Security News
Kaspersky has found a vulnerability in the Yanluowang ransomware encryption algorithm and, as a result, released a free decryptor tool to help victims of this software nasty recover their files. Yanluowang, named after a Chinese deity and underworld judge, is a type of ransomware that has been used against financial institutions and other firms in America, Brazil, and Turkey as well as a smaller number of organizations in Sweden and China, Kaspersky said yesterday.
Threat actors have launched a new marketplace called Industrial Spy that sells stolen data from breached companies, as well as offering free stolen data to its members. While stolen data marketplaces are not new, instead of extorting companies and scaring them with GDPR fines, Industrial Spy promotes itself as a marketplace where businesses can purchase their competitors' data to gain access to trade secrets, manufacturing diagrams, accounting reports, and client databases.
Taiwan's Parliament, the Executive Yuan, yesterday revealed draft amendments to national security laws aimed at deterring and punishing Chinese economic espionage efforts directed at stealing tech industry secrets. Premier Su Tseng-chang said Taiwanese authorities have observed Chinese interests infiltrating local operations and "Utilizing various methods to lure high-tech talent from Taiwan and steal Taiwanese core technologies."
A special law enforcement operation undertaken by Russia has led to the seizure and shutdown of four online bazaars that specialized in the theft and sales of stolen credit cards, as the government continues to take active measures against harboring cybercriminals on its territory. Ferum Shop, active since October 2013, made as much as $256 million in Bitcoin from stolen card sales, accounting for nearly 17% of the stolen credit card market.
Senior officials from more than 30 countries said that their governments would take action to disrupt the illicit cryptocurrency payment channels used by ransomware gangs to finance their operations.The Counter-Ransomware Initiative hopes to drain their funding and take down their operations by disrupting the ransomware groups' funding channels.
BT is looking to cash in on ever-growing global concerns over digital crime, and has confirmed making a multi million pound investment in US-based cyber risk management firm Safe Security. As part of the deal, BT plans to combine Safe Security's "SAFE platform" with its own managed security services to provide added protection for its customers in the UK against cyber threats.
Microsoft on Monday announced that it secured a court order to take down numerous malicious homoglyph domains that a criminal group registered to impersonate legitimate sites of various businesses, predominantly located in North America. Leveraging similarities between alpha-numeric characters, cybercriminals register homoglyph domains that closely resemble those of legitimate businesses, but are instead under the control of the unauthorized parties.
The warning to Putin was largely a repetition of the tough rhetoric Biden had used during their meeting in Geneva last month, when he warned that there would be consequences for continuing cyberattacks emanating from Russia. The dual prongs of the agenda show how even as Biden pledges to get tough on Russia over hacking, there's an inherent desire to avoid aggravating tensions as the administration looks for Russia to cooperate, or at least not interfere, with U.S. actions in other areas, including Syria, the Afghanistan withdrawal and climate change.
President Biden asked Russian President Putin during a phone call today to disrupt ransomware groups operating within Russia's borders behind the ongoing wave of attacks impacting the United States and other countries worldwide. "President Biden underscored the need for Russia to take action to disrupt ransomware groups operating in Russia and emphasized that he is committed to continued engagement on the broader threat posed by ransomware," a White House statement reads.
City of London Police is looking to crack down on cybercrime with the purchase of "Next-generation IT services" in the hopes it will beef up the systems supporting Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. Action Fraud - founded in 2006 - is the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.