Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2024

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  • August 2, 2024

New Windows Backdoor BITSLOTH Exploits BITS for Stealthy Communication

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a previously undocumented Windows backdoor that leverages a built-in feature called Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) as a command-and-control (C2) mechanism. The newly identified malware strain has been codenamed BITSLOTH by Elastic Security Labs, which made the discovery on June 25, 2024, in connection with a cyber attack targeting an unspecified […]

Cyber News
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  • August 2, 2024

U.S. Releases High-Profile Russian Hackers in Diplomatic Prisoner Exchange

In a historic prisoner exchange between Belarus, Germany, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, and the U.S., two Russian nationals serving time for cybercrime activities have been freed and repatriated to their country. This includes Roman Valerevich Seleznev and Vladislav Klyushin, who are part of a group of eight people who have been swapped back to Russia in […]

Cyber News
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  • August 2, 2024

Cybercriminals Abusing Cloudflare Tunnels to Evade Detection and Spread Malware

Cybersecurity companies are warning about an uptick in the abuse of Clouflare’s TryCloudflare free service for malware delivery. The activity, documented by both eSentire and Proofpoint, entails the use of TryCloudflare to create a rate-limited tunnel that acts as a conduit to relay traffic from an attacker-controlled server to a local machine through Cloudflare’s infrastructure. […]

Cyber News
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  • August 2, 2024

U.S. Trades Cybercriminals to Russia in Prisoner Swap

Twenty-four prisoners were freed today in an international prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries. Among the eight Russians repatriated were several convicted cybercriminals. In return, Russia has reportedly released 16 prisoners, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. AMong those in the prisoner swap is Roman Seleznev, 40, who […]

Cyber News
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  • August 1, 2024

$75 million record-breaking ransom paid to cybercriminals, say researchers

The staggering sum of US $75 million has reportedly been paid to a ransomware gang in what is believed to be the largest known ransom payment made by a cyber attack victim since records began.  Researchers at Zscaler claim in a new report that the record-breaking figure was paid by an undisclosed Fortune 50 company […]

Cyber News
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  • August 1, 2024

Over 1 Million Domains at Risk of ‘Sitting Ducks’ Domain Hijacking Technique

Over a million domains are susceptible to takeover by malicious actors by means of what has been called a Sitting Ducks attack. The powerful attack vector, which exploits weaknesses in the domain name system (DNS), is being exploited by over a dozen Russian-nexus cybercriminal actors to stealthily hijack domains, a joint analysis published by Infoblox […]

Cyber News
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  • August 1, 2024

Hackers Distributing Malicious Python Packages via Popular Developer Q&A Platform

In yet another sign that threat actors are always looking out for new ways to trick users into downloading malware, it has come to light that the question-and-answer (Q&A) platform known as Stack Exchange has been abused to direct unsuspecting developers to bogus Python packages capable of draining their cryptocurrency wallets. “Upon installation, this code […]

Cyber News
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  • August 1, 2024

New Android Banking Trojan BingoMod Steals Money, Wipes Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new Android remote access trojan (RAT) called BingoMod that not only performs fraudulent money transfers from the compromised devices but also wipes them in an attempt to erase traces of the malware. Italian cybersecurity firm Cleafy, which discovered the RAT towards the end of May 2024, said the malware is […]

Cyber News
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  • August 1, 2024

Obfuscation: There Are Two Sides To Everything

How to detect and prevent attackers from using these various techniques Obfuscation is an important technique for protecting software that also carries risks, especially when used by malware authors. In this article, we examine obfuscation, its effects, and responses to it. What Is Obfuscation? Obfuscation is the technique of intentionally making information difficult to read, […]

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