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CASPER Surveillance Malware Linked to French Government

CASPER Surveillance Malware Linked to French Government

Mar 05, 2015
Last month, cyber security researchers spotted a new strain of french surveillance malware, dubbed " Babar ," which revealed that even French Government and its spying agency the General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) is dedicatedly involved in conducting surveillance operation just like the United States — NSA and United Kingdom — GCHQ . A powerful piece of surveillance malware, known as " Casper ," has recently been discovered by the Canadian security researchers that once again point fingers at the French government. CASPER SURVEILLANCE MALWARE LINKED TO FRANCE The newly discovered sophisticated Casper surveillance malware is believed to be developed by France based hacking group suspected to have ties with the French government, according to the report published by Motherboard . Report suggests that French hacking group have developed ' Swiss Army knife of spying tools ' which has been used by French government to conduct multipl
Android Malware Can Spy On You Even When Your Mobile Is Off

Android Malware Can Spy On You Even When Your Mobile Is Off

Feb 20, 2015
Security researchers have unearthed a new Android Trojan that tricks victims into believing they have switched their device off while it continues " spying " on the users' activities in the background. So, next time be very sure while you turn off your Android smartphones. The new Android malware threat, dubbed PowerOffHijack , has been spotted and analyzed by the researchers at the security firm AVG. PowerOffHijack because the nasty malware has a very unique feature - it hijacks the shutdown process of user's mobile phone. MALWARE WORKS AFTER SWITCHING OFF MOBILES When users presses the power button on their device, a fake dialog box is shown. The malware mimics the shutdown animation and the device appears to be off, but actually remains on, giving the malicious program freedom to move around on the device and steal data. "After pressing the power button, you will see the real shutdown animation, and the phone appears off. Although the screen is bl
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
How to Build a Custom Malware Analysis Sandbox

How to Build a Custom Malware Analysis Sandbox

Mar 24, 2022
Before hunting malware, every researcher needs to find a system where to analyze it. There are several ways to do it: build your own environment or use third-party solutions. Today we will walk through all the steps of creating a custom malware sandbox where you can perform a proper analysis without infecting your computer. And then compare it with a ready-made service. Why do you need a malware sandbox?  A sandbox allows detecting cyber threats and analyzing them safely. All information remains secure, and a suspicious file can't access the system. You can monitor malware processes, identify their patterns and investigate behavior. Before setting up a sandbox, you should have a clear goal of what you want to achieve through the lab.  There are two ways how to organize your working space for analysis: Custom sandbox.  Made from scratch by an analyst on their own, specifically for their needs. A turnkey solution.  A versatile service with a range of configurations to meet yo
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Evolution of Emotet: From Banking Trojan to Malware Distributor

Evolution of Emotet: From Banking Trojan to Malware Distributor

Nov 19, 2020
Emotet is one of the most dangerous and widespread malware threats active today. Ever since its discovery in 2014—when Emotet was a standard credential stealer and banking Trojan, the malware has evolved into a modular, polymorphic platform for distributing other kinds of computer viruses. Being constantly under development, Emotet updates itself regularly to improve stealthiness, persistence, and add new spying capabilities. This notorious Trojan is one of the most frequently malicious programs found in the wild. Usually, it is a part of a phishing attack, email spam that infects PCs with malware and spreads among other computers in the network. If you'd like to find out more about the malware, collect IOCs, and get fresh samples, check the following article in the Malware trends tracker , the service with dynamic articles. Emotet is the most uploaded malware throughout the past few years. Here below is the rating of uploads to ANY.RUN service in 2019, where users ran over
Most Sophisticated Android Bootkit Malware ever Detected; Infected Millions of Devices

Most Sophisticated Android Bootkit Malware ever Detected; Infected Millions of Devices

Apr 03, 2014
Hardly two month ago we reported about the first widely spread Android Bootkit malware , dubbed as ' Oldboot.A ', which infected more than 500,000 Smartphone users worldwide with Android operating system in last eight months, especially in China. Oldboot is a piece of Android malware that's designed to re-infect Mobile devices even after a thorough cleanup. It resides in the memory of infected devices;  It modify the devices' boot partition and booting script file to launch system service and extract malicious application during the early stage of system's booting. Yet another alarming report about Oldboot malware has been released by the Chinese Security Researchers from ' 360 Mobile Security '. They have discovered a new variant of the Oldboot family, dubbed as ' Oldboot.B ', designed exactly as Oldboot.A, but new variant has advance stealth techniques. Especially, the defense against with antivirus software, malware analyzer, and automatic a
How to Detect New Threats via Suspicious Activities

How to Detect New Threats via Suspicious Activities

Feb 20, 2023 Malware Analysis / Threat Detection
Unknown malware presents a significant cybersecurity threat and can cause serious damage to organizations and individuals alike. When left undetected, malicious code can gain access to confidential information, corrupt data, and allow attackers to gain control of systems. Find out how to avoid these circumstances and detect unknown malicious behavior efficiently.  Challenges of new threats' detection While known malware families are more predictable and can be detected more easily, unknown threats can take on a variety of forms, causing a bunch of challenges for their detection: Malware developers use polymorphism, which enables them to modify the malicious code to generate unique variants of the same malware.  There is malware that is still not identified and doesn't have any rulesets for detection. Some threats can be Fully UnDetectable (FUD) for some time and challenge perimeter security.  The code is often encrypted, making it difficult to detect by signature-based
Mysterious malware that re-installs itself infected over 45,000 Android Phones

