A Little Sunshine

IndependentKrebs

LastPass: ‘Horse Gone Barn Bolted’ is Strong Password

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 23:41:09 +0000

The password manager service LastPass is now forcing some of its users to pick longer master passwords. LastPass says the changes are needed to ensure all customers are protected by their latest security improvements. But critics say the move is little more than a public relations stunt that will do nothing to help countless early adopters whose password vaults were exposed in a 2022 breach at LastPass.

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IndependentKrebs

Who’s Behind the 8Base Ransomware Website?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2023 02:12:53 +0000

The victim shaming website operated by the cybercriminals behind 8Base — currently one of the more active ransomware groups — was until earlier today leaking quite a bit of information that the crime group probably did not intend to be made public. The leaked data suggests that at least some of website’s code was written by a 36-year-old programmer residing in the capital city of Moldova.

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IndependentKrebs

FBI Hacker Dropped Stolen Airbus Data on 9/11

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2023 00:22:05 +0000

In December 2022, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that a cybercriminal using the handle “USDoD” had infiltrated the FBI’s vetted information sharing network InfraGard, and was selling the contact information for all 80,000 members. The FBI responded by reverifying all InfraGard members and by seizing the cybercrime forum where the data was being sold. But on Sept. 11, 2023, USDoD resurfaced after a lengthy absence to leak sensitive employee data stolen from the aerospace giant Airbus, while promising to visit the same treatment on top U.S. defense contractors.

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IndependentKrebs

Experts Fear Crooks are Cracking Keys Stolen in LastPass Breach

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:21:07 +0000

In November 2022, the password manager service LastPass disclosed a breach in which hackers stole password vaults containing both encrypted and plaintext data for more than 25 million users. Since then, a steady trickle of six-figure cryptocurrency heists targeting security-conscious people throughout the tech industry has led some security experts to conclude that crooks likely have succeeded at cracking open some of the stolen LastPass vaults.

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IndependentKrebs

Why is .US Being Used to Phish So Many of Us?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:38:11 +0000

Domain names ending in “.US” — the top-level domain for the United States — are among the most prevalent in phishing scams, new research shows. This is noteworthy because .US is overseen by the U.S. government, which is frequently the target of phishing domains ending in .US. Also, .US domains are only supposed to be available to U.S. citizens and to those who can demonstrate that they have a physical presence in the United States.

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IndependentKrebs

Kroll Employee SIM-Swapped for Crypto Investor Data

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2023 18:05:10 +0000

Security consulting giant Kroll disclosed today that a SIM-swapping attack against one of its employees led to the theft of user information for multiple cryptocurrency platforms that are relying on Kroll services in their ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. And there are indications that fraudsters may already be exploiting the stolen data in phishing attacks. Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi and the now-collapsed crypto trading platform FTX each disclosed data breaches this week thanks to a recent SIM-swapping attack targeting an employee of Kroll — the company handling both firms’ bankruptcy restructuring.

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IndependentKrebs

Meet the Brains Behind the Malware-Friendly AI Chat Service ‘WormGPT’

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2023 17:37:23 +0000

WormGPT, a private new chatbot service advertised as a way to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help write malicious software without all the pesky prohibitions on such activity enforced by ChatGPT and Google Bard, has started adding restrictions on how the service can be used. Faced with customers trying to use WormGPT to create ransomware and phishing scams, the 23-year-old Portuguese programmer who created the project now says his service is slowly morphing into “a more controlled environment.” The large language models (LLMs) made by ChatGPT parent OpenAI or Google or Microsoft all have various safety measures designed to prevent people from abusing them for nefarious purposes — such as creating malware or hate speech. In contrast, WormGPT has promoted itself as a new LLM that was created specifically for cybercrime activities.

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IndependentKrebs

Teach a Man to Phish and He’s Set for Life

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2023 13:49:15 +0000

One frustrating aspect of email phishing is the frequency with which scammers fall back on tried-and-true methods that really have no business working these days. Like attaching a phishing email to a traditional, clean email message, or leveraging link redirects on LinkedIn, or abusing an encoding method that makes it easy to disguise booby-trapped Microsoft Windows files as relatively harmless documents.

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