phishing attack | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A Latin America (LATAM)-based financially motivated actor codenamed FLUXROOT has been observed leveraging Google Cloud serverless projects to orchestrate credential phishing activity, highlighting the abuse of the cloud computing model for malicious purposes. "Serverless architectures are attractive to developers and enterprises for their flexibility, cost effectiveness, and ease of use," Google said in its biannual Threat Horizons Report [PDF] shared with The Hacker News. "These same features make serverless computing services for all cloud providers attractive to threat actors, who use them to deliver and communicate with their malware, host and direct users to phishing pages, and to run malware and execute malicious scripts specifically tailored to run in a serverless environment." The campaign involved the use of Google Cloud container URLs to host credential phishing pages with the aim of harvesting login information associated with Mercado Pago, an onli

Learn about critical threats that can impact your organization and the bad actors behind them from Cybersixgill's threat experts. Each story shines a light on underground activities, the threat actors involved, and why you should care, along with what you can do to mitigate risk.  In the current cyber threat landscape, the protection of personal and corporate identities has become vital. Once in the hands of cybercriminals, compromised credentials and accounts provide unauthorized access to corporations' sensitive information and an entry point to launch costly ransomware and other malware attacks. To properly mitigate threats stemming from compromised credentials and accounts, organizations need identity intelligence. Understanding the significance of identity intelligence and the benefits it delivers is foundational to maintaining a secure posture and minimizing risk.  There is a perception that security teams and threat analysts are already overloaded by too much data. By these

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

Attacks on your network are often meticulously planned operations launched by sophisticated threats. Sometimes your technical fortifications provide a formidable challenge, and the attack requires assistance from the inside to succeed. For example, in 2022, the FBI issued a warning 1 that SIM swap attacks are growing: gain control of the phone and earn a gateway to email, bank accounts, stocks, bitcoins, identity credentials, and passwords. This past spring, current and former T-Mobile and Verizon employees reported receiving unsolicited text messages asking if they would be interested in some side cash 2 in exchange for intentionally enabling the " SIM jacking." These headline-grabbing stories about the malicious insider are certainly real, but many external attacks stem from a much less conspicuous source: the accidental insider . These are career employees, contractors, partners, or even temporary seasonal workers who, through negligence or lack of awareness, enable the exploit

The financially motivated threat actor known as FIN7 has been observed using multiple pseudonyms across several underground forums to likely advertise a security dodging tool known to be used by ransomware groups like AvosLocker, Black Basta, BlackCat, LockBit, and Trigona. "AvNeutralizer (aka AuKill ), a highly specialized tool developed by FIN7 to tamper with security solutions, has been marketed in the criminal underground and used by multiple ransomware groups," cybersecurity company SentinelOne said in a report shared with The Hacker News. FIN7, an e-crime group of Russian and Ukrainian origin, has been a persistent threat since at least 2012, shifting gears from its initial targeting of point-of-sale (PoS) terminals to acting as a ransomware affiliate for now-defunct gangs such as REvil and Conti, before launching its own ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) programs DarkSide and BlackMatter. The threat actor, which is also tracked under the names Carbanak, Carbon Spide

A China-linked threat actor called APT17 has been observed targeting Italian companies and government entities using a variant of a known malware referred to as 9002 RAT. The two targeted attacks took place on June 24 and July 2, 2024, Italian cybersecurity company TG Soft said in an analysis published last week. "The first campaign on June 24, 2024 used an Office document, while the second campaign contained a link," the company noted . "Both campaigns invited the victim to install a Skype for Business package from a link of an Italian government-like domain to convey a variant of 9002 RAT." APT17 was first documented by Google-owned Mandiant (then FireEye) in 2013 as part of cyber espionage operations called DeputyDog and Ephemeral Hydra that leveraged zero-day flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer to breach targets of interest. It's also known by the monikers Aurora Panda, Bronze Keystone, Dogfish, Elderwood, Helium, Hidden Lynx, and TEMP.Avenge

