By Dancho Danchev
Over the last day, cybercriminals have launched yet another massive email campaign to impersonate FedWire in an attempt to trick users into thinking that their wire transfer was processed incorrectly. Once they execute the malicious attachment, their PCs automatically become part of the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/gang of cybercriminals.
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By Roy Tobin
Recently we have seen an increase in fake Microsoft scams, which function by tricking people into thinking that their PC is infected. With these types of scams there are a number of things to remember.
1. Microsoft will never call you telling you that your PC is infected
2. Never allow strangers to connect to your PC
3. Do not give any credit card info to somebody claiming to be from Microsoft
4. If in doubt, shut down your PC and call Webroot
The current scam will display a webpage that is very similar to the one in Figure 1. There are a number of ways to figure out that this is a false alert. The first is that it’s a website message and not a program; the second is that location of the web site will be a random string of letters.
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By Dancho Danchev
In 2013, you no longer need to posses sophisticated programming skills to manage a ransomware botnet, potentially tricking tens of thousands of gullible users, per day, into initiating a micro-payment to pay the ransom for having their PC locked down. You’ve got managed ransomware services doing it for you.
In this post I’ll profile a recently spotted underground market proposition detailing the success story of a ransomware botnet master that’s been in business for over 4 years, claiming to be earning over five hundred thousands rubles per month.
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By Dancho Danchev
How are cybercriminals most commonly abusing legitimate Web traffic?
On the majority of occasions, some will either directly embed malicious iFrames on as many legitimate Web sites as possible, target server farms and the thousands of customers that they offer services to, or generate and upload invisible doorways on legitimate, high pagerank-ed Web properties, in an attempt to monetize the hijacked search traffic.
In this post I’ll profile a DIY blackhat SEO doorway generator, that surprisingly, has a built-in module allowing the cybercriminal using it to detect and remove 21 known Web backdoors (shells) from the legitimate Web site about to be abused, just in case a fellow cybercriminal has already managed to compromise the same site.
Are turf wars back in (the cybercrime) business? Let’s find out.
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By Dancho Danchev
Relying on tens of thousands of fake “Your transaction is completed” emails, cybercriminals have just launched yet another malicious spam campaign attempting to socially engineer Bank of America’s (BofA) customers into executing a malicious attachment. Once unsuspecting users do so, their PCs automatically join the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/gang of cybercriminals operating it, leading to a successful compromise of their hosts.
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By Dancho Danchev
Over the past couple of days, cybercriminals have launched two consecutive malware campaigns impersonating DHL in an attempt to trick users into thinking that they’ve received a parcel delivery notification. The first campaign comes with a malicious attachment, whereas in the second, the actual malicious archive is located on a compromised domain.
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By Dancho Danchev
Following the recent events, opportunistic cybercriminals have been spamvertising tens of thousands of malicious emails in an attempt to capitalize on on the latest breaking news.
We’re currently aware of two “Boston marathon explosion” themed campaigns that took place last week, one of which is impersonating CNN, and another is using the “fertilizer plant exposion in Texas” theme, both of which redirect to either the RedKit or the market leading Black Hole Exploit Kit.
Let’s profile the campaigns that took place last week, with the idea to assist in the ongoing attack attribution process.
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