By Waqas
LockBit ransomware gang relaunches operation after law enforcement hacked its servers, threatening to target government entities more now.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: LockBit Ransomware Gang Returns, Taunts FBI and Vows Data Leaks

Despite arrests, infrastructure seizure and international law enforcement efforts, LockBit ransomware has resurfaced, promising robust security and threatening aggressive cyber attacks on UK and USA government sectors.

The LockBit ransomware gang has officially announced its comeback through a detailed message posted on Saturday on its newly created .onion site on the dark web.

The leader of the **LockBit ransomware**, whose identity is still unknown to authorities, admitted negligence in letting the FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency control its servers via a PHP attack but promised backups and continued operations.

The new dark web leak site of the ransomware gang is already live and adding new alleged companies as its victims (Screenshot credit: Hackread.com)

The announcement comes only a week after the group was neutralized in **Operation Cronos**, a multinational law enforcement investigation, reportedly neutralized the ransomware gang.

For your information, on 19 February 2024, **as reported by Hackread.com**, law enforcement authorities seized LockBit’s infrastructure, including 34 servers that hosted the gang’s data leak website storing stolen data, cryptocurrency addresses, decryption keys, and the affiliate panel causing a major setback to the notorious gang.

The message from the gang’s admin which directly addressed the FBI and the NCA, revealed that servers without PHP installed in backup blogs are unaffected and will continue to release stolen data from targeted companies, even after the FBI hack, and stolen data will be published on the LockBit blog.

The admin claims that Operation Cronos was successful because of their negligence and irresponsibility in “not updating PHP settings on their servers in good time.” They denied Operation Cronos investigators’ claims regarding arresting their two alleged affiliates, the gang donating to a Crimea-based Russian propagandist (Sevastapol Colonel Cassad), and recovering a high number of decryptors. 

However, LockBit confirmed the FBI’s claim that its annual income exceeds $100m, based on data from seized cryptocurrency wallets during Operation Cronos. The group has deleted chats containing evidence of **ransomware payments**, indicating that their revenues exceed US law enforcement estimates. This demonstrates their success despite making mistakes.

The admin wrote that their victim’s admin chat panels server and blog server were running PHP 8.1.2 and were likely hacked using the **CVE-2023-3824** vulnerability. LockBit ransomware has updated its PHP server and offering rewards for finding vulnerabilities in its latest version. LockBit has moved its data leak site to a new.onion address and has targeted five victims with countdown timers to expose the stolen data.

LockBit’s message to the FBI and the NCA – Open in a new tab for a clear view (Screenshot credit: Hackread.com)

Regarding why the FBI hacked their infrastructure, the gang stated that their ransomware attack on Fulton County in January irked the authorities for posing the risk of leaking information on **Donald Trump** court cases and other “interesting things.”

LockBit claims authorities collected over 1,000 decryption keys during Operation Cronos from “unprotected decryptors,” which they defined as low-level malware builds. LockBit plans to upgrade security, manually release decryptors, host affiliate panels on multiple servers, and provide partners with access to different copies.

****RELATED ARTICLES****

1.  **FIN8 Resurfaces with New Sardonic Backdoor**
2.  **Hive Ransomware Resurfaces as Hunters International**
3.  **FBI Disrupts Chinese State-Backed Volt Typhoon’s KV Botnet**
4.  **Mirai botnet resurfaces with MooBot variant to target D-Link devices**
5.  **Nasty Mamba ransomware that encrypts entire hard drive resurfaces**

LockBit Ransomware Gang Returns, Taunts FBI and Vows Data Leaks

By Deeba Ahmed
Migo Malware Campaign: User-Mode Rootkit Hides Cryptojacking on Linux Systems.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: New Linux Malware “Migo” Exploits Redis for Cryptojacking, Disables Security

New “Migo” malware targets Linux servers, exploiting Redis for cryptojacking. Using a user-mode rootkit, hides its activity, making detection difficult. Secure your Redis servers and stay alert!

A sophisticated Linux malware campaign has been discovered **targeting Redis**, a popular data store system, to gain initial access using “System Weakening Commands,” revealed Cado Security Labs.

Cado researchers disclosed that the malware, dubbed Migo, exploits Redis for **cryptojacking**. The attackers execute commands on their target’s Redis servers to disable configuration options and make them vulnerable before deploying the payload.

The primary payload, Migo, is a Golang ELF binary that retrieves an **XMRig installer** from GitHub. Redis system weakening commands are used to disable configuration options, such as protected mode and replica-read-only, using CLI commands to execute malicious payloads from external sources like **Pastebin** to mine cryptocurrency in the background.