Mysterious malware that re-installs itself infected over 45,000 Android Phones

Oct 29, 2019
Over the past few months, hundreds of Android users have been complaining online of a new piece of mysterious malware that hides on the infected devices and can reportedly reinstall itself even after users delete it, or factory reset their devices. Dubbed Xhelper , the malware has already infected more than 45,000 Android devices in just the last six months and is continuing to spread by infecting at least 2,400 devices on an average each month, according to the latest report published today by Symantec. Here below, I have collected excerpts from some comments that affected users shared on the online forums while asking for how to remove the Xhelper Android malware: "xhelper regularly reinstalls itself, almost every day!" "the 'install apps from unknown sources' setting turns itself on." "I rebooted my phone and also wiped my phone yet the app xhelper came back." "Xhelper came pre-installed on the phone from China."
GandCrab ransomware and Ursnif virus spreading via MS Word macros

GandCrab ransomware and Ursnif virus spreading via MS Word macros

Jan 25, 2019
Security researchers have discovered two separate malware campaigns, one of which is distributing the Ursnif data-stealing trojan and the GandCrab ransomware in the wild, whereas the second one is only infecting victims with Ursnif malware. Though both malware campaigns appear to be a work of two separate cybercriminal groups, we find many similarities in them. Both attacks start from phishing emails containing an attached Microsoft Word document embedded with malicious macros and then uses Powershell to deliver fileless malware. Ursnif is a data-stealing malware that typically steals sensitive information from compromised computers with an ability to harvest banking credentials, browsing activities, collect keystrokes, system and process information, and deploy additional backdoors. Discovered earlier last year, GandCrab is a widespread ransomware threat that, like every other ransomware in the market, encrypts files on an infected system and insists victims to pay a ransom
State-Sponsored SCADA Malware targeting European Energy Companies

State-Sponsored SCADA Malware targeting European Energy Companies

Jul 13, 2016
Security researchers have discovered a new campaign targeting energy companies in Western Europe with a sophisticated malware that almost goes to great lengths in order to remain undetected while targeting energy companies. Researchers from SentinelOne Labs discovered the malware, which has already infected at least one European energy company, is so sneaky and advanced that it is likely believed to be the work of a wealthy nation. The malware, dubbed ' SFG ', contains about 280 kilobytes of code, featuring a vast arsenal of tools rarely seen in ordinary malware samples. It takes " extreme measures " to cleverly and stealthily evade a large number of security defenses before it drops its payload. The malware dismantles antiviruses processes one-by-one until the malware is finally safe to uninstall them all. It also encrypts key features of its code so that it could not be discovered and analyzed. It'll not execute itself if it senses it's being run in
Unveiled: How xHelper Android Malware Re-Installs Even After Factory Reset

Unveiled: How xHelper Android Malware Re-Installs Even After Factory Reset

Apr 07, 2020
Remember xHelper? A mysterious piece of Android malware that re-installs itself on infected devices even after users delete it or factory reset their devices—making it nearly impossible to remove. xHelper reportedly infected over 45,000 devices last year, and since then, cybersecurity researchers have been trying to unfold how the malware survives factory reset and how it infected so many devices in the first place. In a blog post published today, Igor Golovin, malware analyst at Kaspersky, finally solved the mystery by unveiling technical details on the persistence mechanism used by this malware, and eventually also figured out how to remove xHelper from an infected device completely. As the initial attack vector and for distribution, the malware app disguises itself as a popular cleaner and speed optimization app for smartphones — affecting mostly users in Russia (80.56%), India (3.43%), and Algeria (2.43%). "But in reality, there is nothing useful about it: af
As State-Backed Cyber Threats Grow, Here's How the World Is Reacting

As State-Backed Cyber Threats Grow, Here's How the World Is Reacting

Apr 15, 2022
With the ongoing conflict in Eurasia, cyberwarfare is inevitably making its presence felt. The fight is not only being fought on the fields. There is also a big battle happening in cyberspace. Several cyber-attacks have been reported over the past months. Notably, cyber attacks backed by state actors are becoming prominent. There have been reports of a rise of ransomware and other malware attacks such as  Cyclops Blink ,  HermeticWiper , and  BlackCat . These target businesses as well as government institutions and nonprofit organizations. There have been cases of several attempts to shut down online communications and IT infrastructure. The ongoing list of  significant cyber incidents  curated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows that the number of major incidents in January 2022 is 100% higher compared to the same period in the previous year. With the recent activities in cyberspace impacted by the emergence of the geopolitical tumult in February, it
FBI issues alert over two new malware linked to Hidden Cobra hackers

FBI issues alert over two new malware linked to Hidden Cobra hackers

May 30, 2018
The US-CERT has released a joint technical alert from the DHS and the FBI, warning about two newly identified malware being used by the prolific North Korean APT hacking group known as Hidden Cobra. Hidden Cobra, often known as Lazarus Group and Guardians of Peace, is believed to be backed by the North Korean government and known to launch attacks against media organizations, aerospace, financial and critical infrastructure sectors across the world. The group was even associated with the WannaCry ransomware menace that last year shut down hospitals and businesses worldwide. It is reportedly also linked to the 2014 Sony Pictures hack , as well as the SWIFT Banking attack in 2016. Now, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI have uncovered two new pieces of malware that Hidden Cobra has been using since at least 2009 to target companies working in the media, aerospace, financial, and critical infrastructure sectors across the world. The malware Hidden Cobra is
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