#onpatrol4malware Blog
InfoSec Articles (03/15/21 – 03/29/21)
In this second half of March, we observed an interesting email campaign by a threat actor we track as TA800. They distributed a new malware we are calling NimzaLoader. Also, another ransomware gang has...
InfoSec Articles (03/01/21 – 03/15/21)
In the first half of March, we recently observed a new series of Microsoft-themed phishing attacks. Also, with ransomware becoming the most significant cybersecurity threat faced by organizations, we found a...
InfoSec Articles (02/15/21 – 03/01/21)
In the last two weeks' worth of infosec articles, we saw a lot of writing about APT activities and even a phishing attack method that uses Morse code to disguise malicious URLs. The Lookout article about the...
InfoSec Articles (01/31/21 – 02/14/21)
Onto the 2nd month of 2021, and we have seen supply-chain attacks, phishing campaigns, botnets, and ransomware such as the HelloKitty ransomware. CD Project disclosed that they were the target of HelloKitty...
InfoSec Articles (01/16/21 – 01/30/21)
On to the end of January and we're seeing banking malware such as Vadokrist and many others. Vadokrist is written in Delphi and has an unusually large amount of unused code in the binaries. It is believed...
InfoSec Articles (01/01/21 – 01/15/21)
On to a new year, but it's still good to review some malware such as APT37 to help us understand more about cybercrimes. APT37 is associated with an attack that embeds macro that uses a VBA self decoding...
InfoSec Articles (12/17/20 – 12/31/20)
On to the last day of the controversial year, cybercrime is still rife, as the attack activities of the Quasar Family. Quasar is an open-source RAT with a variety of functions. This is easy to use and...
InfoSec Articles (12/02/20 – 12/16/20)
A week before Christmas, cryptocurrency mining botnet PGMiner is showing smarter ways to hack into a victim's machine. At its core, PGMiner attempts to connect to the mining pool for Monero mining. Learn more...
InfoSec Articles (11/17/20 – 12/01/20)
On to the start of the last month of the year and just around Thanksgiving, cyber crimes are still rampant. Even GoDaddy was also a victim of a scam using voice phishing or vishing. The scam shows how vishing...
InfoSec Articles (11/02/20 – 11/16/20)
Several cases were observed where DLL side-loading was used to execute the malicious code. Side-loading is the use of a malicious DLL spoofing a legitimate one, relying on legitimate Windows executables....
Threat Intelligence Data Providers vs Threat Intelligence Platforms
In information security, the ability to predict and adapt to the behaviors of criminals can help organizations improve defense strategies against cyber threats. This can be done through the use of threat...
InfoSec Articles (10/18/20 – 11/01/20)
Upon entering the second to the last month of the year, there are a lot of botnets, banking malware, and malware making the news. But one that stands out is Kimsuky. Kimsuky uses various spearphishing and...
InfoSec Articles (10/03/20 – 10/17/20)
There has been a lot of RATs as well as botnets lately, such as HEH. HEH Botnet is spreading through brute force of the Telnet service on ports 23/2323. The bot does not really care of what the end devices...
InfoSec Articles (09/18/20 – 10/02/20)
One of the common malware being reported nowadays is the Remote Access Trojan or RAT, such as the LodaRAT. Written in Autolt, LodaRAT not only have abandoned their usual obfuscation techniques, but several...
InfoSec Articles (09/03/20 – 09/17/20)
With almost everything being done online, cybercriminals were able to develop Baka skimmer to perform their goals. Baka skimmer has a sophisticated design intended to circumvent detection by security tools....
InfoSec Articles (08/19/20 – 09/02/20)
This batch of the most recent infosec articles from around the web, includes an evolution analysis of Transparent Tribe. In the last four years, Transparent Tribe has never taken time off. They continue to...
InfoSec Articles (08/04/20 – 08/18/20)
Lots of malware have been creating cybercrime, but the old Agent Tesla uses new tricks to be able to stay on top. The Agent Tesla RAT has become one of the most prevalent malware families, being seen in more...
InfoSec Articles (07/20/20 – 08/03/20)
We have now come into a new month, and this set of InfoSec articles discusses how some specific malware operates. One of these is the Evilnum malware which was previously seen in attacks against financial...
InfoSec Articles (07/05/20 – 07/19/20)
Onto the second half of 2020, and a lot of trojans are actively upping their game to spread banking malware. One of these is Trojan Cerberus which disguised itself as a genuine app in order to access the...
InfoSec Articles (06/20/20 – 07/04/20)
The latter half of the year has already begun, and cybercrimes show no signs of stopping. Just like how they're using Cobalt Strike to deploy Anchor backdoor and RYUK ransomware. Be vigilant and learn more...
