Security News
India's tech minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar confirmed "A Telegram Bot was throwing up Co-WIN app details upon entry of phone numbers," but claimed the data came from a previous breach unrelated to Co-WIN. India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare later denied any breach, writing "It is clarified that all such reports are without any basis and mischievous in nature." "Union Health Ministry has requested the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team to look into this issue and submit a report. In addition, an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security measures of Co-WIN," states a Ministerial announcement.
The malware peddlers' focus on Apple fans was clearly reflected in the name they gave their "Product": Atomic macOS Stealer, or AMOS for short. Well-informed Mac users should spot that the popup produced clearly belongs to the malware app itself, which is imaginatively called Setup.
A novel credential-stealing malware called Zaraza bot is being offered for sale on Telegram while also using the popular messaging service as a command-and-control. "Zaraza bot targets a large number of web browsers and is being actively distributed on a Russian Telegram hacker channel popular with threat actors," cybersecurity company Uptycs said in a report published last week.
An emerging Python-based credential harvester and a hacking tool named Legion is being marketed via Telegram as a way for threat actors to break into various online services for further exploitation. The malware is suspected to be linked to another malware family called AndroxGh0st that was first documented by cloud security services providerLacework in December 2022.
In yet another sign that Telegram is increasingly becoming a thriving hub for cybercrime, researchers have found that threat actors are using the messaging platform to peddle phishing kits and help set up phishing campaigns. "To promote their 'goods,' phishers create Telegram channels through which they educate their audience about phishing and entertain subscribers with polls like, 'What type of personal data do you prefer?'," Kaspersky web content analyst Olga Svistunova said in a report published this week.
Telegram has become the working ground for the creators of phishing bots and kits looking to market their products to a larger audience or to recruit unpaid helpers. While the messaging platform has been used for cybercriminal activities for several years, it appears that threat actors in the phishing business have started to rely on it more lately.
Russia's Rostec has reportedly bought a platform that allows it to uncover the identities of anonymous Telegram users, likely to be used to tamp down on unfavorable news out of the country. The organization, which has an active role in monitoring the circulation of information within the country, is particularly interested in the identity of Telegram channel administrators who are critical of the Russian state.
Copycat websites for instant messaging apps like Telegram and WhatApp are being used to distribute trojanized versions and infect Android and Windows users with cryptocurrency clipper malware. "All of them are after victims' cryptocurrency funds, with several targeting cryptocurrency wallets," ESET researchers Lukáš Štefanko and Peter Strý?ek said in a new analysis.
The Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group known as Gamaredon has continued its digital onslaught against Ukraine, with recent attacks leveraging the popular messaging app Telegram to strike military and law enforcement sectors in the country. "The Gamaredon group's network infrastructure relies on multi-stage Telegram accounts for victim profiling and confirmation of geographic location, and then finally leads the victim to the next stage server for the final payload," the BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
The advanced persistent threat group known as StrongPity has targeted Android users with a trojanized version of the Telegram app through a fake website that impersonates a video chat service called Shagle. "A copycat website, mimicking the Shagle service, is used to distribute StrongPity's mobile backdoor app," ESET malware researcher Lukáš Štefanko said in a technical report.