The Trend Micro Cyber Safety Solutions team has discovered a new botnet delivered via Chrome extensions that affect hundreds of thousands of users. (The malicious extension is detected as BREX_DCBOT.A.) This botnet was used to inject ads and cryptocurrency mining code into websites the victim would visit. We have dubbed this particular botnet Droidclub, after the name of one of the oldest command-and-control (C&C) domains used.
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We uncovered a total of 53 apps on Google Play that can steal Facebook accounts and surreptitiously push ads. Many of these apps, which were published as early as April 2017, seemed to have been put out on Google Play in a wave. Detected by Trend Micro as ANDROIDOS_GHOSTTEAM, many of the samples we analyzed are in Vietnamese, including their descriptions on Google Play.
Their command-and-control (C&C) server points to mspace[.]com[.]vn. This, along with the considerable use of Vietnamese language, may indicate that the apps were from Vietnam. For instance, GhostTeam’s configurations are in English and Vietnamese. English will be the default language if the malware detects the geolocation to be outside Vietnam.
Read MoreWe found a new cryptocurrency-mining bot spreading through Facebook Messenger, which we first observed in South Korea. We named this Digmine based on the moniker (비트코인 채굴기 bot) it was referred to in a report of recent related incidents in South Korea. We’ve also seen Digmine spreading in other regions such as Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, and Venezuela. It’s not far-off for Digmine to reach other countries given the way it propagates.
Read More Online scams and physical crimes are known to intersect. In an incident last May, we uncovered a modus operandi and the tools they can use to break open iCloud accounts to unlock stolen iPhones. Further research into their crossover revealed how deep it runs. There’s actually a sizeable global market for stolen mobile phones—and by extension, iCloud fraud. From Ireland and the U.K. to India, Argentina, and the U.S., the demand for unlocking services for stolen phones is staggering: last year, stolen iPhones were sold in Eastern European countries for as much as US$2,100. In the U.S. 23,000 iPhones from the Miami International Airport, valued at $6.7 million, were stolen last year.
The fraudsters’ attack chain is relatively straightforward. They spoof an email or SMS from Apple notifying victims that their device has been found. The eager victim, wanting their phone back, clicks on the link that will compromise their iCloud credentials, which is then reused to unlock the stolen device. The thieves will then subcontract third-party iCloud phishing services to unlock the devices. These Apple iCloud phishers run their business using a set of cybercriminal tools that include MagicApp, Applekit, and Find My iPhone (FMI.php) framework to automate iCloud unlocks in order to resell the device in underground and gray markets.
Read More The fraudulent redemption of freebies, discounts, and rebates in the form of coupons is reportedly costing U.S. businesses $300–600 million every year. And where there’s money to be made, there are cybercriminals rustling up schemes to take advantage of it. Unsurprisingly, that was the case when it comes to coupon fraud, which we found to be rife and thriving in the underground.
What does coupon fraud mean for businesses? In 2012, major manufacturers were victimized by counterfeit coupons, with one consumer goods corporation pegging its losses to around $1.28 million. Another coupon fraud scheme almost a decade in the making stole at least $250 million from companies.
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