serisec

Category: russia

  • Inside Department 4: Russia’s secret school for hackers

    Inside Department 4: Russia’s secret school for hackers Most universities have a careers fair. At Bauman Moscow State Technical University, however, an elite group of students appear to have something rather more unusual: a direct pipeline into some of the world’s most notorious state-sponsored hacking groups. Read more in my article on the Hot for…

  • Possible US Government iPhone Hacking Tool Leaked

    Possible US Government iPhone Hacking Tool Leaked Wired writes (alternate source): Security researchers at Google on Tuesday released a report describing what they’re calling “Coruna,” a highly sophisticated iPhone hacking toolkit that includes five complete hacking techniques capable of bypassing all the defenses of an iPhone to silently install malware on a device when it…

  • Free parking in Russia after Distributed Denial-of-Service attack knocks city’s parking system offline

    Free parking in Russia after Distributed Denial-of-Service attack knocks city’s parking system offline Drivers in the Russian city of Perm have been enjoying an unexpected bonus this week: free parking. Not because the city council suddenly decided to embrace generosity – but rather because hackers succeeded in knocking the city’s payment system offline. Read more…

  • Twitter suspended 800 million accounts last year – so why does manipulation remain so rampant?

    Twitter suspended 800 million accounts last year – so why does manipulation remain so rampant? Elon Musk’s social media site says it suspended 800 million accounts in a year for spam and manipulation – but with state-backed campaigns still flooding the platform, the real question is how many fake accounts remain. Read more in my…

  • Smashing Security podcast #457: How a cybersecurity boss framed his own employee

    Smashing Security podcast #457: How a cybersecurity boss framed his own employee When a top cybersecurity firm discovered it had a leak, you would expect the FBI to be called. Instead, the person put in charge of the investigation was the actual leaker… who promptly sent an innocent colleague into a career-ending ambush. In this…

  • Notorious ransomware gang allegedly blackmailed by fake FSB officer

    Notorious ransomware gang allegedly blackmailed by fake FSB officer There is a certain poetic justice in a cybersecurity-related story that has emerged from Moscow this week: A man has been accused of trying to extort money… from a notorious Russian ransomware gang. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Graham Cluley…

  • Smashing Security podcast #454: AI was not plotting humanity’s demise. Humans were

    Smashing Security podcast #454: AI was not plotting humanity’s demise. Humans were AI bots are having existential crises, inventing religions, and allegedly plotting against humanity… or so the internet would have you believe. We dig into Moltbook, the “AI-only” social network that sent Twitter into a meltdown, attracted breathless talk of the singularity, and turned…

  • Hacking attack leaves Russian car owners locked out of their vehicles

    Hacking attack leaves Russian car owners locked out of their vehicles Imagine the scene. It’s a cold Monday morning in Moscow. You walk out to your car, coffee in hand, ready to face the day. You press the button to unlock your car, and … nothing happens. You try again. Still nothing. The alarm starts…

  • Pro-Russian denial-of-service attacks target UK, NCSC warns

    Pro-Russian denial-of-service attacks target UK, NCSC warns The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a warning about the threat posed by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from Russia-linked hacking groups who are reported to be continuing to target British organisations. Are you prepared? Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.…

  • Denmark Accuses Russia of Conducting Two Cyberattacks

    Denmark Accuses Russia of Conducting Two Cyberattacks News: The Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) announced on Thursday that Moscow was behind a cyber-attack on a Danish water utility in 2024 and a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on Danish websites in the lead-up to the municipal and regional council elections in November. The first,…

  • Dutch teens recruited on Telegram, accused of Russia-backed hacking plot

    Dutch teens recruited on Telegram, accused of Russia-backed hacking plot Two 17-year-olds have been arrested by Dutch authorities on suspicion of spying for pro-Russian hackers. The teenagers, who are said to have been recruited as “disposable agents” via Telegram, were reportedly arrested last week “on suspicion that are linked to government-sponsored interference.” Read more in…

  • Zero-Day Exploit in WinRAR File

    Zero-Day Exploit in WinRAR File A zero-day vulnerability in WinRAR is being exploited by at least two Russian criminal groups: The vulnerability seemed to have super Windows powers. It abused alternate data streams, a Windows feature that allows different ways of representing the same file path. The exploit abused that feature to trigger a previously…