InfoSec Articles (06/05/20 – 06/19/20)
Ransomware and malware, such as GuLoader, have been very active in campaigns against security. GuLoader is used to deliver malware with the help of cloud services such as Google Drive. The delivery of malware...
InfoSec Articles (05/21/20 – 06/04/20)
Half of 2020 is here and malware such as Mylobot, ComRAT, and the likes have also upgraded their game. Mylobot has the ability to download and execute any type of payload after it infects a host. Learn more...
InfoSec Articles (05/06/20 – 05/20/20)
Ransomware has topped this InfoSec articles. One of which is the Netwalker ransomware. This involves malware that is not compiled but written in PowerShell and executed directly in memory and without storing...
InfoSec Articles (04/21/20 – 05/05/20)
Among the cybercrime known to us, EventBot seems to be a real threat among many users. EventBot is targeting financial applications and steal SMS messages to allow malware to bypass two-factor authentication....
DoH! Not so great to the Enterprise
DoH, or DNS over HTTPS (RFC 8484), is a relatively new protocol that provides increased privacy and security. It does this by encrypting DNS queries and responses, which prevents eavesdropping and...
InfoSec Articles (04/06/20 – 04/20/20)
xHelper, together with other malware and threat attacks, have added to the concerns of Android users. Read about this threat and more in the latest security industry news below. For more articles, check out...
InfoSec Articles (03/22/20 – 04/05/20)
Cyber attacks, phishing, stalkerware, and malware such as Emissary Panda, have been rampant. They're taking advantage of the vulnerabilities in organizations and even governments. Keep reading to find out...
InfoSec Articles (03/07/20 – 03/21/20)
A lot of info stealer, malware campaigns, and scams have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus has posts threat not only in the physical world, but also in the digital world. For more...
Newly Registered Domains Related to COVID-19
The current outbreak of the COVID-19 created a perfect scenario for all sorts of scammers to monetize through fear, false promises and fraud. Since the beginning of March, tens of thousands of new...
InfoSec Articles (02/21/20 – 03/06/20)
Infodemic is happening now to our world. The leverage of the current physical threat, the CoronaVirus, is being used as a social engineering trick to infect the cyber world. Be informed and read on these...
InfoSec Articles (02/06/20 – 02/20/20)
The industry saw lot of phishing and smishing in the second month of 2020. Most of this was related to the coronavirus epidemic. Read some of the most interesting and useful infosec articles from early...
InfoSec Articles (01/22/20 – 02/05/20)
Entering into the second month of the year, there's more information about the various groups that are using the Golden Chicken Malware-as-a-Service. In addition, there's a lot of malware now in action to get...
Why Commercial Threat Intelligence Beats OSINT
Picture this: you’re in need of a new suit. You see that your favorite store is giving away designer suits for free and the pictures look fantastic. But digging into the details reveals that they’re only...
InfoSec Articles (01/07/20 – 01/21/20)
Articles from the last couple of weeks reveal news about cyber threats targeting the electric utility industry and hackers boring into the gas company industry. And with the events in and around Iran, there...
Threat Intelligence: Essential For Your Cyber Defenses
Cyber risk is growing while confidence in internal defense resilience declining. According to Microsoft’s 2019 Global Cyber Risk Perception Survey, cyber security is a top 5 business concern for 79% of...
InfoSec Articles (12/23/19 – 01/06/20)
Off to an active start in 2020, threat groups are being quite agressive. Read articles about their attacks and several others in our industry article picks for the first of the year. For more articles, check...
InfoSec Articles (12/08/19 – 12/22/19)
Just a few weeks into the holiday season and Ryuk ransomware, among others, are making the news. Read articles about this menace and several others in our picks from the industry. For more articles, check out...
Infosec Articles (11/23/19 – 12/07/19)
Even with low usage rates, new exploit kits have been found targeting Internet Explorer, says Malwarebytes in their fall report. Secure List's article about Q3 spam and phishing highlight Amazon...
Infosec Articles (11/8/19 – 11/22/19)
Ransomware takes the spotlight this time showing up targeting Windows users, production servers and, specifically, drives commonly associated with removable devices and mapped network drives. For more...
Infosec Articles (10/24/19 – 11/7/19)
Android malware and adware, along with mobile espionage made headlines during the last two weeks. No shortage of variety in malicious behavior, there are also articles about some RATs and APTs with current...
Infosec Articles (10/9/19 – 10/23/19)
There's a new Mirai variant and, big surprise, Android applications are taking more permissions than they are granted. For Linux users, there's a new ransomware family targeting Linux-based Network Attached...
