Malware

Pierluigi Paganini February 23, 2016
Ratopak Trojan – Russian banks under attack

Financially-motivated actors have targeted employees of at least six Russian banks into installing the Ratopak Trojan, experts have found evidence of an extended hacking campaign. According to the Symantec security firm, a cyber criminal gang financially -motivated has targeted employees of Russian banks. The threat actors have been using a Trojan called Ratopak to gain control over the […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 22, 2016
Admedia attacks now rely also on Joomla to serve ransomware

Operators running websites based on the WordPress and Joomla must be aware of a spike in the number of compromised platforms used in Admedia attacks. Not only WordPress CMS, threat actors behind the “Admedia attacks” are now looking with increasing interest to Joomla. This is the discovery made by the experts at the Internet Storm […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 22, 2016
Source code of the Android GM Bot malware was leaked online

The experts at the IBM X-Force threat intelligence have discovered that the source code for Android malware GM Bot was leaked online. Bad news for the Android community, the experts at IBM X-Force threat intelligence have discovered that the source code for Android malware GM Bot was leaked on an underground. The source code was […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 20, 2016
Malicious spam campaign capitalizes the global interest in the Zika virus

The cybercrime ecosystem is getting ready to exploit the media attention on the Zika virus infections for illegal activities. Be careful! What is the relationship between the Zika virus and a malware? It’s just a matter of opportunity, the cyber crime ecosystem is getting ready to exploit the media attention on current issues for illegal […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 20, 2016
Locky Ransomware uses AES to encrypt Local Files and Unmapped Network Shares

Security researchers discovered a strain of ransomware called Locky that uses AES encryption to encrypt local files and files on network shares. Security researchers have discovered a new piece of ransomware called Locky, which uses AES encryption algorithm to encrypt both local files and files on network shares, even if they are unmapped. Security experts […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 19, 2016
AV-TEST 2015 AWARDs – Which is the best antivirus solution?

2015 awards – For the fifth year in succession the AV-TEST Institute is awarding firms that offered the most efficient IT protection solutions. On February 17, 2016, the independent institute AV-TEST is awarding the AV-TEST AWARDs to companies who developed antivirus software in 2015. The awards were assigned to products grouped in the categories “PROTECTION”, “PERFORMANCE” […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 19, 2016
Comodo Internet Security opened your PC to attackers

Comodo Internet Security, in the default configuration, installs an application called GeekBuddy that also installs a VNC server enabled by default. The hackers of the Google Project Zero Team have found another serious security issue in the Comodo’s protection software, it is a VNC server enabled by default with a password easy to guess. It […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 18, 2016
A sophisticated variant of OceanLotus trojan targets OS X systems

In May 2015, the Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 published a report on a Trojan called OceanLotus that was being used since 2012 for APT attacks in the Chinese market. The APT attacks based  on the OceanLotus focused on government organizations, research institutes, maritime agencies, and companies specializing in other activities. At the time were […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 17, 2016
Linux Fysbis Trojan, a new weapon in the Pawn Storm’s arsenal

Malware researchers at PaloAlto discovered the Fysbis Trojan, a simple and an effective Linux threat used by the Russian cyberspy group Pawn Storm. Do you remember the Pawn Storm hacking crew? Security experts have identified this group of Russian hackers with several names, including APT28, Sofacy or Sednit, it has been active since at least 2007. The name Pawn Storm is used by security […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 16, 2016
Ransomware demanded $3.6M after takes offline the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center

Cyber criminals demanded $3.6M after a ransomware-based attack takes offline the systems at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. In the “2016 Cyber Security Predictions: From Extortion to Nation-state Attacks” I published at the end of 2015 I have predicted the criminal practices of the extortion will reach levels never seen before. “Cyber criminals will use […]