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Category — phishing attack
INTERPOL Arrests 5,500 in Global Cybercrime Crackdown, Seizes Over $400 Million

INTERPOL Arrests 5,500 in Global Cybercrime Crackdown, Seizes Over $400 Million

Dec 02, 2024 Financial Fraud / Cryptocurrency
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...
Phishing-as-a-Service "Rockstar 2FA" Targets Microsoft 365 Users with AiTM Attacks

Phishing-as-a-Service "Rockstar 2FA" Targets Microsoft 365 Users with AiTM Attacks

Nov 29, 2024 Cybercrime / Cloud Security
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...
The Evolving Role of PAM in Cybersecurity Leadership Agendas for 2025

The Evolving Role of PAM in Cybersecurity Leadership Agendas for 2025

Feb 06, 2025AI Security / Cybersecurity
Privileged Access Management (PAM) has emerged as a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity strategies, shifting from a technical necessity to a critical pillar in leadership agendas. With the PAM market projected to reach $42.96 billion by 2037 (according to Research Nester), organizations invest heavily in PAM solutions. Why is PAM climbing the ranks of leadership priorities? While Gartner highlights key reasons such as enhanced security, regulatory compliance readiness, and insurance requirements, the impact of PAM extends across multiple strategic areas. PAM can help organizations enhance their overall operational efficiency and tackle many challenges they face today. To explore more about PAM's transformative impact on businesses, read The Cyber Guardian: PAM's Role in Shaping Leadership Agendas for 2025 by a renowned cybersecurity expert and former Gartner lead analyst Jonathan Care.  What cybersecurity challenges may organizations face in 2025? The cybersecurity landsca...
Latest Multi-Stage Attack Scenarios with Real-World Examples

Latest Multi-Stage Attack Scenarios with Real-World Examples

Nov 27, 2024 Malware / Threat Intelligence
Multi-stage cyber attacks, characterized by their complex execution chains, are designed to avoid detection and trick victims into a false sense of security. Knowing how they operate is the first step to building a solid defense strategy against them. Let's examine real-world examples of some of the most common multi-stage attack scenarios that are active right now. URLs and Other Embedded Content in Documents Attackers frequently hide malicious links within seemingly legitimate documents, such as PDFs or Word files. Upon opening the document and clicking the embedded link, users are directed to a malicious website. These sites often employ deceptive tactics to get the victim to download malware onto their computer or share their passwords. Another popular type of embedded content is QR codes. Attackers conceal malicious URLs within QR codes and insert them into documents. This strategy forces users to turn to their mobile devices to scan the code, which then directs them to ph...
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Webinar: 5 Ways New AI Agents Can Automate Identity Attacks | Register Now

websitePush SecurityAI Agents / Identity Security
Learn how CUAs like OpenAI Operator can be used by attackers to automate account takeover and exploitation.
APT-C-60 Hackers Exploit StatCounter and Bitbucket in SpyGlace Malware Campaign

APT-C-60 Hackers Exploit StatCounter and Bitbucket in SpyGlace Malware Campaign

Nov 27, 2024 Malware / Cyber Espionage
The threat actor known as APT-C-60 has been linked to a cyber attack targeting an unnamed organization in Japan that used a job application-themed lure to deliver the SpyGlace backdoor. That's according to findings from JPCERT/CC, which said the intrusion leveraged legitimate services like Google Drive, Bitbucket, and StatCounter. The attack was carried out around August 2024. "In this attack, an email purporting to be from a prospective employee was sent to the organization's recruiting contact, infecting the contact with malware," the agency said . APT-C-60 is the moniker assigned to a South Korea-aligned cyber espionage group that's known to target East Asian countries. In August 2024, it was observed exploiting a remote code execution vulnerability in WPS Office for Windows (CVE-2024-7262) to drop a custom backdoor called SpyGlace. The attack chain discovered by JPCERT/CC involves the use of a phishing email that contains a link to a file hosted on Goo...
INTERPOL Busts African Cybercrime: 1,006 Arrests, 134,089 Malicious Networks Dismantled

INTERPOL Busts African Cybercrime: 1,006 Arrests, 134,089 Malicious Networks Dismantled

Nov 27, 2024 Cybercrime / Financial Fraud
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, CĂ´te 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 ...
APT-K-47 Uses Hajj-Themed Lures to Deliver Advanced Asyncshell Malware

