criminal underground

Pierluigi Paganini December 26, 2017
The spike in Bitcoin price is making it a less useful payment method in the cybercrime underground

The recent spike in the Bitcoin price and the fees associated with each transaction are making Bitcoin a less useful payment method in the cybercrime underground. We have a long debated the use of unregulated virtual currencies like Bitcoin in the criminal underground. Virtual currencies have a crucial role in facilitating illicit commerce, it is normal that […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 09, 2017
Hack the hackers. Watch out the NEW IPCAM EXPLOIT, it is a scam!

Security experts have discovered a new hacking tool dubbed NEW IPCAM EXPLOIT containing a backdoor that is offered on several underground hacking forums. Wannabe hackers, be careful out of free hacking tools, many of them are scams. Recently security experts reported several cases of fake hacking tools hiding backdoors, for example, a fake Facebook hacking tool or the Cobian RAT. […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 10, 2017
FormBook malware used in high-volume distribution campaigns targeting organizations in the US and South Korea

Crooks are spreading the FormBook malware to target aerospace firms, defense contractors and some manufacturing organizations in the US and South Korea. According to researchers at FireEye, FormBook was spotted in several high-volume distribution campaigns targeting aim at Aerospace, Defense Contractor, and Manufacturing industries. The phishing emails that targeted US entities contain PDF, DOC or […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 23, 2016
Cyber attacks against the healthcare industry are expected to grow

The number of cyber attacks against organizations in the healthcare industry is increasing, this trend is expected to continue in 2017. The monitoring of the activity in the cyber criminal underground is essential for investigators and security experts. The value of illegal products and services gives us a precious information on cyber criminal trends. Security experts […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 24, 2016
Hackers offered an loT botnet for $7,500. The recent attack may be just a test

The security firm RSA revealed to have discovered in early October, hackers advertising access to a huge IoT botnet on an underground criminal forum. Last week, a massive DDoS attack against the Dyn DNS service, one of the most authoritative domain name system (DNS), caused an extended Internet outage. A large portion of internet users was not able to […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 22, 2016
iSpy, a new sophisticated commercial keylogger in the criminal underground

The new variant of the popular iSpy keylogger (version 3.x) was available in the criminal underground with sophisticated features. Security researchers at Zscaler warn of a new sophisticated commercial keylogger dubbed iSpy. The malware is a perfect surveillance tool, it was developed to capture victim’s keystroke and screenshots, access webcam, steal user data and license keys […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 14, 2016
Shard discovers shared passwords between most popular web services

Shard is a free tool that could be used by hackers to discover shared passwords between most popular web services, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, or Instagram. In the past months, we have read about numerous data breaches, LinkedIn, MySpace, VerticalScope are just a few examples of illustrious victims. Hundreds of thousands of millions of credentials have flooded the […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 23, 2016
Criminals steal $13m in three hours from ATMs across Japan

Japanese police are investigating coordinated raids across stores in Japan that resulted in the theft of $13m from ATMs in just three hours. Cybercrime doesn’t know boundaries, and in many countries, security experts are observing a rapid evolution of illegal phenomena on the web. The Japan actually hosts one of the most interesting underground communities, a criminal online […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 28, 2015
Darkweb, a look back at 2015 events and 2016 predictions

Which are the main events observed in the darkweb during the 2015 and what to expect in the next 12 months? The DarkWeb is a set of publicly accessible content that are hosted on websites whose IP address is hidden, but to which anyone can access it as long as it knows the address. The […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 13, 2015
The rise of the Japanese Cybercrime Underground

Researchers at Trend Micro have issued a new report on the Japanese Cybercrime Underground, a growing criminal community with his characteristics. Cybercrime underground is a growing and prolific industry that knows no crisis as demonstrated by the numerous reports issued by principal security companies and law enforcement. In the past we have analyzed criminal most […]