For your information, Protected mode is a Redis server operating mode introduced in version 3.2.0 to mitigate potential network exposure. It only accepts connections from the loopback interface and is likely disabled at initial access to allow attackers to send additional commands.

Conversely, the replica-read-only feature in Redis prevents accidental writes to replicas that may result in out-of-sync. Cado researchers report exploitation of this feature for malicious payload delivery, with Migo attackers likely disabling it for future Redis server exploitation.

Migo uses compile-time obfuscation and a user-mode rootkit ‘libprocesshider,’ to hide processes and artefacts, making it difficult for security analysts to detect and mitigate the threat. Once the miner is installed, Migo sets XMRig’s configuration to query system information, including logged-in users and resource limits.

“It also sets the number of Huge Pages available on the system to 128, using the vm.nr\_hugepages parameter. These actions are fairly typical for cryptojacking malware,” Matt Muir, Cado Security’s security researcher noted in a **blog post**.

It executes shell commands to copy the binary, disable SELinux, identify uninstallation scripts, execute the miner, kill competing processes, register persistence, and prevent outbound traffic to specific IP addresses and domains.

Moreover, Migo relies on systemd service and timer for persistence and the developers have obfuscated symbols and strings in the pclntab structure to complicate the malware analysis process. The involvement of a user-mode rootkit also complicates post-incident forensics of compromised hosts, and libprocesshider hides on-disk artefacts.

Migo’s emergence shows that cloud-focused attackers are continually refining their techniques and focused on exploiting web-facing services. They used Redis system weakening commands to disable security features, a move not previously reported in campaigns exploiting Redis for initial access, researchers concluded.

****RELATED ARTICLES****

1.  **Hackers behind Mirai botnet & DYN DDoS attacks plead guilty**
2.  **Hackers behind Mirai botnet to avoid jail for working with the FBI**
3.  **Tiny Mantis Botnet Can Launch Powerful DDoS Attacks Than Mirai**
4.  **Reaper malware outshines Mirai; hits millions of IoT devices worldwide**
5.  **Mirai Variant ‘OMG’ Turns IoT Devices into Proxy Servers for Cryptomining**

New Linux Malware “Migo” Exploits Redis for Cryptojacking, Disables Security

One of our customers found their vibrator was buzzing with a hint of malware.

I know that some of you are expecting a post similar to that about a toothbrush botnet, but this is not a hypothetical case. It actually happened.

A Malwarebytes Premium customer started a thread on Reddit saying we had blocked malware from trying to infect their computer after they connected a vibrator to a USB port in order to charge the device.

The vibrator, Spencer’s Sexology Pussy Power 8-Function Rechargeable Bullet Vibrator, was infected with an information stealer known as Lumma.

Lumma is available through a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model, where cybercriminals pay other cybercriminals for access to malicious software and its related infrastructure. Lumma steals information from cryptocurrency wallets and browser extensions, as well as two-factor authentication details. Lumma is often distributed via email campaigns, but nothing stops the cybercriminals from spreading it through infected USB drives, as is the case here.

The question that remains is, how did the vibrator get infected? The victim bought the vibrator at Spencer’s, so we reached out to the company in an attempt to get to the bottom of this.

Spencer’s acknowledged that it was aware of the problem, but the team investigating the issue was unable to provide further information at this point. We’ll keep you updated if we receive word from them or find out any more information ourselves.

Our advice when it comes to USB devices, including rechargeable vibrators:

*   Don’t connect the USB to your computer for charging. If you use a good old-fashioned AC plug socket then no data transfer can take place while you charge.
*   If you still want the option to connect via USB, USB condoms or “juice-jack defenders” as they are sometimes called will prevent accidental data exchange when your device is plugged into another device with a USB cable.
*   Treat untrusted devices like you would the “lost USB stick” in the parking lot. You know you shouldn’t connect those to your computer, right?
*   Always use security software. In this case, the customer was protected by Malwarebytes Premium. If they weren’t using security software, their personal information might have ended up in the hands of cybercriminals.

**Technical details**

The customer was kind enough to provide us with the content of the flash drive. On it were a host of XML files and a Microsoft Software Installer file (Mia_Khalifa 18+.msi).

The XML files all look very similar to the above and seem to be designed to functions as an XML bomb. An XML bomb is an exponential entity expansion attack, similar to a ZIP bomb, that is designed to crash the web application. This is likely used to draw the attention of the victim away from the actual malware.

