Hacking – Page 10

Beware Fake Craigslist Email Could Contain Ransomware

March 24, 2018 by Joseph Martin

If you post ads on Craigslist for short term employment, be aware that there’s a new malspam campaign that aims to distribute Sigma ransomware on the computers of unwary users.

By all outward appearances, the emails seem to come from Craigslist in response to ads posted in Craigslist’s “Gigs” section for short term employment. The emails will generally express interest in whatever job the user has posted and include a protected Word or RTF document which recipients will assume are resumes.

If the recipient enters the password to unlock the document, they’ll then be presented with a screen that asks them to enable the content in the document. Unfortunately, this is the step that dooms the user. The file isn’t a resume at all, but merely a delivery vehicle.

As soon as the content is enabled, the ransomware will be installed, the user’s files will be encrypted, and then will “helpfully” post a message explaining that the files have been encrypted, and explaining that to get access to them again, they’ll have to pay a $400 fee, which rises to $800 if the user waits longer than seven days to request the decryption key.

Unfortunately, there’s no known way to decrypt Sigma-encrypted files other than paying the ransom.

This is a new twist on a very old game. Even worse, it’s enjoying a relatively high success rate because people who post ads for short term employment on Craigslist expect to get responses from people they don’t know. They expect that those people will be sending resumes for review.

The “tell” is that when a potential employee sends you a resume, it’s almost certainly not going to be password protected. In this case, your best bet would be to reply to the sending and ask them to send you a non-protected resume if they’re genuinely interested in the job.

Joseph Martin

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Trustico CEO Leaks HTTPS Certificate Keys Through Email

March 17, 2018 by Joseph Martin

The CEO of Trustico, a TLS certificate reseller based in the United Kingdom, finds himself at the center of a controversy that raises a number of disturbing questions about browser-trusted security certificates.

The email in question was sent to Jeremy Rowley, an executive Vice President at DigiCert. The catalyst that prompted the fateful email was that officials at Trustico notified DigiCert that 50,000 certificates originally issued by Symantec and resold by Trustico had been compromised and should be mass revoked due to security concerns.

Mr. Rowley, not wanting to take such drastic action without proof, asked for it. In response, Trustico’s CEO emailed the private keys of 23,000 certificates, an action which drew shocked reactions from security professionals around the world when news of the email became public.

If you’re not familiar with the inner workings of browser-trusted certificates, there are a few problems here. First, there’s no good reason why a reseller should have a copy of the private keys to begin with. Second, even if that were the norm, to simply email them to a third party shows incredibly poor judgement, especially given that there’s no evidence the email in question was encrypted. Third, customers used Trustico’s website to generate their private keys, which is a service that should never even have been offered.

To make matters even worse, not long after news of the email hit the internet, Trustico’s website went dark, when a security expert posted details about a critical vulnerability on the company’s website. The flaw resides in a site feature that allows customers to confirm that certificates are properly installed. Unfortunately, Trustico’s website had been compromised and any time a user would use the feature, the hackers could use the opportunity to run malicious code. It’s a tangled web, and it paints everyone involved in a very bad light.

Joseph Martin

Another 2.4 Million Users Hacked In Equifax Breach

March 16, 2018 by Joseph Martin

It looks like it’s going to be another bad month for Equifax. The company just can’t seem to get out of its own way.

In 2017, the company announced a massive data breach that (it initially claimed) impacted some 140 million users. Several months after the official announcement, the company was forced to revise the number of impacted users upward, as the forensic investigation into the breach continued.

Now, the company has announced a further upward revision of 2.4 million, bringing the total number of impacted users to slightly more than 148 million.

Equifax CEO Paulino do Rego Barros Jr. had this to say about the announcement, which raised more than a few eyebrows:

“This is not about newly discovered stolen data. It’s about sifting through the previously identified stolen data, analyzing other information in our databases that was not taken by the attackers, making connections that enabled us to identify additional individuals.”

As it did originally, the company has also announced that it would notify the newly identified consumers and offer them free credit monitoring and identity theft protection at no cost.

