Blog | Cyber Attacks & Digital Risks

We’re Moving! – Websites, That Is

December 15, 2022 | 1 Min Read

We’re excited to announce the next phase of joining our new teammates at ReliaQuest: we’re moving websites! All the threat-intelligence...

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APT Spotlight Series: Sandworm

December 8, 2022 | 4 Min Read

This blog is the latest in our series taking a deeper dive into advanced persistent threat (APT) groups. Throughout this...

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Vulnerability Intelligence Roundup: Five lessons learned since Log4Shell

November 29, 2022 | 4 Min Read

As the holiday season approaches, my family has a tradition of watching all of our favorite holiday movies—my favorite being...

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Keeping one step ahead of Black Friday cyber threats

November 16, 2022 | 5 Min Read

The tail end of the calendar year represents arguably the most important period for retailers and companies working in e-commerce,...

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Dark Web Recruitment: Malware, Phishing, and Carding

November 10, 2022 | 12 Min Read

In our first blog in this series, we covered how ransomware groups go about their recruitment, with their large teams...

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Cyber Threats to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

November 10, 2022 | 14 Min Read

Sporting events, like the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 (Qatar 2022 World Cup), attract massive attention from every corner...

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2023 Cyber Threat Predictions

November 1, 2022 | 14 Min Read

As we move towards the end of 2022, now is the time to take a look back at the major...

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Q3 2022 Vulnerability Roundup

October 26, 2022 | 5 Min Read

The curtain has fallen on the third quarter (Q3) of 2022, and it’s time to report the trends and highlights...

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Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022: Have you forgotten about phishing?

October 25, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Thanks for joining us for the first release in our Cyber Security Awareness Month series. Check out our other recent...

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Alternative Future Analysis: Pro-Russian Hacktivism

October 20, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Note: This blog is part of a series of articles related to the use of Structured Analytic Techniques in Cyber...

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Ransomware In Q3 2022

October 19, 2022 | 11 Min Read

Ransomware activity decreased in the third quarter of 2022 (Q3 2022), as actors regrouped and refocused after a busy start...

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The Optus Breach: If I Could Turn Back Time

October 5, 2022 | 6 Min Read

The fallout of the recent Optus breach got me thinking about a common occurrence: seller’s remorse… Most of us have...

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Dark Web Recruitment: How Ransomware Groups Hire Cybercriminal Talent

September 27, 2022 | 10 Min Read

As we observed in a recent blog on ransomware franchising, ransomware groups often behave like legitimate companies. Large or small,...

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Who’s next in Lapsus$’ crosshairs?

September 26, 2022 | 7 Min Read

You’ve probably read that our favorite mischievous friends at the Lapsus$ group have been up to their old tricks. This...

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Cyber threats to the 2022 Italian elections

September 22, 2022 | 6 Min Read

When Mario Draghi formed a national unity government in February 2021, Italy was busy attempting to limit the spread...

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What we’re reading this month: September 2022

September 21, 2022 | 7 Min Read

In this months episode of the what we’re reading series, we deep dive into an investigation into Russia’s military intelligence...

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Vulnerability Intelligence Roundup: Five RCE Vulnerabilities to Prioritize in September

September 20, 2022 | 4 Min Read

If you have ever watched a movie or television show that depicted hacking, you have probably heard the phrase, “I’m...

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Ransomware franchising: How do groups get started?

September 15, 2022 | 10 Min Read

Getting started in any business is a tricky affair. While estimations may vary, it’s widely believed that around 9 in...

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There’s No Honor Among Thieves: Carding Forum Staff Defraud Users in an ESCROW Scam

September 14, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Although in decline, carding has traditionally been an easy entry point into the world of cybercrime, owing to the low...

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APT Spotlight Series: APT41

September 7, 2022 | 8 Min Read

Stealthy, sustained, and frequently state-backed, advanced persistent threats (APTs for short) are often the leading antagonists of the cyber threat...

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“I’m tired of living in poverty” – Russian-Speaking Cyber Criminals Feeling the Economic Pinch

September 1, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Rising energy bills, inflation, skyrocketing interest rates; the world continues to suffer from a cost of living and economic crisis....

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“Looking for pentesters”: How Forum Life Has Conformed to the Ransomware Ban

August 31, 2022 | 10 Min Read

In mid-May 2021, the administrators of XSS and Exploit, two of the most prominent Russian-language cybercriminal forums, introduced a ban...

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What We’re Reading This Month: August 2022

August 25, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Blimey, August already? This year has absolutely flown by and shows no signs of slowing down. This month has been...