The installer creates a program entry called Outweep Dynes.

The Outweep Dynes “program” is yet another installer dropped in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Outweep Dynes\InstallerPlus_v3e.5m.exe

To hinder reverse engineering, extraction of the executable is password protected. But with the password hardcoded in the file, that was not a problem.

The file then executes a heavily obfuscated portable executable detected by Malwarebytes as Trojan.Crypt.MSIL which is Malwarebytes’ generic detection name for a type of obfuscated Trojan programmed in Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL).

The dropped executable is a combination of the Lumma Stealer and an additional .NET dll library.

Malwarebytes ThreatDown customers enjoy protection by Advanced Device Control. When a USB device is connected, ThreatDown now doesn’t just control access—it actively scans it. You can also now choose to block the device until the system scans it. This means threats are stopped in their tracks, well before they can do any harm.

**IOCs**

**Program name:**

Outweep Dynes

**Folder:**

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Outweep Dynes

**Filenames:**

*   InstallerPlus_v3e.5m.exe
*   Installer-Advanced-Installergenius_v4.8z.1l.exe

**SHA256 hashes:**

*   207ee8fb2a824009fe72a857e041297bde3b82626b8883bc05ca8572b4dd148a
*   e0f4382f4534c2c0071ce0779d21f0fed59f428cdb622b1945e0a54157c19f95
*   be6efe16701cb69ec6e48441a6ad1c1f934e0f92878ccdfafc3f52cbc97be5c2

**Vibrator:**

Spencer’s Sexology Pussy Power 8-Function Rechargeable Bullet Vibrator

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 Vibrator virus steals your personal information 

Plus: State-backed hackers test out generative AI, the US takes down a major Russian military botnet, and 100 hospitals in Romania go offline amid a major ransomware attack.

While the response to Cowles’ tale has been a mix of praise and mockery, experts in online threats say it’s foolish to think you’re too savvy to never fall for a professional scammer. “The reality is, criminals perpetuating fraud—whether via phone, email, or social media—are very good at social engineering,” says Selena Larson, a senior threat intelligence analyst at security firm Proofpoint, who describes Cowles as “extremely courageous.”

Manipulative tactics the scammers used against Cowles are common. They include, Larson says, “making someone afraid for themselves or their families, making them excited or enticed by the possibility of money or romance, or any number of heightened emotions to push them into making decisions they otherwise wouldn’t.” To protect yourself from scams like the one that hooked Cowles, Larson suggests being on high alert for anyone trying to isolate you from people in your life, and don’t trust someone posing as a government employee or celebrity. “Forcing a sense of urgency,” like asking for money immediately, is also a huge red flag. “If people are worried they are being targeted by fraudsters,” Larson says, “they should immediately break off contact and report the activity.”

Or you can adopt Cowles' new tactic: Never answer the phone.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are all the rage—including among hackers working on behalf of Russia, China, and North Korea, according to research published this week by Microsoft and OpenAI. While researchers note that they have “not identified significant attacks” that use large language models like those powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT, they did find widespread use of generative AI tools for research, reconnaissance, “basic scripting tasks,” and ways to improve code used to carry out cyberattacks. “Microsoft and OpenAI have not yet observed particularly novel or unique AI-enabled attack or abuse techniques resulting from threat actors’ usage of AI,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post outlining the research. “However, Microsoft and our partners continue to study this landscape closely.”

The US Department of Justice announced this week that it had disrupted a botnet controlled by APT28, a hacking group known as Fancy Bear that operates under Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. According to the DOJ, the hackers infected hundreds of routers used by homes and businesses with the “Moobot” malware, which the DOJ says is linked to a cybercriminal group. Fancy Bear hackers then used to Moobot to “install their own bespoke scripts and files that repurposed the botnet, turning it into a global cyber espionage platform,” according to the DOJ. To seize control of the botnet, the US government also used the Moobot malware to delete “stolen and malicious data” in the routers and then tweaked the routers’ firewalls to prevent the hackers from accessing them remotely. US attorney general Merrick Garland praised the operation in a statement as a successful effort to “dismantle the Russian government’s malicious cyber tools that endanger the security of the United States and our allies.”

Ransomware attacks frequently target hospitals, but few have had as widespread an impact as a strike against Romania’s health care system this week. Approximately 100 hospitals took their systems offline after attackers hit a popular hospital management system. Romanian officials say 25 hospitals had their data encrypted by the ransomware, which targeted the Hipocrate Information System (HIS) on the night of February 11. Another 75 hospitals voluntarily took their systems offline to avoid possible infection. The disruption has forced the hospitals to revert to paper records. The attackers, who have not yet been identified, demanded a ransom of 3.5 bitcoin, or around $180,000, to decrypt the files.

