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Monero is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, but where Bitcoin zigs, Monero zags. Initially released in 2014, Monero (also known as XMR) is a type of cryptocurrency often referred as a “privacy coin”; it has been built first and foremost with privacy in mind. Compared to something more public and traceable like Bitcoin, Monero (currently valued

Social engineering campaigns involving the deployment of the Emotet malware botnet have been observed using “unconventional” IP address formats for the first time in a bid to sidestep detection by security solutions. This involves the use of hexadecimal and octal representations of the IP address that, when processed by the underlying operating systems, get automatically

Latest analysis into the wiper malware that targeted dozens of Ukrainian agencies earlier this month has revealed “strategic similarities” to NotPetya malware that was unleashed against the country’s infrastructure and elsewhere in 2017. The malware, dubbed WhisperGate, was discovered by Microsoft last week, which said it observed the destructive cyber campaign targeting government, non-profit, and

peshkov – stock.adobe.com By It’s not hard to understand why passwordless authentication continues to gain traction. Passwords are a major security vulnerability and a leading cause of data breaches. In fact, Verizon’s “2021 Data Breach Investigations Report” found 89% of web application breaches involved credential abuse. Completely eliminating passwords isn’t feasible yet, but there are

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against four current and former Ukrainian government officials for engaging in “Russian government-directed influence activities” in the country, including gathering sensitive information about its critical infrastructure. The agency said the four individuals were involved in different roles as part of a concerted influence campaign to destabilize the

A coordinated law enforcement operation has resulted in the arrest of 11 members allegedly belonging to a Nigerian cybercrime gang notorious for perpetrating business email compromise (BEC) attacks targeting more than 50,000 victims in recent years. The disruption of the BEC network is the result of a ten-day investigation dubbed Operation Falcon II undertaken by

The U.S. government is sounding alarms after Microsoft reported a series of attacks targeting networks in Ukraine. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) passed on warnings from the software giant over multiple discoveries of a new family of “destructive malware” that seeks to erase data on targeted systems under the guise of being a

An IRC (Internet Relay Chat) bot strain programmed in GoLang is being used to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting users in Korea. “The malware is being distributed under the guise of adult games,” researchers from AhnLab’s Security Emergency-response Center (ASEC) said in a new report published on Wednesday. “Additionally, the DDoS malware was installed

An elusive threat actor called Earth Lusca has been observed striking organizations across the world as part of what appears to be simultaneously an espionage campaign and an attempt to reap monetary profits. “The list of its victims includes high-value targets such as government and educational institutions, religious movements, pro-democracy and human rights organizations in

UniCC, the biggest dark web marketplace of stolen credit and debit cards, has announced that it’s shuttering its operations after earning $358 million in purchases since 2013 using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether, and Dash. “Don’t build any conspiracy theories about us leaving,” the anonymous operators of UniCC said in a farewell posted on

Ransomware gangs may appear on the up and up — the number of ransomware attacks rose in 2021. But look a little closer, and you’ll see cracks in the multibillion-dollar empire: Conflict is brewing between ransomware operators and affiliates that could impact the way ransomware gangs operate and launch attacks in the future. The rise

Cybersecurity teams from Microsoft on Saturday disclosed they identified evidence of a new destructive malware operation targeting government, non-profit, and information technology entities in Ukraine amid brewing geopolitical tensions between the country and Russia. “The malware is disguised as ransomware but, if activated by the attacker, would render the infected computer system inoperable,” Tom Burt,

In an unprecedented move, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s principal security agency, on Friday disclosed that it arrested several members belonging to the notorious REvil ransomware gang and neutralized its operations. The surprise operation, which it said was carried out at the request of the U.S. authorities, saw the law enforcement agency conduct

A man from the U.K. city of Nottingham has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for illegally breaking into the phones and computers of a number of victims, including women and children, to spy on them and amass a collection of indecent images. Robert Davies, 32, is said to have purchased an

