Russian IT Guy Jailed for DDoSing Government Websites

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Russian IT Guy Jailed for DDoSing Government Websites
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IT Guy Jailed ddos

According to reports from the FSB (Federal Security Service) Department’s Press Service in Rostov Region, Yevgeny Kotikov, an IT specialist, was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

FSB also ordered to pay a fine of 800 thousand rubles ($10,000) for his participation in a computer DDoS attack by Ukraine for blocking information resources in the Russian Federation.

The attack was organized by Ukraine and targeted the information systems belonging to the critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation.

Kotikov was arrested in February 2022, during the start of the special military operation in Ukraine.

Kotikov was supporting the Kyiv regime, which decided to participate in blocking information resources of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Federation’s website for the president.

DDoS Attack On Government Websites

The FSB has also confiscated the personal computer used for the DDoS attacks.

This evidence was used to prove Kotikov guilty, resulting in a 3-year prison sentence to be served in a colony settlement, including the fine amount.

An independent security researcher, Oleg Shakirov, stated, “For instance, in February, a Russian national was sentenced under the same article for DDoS — but he got 3 years of suspended sentence, not a real sentence. The conflict with Ukraine was apparently an important factor that contributed to the severity of the sentence. The authorities would like to deter Russians from helping the Ukrainian cause, including in cyberspace.“

The Russia-Ukraine war has developed a lot of heat among the countries, resulting in many criminal activities targeting each other. Peace must prevail in these nations as soon as possible.

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HONOR 90 series phones appear in live images ahead of launch

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HONOR 90 series phones appear in live images ahead of launch
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The HONOR 90 series will become official on May 29, and as we’re waiting for that, live images of both devices have just surfaced. We are, of course, talking about the HONOR 90 and HONOR 90 Pro here.

Before we get down to that, do note that their first-ever images appeared a couple of days ago. Those were renders, however, and they only gave us a look at the back sides of both devices.

The HONOR 90 series phones surface early in a bunch of live images

These live images, however, give us a better look at the phones, from both the front and the back. You will find a bunch of shots in the gallery below the article.

The model with circular camera islands on the back, and a single camera hole on the front is the HONOR 90. The HONOR 90 Pro employs a rounded hexagonal design for its rear cameras, and has a pill-shaped camera hole on the front.

It seems like both models will have curved displays, on all four sides. The HONOR 90, in particular, looks great here. It has very thin bezels, or at least they seem like they’re thin in this image. That pill-shaped cutout on the ‘Pro’ model really doesn’t help it from the aesthetic standpoint.

They’ll arrive in four color variants

All the physical keys will sit on the right-hand side of these two smartphones. The devices will arrive in Bright Black, Dark Jade Green, Gradient Blue, and Star Diamond Silver.

Do note that both smartphones will be making it to global markets too. We’re not sure when, but chances are that we won’t have to wait for long after they launch in China.

The HONOR 90 is said to offer 66W wired charging, while the ‘Pro’ model will support 100W charging. The ‘Pro’ variant is also tipped to include a 1.5K OLED display, and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC.

A 200-megapixel camera is expected on both smartphones, the ISOCELL GN3 sensor. Both phones will also include a “zero-risk dimming eye protection screen”, whatever that means. A 5,000mAh battery could be included in both smartphones, or at least the ‘Pro’ model.


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Hackers Using AI Tools Like ChatGPT to Deploy Malware

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Hackers Using AI Tools Like ChatGPT to Deploy Malware
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ChatGPT to Deploy Malware

Malicious ad campaigns with themes connected to artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT have been seen in Google’s search engine, according to Trendmicro researchers.

When a user types in the keyword “midjourney” into Google, several malicious advertisements are displayed. Midjourney is an AI tool that generates images from natural language descriptions.

Malicious ads that appear on the search results page when using the keyword “midjourney”

When a user clicks on one of these sponsored ads, the user’s IP address is transmitted to a backend server, where it is then used to display the user a malicious webpage.

Fake ChatGPT webpage used by threat actors for their malicious advertisements

To reduce detection, the backend server can filter bots going to the malicious domain for some of these fraudulent ads. 

The server will show a non-malicious version of the domain if the IP address accessing these Midjourney-themed URLs is blocked or visited directly by manually inputting the URL.

Clicking on a sponsored ad takes the user to a malicious website

Researchers say to interact with its command-and-control (C&C) server; this campaign takes advantage of Telegram’s API. This is an evasion method that enables communication with the C&C server to mix in with regular network traffic, assisting in detection avoidance.

