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A New Age of Hacktivism

A New Age of Hacktivism

Feb 22, 2024 Hacktivism / Information Warfare
In the past 2 years, we have observed a significant surge in hacktivism activity due to ongoing wars and geopolitical conflicts in various regions. Since the war against Ukraine began, we have witnessed a notable mobilization of non-state and state-backed actors alike, forming new groups or joining existing hacker collectives.  We understand hacktivism as a form of computer hacking that is done to further the goals of political or social  activism 1 . While  activism  describes a normal, non-disruptive use of the Internet in order to support a specific cause (online petitions, fundraising, coordinating activities),  hacktivism  includes operations that use hacking techniques with the intent to disrupt but not to cause serious harm (e.g., data theft, website defacements, redirects, Denial-of-Service attacks). Cyber operations that inherit a willingness or intent to cause harm to physical property, severe economic damage or loss of life would be referred to as  cyberterrorism, 2, 3  Th
Hacktivist Group Anonymous (#OpISIS) Takes Down Islamic State (ISIS) Social Media Accounts

Hacktivist Group Anonymous (#OpISIS) Takes Down Islamic State (ISIS) Social Media Accounts

Feb 09, 2015
The hacktivist group Anonymous has launched a massive cyber attack against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — the radical Islamic terrorist group who were  responsible for the terrorist attack against the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo . With huge social media presence, ISIS is the most active terror group on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts. But unluckily, over dozens of Facebook and Twitter accounts linked to ISIS has recently been taken by the Anonymous group. In a video appeared on Youtube, Anonymous group and RedCult announced the operation  #OpISIS  and claimed to have carried out cyber attack against hundreds of Twitter and Facebook accounts used by ISIS for its own propaganda and to recruit new members. According to the video, Operation  #OpISIS  is coordinated by "Muslims, Christians, Jews"  alike and a masked individual discusses the aim of the campaign. They are " hackers, crackers, Hacktivist, phi
Enterprise Identity Threat Report 2024: Unveiling Hidden Threats to Corporate Identities

Enterprise Identity Threat Report 2024: Unveiling Hidden Threats to Corporate Identities

Oct 31, 2024Identity Security / Browser Security
In the modern, browser-centric workplace, the corporate identity acts as the frontline defense for organizations. Often referred to as "the new perimeter", the identity stands between safe data management and potential breaches. However, a new report reveals how enterprises are often unaware of how their identities are being used across various platforms. This leaves them vulnerable to data breaches, account takeovers, and credential theft. The "Enterprise Identity Threat Report 2024" ( download here ) is based on exclusive data available only to the LayerX Browser Security platform. This data derives from LayerX's unique visibility into every user action in the browser, across industries. It provides a detailed analysis of emerging risks and uncovered hidden threats. To register to a live webinar to cover the key findings in this report, Click here . Below is a deeper dive into some of the report's most critical findings: 1. The Greatest Risk Comes from 2% of Users Security profe
Hacktivist Group Twelve Targets Russian Entities with Destructive Cyber Attacks

Hacktivist Group Twelve Targets Russian Entities with Destructive Cyber Attacks

Sep 21, 2024 Cyber Warfare / Threat Intelligence
A hacktivist group known as Twelve has been observed using an arsenal of publicly available tools to conduct destructive cyber attacks against Russian targets. "Rather than demand a ransom for decrypting data, Twelve prefers to encrypt victims' data and then destroy their infrastructure with a wiper to prevent recovery," Kaspersky said in a Friday analysis. "The approach is indicative of a desire to cause maximum damage to target organizations without deriving direct financial benefit." The hacking group, believed to have been formed in April 2023 following the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war, has a track record of mounting cyber attacks that aim to cripple victim networks and disrupt business operations. It has also been observed conducting hack-and-leak operations that exfiltrate sensitive information, which is then shared on its Telegram channel. Kaspersky said Twelve shares infrastructural and tactical overlaps with a ransomware group called DARKSTA
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AWS EKS Security Best Practices [Cheat Sheet]

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U.S. Charges Two Sudanese Brothers for Record 35,000 DDoS Attacks

U.S. Charges Two Sudanese Brothers for Record 35,000 DDoS Attacks

Oct 17, 2024 Cyber Crime / Hacktivism
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. have charged two Sudanese brothers with running a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet for hire that conducted a record 35,000 DDoS attacks in a single year, including those that targeted Microsoft's services in June 2023. The attacks, which were facilitated by Anonymous Sudan's "powerful DDoS tool," singled out critical infrastructure, corporate networks, and government agencies in the United States and around the world, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said. Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, have been charged with one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers. Ahmed Salah has also been charged with three counts of damaging protected computers. If convicted on all charges, Ahmed Salah faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison, while Alaa Salah faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. The DDoS tool is said to have been disabled in March 2024, the same
Researchers Identify 3 Hacktivist Groups Supporting Russian Interests

