Cybersecurity Patch Notes Vol. 3
Weekly Recap: December 6, 2024
Hello, and welcome to another episode— this is episode vol. 3! Be proud, I'm keeping with tradition!
Grab some popcorn, or a donut, or if you're in Sweden, some kanelbullar—make yourself comfy! This week's Cybersecurity Patch Notes is gonna be a doozy (they all are, but hey!). We've got everything from Russian arrests to phishing frenzies, all delivered with the usual panache and maybe a touch of sarcasm. Got your kanelbulle? Great, it's about to get real (and possibly a bit ridiculous).
The "Wazawaka" whammy is our first guest. AKA Mikhail Matveev, who's been playing fast and loose with malware creation (pretty much a no-no, in case you were wondering), found himself on the wrong side of the Russian government (is there a right side? I mean to any government looks around). They charged him with violating domestic laws against—you guessed it—malware creation. Talk about a boomerang effect!
Meanwhile, phishing attacks have surged nearly 40 percent. It's like a reverse Black Friday sale for scams. These crafty buggers are attracted to new generic top-level domains. I mean, who can resist rock-bottom prices and no meaningful registration requirements? It's like the Wild West of the internet all over again! Fantastic, bring it on!
On the other side of the law, we have Charles O. Parks III, alias "CP3O" (a bit into Star Wars, I reckon). This enterprising fella rented cloud computing time from two providers to mine cryptocurrency, then conveniently "forgot" to pay the $3.5 million bill. The Force isn't gonna help him here—yeah, yeah we know, C3PO doesn't know how to use the Force, don't get ya Star Trek panties in a bunch.
In the world of politics, Romania's Intelligence Service declassified a report stating that over 85,000 cyberattacks targeted their election infrastructure. Attackers even leaked access credentials on a Russian hacker forum. In the words of the great Yogi Berra, it's déjà vu all over again.
Back to the U.S., a large U.S. organisation with a significant presence in China (no, not McDonald's—or Macca's for anyone reading from Aus) got a nasty surprise. They were breached by China-based threat actors who persisted on their networks for months. It's like having uninvited house guests who eat all your food and snoop through your mail—without the eating all your food bit.
Our next dishonorable mention goes to Remington Goy Ogletree, or "remi," who breached three companies' networks using stolen credentials. He even impersonated IT support departments (which is honestly pretty common if you want to get deep into a company's network). He's nothing if not commited!
In Germany, law enforcement seized over 50 servers hosting the Manson Market cybercrime marketplace and fake online shops. Two main suspects were arrested under European arrest warrants. It's kinda like a crime novel, but with more servers and fewer trench coats.
And finally, we've got the curious case of Russian programmer Kirill Parubets. After a 15-day detention by Russia's FSB, his phone was returned with a little extra something—you guessed it, spyware! Now that's a party favour no one wants.
And that, my friends, is your weekly dose of the wild, wacky, and downright weird happenings in the realm of cyber threats.
That’s it for now!
As always,
good luck,
stay safe,
be well.
See ya!
