cases in return to avoid their lengthy prison terms. Paras Jha, 21 from New Jersey, Josiah White, 20 from Washington, and...

XBash Malware Packs Double Punch: Destroys Data and Mines for Crypto Coins

Researchers have discovered a new sophisticated malware family in the wild, which wrecks havoc on Windows and Linux systems with a combination of data destructive ransomware and malicious cryptomining. The malware, dubbed by Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 researchers who discovered it as Xbash, has...

State of the Internet Security - Credential Stuffing

Credential stuffing, and the botnets behind this activity, is the primary focus of the State of the Internet Security Report, Issue 4, 2018. Credential stuffing, the use of botnets to try to login to a site with stolen or randomly created login information, isn't a new phenomenon, but it is one...

ThreatList: Malware Samples Targeting IoT More Than Double in 2018

It’s no secret that connected devices are posing a security threat in the commercial, consumer and industrial worlds. A fresh report on this expanding threat landscape shows that attacks are accelerating, with MikroTik routers, Telnet password-cracking and the Mirai botnet dominating the...

The Mirai Botnet Architects Are Now Fighting Crime With the FBI

In 2016, three friends created a botnet that nearly broke the internet. Now, they're helping the feds catch cybercriminals of all stripes...

Russian Cybercriminal Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

By Uzair Amir A Russian national namely Peter Yuryeich Levashov has pleaded guilty to operating the Kelihos botnet, which was used to launch a huge spamming and credential stealing campaign across the globe. Levashov, a 38-year old resident of St. Petersburg, Russia, was presented before a...

Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

The Russian man who was accused of operating the infamous Kelihos botnet has finally pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court. Peter Yuryevich Levashov , 38, of St. Petersburg, Russia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Connecticut to computer crime, wire fraud, conspiracy and...

Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

The Russian man who was accused of operating the infamous Kelihos botnet has finally pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court. Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 38, of St. Petersburg, Russia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Connecticut to computer crime, wire fraud, conspiracy and...

Experts Bemoan Shortcomings with IoT Security Bill

An internet of things IoT bill that would mandate unique passwords for connected devices has been approved by the California state legislature. It will be the first potential connected device regulation to come into effect in the United States if California Gov. Jerry Brown decides to sign it —...

Using Hacked IoT Devices to Disrupt the Power Grid

This is really interesting research: "BlackIoT: IoT Botnet of High Wattage Devices Can Disrupt the Power Grid": Abstract: We demonstrate that an Internet of Things IoT botnet of high wattage devices -- such as air conditioners and heaters -- gives a unique ability to adversaries to launch...

Threat Actors Eyeing IQY Files To Peddle Malspam

More threat actors are pushing weaponized Excel web query IQY files to deliver malicious code – as seen in recent campaigns by several major malspam distributors. Researchers at IBM X-Force this week disclosed that both the Necurs Botnet, as well as DarkHydrus and the threat actor behind the Mara...

ThreatList: Attacks on Industrial Control Systems on the Rise

The systems that power the manufacturing, power and water plants, the oil and gas industry, and many other sectors are increasingly in the crosshairs of cyber-attackers: A full 41.2 percent of industrial control system ICS were attacked by malicious software at least once in the first half of 201...

Alleged ‘Satori’ IoT Botnet Operator Sought Media Spotlight, Got Indicted

A 20-year-old from Vancouver, Washington was indicted last week on federal hacking charges and for allegedly operating the "Satori" botnet, a malware strain unleashed last year that infected hundreds of thousands of wireless routers and other "Internet of Things" IoT devices. This outcome is hard...

AZORult Stealer 2 Botnet SQL Injection Vulnerability

Exploit for php platform in category web applications Title: AZORult Stealer v2 Botnet - SQL injection Credit: Bilal KARDADOU URL: https://www.rekings.com/shop/azorult-stealer/ Product: 'AZORult Stealer v2 Botnet' Type: Paid Google Dork: N/A Description: Stealer of stored passwords, cookies,...

Newsmaker Interview: Derek Manky on ‘Self-Organizing Botnet Swarms’

For over five years Derek Manky, global security strategist at Fortinet and FortiGuard Labs, has been helping the private and public sector identify and fight cybercrime. His job also includes working with noted groups: Computer Emergency Response, NATO NICP, INTERPOL Expert Working Group and the...

VPNFilter botnet

On May 23, 2018, Talos disclosed in a blog post the discovery of a modular malware system they deemed "VPNFilter", affecting multiple network devices wordwide, and embedding Botnet capabilities...

Physics Platform - A Remote Hardware Hacking Platform

Physics platform is a tool for hardware systems e.g: raspberryPi 3B . It retrieves data passing through the network and sends it to a control panel. It works the same way as a botnet by receiving remote commands. you can imagine that as a black box. Physics hardware You can check repository of...

Mirai Variant Cross-Compiles Attack Code with Aboriginal Linux

Criminals behind a Mirai botnet have been spotted using an unusual technique: Leveraging an open-source project called Aboriginal Linux to create a compiled binary, with versions of the malware tailored to each targeted platform. The malware authors are leveraging Aboriginal – a legitimate tool f...

Threat Roundup for August 17-24

Today, as we do every week, Talos is giving you a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we’ve observed this week — covering the dates between Aug. 17 and 24. As with previous roundups, this post isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, we will summarize the threats we’ve observed by...