DOCSLIB.ORG

THE RANSOMWARE REVOLUTION: HOW EMERGING ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGIES CREATED a PRODIGIOUS CYBER THREAT Matthew S. Ryan BA, MA

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE RANSOMWARE REVOLUTION: HOW EMERGING ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGIES CREATED a PRODIGIOUS CYBER THREAT Matthew S. Ryan BA, MA THE RANSOMWARE REVOLUTION: HOW EMERGING ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGIES CREATED A PRODIGIOUS CYBER THREAT Matthew S. Ryan BA, MA, MPICT, MCSSD This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Cyber Security School of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy 20 December 2019 Surname : Ryan Given Name : Matthew Abbreviation for degree : DCybSec - Doctor of Cyber Security (Research) Faculty : UNSW Canberra School : Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) The ransomware revolution: how emerging encryption technologies created a Thesis Title : prodigious cyber threat Abstract The increasing public availability of encryption technologies, and the parallel emergence of cryptocurrencies, have elevated ransomware to become the most prodigious cyber threat that enterprises now confront. The advent of cryptocurrencies provided the catalyst for increased profitability from ransomware, sparking a phenomenal rise in the number and complexity of ransomware attacks. This thesis is among the first academic works to analyse what has been dubbed the ‘ransomware revolution’ after a series of major attacks beginning in 2013. This threat is compounded by a disconnect between academia, the professional services industry, and vendors. This research brings together two strands of analysis. First, it documents the emergence of encryption-centric technologies that have created an environment conducive to undertaking this type of cyber-attack. The ease of public access to advanced encryption techniques has allowed malicious actors to operate with increased anonymity across the internet. This has enabled increased collaboration between attackers, which has aided the development of new ransomware attacks, and led to an increasing level of technical complexity in ransomware attacks. Concurrently, the potential attack surface has exponentially increased through the rapid adoption of internet and interconnected user devices. Second, using four brief case studies, and other analysis, the dissertation documents the inadequacies of responses to ransomware. Deterrence and defensive strategies to this form of attack have remained relatively static. In spite of granular knowledge about the attack vectors of ransomware, leading policy makers attest that analysis of the scale and scope of such cyber security problems has so far confounded the few researchers actively engaged in it. Data is not made available in any consistent way by the victims which impedes information sharing and inhibits open source cyber security research. The challenge to prevent and manage ransomware attacks is compounded by a global cyber-skills shortage coupled with the absence of a definitive set of reliable countermeasures. This research assesses that the continuous expansion and early adoption of emerging technologies may be beyond the capacity of conventional risk managers and risk management frameworks. The dissertation concludes that many governments and corporations lack the required cyber expertise, training, and effective expenditure of resources to understand, prepare for, and manage ransomware attacks against their organisations systems. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350-word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). 27 March 2020 Date Signature The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and require the approval of the Dean of Graduate Research. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: ii Statement of Originality I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Matthew S. Ryan 27 March 2020 iii COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents a non-exclusive licence to archive and to make available (including to members of the public) my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known. I acknowledge that I retain all intellectual property rights which subsist in my thesis or dissertation, such as copyright and patent rights, subject to applicable law. I also retain the right to use all or part of my thesis or dissertation in future works (such as articles or books).’ ‘For any substantial portions of copyright material used in this thesis, written permission for use has been obtained, or the copyright material is removed from the final public version of the thesis.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date …………………………………………….............................. AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date …………………………………………….............................. Inclusion of Publications UNSW is supportive of candidates publishing their research results during their candidature as detailed in the UNSW Thesis Examination Procedure. Publications can be used in their thesis in lieu of a Chapter if: • The candidate contributed greater than 50% of the content in the publication and is the “primary author”, ie. the candidate was responsible primarily for the planning, execution and preparation of the work for publication • The candidate has approval to include the publication in their thesis in lieu of a Chapter from their supervisor and Postgraduate Coordinator. • The publication is not subject to any obligations or contractual agreements with a third party that would constrain its inclusion in the thesis Please indicate whether this thesis contains published material or not: This thesis contains no