Tuesday, July 31, 2018

What are the disadvantages of Bitcoin?

What should you know about digital currency and the future? Right now, it's kind of hard to tell. After all, it's impossible to tell the future. Yet if history has anything to do with the matter, you can be rest assured that crypto-currencies are here to stay. It's always the skepticism of people that have been around for awhile that blinds them to what the younger generations are doing. In other words, younger generations are growing up in a world of crypto-currencies as a trend, and that trend is going to keep gaining momentum.


ethereum

Ways To Make Money Work For You

Do you conserve any loan for your future? What do you do with the cash you conserve? Now that senior citizens are discovering the difficult way how much our social security system has failed them, individuals require to find other methods of making their loan stow away grow.

It is a proven truth that it is easier to make cash grow by investment than it is to make loan grow by contributing to it. For this factor, it is essential that you learn the best ways to make your money work for you. There are many manner ins which you can do this, and a large financial investment or danger is not always necessary.

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One of the ways that you can make cash work for you is through a money market account. Cash market accounts are a fantastic way to make your loan work for you while still keeping it easily accessible. 

Another low risk, high return method to make cash work for you is to invest in mutual funds. Mutual funds are a great way to make cash work for you due to the fact that there is no need to keep track of stocks yourself.

Another but high risk way to make loan work for you is to purchase stocks, bonds, or commodities by yourself through a stock broker. You can quickly generate income work for you by purchasing commodities and futures due to the high returns that can originate from these financial investments. However, these financial investments are a lot more dangerous, and need to only be taken on if you are specific that you can spare the money that you are investing.

To learn more about more manner ins which you can make money work for you, contact a monetary advisor, retirement planning expert, or stock broker. These professionals are your finest resources for learning more about the various ways that you can make money work for you while protecting your financial investment and your retirement.

It is a proven reality that it is easier to make loan grow by financial investment than it is to make money grow by adding to it. One of the ways that you can make cash work for you is through a loan market account. Loan market accounts are a terrific method to make your loan work for you while still keeping it readily accessible. Mutual funds are an excellent way to make money work for you because there is no need to keep track of stocks yourself.

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makemoneyonline

Monday, July 30, 2018

Health and Beauty Post for 2018!

We share health and beauty tips, advice, and products for our own, and also for your course.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

What You Have to Discover Regarding Medical Marijuana

There are natural compounds in the cannabis plant that have been confirmed to be valuable in beating pain, aiding individuals to get to sleep better, lowering puffiness, together with other ways to ease the troubles of numerous health issues. Generally this kind of support is produced by the nonpsychoactive chemical substance cannabidiol (CBD) which was revealed in 1963. 


Many people associate marijuana  with all the prohibited recreational use to get "high" or "stoned."  The main psychoactive chemical substance in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC. It was initially isolated in 1964.


Research workers identified close to 100 chemical substances in the cannabis plant. A minimum of 60 are pharmacologically active substances.


THC and CBD


THC has been demonstrated to increase anxiety levels and express warning signs of psychosis in healthy individuals. As a contrast, CBD has been demonstrated to lower stress and anxiety as well as depression symptoms, decrease soreness, reduce nausea and vomiting, improve sleep, lessen inflammation, and exhibits anti-psychotic outcomes.


The Chinese used cannabis more than 4600 years ago for health conditions such as cramping, joint and menstrual discomforts. Yet, it wasn’t until the Nineteenth century that western doctors started an investigation of marijuana. And, it was only in 1964 that the chemical structure of the psychoactive component THC was identified.


It is in fact the ratio of nonpsychoactive cannabidiol (or CBD) to the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC) that can help determine therapeutic vs psychoactive properties. Those strains of cannabis having low THC will not make it possible for end users to get “high.” Most people employ therapeutic marijuana with very high concentrations of CBD. But, even THC may be good for treating nausea coming from chemotherapy and losing weight because of AIDs.


While some varieties of cannabis plants have concentrations of THC which will get users “high,” other strains will not.


The chemical substance in the marijuana plant called CBD is effective for a number of problems.


