Shortly after Trickbot was observed dropping an updated version of the Emotet botnet malware, Windows Defender began incorrectly reporting certain executables and Microsoft Office documents as Emotet payloads.

Handa Hospital, in the Japanese town of Tsurugi, has announced that following a ransomware attack this past October, they will be spending around ¥200 million to build a new computer system instead of paying the demanded ransom.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), an international consortium (of which Acronis is a member) that aims to unify the global response against cybercrime, has released their Q3 2021 trend report.

The first messages about VenomRAT started to appear in June 2020. By analyzing the code, analysts concluded that this new threat is a modified fork of Quasar RAT. The malware itself was introduced on malware-oriented forums, in posts advertising it as an effective tool to remotely access computers for $150 per month.

Discovered in 2016, Formbook appeared on underground forums, advertised as an infostealer for Windows. In October 2020, Formbook was renamed XLoader; as its developers say, it has the same features, but has improved from the previous version. XLoader can steal users’ information from various browsers, email clients and messengers, and is available to cybercriminals as a service.

Conti, one of the most prolific ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) platforms, has earned its operators at least $25.5 million in payouts since July 2021.

Google recently released Chrome version 96, the latest, most secure version of their highly popular web browser. This update introduces fixes for 25 security vulnerabilities, seven of which are considered to be high severity. Some have already been the cause of zero-day attacks.