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Vulnerability Intelligence RoundUp: Cloudy with a chance of zero days

August 24, 2022 | 6 Min Read

It was a dark and stormy DEFCON. Water leaked from the ceilings onto the casino floors and lightning flashed across...

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Honker Union: Has the grandfather of Chinese Hacktivism returned?

August 18, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Now over 20-years-old, the Honker Union of China (HUC) is one of the originals of Chinese hacktivism. But when it...

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Stop the line: Cyber threats facing manufacturing

August 17, 2022 | 8 Min Read

The cyber risk facing the manufacturing sector is likely greater at this point than ever before. Cybercriminals have demonstrably pivoted...

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Meet DUMPS Forum: A pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia cybercriminal forum

August 10, 2022 | 8 Min Read

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has typically been met with a response of horror and condemnation across the globe,...

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Tensions between the PRC and Taiwan: What’s happening?

August 9, 2022 | 6 Min Read

The tense relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan was further exacerbated by the US House of...

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ReliaQuest and Digital Shadows – The Next Stage of the Journey

August 3, 2022 | 3 Min Read

We are pleased to announce that the acquisition of Digital Shadows by ReliaQuest, announced onlytwo months ago, has now closed.ReliaQuest...

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The Boy Who Cried Ransomware: The Trustworthiness of Ransomware Groups

August 2, 2022 | 8 Min Read

From data leaks to group fallouts, the trials and tribulations of ransomware collectives generate a lot of buzz in traditional...

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Black Hat USA 2022

August 1, 2022 | 2 Min Read

Ready, set, connect! Black Hat 2022 is right around the corner and our team is ready to be back in...

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HolyGhost’s Bargain Basement Approach to Ransomware

July 28, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Recent reporting from Microsoft has shone light on the “HolyGhost” ransomware group, a cybercriminal outfit originating from North Korea. While...

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What We’re Reading This Month: July 2022

July 27, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Roll up roll up, it’s that time of the month again, where our team of analysts provide the articles and...

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How to Paint your Best Cyber Threat Landscape: My Three Top Tips from ENISA’s Methodology Report

July 21, 2022 | 6 Min Read

There’s an ancient debate within the intelligence community about whether intelligence analysis should be considered an art or a science....

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Breach Forums – When student becomes the teacher

July 20, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Back in 2015, few would have foresaw what Raid Forums would become when it was first created by a then...

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Q2 2022 Vulnerability Roundup

July 19, 2022 | 5 Min Read

As the second quarter of 2022 closes, it’s time again to report on the recent trends and highlights from a...

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Offensive nation-state cyber threats: Who takes the top spot?

July 15, 2022 | 8 Min Read

It has almost been six months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and understandably, the world and its media have focused on...

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RANSOMWARE IN Q2 2022: RANSOMWARE IS BACK IN BUSINESS

July 11, 2022 | 11 Min Read

The second quarter of 2022 was a significant and highly active quarter for ransomware gangs. We saw a noticeable rise...

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What we’re reading this month: June 2022

July 5, 2022 | 7 Min Read

As you’d imagine, our talented team of intelligence analysts spend a considerable amount of time reading different material each month,...

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Market differentiation: Cybercriminal forums’ unusual features designed to attract users

June 30, 2022 | 13 Min Read

After a tumultuous few months at the start of the year in which each week seemed to bring a major...

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NATO Leaders are Meeting at the Madrid Summit 2022: What is going to happen?

June 28, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Today, the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are gathering in Madrid, Spain for their annual Summit, where...

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Credential stuffing: What is it, are you at risk?

June 23, 2022 | 6 Min Read

You may have read about the recent attack affecting motoring powerhouse General Motors (GM), that resulted in significant numbers of...

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Vulnerability Intelligence Roundup: Leveraging the OODA Loop for Vulnerability Management

June 21, 2022 | 8 Min Read

Picture this, you are an analyst working in a large security operations center (SOC) responding to an overwhelming amount of...

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POLONIUM: Proxy Warfare and Iran’s Cyber Strategy

June 20, 2022 | 7 Min Read

In June 2022, Microsoft reported that a new advanced persistent threat (APT) group was wreaking havoc on Israeli organizations. The...

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Weak credentials are fueling a new generation of cyber threats

June 15, 2022 | 7 Min Read

In the coming week, Digital Shadows will release a research report highlighting the significant risk facing organizations and individuals from...

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Ransomware gangs and PR stunts: Why LockBit faked a ransomware attack against Mandiant

June 10, 2022 | 5 Min Read

Ransomware groups have extensively improved their tactics to behave in an increasingly professional and corporate-like manner; this has allowed groups...

