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We have seen a series of Ransomware tended to be simple with dogged determinations to extort money from victims. But with the exponential rise in the samples of Ransomware last year, we saw more subtle in design, including " Cryptolocker " that was taken down along with the " Gameover ZeuS " botnet last June. As a result, another improved ransomware packages have sprung up to replace it — CryptoWall . Ransomware is an emerging threat in the evolution of cybercriminals techniques to part you from your money. Typically, the malicious software either lock victim's computer system or encrypt the documents and files on it, in order to extort money from the victims. Since last year, criminals have generated an estimated US$1 million profits. Now, the infamous Cryptowall ransomware is back with the newest and improved version of the file-encrypting ransomware program, which has been spotted compromising victims by researchers early this week, security research

Security researchers have uncovered a malvertising campaign used to distribute malware to visitors of The Huffington Post website, as well as several other sites, through malicious advertisements served over the AOL  advertising  network . At the end of last year, Cyphort Labs, security firm specialized in detecting malware threats, came across some malicious advertisements that were being served on the United States and Canadian versions of the popular news website The Huffington Post . The malicious advertisements eventually redirected visitors of the news website to other websites hosting exploit kits, in order to attack victims' computers and install malware. Researchers discovered that the malvertising campaign originates with ads being served by AOL's Advertising.com network. Once clicked, users are redirected through a series of redirects, some of which used HTTPS encrypted connections, to a page that served either the Neutrino Exploit Kit or the Sweet Orange E

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,

It's a bad day for Sony yesterday!! Sony appears to be hacked once again by hackers, but this time not its PlayStation , instead its Sony Pictures Entertainment – the company's motion picture, television production and distribution unit. According to multiple reports, the corporate computers of Sony Picture employees in New York and around the world were infiltrated by a hacker, displaying a weird skeleton, a series of URL addresses, and a threatening message that reads: "Hacked By #GOP Warning: We've already warned you, and this is just a beginning. We continue till our request be met. We've obtained all your internal data, including your secrets and top secrets. If you don't obey us, we'll release data shown below to the world. Determine what will you do till November the 24th, 11:00 PM (GMT)." News broke after a user, who claimed to be a former Sony staff, posted allegations of the security breach with the defacement image on Reddit . Hack

Users of Android operating system are warned of a new variant of Android malware Koler that spreads itself via text message and holds the victim's infected mobile phone hostage until a ransom is paid. Researchers observed the Koler Android ransomware Trojan , at the very first time, in May when the Trojan was distributed through certain pornographic websites under the guise of legitimate apps. It locks the victim's mobile screen and then demands money from users with fake notifications from law enforcement agencies accusing users of viewing and storing child pornography. ANDROID SMS WORM Recently, researchers from mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile has discovered a new variant of the rare piece of mobile malware – named Worm.Koler – that allows the malware to spread via text message spam and attempts to trick users into opening a shortened bit.ly URL, turning Koler into an SMS worm. Once the device is infected by the Koler variant, it will first send an SMS mess

When I say Ransomware, the first nasty piece of malware strikes in the mind is CryptoLocker . A nasty strain of ransomware malware that threatened most of the people around the world by effectively destroying important files of the victims forever. CRYPTOLOCKER - A DEVASTATING THREAT CryptoLocker is a simple rather a devastating piece of Ransomware that encrypts the files on a victim's computer and issues an ultimatum - Pay up or lose your data. CryptoLocker is particularly designed to extort money from computer users by holding computer files hostage until the computer user pays a ransom fee to get them back. Cryptolocker hijacker sniffs out your personal files and wraps them with strong AES-256-bit encryption before it demands money. HOW TO DECRYPT CRYPTOLOCKER? FREE TOOL RELEASED Thanks to security experts, who created an online service where victims whose systems have been encrypted by the CryptoLocker ransomware can get the decryption keys for free. This o

In a previous story, I reported about a new ransomware threat known as Simplocker discovered by researchers at the security firm ESET, targeting Android users in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, India and Russia, for ransom. Simplocker (Android/Simplocker.A) is the latest Android ransomware that has ability to encrypt the files using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on the Android device SD cards demanding users pay a ransom of 260 UAH ( Ukrainian hryvnias ), which is roughly equal to $21 US, for those files to be decrypted. To hide their track, the malware author is using the Command-and-Control server hosted on TOR .onion domain, which makes it difficult to trace the server's physical location or determine who is operating it. The malware collects information about the users' phone such as IMEI number, Operating System, phone model and manufacturer to send it all to Command-and-Control server. STUDENT CRACKS SIMPLOCKER RANSOMWARE Now, an undergraduate stu