How to Not Get Scammed Out of $50,000

The U.S. government on Thursday said it disrupted a botnet comprising hundreds of small office and home office (SOHO) routers in the country that was put to use by the Russia-linked APT28 actor to conceal its malicious activities.
"These crimes included vast spear-phishing and similar credential harvesting campaigns against targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, such as U.S.

U.S. Government Disrupts Russian-Linked Botnet Engaged in Cyber Espionage

There was about a 24-hour period where many news outlets reported on a reported DDoS attack that involved a botnet made up of thousands of internet-connected toothbrushes.

Thursday, February 15, 2024 14:00

I’ll be the first to admit that, like many people on the internet last week, I got caught up in the toothbrush distributed denial-of-service attack that wasn’t.  

I had a whole section on it written up in last week’s newsletter, and then I came across Graham Cluley’s blog post debunking the whole thing, and I had to delete it about an hour before the newsletter went live.  

There was about a 24-hour period where many news outlets reported on a reported DDoS attack that involved a botnet made up of thousands of internet-connected toothbrushes, it all started with one international newspaper report, and then was aggregated to death and spread quickly on social media.  

This attack was only a _hypothetical_ that a security researcher posed in an interview but was reported or translated as an attack that happened. 

To me, I think we can all learn from a few major takeaways from this entire saga — myself included.  

It’s easy to see why this was a ready-made story to go viral: It involved a silly device that probably doesn’t need to be connected to the internet anyway, it involved a large number that would grab headlines and it was a DDoS attack, which have suddenly come back in vogue over the past year. 

But, I’ll admit, the aggregated stories seemed a little fishy to me at first, because all the reports didn’t include any specifics about which company was targeted, how long the attack lasted, or the name of the device that was reportedly compromised. 

That last part should be a red flag going forward for any of us wanting to share a meme about something the next time a cybersecurity story goes viral — in my opinion, responsible disclosure of an attack or compromise should always include information about whatever vulnerability it was that was exploited. In this hypothetical scenario, I don’t think an adversary would have been able to compromise an internet-connected toothbrush without first exploiting some sort of vulnerability, which if it’s being reported on in public, should at least include information on patches or mitigations. 

I also think we all need to be asking the fundamental question: Why? In this case, I should have asked myself why an attacker would want to go through the trouble of compromising smart toothbrushes. And what would be the end goal of targeting a private company with a DDoS attack? Likely, it would be to demand a ransom in exchange for the attacker stopping the attack, but without knowing what sector the targeted company was in, it’s tough to guess how profitable that might even be. (For example, a health care agency may be looking to do anything to get back to operating asap, as lives could literally be at stake.) 

And once the attacker compromised a toothbrush, what information can they glean from the user besides their dental hygiene habits? Usually, they’d be looking to steal some sort of personal information, login credentials or financial data that they could then turn around and sell on the dark web. 

Needless to say, there were multiple red flags we all ignored when this story started to spread. And I’m not here to blame anyone in this case; it was all honest mistakes that, all things considered, ended up not being that serious. But the toothbrush botnet that wasn’t does serve as a reminder to all of us to be a bit more mindful before clicking share or posting a story on social media.  

**The one big thing **

Cisco Talos has identified a new backdoor authored and operated by the Turla APT group, a Russian cyber espionage threat group. This new backdoor we’re calling “TinyTurla-NG” (TTNG) is similar to Turla’s previously disclosed implant, TinyTurla, in coding style and functionality implementation. Talos assesses with high confidence that TinyTurla-NG, just like TinyTurla, is a small “last chance” backdoor that is left behind to be used when all other unauthorized access/backdoor mechanisms have failed or been detected on the infected systems. 

**Why do I care? **

Turla has been widely known to target entities across the world using a huge set of offensive tools in geographies including the U.S., European Union, Ukraine and Asia. They’ve previously used malware families such as CAPIBAR and KAZUAR to target Ukrainian defense forces. After Crutch and TinyTurla, Turla has now expanded their arsenal to include the TinyTurla-NG and TurlaPower-NG malware families, while also widening its net of targets to NGOs. 

**So now what? **

Talos has released new ClamAV signatures and Snort rules to protect against TinyTurla and the actors’ actions. We don’t know what the initial access vector is, so it’s tough to give targeted advice on how to avoid this malware, but having any endpoint detection in place will block this “last chance” backdoor.  