After last year’s congressional hearings on the matter, this portion of the announcement tends to illicit eyerolls. The company is in the credit monitoring business, and the way the company offers its “free” protection is that at the end of the free period, it automatically rolls into a paid plan unless the user cancels the service.

Of course, as with most such schemes, a high percentage of users won’t think about it until they get their first bill. One of the more acidic comments made during last year’s hearings was that the company actually seems to be profiting from their own data breach. That makes the CEO’s statement that “We are committed to regaining the trust of consumers, improving transparency, and enhancing security across our network” ring a bit hollow.

Joseph Martin

Mi-Cam Baby Monitor Video Feeds Vulnerable To Hacking

March 14, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Do you have a Mi-Cam in your home? Even if you don’t have kids, you may have one. They’re a highly popular, inexpensive means of keeping tabs on the comings and goings inside your home when you’re not around.

As with so many such devices these days, users have the option of installing either an Android or iOS app on their phones so they can peek in remotely, any time they like, and therein lies the problem.

It’s no secret that the IoT is filled with “smart” devices that don’t live up to their name when it comes to security, and the Mi-Cam is no exception. Security researchers have discovered that the communications between the company’s cloud servers where the video feeds live and the smartphones of the product’s user based are not secure.

So far, six different vulnerabilities have been identified, all of them critical. Any one of them would allow a hacker to hijack the window into your video feed and use that to scroll through literally every video feed on the company’s cloud, regardless of who owns it. All told, that’s more than fifty thousand video feeds, accessible from a single point of entry.

It gets worse. The attack is trivial to perform, because no SSL certificate is needed. All that’s required is a copy of either the Android or iOS mobile app.

The manufacturer of the Mi-Cam has been notified of these critical security flaws, but as of now, none have been addressed. The company has not released any information about when they might be. In light of that, if you have one, your best bet is to simply stop using it until the company can at least employ some rudimentary security protocols.

Joseph Martin

New Apple Update Available for Character Bug Solution

March 6, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Recently, another “exotic character” bug was found in iOS. If someone sends this particular character (a special character that’s part of the Indian language pack) to your phone via any messaging app, it will not only crash your phone, but cause a variety of messaging apps to stop functioning.

When the bug was initially reported, Apple treated it as a somewhat low priority item and announced their plan to fix it with the release of iOS 11.3 later this spring. The company’s loyal user base, however, had other ideas. Faced with a growing chorus of demands for a more immediate fix, Apple has incorporated it into the 11.2.6 release which is now available.

If you’re set up to automatically receive OS updates, there’s nothing for you to do, and if you haven’t already encountered this issue, you never will. If, on the other hand, you are in the habit of manually applying OS updates, this is one you won’t want to miss. While the chances of someone sending this exotic character to you are quite low, there’s nothing to be gained by exposing yourself to needless risk.

Long time users of Apple’s products will recognize a trend here. This is hardly the first time an exotic character or other unusual event has caused iOS to crash. Just last month, there was a similar (though less serious) issue with another special character. Last year, it was discovered that a properly formatted URL could crash any system running iOS. Not long after that discovery was made, a five second video went viral that, if watched on a device running iOS, would crash it.

In any case, the user base spoke and Apple listened. Grab the latest update and you won’t have anything to worry about. At least until the next unusual crash bug is discovered.

Joseph Martin

IRS Labeled Email Could Contain Ransomware

March 5, 2018 by Joseph Martin

There’s a new strain of the “Rapid Ransomware” making the rounds, and because of how it’s being transmitted, it’s destined to have a higher than average rate of infection. The new strain was first discovered by Derek Knight. It is disturbing because it claims to come from the IRS, and will feature subject lines like “IRS Urgent Message-164.”

The body of the email then goes on to say that the recipient owes some amount of money in real estate taxes, and “helpfully” includes instructions for how to settle in the attached file. Inside the zipped file, the user will find a word document. You’ll need to click on “Enable Editing” to see the file, and unfortunately, the moment you do, you’re doomed. “Rapid” will scan the target computer for data files and encrypt them, appending each with the “.rapid” extension.

