Security News

Guyana Governmental Entity Hit by DinodasRAT in Cyber Espionage Attack
2023-10-05 10:39

A governmental entity in Guyana has been targeted as part of a cyber espionage campaign dubbed Operation Jacana. The activity, which was detected by ESET in February 2023, entailed a...

AWS stirs the MadPot – busting bot baddies and eastern espionage
2023-10-02 10:45

Interview AWS has unveiled MadPot, its previously secret threat-intelligence tool that one of the cloud giant's security execs tells us has thwarted Chinese and Russian spies - and millions of bots. The massive honeypot system has been around since 2010, and includes tens of thousands of threat sensors monitoring criminals' attempts to connect with AWS decoys.

China Accuses U.S. of Decade-Long Cyber Espionage Campaign Against Huawei Servers
2023-09-21 09:39

China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) has accused the U.S. of breaking into Huawei's servers, stealing critical data, and implanting backdoors since 2009, amid mounting geopolitical tensions...

New SprySOCKS Linux malware used in cyber espionage attacks
2023-09-18 14:05

A Chinese espionage-focused hacker tracked as 'Earth Lusca' was observed targeting government agencies in multiple countries, using a new Linux backdoor dubbed 'SprySOCKS.'. Trend Micro's analysis of the novel backdoor showed that it originates from the Trochilus open-source Windows malware, with many of its functions ported to work on Linux systems.

SapphireStealer Malware: A Gateway to Espionage and Ransomware Operations
2023-08-31 14:15

NET-based information stealer malware dubbed SapphireStealer is being used by multiple entities to enhance its capabilities and spawn their own bespoke variants. "Information-stealing malware like SapphireStealer can be used to obtain sensitive information, including corporate credentials, which are often resold to other threat actors who leverage the access for additional attacks, including operations related to espionage or ransomware/extortion," Cisco Talos researcher Edmund Brumaghin said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

Earth Estries' Espionage Campaign Targets Governments and Tech Titans Across Continents
2023-08-31 09:22

A hacking outfit nicknamed Earth Estries has been attributed to a new, ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting government and technology industries based in the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany, and the U.S. "The threat actors behind Earth Estries are working with high-level resources and functioning with sophisticated skills and experience in cyber espionage and illicit activities," Trend Micro researchers Ted Lee, Lenart Bermejo, Hara Hiroaki, Leon M Chang, and Gilbert Sison said. Active since at least 2020, Earth Estries is said to share tactical overlaps with another nation-state group tracked as FamousSparrow, which was first exposed by ESET in 2021 as exploiting ProxyLogon flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server to penetrate hospitality, government, engineering, and legal sectors.

Taiwanese infosec researchers challenge Microsoft's China espionage finding
2023-08-28 02:58

PLUS: India calls for global action on AI and crypto; Vietnam seeks cybersecurity independence; China bans AI prescribing drugs Asia In Brief Taiwan-based infosec consultancy Team T5 has disputed...

China-Linked Flax Typhoon Cyber Espionage Targets Taiwan's Key Sectors
2023-08-25 10:41

A nation-state activity group originating from China has been linked to cyber attacks on dozens of organizations in Taiwan as part of a suspected espionage campaign. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence team is tracking the activity under the name Flax Typhoon, which is also known as Ethereal Panda.

Researchers Uncover Years-Long Cyber Espionage on Foreign Embassies in Belarus
2023-08-11 14:23

A hitherto undocumented threat actor operating for nearly a decade and codenamed MoustachedBouncer has been attributed to cyber espionage attacks aimed at foreign embassies in Belarus. "To compromise their targets, MoustachedBouncer operators tamper with their victims' internet access, probably at the ISP level, to make Windows believe it's behind a captive portal," Faou said.

U.S. Government Blacklists Cytrox and Intellexa Spyware Vendors for Cyber Espionage
2023-07-19 05:51

The U.S. government on Tuesday added two foreign commercial spyware vendors, Cytrox and Intellexa, to an economic blocklist for weaponizing cyber exploits to gain unauthorized access to devices and "Threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide." Cytrox is the maker of a mobile mercenary spyware called Predator that's analogous to NSO Group's Pegasus.