WireX DDoS Botnet: An Army of Thousands of Hacked Android SmartPhones

Do you believe that just because you have downloaded an app from the official app store, you're safe from malware?

Think twice before believing it.

A team of security researchers from several security firms have uncovered a new, widespread botnet that consists of tens of thousands of hacked Android smartphones.

Dubbed WireX, detected as "Android Clicker," the botnet network primarily includes infected Android devices running one of the hundreds of malicious apps installed from Google Play Store and is designed to conduct massive application layer DDoS attacks.

Researchers from different Internet technology and security companies—which includes Akamai, CloudFlare, Flashpoint, Google, Oracle Dyn, RiskIQ, Team Cymru—spotted a series of cyber attacks earlier this month, and they collaborated to combat it.

Although Android malware campaigns are quite common these days and this newly discovered campaign is also not that much sophisticated, I am quite impressed with the way multiple security firms—where half of them are competitors—came together and shared information to take down a botnet.

WireX botnet was used to launch minor DDoS attacks earlier this month, but after mid-August, the attacks began to escalate.

The "WireX" botnet had already infected over 120,000 Android smartphones at its peak earlier this month, and on 17th August, researchers noticed a massive DDoS attack (primarily HTTP GET requests) originated from more than 70,000 infected mobile devices from over 100 countries.

If your website has been DDoSed, look for the following pattern of User-Agent strings to check if it was WireX botnet:

  

After further investigation, security researchers identified more than 300 malicious apps on Google’s official Play Store, many of which purported to be media, video players, ringtones, or tools for storage managers and app stores, which include the malicious WireX code.

Just like many malicious apps, WireX apps do not act maliciously immediately after the installation in order to evade detection and make their ways to Google Play Store.

Instead, WireX apps wait patiently for commands from its command and control servers located at multiple subdomains of "axclick.store."

Google has identified and already blocked most of 300 WireX apps, which were mostly downloaded by users in Russia, China, and other Asian countries, although the WireX botnet is still active on a small scale.

   

If your device is running a newer version of the Android operating system that includes Google's Play Protect feature, the company will automatically remove WireX apps from your device, if you have one installed.

Play Protect is Google's newly launched security feature that uses machine learning and app usage analysis to remove (uninstall) malicious apps from users Android smartphones to prevent further harm.

Also, it is highly recommended to install apps from reputed and verified developers, even when downloading from Google official Play Store and avoid installing unnecessary apps.

Additionally, you are strongly advised to always keep a good antivirus app on your mobile device that can detect and block malicious apps before they can infect your device, and always keep your device and apps up-to-date.

Android malware continues to evolve with more sophisticated and never-seen-before attack vectors and capabilities with every passing day.

Just at the beginning of this week, Google removed over 500 Android apps utilising the rogue SDK—that secretly distribute spyware to users—from its Play Store marketplace.

Last month, we also saw first Android malware with code injecting capabilities making rounds on Google Play Store.

A few days after that, researchers discovered another malicious Android SDK ads library, dubbed "Xavier," found installed on more than 800 different apps that had been downloaded millions of times from Google Play Store. 

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Easy-to-Use Apps Allow Anyone to Create Android Ransomware Within Seconds

"Ransomware" threat is on the rise, and cyber criminals are making millions of dollars by victimizing as many people as they can—with WannaCry, NotPetya and LeakerLocker being the ransomware threats that made headlines recently.

What's BAD? Hacker even started selling ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) kits in an attempt to spread this creepy threat more easily, so that even a non-tech user can create their own ransomware and distribute the threat to a wider audience.

The WORSE—You could see a massive increase in the number of ransomware campaigns during the next several months—thanks to new Android apps available for anyone to download that let them quickly and easily create Android ransomware with their own devices.

Security researchers at Antivirus firm Symantec have spotted some Android apps available on hacking forums and through advertisements on a social networking messaging service popular in China, which let any wannabe hacker download and use Trojan Development Kits (TDKs).