As soon as the malware finishes encrypting your files, it will automatically open “Recovery.txt” which will display details on how much you’ll have to pay the hackers to get your files back. Unlike most other ransomware strains, this one will configure itself to start every time you login to the computer, so if you pay the ransom to get access to your files again, but fail to completely remove the malware, you’ll be facing the same problem the very next time you use the machine.

Observant users will take note of the fact that the email address is not a .gov and likely not be taken in. Unfortunately, many people will look no further than the subject line and immediately begin following the instructions contained in the email, which is obviously the reaction that the hackers are hoping for.

As ever, protecting yourself from threats like these comes down to two things: Education and vigilance.

Joseph Martin

40 Percent Of All Login Attempts Are From Bots

March 5, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Here’s a statistic that is as disturbing as it is frustrating. According to the latest “State of the Internet/Security” report for the fourth quarter of 2017, as published by Akamai, bot-traffic accounts for a staggering 43 percent of all login attempts. As bad as that figure is on its face, it’s far worse for companies in the hospitality industry, where the figure is an almost unbelievable 82 percent.

The reason? Hackers are increasingly using bots to perform “credential stuffing” attacks.

Although human traffic still dominates the web, bot traffic is rapidly catching up. According to Akamai’s estimates, not counting streaming video, bot traffic accounts for 30 percent of the total, and that figure increases every year. In fact, even though bot traffic is still a minority in absolute terms, some industries already see more bot traffic than human traffic.

TicketMaster is a great example of this. The web’s premier site for purchasing concert tickets online is almost unusable by humans these days, because virtually all of their traffic is bot-driven, with bots often being used to buy every available ticket the moment they become available, so they can be resold later at a hefty premium.

Akamai’s Martin McKeay had this to say about the report: “Increased automation and data mining have caused a massive flood of bot traffic to impact websites and internet services. Although most of that traffic is useful for internet businesses, cyber-criminals are looking to manipulate the powerful volume of bots for nefarious gains. Enterprises need to watch who is accessing their sites to differentiate actual humans from both legitimate and malicious bots. Not all web traffic and not all bots are created equal.”

These are wise words, and it bears some consideration. How much of the traffic coming to your business website on any given day is human?

Joseph Martin

2018 Olympics Hit By Malware

February 27, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Hackers are picky about their victims. They’ll target just about any group or organization, including the 2018 Olympics.

Cisco’s Talos Group recently identified a new strain of malware they’ve dubbed “Olympic Destroyer” which is wreaking havoc in Pyeong Chang’s computer networks and causing downtime to internal WiFi and television systems. This has impacted the games’ opening ceremonies, and stands an excellent chance of further disrupting the rest of the festivities.

Because the threat was only recently discovered, the Talos team’s initial assessment and report was spotty and short on details, but the group recently amended their initial findings. The results aren’t pretty, and the malware is seen as being both more dangerous and more advanced than originally thought.

The big three findings in the team’s amended report are as follows:

It’s Polymorphic – As the malware spreads, it collects new credentials from each machine it infects, adding these to its binary on the fly. Members of the Talos team had this to say about the behavior: “I have not seen a malware sample modify itself to include harvested creds before and I’ve been doing this stuff longer than I should admit. Polymorphic malware isn’t a new idea by itself, but I’ve never seen any examples of malware modifying itself to include harvested credentials.”

It Spreads Via The EternalRomance Exploit – This bit of information comes to us from the Windows Defender team. The mechanism by which Olympic Destroyer spreads is industrial grade, utilizing an exploit from the NSA leaked by the Shadow Brokers last year.

Finally, It Wipes Data – This is perhaps the most significant of the three updates to the Talos report. The malware has a data wiping mechanism built into it that it utilizes at every opportunity in an attempt to delete files on network shares. Since it only seems to target shared files, it’s not deleting items key to OS functionality. Even so, these shared files are important, and this is what’s causing operational disruptions.

