What are botnets downloading?

Spam mailshots with links to malware and bots downloading other malware are just a couple of botnet deployment scenarios. The choice of infectious payload is limited only by the imagination of the botnet operator or customer. It might be a ransomware, a banker, a miner, a backdoor, the list goes...

Threat Predictions for Financial Services and Fraud in 2018

The landscape in 2017 In 2017 we've seen fraud attacks in financial services become increasingly account-centric. Customer data is a key enabler for large-scale fraud attacks and the frequency of data breaches among other successful attack types has provided cybercriminals with valuable sources o...

Crimeware and financial cyberthreats in 2024

At Kaspersky, we constantly monitor the financial cyberthreat landscape, which includes threats to financial institutions, such as banks, and financially motivated threats, such as ransomware, that target a broader range of industries. As part of our Kaspersky Security Bulletin, we try to predict...

QBot banker delivered through business correspondence

In early April, we detected a significant increase in attacks that use banking Trojans of the QBot family aka QakBot, QuackBot, and Pinkslipbot. The malware would be delivered through e-mail letters written in different languages — variations of them were coming in English, German, Italian, and...

Threat in your browser: what dangers innocent-looking extensions hold for users

Whether you want to block ads, keep a to-do list or check your spelling, browser extensions allow you to do all of the above and more, improving convenience, productivity and efficiency for free, which is why they are so popular. Chrome, Safari, Mozilla — these and many other major Web browsers —...

VileRAT: DeathStalker’s continuous strike at foreign and cryptocurrency exchanges

In late August 2020, we published an overview of DeathStalkers profile and malicious activities, including their Janicab, Evilnum and PowerSing campaigns PowerPepper was later documented in 2020. Notably, we exposed why we believe the threat actor may fit a group of mercenaries, offering...

Lookalike domains and how to outfox them

Our colleagues already delved into how cybercriminals attack companies through compromised email addresses of employees, and how to protect against such attacks using SPF, DKIM and DMARC technologies. But despite the obvious pluses of these solutions, there is a way to bypass them that we want to...

Cybersecurity of connected healthcare 2020: Overview and predictions

Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2019. Advanced threat predictions for 2020 5G technology predictions 2020 Corporate security prediction 2020 Cyberthreats to financial institutions 2020: Overview and predictions More than two years after the infamous Wannacry ransomware crippled medical facilities and...

The return of Fantomas, or how we deciphered Cryakl

In early February this year, Belgian police seized the C&C servers of the infamous Cryakl cryptor. Soon afterwards, they handed over the private keys to our experts, who used them to update the free RakhniDecryptor tool for recovering files encrypted by the malware. The ransomware, which for year...

The Gentlemen are knocking: сustom backdoors and evolving tactics

Introduction This year saw the emergence of The Gentlemen, a prominent example of a group operating under the ransomware-as-a-service RaaS model. Although our initial assessment suggested the group first appeared in mid-2025, it actually started ramping up its activities at the beginning of 2026...

Grandoreiro, the global trojan with grandiose goals

Grandoreiro is a well-known Brazilian banking trojan — part of the Tetrade umbrella — that enables threat actors to perform fraudulent banking operations by using the victim's computer to bypass the security measures of banking institutions. It's been active since at least 2016 and is now one of...

A journey into forgotten Null Session and MS-RPC interfaces

A journey into forgotten Null Session and MS-RPC interfaces PDF It has been almost 24 years since the null session vulnerability was discovered. Back then, it was possible to access SMB named pipes using empty credentials and collect domain information. Most often, attackers leveraged null sessio...

Consumer cyberthreats: predictions for 2024

In our previous summary of consumer predictions, we delved into tactics that we expected scammers and cybercriminals to use in 2023. As anticipated, they capitalized on major events and cultural crazes, using tricks that ranged from fake Barbie doll deals to exploiting the buzz around long-awaite...

How cybercrime is impacting SMBs in 2023

According to the United Nations, small and medium-sized businesses SMBs constitute 90 percent of all companies and contribute 60 to 70 percent of all jobs in the world. They generate 50 percent of global gross domestic product and form the backbone of most countries economies. Hit hardest by the...

The state of cryptojacking in the first three quarters of 2022

Cryptocurrency prices were dropping from the end of 2021 and throughout the first half of 2022. Although finance experts and retail investors estimate crypto to have a solid chance of recovery in the long term, at the time of writing this report the prices remain low. However, cybercriminals are...

ICS threat predictions for 2021

We present our vision of what challenges industrial cybersecurity will soon be or already is facing, and what to expect from cybercriminals in 2021. Random infections 1. Infections will tend to be less random or have non-random follow-ups, as cybercriminals have spent the past several years...

