Category Archives: Underground forums

Four years after FBI shut it down, AlphaBay dark web marketplace claims it’s back in business

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It might be time to update the obituary of one of the web’s most notorious marketplaces for hacking tools and drugs. Four years after the FBI shut down AlphaBay, which registered a reported $1 billion in transactions, a scammer is touting the launch of a new version of the illicit marketplace, according to threat intelligence firm Flashpoint. In an online posting earlier this week, someone claiming to be one of the original moderators of AlphaBay said the marketplace was coming back into business, Flashpoint researchers noted. Among the offerings on the revamped AlphaBay, according to the posting, will be the source code of a hacking tool that steals banking credentials, and money, from victims. U.S. and European law enforcement agencies have in the last year conducted a series of crackdowns on popular dark-web forums. But the alleged resurrection of AlphaBay, dubbed the Amazon.com of the dark web, shows how difficult it can […]

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Russian cybercrime forum XSS claims to ban ransomware following Colonial Pipeline hack

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In the wake of the disruption to Colonial Pipeline, a popular Russian-language criminal forum has claimed it will ban the sale of ransomware tools, according to multiple researchers who monitor the site. XSS, a prominent underground forum for hacking tools and other scams, on May 13 said the platform would forbid “ransomware sales, ransomware rental and ransomware affiliate programs,” according to the threat intelligence firm Digital Shadows. The XSS administrator also claimed it would remove all posts mentioning ransomware. The forum post claimed it was because ransomware was attracting too much “hype” and attention from outsiders, but ransomware operators frequently engage in self-serving public relations stunts. The development pointed to newfound pressure that ransomware operators were feeling following the breach of the IT systems at Colonial Pipeline, the main artery for delivering fuel to the East Coast. The ransomware incident forced Colonial Pipeline to shut down for days. Though service […]

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Android Messenger App Still Leaking Photos, Videos

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The GO SMS Pro app has been downloaded 100 million times; now, underground forums are actively sharing images stolen from GO SMS servers. Continue reading Android Messenger App Still Leaking Photos, Videos→

How middlemen are giving ransomware gangs more attack options

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The last six months have seen damaging ransomware attacks on two multibillion-dollar IT firms, Conduent and Cognizant, with clients all over the world. The incidents locked computers across the companies, cut into revenue and required days, if not weeks, of clean up. A report published Monday by consulting giant Accenture warns that the kind of criminal groups behind those attacks have more options than ever for accessing corporate networks thanks to a thriving market for outsourced hacking. Accenture researchers are tracking more the 25 regular “network access sellers,” or people who specialize in breaching an organization’s networks and handing off that access to the highest bidder. The access sellers have frequented the same underground forums as the people involved with prolific strains of ransomware like NetWalker and Maze, the latter which was used against Cognizant. “Network access selling has progressed from a niche underground offering throughout 2017 to a central pillar of criminal underground […]

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In Brazil, scammers see the coronavirus as a serious money-making opportunity

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s critics say he hasn’t taken the impact of the coronavirus seriously. The same can’t be said for Brazil’s cybercriminals. As deaths from the virus have surged past 66,000 in Brazil, scammers have set up new infrastructure to dupe people who are desperate for relief, and have set up bank accounts in their names. At a time when even more people in South America’s biggest country are glued to their phones or computers, Brazil’s already-flourishing cybercriminal economy has been busy. “Scam operations have been highly effective in Brazil, from the first announcement of the government assistance program,” Jefferson Macedo, managing consultant on IBM’s X-Force security team, told CyberScoop. IBM has uncovered nearly 700 malicious websites related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in recent months. The crooks are impersonating government apps used to sign up for financial relief and sending people a flurry of text […]

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Notorious Hacker ‘Fxmsp’ Outed After Widespread Access-Dealing

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The Kazakh native made headlines last year for hacking McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro; but the Feds say he’s also behind a widespread backdoor operation spanning six continents. Continue reading Notorious Hacker ‘Fxmsp’ Outed After Widespread Access-Dealing→

Hackers Dumpster Dive for Taxpayer Data in COVID-19 Relief Money Scams

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Threat actors are buying and selling taxpayer data on hacker forums as well as using phishing and other campaigns to steal various U.S. government payouts. Continue reading Hackers Dumpster Dive for Taxpayer Data in COVID-19 Relief Money Scams→