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Microsoft has announced a new free-to-use initiative aimed at uncovering forensic evidence of sabotage on Linux systems, including rootkits and intrusive malware that may otherwise go undetected. The cloud offering, dubbed Project Freta , is a snapshot-based memory forensic mechanism that aims to provide automated full-system volatile memory inspection of virtual machine (VM) snapshots, with capabilities to spot malicious software, kernel rootkits , and other stealthy malware techniques such as process hiding . The project is named after Warsaw's Freta Street , the birthplace of Marie Curie, the famous French-Polish physicist who brought X-ray medical imaging to the battlefield during World War I. "Modern malware is complex, sophisticated, and designed with non-discoverability as a core tenet," said Mike Walker, Microsoft's senior director of New Security Ventures. "Project Freta intends to automate and democratize VM forensics to a point where every us...

In Brief Investigators from the Forensic Training Institute of the Bangladesh investigated the $80 Million bank heist and discovered that the hackers managed to gain access to the network because the Bank was using second-hand $10 network switches without a Firewall to run its network. When it was reported last month that an unknown hacking group attempted to steal $1 Billion from Bangladesh's Federal Reserve bank account with the help of a malware and, in fact, successfully stole over $80 Million , the investigators would not say how the hackers managed to bypass the security solutions on its network. But in reality, there was no security solution installed to help protect against increasingly sophisticated attacks. This lack of security practices made it incredibly easier for the hackers to break into the system and steal $81 Million, though a simple typo (spell error) by hackers halted the further transfers of the $850 Million funds. The network computers that we...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Security researchers at FireEye have detected a new series of drive-by attacks based on a new Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability. The attackers breached a website based in the US to deploy the exploit code to conduct a classic watering hole attack. The discovery was announced just a few days after Microsoft revealed the Microsoft Zero-day CVE-2013-3906 , a Zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft graphics component that is actively exploited in targeted attacks using crafted Word documents sent by email. Microsoft graphics component zero-day vulnerability allows attackers to install a malware via infected Word documents and target Microsoft Office users running on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Recently reported new Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability detected by FireEye affects the English versions of IE 7 and 8 in Windows XP and IE 8 on Windows 7, but according the experts it can be easily changed to leverage other languages. Experts at FireEye ...

The security features built into Apple 's iOS software are so good that the police are unable to gain access to defendant's iPhones when they need to.  Companies like Apple and Google are being asked by law enforcement officials to bypass these protections to aid in investigations. Apple receives so many police demands to decrypt seized iPhones that it has created a waiting list to handle the deluge of requests. In one of the recent cases, according to court documents, the federal agents were baffled by the encrypted iPhone 4S of a man in Kentucky who was charged for supplying crack cocaine. CNET reports that ATF agent Rob Maynard spent three months trying to "locate a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency with the forensic capabilities to unlock" an iPhone 4S. After everyone said that they did not have the capabilities, Maynard turned to Apple. Apple can reportedly bypass the security lock to get access to data on a phone, download it to an ...

The capillary diffusion of mobile devices, the lack of security systems on these platforms and low level of awareness on principal cyber threats made them a privileged target for cybercrime. We have assisted in the recent year to an explosion of malware designed to hit principal mobile OSs, in a recent report Sophos security firm revealed that in Australia and the U.S. Android threat exposure rates exceeding those of PCs showing the urgency to implement proper countermeasures. The situation appears really critical that why I asked to the expert of Group-IB Forensics Lab to show me how these agents work with a really case study. Several month ago Group-IB Forensics Lab detected mobile-banking malware through Google Play by Sberbank request (Russian leading national bank).  The File associated to the malware was named sber.apk , it was an Android Package having size of 225,905 bytes and digest md5: F27D43DFEEDFFAC2EC7E4A069B3C9516 . Analyzing the functionality of th...

