Information

Search ads abused to spread malware – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

Threat actors used search engine ads to impersonate makers of popular software and direct internet users to malicious websites This week, the ESET research team has published a report describing a malware campaign that took aim at Chinese-speaking people in Southeast and East Asia. The campaign involved malicious advertisements that appeared in Google search and lead people to fake websites that mimicked the websites of popular applications such as Firefox, WhatsApp, Signal, Skype, and Telegram,…

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Spain Orders Extradition of British Alleged Hacker to U.S.

Spain’s National Court has agreed to the extradition to the U.S. of a British citizen who allegedly took part in computer attacks, including the July 2020 hacking of Twitter accounts of public figures such as Joseph Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Gates. A court statement Friday said requirements had been met for handing over Joseph James O’Connor to U.S. authorities for 14 charges covering crimes such as revelation of secrets, membership of a criminal gang,…

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These aren’t the apps you’re looking for: fake installers targeting Southeast and East Asia

ESET researchers have identified a campaign using trojanized installers to deliver the FatalRAT malware, distributed via malicious websites linked in ads that appear in Google search results ESET researchers identified a malware campaign that targets Chinese-speaking people in Southeast and East Asia by buying misleading advertisements to appear in Google search results that lead to downloading trojanized installers. The unknown attackers created fake websites that look identical to those of popular applications such as Firefox,…

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Security amidst a global frost

No longer relegated to a side-show, tech is embedded into virtually every new piece of gear entering the battlefield As military and tech gather to address the frosty world defense conditions and what the intersection of technology’s role is with attendees at AFCEA West, it’s clear that the global warfighting world has changed. No longer relegated to a side-show, tech is embedded into virtually every new piece of gear entering the battlefield, and that is…

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New Protections for Food Benefits Stolen by Skimmers

Millions of Americans receiving food assistance benefits just earned a new right that they can’t yet enforce: The right to be reimbursed if funds on their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards are stolen by card skimming devices secretly installed at cash machines and grocery store checkout lanes. On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which — for the first time ever — includes provisions for the replacement…

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Newly Disclosed Vulnerability Exposes EOL Arris Routers to Attacks

Malwarebytes warns of a remote code execution vulnerability impacting several Arris routers, for which proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code has been released. Tracked as CVE-2022-45701, the bug exists because the router firmware does not properly neutralize special characters in requests, which allowed security researcher Yerodin Richards to perform shell script command injection. The impacted models have reached end-of-life (EOL) and are no longer supported by CommScope (the company that acquired Arris), meaning that they are unlikely…

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‘Frebniis’ Malware Hijacks Microsoft IIS Function to Deploy Backdoor

A recently identified malware family is abusing Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) to deploy a backdoor and monitor all HTTP traffic to the infected system, Symantec reports. Dubbed Frebniis, the malware injects code into a DLL that an IIS feature called Failed Request Event Buffering (FREB) uses when troubleshooting failed requests. FREB collects data about the tracked requests, including HTTP headers with cookies, originating IP address and port, and more. As part of the observed…

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ChatGPT, will you be my Valentine?

Spoiler alert: it turned me down. But that’s far from the only thing I learned while playing around with the bot that the world has fallen in love with so badly. When it was unleashed into an astonished world on November 30th 2022, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing web app ever, reaching a million users in the first five days before going on to clock 100 million monthly active users in January of this year. In so doing,…

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10 signs that scammers have you in their sights

Don’t be their next victim – here’s a handy round-up of some the most common signs that should set your alarm bells ringing We all spend so much of our time online these days. It’s estimated that the average adult spends the best part of seven hours per day glued to their screens. When we’re finished with work, we’re hitting up our apps to watch TV, do our online banking, play games, socialize with friends…

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S3 Ep122: Stop calling every breach “sophisticated”! [Audio + Text]

by Paul Ducklin CAN WE STOP WITH THE “SOPHISTICATED” ALREADY? The birth of ENIAC. A “sophisticated attack” (someone got phished). A cryptographic hack enabled by a security warning. Valentine’s Day Patch Tuesday. Apple closes spyware-sized 0-day hole. Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple…

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