Having a password for online accounts is not enough protection. Hackers and cybercriminals have found a way to crack passwords and hijack emails, bank accounts, social media pages, and other digital real estates. Through password mass attacks, cyber threat actors no longer have to spend a long time trying to guess your online credentials. Understanding a Password Mass Attack A password mask attack is a technique cybercriminals use to crack passwords. While a conventional brute-force attack tries to guess your password by entering every possible letter, number, and symbol combination, a mask attack is more targeted and takes less time. It is also more systematic. With a mask attack, cybercriminals check passwords for a specific pattern. Knowing this pattern allows them to skip character combinations that are not necessary. Threat actors will use information about your password creation behavior, including your composition patterns. They will then start cracking a subset of your password’s format or entire length. How Does a Password Mask Attack Work? Websites and online apps do not store their users’ passwords verbatim. Instead, they use a process called hashing. Hashing uses an encryption algorithm to turn passwords and other data into a string of letters and numbers. Hashing improves the security of your password. So, if attackers hack a website, they won’t be able to access your password as is. Instead, they will get the encrypted “hash” that the algorithm had created. If cybercriminals get a hold of password hashes from a site, they can start a password mask attack. They will put the character combinations into a hashing function and wait until they get valid hits or until it creates a hash that matches yours. These cybercriminals can calculate hashes for common words and often-used combinations. Cybercriminals don’t crack each password within the data set they obtained from a website. They only need to crack enough passwords to get an initial foothold on the website and go deeper into their attack. How to Prevent Password Mask Attacks It is important for businesses with websites to take steps to prevent password mask attacks. Their websites must encourage customers or individual users to create strong passwords. Strong passwords contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. With stronger passwords, cybercriminals would find it hard to guess the patterns and calculate hashes. Businesses and organizations with websites can also use password managers. These tools help prevent network security threats by storing and managing users’ credentials. Moreover, they address password security issues like weak passwords and password reuse. The Bottom Line: Protect Business Sites and Customers From Mask Attacks Password mask attacks on a business website put customer data at risk. Once cybercriminals crack passwords, they can also extract personal data and use them to access bank accounts. Or they can launch smaller attacks targeted at individuals. Customers will lose confidence in a business if this happens. A mask attack can also disrupt business operations. As such, businesses should encourage their users to create strong passwords. They should also use password managers to protect passwords and customer credentials.
A new malware campaign on Facebook and YouTube is making headlines. S1deload Stealer hijacks these social media accounts, mines cryptocurrency, and spreads itself. Discover what business owners need to know about this malware. How the Malware Installs Itself S1deload Stealer is hidden within photo files with adult themes. The attackers use social engineering to post download links to these files on Facebook comments. When someone downloads one of the relevant files and then unzips the folder, they will see a signed executable file. That file includes the malicious DLL with the payload and a valid Western Digital signature. Users may not even know they have malware on their computers. The file that contains the DLL also has real images, reducing suspicion. What Happens After Installation After installation, the hackers’ command and control server instructs the S1deload Stealer. It can run and download various components. One of these is a headless Chrome browser. As a headless browser, it runs in the background without the user knowing. This is a common way to boost YouTube and Facebook views. The malware also uses a stealer to access passwords and other credentials saved in the browser. It also accesses exfiltration and cookie decryption. From there, the attacker uses the credentials to post more comments on social media via additional social engineering attacks, expanding its reach. S1deload Stealer also deploys a BEAM cryptojacker, which allows for cryptomining. By mining BEAM, the attackers get another financial benefit from this malware. The Malware’s Reach To date, S1deload Stealer has affected at least 600 unique users, infecting their computers. Official Suggestions Bitdefender broke the news of this new malware. The cybersecurity company says that you should never click on an EXE file that comes from an unknown or untrusted source. It also suggests paying attention to any security alerts your computer issues. Conclusion – And What Business Owners Can Learn S1deload Stealer is just one recent example of the increase in malware targeting both businesses and consumers. Businesses are an especially appealing target because they store credit card information. Business owners should protect their companies and their customers by checking for unexpected purchases and canceling affected cards. They should also implement safeguards within their systems and train employees on best practices, such as not downloading EXE files.
As a business owner, you realize the necessity of being competitive in a rapidly evolving industry. One method is to use technology to simplify your operations. The proper strategies and tools can boost productivity, cut expenses, and help you provide better customer service. A few strategies for achieving these objectives are: Automate repetitive tasks: Many IT activities, such as server configuration and software installation, are repetitive and time-consuming. These tasks may be handled by automation systems with little involvement from you, freeing up your time to concentrate on other crucial work. Scripts, macros, and integrations are just a few of the various automation solutions that may be tailored to your company’s needs. Use project management software: Managing a small IT firm requires managing several clients and projects simultaneously. You may access project management software from any device with an internet connection to keep track of tasks, deadlines, and resources. This will assist you in staying organized and fulfilling your obligations while also providing better teamwork and communication. Adopt cloud computing: There are several advantages to moving your company’s data and apps to the cloud. Thanks to cloud computing, you may access your data from any device with an internet connection, which can lessen the requirement for on-premises infrastructure and software. This can reduce the cost of maintenance and updates while also making it simpler to scale your business as it grows. By implementing these technologies, you can streamline your business’s operations and improve its efficiency. Automating repetitive tasks and using project management software can save you time and reduce the risk of mistakes. Another advantage is that adopting cloud computing can save you money and make it easier to scale your business. By taking advantage of these tools, you can better serve your clients and stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry.
Hackers are baiting their victims with stolen financial data in a clever phishing scheme. Over 400,000 data points, including identity numbers, names, phone numbers, and payment records, are used to persuade consumers to click on a malicious link. This link downloads a potent virus called BitRAT that can steal passwords, spy on users, and install crypto mining software. In order to spread the remote access trojan known as BitRAT, the new campaign utilized confidential data taken from a bank as bait in phishing emails convincing victims to download a suspicious Excel file. BitRAT is a well-known remote access trojan (RAT) sold on dark web markets and forums used by cybercriminals. Because it costs $20 for a lifetime membership, it attracts all sorts of hackers and promotes the propagation of harmful payloads. In addition, the fact that BitRAT can be utilized in a range of activities, including phishing attacks, trojanized software, and watering hole attacks, makes it much more difficult to block. Although the hacker group responsible for the campaign is currently unknown, it is believed that they used SQL injection flaws to compromise the IT network of a Colombian cooperative bank. This is a typical method used by hackers to trick a database into producing an error message so they may discover the layout of the database. The exposed information includes, among other things, ID numbers (national resident identity), phone numbers, email addresses, customer names, income information, payment history, and residences. There are no indications that the information has been posted on any forums. However, this does not mean that consumers should not worry. The threat actors could use the obtained data to carry out phishing attacks themselves. The exfiltrated bank data file also has a macro embedded that downloads a second-stage DLL payload programmed to fetch and run BitRAT on the infected host. According to Qualys researcher Akshat Pradhan, the infected file downloads BitRAT embedded payloads from GitHub to the %temp% directory via the WinHTTP library. The GitHub repository, established in the middle of November 2022, stores encoded BitRAT loader samples, which are later decoded and launched to finish the infection chains. It’s crucial for business owners to be aware of these types of threats. Businesses can take proactive measures to protect their systems and sensitive data. Training employees to recognize and avoid suspicious emails and links and ensuring all systems are kept up-to-date with the latest security patches are just a couple of ways business owners can reduce the risk of falling victim to cyber-attacks.