Gift Card Fraud

It's becoming an organized crime tactic: Card draining is when criminals remove gift cards from a store display, open them in a separate location, and either record the card numbers and PINs or replace them with a new barcode. The crooks then repair the packaging, return to a store and place the...

The rise of AI-powered criminals: Identifying threats and opportunities

AIs influence is growing across the security space, bringing with it major implications for cybercriminals and defenders. The recent adoption of AI has raised significant concerns for cybersecurity due to the many ways that criminals can use AI for disruption and profit. Defenders and law...

Experts Sound Alarm on DCRat Backdoor Being Sold on Russian Hacking Forums

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on an actively maintained remote access trojan called DCRat aka DarkCrystal RAT that's offered on sale for "dirt cheap" prices, making it accessible to professional cybercriminal groups and novice actors alike. "Unlike the well-funded, massive Russian...

Police Have Disrupted the Emotet Botnet

A coordinated effort has captured the command-and-control servers of the Emotet botnet: Emotet establishes a backdoor onto Windows computer systems via automated phishing emails that distribute Word documents compromised with malware. Subjects of emails and documents in Emotet campaigns are...

CrimeOps of the KashmirBlack Botnet – Part I

Introduction Being in a research team exposes us to a variety of attacks on different platforms, of different types, scope, and volume. It also gives us the opportunity to select particularly interesting attacks that target our customers and to analyze them. This blog will give you a taste of the...

GhostHook Attack Bypasses Windows 10 PatchGuard

A bypass of PatchGuard kernel protection in Windows 10 has been developed that brings rootkits for the latest version of the OS within reach of attackers. Since the introduction of PatchGuard and DeviceGuard, very few 64-bit Windows rootkits have been observed; Windows 10’s security, in particula...

Researchers Go Inside a Business Email Compromise Scam

LAS VEGAS – Poor operational security on the part of Nigerian scammers running a Business Email Compromise BEC scheme has given researchers a window into their operations. Dell SecureWorks today published a report at Black Hat USA 2016 on what the criminals involved call wire-wire, or “waya-waya....

Legitimate-Looking Ads Used to Recruit Money Mules for Criminal Operations

Money mules have been aggressively recruited this year to help cybercriminals launder money, according to Fortinet. A recent example of this is the worldwide prosecution of a Zeus criminal operation, which included 37 charges against alleged money mules. Recent Zeus stories illustrate how prevale...