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Government, diplomatic entities, military organizations, law firms, and financial institutions primarily located in the Middle East have been targeted as part of a stealthy malware campaign as early as 2019 by making use of malicious Microsoft Excel and Word documents. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky attributed the attacks with high confidence to a threat actor named WIRTE, adding the intrusions involved "MS Excel droppers that use hidden spreadsheets and VBA macros to drop their first stage implant," which is a Visual Basic Script (VBS) with functionality to amass system information and execute arbitrary code sent by the attackers on the infected machine. An analysis of the campaign as well as the toolset and methods employed by the adversary has also led the researchers to conclude with low confidence that the  WIRTE group  has connections to another politically motivated collective called the  Gaza Cybergang . The affected entities are spread across Armenia, Cyp

Four different Android banking trojans were spread via the official Google Play Store between August and November 2021, resulting in more than 300,000 infections through various dropper apps that posed as seemingly harmless utility apps to take full control of the infected devices. Designed to deliver Anatsa (aka TeaBot), Alien, ERMAC, and Hydra, cybersecurity firm ThreatFabric  said  the malware campaigns are not only more refined, but also engineered to have a small malicious footprint, effectively ensuring that the payloads are installed only on smartphones devices from specific regions and preventing the malware from being downloaded during the publishing process . Once installed, these banking trojans can surreptitiously siphon user passwords and SMS-based two-factor authentication codes, keystrokes, screenshots, and even deplete users' bank accounts without their knowledge by using a tool called Automatic Transfer System ( ATSs ). The apps have since been removed from the

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

North Korean defectors, journalists who cover North Korea-related news, and entities in South Korea are being zeroed in on by a nation-state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) as part of a new wave of highly-targeted surveillance attacks. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky attributed the infiltrations to a North Korean hacker group tracked as  ScarCruft , also known as  APT37 , Reaper Group, InkySquid, and Ricochet Chollima. "The actor utilized three types of malware with similar functionalities: versions implemented in PowerShell, Windows executables and Android applications," the company's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT)  said  in a new report published today. "Although intended for different platforms, they share a similar command and control scheme based on HTTP communication. Therefore, the malware operators can control the whole malware family through one set of command and control scripts." Likely active since at least 2012, ScarC

Threat actors are exploiting improperly-secured Google Cloud Platform (GCP) instances to download cryptocurrency mining software to the compromised systems as well as abusing its infrastructure to install ransomware, stage phishing campaigns, and even generate traffic to YouTube videos for view count manipulation. "While cloud customers continue to face a variety of threats across applications and infrastructure, many successful attacks are due to poor hygiene and a lack of basic control implementation," Google's Cybersecurity Action Team (CAT)  outlined  as part of its recent Threat Horizons report published last week. Of the 50 recently compromised GCP instances, 86% of them were used to conduct cryptocurrency mining, in some cases within 22 seconds of successful breach, while 10% of the instances were exploited to perform scans of other publicly accessible hosts on the Internet to identify vulnerable systems, and 8% of the instances were used to strike other entiti

We use Internet-enabled devices in every aspect of our lives today—to find information, shop, bank, do homework, play games, and keep in touch with friends and family. As a result, our devices contain much personal information about us. Also, any great device will get a little clunky and slow over time and the Mac is no exception, and the whole "Macs don't get viruses" claim is a myth. Malware for Macs has increased over the years, and today's Macs are being plagued by adware, scareware, and other potentially unwanted programs as well. If you are worried about your Macbook's performance and security, including unwanted software, ransomware,  CleanMyMac X software has you covered. CleanMyMac is all-in-all software to optimize your Mac's performance and security. It clears out clutter and removes megatons of junk so your computer can run faster, just like it did on day one. The tool is designed to replace several optimization apps for Mac and can be anythi

A joint four-month operation coordinated by Interpol, the international criminal police organization, has culminated in the arrests of more than 1,000 cybercriminals and the recovery of $27 million in illicit proceeds. Codenamed " HAECHI-II ," the crackdown enabled law enforcement units from across 20 countries, as well as Hong Kong and Macao, close 1,660 cases alongside blocking 2,350 bank accounts linked to the fraudulent illicit funds amassed from a range of online financial crimes, such as romance scams, investment fraud, and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling. "The results of Operation HAECHI-II show that the surge in online financial crime generated by the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of waning,"  said  Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock in a press statement issued on November 26. The coordinated law enforcement probe took place over a period of four months, starting from June 2021 until September 2021, with ten new criminal

Italy's antitrust regulator has fined both Apple and Google €10 million each for what it calls are "aggressive" data practices and for not providing consumers with clear information on commercial uses of their personal data during the account creation phase. The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM)  said  "Google and Apple did not provide clear and immediate information on the acquisition and use of user data for commercial purposes," adding the tech companies chose to emphasize the data collection as only necessary to improve their own services and personalize user experience without offering any indication that the data could be transferred and used for other reasons. The concerns have to do with how the companies omit relevant information when creating an account and using their services, details which the authority said are critical to making an informed decision as to whether or not to give permission for utilizing their data for comme

An advanced persistent threat (APT) has been linked to cyberattacks on two biomanufacturing companies that occurred this year with the help of a custom malware loader called " Tardigrade ." That's according to an advisory published by Bioeconomy Information Sharing and Analysis Center (BIO-ISAC) this week, which noted that the malware is actively spreading across the sector with the likely goal of perpetrating intellectual property theft, maintaining persistence for extended periods of time, and infecting the systems with ransomware. BIO-ISAC, which commenced an investigation following a ransomware attack targeting an unnamed biomanufacturing facility earlier this spring, characterized Tardigrade as a sophisticated piece of malware with "a high degree of autonomy as well as metamorphic capabilities." The same malware was then used to strike a second entity in October 2021. The "actively spreading" intrusions have not been attributed to a specific

A new malware campaign has been discovered targeting cryptocurrency, non-fungible token ( NFT ), and  DeFi  aficionados through Discord channels to deploy a crypter named "Babadeda" that's capable of bypassing antivirus solutions and stage a variety of attacks. "[T]his malware installer has been used in a variety of recent campaigns to deliver information stealers, RATs, and even LockBit ransomware," Morphisec researchers  said  in a report published this week. The malware distribution attacks are said to have commenced in May 2021. Crypters are a type of software used by cybercriminals that can encrypt, obfuscate, and manipulate malicious code so as to appear seemingly innocuous and make it harder to detect by security programs — a holy grail for malware authors. The infiltrations observed by Morphisec involved the threat actor sending decoy messages to prospective users on Discord channels related to blockchain-based games such as  Mines of Dalarnia , urg

Researchers have unearthed a new remote access trojan (RAT) for Linux that employs a never-before-seen stealth technique that involves masking its malicious actions by scheduling them for execution on February 31st, a non-existent calendar day. Dubbed CronRAT, the sneaky malware "enables  server-side Magecart data theft  which bypasses browser-based security solutions," Sansec Threat Research said. The Dutch cybersecurity firm said it found samples of the RAT on several online stores, including an unnamed country's largest outlet. CronRAT's standout feature is its ability to leverage the  cron  job-scheduler utility for Unix to hide malicious payloads using task names programmed to execute on February 31st. Not only does this allow the malware to evade detection from security software, but it also enables it to launch an array of attack commands that could put Linux eCommerce servers at risk. "The CronRAT adds a number of tasks to crontab with a curious date