FireEye researchers have discovered a new strain of backdoor malware on the servers of an organization exploited by the SolarWinds hackers. The new strain is identified as ‘Sunshuttle’ and it was uploaded by a U.S.-based entity to a public malware repository in August 2020.
FireEye researchers Lindsay Smith, Jonathan Leathery, and Ben Read believe this new strain is connected to the hackers behind the SolarWinds supply-chain attack. Sunshuttle is a second-stage backdoor written in Go that uses HTTP to link with a command-and-control server for data exfiltration and adding a new code.
Hacking of cybercrime forums ‘Mazafaka and Exploit’
Mysterious threat actors are targeting popular Russian language cybercrime forums ‘Mazafaka and Exploit’ and are leaking the stolen data on the dark web. On Tuesday, unknown threat actors dumped thousands of usernames, email addresses, and passwords on the dark web apparently stolen from Mazafaka. Threat actors have also leaked a 35-page PDF online which is a private encryption key allegedly used by Maza administrators.
According to cyber intelligence firm Intel 471, “the file comprised more than 3,000 rows, containing the username, partially obfuscated passwords hashes, email addresses, and other contact details. Initial analysis of the leaked data pointed to its probable authenticity, as at least portion of the leaked user records correlated with our own data holdings.”
Antivirus Creator John McAfee charged with $13M cryptocurrency fraud
John McAfee has been charged with securities fraud over a ‘pump-and-dump’ cryptocurrency scheme. Federal prosecutors unsealed a case against McAfee and his executive advisor and bodyguard Jimmy Gale Watson Jr. claiming the pair has raked in more than $13 million from the investors they victimized with their fraudulent schemes.
In late 2017 and early 2018, McAfee urged his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers to invest in a number of obscure cryptocurrencies. Prosecutors say he failed to disclose his own financial stake in those tokens and in some cases outright lied about it.
“The defendants allegedly used McAfee’s Twitter account to publish messages to his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers touting various cryptocurrencies through false and misleading statements to conceal their true, self-interested motives,” Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss stated.
