Press Release

Hackers target Russian businesses with ransomware that was disclosed by Conti.

Published

7 months ago

October 1, 2023

Using the Conti ransomware’s stolen source code, a hacking group produced their own ransomware to be used in cyberattacks against Russian organisations.

We frequently hear about ransomware attacks that target businesses and encrypt data, but we hardly ever hear about assaults on Russian organisations.

This absence of attacks is a result of Russian hackers’ widespread conviction that if they do not target Russian targets, then the nation’s law enforcement will ignore attacks on other nations.

The situation has changed, though, as the hacking gang NB65 is now launching ransomware assaults against Russian firms.

Russian targets for ransomware
An organisation known as NB65 has been hacking Russian organisations for the past month, collecting their data, and exposing it online while claiming responsibility for the attacks on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The document management company Tensor, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and the state-owned Russian Television and Radio broadcaster VGTRK are among the Russian organisations that the hacking group claims to have attacked.

The attack on VGTRK was particularly noteworthy because it is claimed that 786.2 GB of data, including 900,000 emails and 4,000 files, were stolen and then released on the DDoS Secrets website.

The NB65 hackers have recently adopted a new strategy and, since the end of March, have been targeting Russian enterprises with ransomware attacks.

This is made even more intriguing by the fact that the hacker organisation used the Conti Ransomware operation’s leaked source code to construct their own ransomware. Conti is a group of Russian threat actors that forbid their members from assaulting targets in Russia.

A security researcher released 170,000 internal chat conversations and the source code for Conti’s operation after they sided with Russia in the war on Ukraine.

Threat researcher Tom Malka originally alerted BleepingComputer to NB65’s activities, but we were unable to locate a ransomware sample, and the hacking collective was unable to offer one either.

But yesterday, a sample of the modified Conti ransomware executable used by the NB65 was released to VirusTotal, giving us a look at how it operates.

This sample is recognised as Conti by almost all antivirus vendors on VirusTotal, and Intezer Analyze found that it shares 66% of the code with other Conti ransomware strains.

The ransomware developed by NB65 would append the when encrypting files, according to a test by BleepingComputer.

The names of the encrypted files have an NB65 extension.

Throughout the encrypted device, the ransomware will also produce ransom notes with the filename R3ADM3.txt. The threat actors will blame President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine for the cyberattack.

“We keep a careful eye on things. War crimes should not have been committed by your president. Look no further than Vladimir Putin for someone to blame for your current condition “reads the NB65 ransomware message displayed below.

In order to prevent existing decryptors from functioning, the NB65 hacker gang adjusted its encryptor for each victim based on the first Conti source code leak, according to a spokesperson who spoke to BleepingComputer.

“It has been changed such that no decryptor created by Conti will function. A random key is generated for each deployment depending on a few variables that we alter for each target, “According to NB65, BleepingComputer.

Without speaking to us, there is truly no way to decode.

NB65 informed us that they did not anticipate hearing from their victims at this time because they have not received any correspondence from them.

We’ll let NB65’s justifications for assaulting Russian groups speak for themselves.

Press Release

MICROSOFT IS IN TERMS TO BUY SPEECH TECHNOLOGY COMPANY NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS FOR ABOUT $16 BILLION, OR $56 A SHARE, A 23% OVERPAYMENT TO NUANCE’S FRIDAY CLOSE, According to Sources (BLOOMBERG)

Published

7 months ago

October 1, 2023

David Baddeley

MICROSOFT IS IN TERMS TO BUY SPEECH TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

Bloomberg:

According to sources, Microsoft is in advanced talks to acquire Nuance Communications, a provider of speech technology, for about $16 billion, or $56 per share, a 23% premium to Nuance’s Friday close. The proposed price would value Nuance at $56 per share. This week could see the announcement of a deal.

Press Release

After taking data, the Android spyware BRATA wipes your smartphone.

Published

7 months ago

October 1, 2023

David Baddeley

After taking data, the Android spyware BRATA wipes your smartphone.

The most recent version of the Android malware known as BRATA now includes several new and dangerous features, such as GPS tracking, the ability to use numerous communication channels, and a tool that wipes all evidence of malicious activity from the device by performing a factory reset.

Kaspersky originally identified BRATA as an Android RAT (remote access tool) in 2019 that mostly targeted Brazilian users.

A Cleafy report from December 2021 highlighted the malware’s appearance in Europe, where it was observed to target customers of online banking services and steal their credentials with the help of con artists posing as bank customer support representatives.

Cleafy analysts kept an eye out for new features in BRATA, and in a new research released today, they show how the malware is still evolving.

versions with modifications for various audiences
The most recent iterations of the BRATA malware currently target e-banking users in China, Latin America, the UK, Poland, Italy, and Spain.

With various overlay sets, languages, and even different apps to target particular populations, each version focuses on a different bank.

In all versions, the developers employ comparable obfuscation strategies, such as enclosing the APK file in an encrypted JAR or DEX package.

The VirusTotal scan below shows how effectively this obfuscation avoids antivirus detections.

On that front, before moving on to the data exfiltration process, BRATA now actively looks for indicators of AV presence on the device and tries to erase the discovered security tools.

New capabilities
The keylogging functionality, which is a new feature in the most recent BRATA versions, was discovered by Cleafy researchers and adds to the existing screen capturing capabilities.

All new variations also include GPS monitoring, however analysts are unsure of its precise function.

The performing of factory resets, which the actors do in the following circumstances, is the scariest of the new malevolent features.

The fraudulent transaction has been successfully finished after the compromise (i.e. credentials have been exfiltrated).
It has been discovered by the programme that it operates in a virtual environment, perhaps for analysis.
The kill switch used by BRATA is a factory reset, which wipes the device and increases the risk of a victim experiencing an unexpected and permanent loss of data.

Finally, BRATA now supports HTTP and WebSockets and has provided new channels for data exchange with the C2 server.

A direct, low-latency route that is perfect for in-the-moment communication and live manual exploitation is provided by the choice of WebSockets for the actors.

Additionally, because WebSockets don’t need to send headers with each connection, less suspicious network traffic is generated, which reduces the likelihood of being discovered.

Basic safety precautions
BRATA is only one of several sneaky RATs and Android banking trojans that target users’ banking credentials that are out there.

Installing apps from the Google Play Store, avoiding APKs from dubious websites, and always scanning them with an AV programme before opening them are the best strategies to prevent being infected by Android malware.

Pay close attention to the permissions that are requested during installation and don’t allow those that don’t seem necessary for the app’s primary functions.

Finally, keep an eye on your battery life and network traffic levels to spot any sudden spikes that can be caused by malicious processes that are running in the background.

Press Release

Record: hackers scraped information of 500M LinkedIn customers and published it available online; LinkedIn validates the dataset includes publicly viewable details from its site (Katie Canales/Insider).

Published

7 months ago

October 1, 2023

David Baddeley

ReporReport: hackers scraped data of 500M LinkedIn users and posted it for sale online; LinkedIn confirms the dataset includes publicly viewable info from its site (Katie Canales/Insider)

Katie Canales / Insider:
Report: hackers scraped data of 500M LinkedIn users and posted it for sale online; LinkedIn confirms the dataset includes publicly viewable info from its site — – Personal data from 500 million LinkedIn users has been scraped and is reportedly for sale on a hacking forum.t: hackers scraped data of 500M LinkedIn users and posted it for sale online; LinkedIn confirms the dataset includes publicly viewable info from its site (Katie Canales/Insider)