Bite Sized Cyber Crime

Everyone may get elaborate revenge fantasies but few follow through due to the bad outweighing the satisfaction. One man, sensing he was to be terminated soon, however, decided if he were to go he would try to take the whole company down with him. Last week he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Sources: https://pastebin.com/Pi0YSFUt

Water and energy are both critical resources to society. In a display of fear, pro-Russia hacktivists compromised a dam in Norway remotely, demonstrating that cyberattacks can have very physical implications. Sources: https://pastebin.com/mwwrPwtR

The UK recently proposed the banning of public sector organizations from paying ransomware ransoms, in an effort to discourage cybercriminals from targeting them. How may this end up working out though? Sources: https://pastebin.com/37jGGd9X

CISA has developed many interesting and powerful tools over the year for cybersecurity, but recently they made one of malware analysis and automation open source and available for the public to use. Thorium. Let's talk about what this tool can do. Sources: https://pastebin.com/zhmAvguE

An Arizona woman was arrested for running a North Korean IT worker laptop farm out of her home, and this gave us a little look into the strange world of how these threat actors are able to infiltrate US organizations. Sources: https://pastebin.com/qvrWirYa

FIDO is the passwordless authentication set of protocols of the future, however that doesn't mean it's perfect and as cyber defenders attack, so do attackers. This novel exploit isn't a flaw within FIDO exploit but does threaten improperly implemented versions of it. Sources: https://pastebin.com/fmUZEBAM

With cars becoming just another type of computer, and having rather complicated implementations, vulnerabilities in one system are major. A recent series of vulnerabilities discovered in OpenSynergy's BlueSDK could prove dangerous. Sources: https://pastebin.com/5JHAyuAV

Ransomware negotiators may be called in to save some financial burden on organizations suffering from one of the worst cyberattacks they can. However, they seem like the natural people for ransomware groups to corrupt, and allegedly one such group did corrupt one such person. Sources: https://pastebin.com/fANnhtTj

Printers are the bane of many's existence, but they may have just gotten worse for security professionals. Rapid7 discovered 8 new vulnerabilities mostly impacting Brother branded printers, one of which cannot be patched by the vendor and leaks the admin password of the device. Sources: https://pastebin.com/vNDbrwsU

News has hit the mainstream media that all your passwords have been leaked yet again, in a massive password leak including Google, Meta, and Apple. But how much of that sensationalized story is true? Sources: https://pastebin.com/Xi1MPpFg

And it could happen to you too. On this week's episode of Bite Size Cyber Crime I detail an actual scam I fell for and emphasize that anyone can be a victim of a scam anywhere on the internet.

Malware is everywhere, even inside of other malware. One tool advertising itself as an advanced remote access trojan ended up being much more, a backdoor infecting novice hackers. This was not just a one off, however, and lead to the discovery of a massive backdoored malware campaign infecting other hackers and gaming cheaters. Sources: https://pastebin.com/C4DG6LTw

Using an MSP can be handy for getting your IT set up or managing technical support without hiring a lot of full time staff, but there are risks that can come with outsourcing your IT to a third party. One MSP was compromised, leading to many customers having ransomware headaches. Sources: https://pastebin.com/hLKSqRaS

Piracy and accidentally getting malware go hand in hand for many, and though the days of Limewire viruses on your Linkin Park albums are mostly over, modern problems require modern solutions so attackers have moved to modern platforms to spread malware to those not interested in paying for software. Sources: https://pastebin.com/i7yriZXy

Coinbase is one of the largest crypto exchanges, but when corrupt employees are compromised into handing over data to scammers, a series of social engineering attacks took place. The scammers demanded a ransom, but Coinbase fired back. Sources: https://pastebin.com/dTZR6hKw

Pearson is an education giant, providing learning tools and standardized assessments across many fields, schools, and organizations. Recently they were breached by what was likely a series of relatively minor mistakes. Sources: https://pastebin.com/YemUE0Xi

This is one of the craziest stories I've ever covered in my 3 years of this podcast, and hearing both sides somehow makes the situation even less clear. Cybersecurity firm CEO Jeff Bowie accessed hospital computers and wrote malicious scripts on them intended to steal data. But why? Sources: https://pastebin.com/qqLMem11

