Vampires keep their money in a blood bank: This is unbelievable. A dumb Kansas bank CEO got 24 years in prison after falling for a massive crypto scam. He blew through his money and his daughter’s college fund, and then he ordered $47 million in bank funds to be transferred to a secret crypto wallet, thinking he’d get rich. No word on if or when the bank’s customers will get their money.
Meduza: Scary name, scarier malware
Use Chrome, Edge, Brave, Sidekick, Opera or Firefox to browse the web? What about Discord, Steam, a password manager or a crypto wallet?
You’re a prime target for the Meduza Stealer — a type of malware that poses a serious personal and digital security risk. Its primary purpose is to steal valuable data from your computer. We’re talking login credentials, credit card details and cryptocurrency wallet data.
Let’s take a deeper look at how the malicious software works. Consider this your Cybersecurity 102 lesson of the day!
Hunt and gather
Once Meduza Stealer infiltrates a computer, it gets to work gathering information. Step 1: GPS check. Meduza does not steal data from any computer in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova or Tajikistan.
Not in one of those countries? Great. Now it’s ready to collect details about your computer system, which it then uses to sniff out your valuable data. Passwords, card details and other credentials are fair game. Then all that info goes back to the attacker.
It can steal info from 19 password manager apps, 76 crypto wallets and 95 web browsers, as well as apps Discord and Steam.
Hiding in plain sight
The Meduza Stealer is notoriously hard to spot. A process called obfuscation hides its activities, essentially masking actions so they appear harmless or invisible to your computer’s security software. It also uses encryption to protect your stolen data during transmission back to the attacker. Uh, thanks?
It’s also pretty darn good at tricking standard antivirus software. The stealer changes and adapts once it’s spotted so it can fly under the radar. Free AV isn’t going to cut it.
How to protect yourself
Yeah, it’s tricky, but some vigilance and basic security measures go a long way.
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