Twitter Accounts Hacked for Bitcoin by a Fake Elon Musk

bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Cyber Security, Elon Musk, Hackers, Hacking, Security, Twitter hack, , , ,
27
Nov 2018

Bitcoin remains a lucrative cryptocurrency and hackers are keen to cash in on it. And they’ve now scammed $180k in one day through hacking Twitter accounts.

With around 336 million active users, Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites and has attracted a number of authority figures in almost every niche you can think of. As a result, it’s fair to say that if your organization isn’t on Twitter then it needs to be on Twitter. It’s a fantastic marketing tool that can be used to engage customers, promote products and deliver instant marketing all over the world. However, it’s this level of interest in Twitter and the trust which users invest in official accounts that makes it susceptible to hackers.

Due to a recent hack of several major Twitter accounts, with large numbers of followers, hackers managed to deceive these followers by impersonating Elon Musk and requesting Bitcoin. Unbelievably, this approach was successful and the hackers managed to obtain around 28 Bitcoins valued at roughly $180,000. And this is all thanks to hacking successful Twitter accounts. As it’s likely that you run a Twitter account to support your business, we’re going to take a look at what happened and how you can protect your Twitter account.

What Did This Fake Elon Musk Do?

Elon Musk needs little introduction due to his fame which has been generated by co-founding PayPal and designing Tesla’s electric car range. Known as a man who can make money happen, he recently appeared on several major Twitter accounts such as Pantheon Books and UK clothing range Matalan. However, this wasn’t the real Elon Musk as these official Twitter accounts (complete with blue ticks) had simply had their user name changed and their profile picture replaced with a picture of Musk. These hacked accounts then promised that, as part of a Bitcoin giveaway, he would exchange a substantial amount of Bitcoin for a verification payment of anything from 0.1 to 3 Bitcoins.

The hackers were clever enough to even hack other Twitter accounts such as the National Disaster Management Authority of India and use these to send out fake ‘verification’ tweets that they had received multiple Bitcoins in exchange. Despite sounding too good to be true and requiring very little investigative work to discover that something wasn’t quite right, 392 transactions took place in just one day and allowed the hackers to make a small fortune very quickly. Although this behavior clearly violated Twitter’s guidelines, the anonymous nature of Bitcoin transactions means that there was relatively little risk for the hackers.

Protecting Your Twitter Account

It’s not known how the hackers behind the Elon Musk scam managed to breach so many official Twitter accounts, but it’s important that you ensure your Twitter account is secured. To help protect your organization’s Twitter account make sure you practice the following:

  • Keep your password secure through regular changes, long passwords and combination passwords
  • Twitter allows you to use two-factor authentication so that access is only granted to your account when a randomly generated code sent to a mobile device is entered
  • Try not to install third-party Twitter apps which request access to your Twitter account as it’s very difficult to monitor what they do with your data

If you can regularly follow these three steps then you’re going to significantly reduce the chances of losing control of your Twitter. And, remember, even if the hackers aren’t using your account to demand Bitcoin, losing control of your Twitter account, which is a crucial communication channel in modern business, could still be disastrous for your reputation and revenue.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Infected Websites Are Mining Cryptocurrency

bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Hacking, Security, Security Threats, , ,
06
Apr 2018

Hackers are now infecting websites in order to take control of your PC’s processor and help power the resource heavy activity of cryptocurrency mining.

Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have been generating countless headlines in the last year due to the huge values being attributed to them in the financial world. Now, despite cryptocurrencies being purely digital, they still need to be mined to help produce new coins. Naturally, this isn’t a simple task or, otherwise, everyone would be doing it and making millions. Instead, you need plenty of time and even more computing power to carry out the mining process.

For a hacker, of course, harnessing such huge amounts of computing power isn’t exactly rocket science, so it’s no surprise that this is their latest enterprise. And, to make this task a little easier, they’ve started infecting websites to help steal your processing power and power their cryptocurrency mining.

Mining for Cryptocurrency

While leaching off the CPU of innocent users to facilitate cryptocurrency mining is nothing new, the use of websites to help capture this valuable resource is a new one on security experts. And the manner in which it’s being done is ridiculously simple.

Hackers are setting up malicious adverts on websites that run a JavaScript file directly in the browser whenever that site is opened. There’s no need for the hacker to have direct access to the victim’s PC, everything takes place in the victim’s browser. And, if the victim has JavaScript enabled, then the malicious code will automate and hand over a significant amount of their processor power to the hacker’s mining activities.

There are certainly more sensitive hacks – such as those which exploit or encrypt your data – but the real bugbear of having your CPU taken advantage of is the impact it has on your computer’s performance. Mining cryptocurrency requires significant processing power to power through the labor intensive tasks involved, so this drain on resources is going to cause your system to grind to a halt.

Is a Website Hacking Your Processor?

Organizations, in particular, do not want to see their productivity affected by a slowdown in performance, so it’s crucial that you understand the warning signs of these infected sites. If the internet is in use and your system starts slowing down then you should check the performance of your CPU by:

  • Right clicking the taskbar on your PC and selecting Task Manager. This will allow you to access the Performance tab where you can see which resources are taking up your processor’s usage.

If opening a webpage is causing your PC’s performance to rocket, then there’s a chance that this could be down to an infected webpage. The simplest way to deduce this is by closing individual webpages and monitoring the effect within your Performance tab in Task Manager.

Final Thoughts

These infected websites are not going to cause major damage to your organization, but they are going to put a drain on your resources. Understanding that any potential reductions in processor speed could be caused by this new method of hacking is vital to stay on top of your digital security.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Petya Cyber Attack Goes Global with Ransomware

Cyber Attack, Petya, Ransomware, Security, , , ,
05
Sep 2017

2017_Petya_cyberattack_screenshot

A major cyber attack has swept across the globe and, once again, it’s taken the form of ransomware to shut down computers and demand Bitcoin ransoms.

