Do cybercriminals play cyber games in quarantine? A look one year later

Last year, we decided to take a look at how the pandemic influenced the gaming industry and what new threats gamers could be facing. What we found was that, with the transition to remote work and remote learning, the number of blocked attempts to visit malicious game-related websites or follow...

Kids on the Web in 2021: Infinite creativity

For over a year weve been living in a world gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has the pandemic affected peoples lifestyles, it has also accelerated the development and implementation of technologies that make it easier for us to complete everyday and work-related tasks. We no longer need...

DDoS Attacks in Q3 2018

News Overview The third quarter 2018 turned out relatively quiet in terms of DDoS attacks. "Relatively" because there were not very many high-level multi-day DDoS onslaughts on major resources. However, the capacities employed by cybercriminals keep growing year after year, while the total number...

Threats in the Netherlands

Introduction On October 4, 2018, the MIVD held a press conference about an intercepted cyberattack on the OPWC in the Netherlands, allegedly by the advanced threat actor Sofacy also known as APT28 or Fancy Bear, among others. According to the MIVD, four suspects were caught red handed trying to...

Attacks on industrial enterprises using RMS and TeamViewer

Main facts Kaspersky Lab ICS CERT has identified a new wave of phishing emails with malicious attachments targeting primarily companies and organizations that are, in one way or another, associated with industrial production. The phishing emails are disguised as legitimate commercial offers and a...

New multi platform malware/adware spreading via Facebook Messenger

One good thing about having a lot of Facebook friends is that you simply act as a honey pot when your friends click on malicious things. A few days ago I got a message on Facebook from a person I very rarely speak to, and I knew that something fishy was going on. After just a few minutes analyzin...

When checking the URL isn’t enough: a Device Code Phishing attack via a Microsoft website

One of the most common pieces of anti-phishing advice is to double-check the website's domain name before providing your credentials. Typically, a fraudulent domain stands out to the trained eye, differing from the official URL by at least a few characters. Recently, however, we encountered a...

QSC: A multi-plugin framework used by CloudComputating group in cyberespionage campaigns

Introduction In 2021, we began to investigate an attack on the telecom industry in South Asia. During the investigation, we discovered QSC: a multi-plugin malware framework that loads and runs plugins modules in memory. The framework includes a Loader, a Core module, a Network module, a Command...

IT threat evolution Q2 2024

Targeted attacks XZ backdoor: a supply chain attack in the making On March 29, a message on the Openwall oss-security mailing list announced the discovery of a backdoor in XZ, a compression utility included in many popular Linux distributions. The backdoored library is used by the OpenSSH server...

CloudSorcerer – A new APT targeting Russian government entities

In May 2024, we discovered a new advanced persistent threat APT targeting Russian government entities that we dubbed CloudSorcerer. Its a sophisticated cyberespionage tool used for stealth monitoring, data collection, and exfiltration via Microsoft Graph, Yandex Cloud, and Dropbox cloud...

ToddyCat is making holes in your infrastructure

We continue covering the activities of the APT group ToddyCat. In our previous article, we described tools for collecting and exfiltrating files LoFiSe and PcExter. This time, we have investigated how attackers obtain constant access to compromised infrastructure, what information on the hosts th...

A cryptor, a stealer and a banking trojan

Introduction As long as cybercriminals want to make money, theyll keep making malware, and as long as they keep making malware, well keep analyzing it, publishing reports and providing protection. Last month we covered a wide range of cybercrime topics. For example, we published a private report ...

CloudWizard APT: the bad magic story goes on

In March 2023, we uncovered a previously unknown APT campaign in the region of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that involved the use of PowerMagic and CommonMagic implants. However, at the time it was not clear which threat actor was behind the attack. Since the release of our report about...

Selecting the right MSSP: Guidelines for making an objective decision

Managed Security Service Providers MSSPs have become an increasingly popular choice for organizations nowadays following the trend to outsource security services. Meanwhile, with the growing number of MSSPs in the market, it can be difficult for organizations to determine which provider will fit ...

A new secret stash for “fileless” malware

In February 2022 we observed the technique of putting the shellcode into Windows event logs for the first time "in the wild" during the malicious campaign. It allows the "fileless" last stage Trojan to be hidden from plain sight in the file system. Such attention to the event logs in the campaign...

The State of Stalkerware in 2021

The state of stalkerware in 2021 PDF Main findings of 2021 Every year Kaspersky analyzes the use of stalkerware around the world to better understand the threat it poses. We partner with stakeholders across public and private sectors to raise awareness and find solutions to best tackle this...

The SOC Files: ScreenConnect masked as freeware. An inside look at a large-scale campaign

UPD 03.07.2026: added a package of rules and recommendations that help detect the described malicious activity for companies using our Kaspersky SIEM system. Introduction To access compromised systems, threat actors frequently abuse legitimate remote monitoring tools. At first glance, these...