**Top security headlines of the week **

**Chinese state-sponsored actor Volt Typhoon may have silently sat on U.S. critical infrastructure networks for more than five years,** according to a new report from American intelligence agencies. According to the advisory, the infamous hacking group has been exploiting vulnerabilities in routers, firewalls and VPNs to target water, transportation, energy and communications systems across the country. Volt Typhoon has been able to control some victims’ surveillance camera systems, and the access could have allowed them to disrupt critical energy and water controls. The actor is known for using living-off-the-land binaries (LoLBins) to remain undetected once they gain an initial foothold. Authorities in Canada, Australia and New Zealand also contributed to last week’s advisory, citing their concern for similar activity in their countries. The FBI’s director recently said in testimony to U.S. Congress that authorities had dismantled a bot network of hundreds of compromised devices that was connected to VoltTyphoon. (Axios, The Guardian) 

**A new spyware network called TheTruthSpy may have compromised hundreds of Android devices using silent tracking apps that users download thinking they’re legitimate.** Security researchers uncovered the information of thousands of devices that have already been compromised, including their IMEI numbers and advertising IDs. TheTruthSpy appears to actively spy on large clusters of victims across Europe, India, Indonesia, the U.S. and U.K. The operators behind TheTruthSpy also did not address a security vulnerability in the software, identified as CVE-2022-0732, which left the victim data they stole potentially vulnerable to other bad actors. These types of stalkerware tools are often used by family members, spouses or peers of victims who want to track their physical locations and spy on messages and phone calls. The spyware is downloaded via an app, which doesn’t appear on the victim’s home screen and operates quietly in the background. (TechCrunch, maia blog) 

**Apple removed a fake LastPass app called “LassPass” after the popular password management service reported it.** The phony LassPass used a similar logo to that of the legitimate LastPass and was up on the App Store for an unknown amount of time. Apple also said it was removing the creator of the app from its Developer Program. This is a very rare case for the Apple App Store, as it has a strict review policy. LastPass released a warning to all users last week of the fake app’s existence, including a link to the legitimate LastPass app. LassPass only had one review on the store, and multiple reviews warning it was fake. However, it’s safe to assume that the app was likely set up as some sort of phishing scam meant to get users to enter their legitimate LastPass login information to be stolen by the fake app’s creator. (Ars Technica, Bleeping Computer) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Beers with Talos Ep. #143: The Reddit security diaries 
*   The Need to Know: How are attackers using QR codes in phishing emails and lure documents? 
*   First Microsoft Patch Tuesday zero-day of 2024 disclosed as part of group of 75 vulnerabilities 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

**S4x24** **(March 4 - 27)** 

Miami Beach, Florida 

_To protect themselves during Russian aggression, the Ukrainian military utilizes electronic warfare to blanket critical infrastructure to defeat radar and GPS-guided smart munitions. This has the unintended consequence of disrupting GPS synchrophasor clock measurements and creating service outages on an already beleaguered and damaged transmission electric grid. Joe Marshall from Talos’ Strategic Communications team will tell an incredible story of how a group of engineers and security professionals from a diverse coalition of organizations came together to solve this electronic warfare GPS problem in an unconventional technical way, and helped stabilize parts of the transmission grid of Ukraine._ 

**RSA** **(May 6 - 9)** 

_San Francisco, California_ 

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA 256:** a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91    
**MD5:** 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376   
**Typical Filename:** c0dwjdi6a.dll   
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Trojan.GenericKD.33515991 

**SHA 256:** 5616b94f1a40b49096e2f8f78d646891b45c649473a5b67b8beddac46ad398e1      
**MD5:** 3e10a74a7613d1cae4b9749d7ec93515      
**Typical Filename:** IMG001.exe      
**Claimed Product:** N/A      
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Coinminer::1201 

**SHA 256:** 59f1e69b68de4839c65b6e6d39ac7a272e2611ec1ed1bf73a4f455e2ca20eeaa     
**MD5:** df11b3105df8d7c70e7b501e210e3cc3     
**Typical Filename:** DOC001.exe     
**Claimed Product:** N/A     
**Detection Name:** Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201 

**SHA 256:** 5e537dee6d7478cba56ebbcc7a695cae2609010a897d766ff578a4260c2ac9cf   
**MD5:** 2cfc15cb15acc1ff2b2da65c790d7551   
**Typical Filename:** rcx4d83.tmp   
**Claimed Product:** N/A     
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Pykspa::tpd 

