Over 120,000 Computers Compromised by Info Stealers Linked to Users of Cybercrime Forums
A “staggering” 120,000 computers infected by stealer malware have credentials associated with cybercrime forums, many of them belonging to malicious actors. The findings come from Hudson Rock, which analyzed data collected from computers compromised between 2018 to 2023. “Hackers around the world infect computers opportunistically by promoting results for fake software or through YouTube tutorials directing victims to download infected software,” Hudson Rock CTO Alon Gal told The Hacker News. “It is not a case of the threat actor infecting his own computer, it is that out of the 14,500,000 computers we have in our cybercrime database, some of them happen to be hackers that accidentally got infected.”
US lawmaker says FBI notified him of email breach linked to Microsoft cloud hack
U.S. House lawmaker Rep. Don Bacon said the FBI warned him that China-backed hackers who used a stolen Microsoft key to raid the email accounts of senior U.S. government officials also accessed his email accounts. In a tweet, the Republican congressman from Nebraska said the FBI notified him on Monday that the Chinese government “hacked into my personal and campaign emails from May 15th to June 16th of this year,” citing a previously disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft’s cloud. The disclosure comes two months after the hack occurred, suggesting that the FBI is still notifying those affected. It’s not clear why there was a delay in notifying Bacon about the breach. Neither Microsoft nor the FBI responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Major LinkedIn Account Takeover Campaign Underway
Security researchers have warned of a significant global account takeover campaign targeting LinkedIn users over recent weeks. Cyberint claimed this week that desperate users locked out of their accounts are venting their ire at the platform’s support on social media. There’s been a spike in searches for LinkedIn support and advice on account compromise across social media as a result, the threat intelligence vendor claimed. “Our analysis using Google Trends reveals a significant surge in the past 90 days in the volume of Google searches related to the hacked account campaign,” explained researcher Coral Tayar.
China accuses U.S. intelligence agencies as source behind Wuhan cybersecurity attack
China has reiterated claims that last month’s cybersecurity attack on a Wuhan facility was the work of U.S. intelligence agencies, pointing to a “very complex” malware used in the incident. The Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center on July 26 was reported to be the victim of an attack that appeared to originate from government-backed hackers in the U.S. The allegations state the attack targeted network equipment that collected seismic intensity data, which measured the magnitude of earthquakes and contained information concerning national security, according to the Wuhan Municipal Emergency Management Bureau. Information on military defense facilities, for example, is taken into account in determining seismic intensity.
CFPB helms multi-agency effort to scrutinize sale of Americans’ data
Federal agency leadership released new steps in protecting American citizens’ data from the data broker industry absent formal federal law, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission spearheading proposed rules that crack down on the usage of personal data. On Tuesday, the White House held a formal roundtable on protecting Americans from harmful data broker practices, featuring remarks from government officials representing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy that gave a summary of how the Biden administration is bringing a level of regulation to companies’ data harvesting practices.
FBI Warns of Surge in Crypto Recovery Scams: Watch Out for These Signs!
The FBI has issued a public service announcement warning of a rise in cryptocurrency recovery schemes exploiting victims who lost crypto to fraud, scams and outright theft. According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), US citizens reported more than $2.5 billion in lost cryptocurrency from investment frauds alone last year. Scammers scout for victims on social media or messaging platforms and claim to provide cryptocurrency tracing, advertising the ability to recover lost funds. Other attack avenues include ads for fraudulent cryptocurrency recovery services in the comment sections of online news articles and videos about cryptocurrency, and online search results for queries about cryptocurrency.