Further, a fake installation window will appear when a victim runs the downloaded installer, and the malicious PowerShell download process will keep running in the background.

“In this particular campaign, victims are eventually led to a Redline stealer once they have downloaded and executed the fake Midjourney installer,” researchers explain.

“Once the script downloads and executes the Redline stealer, it will proceed with the exfiltration of sensitive information such as browser cookies, passwords, cryptocurrency wallet data, and file information.”

Generated traffic from the Redline stealer showing sensitive information being stolen

Final Thoughts

As a result, businesses and individuals must exercise caution while downloading and using new apps and tools. Users are advised to stop downloading unverified or unofficial apps and clicking on suspicious ads. 

Since many AI tools, including ChatGPT and Midjourney, don’t have desktop or mobile apps, such a version is usually a sign of malicious software.

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Verizon’s new myPlans Explained: Reading the Fine Print!

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Verizon’s new myPlans Explained: Reading the Fine Print!
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This week, Verizon announced its new unlimited plans, coined “myPlan”. It’s replacing the “more” plans that Verizon had been using over the past few years. These new myPlan options are a lot simpler, but there’s still plenty of changes here. And after studying the plans, and reading the fine print, we’re here to tell you everything you need to know about the new myPlans: Unlimited Welcome and Unlimited Plus.

What is myPlan?

myPlan is really just the name for unlimited now at Verizon. As the two unlimited plans are called “Unlimited Welcome” and Unlimited Plus”. These plans are identical to the older plans, and the price is even cheaper. However, Verizon did take out all of the perks. So no more Disney Bundle, Apple Music and other things included here. You can add those for $10/month each.

The perks are all $10 per month, and each perk is normally priced higher. So you’re still saving on each one. For instance, Verizon is offering the Apple Music Family plan for $10/month, Apple charges $16.99/month for it.

It’s an interesting way to do it, and it has upset a lot of people, since these were included in their plan, and now to get the same perks, their bill would be going up.

Unlimited Welcome

Unlimited Welcome is their entry-level Unlimited plan now. As you might expect with that name. It gives you unlimited 5G data. While it does not mention 5G UW (that’s their mmWave and C-Band network), it is included, but throttled to 25Mbps. Still very usable however. There is a limit here of 500GB. Which is quite a jump from its older plans, that had a cap of 50GB. Basically, after you hit 500GB of data, you’ll be throttled to 4Mbps. Which is also an upgrade, previously, you’d be throttled to 128Kbps.

With this plan, there’s nothing else included. Only unlimited talk, text and data. There’s no mobile hotspot included, but that can be added through one of the add-ons which we’ll talk about later.

On top of this, video will stream at 480p. That’s DVD quality streaming, and for most things, it’s perfectly fine. But there is an option to upgrade to HD video streaming, for an additional fee.

The final thing to keep in mind here is that when it comes to buying new phones or other devices, you won’t get the best deals on this plan. That’s saved for the Unlimited Plus plan. Additionally, for those bringing your own device, you will only get up to $180 promotional credit. While Unlimited Plus gets up to $540 in promotional credit.

Now for the pricing, it will start at $65 for the first line. Two lines are $55 each, three are $40 each and four are $30 each. Now, because three lines are $40 and four lines are $30, that effectively means that the fourth line is free. As both three and four lines here are $120. These prices are for auto-pay and paper-free billing, those not enrolled will see prices go up by $10 per month, per line.

Unlimited Plus

The other plan is Unlimited Plus. This gives you truly unlimited data on 5G and 5G UW (that’s mmWave and C-Band networks), with no possibility of being slowed down. That’s really great to see from Verizon, especially if you take an occasional speed test.

The only limit on this plan is the mobile hotspot. It’s 30GB of premium data, and once you use up that data it’ll be slowed to 3Mbps on 5G UW or 600Kbps on 5G/LTE for the rest of the billing cycle.

When it comes to video, streaming will be done in up to 4K, where available. This will depend on your phone and also what app you’re using for streaming, and only on 5G UW. If you’re streaming on the 5G or LTE networks, it’ll be limited to 720p streaming. Now the caveat here is that this needs to be turned on for the line, in your MyVerizon app. otherwise, it’ll be 720p and 480p streaming, respectively.

A few other things to consider here, with Unlimited Plus you will get the best deals on new devices. You will also get up to $540 in promo credit when you bring your own phone, and Verizon is also doing a 3-year price guarantee. And finally, you will get up to 50% off on a connected device plan. So if you wanted to get an LTE smartwatch, that plan would be $5 instead of $10.

