A large-scale ransomware attack reported to be caused by a variant of the Petya ransomware is currently hitting various users, particularly in Europe. This variant, which Trend Micro already detects as RANSOM_PETYA.SMA, is known to use both the EternalBlue exploit and the PsExec tool as infection vectors.
Read MoreAs if encrypting files and holding them hostage is not enough, cybercriminals who create and spread crypto-ransomware are now resorting to causing blue screen of death (BSOD) and putting their ransom notes at system startup—as in, even before the operating system loads. Imagine turning on your computer and instead of the usual Windows icon loading, you get a flashing red and white screen with a skull-and-crossbones instead.
Read MoreFor the past few years, the security industry’s very backbone — its key software and server components — has been the subject of numerous attacks through cybercriminals’ various works of compromise and modifications. Such attacks involve the original software’s being compromised via malicious tampering of its source code, its update server, or in some cases, both. In either case, the intention is to always get into the network or a host of a targeted entity in a highly inconspicuous fashion — which is known as a supply chain attack. Depending on the attacker’s technical capabilities and stealth motivation, the methods used in the malicious modification of the compromised software vary in sophistication and astuteness.
Read MoreWe noticed a sudden increase in hack tool installation attempts from various industries in China, Taiwan, Italy and Hong Kong. We found a trojan combining RADMIN and MIMIKATZ to drop a Monero miner by exploiting MS17-010 for propagation, likely taking advantage of the Lunar New Year holidays.
Read MoreIn 2017, we saw digital extortion increasingly become cybercriminals’ first and foremost money-making modus operandi. It’s mostly due to ransomware — cybercriminals’ currently most popular weapon of choice, helping them in extorting cash from users all over the world and in hitting big businesses and organizations.
By infecting business-critical systems through their shotgun-style ransomware attacks and thus crippling enterprise day-to-day operations, cybercriminals managed to force big companies to bend to their will. Digital extortion has become the most successful moneymaking venture for cybercriminals, and the most effective in terms of the scale of their victims. Big or small, everyone gets hit, and everyone has to pay.
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