Cyber Attack | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers are warning that a command-and-control (C&C) framework called Winos is being distributed within gaming-related applications like installation tools, speed boosters, and optimization utilities. "Winos 4.0 is an advanced malicious framework that offers comprehensive functionality, a stable architecture, and efficient control over numerous online endpoints to execute further actions," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Rebuilt from Gh0st RAT , it includes several modular components, each handling distinct functions." Campaigns distributing Winos 4.0 were documented back in June by Trend Micro and the KnownSec 404 Team. The cybersecurity companies are tracking the activity cluster under the names Void Arachne and Silver Fox. These attacks have been observed targeting Chinese-speaking users, leveraging black hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics, social media, and messaging platforms like Te...

Over 1,500 Android devices have been infected by a new strain of Android banking malware called ToxicPanda that allows threat actors to conduct fraudulent banking transactions. "ToxicPanda's main goal is to initiate money transfers from compromised devices via account takeover (ATO) using a well-known technique called on-device fraud ( ODF )," Cleafy researchers Michele Roviello, Alessandro Strino, and Federico Valentini said in a Monday analysis. "It aims to bypass bank countermeasures used to enforce users' identity verification and authentication, combined with behavioral detection techniques applied by banks to identify suspicious money transfers." ToxicPanda is believed to be the work of a Chinese-speaking threat actor, with the malware sharing foundational similarities with another Android malware dubbed TgToxic , which can steal credentials and funds from crypto wallets. TgToxic was documented by Trend Micro in early 2023. A majority of the com...

IT leaders know the drill—regulators and cyber insurers demand regular network penetration testing to keep the bad guys out. But here's the thing: hackers don't wait around for compliance schedules. Most companies approach network penetration testing on a set schedule, with the most common frequency being twice a year (29%), followed by three to four times per year (23%) and once per year (20%), according to the Kaseya Cybersecurity Survey Report 2024 . Compliance-focused testing can catch vulnerabilities that exist at the exact time of testing, but it's not enough to stay ahead of attackers in a meaningful way. Why More Frequent Testing Makes Sense When companies test more often, they're not just checking a box for compliance—they're actually protecting their networks. The Kaseya survey also points out that the top drivers for network penetration testing are: Cybersecurity Control and Validation (34%) – ensuring the security controls work and vulnerabilities are minimized. Re...

Google has warned that a security flaw impacting its Android operating system has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-43093, has been described as a privilege escalation flaw in the Android Framework component that could result in unauthorized access to "Android/data," "Android/obb," and "Android/sandbox" directories, and their respective sub-directories, according to a code commit message . There are currently no details about how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks, but Google acknowledged in its monthly bulletin that there are indications it "may be under limited, targeted exploitation." The tech giant has also flagged CVE-2024-43047, a now-patched security bug in Qualcomm chipsets, as having been actively exploited. A use-after-free vulnerability in the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Service, a successful exploitation of the security flaw could lead to memory corrupti...

Threat actors linked to North Korea have been implicated in a recent incident that deployed a known ransomware family called Play, underscoring their financial motivations. The activity, observed between May and September 2024, has been attributed to a threat actor tracked as Jumpy Pisces , which is also known as Andariel, APT45, DarkSeoul, Nickel Hyatt, Onyx Sleet (formerly Plutonium), Operation Troy, Silent Chollima, and Stonefly. "We believe with moderate confidence that Jumpy Pisces, or a faction of the group, is now collaborating with the Play ransomware group," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said in a new report published today. "This incident is significant because it marks the first recorded collaboration between the Jumpy Pisces North Korean state-sponsored group and an underground ransomware network." Andariel, active since at least 2009, is affiliated with North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). It has been previously observed deploying ...

A government entity and a religious organization in Taiwan were the target of a China-linked threat actor known as Evasive Panda that infected them with a previously undocumented post-compromise toolset codenamed CloudScout. "The CloudScout toolset is capable of retrieving data from various cloud services by leveraging stolen web session cookies," ESET security researcher Anh Ho said . "Through a plugin, CloudScout works seamlessly with MgBot, Evasive Panda's signature malware framework." The use of the .NET-based malware tool, per the Slovak cybersecurity company, was detected between May 2022 and February 2023. It incorporates 10 different modules, written in C#, out of which three are meant for stealing data from Google Drive, Gmail, and Outlook. The purpose of the remaining modules remains unknown. Evasive Panda, also tracked as Bronze Highland, Daggerfly, and StormBamboo, is a cyber espionage group that has a track record of striking various entitie...

