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Category: cybercrime/malcode – Page 12

A new mass malware campaign is infecting users with a cryptocurrency miner named SilentCryptoMiner by masquerading it as a tool designed to circumvent internet blocks and restrictions around online services.

Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said the activity is part of a larger trend where cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging Windows Packet Divert (WPD) tools to distribute malware under the guise of restriction bypass programs.

“Such software is often distributed in the form of archives with text installation instructions, in which the developers recommend disabling security solutions, citing false positives,” researchers Leonid Bezvershenko, Dmitry Pikush, and Oleg Kupreev said. “This plays into the hands of attackers by allowing them to persist in an unprotected system without the risk of detection.”

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The Akira ransomware gang was spotted using an unsecured webcam to launch encryption attacks on a victim’s network, effectively circumventing Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), which was blocking the encryptor in Windows.

Cybersecurity firm S-RM team discovered the unusual attack method during a recent incident response at one of their clients.

Notably, Akira only pivoted to the webcam after attempting to deploy encryptors on Windows, which were blocked by the victim’s EDR solution.

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Microsoft has taken down an undisclosed number of GitHub repositories used in a massive malvertising campaign that impacted almost one million devices worldwide.

The company’s threat analysts detected these attacks in early December 2024 after observing multiple devices downloading malware from GitHub repos, malware that was later used to deploy a string of various other payloads on compromised systems.

After analyzing the campaign, they discovered that the attackers injected ads into videos on illegal pirated streaming websites that redirect potential victims to malicious GitHub repositories under their control.

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YouTube warns that scammers are using an AI-generated video featuring the company’s CEO in phishing attacks to steal creators’ credentials.

The attackers are sharing it as a private video with targeted users via emails claiming YouTube is changing its monetization policy.

“We’re aware that phishers have been sharing private videos to send false videos, including an AI generated video of YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan announcing changes in monetization,” the online video sharing platform warned in a pinned post on its official community website.

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Threat actors deploying the Black Basta and CACTUS ransomware families have been found to rely on the same BackConnect (BC) module for maintaining persistent control over infected hosts, a sign that affiliates previously associated with Black Basta may have transitioned to CACTUS.

“Once infiltrated, it grants attackers a wide range of remote control capabilities, allowing them to execute commands on the infected machine,” Trend Micro said in a Monday analysis. “This enables them to steal sensitive data, such as login credentials, financial information, and personal files.”

It’s worth noting that details of the BC module, which the cybersecurity company is tracking as QBACKCONNECT owing to overlaps with the QakBot loader, was first documented in late January 2025 by both Walmart’s Cyber Intelligence team and Sophos, the latter of which has designated the cluster the name STAC5777.

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