NFC has allowed for payments to be easier than ever, but it was only a matter of time before this method was exploited by threat actors. A bold, new real time malware that leverages NFC has been making rounds. Sources: https://pastebin.com/QgquMLj8

The CVE program is essential for tracking vulnerabilities all across the technology industry, but what happens when funding is cut? Let's talk about what's been going on with the CVE program. Sources: https://pastebin.com/QPVXe6kD

You're always told to never plug in a random flash drive because it may have malware on it, but is that really a thing? The answer is yes, and it can potentially compromise a military mission. Sources: https://pastebin.com/LURNpcH5

Tax season is a stressful time for many in the US, and this creates the perfect opportunity for a number of scams against virtually anyone living in the US. Be aware of fake documents, fake filing services, and unusual emails. Sources: https://pastebin.com/zJQGMndk

A hacker claimed to have stolen 6 million lines of data from Oracle, which Oracle swiftly denied. However when security firms received data samples and showed them to customers, the data was confirmed to be real. Sources: https://pastebin.com/6WnaeYZs

Google, though a tech giant, has lagged behind Amazon and Microsoft when it comes to cloud computing, but this bold new acquisition could bridge that gap... or introduce legal troubles. Sources: https://pastebin.com/004Wu6hv

Elon Musk has become a controversial political figure, leaving little surprise that one of his projects, the X platform, became a target for a hacktivist group, leaving the major social media platform down from a DDoS attack. Sources: https://pastebin.com/Pa6b0nrm

Ransomware groups sometimes run into issues, like being blocked by security tools, and often have to pivot. Some techniques are less conventional than others, but are just as destructive. Here's how a webcam led to ransomware being deployed org wide. Sources: https://pastebin.com/FHxVYgBg

Building access management is an important part of physical security that has only become more intelligent. However, with all the data on these systems that exist on employees it is important that they are properly secured. Recently, 49,000 systems were found unsecured on the open internet with data viewable, and sometimes modifiable. Sources: https://pastebin.com/8feGBvEu

Government contractors are expected to follow certain compliance policies, so what happens when a company lies about compliance? Hefty fines tend to follow. Sources: https://pastebin.com/vJPEikD9

SWATting is a dangerous crime that involves making extreme police reports against people to illicit a response from the SWAT team. This has resulted in innocent people being killed or injured. One teen turned making these reports into a business and was recently sentenced to 4 years in prison for it. Learn about his crimes and methodology today. Sources: https://pastebin.com/ET9xMi85

Recently a new crypto stealing malware was found in apps on both the Google Play, and the famously restrictive Apple App Store, but it seems not to be its own app, but rather something inserted into existing apps at a later time to steal passphrases for crypto wallets from images on devices. Sources: https://pastebin.com/fHgDP4fg

Recently a brand new generative AI model came out of nowhere and blew up overnight. There are a lot of controversies and concerns surrounding this model, providing more efficient AI but also bringing a lot of data sensitivity risks and topics of government censorship to the forefront. Sources: https://pastebin.com/WRGERYCE

Pwn2Own by TrendMicro's Zero Day Initiative is a hacking contest where people try to hack "up to date" products to discover zero day vulnerabilities in them and win cash prizes for doing so. The automotive version of this contest not only involved cars themselves, but chargers for electric vehicles. Sources: https://pastebin.com/4siwYEYK

Job offer scams are sadly rather common, but most of the time it's a waste of time or an identity theft scam rather than a scam that installs unauthorized crypto miners on your devices. A new scam email impersonating Crowdstrike that is targeting developers does just that. Sources: https://pastebin.com/Lpg673yh

The US Department of Treasury was targeted in a suspected state-sponsored hack. No ransomware was deployed, though the threat actors compromised machines remotely, linked to a BeyondTrust data breach and accessed many unclassified documents. Sources: https://pastebin.com/rUi3Wdxg

