Malware and spam groups exploit US election fever
Over the past month, Symantec has blocked almost 8 million spam emails relating to the US presidential election. The volume of spam has increased steadily during that period, reflecting rising interest in the election as the November 8 polling day draws near. The trend reflects one of the tactics most commonly used by spam groups….
Backdoor Uploaded to WordPress Sites via eCommerce Plugin Zero-Day
A zero-day vulnerability in an ecommerce plugin for WordPress has been exploited by cybercriminals to upload backdoors to affected websites, researchers warned. The ideal scenario for profit-driven hackers is to find and exploit security holes in plugins installed on hundreds of thousands or millions of websites. However, targeting a large number of less popular applications…
Millennials A Growing Target Of IT Support Scams
New Microsoft-NCSA study finds that two out of three customers have been exposed to tech support scams in the last 12 months. More millennials are falling victim to tech support scams, surpassing senior citizens as the group most frequently tricked by fraudsters. This finding comes from a new study released by Microsoft and the National…
Android.Lockscreen ransomware now using pseudorandom numbers
New variants of Android.Lockscreen are using pseudorandom passcodes to prevent victims from unlocking devices without paying the ransom. Previous versions of these threats locked the screen and used a hardcoded passcode, but analysts were able to reverse engineer the code to provide victims with the passcode to unlock their devices. Attackers have also combined a…
Palantir’s Struggles and Big Data’s Evolution in Information Security
The media has documented some recent struggles by Palantir in retaining customers and staff. Included in this coverage is an assertion in a BuzzFeed article that: “Toward the end of last year, Palantir killed its effort to create an elite cybersecurity group, after executives decided it wasn’t gaining enough traction… In April 2015, employees were…
RANSOMWARE, RECONNAISSANCE AND THE PROBLEM OF DWELL TIME
Ransomware has certainly captured the attention of the media and hospitals across the country. The poster child of this trend is Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HPMC) in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, HPMC was the victim of a Ransomware attack and paid $17,000 to get the key and access their files again. More recently, the…