Posted on September 13, 2020 at 5:21 PM

Last Week’s Roundup on Hacking Events

Elsewhere in the world, Malsmoke, a famous group of Hackers, is out on a limb. This time their targets: visitors to porn websites. They do this by attacking selected porn sites and getting them infected with harmful ads. Furthermore, they then infect the PCs of their victims with this malware.

Based on a report from a security company called Malwarebytes, they reported that the hackers had compromised practically all networks aligned with adult ads. Additionally, besides compromising middle range adult websites, the malicious hacker group could get their harmful ads on the xHamster adult platform. The adult platform, known as xHamster, is one of the most famous websites for adult content globally.

However, such hacking attempts on adult content sites are not new; however, the security company has been monitoring for several months is specifically engaging. There is much interest in this particular attack because of the malware that was deployed in the attack.

The moment that an unsuspecting user clicks on a harmful ad, they get rerouted to a page that immediately begins downloading a malware if it can take advantage of flaws in Flash or Internet Explorer. Both tools are popular hacker targets and are currently being permanently phase out in a few months.

The reason for their permanent retirement is due to the security problems that come with the tools.

Technically, the attack from Malsmoke will only affect targets that have the Flash and Internet Explorer systems that are prone to such attacks. However, with the current phasing out of the Internet Explorer and Flash, it means that the attacks will soon be rendered obsolete.

USPS discovers dangerous flaws in its postal systems

A report in July from the Inspector General’s Office of the US Postal Service made a warning about crucial weak points in six different postal systems for three years. These weak points include digital services that are classified as sensitive.

The report went on to say that the twelve different types of vulnerabilities are prevalent bugs that hackers could have exploited to get access to sensitive information. These discoveries do not come as a surprise since US agencies have a notorious cybersecurity history. The USPS later told media services that it has successfully fixed the flaws.

Zoom adopts two-level security measures for both paid and free users

Zoom recently reported that it had added the two-level authentication support for its mobile and desktop applications. The previous setting involves users being able to use just two-level account protection only with the web application.

Furthermore, the company recently rolled out a campaign to revamp its security framework. The company faced some controversy after announcing that only paid users would get access to the revamped security framework. The backlash eventually led to the company extending the services to both the paid and free accounts.

Julian Assange begins his anti-extradition defense

Recently, Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, started his legal defense against getting extradited to the US. This extradition is based on the fact that he needs to be assessed psychologically as he plans to harm himself.

Also, it seems that despite years of researchers warnings, people still ignore the fact that kid smartwatches are harmful to their security.

US 2020 Elections: Russian hackers resurface

While the US presidential comes very close, Microsoft recently announced that hackers aligned with Russia’s military intelligence are at it once again. The hacker group, which is sometimes called APT28 or Fancy Bear, has targeted over 200 agencies since September last year.

The agencies are said to be linked with the elections. This recent revelation proves that country backed hacker groups such as Fancy Bear that nearly ruined the US president in 2016, are threats.

This further confirmed the fears presented this week by Brian Murphy, a former official with the Intelligence Department of the Homeland Security. He had reported that top executives at the DHS played down intelligence discoveries and influenced information about Russia’s danger to the 2020 election and other important issues.

These were done to support the political agenda of President Trump. A former agent with the FBI also confirmed shady practices from US law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the 2016 polls.