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Security News
Computer Security Data Leakage Privacy Russia Security News

Russian experts give tips on how to prevent personal data leakage

In Russia, the number of cyber attacks increased by almost a quarter in the first quarter of 2020, said Anton Kukanov, head of the Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo) for Digital Expertise, citing Positive Technologies data.

The expert also clarified that about 13% of fraudulent links were related to the topic of the coronavirus pandemic. He drew attention to the fact that almost half of all stolen information in the first quarter of 2020 were usernames and passwords.

According to Anton Kukanov, the main purpose of scammers is not the personal data of users, but payment information.

"They use phishing campaigns, social engineering techniques, and a wide range of malicious programs for this purpose, such as keyloggers that record and transmit passwords, remote access programs that allow a hacker to control the device," said Mr. Kukanov.

The expert advises not to click on suspicious links and not to use sites with illegal content in order to prevent fraudsters from stealing logins and passwords. In particular, resources with free movies, including new products, or games that users love so much, can actually be "monetized" by viral software.

"It is also not recommended downloading applications on third-party sites. You need to do it exclusively in official stores, otherwise, you can quickly "catch" the virus. However, there is a risk of "infecting" the gadget through the official store, although less", noted Anton Kukanov.

Moreover, a specialist from Roskachestvo advises looking at the rating of the application before installing it and read reviews without fail in order not to download an application with a virus.

He also recommended paying attention to the permissions that are requested by installed applications. For security reasons, according to Kukanov, it is better to reject those that contradict the meaning of the application.

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Security News
Kaspersky malware Security News

Kaspersky Lab and Yandex have detected malicious browser extensions

 Kaspersky Lab and Yandex have identified malicious code in browser extensions. Through them, attackers could gain access to the account in social networks and increase views of videos on various sites

Kaspersky Lab and Yandex experts have identified potentially malicious code that pulls more than twenty browser extensions, including Frigate Light, Frigate CDN and SaveFrom.

Through extensions, cybercriminals could, unnoticed by the user, gain access to his VKontakte account, and increase video views on various sites. Extensions received tasks from their own server, generated fraud traffic by playing videos in hidden tabs, and intercepted a token for access to the social network. The code was run only when the browser was actively used, activating the built-in detection protection.

The investigation began after users of Yandex.Browser began to complain about the sounds of advertising, although the video on the screen was not played. Yandex disabled extensions in Yandex. Browser after detecting a hidden traffic flow. Kaspersky lab blocks such activity on devices where the company's products are installed. The results of the investigation were sent to the developers of the social network and the most popular browsers.

According to Anton Mityagin, head of Yandex's Internet Security and Anti-Fraud Department, the traffic generated by extensions is very difficult to detect, as it is mixed with real user actions. He recalled that browser extensions are very popular and the total number of their installations has long been estimated in the tens or even hundreds of millions.

The leading expert of Kaspersky Lab Sergey Golovanov noted that more than 1 million users could become potential victims of the scheme. "The code from the browser extensions not only increased video views but also gained access to social network accounts, which could later be used, for example, to increase likes," added he.

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Vulnerability
Runet Russian Cyber Security Security News Vulnerabilities and Exploits Vulnerability

Experts have found the most vulnerable places in Runet


Personal accounts of Runet users in various services, including Internet banks, turned out to be the worst protected from hackers. This is the opinion of Positive Technologies specialists.
After analyzing 38 websites of various organizations, including IT companies, government agencies, financial and telecommunications organizations, Positive Technologies employees concluded that nine out of ten web applications in Runet are vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Despite the fact that the situation has improved compared to the previous year, half of the sites contain "high-level" vulnerabilities. In 2019, there were 22 vulnerabilities per application, which is one and a half times lower than in 2018. According to Positive Technologies, the probability that data will leak from applications to the network is 68%, unauthorized access is possible in 39% of cases and authentication system weaknesses were found in 45%.

Also, hackers often hack applications in the banking sector. The protection of apps of credit organizations works only in 40% of cases.

According to experts, this is due to the fact that the dynamics of the main updates of the program is quite high. He noted that the system does not have time to “undergo full training” and automatic configuration.

Applications of government agencies turned out to be the most vulnerable to hacker attacks. Experts stressed that funding for this sector was low. At first, the tenders were won by those who requested the lowest price. And then expenses were reduced even more — by hiring students, for example.
Experts noted that it is quite difficult to protect web applications. Sometimes systems are used in monitoring mode, and real people monitor this. They have to determine whether the attack occurs or not.

