A kindergarten teacher from Indiana has been charged with multiple counts of child exploitation and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) following a cyber-tip. An investigation was launched into the online activities of 49-year-old Brian Lee Jakes in February after a tip was sent into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tipster said that Jakes had been using the messaging app Kik to share images of children being sexually assaulted. A search of Jakes’…

A new Linux botnet uses Tor through a network of proxies using the Socks5 protocol, abuses legitimate DevOps tools, and other emerging techniques. Researchers from Trend Micro have spotted a new Linux botnet employing multiple emerging techniques among cyber-criminals, including the use of Tor proxies, the abuse of legitimate DevOps tools, and the removal or deactivation of competing malware. Experts highlighted that this Linux botnet downloads all the files it needs from the Tor network, including legitimate binaries like…

The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Android Malware, RATs, Phishing, QLocker Ransomware and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity. Figure 1 – IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed. Trending Cyber…

Threat researchers at Armorblox have come across two new phishing scams targeting customers of JPMorgan Chase Bank.  Both attacks deployed social engineering and brand impersonation tactics in an attempt to steal customers’ login credentials. While one scam involved an email that appeared to contain a credit card statement, the other impersonated a locked account workflow to falsely inform victims that access to their account had been blocked following the detection of unusual login activity. Amorblox researchers said…

Security expert publishes coffee table book for cryptographers to explain the science of secrecy. Image: iStockphoto/ivanmollov What do the Bass0matic, blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs have in common? Each term shows up in Jean-Philippe Aumasson’s new publication: “Crypto Dictionary: 500 Cryptographic Tidbits for the Curious.” Aumasson is the chief security officer and cofounder of Taurus Group, a Swiss fintech company and the author of “Serious Cryptography: A Practical Introduction to Modern Encryption.”   Aumasson writes in the preface…