Verified Twitter users flooded with scam messages / Dropbox announces breach / U.S. gov. says ransomware attacks cost $2.1B in damages in 2021

Plus: Vodafone Italy has been hacked

Inside.com Part of   Network November 02, 2022

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Verified Twitter users have been getting flooded with scam messages ever since Elon Musk acquired the company, according to reports. Hackers are sending phishing links that lead users to click a fake link to verify their identity. More: A verified Twitter user posted a screenshot where he claims a threat actor tried to convince him that clicking on a specific link would avoid having his verification status taken from him.  This hacking campaign is likely to be boosted by a recent idea that Elon Musk proposed to have verified users pay $8 for different privileges, including their badge. According to Musk, the implementation of this step will reduce the number of bots on the platform, an issue that Twitter has struggled with in recent years. This issue became the main negotiating point between Elon Musk and Twitter during the acquisition talks. Musk claimed that the company was downplaying the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform, while Twitter claimed these accounts were less than 5% of the total user base. Other users have posted screenshots of messages that claim their account has been tagged as a fake account and that they need to click a link to re-activate it.

Dropbox has announced that hackers have breached over 100 code repositories that the company uses in GitHub. The company claims no personal user data was stolen during this breach. More: The threat actor used phishing as a vector of attack.  Dropbox announced that the hacking campaign didn't manage to steal personal information such as passwords, usernames, emails, etc.  According to the company, hackers likely attempted to steal Multi-factor authentication codes. The threat actor managed to successfully send emails to Dropbox employees and convince them to log in with their credentials. This led to their emails and names being leaked, along with the details of a few previous employees.

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According to the U.S. Treasury Department, ransomware attacks in 2021 cost $2.1B in damages, a 200% YoY increase. Four of the top five most used attacking tools were tied to Russian threat actors. More: The new statistic was published as a report soon after a two-day cybersecurity summit held in Washington concluded. The summit, hosted by President Biden, aimed to bring forward several important topics that currently affect both public and private institutions from dozens of different countries. This reported figure may be a result of banks improving their technology and intercepting more hacking campaigns, in addition to new laws that now oblige U.S. companies to report cyberattacks within a specific timeframe. Besides the positive steps, the report also highlights several vulnerabilities that the U.S. still faces when it comes to cyberattacks. One of them is the fact that current laws do not oblige foreign companies to report their ransom payments, leaving a large part of ransom payments to go untracked.

Vodafone Italy has announced that it has been hacked. The announcement has been made by the company itself, sending its affected customers warning text messages. More: The threat actor responsible for the breach is believed to be Kelvin Security. The hacker group did not manage to steal any account passwords, but the event may be tied to a data leak the hacker group claimed to have made last month. Kelvin Security posted around 310GB or 300,000 files worth of data, but Vodafone Group announced quickly after that it had not found any proof that this data belonged to the company. The company has warned its customers to be careful and report any suspicious links that are sent to them. Vodafone claims that the number of phishing hacking campaigns is likely to increase, hence the public announcement. Zoom Out: This is not the first time that this hacker group has attempted to sell data. In June 2020, the group leaked the data of Frost & Sullivan, choosing to leak it on hacking forums, similar to the current case where the group has chosen to publish its files on Telegram.

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Binary Defense Systems has raised a $36M funding round to expand its Security-as-a-Service platform. The company aims to differentiate itself by offering its cybersecurity team as an extension of its clients' cybersecurity division. More: Binary Defense Systems offers services that help companies carry out threat hunting, digital risk protection, attack surface management, and incident response. BDS works with businesses ranging from SMEs to large companies. The company aims to make use of the momentum in the cybersecurity industry, which has received a boost due to the increasing number of hacking campaigns against organizations this year. According to estimates, the Managed Detection and Response sector is to grow 20% YoY and reach $2.15B in revenue. Invictus Growth Partners led the funding round.  The company is based in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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