Verizon’s 2020 DBIR

Verizon's 2020 DBIR is out, you can download a copy or peruse their publication online. Kaspersky was a contributor once again, and we are happy to provide generalized incident data from our unique and objective research. We have contributed to this project and others like it for years now. This...

Roaming Mantis, part V

Kaspersky has continued to track the Roaming Mantis campaign. The group's attack methods have improved and new targets continuously added in order to steal more funds. The attackers' focus has also shifted to techniques that avoid tracking and research: whitelist for distribution, analysis...

5G technology predictions 2020

Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2019. Advanced threat predictions for 2020 Cybersecurity of connected healthcare 2020: Overview and predictions Corporate security prediction 2020 Cyberthreats to financial institutions 2020: Overview and predictions It is estimated that data will reach 175 zettabytes...

The rise of mobile banker Asacub

We encountered the Trojan-Banker.AndroidOS.Asacub family for the first time in 2015, when the first versions of the malware were detected, analyzed, and found to be more adept at spying than stealing funds. The Trojan has evolved since then, aided by a large-scale distribution campaign by its...

Threat Predictions for Cryptocurrencies in 2018

The landscape in 2017 Today, cryptocurrency is no longer only for computer geeks and IT pros. It's starting to affect people's daily life more than they realize. At the same time, it is fast becoming an attractive target for cybercriminals. Some cyberthreats have been inherited from e-payments,...

Network Anomaly Detection in KATA

Introduction Once the attacker has breached the corporate network, subsequent stages of the attack often involve leveraging standard domain infrastructure protocols: using Kerberos, running DNS queries, accessing internal services, opening network shares, and other common networking actions...

How an image could compromise your Mac: understanding an ExifTool vulnerability (CVE-2026-3102)

Introduction ExifTool is a widely adopted utility for reading and writing metadata in image, PDF, audio, and video files. It is available both as a standalone command-line application and as a library that can be embedded in other software. In this article, we break down CVE-2026-3102, an ExifToo...

Assessing the Y, and How, of the XZ Utils incident

High-end APT groups perform highly interesting social engineering campaigns in order to penetrate well-protected targets. For example, carefully constructed forum responses on precision targeted accounts and follow-up "out-of-band" interactions regarding underground rail system simulator software...

A lightweight method to detect potential iOS malware

Introduction In the ever-evolving landscape of mobile security, hunting for malware in the iOS ecosystem is akin to navigating a labyrinth with invisible walls. Imagine having a digital compass that not only guides you through this maze, but also reveals the hidden mechanisms of iOS malware...

DeathStalker targets legal entities with new Janicab variant

Just to clarify, the above subheading isnt a normal quote, but a message that Janicab malware attempted to decode in its newest use of YouTube dead-drop resolvers DDRs. While hunting for less common Deathstalker intrusions that use the Janicab malware family, we identified a new Janicab variant...

DTrack activity targeting Europe and Latin America

Introduction DTrack is a backdoor used by the Lazarus group. Initially discovered in 2019, the backdoor remains in use three years later. It is used by the Lazarus group against a wide variety of targets. For example, weve seen it being used in financial environments where ATMs were breached, in...

IT threat evolution Q1 2022

IT threat evolution in Q1 2022 IT threat evolution in Q1 2022. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution in Q1 2022. Mobile statistics Targeted attacks MoonBounce: the dark side of UEFI firmware Late last year, we became aware of a UEFI firmware-level compromise through logs from our firmware...

BloodyStealer and gaming assets for sale

Earlier this year, we covered the threats related to gaming, and looked at the changes from 2020 and the first half of 2021 in mobile and PC games as well as various phishing schemes that capitalize on video games. Many of the threats faced by gamers are associated with loss of personal data, and...

Healthcare security in 2021

The pandemic has turned 2020 into a year of medicine and information technology. The remarkable surge in the criticality level of medical infrastructure, coupled with feasible across-the-board digitalization, led to many of our last years predictions coming true much sooner than expected. As we...

Web skimming with Google Analytics

Web skimming is a common class of attacks generally aimed at online shoppers. The principle is quite simple: malicious code is injected into the compromised site, which collects and sends user-entered data to a cybercriminal resource. If the attack is successful, the cybercriminals gain access to...

How we hacked our colleague’s smart home

In this article, we publish the results of our study of the Fibaro Home Center smart home. We identified vulnerabilities in Fibaro Home Center 2 and Fibaro Home Center Lite version 4.540, as well as vulnerabilities in the online API. An offer you cannot refuse The backbone of any technology compa...

