U.S. Offers $10 Million Reward for Information on DarkSide Ransomware Group

The U.S. government on Thursday announced a $10 million reward for information that may lead to the identification or location of key individuals who hold leadership positions in the DarkSide ransomware group or any of its rebrands. On top of that, the State Department is offering bounties of up ...

Attackers Behind Trickbot Expanding Malware Distribution Channels

The operators behind the pernicious TrickBot malware have resurfaced with new tricks that aim to increase its foothold by expanding its distribution channels, ultimately leading to the deployment of ransomware such as Conti. The threat actor, tracked under the monikers ITG23 and Wizard Spider, ha...

Microsoft Warns of a Wide-Scale Phishing-as-a-Service Operation

Microsoft has opened the lid on a large-scale phishing-as-a-service PHaaS operation that's involved in selling phishing kits and email templates as well as providing hosting and automated services at a low cost, thus enabling cyber actors to purchase phishing campaigns and deploy them with minima...

Parts of the Dark Web “awash” with school children’s personal data

NBC News has collected and analyzed a trove of childrens personal information it discovered on the Dark Web. Even though this information may not be as useful to cybercriminals as credit card details or login credentials, the information is still out there, where we don’t want it. So what is it,...

A week in security (August 16 – August 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Podcast: Katie Moussouris hacked Clubhouse. Her emails went unanswered for weeks. How to troubleshoot hardware problems that look like malware problems. Analysts “strongly believe” the Russian state colludes with ransomware gangs. macOS 11’s hidden security...

Analysts “strongly believe” the Russian state colludes with ransomware gangs

"We have the smoke, the smell of gunpowder and a bullet casing. But we do not have the gun to link the activity to the Kremlin." This is what Jon DiMaggio, Chief Security Stretegist for Analyst1, said in an interview with CBS News following the release of its latest whitepaper, entitled "Nation...

The 3 biggest threats reaching for your antivirus software’s off switch

Having antivirus AV software on your computer is a staple. Modern antivirus offers layered protection—a cybersecurity approach that uses multiple techniques in one package to keep you safe if you download a malicious file from the Internet, find yourself worrying after clicking a link on a direct...

2 new ransomware gangs Haron, BlackMatter appear after REvil, DarkSide

By Sudais Asif Currently, it is unclear if Haron and BlackMatter ransomware gangs have been started by now-defunct REvil and DarkSide ransomware operators. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 2 new ransomware gangs Haron, BlackMatter appear after REvil, DarkSide...

Domain, server of DoubleVPN used by ransomware gangs seized

By Deeba Ahmed US, Canada, and European authorities took part in the operation which ended up seizing cybercriminals' access to and infrastructure of DoubleVPN. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Domain, server of DoubleVPN used by ransomware gangs seized...

Researchers: Booming Cyber-Underground Market for Initial-Access Brokers

It’s well known that email is often the gateway for cybercriminals looking to infiltrate a corporate network. But rather than do the heavy lifting themselves, ransomware gangs are buying their way onto networks, partnering with other criminal groups that have already paved the way for entry with...

How Does One Get Hired by a Top Cybercrime Gang?

The U.S. Department of Justice DOJ last week announced the arrest of a 55-year-old Latvian woman whos alleged to have worked as a programmer for Trickbot, a malware-as-a-service platform responsible for infecting millions of computers and seeding many of those systems with ransomware. Just how di...

Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate

In a Twitter discussion last week on ransomware attacks, KrebsOnSecurity noted that virtually all ransomware strains have a built-in failsafe designed to cover the backsides of the malware purveyors: They simply will not install on a Microsoft Windows computer that already has one of many types o...

Hackers Threaten to Leak D.C. Police Informants' Info If Ransom Is Not Paid

The Metropolitan Police Department MPD of the District of Columbia has become the latest high-profile government agency to fall victim to a ransomware attack. The Babuk Locker gang claimed in a post on the dark web that they had compromised the DC Police's networks and stolen 250 GB of unencrypte...

Ransom Gangs Emailing Victim Customers for Leverage

Some of the top ransomware gangs are deploying a new pressure tactic to push more victim organizations into paying an extortion demand: Emailing the victims customers and partners directly, warning that their data will be leaked to the dark web unless they can convince the victim firm to pay up...

Malware Gangs Partner Up in Double-Punch Security Threat

Cybergangs are joining forces under the guise of affiliate groups and “as-a-service” models, warns Maya Horowitz, the director of threat intelligence research with Check Point Research. She said the trend is driving a new and thriving cybercriminal underground economy. Several malware gangs have...

VideoBytes: Offensive security tools and the bad guys that use them

Hello Folks! In this Videobyte, we’re talking about what penetration testing tools malware gangs love to use and why they are better than what you can get on the black market. This article describes the VirusBulletin talk of a security researcher from Interzer Labs, Paul Litvak, in which he...

A week in security (October 12 – October 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at journalism’s role in cybersecurity on our Lock and Code podcast, gave tips for safer shopping on Amazon Prime day, and discussed an APT attack springing into life as Academia returned to the real and virtual campus environment. We also dug into potenti...

Researchers Mixed on Sanctions for Ransomware Negotiators

Ransomware negotiators may have to pay up in new ways if they intercede with cybercriminals on companies’ behalf. Several researchers weighed in on the wisdom of the move, with mixed reactions. The U.S. Department of the Treasury said Thursday that companies that facilitate ransomware payments to...

Researchers Fingerprint Exploit Developers Who Help Several Malware Authors

Writing advanced malware for a threat actor requires different groups of people with diverse technical expertise to put them all together. But can the code leave enough clues to reveal the person behind it? To this effect, cybersecurity researchers on Friday detailed a new methodology to identify...

As Necurs Botnet Falls from Grace, Emotet Rises

A mid-January spam campaign by criminals behind the popular Necurs botnet shows a dramatic drop in skill and savvy by perpetrators. In a shift from sending sophisticated messages with lethal payloads, Necurs botnets are now peddling get-rich-quick spam messages in what researchers are calling...