- Infected Devices were given by Taiwanese police to the cyber-security quiz winners
Police have apologized after giving infected memory sticks as prizes in a government-run cyber-security quiz. Taiwan’s national police agency said 54 of the flash drives it gave out at an event highlighting a government’s cybercrime crackdown contained malware. The virus, which can steal personal data and has been linked to fraud, was added inadvertently, it said.
- Hackers have found a way to mine cryptocurrency and send it to North Korea
Researchers have discovered a piece of software that installs on a victim’s computer, mines a cryptocurrency called monero, and sends it to North Korea. AlienVault, a U.S. cybersecurity firm, said Monday that it had found a piece of malware or malicious software that places a mining application on a victim’s computer. Any mined currency is then sent to Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang.
- Rare Banking malware accesses sensitive SMS banking messages
A newly discovered mobile malware program that primarily targets Russian banking customers can take over victims’ SMS capabilities, allowing cybercriminals to intercept text messages that contain bank security codes, and then use those codes to reset bank account passwords.
- Cryptominer malware in RIG EK spread via malvertising
Malwarebytes researcher Jerome Segura analyzed a RIG exploit campaign distributing malware coin miners delivered via drive-by download attacks from malvertising. Around November 2017, Segura began noticing exploit kits containing larger-than-usual payloads carrying one or more cryptominers for Monero and other popular currencies such as Bytecoin and Electroneum.
- Anti-Virus updates required ahead of Microsoft’s MELTDOWN, SPECTRE patches
Microsoft said it is holding off delivering security updates to Windows PCs for Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws until hosted anti-virus software confirms it does not make unsupported calls into Windows kernel memory. Affected are PCs running certain AV products that bypass Windows built-in Kernel Patch Protection.