A cyber campaign that was targeting iPhone and iPad owners with a sophisticated Ransomware in Australia and New Zealand last month, drawn special attention of online media and security analysts. Russian Authorities have arrested two young hackers from Moscow for their alleged involvement in compromising Apple ID accounts and then using ' Apple's Find My iPhone ' service to hold iOS devices for ransom. A Russian man aged 23 and a teenager aged 17 had been taken into custody in the Southern Administrative District of Moscow for their part in " blocking of Apple devices to extort funds ," claims the press release on the Russian Interior Ministry's website on Tuesday. According to the authorities, one of the suspects used phishing websites to trick victims into giving up their Apple ID username and password. The second suspect's activities are exactly same of the ' Oleg Pliss attack '. " The first involved gaining access to the victim's Apple ID by means of the c

Ransomware is an emerging threat in the evolution of cybercriminals techniques to part you from your money. Typically, the malicious software either lock victim's computer system or encrypt the documents and files on it, in order to extort money from the victims. Though earlier we saw the samples of Ransomware tended to be simple with dogged determinations to extort money from victims. But with the exponential rise in the samples of Ransomware malwares, the recent ones are more subtle in design, including Cryptolocker , Icepole , PrisonLocker , CryptoDefense and its variants. Now, the ransomware dubbed as Crytowall , a latest variant of the infamous ransomware Cryptolocker is targeting users by forcing them to download the malicious software by through advertising on the high profile domains belonging to Disney, Facebook, The Guardian newspaper and others. Cryptolocker is designed by the same malware developer who created the sophisticated CryptoDefense ( Trojan.Crypt

We have seen cybercriminals targeting PCs with Ransomware malware that encrypts your files or lock down your computer and ask for a ransom amount to be paid in a specified duration of time to unlock it. To deliver the Ransomware malwares to the mobile devices, cyber criminals have already started creating malicious software programs for android devices. Last month, we reported about a new Police Ransomware malware that locks up the devices until the victims pay a ransom to get the keys to unlock the phone. But, the malware just lock the mobile screen and a loophole in the its implementation allowed users to recover their device and data stored on SDcard. Now, in an effort to overcome this, threat actors have adopted encryption in the development of mobile Ransomware malwares. Recently, the security firm ESET has discovered a new Android ransomware, dubbed as Android/Simplocker.A , that has ability to encrypt the files on the device SD card and then demand a ransom from the victim

Ransomware is one of the most blatant and obvious money making schemes for cybercriminals and it was most likely to be known when last year Cryptolocker ransomware targeted millions of computers worldwide. Recently, security researchers at the Antivirus firm TrendLabs have unearthed another sophisticated variant of the ransomware malware which is employing  Windows PowerShell  in an effort to encrypt files on the victims' computer. The firm detected the variant as TROJ_POSHCODER.A . Windows PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language. It provides full access to COM and WMI, enabling administrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windows systems as well as WS-Management and CIM enabling management of remote Linux systems and network devices. It is believed that cybercriminals have used this feature of Windows just in order to make

From last few years Ransomware malwares are targeting Windows users Worldwide and experts predicted that it was just a matter of time until ransomware would hit mobile devices and other Desktop operating systems like Mac, iOS, Android etc. A Few weeks back we reported about a Ransomware malware campaign which is targeting Android mobile users. Such Malware first try to trick users into downloading it and then demanding payment to restore user control of the device. This morning reports came out that cybercriminals have targeted a large number of users of Apple's iCloud connected devices with a sophisticated Ransomware in Australia. The owners of iPhone , Mac and iPads are finding their devices locked remotely through iCloud and a message originating in Apple's find my device service that states " Device hacked by Oleg Pliss ". One user wrote on Apple Support Forum, " I went to check my phone and there was a message on the screen (it's

After hacking PCs, Cyber criminals have now begun targeting Smartphones with a special piece of malicious software that locks up the devices until the victims pay a ransom to get the keys to unlock the phone, called Ransomware .  Ransomware typically targets users' personal computers and has become a profitable way for cyber criminals to earn money. To deliver the Ransomware malwares to the mobile devices, cyber criminals have started creating malicious software programs that masquerade as antivirus apps or other play store apps, but instead of protecting your smart devices, they lock up your Smartphone until you pay a ransom to unlock it. RANSOMWARE - POLICE &  CRYPTOLOCKER As we reported earlier in news updates, security researchers disclosed various Police ransomware targeting users' personal computers. The ransomware software once installed, cyber criminals attempts to lock the victim's computer hard disk and files from a remote location. Usually

