Cisco Talos Blog

June 11, 2021 14:12

Threat Roundup for June 4 to June 11

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 4 and June 11. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting ke

June 3, 2021 08:00

Necro Python bot adds new exploits and Tezos mining to its bag of tricks

By Vanja Svajcer, with contributions from Caitlin Huey and Kendall McKay. News summary * Some malware families stay static in terms of their functionality. But a newly discovered malware campaign utilizing the Necro Python bot shows this actor is adding new functionality and

May 7, 2021 15:50

Lemon Duck spreads its wings: Actors target Microsoft Exchange servers, incorporate new TTPs

By Caitlin Huey and Andrew Windsor with contributions from Edmund Brumaghin. * Lemon Duck continues to refine and improve upon their tactics, techniques and procedures as they attempt to maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns. * Lemon Duck remains relevant as the operat

April 21, 2021 07:59

A year of Fajan evolution and Bloomberg themed campaigns

By Vanja Svajcer. News summary * Some malware campaigns are designed to spread malware to as many people as possible — while some others carefully choose their targets. Cisco Talos recently discovered a malware campaign that does not fit in any of the two categories. This ac

April 7, 2021 08:06

Sowing Discord: Reaping the benefits of collaboration app abuse

As telework has become the norm throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, attackers are modifying their tactics to take advantage of the changes to employee workflows. * Attackers are leveraging collaboration platforms, such as Discord and Slack, to stay under the radar and evade organ

March 31, 2021 09:02

Cheating the cheater: How adversaries are using backdoored video game cheat engines and modding tools

By Nick Lister and Holger Unterbrink, with contributions from Vanja Svajcer. News summary * Cisco Talos recently discovered a new campaign targeting video game players and other PC modders. * Talos detected a new cryptor used in several different malware campaigns hidden

March 24, 2021 08:26

Quarterly Report: Incident Response trends from Winter 2020-21

For the seventh quarter in a row, Cisco Talos Incident Response (CTIR) observed ransomware dominating the threat landscape. The top variants were Ryuk and Vatet, which is notable given the absence of Ryuk last quarter. We also observed variants of Egregor and WastedLocker continu

March 8, 2021 11:00

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

March 2, 2021 08:04

ObliqueRAT returns with new campaign using hijacked websites

By Asheer Malhotra. * Cisco Talos has observed another malware campaign that utilizes malicious Microsoft Office documents (maldocs) to spread the remote access trojan (RAT) ObliqueRAT. * This campaign targets organizations in South Asia. * ObliqueRAT has been linked to th