North Korean hackers turn focus to cryptocurrency, point-of-sale systems during holiday season

Cybercriminals linked to North Korea appear to be simultaneously targeting point-of-sale (POS) systems as well as cryptocurrency platforms as the annual holiday spike continues in retail stores and the hype surrounding bitcoin surges, according to research by cybersecurity firms Proofpoint and RiskIQ. Reports by the two companies published late Tuesday shine a light on the ways in which hackers are increasingly developing different types of custom attacks to either steal cryptocurrency or infect computers with so-called “cryptojacking” software. The latter involves the covert installation of malicious computer code into compromised web browsers in order to siphon off processing power, which can in turn be used to mine cryptocurrencies. The researchers say the hacks in question are connected to the Lazarus Group, the cybersecurity community’s name for North Korea’s premier cybercrime and cyber-espionage organization. Attacks on the financial system are one of the communist regime’s chief sources of funding as it faces global sanctions […]

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ShadowBrokers Planning Monthly Exploit, Data Dump Service

The latest rant from the ShadowBrokers ends with news of a subscription service starting in June that will leak exploits and stolen data to paying customers. Continue reading ShadowBrokers Planning Monthly Exploit, Data Dump Service

IBM shipped malware-laden USB sticks to unsuspecting customers

Malware-laden USB sticks were accidentally sent by IBM to a series of enterprise customers that had purchased storage systems developed by the computing giant, according to a company advisory published last week. An unidentified number of these drives were mailed as an installation tool for users setting up IBM Storewize V3700 and V5000 Gen 1 storage systems. IBM says that all of the infected USBs carried the same serial number: 01AC585. An IBM spokesperson did not respond to CyberScoop’s inquiry. It remains unclear how the malware originally found its way onto the drives. When plugged into a vulnerable system, the memory stick will immediately launch the legitimate Storewize initialization tool, which in this case also carries hidden malicious computer code that copies itself to a temporary folder. Fortunately, the malware itself is not executable, meaning that it won’t automatically run on a computer in order to infect the Storwize disks. […]

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