ESET researchers have recently discovered a previously undocumented botnet named VictoryGate. It has been active since at least May 2019, and is composed mainly of devices in Peru, where over 90% of the infected devices are located. The main activity of the botnet is mining Monero cryptocurrency. The victims include organizations in both public and … More ESET researchers disrupt cryptomining botnet VictoryGate
The attack, unleashed by a 400,000-strong Mirai-style botnet, may be the largest of its kind on record. A botnet made up of 402,000 enslaved Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices has staged a 13-day distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against an undisclosed streaming service, according to a blog post by cybersecurity firm Imperva. The company said it successfully counteracted the onslaught and the … More Streaming service withstands 13‑day DDoS siege
A reflection on how acknowledging the cumulative nature of cyber-threats and understanding its implications can benefit our digital security. Threat cumulativity is a term I began to use in 2018 to refer to the tendency of new technologies to spawn new threats that add to old threats without displacing them. In this article I give … More What is threat cumulativity and what does it mean for digital security?
Far-fetched though it may sound, the answer is yes, according to researchers, who show that electrical grids and smart home appliances could make for a dangerous mix. Cybercriminals could rope internet-connected household appliances into a botnet in order to manipulate the demand side of the power grid and, ultimately, cause anything from local outages to large-scale blackouts, … More Could home appliances knock down power grids?
Internet-connected irrigation systems suffer from security gaps that could be exploited by attackers aiming, for example, to deplete a city’s water reserves, researchers warn. Security researchers have warned of a potential attack that – using a “piping botnet” of internet-connected irrigation systems that water simultaneously – could impact a city’s water system to the point of … More Smart irrigation systems vulnerable to attacks, warn researchers
