Attacks

Iran-Based Hackers Caught Carrying Out Destructive Attacks Under Ransomware Guise

The Iranian nation-state group known as MuddyWater has been observed carrying out destructive attacks on hybrid environments under the guise of a ransomware operation. That’s according to new findings from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team, which discovered the threat actor targeting both on-premises and cloud infrastructures in partnership with another emerging activity cluster dubbed DEV-1084. MuddyWater is the name assigned to an Iran-based actor that the U.S. government has publicly connected to the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).…

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FBI Cracks Down on Genesis Market

A coordinated international law enforcement operation has dismantled Genesis Market, an illegal online marketplace that specialized in the sale of stolen credentials associated with email, bank accounts, and social media platforms. Coinciding with the infrastructure seizure, the major crackdown, which involved authorities from 17 countries, culminated in 119 arrests and 208 property searches in 13 nations. The “unprecedented” law enforcement exercise has been codenamed Operation Cookie Monster. Genesis Market, since its inception in March 2018, evolved into a major hub…

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Typhon Info-Stealing Malware Devs Upgrade Evasion Capabilities

Typhon, a C# based information stealing malware that was first discovered in mid-2022, has had a new version released by the threat actors behind it. Dubbed Typhon Reborn, the new malware has a heavily modified codebase from its original version, containing many new features and evasive techniques. String obfuscation techniques, using Base64 and XOR, within the malware payloads has improved, making it more difficult to analyze samples. A wide range of checks, such as looking…

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YouTube Phishing Scam Luring Users Into Providing Credentials

A new phishing scam on YouTube has been uncovered, where hackers are using authentic-looking email addresses to trick users into giving away their account login information. The scam starts with a fraudulent email claiming to be from YouTube’s support team, stating that the user’s account is in violation of the platform’s policies and will be suspended if the issue is not resolved. The email contains a link that appears to take the user to YouTube’s…

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IOTW: Latitude Financial data breach affects 14 million people

Australian financial services company, Latitude Financial, has suffered a large-scale data break that exposed the personal information for more than 14 million customers. The breach was initially discovered on March 16, but was originally thought to have affected a fraction of the customers actually impacted by the cyber attack. How did the Latitude Financial data breach happen? The data breach was initially reported by Latitude Financial on March 16, after unusual activity was detected on…

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Twitter source code leaked via GitHub

Part of the source code for social media site Twitter has been leaked via source code repository GitHub, according to a DMCA takedown request. The DMCA request stated that the code leaked included “proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools”. Following the DMCA request, the code was taken down. The source code was leaked by a user under the screen name ‘FreeSpeechEnthusiast’. It is unclear how long the source code was available for,…

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Bitter APT Targeting Chinese Nuclear Energy Organizations

While largely targeting organizations in the APAC region, this company has also been seen targeting organization in Europe, indicating that they may pivot to compromise organizations worldwide in the future. As the initial compromise in this campaign stems from phishing, the best prevention is to provide adequate user education into the latest phishing campaigns. However, this is not adequate as all it takes is one phishing attachment to slip through the cracks and get executed…

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Watch Out for These Tax Season Scams

The IRS provided excellent tips for protecting against these types of scams: • File early. OK. The ship may have already sort of sailed on this one, but the earlier you file, the less time cybercriminals have to use your identity to commit fraud.• Watch out for phishing and smishing. The IRS won’t send unsolicited emails or texts. Skip the links and attachments and go straight to the IRS or the applicable state and city…

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Decoy Installers Used to Deploy AresLoader by Russian Hacktivists

Some defensive measures can be taken to lessen the likelihood of infection by AresLoader and other malware strains alike, including: 1. Be cautious when downloading and installing software: AresLoader malware is being spread through deceptive software installers, so it’s important to be careful when downloading and installing new software. Only download software from reputable sources and be wary of any installers that look suspicious or untrustworthy. 2. Keep software up to date: Cybercriminals often exploit…

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IOTW: BreachForums shuts down after FBI arrests its top admin

Notorious dark web hacking forum BreachForums is reportedly shutting down following the arrest of one of its top administrators by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Information (FBI). The administrator of the site, who went by ‘Pompompurin’ on the site and was named as Conor Brian Fitzpatrick by the FBI, was allegedly arrested by the Bureau on March 15 on suspicion of hosting and running the forum. BreachForums was thought to be the reincarnation of…

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