APT-K-47 Uses Hajj-Themed Lures to Deliver Advanced Asyncshell Malware

Nov 22, 2024 Cyber Attack / Malware
The threat actor known as Mysterious Elephant has been observed using an advanced version of malware called Asyncshell. The attack campaign is said to have used Hajj -themed lures to trick victims into executing a malicious payload under the guise of a Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (CHM) file, the Knownsec 404 team said in an analysis published today. Mysterious Elephant, which is also known as APT-K-47, is a threat actor of South Asian origin that has been active since at least 2022, primarily targeting Pakistani entities. The group's tactics and tooling have been found to share similarities with those of other threat actors operating in the regions, such as SideWinder, Confucius, and Bitter. In October 2023, the group was linked to a spear-phishing campaign that delivered a backdoor called ORPCBackdoor as part of attacks directed against Pakistan and other countries. The exact initial access vector employed by Mysterious Elephant in the latest campaign is not known, but ...
North Korean Front Companies Impersonate U.S. IT Firms to Fund Missile Programs

North Korean Front Companies Impersonate U.S. IT Firms to Fund Missile Programs

Nov 21, 2024 Malware / Cyber Fraud
Threat actors with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are impersonating U.S.-based software and technology consulting businesses in order to further their financial objectives as part of a broader information technology (IT) worker scheme. "Front companies, often based in China, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Africa, play a key role in masking the workers' true origins and managing payments," SentinelOne security researchers Tom Hegel and Dakota Cary said in a report shared with The Hacker News. North Korea's network of IT workers, both in an individual capacity and under the cover of front companies, is seen as a technique to evade international sanctions imposed on the country and generate illicit revenues. The global campaign, which is also tracked as Wagemole by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, entails using forged identities to obtain employment at various companies in the U.S. and elsewhere, and send back a huge portion of their wages bac...
Fake Discount Sites Exploit Black Friday to Hijack Shopper Information

Fake Discount Sites Exploit Black Friday to Hijack Shopper Information

Nov 18, 2024 Data Theft / Cybercrime
A new phishing campaign is targeting e-commerce shoppers in Europe and the United States with bogus pages that mimic legitimate brands with the goal of stealing their personal information ahead of the Black Friday shopping season. "The campaign leveraged the heightened online shopping activity in November, the peak season for Black Friday discounts. The threat actor used fake discounted products as phishing lures to deceive victims into providing their Cardholder Data (CHD) and Sensitive Authentication Data (SAD) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII)," EclecticIQ said . The activity, first observed in early October 2024, has been attributed with high confidence to a Chinese financially motivated threat actor codenamed SilkSpecter. Some of the impersonated brands include IKEA, L.L.Bean, North Face, and Wayfare. The phishing domains have been found to use top-level domains (TLDs) such as .top, .shop, .store, and .vip, often typosquatting legitimate e-commerce organi...
Experts Uncover 70,000 Hijacked Domains in Widespread 'Sitting Ducks' Attack Scheme

Experts Uncover 70,000 Hijacked Domains in Widespread 'Sitting Ducks' Attack Scheme

Nov 14, 2024 Online Fraud / Network Security
Multiple threat actors have been found taking advantage of an attack technique called Sitting Ducks to hijack legitimate domains for using them in phishing attacks and investment fraud schemes for years. The findings come from Infoblox, which said it identified nearly 800,000 vulnerable registered domains over the past three months, of which approximately 9% (70,000) have been subsequently hijacked. "Cybercriminals have used this vector since 2018 to hijack tens of thousands of domain names," the cybersecurity company said in a deep-dive report shared with The Hacker News. "Victim domains include well-known brands, non-profits, and government entities." The little-known attack vector, although originally documented by security researcher Matthew Bryant way back in 2016, didn't attract a lot of attention until the scale of the hijacks was disclosed earlier this August. "I believe there is more awareness [since then]," Dr. Renee Burton, vice pre...
Russian Hackers Exploit New NTLM Flaw to Deploy RAT Malware via Phishing Emails

