Security News
Elite hackers associated with Russia's military intelligence service have been linked to large-volume phishing campaigns aimed at hundreds of users in Ukraine to extract intelligence and influence public discourse related to the war. The latest intrusion set, starting in early February 2023, involved the use of reflected cross-site scripting attacks in various Ukrainian government websites to redirect users to phishing domains and capture their credentials.
The Cyber Police of Ukraine, in collaboration with law enforcement officials from Czechia, has arrested several members of a cybercriminal gang that set up phishing sites to target European users. The suspects are alleged to have created more than 100 phishing portals aimed at users in France, Spain, Poland, Czechia, Portugal, and other nations in the region.
A cyber espionage campaign targeting organizations in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine is using novel malware to steal data, according to Russia-based infosec software vendor Kaspersky. In a report published Tuesday, Kaspersky researchers detailed the infections, which use a PowerShell-based backdoor they've named "PowerMagic" and a previously unknown framework dubbed "CommonMagic" that can steal files from USB devices, take screenshots every three seconds, and send all of this data back to the attacker.
Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, government, agriculture, and transportation organizations located in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea have been attacked as part of an active campaign that drops a previously unseen, modular framework dubbed CommonMagic. "Although the initial vector of compromise is unclear, the details of the next stage imply the use of spear phishing or similar methods," Kaspersky said in a new report.
You've almost certainly heard of the ransomware family known as DoppelPaymer, if only because the name itself is a reminder of the double-barrelled blackmail technique used by many contemporary ransomware gangs. The good news, if you can call it that, is the reason why Europol is writing about the DoppelPaymer ransomware right now.
Law enforcement authorities from Germany and Ukraine have targeted suspected core members of a cybercrime group that has been behind large-scale attacks using DoppelPaymer ransomware. Both individuals are believed to have taken up crucial positions in the DoppelPaymer group.
"The consequences of Russia's war against Ukraine have ushered in a new era of volatility and unpredictability for global cybercrime that carries a multitude of implications for defenders," Leslie said. Russian cybercrime, per the report, refers to a diverse group or Russian-speaking miscreants located in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.
The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine says Russian state hackers have breached multiple government websites this week using backdoors planted as far back as December 2021. CERT-UA spotted the attacks after discovering a web shell on Thursday morning on one of the hacked websites that the threat actors used to install additional malware.
The Aspen Institute has published a good analysis of the successes, failures, and absences of cyberattacks as part of the current war in Ukraine: "The Cyber Defense Assistance Imperative Lessons from Ukraine." As a result, it is timely to assess how to provide organized, effective cyber defense assistance to safeguard the post-war order from potential aggressors.
Millions of Russians in almost a dozen cities throughout the country were greeted Wednesday morning by radio alerts, text messages, and sirens warning of an air raid or missile strikes that never occurred. According to reports from news operations in Russia, a woman's voice was broadcast through a number of radio stations - including Relax FM, Avatoradio, Yumor FM, and Comedy Radio - saying, "Attention, an air raid warning is being announced. Go to the shelter immediately. Attention, Attention, threat of a missile strike."