.US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:26:55 +0000

The top-level domain for the United States — .US — is home to thousands of newly-registered domains tied to a malicious link shortening service that facilitates malware and phishing scams, new research suggests. The findings come close on the heels of a report that identified .US domains as among the most prevalent in phishing attacks over the past year.

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The Fake Browser Update Scam Gets a Makeover

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 14:03:28 +0000

One of the oldest malware tricks in the book — hacked websites claiming visitors need to update their Web browser before they can view any content — has roared back to life in the past few months. New research shows the attackers behind one such scheme have developed an ingenious way of keeping their malware from being taken down by security experts or law enforcement: By hosting the malicious files on a decentralized, anonymous cryptocurrency blockchain.

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Tech CEO Sentenced to 5 Years in IP Address Scheme

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:23:25 +0000

Amir Golestan, the 40-year-old CEO of the Charleston, S.C. based technology company Micfo LLC, has been sentenced to five years in prison for wire fraud. Golestan’s sentencing comes nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to using an elaborate network of phony companies to secure more than 735,000 Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the nonprofit which oversees IP addresses assigned to entities in the U.S., Canada, and parts of the Caribbean.

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Phishers Spoof USPS, 12 Other Natl’ Postal Services

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:39:43 +0000

Recent weeks have seen a sizable uptick in the number of phishing scams targeting U.S. Postal Service (USPS) customers. Here’s a look at an extensive SMS phishing operation that tries to steal personal and financial data by spoofing the USPS, as well as postal services in at least a dozen other countries worldwide.

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LastPass: ‘Horse Gone Barn Bolted’ is Strong Password

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 23:41:09 +0000

The password manager service LastPass is now forcing some of its users to pick longer master passwords. LastPass says the changes are needed to ensure all customers are protected by their latest security improvements. But critics say the move is little more than a public relations stunt that will do nothing to help countless early adopters whose password vaults were exposed in a 2022 breach at LastPass.

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Experts Fear Crooks are Cracking Keys Stolen in LastPass Breach

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:21:07 +0000

In November 2022, the password manager service LastPass disclosed a breach in which hackers stole password vaults containing both encrypted and plaintext data for more than 25 million users. Since then, a steady trickle of six-figure cryptocurrency heists targeting security-conscious people throughout the tech industry has led some security experts to conclude that crooks likely have succeeded at cracking open some of the stolen LastPass vaults.

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Why is .US Being Used to Phish So Many of Us?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:38:11 +0000

Domain names ending in “.US” — the top-level domain for the United States — are among the most prevalent in phishing scams, new research shows. This is noteworthy because .US is overseen by the U.S. government, which is frequently the target of phishing domains ending in .US. Also, .US domains are only supposed to be available to U.S. citizens and to those who can demonstrate that they have a physical presence in the United States.

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Karma Catches Up to Global Phishing Service 16Shop

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 19:58:56 +0000

You’ve probably never heard of “16Shop,” but there’s a good chance someone using it has tried to phish you. Last week, the international police organization INTERPOL said it had shuttered the notorious 16Shop, a popular phishing-as-a-service platform launched in 2017 that made it simple for even complete novices to conduct complex and convincing phishing scams. INTERPOL said authorities in Indonesia arrested the 21-year-old proprietor and one of his alleged facilitators, and that a third suspect was apprehended in Japan.

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Teach a Man to Phish and He’s Set for Life

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2023 13:49:15 +0000

One frustrating aspect of email phishing is the frequency with which scammers fall back on tried-and-true methods that really have no business working these days. Like attaching a phishing email to a traditional, clean email message, or leveraging link redirects on LinkedIn, or abusing an encoding method that makes it easy to disguise booby-trapped Microsoft Windows files as relatively harmless documents.

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How Malicious Android Apps Slip Into Disguise

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2023 11:22:55 +0000

Researchers say mobile malware purveyors have been abusing a bug in the Google Android platform that lets them sneak malicious code into benign mobile apps and evade security scanning tools. Google says it has updated its app malware detection mechanisms in response to the new research.

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