Tag: trojan

Regin Espionage Tool Active since 2008 | Symantec Connect

Symantec on Sunday published research describing a new family of malware that it claims has been circulating, quietly, for close to six years. (Gulp!) According to a post on Symantec’s Security Response blog, Regin infections have been observed as far back as 2008, but the malware went quiet after about 2011, only to resurface in 2013 in attacks on a wide range of targets including private and public entities and research institutes. Symantec also observed the malware used in attacks on telecommunications firms and say it appears the malware was being used “to gain access to calls being routed through their infrastructure.”   In a separate research paper, Symantec describes the malware, dubbed “Backdoor.Regin” as a multi-staged threat that uses encrypted components – installed in a series of stages – to escape detection. The key the malware’s stealth is compartmentalization, Symantec found: “each individual stage provides little information on the complete package. Only by acquiring all five stages is it possible […]

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EFF Backs Detekt: Malware Detection Tool For State Surveillance

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is having a big week. First the organization announced “Let’s Encrypt,” a new, free certificate authority (CA) with the goal of moving everyone to adopt encrypted web communications. Then, today, the group announced Detekt, a malware detection tool designed to expose evidence of state surveillance. The tool is intended to help journalists, political activists and others identify malware associated with state-sponsored spying. Developed by security researcher Claudio Guarnieri, Detekt is available on Github and at the site resistsurveillance.com. The tool was written in Python tool  and scans the memory of Windows systems (XP and 32 and 64 bit and Windows 8) for malware. Essentially, its a straight-up malware scanner that focuses on malware associated with spying, namely: DarkComet RATm XtremeRAT, BlackShades RAT, njRAT, FinFisher FinSpy, HackingTeam RCS, ShadowTech RAT and Gh0st RAT. You might also like “Hacker takes on the Worlds spy agencies.” Alas, unlike most anti malware programs (which at least claim to detect the same malware families) […]

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Discrete Malware Lures Execs At High-End Hotels

Kaspersky Lab has a fascinating write-up of malware it is calling “DarkHotel.” The information-stealing software is believed to target traveling executives. Curiously, Kaspersky says the malware may be almost a decade old and is found only on the wireless networks and business centers of select, high-end hotels. Reports about targeted attacks on traveling executives are nothing new. However, the Kaspersky report (PDF version here) may be the most detailed yet on a specific malicious software family that is devoted to hacking senior corporate executives. According to Kaspersky, the DarkHotel malicious software maintained a presence on hotel networks for years, with evidence of its operation going back as far as 2007. The malware used that persistent access to target select hotel guests, leveraging check-in/check-out and identity information on guests to limit attacks to high value targets. Targeted guests were presented with iFrame based attacks that were launched from the hotel’s website, […]

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Third Party Vendor Source of Breach at Home Depot

Add Home Depot to the list of companies who have been victimized as a result of a third party contractor or supplier. The home improvement giant said in a statement on Thursday that the criminals that attacked the company’s network first gained access to the “perimeter” of Home Depot’s network. Target, the box store retailer, sketched out a similar scenario to describe the breach that resulted in the theft of 70 million credit cards numbers from its customers. In that case, a company that serviced HVAC systems in Target’s headquarters was reported as the source of the breach. Home Depot said that attackers were able to move within its network by elevating their level of network access and install what Home Depot described as “unique, custom-built malware” on self-checkout systems in the U.S. and Canada. The revelations about the circumstances of the breach came on a day when Home Depot […]

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Uncle Sam Taking a Back Seat in Cyber Defense | Bloomberg

Bloomberg has a story on the collaborative, private sector effort to thwart an industrial hacking campaign linked to Chinese intelligence.   The effort, which involved firms like FireEye and iSight Partners “demonstrates for the first time a private-sector model that they believe can move faster than investigations by law enforcement agencies,” the report said. From the article: The take-down largely bypassed traditional law enforcement tools, relying instead on cooperation between companies that are normally fierce competitors. Coalition members — which include Microsoft Corp., Cisco Inc. and Symantec Corp. — say they can act faster than governments because they operate global Internet systems and have business relationships with tens of thousands of companies. Read more via China-Linked Hacking Foiled by Private-Sector Sleuthing – Businessweek.

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