Ok, I’m moving these updates to Fridays. Mondays are just, well, Mondays. If you are new to my posts, basically it’s a recap of some key infosec happenings in the past week. Having said that, let’s move ahead:
Infect 2 Others and Get Your Ransomed Files Back Free!
I posted about this earlier today, but the summary is that the jackholes that created the Popcorn Time ransomware strain are offering to decrypt your files free if you just get 2 more people infected and they pay the ransom. It looks like there will be an option to have the software start deleting files if 4
incorrect decryption keys are tried as well. This appears to be a proof of concept at this point, but these often end up in the wild once they get a buyer. I hope they die a slow festering death in the pits of an Alabama outhouse. This video sums up my feelings for these folks: Hanging’s too good for him…
Legal raids in five countries seize botnet servers, sinkhole 800,000+ domains… and then they release the leader who disappears.
So, after taking down the largest malware/phishing ring in recent history, a judge in the city of Poltava, Ukraine released the leader because the prosecutor forget to mention that during the arrest, the leader shot at the cops, including popping a round through the front door. Without that little detail, and the associated “attempted murder of a police officer” charge, he got to walk. In a shocking turn of events, Kapkanov disappeared just as quickly as the Poltava’s prosecutor’s career.
3.2M home routers seized via malicious firmware update
A hacker by the name of BestBuy claims to have used a Mirai botnet to infect 3.2 million home routers on the TalkTalk and Post Office networks. I haven’t heard of any independently confirmed reports of routers actually being infected, but they may not be easy to identify. In the words of security researcher Darren Martyn, “What they just pulled is shenanigans of the highest quality”
US Navy Admits To Data Breach, 130,000 Exposed
Yeah, the US Navy exposed info for 130,000 current and previous sailors. Wonderful. If I’m one of them, I’ll just put it in the stack of other notifications from the government. Maybe I’ll put it right next to my OPM notification.
Ransomware suspect Pornopoker nabbed in Russia
Let’s hope they don’t screw up and release him as well, although he doesn’t seem to be near the same level as Kapkanov above. He was nabbed while returning from Thailand.
Erich Kron is the Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4, and has over 20 years’ experience in the medical, aerospace manufacturing and defense fields. He is the former security manager for the US Army 2nd Regional Cyber Center-Western Hemisphere.