So, How do Hackers compromise a Website? Simply by exploiting the flaws in it, that means they took advantage of the error in the developers' code. Now, this time the hackers itself has left behind a crucial flaw in its malware code which can be exploited by us to help save our computer systems. Believe me, it's not an April Fools' joke! A malicious software program that holds the victims' computer files hostage by wrapping them with strong encryption until the victim pays a ransom fee to get them decrypted, has a critical flaw in its malware code itself that it leaves the decryption key on the victim's computer. The Anti-virus firm Symantec examined a sophisticated malware program dubbed as CryptoDefense (Trojan.Cryptodefense) ransomware , which appeared in the end of the last month. CryptoDefense is one of the complex malware programs that include a number of effective techniques, including Tor anonymity tool usage and Bitcoin digital currency to extort money from victims. Cryp

Till Now we all have heard about the Ransomware Malware that encrypts your files or lock down your computer and ask for a random amount to be paid in a specified duration of time to unlock it, but this cyber threat has forced somebody for the terrible murder and suicide. It's true! This could be an extent of Ransomware that has marked its history by someone's blood. Marcel Datcu , a 36 year old man, living in the village of Movila Miresii , who was married in 2013 and living happily with his family, killed his 4 year old baby and then himself committed suicide after his computer got infected with " police ransomware ," a Romanian Newspaper, Braila24 reports. Ransomware is one of the most blatant and obvious criminal's money making schemes out there, from which Cryptolocker threat had touched the peak, and cyber criminals have developed many Cryptolocker versions ( prisonlocker, linkup, icepole, cryptobit ) by which you have to safeguard your system. According t

Till now we all have heard about the Ransomware malware that encrypts your files or lock down your computer and ask for a ransom amount to be paid in a specified duration of time to unlock it. Emsisoft has detected a new piece of malware called " Linkup ", dubbed as " Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Linkup " that doesn't lock your computer or encrypts files; rather it blocks your Internet access by modifying the DNS settings, with the ability to turn your computer into a Bitcoin mining robot.  Sounds Interesting?? Once the Linkup Trojan is installed in your system, it makes a copy of itself and disables the selected Windows Security and Firewall services to facilitate the infection. Injected poisoned DNS Server will only allow the malware and Bitcoin miner to communicate with the internet. It display a bogus notification on the victim's web browser, which is supposed to be from the Council of Europe , that accuses you of viewing " Child Pornography " and only returns th

After Financial and Banking Malwares, Ransomware has become the first choice of money motivated cybercriminals. A new Ransomware Trojan known as ICEPOL has been one of those widespread malware which has been successfully installed approximately 267,786 times worldwide and 42,400 in the USA alone over a five month period, analyzed by the security firm BitDefender . The ICEPOL Trojan categorized as Ransomware that locks your PC and demand for a ransom amount to unlock it. The Malware was using a previously known vulnerability in Java software i.e. CVE-2013-0422 to infect the systems. The malware threatened the user with accusations of illegal piracy or ' porn-related activity ' and requires money for exemption from punishment that pretends to be from the 'police'. " The ICEPOL Trojan extorted victims who downloaded it by sending them a message in any one of 25 languages purporting to be from police accusing them of downloading copyrighted material

We are continuously keeping our eye on new variants of the widely spread Ransomware family like Cryptolocker , Prison Locker, Copycat and Locker which encrypts your files and ask for a random amount to decrypt it.  If infected by such malware, to be very honest, there is no hope for recovering your documents without paying a ransom amount to the cyber criminals. Online users are now facing another similar ransomware called ' CryptorBit ', ( Virustotal report ) first spotted on September 2013. It is not a variant of Cryptolocker but it does exactly the same thing i.e. Encrypt all the files on the Hard Disk. CryptorBit is an infection that activates by clicking links in a spam message or malicious email, or websites while browsing the web, or by opening an attachment in an email from a malicious source. Once your system gets infected by the CryptorBit, it will encrypt your files and hold them until a ransom of $50 - $500 or more is not paid. It will display