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Killnet: The Hactivist Group That Started A Global Cyber War

June 8, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, hacktivism has experienced a substantial resurgence, with many hacktivist groups being created in...

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The next stage of our journey – Digital Shadows to join ReliaQuest

June 1, 2022 | 6 Min Read

I am delighted to announce that Digital Shadows has entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by ReliaQuest pending customary...

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Russian prison culture and slang on cybercriminal forums: Can you cram on the hairdryer?

May 31, 2022 | 10 Min Read

In a few previous blogs, we’ve covered how threat actors discuss prison on Russian-language cybercriminal platforms. We’ve touched on high-profile...

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Account takeover: Are you opening the door for cyber threat actors?

May 25, 2022 | 6 Min Read

In 2020, our research report on account takeover (ATO) highlighted the risk of using credentials in an unsafe manner, which...

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Vulnerability Intelligence Round Up: The Good, The Bad, and The Risky

May 19, 2022 | 6 Min Read

There is a saying derived from Western movies that say whoever draws first, loses the duel. Nick Bohr, a famous...

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What we’re reading this month: May 2022

May 18, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Where is the year going? It only seems like yesterday that we celebrated the turn of the year, with the...

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Advanced persistent threat group feature: Mustang Panda

May 17, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Advanced persistent threat (APT) groups are often tricky to wrap your head around. By their nature, state-associated groups are well-resourced...

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Five years after the WannaCry dumpster fire, ransomware remains a global threat

May 11, 2022 | 7 Min Read

It has been five years since the dumpster fire we all remember as WannaCry. WannaCry is self-propagating ransomware that held...

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ALPHV: The First Rust-Based Ransomware

May 6, 2022 | 7 Min Read

In late 2021, we observed a new ransomware operation named “ALPHV” (also known as BlackCat) emerge. The group operates as...

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Colonial Pipeline One Year Later: What’s Changed?

May 4, 2022 | 10 Min Read

For the first half of 2021, ransomware groups looked unstoppable. Ransomware gangs were adding victim after victim on their dark...

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The Russia – Ukraine war: Two months in

April 28, 2022 | 10 Min Read

The two-month mark of the Russia and Ukraine war has passed, with Russia almost certainly having failed to meet its...

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Opportunity in the midst of chaos: Russian-speaking cybercriminals grapple with sanctions and forum takedowns

April 27, 2022 | 8 Min Read

As a threat intelligence professional, it’s difficult to ignore how major developments in the real world affect the lives of...

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The Power Of Data Analysis In Threat Intelligence – Part 2: Machine Learning

April 21, 2022 | 12 Min Read

This blog is the second part of our Data Analysis in Threat Intelligence series, where we focus on the tools...

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What We’re Reading This Month: April 2022

April 20, 2022 | 7 Min Read

As an intelligence analyst, it’s paramount to stay on top of what’s happening in the world around you. To inform...

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The role of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in facilitating cybercrime

April 20, 2022 | 8 Min Read

You’d have to have been living under a rock to have avoided the excitement surrounding Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs) in the last...

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Q1 2022 Vulnerability Roundup

April 14, 2022 | 6 Min Read

In the first quarter of 2022, several high-severity vulnerabilities were targeted by threat actors to facilitate malicious campaigns. The first...

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Q1 2022 Ransomware Roundup

April 12, 2022 | 12 Min Read

As the new year has reached the end of its first quarter, it’s time for us to go back and...

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Intelligence Collection Plans: Preparation breeds success

April 7, 2022 | 6 Min Read

It’s been a little over a month since I wrote about how intelligence requirements (IRs) can help plan a cyber...

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Team A vs Team B: What is Motivating Lapsus$?

April 6, 2022 | 8 Min Read

In the past few weeks, the Lapsus$ threat group captured the security community’s attention with a series of brazen and...

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Five things we learned from the Conti chat logs

April 5, 2022 | 11 Min Read

At the end of February, the cybersecurity community was rocked by the appearance of alleged chat logs recording conversations between...

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The Power of Data Analysis in Threat Intelligence – Part 1: Data Collection and Data Mining

March 31, 2022 | 8 Min Read

In 2020, there was an estimated 59 trillion gigabytes of data in the world. Most of which was created in...

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“Your rubles will only be good for lighting a fire”: Cybercriminals reel from impact of sanctions

March 29, 2022 | 10 Min Read

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the Digital Shadows Photon team has been following multiple aspects of the tragic...

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Vulnerability Intelligence Round-up: Russia-Ukraine War

March 24, 2022 | 6 Min Read

One month ago, the Russian government began the invasion of Ukraine, triggering one of the most severe security crises in...