Infosec Articles (9/24/19 – 10/8/19)
Our selection of the most recent infosec articles from around the web, including write ups about both the Masad and Arcane stealer, all accompanied by a possible link between Magecart Group 4 and Cobalt...
Infosec Articles (9/9/19 – 9/23/19)
Read our hand-picked selection of the latest security articles in which botnets and RATs make frequent appearances. Despite the changes in the industry earlier this year when Coinhive closed shop,...
Infosec Articles (8/25/19 – 9/8/19)
Read some of the most interesting and useful infosec articles from the last two weeks, in particular a couple about the newcomer Nemty ransomware. The NCSC published a reminder / warning about the upcoming...
Infosec Articles (8/11/19 – 8/24/19)
Our selection of the most recent infosec articles from around the web, including a vulnerability, a malware and a phishing attack all directed at Microsoft users. Sucuri reports an increase in Troldesh...
Infosec Articles (7/28/19 – 8/10/19)
Our handpicked selection of the most recent infosec articles from around the web, including vulnerabilities found in Siemens and WhatsApp. The ACSC published an informative password spraying attacks advisory....
MineMeld Configuration Guide
Palo Alto MineMeld is an “extensible Threat Intelligence processing framework and the ‘multi-tool’ of threat indicator feeds. Based on an extremely flexible engine, MineMeld can be used to...
Infosec Articles (7/13/19 – 7/27/19)
There's a growing concern over what is thought to be a regrouping of the GandCrab ransomware developers to distribute what is being called “REvil,” “Sodin,” and “Sodinokibi” ransomware. The NCSC published a...
Infosec Articles (6/28/19 – 7/12/19)
MSPs and CSPs have been targeted by attackers in an attempt to access their systems and install ransomware. In other news, Android applications are taking more permissions than they are granted. For more...
Infosec Articles (6/13/19 – 6/27/19)
New activity by Silex malware and one that uses InterPlanetary File System’s (IPFS) p2p network made the news over the last couple of weeks. An article by IT Governance explains angler phishing. There's a...
Infosec Articles (5/28/19 – 6/12/19)
Articles from the last couple of weeks reveal interesting new research about a method to fight ransomware by using flash-based storage on devices to save files. That's especially good news because Shade and...
Infosec Articles (5/13/19 – 5/27/19)
An article from IBM Security about macro malware is one of our favorites from the last couple of weeks. It covers some of the attack vector's history and provides tips for how to detect this kind of malicious...
Infosec Articles (4/29/19 – 5/13/19)
Ransomware has been a hot topic the last couple of weeks. We're seeing its versatility, with distribution techniques spanning server vulnerabilities to advertising platforms, along with the use of AV tools to...
Postpassword Security with FIDO2
Welcome to the dawn of the post-password world. Multifactor authentication orbits it and two-factor authentication is just a short ride away. A new adoption campaign has launched, and it’s bound for broad...
Infosec Articles (4/14/19 – 4/28/19)
DNS hijacking is a worrisome threat for all Internet users and seems to be on the rise. There's a new (free) tool from the National Cyber Security Centre to help businesses simulate and test their cyber...
Synergistic Malware Threats
It’s easy to focus on the different kinds of malware threats. Data exfiltration, phishing, ransomware, Trojans, cryptomining and all the other threat vectors present sufficient challenges to cyber security...
Infosec Articles (3/30/19 – 4/13/19)
Finally, some relief from the Windows updates process that has annoyed users the world over for years! We're seeing new tricks used by old malware and vice versa; ex. Emotet intercepting email conversations...
Tips for Establishing Your Security Program
(And How the Cyber Insurance Industry May Help You for Free) I won’t keep you waiting. Before you get too excited about that free assist from the cyber insurance industry, let me be clear: it won’t, directly....
Infosec Articles (3/15/19 – 3/29/19)
The last couple of weeks provided the security community with a wide variety of topics, from an AV Comparatives study on antimalware security apps in the Google Play Store to new features and capabilities for...
Whitelisting for Block Lists
Malware Patrol's #1 goal is to protect customers from malware and ransomware infections. These days, this can mean blocking mainstream domains. Consequently, our customers report potential false positives for...
Infosec Articles (2/29/19 – 3/14/19)
Over the last couple of weeks we've seen point-of-sale malware making its way to the top of the threats list, at least in terms of headlines and focus. A rather shocking discovery was a PDF flaw that dates...
Infosec Articles (2/14/19 – 2/28/19)
The second half of February 2019 continued to highlight server vulnerabilities with a Linux ransomware named B0r0nt0K making headlines. There's a useful privacy resource about the pros and cons - along with...