How to Create Your Own Android Ransomware

With an easy-to-use interface, these apps are no different from any other Android app apart from the fact that it allows users to create their custom mobile malware with little to no programming knowledge.

To create customized ransomware, users can download one such app (for an obvious reason i am not sharing the links), install and open it, where it offers to choose from the following options, which are displayed on the app's on-screen form:

The message that is to be shown on the locked screen of the infected device

• The key to be used to unlock that infected device
• The icon to be used by their malware
• Custom mathematical operations to randomize the code
• Type of animation to be displayed on the infected device

Once all of the information has been filled in, users just require hitting the "Create" button.

If the user hasn't before, the app will prompt him/her to subscribe to the service before proceeding. The app allows the user to start an online chat with its developer where he/she can arrange a one-time payment.

After the payment has been made, the "malware is created and stored in the external storage in ready-to-ship condition," and then the user can continue with the process, making as many as victims as the user can.

"Anyone unlucky enough to be tricked into installing the malware will end up with a locked device held to ransom," Symantec researchers say. 

"The malware created using this automation process follows the typical Lockdroid behavior of locking the device’s screen with a SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW and displaying a text field for the victim to enter the unlock code."

The Lockdroid ransomware has the ability to lock the infected device, change the device PIN, and delete all of its user data through a factory reset, and even prevent the user from uninstalling the malware.

Such apps allow anyone interested in hacking and criminal activities to develop a ready-to-use piece of ransomware malware just by using their smartphones without any need to write a single line of code.

"However, these apps are not just useful for aspiring and inexperienced cyber criminals as even hardened malware authors could find these easy-to-use kits an efficient alternative to putting the work in themselves," the researchers say.

So, get ready to expect an increase in mobile ransomware variants in coming months.

How to Protect Your Android Devices from Ransomware Attacks

In order to protect against such threats on mobile devices, you are recommended to:

• Always keep regular backups of your important data.
• Make sure that you run an active anti-virus security suite of tools on your machine.
• Avoid downloading apps from unknown sites and third-party app stores.
• Always pay close attention to the permissions requested by an app, even if it is downloaded from an official app store.
• Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources.
• Finally, browse the Internet safely.

 

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Autodesk inventor 2018 project file setup

A project is a system for organizing and accessing all files that are associated with a particular design job.

You can have any number of projects to manage your work.

Design data in a project typically includes parts, assemblies, standard components that are unique to your company, and libraries of off-the-shelf components such as fasteners, fittings, or electrical components.

Three projects are installed with the Inventor software: Default, samples, and tutorial files.

Determine the type of project that is suitable for your situation, and set it up before you start designing. It is difficult to migrate your files to a project after the design becomes complex.

The Project wizard steps you through the process to create a project. After you create a project, you use the Project editor to set further options. At any time, you can add or delete locations, or change the project name.

Default project:-

When you install Autodesk Inventor, it installs a "Default" project automatically. If you do not create a project or specify a different project when you start working in Inventor, the default project is automatically active. The default project does not define an editable location. However, you can use it to create designs immediately, and save files anywhere without regard to projects and file management. Your files are saved to the default project.

Generally, you use the default project for experimentation only, not actual design work. You cannot delete the Default project.

Project (.ipj) file :-

Projects use a project (.ipj) file to store the paths to folders where your design data are located.

A project (.ipj) file is a text file in .xml format. The Project wizard creates it automatically when you create a project. The file specifies the paths to folders that contain the files in the project. These stored paths assure that links between files work properly. When you open a file in a project, the program searches these paths in the order they appear, for the file and any referenced files.

Before you work on model files, add the locations for folders to the project.

The project shortcut is located in the projects folder.

Settings in projects:-

A project defines the:

The folder where you edit files (Workgroup, or Workspace local to the computer of each designer.)
A number of versions retained when you save a file.
Content Center configuration settings. We recommend that you share the same Content Center Library folder for all projects.
Project type (Single-user, or Autodesk Vault.).

