Kaspersky Lab has discovered a new form of malware it calls Dark Tequila that has been targeting users in Mexico and stealing bank credentials and other personal and corporate data.

The malware can move laterally through a computer while it’s offline, says Dmitry Bestuzhev, head of Kaspersky Lab’s global research and analysis team for Latin America.

The malware is designed for infiltration of systems even when networks have limited access to the internet, he explains in an interview with Information Security Media Group. “There are two known infection vectors: email and USB devices,” Bestuzhev says.

While the malware apparently has been infecting computers in Mexico for about five years, it could potentially spread to other countries, Bestuzhev warns.

“This malware family is designed to be flexible, so today it’s targeting victims in Mexico, but tomorrow, if the threat actors want it, it can also be used in other countries,” he notes. “Since the structure is modular, it becomes like a malicious Lego to play with, which is fully operated and controlled by the bad guys.”

– Source: bankinfosecurity.com –

Hanoi, Vietnam, August 8th, 2018, the KeyPass U2F Token of MK Group Joint Stock Company has been certified by the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance as compliant with the FIDO U2F (Universal Second Factor) authentication standard.

MK Group Keypass U2F Token – the first Vietnamese Token security product earns FIDO certification

To be an official FIDO certified product, the MK Group’s KeyPass U2F Token has passed several tests to ensure compliance and meet FIDO Alliance’s rigorous security guidelines. In addition, MK Group must also commit to product stability, and compliance with the specifications approved by FIDO.

With MK Group’s KeyPass U2F Token, organizations and businesses will be more secure against the behavior of skimming, phishing and unauthorised access.

By diversified sophisticated tricks, online fraudsters create dummy links (i.e. phishing) that confuses users to steal all of the victim’s security data and attack them. This is always one of the problems of many businesses and organizations, especially banks, when cybercriminals often link the website of the bank to to fake website to trick customers into trading, in order to take control of client’s account and credit card information.

Thus, even though organizations guarantee to secure their computer systems in the most secure way, security experts can hardly control whether an employee or client is “accidentally duped” by unmanifest website or email. Once a security hole is formed, the damages that businesses and individuals experience are unmeasurable.

One of the organizations that has neutralized this problem is Google, with deployment of U2F security tokens for more than 85,000 employees. Google employees are required to use this device as a security lock for all computer logon activities. This solution has been successfully recognized by Google in against fraudulent attempts to target businesses for almost 2 years.

MK Group has completed the KeyPass U2F Token product, which is compliant to FIDO Alliance’s U2F standard, with an user-friendly interface for any organization or individual who wants to protect their data, social network or email.

Software installation is not required, users simply just have to register the use of “2-Step Verification” available on all FIDO U2F accepted home pages (Refer to https://www.dongleauth.info). Individual only has 3 steps to execute to implement the solution: login, press on the Token to verify the legitimate website and wait for the automatic login.

In the coming time, the R&D Center of MK Group will complete and apply the biometric sensor on the token to authenticate the user’s fingerprint before conducting authentication for any transaction.

According to Mr. Nguyen Trong Khang, Chairman of MK Group, “There are not many companies in the world able to do this. We are proud that MK Group is the only Vietnamese company that can self-study and provide “Made in Vietnam” security solutions that are globally competitive in quality and price by products like KeyPass U2F Token. With Smart Digital Secuirty orientation, MK Group is working hard to improve our security products and introduce to the market in the near future.”

About FIDO Alliance:
FIDO Alliance was established in 2013, based in California, US. The FIDO Alliance’s specifications and certifications enable a ecosystem of compatibel hardwares, mobiles and biometric applications based on validators that can be used with a variety of applications and websites. With this ecosystem, organizations and service providers can deploy powerful authentication solutions that reduce password dependency and get protected against phishing, skimming, and unauthorised access.

About MK Group:
MK Group was established in 1999 as a regional leader in digital security and smart card authentication solutions. With nearly 20 years of experience and continuous investment to improve quality of products and services, MK Group has successfully implemented and deployed a diversity of products of security authentication solutions and card issuance for governments, finance – banking sectors, businesses, telecommunications and transportation locally and globally.

(*) From Business Insider

Markets across Europe have made significant gains in the fight against card fraud, specifically in France and the UK, which achieved 6% and 8% reductions. Despite this, losses across the EMEA region grew by €30 million.