**SHA 256:** 77c2372364b6dd56bc787fda46e6f4240aaa0353ead1e3071224d454038a545e   
**MD5:** 040cd888e971f2872d6d5dafd52e6194   
**Typical Filename:** tmp000c3787   
**Claimed Product:** Ultra Virus Killer   
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Virus.Ultra::95.sbx.tg

Why the toothbrush DDoS story fooled us all

The Glupteba botnet has been found to incorporate a previously undocumented Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) bootkit feature, adding another layer of sophistication and stealth to the malware.
"This bootkit can intervene and control the [operating system] boot process, enabling Glupteba to hide itself and create a stealthy persistence that can be extremely difficult to

Glupteba Botnet Evades Detection with Undocumented UEFI Bootkit

By Waqas
The notorious Warzone Rat operation was active from 2018 until its takedown.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: US Takes Down Notorious Warzone RAT Malware Operation, Arrests 2

One suspect from Malta managed the Warzone Rat distribution network, while another from Nigeria developed and maintained the malware.

In a major blow to cybercrime, the US Department of Justice, along with international partners and private companies, has dismantled the infrastructure behind the infamous Warzone RAT malware. Two individuals believed to be key players in the operation have also been arrested, while the website used in the operation has been seized as well.

****What Was Warzone RAT?****

Warzone RAT, short for **Remote Access Trojan**, was a powerful and versatile tool used by cybercriminals to gain complete control over infected devices since 2018.

This malware granted attackers access to steal sensitive data like passwords and financial information, spy on victims through webcams and microphones, lock them out of their devices for ransom, and even launch further attacks. Its widespread use and sophisticated capabilities made it a major threat to individuals and organizations alike.

The website that sold Warzone RAT (Screenshot: Hackread.com)

****Operation Shut Down:****

On February 9, 2024, the US Department of Justice **announced** a coordinated effort involving the FBI, international law enforcement agencies, and private cybersecurity firms that successfully dismantled the Warzone RAT infrastructure. This action effectively crippled the malware’s distribution and operation, significantly disrupting cybercriminal activities relying on it.

****Arrests Made:****

As part of the operation, two individuals were arrested and charged with their involvement in the Warzone RAT scheme. One suspect, residing in Malta, was accused of managing the malware distribution network. The other, based in Nigeria, was allegedly responsible for developing and maintaining the malware itself. Both face serious charges related to computer fraud and abuse.

****Impact and Significance:****

The takedown of Warzone RAT represents a significant victory for law enforcement and cybersecurity experts. It demonstrates the effectiveness of collaboration between international partners and the private sector in combating **large-scale cybercrime**. While this specific threat has been neutralized, it serves as a reminder that the fight against cybercrime is an ongoing battle.

The specific details of the investigation and technical aspects of the operation that dismantled Warzone RAT remain undisclosed for security reasons. The disruption of Warzone RAT is expected to have a ripple effect on other cybercriminal activities that relied on this tool. Continued collaboration and attention from law enforcement and cybersecurity experts are essential to **combat evolving cyber threats**.

****What You Can Do:****

While the dismantling of Warzone RAT is encouraging, it’s crucial to remain alert against growing cyber threats. Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself:

*   **Keep software and operating systems updated.**
*   **Use strong and unique passwords for all accounts.**
*   **Stay informed about emerging cyber threats and scams.**
*   **Be cautious about clicking suspicious links or opening attachments.**
*   **Consider using a reputable security solution with anti-malware protection.**

1.  **FBI Disrupts Chinese State-Backed Volt Typhoon’s KV Botnet**
2.  **Qakbot Botnet Disrupted, Infected 700,000 Computers Globally**
3.  **Police Dismantle Phishing-as-a-Service Platform BulletProftLink**
4.  **Europe’s largest known illegal IPTV operation dismantled by police**
5.  **Ragnar Locker Ransomware Dismantled, Suspect Arrested, Site Seized**

US Takes Down Notorious Warzone RAT Malware Operation, Arrests 2

Plus: China’s Volt Typhoon hackers lurked in US systems for years, the Biden administration’s crackdown on spyware vendors ramps up, and a new pro-Beijing disinformation campaign gets exposed.

Documents exclusively obtained by WIRED reveal that AI surveillance software tracked thousands of people using the London Underground to detect crime or unsafe situations. The machine learning software scoured live CCTV footage to spot aggressive behavior, weapons being brandished, and people dodging fares. The documents also detail errors made during the trial—for instance, mistakenly identifying children walking with their parents as fare evaders.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis published a report finding ransomware payments in 2023 reached over $1.1 billion, the highest annual total ever recorded. The record-breaking sum of extorted funds was due to two things: the high number of ransomware attacks and the amount of money that hackers were demanding from victims, many of whom were targeted specifically for their ability to pay and their inability to sustain a prolonged disruption of services.

