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The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged two arrested Chinese nationals for allegedly orchestrating a pig butchering scam that laundered at least $73 million from victims through shell companies. The individuals, Daren Li, 41, and Yicheng Zhang, 38, were arrested in Atlanta and Los Angeles on April 12 and May 16, respectively. The foreign nationals have been "charged for leading a scheme to launder funds to the tune of at least $73 million tied to an international crypto investment scam," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco  said . Prosecutors have accused Li, Zhang, and their co-conspirators of managing an international syndicate that laundered the funds obtained via cryptocurrency investment scams. As part of the fraudulent operation, victims are said to have been tricked into transferring millions of dollars to U.S. bank accounts that were opened in the name of various shell companies. "A network of money launderers then facilitated the transfer of those

The threat actors behind the Windows-based  Grandoreiro  banking trojan have returned in a global campaign since March 2024 following a law enforcement takedown in January. The large-scale phishing attacks, likely facilitated by other cybercriminals via a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model, target over 1,500 banks across the world, spanning more than 60 countries in Central and South America, Africa, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific, IBM X-Force said. While  Grandoreiro  is known primarily for its focus in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal, the expansion is likely a shift in strategy after attempts to  shut down its infrastructure  by Brazilian authorities. Going hand-in-hand with the broader targeting footprint are significant improvements to the malware itself, which indicates active development. "Analysis of the malware revealed major updates within the string decryption and domain generating algorithm (DGA), as well as the ability to use Microsoft Outlook clients on infected

The cryptojacking group known as  Kinsing  has demonstrated an ability to continuously evolve and adapt, proving to be a persistent threat by swiftly integrating newly disclosed vulnerabilities to the exploit arsenal and expand its botnet. The  findings  come from cloud security firm Aqua, which described the threat actor as actively orchestrating illicit cryptocurrency mining campaigns since 2019. Kinsing (aka  H2Miner ), a name given to both the malware and the adversary behind it, has consistently expanded its toolkit with new exploits to enroll infected systems in a crypto-mining botnet. It was  first documented  by TrustedSec in January 2020. In recent years, campaigns involving the Golang-based malware have weaponized  various flaws  in  Apache ActiveMQ ,  Apache Log4j ,  Apache NiFi ,  Apache Tomcat ,  Atlassian Confluence ,  Citrix ,  Liferay Portal ,  Linux ,  Openfire ,  Oracle WebLogic Server , and  SaltStack  to breach vulnerable systems. Other methods have also invol

Early in 2024, Wing Security released its State of SaaS Security report , offering surprising insights into emerging threats and best practices in the SaaS domain. Now, halfway through the year, several SaaS threat predictions from the report have already proven accurate. Fortunately, SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solutions have prioritized mitigation capabilities to address many of these issues, ensuring security teams have the necessary tools to face these challenges head-on. In this article, we will revisit our predictions from earlier in the year, showcase real-world examples of these threats in action, and offer practical tips and best practices to help you prevent such incidents in the future. It's also worth noting the overall trend of an increasing frequency of breaches in today's dynamic SaaS landscape, leading organizations to demand timely threat alerts as a vital capability. Industry regulations with upcoming compliance deadlines are demanding similar time-sens

A new report from XM Cyber has found – among other insights - a  dramatic  gap between where most organizations focus their security efforts, and where the most serious threats actually reside. The new report, Navigating the Paths of Risk: The State of Exposure Management in 2024, is based on hundreds of thousands of attack path assessments conducted by the  XM Cyber platform  during 2023. These assessments uncovered over 40 million exposures that affected millions of business-critical assets. Anonymized data regarding these exposures was then provided to the Cyentia Institute for independent analysis. To read the full report,  check it out here . Download the report to discover: Key findings on the types of exposures putting organizations at greatest risk of breach. The state of attack paths between on-prem and cloud networks. Top attack techniques seen in 2023. How to focus on what matters most, and remediate high-impact exposure risks to your critical assets. The