Researchers Identify 3 Hacktivist Groups Supporting Russian Interests

Sep 26, 2022
At least three alleged hacktivist groups working in support of Russian interests are likely doing so in collaboration with state-sponsored cyber threat actors, according to Mandiant. The Google-owned threat intelligence and incident response firm  said  with moderate confidence that "moderators of the purported hacktivist Telegram channels 'XakNet Team,' 'Infoccentr,' and 'CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn' are coordinating their operations with Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)-sponsored cyber threat actors." Mandiant's assessment is based on evidence that the leakage of data stolen from Ukrainian organizations occurred within 24 hours of  malicious wiper incidents  undertaken by the Russian nation-state group tracked as  APT28  (aka Fancy Bear, Sofacy, or Strontium). To that end, four of the 16 data leaks from these groups coincided with  disk wiping malware attacks  by APT28 that involved the use of a strain dubbed  CaddyWiper . APT28 , a
Anonymous Hacktivist 'Barrett Brown' Released From Prison

Anonymous Hacktivist 'Barrett Brown' Released From Prison

Nov 30, 2016
Barrett Brown , a journalist, formerly served as an unofficial spokesman for the hacktivist collective Anonymous, finally walked free from prison on Tuesday morning after serving more than four years behind bars. The Dallas-born investigative journalist was arrested in 2012 from his home while he was in the middle of an online chat after posting tweets and YouTube video threatening revenge against an FBI agent. Brown, 35, initially attracted the law enforcement attention in 2011 when he shared a hyperlink to an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel where Anonymous members were distributing stolen information from the hack at security think tank Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor. The hack allegedly exposed 200 gigabytes of data, which included email addresses and credit card information from Stratfor clients, including the US Army, US Air Force, and Miami Police Department. Originally facing sentence to more than 100 years in prison, Brown was convicted in January 2015 under
Anonymous Declares War On Donald Trump — #OpTrump

Anonymous Declares War On Donald Trump — #OpTrump

Dec 12, 2015
After targeting the Islamic State (ISIS) group in the wake of Deadly terror attacks in Paris, hacktivist group Anonymous has now turned its attention to controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump . The hacktivist group has declared war against Donald Trump following his recent radical speech stating he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Anonymous vs. Donald Trump On Wednesday, Anonymous slams Trump by posting a YouTube video in which a man in a Guy Fawkes mask says: "Donald Trump, it has come to our attention that you wish to ban all muslims from entering the United States. Muslims and Islam are not the problem. This policy will have grave impact and will serve only to fuel the emotions that ISIS uses to recruit muslims. Certainly ISIS will use this to their advantage in their social media campaigns. Instead of focusing on the innocent, the focus should be set on ways to protect them from the radicalized individuals they flee. Dona
Researchers Uncover Connection b/w Moses Staff and Emerging Abraham's Ax Hacktivists Group

Researchers Uncover Connection b/w Moses Staff and Emerging Abraham's Ax Hacktivists Group

Jan 26, 2023
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 information and lock victim data on infected hosts. The cr
Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown's Mother faces Prison for hiding Evidences

Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown's Mother faces Prison for hiding Evidences

Mar 27, 2013
The mother of alleged Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown has pleaded guilty to helping her son hide two laptop computers from federal investigators. Brown's mother, Karen McCutchin , pleaded guilty last week to a charge of obstructing the execution of a search warrant. She faces a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. On March 6, 2012, officers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Brown's Dallas, Texas apartment in an attempt to execute a search warrant for computers that could contain information involving hacktivist group Anonymous and LulzSec. The feds hadn't found all the computers they were looking for during a search of Brown's apartment that morning and Brown, located at his mother's house, refused to volunteer them. Karen McCutchin Plea Agreement Barrett Brown is expected to stand trial in September, at which point he will have spent an entire year behind bars witho
Tesla Ransomware Hacker Pleads Guilty; Swiss Hacktivist Charged for Fraud

Tesla Ransomware Hacker Pleads Guilty; Swiss Hacktivist Charged for Fraud

Mar 19, 2021
The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday announced updates on two separate cases involving cyberattacks—a Swiss hacktivist and a Russian hacker who planned to plant malware in the Tesla company. A Swiss hacker who was involved in the intrusion of cloud-based surveillance firm Verkada and exposed camera footage from its customers was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday with conspiracy, wire fraud, and identity theft. Till Kottmann (aka "deletescape" and "tillie crimew"), 21, of Lucerne, Switzerland, and their co-conspirators were accused of hacking dozens of companies and government agencies since 2019 by targeting their "git" and other source code repositories and posting the proprietary data of more than 100 entities on a website called git[.]rip, according to the indictment. Kottmann is alleged to have cloned the source code and other confidential files containing hard-coded administrative credentials and access keys, using th
Hacktivist Group GhostSec Compromises 55 Berghof PLCs Across Israel

