Malicious Platform Independent Trojan GPlayed Disguised as Google Play Store

By Waqas Newly discovered Trojan malware, which has been dubbed as GPlayed by the IT security experts at Cisco Talos, disguises itself as Google Play Store to trick users into downloading it. After getting installed, it steals location information and bank details from the device. Additionally, i...

Google Maps: Hubby divorces wife after finding her on Street View with another man

By Carolina Google Maps is full of surprises, primarily thanks to some of its funniest, creepiest, and strangest street view images. In 2013, a father found his son's dead body image and crime scene on Google Maps but who could have imagined this seemingly harmless technology would force a marrie...

Fake Adobe updates installing cryptomining malware while updating Flash

By Waqas The IT security researchers at Palo Alto Networks has identified that a fake Flash updater is circulating the web and fooling computer users by sneakily installing cryptocurrency mining bot XMRig. In the past few months, researchers have identified 113 fake updaters installing cryptomini...

30M Facebook breach; includes users phone numbers and location data

By Waqas FBI has asked Facebook not to discuss who may be behind this attack. On September 28th, 2018 the social media giant Facebook announced that it suffered a massive data breach in which hackers stole access tokens of millions of accounts after exploiting a critical vulnerability in its "Vie...

Baby Got Bots

By Ian Trump This is the first in a series of blog posts “on all things Bot.” From bad to good and looking towards the future, Bots remain an information security issue which has the potential to impact all commercial and recreational online activity. This series will explore the security and...

Major weapon systems developed by US DoD highly vulnerable to cyber attacks

By Uzair Amir Several Critical Vulnerabilities Identified in Major Weapon Systems Being Developed by US DoD. The advanced weapon systems developed by the US Department of Defense with a whopping estimated expenditure of $1.66 trillion are plagued with grave flaws, which make them a potential targ...

Dark web kingpin visiting US for beard competition gets 20 years in prison

By Waqas Dream Market Drug Vendor arrived in the US to participate in a beard competition in Texas. A Dark Web drug dealer has received 240 months or 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the crimes of laundering money and possessing controlled substances with the intention of distributin...

Shocking: Hackers using Googlebots in cryptomining malware attacks

By Waqas Hackers are abusing Googlebot servers to deliver malicious payloads. Last year, HackRead exclusively reported on how hackers were using Google Adwords and Google Sites to spread malware. Then came another shocking research from Cisco Talos exposing how hackers exploited Google Search...

MikroTik router vulnerability lets hackers bypass firewall to load malware undetected

By Waqas Tenable Research’s cybersecurity researcher has released “By The way,” which is a new PoC proof-of-concept RCE attack after identifying a new attack method to exploit an already discovered vulnerability in MikroTik routers. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2018-14847, is an old...

Google’s failure to disclose user data leak prompts closure of Google Plus

By Waqas Google has admitted that a bug was present in the API for the consumer version of Google Plus Google+ that let third-party developers’ access data of not just its users but also of their contacts and friends. Reportedly, data of up to 500,000 users could have been exposed to external...

Critical Data-Loss Bug Identified in New Windows 10 Update

By Waqas The distribution of latest Windows 10 update for October 2018, released by Microsoft this week, has been halted after reports about it causing grave data loss started emerging. Dubbed version 1089, the update was released for Windows 10 users to check for updates manually but it turns ou...

Hackers illegally selling stolen Fortnite accounts & botnets on Instagram

By Waqas It is not happening on Dark Web but Instagram. Instagram has become much more than a platform to share your traveling, culinary, or fitness-related experiences, but a thriving portal for selling stolen accounts. Reportedly, hackers are using Instagram to sell access to botnets as well as...

Silk Road Admin Pleads Guilty- Might Receive 20 Years Jail Time

By Waqas An Irish national Gary Davis, who is also known as Libertas, has pleaded guilty to charges related to drug trafficking and is now facing up to 20 years in prison. Davis is accused of running the infamous marketplace Silk Road and served as forum moderator and site administrator while he...

Don’t ever use a VPN without paying attention to these five things

By John Mason Ryan Lin was just recently sentenced to 17 years in prison. He was sentenced for committing a range of crimes including cyberstalking, computer fraud and abuse, aggravated identity theft, and distribution of child pornography. These are all serious crimes that I in no way support or...

Chinese surveillance chips found in servers used by US technology giants: Report

By Waqas This can be one of one of the largest corporate spying and hardware hacking campaigns ever launched by a nation-state. Bloomberg has revealed in its recently published report that a nation-state has launched a significant supply chain attack. It is believed to be one of the largest...

Hackers exploit Bitcoin bug to print 235 million Pigeoncoins

By Uzair Amir It has been confirmed by the Pigeoncoin developers that a recently discovered bug in Bitcoin’s code has now been exploited to print approx. 235m Pigeoncoins $15,458. It must be noted that Pigeoncoin is a newly launched and somewhat lesser known digital currency. The reason the...

Big Data and Cybersecurity: Opportunity or Threat?

