Thursday, October 21, 2021

g-f(2)587 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (10/21/2021), WSJ, Ransomware Gang Masquerades as Real Company to Recruit Tech Talent


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"g-f" fishing of golden knowledge (GK) of the fabulous treasure of the digital age, Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity (10/21/2021)  g-f(2)426 


ALERT, WSJ 


    • A criminal organization believed to have built the software that shut down a U.S. fuel pipeline has set up a fake company to recruit potential employees, according to researchers at the intelligence firm Recorded Future and Microsoft Corp.
    • The fake company is using the name Bastion Secure, according to the researchers. On a professional-looking website, the company says it sells cybersecurity services. But the site’s operator is a well-known hacking group called Fin7, Recorded Future and Microsoft say.


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      References


      Ransomware Gang Masquerades as Real Company to Recruit Tech Talent, Robert McMillan, October 21, 2021, The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.



      Extra-condensed knowledge


      Lessons learned, WSJ 


      • The attempt to impersonate a legitimate company for recruiting purposes represents a new development by purveyors of ransomware to grow and spread a scourge that has disrupted meat production, hospital care, education and hundreds of businesses. With hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal earnings, ransomware operators are increasingly operating like criminal startups with professionalized support staff, software development, cloud-computing services and media relations, security researchers say.


      Condensed knowledge




      Lessons learned, WSJ 


      • Fin7 has hacked thousands of computer systems and for years focused on stealing and selling credit-card information. The 70-person group caused more than $3 billion in damages to companies and individuals, federal prosecutors say.
      • The group has recently shifted from stealing card information to ransomware, and it now manages a ransomware service and conducts intrusions to deploy the file-encrypting software, said Nick Carr, a security analyst at Microsoft, while speaking at the Mandiant conference.
      • Bastion Secure isn’t the first fake company Fin7 has used to recruit employees. In August 2015 it used another fake cybersecurity company called Combi Security to recruit a Ukrainian man named Fedir Hladyr as a systems administrator, according to federal prosecutors.
      • With Bastion Secure, the company made offers to prospective recruits, the researchers say. The Microsoft researchers were able to find a copy of an employment agreement from Bastion Secure sent to a potential employee. “If you actually work there, you’re not supposed to talk about it at speeches or media events,” Mr. Carr said.
      • It didn’t take long for one potential recruit—applying for an information-technology job—to spot red flags, said Mr. Barysevich, the researcher at Recorded Future whose firm said it spoke with the potential recruit. 
      • Much of the text on the Bastion Secure website appears to have been lifted word-for-word from a legitimate U.K.-based cybersecurity company, Convergent Network Solutions Ltd, researchers say. A spokesman for Convergent said the company is treating the Bastion Secure site as a “malicious website” and is taking steps to get it removed, he said.


      Some relevant characteristics of this "genioux fact"

      • Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age
      • [genioux fact deduced or extracted from WSJ]
      • This is a “genioux fact fast solution.”
      • Tag Opportunities those travelling at high speed on GKPath
      • Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Analyzed Knowledge (EAK).
      • Type of validity of the "genioux fact". 

        • Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts.


      References


      “genioux facts”: The online programme on MASTERING “THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE”, g-f(2)587, Fernando Machuca, October 21, 2021, blog.geniouxfacts.com, geniouxfacts.com, Genioux.com Corporation.


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