Monday, July 30th 2018
Snail Mail Malware: Chinese Hackers Go Old School
In today's world, data breaches, phishing attacks, malware, and exploits are a daily occurrence. We are all familiar with the typical phishing emails that grace our inbox day in day out. You might even get a phone call from a fake Microsoft tech support employee, who attempts to gain access to your system. However, in our always-online world, it is a bit surprising to hear about hackers that would decide to use snail mail. In what will likely elicit a few giggles, U.S. state and local government agencies, along with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) have issued an alert, in what I can only describe as an attack from the stone age; malware infested CDs.
While no state was directly named in the alert, State Archives, State Historical Societies, and a State Department of Cultural Affairs were all targeted in this unsophisticated attack. The agencies in question received Chinese postmarked envelopes containing a poorly translated letter and an unlabeled CD. The CDs were loaded with Microsoft Word document files embedded with malicious Visual Basic scripts. There is no word on if anyone was tricked by this attempt, however, it does go to show you can't keep a good hacker down. If they can't get you via phishing emails, they might just as well try snail mail.
Source:
KrebsOnSecurity
28 Comments on Snail Mail Malware: Chinese Hackers Go Old School
Seriously is that what happens when hackers is knocked back to the stone age. Sending cd/dvd-rom in a time where these things are used less and less by the time there go and many pc are sold with out and a dvd drive.
How stupid can hackers be:banghead:
I say let's make our own and label them windows 11 beta and send them back.
What's with this hate over the Optical media??
(I still own one, and the tape-deck might even work...it did 14 years ago)
What a world we live in. :rolleyes:
I was gonna mention how it almost makes sense to use optical media almost makes sense if your target is older, computer-naive users, likely with old machines that would still have optical drives... ...but then I saw the gibberish note included and I can't help but wonder what they're even going for at all, much like how I feel when I see that same gibberish in comments and emails.
And then, I read... ...microsoft word files loaded with visual BASIC MALWARE?!! Wat. That's a lot for me. It's just... I don't even know what it is. How do you even know enough to think to do that and still think it will work? Or is it one of those things where this is new information to whatever group is doing this? Like they are just so out of the loop they legitimately think this stuff is relevant and viable... ...for fooling government agencies no less.
Sometimes I think everything... ...the scam, the plan, EVERYTHING, is handled by AI's ran out of shacks dotted across the less civilized, more culturally isolated areas of the world. Like, cracked concrete shacks overgrown with vines with a dirt road leading up from the main road of some lost, old villiage in east asia. Inside is a rather impressive, if not dilapidated and post-apocalyptic cyberpunk server room - full of crossed, mildewed wires - running AI's that plan and execute various forms of meandering, nonsensical scams and compile obscure malware to release into the wilds of the net... ...and occasionally sometimes do things like initiate a cd malware mailer operation. I dunno, makes about as much sense as anything. It's hard to believe that humans, with brains just like yours and mine, come up with this stuff. It really does remind me of AI's. They only seem to comprehend - sometimes better than humans, even, but every now and then they do things that are admirably elaborate, and yet laughably nonsensical.
Naw... ...but its probably either a bunch of clueless adults meandering through their sad lives or a child prodigy super-hacker in the making.
Realizing that just saves you a lot of mental anguish in the long run. People are strange. Weird things happen all over the place. For every weird thing like this you encounter, there are 10 other weirder things occurring at the same time. There's always a reasonable explanation. Goddamned if you ever find it. And sometimes things that initially appear simple and easy to understand are less so over time.
For PC, this is my second case without a bay for a cup holder.
He did okay I guess, but he missed a little and got pee in the optical drive. From then on it made for a great cupholder, as it never closed. Try to close it and it popped right open again. At least of all of the things he could have ruined, he got the optical drive.
I tried really, really hard not to be mad. Tried. He may have cleaned it, but I never truly forgave him for that one. I still had to swap the case on principle of not wanting to touch a case that's been peed on. And from then on, any time he got up to go to the bathroom, I gave him directions.
But I guess the real lesson is that if you're having problems with your build's retractable cupholder retracting at inopportune times, try peeing on it. Seems to work. YMMV. Also has the benefit of protecting your system from all of the latest malware CD's. Any time you try to insert one, the drive will automatically pop it back out.
Dunno how this is relevant but there it is.
Stop being so sad man. Its a simple fact that optical media are past their due date. For over a decade, just about. If that gets your panties in a bunch, you need to get help.