Cybersecurity researchers have shed more light on a remote access trojan (RAT) known as Deuterbear used by the China-linked  BlackTech  hacking group as part of a cyber espionage campaign targeting the Asia-Pacific region this year. "Deuterbear, while similar to Waterbear in many ways, shows advancements in capabilities such as including support for shellcode plugins, avoiding handshakes for RAT operation, and using HTTPS for C&C communication," Trend Micro researchers Pierre Lee and Cyris Tseng  said  in a new analysis. "Comparing the two malware variants, Deuterbear uses a shellcode format, possesses anti-memory scanning, and shares a traffic key with its downloader unlike Waterbear." BlackTech , active since at least 2007, is also tracked by the broader cybersecurity community under the monikers Circuit Panda, Earth Hundun, HUAPI, Manga Taurus, Palmerworm, Red Djinn, and Temp.Overboard. Cyber attacks orchestrated by the group have long involved the depl

The  Kimsuky  (aka Springtail) advanced persistent threat (APT) group, which is linked to North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), has been observed deploying a Linux version of its GoBear backdoor as part of a campaign targeting South Korean organizations. The backdoor, codenamed  Gomir , is "structurally almost identical to GoBear, with extensive sharing of code between malware variants," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom,  said  in a new report. "Any functionality from GoBear that is operating system-dependent is either missing or reimplemented in Gomir." GoBear was  first documented  by South Korean security firm S2W in early February 2024 in connection with a campaign that delivered a malware called Troll Stealer (aka TrollAgent), which overlaps with known Kimsuky malware families like AppleSeed and AlphaSeed. A subsequent analysis by the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) revealed that the malware is distributed via t

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday  added  two security flaws impacting D-Link routers to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2014-100005  - A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability impacting D-Link DIR-600 routers that allows an attacker to change router configurations by hijacking an existing administrator session CVE-2021-40655  - An information disclosure vulnerability impacting D-Link DIR-605 routers that allows attackers to obtain a username and password by forging an HTTP POST request to the /getcfg.php page There are currently no details on how these shortcomings are exploited in the wild, but federal agencies have been urged to apply vendor-provided mitigations by June 6, 2024. It's worth noting that CVE-2014-100005 affects legacy D-Link products that have reached end-of-life (EoL) status, necessitating tha

Researchers have discovered a new security vulnerability stemming from a design flaw in the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard that tricks victims into connecting to a less secure wireless network and eavesdrop on their network traffic. The  SSID Confusion attack , tracked as CVE-2023-52424, impacts all operating systems and Wi-Fi clients, including home and mesh networks that are based on WEP, WPA3, 802.11X/EAP, and AMPE protocols. The method "involves downgrading victims to a less secure network by spoofing a trusted network name (SSID) so they can intercept their traffic or carry out further attacks," Top10VPN  said , which collaborated with KU Leuven professor and researcher Mathy Vanhoef. "A successful SSID Confusion attack also causes any VPN with the functionality to auto-disable on trusted networks to turn itself off, leaving the victim's traffic exposed." The issue underpinning the attack is the fact that the Wi-Fi standard does not require the network na

The North Korea-linked  Kimsuky hacking group  has been attributed to a new social engineering attack that employs fictitious Facebook accounts to targets via Messenger and ultimately delivers malware. "The threat actor created a Facebook account with a fake identity disguised as a public official working in the North Korean human rights field," South Korean cybersecurity company Genians  said  in a report published last week. The multi-stage attack campaign, which impersonates a legitimate individual, is designed to target activists in the North Korean human rights and anti-North Korea sectors, it noted. The approach is a departure from the typical email-based spear-phishing strategy in that it leverages the social media platform to approach targets through Facebook Messenger and trick them into opening seemingly private documents written by the persona. The decoy documents, hosted on OneDrive, is a Microsoft Common Console document that masquerades as an essay or cont

