Security News

September 13th 2023 Hackers use new 3AM ransomware to save failed LockBit attack. A new ransomware strain called 3AM has been uncovered after a threat actor used it in an attack that failed to deploy LockBit ransomware on a target network.

The iPhone belonging to Galina Timchenko, a prominent Russian journalist and critic of the government, was compromised with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, a new collaborative investigation from Access Now and the Citizen Lab has revealed. The Washington Post reported that the Russian government is not a client of NSO Group, citing an unnamed person familiar with the company's operations.

Vladislav Klyushin, the Russian owner of security penetration testing firm M-13, was jailed for nine years in the US on Thursday, for his involvement in a cyber-crime operation that stole top corporations' confidential financial information to make $93 million through insider trading. His alleged Russian co-conspirators, Ivan Ermakov and Nikolai Rumiantcev, remain at large.

Top admin, HR managers, devs go on transatlantic deny-list The US and UK governments named and sanctioned 11 Russians said to be connected to the notorious Trickbot cybercrime crew this week.…

Microsoft says North Korean hacking groups have breached multiple Russian government and defense targets since the start of the year. "Multiple North Korean threat actors have recently targeted the Russian government and defense industry - likely for intelligence collection - while simultaneously providing material support for Russia in its war on Ukraine," said Clint Watts, the head of Microsoft's Digital Threat Analysis Center.

The power of the EU's Digital Services Act to actually police the world's very large online platforms has been tested in a new study focused on Russian social media disinformation. The independent study of the DSA's risk management framework published by the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, concluded that commitments by social media platforms to mitigate the reach and influence of global online disinformation campaigns have been generally unsuccessful.

Cybersecurity and intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. on Thursday disclosed details of a mobile malware strain targeting Android devices used by the Ukrainian military. The malicious software, dubbed Infamous Chisel and attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor called Sandworm, has capabilities to "Enable unauthorized access to compromised devices, scan files, monitor traffic, and periodically steal sensitive information."

The phishing attacks feature PDF documents with diplomatic lures, some of which are disguised as coming from Germany, to deliver a variant of a malware called Duke, which has been attributed to APT29. "The threat actor used Zulip - an open-source chat application - for command-and-control, to evade and hide its activities behind legitimate web traffic," Dutch cybersecurity company EclecticIQ said in an analysis last week.

North Korean state-sponsored hackers have breached Russian missile maker NPO Mashinostroyeniya, according to SentinelLabs researchers. The researchers came across leaked email communication between NPO Mashinostroyeniya's IT staff that contained information about a possible cyber intrusion first detected in May 2022.

Two North Korean hacker groups had access to the internal systems of Russian missile and satellite developer NPO Mashinostoyeniya for five to six months, cyber security firm SentinelOne asserted on Monday. The attack illustrates potential North Korean efforts to advance development of missile and other military tech via cyber espionage.