Displaying items by tag: Chester Wisniewski

Nearly 10 months after it was taken down by authorities in Europe, the US and Canada, the Emotet botnet appears to have returned, with at least one of the bots associated with it being observed by a security firm.

The retail sector became a top target for ransomware and data-theft extortion attacks during the pandemic in 2020, according to global cybersecurity company Sophos.

Veteran security researcher Chester Wisniewski says the takedown of the Emotet botnet is to be welcomed but notes that the primary Emotet operators were not apprehended, which meant that they would rebuild new infrastructure and go back to business as usual.

The source code for the well-known penetration testing tool Cobalt Strike appears to have been leaked on GitHub and immediately forked to at least 20 other accounts.

The operators of the Maze ransomware group, that has been used extensively to compromise Windows systems, have formally announced they will be shutting down.

Ransomware attacks have grown massively in number over the last 12 months and these days most attacks on Windows systems are invariably through the use of this genre of malware.

The move by worldwide online payments system PayPal to allow customers to hold bitcoin and other virtual currencies in their online wallets will end up making more than a few cyber criminals richer, a senior technologist has claimed.

The confidence of IT managers and approach to battling cyberattacks is vastly different between those who’ve been impacted by ransomware and those who have not, survey shows

New Ryuk ransomware techniques underscore how fast attackers switch gears

IT professionals at companies that have been hit by ransomware are nearly thrice as likely (17%) to feel they are "significantly behind" in understanding online threats in comparison to staff at organisations which have not suffered such attacks (6%), a global survey claims.

Ransomware has evolved considerably from its first sighting — Cryptolocker was spotted on 5 September 2013 — and is unlikely to disappear anytime soon as the people behind this breed of malware develop more and more sophisticated ways of weaponising it, a senior security official from global vendor Sophos says.

Australian organisations continued to be plagued by ransomware and malware attacks by cybercriminals, according to global cybersecurity firm Sophos.

A seasoned infosec professional has poured cold water on claims that the number of cyber attacks has increased markedly during the coronavirus pandemic, saying that only the theme of the attacks had changed while all else remained the same.

Australian organisations hit by Windows ransomware appear to be less willing than their counterparts in other countries to give in to ransom demands, with only 12% forking out money to the attackers, in comparison to 27% of organisations globally.

They know where you live and work. They know who you are. They know where you bank. And they are out to exploit that with a new range of designer, socially engineered, threats designed to fool you into clicking on that malware ridden link.