Usage of therapeutic marijuana is another approach for treating numerous illnesses and should be offered to the medical community.


Find out more about therapeutic marijuana on this site.

Cloud Duke, MiniDionis, Cloudlook: 3 minute profile

Discovered in June 2015, cloudduke is the most recent Duke campaign. The campaign may be a tactical shift in response to the widespread disclosure of the other Duke campaigns by security firms such as Kaspersky, Symantec, and F-Secure. CloudDuke relies on spear phishing emails that closely resemble those deployed in the CozyDuke campaign. The CloudDuke emails contain a self-extracting archive attachment that appears as an empty voicemail file (.wav) or a PDF file (often containing the word “terrorism”). If opened, then the second stage dropper executes. So far, the campaign has targeted European diplomatic organizations.

Scarcruft APT Group

scarcruft apt group - ScarCruft APT Group Used Latest Flash Zero Day in Two Dozen Attacks Operation Daybreak Flash zero-day exploit deployed by the ScarCruft APT Group #199 Operation Daybreak Flash zero-day exploit deployed by the ScarCruft APT Group #199.ScarCruft APT Group Used Latest Flash Zero Day in Two Dozen Attacks.

Energetic Bear, 3 Minute Profile

Energetic Bear, primarily employs two exploit kits (LightOut and Hello) and two malware (Trojan.Karagany and Backdoor.Oldrea). The exploit kits are used to initially compromise the system and install the malware. The malware is used for espionage, persistent access, or sabotage. LightsOut exploits vulnerabilities in Java or in Microsoft Internet Explorer to deploy the Karagany or Oldrea malware onto a user’s system. In September 2013, the Hello exploit kit replaced the LightsOut kit. The Hello kit is combined with watering hole attacks to redirect victims to a landing page, where a JavaScript fingerprints their system to determine details such as operating system, browser, and installed plugins. The victim is then redirected to the site that contains the exploit most likely to achieve the adversaries’ goals. Havex, havex malware

crowdstrike

GeminiDuke, 3 Minute Profile

GeminiDuke, like PinchDuke and CosmicDuke, was designed around a core information stealer component. The malware consisted of a loader, an information stealer, and numerous persistence components. The information stealer used a mutex based around a timestamp to ensure that only one instance of the malware was running at a time. The information stealer enumerates: local user accounts, network settings, internet proxy settings, installed drivers, running processes, values of environment variables, programs that run at startup, programs previously executed by the users, programs installed in the Programs Files folder, the files and folders in the users’ home folder, the files and folders in the users’ My Documents folder, and recently accessed files, folders, and programs. The malware employs multiple persistence components similar to those included in cosmicduke. MiniDuke’s backdoor component resembles the source code behind one of GeminiDuke’s persistence modules.

NETTRAVELER, 3 Minute Profile

NETTRAVELER APT is believed to be Chinese and utilizes Saker, Netbot, DarkStRat LURKO Gh0st, PlugX and NetTraveler malware designed for basic surveillance.

PinchDuke, 3 Minute Profile

The PinchDuke campaign, which operated from November 2008 until summer 2010, is believed to be the first campaign of the Duke malware family. PinchDuke targeted political organizations in Georgia, Turkey, Uganda, and the United States. The PinchDuke campaigns began 11 days after President Obama’s April 5, 2008 speech concerning the deployment of missile defenses in Poland. In 2009 the campaign targeted the Ministry of Defense in Georgia, the ministries of foreign affairs in Turkey and Uganda, a United States foreign policy think tank, organizations associated with NATO exercises in Europe, and the Georgian Information Centre on NATO. In 2010, the group also targeted Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The political nature of the targets suggests that the campaigns may have been state sponsored. The selection of targets closely mirrors those of the later APT28/ Sofacy campaigns, which is widely believed a Russian state sponsored threat actor.

