Tag Archive for: tool

CERT-In to offer citizens eScan bot cleaning tool


Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is celebrating “Cyber Swachhta Pakhwada” from February 1 to 15. To secure the nation’s digital landscape, “Cyber Swachhta Kendra” (CSK) under CERT-In aims to create a secure cyberspace by detecting botnet infections in India and to notify, enable cleaning and securing systems of end users so as to prevent further infections.

As part of this national campaign, eScan, a cybersecurity solutions vendor, is contributing to the cause by providing eScan botnet scanning and cleaning Toolkit for botnet detections on laptops, desktops, and smartphones. This tool will empower citizens to scan and clean their devices of any potential botnet infections, thereby fortifying their digital defences.

eScan botnet cleaning toolkit: Key detailsCERT-In and eScan invite citizens across the country to actively participate in this cybersecurity endeavour. The free Botnet scanning and cleaning toolkit can be easily downloaded from the website of “Cyber Swachhta Kendra” (CSK) and MicroWorld’s official website, equipping users with a robust solution to enhance the security posture of their computers and smartphones.

MicroWorld develops information security solutions that offer protection against current and evolving cyber threats. The organisation houses the brands eScan, MailScan and Nemasis under its banner.


Its product portfolio encompasses anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, content security, anti-spam, network and host intrusion prevention solutions, app control, data leak and data theft prevention, host and network-based vulnerability assessment, backup, and patch management solutions.

These are available for on-premise deployment or cloud SaaS. Its research team is currently developing new methodologies for security inference using innovative AI models. As an MII OEM headquartered in India, MicroWorld has offices in four countries and is represented by partners across the globe.

By collaborating with eScan and other stakeholders, CERT-In aims to build a resilient and secure digital ecosystem. The Cyber Cleanliness Drive stands as a testament to the collective efforts toward fostering a safer, more secure cyberspace for all citizens.

Source…

Google Just Denied Cops a Key Surveillance Tool


A hacker group calling itself Solntsepek, previously linked to the infamous Russian military hacking unit Sandworm, took credit this week for a disruptive attack on the Ukrainian internet and mobile service provider Kyivstar. As Russia’s kinetic war against Ukraine has dragged on, inflicting what the World Bank estimates to be around $410 billion in recovery costs for Ukraine, the country has launched an official crowdfunding platform known as United24 as a means of raising awareness and rebuilding.

Kytch, the small company that aimed to fix McDonald’s notably often-broken ice cream machines, claims it has discovered a “smoking gun” email from the CEO of McDonald’s ice cream machine manufacturer that Kytch’s lawyers say suggests an alleged plan to undermine Kytch as a potential competitor. Kytch argues in a recent court filing that the email reveals the real reason why, a couple of weeks later, McDonald’s sent an email to thousands of its restaurant franchisees claiming safety hazards related to Kytch’s ice-cream-machine-whispering device.

WIRED looked at how Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit has refined a strategy over the past decade that combines intelligence and technical capabilities from Microsoft’s massive infrastructure with creative legal tactics to disrupt both global cybercrime and state-backed actors. And we dove into the controversy over reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance powers in the US Congress.

And there’s more. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t break or cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories, and stay safe out there.

Geofence warrants, which require tech companies to cough up data on everyone in a certain geographic area at a certain time, have become an incredibly powerful tool for law enforcement. Sending a geofence warrant to Google, in particular, has come to be seen as almost an “easy button” among police investigators, given that Google has long stored location data on users in the cloud, where it can be demanded to help police identify suspects based on the timing and location of a crime alone—a practice that has appalled privacy advocates and other critics who say it…

Source…

This Cryptomining Tool Is Stealing Secrets


As the Israel-Hamas war raged on this week and Israel expanded its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the territory’s compromised internet infrastructure and access to connectivity went fully dark on Friday, leaving Palestinians without access to ground or mobile data connections. Meanwhile, researchers are bracing for the fallout if Hamas makes good on its threats to distribute hostage execution videos online. And TikTokkers are using a niche livestreaming feature and exploiting the Israeli-Hamas conflict to collect virtual gifts from viewers, a portion of which goes to the social media company as a fee.

As the worst mass shooting in Maine’s history unfolded this week and the gunman remained at large, disinformation about the situation and the suspect flooded social media, adding to the already chaotic and horrific situation. Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter) posted remarks earlier this month mocking Ukrainian president Vlodymr Zelensky that were met with a flood of support and enthusiasm from Russian trolls and accounts distributing pro-Russia propaganda.

The US federal foreign intelligence collection tool—a frequently abused surveillance authority—known as Section 702 is facing its demise at the end of the year despite being viewed as the “crown jewel” of US surveillance powers. So far, no members of Congress have introduced a bill to prevent its January 1 sunset. And the identity-management platform Okta suffered a breach that had implications for nearly 200 of its corporate clients and brought up memories of a similar hack the company suffered last year that also had knock-on effects for customers.

An EU government body has been pushing a controversial proposal with far-reaching privacy implications in an attempt to combat child sexual abuse material, but its most outspoken advocates recently added to the drama significantly by essentially launching an influence campaign to support its passage. The long-foreseen nightmare of using generative AI to create digital child abuse materials has arrived with a flood of images, some of which are completely fabricated while others depict real victims generated from old datasets.

We also went deep this week on a…

Source…

This Tool Lets Hackers Dox Almost Anyone in the US


“The government needs to stop these companies from packaging and selling our personal information,” US senator Ron Wyden of Oregon told 404 Media in a statement, “and the senior executives that put profit over national security and Americans’ safety should be punished accordingly.”

A new report by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit government watchdog, found that US Secret Service agents were in close contact with the leader of the far-right militant group the Oath Keepers during the final months of the Trump administration. Emails published in the report suggest a cordial relationship between agents and Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the group.

In one email, an agent wrote that they had just spoken to Rhodes about an upcoming visit by former president Donald Trump to Fayetteville, North Carolina. The agent described himself as “the unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers (inching towards official).” The agent also said that Rhodes “had specific questions and wanted to liaison [sic] with our personnel,” and shared Rhodes’ cell phone number.

In May, Rhodes was found guilty of seditious conspiracy over his role in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release.

In an indictment unsealed on Wednesday, August 23, the US Department of Justice alleges that the developers behind Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer, laundered more than $1 billion dollars that included hundreds of millions for a North Korean hacking group. Roman Semenov and Roman Storm were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and sanctions violations, as well as conspiracy to run an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Storm, who lives in Washington state, was arrested on Wednesday, while Semenov, a Russian national, has not yet been taken into custody.

Tornado Cash is a privacy service that obfuscates the trail of ownership for cryptocurrency. According to the indictment, the service violated US sanctions, and its operators knowingly helped “hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes.”

In a statement, Storm’s lawyer, Brian Klein, characterized the charges as…

Source…