Week 03: Reconnaisance
Reconnaissance – How cybercriminals are exploiting US unemployment benefits to make money
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-cybercriminals-are-exploiting-us-unemployment-benefits-to-make-money/?ftag=CMG-01-10aaa1b
Thinking of this, these scammers are leveraged the current coronavirus pandemic and have paid close attention the many means and avenues through which the governments and businesses and even individuals are trying to provide support during this period. These scammers have some part of information, taken them and used what the know to build up to find the loopholes or vulnerabilities that are exploitable. This is cybercriminals carrying out Reconnaissance.
Cybercriminals have been capitalizing on virtually every aspect of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown. They’ve created malware designed to tap into the medical, financial, social, and even psychological repercussions of the outbreak. To help people and businesses affected financially, the government has been offering loans, stimulus packages, and increased unemployment benefits. And, of course, all of that represents another area to be manipulated by scammers.
Cybercrime forums on the Dark Web have been populated with conversations on unemployment benefits. IntSights researcher Yoav Harpaz Cohen said he found discussions around the benefits themselves, the regulations from each state, and the steps required to claim the benefits, according to the report.
One discussion thread discovered by Cohen centered around the various pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits offered, detailing the minimum and maximum payouts available from each state and offering links to file a claim. Another thread revealed conversations among people looking to work together to collect the benefits by using different drops or mules. Such mules are recruited to launder the money.
Reconnaissance Presentation
Reconnaisance
Reconnaissance is the first step of the penetration testing. There are two ways to perform reconnaissance: Passive and Active.
Passive reconnaissance is finding out information about the target within engaging with their network and finding available information about the target from that are available online or to public (Rouse, 2012). Active reconnaissance is finding out information about the target by engaging with its network.
Passive reconnaissance can be perform to find out information such as their email address, their system information using whois or Arin or any other different tools. Google hacking technique can be also used to find out information about the company. Active reconnaissance ca be performed using Nmap. Nmap can be used to find out about the open ports within their network.
References:
Rouse, M. 2012. Passive reconnaissance. Retrieved from: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/passive-reconnaissance#:~:text=Passive%20reconnaissance%20is%20an%20attempt,determine%20find%20any%20open%20ports.
Anglicare Sydney being held to ransom over sensitive data stolen from computer system
Anglicare Sydney is a community service organization that provides foster care and adoption services. As of Yesterday (Sept 20, 2020) Anglicare has confirmed that their sensitive data has been held for ransom. The ongoing investigation reported that 17 Gigabytes worth of sensitive data has been transmitted to a remote location. At this time Anglicare refuses to pay the ransom. Anglicare’s spokesperson hinted that the organization does not want to engage with cyber criminals. People receiving government services were entitled to have their personal identification protected.
Anglicare has to eventually make a decision about resolving this issue. The integrity and security of the stolen data is detrimental. Many children could be at risk.