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Top Industries Significantly Impacted by Illicit Telegram Networks

Top Industries Significantly Impacted by Illicit Telegram Networks

Aug 02, 2023 Cyber Crime / Telegram
In recent years the rise of illicit activities conducted within online messaging platforms has become a growing concern for countless industries. One of the most notable platforms that has been host to many malicious actors and nefarious activities has been Telegram. Thanks to its accessibility, popularity, and user anonymity, Telegram has attracted a large number of threat actors driven by criminal purposes.  Many of the cybercriminals that have moved operations into  illicit telegram channels  in order to expand their reach and exploits to wider audiences. As a result, many of these illicit Telegram networks have negatively impacted many industries in relation to the increase of cyberattacks and data leaks that have occurred across the globe.  While any industry can be affected by the cybercriminals operating on Telegram, there are several industries that are more significantly impacted by these illicit activities. In this post, we'll cover several of the common illicit activi
Beebone Botnet Taken Down By International Cybercrime Taskforce

Beebone Botnet Taken Down By International Cybercrime Taskforce

Apr 10, 2015
U.S. and European law enforcement agencies have shut down a highly sophisticated piece of the botnet that had infected more than 12,000 computers worldwide , allowing hackers to steal victims' banking information and other sensitive data. The law enforcement agencies from the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union conducted a joint operation to get rid of the botnet across the globe and seized the command-and-control server that had been used to operate the nasty Beebone (also known as AAEH ) botnet . What's a Botnet? A botnet is a network of large number of computers compromised with malicious software and controlled surreptitiously by hackers without the knowledge of victims. Basically, a "botnet" is a hacker's "robot" that does the malicious work directed by hackers. Hackers and Cyber Criminals have brushed up their hacking skills and started using Botnets as a cyber weapon to carry out multiple crimes such as DDoS attacks
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
Cloud computing best for password hacking !

Cloud computing best for password hacking !

Nov 20, 2010
On-demand cloud computing is a wonderful tool for companies that need some computing capacity for a short time, but don't want to invest in fixed capital for long term. For the same reasons, cloud computing can be very useful to hackers.  A lot of hacking activities involve cracking passwords , keys or other forms of brute force that are computationally expensive but highly parallelizable. For a hacker, there are two great sources for on-demand computing: botnets made of consumer PCs and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) from a service provider. Either one can deliver computing on-demand for the purpose of brute force computation. Botnets are unreliable, heterogeneous and will take longer to "provision." But they cost nothing to use and can scale to enormous size. Researchers have found botnets composed of hundreds of thousands of PCs. A commercial cloud computing offering will be faster to provision, have predictable performance and can be billed to
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.
9 million PCs infected with ZeroAccess botnet

9 million PCs infected with ZeroAccess botnet

Sep 19, 2012
In recent months, we've seen the rootkit family Win32/Sirefef and Win64/Sirefef (also known as ZeroAccess Botnet ) update its command and control protocol and grow to infect more computers while connecting to over one million computers globally.  Before, disclosed that it creates its own hidden partition on the hard drive and uses hidden alternative data streams to hide and thrive. Then ZeroAccess developer changed infection tactics and stopped using kernel-mode components in the latest version Security firms tracked the growth of x64 version infections. But Recently uncovered by SophosLabs that ZeroAccess botnet took a major shift in strategy and operating entirely in user-mode memory. There are two distinct ZeroAccess botnets, and each has a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version, numbering four botnets in total. Each botnet is self-contained because it communicates exclusively on a particular port number hard-coded into the bot executable. The botnets can be categorised based o
Hackers selling cheap BOTNETs and DDOS on forums

Hackers selling cheap BOTNETs and DDOS on forums

Jan 06, 2012
Hackers selling cheap BOTNETs and DDOS on forums The Internet has revolutionized shopping around the world. Security researchers F-Secure reported recently in a post that hackers are Selling Cheap DDOS services on Various Forums. Hackers are offering services like distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), which can be used to knock website offline in just 1 - 2 hours / 2$ per hour. They Posted a Youtube Video in which a young woman advertises DDoS services. " We are here to provide you a cheap professional ddos service.We can hit most large websites/forums game servers.We will test the website/server before accepting your money.Due to the nature of the business we dont offer refunds. " Offer said . There is another Interesting Hacker's Shop ! Moreover, for their assaults, the hackers chiefly utilize botnets, while ignorant operators of computers remain unaware that they've gotten contaminated with malware as also being controlled remotely. " Do you wan
Fraud-as-a-Service of Zeus Malware advertised on social network

Fraud-as-a-Service of Zeus Malware advertised on social network

Apr 28, 2013
Cyber crime enterprise is showing a growing interest in monetization of botnets , the most targeted sector in recent months is banking. One of most active malware that still menaces Banking sector is the popular Zeus . Zeus is one of the oldest, it is active since 2007, and most prolific malware that changed over time according numerous demands of the black-market. Recently, Underground forums are exploded the offer of malicious codes, hacking services and bullet proof hosting to organize a large scale fraud. Cyber criminals are selling kits at reasonable prices or entire botnets for renting, sometimes completing the offer with information to use during the attacks. The model described, known also as a Fraud-as-a-Service , is winning, malicious code such as Zeus, SpyEye , Ice IX, or even Citadel have benefited of the same sales model, cyber criminals with few hundred dollars are able to design their criminal operation. Since now the sales model and the actor invol
New Condi Malware Hijacking TP-Link Wi-Fi Routers for DDoS Botnet Attacks