Note: Projects use relative paths rather than absolute paths when the project locations such as the workspace, workgroup, or libraries are in a subfolder of the folder that contains the project file.
Projects cross-file references are stored relative to the project folder locations. You can maintain the references when you move, archive, and restructure the project folders by updating the project file data.

Active project:-

The active project is the project you currently have access to. When you change projects, you change where the program searches for referenced files. It also changes the file access dialog boxes. It is good practice to open files from, and save files to only locations in the active project.

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Beware of Windows/MacOS/Linux Virus Spreading Through Facebook Messenger

If you came across any Facebook message with a video link sent by anyone, even your friend — just don’t click on it.

Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have spotted an ongoing cross-platform campaign on Facebook Messenger, where users receive a video link that redirects them to a fake website, luring them to install malicious software.

Although it is still unclear how the malware spreads, researchers believe spammers are using compromised accounts, hijacked browsers, or clickjacking techniques to spread the malicious link.

The attackers make use of social engineering to trick users into clicking the video link, which purports to be from one of their Facebook friends, with the message that reads "< your friend name > Video" followed by a bit.ly link, as shown.

Here's How this Cross-Platform Malware Works:

The URL redirects victims to a Google doc that displays a dynamically generated video thumbnail, like a playable movie, based on the sender's images, which if clicked, further redirects users to another customised landing page depending upon their browser and operating system.

For example, Mozilla Firefox users on Windows are redirected to a website displaying a fake Flash Player Update notice, and then offered a Windows executable, which is flagged as adware software.

  

Google Chrome users are redirected to a website that masquerades as YouTube with similar YouTube logo, which displays a fake error message popup, tricking victims into downloading a malicious Chrome extension from the Google Web Store.

  

The extension actually is a downloader that downloads a file of attacker's choice to the victim's computer.

"At the time of writing, the file which should have been downloaded was not available," David Jacoby, a chief security researcher from Kaspersky Lab, writes in a blog post published today.

"One interesting finding is that the Chrome Extension has log files from the developers displaying usernames. It is unclear if this is related to the campaign, but it is still an amusing piece of information."

Users of Apple Mac OS X Safari ends up on a web page similar to when using Firefox, but it was customised for MacOS users with a fake update for Flash Media Player, which if clicked, downloads an OSX executable .dmg file, which is also adware.

Same in case of Linux, user redirects to another landing page designed for Linux users.

The attackers behind the campaign are not actually infecting users of all platform with any banking Trojan or exploit kits, but with adware to make a lot of money by generating revenue from ads.

Spam campaigns on Facebook are quite common. A few years ago, researchers found cyber criminals using boobytrapped .JPG image files to hide their malware in order to infect Facebook users with variants of the Locky ransomware, which encrypts all files on the infected PC until a ransom is paid.

To keep yourself safe, you are advised not to get curious to look at images or video links sent by anyone, even your friend, without verifying it with them, and always keep your antivirus software up-to-date.  

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New Snowden Doc Exposes How NSA's Facility in Australia Aids Drone Strikes

The new documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has exposed a United States secretive facility located near a remote town in Australia's Northern Territory for covertly monitoring wireless communications and aiding US military missions.

The leaked documents have come from the massive trove of classified material stolen by Snowden from the US National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 that exposed the extent of the US government's global surveillance programs.

The newly released classified documents, obtained by The Intercept, contained references to a secretive facility, which was codenamed "Rainfall," but is officially known as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap.

The documents reveal that the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, located outside Alice Springs, deployed cutting-edge satellite technology for detailed geolocation intelligence that helps the US military locate targets for special forces and drone strikes.

The use of unmanned air vehicles, generally known as drones, by the U.S. military has previously been blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Somalia.

As outlined in a secret intelligence document, Pine Gap's aim is to "support the national security of both the U.S. and Australia. The [facility] contributes to verifying arms control and disarmament agreements and monitoring military developments."