Is Online Privacy the Next Phase of Globalization
Google’s first privacy fine post-GDPR sounds substantial. $57 million could certainly buy a first-class infosec infrastructure for a medium-sized company and keep many payrolls rolling out for years to come....
Infosec Articles (1/30/19 – 2/13/19)
Our top picks for industry articles include a detailed explanation of fileless malware by the folks at Trend Micro. A great reference for those collecting threat data is the piece on Windows file types used...
Phishing’s Next Wave: AI-Enabled Tactics for Attackers and Cybersecurity Pros
Cybercrime steals an estimated $600 billion from the global economy every year. In the next several years we can expect that number to reach well into the trillions. Phishing and spear phishing open most...
Infosec Articles (1/15/19 – 1/29/19)
Linux security has taken its place among the most pressing security concerns in the industry, as explained in an article by UPI. Emotet evolves and Office documents continue to be infection vectors. For more...
Phishing: The Tide Is Still Coming In
In cybersecurity the familiar is dangerous. Because of this, we must qualify what we “already know” and refresh our knowledge. Without this attention, cracks in the system grow until huge threats can fit...
Infosec Articles (1/1/19 – 1/14/19)
Off to an active start in 2019, cryptocurrency mining malware is topping lists once again. Read articles about this nuisance and several others in our industry article picks for the first of the year. For...
Reputation Jacking: Unknown Threats on Well-Known Sites
Threat actors place malicious content on trusted sites to gain access to user’s devices and spread malware. Instead of an outside attack, they wait for the victim to download software from a trusted source or otherwise insinuate themselves into a normal operation.
Infosec Articles (12/13/18 – 12/31/18)
During the last couple weeks of the year the infosec industry was abuzz about methods for both building and using malicious Microsoft Office documents. Utilizing another staple of the office world, a phishing...
Command and Control Servers: Fundamentals and a Few Details
Few topics in current cybersecurity generate as much press as command and control servers (C2s). They enable the cybercrime that often affects companies and individuals far outside the IT industry.
Infosec Articles (12/5/18 – 12/12/18)
Read our blog for articles from the last week in infosec featuring new tools for malware analysis and identification.
DNS Sinkholes Detect and Protect. Discovering What’s Inside Them Can Be the Key to Security
Bots don’t sleep, ransomware finds new ways to infiltrate systems and yesterday’s defenses may be ineffective tomorrow. Cybersecurity requires vigilance. But vigilance alone won’t suffice. That’s...
Infosec Articles (11/28/18 – 12/4/18)
Our handpicked selection of the most recent infosec articles, with a new use for IOT printers topping the list of creative efforts. To demonstrate their effectiveness, the printer advertising has been...
Infosec Articles (11/21/2018 – 11/27/2018)
Our handpicked selection of the most recent infosec articles from around the web. L0rdix malware is available for sale in underground forums and there's JavaScript that can even track when using the Tor...
Infosec Articles (11/13/2018 – 11/20/2018)
Our selection of recent infosec articles from around the web. Remote access Trojans abound and new TP-Link router vulnerabilities (should) serve as a reminder for all of us to check our own equipment. For...
Infosec Articles (10/29/2018 – 11/12/2018)
Our handpicked selection of the most recent infosec articles from the first half of November 2018. SamSam and Kraken ransomware make headlines, along with an appearance by Emotet with new email exfiltration...
Infosec Articles (10/16/2018 – 10/28/2018)
Read some of the most interesting and useful infosec articles we came across during the last half of October 2018. We have included information on exploits of servers with Hadoop installations, a...
Infosec Articles (10/2/2018 – 10/15/2018)
Infosec articles we found in the first half of October 2018. We have included an article on what to do after a breach. Learn about malicious code can that be used to create a cryptominer, about the GPlayed trojan that poses as Google Play, and more.
Infosec Articles (9/17/18 – 10/1/18)
We've put together our bi-weekly compilation of infosec articles from around the security industry. Read updates on botnets like Gafgyt and Virobot. Learn about hackers targerting real estate deals, and more....
SpamAssassin Configuration Guide
Malware Patrol provides block lists compatible with SpamAssassin. "Apache SpamAssassin is the #1 Open Source anti-spam platform giving system administrators a filter to classify email and...
Infosec Articles (9/4/18 – 9/16/18)
A few of our favorite infosec articles from the past few weeks. Learn about Android botnet “Black Rose Lucy” and about the“BlueBorne” bluetooth exploit. Read how the Necurs Botnet, DarkHydrus and other threat actors are turning to inconspicuous files to peddle malspam.
