Money-making machine: Monero-mining malware

While the world is holding its breath, wondering where notorious cybercriminal groups like Lazarus or Telebots will strike next with another destructive malware such as WannaCryptor or Petya, there are many other, less aggressive, much stealthier and often very profitable operations going on. One such operation has been going on since at least May 2017, … More Money-making machine: Monero-mining malware

Gamescom 2017: It’s all fun and games until black hats step in

ESET researchers have discovered a new sneaky malware threat named Joao, targeting gamers worldwide. Spread via hacked Aeria games offered on unofficial websites, the modular malware can download and install virtually any other malicious code on the victim’s computer. To spread their malware, the attackers behind Joao have misused massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) originally published by … More Gamescom 2017: It’s all fun and games until black hats step in

Gmail now warns iOS users about suspicious links in fight against phishing threats

Should you really be clicking on those links you just received in your email? Despite all the headlines about zero-day threats and state-sponsored attacks, the rather less dramatic truth is that the majority of security incidents start with a user simply clicking on a malicious link or opening a dangerous attachment – threats that we’ve … More Gmail now warns iOS users about suspicious links in fight against phishing threats

Social engineering and ransomware

Journalist Kevin Townsend asked my opinion on a report from de Montfort University (in Leicester, in the UK) offering analysis of what the report calls ‘splash pages’ of various examples of ransomware, and claiming to show that ‘whilst there was a wide variation in the construction of ransomware splash screens, there was a good degree of commonality, … More Social engineering and ransomware