New Condi Malware Hijacking TP-Link Wi-Fi Routers for DDoS Botnet Attacks

Jun 21, 2023 Network Security / Botnet
A new malware called  Condi  has been observed exploiting a security vulnerability in TP-Link Archer AX21 (AX1800) Wi-Fi routers to rope the devices into a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs  said  the campaign has ramped up since the end of May 2023. Condi is the work of a threat actor who goes by the online alias zxcr9999 on Telegram and runs a Telegram channel called Condi Network to advertise their warez. "The Telegram channel was started in May 2022, and the threat actor has been monetizing its botnet by providing DDoS-as-a-service and selling the malware source code," security researchers Joie Salvio and Roy Tay said. An analysis of the malware artifact reveals its ability to terminate other competing botnets on the same host. It, however, lacks a persistence mechanism, meaning the program cannot survive a system reboot. To get around this limitation, the malware deletes multiple binaries that are used to shut down or reboot the
New Botnet Hunts for Linux — Launching 20 DDoS Attacks/Day at 150Gbps

New Botnet Hunts for Linux — Launching 20 DDoS Attacks/Day at 150Gbps

Sep 30, 2015
A network of compromised Linux servers has grown so powerful that it can blow large websites off the Internet by launching crippling Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS ) attacks of over 150 gigabits per second (Gbps). The distributed denial-of-service network, dubbed XOR DDoS Botnet , targets over 20 websites per day , according to an advisory published by content delivery firm Akamai Technologies. Over 90 percent of the XOR DDoS targets are located in Asia, and the most frequent targets are the gaming sector and educational institutions. XOR creator is supposed to be from China, citing the fact that the IP addresses of all Command and Control (C&C) servers of XOR are located in Asia, where most of the infected Linux machines also reside. How XOR DDoS Botnet infects Linux System? Unlike other DDoS botnets , the XOR DDoS botnet infects Linux machines via embedded devices such as network routers and then brute forces a machine's SSH service to gain ro
Malware Hunter — Shodan's new tool to find Malware C&C Servers

Malware Hunter — Shodan's new tool to find Malware C&C Servers

May 02, 2017
Rapidly growing, insecure internet-connected devices are becoming albatross around the necks of individuals and organizations with malware authors routinely hacking them to form botnets that can be further used as weapons in DDoS and other cyber attacks. But now finding malicious servers, hosted by attackers, that control botnet of infected machines gets a bit easier. Thanks to Shodan and Recorded Future. Shodan and Recorded Future have teamed up and launched Malware Hunter – a crawler that scans the Internet regularly to identify botnet command and control (C&C) servers for various malware and botnets. Command-and-control servers ( C&C servers ) are centralized machines that control the bots ( computers, smart appliances or smartphones ), typically infected with Remote Access Trojans or data-stealing malware, by sending commands and receiving data. Malware Hunter results have been integrated into Shodan – a search engine designed to gather and list information abo
Linux Trojan Using Hacked IoT Devices to Send Spam Emails

Linux Trojan Using Hacked IoT Devices to Send Spam Emails

Sep 22, 2017
Botnets, like Mirai , that are capable of infecting Linux-based internet-of-things (IoT) devices are constantly increasing and are mainly designed to conduct Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, but researchers have discovered that cybercriminals are using botnets for mass spam mailings. New research conducted by Russian security firm Doctor Web has revealed that a Linux Trojan, dubbed Linux.ProxyM that cybercriminals use to ensure their online anonymity has recently been updated to add mas spam sending capabilities to earn money. The Linux.ProxyM Linux Trojan, initially discovered by the security firm in February this year, runs a SOCKS proxy server on an infected IoT device and is capable of detecting honeypots in order to hide from malware researchers. Linux.ProxyM can operate on almost all Linux device, including routers, set-top boxes, and other equipment having the following architectures: x86, MIPS, PowerPC, MIPSEL, ARM, Motorola 68000, Superh and SPARC.
An Army of Million Hacked IoT Devices Almost Broke the Internet Today

An Army of Million Hacked IoT Devices Almost Broke the Internet Today

Oct 22, 2016
A massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against Dyn , a major domain name system (DNS) provider, broke large portions of the Internet on Friday, causing a significant outage to a ton of websites and services, including Twitter, GitHub, PayPal, Amazon, Reddit, Netflix, and Spotify. But how the attack happened? What's the cause behind the attack? Exact details of the attack remain vague, but Dyn reported a huge army of hijacked internet-connected devices could be responsible for the massive attack. Yes, the same method recently employed by hackers to carry out record-breaking DDoS attack of over 1 Tbps against France-based hosting provider OVH. According to security intelligence firm Flashpoint , Mirai bots were detected driving much, but not necessarily all, of the traffic in the DDoS attacks against DynDNS. Mirai is a piece of malware that targets Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as routers, and security cameras, DVRs, and enslaves vast numbers of
'Satori' IoT DDoS Botnet Operator Sentenced to 13 Months in Prison

