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Showing posts from July, 2025

Week 10: Spear Finishing in Turkey with LNK Files

  Phishing has taken on a new dimension in the last few years: using LNK files (Microsoft specific files that can provide a shortcut from one file to another). The purpose of these files is specifically to open PowerShell and run a command to download more malware from an online server. The group Patchwork has been associated with the recent LNK spear phishing attacks against defense contractors in Turkey specifically. Since 2009 the malware group has been suspected of associating with the State of India making them a formattable threat. References: https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/rise-of-lnk-shortcut-files-malware/ https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/rise-of-lnk-shortcut-files-malware/

Week 9: Massistant Tool Allows Secret Extraction from Mobile Devices

 This is a slightly concerning tool that has been made pubic by Lookout and reported on by the Hacker News. The tool Massistant, developed by Chinese company Meiya Pico allows for law enforcement (or anyone who gets their hands on it) to extract photos, sms messages, and GPS data from mobile devices. The assumption is that the tool will be primarily used at border crossings, allowing LE to compromised the device and extract data with out the knowledge of the mobile owner. Maybe most suprising is that Meiya Pico claims Massistant has the ability to collect data from E2E (end to end) encryption apps like Telegram and Signal. References: https://thehackernews.com/2025/07/chinas-massistant-tool-secretly.html

Week 8: Chrome and Edge browser extensions turn trojan, harm millions

Eighteen browser extensions for Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Edge have been identified as malicious trojan horse  type viruses harming an estimated 2.3 million users. For reference, a trojan virus takes its name from the Greek myth involving the trojan war in which a large wooden horse was presented as a gift to the city of Troy. When the Trojans accepted the gift past their large walls, enemy soldiers jumped out. In our case today a trojan virus is a piece of software which presents as something beneficial to the user but later reviles itself to be malicious. Specifically the extension Colour Picker Tool--Geco was verified by Google and had over 800 rating in the store with an average rating of 4.2 (an impressive piece of malware). Researcher of the malware stated, "[t]his is a carefully crafted Trojan horse that delivers exactly what is promises...while simultaneously hijacking your browser , tracking every website you visit, and maintaining a persistent command and c...

Week 7: Google Begins Using Quantum Encryption

 The Hacker News reported, in February, that Google's cloud service Key Management Systems  would begin using quantum encryption for its digital signature. This is the future of a technological process we have been studying this week, digital encryption. A long standing problem in not just cyber work but communication in general. It is often pointed to Roman times that encryption first came about. A code called the "Caesar Cypher" was nothing more than a means of shifting the alphabet--the exact shift would be called the key . Today we use modern standard of encryption for most of our digital communication such as AES-256 and RSA. These methods utilize large prime number multiplication and remainder math to create a key which is virtually impossible to crack with a classic computer. However, the advancement of mathematical equations (specifically Shor's algorithm) and quantum computing have lead to the research of "post quantum encryption" PQE. This is what ...