“A 24-hour web service requires at least four operators, and this is from five million rubles a year ($78,700),” said Rustem Khairetdinov, vice president of InfoWatch Group. There is no way to hire such a staff of specialists in small companies and regional government agencies.
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Windows
malware Ransomware Security News Windows

Clop Ransomware Upgraded, Now can Terminate 663 Windows Processes


In February 2019, Michael Gillespie from MalwareHunter Team founded Clop ransomware that has been evolving to reach its full potential and now a variant of the same can terminate a total of 663 Windows processes.

While it was first discovered, it did not demonstrate any unique quality which made it stand out amid other ransomware variants, it was merely another likewise addition in the ransomware ecosystem like others that existed since 2017. However, it has continued to take various forms since its discovery and is emerging with all new and integrated process killer that affects several processes of Windows 10 apps, office applications, programming IDEs, languages and text editors.

As per the sources, it was noted in March 2019, that the attackers behind Clop Ransomware started to target entire networks instead of individual systems, they changed the ransom note to imply the same. The same year also witnessed a sudden disruption in the services of Clop Ransomware wherein they abruptly changed and disabled services for Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Microsoft Exchange, BackupExec and other enterprise software.

In 2019, while warning the organizations and businesses regarding app-killing malware, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that the ransomware threat now is even amplified as the attackers are continually upgrading themselves, they have devised ways to bypass detection and be more effective in their operations. Organizations are being warned by investigative agencies to keep abreast of such potential threats and build a security net to guard their systems.

While commenting on the matter, Abrams, editor-in-chief for Bleeping Computer said, "It is not known why some of these processes are terminated," Bleeping Computer editor-in-chief, Abrams, said, "especially ones like Calculator, Snagit, and SecureCRT, but it’s possible they want to encrypt configuration files used by some of these tools."

Meanwhile, in a conversation with SC Media UK, Javvad Malik, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, told "Clop is a variant of the CryptoMix ransomware family, but has been evolving rapidly in the last year to disable an increasingly large number of windows processes,"

"The main goal of Clop is to encrypt all files in an enterprise and request a payment to receive a decryptor to decrypt all the affected files," read the McAfee report in August.

"To achieve this, we observed some new techniques being used by the author that we have not seen before. Clearly, over the last few months, we have seen more innovative techniques appearing in ransomware."

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User Security
Facebook Security News Social Media Twitter User Data User Security

US: Investigators can Use Fake Social Media Profiles to Monitor Potential Visa Seekers





US Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, who were previously banned from creating fake social media profiles, can now create such profiles for the purpose of monitoring social media information of foreigners attempting for visas, citizenship and green cards.

On Friday, the ban was overturned in the review of potential privacy issues conducted and posted online by the Homeland  Security Department.

Explaining the need for the reversal of the ban, a statement by USCIS said that locating evidence of fraud and cross verifying the information for security reasons will be made easier for officers and investigators while deciding whom to allow inside the US.

The concerned State Department took several other steps which included asking applicants applying for US visa to provide their social media handles. However, it is ambiguous how resorting to fake social media identities would be carried out successfully as the terms and conditions of major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would clearly be violated while impersonating.

Commenting on the matter, Twitter said in a statement, "It is against our policies to use fake personae and to use Twitter data for persistent surveillance of individuals. We look forward to understanding USCIS's proposed practices to determine whether they are consistent with our terms of service,"

As per the DHS document, the investigating officers are restricted from interacting or conversing with people on various social media platforms and are only allowed to review and verify information passively. Although a lot of social media activity can be viewed and hence reviewed without an account,  certain platforms still keep within bounds the access for the guest users.

Referencing from the remarks made by Dave Maass, a senior investigative researcher for the civil liberties advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, use of fictitious accounts "undermines our trust in social media companies and our ability to communicate and organize and stay in touch with people."

"It can't be this double standard where police can do it, but members of the general public can't." He added.

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Security News
National Cyber Security Russia Russian Cyber Security Security News

Cryptographer hacked an online voting system in Moscow


According to the results of the meeting of the technical working group on electronic voting, it became known that the French cryptographer, who pointed out the shortcomings in the electronic voting system, will receive a reward of one million rubles (15 000$).

Last week it became known that Pierrick Gaudry, an employee of the French National Center for Scientific Research, said that the encryption used in the Russian electronic voting system is “completely unsafe” and can be hacked by attackers in about 20 minutes.

Recall that the Russian Government offered a cash prize of 1.5 million rubles (23 800 $) to a hacker who can hack the electronic voting system.

However, according to Artem Kostyrko, the Deputy Head of the Moscow Department of information technology, nobody, including the French cryptographer, managed to hack the system. However, since Pierrick Gaudry pointed out the weakness of the system and drew attention to its testing, he will receive a reward of one million rubles, provided that no one will be able to hack the system during the next testing on August 21.

