Digital Fraud | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

From sophisticated nation-state campaigns to stealthy malware lurking in unexpected places, this week's cybersecurity landscape is a reminder that attackers are always evolving. Advanced threat groups are exploiting outdated hardware, abusing legitimate tools for financial fraud, and finding new ways to bypass security defenses. Meanwhile, supply chain threats are on the rise, with open-source repositories becoming a playground for credential theft and hidden backdoors. But it's not all bad news—law enforcement is tightening its grip on cybercriminal networks, with key ransomware figures facing extradition and the security community making strides in uncovering and dismantling active threats. Ethical hackers continue to expose critical flaws, and new decryptors offer a fighting chance against ransomware operators. In this week's recap, we dive into the latest attack techniques, emerging vulnerabilities, and defensive strategies to keep you ahead of the curve. Stay informed, stay sec...

The threat actors behind the Darcula phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform appear to be readying a new version that allows prospective customers and cyber crooks to clone any brand's legitimate website and create a phishing version, further bringing down the technical expertise required to pull off phishing attacks at scale. The latest iteration of the phishing suite "represents a significant shift in criminal capabilities, reducing the barrier to entry for bad actors to target any brand with complex, customizable phishing campaigns," Netcraft said in a new analysis. The cybersecurity company said it has detected and blocked more than 95,000 new Darcula phishing domains, nearly 31,000 IP addresses, and taken down more than 20,000 fraudulent websites since it was first exposed in late March 2024. The biggest change incorporated into Darcula is the ability for any user to generate a phishing kit for any brand in an on-demand fashion. "The new and remastered v...

"A boxer derives the greatest advantage from his sparring partner…" — Epictetus, 50–135 AD Hands up. Chin tucked. Knees bent. The bell rings, and both boxers meet in the center and circle. Red throws out three jabs, feints a fourth, and—BANG—lands a right hand on Blue down the center. This wasn't Blue's first day and despite his solid defense in front of the mirror, he feels the pressure. But something changed in the ring; the variety of punches, the feints, the intensity – it's nothing like his coach's simulations. Is my defense strong enough to withstand this? He wonders, do I even have a defense? His coach reassures him "If it weren't for all your practice, you wouldn't have defended those first jabs. You've got a defense—now you need to calibrate it. And that happens in the ring." Cybersecurity is no different. You can have your hands up—deploying the right architecture, policies, and security measures—but the smallest gap in your defense could let an attacker land a kn...

Threat actors have been observed targeting Internet Information Services (IIS) servers in Asia as part of a search engine optimization (SEO) manipulation campaign designed to install BadIIS malware. "It is likely that the campaign is financially motivated since redirecting users to illegal gambling websites shows that attackers deploy BadIIS for profit," Trend Micro researchers Ted Lee and Lenart Bermejo said in an analysis published last week, Targets of the campaign include IIS servers located in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Brazil. These servers are associated with government, universities, technology companies, and telecommunications sectors. Requests to the compromised servers can then be served altered content from attackers, ranging from redirections to gambling sites to connecting to rogue servers that host malware or credential harvesting pages. It's suspected that the activity is the work of a Chinese-s...

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...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered an ongoing malvertising campaign that abuses Meta's advertising platform and hijacked Facebook accounts to distribute an information stealer known as SYS01stealer. "The hackers behind the campaign use trusted brands to expand their reach," Bitdefender Labs said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The malvertising campaign leverages nearly a hundred malicious domains, utilized not only for distributing the malware but also for live command and control (C2) operations, allowing threat actors to manage the attack in real-time." SYS01stealer was first documented by Morphisec in early 2023, describing attack campaigns targeting Facebook business accounts using Google ads and fake Facebook profiles that promote games, adult content, and cracked software. Like other stealer malware, the end goal is to steal login credentials, browsing history, and cookies. But it's also focused on obtaining Facebook ad and busin...

Four Vietnamese nationals with ties to the FIN9 cybercrime group have been indicted in the U.S. for their involvement in a series of computer intrusions that caused over $71 million in losses to companies. The defendants, Ta Van Tai (aka Quynh Hoa and Bich Thuy), Nguyen Viet Quoc (aka Tien Nguyen), Nguyen Trang Xuyen, and Nguyen Van Truong (aka Chung Nguyen), have been accused of conducting phishing campaigns and supply chain compromises to orchestrate cyber attacks and steal millions of dollars. "From at least May 2018 through October 2021, the defendants hacked the computer networks of victim companies throughout the United States and used their access to steal or attempt to steal non-public information, employee benefits, and funds," the U.S. Department of Justice said in an unsealed indictment last week. According to court documents, the individuals – after successfully gaining initial access to target networks – stole gift card data, personally identifiable informat...