Industry Intel

Girl Scouts and OpenText empower future leaders of tomorrow with cyber resilience

The transition to a digital-first world enables us to connect, work and live in a realm where information is available at our fingertips. The children of today will be working in an environment of tomorrow that is shaped by hyperconnectivity. Operating in this...

World Backup Day reminds us all just how precious our data is

Think of all the important files sitting on your computer right now. If your computer crashed tomorrow, would you be able to retrieve your important files? Would your business suffer as a result? As more and more of our daily activities incorporate digital and online...

3 Reasons We Forget Small & Midsized Businesses are Major Targets for Ransomware

The ransomware attacks that make headlines and steer conversations among cybersecurity professionals usually involve major ransoms, huge corporations and notorious hacking groups. Kia Motors, Accenture, Acer, JBS…these companies were some of the largest to be...

How Ransomware Sneaks In

Ransomware has officially made the mainstream. Dramatic headlines announce the latest attacks and news outlets highlight the staggeringly high ransoms businesses pay to retrieve their stolen data. And it’s no wonder why – ransomware attacks are on the rise and the...

An MSP and SMB guide to disaster preparation, recovery and remediation

Introduction It’s important for a business to be prepared with an exercised business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan plan before its hit with ransomware so that it can resume operations as quickly as possible. Key steps and solutions should be followed...

Podcast: Cyber resilience in a remote work world

The global pandemic that began to send us packing from our offices in March of last year upended our established way of working overnight. We’re still feeling the effects. Many office workers have yet to return to the office in the volumes they worked in pre-pandemic....

5 Tips to get Better Efficacy out of Your IT Security Stack

If you’re an admin, service provider, security executive, or are otherwise affiliated with the world of IT solutions, then you know that one of the biggest challenges to overcome is efficacy. Especially in terms of cybersecurity, efficacy is something of an amorphous...

How Cryptocurrency and Cybercrime Trends Influence One Another

Typically, when cryptocurrency values change, one would expect to see changes in crypto-related cybercrime. In particular, trends in Bitcoin values tend to be the bellwether you can use to predict how other currencies’ values will shift, and there are usually...

Cybercriminals generate malicious Java applets using DIY tools

Jan 30, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Who said there’s such a thing as a trusted Java applet?

In situations where malicious attackers cannot directly exploit client-side vulnerabilities on the targeted host, they will turn to social engineering tricks, like legitimate-looking Java Applets, which will on the other hand silently download the malicious payload of the attacker, once the user confirms he trusts the Applet.

Let’s profile a DIY (do-it-yourself) malicious Java Applet generator currently available for download at selected cybercrime-friendly online communities:

Cisco releases ‘Cisco Global Threat Report’ for 4Q11

Jan 29, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Cisco Systems, recently announced the release of ‘Cisco Global Threat Report’ for 4Q11, containing threat intelligence based on Cisco’s observation of the malicious threat landscape.

Key summary points:

A peek inside the uBot malware bot

Jan 26, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Participants in the dynamic cybercrime underground ecosystem are constantly working on new cybercrime-friendly releases in the form of malware bots, Remote Access Tools (RATs) and malware loaders.

Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will profile yet another DIY (do-it-yourself) malware bot, available at the disposal of cybercriminals at selected cybercrime-friendly online communities.

Researchers intercept a client-side exploits serving malware campaign

Jan 25, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Security researchers from Webroot have intercepted a currently active, client-side exploits-serving malicious campaign that has already managed to infect 18,544 computers across the globe, through the BlackHole web malware exploitation kit.

More details:

How phishers launch phishing attacks

Jan 23, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Just like in every other industry, participants in the cybercrime ecosystem are no strangers to the concept of standardization. Standardization results in efficiencies, which on the other hand results in economies of scale. In this case, malicious economies of scale.

Just how easy is it to launch a phishing attack nowadays? What tools, and tactics are at the disposal of phishers aiming to efficiently socially engineer hundreds of thousands of users?

In this post, I will profile the Ninja V0.4 Social Engineering Phishing Framework – an advanced platform for executing phishing attacks in a DIY (do-it-yourself) fashion.

A peek inside the Umbra malware loader

Jan 20, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

The thriving cybercrime underground marketplace has a lot to offer. From DIY botnet builders, DIY DDoS platforms, to platforms for executing clickjacking and likejacking campaigns, next to drive-by malware attacks, the ecosystem is always a step ahead of the industry established to fight back.

Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will profile yet another freely available DIY Botnet building tool – the Umbra Malware Loader.

How malware authors evade antivirus detection

Jan 18, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Aiming to ensure that their malware doesn’t end up in the hands of vendors and researchers, cybercriminals are actively experimenting with different quality assurance processes whose objective is to increase the probability of their campaigns successfully propagating in the wild without detection.

Some of these techniques include multiple offline antivirus scanning interfaces offering the cybercriminal a guarantee that their malicious program would remain undetected, before they launch their malicious campaign in the wild.

In the wild since 2006, Kim’s Multiple Antivirus Scanner is still actively used among cybercriminals wanting to ensure that their malicious software is pre-scanned against the signature-based scanning techniques offered by multile antivirus vendors.

Let’s review Kim’s Multiple Antivirus Scanner, and discuss when it’s an important tool in the arsenal of the malicious cybercriminal spreading malware for profit.

Inside AnonJDB – a Java based malware distribution platforms for drive-by downloads

Jan 17, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

by Dancho Danchev

With the even decreasing prices of underground tools and services, thanks to the commoditization of these very same market items, the price for renting a botnet, or purchasing access to already infected hosts, is constantly decreasing.

Although the majority of cybercriminals are actively exploiting end and corporate users while using client-side vulnerabilities in outdated third-party applications and browser plugins, there’s a separate branch of cybercriminals who specialize in delivering their payload using nothing else but good old fashioned social engineering attacks.

Following my previous post Inside a clickjacking/likejacking scam distribution platform for Facebook, in this post I will profile AnonJDB – a Java based malware distribution platform for drive-by downloads.

Zappos.com hacked, 24 million users affected

Jan 16, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

by Dancho Danchev

According to an internal memo issued by Zappos, the shoe-and-apparel-selling division of Amazon has been breached by unknown cyber attackers, leading to the compromised accounts of over 24 million users.

The company has indicated that names, email addresses, mailing addresses, and the last four digits of customer’s credit card numbers have been compromised.

More info on the attack, including a copy of the internal memo:

Inside a clickjacking/likejacking scam distribution platform for Facebook

Jan 13, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

by Dancho Danchev

How would you convert Facebook users into slaves participating in clickjacking and likejackings scams, next to using them to spamvertise your latest event promotion message?

Presumably by using one of the clickjacking/likejacking distribution platforms promising 100 slaves per day that I will profile in this post.

Adobe issues a patch for critical security holes in Reader and Acrobat

Jan 11, 2012 | Threat Lab

by Dancho Danchev

As part of its quarterly patch update, today Adobe issued a critical security update plugging multiple security holes in its Acrobat Reader, and Adobe Acrobat software applications.