The newly discovered Wirelurker malware affecting both OS X and iOS devices has been covered extensively in the media. While this is a significant incident, some of the coverage appears to have been exaggerated, and might lead users to unnecessary panic. Several points would be useful in helping calm down the worst fears of users and distilling…
Read MoreSpencer Hsieh (Threat Researcher)
Threat Researcher
In our efforts around addressing targeted attacks, we often work with IT administrators from different companies in dealing with threats against their network. During these collaborations, we’ve recognized certain misconceptions that IT administrators — or perhaps enterprises in general — have in terms of targeted attacks. I will cover some of them in this entry, and…
Read MoreLast month, security researchers released a report about a targeted attack operation which they named Careto, or Mask in Spanish. The attack was noted for encoding its configuration data and encrypting its network traffic, making analysis more difficult. However, the capabilities of the Mac malware used in Careto was not as sophisticated as its Windows…
Read MoreIn targeted attacks, during the lateral movement stage attacks try to gain access to other computers on the same local area network (LAN). One useful tool to achieve this is ARP spoofing, which can be used to carry out a variety of attacks to steal information as well as plant backdoors on other machines. We…
Read MoreA later stage of advanced persistent threats (APT) attacks is the “lateral movement” stage, where attackers typically use legitimate computer features to move within the network undetected. This takes place after the initial breach and the establishment of command-and-control links back to the attacker. We earlier discussed the steps in an APT attack in the…
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