However, in reality, Pine Gap has a far broader mission with powerful capabilities than the Australian or U.S. government has ever publicly acknowledged.

Pine Gap finds Targets for U.S. Drone Strikes

The satellites used by the Pine Gap are described as being "geosynchronous"—likely positioned high in orbit at over 20,000 miles above the earth's surface—which are equipped with powerful surveillance technology to monitor wireless communications on the ground, like those sent and received by mobile phones, radios, and satellite uplinks.

According to the leaked documents, these satellites collect "strategic and tactical military, scientific, political, and economic communications signals," and also keep eyes on any missile or weapon tests in targeted countries, steal intel from foreign military data systems, and provide surveillance support to United States forces.

One of the secret NSA documents analysed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) suggests that the facility's role is not only to collect signals, but also to analyse them, as it "detects, collects, records, processes, analyses and reports" on almost everything—from surface-to-air missiles to anti-aircraft artillery and fighter aircraft.

One mission even pilfered communications from the former Soviet Union, China, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and territories in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 2013, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Pine Gap played a major role in controversial U.S. drone strikes, which had also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians.

Trump Administration Doubled the Drone Strikes

Richard Tanter, the University of Melbourne’s professor who has previously studied Pine Gap, told the publication that "Pine Gap will be contributing hugely in real-time to those operations, as well as in preparation for them."

"So whether or not the Australian government thinks that an attack on North Korea is either justified or a wise and sensible move, we will be part of that. We'll be culpable in terms of the consequences," Tanter asserted.

Under Trump administration, drone strikes and special operations raids have doubled, while simultaneously loosening battlefield rules to prevent civilian deaths in such air attacks.

However, David Rosenberg, who worked inside Pine Gap as a team leader of weapon signals analysis for at least 18 years until 2008, confirms the facility's geolocation capability, claiming that preventing civilian casualties is a high priority.

"One thing I can certainly tell you the governments of Australia, and the United States would, of course, want to minimise all civilian casualties," Rosenberg says. "Pine Gap does help to provide limitation of civilian casualties by providing accurate intelligence."

It is not at all surprising to see Australia working closely with its U.S. counterparts to help conduct global surveillance since it is a key member of the "Five Eyes" alliance—alongside the US, UK, New Zealand and Canada—all openly shares secret intelligence reports.  

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how to make google adsense account for youtube 2017

how to enable monetization on youtube 2017 - enable adsense on youtube

YouTube is a valid revenue stream for many businesses, though the incoming revenue may be small with a smaller audience. It’s possible to monetize YouTube videos without AdSense, but the linked Google properties do give you the added benefit of keeping everything in one control panel. AdSense can be a powerful tool, particularly for those who are experienced in using it. Linking your AdSense and YouTube accounts is a simple process, though it may take some time for Google to process the application.

One of the easiest ways to monetize YouTube videos is to enable the monetization option for your YouTube account and link your channel with your Google AdSense Account.

Google AdSense is a Google program that helps publishers make money from their content. As a YouTube creator, you can join the publisher program to start making money from your videos.

- YouTube Monetization with AdSense:

Once you have associated your YouTube channel with an AdSense account, you will have the option to submit your videos for monetization.

Your video will be approved for monetization if it passes YouTube monetization requirements. General criteria of meeting such requirements include provisions that your videos to be advertiser-friendly, and that you own the rights to the content to use it commercially.

In this tutorial, I will walk you through steps that you need to complete to monetize YouTube videos and start making money from your videos.

YouTube Monetization Update: YouTube has introduced some changes to its Partner program limiting only channel over 10k views to enable ads on their videos. For new YouTube channels, you will need to fulfill the minimum threshold of 10,000 lifetime views to apply for the YouTube partner program and enable monetization.

