Kaspersky cybersecurity
Fraudsters Launch Phishing Attacks on Universities
With universities becoming more concerned about their networks’ cybersecurity, attackers find ways to breach these systems by targeting inattentive students, staff and professors. Experts from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky highlight intensified phishing campaigns with fraudsters exploiting the names of some of the worlds’ biggest universities. As the seasonal change marks the start of a new school year for many markets around the world, this aptly dubbed “back to school season” is traditionally a profitable time for fraudsters as millions of students are getting ready to make tuition payments, or purchase school supplies and new books. University-specific phishing pages are usually well-crafted and mimic official university webpages or online learning management systems. Once users ...
The Crypto Collapse & Rising DDoS Smart Attacks
Image sourced from Shutterstock. During Q2 2022, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks reached a new level as the share of smart attacks and average duration saw steep increases. Compared to the previous year, the average duration of a DDoS attack rose 100 times, reaching 3,000 minutes. The share of smart attacks almost broke the four-year record, accounting for nearly 50% of the total. Experts also expect an increase in overall DDoS activity, especially with the recent collapse of cryptocurrency. These and other findings are part of a quarterly DDoS report issued by Kaspersky. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is designed to hinder the normal functioning of a website or crash it completely. During an attack (which usually targets government institutions, retail or ...
Are Phishing Attacks Targeting Crypto on the Rise?
Image sourced from Shutterstock. Experts at Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky have taken a close look at the phishing pages aimed at potential crypto investors as well as the malicious files that are distributed under the names of the 20 most popular cryptocurrency wallets. Since the beginning of 2022, Kaspersky products detected and prevented almost 200,000 attempts to steal users’ digital currencies and credentials to their wallets via phishing, according to the company. The number of such attempts almost reached 50,000 in April, which is half of the indicators for the first quarter of 2022. Crypto wallets are the primary target for scamming and malicious activity. With the boom in digital currencies observed over the past five years, Kaspersky has seen various new cybercriminal ta...
These Are the Cyber Dangers Still Faced by SA’s SMEs
Image sourced from Pixabay Internet security provider Kaspersky says that small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other small businesses in South Africa are still facing many threats from cyber criminals and threat actors. What’s worse is that many small business owners do not use or believe it important to use cybersecurity services to secure their businesses. As commerce is moving ever continually online, this disregard for IT security continues to be exploited by cybercriminals. Kaspersky researchers assessed the dynamics of attacks on small and medium-sized businesses between January and April 2022 and the same period in 2021, to identify which threats pose an increasing danger to entrepreneurs. Cyber Threats Still Being Faced by SMEs in South Africa: In 2022, the number of Trojan...
Kaspersky Launches Online Ransomware Response Training Course
Sourced from Hypertext Kaspersky, the Russia-based, self-styled independent cybersecurity and online safety provider, has today announced the launch of a new Windows Incident Response training course. This is in order to offer in-house cybersecurity teams and InfoSec professionals an opportunity to expand their analytical skills in the incident response domain, especially in the midst of a ransomware attack. The entire course can be completed online. According to the recent global Kaspersky survey conducted among senior non-IT management and business owners, 73% of firms can’t handle a ransomware attack alone or with the help of regular IT service providers. Over recent years the lack of skilled technical staff who can detect and respond to complex incidents, along with a lack of visibilit...
Italy Investigates Russia’s Kaspersky for Allegedly Launching Cyberattacks
Sourced from Hypertext On Friday, Italy’s data watchdog said it is investigating Kaspersky, a Russian multinational cybersecurity company, for launching cyberattacks. According to The Guardian, the agency says it followed “alarms sounded by many Italian and European organisations specialised in computer security” over the potential use of Kaspersky software for hacking assaults in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The agency reportedly asked the company to provide details on the number and profiles of Italian users and whether their data was being transferred to Russia or elsewhere. Reuters reported that Germany’s British Standards Institution (BSI) also warned users of the antivirus software, saying the company could be coerced by Russian government agents to hack IT systems abroa...
