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In what's a case of hacking the hackers, the darknet infrastructure associated with the Hive ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has been seized as part of a coordinated law enforcement effort involving 13 countries. "Law enforcement identified the decryption keys and shared them with many of the victims, helping them regain access to their data without paying the cybercriminals," Europol  said  in a statement. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)  said  the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) covertly infiltrated the Hive database servers in July 2022 and captured 336 decryption keys that were then handed over to companies compromised by the gang, effectively saving $130 million in ransom payments. The FBI also distributed more than 1,000 additional decryption keys to previous Hive victims, the DoJ noted, stating the agency gained access to two dedicated servers and one virtual private server at a hosting provider in California that were leased using thr...

Google on Thursday disclosed it took steps to dismantle over 50,000 instances of activity orchestrated by a pro-Chinese influence operation known as DRAGONBRIDGE in 2022. "Most DRAGONBRIDGE activity is low quality content without a political message, populated across many channels and blogs," the company's Threat Analysis Group (TAG)  said  in a  report  shared with The Hacker News. "However, a small fraction of DRAGONBRIDGE accounts also post about current events with messaging that pushes pro-China talking points." DRAGONBRIDGE  was first exposed by Google-owned Mandiant in July 2022, calling out its unsuccessful efforts in targeting rare earth mining companies in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. with the goal of triggering environmental protests against the firms. Also known by the name Spamouflage Dragon, the spammy influence network is known to have a presence across multiple platforms, including YouTube, Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter, primarily dissem...

Proof-of-concept (Poc) code has been released for a now-patched high-severity security flaw in the Windows CryptoAPI that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported to Microsoft last year. Tracked as  CVE-2022-34689  (CVSS score: 7.5), the spoofing vulnerability was addressed by the tech giant as part of Patch Tuesday updates released in August 2022, but was only publicly disclosed two months later on October 11, 2022. "An attacker could manipulate an existing public  x.509 certificate  to spoof their identity and perform actions such as authentication or code signing as the targeted certificate," Microsoft  said  in an advisory released at the time. The  Windows CryptoAPI  offers an interface for developers to add cryptographic services such as encryption/decryption of data and authentication using digital certificates to their applications. Web security company Akamai, which  r...

New research has linked the operations of a politically motivated hacktivist group known as Moses Staff to another nascent threat actor named  Abraham's Ax  that emerged in November 2022. This is based on "several commonalities across the iconography, videography, and leak sites used by the groups, suggesting they are likely operated by the same entity," Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU)  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. Moses Staff, tracked by the cybersecurity firm under the moniker  Cobalt Sapling , made its  first appearance  on the threat landscape in September 2021 with the goal of primarily targeting Israeli organizations. The geopolitical group is believed to be  sponsored  by the Iranian government and has since been linked to a string of espionage and sabotage attacks that make use of tools like  StrifeWater RAT  and open source utilities such as  DiskCryptor  to harvest sensitive informatio...

Any organization that handles sensitive data must be diligent in its security efforts, which include regular pen testing. Even a small data breach can result in significant damage to an organization's reputation and bottom line. There are two main reasons why regular pen testing is necessary for secure web application development: Security:  Web applications are constantly evolving, and new vulnerabilities are being discovered all the time. Pen testing helps identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and allows you to fix them before they can do any damage. Compliance:  Depending on your industry and the type of data you handle, you may be required to comply with certain security standards (e.g., PCI DSS, NIST, HIPAA). Regular pen testing can help you verify that your web applications meet these standards and avoid penalties for non-compliance. How Often Should You Pentest? Many organizations, big and small,  have once a year pen testing cycle . B...

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a new attack campaign that leverages a Python-based remote access trojan (RAT) to gain control over compromised systems since at least August 2022. "This malware is unique in its utilization of  WebSockets  to avoid detection and for both command-and-control (C2) communication and exfiltration," Securonix  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. The malware, dubbed PY#RATION by the cybersecurity firm, comes with a host of capabilities that allows the threat actor to harvest sensitive information. Later versions of the backdoor also sport anti-evasion techniques, suggesting that it's being actively developed and maintained. The attack commences with a phishing email containing a ZIP archive, which, in turn, harbors two shortcut (.LNK) files that masquerade as front and back side images of a seemingly legitimate U.K. driver's license. Opening each of the .LNK files retrieves two text files from a remote server that ...

At least two federal agencies in the U.S. fell victim to a "widespread cyber campaign" that involved the use of legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software to perpetuate a phishing scam. "Specifically, cyber criminal actors sent phishing emails that led to the download of legitimate RMM software – ScreenConnect (now ConnectWise Control) and AnyDesk – which the actors used in a refund scam to steal money from victim bank accounts," U.S. cybersecurity authorities  said . The joint advisory comes from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC). The attacks, which took place in mid-June and mid-September 2022, have financial motivations, although threat actors could weaponize the unauthorized access for conducting a wide range of activities, including selling that access to other hacking crews. Usage of remote software by criminal grou...