- how to make money with youtube monetization and adsense:

1. enable monetization on youtube
2. create adsense account for youtube and add youtube account to google adsense
3. enable monetization on youtube for videos and select ad formats
4. wait for getting reviewed.

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Android Trojan Now Targets Non-Banking Apps that Require Card Payments

The infamous mobile banking trojan that recently added ransomware features to steal sensitive data and lock user files at the same time has now been modified to steal credentials from Uber and other booking apps as well.

Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have discovered a new variant of the Android banking Trojan called Faketoken that now has capabilities to detect and record an infected device's calls and display overlays on top of taxi booking apps to steal banking information.

Dubbed Faketoken.q, the new variant of mobile banking trojan is being distributed using bulk SMS messages as their attack vector, prompting users to download an image file that actually downloads the malware.

Malware Spy On Telephonic Conversations

Once downloaded, the malware installs the necessary modules and the main payload, which hides its shortcut icon and begins monitoring everything—from every calls to launched apps—that happens on the infected Android device.

When calls are made to or received from certain phone numbers on the victim's device, the malware begins to record those conversations and sends the recordings to the attacker's server.

Moreover, Faketoken.q also checks which apps the smartphone owner is using and when detects the launch of an app whose interface it can simulate, the Trojan immediately overlays the app with a fake user interface.

Malware Exploits Overlay Feature to Steal Credit Card Details

 

 In order to achieve this, the Trojan uses the same standard Android feature that is being employed by a whole bunch of legitimate apps, such as Facebook Messenger, window managers, and other apps, to show screen overlays on top of all other apps.

The fake user interface prompts victims to enter his or her payment card data, including the bank’s verification code, which can later be used by attackers to initiate fraudulent transactions.

Faketoken.q is capable of overlaying a large number of mobile banking apps as well as miscellaneous applications, such as:

• Android Pay
• Google Play Store
• Apps for paying traffic tickets
• Apps for booking flights and hotel rooms
• Apps for booking taxis

Since fraudsters require an SMS code sent by the bank to authorise a transaction, the malware steals incoming SMS message codes and forward them to the attackers command-and-control (C&C) server for a successful attack.

According to the researchers, Faketoken.q has been designed to target Russian-speaking users, as it uses the Russian language on the user interface.

Ways to Protect Against Such Android Banking Trojans

The easiest way to prevent yourself being a victim of such mobile banking Trojans is to avoid downloading apps via links provided in messages or emails, or any third-party app store.

You can also go to Settings → Security and make sure "Unknown sources" option is turned off in order to block installation of apps from unknown sources.

Most importantly, verify app permissions before installing apps, even if it is downloaded from official Google Play. If you find any app asking more than what it is meant for, just do not install it.

It's always a good idea to install an antivirus app from a reputed vendor that can detect and block such malware before it can infect your device, and always keep your system and apps up-to-date. 

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circle command in autocad

if you want to learn how to use circle command in autocad then you came to right place because In this Autocad 2018 circle command tutorial we are going to learn and start drawing circles in AutoCAD. Time has come to move forward and learn more, I believe it is the right time to learn and see how to use AutoCAD to draw circles.

The CIRCLE command is an important and a frequently used command, you can judge by its location and its size.

Drawing a circle in AutoCAD is one of the most fundamentals while learning how to use the software. In AutoCAD there are many ways to draw circles, and all these ways depend on your inputs and the feature you want your future circle to have.

there are six different types of circle in autocad to draw.

1) autocad circle radius: first select the center radius circle drawing option. Then select the center of the circle and then put the numerical value of circle radius and press enter button.

2) Center, Diameter: first select the center radius circle drawing option. Then select the center of the circle and then put the numerical value of circle diameter and press enter button.

3) 2 Point: This option is used if want to draw a circle that passing through any two points.

4) 3 Point: This option is used if want to draw a circle that passing through or toughing any three points.