Turla APT, 3 Minute Profile

turla APT AKA The Uroburos group uses spear phishing campaigns, drive-by-infections, watering hole attacks, and social engineering to push their malware onto target networks. In spear phishing campaigns, the target receives a tailored email containing an executable RAR self-extracting archive (SFX). If opened, then the malware unpacks and installs itself (a .SCR executable) on the user system. When the Uroburos rootkit infects a machine, it can: execute arbitrary code, hide its activity on a system, identify and exfiltrate information such as files, capture network traffic, and infect other systems on the network. Uroburos consists of a driver (.sys file) and an encrypted virtual file system (.dat file). The complex driver seems to be specifically designed to be discrete and difficult to identify. Uroburos’ preferred attack vectors are social engineering attacks, watering hole attacks and USB infection


APT30, 3 Minute Profile

Spear phishing campaigns begin with a lure email relevant to the victim that carries a malicious Microsoft Word document, which, according to Kaspersky Lab, actually contains “a CVE-2012-0158 exploit, an executable with a double extension, or an executable with an RTLO filename”. One of its most prolific spear phishing campaigns was the March 2014 attacks targeting organizations from countries affected by the MH370 tragedy. Upon opening/ execution, the malicious payload, an 8kb encrypted file and configuration data, is injected into the browser memory where it decrypts the ports and paths to the C2C server, a user agent string, filenames and paths to relevant components, and hash sums of the user API functions. The malicious code downloads the main malware from the C2C server over an SSL connection and then it loads it independently of the operating system functions without saving it to the hard drive by assuming control of the XS02 function and then handling the installation in memory.

apt30

Operation Lotus Blossom, 3 Minute Profile

Lotus Blossom (associated names: Operation Lotus Blossom, Spring Dragon, ST Group, LStudio and APToLSTU) facilitated over 50 attacks between 2012 and 2015 in the Military, Government and Aviation sectors.

LotusBlossom

Stone Panda, 3 Minute Profile

Type: Believed Cyber-mercenary Stone Panda APT Status: Active May 2010-Oct. 2013; current status unknown Target Sectors: Healthcare, Defense, Aerospace, Government Malware: PoisonIvy RAT GUI widely available Capable of: renaming, deleting, uploading, downloading or executing files; viewing or editing registry keys; viewing, suspending, or killing running processes; viewing or terminating network connections; viewing and controlling services; viewing or disabling installed devices; enumerating, deleting, or uninstalling programs Capable of logging keystrokes, taking screenshots, recording audio or webcam footage, and by capturing saved passwords and hashes iechecker/ EvilGrab Capture audio, video, screenshots, and keystrokes Preferred Attack Vector: Spear phishing emails

Bifrost Trojan | Bifrose, 3 Minute Profile

Shrouded Crossbow employs the BIFROSE/ Bifrost trojan, KIVARS, and XBOW backdoors in their attacks. As an indicator of resources available to the group, Trend Micro notes that BIFROSE backdoor has sold for more than $10,000 on underground sites. BIFROSE has been around for about a decade and has been used in spam campaigns against NATO and United States government agencies. BIFROSE is a remote access Trojan (RAT) which establishes a persistent presence and then deploys tools to capture keystrokes, screenshots, and confidential information. Trend Micro actually believes that the group purchased the source code of bifrose, and then developed a new installer, created unique loader-backdoor pairs, and simplified the backdoor capabilities, thereby resulting in KIVARS.

Moker Malware, 3 Minute Profile Part 2

Moker Trojan is a remote access Trojan (RAT) capable of seizing complete control of the victim system. It generates a new administrative user account and it opens a RDP channel to allow the adversary to remotely access the infected system. If the remote desktop service is disabled, the malware will attempt to enable it as a background service. Moker establishes a persistent residence in the operating system files so that it appears a legitimate OS level process with system wide privileges and access to system settings. In operation, the malware injects its malicious code into the legitimate code of different system processes.

Regin Malware, 3 Minute Profile

Regin Malware (aka Prax or QWERTY) consists of a trojan and a backdoor that are widely customizable to fit the target. The platform excels at remaining undetected and obfuscating its indicators of compromise. Regin is a modular platform, reminiscent of Flame, duqu, and Stuxnet. The Regin backdoor is a five stage modular component and each stage after the first is hidden and encrypted. After each successful installation of a stage, the next stage is decrypted and installed. Each piece provides as little information as possible about the total component. If any stage fails then the installation terminates.