Known as Petya – the Russian word for stone – has managed to halt operations at a chocolate factory in Australia and even one of Russia’s biggest oil companies, so the scale and sophistication of its attack is clear to see. Following the recent WannaCry ransomware attack, Petya has made headlines in a security landscape where safety appears to be far from guaranteed.

As this is such a widespread attack – and the fact that new ransomware attacks are appearing weekly – it seems like the perfect time to look at Petya and reinforce what you can do to protect yourself.

The Story behind Petya

Although it’s difficult to confirm, it’s believed that the Petya attack originated in the Ukraine. Reports suggest that the ransomware was spread through the update server for MeDoc which is a popular brand of Ukrainian accounting software. Consumers believed they were simply downloading a new update for their software, but it was actually a powerful slice of malware which then spread like wildfire.

Petya.Random

This latest variant of Petya, however, is even more powerful than its original incarnation. It’s believed that Petya now comes loaded with a tool named LSADump which harvests data and passwords from all the PCs located on that network. Petya also appears to be encrypting every single file on the infected PCs through the master boot record – this helps your PC boot up Windows at startup.

Most disturbingly, though, it’s being reported that Petya may not even be ransomware and may, instead, simply wipe everything from a PC with no chance of recovery. While the thought of having to pay a small ransom to retrieve data is troubling enough, the idea that your data may never be retrieved brings a whole new level of concern to Petya.

Defending Against Petya

Regardless of whether Petya encrypts or destroys files, it remains a highly sophisticated strain of malware that no PC user wants to find on their system. Kaspersky and Symantec have assured consumers that their anti-virus software will actively identify and protect against Petya, but for many users this may be too late.

cyber-security-2296269_960_720

Unfortunately, despite the spate of attacks taking advantage of Windows vulnerabilities, many PC users are still incredibly lax when it comes to installing security updates and patches. The main reason for this procrastination is an issue of time, but what’s five to ten minutes of installing updates and rebooting compared to having all the files on your entire network encrypted or even deleted?

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Protect Your Data from Being Taken Hostage

Network, Security, ,
14
Nov 2014

Locked_Computer

Cryptowall can bring your business to a screeching halt. Here is how you can protect yourself against what’s becoming the most malicious malware of 2014.

You don’t need to end up in trouble.  We’ve outlined some very important guidelines on what to do to avoid an attack like Cryptowall and Cryptodefense:

  • Scan any email attachments that land on your email account– especially PDF attachments, which can be disguised as either payments, invoices, receipts, complaints and so forth. This is generally how this Trojan enters the system.
  • Avoid clicking on any advertisements– not only does this attack happen through attachments, they have also been identified through infected banners on different web pages. Avoid clicking on them at all costs!
  • Avoid mapping drives directly to servers– For any person with administrator rights, if you’re working from your computer, aim to use remote access tools as needed. This will help reduce risk to the servers directly.
  • Lock down admin users– assign user accounts by name, so that if an attack happened, the user’s account can be frozen to avoid its credentials being for further used for unauthorized installations.
  • Verify Backups– a backup is only good if it’s one that can be restored. Test your backups regularly.
  • Off-site or offline backups– having these will reduce the chances of suffering from a single point of failure due to such an attack. Please note that mapping Dropbox on your computer can still make it subject to this attack.
  • Whitelisting approved software– you can find tools and systems that can help you with these. You can specify what can run on any system on the network.
  • Utilize Windows Group or Local Policy Editor – Software Restriction Policies can be created to stop executable files from running on any given path.
  • Have a Bitcoin account set up in case nothing else works. Being prepared can help you save time.

Here’s what you can do if you find yourself compromised:

Like they say, prevention is better than a cure.

For more ways to protect yourself and your business from malicious attacks, contact your local IT professionals.

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Onsite PC Solution Detect Bitcoin Mining Software
Onsite PC Solution Detect Bitcoin Mining Software

How to Detect Bitcoin Malware on your PC

Security, Software, Uncategorized, , ,
17
Jul 2014

Onsite PC Solution Detect Bitcoin Mining Software

Does your computer seem to running much slower than usual? If so, someone may be using your computer’s processing power to mine bitcoins.

This is precisely what bitcoin mining viruses do, yet many of them can be detected with antivirus programs. Malwarebytes is highly recommended for this purpose. Whether your antivirus program is Malwarebytes which we recommend or something else, running a scan every so often will allay infection concerns.

Another way to detect bitcoin malware is by looking at the processes running on your PC. In Windows, hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys while pressing Delete. This will give you the following menu:

Starting-Windows-Task-Manager-CTRL-ALT-DEL

Select Start Task Manager from the list of options.

windows-task-manager

In the Task Manager, select the Processes tab as shown above. Check for any that have unfamiliar names, use a lot of memory or a high percentage of the CPU. You can sort the list by memory and CPU usage by clicking the CPU and Mem Usage  column bars at the top. Look up any process with an unfamiliar name on Google.

If the Google search reveals the name to belong to a rogue process, here’s how to remove it from your system.

In addition to being detected by antivirus scanners and causing your PC to use too much of its resources, bitcoin mining viruses can possibly make your computers use more electricity.

All managed services clients are automatically protected against processes that use too much CPU, including bitcoin malware.  Although bitcoin mining software on your PC isn’t likely to damage your files, you should always be running a backup to keep your files protected from catastrophic data loss.

For more information, consult your local IT professional.

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