The Notepad++ supply chain attack — unnoticed execution chains and new IoCs

UPD 11.02.2026: added recommendations on how to use the Notepad++ supply chain attack rules package in our SIEM system. Introduction On February 2, 2026, the developers of Notepad++, a text editor popular among developers, published a statement claiming that the update infrastructure of Notepad++...

Bypassing 2FA with phishing and OTP bots

Introduction Two-factor authentication 2FA is a security feature we have come to expect as standard by 2024. Most of todays websites offer some form of it, and some of them wont even let you use their service until you enable 2FA. Individual countries have adopted laws that require certain types ...

Sneaky DoubleFinger loads GreetingGhoul targeting your cryptocurrency

Introduction Stealing cryptocurrencies is nothing new. For example, the Mt. Gox exchange was robbed of many bitcoins back in the beginning of 2010s. Attackers such as those behind the Coinvault ransomware were after your Bitcoin wallets, too. Since then, stealing cryptocurrencies has continued to...

APT10: Tracking down LODEINFO 2022, part II

In the previous publication Tracking down LODEINFO 2022, part I, we mentioned that the initial infection methods vary in different attack scenarios and that the LODEINFO shellcode was regularly updated for use with each infection vector. In this article, we discuss improvements made to the LODEIN...

Arrests of members of Tetrade seed groups Grandoreiro and Melcoz

Spains Ministry of the Interior has announced the arrest of 16 individuals connected to the Grandoreiro and Melcoz also known as Mekotio cybercrime groups. Both are originally from Brazil and form part of the Tetrade umbrella, operating for a few years now in Latin America and Western Europe...

COVID-19: Examining the threat landscape a year later

A year ago — everything changed. In an effort to stem the tide of a rapidly spreading pandemic, the world shut down. Shops were forced to shut their doors, and whole countries were placed on stringent lockdowns. Schools were closed around the world, with more than one billion children affected, a...

Life of Maze ransomware

In the past year, Maze ransomware has become one of the most notorious malware families threatening businesses and large organizations. Dozens of organizations have fallen victim to this vile malware, including LG, Southwire, and the City of Pensacola. The history of this ransomware began in the...

OilRig’s Poison Frog – old samples, same trick

After we wrote our private report on the OilRig leak, we decided to scan our archives with our YARA rule, to hunt for new and older samples. Aside from finding some new samples, we believe we also succeeded in finding some of the first Poison Frog samples. Poison Frog We're not quite sure whether...

Black Friday Alert 2019: Net Shopping Bag of Threats

Every year, Kaspersky releases an annual Black Friday alert to highlight how fraudsters may capitalize on increased levels of online shopping at this time of year when many brands are offering their customers appealing discounts. In the rush to get a big discount or, even more panic-inducing, a...

Ransomware: two pieces of good news

"All your files have been encrypted." How many times has this suddenly popped up on your screen? We hope never, because it's one of the most common indicators that you've lost access to your files. And if there are no publicly available decryptors or you don't have any backup copies, you're in...

LuckyMouse signs malicious NDISProxy driver with certificate of Chinese IT company

What happened? Since March 2018 we have discovered several infections where a previously unknown Trojan was injected into the lsass.exe system process memory. These implants were injected by the digitally signed 32- and 64-bit network filtering driver NDISProxy. Interestingly, this driver is sign...

Modern OSs for embedded systems

At Kaspersky Lab we analyze the technologies available on cybersecurity market and this time we decided to look at what OS developers are offering for embedded systems or, in other words, the internet of things. Our primary interest is how and to what degree these OSs can solve...

JanelaRAT: a financial threat targeting users in Latin America

Background JanelaRAT is a malware family that takes its name from the Portuguese word "janela" which means "window". JanelaRAT looks for financial and cryptocurrency data from specific banks and financial institutions in the Latin America region. JanelaRAT is a modified variant of BX RAT that has...

Zanubis in motion: Tracing the active evolution of the Android banking malware

Introduction Zanubis is a banking Trojan for Android that emerged in mid-2022. Since its inception, it has targeted banks and financial entities in Peru, before expanding its objectives to virtual cards and crypto wallets. The main infection vector of Zanubis is impersonating legitimate Peruvian...

IronHusky updates the forgotten MysterySnail RAT to target Russia and Mongolia

Day after day, threat actors create new malware to use in cyberattacks. Each of these new implants is developed in its own way, and as a result gets its own destiny – while the use of some malware families is reported for decades, information about others disappears after days, months or several...

Cloud Atlas seen using a new tool in its attacks

Introduction Known since 2014, Cloud Atlas targets Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We're shedding light on a previously undocumented toolset, which the group used heavily in 2024. Victims get infected via phishing emails containing a malicious document that exploits a vulnerability in the formul...

