{"id":4402,"date":"2013-12-31T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2013-12-31T10:00:23","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T15:00:23","slug":"cybercrooks-turn-to-other-exploits-after-blackhole-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/12\/31\/cybercrooks-turn-to-other-exploits-after-blackhole-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybercrooks turn to other exploits after Blackhole bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Blackhole Exploit kit was good, so good in fact that criminals are having trouble finding anything with the capabilities to take its place, security firm Websense has noticed.<\/p>\n

According to the firm\u2019s monitoring, phishing campaigns sent via the important Cutwail bot that once made extensive use of the kit have been forced to experiment with a mixture of conventional Zip attachment spam and an alternative exploit kit, Magnitude.<\/p>\n

The change happened in October, within days of the arrest of Blackhole\u2019s Russian creator, dubbed “Paunch.” Since then, the gangs have been forced to chop and change new attack strategies, achieving mixed levels of success, Websense said.<\/p>\n

It turns out that attachment spam is still effective when it gets past filters as are old-style phishing attacks using traditional lures such as “work at home” and dieting. Often tactics are what distinguishes one gang form another on Cutwail, for instance the prominent “Zeus GameOver” operation that specialises in collecting bank logins.<\/p>\n

Seeking the next exploit tool<\/p>\n

Given that Paunch\u2019s arrest was recently confirmed, Blackhole won\u2019t be coming back, leaving the way clear for another kit or some new innovation to take its place.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe predict that in the next months, there will be a return to URL-based email attacks utilizing exploit kits that offer \u201cmalware as a service\u201d on a larger scale,\u201d concludes Websense. “The use of exploit kits is simply a more effective delivery mechanism\u2014especially with an increasingly security-aware target audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other firms have reported Blackhole\u2019s sudden disappearance as causing a major headaches for criminals.<\/p>\n

Within days of Paunch\u2019s arrest in October, Dell SecureWorks reorted that it was easy to see that something had happened to the previously hugely popular kit; the much smaller and less effective Magnitude spiked unexpectedly just at the moment Blackhole disappeared.<\/p>\n

But the wider significance of Paunch\u2019s arrest remains unclear. Given that he was the most important software cybercriminal ever picked up by Russian police, does that bode ill for others in the same business?<\/p>\n

via Cybercrooks turn to other exploits after Blackhole bust | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blackhole Exploit kit was good, so good in fact that criminals are having trouble finding anything with the capabilities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[134,655],"class_list":["post-4402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-technology","tag-blackhole-exploit","tag-malware"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-190","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9330,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/04\/03\/security-now-657-protonmail\/","url_meta":{"origin":4402,"position":0},"title":"Security Now 657: ProtonMail","author":"NCCT","date":"April 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/OeSZg-ph3Ns This week we discuss \"DrupalGeddon2\", Cloudflare's new DNS offering, a reminder about GRC's DNS Benchmark, Microsoft's Meltdown meltdown, the persistent iOS QR Code flaw and its long-awaited v11.3 update, another VPN user IP leak, more bug bounty news, an ill-fated-seeming new eMail initiative, Free electricity, a policy change at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/OeSZg-ph3Ns\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9450,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/11\/20\/are-passwords-immortal-security-now-690\/","url_meta":{"origin":4402,"position":1},"title":"Are Passwords Immortal? 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