Red October Cyber Attack, 3 Minute Profile

Red October Cyber Attack Exploits used by the Rocra malware appear to have been created by Chinese hackers while the malware itself has Russian authors. Cloud Atlas may be the next evolution of Red October.

redoctobercyberattack

Butterfly Group APT, 3 Minute Profile Part 3

The Butterfly group exploits zero-day vulnerabilities from a water hole website. In February 2013 Twitter, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft were attacked within a three-week period. The Butterfly group initiated their campaign with a Java zero-day exploit that was delivered from a popular iPhone mobile development website. For some of the attacks, F- Secure believes that the payload delivered after the breach may have been a Mac OS X backdoor, dubbed OSX Pintsized. Attacks against Windows systems likely featured the Jripbot backdoor. Symantec believes that the group may also exploit Internet Explorer 10 or an Internet Explorer plugin. At least one recent attack suggests that the group might also conduct SQL injection attacks.

sqlinjection

Mirage Malware, 3 Minute Profile

Mirage Malware, APT15 (associated names Vixen Panda, Ke3Chang, GREF, Playful Dragon, Social Network Team, Mirage Team, Lurid, Operation Umbrella Revolution) targets the Energy and Military sectors in the United States, Philippines, Taiwan, Canada, Brazil, Isreal, Egypt and Nigeria.

MirageMalware

HOW CAN I CONVINCE MY ELDERLY PARENT TO SEE AN EYE DOCTOR?

HOW CAN I CONVINCE MY ELDERLY PARENT TO SEE AN EYE DOCTOR?

THERE ARE MANY ELDERLY AMERICANS WHO ARE RELUCTANT TO GET MEDICAL ATTENTION FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS, MANY OF THEM NOT JUSTIFIED BY THE FACTS.

How Can I Convince My Elderly Parent to See an Eye Doctor?

It’s their fears and emotions that may be getting in the way of obtaining needed eye care.

If you’re helping an elderly parent or family member and you know they need medical or eye care Houman Ahdieh, MD but they’re reluctant or unwilling to get it, here are some things to think about.

Is the person mentally competent? Whether because of some form of dementia, psychological issues or due to the side effects of medications, the person may be incapable of making health care decisions for themselves. If they are seeing physician inform him or her of the problem and try to get their help. Unless you’re the agent on a health care power of attorney or the person has signed a release, the doctor probably won’t tell you much because of privacy issues, but that doesn’t stop you from letting the doctor know what’s going on at home. If you genuinely think the person isn’t mentally competent you should consult with an attorney to discuss if being appointed a guardian (enabling you to make healthcare decisions) might be appropriate.

Is transportation the issue? If the person can’t drive themselves to appointments, are there other ways to get him or her there? Are there other trustworthy, reliable people who can provide transportation? Is public transportation, using a taxi, Uber or Lyft an option? The person may feel that because of physical problems they feel like they’re a burden on others because they need help with transportation. Let the person know you, and maybe others, are ready, willing and able to help. Make it clear helping them is not a burden.

Is money an issue? Do they have Medicare? If so, what are the co-payments? Can the person afford them? If not, might the person qualify for Medicaid? Can family members pitch in to help pay the bills? The person may have the money but fear spending it because they don’t want to outlive their savings. The cost of co-payments for eye procedures may not be as high as the person thinks. Call our office so we can talk about what should be expected costs, possibly paying over time and you can work out how costs could be paid.

Do they feel declining health is just something that comes with age and needs to be tolerated? They may have resigned themselves to bad eyesight, aching knees or incontinence because they’re old. You need to talk about how effective treatments can improve their life and that they don’t need to suffer.

Do they fear a procedure because they heard from someone who had a bad experience? The person may have a heard a horror story (true or not) from someone they know. Medical professionals take every precaution to prevent problems. You should emphasize millions of people have had procedures to help with their eyesight without any problems and they end up living much better, not worse, lives.

