• A fraudster develops or uses an automated bot or low-skilled workforce to trigger actions such as fake account creation, OTP requests, or password resets. These bots or human bots mimic real user activity, often bypassing security measures through direct API calls.
• These actions trigger SMS messages, which are sent to phone numbers controlled by the fraudster, creating inflated traffic.
• The fraudster collaborates with a “rogue party,” often a corrupt telecom provider or intermediary with access to SMS routing infrastructure.
• The rogue party intercepts the inflated SMS traffic, typically avoiding message delivery to reduce costs. Instead, they route the traffic to numbers they control.
• The rogue party earns revenue by collecting funds from the inflated SMS traffic, benefiting from volume-based pricing or other arrangements.

Discover how the ClickFix social engineering attack exploits human psychology to bypass security. Learn how hackers use this tactic and how to protect against it.

APT Lazarus has begun attempting to smuggle code using custom extended attributes.

Extended attributes are metadata that can be associated with files and directories in various file systems. They allow users to store additional information about a file beyond the standard attributes like file size, timestamps, and permissions.

in light of the escalating frequency and complexity of ransomware attacks, are security leaders confident in their organization’s defenses? According to Group-IB’s Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2023/2024 Report, ransomware will have an increasingly significant impact in 2024 and beyond. Key trends driving this include the expansion of the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) market, the proliferation of stolen data on Dedicated Leak Sites (DLS), and a rise in affiliate programs.

Delaying security updates and neglecting regular reviews created vulnerabilities that were exploited by attackers, resulting in severe ransomware consequences.

• Initial access via FortiGate Firewall SSL VPN using a dormant account
• Deployed persistent backdoor (“svchost.exe”) on the failover server, and conducted lateral movement via RDP.
• Exploitation attempts of CVE-2023-27532 was followed by activation of xp_cmdshell and rogue user account creation.
• Threat actors made use of NetScan, AdFind, and various tools provided by NirSoft to conduct network discovery, enumeration, and credential harvesting.
• Windows Defender was permanently disabled using DC.exe, followed by ransomware deployment and execution with PsExec.exe.

All about Eldorado Ransomware and how its affiliates make their own samples for distribution.

Group-IB, a leading creator of cybersecurity technologies to investigate, prevent, and fight digital crime, has uncovered a new iOS Trojan designed to steal users’ facial recognition data, identity documents, and intercept SMS. The Trojan, dubbed GoldPickaxe.iOS by Group-IB’s Threat Intelligence unit, has been attributed to a Chinese-speaking threat actor codenamed GoldFactory, responsible for developing a suite of highly sophisticated banking Trojans that also includes the earlier discovered GoldDigger and newly identified GoldDiggerPlus, GoldKefu, and GoldPickaxe for Android. To exploit the stolen biometric data, the threat actor utilizes AI face-swapping services to create deepfakes by replacing their faces with those of the victims. This method could be used by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to the victim’s banking account – a new fraud technique, previously unseen by Group-IB researchers. The GoldFactory Trojans target the Asia-Pacific region, specifically — Thailand and Vietnam impersonating local banks and government organizations.

Group-IB’s discovery also marks a rare instance of malware targeting Apple’s mobile operating system. The detailed technical description of the Trojans, analysis of their technical capabilities, and the list of relevant indicators of compromise can be found in Group-IB’s latest blog post.

The report details the operations of W3LL, a threat actor behind a phishing empire that has remained largely unknown until now. Group-IB’s Threat Intelligence and Cyber Investigations teams have tracked the evolution of W3LL and uncovered that they played a major role in compromising Microsoft 365 business email accounts over the past 6 years. The threat actor created a hidden underground market, named W3LL Store, that served a closed community of at least 500 threat actors who could purchase a custom phishing kit called W3LL Panel, designed to bypass MFA, as well as 16 other fully customized tools for business email compromise (BEC) attacks. Group-IB investigators identified that W3LL’s phishing tools were used to target over 56,000 corporate Microsoft 365 accounts in the USA, Australia and Europe between October 2022 and July 2023. According to Group-IB’s rough estimates, W3LL’s Store’s turnover for the last 10 months may have reached $500,000. All the information collected by Group-IB’s cyber investigators about W3LL has been shared with relevant law enforcement organizations.

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All you need to know about Qilin ransomware and its operations targeting critical sectors.
Group-IB’s Threat Intelligence team infiltrated the Qilin ransomware group in March 2023 and now can reveal inside information about this RaaS program. The blog provides recommendations on how to prevent Qilin’s attacks and will be useful for threat intelligence experts, threat hunters, and corporate cybersecurity teams.

Over 130 organizations have been compromised in a sophisticated attack using simple phishing kits