Tag Archive for: Attack

These are the people most likely to fall victim to a phishing attack

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As cybercriminals leveraged the pandemic to send out 18m daily malware and phishing emails at its peak, Google was busy trying to protect Gmail users from cyber threats over the course of last year.

In an effort to better understand why some users are more heavily targeted by phishing emails and malware, the search giant teamed up with researchers at Stanford University to study over a billion malicious emails and their intended targets.

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DPRK hackers used an unknown Internet Explorer bug to attack security analysts

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News Highlights: DPRK hackers used an unknown Internet Explorer bug to attack security analysts

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Days after Google disclosed a cyber campaign, South Korean company finds criminals who used zero-day in Internet Explorer

Hackers previously linked to North Korea by Google researchers used an unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer to target cybersecurity experts, a South Korean company said.

Two weeks ago, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) shocked the cybersecurity community by revealing a month-long social engineering campaign in which hackers posed as fellow security researchers, tricking targets into collaborating on projects and viewing their blog. When researchers visited the website, a previously undiscovered zero-day vulnerability in Chrome infected some users with malware.

The same hackers Google attributed to the Lazarus Group linked to North Korea, too

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Ransom-related DDoS attacks rise from the dead as attack vectors diversify

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DDoS extortion is back…

Ransom-related denial of service attacks are on the rise

ANALYSIS A growth in ransom-related DDoS (RDDoS) attacks has accompanied a growing sophistication and diversity in attack vectors over the last year, according to a range of security vendors quizzed by The Daily Swig.

Types of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks can include volumetric, protocol-based, and application-based assaults. Many are slung from so-called botnets of compromised computers, mobiles, or IoT devices.

Means, motive, and opportunity

The most common motives for launching a DDoS and jamming an adversary/competitor’s web performance include extorting victims for financial gain or to serve as a decoy tactic for another cyber-attack.

Bindu Sundaresan, director at AT&T Cybersecurity, told The Daily Swig: “Motives today can include an interest in obtaining a financial reward, making an ideological statement, creating a geopolitical advantage, or exacting revenge for particular government action, corporate campaign, or policy stance.”

Pay up or say goodbye to your network resources

David Elmaleh, senior product manager of edge services at cloud and network appliance security vendor Imperva, told The Daily Swig that RDDoS campaigns motivated by financial gain saw a considerable increase in 2020.

“We saw RDDoS threats targeting thousands of large commercial organizations globally, not least the financial services industry,” Elmaleh explained.

“Of the RDDoS we’ve monitored, the extortionists leverage the names of well-known threat actor groups in their ransom messages to demand payment in bitcoin currency to prevent a DDoS attack on their target’s network.”

Read more of the latest DDoS attack news

For example, Imperva reports that one group using the name ‘Lazarus’ threatened to launch a DDoS attack against an entire network if a ransom was not paid within six days.

“Once the attack has started, a payment of 30 bitcoin (approximately $328,000) will stop it, with an additional 10 bitcoin ($110,000) demanded for each day the ransom remains unpaid,” according to Imperva’s Elmaleh.

“The extortionist also threatened to begin a small DDoS attack on the company’s main IP…

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Peel District School Board struggles with fallout from malware attack, leaving parents, teachers in the dark

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The Peel District School Board is still unable to say when several of its key online resources will be back on track after they were hit by a malware attack that continues to paralyze a string of databases.

Last week, the board told staff in an email, the malware “resulted in the encryption of certain PDSB files and systems,” and after it was discovered, the board “took immediate steps to isolate the incident.”

The risk posed by unknown hackers is creating unease among the unions representing elementary and secondary school teachers, who claim they have been kept in the dark, and received just the most sparing details about the type and scope of attack more than a week since the board first admitted it was facing a “cyber security incident.”

Speaking to the Star Thursday, board spokesperson Tiffany Gooch said a cybersecurity firm, hired by the board has made significant progress in both the investigation and recovery efforts, but couldn’t say exactly when the systems would be back to normal.

“We hope to be able to provide a resolution timeline in the next few days,” said Gooch.

“We can confirm that the incident involved encryption malware.”

Gooch wouldn’t say if the hackers have attempted to extort the board by seeking payment to unlock the seized data portals, but she did say there is “no evidence that any personally identifiable or otherwise sensitive data was compromised because of the attack.”

Gooch was unable to say how the incident occurred and who might be responsible. These are things she says she hopes the continuing probe will reveal.

Of equal concern to the union is that the board faces this logistic hurdle in the days leading up to students’ anticipated return to the classroom for in-person learning the week of Feb. 16.

Representatives from both unions say the board has provided links for back-channel access, so some tasks can be completed.

The board remains partially locked out of the intranet used by staff because some functions cannot be accessed.

She said the malware has not affected virtual classrooms, but it did wipe out the website and with it applications accessed by families.

As a result, the board extended deadlines for Grade 1 French…

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