Pricing here starts at $80 for a single line. It’s $70 per line for two, $55 per line for three and $45 per line for four. Keep in mind that these prices are with auto-pay and paper-free billing. Otherwise, it’ll be $10 more per month, per line.

Verizon’s new Perks

With these new plans, Verizon is giving customers the ability to get the perks you want. Instead of being stuck with those you don’t care for. So far, there’s eight perks you can choose from. However, Verizon has said they are going to be adding more. These are the perks that Verizon currently has, keep in mind that each one is $10, through Verizon.

  • 100GB Mobile Hotspot
  • Walmart+ Membership
  • Disney Bundle
  • Apple One (Individual)
  • Apple Music Family
  • 3 TravelPass Days
  • 2TB Cloud Storage (Verizon Cloud)
  • +play Monthly Credit

You can add as many or as few as you want, to your plan.

Verizon’s Unlimited Welcome vs Unlimited Plus: Which should you choose?

So which plan should you choose? Unlimited Welcome is definitely the better plan, and at $80 it’s actually not too crazy priced. It’s especially good for those that do a lot of travel, or aren’t home much. However, if you are like me and work from home, then Unlimited Plus is a better option.

Why does everyone hate these new plans, when they are actually cheaper? Well, that’s because the perks they were getting before were “included” and now to add them back, you’d be paying more for month. For instance, Verizon’s 5G Get More plan, their highest-end plan which was $90 per month, but included Apple Music, Disney Bundle, as well as a few other things. To get those add-ons now, would cost you $110. That’s a big jump in price. But if you were only using one of those perks, then it’s the same price.

These are actually good plans, and they are also very easy to understand versus their old plans.


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US government seizes domains linked to DDoS attack

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US government seizes domains linked to DDoS attack
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The United States (US) federal government has seized 13 domains linked to ‘booter’ websites that offered distributed denial of service (DDoS)-attacks-for-hire services.  

So-called ‘booter’ sites allow people to pay malicious actors to launch DDoS attacks against people or organizations of their choice. DDoS attacks disrupt sites by overwhelming their infrastructure with a large amount of internet traffic, which overwhelms the site’s bandwidth and prevents users from accessing it. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized the domains on May 8. The seizure revealed that “hundreds of thousands of registered users have used these services to launch millions of attacks against millions of victims”, including financial institutions, school districts, government websites and universities. Additionally, 10 of the 13 domains were reincarnated versions of domains previously seized in a similar sweep in December 2022. 

The Los Angeles Justice Department announced in relation to the sites seized that four men who pleaded guilty in late 2022 and were charged with federal charges earlier this year, admitted that they operated or participated in the operation of booter services. All four defendants are due to be sentenced later in 2023. 

The FBI and Los Angeles Justice Department have said that the investigation into booter sites remains ongoing. 


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The Pixel 8 Pro might have a built-in thermometer

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The Pixel 8 Pro might have a built-in thermometer
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People are soon to be receiving their Pixel 7a handsets and cracking into them. While this is an exciting phone, the Pixel 8 will be one of the most anticipated Pixel phones of the year. The Pixel 8 Pro might be even more interesting, as it may have a thermometer built into the camera package.

The Pixel 7a was just announced along with the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Fold. Google showed these devices off during Google I/O, and you can check out more coverage on these devices on Android headlines.com.

The Pixel 8 Pro might have a built-in thermometer

Since we’re just under half a year away from the Pixel 8’s unveiling, you will want to take this information with a grain of salt. This is a leak that was covered by 91Mobiles. The leak originally included a leaked video, however, it was taken down, unfortunately.

So, for the time being, we’re going to have to rely on word of mouth. According to the source, the Pixel 8 Pro will have an additional sensor in the camera package. The sensor will sit right below the flash.

Pixel 8 pro thermometer

In the image, we see the Pixel 8 with its metal visor and pill-shaped cut-out for the sensors. This is similar to what we saw with the Pixel 7 Pro, however, there was a difference. The Pixel 7 Pro had two sensors inside one pill-shaped cutout. The other sensor sat inside of its own separate circular cutout.

In the case of the Pixel 8 Pro, all three of the main sensors will be inside one large pill-shaped cutout with the flash and potential thermometer sitting right next to it. It still maintains the overall aesthetic that the Pixel lineup has established.

How will it work?