If we can help in any way with a loved who needs eye care, please call us at 610-437-4988 or contact us. We’ll be happy to answer any questions and address any concerns whether it’s about eye surgery, possible side effects or financial issues. Seeing well is an important part of living well and it’s something all of us, especially the elderly, should enjoy.

Houman Ahdieh, MD
Lehigh Valley Center for Sight
https://www.lvcenter4sight.com
eyedoc@lvcenter4sight.com 

Hurricane Panda, 3 Minute Profile

Hurricane Panda APT (other names associated are Operation Umbrella Revolution and Operation Poisoned Hurricane) targeted the internet services, engineering and aerospace sectors with Sakula Gh0st, PlugX, Hikit, Mimikatz etc. Hurricane Panda used free DNS servers provided by Hurricane Electric to resolve well known domains to the desired attack infrastructure IP

sakulagh0st

MiniDuke Malware, 3 Minute Profile

MiniDuke malware is a highly customizable malware platform that was uncovered by Kaspersky Lab in February 2013. The malware may have been developed as early as 2010. According to Eugene Kaspersky, MiniDuke is unique in that it resembles more complex old school malware; in fact, many of its components are written in Assembly, a complex low-level programming language. This could indicate that the Russian authors behind MiniDuke have significant experience in the field. Preferred attack vector is social engineering.

APT32 | Ocean Lotus, 3 Minute Profile

APT 32 / OceanLotus APT (associated name APT32) uses phishing emails and watering hole attacks to target maritime institutions, shipping enterprises, Chinese government departments, and research institutes primarily within China.

The best ways to Train A Pug - The Best Ways To Potty Train A Pug

The largest mistake a pug proprietor can do is permit the pug leave the undesirable actions. It is common for individuals to shake off the bad habits since they easily obtain obsessed by the charming behavior of the pug. Yet this is wrong; this is just making the pug believe that their tasks are acceptable. They are very persistent in addition to once discovered it will certainly be nearly impossible to undo the undesirable manners when they end up being adults.


The minute the pug establishes it's small feet to your house, the first day of training has actually started. Pugs should be informed instantly. In fact, the preliminary 6 months of its life will develop its character for the rest of its life. Adjustment negative activities as extremely early possible.


Mostly, extensively connect socially the pug. Introduce them to all the people in the house. Bring them to crowded areas especially if you reside in urban places. Existing them to other animals likewise. Doing this will certainly succeed to your pug's routines advancement.


Adhering to and also potentially the most tough thing to do is house training your pug. They have insufficient bladder in addition to gastrointestinal tract control particularly when young. You should hold your pug as well as regular when house training them. Crate training is wonderful for pugs. You should attempt this method while providing beneficial support.


Ways to Train A Pug To Pee Outdoors

When toilet training your brand-new young puppy it is very important to bear in mind that consuming additionally indicates poop. What enters need to come out, and also with a lot of dogs it usually appears within half a hr after consuming.


I constantly encourage brand-new young puppy owners not to leave food down where their puppy might forage all day - if your pug eats throughout the day he will absolutely poop all day. This regulation does not consist of water - never ever, I duplicate, never keep water from your pet.

how to potty train a pug

Patchwork APT, 3 Minute Profile

Patch Work APT (names associated Dropping Elephant, MONSOON, Chinastrats and Operation Hangover) is a cyber mercenary APT that originated in either India or China. Their Preferred Attack Vectors are Spear-phishing, Watering Hole Attacks, Social Engineering via Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

ICEFROG APT, 3 Minute Profile

IceFrog (other names associated are Danger Panda and Dagger Three) is a cyber mercenary that has been inactive since 2013. IceFrog targeted government, military, maritime, telecommunications, satellite, media, energy and high tech sectors in South Korea, Japan, China and United States.

