Year in Malware 2018: The most prominent threats Talos tracked this year

It was easy to see a wild year coming in cybersecurity. It started with a bang, with Olympic Destroyer targeting the Winter Olympics in February in an attempt to disrupt the opening ceremonies. Things only got crazier from there, with cryptocurrency miners popping up everywhere, and VPNFilter...

Yes, Chromebooks can and do get infected

As a Mac malware specialist, I've seen more than my share of folks saying "Macs don't get viruses" over the years. I've seen and experienced first-hand that this isn't true—even on iOS, where despite having tight, built-in security, iPhones are still capable of getting infected by rare malware. I...

As Cryptocurrency Crash Continues, Will Mining Threat Follow?

Post authored by Nick Biasini. Executive Summary As 2018 draws to a close, one technology has definitively left its mark on the year: cryptocurrencies. Digital currencies started the year out strong after a meteoric rise toward the end of 2017. Since then, it's safe to say that cryptocurrencies...

Connecting the dots between recently active cryptominers

Post authored by David Liebenberg and Andrew Williams. Executive Summary Through Cisco Talos' investigation of illicit cryptocurrency mining campaigns in the past year, we began to notice that many of these campaigns shared remarkably similar TTPs, which we at first mistakenly interpreted as bein...

What happens when packages go bad?

I built spritecow.com back in 2011, and I no longer actively maintain it. A few months ago, a user berated me for using a crypto currency miner on the site without their informed consent. And sure enough, the site's JS had a small addition that loaded the mining JS, and sent the result somewhere...

415,000 routers infected by cryptomining malware – Prime target MikroTik

By Waqas According to a new report, around 415,000 routers throughout the world are infected with malware having the potential to steal computer resources and discreetly mine for the cryptocurrency. The campaign is an active one and it primarily targets MikroTik routers. Researchers claim that th...

Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2018. Story of the year: miners

Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2018. Statistics Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2018. Top security stories Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2018. Threat Predictions for 2019 Cryptocurrency miners that infect the computers of unsuspecting users essentially operate according to the same business model as...

Rogue Developer Infects Widely Used NodeJS Module to Steal Bitcoins

A widely used third-party NodeJS module with nearly 2 million downloads a week was compromised after one of its open-source contributor gone rogue, who infected it with a malicious code that was programmed to steal funds stored in Bitcoin wallet apps. The Node.js library in question is...

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock

Maybe you were once advised to "look for the padlock" as a means of telling legitimate e-commerce sites from phishing or malware traps. Unfortunately, this has never been more useless advice. New research indicates that half of all phishing scams are now hosted on Web sites whose Internet address...

Cryptocurrency threat predictions for 2019

Kaspersky Security Bulletin: Threat Predictions for 2019 Threat predictions for industrial security in 2019 Cyberthreats to financial institutions 2019: overview and predictions Introduction – key events in 2018 2018 saw cryptocurrency become an established part of many people's lives, and a more...

Cryptocurrency Mining Command Injection

The attacker takes advantage of a common command injection vulnerability in cryptocurrency miners. If successful, it attempts to run the script on targeted hosts...

Cryptojacking Attack Targets Make-A-Wish Foundation Website

Hackers have been stealing CPU-cycles from visitors to the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s international website in order to mine for Monero cryptocurrency. Researchers said they found the CoinIMP mining script embedded in the non-profit’s website, and that it was taking advantage of the Drupalgeddon 2...

Bitcoin Giveaway Scam Balloons, with Google the Latest Victim

Google’s official G Suite Twitter account, which has more than 800,000 followers, on Tuesday became the latest victim of an increasingly widespread Bitcoin scam, according to researchers. The growing size and scope of the scam — as well as the cybercriminals’ success in hijacking high-profile,...

IT threat evolution Q3 2018

Targeted attacks and malware campaigns Lazarus targets cryptocurrency exchange Lazarus is a well-established threat actor that has conducted cyber-espionage and cybersabotage campaigns since at least 2009. In recent years, the group has launched campaigns against financial organizations around th...

Headmaster caught mining cryptocurrency at school; gets fired

By Uzair Amir A Chinese school headmaster Lei Hua was caught mining cryptocurrency using the school's electricity. As a result, he had to lose his job. It happened at Puman Middle School in Hunan province of China. Initially, teachers complained about the loud noise that continued day and night...

StatCounter Analytics Code Hijacked to Steal Bitcoins from Cryptocurrency Users

Late last week an unknown hacker or a group of hackers successfully targeted a cryptocurrency exchange with an aim to steal Bitcoins by compromising the web analytics service it was using. ESET malware researcher Matthieu Faou this weekend spotted malicious JavaScript code on up to 700,000 websit...

Sim Swapping Crypto Stealing Hackers Arrested by Turkish Police

By Waqas Eleven Turkish individuals have been arrested by Turkish police department for stealing cryptocurrency worth approx. $80,000 via Sim Swapping. Reportedly, the suspects tricked the phone providers into revealing the phone numbers of the victims and used the SIMs for performing 2FA...

Busting SIM Swappers and SIM Swap Myths

KrebsOnSecurity recently had a chance to interview members of the REACT Task Force, a team of law enforcement officers and prosecutors based in Santa Clara, Calif. that has been tracking down individuals engaged in unauthorized "SIM swaps" -- a complex form of mobile phone fraud that is often use...

A week in security (October 29 – November 4)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at a rogue cryptocurrency app installing backdoors, took a dive into the world of printer security, explored browser privacy tweaks, highlighted a music festival–themed breach, and introduced Malwarebytes for Chromebook. Other cybersecurity news Memory...

This Week in Security News: Spam Campaigns and Vulnerable Infrastructures

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. This week, see how cybercriminals have learned to become more creative with malware through spam campaigns. Also, understand why securing energy and...