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has detailed a new malicious email campaign targeting government agencies, enterprises, and military entities. "The messages exploit the appeal of integrating popular services like Amazon or Microsoft and implementing a zero-trust architecture," CERT-UA said . "These emails contain attachments in the form of Remote Desktop Protocol ('.rdp') configuration files." Once executed, the RDP files establish a connection with a remote server, enabling the threat actors to gain remote access to the compromised hosts, steal data, and plant additional malware for follow-on attacks. Infrastructure preparation for the activity is believed to have been underway since at least August 2024, with the agency stating that it's likely to spill out of Ukraine to target other countries. CERT-UA has attributed the campaign to a threat actor it tracks as UAC-0215. Amazon Web Services (AWS), in an advisory of its own...

The North Korean threat actor known as Lazarus Group has been attributed to the zero-day exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Google Chrome to seize control of infected devices. Cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky said it made the discovery after it came across a novel attack chain in May 2024 that targeted the personal computer of an unnamed Russian national with the Manuscrypt backdoor. This entails triggering the zero-day exploit simply upon visiting a fake game website ("detankzone[.]com") that was aimed at individuals in the cryptocurrency sector. The campaign is estimated to have commenced in February 2024. "On the surface, this website resembled a professionally designed product page for a decentralized finance (DeFi) NFT-based (non-fungible token) multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) tank game, inviting users to download a trial version," Kaspersky researchers Boris Larin and Vasily Berdnikov said . "But that was just a disguise. Under the...

Hi there! Here's your quick update on the latest in cybersecurity. Hackers are using new tricks to break into systems we thought were secure—like finding hidden doors in locked houses. But the good news? Security experts are fighting back with smarter tools to keep data safe. Some big companies were hit with attacks, while others fixed their vulnerabilities just in time. It's a constant battle. For you, staying protected means keeping your devices and apps up to date. In this newsletter, we'll break down the top stories. Whether you're protecting personal data or managing security for a business, we've got tips to help you stay safe. Let's get started! ⚡ Threat of the Week China Calls Volt Typhoon an Invention of the U.S. : China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) has claimed that the threat actor tracked Volt Typhoon is an invention of U.S. intelligence agencies and their allies. It also accused the U.S. of carrying out false flag operations in ...

A nascent threat actor known as Crypt Ghouls has been linked to a set of cyber attacks targeting Russian businesses and government agencies with ransomware with the twin goals of disrupting business operations and financial gain. "The group under review has a toolkit that includes utilities such as Mimikatz, XenAllPasswordPro, PingCastle, Localtonet, resocks, AnyDesk, PsExec, and others," Kaspersky said . "As the final payload, the group used the well-known ransomware LockBit 3.0 and Babuk." Victims of the malicious attacks span government agencies, as well as mining, energy, finance, and retail companies located in Russia. The Russian cybersecurity vendor said it was able to pinpoint the initial intrusion vector in only two instances, with the threat actors leveraging a contractor's login credentials to connect to the internal systems via VPN. The VPN connections are said to have originated from IP addresses associated with a Russian hosting provider...

The Russian threat actor known as RomCom has been linked to a new wave of cyber attacks aimed at Ukrainian government agencies and unknown Polish entities since at least late 2023. The intrusions are characterized by the use of a variant of the RomCom RAT dubbed SingleCamper (aka SnipBot or RomCom 5.0), said Cisco Talos, which is monitoring the activity cluster under the moniker UAT-5647. "This version is loaded directly from the registry into memory and uses a loopback address to communicate with its loader," security researchers Dmytro Korzhevin, Asheer Malhotra, Vanja Svajcer, and Vitor Ventura noted . RomCom, also tracked as Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius, UAC-0180, UNC2596, and Void Rabisu, has engaged in multi-motivational operations such as ransomware, extortion, and targeted credential gathering since its emergence in 2022. It's been assessed that the operational tempo of their attacks has increased in recent months with an aim to set up long-term persisten...