Como la Musica de Mariachi Trasciende Generos

La Musica Mexicana es un género musical que se origina en Mexico, en el Estado de Jalisco, y el cual es muy conocido en por todo el mundo. Este integra una hermosa combinacion de instrumentos que son altamente influenciados por una gran variedad de impactos culturales de la evolución histórica del Occidente de México. En cuanto a su repertorio, actualmente los músicos que integran mariachis, no solo tocan orgullosamente canciones mexicanas clasicas que son parte de la historia de Mexico, sino que tambien experimentan con canciones románticas y alegres que fácilmente se adaptan a los gustos de todo tipo de publico que los escucha.

Como nace la musica de mariachi

Night Dragon Operation, 3 Minute Profile

Night Dragon APT targeted the energy (oil, gas and petrochemical) sectors in Kazakhstan, Taiwan, Greece and the United States.

nightdragoncyberattack

Friday, July 27, 2018

Moker Malware, 3 Minute Profile Part 1

Moker Malware is a remote access Trojan (RAT) capable of seizing complete control of the victim system. It generates a new administrative user account and it opens a RDP channel to allow the adversary to remotely access the infected system. If the remote desktop service is disabled, the malware will attempt to enable it as a background service. Moker establishes a persistent residence in the operating system files so that it appears a legitimate OS level process with system wide privileges and access to system settings. In operation, the malware injects its malicious code into the legitimate code of different system processes.

mokermalware

OnionDuke, 3 minute profile

In October 2014, Leviathan Security Group disclosed that a Russia based Tor exit node was attaching malware onto the files that passed through it by wrapping legitimate executables with the malware executable. The technique increased the attacker’s chance of bypassing integrity check mechanisms. The malware campaign is believed to have been active from at least February 2013 through spring 2015. OnionDuke does not operate like the other Duke campaigns; however, it does share some C&C infrastructure with the MiniDuke attacks.Moreover, unshared domains in both campaigns were registered using the same alias, John Kasai. As such, it stands to reason that OnionDuke is another Russian state sponsored APT group.

russiansponsoredapt

Santa APT, 3 Minute Profile

Santa APT achieved this name because some of their malware masqueraded as Santa Claus applications, steals intellectual property for economic gain. Cloudsek believes that the malware developers are located in South Asia. Santa APT came to the attention of security professionals who noticed them selling information stealer malware, capable of jumping air gapped systems, on underground markets. The attackers were using the malware to steal classified data from software companies and government organizations. The malware collects files and screenshots and stores them in hidden files on any connected USB device. When the device is connected to an internet enabled system, the data is sent back to command and control infrastructure located in Germany. Empty voice recording and key log files on the C2C servers suggest that the malware is still under development. Cloudsek claims to have found the malware attributed to the group masquerading as Santa Claus mobile games, which had infected about 8000 systems. The malware stole contact lists, SMS messages, call records, location information, calendars, pictures, video, environment readings, camera specifications, browser history, program information, sim card information, and device status.

Tailored Access Operations, 3 Minute Profile Part 2

As the most targeted Nation in the world, The United States intelligence community has been continuously raising the bar to combat global bad actors. Tailored Access Operations is the largest operative component of the Signal Intelligence Directorate of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), consisting of over 1000 military and civilian cyber security professionals, hackers, technology specialists, and hardware and software designers. Approximately 600 of TAO (Tailored Access Operations)’s Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) operators work in rotating 24 hour, seven days a week, shifts out of the Remote Operations Center at Fort Meade.

SeaDuke

SeaDuke appeared in October 2014, after the disclosure of most of the Duke campaigns. Like the majority of the Duke family, SeaDuke exclusively targets government organizations. The main difference between SeaDuke and its sister campaigns is that SeaDuke focuses on a small number of high-value targets.

