Security News

Serious Security: That KeePass “master password crack”, and what we can learn from it
2023-05-31 19:39

Simply put, the CVE-2023-32784 vulnerability means that a KeePass master password might be recoverable from system data even after the KeyPass program has exited, because sufficient information about your password might get left behind in sytem swap or sleep files, where allocated system memory may end up saved for later. A long-term password leak in memory also means that the password could, in theory, be recovered from a memory dump of the KeyPass program, even if that dump was grabbed long after you'd typed the password in, and long after the KeePass itself had no more need to keep it around.

Cops crack gang that used bots to book and resell immigration appointments
2023-05-16 07:18

Police have arrested 69 people alleged to have used bots to book up nearly all of Spain's available appointments with immigration officials, and then sold those meeting slots for between €30 and €200 to aspiring migrants. Those arrested include the four alleged leaders of the crime ring, plus lawyers, managers, advisors, recruiters, and intermediaries, who reportedly received "Large amounts of money" from the sale of the immigration appointments.

'Top three Balkans drug kingpins' arrested after cops crack their Sky ECC chats
2023-05-13 07:14

European police arrested three people in Belgrade described as "The biggest" drug lords in the Balkans in what cops are chalking up to another win in dismantling Sky ECC's encrypted messaging app last year. Sky ECC was a subscription-based, end-to-end encrypted messaging app made by Sky Global and bundled on Google, Apple, Nokia, and BlackBerry handsets stripped of their GPS units, cameras, and microphones - the idea being that you could chat via text with other users without fear of being snooped on by the cops and others.

Microsoft and Fortra crack down on malicious Cobalt Strike servers
2023-04-06 17:04

"We will need to be persistent as we work to take down the cracked, legacy copies of Cobalt Strike hosted around the world," said Amy Hogan-Burney, the head of Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit. Last Friday, March 31, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a court order allowing the coalition to seize the domain names and take down the IP addresses of servers hosting cracked versions of Cobalt Strike.

FBI Cracks Down on Genesis Market: 119 Arrested in Cybercrime Operation
2023-04-06 09:01

"Account access credentials advertised for sale on Genesis Market included those connected to the financial sector, critical infrastructure, and federal, state, and local government agencies," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. DoJ called Genesis Market one of the "Most prolific initial access brokers in the cybercrime world."

DoJ cracks down on cryptocurrency fraud, seizes $112 million in linked funds
2023-04-04 08:41

The Department of Justice declared the confiscation of digital currency valued at approximately $112 million connected to fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. In these schemes, fraudsters cultivate long-term relationships with victims met online, eventually enticing them to make investments in fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails
2023-03-16 12:14

In an unexpected twist, a Microsoft support engineer resorted to running an unofficial 'crack' on a customer's Windows PC after a genuine copy of the operating system failed to activate normally. A South-Africa based freelance technologist who paid $200 for a genuine copy of Windows 10 was startled to see a Microsoft support engineer "Crack" his copy using unofficial tools that bypass the Windows activation process.

Chinese researchers' claimed quantum encryption crack looks unlikely
2023-01-07 12:00

The paper, titled "Factoring integers with sublinear resources on a superconducting quantum processor," suggests that the application of Claus Peter Schnorr's recent factoring algorithm, in conjunction with a quantum approximate optimization algorithm, can break asymmetric RSA-2048 encryption using a non-fault tolerant quantum computer with only 372 physical quantum bits or qubits. The speculation has been that orders of magnitude more qubits, in conjunction with robust error correction at scale, may allow future quantum computers to run Peter Schor's algorithm - not to be confused with the similarly named Schnorr - quickly, on very large numbers, thereby breaking RSA encryption.

New info-stealer malware infects software pirates via fake cracks sites
2022-12-24 15:08

A new information-stealing malware named 'RisePro' is being distributed through fake cracks sites operated by the PrivateLoader pay-per-install malware distribution service. The malware was spotted by analysts at Flashpoint and Sekoia this week, with both cybersecurity firms confirming that RisePro is a previously undocumented information stealer now being distributed via fake software cracks and key generators.

Facebook Cracks Down on Spyware Vendors from U.S., China, Russia, Israel, and India
2022-12-19 09:46

The social media conglomerate also took steps to disable accounts and block infrastructure operated by spyware vendors, including in China, Russia, Israel, the U.S. and India, that targeted individuals in about 200 countries. A second set of 250 accounts on Facebook and Instagram linked to another Israeli company called QuaDream was found "Engaged in a similar testing activity between their own fake accounts, targeting Android and iOS devices in what we assess to be an attempt to test capabilities to exfiltrate various types of data including messages, images, video and audio files, and geolocation."