IT threat evolution Q3 2024

IT threat evolution in Q3 2024 IT threat evolution in Q3 2024. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution in Q3 2024. Mobile statistics Targeted attacks New APT threat actor targets Russian government entities In May 2024, we discovered a new APT targeting Russian government organizations...

Story of the year: the impact of AI on cybersecurity

In the whirlwind of technological advancements and societal transformations, the term "AI" has undoubtedly etched itself into the forefront of global discourse. Over the past twelve months, this abbreviation has resonated across innumerable headlines, business surveys and tech reports, firmly...

How to train your Ghidra

Getting started with Ghidra For about two decades, being a reverse engineer meant that you had to master the ultimate disassembly tool, IDA Pro. Over the years, many other tools were created to complement or directly replace it, but only a few succeeded. Then came the era of decompilation, adding...

LofyLife: malicious npm packages steal Discord tokens and bank card data

On July 26, using the internal automated system for monitoring open-source repositories, we identified four suspicious packages in the Node Package Manager npm repository. All these packages contained highly obfuscated malicious Python and JavaScript code. We dubbed this malicious campaign...

Trickbot module descriptions

Trickbot aka TrickLoader or Trickster, is a successor of the Dyre banking Trojan that was active from 2014 to 2016 and performed man-in-the-browser attacks in order to steal banking credentials. Trickbot was first discovered in October 2016. Just like Dyre, its main functionality was initially th...

Shlayer Trojan attacks one in ten macOS users

For close to two years now, the Shlayer Trojan has been the most common threat on the macOS platform: in 2019, one in ten of our Mac security solutions encountered this malware at least once, and it accounts for almost 30% of all detections for this OS. The first specimens of this family fell int...

Unwanted notifications in browser

When, back in 2015, push notifications were just appearing in browsers, very few people wondered how this tool would be used in the future: once a useful technology made to keep regular readers informed about updates, today it is often used to shell website visitors with unsolicited ads. To achie...

The Rotexy mobile Trojan – banker and ransomware

On the back of a surge in Trojan activity, we decided to carry out an in-depth analysis and track the evolution of some other popular malware families besides Asacub. One of the most interesting and active specimens to date was a mobile Trojan from the Rotexy family. In a three-month period from...

Pocket cryptofarms

In recent months, the topic of cryptocurrency has been a permanent news fixture — the value of digital money has been see-sawing spectacularly. Such pyrotechnics could hardly have escaped the attention of scammers, which is why cryptocurrency fluctuations have gone hand in hand with all kinds of...

Mobile malware evolution 2017

The year in figures In 2017, Kaspersky Lab detected the following: 5,730,916 malicious installation packages 94,368 mobile banking Trojans 544,107 mobile ransomware Trojans Trends of the year Rooting malware: no surrender For the last few years, rooting malware has been the biggest threat to...

GoSerpent: a persistent threat evolves with sophisticated data collection and exfiltration

Introduction In February 2026, we discovered a set of malicious activities that had been ongoing since late 2025. These activities involved a RAT module written in Go with proxy capabilities, which served as the main stage of the attack. The attack targeted government and diplomatic entities in...

SideWinder targets the maritime and nuclear sectors with an updated toolset

Last year, we published an article about SideWinder, a highly prolific APT group whose primary targets have been military and government entities in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, and Nepal. In it, we described activities that had mostly happened in the first half of the year. We tried to draw...

BellaCPP: Discovering a new BellaCiao variant written in C++

Introduction BellaCiao is a .NET-based malware family that adds a unique twist to an intrusion, combining the stealthy persistence of a webshell with the power to establish covert tunnels. It surfaced for the first time in late April 2023 and has since been publicly attributed to the APT actor...

LianSpy: new Android spyware targeting Russian users

In March 2024, we discovered a campaign targeting individuals in Russia with previously unseen Android spyware we dubbed LianSpy. Our analysis indicates that the malware has been active since July 2021. This threat is equipped to capture screencasts, exfiltrate user files, and harvest call logs a...

Money-making scripts attack organizations

In April of this year, the FBI published an advisory on attacks targeting government, law enforcement, and non-profit organizations. Attackers download scripts onto victims devices, delivering several types of malware all at once. The main aim is to utilize company resources for mining, steal dat...

Overview of IoT threats in 2023

IoT devices routers, cameras, NAS boxes, and smart home components multiply every year. Statista portal predicts their number will exceed 29 billion by 2030. As connected device numbers increase, so does the need for protection against various threats. The first-ever large-scale malware attacks o...

Remote dating: How do the apps safeguard our data?

The pandemic and the restrictions that came with it have led to an increase in the popularity of dating apps. For example, the total number of swipes on Tinder increased by 11% last year, with the daily number of swipes surpassing the 3 billion mark for the first time as early as March 2020. This...