More details will no doubt become available as the various teams researching Olympic Destroyer get a better understanding of what they’re looking at. The bottom line is, it’s a pretty advanced threat and will likely inspire copycats in the months ahead.

Joseph Martin

Smart TV’s May Be Tracking You And Vulnerable To Hacks

February 27, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Do you own a smart TV? More than half of all television sales in the US last year were smart TVs, so chances are decent that you own one. If you do, be aware that it may be collecting far more data about you than you think.

Recall that last year, Samsung, (one of the top smart TV manufacturers) found itself in hot water when it was revealed that the TV could listen in on conversations, record them (for better voice recognition) and save them on a Samsung server.

Those issues still persist to varying degrees, but a recent Consumer Reports study underscores something most people in the tech business have known all along. Smart devices really aren’t all that smart, at least when it comes to security.

The Consumer Reports study concluded that most smart TVs and associated technologies like the Roku have only the most rudimentary of security features and can easily be hacked, giving the hackers total control of your TV. This includes the ability to turn it off, on, change the channel, and monitor your viewing habits. Given that, these TVs can also be voice-controlled. Once a hacker is in control of your set, he could monitor any conversations that take place near it without your knowledge.

In addition, the most recent smart TVs come with a feature called Content Recognition. For example, if you watch the latest episode of the Walking Dead (whether on AMC or Amazon Prime or some other streaming service), the next time you pull up a web page on your PC or smart phone, you’ll start seeing advertising related to the Walking Dead.

This, of course, gives any would-be hacker a much deeper view into your viewing habits and history.

The upside is that most of these features can be deactivated if you have the patience to sift through the television’s menu system. Of course, if you do that, then it’s no longer a smart TV, and thus, not worth the extra money you spent on it.

As ever, the bottom line is this: These kinds of risks aren’t going to go away on their own. Until and unless smart device makers start taking security more seriously, we’re going to keep hearing about potential or actual abuses.

Joseph Martin

Almost Half Of Top Ranking Websites Are Vulnerable

February 20, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Menlo Security just released their third annual “State of the Web” report and it’s not pretty. The headline finding is that 42% of the top 100,000 sites as ranked by Alexa are more dangerous than you think.

The report defines a risky site as one that meets one of three criteria:

The site, or one of its associated background sites (from which news articles or video is pulled), is running software with a known security vulnerability

The site has been used to launch attacks or distribute malware

The site has suffered a security breach in the past twelve months

This first point is key, and often overlooked by security professionals. Any time your website is pulling content from another source, it creates an opening that a hacker could potentially exploit. Worse, most security professionals lack the tools to properly monitor those connections.

As bad as that sounds, there’s an even worse detail lurking in the pages of the report, and that concerns emails.

Hackers are increasingly moving away from setting up their own domains. Instead, they’re preferring to create a subdomain of a compromised, legitimate domain, which makes it harder to spot. Amir Ben-Efraim, the CEO of Menlo Security, had this to say about the issue:

“It is far easier to set up a subdomain on a legitimate hosting service than use other alternatives – such as trying to hack a popular, well-defended site or to set up a brand-new domain and use it until it is blocked by web security firms. Legitimate domains are often whitelisted by companies and other organizations out of a false sense of security, giving cover to phishing sites.

Also, hosting services typically allow customers to set up multiple subdomains. For example, researchers found 15 phishing sites hosted on the world’s 10 most popular domains.”

The bottom line is: The web and even the most popular sites on it, aren’t nearly as safe as you think.

Joseph Martin

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Beware Fake Craigslist Email Could Contain Ransomware

Trustico CEO Leaks HTTPS Certificate Keys Through Email

Another 2.4 Million Users Hacked In Equifax Breach

Mi-Cam Baby Monitor Video Feeds Vulnerable To Hacking

New Apple Update Available for Character Bug Solution

IRS Labeled Email Could Contain Ransomware

40 Percent Of All Login Attempts Are From Bots

2018 Olympics Hit By Malware

Smart TV’s May Be Tracking You And Vulnerable To Hacks

Almost Half Of Top Ranking Websites Are Vulnerable

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