A tech company, notorious for keeping websites with far-right and other extreme content online, was bought last year by a secretive company whose business is to help set up businesses, often in ways that keep details of those companies secret, WIRED reported on Thursday. Registered Agents Inc.’s acquisition of Epik may allow the shadowy company to provide its customers with another layer of anonymity.

For the past month, senior security reporter Matt Burgess has been transitioning away from using passwords to log in to his hundreds of online accounts. Instead, he’s using passkeys, a more secure form of authentication that uses generated codes stored on your device to log in to websites and apps using a biometric identifier like a fingerprint, face scan, or PIN. When it works, it’s seamless and secure. When it doesn’t, it’s a mess.

WhatsApp is developing a feature to allow its users to message across apps, all while maintaining its secure end-to-end encryption. In theory, the move would allow users to chat with people on WhatsApp using apps like Signal or Telegram. It’s unclear which companies, if any, will link their services with WhatsApp.

And there’s more. Each week, we highlight the news we didn’t cover in-depth ourselves. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

Hackers have, in the real world, caused blackouts, set fire to a steel mill, and released worms that took down medical record systems in hospitals across the US and the UK. So it hardly seems necessary to invent new nightmares about them taking over our toothbrushes.

Yet, when the Swiss newspaper _Aargauer Zeitung_ published a story that cybercriminals had infected 3 million internet-connected toothbrushes with malware, then used them to launch a cyberattack that downed a website for four hours and caused millions of dollars in damage, the tale was somehow irresistible. This week, news outlets around the world picked up the story, which quoted the cybersecurity firm Fortinet as its source, spinning it out as the perfect illustration of how hackers can exploit the most mundane technology for epic malevolence. “This example, which seems like a Hollywood scenario, actually happened,” the Swiss newspaper wrote.

Except, of course, it didn’t. Cybersecurity professionals quickly started to point out that the story was unsupported by any evidence—and was somewhat absurd on its face. (Even the Mirai botnet, which knocked out its targets with record-breaking tsunamis of junk traffic and eventually broke a large fraction of the internet, infected only 650,000 internet-connected devices at its peak.)

Fortinet belatedly sought to correct the record, writing in public statements that “it appears that due to translations the narrative on this topic has been stretched to the point where hypothetical and actual scenarios are blurred.” But the _Aargauer Zeitung_ pointed the finger back at Fortinet, noting in a follow-up story that Fortinet provided exact details of the dental doomsday it described as real, and that the company even reviewed the text of the article prior to publication. Regardless of who’s to blame, at least this cyber urban legend has inspired some solid meme content.

Back to more factual cyber doomsday headlines: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency this week warned in a report that China’s hacker group known as Volt Typhoon had quietly maintained access to some US critical infrastructure networks for as long as half a decade. The report included detailed descriptions of the intrusion and persistence techniques used by the group, which has distinguished itself as perhaps China’s most aggressive state-sponsored hacking force. Volt Typhoon’s broad penetration of US electric grids, transportation networks, and other critical infrastructure has raised alarms among US federal agencies since as early as May of last year, when those agencies began to warn that the group appeared to be laying the groundwork for cyberwar-style attacks in the midst of any future conflict. Now it’s clear that those warnings came only years after the hackers’ sabotage preparations were well underway.

The Biden administration announced that it will restrict the visas of foreign sellers of commercial spyware, potentially preventing executives or associates of those surveillance firms from traveling to the US. The new regulation is part of the White House’s slow tightening of the screws on spyware seller firms like NSO Group, Cytrox, Intellexa, and Candiru, after an earlier move to place those firms on a Commerce Department trade blocklist and prevent US government agencies from buying those hacking firms’ tools. On the day of the announcement, Google released its own detailed report on alleged commercial spyware vendors, calling out a dozen of the companies by name and offering policy recommendations for protecting users.

Citizen Lab this week exposed a vast network of Chinese websites posing as local news sites across the globe, all used to post pro-Beijing disinformation and propaganda. The 123 sites, targeting audiences in more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, mixed innocuous commercial and cut-and-pasted content with anti-Western conspiracy theories, such as allegations of human experimentation carried out by the United States in Southeast Asia, and targeted attacks on critics of the Chinese government. While the visibility and impact of the influence operation has been “negligible,” according to Citizen Lab, it’s another sign of China’s growing efforts to wield disinformation as a soft power tactic.