By Marie Fincher Suppose you write for a living. You write articles and blog posts for a number of clients. In the course of that writing, you have to do a lot of research, accessing data and information from all over the web. The inevitable happens. You get hacked or you pick up a virus...

Hackers are holding Instagram accounts of influencers for ransom

By Waqas The social media giant Facebook was hacked a few days ago after hackers exploited a vulnerability in its "View As" feature. As a result, 90 million users were affected but now, in another hacking spree hackers are targeting high-profile Instagram accounts and holding them for ransom - In...

Fortnite players beware: New data stealing malware disguised as cheat tool

By Waqas Popular video game Fortnite’s new season is here and so begins the season of malware scamming for cybercriminals. Unsurprisingly, Malwarebytes Labs has reported that scammers are trying their best to come up with a fake version of the game to con the users. However, their current attempt...

Most Threatening DNS Security Risks And How To Avoid Them

By Zehra Ali The DNS or Domain Name System is one of the most necessary components for the internet functionality. Most often, the internet businesses are negligent to the security of their digital identity that is the DNS. This poor security of DNS makes it vulnerable to many cyber attacks which...

Meet GhostDNS: The dangerous malware behind IoT botnet targeting banks

By Waqas Security researchers at NetLab, a sub-division of the Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360, have discovered a new, wide-scale, and very active malware campaign that has managed to hijack more than 100,000 home routers between Sept 21 and 27. A majority of routers almost 88% are located i...

Telegram leaked IP addresses of its desktop app users

By Waqas The vulnerability affected Telegram’s desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux OS. Telegram, a popular privacy-focused instant messaging application, reportedly contained a bug that can leak the IP addresses of users. Known for providing end-to-end encryption, Telegram’s desktop app has...

Hacker vows to delete Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook account; reports it for bounty instead

By Waqas Hacker Cancels Plan to Live Stream Deletion of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Account. It was just yesterday when Facebook announced that it was hacked after attackers exploited a vulnerability in its View As feature and gained access to over 50 million accounts. Now, a well-known hacker fro...

YouTuber reveals iPhone XS passcode bypass bug exposing contacts/photos

By Waqas With new iPhone XS out, it is a universally believed fact that Apple is committed to improving, and enhancing user privacy and security in its devices. With the new iOS 12 and iOS 12.1 beta, the Cupertino-based company claims to have taken security to a whole new level. However, this cla...

Facebook hacked: Hackers steal access tokens of 50 million accounts

By Waqas Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the "View As" feature of Facebook. The social media giant Facebook has announced that it has suffered a massive cyber attack, resulting in 50 million users account impacted. In a statement, the vice president of product management at Facebook, Guy Ros...

Demonoid goes offline with owner missing in action for last two months

By Waqas It has been many days since a popular, semi-private BitTorrent tracker Demonoid has remained offline. The employees working for this website are also clueless about what’s happening and claim that the owner of Demonoid, Deimos, is also missing. None of them have had any contact with him...

Fancy Bear’s VPNfilter malware is back with 7 new modules

By Waqas Cisco’s Talos researchers have identified that Russia’s VPNfilter is way more dangerous than it is believed to be. The malware, which prompted the FBI to urge people to reboot their internet routers, contains seven additional third-stage modules that are infecting countless global...

Firefox Monitor will Notify you When Your Account is Hacked- Mozilla

By Waqas Firefox has joined hands with Have I Been Pwned for this project. Mozilla introduced a new service earlier this year called Firefox Monitor, and now the company is adding a new feature to this service. The newly added feature will take scrutiny to a whole new level by allowing users to...

11 million personal unprotected MongoDB records leaked online

By Uzair Amir Another day, another trove of sensitive data exposed online. This time, a MongoDB database containing a whopping 43.5GB of the dataset used in marketing campaigns has been left exposed for public access. The data was discovered by Bob Diachenko, an independent security researcher wh...

Exploring the Way Technology Has Changed Entertainment

By Carolina There is little doubt that technology has influenced people’s lives in many ways. Not only are you more likely to have a mobile phone in your pocket, but you are also likely to use the internet many times per day. While technology has brought a lot of great ideas to business and the w...

Banking trojan found in call recorder app on Play Store – stole over €10,000

By Waqas Android is one of the most vulnerable mobile operating systems with hackers developing new Android malware and banking trojan every 17 seconds. Then, there is Google and questionable security measures to protect users from sophisticated and persistent malware attacks. Recently, Lukas...

Almost Every Major Free VPN Service is a Glorified Data Farm

By John Mason If you are a VPN user it is time to come out from the myth that every VPN is here to secure your privacy. Internet censorship is on the rise, and data from Freedom on the Net, based on an annual assessment of the situation of Internet freedom in 65 countries, reveals that not only …...

Malware hits Freelancers at Fiverr and Freelancer.com

By Waqas Unfortunately, unsuspected freelancers are falling for the malware scam. Fiverr and Freelancer.com are two of the most popular websites for freelancers and clients looking for skilled professionals. Currently, both sites have millions of registered users from hundreds of countries and th...