An advanced persistent threat (APT) actor with suspected ties to India has sprung forth with a flurry of attacks against high-profile entities and strategic infrastructures in the Middle East and Africa. The activity has been attributed to a group tracked as SideWinder , which is also known as APT-C-17, Baby Elephant, Hardcore Nationalist, Leafperforator, Rattlesnake, Razor Tiger, and T-APT-04. "The group may be perceived as a low-skilled actor due to the use of public exploits, malicious LNK files and scripts as infection vectors, and the use of public RATs, but their true capabilities only become apparent when you carefully examine the details of their operations," Kaspersky researchers Giampaolo Dedola and Vasily Berdnikov said . Targets of the attacks include government and military entities, logistics, infrastructure and telecommunications companies, financial institutions, universities, and oil trading companies located in Bangladesh, Djibouti, Jordan, Malaysia, the...

A new spear-phishing campaign targeting Brazil has been found delivering a banking malware called Astaroth (aka Guildma) by making use of obfuscated JavaScript to slip past security guardrails. "The spear-phishing campaign's impact has targeted various industries, with manufacturing companies, retail firms, and government agencies being the most affected," Trend Micro said in a new analysis. "The malicious emails often impersonate official tax documents, using the urgency of personal income tax filings to trick users into downloading the malware." The cybersecurity company is tracking the threat activity cluster under the name Water Makara. It's worth pointing out that Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has assigned the moniker PINEAPPLE to a similar intrusion set that delivers the same malware to Brazilian users. Both these campaigns share a point of commonality in that they commence with phishing messages that impersonate official entities su...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new malware campaign that leverages a malware loader named PureCrypter to deliver a commodity remote access trojan (RAT) called DarkVision RAT. The activity, observed by Zscaler ThreatLabz in July 2024, involves a multi-stage process to deliver the RAT payload. "DarkVision RAT communicates with its command-and-control (C2) server using a custom network protocol via sockets," security researcher Muhammed Irfan V A said in an analysis. "DarkVision RAT supports a wide range of commands and plugins that enable additional capabilities such as keylogging, remote access, password theft, audio recording, and screen captures." PureCrypter, first publicly disclosed in 2022, is an off-the-shelf malware loader that's available for sale on a subscription basis, offering customers the ability to distribute information stealers, RATs, and ransomware. The exact initial access vector used to deliver PureCrypter and, by extensio...

China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) has doubled down on claims that the threat actor known as Volt Typhoon is a fabrication of the U.S. and its allies. The agency, in collaboration with the National Engineering Laboratory for Computer Virus Prevention Technology, went on to accuse the U.S. federal government, intelligence agencies, and Five Eyes countries of conducting cyber espionage activities against China, France, Germany, Japan, and internet users globally. It also said there's "ironclad evidence" indicating that the U.S. carries out false flag operations in an attempt to conceal its own malicious cyber attacks, adding it's inventing the "so-called danger of Chinese cyber attacks" and that it has established a "large-scale global internet surveillance network." "And the fact that the U.S. adopted supply chain attacks, implanted backdoors in internet products and 'pre-positioned' has completely...

Hey there, it's your weekly dose of " what the heck is going on in cybersecurity land " – and trust me, you NEED to be in the loop this time. We've got everything from zero-day exploits and AI gone rogue to the FBI playing crypto kingpin – it's full of stuff they don't 🤫 want you to know. So let's jump in before we get FOMO. ⚡ Threat of the Week GoldenJackal Hacks Air-Gapped Systems: Meet GoldenJackal, the hacking crew you've probably never heard of – but should definitely know about now. They're busting into super-secure, air-gapped computer systems with sneaky worms spread through infected USB drives (yes, really!), proving that even the most isolated networks aren't safe. ESET researchers caught them red-handed using two different custom-made tools to target high-profile victims, including a South Asian embassy in Belarus and a European Union government organization. 🔔 Top News Mozilla Patches Firefox 0-Day: Mozilla patched a...