Thousands of Android Users fall Victim to Giveaway Fraud
Upwards of 65,000 Android users were potentially compromised after installing a malicious app promising free giveaways. Over the year the scam was in effect, roughly 5,000 apps were spoofed to lure victims into downloading in exchange for a phony giveaway. In reality, the infection pushes silent background ads which generate ad revenue for the scammers and decrease device performance.
North American Real Estate Firm Hit by Ransomware
A new ransomware variant known as DarkSide claimed its first victim, Brookfield Residential, after operating for nearly two weeks. The North American real estate developer recently noticed unauthorized access to several systems and was left a ransom note stating that over 200GB of data had been stolen. The data has since been published to DarkSide’s leak site, which has prompted many to speculate the ransom was not paid by Brookfield Residential.
Cryptominers Caught Using AI
Researchers have been at work creating an AI algorithm to detect malicious cryptocurrency miners while avoiding legitimate ones. The detection method compares currently running miners to graphs of both legitimate and illegitimate miners and monitors changes between the processes being used and the scheduling of mining activity. This type of detection may be put to use to decrease the overall use of malicious code that can often tax the system’s CPU usage to max capacity.
Los Angeles School District Suffers Cyber Attack
Just weeks after the FBI issued a warning about the threat of cyberattacks against school districts, the Rialto School District in California has fallen victim to just such an attack. These setbacks have made the return to online schooling particularly difficult. The extent of the attack remains unclear and officials are still working to determine the effects on the 25,000 enrolled students.
Maze Ransomware Cartel Adds New Variant Team
The authors of the lesser-known ransomware variant SunCrypt have recently joined forces with the Maze ransomware cartel. It’s believed the new cartel members were brought in to assist with the high volume of attacks that the Maze Group is handling and are being paid with a portion of its profits. In addition to new revenue streams from its partnership with the organization, cartel members also benefit from access to the Maze Group’s resources including obfuscation techniques and posting cartel member’s stolen data to their dedicated leak site.
