Comments on: Cyber security news October 2019

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 11:08:10 +0000

“Worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced,” Valve says.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xw7nx/nearly-all-counter-strike-microtransactions-are-being-used-for-money-laundering

By: Grandad

Grandad — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 08:46:49 +0000

I’m a long time user of Nordvpn, never had any issues while torrenting etc. I’ve read the full blog post about that “hack” and I’m leaning towards giving them the benefit of the doubt… it sounds like their response was the proper one. I feel even more safe now coz I know that they do not log anything

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 05:58:33 +0000

Beware! This Android Malware Can’t Be Removed Even After Factory Reset
https://fossbytes.com/android-malware-cant-removed-after-factory-reset/

has affected 45,000 Android devices to date. The malware dubbed xHelper

Spread By Websites That Allow Sideloading Of Apps

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 05:14:02 +0000

Educational spyware company to school boards: hire us to spy on your kids and we’ll help you sabotage teachers’ strikes
https://boingboing.net/2019/10/23/blame-bill-clinton.html?fbclid=IwAR0pcovb48cDF-_oNvFDTjDNw0x-S2TzIUEEt2gMNfHqsZ-f4E0Q6hrdcHE

Gaggle is one of a handful of creepy companies that sell surveillance software to school districts, which monitor every keystroke and click on school networks — they’re the latest evolution in spy-on-kids tech, which started off by promising that they’d stop kids from seeing porn, then promised they could end bullying, and now advertise themselves as a solution for school shootings, under the banner of being a “Safety Management Platform.”

Gaggle has plenty of competition from the likes of Securely and Goguardian.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 04:59:00 +0000

Hackers hijacked the capital’s surveillance cameras days before Trump’s inauguration and said it was easy
But they didn’t cover their tracks
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/30/20939885/surveillance-hack-trump-inauguration-ransomware-hackers-washington-dc

An article from The Wall Street Journal details how hackers Alexandru Isvanca and Eveline Cismaru seized control of Washington, DC’s surveillance cameras right before Trump’s inauguration.

In the end, they controlled 126 out of 186 DC police computers, which in turn controlled the surveillance cameras.

The Hapless Shakedown Crew That Hacked Trump’s Inauguration
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hapless-shake-down-crew-that-hacked-trumps-inauguration-11572014333

Days before the big event, hackers seized control of the capital’s surveillance cameras and demanded a ransom. Then everything spiraled out of control.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:32:59 +0000

45,000 Android devices infected by new unremovable xHelper malware
https://thenextweb.com/security/2019/10/30/45000-android-devices-infected-by-new-unremovable-xhelper-malware/

A new kind of Android malware capable of reinstalling itself even after being manually removed has reportedly infected more than 45,000 Android devices over the last six months

https://www.symantec.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/xhelper-android-malware

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:28:16 +0000

So earlier they were not accepting it but now finally they did.

News link : https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kudankulam-nuclear-power-plant-dtrack-north-korea-atms-1614200-2019-10-30

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 05:44:58 +0000

EU data watchdog raises concerns over Microsoft contracts

https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/eu-data-watchdog-raises-concerns-over-microsoft-contracts/

Microsoft’s contracts with European Union institutions do not fully protect data in line with EU law, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) said in initial findings published on Monday (21 October).

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 20:04:19 +0000

New cyberattacks targeting sporting and anti-doping organizations
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/10/28/cyberattacks-sporting-anti-doping/

Today we’re sharing that the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center has recently tracked significant cyberattacks originating from a group we call Strontium, also known as Fancy Bear/APT28, targeting anti-doping authorities and sporting organizations around the world. As the world looks forward with anticipation to the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020, we thought it important to share information about this new round of activity.

At least 16 national and international sporting and anti-doping organizations across three continents were targeted in these attacks which began September 16th

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 19:23:51 +0000

FireEye: “APT41 compromised company behind TeamViewer – which enabled them to access *any* system with TeamViewer installed”
https://meterpreter.org/fireeye-apt41-compromised-company-behind-teamviewer-which-enabled-them-to-access-any-system-with-teamviewer-installed/

The well-known remote control software TeamViewer was hacked many years ago, and some of the user computers were controlled by hackers and installed backdoors to steal data. But even now the company does not admit that the server was attacked. On the contrary, the developers said that users were attacked mainly by leaking remote IDs and passwords. However, it is shocking that the security company has once again revealed that TeamViewer has been hacked.

Recently, the leading security company FireEye, Chief Security Architect, Christopher Glyer wrote the news on Twitter that TeamViewer was hacked and leaked the user’s account password. This hacker group is known as APT41,

https://mobile.twitter.com/cglyer/status/1182413194360508419