Identity-based threats on SaaS applications are a growing concern among security professionals, although few have the capabilities to detect and respond to them.  According to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), 90% of all cyberattacks begin with phishing, an identity-based threat. Throw in attacks that use stolen credentials, over-provisioned accounts, and insider threats, and it becomes quite clear that identity is a primary attack vector. To make matters worse, it's not just human accounts that are being targeted. Threat actors are also hijacking non-human identities, including service accounts and OAuth authorizations, and riding them deep into SaaS applications.  When threat actors get through the initial defenses, having a robust Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) system in place as an integral part of Identity Security can prevent massive breaches. Last month's Snowflake breach is a perfect example. Threat actors took advantage of sin

Retail banking institutions in Singapore have three months to phase out the use of one-time passwords (OTPs) for authentication purposes when signing into online accounts to mitigate the risk of phishing attacks. The decision was announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on July 9, 2024. "Customers who have activated their digital token on their mobile device will have to use their digital tokens for bank account logins via the browser or the mobile banking app," the MAS said . "The digital token will authenticate customers' login without the need for an OTP that scammers can steal, or trick customers into disclosing." The MAS is also urging customers to activate their digital tokens to safeguard against attacks that are designed to steal credentials and hijack their accounts for conducting financial fraud. "This measure provides customers with further protection against unauthorized access to

In today's digital age, passwords serve as the keys to our most sensitive information, from social media accounts to banking and business systems. This immense power brings with it significant responsibility—and vulnerability. Most people don't realize their credentials have been compromised until the damage is done. Imagine waking up to drained bank accounts, stolen identities, or a company's reputation in tatters. This isn't just a hypothetical scenario – it's the harsh reality faced by countless individuals and organizations every day. Recent data reveals that compromised credentials are the single biggest attack vector in 2024. That means stolen passwords, not exotic malware or zero-day exploits, are the most common way hackers breach systems and wreak havoc. To help you navigate this critical issue, we invite you to join our exclusive webinar, " Compromised Credentials in 2024: What to Know About the World's #1 Attack Vector. " What You'

Spanish language victims are the target of an email phishing campaign that delivers a new remote access trojan (RAT) called Poco RAT since at least February 2024. The attacks primarily single out mining, manufacturing, hospitality, and utilities sectors, according to cybersecurity company Cofense. "The majority of the custom code in the malware appears to be focused on anti-analysis, communicating with its command-and-control center (C2), and downloading and running files with a limited focus on monitoring or harvesting credentials," it said . Infection chains begin with phishing messages bearing finance-themed lures that trick recipients into clicking on an embedded URL pointing to a 7-Zip archive file hosted on Google Drive. Other methods observed include the use of HTML or PDF files directly attached to the emails or downloaded via another embedded Google Drive link. The abuse of legitimate services by threat actors is not a new phenomenon as it allows them to bypass

Google on Wednesday announced that it's making available passkeys for high-risk users to enroll in its Advanced Protection Program ( APP ). "Users traditionally needed a physical security key for APP — now they can choose a passkey to secure their account," Shuvo Chatterjee, product lead of APP, said . Passkeys are considered a more secure and phishing-resistant alternative to passwords. Based on the FIDO Authentication standard, the technology is designed to secure online accounts against potential takeover attacks by ditching passwords in favor of biometrics or a PIN. Passkeys can simultaneously act as a first- and second-factor, entirely obviating the need for a password. Earlier this May, the tech giant revealed that passkeys are being used by over 400 million Google accounts. High-risk users , who are at an elevated exposure to cyber-attacks because of who they are and what they do (e.g., journalists, elected officials, political campaign staff, human rights

Financial institutions in Latin America are being threatened by a banking trojan called Mekotio (aka Melcoz). That's according to findings from Trend Micro, which said it recently observed a surge in cyber attacks distributing the Windows malware. Mekotio , known to be actively put to use since 2015, is known to target Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Peru, and Portugal with an aim to steal banking credentials. First documented by ESET in August 2020, it's part of a tetrade of banking trojans targeting the region, such as Guildma, Javali, and Grandoreiro , the latter of which was dismantled by law enforcement earlier this year. "Mekotio shares common characteristics for this type of malware, such as being written in Delphi, using fake pop-up windows, containing backdoor functionality and targeting Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries," the Slovakian cybersecurity firm said at the time. The malware operation suffered a blow in