publications, either published or submitted for publication ☒ (if this box is checked, you may delete all the material on page 2) Some of the work described in this thesis has been published and it has been documented ☐ in the relevant Chapters with acknowledgement (if this box is checked, you may delete all the material on page 2) This thesis has publications (either published or submitted for publication) incorporated ☐ into it in lieu of a chapter and the details are presented below CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION I declare that: • I have complied with the UNSW Thesis Examination Procedure • where I have used a publication in lieu of a Chapter, the listed publication(s) below meet(s) the requirements to be included in the thesis. Candidate’s Name Signature Date (dd/mm/yy) Matthew Ryan 27 March 2020 iv © Copyright 2019 by Matthew S. Ryan, BA, MA, MPICT, MCSSD v Abstract The increasing public availability of encryption technologies, and the parallel emergence of cryptocurrencies, have elevated ransomware to become the most prodigious cyber threat that enterprises now confront. The advent of cryptocurrencies provided the catalyst for increased profitability from ransomware, sparking a phenomenal rise in the number and complexity of ransomware attacks. This thesis is among the first academic works to analyse what has been dubbed the ‘ransomware revolution’ after a series of major attacks beginning in 2013. This threat is compounded by a disconnect between academia, the professional services industry, and vendors. This research brings together two strands of analysis. First, it documents the emergence of encryption-centric technologies that have created an environment conducive to undertaking this type of cyber-attack. The ease of public access to advanced encryption techniques has allowed malicious actors to operate with increased anonymity across the internet. This has enabled increased collaboration between attackers, which has aided the development of new ransomware attacks, and led to an increasing level of technical complexity in ransomware attacks. Concurrently, the potential attack surface has exponentially increased through the rapid adoption of internet and interconnected user devices. Second, using four brief case studies, and other analysis, the dissertation documents the inadequacies of responses to ransomware. Deterrence and defensive strategies to this form of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Confessions of the Hacker Who Saved the Internet About:Reader?Url=
    The Confessions of the Hacker Who Saved the Internet about:reader?url=https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-marcus-hutc... wired.com The Confessions of the Hacker Who Saved the Internet Andy Greenberg 72-92 minutes At around 7 am on a quiet Wednesday in August 2017, Marcus Hutchins walked out the front door of the Airbnb mansion in Las Vegas where he had been partying for the past week and a half. A gangly, 6'4", 23-year-old hacker with an explosion of blond-brown curls, Hutchins had emerged to retrieve his order of a Big Mac and fries from an Uber Eats deliveryman. But as he stood barefoot on the mansion's driveway wearing only a T-shirt and jeans, Hutchins noticed a black SUV parked on the street—one that looked very much like an FBI stakeout. He stared at the vehicle blankly, his mind still hazed from sleep deprivation and stoned from the legalized Nevada weed he'd been smoking all night. For a fleeting moment, he wondered: Is this finally it? 1 of 51 5/21/2020, 10:07 AM The Confessions of the Hacker Who Saved the Internet about:reader?url=https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-marcus-hutc... June 2020. Subscribe to WIRED . Photograph: Ramona Rosales But as soon as the thought surfaced, he dismissed it. The FBI would never be so obvious, he told himself. His feet had begun to scald on the griddle of the driveway. So he grabbed the McDonald's bag and headed back inside, through the mansion's courtyard, and into the pool house he'd been using as a bedroom.
    [Show full text]
  • Can We Trust Cryptographic Software? Cryptographic Flaws in GNU Privacy Guard V1.2.3
    Can We Trust Cryptographic Software? Cryptographic Flaws in GNU Privacy Guard v1.2.3 Phong Q. Nguyen CNRS/Ecole´ normale sup´erieure D´epartement d’informatique 45 rue d’Ulm, 75230 Paris Cedex 05, France. [email protected] http://www.di.ens.fr/˜pnguyen Abstract. More and more software use cryptography. But how can one know if what is implemented is good cryptography? For proprietary soft- ware, one cannot say much unless one proceeds to reverse-engineering, and history tends to show that bad cryptography is much more frequent than good cryptography there. Open source software thus sounds like a good solution, but the fact that a source code can be read does not imply that it is actually read, especially by cryptography experts. In this paper, we illustrate this point by examining the case of a basic In- ternet application of cryptography: secure email. We analyze parts of thesourcecodeofthelatestversionofGNUPrivacyGuard(GnuPGor GPG), a free open source alternative to the famous PGP software, com- pliant with the OpenPGP standard, and included in most GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian, MandrakeSoft, Red Hat and SuSE. We ob- serve several cryptographic flaws in GPG v1.2.3. The most serious flaw has been present in GPG for almost four years: we show that as soon as one (GPG-generated) ElGamal signature of an arbitrary message is released, one can recover the signer’s private key in less than a second on a PC. As a consequence, ElGamal signatures and the so-called ElGamal sign+encrypt keys have recently been removed from GPG.
