Danielle Nerman reports: The president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada says it’s not just individuals and small businesses who are shelling out to hackers who infect their computers with viruses. “Police departments and law firms are very, very attractive targets and they pay quite often,” said Sharon Polsky, a Calgary data protection and privacy expert. “If it’s…
Category: Malware
UK: NetNames confirms easily.co.uk whacked by cyber crims
Paul Kunert reports: The UK’s number two website hosting business, Easily.co.uk, has confirmed to customers it has fallen prey to cyber crims. The NetNames-owned company, which hosts 100,000 sites including 65,000 in Britain, told punters yesterday IT systems were attacked by an “unknown third party”. “A forensic investigation by independent experts has revealed that unauthorised…
OH: First Transit notifies employees after malware discovered on server
Malware inserted on a server on October 23, 2011 wasn’t discovered until October 21, 2015, reports First Transit‘s external counsel. For almost four years, employees’ information, including name, address, date of birth, phone number, driver’s license number, and Social Security number may have been compromised. In response to the discovery, First Transit took the server offline…
Revealed: Mystery 7-year cyberspy campaign in Latin America
John Leyden reports: Security researchers have uncovered a seven year-long malware campaign against Latin America. Citizen Lab found that journalists, activists, politicians, and public figures in Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela have been targeted by a large-scale hacking campaign since 2008. The campaign, dubbed Packrat, uses bogus websites and social media accounts for fake opposition groups…
Spy Banker Trojan Being Hosted On Google Cloud
Sara Peters reports: The Spy Banker Trojan is spreading through Brazil through the help of Google and Facebook, according to researchers at ZScaler ThreatLabZ. Attackers host the Spy Banker downloader on Google Cloud servers. The downloader, in turn, installs the payload Spy Banker Trojan Telax. Victims are infected by drive-by download or led to it via…
South America Hacker Team Targets Dissidents, Journalists
Frank Bajak of AP reports: A shadowy cyber-espionage group that sent malware to the prosecutor whose mysterious death transfixed Argentina early this year has been hitting targets in left-leaning nations across South America, the Internet watchdog group Citizen Lab reported Wednesday. The breadth and brazenness of the hackers’ activity bear the hallmarks of state sponsorship….