How 3 Million ‘Hacked’ Toothbrushes Became a Cyber Urban Legend

FBI and CISA have produced guidance about Chinese APT group Volt Typhoon and other groups that use Living off the Land (LOTL) techniques.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other authoring agencies have released a joint guidance about common living off the land (LOTL) techniques and common gaps in cyber defense capabilities.

Living Off The Land (LOTL) is a covert cyberattack technique in which criminals carry out malicious activities using legitimate IT administration tools.

This joint guidance comes alongside a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) called PRC State-Sponsored Actors Compromise and Maintain Persistent Access to US Critical Infrastructure.

These publications are a reaction to recent warnings about attacks on critical infrastructure by groups allegedly connected to the Chinese (PRC) government.

The FBI recently used a court order to remove malware from hundreds of routers across the US because it believed the attack was the work of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group known as Volt Typhoon. US officials said the botnet was designed to give Chinese attackers persistent access to critical infrastructure. Routing their traffic through these gateways would hide the actual origin of malicious attempts to reach inside utilities and other targets.

In May of 2023, Microsoft uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity by Volt Typhoon. The activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States.

As Jen Easterly, the director of CISA put it in a hearing before the House Select Committee

> “We have seen a deeply concerning evolution of Chinese targeting of US critical infrastructure. We have seen them burrowing deep into critical infrastructure to enable destructive attacks. This is a world where a crisis across the world could well endanger the lives of Americans here.”

And it’s not just the US. The Dutch Military Intelligence Service (MIVD) found a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) on one of their networks which they identified as Chinese malware.

The Living of the Land (LOTL) guide does not exclusively focus on Chinese state actors though. It also includes methods deployed by Russian Federation state-sponsored actors, and will likely apply to Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) gangs that leverage legitimate tools to evade detection too.

So, it’s important to be aware of what your cybersecurity team, internal or managed (MDR) should be looking for when it comes to suspicious use of legitimate tools, unusual network connections, and other signs of malicious activities.

The guidance stipulates that LOTL is particularly effective because:

*   Many organizations lack effective security and network management practices (such as established baselines) that support detection of malicious LOTL activity—this makes it difficult for network defenders to discern legitimate behavior from malicious behavior and conduct behavioral analytics, anomaly detection, and proactive hunting.
*   There is a general lack of conventional indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with the activity, complicating network defenders’ efforts to identify, track, and categorize malicious behavior.
*   It enables cyber threat actors to avoid investing in developing and deploying custom tools.

So, it provides some best practices for detecting and hardening that are all explained in detail.

*   Implement write once, read many detailed logging to avoid the risk of attackers modifying or erasing logs.
*   Establish and continuously maintain baselines of network, user, administrative, and application activity and least privilege restrictions.
*   Build or acquire automation to continually review all logs to compare current activities against established behavioral baselines and alert on specified anomalies.
*   Reduce alert noise by fine-tuning via priority (urgency and severity) and continuously review detections based on trending activity.
*   Leverage user and entity behavior analytics to identify abnormal and potentially dangerous user and device behavior.
*   Apply and consult vendor-recommended guidance for security hardening.
*   Implement application allowlisting and monitor use of common LOTL binaries (LOLBins).
*   Enhance IT and OT network segmentation and monitoring.
*   Implement authentication and authorization controls for all human-to-software and software-to-software interactions regardless of network location.

Understanding the context of LOTL activities is crucial for accurate detection and response. Many of the tips that Malwarebytes provides for avoiding ransomware will prove to be useful in state sponsored attacks as well, although the latter can be even more targeted in some situations.

*   **Block common forms of entry.** Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
*   **Prevent intrusions.** Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
*   **Detect intrusions.** Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
*   **Stop malicious encryption.** Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like ThreatDown EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
*   **Create offsite, offline backups.** Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
*   **Don’t get attacked twice.** Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

Further on, CISA  urges software manufacturers to implement secure by design rules in their software, to reduce the prevalence of weak default configurations and passwords, recognize the need for low or no-cost enhanced logging, and other exploitable issues identified in the guide.

Insecure software allows threat actors to leverage flaws to enable LOTL techniques and the responsibility should not solely be on the end user. By using secure by design principles, software manufacturers can make their product lines secure out of the box without requiring customers to spend additional resources making configuration changes, purchasing security software and logs, monitoring, and making routine updates.

Living off the Land is one of six cyberthreats that resource-constrained IT teams need to be ready to combat in 2024, covered in our 2024 State of Malware report.

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