On the Radar: Securing Web 3.0, the Metaverse and beyond
Internet technology evolves rapidly, and the World Wide Web (WWW or Web) is currently experiencing a transition into what many are calling "Web 3.0". Web 3.0 is a nebulous term. If you spend enough time Googling it, you'll find many interpretations regarding what We
Attackers exploiting zero-day vulnerability in Windows Installer — Here’s what you need to know and Talos’ coverage
Cisco Talos is releasing new SNORTⓇ rules to protect against the exploitation of a zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Installer. This vulnerability allows an attacker with a limited user account to elevate their privileges to become an administrato
Security implications of misconfigurations
By Jaeson Schultz. When defenders regularly monitor their organization's Domain Name System (DNS) queries, they can often snuff out potential attacks before they happen. At the very least, it's important to identify and fix configuration mistakes that could lead to nasty
Domain dumpster diving
By Jaeson Schultz. Dumpster diving — searching through the trash looking for items of value — has long been a staple of hacking culture. In the 1995 movie "Hackers," Acid Burn and Crash Override are seen dumpster diving for information they can use to help them "h
The Internet did my homework
By Jaeson Schultz and Matt Valites. As students return to school for in-person and virtual learning, Cisco Talos discovered an increase in DNS requests coming into Umbrella resolving domains we classify as "academic fraud." Data from Pew Research on back-to-school date
Stolen emails reflect Emotet's organic growth
By Jaeson Schultz Introduction Emotet has a penchant for stealing a victim's email, then impersonating that victim and sending copies of itself in reply. The malicious emails are delivered through a network of stolen outbound SMTP accounts. This relatively simple email-man-
Emotet is back after a summer break
Emotet is still evolving, five years after its debut as a banking trojan. It is one of the world's most dangerous botnets and malware droppers-for-hire. The malware payloads dropped by Emotet serve to more fully monetize their attacks, and often include additional banking tro
Sextortion profits decline despite higher volume, new techniques
Sextortion spammers continue blasting away at high volume. The success they experienced with several high-profile campaigns last year has led these attackers to continue transmitting massive amounts of sextortion email. These sextortion spammers have been doing everything they ca
Hiding in Plain Sight
Cisco Talos is continually working to ensure that our threat intelligence not only accounts for the latest threats but also new versions of old threats, such as spam. This often means pursuing cybercriminals wherever they congregate. However, instead of wheeling-and-dealing using