    [Show full text]
  • North Korean Cyber Capabilities: in Brief
    North Korean Cyber Capabilities: In Brief Emma Chanlett-Avery Specialist in Asian Affairs Liana W. Rosen Specialist in International Crime and Narcotics John W. Rollins Specialist in Terrorism and National Security Catherine A. Theohary Specialist in National Security Policy, Cyber and Information Operations August 3, 2017 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R44912 North Korean Cyber Capabilities: In Brief Overview As North Korea has accelerated its missile and nuclear programs in spite of international sanctions, Congress and the Trump Administration have elevated North Korea to a top U.S. foreign policy priority. Legislation such as the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-122) and international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council have focused on North Korea’s WMD and ballistic missile programs and human rights abuses. According to some experts, another threat is emerging from North Korea: an ambitious and well-resourced cyber program. North Korea’s cyberattacks have the potential not only to disrupt international commerce, but to direct resources to its clandestine weapons and delivery system programs, potentially enhancing its ability to evade international sanctions. As Congress addresses the multitude of threats emanating from North Korea, it may need to consider responses to the cyber aspect of North Korea’s repertoire. This would likely involve multiple committees, some of which operate in a classified setting. This report will provide a brief summary of what unclassified open-source reporting has revealed about the secretive program, introduce four case studies in which North Korean operators are suspected of having perpetrated malicious operations, and provide an overview of the international finance messaging service that these hackers may be exploiting.
    [Show full text]
  • 2015 Threat Report Provides a Comprehensive Overview of the Cyber Threat Landscape Facing Both Companies and Individuals
    THREAT REPORT 2015 AT A GLANCE 2015 HIGHLIGHTS A few of the major events in 2015 concerning security issues. 08 07/15: Hacking Team 07/15: Bugs prompt 02/15: Europol joint breached, data Ford, Range Rover, 08/15: Google patches op takes down Ramnit released online Prius, Chrysler recalls Android Stagefright botnet flaw 09/15: XcodeGhost 07/15: Android 07/15: FBI Darkode tainted apps prompts Stagefright flaw 08/15: Amazon, ENFORCEMENT bazaar shutdown ATTACKS AppStore cleanup VULNERABILITY reported SECURITYPRODUCT Chrome drop Flash ads TOP MALWARE BREACHING THE MEET THE DUKES FAMILIES WALLED GARDEN The Dukes are a well- 12 18 resourced, highly 20 Njw0rm was the most In late 2015, the Apple App prominent new malware family in 2015. Store saw a string of incidents where dedicated and organized developers had used compromised tools cyberespionage group believed to be to unwittingly create apps with malicious working for the Russian Federation since behavior. The apps were able to bypass at least 2008 to collect intelligence in Njw0rm Apple’s review procedures to gain entry support of foreign and security policy decision-making. Angler into the store, and from there into an ordinary user’s iOS device. Gamarue THE CHAIN OF THE CHAIN OF Dorkbot COMPROMISE COMPROMISE: 23 The Stages 28 The Chain of Compromise Nuclear is a user-centric model that illustrates Kilim how cyber attacks combine different Ippedo techniques and resources to compromise Dridex devices and networks. It is defined by 4 main phases: Inception, Intrusion, WormLink Infection, and Invasion. INCEPTION Redirectors wreak havoc on US, Europe (p.28) INTRUSION AnglerEK dominates Flash (p.29) INFECTION The rise of rypto-ransomware (p.31) THREATS BY REGION Europe was particularly affected by the Angler exploit kit.