Hacktivist Group GhostSec Compromises 55 Berghof PLCs Across Israel

Sep 12, 2022
A hacktivist collective called  GhostSec  has claimed credit for compromising as many as 55 Berghof programmable logic controllers ( PLCs ) used by Israeli organizations as part of a "Free Palestine" campaign. Industrial cybersecurity firm OTORIO, which  dug deeper  into the incident, said the breach was made possible owing to the fact that the PLCs were accessible through the Internet and were secured by trivially guessable credentials. Details of the compromise first came to light on September 4 after GhostSec shared a video on its Telegram channel demonstrating a successful login to the PLC's admin panel, in addition to dumping data from the hacked controllers. The Israeli company said the system dumps and screenshots were exported directly from the admin panel following unauthorized access to the controllers through their public IP addresses. GhostSec (aka Ghost Security), first identified in 2015, is a self-proclaimed  vigilante group  that was initially formed
Anonymous Hackers not responsible for attack on Dahabshiil

Anonymous Hackers not responsible for attack on Dahabshiil

Jul 22, 2012
There was an incident that a group claiming to be the cyber hacker or hacktivist group Anonymous has threatened Dahabshiil an international funds transfer company and the leading bank in Somalia, but the international funds transfer company based in the Middle East, says Anonymous was not responsible for the attack on its banking systems. According to the report, The group alleged it was the hacktivist group Anonymous, and threatened to destroy Dahabshiil within two months if the company did not stop what the group alleged as supporting terrorist organizations and terrorists in Somalia and across the world. A group claiming to be Anonymous published thousands of account numbers, names and details online. The hackers claimed it had installed " cyber bombs " within financial institutions around the world and threatened to trigger them if the Dahabshiil did not confess within two months. In the statement the Anonymous group released, the group alleged that it was investigatin
Hacktivists Exploits WinRAR Vulnerability in Attacks Against Russia and Belarus

Hacktivists Exploits WinRAR Vulnerability in Attacks Against Russia and Belarus

Sep 03, 2024 Ransomware / Malware
A hacktivist group known as Head Mare has been linked to cyber attacks that exclusively target organizations located in Russia and Belarus. "Head Mare uses more up-to-date methods for obtaining initial access," Kaspersky said in a Monday analysis of the group's tactics and tools. "For instance, the attackers took advantage of the relatively recent CVE-2023-38831 vulnerability in WinRAR, which allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system via a specially prepared archive. This approach allows the group to deliver and disguise the malicious payload more effectively." Head Mare, active since 2023, is one of the hacktivist groups attacking Russian organizations in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that began a year before. It also maintains a presence on X , where it has leaked sensitive information and internal documentation from victims. Targets of the group's attacks include governments, transportation, energy, manufacturing,
 "Mysterious Team Bangladesh" Targeting India with DDoS Attacks and Data Breaches

"Mysterious Team Bangladesh" Targeting India with DDoS Attacks and Data Breaches

Aug 03, 2023 Cyber Attack / Data Safety
A hacktivist group known as  Mysterious Team Bangladesh  has been linked to over 750 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and 78 website defacements since June 2022. "The group most frequently attacks logistics, government, and financial sector organizations in India and Israel," Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity firm Group-IB said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The group is primarily driven by religious and political motives." Some of the other targeted countries include Australia, Senegal, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Ethiopia. In addition, the threat actor is said to have gained access to web servers and administrative panels, likely by exploiting known security flaws or poorly-secured passwords. Mysterious Team Bangladesh, as the name indicates, is suspected to be of Bangladeshi origin. "We are working to protect Our Bangladesh Cyberspace," the group's Intro on Facebook  reads . The group has an active social media pre
Both Sides in Russia-Ukraine War Heavily Using Telegram for Disinformation and Hacktivism

Both Sides in Russia-Ukraine War Heavily Using Telegram for Disinformation and Hacktivism

Mar 04, 2022
Cyber criminals and hacktivist groups are increasingly using the Telegram messaging app to coordinate their activities, leak data, and spread disinformation, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its eighth day. A new analysis by Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point Research has  found  that "user volume grew a hundred folds daily on Telegram related groups, peaking at 200,000 per group." Prominent among the groups are anti-Russian cyber attack groups, including the Ukraine government-backed IT Army, which has urged its more 270,000 members to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Russian entities. Other hacktivist-oriented Telegram groups used to coordinate the attacks on Russian targets via DDoS, SMS or call-based attacks are Anna_ and Mark_, Check Point researchers noted. That said, there may be more to these attacks than meets the eye. "It seems that many of the hacktivist groups are more focused on building self-reputation and recei
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