NEWS:
Europol Report Highlights Pandemic’s Effect on Cybercrime
Europol’s Serious Organized Crime Threat Assessment report 2021 summarizes the criminal threat of the last four years and provides insights into what to expect over the next four years. While focused on Europe, it will not be substantively different to other areas of the globe. Organized crime is not limited to cybercrime, but cybercrime has become a major part of organized criminal activity. Europol sees this increasing – business transformation, the increasingly digital society, and the growth of remote working all provide new vulnerabilities and more opportunities for exploitation. “Critical infrastructures will continue to be targeted by cybercriminals in the coming years, which poses significant risks,” warns the report.
Over 750,000 Users Downloaded New Billing Fraud Apps From Google Play Store
Researchers have uncovered a new set of fraudulent Android apps in the Google Play store that were found to hijack SMS message notifications for carrying out billing fraud. The apps in question primarily targeted users in Southwest Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, attracting a total of 700,000 downloads before they were discovered and removed from the platform. The findings were reported independently by cybersecurity firms Trend Micro and McAfee.
Lazarus APT has found a clever way to conceal its malicious code
Lazarus APT, a North Korean threat actor known for its sophisticated attacks, has been observed using a clever method to bypass security mechanisms by hiding its malicious code within a bitmap (.BMP) image file used to drop a remote access trojan (RAT) capable of stealing sensitive information. According to researchers at Malwarebytes Labs, in the recent phishing campaign Lazarus distributed email laced with a malicious MS Word document (in Korean), which purported to be a participation application form for a fair in one of the South Korean cities. To view the document, users are prompted to enable macros, which triggers the infection chain and ultimately leads to downloading an executable called “AppStore.exe.”
