Infosecurity News
Obamacare-baited Malware Scam Mashes Up iPhones, Video Players
The old adage of "if it’s too good to be true that it usually is," continues to hold water. An elaborate social engineering lure using the Affordable Care Act as bait is unfolding, with the end goal of serving up an executable file containing malware.
Cyber-espionage Campaign Ahead of G20 Summit Compromised Several European Ministries
Ahead of the G20 summit in Russia in late summer, a group of perpetrators (who may be Chinese) carried out a targeted attack on diplomatic missions, including ministries of foreign affairs (MFA), using the crisis in Syria as social engineering bait.
Major Browsers Block an Improperly Issued Certificate
SSL certificates are designed to provide trust in the internet. They are issued by trusted Certificate Authorities to prove that a site is indeed the site it claims to be. But if a certificate is forged, lost, or improperly issued, it provides false trust that can lead to man-in-the-middle cyber attacks.
NSA/GCHQ Turn World of Warcraft into World of Spycraft
Online gamers use false names and characters to meet, chat and interact with other people from all over the world anonymously. NSA and GCHQ began to suspect that criminals and terrorists were using these virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft, XBox Live and Second Life to 'hide in plain site' – and began a concerted effort to infiltrate gaming.
FBI Can Activate Webcams Remotely Without the Light Coming On
Whether hackers are able to remotely switch on victims' webcams without the camera light giving the game away has been the subject of some debate. Now we learn that not only can it be done, it is done by the FBI.
Lawyer Throws Spanner in EU Data Protection Regulation
Two months after European justice ministers agreed the principle of the 'one-stop-shop' for data protection rulings, Hubert Legal (head of legal services for the European Council; that is, the member states) declared it would be a bad outcome likely in breach of European human rights.
Dexter POS Malware Returns to Target Holiday Shoppers
At least three distinct versions of the Dexter point of sale (POS) malware are making the rounds this holiday season, designed to steal credit and debit card data from unwitting shoppers.
2 Million-Strong ZeroAccess Botnet Disrupted by Microsoft and Law Enforcement
An international cooperative effort involving Microsoft, the FBI, Europol and A10 Networks has disrupted the ZeroAccess (Sirefef) P2P ad fraud botnet. ZeroAccess is believed to use up to 800,000 out of a total of two million infected PCs at any time, mostly in the US and Europe, capable of stealing $2.7 million from online advertisers every month.
SkyJack: For Taking Over and Zombifying Drones
Amazon made headlines this week with the news that its experimenting with using airborne drones to deliver goods within 30 minutes of order. What could possibly go wrong? Infamous hacker Samy Kamkar highlights one issue with the release of SkyJack – a drone that’s meant to take over other drones.
German Police Arrest Two Bitcoin-mining Botnet Operators
Two alleged hackers have been arrested in Bavaria and Lower Saxony on suspicion of operating a botnet of compromised PCs to perform bitcoin mining. In related raids, the authorities discovered bitcoins currently valued at around €700,000 and evidence of other criminal activity involving copyright and pornography offenses.
Cameron Says China Should Be More Open About Cyber-spying, but Guardian Should be Less
In Beijing, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has challenged the Chinese Government to discuss its industrial-scale cyber-espionage, while in London the Guardian is under legal threat for disclosing GCHQ's own efforts in this area.
ENISA Issues Good Practice Guide for Industrial Control System CERTs
The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has published a good practice guide designed to help the critical infrastructure mitigate cyber-attacks against the industrial control systems supporting vital industry processes.
Simple Yet Elegant Card Skimmer Goes on Sale in Time for the Holidays
A new point-of-sale (POS) skimmer, used for lifting credit card details and PIN data at retail locations, has gone on sale for thousands of dollars on semi-private underground crime forums. The skimmer is notable in that it can be installed and removed in the blink of an eye.
700 Domains seized by ICE, Europol and Hong Kong Customs on Cyber Monday
This year's Cyber Monday, traditionally the start of the holiday online shopping season, marked the end of it for more than 700 websites involved in selling counterfeit merchandise – all seized in a joint operation between ICE (297), Europol (393) and Hong Kong Customs (16).
Javascript Sidedoors Vulnerability Affects Thousands of Mobile Apps
This story has been temporarily removed, due to dispute with the report the story was based on. We are awaiting amends from the report authors before re-posting an updated story.
FBI Issues Warning on 'Man-in-the-E-mail' Fraud Attacks
Man-in-the-email is a variation on the man-in-the-middle attack. In this fraud the attacker takes an e-mail position between a buyer and seller, and is able to defraud the buyer out of funds and the seller out of goods. The FBI knows at least three US companies tricked by such a scam in 2013.
Bitcoin Mining: There's a Right Way and a PUP Way
With the value of bitcoins having tipped $1000, bitcoin mining is increasingly attractive; but it is also resource-intensive, and the 'bounty' earned by miners is dropping. One company has built a specialist data center to do the mining; another dubiously harnesses the power of its users' PCs.
90,000 Patients Compromised at UW Medicine
The University of Washington Medical Center (UW Medicine) was breached in October, with data of up to 90,000 patients of the Harborview Medical Center and University of Washington Medical Center affected. No medical data was stolen, but SSNs may have been lost.
Blackshades RAT Has a Resurgence
A prominent remote administration tool (RAT) known as Blackshades is seeing an uptick lately, despite one of its authors having been arrested last year.
The Paradox of OSS: More Secure by Definition; Often Less Secure in Use
One side-effect of the Snowden revelations and rumors and accusations of government-inspired backdoors in mainstream software products is increased interest in open source software (OSS). But while OSS comes with more inherent trust, it is often used with less security.
