Applying Digital Forensics to Everyday Life

Keeping personal information private is becoming increasingly more important as the age of technology persists. People are connected to their devices more now than ever before and as people become more dependent on technology, digital hackers are also becoming increasingly apparent. Digital hackers are getting tactful and creative with their hacking abilities and strategies. Hackers’ goals are to erase, alter, and/or exploit personal information found on Continue reading →

XHelper, a new variation of malware that re-installs itself on affected devices after its deleted or hard reset wiping all data and programs.

XHelper is a malware that was detected in October 2019 by Symantec experts; it’s a persistent and stubborn piece of malware automatically re-installs despite numerous actions of un-installing it.

Within just six months, the malware had infected more than 45,000 Android-based devices, and it continued spreading at an alarming rate. At the time, according to Symantec estimates, the unkillable malware was infecting at least 2,400 devices monthly, mainly in Russia, India, and the United States.

Security experts at Kaspersky provided deeper insights shedding more light on its persistence mechanism and capabilities used by destructive malware. The experts provided Continue reading →

The infamous Ursnif malware is back at it again, according to ZLab Yoroi-Cybaze researchers who report that there was another wave of attacks from this virus recently. The malware made its first appearance in 2014 during the original Gozi source code leak, hence the malware is commonly known as Gozi ISFB.

According to reports, the Ursnif threat is one of the most active malwares with a presence that spans over a decade. It mostly operates in Italy, where it presents itself as something else in order to infiltrate several organizations. Most of the time, it’s presented as a Continue reading →

Instagram is one of those social media platforms that almost everyone have account registered on nowadays. Since being acquired by Facebook nearly eight years ago, the social network has become a paradise of viral information used by everyone to make the rounds at every waking hour all over the world. Everyone shares something with the goal of going viral and being noticed by their peers, and unlike Twitter and Facebook, there is not a lot of drama going on. The bad news is that IG is being tested in their vulnerable spots again with a very unhealthy practice of stealing accounts using something called “The Nasty List” an Instagram login information stealer that is a headache to deal with.

The Nasty List – What You Need To Know

The Nasty List as an event started to be registered in the first days of May of the current year. It was brought to attention by a Reedit user nicknamed Continue reading →

Thanks to the good folks at Trend Micro, we now know that there’s a new form of malware in town. Actually, it’s a new type of an existing MacOS malware that enters stealth mode by camouflaging itself as a Windows file so that it can infiltrate devices without detection.

The malware is unable to execute on a Windows machine because it’s carried by a familiar .EXE file that’ easy for Windows to rebuff.

The security experts behind the discovery say they found the malware hiding inside the Little Snitch installer which is a well-known firewall, and network monitor. The researchers downloaded the .ZIP files from different torrent websites.

We all know that trying to run an .EXE file on a Linux or Mac processor is a futile exercise because it will only Continue reading →

0patch experts recently came out with a micropatch designed to mitigate a previously unidentified zero-day loophole in Adobe Reader. According to experts, this vulnerability can be abused by cyber criminals by hiding malware inside corrupt PDF files.

These documents would then transfer the target’s NTLM hash to the attacker through a SMB request. All of this can be done remotely which would make detection practically impossible.

The vulnerability was identified and reported by Alex Inführ, a security expert who also published a proof-of-concept and technical details of the problem. According to the report, the XML Form Architecture (XFA) structure was instrumental in crafting the attack. XFA is an integral part of PDF documents and it’s what Continue reading →

Intel users beware! Hackers have now discovered a new method to hide malware inside the security Intel SGX enclaves. Usually, the Intel Software Guard eXtensions (SGX) is a technology that’s used by app developers as a security measure against unwanted data modification or disclosure.

Intel SGX also allows developers to execute application code through a secret enclave.

Expert researchers have created a new technique that enables them to introduce malicious code in a protected memory area, which makes it nearly impossible to detect.

Ideally, enclaves should be protected from higher privilege processes, including BIOS, kernel, SMM and even the operating system.

The team of experts that discovered this vulnerability is the same one that found Continue reading →

One of the financial sector’s most enduring nemeses is back at it again. According to recent reports, the infamous TrickBot banking Trojan is making a major return and bankers should be aware. It now operates as a new type which has the ability to grab credentials remotely through a dedicated module.

The TrickBot’s updated data-grabbing mode is what enables it to harvest private credentials and data from a remote desktop. Hackers are using spam emails to spread this latest strain in what’s possibly the oldest scam in the digital data-grabbing book.

Users are warned to look out for one email in particular, which the scammers are using as a front to spread the virus. The email appears to come from Deloitte, a well-known financial services company, and at face value, it looks like a Continue reading →

You can never be too careful when browsing the web nowadays, with data scams being so prevalent and all. We have to be extra vigilant and constantly careful with the way we share online data because you never know how or where the hackers are lurking.

One way to protect your information is to use different passwords for your various online accounts. It’s important to make sure that those passwords are strong and unpredictable as well, or else you might open yourself up to possible fraud.

How Google is Helping

Google is doing its part to keep user data protected online. The tech giant has developed a technology that will alert users whenever there’s a potential risk to data security.

To achieve this goal, Google recently announced the introduction of an extension that will activate a visual prompt whenever it sees you using a “weak or “unsafe” username and password. That way, it gives you the chance to change your password before scammers can use it to hack you.

This is known as the Password Checkup Chrome extension. Users can Continue reading →

According to reports, a team of Nocturnus researchers at Cyber reason recently discovered an Astaroth Trojan campaign with the ability to abuse GAS Tecnologia and the Avast security software. The hackers use this weak point to plant malicious modules and steal user information.

The main aim of the campaign is to access user information and it does that by taking advantage of legitimate operating system processes. Once it breaches the machine’s security, the campaign is able to steal confidential credentials and clipboard usage as well as important keystate information.

The Cofense security firm was the first to identify the Continue reading →