5) autocad circle tan tan radius / autocad circle ttr: When there is needed to draw a circle at which two already drawn lines are tangent and also needed the value of circle radius, then we use this option. After selecting this option first we select the first line and then select second line. After that put the value of circle radius by using numerical buttons on keyboard and at the end press enter button.

6) Tan, Tan, Tan: When there is needed to draw a circle at which three already drawn lines are tangent, then we use this option. After selecting this option first we select the first, second and third line respectively which you want to make tangent on circle. Just after selecting the third line required circle will appear.

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how to connect sata hard drive to motherboard

how to connect sata hard drive to motherboard

When you are running out of hard drive space, you can either delete something or add some more space. While an external USB hard drive is an easy plug and play option, it’s not really ideal – they take up disk space, possibly an extra power socket, use up a valuable USB port, and are generally slower than internal drives. Let’s take a look today at the more difficult option of adding a second internal drive.

Now would be a great time to familiarize yourself with the basics of your computer. so this video guide will show you how to connect sata hard drive to motherboard. actually, i bought "Seagate 2TB Firecuda (Solid State Hybrid) SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache 3.5" Internal Bare Drive ST2000DX002" and i wanted to insert this hard drive in my pc, so i thought why dont i make video to install a new hard drive. to install hard disk drive you have to take care of following steps:

1: Identify If You Can Add Another Internal Drive Or Not

Not all computers are built equal, unfortunately. If you have a laptop, or an all-in-one machine where the system internals are hidden behind the monitor – then your only option is to go with a USB drive. If you have a slim desktop then read on, as there is a chance you will have enough room for a second drive. If you have a mid to full size tower, then you should be able to easily add a second drive.

2: Open The case

Before going any further, unplug the power from the case and all peripherals.

Most tower cases can have their sides removed with just two screws. You need to remove the side which doesn’t have the motherboard on it, so look at the back of the system, find the USB/mouse ports, and remove the OPPOSITE side.

3: Get Rid Of Any Static Electricity In Your Body

When touching the insides of a computer, technicians use a grounded wrist-band to reduce the risk of shocking any delicate components with the static electricity stored in the human body. For our purposes, touching a radiator will suffice.

4: Find The Hard Drive & Connectors For It

The insides of all computers are quite similar. The hard drive is a fairly sizeable chunk of metal.

You should find it sitting in a metal cage of some sort. Check now to see if you have room to fit another one in there. A tower case will normally have space for up to 3 or 4 drives, but a smaller desktop system may have only been designed to take one drive, in which case you’re out of luck and will need to consider either upgrading the one already there, or using a external USB drive instead.

5: Identify If You Have A SATA Or IDE Drive

If yours is with a wide ribbon cable – it’s a very old connection type called IDE. Ideally, yours will be SATA. If you do find yourself with an IDE drive, you’re not completely out of luck but I’m afraid it’s out of the scope of this guide. IDE drives are becoming increasingly harder to buy, and it’s a good indication your computer is really getting old.

Some hard drives can take either kind of cable, but the SATA type are easier to plug in. If you have a spare power cable but it isn’t SATA, you can still get a second drive but you’ll need to make sure it can accept a MOLEX type power cable, or you can get a MOLEX to SATA adapter.

Next, follow the SATA data cable (not the power one) to the motherboard, and have a look at where it is plugged in. Different motherboards have different numbers of SATA ports, and older machines may even only have one. Obviously, if you can only find one SATA port, then you can only plug in one SATA drive drive. If you can see some spare sockets, then congratulations – you can now buy a second drive!

6: install hard disk drive

Sliding the drive into the cage is the hardest part as sometimes it can be blocked by a large video card or other cables. Identify the cables before you actually go ahead, noting which sides face up (SATA data and power cables all have a little notch on one end which means that inserting it the wrong way around is virtually impossible).

Once seated in the drive cage, use the screws that came with the drive to secure it – you will need to align the holes on the drive with the holes in the cage or tray. Next, find the spare power cables and the SATA cable, and plug those in.

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