‘DarkLeaks’ Black Market — Anonymously Selling Secrets for Bitcoins

An all new anonymous online underground black market website, DarkLeaks, has been introduced on the Internet where Whistleblowers, blackmailers, hackers and any individual can trade/sell sensitive and valuable data/secrets anonymously in exchange for Bitcoin payments. DarkLeaks is a decentralized...

Inside nls_933w.dll, the Equation APT Persistence Module

CANCUN – The names called out like beacons from the screen: Samsung; Seagate; Western Digital; Hitachi; Maxtor. Hardware makers were in the crosshairs of the Equation APT group and it was perhaps the worst possible scenario imagined by researchers looking at the frightening and extensive storehou...

Researchers: PlugX More Prominent Than Ever

Existing in some form since 2008, the popular remote access tool PlugX has as notorious a history as any malware, but according to researchers the tool saw a spike of popularity in 2014 and is the go-to malware for many adversary groups. Many attacks, especially those occurring during the latter...

Missing Two-Factor Authentication Led to JPMorgan Breach

The biggest U.S. banking breach of all time came down to the smallest of details. The New York Times, citing sources close to the ongoing investigation of the JPMorgan data breach, said hackers found a server unprotected by two-factor authentication to break in using a stolen user name and passwo...

Darkhotel APT Malware Targets Global CEOs Using Hotel Internet

A seven-year-old cyber espionage campaign has targeted senior level executives from large global companies by using a specialized Advanced Persistent Threat APT, zero-day exploits, and well-developed keyloggers to extract information from them when they stay in luxury hotels during their business...

Darkhotel APT Group Targeting Top Executives in Long-Term Campaign

APT groups tend to be grouped together in a large amorphous blob of sinister intentions and similar targets, but not all APT crews are created equal. Researchers have identified a group that’s been operating in Asia for at least seven years and has been using hotel networks as key infection point...

Epic Operation Kicks Off Multistage Turla APT Campaign

The Turla APT campaign has baffled researchers for months as to how its victims are compromised. Peaking during the first two months of the year, Turla has targeted municipal governments, embassies, militaries and other high-value targets worldwide, with particular concentrations in the Middle Ea...

Dan Geer: Security at the Forefront of Policy Decisions

LAS VEGAS – Dan Geer carried his version of computer security’s Ten Commandments to a rapt Black Hat 2014 audience today, offering up 10 personal recommendations and observations related to the current state of security in the context of government surveillance and eroding privacy. Adorned in...

Obama Lets NSA Use Zero-Day Exploits by labeling it as 'National Security Need'

On Saturday, the Senior Administration Officials cast light on the subject of Internet Security and said President Obama has clearly decided that whenever the U.S. Intelligence agency like NSA discovers major vulnerabilities, in most of the situations the agency should reveal them rather than...

Vupen Cashes in Four Times at Pwn2Own 2014

VANCOUVER – It’s become a familiar walk for Chaouki Bekrar. Year after year at the Pwn2Own contest, the controversial Vupen founder is scurried from a small room in the basement of the Sheraton hotel to a suite several floors above. It’s a short journey from where a string of zero-day exploits ar...

ASLR bypass techniques are popular with APT attacks

Address space layout randomization ASLR is a security technique involved in protection from buffer overflow attacks. Many recent APT Advanced Persistent Threat attacks have utilized many different ASLR bypass techniques during the past year, according to Researchers at FireEye. Many exploits and...

Adobe Gets Hacked; Hackers Steal 2.9 million Adobe Customers accounts

Hackers broke into Adobe Systems' internal network on Thursday, stealing personal information on 2.9 million customers and the source code for several of Adobe's most popular products. This an absolutely massive blow to Adobe, especially their reputation. Adobe, which makes Photoshop and other...

Adobe Gets Hacked; Hackers Steal 2.9 million Adobe Customers accounts

Hackers broke into Adobe Systems’ internal network on Thursday, stealing personal information on 2.9 million customers and the source code for several of Adobe’s most popular products. This an absolutely massive blow to Adobe, especially their reputation. Adobe, which makes Photoshop and other...

Microsoft: Uninstall Faulty Patch Tuesday Security Update

Microsoft announced last night that it has stopped pushing a security update originally released on Patch Tuesday because the fix is causing some PCs to blue screen. Microsoft recommends users uninstall the patch, which is also causing compatibility with some endpoint security software. “We’ve...

Microsoft Expected to Patch Pwn2Own IE Vulnerabilities

Appropriately enough for the start of the baseball season, Microsoft is going to go 4-for-4 and release another set of critical Internet Explorer patches on Tuesday, the fourth consecutive month in which serious vulnerabilities in the browser are being addressed in Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday month...

Why Watering Hole Attacks Work

Information security is littered with bad analogies. And none sounds sillier than a watering hole attack, which plays off the tactic that dominant animals use when stalking food by loitering at a watering hole. Rather than chase their prey, a lion will wait for prey to come to it. Hackers are doi...

Internet Explorer 8 Exploit Found in Watering Hole Campaign Targeting Chinese Dissidents

On March 16th, we discovered a premeditated waterhole campaign that hosts exploits and malware on websites frequented by a specific target group. In this case the target includes Chinese dissidents. For the attacker, this approach is highly attractive since it is very difficult to discover the...

Spear Phishing Remains Preferred Point of Entry in Targeted, Persistent Attacks

Persistent targeted attacks against the government, financial services, manufacturing and critical infrastructure take on many characteristics. Attackers can have different backgrounds and motivations, and the tools they use can range from commodity malware to zero-day exploits. One characteristi...

Businesses Remain Scared of Spear-Phishing as Attackers Study Behavior

Scared is a strong word, but the reality, according to a Websense analysis by Patrik Runald, is that spear-phishers, like the ones that compromised a White House network last week, are implementing new evasion tactics, fundamentally changing their attack strategies, and revolutionizing the target...

Security Experts Recommend Long, Hard Look at Disabling Java Browser Plug-In

Is the Java browser plug-in the IT equivalent of the human appendix? Would you miss it if it were gone? Probably not, experts say, especially now that attackers are beating the Java sandbox with a rash of zero-day exploits. “It’s simply safer to have the Java plug-in disabled in the browser knowi...