Cyber Security

A roundup of some of the handiest tools for the collection and analysis of publicly available data from Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms Social media sites are a near-bottomless source of information that almost anyone can use for security and intelligence research, as well as for marketing campaigns. The platforms allow anybody to

ESET research uncovers an Android app that initially had no harmful features but months later turned into a spying tool This week, ESET malware researcher Lukas Stefanko revealed how an initially legitimate Android app morphed into a malicious trojan that could steal users’ files and record surrounding audio from the device’s microphone and then exfiltrate

ESET researchers reveal details about a prevalent cryptor, operating as a cryptor-as-a-service used by tens of malware families In this blogpost we examine the operation of AceCryptor, originally documented by Avast. This cryptor has been around since 2016 and because – throughout its existence – it has been used to pack tens of malware families,

Nobody wants to spend their time dealing with the fallout of a security incident instead of building up their business Approximately one in seven people in Europe and the United States are self-employed, often realizing their dream to be in charge of their own destiny and having more freedom and control over their careers. But

ESET researchers discover AhRat – a new Android RAT based on AhMyth – that exfiltrates files and records audio ESET researchers have discovered a trojanized Android app that had been available on the Google Play store with over 50,000 installs. The app, named iRecorder – Screen Recorder, was initially uploaded to the store without malicious

Don’t download software from non-reputable websites and sketchy links – you might be in for more than you bargained for Chances are good that you have, at some point, searched for free stuff online, including software, movies, TV shows, or live streams of sports matches. But the truth is that this search for “free” may

Before rushing to embrace the LLM-powered “hire”, make sure your organization has safeguards in place to avoid putting its business and customer data at risk Chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) are not just the world’s new favorite pastime. The technology is increasingly being recruited to boost workers’ productivity and efficiency, and given its

A roundup of some of the handiest tools that security professionals can use to search for and monitor devices that are accessible from the internet Internet security is a constant concern for technology and cybersecurity professionals. With the ever-increasing number of online devices and services, it is important to have a clear and accurate view

Why do people still download files from sketchy places and get compromised as a result? One of the pieces of advice that security practitioners have been giving out for the past couple of decades, if not longer, is that you should only download software from reputable sites. As far as computer security advice goes, this

As the war shows no signs of ending and cyber-activity by states and criminal groups remains high, conversations around the cyber-resilience of critical infrastructure have never been more vital A number of security practitioners, policymakers, law enforcement professionals and other experts from various countries gathered in Warsaw, Poland, on May 10th, 2023, to discuss how

Strike a balance between making the internet a safer place for your children and giving them the freedom to explore, learn and socialize There was a time when parents didn’t have to worry much about their children’s digital activities. A single, centralized computer in the house was the only gateway to the internet, and could

What have some of the world’s most infamous advanced threat actors been up to and what might be the implications of their activities for your business? This week, ESET researchers released a new issue of the APT Activity Report that looks at the activities of selected advanced persistent threat (APT) groups from October 2022 to

An overview of the activities of selected APT groups investigated and analyzed by ESET Research in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 ESET APT Activity Report Q4 2022–Q1 2023 summarizes the activities of selected advanced persistent threat (APT) groups that were observed, investigated, and analyzed by ESET researchers from October 2022 until the end of March 2023. Attentive

Have your cake and eat it too – enjoy some of what the online world has to offer without always giving out your contact details We’ve all lost count of how many times we’ve entered our email address and phone number to sign up for an online service, access a website or an app, read

Don’t torture people with exceedingly complex password composition rules but do blacklist commonly used passwords, plus other ways to help people help themselves – and your entire organization When engineer Bill Burr from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) wrote in 2003 what would soon become the world’s gold standard for password

The recent compromise of the networks of several companies via the abuse of a remote access tool used by MSPs exemplifies why state-aligned threat actors should be on the radars of IT service providers Managed service providers (MSPs) that don’t consider themselves targets for state-aligned threat actors may need to think again. While many people

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hacked – here’s what to know about, and how to avoid, threats lurking on the social media juggernaut There are several tools or software applications that enable us to stay connected with our fellow teammates even during gameplay, with the best of them having a low impact

A quick dive into the murky world of cyberespionage and other growing threats facing managed service providers – and their customers ESET telemetry from Q4 2022 saw the start of a new campaign by MuddyWater, a cyberespionage group linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and active since at least 2017. The group

The importance of understanding – and prioritizing – the privacy and security implications of large language models like ChatGPT cannot be overstated Thousands of security professionals descended on San Francisco this week to attend RSA Conference, the world’s leading gathering of the security community. What was the hottest topic at the event? You guessed it

As all things (wrongly called) AI take the world’s biggest security event by storm, we round up of some of their most-touted use cases and applications Okay, so there’s this ChatGPT thing layered on top of AI – well, not really, it seems even the practitioners responsible for some of the most impressive machine learning

ESET Research uncovers a campaign by the APT group known as Evasive Panda targeting an international NGO in China with malware delivered through updates of popular Chinese software ESET researchers have discovered a campaign that we attribute to the APT group known as Evasive Panda, where update channels of legitimate applications were mysteriously hijacked to

Before you rush to buy new hardware, try these simple tricks to get your machine up to speed again – and keep it that way. A slow-running computer can be a major headache, affecting your productivity and causing unnecessary stress. But before frustration kicks in and makes you run to buy a new machine, there

Many routers that are offered for resale contain sensitive corporate information and allow third-party connections to corporate networks Did you mistakenly sell access to your network when you sold a decommissioned router? Recently, ESET researchers purchased several used core routers to set up a test environment, only to find that, in many cases, the previously

Similarities with newly discovered Linux malware used in Operation DreamJob corroborate the theory that the infamous North Korea-aligned group is behind the 3CX supply-chain attack ESET researchers have discovered a new Lazarus Operation DreamJob campaign targeting Linux users. Operation DreamJob is the name for a series of campaigns where the group uses social engineering techniques

The legislation aims to bolster the Union’s cyber-resilience and enhance its capabilities to prepare for, detect and respond to incidents The European Union (EU) is transforming itself into a digitally aware, secure, and productive collective, with the aim of entering the 2030s as a relevant player within the digital sector. One of the base ideas

When decommissioning their old hardware, many companies ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ Taking a defunct router out of an equipment rack and sliding in a shiny new replacement is probably an everyday occurrence in many business networking environments. However, the fate of the router being discarded should be as important, if not more

The much-dreaded writer’s block isn’t the only threat that may derail your progress. Are you doing enough to keep your blog (and your livelihood) safe from online dangers? Whether we like it or not, writers and bloggers are part of a community. And while we might write on totally different topics and espouse views from

Microsoft releases guidance on how organizations can check their systems for the presence of BlackLotus, a powerful threat first analyzed by ESET researchers Microsoft has released guidance on how organizations can detect BlackLotus, a powerful threat that was first analyzed by ESET researchers. BlackLotus is a UEFI bootkit that is capable of operating on Windows

Some sectors have high confidence in their in-house cybersecurity expertise, while others prefer to enlist the support of an external provider to keep their systems and data secured While threat detections continue to rise, the widening cybersecurity skills gap is leaving businesses exposed. It is an issue particularly felt by SMBs forced to rein in

Here’s how to choose the right password vault for you and what exactly to consider when weighing your options Wave after wave of new technologies have threatened to bring about the end of the password over the years. But none so far have succeeded. That leaves most users with a problem. Passwords are a potential