malware

Pierluigi Paganini June 24, 2015
Cryptowall cost victims $18 Million since 2014 warns FBI

Between April 2014 and June 2015, the IC3 received 992 CryptoWall related complaints, with victims reporting losses totaling over $18 million. Cryptowall is one of the most nefarious ransomware in the wild, in twelve months the FBI has estimated that the overall losses were more than $18 million. Ransomware implements a classic extortion scheme typically demanding that victims pay ransom […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 19, 2015
Cybercrime is paying with 1,425% return on investment

Trustwave firm published a report related to 2014 incidents that revealed cyber criminal activities are paying with 1,425% return on investment. Hackers are seeing a whopping 1,425% return on investment for these two kinds of attacks Security experts at Trustwave published an interesting report on the return on investment related to illegal activities online. The experts revealed that […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 18, 2015
Banking trojan used in a second round attack against Bundestag

Security researchers at the GData security firm discovered a second stage of the cyber attack on the German Bundestag that exploited a banking trojan to steal data. In the last weeks, I have reported the various news related to the cyber attack against the Bundestag and a possible involvement of Russian state-sponsored hackers. The media reported that […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 17, 2015
Understanding Malware Terminology for Beginners

A brief introduction to several malware-related terms in an easy-to-understand manner. A useful glossary to better understand the “malware” terminology. Introduction The world that we live in is constantly changing; it is always evolving. The sophistication of the technology at the disposal of both those who “wear” a white hat (the good guys) and those who wear a black hat (the bad guys) […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 17, 2015
Stegoloader, a stealthy Information Stealer that exploits steganography

The authors of the Stegoloader malware are exploiting digital steganography to keep the information-stealing under the radar and avoid detection. Malware authors are prolific professionals always searching for techniques that can allow them to hide their malicious codes from detection. This week the security researchers at Dell SecureWorks discovered a new strain of malware dubbed Stegoloader, that […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 16, 2015
Authors of Duqu 2.0 used a stolen digital certificate in attacks

Malware authors behind the Duqu 2.0 used a stolen certificate from the Foxconn company to implement a persistence mechanism and stay stealthy. New details emerge from the investigation conducted by the experts at Kaspersky on the Duqu 2.0 malware that targeted the systems of the company, the threat actors used valid certificate from Hon Hai Precision Industry […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 10, 2015
Duqu 2.0 the most sophisticated threat ever seen targeted also Kaspersky

Threat actors used a Duqu 2.0 worm in a series of attacks worldwide that also breached the systems at Kaspersky Lab. It is most complex malware ever seen. A new powerful strain of Duqu malware, dubbed Duqu 2.0, appeared in the wild after going dark in 2012. Duqu 2.0 is a very sophisticated agent that exploited a number […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 09, 2015
Vawtrak Uses Tor2Web making hard to track down its servers

Security experts at Fortinet uncovered a new strain of the Vawtrak banking Trojan is implementing an obscuring mechanism based on the Tor2Web service. The authors of the banking Trojan Vawtrak are adopting a new tactic to hide the traffic to its servers,  they are exploiting  the Tor2Web service to masquerade malicious connections. In the past, criminal crews behind […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 08, 2015
Tox ransomware platform builder is now available for sale

The owner of the Tox ransomware builder is offering for sale the platform worried by its popularity. He confirmed that he will pay ransoms to his customers. The owner of the famous Tox ransomware has decided that it was time to sell the platform, this after all popularity reached by its platform. The Tox platform […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 08, 2015
MalumPoS PoS malware used against Hotels and other Industries

Malware researchers at Trend Micro have discovered a news strain of the malumPoS used to target hospitality, food and beverage, and retail industries. Security experts at Trend Micro have discovered a new strain of the MalumPoS malware that was reconfigured to compromise PoS systems based on the Oracle® MICROS® platform. Trend Micro was the first […]