Digital world

  In 2023, ransomware hackers made more money than ever before. They earned $1.1 billion, setting a new record. This is a big increase from the $567 million they got in 2022.  Chainalysis , a company that watches blockchain activities, shared this information. The rise in earnings comes after a year when the money from ransomware dropped. But in 2023, things changed. More hackers joined in, and some big attacks brought in a lot of money. One hacking group, CL0P, made over $100 million by finding a way to break into a file-transfer service called MOVEit. This service is used by many businesses and governments. CL0P's attack on MOVEit made it the top ransomware for a while. More people are trying ransomware because it can be very profitable. For instance, a group called Phobos lets other hackers use its ransomware. This makes it easier for more attacks to happen, even by those who are not very skilled. Ransomware-as-a-service gangs, like LockBit and ALPHV, have made ransomware a...

  Telegram is a popular messaging app that has over one billion downloads and 700 million monthly users. However, this popular app is quite known for its selling and buying of phishing kits that scam users and sell their harmful wares. A cybersecurity startup, Guardio, published  a report  that sheds light on some phishing tools on Telegram. It was revealed that there are some harmful kits available on Telegram that can easily hack users’ social media and bank accounts logins. Guardia said that Telegram is a scammer’s heaven due to easy access and cheap prices of many phishing tools. There are also many phishing groups on Telegram where different scammers share data with other scammers and use phishing tools for hacking and phishing. For a few years, Telegram has become a home to many seasonal scammers and newcomers who sell malicious tools to steal the data of people. Some of the expensive phishing tools on Telegram also let the scammers create fake pages that easily byp...

  It appears that tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s war against advertisers across X might be taking a new turn with some unintended consequences. Think along the lines of users complaining about the website being bombarded with poor-standard ads including those marketing questionable Crypto Services, Phishing and Malware Scams and ‘ Undressing Apps ’ through AI. Today, a team member of DIW discovered a shady ad in the home feed that leads to an obvious phishing site. Despite the ad/post being reported through X tools, as it clearly violated the platform's guidelines, it is still live. Unfortunately, there's no quick/easy way of alerting X that a post poses a security threat to its users, as there's no distinct reporting category for phishing or cybersecurity issues. DIW reached out to Twitter for a comment but has not received any reply. On the other hand, social media users and researchers have their say on this front including how the quality of such paid promotions across X...

  Seeing scammers and imposters arise on social media is now a norm in the online world. But you’d expect tech giants like Meta to do more to help safeguard its users online by getting rid of fake profiles. However, the reality seems to be far from that as many noticed the number of fake profiles surging across the Instagram app. In the past year, we’ve seen the issue go from bad to worse and the app’s parent firm is really falling behind in terms of finding a solution to the matter, despite there being many signs that a certain profile is making use of another’s identity or image. An investigation was also carried out by tech media outlet  Bleeping Computer  on this front and they noticed how a large number of reports were filed against such scam accounts featuring fake IDs and they were impersonating internet personalities or other public figures but ended up getting dismissed by the admin. Clearly, it’s a huge issue and no appeal made a difference, not to mention how t...

  Countless security protocols have been put into place in order to stave off potential cyberattacks, but in spite of the fact that this is the case hackers, malicious actors and cybercriminals only keep upping the ante. This has resulted in a cyber arms race, with cybersecurity professionals often playing catchup with the aforementioned malicious actors once all has been said and is now out of the way. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that a brand new hacking tool has just been noted which might topple the current cybersecurity infrastructure that so many rely on to keep themselves safe online. This tool is called EvilProxy, and it can potentially steal authentication tokens used for MFA on websites with all things having been considered and taken into account. The most concerning thing about this hacking tool is how easy it is to use because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up turning inexperien...