Who Wrote the ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Strain?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 13:18:36 +0000

In December 2021, researchers discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service named ALPHV (a.k.a. “BlackCat”), considered to be the first professional cybercrime group to create and use a ransomware strain in the Rust programming language. In this post, we’ll explore some of the clues left behind by the developer who was reputedly hired to code the ransomware variant.

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Who is the Network Access Broker ‘Wazawaka?’

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2022 05:17:31 +0000

In a great many ransomware attacks, the criminals who pillage the victim’s network are not the same crooks who gained the initial access to the victim organization. More commonly, the infected PC or stolen VPN credentials the gang used to break in were purchased from a cybercriminal middleman known as an initial access broker. This post examines some of the clues left behind by Wazawaka, the handle chosen by a major access broker in the Russian-speaking cybercrime scene.

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FBI Arrests Alleged Owner of Deer.io, a Top Broker of Stolen Accounts

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 14:17:42 +0000

FBI officials last week arrested a Russian computer security researcher on suspicion of operating deer.io, a vast marketplace for buying and selling stolen account credentials for thousands of popular online services and stores. Kirill V. Firsov was arrested Mar. 7 after arriving at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, according to court documents unsealed Monday. Prosecutors with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California allege Firsov was the administrator of deer.io, an online platform that hosted more than 24,000 shops for selling stolen and/or hacked usernames and passwords for a variety of top online destinations.

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The Case for Limiting Your Browser Extensions

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 15:39:53 +0000

Last week, KrebsOnSecurity reported to health insurance provider Blue Shield of California that its Web site was flagged by multiple security products as serving malicious content. Blue Shield quickly removed the unauthorized code. An investigation determined it was injected by a browser extension installed on the computer of a Blue Shield employee who’d edited the Web site in the past month. The incident is a reminder that browser extensions — however useful or fun they may seem when you install them — typically have a great deal of power and can effectively read and/or write all data in your browsing sessions. And as we’ll see, it’s not uncommon for extension makers to sell or lease their user base to shady advertising firms, or in some cases abandon them to outright cybercriminals.

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French Firms Rocked by Kasbah Hacker?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2020 18:07:16 +0000

A large number of French critical infrastructure firms were hacked as part of an extended malware campaign that appears to have been orchestrated by at least one attacker based in Morocco, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The individual thought to be involved has earned accolades from the likes of Apple, Dell, and Microsoft for helping to find and fix security vulnerabilities in their products.

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The Rise of “Bulletproof” Residential Networks

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2019 13:03:32 +0000

Cybercrooks increasingly are anonymizing their malicious traffic by routing it through residential broadband and wireless data connections. Most often, those connections are hacked computers, mobile phones, or home routers. But this is the story of a sprawling “bulletproof residential VPN” service that appears to have been built by acquiring chunks of Internet addresses from some the largest ISPs and mobile data providers in the United States and abroad.

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Meet the World’s Biggest ‘Bulletproof’ Hoster

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:34:31 +0000

For at least the past decade, a computer crook variously known as “Yalishanda,” “Downlow” and “Stas_vl” has run one of the most popular “bulletproof” Web hosting services catering to a vast array of phishing sites, cybercrime forums and malware download servers. What follows are a series of clues that point to the likely real-life identity of a Russian man who appears responsible for enabling a ridiculous amount of cybercriminal activity on the Internet today.

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Who’s Behind the GandCrab Ransomware?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2019 17:27:42 +0000

The crooks behind an affiliate program that paid cybercriminals to install the destructive and wildly successful GandCrab ransomware strain announced on May 31, 2019 they were terminating the program after allegedly having earned more than $2 billion in extortion payouts from victims. What follows is a deep dive into who may be responsible for recruiting new members to help spread the contagion.

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