A study of car sharing apps

The growing popularity of car sharing services has led some experts to predict an end to private car ownership in big cities. The statistics appear to back up this claim: for example, in 2017 Moscow saw the car sharing fleet, the number of active users and the number of trips they made almost...

Mirage Kitten targeting aviation and FinTech sectors across the Middle East and Africa with a new malware set

While monitoring Mirage Kitten activity, we uncovered a previously undocumented malware family that we dubbed NodeRabbit. We identified the first sample on a system in Afghanistan. Further threat hunting revealed two additional, more advanced, variants: one on a system in Egypt and another on a...

Dero miner zombies biting through Docker APIs to build a cryptojacking horde

Introduction Imagine a container zombie outbreak where a single infected container scans the internet for an exposed Docker API, and bites exploits it by creating new malicious containers and compromising the running ones, thus transforming them into new "zombies" that will mine for Dero currency...

How ToddyCat tried to hide behind AV software

To hide their activity in infected systems, APT groups resort to various techniques to bypass defenses. Most of these techniques are well known and detectable by both EPP solutions and EDR threat-monitoring and response tools. For example, to hide their activity in Windows systems, cybercriminals...

Сrimeware and financial cyberthreats in 2025

Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team constantly monitors known and emerging cyberthreats directed at the financial industry, with banks and fintech companies being the most targeted. We also closely follow threats that aim to infiltrate a wider range of industries, namely ransomware...

HrServ – Previously unknown web shell used in APT attack

Introduction In the course of our routine investigation, we discovered a DLL file, identified as hrserv.dll, which is a previously unknown web shell exhibiting sophisticated features such as custom encoding methods for client communication and in-memory execution. Our analysis of the sample led t...

Lockbit leak, research opportunities on tools leaked from TAs

Lockbit is one of the most prevalent ransomware strains. It comes with an affiliate ransomware-as-a-service RaaS program offering up to 80% of the ransom demand to participants, and includes a bug bounty program for those who detect and report vulnerabilities that allow files to be decrypted...

Andariel’s silly mistakes and a new malware family

Introduction Andariel, a part of the notorious Lazarus group, is known for its use of the DTrack malware and Maui ransomware in mid-2022. During the same period, Andariel also actively exploited the Log4j vulnerability as reported by Talos and Ahnlab. Their campaign introduced several new malware...

IT threat evolution Q1 2023. Mobile statistics

IT threat evolution Q1 2023 IT threat evolution Q1 2023. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution Q1 2023. Mobile statistics These statistics are based on detection verdicts of Kaspersky products received from users who consented to providing statistical data. Quarterly figures According to...

Copy-paste heist or clipboard-injector attacks on cryptousers

It is often the case that something new is just a reincarnation of something old. We have come across a series of clipboard injection attacks on cryptocurrency users, which emerged starting from September 2022. Although we have written about a similar malware attack in 2017 in one of our blogpost...

IT threat evolution in Q2 2022. Mobile statistics

IT threat evolution in Q2 2022 IT threat evolution in Q2 2022. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution in Q2 2022. Mobile statistics These statistics are based on detection verdicts of Kaspersky products received from users who consented to providing statistical data. Quarterly figures Accordin...

How much does access to corporate infrastructure cost?

Division of labor Money has been and remains the main motivator for cybercriminals. The most widespread techniques of monetizing cyberattacks include selling stolen databases, extortion using ransomware and carding. However, there is demand on the dark web not only for data obtained through an...

A Bad Luck BlackCat

In early December 2021, a new ransomware actor started advertising its services on a Russian underground forum. They presented themselves as ALPHV, a new generation Ransomware-as-a-Service RaaS group. Shortly afterwards, they dialed up their activity, infecting numerous corporate victims around t...

Telehealth: a new frontier in medicine—and security

Telehealth today doesnt just involve chatting with a doctor via a video-conferencing application. Its become an entire collection of rapidly developing technologies and products that includes specialized applications, wearable devices, implantable sensors, and cloud databases, many of which have...

Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2021. Statistics

All statistics in this report are from the global cloud service Kaspersky Security Network KSN, which receives information from components in our security solutions. The data was obtained from users who had given their consent to it being sent to KSN. Millions of Kaspersky users around the globe...

DDoS attacks in Q3 2021

News overview Q3 2021 brought two new DDoS attack vectors, potentially posing a serious threat, including for major web resources. A team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado Boulder found a way to spoof the victims IP address over TCP. To date,...

Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2020. Statistics

All statistics in this report are from the global cloud service Kaspersky Security Network KSN, which receives information from components in our security solutions. The data was obtained from users who have given their consent to it being sent to KSN. Millions of Kaspersky users around the globe...

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...