Security News > 2020 > March > FBI: Cybercriminals Mailing Malicious USB Devices to Victims
The financially-motivated hacking group FIN7 has started mailing malicious USB devices to intended victims in an effort to infect their computers with malware, the FBI warns.
Mainly targeting businesses via phishing emails, the cybercrime group appears to have changed tactics recently, and started sending malicious USB devices to victims via the United States Postal Service.
The malicious USB devices are a commercially available tool called "BadUsb Beetle." They are based on the BadUSB exploit and they can allow attackers to take control of the victim's machine.
Publicly detailed in 2014 by researchers at Germany-based SRLabs, the BadUSB exploit was meant to demonstrate the threat posed by malicious USB devices.
"The USB injects a series of keystroke commands, including the shortcut to launch the Windows Run Dialog to run a PowerShell command to download and execute a malware payload from an attacker-controlled server. The USB device then calls out to domains or IP addresses that are currently located in Russia," the FBI says.