Research Saturday

Bad actors are using Fast Flux Networks with quickly-changing IP addresses and domain names to help hide their activities.

Or Katz, Principal Lead Security Researcher at Akamai, takes us through their recently-published white paper, "Digging Deeper — An In-Depth Analysis of a Fast Flux Network."

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The Terdot Banker Trojan is a descendant of the Zeus family of malware, and has evolved to feature serious espionage capabilities. It can compromise transactions, steal accounts and credit card information, and can eavesdrop on and modify traffic on social media and email platforms. While not yet widely spread, it's a threat to consumers and businesses alike.

Bogdan Botezatu is a senior e-threat analyst at Bitdefender, and he takes us through their recently published whitepaper.

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Cybercriminals offer all sorts of illicit goods for sale on Deep and Dark Web markets. In this episode, Liv Rowley, cybercrime intelligence analyst at Flashpoint, takes us through her team's research into the pricing of certain illegal goods online, including "Fullz", exploit kits, DDoS for hire, RDP servers, card data, bank logs and passports. Supply meets demand in this shady underground ecosystem.

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Dr. Adrian Nish is head of cyber threat intelligence at BAE Systems. His team has been tracking a new cyber-enabled bank heist in Asia. Some of the tools used are reminiscent of the Bangladesh Bank attack from February 2016.

The full report can be found here.

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In this episode of the CyberWire’s Research Saturday we are joined by Jordan Wright, Senior Research and Development Engineer at Duo Security. He’s the author of the research report, “Phish in a Barrel,” which describes his work gathering and examining thousands of phishing kits from around the web.

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The moniker KHRAT came about because of the identification of a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) with command and control infrastructure found in Cambodia (KH). In the most recent episode of the CyberWire's Research Saturday, Ryan Olson, Director of Threat Intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, talks with us about the capabilities of KHRAT and shares details the feature set it provides to threat actors that use it.

https://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2017/08/unit42-updated-khrat-malware-used-in-cambodia-attacks/

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In August 2017, multiple Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and content providers were subject to significant attacks from a botnet dubbed WireX. (The botnet is named for an anagram for one of the delimiter strings in its command and control protocol.) The WireX botnet is primarily made up of Android devices running malicious applications and is designed to create DDoS traffic. The botnet is sometimes associated with ransom notes to targets.

Justin Paine is Head of Trust and Safety at Cloudflare, and he joins us to share the WireX story. 

https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-wirex-botnet/

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Peter Ney is a PhD candidate in the Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington where he is advised by Professor Tadayoshi Kohno. His current research is focused on understanding computer security risks in emerging technologies like DNA synthesis and sequencing and the new threats posed by maliciously crafted, synthetic DNA. He and his team found that security of DNA processing programs is poor and show with a proof-of-concept that it is possible to attack computer systems with adversarial synthetic DNA.

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Android Toast Overlay enables attackers to trick Android users into enabling permissions on infected devices by making them think they are clicking on benign buttons superimposed over the user interface.

Ryan Olson is Director of Threat Intelligence at Palo Alto Networks' Unity 42, and he joins us to share their research.

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APT 33 is an Iranian cyber espionage group that targets aerospace and energy sectors and has ties to destructive malware. John Hultquist is Director of Intelligence Analysis at FireEye, and he takes us through their research.

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