Other sources reported that Pierrick hacked the system, as he managed to restore all three secret keys. He has published a command-line script, so anyone can hack the voting system. Therefore internet users repeated the experiment and the calculations took the same amount of time - a little more than 20 minutes. When the private keys are known, decrypting the message becomes a trivial task.

It is interesting to note that before Pierrick published his work, Stanislav Smyshlyaev, the Deputy General Director of the company CryptoPro, stated that any laboratory accredited by the FSB of Russia would have found such a vulnerability. At the same time, Artem Kostyrko at one of the meetings of the technical working group mentioned that the Internet voting system was checked by experts from the FSB. Alexey Venediktov, the member of the Public Chamber of Moscow, claimed that military hackers from the GRU were involved in testing the voting system. However, none of them found the vulnerability.

According to forecasts, about 3 percent of the total number of voters will be able to take advantage of electronic voting in the elections to the Moscow City Duma on September 8. By the way, this is 1 percent more than during the experimental electronic voting in Estonia.

Previously, Ehacking News reported that the team of the Ukranian president Vladimir Zelensky promised to hold the next presidential elections in Ukraine using Estonia's experience in electronic technologies.

It is known that the widespread introduction of electronic technologies has become a kind of visiting card of Estonia and its know-how in the eyes of the world community. 
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Security News
National Cyber Security Russia Russian Cyber Security Security News

On the guard of the cyber world: Ethical-hackers will appear in the Russian army


The Russian army will have special units, which will include ethical-hackers - people with technical education who will protect the "military Internet". They will scan the system for the presence of enemy cyber attacks and quickly neutralize them.

Conscripts will not be able to get into such units because only officers with special higher technical education can serve in a cyber army.

According to military expert Dmitry Boltenkov, it is necessary to block the attacking computers of the enemy and prevent him from getting into the network. Usually, software and hardware protection is used for this, as well as special devices that protect against hacking or warn of penetration.

It is already known that the software has already been created that should unite the field control stations and provide a multi-level network protection system.

According to experts, such a system will make it impossible for external access to the "military Internet". Protection includes several firewalls that prevent unauthorized access. So, specially designed antiviruses will track the unauthorized access of malware.

The exact place where the invasion occurred and the enemy could intercept radio signals or connect to the network will be detected with the help of special programs and equipment. Further, cybersecurity experts from the new unit can identify and localize the consequences of the attack.

The main advantage of this system is its autonomy because "military Internet" is not connected with the usual network, which means it is less prone to leaks and hacker attacks from outside.

The Ministry of Defense tested the work of the “military Internet” this year. The exchange of information at a speed of 300 Mbit/s was carried out between the field control stations at a distance of more than 2 thousand km. The military Department used special equipment and more than a thousand mobile communication and encryption complexes to create ultra-long data lines. The new system allows the exchange of information at a distance of several thousand kilometers, and all communication channels will be protected from hacking.

In addition, the Armed Forces of Russia are also creating a sovereign Internet - multiservice transport communication network (MTSS). It is planned to complete the first stage of work at the end of this year.
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Security News
Bank Security Russia Russian Cyber Security Security News

Banks collect biometric data of citizens in Russia






More than 70 Bank offices in the Irkutsk region are already working in the Unified Biometric System, which allows receiving services of bank remotely.


Recall that remote identification was launched in Russia in mid-2018. Clients just need to confirm their identity using biometric data - face images and voice recording.

According to the employer of the Irkutsk Branch of the Bank of Russia, clients need to come to the office once with a passport in order to register in the system. This procedure takes less than 1 minute. Today, 71 Bank offices work with such technologies in the Irkutsk region. Siberian residents can do the identification procedure in the biometric system in 687 branches of 57 banks.

Citizens have access to services of opening an account, obtaining a loan and transferring funds. These services can be obtained by phone, without a personal visit to the office of the Bank. The number of services will expand in the future. In addition, soon insurance companies will also recognize citizens by biometric data.

The new system has significantly reduced the number of Bank frauds. Thus, according to the Pochta Bank, the credit institution managed to block about five thousand fraud attempts in the last year through the biometric identification of clients.

Svetlana Ozeretskovskaya, the Head of Promotion of the Unified Biometric System project, stressed that "all biometric data is encrypted. It is almost impossible to restore them. This reduces the risk of compromise and does not allow attackers to take advantage of the data, even if some kind of leak occurs".

Meanwhile, cybersecurity specialists still see some weaknesses in the system. For example, Trojans in mobile applications or social networks can intercept biometric. But the authors of the biometric identification system are sure that even if your data gets to the criminals, the system will still calculate the fraud. According to the company Rostelecom, the probability of incorrect recognition of the client is 1 per 10 million. Moreover, the system will distinguish even twins from each other.
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