Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
- A phishing rental platform called LabHost was busted by police in 19 countries, resulting in 37 arrests and the disruption of services to an estimated 10,000 cyber criminals around the world.
- A nine-year-old virus was found on Windows systems in Ukraine by researchers at Cisco Systems, potentially exposing confidential government and police information.
In the latest edition of Cyber Security Today, it was reported that Europol, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies from 19 countries, dismantled a large phishing-as-a-service platform known as LabHost. This platform, which sold access to phishing kits and infrastructure for hosting fake web pages, had an estimated 10,000 users worldwide. The police operation resulted in the arrest of 37 suspects, including alleged site operators in the U.K. and the original developer.
Researchers at Cisco Systems discovered a nine-year-old virus on Windows systems in Ukraine. Over 100 infected documents containing potentially sensitive government and police information were uncovered. These documents were likely shared through removable media like USB sticks. The origin of the virus remains unknown.
Additionally, CYE, a cyber risk assessment company, highlighted that many organizations with cyber insurance may not have adequate coverage. An analysis of 101 data breaches revealed that 80% of insured organizations did not have enough coverage to pay for their full breach costs. The report emphasized that on average, three-quarters of insurable costs were left uncovered.
Lastly, Kaspersky researchers identified a threat actor targeting governments in the Middle East with a unique malware campaign dubbed DuneQuixote. The campaign has now spread to organizations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and South Korea. The malware installs memory-only backdoors using legitimate tools like Total Commander, with snippets of Spanish poems in the code to evade detection by anti-malware tools.