A North Korean Cyber Espionage Group Was Active in SA – New Report
Image sourced from Feed Navigator. Kaspersky researchers have disclosed details of its latest threat intelligence reports on South Africa, including the cybersecurity firm’s analysis of APT groups in the country – major threat actors hunting for sensitive information and finances. The company’s telemetry has demonstrated that throughout 2021 entities in South Africa faced attacks from North Korean group Lazarus and Chinese speaking group CloudComputating. Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are typically, according to Kaspersky, a nation-state or state-sponsored group of extremely stealthy high-level threat actors. In the vast majority of cases, they attack strategically important organisations with a goal of cyberespionage and, in rarer cases, financial gain, since the cost of their cybera...
5.8-Million Attacks Detected in Malware Disguised as PC Games
Image sourced from Wccftech. Over 5.8 million attacks by malware and unwanted software disguised as popular PC games were detected and prevented by Kaspersky and its cybersecurity solutions globally from Q3 2020 to Q2 2021. This increased volume may be connected to the rapid growth of gaming activities during the pandemic. The data comes from the latest game-related cyberthreats report by Kaspersky, in which researchers assessed the changes of gaming-related threats during the pandemic. The gaming industry witnessed unprecedented growth over the past 18-months, in part, thanks to users being forced to find alternative means of entertainment as they stayed at home. Even though the world has become safer this year, the demand for games persists, and the industry is predicted to grow even fur...
When Ransomware Strikes, Can You Recover Fast Enough?
Sourced from Kaspersky Ransomware attacks have become increasingly common, and they are even available on the dark Web to purchase as a service. There have been many incidents in the news, where major companies have been left with little choice other than to pay the ransom to get their data back, often amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The reality is that ransomware and other cyberattacks have become a question of when not if. The ability to respond and recover quickly has therefore become an essential part of successful ransomware defence, but it is something many organisations, especially in South Africa, struggle with. Consider Some Statistics The State of Ransomware report from security firm Sophos reveals that, over the last year, the average cost of remediating a ransomw...
Malware Spreading Through Popular WhatsApp Mod Uncovered
Image sourced from YoMZanzi A malicious version of a popular WhatsApp messenger mod (unofficial modification of the app) called FMWhatsapp has been discovered by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. This mod spreads the Triada mobile Trojan, which downloads other Trojans and can launch ads, issue subscriptions, and intercept a user’s SMSs. Even though WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps for instant mobile messaging, not all users are satisfied with its features. Looking for the most user-friendly version, people can be tempted to install modified versions of WhatsApp, which provide many more options than the official one (such as choosing dynamic templates or the ability to read deleted messages). However, these modified apps do not have the same security and encryption features that the off...
Malware Attacks in Africa Reach 85-Million in 6 Months – Kaspersky
Image sourced from Sectigo. According to research performed by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, malware is rife across Africa with various countries exhibiting strong growth in all malware types in the first half of 2021 when compared to the same period last year. This is a 5% increase in the region, as cybercriminals and hackers continue to focus on African countries considering digital transformation advancements and the increase in remote working resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, 4 countries account for 85 million attacks, with South Africa being the most targeted (32-million attacks), followed by Kenya (28.3-million), Nigeria (16.7-million) and Ethiopia (8-million). All countries but Kenya saw the relative growth of all malware attacks. Ethiopia and Nigeria have seen an incre...
Beware: The Top 5 Cybercrime Schemes Running Amid the Tokyo Olympics
Image sourced from T3. After an unprecedented year-long delay, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics began in earnest last week. This time, all the events will take place with no spectators, which reduces physical risks – in terms of health and from a cybersecurity point of view (such as data theft using the vulnerabilities of public Wi-Fi at the stadium). However, sports enthusiasts should not forget that cybercriminals will aim to take advantage of fans’ eagerness to watch the Olympic Games by instigating various online fraud schemes. To get a better overview of how scammers are trying to monetise viewers’ interest, Kaspersky experts analysed Olympic-related phishing websites designed to steal users’ credentials. As a result, Kaspersky researchers found fake pages offering to stream various Oly...
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