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May 7, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Jiri Kropac, the head of ESET’s Threat Detection Labs, recently reported a new malware campaign to be aware of. This one is a bit different in terms of methodology. Hackers most commonly employ emails utilizing various social engineering tricks in an attempt to lure unsuspecting recipients into clicking malicious links or downloading poisoned files. In […]
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April 13, 2021 by Vertical Axion
If you had to guess, worldwide, how many phishing emails would you estimate are sent out every day, what would you say? If you guessed anything less than three billion, you’d be incorrect. Three billion a day, on average. That’s both terrifying and depressing. On hearing that grim statistic, it’s natural to assume that there’s […]
March 27, 2021 by Vertical Axion
In terms of ransoms paid, Ryuk is the most successful strain of ransomware in use today, having netted an estimated $150 million for the group behind the malicious code. According to a recent report published by France’s national cybersecurity agency, it just got even more dangerous. Ryuk has historically been used preferentially against hospitals and […]
February 17, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Google’s Project Zero security team has an impressive track record when it comes to chasing down and addressing the most critical security flaws found. They’re tireless in their work, which has saved untold billions of dollars and hampered the efforts of hackers all over the world. The team has gathered some rather shocking statistics, however, […]
February 6, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDOS) have been used by hackers since the earliest days of the web. Get enough internet-connected devices to ping a server at the same time, and you can knock the server offline. Keep the pressure on and you can keep it offline, pretty much indefinitely. These days, given the web’s […]
December 11, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A new ransomware strain burst onto the scene in September of this year (2020). Dubbed ‘Egregor’ by the research team at Digital Shadows who discovered it, it has already claimed more than seventy victims in nineteen countries around the world. Worse, the hackers controlling it appear to just be getting started. The malware is expertly […]
December 3, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers have increasingly gravitated to ransomware attacks in 2020, as being one of the best and most reliable paths to a payday. That brings to mind an interesting question though. Naturally, the viability of this type of attack comes down to what percentage of victims are willing to actually pay the ransom, and what is […]
November 13, 2020 by Vertical Axion
How good is your IT staff at staying current when it comes to applying all the latest security patches? Unfortunately, the answer for most businesses is, “probably not as good as you think.” According to research conducted by Bitdefender, a staggering 64 percent of un-patched vulnerabilities discovered on corporate networks in 2020 involve bugs that […]
July 22, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Although you may not be familiar with the name, a strain of ransomware called “Conti” is surging in popularity on the Dark Web and seeing a rapidly growing number of installations, so it’s definitely one to be on guard against. Advanced intel’s Vitali Kremez has been tracking this strain since it first appeared in late […]
June 16, 2020 by Vertical Axion
In late 2019, a new strain of malware called “Valak” was detected. In the six months that followed its initial discovery in the wild, more than 30 variants of the code were detected. Initially, Valak was classified as a simple loading program. As various groups have tinkered with the code, it has morphed into a […]
June 10, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Recently, Cisco disclosed the existence of four serious security flaws in their routers that use iOS and iOS XE software. One of the four, CVE-2020-3227 is rated at a severity of 9.8 out of 10. It allows a remote attacker without credentials to execute commands to the operating software without proper authorization, which in turn, […]
May 15, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you one of the million-plus website owners making use of Ninja Forms for WordPress? If so, be aware that the company has recently patched a serious security flaw that allowed hackers to inject malicious code and take over websites. The attack is accomplished via a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) that leads to a Stored […]
May 12, 2020 by Vertical Axion
According to Microsoft, its machine learning threat detection models have helped its research teams uncover multiple mal-spam campaigns. These campaigns have been tied together by the common theme of incorporating poisoned disk image files used as attachments. Each campaign has been aimed at a different target population, but all use some variant of COVID-19 in […]
May 11, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you working from home right now? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Tens of millions of people are doing the same, and there are untold millions around the world doing likewise. Working from home presents a host of new challenges, not the least of which is finding ways of communicating face to face without […]
May 1, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Recently, security companies all over the world have seen a surge in spam, hacking, and scam campaigns that are taking advantage of the fear and confusion surrounding the global pandemic. They’re using promises of COVID-19 information and access to pandemic-related equipment as hooks to lure people into clicking on links or downloading poisoned files. Although […]
April 6, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you familiar with Astaroth? If you’re a data security professional, you’ve probably at least heard the name. The group gained some notoriety last year when it came to light that they had developed a means of spreading “fileless malware” using legitimate Windows tools to infect machines around the world. The Windows Defender ATP team […]
March 30, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A Pakistani-based hacking group that goes by a variety of names, including “Transparent Tribe,” “APT36,” “Mythic Leopard” and others has been discovered to be behind a particularly nasty attack recently. Researchers with QiAnXin’s RedDrip Team discovered a phishing campaign bearing the group’s stamp. This new campaign utilizes poisoned files that appear to be health advisories […]
March 16, 2020 by Vertical Axion
For the last couple of years, the primary means of communication when conducting phishing campaigns has been email. Phishing emails have been absolutely rampant. So much so that people are increasingly on their guard against them. Naturally, this prompts scammers to change their tactics, switching things up a bit to catch people by surprise. In […]
March 14, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Unit 42 is a research division of Palo Alto Networks. Their researchers have discovered a sneaky and surprisingly effective phishing campaign that appears to have been launched in January of this year (2020). When targeted by this attack, a user will get an email containing a braded document containing the name of a legitimate cybersecurity […]
March 11, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Since 2010, Google has been doing its part to help keep its massive user base safe. They introduced a small but critical service called Google Authenticator, which is used by a number of online accounts as a two-factor authentication layer. Google launched the service as an alternative to SMS-based one-time pass codes. While SMS-based codes […]
March 6, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Nemty Ransomware isn’t an especially well-known threat, but it’s dangerous and should not be discounted. Recently, researchers have discovered an ongoing spam-email driven campaign that’s attempting to spread the ransomware far and wide. An unknown group of hackers are sending out what appear to be love letters from secret admirers in a broad pattern. They […]
