Tag Archives | attack

Volatile Cedar – A Cyber Espionage Operation by Lebanese Hackers

governmnet-cyber-espionage-conspiracy1

Check Point Software Technologies, an Israeli IT Security firm, reported a couple of days ago the unveiling of a cyber espionage campaign that hit more than 10 countries including Lebanon, Israel, USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Peru, and Turkey, and traced back to Lebanese hackers with possible ties to some active political group (hinting at Hezbollah).

The operation was called “Volatile Cedar”, and experts claimed it has been ongoing since 2012 with targets being carefully chosen and ranging from defense contractors to telecom and media companies. Attackers infiltrated these organizations by mainly compromising their web servers and planting malware on them, and then waiting for server administrators to simply plug in some USB devices which led to infecting other servers and workstations. Check Point however did not provide additional information about neither the affected organization nor the nature of data that has been stolen.

I personally found the news quite surprising because such big espionage operations are usually sponsored by governments, and we all know we don’t have a cyber bureau in charge of similar things here. So one cannot but admire Hezbollah for their capabilities if it was really them behind it, and at the same time feel worried about some big firms being infiltrated like banks and our two mobile operators!

If you’re interested in learning more about the Volatile Cedar operation, you can download this document by Check Point with a lot of interesting technical information about the used malware.

0

African Rhinoceros attacks minister Sehnaoui

Nicolas Sehnaoui

Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui was lucky enough to escape a Rhinoceros attack while he was on a hunting trip in Africa along with minister Marwan Kheireddine.

Caretaker State Minister Marwan Kheireddine saved caretaker Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui from a rhinoceros attack while they were in Africa, reported An Nahar daily Friday.

It said that as the ministers were on a hunting trip in Africa, Sehnaoui decided to rest by the rhinoceros, which he mistook for a rock.

The animal soon turned its attention to Sehnaoui and attempted to attack him.

The minister began to run away from the rhinoceros, while Kheireddine and their companions scared off the animal with their sticks. Source

I wonder what other cool hobbies do our ministers have!

0

Lebanese football referee gets attacked by players!

WTF!!

As if Lebanon needed more scandals and ugly incidents, this outrageous uncivilized act against a referee in a football match came to add salt to the wound. The referee did not give Al Nahda Club a penalty in the added time of the second half against Al Salam Zgharta, and the players went crazy chasing him all across the pitch. The video here doesn’t show more of the attack but it gives you an enough idea about what happened.

via Figo29

2

A new malware targets Lebanese Bank customers!

Kaspersky Labs recently discovered a new malware called “Gauss” with a module that aims to capture Lebanese bank accounts login credentials. And the targeted banks included Bank of Beirut, EBLF, Blom Bank, Byblos Bank, Fransabank, and Credit Libanais.

The article suggests the malware has been created by the US and Israeli governments and was not intended to steal money from client accounts, but rather to trace the source of funding to certain individuals (Hezbollah members I suppose).

The spyware, dubbed Gauss after a name found in one of its main files, also has a module that targets bank accounts in order to capture login credentials. The malware targets accounts at several banks in Lebanon, including the Bank of Beirut, EBLF, BlomBank, ByblosBank, FransaBank and Credit Libanais. It also targets customers of Citibank and PayPal.

The researchers don’t know if the attackers used the bank component in Gauss simply to spy on account transactions, or to steal money from targets. But given that the malware was almost certainly created by nation-state actors, its goal is likely not to steal for economic gain, but rather for counterintelligence purposes. Its aim, for instance, might be to monitor and trace the source of funding going to individuals or groups, or to sabotage political or other efforts by draining money from their accounts.

Still, that doesn’t seem like the only purpose for that malware, since the people at Kaspersky are still working to crack the larger part of its code and identify what is it responsible for.

Make sure to read the very interesting and worrying report from Wired.com here.

I know protecting your network from a nation-state-created malware is quite hard, but I hope Lebanese banks are now taking the necessary measures to protect themselves from such attacks and eventually safeguard our information.

 Thank you Ibrahim Lahoud

0

Video footage of money changer stabbed in Saida

Al-Jadeed TV showed this video footage of the crime that took place in Saida on Monday. A 22 years old Syrian guy killed Mohammad Natout by stabbing him in his money exchange shop and then escaped stealing $5,000 from the drawers. He was fortunately arrested by the security forces few hours while attempting the flee the country.

6

Future Movement demonstrators attacking the press

Via Now Lebanon

Shocking video coming in from news outlets today shows angry demonstrators in Tripoli attacking the press.

The first video shows rioters pushing against a news truck and attempting to tear down the satellite on top.

The video below it shows a vehicle (allegedly belonging to Al-Jazeera news) being set on fire.

Demonstrators also torched the mopeds of other media outlets, according to AFP.

1

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes