Phishing | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has warned of a new phishing campaign that masquerades as the Security Service of Ukraine to distribute malware capable of remote desktop access. The agency is tracking the activity under the name UAC-0198. More than 100 computers are estimated to have been infected since July 2024, including those related to government bodies in the country. The attack chains involve the mass distribution of emails to deliver a ZIP archive file containing an MSI installer file, the opening of which leads to the deployment of malware called ANONVNC. ANONVNC, which is based on an open-source remote management tool called MeshAgent , allows for stealthy unauthorized access to the infected hosts. The development comes as CERT-UA attributed the hacking group UAC-0102 to phishing attacks propagating HTML attachments that mimic the login page of UKR.NET to steal users' credentials. Over the past few weeks, the agency has also warned of a

The Russian government and IT organizations are the target of a new campaign that delivers a number of backdoors and trojans as part of a spear-phishing campaign codenamed EastWind . The attack chains are characterized by the use of RAR archive attachments containing a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that, upon opening, activates the infection sequence, culminating in the deployment of malware such as GrewApacha, an updated version of the CloudSorcerer backdoor, and a previously undocumented implant dubbed PlugY. PlugY is "downloaded through the CloudSorcerer backdoor, has an extensive set of commands and supports three different protocols for communicating with the command-and-control server," Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said . The initial infection vector relies on a booby-trapped LNK file, which employs DLL side-loading techniques to launch a malicious DLL file that uses Dropbox as a communications mechanism to execute reconnaissance commands and download add

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

An ongoing, widespread malware campaign has been observed installing rogue Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extensions via a trojan distributed via fake websites masquerading as popular software. "The trojan malware contains different deliverables ranging from simple adware extensions that hijack searches to more sophisticated malicious scripts that deliver local extensions to steal private data and execute various commands," the ReasonLabs research team said in an analysis. "This trojan malware, existing since 2021, originates from imitations of download websites with add-ons to online games and videos." The malware and the extensions have a combined reach of at least 300,000 users of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, indicating that the activity has a broad impact. At the heart of the campaign is the use of malvertising to push lookalike websites promoting known software like Roblox FPS Unlocker, YouTube, VLC media player, Steam, or KeePass to trick users s

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a novel phishing campaign that leverages Google Drawings and shortened links generated via WhatsApp to evade detection and trick users into clicking on bogus links designed to steal sensitive information. "The attackers chose a group of the best-known websites in computing to craft the threat, including Google and WhatsApp to host the attack elements, and an Amazon look-alike to harvest the victim's information," Menlo Security researcher Ashwin Vamshi said . "This attack is a great example of a Living Off Trusted Sites ( LoTS ) threat." The starting point of the attack is a phishing email that directs the recipients to a graphic that appears to be an Amazon account verification link. This graphic, for its part, is hosted on Google Drawings, in an apparent effort to evade detection. Abusing legitimate services has obvious benefits for attackers in that they're not only a low-cost solution, but more importantly,

The ransomware strain known as BlackSuit has demanded as much as $500 million in ransoms to date, with one individual ransom demand hitting $60 million. That's according to an updated advisory from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). "BlackSuit actors have exhibited a willingness to negotiate payment amounts," the agencies said . "Ransom amounts are not part of the initial ransom note, but require direct interaction with the threat actor via a .onion URL (reachable through the Tor browser) provided after encryption." Attacks involving ransomware have targeted several critical infrastructure sectors spanning commercial facilities, healthcare and public health, government facilities, and critical manufacturing. An evolution of the Royal ransomware , it leverages the initial access obtained via phishing emails to disarm antivirus software and exfiltrate sensitive data before ultimately

A Russia-linked threat actor has been linked to a new campaign that employed a car for sale as a phishing lure to deliver a modular Windows backdoor called HeadLace . "The campaign likely targeted diplomats and began as early as March 2024," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said in a report published today, attributing it with medium to high level of confidence to APT28 , which is also referred to as BlueDelta, Fancy Bear, Fighting Ursa, Forest Blizzard, FROZENLAKE, Iron Twilight, ITG05, Pawn Storm, Sednit, Sofacy, and TA422. It's worth noting that car-for-sale phishing lure themes have been previously put to use by a different Russian nation-state group called APT29 as far back as May 2023, indicating that APT28 is repurposing successful tactics for its own campaigns. Earlier this May, the threat actor was implicated in a series of campaigns targeting networks across Europe with the HeadLace malware and credential-harvesting web pages. The attacks are characterize

Cybersecurity companies are warning about an uptick in the abuse of Clouflare's TryCloudflare free service for malware delivery. The activity, documented by both eSentire and Proofpoint , entails the use of TryCloudflare to create a rate-limited tunnel that acts as a conduit to relay traffic from an attacker-controlled server to a local machine through Cloudflare's infrastructure. Attack chains taking advantage of this technique have been observed delivering a cocktail of malware families such as AsyncRAT, GuLoader, PureLogs Stealer, Remcos RAT, Venom RAT, and XWorm. The initial access vector is a phishing email containing a ZIP archive, which includes a URL shortcut file that leads the message recipient to a Windows shortcut file hosted on a TryCloudflare-proxied WebDAV server. The shortcut file, in turn, executes next-stage batch scripts responsible for retrieving and executing additional Python payloads, while simultaneously displaying a decoy PDF document hosted on

A new malicious campaign has been observed making use of malicious Android apps to steal users' SMS messages since at least February 2022 as part of a large-scale campaign. The malicious apps, spanning over 107,000 unique samples, are designed to intercept one-time passwords (OTPs) used for online account verification to commit identity fraud. "Of those 107,000 malware samples, over 99,000 of these applications are/were unknown and unavailable in generally available repositories," mobile security firm Zimperium said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This malware was monitoring one-time password messages across over 600 global brands, with some brands having user counts in the hundreds of millions of users." Victims of the campaign have been detected in 113 countries, with India and Russia topping the list, followed by Brazil, Mexico, the U.S., Ukraine, Spain, and Turkey. The starting point of the attack is the installation of a malicious app that

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed widespread phishing campaigns targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Poland during May 2024 that led to the deployment of several malware families like Agent Tesla , Formbook , and Remcos RAT . Some of the other regions targeted by the campaigns include Italy and Romania, according to cybersecurity firm ESET. "Attackers used previously compromised email accounts and company servers, not only to spread malicious emails but also to host malware and collect stolen data," ESET researcher Jakub Kaloč said in a report published today. These campaigns, spread across nine waves, are notable for the use of a malware loader called DBatLoader (aka ModiLoader and NatsoLoader) to deliver the final payloads. This, the Slovakian cybersecurity company said, marks a departure from previous attacks observed in the second half of 2023 that leveraged a cryptors-as-a-service (CaaS) dubbed AceCryptor to propagate Remcos RAT (aka Resc

Cybersecurity researchers are warning about a new phishing campaign that targets Microsoft OneDrive users with the aim of executing a malicious PowerShell script. "This campaign heavily relies on social engineering tactics to deceive users into executing a PowerShell script, thereby compromising their systems," Trellix security researcher Rafael Pena said in a Monday analysis. The cybersecurity company is tracking the "crafty" phishing and downloader campaign under the name OneDrive Pastejacking. The attack unfolds via an email containing an HTML file that, when opened, displays an image simulating an OneDrive page and includes the error message that says: "Failed to connect to the 'OneDrive' cloud service. To fix the error, you need to update the DNS cache manually." The message also comes with two options, namely "How to fix" and "Details," with the latter directing the email recipient to a legitimate Microsoft Learn pag

An unknown threat actor has been linked to a massive scam campaign that exploited an email routing misconfiguration in email security vendor Proofpoint's defenses to send millions of messages spoofing various popular companies like Best Buy, IBM, Nike, and Walt Disney, among others. "These emails echoed from official Proofpoint email relays with authenticated SPF and DKIM signatures , thus bypassing major security protections — all to deceive recipients and steal funds and credit card details," Guardio Labs researcher Nati Tal said in a detailed report shared with The Hacker News. The cybersecurity company has given the campaign the name EchoSpoofing . The activity is believed to have commenced in January 2024, with the threat actor exploiting the loophole to send as many as three million emails per day on average, a number that hit a peak of 14 million in early June as Proofpoint began to enact countermeasures. "The most unique and powerful part of this domain

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has alerted of a spear-phishing campaign that targeted a scientific research institution in the country with malware known as HATVIBE and CHERRYSPY. The agency attributed the attack to a threat actor it tracks under the name UAC-0063 , which was previously observed targeting various government entities to gather sensitive information using keyloggers and backdoors. The attack is characterized by the use of a compromised email account belonging to an employee of the organization to send phishing messages to "dozens" of recipients containing a macro-laced Microsoft Word (DOCX) attachment. Opening the document and enabling macros results in the execution of an encoded HTML Application (HTA) named HATVIBE, which sets up persistence on the host using a scheduled task and paves the way for a Python backdoor codenamed CHERRYSPY, which is capable of running commands issued by a remote server. CERT-UA said it detected &q

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an updated variant of a known stealer malware that attackers affiliated with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have delivered as part of prior cyber espionage campaigns targeting job seekers. The artifact in question is an Apple macOS disk image (DMG) file named "MiroTalk.dmg" that mimics the legitimate video call service of the same name, but, in reality, serves as a conduit to deliver a native version of BeaverTail, security researcher Patrick Wardle said . BeaverTail refers to a JavaScript stealer malware that was first documented by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 in November 2023 as part of a campaign dubbed Contagious Interview that aims to infect software developers with malware through a supposed job interview process. Securonix is tracking the same activity under the moniker DEV#POPPER . Besides siphoning sensitive information from web browsers and crypto wallets, the malware is capable of delivering addi

The cybersecurity threat landscape has witnessed a dramatic and alarming rise in the average ransomware payment, an increase exceeding 500%. Sophos, a global leader in cybersecurity, revealed in its annual "State of Ransomware 2024" report that the average ransom payment has increased 500% in the last year with organizations that paid a ransom reporting an average payment of $2 million, up from $400,000 in 2023. Separately, RISK & INSURANCE, a leading media source for the insurance industry reported recently that in 2023 the median ransom demand soared to $20 million in 2023 from $1.4 million in 2022, and payment skyrocketed to $6.5 million in 2023 from $335,000 in 2022, much more than 500%. This shocking surge is a testament to the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks and the significant vulnerabilities inherent in outdated security methods. The most significant factor contributing to this trend is a broad reliance on twenty-year-old, legacy Multi-Factor Authentic

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