  • Ukraine claims to have hacked secrets from Russia’s newest nuclear submarine

    Ukraine claims to have hacked secrets from Russia’s newest nuclear submarine Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence agency (HUR) claims that its hackers have successfully stolen secret files and classified data on a state-of-the-art Russian nuclear submarine, the “Knyaz Pozharsky.” Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Graham Cluley Go to grahamcluley

  • Aeroflot Hacked

    Aeroflot Hacked Looks serious. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier

  • Europol targets Kremlin-backed cybercrime gang NoName057(16)

    Europol targets Kremlin-backed cybercrime gang NoName057(16) The hacking group NoName057(16) has been operating since 2022, launching cyber attacks on government organisations, media bodies, critical infrastructure, and private companies in Ukraine, America, Canada, and across Europe in a seeming attempt to silence voices that the group considers anti-Russian. Read more in my article on the Hot…

  • Russian basketball player arrested in ransomware case despite being “useless with computers”

    Russian basketball player arrested in ransomware case despite being “useless with computers” A Russian professional basketball player has been arrested for allegedly acting as a negotiator for a ransomware gang… and despite his lawyer claiming he’s “useless” with computers. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Graham Cluley Go to grahamcluley

  • Sweden says it is under cyber attack

    Sweden says it is under cyber attack Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says his country is under attack, after days of hard-hitting DDoS attacks against SVT Sweden’s public TV broadcaster, government websites, and other key organisations. Graham Cluley Go to grahamcluley

  • The Ramifications of Ukraine’s Drone Attack

    The Ramifications of Ukraine’s Drone Attack You can read the details of Operation Spiderweb elsewhere. What interests me are the implications for future warfare: If the Ukrainians could sneak drones so close to major air bases in a police state such as Russia, what is to prevent the Chinese from doing the same with U.S.…

  • Damascened Peacock: Russian hackers targeted UK Ministry of Defence

    Damascened Peacock: Russian hackers targeted UK Ministry of Defence The UK’s Ministry of Defence has revealed that it was the target of a sophisticated cyber attack that saw Russia-linked hackers pose as journalists. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Graham Cluley Go to grahamcluley

  • Location Tracking App for Foreigners in Moscow

    Location Tracking App for Foreigners in Moscow Russia is proposing a rule that all foreigners in Moscow install a tracking app on their phones. Using a mobile application that all foreigners will have to install on their smartphones, the Russian state will receive the following information: Residence location Fingerprint Face photograph Real-time geo-location monitoring This…

  • China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea Intelligence Sharing

    China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea Intelligence Sharing Former CISA Director Jen Easterly writes about a new international intelligence sharing co-op: Historically, China, Russia, Iran & North Korea have cooperated to some extent on military and intelligence matters, but differences in language, culture, politics & technological sophistication have hindered deeper collaboration, including in cyber. Shifting…

  • CISA refutes claims it has been ordered to stop monitoring Russian cyber threats

    CISA refutes claims it has been ordered to stop monitoring Russian cyber threats It’s been a confusing few days in the world of American cybersecurity… Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Graham Cluley Go to grahamcluley

  • Stop targeting Russian hackers, Trump administration orders US Cyber Command

    Stop targeting Russian hackers, Trump administration orders US Cyber Command The Trump administration has told US cyber command and CISA to stop following or reporting on Russian cyber threats. Yes, Russia! That country everyone used to agree was home to lots of ransomware gangs and hackers. Hmmm… Read more in my article on the Hot…

  • Device Code Phishing

    Device Code Phishing This isn’t new, but it’s increasingly popular: The technique is known as device code phishing. It exploits “device code flow,” a form of authentication formalized in the industry-wide OAuth standard. Authentication through device code flow is designed for logging printers, smart TVs, and similar devices into accounts. These devices typically don’t support…

  • Russian money-laundering network linked to drugs and ransomware disrupted, 84 arrests

    Russian money-laundering network linked to drugs and ransomware disrupted, 84 arrests The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has revealed details of Operation Destabilise, a years-long international law enforcement investigation into a giant Russian money laundering enterprise that handled billions of dollars for drug traffickers and ransomware gangs worldwide. Read more in my article on the…

  • Ransomware-hit vodka maker Stoli files for bankruptcy in the United States

    Ransomware-hit vodka maker Stoli files for bankruptcy in the United States Stoli Group USA, the US subsidiary of vodka maker Stoli, has filed for bankruptcy – and a ransomware attack is at least partly to blame. The American branch of Stoli, which imports and distributes Stoli brands in the United States, as well as the…