Russian Hackers Exploit New NTLM Flaw to Deploy RAT Malware via Phishing Emails

Nov 14, 2024 Malware / Vulnerability
A newly patched security flaw impacting Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM) was exploited as a zero-day by a suspected Russia-linked actor as part of cyber attacks targeting Ukraine. The vulnerability in question, CVE-2024-43451 (CVSS score: 6.5), refers to an NTLM hash disclosure spoofing vulnerability that could be exploited to steal a user's NTLMv2 hash. It was patched by Microsoft earlier this week. "Minimal interaction with a malicious file by a user such as selecting (single-click), inspecting (right-click), or performing an action other than opening or executing could trigger this vulnerability," Microsoft revealed in its advisory. Israeli cybersecurity company ClearSky, which discovered the zero-day exploitation of the flaw in June 2024, said it's been abused as part of an attack chain that delivers the open-source Spark RAT malware. "The vulnerability activates URL files, leading to malicious activity," the company said, adding the malicious file...
Comprehensive Guide to Building a Strong Browser Security Program

Comprehensive Guide to Building a Strong Browser Security Program

Nov 13, 2024 Browser Security / SaaS Security
The rise of SaaS and cloud-based work environments has fundamentally altered the cyber risk landscape. With more than 90% of organizational network traffic flowing through browsers and web applications, companies are facing new and serious cybersecurity threats. These include phishing attacks, data leakage, and malicious extensions. As a result, the browser also becomes a vulnerability that needs to be protected. LayerX has released a comprehensive guide titled "Kickstarting Your Browser Security Program" This in-depth guide serves as a roadmap for CISOs and security teams looking to secure browser activities within their organization; including step-by-step instructions, frameworks, and use cases. Below, we bring its main highlights. Prioritizing Browser Security Browsers now serve as the primary interface for SaaS applications, creating new malicious opportunities for cyber adversaries. The risks include: Data leakage - Browsers can expose sensitive data by allowing empl...
Cybercriminals Use Excel Exploit to Spread Fileless Remcos RAT Malware

Cybercriminals Use Excel Exploit to Spread Fileless Remcos RAT Malware

Nov 11, 2024 Vulnerability / Network Security
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new phishing campaign that spreads a new fileless variant of known commercial malware called Remcos RAT . Remcos RAT "provides purchases with a wide range of advanced features to remotely control computers belonging to the buyer," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Xiaopeng Zhang said in an analysis published last week. "However, threat actors have abused Remcos to collect sensitive information from victims and remotely control their computers to perform further malicious acts." The starting point of the attack is a phishing email that uses purchase order-themed lures to convince recipients to open a Microsoft Excel attachment. The malicious Excel document is designed to exploit a known remote code execution flaw in Office ( CVE-2017-0199 , CVSS score: 7.8) to download an HTML Application (HTA) file ("cookienetbookinetcahce.hta") from a remote server ("192.3.220[.]22") and launch it using mshta.e...
North Korean Hackers Target Crypto Firms with Hidden Risk Malware on macOS

North Korean Hackers Target Crypto Firms with Hidden Risk Malware on macOS

Nov 07, 2024 Cryptocurrency / Malware
A threat actor with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been observed targeting cryptocurrency-related businesses with a multi-stage malware capable of infecting Apple macOS devices . Cybersecurity company SentinelOne, which dubbed the campaign Hidden Risk , attributed it with high confidence to BlueNoroff, which has been previously linked to malware families such as RustBucket , KANDYKORN , ObjCShellz , RustDoor (aka Thiefbucket ), and TodoSwift . The activity "uses emails propagating fake news about cryptocurrency trends to infect targets via a malicious application disguised as a PDF file," researchers Raffaele Sabato, Phil Stokes, and Tom Hegel said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The campaign likely began as early as July 2024 and uses email and PDF lures with fake news headlines or stories about crypto-related topics." As revealed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a September 2024 advisory, the...
SteelFox and Rhadamanthys Malware Use Copyright Scams, Driver Exploits to Target Victims

SteelFox and Rhadamanthys Malware Use Copyright Scams, Driver Exploits to Target Victims

Nov 07, 2024 Cryptocurrency / Malware
An ongoing phishing campaign is employing copyright infringement-related themes to trick victims into downloading a newer version of the Rhadamanthys information stealer since July 2024. Cybersecurity firm Check Point is tracking the large-scale campaign under the name CopyRh(ight)adamantys . Targeted regions include the United States, Europe, East Asia, and South America. "The campaign impersonates dozens of companies, while each email is sent to a specific targeted entity from a different Gmail account, adapting the impersonated company and the language per targeted entity," the company said in a technical analysis. "Almost 70% of the impersonated companies are from the Entertainment /Media and Technology/Software sectors." The attacks are notable for the deployment of version 0.7 of the Rhadamanthys stealer, which, as detailed by Recorded Future's Insikt Group early last month, incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) for optical character recognition ...
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