A high degree of stealthiness over a prolonged duration of operation in order to do a successful cyber attack can be defined as Advanced Persistent Threat. The attack objectives therefore typically extend beyond immediate financial gain, and compromised systems continue to be of service even after key systems have been breached and initial goals reached. Today's successful targeted attacks use a combination of social engineering, malware, and backdoor activities. Nart Villeneuve and James Bennett (Senior Threat Researcher) from Trend Mirco provide an  ultimate guide for Detecting (APT) Advanced Persistent Threat activities with Network Traffic Analysis , that can be used to identify malware command-and control (C&C) communications related to these attacks, illustrating how even the most high-profile and successful attacks of the past few years could have been discovered. Paper cover Detecting Remote Access Trojans like The GhostNet,...

As part of an investigation launched by Başsavcıvekilliği in Ankara on March 20 arrested seven people, including college students. 13 of the indictment prepared by the prosecutor's office in Ankara Was adopted by the High Criminal Court.  Court has accepted an indictment against RedHack, a Turkish hacker group, seeking prison sentences of 8.5 to 24 years for its members as " members of a terrorist group ."  The suspects include three held under arrest  - Duygu Kerimoğlu, Alaattin Karagenç and Uğur Cihan Oktulmuş, under arrest for the past seven months. The suspects stand accused of membership in an armed terrorist organization, illegally obtaining confidential documents and personal information and accessing information systems without permission. Scope of the assessment: " Hierarchical and structured in order to be organized as a terrorist organization, titling, and posting bills realized by events, actions, photographs published on the internet, attacked and seized a...

Hackers incensed by the Philippines' controversial cybercrime law have attacked government sites that deliver emergency information during natural disasters. The website of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was hacked on Saturday, despite calls from Malacañang for a ceasefire. Home page message, "Sorry Admin, Hacked!" and a symbol of a crescent moon and a star, both found on Flag of Turkey (take a look on the red Text). But the site, www.denr.gov.ph , was restored after a minutes. Last Monday,  Anonymous Hackers defaced 11 government  websites. President Benigno Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail Valte appealed for a stop to the attacks, on the websites and social media accounts of the weather service, the earthquake and tsunami monitoring service and the social welfare agency. Hackers announce their next target on their twitter accounts that they've been eyeing " Senator Vicente C. Sotto III " website's.

" Cernaianu Manole Razvan " akka TinKode , the Romanian behind attacks against NASA, Oracle, the Pentagon, and U.S. Army, was sentenced this week to a two-year suspended sentence, according to local media reports and was ordered to pay damages totalling more than US$120,000. He was arrested in January for his part in a number of attacks. According to Cernianu's case file summary on the Romanian Ministry of Justice Web portal, he was sentenced on September 26 and received six prison sentences of one or two years for separate computer-related offenses. The offenses included: gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer system; transferring data from a computer system without authorization; affecting the normal operation of a computer system by deleting, modifying or sending electronic data; creating, selling or distributing a devices or a computer program designed to be used in computer crimes; creating, selling or distributing a password or access cod...

A Dallas man linked to the worldwide hacking group Anonymous is accused of threatening to ruin an FBI agent's life in online postings. Barrett Lancaster Brown , 31, of Dallas, was indicted on one count of making an Internet threat, one count of conspiring to make restricted personal information of an employee of the United States publicly available, and one count of retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer. Serious charges, but not totally unexpected. Authorities raided Brown's apartment and arrested him last month while he was chatting online with Anonymous folks, but authorities wouldn't say why he was being detained until Thursday, when the U.S. attorney's office announced a three-count indictment against him. Brown's attorney, Jay Leiderman, has said he believes some of the charges stem from a YouTube video in which Brown rails against law enforcement. The indictment lists several tweets in which Brown talks about having a " plan ...