Unknown threat actors have been observed exploiting a now-patched security flaw in Microsoft MSHTML to deliver a surveillance tool called MerkSpy as part of a campaign primarily targeting users in Canada, India, Poland, and the U.S. "MerkSpy is designed to clandestinely monitor user activities, capture sensitive information, and establish persistence on compromised systems," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin said in a report published last week. The starting point of the attack chain is a Microsoft Word document that ostensibly contains a job description for a software engineer role. But opening the file triggers the exploitation of CVE-2021-40444 , a high-severity flaw in MSHTML that could result in remote code execution without requiring any user interaction. It was addressed by Microsoft as part of Patch Tuesday updates released in September 2021. In this case, it paves the way for the download of an HTML file ("olerender.html") from a remote s

The loader-as-a-service (LaaS) known as FakeBat has become one of the most widespread loader malware families distributed using the drive-by download technique this year, findings from Sekoia reveal. "FakeBat primarily aims to download and execute the next-stage payload, such as IcedID , Lumma , RedLine , SmokeLoader , SectopRAT , and Ursnif ," the company said in a Tuesday analysis. Drive-by attacks entail the use of methods like search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning, malvertising, and nefarious code injections into compromised sites to entice users into downloading bogus software installers or browser updates. The use of malware loaders over the past few years dovetails with the growing use of landing pages impersonating legitimate software websites by passing them off as legitimate installers. This ties into the larger aspect that phishing and social engineering remain one of the threat actors' main ways to acquire initial access. FakeBat , also known as Eu

An Australian man has been charged with running a fake Wi-Fi access point during a domestic flight with an aim to steal user credentials and data. The unnamed 42-year-old "allegedly established fake free Wi-Fi access points, which mimicked legitimate networks, to capture personal data from unsuspecting victims who mistakenly connected to them," the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a press release last week. The agency said the suspect was charged in May 2024 after it launched an investigation a month earlier following a report from an airline about a suspicious Wi-Fi network identified by its employees during a domestic flight. A subsequent search of his baggage on April 19 led to the seizure of a portable wireless access device, a laptop, and a mobile phone. He was arrested on May 8 after a search warrant was executed at his home. The individual is said to have staged what's called an evil twin Wi-Fi attack across various locations, including domestic flig

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an updated version of an Android banking trojan called Medusa that has been used to target users in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. The new fraud campaigns, observed in May 2024 and active since July 2023, manifested through five different botnets operated by various affiliates, cybersecurity firm Cleafy said in an analysis published last week. The new Medusa samples feature a "lightweight permission set and new features, such as the ability to display a full-screen overlay and remotely uninstall applications," security researchers Simone Mattia and Federico Valentini said. Medusa, also known as TangleBot, is a sophisticated Android malware first discovered in July 2020 targeting financial entities in Turkey. It comes with capabilities to read SMS messages, log keystrokes, capture screenshots, record calls, share the device screen in real-time, and perform unauthorized fund transfers using overlay a

A new campaign is tricking users searching for the Meta Quest (formerly Oculus) application for Windows into downloading a new adware family called AdsExhaust. "The adware is capable of exfiltrating screenshots from infected devices and interacting with browsers using simulated keystrokes," cybersecurity firm eSentire said in an analysis, adding it identified the activity earlier this month. "These functionalities allow it to automatically click through advertisements or redirect the browser to specific URLs, generating revenue for the adware operators." The initial infection chain involves surfacing the bogus website ("oculus-app[.]com") on Google search results pages using search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning techniques, prompting unsuspecting site visitors to download a ZIP archive ("oculus-app.EXE.zip") containing a Windows batch script. The batch script is designed to fetch a second batch script from a command-and-control (C2) se