Deepfakes and AI image and video generation have become nearly indistinguishable from real people to the naked eye. This creates a problem when it comes to identity verification that involves previously very difficult to fake Face ID systems. Recently a deep web identity fraud database was being build was scraped data and images with the intention to target financial accounts. Sources: https://pastebin.com/X7acHzs9

The healthcare industry remains one of the top targeted by hackers, and even the biggest healthcare organizations are not safe. Sources: https://pastebin.com/UgauFXsL

In 1999 one of the most infamous viruses was released on the world, slowing down email systems and causing chaos in the corporate world and among personal computer users. Sources: https://pastebin.com/FgE9ETKk

Telecom providers across many countries have been compromised by an APT, which means your text messages may be vulnerable if you text people with different phones, due to insecurities in text message protocols. Fortunately there's some solutions. Sources: https://pastebin.com/pMnEP6Lj

Game engines are used to help developers create games we love, but where code can be written, malware can be written, and one group has figured out a way to exploit the Godot game engine to discreetly package malware that often goes undetected. Sources: https://pastebin.com/5b3LcJpW

A hacking group boasted about breaching car manufacturer Ford's network and stealing data on 44,000 customers, selling it for 2 dollars on hacking forums for everyone to enjoy. The only problem? That data isn't exactly what they claimed. Sources: https://pastebin.com/d7r88Q7m

Simple misconfiguration can often lead to disaster, and sometimes that disaster is a threat actor sneakily taking over your trusted website and using it to host malware, send phishing emails, or control botnets. Here's a surprisingly easily exploited DNS oversight that has allowed threat actors to take over 70,000 websites. Sources: https://pastebin.com/DqXL1BRb

Ransomware groups typically request payments in the form of crypto, but newcomers Hellcat wanted to get this bread in a more literal sense. So why bread? There may be a more realistic reason than you'd think... Sources: https://pastebin.com/kAkdLJD5

There's all sorts of online shopping scams, but one of the newest ones discovered exploits legitimate eshops by creating fake product listings on other people's websites and redirecting shoppers to an attacker-controlled page that will steal credit card data. Sources: https://pastebin.com/VS9XFHRF

The Flipper Zero is a notorious hacking tool used to wreak havoc on traffic lights, banks, locks, and cars. Or is it? What can the Flipper actually do, and is it really as dangerous as it seems on Tik Tok? Sources: https://pastebin.com/cnJyQkXC

A couple months ago security education company KnowBe4 accidentally hired a North Korean threat actor who tried to install malware on their machine. Turns out this may not be as uncommon as you'd think. Recently a network of North Korean threat actors applying for jobs, and US citizens helping them, has been uncovered. Sources: https://pastebin.com/1npHD8cA

The Internet Archive is a website vital in the preservation of digital information, and recently it was attacked on two separate occasions. Here's what went down. Sources: https://pastebin.com/nbhNFAv5

Ever receive a weird wrong number text or match with someone on a dating site who starts talking about crypto? It may be part of a long term scam meant to drain you of as much money as you're willing to part with to make a big investment. Once it seems too good to be true and you go to withdraw your earnings, suddenly you realize you've lost it all.

Cars are just big computers now, and that means they are vulnerable to exploits that could allow a concerning amount of control over them. Security researchers discovered a vulnerability in the Kia dealer portal that could allow a hacker remote control over millions of cars made after 2013. Sources: https://pastebin.com/tsJGg8jq

The Tor network allows for anonymous connections to unindexed search engines, including to online criminal services. Recently though, German authorities claimed to have de-anonymized a user using Tor and made an arrest. Has Tor finally been cracked, or is this a scare tactic to instill fear in threat actors? Sources: https://pastebin.com/Hfrrbdag

YubiKeys are physical authentication devices that have a lot of flexibility and are compatible with just about every service, but as it turns out if you know a lot about math and electronics you can uncover the private keys and clone the device! Sources: https://pastebin.com/WacbUmA1

The city of Columbus, Ohio had a data breach occur in July. According to the mayor, the information leaked was nothing important to hackers. A security researcher proved that this was not the case, that the data was incredibly sensitive. In response, the city sued him. Sources: https://pastebin.com/C632hthD