January Threat Intelligence Roundup Covers AirDrop Claims, Cryptojacking Arrest and Ransomware
Summary
A January roundup highlights claims about Chinese access to AirDrop metadata, a Ukrainian cryptojacking arrest, SMTP smuggling, rising DDoS attacks, Google account-session abuse, ransomware incidents and cybercrime enforcement.
Key points
- China claimed it could extract phone numbers, email addresses and other metadata from AirDrop device logs; the claim is attributed to Chinese authorities.
- A 29-year-old Ukrainian man was arrested over cryptojacking schemes that reportedly generated more than $2 million; authorities said the operation involved exploiting cloud services.
- SMTP smuggling exploits inconsistencies in how sending and receiving servers process email, potentially enabling domain spoofing and phishing.
- The roundup reports a 61,839% increase in DDoS attacks targeting the environmental services industry in 2023.
- A Google endpoint exploit reportedly enabled attackers to extract tokens and account IDs and regenerate authentication cookies, potentially retaining account access after password resets.
- An individual offered ransomware victims paid services to delete allegedly stolen data from Royal and Akira servers; the offer's claims are not independently verified in the article.
- The roundup also covers a ransomware attack affecting municipal services in Calvià and the supervised-release sentence of BreachForums founder Conor Brian Fitzpatrick.
Article Details
- Event Type
- January threat intelligence roundup covering multiple cybersecurity incidents, attack trends, law-enforcement actions, and security vulnerabilities.
- Impact
- Reported impacts included exposure of AirDrop users’ phone numbers, email addresses, and metadata; cryptojacking losses; spoofed phishing emails; increased DDoS disruption to environmental services; hijacked Google sessions that could persist after password resets; ransomware extortion affecting a municipal government; and criminal sales of personal data. The roundup also reported arrests and sentencing related to cybercrime.
People
Malware
AkiraAn actor claiming to be a security researcher has recently contacted several victims of ransomware gangs and offered revenge services against members of Royal and Akira ransomware.RoyalAn actor claiming to be a security researcher has recently contacted several victims of ransomware gangs and offered revenge services against members of Royal and Akira ransomware.