Bitdefender: Romania remains favorite target for Scranos malware

Scranos operators have changed their attack methods and Romania remains a favorite target, Romanian cybersecurity company Bitdefender said.

“The hackers now manipulate legitimate Microsoft programs, with the help of which they ensure their endurance on the device. Bitdefender alerted the authority issuing the digital certificate that masked the Scranos threat about its compromised and illicit use, and the driver’s digital signature was afterwards revoked for solid suspicions of fraudulent activity. With this, the attackers had to find another attack vector,” the company said in a press release.

If it initially contaminated victims through apparently legitimate programs available on piracy sites, such as e-readers, video players and even security solutions, the threat is now disseminated through a new application, called CClear, which theoretically is meant to optimize the running of the computer. The attackers bet on the name similar to CCleaner, a well-known, legitimate instrument.

Specialists warn that functionalities related to data theft from the Facebook account continue to be encountered often. Originating in China, Scranos was discovered in April, when it spread aggressively in Europe and United States, contaminating Windows and Android devices and accessing the victims' personal data. They advise users to download and install only licensed applications, double-check the name of the programs they install, use a security solution and update their operating system and programs used to the most recent version.

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