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Category: cybercrime/malcode – Page 43

The development arrives days after Elastic Security Labs disclosed the Lazarus Group’s use of a new macOS malware called KANDYKORN to target blockchain engineers.

Also linked to the threat actor is a macOS malware referred to as RustBucket, an AppleScript-based backdoor that’s designed to retrieve a second-stage payload from an attacker-controlled server.

In these attacks, prospective targets are lured under the pretext of offering them investment advice or a job, only to kick-start the infection chain by means of a decoy document.

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Another good use for AI. Fighting disinformation.

About 60% of adults in the US who get their news through social media have, largely unknowingly, shared false information, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. The ease at which disinformation is spread and the severity of consequences it brings — from election hacking to character assassination — make it an issue of grave concern for us all.

One of the best ways to combat the spread of fake news on the internet is to understand where the false information was started and how it was disseminated. And that’s exactly what Camille Francois, the chief innovation officer at Graphika, is doing. She’s dedicated to bringing to light disinformation campaigns before they take hold.

Continue reading “Fake everything: how machine learning is being used to fight back against disinformation campaigns” | >

‘Prompt injection’ attacks haven’t caused giant problems yet. But it’s a matter of time, researchers say.

Imagine a chatbot is applying for a job as your personal assistant. The pros: This chatbot is powered by a cutting-edge large language model. It can write your emails, search your files, summarize websites and converse with you.

The con: It will take orders from absolutely anyone.

AI chatbots are good at many things, but they struggle to tell the difference between legitimate commands from their users and manipulative commands from outsiders. It’s an AI Achilles’ heel, cybersecurity researchers say, and it’s a matter of time before attackers take advantage of it.

Continue reading “Chatbots are so gullible, they’ll take directions from hackers” | >

Hackers are using WormGPT, a rogue AI tool, to write phishing emails and malware.

Cybersecurity experts have warned that a new generative AI tool called WormGPT, which is being sold on the dark web, poses a serious threat to businesses and individuals.

IStock/BrianAJackson.

What is WormGPT?

Continue reading “WormGPT: Dark web’s new AI weapon for cyberattacks” | >

Up until that moment, Tokelau, formally a territory of New Zealand, didn’t even know it had been assigned a ccTLD. “We discovered the.tk,” remembered Aukusitino Vitale, who at the time was general manager of Teletok, Tokelau’s sole telecom operator.

Zuurbier said “that he would pay Tokelau a certain amount of money and that Tokelau would allow the domain for his use,” remembers Vitale. It was all a bit of a surprise—but striking a deal with Zuurbier felt like a win-win for Tokelau, which lacked the resources to run its own domain. In the model pioneered by Zuurbier and his company, now named Freenom, users could register a free domain name for a year, in exchange for having advertisements hosted on their websites. If they wanted to get rid of ads, or to keep their website active in the long term, they could pay a fee.

In the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau became an unlikely internet giant—but not in the way it may have hoped. Until recently, its.tk domain had more users than any other country’s: a staggering 25 million. But there has been and still is only one website actually from Tokelau that is registered with the domain: the page for Teletok. Nearly all the others that have used.tk have been spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.

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Imagine this scenario: It’s early Saturday morning, you just woke up, and are trying to check the news on your phone while enjoying a cup of coffee. You notice your phone isn’t connected to the internet for some reason. You check the Starlink app for a system status, and it’s offline. Attempts to create a support ticket are unsuccessful, your Starlink account credentials aren’t being accepted. The bank calls a few moments later. They’ve frozen your credit card due to fraud. You listen, stunned, as they explain that someone has ordered over $6,000 worth of Starlink equipment in the last 24 hours.

No internet service, thousands of dollars stolen, and no help from Starlink. This is an increasingly common situation faced by Starlink customers. Hackers are gaining access to unsuspecting Starlink accounts, and using the payment information on file to order thousands in equipment. Later, they will resell the equipment on 3rd party marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace. In this article, I’ll explain what’s going on, how to protect yourself, and what Starlink needs to do to prevent more accounts from being hacked.

Table of Contents.

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The world’s largest oil company issued a warning this week that the energy sector is vulnerable to attacks, particularly with the advent of new technologies such as generative AI.

Amin H. Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, told the Global Cybersecurity Forum that the energy sector is an attractive target to those who want to do harm. “Any large-scale disruption to the steady supply of energy would have an immediate and significant impact around the world,” he said.

According to local media reports, Nasser said new technologies, such as generative AI, are game changers for many industries but must be assessed to identify how they may pose new threats, and any vulnerabilities must be addressed before being fully deployed.

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🚨 Urgent: Thousands of internet-accessible ActiveMQ instances are at risk.

HelloKitty ransomware group is actively exploiting a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) flaw, CVE-2023–46604, in Apache ActiveMQ.

Find details here ➡️.

Cybersecurity experts uncover a critical flaw in Apache ActiveMQ. Hackers exploit it for ransomware attacks.

Continue reading “HelloKitty Ransomware Group Exploiting Apache ActiveMQ Vulnerability” | >

How much would it cost to hack your phone? The best guess for an iPhone is between $0 and $65,000 — and that price mainly depends on you. If you skipped a really important security update, the cost is closer to $0.

Say you were up to date. That $65,000 figure is an upper cost of exploiting the median individual — switch to an Android, a Mac, or a PC and it could get a lot lower. Apple has invested enormous resources in hardening the iPhone. The asking price for an individual exploit, rather than as a service, can go as high as $8 million. Compare that to the cost of an exploit of a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat — notoriously riddled with security vulnerabilities — which according to this TrendMicro research report (PDF) is $250 and up.

Switch from targeting a specific person to targeting any of the thousands of people at a large company and there are myriad ways in. An attacker only needs to find the cheapest one.

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