Tag Archive for: seizes

New malware seizes on COVID-19 to target Android users

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(CBS)

A new form of malware that experts are referring to as “TangleBot” is relying on interest in COVID-19 to trick Android users in the U.S and Canada into clicking on a link that will infect their cell phones, according to analysts at the mobile and email security company Cloudmark.

Cloudmark says the “clever and complicated” malware sends Android users a text message claiming to have the latest COVID-19 guidance in their area or informs them that their third COVID-19 vaccine appointment has been scheduled. When users click on the link provided, they’re prompted to update their phone’s Adobe Flash player, which instead installs the virus on their phone, according to Cloudmark.

Here’s what such a text message might look like, according to Cloudmark:

Possible TangleBot message that hackers would send to try to get users to click on malware link. Credit: Cloudmark

“Once that happens, the TangleBot malware can do a ton of different things,” Ryan Kalember, executive vice president of cybersecurity at Cloudmark’s parent company ProofPoint, told CBS News. “It can access your microphone, it can access your camera, it can access SMS, it can access your call logs, your internet, your GPS so it knows where you are,” Kalember added.

Kalember said the hackers have been using TangleBot for “weeks” and that the impact could potentially be “very widespread.” However, Android does have some protections in place against the virus. Prior to downloading the malware, users are warned by Android about the dangers of software from “unknown sources” and a series of permission boxes are displayed before the phone is infected.

“What is making TangleBot fairly interesting right now is that they are using incredibly fresh lures that all map to the sorts of things that we’re hearing about in the news with COVID, whether we are talking about the booster or other things that you are likely to see on the front page of whatever news site you go to,” Kalember said.

According to Kalember, the TangleBot malware has the capability to show hacked users an “overlay” screen that appears authentic but is instead a fake…

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Myanmar junta limits internet, seizes satellite TV dishes

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Hacker Seizes Control of Internet-Enabled Chastity Cages

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News Highlights: Hacker Seizes Control of Internet-Enabled Chastity Cages.

All your base

In perhaps the most chilling example of why your household items probably don’t need a connection to the internet, we bring you the news that a hacker took control of internet-connected chastity devices and demanded a Bitcoin ransom before releasing his hostages. .

But first, let’s take a few steps back. A chastity device is, simply put, a penile cage that is a popular accessory within the BDSM community. And as Motherboard reports, the good folks at the Chinese manufacturer Qiui decided to create a model called Cellmate that will be locked and unlocked through an app. And then a hack once again underscored how the Internet of Things often suffers from horrible cyber security.

“Your dick is mine now,” the hacker reportedly told one of the victims.

Cage Match

Fortunately, the hacker seems to have picked the wrong time to strike – victims of the cyber attack who spoke to Motherboard said they weren’t actually wearing their Cellmate cages when the …

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DOJ Seizes Domains, Claiming They Pushed Iranian Disinformation; Should Raise 1st Amendment Concerns

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For about a decade now we’ve been questioning why the government is allowed to seize domains over claims of illegal behavior happening on a website. It seems to us that seizing a website is the equivalent of seizing a printing press or books — both of which would be deemed clear 1st Amendment violations. Unfortunately, even when those seizures have proven to be for made up reasons, no one has been able to challenge the underlying ability of the government to seize domains. And now it seems to happen all the time. And even if you believe the websites in question are doing something bad, seizing the websites is problematic.

The latest such case is the Justice Department announcing that it had seized a bunch of domains pushing disinformation on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The United States has seized 92 domain names that were unlawfully used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to engage in a global disinformation campaign, announced the Department of Justice.

According to the seizure documents, four of the domains purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted the United States for the spread of Iranian propaganda to influence United States domestic and foreign policy in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and the remainder spread Iranian propaganda to other parts of the world. In addition, the seizure documents describe how all 92 domains were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the Government of Iran and the IRGC.

According to reporter Kevin Collier, who used the Wayback Machine to check out some of these sites, they seemed like mostly junk with little US social media presence.

Even so, and even if we’re concerned about foreign disinformation campaigns targeting the US, it still makes me nervous when the US government feels that it can just go in and seize entire domains. It strikes me as the thing that can create blowback as well. The US has certainly been involved in foreign propaganda as well — and would we want foreign governments seizing the assets of, say, Voice of America?

Techdirt.