Category Archives: Russian Federation

Surprisingly stealthy botnet has been targeting users for years

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ESET researchers have unearthed a botnet of some 500,000 infected machines engaged mostly in ad-related fraud by using malicious Chrome extensions, but also Facebook fraud and brute-forcing Joomla and WordPress websites. In addition to this, the compromised machines are also equipped with a fully featured backdoor, which allows the operators to spy on all the victims, and to download additional malware on the computers. A long-standing operation There are many unusual things about the so-called … More → Continue reading Surprisingly stealthy botnet has been targeting users for years→

Assessing the habits and tactics of organized credit card fraud gangs

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By analyzing hundreds of criminal forums, Digital Shadows discovered a new trend in the form of remote learning ‘schools’. Available to Russian speakers only, these six-week courses comprise 20 lectures with five expert instructors. The course includes webinars, detailed notes and course material. An advertisement for the WWH online course In exchange for $745 (plus $200 for course fees), aspiring cyber criminals have the potential to make $12k a month, based on a standard 40-hour … More → Continue reading Assessing the habits and tactics of organized credit card fraud gangs→

Russia threatening to ban Telegram encrypted messaging app

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Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, is threatening to ban the use of popular encrypted messaging app Telegram. The request Roskomnadzor is a federal agency tasked with overseeing that the media, telecoms and other mass communications providers comply with existing laws and adequately protect the confidentiality of personal data being processed. It’s head, Alexander Zharov, claims that Telegram (the company) has not responded to repeated requests to fill in a form with information on the company that … More → Continue reading Russia threatening to ban Telegram encrypted messaging app→

U.S. charges Russian FSB officers for hacking Yahoo, millions email accounts

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A grand jury in the Northern District of California has indicted four defendants, including two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), for computer hacking, economic espionage and other criminal offenses in connection with a conspiracy, beginning in January 2014, to access Yahoo’s network and the contents of webmail accounts. The defendants used unauthorized access to Yahoo’s systems to steal information from about at least 500 million Yahoo accounts and then used some of … More → Continue reading U.S. charges Russian FSB officers for hacking Yahoo, millions email accounts→

US officially accuses Russia of hacking to influence presidential election

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With just a month left until the 2016 United States presidential election, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence officially stated that Russia is behind the recent hacks of US political targets. “The US Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like … More → Continue reading US officially accuses Russia of hacking to influence presidential election→

New Russian law to force service providers to decrypt encrypted comms

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An extremely wide-ranging anti-terrorism law has been passed last week by the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly (i.e. parliament), and it is widely expected to pass the upper house without a hitch and be signed into law by president Putin within the next few weeks. Proposed by right-wing politician Irina Yarovaya, the new law will bring tougher punishments for extremism and international terrorism, make failure to report a crime, as well as justifying … More → Continue reading New Russian law to force service providers to decrypt encrypted comms→