Crooks turn war-torn Syria into cyber-battlefield

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/crooks-turn-war-torn-syria-into-cyber-battlefield/

By David Shamah
The Times of Israel
August 20, 2014

Syrian 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.

[...]

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