Computer hackers claiming to be from the Anonymous network took over the official website of Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare. The attacks come just days after police on Monday raided a Stockholm-based webhosting company, PRQ, and a video was posted on YouTube - allegedly made on behalf of the hacker group Anonymous - warning Swedish authorities of repercussions. Hacktivist network Anonymous has warned that Sweden's Riksbank will suffer a cyber-attack on Wednesday night.  " It's come to our attention that Swedish government raided PRQ servers in order to shut down numerous file sharing and torrent websites ," " This has gone too far. This is unacceptable. Anonymous says this stops right now. You don't fuck with The Internet… Today we hit their wallets hard. "  wrote the Anonymous group on 4chan. The Riksbank is taking the threat seriously: " We recognize this as a public threat against websites and we are always trying to keep the web as safe as pos...

Hacker groups that are against the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Law for its effect on the country's freedom of expression defaced 11 more government websites since 11 p.m. Monday A message which said, " Hacked by M4N1L4 PR1D3, PHILIPPINE CYBER ARMY AND -=TheFamilyPride=- ," appeared on the homepage of PNP's Police Community Relations Group (PCRG). "Private X" and "Anonymous Philippines" hacked websites of the Department of Interior and Local Government, the One-Stop Information Shop for Technologies in the Philippines of the Department of Science and Technology, National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Philippine Nuclear Institute, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, Tourism website of the City of San Fernando, Optical Media Board, Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team, Department of Health's Smoke Free Philippines, Marina Industry Authority and the Maritime Training Council. The Twitter account of the Department of Social Welfare and Services was ...

Symantec is looking into claims more of its products' source code has been leaked online, following a similar incident earlier this year. This time source code from Norton Utilities 2006 was reportedly leaked on The Pirate Bay by Anonymous member STUN. " As you all see its fully 7z packed content, whats in it!? The loosely Source Code of Norton Utilities 2006 made by one of the worse security vendors on planet earth, Symantec! Also as many of you know this was planned back before Sabu was arrested. Yeah McAfee you suck too! " says the accompanying text. The security vendor then admitted its servers had been hacked, but maintained it was unlikely its customers were affected by the leak. Symantec said it was investigating it. "Symantec is one of the most visible targets in the world for cyber attacks on a daily basis. We take each and every claim very seriously and have a process in place for investigating each incident," a spokesperson said, in an emailed statement sent to...

Anonymous hacker Barrett Brown was arrested by the FBI last night, his apartment raided while he was in the middle of a live TinyChat session. For those that may not be familiar with Brown, he came to some notoriety last year for allegedly mounting an operation against the Zeta drug cartel in Mexico after they had kidnapped a member of Anonymous. Brown claimed to hold the names of 75 Zeta collaborators, which he threatened to release to the press unless the Anon member was set free. Brown is the founder of Project PM and has worked closely with the Anonymous hacker collective on several past operations. This is not the first time that Barrett Brown's home has been raided. Six months ago the FBI came knocking on Brown's door and confiscated his laptop, but no charges were filed against him. That incident followed the arrest of then-LulzSec leader Sabu, or rather Hector Xavier Monsegur, who then turned informant in exchange for leniency, although it's also been suggested that Sabu ...

In July 2012 Italy police have arrested a Catholic priest over allegations he abused a teen girl. Father Don Giacomo Ruggeri , 43, was immediately suspended from all priestly duties and police had raided his home and seized his computer. Anonymous Hackers today publish 2.5 GB of private mails from the Gmail of a priest recently protagonist of a story related to alleged child abuse on  official blog of Anonymous Italy. " The story of Don Ruggeri is yet another demonstration of how your institution has undermined the principles that should inspire. Fomented hatred and stigma toward anyone who shows a sexual orientation different from what you call "natural", in line with a model of patriarchal society and discriminating. The real unnaturalness is disgusting in your modus operandi. Your greed, your greed is posted ." Hacker upload a series of documents containing more than 2 gigabytes of messages received and sent e-mail account on DepositFiles. In a statement by A...

