Windows 10: Microsoft DCU and MSTIC new steps to protect customers from hacking

Brink · Mar 27, 2019

Today, court documents were unsealed detailing work Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit has executed to disrupt cyberattacks from a threat group we call Phosphorus – also known as APT 35, Charming Kitten, and Ajax Security Team – which is widely associated with Iranian hackers. Our court case against Phosphorus, filed in the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C., resulted in a court order enabling us last week to take control of 99 websites the group uses to conduct its hacking operations so the sites can no longer be used to execute attacks.

Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) have been tracking Phosphorus since 2013. Its activity is usually designed to gain access to the computer systems of businesses and government agencies and steal sensitive information. Its targets also include activists and journalists – especially those involved in advocacy and reporting on issues related to the Middle East.

Phosphorus typically attempts to compromise the personal accounts of individuals through a technique known as spear-phishing, using social engineering to entice someone to click on a link, sometimes sent through fake social media accounts that appear to belong to friendly contacts. The link contains malicious software that enables Phosphorus to access computer systems.

Phosphorus also uses a technique whereby it sends people an email that makes it seem as if there’s a security risk to their accounts, prompting them to enter their credentials into a web form that enables the group to capture their passwords and gain access to their systems.

Both attack methods employ the use of websites that incorporate the names of well-known brands, like Microsoft, to appear authentic. Websites registered and used by Phosphorus include, for example, outlook-verify.net, yahoo-verify.net, verification-live.com, and myaccount-services.net.

While we’ve used daily security analytics tracking to stop individual Phosphorus attacks and notify impacted customers, the action we executed last week enabled us to take control of websites that are core to its operations. Our work to track Phosphorus over multiple years and observe its activity enabled us to build a decisive legal case and execute last week’s action with confidence we could have significant impact on the group’s infrastructure.

The action we executed last week enabled us to take control of 99 websites and redirect traffic from infected devices to our Digital Crime Unit’s sinkhole. The intelligence we collect from this sinkhole will be added to MSTIC’s existing knowledge of Phosphorus and shared with Microsoft security products and services to improve detections and protections for our customers.

Throughout the course of tracking Phosphorus, we’ve worked closely with a number of other technology companies, including Yahoo, to share threat information and jointly stop attacks. We are grateful for their partnership. We also worked with each domain listing company listed in our suit prior to filing it and are grateful for their support and help in transferring the website domains registered by Phosphorus to us once a court order was granted. Our case against Phosphorus is similar to cases we’ve filed against another threat group called Strontium. We have used this approach 15 times to take control of 91 fake websites associated with Strontium. The legal filings in our case against Phosphorus can be found here.
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Source: New steps to protect customers from hacking - Microsoft on the Issues

:)

anandsap123 · Mar 27, 2019

PC Build Steps

all parts should be here by friday...any last advice? I will follow the step lists we created guys...

btarunr · Mar 27, 2019

Intel Gives Core i3 and Core i5 Dual-Core Processors K0 Stepping Update

Intel is giving some existing 32 nm "Clarkdale" based Core i3 and Core i5 processors an update. The processors will transition to the new K0 stepping from the existing C2 stepping. The parts that will be made on the K0 silicon are Core i3 models 530 (new sSPEC: SLBX7), 540 (new sSPEC: SLBTD) and Core i5 models 650 (new sSPEC: SLBTJ), 660/661 (SLBTK/SLBTB), 670 (SLBTL). Newer and upcoming models such as the i3-550, i3-560, i5-665K, and i5-680 are already being built on the K0 stepping die. Motherboards will require a BIOS update to support the new K0 stepping processors.

The K0 stepping change includes the following highlights:

New S-spec and MM numbers for the converting products

Extended CPUID will change from 0x00020652 to 0x00020655

Host RevID will change from 0x12 to 0x18

K0 stepping package is pin compatible with C2 stepping package

Adds Processor Context ID (PCID) support

The revised older SKUs that are built on K0 stepping will be market-available by October 16.

anandsap123 · Mar 27, 2019

PC Build Steps

Ok just because I like steps i am going to create some steps. Please give me the stamp of approval/disapproval

Install system in case

Remember to connect SSD and optical to same SATA ports on motherboard

Turn on PC

setup HDD

run blend test in prime95 for 30-60 min

run realtemp at the same time

While in Prime95 test

if CPU goes above 70c in RealTemp, I have a leaky CPU

if my system locks up or blue screens, there is an instability in the system somewhere

if my system does not lock up or blue screen, my CPU is not damaged and I am in the clear!

What do you guys think??

Windows 10: Microsoft DCU and MSTIC new steps to protect customers from hacking

Microsoft DCU and MSTIC new steps to protect customers from hacking

Microsoft DCU and MSTIC new steps to protect customers from hacking

Microsoft DCU and MSTIC new steps to protect customers from hacking

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