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Europol on Thursday said it shut down the infrastructure associated with several malware loader operations such as IcedID, SystemBC, PikaBot, SmokeLoader, Bumblebee, and TrickBot as part of a coordinated law enforcement effort codenamed Operation Endgame . "The actions focused on disrupting criminal services through arresting High Value Targets, taking down the criminal infrastructures and freezing illegal proceeds," Europol said in a statement. "The malware [...] facilitated attacks with ransomware and other malicious software." The action, which took place between May 27 and May 29, has resulted in the dismantling of over 100 servers worldwide and the arrest of four people, one in Armenia three in Ukraine , following searches across 16 locations in Armenia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Ukraine. The servers, according to Europol, were located in Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday said it dismantled what it described as "likely the world's largest botnet ever," which consisted of an army of 19 million infected devices that was leased to other threat actors to commit a wide array of offenses. The botnet, which has a global footprint spanning more than 190 countries , functioned as a residential proxy service known as 911 S5 . A 35-year-old Chinese national, YunHe Wang, was arrested in Singapore on May 24, 2024, for creating and acting as the primary administrator of the illegal platform from 2014 to July 2022. Wang has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted on all counts, Wang faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison. The Justice Department said the botnet was used to carry out cyber attacks, financial fraud, identity theft, child exploitation, harassment, bo...

Okta is warning that a cross-origin authentication feature in Customer Identity Cloud (CIC) is susceptible to credential stuffing attacks orchestrated by threat actors. "We observed that the endpoints used to support the cross-origin authentication feature being attacked via credential stuffing for a number of our customers," the Identity and access management (IAM) services provider said . The suspicious activity commenced on April 15, 2024, with the company noting that it "proactively" informed customers that had the feature enabled. It did not disclose how many customers were impacted by the attacks. Credential stuffing is a type of cyber attack in which adversaries attempt to sign in to online services using an already available list of usernames and passwords obtained either from previous data breaches, or from phishing and malware campaigns. As recommended actions, users are being asked to review tenant logs for any signs of unexpected login events – ...

SaaS Adoption is Skyrocketing, Resilience Hasn't Kept Pace SaaS platforms have revolutionized how businesses operate. They simplify collaboration, accelerate deployment, and reduce the overhead of managing infrastructure. But with their rise comes a subtle, dangerous assumption: that the convenience of SaaS extends to resilience. It doesn't. These platforms weren't built with full-scale data protection in mind . Most follow a shared responsibility model — wherein the provider ensures uptime and application security, but the data inside is your responsibility. In a world of hybrid architectures, global teams, and relentless cyber threats, that responsibility is harder than ever to manage. Modern organizations are being stretched across: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments with decentralized data sprawl Complex integration layers between IaaS, SaaS, and legacy systems Expanding regulatory pressure with steeper penalties for noncompliance Escalating ransomware threats and inside...

Cybersecurity researchers have warned of a new malicious Python package that has been discovered in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository to facilitate cryptocurrency theft as part of a broader campaign. The package in question is pytoileur , which has been downloaded 316 times as of writing. Interestingly, the package author, who goes by the name PhilipsPY, has uploaded a new version of the package (1.0.2) with identical functionality after a previous version (1.0.1) was yanked by PyPI maintainers on May 28, 2024. According to an analysis released by Sonatype, the malicious code is embedded in the package's setup.py script, allowing it to execute a Base64-encoded payload that's responsible for retrieving a Windows binary from an external server. "The retrieved binary, 'Runtime.exe,' is then run by leveraging Windows PowerShell and VBScript commands on the system," security researcher Ax Sharma said . Once installed, the binary establishes persiste...

Check Point is warning of a zero-day vulnerability in its Network Security gateway products that threat actors have exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-24919 (CVSS score: 8.6), the issue impacts CloudGuard Network, Quantum Maestro, Quantum Scalable Chassis, Quantum Security Gateways, and Quantum Spark appliances. "The vulnerability potentially allows an attacker to read certain information on Internet-connected Gateways with remote access VPN or mobile access enabled," Check Point said . Hotfixes are available in the following versions - Quantum Security Gateway and CloudGuard Network Security Versions - R81.20, R81.10, R81, R80.40 Quantum Maestro and Quantum Scalable Chassis - R81.20, R81.10, R80.40, R80.30SP, R80.20SP Quantum Spark Gateways Version - R81.10.x, R80.20.x, R77.20.x The development comes days after the Israeli cybersecurity company warned of attacks targeting its VPN devices to infiltrate enterprise networks. "By May 24, 2024, we identi...

Brazilian banking institutions are the target of a new campaign that distributes a custom variant of the Windows-based AllaKore remote access trojan (RAT) called AllaSenha . The malware is "specifically aimed at stealing credentials that are required to access Brazilian bank accounts, [and] leverages Azure cloud as command-and-control (C2) infrastructure," French cybersecurity company HarfangLab said in a technical analysis. Targets of the campaign include banks such as Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Banco Safra, Caixa Econômica Federal, Itaú Unibanco, Sicoob, and Sicredi. The initial access vector, though not definitively confirmed, points towards the use of malicious links in phishing messages. The starting point of the attack is a malicious Windows shortcut (LNK) file that masquerades as a PDF document ("NotaFiscal.pdf.lnk") hosted on a WebDAV server since at least March 2024. There is also evidence to suggest that the threat actors behind the activity previous...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has sentenced a 31-year-old man to 10 years in prison for laundering more than $4.5 million through business email compromise ( BEC ) schemes and romance scams. Malachi Mullings, 31, of Sandy Springs, Georgia pleaded guilty to the money laundering offenses in January 2023. According to court documents, Mullings is said to have opened 20 bank accounts in the name of a non-existent company named The Mullings Group LLC., which served as a conduit to launder the fraudulent proceeds from at least 2019 to July 2021. The scheme netted millions of dollars via BEC attacks targeting a healthcare benefit program, private companies, and other entities, as well as romance fraud schemes targeting the elderly. A BEC scam is a form of targeted cyber attack in which financially motivated bad actors trick unsuspecting executives and employees into sending money or sensitive data to accounts under their control using various social engineering ploys. Such atta...

A recent study by Wing Security found that 63% of businesses may have former employees with access to organizational data, and that automating SaaS Security can help mitigate offboarding risks.  Employee offboarding is typically seen as a routine administrative task, but it can pose substantial security risks, if not handled correctly. Failing to quickly and thoroughly remove access for departing employees introduces serious insider threats, leaving a company vulnerable to multiple kinds of risks, such as data breaches, intellectual property theft, and regulatory non-compliance.  Today, where SaaS applications are easily onboarded and are commonly used by users within and beyond the organization, effective offboarding procedures are non-negotiable to prevent instances of data leaks and other cybersecurity issues. Let's explore insider risk management and user offboarding in more detail, looking at their security risks and discussing best practices for ensuring a secure or...

A never-before-seen North Korean threat actor codenamed Moonstone Sleet has been attributed as behind cyber attacks targeting individuals and organizations in the software and information technology, education, and defense industrial base sectors with ransomware and bespoke malware previously associated with the infamous Lazarus Group. "Moonstone Sleet is observed to set up fake companies and job opportunities to engage with potential targets, employ trojanized versions of legitimate tools, create a malicious game, and deliver a new custom ransomware," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a new analysis. It also characterized the threat actor as using a combination of tried-and-true techniques used by other North Korean threat actors and unique attack methodologies to meet its strategic objectives. The adversary, hitherto tracked by Redmond under the emerging cluster moniker Storm-1789, is assessed to be a state-aligned group that originally exhibited strong t...