Cybercrime | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The threat actors behind the More_eggs malware have been linked to two new malware families, indicating an expansion of its malware-as-a-service (MaaS) operation. This includes a novel information-stealing backdoor called RevC2 and a loader codenamed Venom Loader, both of which are deployed using VenomLNK , a staple tool that serves as an initial access vector for the deployment of follow-on payloads. "RevC2 uses WebSockets to communicate with its command-and-control (C2) server. The malware is capable of stealing cookies and passwords, proxies network traffic, and enables remote code execution (RCE)," Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Muhammed Irfan V A said . "Venom Loader is a new malware loader that is customized for each victim, using the victim's computer name to encode the payload." Both the malware families have been distributed as part of campaigns observed by the cybersecurity company between August and October 2024. The threat actor behind the e-cr...

Europol on Thursday announced the shutdown of a clearnet marketplace called Manson Market that facilitated online fraud on a large scale. The operation, led by German authorities, has resulted in the seizure of more than 50 servers associated with the service and the arrest of two suspects. More than 200 terabytes of digital evidence have been collected. In addition, over 80 data storage devices, cell phones, computers, as well as cash and crypto assets worth more than €63,000 ($66,500) have been confiscated. Manson Market ("manson-market[.]pw") is believed to have launched in 2022 as a way to peddle sensitive information that was illegally obtained from victims as part of phishing and vishing (voice phishing) schemes. One such criminal activity involved calling victims under the guise of bank employees to trick them into revealing their addresses and security answers. In another instance, a network of fake online shops was employed to deceive visitors into entering th...

Most microsegmentation projects fail before they even get off the ground—too complex, too slow, too disruptive. But Andelyn Biosciences proved it doesn't have to be that way.  Microsegmentation: The Missing Piece in Zero Trust Security   Security teams today are under constant pressure to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Perimeter-based defenses alone can no longer provide sufficient protection as attackers shift their focus to lateral movement within enterprise networks. With over 70% of successful breaches involving attackers moving laterally, organizations are rethinking how they secure internal traffic.  Microsegmentation has emerged as a key strategy in achieving Zero Trust security by restricting access to critical assets based on identity rather than network location. However, traditional microsegmentation approaches—often involving VLAN reconfigurations, agent deployments, or complex firewall rules—tend to be slow, operationally disrupt...

Europol on Tuesday announced the takedown of an invite-only encrypted messaging service called MATRIX that's created by criminals for criminal purposes. The joint operation, conducted by French and Dutch authorities under the moniker Passionflower , comes in the aftermath of an investigation that was launched in 2021 after the messaging service was discovered on the phone of a criminal convicted for the murder of a Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries . This allowed authorities to intercept messages being sent via the service for a period of three months, amassing a total of more than 2.3 million messages in 33 languages. The messages, Europol said, are associated with serious crimes such as international drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering.  It's worth noting at this stage that MATRIX is different from the open-source, decentralized messaging app of the same name ("matrix[.]org"). Also known by other names such as Mactrix, Totalsec, X-quantum...

Ever wonder what happens in the digital world every time you blink? Here's something wild - hackers launch about 2,200 attacks every single day, which means someone's trying to break into a system somewhere every 39 seconds. And get this - while we're all worried about regular hackers, there are now AI systems out there that can craft phishing emails so convincingly, that even cybersecurity experts have trouble spotting them. What's even crazier? Some of the latest malware is like a digital chameleon - it literally watches how you try to catch it and changes its behavior to slip right past your defenses. Pretty mind-bending stuff, right? This week's roundup is packed with eye-opening developments that'll make you see your laptop in a whole new light. ⚡ Threat of the Week T-Mobile Spots Hackers Trying to Break In: U.S. telecom service provider T-Mobile caught some suspicious activity on their network recently - basically, someone was trying to sneak into th...

A global law enforcement operation has led to the arrest of more than 5,500 suspects involved in financial crimes and the seizure of more than $400 million in virtual assets and government-backed currencies. The coordinated exercise saw the participation of authorities from 40 countries, territories, and regions as part of the latest wave of Operation HAECHI-V , which took place between July and November 2024, INTERPOL said. "The effects of cyber-enabled crime can be devastating – people losing their life savings, businesses crippled, and trust in digital and financial systems undermined," INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement. "The borderless nature of cybercrime means international police cooperation is essential, and the success of this operation supported by INTERPOL shows what results can be achieved when countries work together. It's only through united efforts that we can make the real and digital worlds safer." As part of H...

A Russian cybercriminal wanted in the U.S. in connection with LockBit and Hive ransomware operations has been arrested by law enforcement authorities in the country. According to a news report from Russian media outlet RIA Novosti, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev has been accused of developing a malicious program designed to encrypt files and seek ransom in return for a decryption key. "At present, the investigator has collected sufficient evidence, the criminal case with the indictment signed by the prosecutor has been sent to the Central District Court of the city of Kaliningrad for consideration on the merits," the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement. Matveev has been charged under Part 1 of Article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which relates to the creation, use, and distribution of computer programs that can cause "destruction, blocking, modification or copying of computer information." He was previously charged and ...

