Threats
The latest cybersecurity threats and news to help you protect your data, networks, applications, and devices.
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Hacking Blockchain with Smart Contracts to Control a Botnet
TORONTO — Blockchain has been hailed by some in the technology industry as a potential method to help improve cyber security. However, security researcher Majid Malaika warns that Blockchain can potentially be abused to enable a new form of botnet that would be very difficult to take down. Malaika detailed his Blockchain-powered botnet in… Read more
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Two Thirds of Americans Worry About Hackers, Identity Theft
Sixty-six percent of American adults worry frequently or occasionally about being a victim of identity theft, and 67 percent worry frequently or occasionally about having their personal or financial information stolen by hackers, a recent Gallup poll of over 1,000 U.S. adults found. In comparison, just 38 percent of respondents worry about having their… Read more
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Ransomware Insurance: Cyber Insurance May Be the Best Protection
Many business leaders had been unaware of the severity of the ransomware problem until the WannaCry attacks in mid-2017 raised its profile significantly. In fact, ransomware has been around for several years, and has become the fastest-growing cause of cyber insurance business claims, according to data compiled by CFC Underwriting. The company says ransomware… Read more
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New Research Sheds Light on the Mirai Botnet
New research presented at the USENIX conference is providing deep insight into the evolution of the Mirai botnet over a seven-month period. The Mirai botnet first achieved notoriety in September 2016 after attacking the site of a popular security blogger and hosting provider OVH with nearly 1 Terabit per second of Distributed Denial of Service… Read more
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Black Hat: Building a Ransomware Resilient File System with ShieldFS
LAS VEGAS — The scourge that is ransomware has dominated security headlines over the last year, with large outbreaks like WannaCry and NotPetya shutting down critical infrastructure in affected organizations. Time and again, when ransomware outbreaks occur, operating system and security vendors alike remind users and organizations of the importance of having backups. But what… Read more
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Malware Behind Ukraine Blackout Analyzed
Researchers at Dragos Security and ESET have released in-depth analyses of the cyber attack that caused a massive blackout in Kiev, Ukraine on December 17 and 18, 2016. Dragos identifies the malware as CrashOverride, while ESET calls it Industroyer. ESET senior malware researcher Anton Cherepanov wrote in a blog post that the malware is… Read more
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WannaCry Ransomware Hits U.S. Critical Infrastructure
A Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters earlier this week that some U.S. critical infrastructure operators have been affected by the recent WannaCry ransomware campaign. The official didn’t provide any further information, except to say that there have been no victims of the cyber attack within the U.S. federal government. Dragos CEO Robert M.… Read more
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Massive Ransomware Outbreak Spreads to 74 Countries
On Friday, a version of the WannaCry ransomware hit tens of thousands of computers in 74 countries worldwide in a matter of hours, according to Kaspersky researchers. “It’s important to note that our visibility may be limited and incomplete and the range of targets and victims is likely much, much higher,” the researchers noted. MalwareTech… Read more
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Hajime Malware Infects Tens of Thousands of IoT Devices
The Hajime malware family, which was first uncovered [PDF] by Rapidity Networks researchers last fall, is increasingly competing with the Mirai botnet to infect Internet of Things (IoT) devices. “Unlike Mirai, which uses hardcoded addresses for its command and control (C&C) server, Hajime is built on a peer-to-peer network,” Symantec senior threat researcher Waylon… Read more