    [Show full text]
  • Sample Iis Publication Page
    https://doi.org/10.48009/1_iis_2012_133-143 Issues in Information Systems Volume 13, Issue 1, pp. 133-143, 2012 HACKERS GONE WILD: THE 2011 SPRING BREAK OF LULZSEC Stan Pendergrass, Robert Morris University, [email protected] ABSTRACT Computer hackers, like the group known as Anonymous, have made themselves more and more relevant to our modern life. As we create and expand more and more data within our interconnected electronic universe, the threat that they bring to its fragile structure grows as well. However Anonymous is not the only group of hackers/activists or hacktivists that have made their presence known. LulzSec was a group that wreaked havoc with information systems in 2011. This will be a case study examination of their activities so that a better understanding of five aspects can be obtained: the Timeline of activities, the Targets of attack, the Tactics the group used, the makeup of the Team and a category which will be referred to as The Twist for reasons which will be made clear at the end of the paper. Keywords: LulzSec, Hackers, Security, AntiSec, Anonymous, Sabu INTRODUCTION Information systems lie at the heart of our modern existence. We deal with them when we work, when we play and when we relax; texting, checking email, posting on Facebook, Tweeting, gaming, conducting e-commerce and e- banking have become so commonplace as to be nearly invisible in modern life. Yet, within each of these electronic interactions lies the danger that the perceived line of security and privacy might be breached and our most important information and secrets might be revealed and exploited.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of End-To-End Encryption and the Death of PGP
    25/05/2020 A history of end-to-end encryption and the death of PGP Hey! I'm David, a security engineer at the Blockchain team of Facebook (https://facebook.com/), previously a security consultant for the Cryptography Services of NCC Group (https://www.nccgroup.com). I'm also the author of the Real World Cryptography book (https://www.manning.com/books/real-world- cryptography?a_aid=Realworldcrypto&a_bid=ad500e09). This is my blog about cryptography and security and other related topics that I Ûnd interesting. A history of end-to-end encryption and If you don't know where to start, you might want to check these popular the death of PGP articles: posted January 2020 - How did length extension attacks made it 1981 - RFC 788 - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol into SHA-2? (/article/417/how-did-length- extension-attacks-made-it-into-sha-2/) (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc788) (SMTP) is published, - Speed and Cryptography the standard for email is born. (/article/468/speed-and-cryptography/) - What is the BLS signature scheme? (/article/472/what-is-the-bls-signature- This is were everything starts, we now have an open peer-to-peer scheme/) protocol that everyone on the internet can use to communicate. - Zero'ing memory, compiler optimizations and memset_s (/article/419/zeroing-memory- compiler-optimizations-and-memset_s/) 1991 - The 9 Lives of Bleichenbacher's CAT: New Cache ATtacks on TLS Implementations The US government introduces the 1991 Senate Bill 266, (/article/461/the-9-lives-of-bleichenbachers- which attempts to allow "the Government to obtain the cat-new-cache-attacks-on-tls- plain text contents of voice, data, and other implementations/) - How to Backdoor Di¸e-Hellman: quick communications when appropriately authorized by law" explanation (/article/360/how-to-backdoor- from "providers of electronic communications services di¸e-hellman-quick-explanation/) and manufacturers of electronic communications - Tamarin Prover Introduction (/article/404/tamarin-prover-introduction/) service equipment".
    [Show full text]
  • CYBERATTACKS and the DIGITAL DILEMMA
    CYBERATTACKS and the DIGITAL DILEMMA Recent high-profile hacks have renewed calls for improved security, but competing incentives pose a challenge By Tim Sablik ver the past year, Americans have been inundated More Connected, More Exposed with news of one large-scale cyberattack after One reason cyberattacks continue to be a problem despite Oanother. The Democratic National Committee’s efforts to stop them is that there are simply more avenues email server was compromised during the 2016 election, of attack than ever before. For instance, a growing array and the organization’s internal emails were posted pub- of consumer devices — TVs, cars, ovens, and thermostats, licly by WikiLeaks. An October 2016 attack temporarily to name a few — are now connected to the Web, making disrupted service to many of the most trafficked sites up what has been called the Internet of Things (IoT). on the Web, including Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter. One estimate holds that there will be more than 8 billion Ransomware — malicious code that locks a computer’s connected devices by the end of 2017 — more than one files until users pay for a decryption key — infected busi- for every person on the planet. By 2020, this number is ness, government, and personal computers around the expected to grow to more than 20 billion. But these new globe in May and June 2017. And in September, credit devices come with a trade-off. bureau Equifax disclosed that hackers accessed personal “The more technology we accumulate to make our lives data used to obtain loans or credit cards for as many as 143 easier, the more it opens us up to attack,” says Timothy million Americans — making it potentially the largest data Summers, the director of innovation, entrepreneurship, theft in history.
