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These aren’t the Androids you should be looking for

When shopping for a new smartphone, you’re likely to look for the best bang for your buck. If you’re on the hunt for a top-of-the-range device but aren’t keen on paying top dollar for it, offerings from lesser-known manufacturers will probably make your shortlist. Indeed, in the fiercely competitive smartphone market you may be even spoiled for choice as some little-known but high-end contenders can, in many respects, rival the flagship products of established tech…

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Safeguard the joy: 10 tips for securing your shiny new device

Digital Security Unwrapping a new gadget this holiday season will put a big smile on your face but things may quickly turn sour if the device and data on it aren’t secured properly Phil Muncaster 21 Dec 2023  •  , 4 min. read As the festive season approaches, we’re all looking forward to being pampered by our friends and family. Increasingly, this means our stockings will be full of technology come the big day. This…

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Key findings from ESET Threat Report H2 2023 – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

Video How cybercriminals take advantage of the popularity of ChatGPT and other tools of its ilk to direct people to sketchy sites, plus other interesting findings from ESET’s latest Threat Report 22 Dec 2023 This week, the ESET research team released the H2 2023 issue of its Threat Report that looked at the key trends and developments that defined the threat landscape from June through November of this year. Here are just some interesting morsels…

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ESET Threat Report H2 2023

ESET Research, Threat Reports A view of the H2 2023 threat landscape as seen by ESET telemetry and from the perspective of ESET threat detection and research experts Jiří Kropáč 19 Dec 2023  •  , 2 min. read The second half of 2023 witnessed significant cybersecurity incidents. Cl0p, a notorious cybercriminal group known for carrying out ransomware attacks on a major scale, garnered attention through its extensive “MOVEit hack”, which surprisingly did not involve ransomware…

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ESET Research Podcast: Neanderthals, Mammoths and Telekopye

ESET Research ESET researchers discuss the dynamics within and between various groups of scammers who use a Telegram bot called Telekopye to scam people on online marketplaces ESET Research 18 Dec 2023  •  , 1 min. read In this episode of our podcast, ESET malware researchers talk about the dynamics within and between various Neanderthal groups, the techniques that this horde of scammers uses to find and select the best Mammoths for hunting, and especially…

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BlackCat Ransomware Raises Ante After FBI Disruption

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disclosed today that it infiltrated the world’s second most prolific ransomware gang, a Russia-based criminal group known as ALPHV and BlackCat. The FBI said it seized the gang’s darknet website, and released a decryption tool that hundreds of victim companies can use to recover systems. Meanwhile, BlackCat responded by briefly “unseizing” its darknet site with a message promising 90 percent commissions for affiliates who continue to work with…

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New iOS feature to thwart eavesdropping – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

Video Your iPhone has just received a new feature called iMessage Contact Key Verification that is designed to help protect your messages from prying eyes 15 Dec 2023 Apple has shipped iOS 17.2 to all users and it includes a new feature that is intended to protect users from attackers who could be misusing the company’s iMessage server infrastructure. Called iMessage Contact Key Verification, the feature “automatically verifies that you’re messaging with the person that…

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OilRig’s persistent attacks using cloud service-powered downloaders

ESET researchers analyzed a growing series of OilRig downloaders that the group has used in several campaigns throughout 2022, to maintain access to target organizations of special interest – all located in Israel. These lightweight downloaders, which we named SampleCheck5000 (SC5k v1-v3), OilCheck, ODAgent, and OilBooster, are notable for using one of several legitimate cloud service APIs for C&C communication and data exfiltration: the Microsoft Graph OneDrive or Outlook APIs, and the Microsoft Office Exchange…

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Ten Years Later, New Clues in the Target Breach

On Dec. 18, 2013, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that U.S. retail giant Target was battling a wide-ranging computer intrusion that compromised more than 40 million customer payment cards over the previous month. The malware used in the Target breach included the text string “Rescator,” which also was the handle chosen by the cybercriminal who was selling all of the cards stolen from Target customers. Ten years later, KrebsOnSecurity has uncovered new clues about the real-life…

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A pernicious potpourri of Python packages in PyPI

ESET Research has discovered a cluster of malicious Python projects being distributed in PyPI, the official Python package repository. The threat targets both Windows and Linux systems and usually delivers a custom backdoor. In some cases, the final payload is a variant of the infamous W4SP Stealer, or a simple clipboard monitor to steal cryptocurrency, or both. In May 2023, we reported on another cluster of packages we found on PyPI that delivers password and…

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