How Online Learning May Have Opened the Door for Ransomware in Higher Ed PYSA ransomware, a variant of Mespinoza ransomware, has been actively targeting the education sector in the past months. According to the FBI, ransomware, malware and DDoS attacks … Read More
Illicit markets insider
F.B.I. Reveals 70% Year-Over-Year Increase in Reported Cybercrime
F.B.I. Reveals 70% Year-Over-Year Increase in Reported Cybercrime The F.B.I. has just published its latest report on cybercrime complaints it received in 2020. The picture drawn should raise concerns for most CISOs, and unfortunately raises even more questions than providing … Read More
Renting A Canadian Bot for Less than the Price of Dinner for Two
Renting A Canadian Bot for Less than the Price of Dinner for Two A botnet is a network of computers infected with malware that allows a malicious actor – the botmaster – to control them remotely. The infected computers – … Read More
How Long Have You Thought about Backup Management this Month?
How Long Have You Thought about Backup Management this Month? We all know we should have backups. It’s not a task we particularly love doing, and it is definitely something that we forget to do unless automated. How many people … Read More
The Criminal Underground: the Last Refuge of Banner Ads
The Criminal Underground: the Last Refuge of Banner Ads In the 2000s, banner ads became popular notably through Google. The search engine has enabled marketers to reach a vast audience through a standard visual message that fit on any web … Read More
The Mirage of Encrypted Phones, and Why They Fail
The Mirage of Encrypted Phones, and Why They Fail In June 2014, the company Silent Circle launched the first version of its Blackphone. This device, running a modified version of Android, promised to reign in difficult to understand privacy and … Read More
5 Dark Web Questions Security Professionals Need Answered
5 Dark Web Questions Security Professionals Need Answered We recently participated in Datavore conference where we reflected on our 9 years of experience in collecting intelligence on the dark web and monitoring malicious actors. Over the years, the tools, strategies … Read More
Genesis Market Impact on Canadian Economy Infographic
Genesis Market Impact on Canadian Economy Botnet Sales in Canada in 2021 Genesis Market Launched in 2018, GM is a paid, private illicit market, though registration codes can sometimes be obtained for free. The site repackages and resells infected computers … Read More
The Threat of Synthetic Identity Fraud for Businesses and Consumers
The Threat of Synthetic Identity Fraud for Businesses and Consumers Financial crimes have increased during the pandemic, with nearly 60% of companies reporting synthetic identity fraud attacks and account takeover in 2020. The Federal Reserve warns this is one of … Read More
The Ins and Outs of Illicit Chat Rooms
The Ins and Outs of Illicit Chat Rooms Over the past decade, the dark web has attracted much of the attention in the security field as the premier source of threats for companies. Our years of monitoring the dark web … Read More