Information Security News mailing list archives
Crooks turn war-torn Syria into cyber-battlefield
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 11:50:40 +0000 (UTC)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/crooks-turn-war-torn-syria-into-cyber-battlefield/ By David Shamah The Times of Israel August 20, 2014Syrian hackers, known best for their attacks on vital sites in Israel, the US, and Europe, are turning on their own people, taking advantage of their fears about the devastating civil war around them
The Syrian Electronic Army, an outfit that has gained fame for its hacks of government and defense websites, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the unrest that has characterized Syria for the past several years. SEA hackers get access to user systems, recording information about on-line accounts and stealing funds, or using victims’ computers as part of huge botnets that send out spam and become part of attacks on banks and financial sites.
A new report by security firm Kaspersky Lab shows how the SEA has used a variety of Internet “dirty tricks” to hoodwink panicked web users into clicking on links and files that have installed a variety of Trojans, viruses, password hijackers, and other malware that give cybercrooks full access to computers. Because Syrians are rattled enough by the civil war to apparently click on anything that seems “official,” issued by the government or the army, hackers don’t even have to bother making their phony wares seem real. They’re confident that users will even gladly click on something called “Ammazon Internet Security” if they believe it will make them a bit safer.
[...]
-- Evident.io - Continuous Cloud Security for AWS. Identify and mitigate risks in 5 minutes or less. Sign up for a free trial @ https://evident.io/
Current thread:
- Crooks turn war-torn Syria into cyber-battlefield InfoSec News (Aug 20)