Collaborate Disseminate
The founder of a news outlet outlawed in Russia for its independent reporting and stance on the war in Ukraine, believes that a country in the European Union was behind the hacking of her iPhone with military-grade spyware.
Read more in my article o… Continue reading Exiled Russian journalist claims “European state” hacked her iPhone with Pegasus spyware
The Kremlin-backed Gamaredon hacking group is being blamed for an attempted phishing attack against the Latvian Ministry of Defence.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Continue reading Latvia says Russian hackers tried to phish its Ministry of Defence
Security researchers detected new destructive malware spreading in Ukraine on Wednesday, following evidence of distributed denial-of-service disruptions for government agencies — both of which overlapped with the beginnings of a Russian invasion. ESET said the data-wiping malware was “installed on hundreds of machines in the country,” and there were signs that the attackers had been preparing for almost two months. Silas Cutler, principle reverse engineer and resident hacker at Stairwell, said that the wiper damages a system’s master boot record, which tells a machine how to start up. That’s similar to malware known as WhisperGate that was used in an attack in January in Ukraine. Symantec, too, observed the wiper in action, and confirmed to CyberScoop that it has seen it in Latvia as well. Juan-Andres Guerrero-Saade, principal threat researcher at SentinelOne, said the wiper appeared to be more dangerous than the malware uncovered in January. None of the researchers […]
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For over a year, Stanislaw Zaryn, a Polish government official, has not been shy about exposing what he says are suspected Russian attempts to interfere in Polish politics. Zaryn has posted screenshots on Twitter of fake accounts and slapped a blaring “Disinformation” label on them. He has called out a forged letter that criticized the U.S. troop presence in Poland. But a study published by security firm FireEye on Wednesday makes clear that the propaganda flagged by Zaryn is but one front in a multi-pronged information operations effort aimed at sowing political discord in multiple NATO countries. FireEye has linked more than 30 such incidents in Lithuania, Latvia, Germany and elsewhere in the last five years to a previously disclosed, ongoing influence campaign it calls Ghostwriter. That includes more than 20 newly discovered Ghostwriter incidents since an initial FireEye report last summer, including one as recent as last month. The […]
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Continue reading ‘Ghostwriter’ disinformation campaign rages on as Biden prepares for NATO trip
A propaganda campaign is using the coronavirus pandemic to inflame anxieties about NATO troops throughout Eastern Europe, security researchers have determined. The group, dubbed Ghostwriter, has been focused on amplifying anti-Western narratives in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania since 2017. Operatives have planted fabricated diplomatic documents, tried spreading the false narrative that Canadian soldiers had been spreading COVID-19 through Latvia and leveraged news sites to spread articles that appear to be legitimate, according to a report the security firm FireEye published Tuesday. While researchers have not attributed the effort to the Russian government, the findings are the latest addition to a growing consensus that pro-Kremlin entities are seizing on COVID-19 to inflame existing political divisions. Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is using three websites to try to spread disinformation about the U.S. response to the virus, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. “We believe the assets and operations…are for the […]
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The United States on Sunday agreed to work more closely with three Baltic countries to protect their electric sectors from cyberattacks. “We see a crucial role that U.S. could play in assisting the Baltic states with strategic and technical support,” reads the declaration from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and officials from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, according to multiple news outlets. The four countries will establish a platform for sharing cybersecurity expertise over the next six months, the AFP reported. The agreement is a recognition of the need to fortify energy infrastructure that could be a prime target for hackers in the event of geopolitical conflict. Russia’s neighbors are very familiar with that dynamic: Kremlin-linked hackers cut power in parts of Ukraine in 2015 and 2016. The U.S. announcement with Baltic states was short on specifics. Spokespeople for officials in all four governments did not respond to requests for comment. The document […]
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It’s 2010 and we’ve recently stumbled upon yet another malicious and fraudulent campaign courtesy of the Koobface gang actively serving fake security software also known as scareware to a variety of users with the majority of malicious software conveni… Continue reading HIstorical OSINT – Latvian ISPs, Scareware, and the Koobface Gang Connection
By Waqas
Scan4You was a VirusTotal like platform used for malicious purposes. A 37-year old male from Riga, Latvia has received 14 years sentence for creating and running Scan4You, a counter antivirus service that aided malware developers to check dete… Continue reading Hacker gets 14 years jail time for operating Scan4You malware scanning service
A Latvian hacker convicted of crimes relating to running the for-profit malware scanning site “Scan4You” was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday. Ruslan Bondars, 37, was convicted earlier this year on three charges, including violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer intrusion with intent to cause damage. The court found a loss amount of $20.5 billion. “Ruslan Bondars helped malware developers attack American businesses,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. “The Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners make no distinction between service providers like Scan4You and the hackers they assist: we will hold them accountable for all of the significant harm they cause and work tirelessly to bring them to justice, wherever they may be located.” Operated from 2009 to 2016, Scan4You is similar to VirusTotal — a long-running repository favored by the cybersecurity industry — but was intentionally […]
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A Latvian hacker was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Wednesday after earning over $150,000 in a “scareware” scheme that infected computers after visiting the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s website in 2010. Peteris Sahurovs, 29, received the sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He will be deported to Latvia following the sentence. At one time, Sahurovs was among the FBI’s most wanted criminals. From 2009 to 2011, he operated a “bullet-proof” web hosting service in Latvia. The hacker sold server space to criminals who needed a host willing to ignore illegal activity on their servers. “The defendant admitted that he knew his customers were using his servers to perpetrate criminal schemes, including the transmission of malware, fake anti-virus software, spam, and botnets to unwitting victims, and he received notices from Internet governance entities (such as Spamhaus) that his servers were hosting malicious activity,” according to a Department of Justice […]
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