    [Show full text]
  • Bank & Lender Liability
    Westlaw Journal BANK & LENDER LIABILITY Litigation News and Analysis • Legislation • Regulation • Expert Commentary VOLUME 17, ISSUE 6 / AUGUST 1, 2011 Expert Analysis Once More Into the Breach: Are We Learning Anything? By Cynthia Larose, Esq. Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet. … [The Internet] created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It’s as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, “Give it to me now,” and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it. –Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, May 14, 20091 How ironic. This comment two years ago by Lynton created a minor firestorm and drove him to post a lengthy rebuttal on The Huffington Post,2 but at the time, Lynton was referring to content piracy, not data breaches. Given the events since Sony’s massive data breaches in April3 (and subsequent breaches in May and June), he might as well as have been referring to user informa- tion held by Sony and its various properties. As a matter of fact, the Sony Pictures hackers said, “Sony stored over 1 million passwords of its customers in plain text, which means it’s just a matter of taking it.”4 Since the April PlayStation Network breach that exposed more than 100 million user accounts, Sony has been hacked more than 10 times. Sony Europe,5 Sony BMG Greece,6 Sony Thailand,7 Sony Music Japan8 and Sony Ericsson Canada9 all suffered some intrusion and compromise of user information.
    [Show full text]
  • Éric FREYSSINET Lutte Contre Les Botnets
    THÈSE DE DOCTORAT DE L’UNIVERSITÉ PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE Spécialité Informatique École doctorale Informatique, Télécommunications et Électronique (Paris) Présentée par Éric FREYSSINET Pour obtenir le grade de DOCTEUR DE L’UNIVERSITÉ PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE Sujet de la thèse : Lutte contre les botnets : analyse et stratégie Présentée et soutenue publiquement le 12 novembre 2015 devant le jury composé de : Rapporteurs : M. Jean-Yves Marion Professeur, Université de Lorraine M. Ludovic Mé Enseignant-chercheur, CentraleSupélec Directeurs : M. David Naccache Professeur, École normale supérieure de thèse M. Matthieu Latapy Directeur de recherche, UPMC, LIP6 Examinateurs : Mme Clémence Magnien Directrice de recherche, UPMC, LIP6 Mme Solange Ghernaouti-Hélie Professeure, Université de Lausanne M. Vincent Nicomette Professeur, INSA Toulouse Cette thèse est dédiée à M. Celui qui n’empêche pas un crime alors qu’il le pourrait s’en rend complice. — Sénèque Remerciements Je tiens à remercier mes deux directeurs de thèse. David Naccache, officier de réserve de la gendarmerie, contribue au développement de la recherche au sein de notre institution en poussant des personnels jeunes et un peu moins jeunes à poursuivre leur passion dans le cadre académique qui s’impose. Matthieu Latapy, du LIP6, avec qui nous avions pu échanger autour d’une thèse qu’il encadrait dans le domaine difficile des atteintes aux mineurs sur Internet et qui a accepté de m’accueillir dans son équipe. Je voudrais remercier aussi, l’ensemble de l’équipe Réseaux Complexes du LIP6 et sa responsable d’équipe actuelle, Clémence Magnien, qui m’ont accueilli à bras ouverts, accom- pagné à chaque étape et dont j’ai pu découvrir les thématiques et les méthodes de travail au fil des rencontres et des discussions.