Suckfly, 3 Minute Profile

SUCKFLY is a Chinese cyber espionage and cyber criminal group that targets the healthcare, government and information technology sectors in the United States, India and Saudi Arabia. SUCKFLY’s exploit deliver is typically facilitated via spear phishing attack and watering hole attack.

cve

Poison Ivy Malware and Anchor Panda, 3 Minute Profile

Nation-State-Sponsored Status: believed active Active Since/Discovered: 2013 Last Report: Oct. 2013 Targets: civilian and military maritime operations in the green/brown water regions in the area of operations of the South Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy Also targeted companies in the United States, Germany, Sweden, the UK, Australia, and other nations involved in maritime satellite systems, aerospace industries, and the defense sector Target Sectors: maritime satellite systems, aerospace companies, and defense contractors Malware: Adobe Gh0st Poison Ivy Torn RAT Preferred Attack Vector: spear phishing Unique: May be PLA NAVY Marker for encrypted binaries – “PdPD” (50 64 50 44)

PoisonIvyMalware

TeamViewer Malware, 3 Minute Profile

Eastern Europe

most victims are ordinary users, but some are high-profile industrial, research, or diplomatic targets

high level political and human rights activists throughout CIS and Eastern European nations

government agencies

private companies

Belarusian activists in 2012

Target Sectors:


Activists

Energy, oil and gas companies

Heavy industry manufacturers

Intelligence agencies

Malware:


TeamViewer RAT

Keylogger and screen capture

Legitimate digital certificates

Dynamically Patched in memory to obfuscate application

Preferred Attack Vector:  Social Engineering and Exploits


Tailored Access Operations, 3 Minute Profile Part 1

TAO is comprised of four main divisions. The Data Network Technologies Branch develops the infiltration and collection software utilized by the TAO. The Telecommunications Network Technologies Branch curates infiltration techniques. The Mission Infrastructure Technologies Branch combines the spyware and techniques to use in campaigns and they develop and build the computer and telecommunications hardware. The Access Technologies Branch, which contains personnel seconded by the CIA and FBI, performs “off-net operations.” TAO is headed by U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the NSA.

Sunshine Group APT, 3 Minute Profile

Sunshine Group is a cyber criminal gang and is one of the first and largest malware as a service facilitators.

malwareasaservice

Axiom APT, 3 Minute Profile

Since 2009, this group has been targeting networks in a broad range of sectors who possess confidential or classified information. Axiom campaigns share infrastructure, malware, or attack techniques with Operation Aurora (2009), the Elderwood Project (2009-2014), the VOHO campaign (2012), the Shell_Crew attacks on ColdFusion servers (2013), Operation Ephemeral Hydra (2013), Operation Snowman (2014), and 2014 attacks on American Middle Eastern Policy think tanks. Axiom could be connected to some of these other groups; however, it is more likely that Axiom advantageously adopts zero-day exploits or malware that are effective in other campaigns. It is possible that Axiom acquires its malware on deepnet or through underground trade. The group is likely Chinese state sponsored, but there are no definitive links connecting it to the Third Department, which houses China’s offensive threat groups Putter Panda and APT1. Axiom malware was configured to use simplified Chinese language settings and some of the filenames are in Chinese. It is more sophisticated in its operations than the aforementioned Third Department groups.

apt17

Carbanak Hackers, 3 Minute Profile

The Carbanak group is one of the best criminal advanced persistent threat examples whose attacks against dozens (potentially hundreds) of global financial institutions resulted in an estimated $1 billion in losses in the first half of 2014. Depending on the victim, the attacks are believed to have begun between December 2013 and June 2014. According to Kaspersky Labs, each victim bank lost $2.5 million to $10 million to the campaign. The victim financial institutions were located in Russia, the United States, Germany, China and Ukraine; additionally, the group may also have begun targeting organizations in Malaysia, Nepal, and Kuwait. The vast majority of victims (at least 52) are located in Russia. Overall, the group targeted at least 100 financial organizations at 300 IP addresses located in approximately 30 countries. Of the ~100 organizations targeted, Kaspersky believes that at least half suffered financial loss. carbanak is Arguably the first financially motivated cyber-criminal APT.

Equation Group

Equation Group has globally targeted more than 500 victims in over 30 countries including Iran, Russia, Syria, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Somalia, Hong Kong, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Nigeria, Ecuador, Mexico, Malaysia, United States, Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, France, Germany, Singapore, Qatar, Pakistan, Yemen, Mali, Switzerland, Bangladesh, South Africa, Philippines, United Kingdom, India and Brazil.