Cybersecurity researchers are warning about malicious email campaigns leveraging a phishing-as-a-service ( PhaaS ) toolkit called Rockstar 2FA with an aim to steal Microsoft 365 account credentials. "This campaign employs an AitM [adversary-in-the-middle] attack, allowing attackers to intercept user credentials and session cookies, which means that even users with multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled can still be vulnerable," Trustwave researchers Diana Solomon and John Kevin Adriano said . Rockstar 2FA is assessed to be an updated version of the DadSec (aka Phoenix) phishing kit. Microsoft is tracking the developers and distributors of the Dadsec PhaaS platform under the moniker Storm-1575 . Like its predecessors, the phishing kit is advertised via services like ICQ, Telegram, and Mail.ru under a subscription model for $200 for two weeks (or $350 for a month), allowing cyber criminals with little-to-no technical expertise to mount campaigns at scale. Some of the...

An INTERPOL-led operation has led to the arrest of 1,006 suspects across 19 African countries and the takedown of 134,089 malicious infrastructures and networks as part of a coordinated effort to disrupt cybercrime in the continent. Dubbed Serengeti , the law enforcement exercise took place between September 2 and October 31, 2024, and targeted criminals behind ransomware, business email compromise (BEC), digital extortion, and online scams. The participating nations in the operation were Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These activities, which ranged from online credit card fraud and Ponzi schemes to investment and multi-level marketing scams, victimized more than 35,000 people, leading to financial losses nearly amounting to $193 million across the world. In connection with the $6 million online Ponzi ...

A threat actor named Matrix has been linked to a widespread distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) campaign that leverages vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in Internet of Things (IoT) devices to co-opt them into a disruptive botnet. "This operation serves as a comprehensive one-stop shop for scanning, exploiting vulnerabilities, deploying malware, and setting up shop kits, showcasing a do-it-all-yourself approach to cyberattacks," Assaf Morag, director of threat intelligence at cloud security firm Aqua, said . There is evidence to suggest that the operation is the work of a lone wolf actor, a script kiddie of Russian origin. The attacks have primarily targeted IP addresses located in China, Japan, and to a lesser extent Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, India, and the U.S. The absence of Ukraine in the victimology footprint indicates that the attackers are purely driven by financial motivations, the cloud security firm said. The attack chains are characterized by ...

The Russia-aligned threat actor known as RomCom has been linked to the zero-day exploitation of two security flaws, one in Mozilla Firefox and the other in Microsoft Windows, as part of attacks designed to deliver the eponymous backdoor on victim systems. "In a successful attack, if a victim browses a web page containing the exploit, an adversary can run arbitrary code – without any user interaction required (zero click) – which in this case led to the installation of RomCom's backdoor on the victim's computer," ESET said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2024-9680 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A use-after-free vulnerability in Firefox's Animation component (Patched by Mozilla in October 2024)  CVE-2024-49039 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Task Scheduler (Patched by Microsoft in November 2024) RomCom , also known as Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius, UAC-0180, UNC2596, and...

We hear terms like "state-sponsored attacks" and "critical vulnerabilities" all the time, but what's really going on behind those words? This week's cybersecurity news isn't just about hackers and headlines—it's about how digital risks shape our lives in ways we might not even realize. For instance, telecom networks being breached isn't just about stolen data—it's about power. Hackers are positioning themselves to control the networks we rely on for everything, from making calls to running businesses. And those techy-sounding CVEs? They're not just random numbers; they're like ticking time bombs in the software you use every day, from your phone to your work tools. These stories aren't just for the experts—they're for all of us. They show how easily the digital world we trust can be turned against us. But they also show us the power of staying informed and prepared. Dive into this week's recap, and let's uncover the risks, the solutions, and the small steps we can all take to stay a...

Dive into the evolution of phishing and malware evasion techniques and understand how attackers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to bypass security measures. The Evolution of Phishing Attacks "I really like the saying that 'This is out of scope' said no hacker ever. Whether it's tricks, techniques or technologies, hackers will do anything to evade detection and make sure their attack is successful," says Etay Maor, Chief Security Strategist at Cato Networks and member of Cato CTRL . Phishing attacks have transformed significantly over the years. 15-20 years ago, simple phishing sites were sufficient for capturing the crown jewels of the time - credit card details. Today, attacks and defense methods have become much more sophisticated, as we'll detail below. "This is also the time where the "cat-and-mouse" attack-defense game began," says Tal Darsan, Security Manager and member of Cato CTRL. At the time, a major defense technique against credit card phishing sites inv...