Tag Archive for: Groups

Groups of hackers are said to be holding Bandai Namco hostage for ransom – Bestgamingpro

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Hacker organisation ALPHV has purportedly hacked Bandai Namco, according to vx-underground, a Twitter account that analyses malware. The organisation claims to have “ransomed” the publisher by breaking into the company’s network security.

The term “ransomware” refers to computer malware that encrypts all of the data on a system or systems it infects. The information is then returned to its rightful owners when the ransom has been paid. In recent years, this kind of extortion has become a common practise.

It’s not the first time a gaming firm has been targeted by ransomware. In 2020, Capcom was hacked, followed by assaults on Electronic Arts and CD Projekt Red in the following year. The ransom was declined by all three businesses.

It’s important to keep in mind that in these assaults, we’re not only talking about video games. As much information as possible is gathered and encoded by the hacking groups. In the past, these assaults have resulted in the disclosure of private information such as employee details, corporate financials, and more.

Bandai Namco has been contacted for comment and will be included in any updates to this article.

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Google blocks 30+ malicious domains used by hack-for-hire groups

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Google LLC’s Threat Analysis Group said today it has blocked more than 30 malicious domains linked to hack-for-hire groups from Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates.

The hack-for-hire firms have been actively targeting Gmail and Amazon Web Services Inc. accounts, among others, to carry out corporate espionage attacks against companies, human rights activists and journalists. The groups are said to take advantage of known security flaws when undertaking campaigns opportunistically.

Unlike commercial surveillance vendors who generally sell a capability to hack accounts to an end user to operate, hack-for-hire groups conduct the attacks themselves. Some hack-for-hire groups openly advertise their products and services to anyone willing to pay, while others work more discreetly, selling to a limited audience.

In one example, the researchers observed Indian hack-for-hire groups working with third-party private investigative services to provide data exfiltrated from a successful operation. The breadth of targets in hack-for-hire campaigns is said to stand in contrast to government-backed operations, which often have a more precise delineation of a mission and marks.

As a result of the research, all identified websites being used by the hack-for-hire groups have been added to Google’s Safe Browsing feature to protect users from further harm. The researchers also encourage users to enable Advance Protection and Google Account Level Enhance Safe Browsing to ensure that all devices are updated.

Google’s CyberCrime Investigation Group also shared the relevant details and indicators with law enforcement.

“We applaud Google’s Threat Analysis Group for taking action on these malicious domains used by hacker-for-hire groups,” Sean McNee, chief technology officer at cyber threat intelligence company DomainTools LLC, told SiliconANGLE. “These domains are a part of a larger concerted effort by APTs or other well-funded adversaries to achieve their desired outcomes via outsourced malicious activity.”

McNee explained that because hiding domain registration and infrastructure creation is becoming easier, network defenders need to move faster and be more nimble to track…

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Cyber feud between Anonymous and Killnet groups unlikely to affect others

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A demonstrator waves a flag of the hacking group known as “Anonymous” during The People’s Assembly Cost of Living Crisis protest on April 2, 2022. in London. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Anonymous “is officially in cyber war against the pro-Russian hacker group [Killnet],” the largest Twitter account representing the hacker collective announced Saturday. It follows Killnet announcing it was at war with Annonymous two months earlier. The level of fascination is high. The risk of spillover affecting your organization is low.

You could bill this as a fight between high-profile citizen cyber warfare groups backing opposite sides of a kinetic conflict. But in practice, in the context of huge beasts of war causing geopolitical strife and the risk of spillover, “Brainy Smurf and Handy Smurf are getting into a fight,” said Allan Liska, an analyst with Recorded Future.

The risk of an escalating conflict between the two groups affecting the outside world is minimal, said Liska, as neither group has had much disruptive impact during the conflict affecting the outside world by attacking it directly.

The declaration of conflict made it as far as the mainstream media.

The two groups are no strangers to headlines. The Anonymous brand name was built through high-profile protests, though it has declined in the hierarchy of threats for most organizations since its heyday. Throughout the war in Ukraine, Anonymous took credit for nuisance attacks on Russian targets, including hack and leak operations involving its largest bank and an energy customs broker, reprogramming Russian media to show clips of the conflict, and DDoS operations against the country’s space agency. Killnet briefly disrupted the Italian Senate servers and an automotive club with its own DDoS and failed at a high-profile attack on the Eurovision music contest.

Soon after declaring war, Anonymous successfully DDoSed the Killnet website.

“Compare what Anonymous and what Killnet are doing to what Conti has done in Costa Rica. When you want to talk about real damage, that is what cybercriminals are capable of doing. And Anonymous and Killnet aren’t doing that,” said Liska.

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Russian hacking groups increase cyber attacks on Ukraine

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Credit: Dreamstime

Hacking groups closely linked to the Russian government have made nearly 40 destructive attacks against hundreds of Ukrainian targets since the start of the invasion, according to a report issued by Microsoft.

The attacks have been largely, but not exclusively, targeted at Ukrainian government institutions, and Microsoft’s report noted that these attacks have had damaging effects on the country’s economy and civilian population, in addition to Ukraine’s government and military.

Operating under the apparent direction of three main groups — the GRU military intelligence service, SVR interior ministry and FSB security service — Russian-backed hackers undertook a huge range of offensive cyber operations against Ukraine, ranging from phishing campaigns and misinformation to data theft and the destruction of critical systems, Microsoft said.

Energy infrastructure has been a particular target of the hackers, according to Microsoft, which noted that nuclear safety organisations and regional energy providers have been targeted by data theft and system destruction attacks. 

But the energy sector is far from the only one in the hackers’ sights, as media organisations, logistics providers and even, in one case, an agricultural firm were compromised.

Pace of cyber attacks expected to quicken

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