Hacking has always been inherently a young person's game. The first usage of the word "hacker" was to describe pranksters meddling with the phones at MIT. Many hackers have cited boredom, a desire for change, or the thrill of going somewhere one is not supposed to go as their motivation for hacking, all of which could apply to scores of common activities on college campuses. While today's hacking scene is dominated by large hacking groups like Anonymous and Masters of Deception, many of the greatest hacks ever have been pulled off by college, high school, and even middle school kids who rose to infamy armed only with a computer and the willingness to cross the bounds of legality. 1.) Sven Jaschan: In the words of one tech expert , "His name will always be associated with some of the biggest viruses in the history of the Internet." The viruses: the Sasser and NetSky worms that infected millions of computers and have caused millions of dollars of damage since their release in 2004. The...

Last month, those assholes in the California State Assembly passed a resolution urging state educational institutions to more aggressively crack down on criticism of the State of Israel on campuses, which the resolution defines as "anti-Semitism." The anti-democratic resolution is the latest step in the broader campaign to stifle and suppress dissent on California's increasingly volatile campuses. Get this, it passed without public discussion. The vote on the resolution came when most students were between semesters and away from their campuses. The resolution uses the classic trick employed by defenders of Israel's Zionist regime: lumping together any criticism of the Israeli state's policies or of the US government's support for them with racist attacks on Jews. The bulk of the resolution is dedicated to defining criticism of the state of Israel as "anti-Semitism."  It lists the following as examples of "anti-Semitism": • "language or behavior [that] demonizes and delegit...

Two security researchers claim to have developed a new attack that can decrypt session cookies from HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) connections. From the security researchers who created and demonstrated the BEAST (Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS) tool for breaking SSL/TLS encryption comes another attack that exploits a flaw in a feature in all versions of TLS. The new attack has been given the name CRIME by the researchers.The CRIME attack is based on a weak spot in a special feature in TLS 1.0, but exactly which that feature is has not been revealed by the researchers. They will say that all versions of TLS/SSL including TLS 1.2, on which the BEAST attack did not work are vulnerable. Once they had the cookie, Rizzo and Duong could return to whatever site the user was visiting and log in using her credentials. HTTPS should prevent this type of session hijacking because it encrypts session cookies while in transit or when stored in the browser. But the new atta...

Another Cyber attack on Sony this year, Hacking group called " NullCrew " hack into one of the biggest site of Sony mobile website (www.sonymobile.com) and leak complete database on Internet. Nullcrew releasing their hack dumps from their official twitter account @OfficialNull. The dump of database released on Pastebin with a small note from Hackers as given below: Sony, we are dearly dissapointed in your security. This is just one of eight sony servers that we have control of. Maybe, just maybe considering IP addresses are available. Maybe, just maybe it's the fact that not even your customers can trust you. Or maybe, just maybe the fact that you can not do anything correct technologically Stats of Dump: 441 Members Username with Email Addresses  24 User names with Hashed password from Think_Users table  3 Admin user data from admin_user table Not just Sony, Nullcrew recently hack into Cambodia Army website and dump database. " Recently the co-founder ...

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg , one of the founders of the file sharing website The Pirate Bay has been arrested in Cambodia after an international warrant was issued following a conviction in Sweden for copyright violations. The Swedish foreign ministry has confirmed only that a Swedish man "in his thirties" has been arrested in Phnom Penh. In May 2006, police seized The Pirate Bay's servers from the ISP PRQ's headquarters in Stockholm. Since then, the file-sharing site appeared in the headlines, especially after the high-profile trial in 2008 in which the principals were sentenced to prison terms and hefty damages. The ruling was appealed, but in February 2012, the Supreme Court not to discuss the case further. Svartholm Warg's lawyer Ola Salomonsson confirms that it is TPB-founder who now sits arrested, but says he does not know for what reason.Sweden has no formal extradition treaty with Cambodia, but that does not mean Svartholm Warg is safe. According to lawyer ...