Ukrainian authorities arrested several suspected ransomware gang affiliates accused of targeting more than 50 companies in Europe and the U.S. The joint operation involved the National Police of Ukraine and its Cyber Police department, along with law enforcement officers from Great Britain and the U.S., and resulted in the arrests of five threat actors. That

An Iranian state-sponsored actor has been observed scanning and attempting to abuse the Log4Shell flaw in publicly-exposed Java applications to deploy a hitherto undocumented PowerShell-based modular backdoor dubbed “CharmPower” for follow-on post-exploitation. “The actor’s attack setup was obviously rushed, as they used the basic open-source tool for the exploitation and based their operations on previous

SMBs and SMEs are increasingly turning to MSSPs to secure their businesses because they simply do not have the resources to manage an effective security technology stack. However, it’s also challenging for MSSPs to piece together an effective but manageable security technology stack to protect their clients, especially at an affordable price point. This is

Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the popular encrypted instant messaging service Signal, has announced that he is stepping down as the chief executive of the non-profit in a move that has been underway over the last few months. “In other words, after a decade or more, it’s difficult to overstate how important Signal is to

Illicit cryptocurrency proceeds nearly doubled in 2021, according to new research by Chainalysis. In a blog post last Thursday, the blockchain analytics vendor reported that “cryptocurrency-based crime hit a new all-time high in 2021” with a 79% increase from 2020. But Chainalysis said the increase was surprisingly low compared with the 567% increase in overall

Threat hunters have shed light on the tactics, techniques, and procedures embraced by an Indian-origin hacking group called Patchwork as part of a renewed campaign that commenced in late November 2021, targeting Pakistani government entities and individuals with a research focus on molecular medicine and biological science. “Ironically, all the information we gathered was possible

IoT’s lack of privacy will remain a topic of conversation, concern and complexity while organizations and governments navigate the ethics of data collection and use. When data collection and use come up in conversation, the ethical angle is not likely the first topic tech experts discuss. However, it has an important place in IoT and

The digital security team at the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) has raised the alarm on active exploitation of Log4Shell vulnerabilities in unpatched VMware Horizon servers by an unknown threat actor to drop malicious web shells and establish persistence on affected networks for follow-on attacks. “The attack likely consists of a reconnaissance phase, where the

Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, on Friday announced the launch of a centralized Privacy Center that aims to “educate people” about its approach with regards to how it collects and processes personal information across its family of social media apps. “Privacy Center provides helpful information about five common privacy topics: sharing, security,

Cybercriminals are using valid Microsoft signatures to avoid detection by security software. Researchers with Check Point Software Technologies reported Wednesday the Zloader banking Trojan is using a new script that allows it to covertly infect PCs and install remote logging and access malware. While the group has been active since at least 2020, a new

Researchers have disclosed a security flaw affecting H2 database consoles that could result in remote code execution in a manner that echoes the Log4j “Log4Shell” vulnerability that came to light last month. The issue, tracked as CVE-2021-42392, is the ” first critical issue published since Log4Shell, on a component other than Log4j, that exploits the

VMWare has shipped updates to Workstation, Fusion, and ESXi products to address an “important” security vulnerability that could be weaponized by a threat actor to take control of affected systems. The issue relates to a heap-overflow vulnerability — tracked as CVE-2021-22045 (CVSS score: 7.7) — that, if successfully exploited, results in the execution of arbitrary

Threat actors leveraged a cloud video hosting service to carry out a supply chain attack on more than 100 real estate websites operated by Sotheby’s Realty that involved injecting malicious skimmers to steal sensitive personal information. “The attacker injected the skimmer JavaScript codes into video, so whenever others import the video, their websites get embedded

Trojanized installers of the Telegram messaging application are being used to distribute the Windows-based Purple Fox backdoor on compromised systems. That’s according to new research published by Minerva Labs, describing the attack as different from intrusions that typically take advantage of legitimate software for dropping malicious payloads. “This threat actor was able to leave most