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The Okta breach: What we know so far

March 23, 2022 | 10 Min Read

What we know about the Okta breach, Lapsus$ group, and what you can do today to protect your...

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Russia’s Second Front: The War on Information

March 22, 2022 | 9 Min Read

You would think that it would be nearly impossible to industrialize propaganda in the 21st century, especially with the tremendous...

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Meet Lapsus$: An Unusual Group in the Cyber Extortion Business

March 17, 2022 | 5 Min Read

In December 2021, a new cyber threat group began attracting the security community’s attention, after conducting several high-profile extortion attacks...

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The Russia-Ukraine War And The Revival Of Hacktivism

March 16, 2022 | 4 Min Read

The international reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has manifested in a few distinct ways, as outlined in our...

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Biden’s Executive Order on Crypto: What you need to know

March 15, 2022 | 7 Min Read

On 9 Mar 2022 US President Biden signed a new executive order (EO) to ensure the responsible development of cryptocurrency...

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Exploring SIM Swapping Services on Cybercriminal Forums

March 10, 2022 | 10 Min Read

If you’ve made it to 2022 (congratulations), there’s a fairly good chance you own a mobile phone (again, congrats). You’re...

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Can cryptocurrency be used to bypass the impact of sanctions being applied against Russia?

March 9, 2022 | 10 Min Read

In an interview on 28 Feb 2022, former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized several cryptocurrency exchanges that had decided against...

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What We’re Reading this Month: March 2022

March 3, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Roll up roll up, it’s that time for the monthly what we’re reading blog, in which some of us in...

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Intelligence Requirements: Planning your cyber response to the Russia-Ukraine war

March 1, 2022 | 11 Min Read

At the end of last week, Digital Shadow’s CISO, Rick Holland, released his blog Russian Cyber Threats: Practical Advice For...

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Cybercriminals React to Ukraine-Russia Conflict

February 25, 2022 | 7 Min Read

As the world reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 Feb 2022, cybercriminals were also formulating their own opinions...

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Russian Cyber Threats: Practical Advice For Security Leaders

February 25, 2022 | 11 Min Read

As I spent Wednesday night doom scrolling into the early hours of the morning, I felt pretty powerless as I...

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Russia Invades Ukraine: What happens next?

February 24, 2022 | 5 Min Read

On 23 Feb 2022, Russian forces started a military operation targeting Ukraine. Reporting indicates that shelling in several Ukrainian cities...

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Recruitment Fraud in 2022

February 23, 2022 | 3 Min Read

Earlier this month, the FBI released a public service announcement titled “Scammers Exploit Security Weaknesses on Job Recruitment Websites to...

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Of Death and Taxes: File Early To Beat The Scammers

February 22, 2022 | 7 Min Read

Tax season has officially started! The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the US will be accepting tax returns between January...

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“No cards = no work = no money”: Russian law enforcement’s assault on carding platforms

February 18, 2022 | 9 Min Read

Arguably the biggest cybersecurity event of the year so far was the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arresting suspected members...

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Initial Access Brokers in 2021: An Ever Expanding Threat

February 16, 2022 | 11 Min Read

To say that 2021 was a turbulent year for security teams would be a massive understatement. Last year, we observed...

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Automate Alert Investigation and Response with XSOAR and SearchLight

February 11, 2022 | 3 Min Read

We are excited to announce an expanded set of XSOAR playbooks that make use of Digital Shadows intelligence. In this...

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Valentine’s Day: Share your love, not your credentials

February 9, 2022 | 6 Min Read

Roses are red, violets are blue. Your files are encrypted. Please send BTC to address two twenty-two. As the yearly...

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Growing Tension Between Russia and Ukraine: Should you be concerned?

February 9, 2022 | 9 Min Read

Russia and Ukraine have had a particularly tense relationship since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. In the past weeks,...

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CVEs You Might Have Missed While Log4j Stole the Headlines

February 8, 2022 | 19 Min Read

The past three months have been a particularly challenging time for security teams. 2021 rounded off in the most spectacular...

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Beijing 2022: Why you should or shouldn’t care about the Winter Olympics

February 3, 2022 | 9 Min Read

When asked to write about the Winter Olympic Games this year, I immediately thought about my alpine holiday in Niseko....

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What We’re Reading This Month – January 2022

February 2, 2022 | 8 Min Read

January. The month also known as the time of the year where most of the Great New Year’s Resolutions come...

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Vulnerability Intelligence: Introducing SearchLight’s Newest Capability

January 31, 2022 | 4 Min Read

Digital Shadows’ new vulnerability intelligence capability brings a unique context to CVEs. Armed with this intelligence, security teams can better...