Infosec Articles (8/14/18 – 9/3/18)
Read a few interesting CyberSecurity news articles from the past few weeks, including an update on a rootkit named CEIDPageLock being distributed by the RIG Exploit kit, Mozilla’s plan to distrust TLS certificates issued by Symantec, new MacOS malware, and more.
Infosec Articles (8/1/18 – 8/13/18)
A couple of updates on the Emotet trojan are among the highlights of our selected infosec articles from August 2018. Other important information includes Russian cyber attacks targeting U.S. critical...
Infosec Articles – July 2018
Our selected infosec articles July 2018 include an Android malware that targets Israeli soldiers through fake Facebook profiles, an updated Trojan that can infect via a cryptor or a miner, a money...
Infosec Articles – June 2018
We've compiled a few of our favorite recent infosec articles from the best sources in the industry. Keep reading to learn about a decryptor tool for Everbe ransomware, malicious code ADB.miner, and mysterybot...
Infosec Articles – May 2018
A selection of our favorite infosec articles from May 2018. Cryptocurrency-mining makes its regularly scheduled appearance, and for some 'fun' reading, check out the SecureList article "History of malicious...
Be Smart – 419 Nigerian Email Scams
Nigerian Email Scams Malware Patrol's spam traps and honeypots capture messages and malicious URLs from all sorts of email scams and spam. One of the most well known is called the 419 or Nigerian...
Why choose Malware Patrol over a free DNS protection service?
Customers and prospects have approached us recently with questions similar to this: why should we choose Malware Patrol instead of a free DNS protection service? The question is fair, especially in a market...
Infosec Articles – April 2018
We are thankful that so many companies and individual researchers take the time to publish articles about the latest threats. And when they share IOCs, it's even better! We've put together some of our...
Accessing threat data on AWS S3 buckets
Malware Patrol provides some of its threat data feeds via Amazon / AWS S3 buckets. Among the feeds are the "Malware Samples (Binaries)" and the "Bitcoin Transactions (JSON format)". Amazon Simple...
Malware Patrol – Protection Against Crypto Mining Abuse
Cryptocurrency mining as a service is a growing website monetization trend, especially popular on gaming and torrent sites, in which a JavaScript code utilizes the visitor's CPU for cryptocurrency...
DNS RPZ Firewall Configuration Guide
BIND is the world’s most used DNS server and can be configured as a DNS Firewall using RPZ files (DNS RPZ). Response Policy Zone (RPZ) enables DNS administrators to selectively block name...
Cisco ASA FirePOWER Configuration Guide
“With Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services, you consolidate multiple security layers in a single platform, eliminating the cost of buying and managing multiple solutions. This integrated approach combines...
Spoofed DDoS Attacks and BCP 38
The majority of recent DDoS attacks utilize source address spoofing techniques. These spoofed DDos attacks complicate mitigation efforts and hide the IP address of the originating system. It...
DDoS Reflection and Amplification Attacks
Reflection and amplification are mechanisms commonly used in DDoS attacks. These simple and very effective techniques gained popularity around 2013. They take advantage of publicly accessible UDP services to...
Popular Domains Hosting Malware
Malware Patrol has maintained a database of malicious URLs and IOCs since 2005. We often receive emails from our users about "popular" and "important" domains being present in our block lists and...
Role of DGAs in Malware and Ransomware Campaigns
The vast majority of active malware and ransomware families include some sort of communication with command and control systems (C&Cs). This connection allows them to receive their...
pfBlockerNG Configuration Guide
Malware Patrol provides block lists compatible with pfBlockerNG, a package for pfSense version 2.x that allows the usage of custom block list, IP filtering, and country block functionalities....
Comparing Protection Mechanisms
In a market full of products and services that promise to solve the most varied security threats, it is important to put solutions into perspective, understand what they really deliver and never forget that no single vendor can protect from all threats.
pfSense Configuration Guide
pfSense software is a free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD specifically tailored for use as a firewall and router that is entirely managed via web interface. In addition to being a powerful,...
Clam AV Software Configuration Guide
“Clam AV is an open source ant-virus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, malware & other malicious threats.” Malware Patrol provides signatures that are compatible with Clam AV software. You can follow...
Squid3 Web Proxy Configuration Guide
Squid is a proxy for the web that provides extensive access control lists, reduces bandwidth consumption and improves response times by caching and reusing frequently requested web pages. It runs on most...
BIND9 Configuration Guide
Bind is the world’s most used DNS server. Keep reading to learn how to configure Bind9 to work with Malware Patrol's data. Getting Started Malware Patrol provides a zone file compatible with Bind9. Its usage...