Malvertising Campaign Tied to Ransomware Attack on UK Universities
The mobile ransomware infections that hit a number of universities in the U.K. recently have been traced back to a malvertising network and the Astrum exploit kit. The attacks against several universities, including University College London, emerged last week and initially there were fears that they were connected to the WannaCry ransomware outbreak. But researchers at […]
Europol Hits Group Allegedly Selling Security Evasion Tools
Europol has arrested six people as part of a wide-scale operation to crack down on cybercriminals who sell tools such as crypters and anti-AV that help attackers evade security defenses. The operation involved authorities in several countries and over the course of several days earlier this month, Europol officials made arrests and conducted interviews in […]
DHS Points Finger at North Korea for Long Cyberattack Campaign
The United States government has issued a warning about an ongoing series of DDoS attacks and other cyber operations that it says began in 2009, and is pointing the finger squarely at North Korea. On Tuesday, the US-CERT, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, published a technical alert in conjunction with the […]
Microsoft Releases Patches for Older Versions of Windows, Warns of Nation-State Attacks
Microsoft has taken the unusual step of issuing patches for a number of security vulnerabilities in older versions of Windows that the company says are “at heightened risk of exploitation” from nation-state attackers. As part of its normal Patch Tuesday update release, Microsoft released fixes for 16 vulnerabilities that affect several versions of Windows, including some that […]
Exploit Kits Turn to Malvertising for Survival
Exploit kit activity has been decreasing for a couple of years now, a result of some consolidation in the market, as well as effective investigations and takedowns by law enforcement. But that doesn’t mean the attackers using them have given up. They’ve just shifted tactics, with many now focusing on using malvertising and social engineering […]
Hack the DHS Program Gets Support in the House
A Senate bill that would allow hackers to go after the networks at the Department of Homeland Security as part of a bug bounty program now has a companion piece of legislation in the House of Representatives. Last week, two senators introduced a bill that would create a pilot bug bounty program at DHS, similar […]
You May Soon Be Able to Hack the DHS
A pair of senators wants to give hackers a chance to take a swing at the Department of Homeland Security’s networks and internal systems through a broad bug bounty program. A proposed bill introduced in the Senate Friday would build on the foundation of the Hack the Pentagon program that the Department of Defense ran […]
RoughTed Malvertising Campaign Bypasses Ad Blockers
A long-running, multi-faceted, malvertising campaign has been found using a technique that enables the sites involved to bypass the protections of ad blockers. Malvertising campaigns can take a lot of different forms and they often involve multiple layers of compromised or malicious sites and lots of redirections. Some campaigns are connected to malware operations and […]
Active-Defense Bill Now Allows Destruction of Data, Use of Beacon Tech
A bill that would allow victims of cybercrime to use active defense techniques to stop attacks and identify attackers has been amended to require victims to notify the FBI of their actions and also add an exemption to allow victims to destroy their data once they locate it on an attacker’s machine. The Active Cyber Defense […]