Best Free Online Movie Streaming Sites for 2018

By Carolina If you are looking for a list of updated and best movie streaming sites then you have come to the right place. In this article, we have listed free movie streaming sites providing top-notch service with as few ads as possible. Enjoy! SeeHD.uno SeeHD.uno is one of the best movie...

Thousands of stolen frequent flyer miles of top airlines sold on Dark Web

By Waqas Dark Web has become a business hub for malicious hackers and cybercriminals. It seems like there is nothing that is spared from the prying eyes of cybercriminals and the Dark Web has become a thriving ground for all types of illegally acquired data and criminals activities. However, this...

Hacker gets 14 years jail time for operating Scan4You malware scanning service

By Waqas Scan4You was a VirusTotal like platform used for malicious purposes. A 37-year old male from Riga, Latvia has received 14 years sentence for creating and running Scan4You, a counter antivirus service that aided malware developers to check detection rates of their malicious software. The...

Hackers steal $60 million from Japan’s Zaif cryptocurrency exchange

By Waqas Zaif is the 35th largest cryptocurrency exchange by turnover. Hackers have stolen a whopping $60 million 6.7 billion yen worth of cryptocurrency from Zaif, the 35th largest cryptocurrency exchange dealing in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Monacoin. The exchange is owned by Tech Bureau, Corp...

Hackers behind Mirai botnet to avoid jail for working with the FBI

By Waqas Mirai has been known as one of the most powerful botnets comprised of millions of hacked Internet of Things IoT devices including routers, digital video recorders DVRs and security cameras. Mirai was also used by hackers to carry out one of the largest DDoS attacks on the servers of DynD...

Hackers target Newegg with “sophisticated malware”; steal credit card data

By Waqas At the moment, it is unclear how many Newegg customers have been impacted. The IT security researchers at RiskIQ and Volexity have announced that Newegg Inc., an online retailer of items including computer hardware and consumer electronics has become a victim of a cyber attack in which...

California man may get 6 months in prison for uploading Deadpool on Facebook

By Carolina It is quite unlikely that somebody would be naïve enough to upload a copy of a newly released movie on his Facebook page with his real name since this would lead the law enforcement straight to the person, that too, in no time. However, it seems that there is one such person and his...

Dark Web: US court seizes assets and properties of deceased AlphaBay operator

By Carolina AlphaBay was one of the largest dark web marketplaces - In 2017, its admin Alexandre Cazes committed suicide in a Thai prison. The Fresno Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California has finally concluded a 14-month long civil forfeiture case and allowed...

Linux & Windows hit with disk wiper, ransomware & cryptomining Xbash malware

By Waqas Xbash is an "all in one" malware. Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 researchers have come to the conclusion that the notorious Xbash malware that has been attacking Linux and Windows servers is being operated by the Iron Group which is an infamous hacker collective previously involved in a...

Hackers disrupt UK’s Bristol Airport flight info screens after ransomware attack

By Uzair Amir The ransomware attack disrupted the screens for two days. In a nasty ransomware attack, flight information screens at the United Kingdom's Bristol airport were taken over and hijacked by malicious hackers on September 15th Friday morning. The ransomware attack forced the airport sta...

Safari & Firefox browser to block user data tracking with new security add-ons

By Waqas Apple has been trying hard to improve the security mechanisms of its hardware and software products. The addition of new privacy features in Safari browser is yet another attempt to toughen security measures for preventing breaches and tracking by websites like Facebook. It is a well-kno...

Medical records & patient-doctor recordings of thousands of people exposed

By Carolina Another day, another trove of medical records leaked online, thanks to a misconfigured AWS S3 bucket. Medical records are considered to be sensitive documents and when a malicious third party has access to them it is a bad news as these records can be used for fraud, blackmailing and...

Apache Struts & SonicWall’s GMS exploits key targets of Mirai & Gafgyt IoT malware

By Waqas Security researchers at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 have discovered modified versions of the notorious Mirai and Gafgyt Internet of Things IoT malware. The malware have the capability of targeting flaws that affect Apache Struts and SonicWall Global Management System GMS. Moreover, the...

Official mobile version of Tor Browser released for Android – Download now

By Waqas There is good news for pro-anonymity web users who rely upon the Tor browser for using the internet. The first ever mobile browser app for the Tor browser has been released by the Tor Project, the organization behind the Tor network. The mobile version of the Tor browser is available for...

Canadian town forced to pay Bitcoin after nasty ransomware attack

By Uzair Amir The town of Midland, Ontario, Canada, has decided to pay cybercriminals after its servers were targeted and infected with a nasty ransomware on Saturday, September 1, at approximately 2 a.m. The total amount of ransom payment has not been disclosed but the demand from cybercriminals...

Cloud data management firm exposes database with over 440M emails & IP addresses

By Waqas Data management software companies are mandatorily believed to be having perfectly capable of managing their own data. However, it turns out that some companies, the most popular ones too, struggle to do so. The well-known cloud data management firm Veeam has been in the news lately for...

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...