'Satori' IoT DDoS Botnet Operator Sentenced to 13 Months in Prison

Jun 26, 2020
The United States Department of Justice yesterday sentenced a 22-year-old Washington-based hacker to 13 months in federal prison for his role in creating botnet malware, infecting a large number of systems with it, and then abusing those systems to carry out large scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against various online service and targets. According to court documents, Kenneth Currin Schuchman , a resident of Vancouver, and his criminal associates–Aaron Sterritt and Logan Shwydiuk–created multiple DDoS botnet malware since at least August 2017 and used them to enslave hundreds of thousands of home routers and other Internet-connected devices worldwide. Dubbed Satori, Okiru, Masuta, and Tsunami or Fbot, all these botnets were the successors of the infamous IoT malware Mirai , as they were created mainly using the source code of Mirai, with some additional features added to make them more sophisticated and effective against evolving targets. Even after the orig
Cybercriminals Hold $115,000-Prize Contest to Find New Cryptocurrency Hacks

Cybercriminals Hold $115,000-Prize Contest to Find New Cryptocurrency Hacks

Jun 02, 2021
A top Russian-language underground forum has been running a "contest" for the past month, calling on its community to submit "unorthodox" ways to conduct cryptocurrency attacks. The forum's administrator, in an announcement made on April 20, 2021, invited members to submit papers that assess the possibility of targeting cryptocurrency-related technology, including the theft of private keys and wallets, in addition to covering unusual cryptocurrency mining software, smart contracts, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The contest , which is likely to continue till September 1, will see a total prize money of $115,000 awarded to the best research. "So far, the top candidates (according to forum member voting) include topics like generating a fake blockchain front-end website that captures sensitive information such as private keys and balances, creating a new cryptocurrency blockchain from scratch, increasing the hash rate speed of mining farms and botnets,
Dark Nexus: A New Emerging IoT Botnet Malware Spotted in the Wild

Dark Nexus: A New Emerging IoT Botnet Malware Spotted in the Wild

Apr 08, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new emerging IoT botnet threat that leverages compromised smart devices to stage ' distributed denial-of-service ' attacks, potentially triggered on-demand through platforms offering DDoS-for-hire services. The botnet, named "dark_nexus" by Bitdefender researchers, works by employing credential stuffing attacks against a variety of devices, such as routers (from Dasan Zhone, Dlink, and ASUS), video recorders, and thermal cameras, to co-opt them into the botnet. So far, dark_nexus comprises at least 1,372 bots, acting as a reverse proxy, spanning across various locations in China, South Korea, Thailand, Brazil, and Russia. "While it might share some features with previously known IoT botnets, the way some of its modules have been developed makes it significantly more potent and robust," the researchers said . "For example, payloads are compiled for 12 different CPU architectures and dynamically deliver
Multiple Botnets Exploiting Critical Oracle WebLogic Bug — PATCH NOW

Multiple Botnets Exploiting Critical Oracle WebLogic Bug — PATCH NOW

Dec 02, 2020
Multiple botnets are targeting thousands of publicly exposed and still unpatched Oracle WebLogic servers to deploy crypto miners and steal sensitive information from infected systems. The attacks are taking aim at a recently patched WebLogic Server vulnerability, which was released by Oracle as part of its  October 2020 Critical Patch Update  and subsequently again in November ( CVE-2020-14750 ) in the form of an out-of-band security patch. As of writing, about 3,000 Oracle WebLogic servers are accessible on the Internet-based on stats from the Shodan search engine. Oracle  WebLogic  is a platform for developing, deploying, and running enterprise Java applications in any cloud environment as well as on-premises. The flaw, which is tracked as CVE-2020-14882, has a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum rating of 10 and affects WebLogic Server versions 10.3.6.0.0, 12.1.3.0.0, 12.2.1.3.0, 12.2.1.4.0, and 14.1.1.0.0. Although the issue has been addressed, the release of  proof-of-concep
140,000 Reasons Why Emotet is Piggybacking on TrickBot in its Return from the Dead

140,000 Reasons Why Emotet is Piggybacking on TrickBot in its Return from the Dead

Dec 08, 2021
The operators of TrickBot malware have infected an estimated 140,000 victims across 149 countries a little over a year after attempts were to dismantle its infrastructure, even as the advanced Trojan is fast becoming an entry point for Emotet, another botnet that was taken down at the start of 2021. Most of the victims detected since November 1, 2020, are from Portugal (18%), the U.S. (14%), and India (5%), followed by Brazil (4%), Turkey (3%), Russia (3%), and China (3%), Check Point Research noted in a report shared with The Hacker News, with government, finance, and manufacturing entities emerging the top affected industry verticals. "Emotet is a strong indicator of future ransomware attacks, as the malware provides ransomware gangs a backdoor into compromised machines," said the researchers, who detected 223 different Trickbot campaigns over the course of the last six months. Both TrickBot and Emotet are botnets, which are a network of internet-connected devices infe
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