    [Show full text]
  • Gnu Privacy Guard (Gnupg) Mini Howto (Italiano)
    Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) Mini Howto (italiano) Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter (inglese) <[email protected]>, Michael Fischer v. Mollard (tedesco) <[email protected]>, Arjen Baart (olandese) <[email protected]>, Cristian Riga- monti (italiano) <[email protected]> Versione 0.1.4 12 maggio 2003 Questo documento spiega come usare GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG), un sistema di crittografia Open Source e compatibile con OpenPGP. Per mantenere il programma totalmente libero, si `eevitato l’uso di RSA e di altri algoritmi brevettati. Il documento originale `escritto in tedesco da Michael Fischer v. Mollard, questa traduzione italiana, a cura di Cristian Rigamonti, `ebasata sulla traduzione inglese del testo originale. Indice 1 Concetti 2 1.1 Crittografia a chiave pubblica .................................... 2 1.2 Firme digitali ............................................. 2 1.3 Rete di fiducia ............................................ 3 1.4 Limiti alla sicurezza ......................................... 3 2 Installazione 3 2.1 Sorgenti di GnuPG .......................................... 3 2.2 Configurazione ............................................ 4 2.3 Compilazione ............................................. 4 2.4 Installazione .............................................. 5 3 Uso delle chiavi 5 3.1 Creare una chiave ........................................... 5 3.2 Esportare le chiavi .......................................... 6 3.3 Importare le chiavi .......................................... 6 3.4 Revocare una chiave ........................................
    [Show full text]
  • Lawyer: British Hacking Suspect Will Be Vindicated 14 August 2017
    Lawyer: British hacking suspect will be vindicated 14 August 2017 "Marcus Hutchins is a brilliant young man and a hero," said Marcia Hofmann, an attorney affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, who represented Hutchins at the hearing. "He is going to vigorously defend himself against these charges. And when the evidence comes to light, we are confident he will be fully vindicated." Hours after the hearing, Hutchins resumed activity on Twitter. "I'm still on trial, still not allowed to go home, still on house arrest; but now i am allowed online," he wrote. He also joked about the experience with a sarcastic Marcus Hutchins (R), the British cyber security expert "to do" list from his US visit: "Things to do during accused of creating and selling malware that steals defcon: Attend parties. Visit red rock canyon. Go banking passwords, appeared at a court hearing shooting. Be indicted by the FBI. Rent supercars." Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his lawyers Marcia Homann and Brian Klein A federal indictment accuses Hutchins and another A lawyer for a 23-year-old British computer security individual of making and distributing the Kronos researcher accused of creating malware to attack "banking Trojan," a reference to malicious software the banking system on Monday called him a "hero" designed to steal user names and passwords used and predicted he would be "fully vindicated." at online banking sites. The lawyer's remarks came after Marcus The indictment set the time of the activity by Hutchins—who three months ago found a "kill Hutchins as being from July 2014 to July 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Mcafee Labs Threats Report August 2014
    McAfee Labs Threats Report August 2014 Heartbleed Heartbleed presents a new cybercrime opportunity. 600,000 To-do lists The Heartbleed vulnerability Lists of Heartbleed-vulnerable exposed an estimated 600,000 websites are helpful to users but websites to information theft. can also act as “to-do” lists for cyber thieves. Unpatched websites Black market Despite server upgrades, many Criminals continue to extract websites remain vulnerable. information from Heartbleed- vulnerable websites and are selling it on the black market. McAfee Phishing Quiz Phishing continues to be an effective tactic for infiltrating enterprise networks. Average Score by Department (percent of email samples correctly identified) Only 6% of all test takers correctly 65% identified all ten email samples as phishing or legitimate. 60% 80% 55% of all test takers fell for at least one of the seven phishing emails. 50% 88% of test takers in Accounting & 0 Finance and HR fell for at least one of the seven phishing emails. Accounting & Finance Human Resources Other Departments The McAfee Phishing Quiz tested business users’ ability to detect online scams. Operation Tovar During Operation Tovar—The Gameover Zeus and CryptoLocker takedown: For CryptoLocker For Gameover Zeus more than 125,000 more than 120,000 domains were blocked. domains were sinkholed. Since the announcement of Operation Tovar: 80,000 times Copycats ****** McAfee Stinger, a free ****** are on the rise, creating tool that detects and ****** new ransomware or removes malware financial-targeting (including Gameover Zeus malware using the leaked and CryptoLocker), was Zeus source code. downloaded more than 80,000 times. McAfee joined global law enforcement agencies and others to take down Gameover Zeus and CryptoLocker.
    [Show full text]