The threat of card not present (CNP) fraud continues to be a key battleground for banks and retailers, as we now see a global migration of fraudulent activities. In the UK, we have seen a continued growth in online card utilisation but reduction in the success of fraud perpetrated within the channel. This has forced the fraudsters to migrate their efforts to new markets, with Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Russia all seeing an escalation in losses.

Despite being the top country in this chart, the UK reduced basis points losses from 7.00 in 2016 to 5.9, driven by improvements across all areas of card fraud but specifically in CNP fraud, which shows signs of continued reduction in 2018. Similarly, France reduced its fraud basis points from 8.9 to 5.5.

Fraud basis points is a standard measure of card fraud severity, and can show how a bank or a country is doing relative to others. 8.9 basis points is equivalent to 8.9 cents per €100. It works the same in any currency and provides an indicator of the fraud-to-sales ratio.

The UK alone now accounts for 47% of the losses reported within this report; the UK, France and Russia account for 77%. Losses within Germany, Spain and Italy continue to hold at a static level but we are seeing a desire to replicate the loss reductions seen in other markets.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• – UK losses fell 8% due to success battling card not present fraud
• – Total card fraud losses across the 19 European countries studied grew by €30 million, or 2%
• – The UK, France and Russia account for 77% of card fraud losses in EMEA

– paymentscardsandmobile.com –

The number of mobile banking trojans peaked at a historic high of 61,045 in Q2 2018, a three-fold increase compared with Q1. In descending order, the top three countries for mobile user attacks were the United States, Russia and Poland.

These are just a few of the findings from the Q2 IT threat evolution report from Kaspersky Labs, according to a press release.

Mobile banking Trojans are designed to steal money directly from mobile users’ bank accounts. They’re typically disguised as a legitimate app to invite download by unsuspecting smartphone owners.

Once the banking app is launched, the Trojan displays its own interface overlaying the banking app’s interface. When the user inputs credentials, the malware steals the information.

Additional findings from the Kaspersky Lab report:

• Kaspersky Lab solutions detected and repelled 962,947,023 malicious online attacks in 187 countries (up 20% from Q1).
• 351,913,075 unique URLs were recognized as malicious by web antivirus components (up more than 24%).
• 215,762 user computers experienced attempted infections by malware that aims to steal money via online access to bank accounts (up 5%).
• Kaspersky Lab mobile security products detected 1,744,244 malicious installation packages (nearly 32% growth).

– Source: atmmarketplace.com –

The European Association for Secure Transactions has published its second European Fraud Update for 2018. The report is based on in-country crime statistics provided by representatives of 18 nations in the Single Euro Payments Area, and three non-SEPA nations, an EAST press release said.

Payment fraud

– Fifteen countries reported payment fraud issues.
– Seven countries reported card-not-present as a key fraud driver.
– Two countries reported attempted “forced post” fraud, which can occur on some POS terminals with force sale functionality.
– One country reported a new form of malware on android mobile phones, distributed through a fake application uploaded from third-party Android stores.
– One country reported cases of SIM swap fraud, in which fraudsters authorize a bank transfer by switching the customer’s mobile phone number over to a new SIM and intercepting the authorization message.

ATM malware and logical attacks

– Nine countries reported these types of attacks.
– Five of the nine countries reported ATM related malware. In addition to Cutlet Maker, representatives reported a new variant called WinPot, which is used to determine the number of bank notes in an ATM.
– Six countries reported the use of black box devices to enable unauthorized cash dispensing.

Card skimming at ATMs

– Fourteen countries reported card skimming at ATMs.
– Five countries reported skimming on terminals other than ATMs; in four of the five these attacks involved unattended fuel terminals.
– Six countries reported M3 card reader internal skimming devices.
– One country reported the use of M2 throat inlay skimming devices.
– One country reported the arrest of a Chinese national — a first — in connection with skimming attacks.

Physical attacks on ATMs

– Eight countries reported ram raids and ATM burglaries.
– Six countries reported explosive gas attacks.
– One country reported the first case of an explosive attack on an assisted teller service machine.
– One country reported its first incidences of explosive gas attacks.
– Five countries reported solid explosive attacks.

– atmmarketplace.com –