Security researchers have disclosed almost a dozen security flaws impacting the GE HealthCare Vivid Ultrasound product family that could be exploited by malicious actors to tamper with patient data and even install ransomware under certain circumstances. "The impacts enabled by these flaws are manifold: from the implant of ransomware on the ultrasound machine to the access and manipulation of patient data stored on the vulnerable devices," operational technology (OT) security vendor Nozomi Networks  said  in a technical report. The security issues impact the Vivid T9 ultrasound system and its pre-installed Common Service Desktop web application, which is exposed on the localhost interface of the device and allows users to perform administrative actions. They also affect another software program called EchoPAC that's installed on a doctor's Windows workstation to help them access multi-dimensional echo, vascular, and abdominal ultrasound images. That being said, s

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said it has observed a threat actor it tracks under the name  Storm-1811  abusing the client management tool Quick Assist to target users in social engineering attacks. "Storm-1811 is a financially motivated cybercriminal group known to deploy  Black Basta  ransomware," the company  said  in a report published on May 15, 2024. The attack chain involves the use of impersonation through voice phishing to trick unsuspecting victims into installing remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools, followed by the delivery of  QakBot , Cobalt Strike, and ultimately Black Basta ransomware. "Threat actors misuse Quick Assist features to perform social engineering attacks by pretending, for example, to be a trusted contact like Microsoft technical support or an IT professional from the target user's company to gain initial access to a target device," the tech giant said. Quick Assist is a  legitimate application  from Microsoft t

Google has rolled out fixes to address a set of nine security issues in its Chrome browser, including a new zero-day that has been exploited in the wild. Assigned the CVE identifier  CVE-2024-4947 , the vulnerability relates to a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported by Kaspersky researchers Vasily Berdnikov and Boris Larin on May 13, 2024. Type confusion vulnerabilities  arise when a program attempts to access a resource with an incompatible type. It can have  serious impacts  as it allows threat actors to perform out-of-bounds memory access, cause a crash, and execute arbitrary code. The development marks the third zero-day that Google has patched within a week after  CVE-2024-4671  and  CVE-2024-4761 . As is typically the case, no additional details about the attacks are available and have been withheld to prevent further exploitation. "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4947 exists in the wild," the company  said .

Law enforcement agencies have officially seized control of the notorious  BreachForums  platform, an online bazaar known for peddling stolen data, for the second time within a year. The website ("breachforums[.]st") has been replaced by a seizure banner stating the clearnet cybercrime forum is under the control of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  The operation is the result of a collaborative effort from authorities in Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the U.K., the U.S., and Ukraine. The FBI has also taken control of the  Telegram channel  operated by Baphomet, who became the administrator of the forum following the  arrest  of his predecessor Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (aka  pompompurin ) in March last year. It's worth noting a prior iteration of BreachForums, hosted at breached.vc/.to/.co and managed by pompompurin, was seized by law enforcement in late June 2023. "This Telegram chat is under the control of the FBI," a message

Google has announced a slew of privacy and security features in Android, including a suite of advanced protection features to help secure users' devices and data in the event of a theft. These features aim to help protect data before, during and after a theft attempt, the tech giant said, adding they are expected to be available via an update to Google Play services for devices running Android versions 10 and later. One new feature is private space, which allows users to host their sensitive apps in a dedicated area in their phones such that it can be hidden and locked with a separate PIN. Google is also adding an extra layer of protection by requiring users to enter their PIN, password, or biometric information before altering sensitive device settings such as disabling  Find My Device  or extending screen timeout, or even for accessing critical account and device settings. This comprises attempts to change the device PIN, turn off theft protection, or access passkeys. Anoth

Google is unveiling a set of new features in Android 15 to prevent malicious apps installed on the device from capturing sensitive data. This constitutes an update to the  Play Integrity API  that third-party app developers can take advantage of to secure their applications against malware. "Developers can check if there are other apps running that could be capturing the screen, creating overlays, or controlling the device," Dave Kleidermacher, vice president of engineering for Android security and privacy,  said . "This is helpful for apps that want to hide sensitive information from other apps and protect users from scams." Additionally, the Play Integrity API can be used to check if  Google Play Protect  is active and if the user's device is free of known malware before performing sensitive actions or handling sensitive data. Google, with Android 13, introduced a feature called  restricted settings  that by default blocks sideloaded apps from accessing