Cyber Crime

Pierluigi Paganini March 10, 2019
Jackson County paid $400,000 to crooks after ransomare attack

Ransomware threat makes the headlines again, this time an attack hit the computers of Jackson County, Georgia, paralyzing the government activity. Computers of Jackson County, Georgia, were infected with ransomware that paralyzed the government activity until officials decided to pay a $400,000 ransom to decrypt the files. “The Jackson County government paid online criminals about […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 06, 2019
Cybaz-Yoroi ZLAB shed the light on Op. ‘Pistacchietto’: An Italian Job

In the past weeks, a new strange campaign emerged in the cyber threat Italian landscape, it has been tracked as “Operation Pistacchietto.” Introduction In the past weeks, a new strange campaign emerged in the Italian landscape. It has been baptized “Operation Pistacchietto” from a username extracted from a Github account used to serve some part […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 04, 2019
Annual RSA Conference Exclusive 2019 Edition of Cyber Defense Magazine is arrived

We’re honored to bring you our 7th Annual edition of Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), exclusively in print at the RSA Conference (RSAC) 2019. Cyber Defense eMagazine – Annual RSA Conference 2019 Edition. Sponsored by: Regent University’s Institute for Cybersecurity Setting the Standard in Cyber Training & Education and by the RSA Conference 2019 Team! RSA […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 04, 2019
Necurs Botnet adopts a new strategy to evade detection

The Necurs Botnet continues to evolve, a new strategy aims at hiding in the shadows, and leverages new payloads to recruits new bots. Necurs botnet is currently the second largest spam botnet, it has been active since at least 2012 and was involved in massive campaigns spreading malware such as the Locky ransomware, the Scarab ransomware, […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 04, 2019
Threat actors using FrameworkPOS malware in POS attacks

Security experts at Morphisec observed a wave of attacks against point-of-sale (PoS) thin clients using card data scraping malware and the Cobalt Strike beacon. Over the past 8-10 weeks, security experts at Morphisec observed multiple sophisticated attacks targeting PoS thin clients worldwide.  Most of the indicators collected by the experts point to the FIN6 hacking […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 03, 2019
The operator of DDoS-for-hire service pleads guilty

Sergiy P. Usatyuk (20), from Orland Park, Illinois pleaded guilty for owning, administrating, and supporting an illegal DDo-for-hire service. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the booting service operated by Sergiy P. Usatyuk (20) was used to carry out millions of distributed denial of service attacks. Usatyuk developed and operated other DDoS-for-hire services with […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 02, 2019
[SI-LAB] FlawedAmmyy Leveraging Undetected XLM Macros as an Infection Vehicle

SI-LAB captured a piece of the FlawedAmmyy malware that leverages undetected XLM macros as an Infection Vehicle to compromise user’s devices. In February 2019, SI-LAB captured multiple samples of phishing campaigns using an Office Excel document carrying a malicious Excel 4.0 macro, also known as XLM macro, and used to download and execute a final […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 01, 2019
Analyzing the evolution of MageCart cybercrime groups’ TTPs

Researchers from RiskIQ and FlashPoint analyzed the evolution of Magecart groups, in particular of a gang tracked as Group 4 that appears to be very sophisticated. Security firms have monitored the activities of a dozen Magecart groups at least since 2015. The gangs use to implant skimming script into compromised online stores in order to […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 26, 2019
Author of NeverQuest botnet pleads guilty to bank fraud

The Russian hacker Stanislav Vitaliyevich Lisov pleads guilty to bank fraud after running a botnet that spread ‘NeverQuest’ malware for three years. The Russian hacker Stanislav Vitaliyevich Lisov, aka “Black,” “Blackf,” is accused of using the NeverQuest banking Trojan to steal login information from victims. The man has pled guilty to one count of conspiracy […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 25, 2019
Prosecutors ask 3-Year Sentence in ‘Fappening’ Case for ex-teacher

Fappening case – Federal prosecutors requested a 3-year prison sentence for a former Virginia high school teacher convicted of hacking into private digital accounts of celebrities and others. Federal prosecutors requested a 3-year prison sentence for Christopher Brannan(31), a former Virginia high school teacher, that was convicted of hacking into private digital accounts of celebrities […]