As for the functionality, it doesn’t seem like this will be like we see in the movies with the infrared imagery. Instead, this will be to help check your body temperature. You’ll have to press the start button for the thermometer and then hold it to the spot on your skin that you want to measure within five Seconds.

Along with your skin, you might be able to measure the temperature of objects as well. Since this is a sensor on your phone, you should expect some limitations in the functionality.

So far, it looks like this will only be available for the Pixel 8 Pro. The regular Pixel 8 will not have the sensor. This will be just another perk to entice you to pay the additional money for the pro variant.


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Leaked OnePlus V Fold & OPPO Find N3 specs point to considerable changes

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Leaked OnePlus V Fold & OPPO Find N3 specs point to considerable changes
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A couple of days ago, it was reported that the OnePlus V Fold and OPPO Find N3 will feature the same design. That information came from Yogesh Brar, in collaboration with 91mobiles. The same collab is back, sharing the OnePlus V Fold and OPPO Find N3 specs.

The OnePlus V Fold & OPPO Find N3 specs just leaked, but they could be a bit off

Before we get down to it, please note that these may be inaccurate. Yogesh Brar is not a tipster with the best track record out there, and something about these specs does seem off. Let’s see what’s up.

Based on the provided information, the specs listed here will be the same across these two devices. The main display is tipped to measure 8 inches in diagonal. It will be a QHD+ OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, allegedly.

The external display will measure 6.5 inches, and offer a fullHD+ resolution, and a 120Hz refresh rate. This is what seems odd and out of place. The Find N3 is rumored to be larger than the Find N and Find N2, but chances are it will have a smaller outer display.

The OPPO Find N and N2 were horizontally-oriented when unfolded, and they were quite short in general. OPPO may increase the size of the Find N3, but chances are the device will stay horizontally oriented, and its outer display will be sub-6 in size, like the panel on the Pixel Fold. That’s just a guess, though. It seems unrealistic to expect that OPPO will both increase the size of the Find N3, and also change the form factor entirely.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC is tipped, along with up to 16GB of RAM

The tipster claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will fuel the two devices. Up to 16GB of RAM is also mentioned, and up to 512GB of internal storage. The two companies will likely use LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage.

A 50-megapixel main camera is mentioned here, along with a 48-megapixel ultrawide unit. A 32-megapixel periscope camera also got listed by the tipster. Two 32-megapixel selfie cameras are also noted here, one for each of the two displays.

The OnePlus V Fold and OPPO Find N3 are also said to include a 4,800mAh battery on the inside, and support 80W wired charging. Wireless charging was not mentioned. The OnePlus V Fold is coming in Q3, while the OPPO Find N3 could land in Q4 this year.


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OnePlus 10T gets new gaming & health features

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OnePlus 10T gets new gaming & health features
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The OnePlus 10T has started receiving a new update, which delivers new gaming and health features. This update is marked as OxygenOS 13.1.0.520.

The OnePlus 10T is getting new gaming and health features via new update

There are two different builds, one for the Indian market, and the other for other (global) markets. The update brings some interesting new features to the table, and yes, the changelog is separated on gaming and health features, there’s nothing else in there.

Let’s kick things off with the gaming additions. This update adds the Championship mode to Game Assistant. OnePlus says that this mode will improve performance while also disabling notifications, calls, and other messages. It does all this to allow you to focus on gaming.

OnePlus also added a music playback control to Game Assistant. Now you can listen to and control music while gaming, with ease, without the need to call upon the notification shade or anything of the sort.

Now, when it comes to Health features, OnePlus added the TalkBack feature. This feature “recognizes and announces images in apps and Photos”, says the company.

The ‘Zen Space’ app has been added by the company

The second and last health-related addition is called ‘Zen Space’. This is an application that comes with two modes, Deep Zen and Light Zen. These two modes are supposed to help you “focus on the present”.

This update is rolling out in stages, as per usual. It has started rolling out in India, while other markets are expected to get it in the coming days. As it usually goes with staged rollouts, you may not get the update straight away, but don’t fret, it’s coming.

The OnePlus 10T was announced back in August last year, and it’s still very much a compelling smartphone. It came with high-end specs, excellent battery life, and much more. It’s nice to see that OnePlus is adding new features to it.


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Guerilla Malware Shipped With Roughly 9 Million Android Devices

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Guerilla Malware Shipped With Roughly 9 Million Android Devices
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Researchers have revealed the shipping of millions of Android devices pre-infected with Guerilla malware. The infected devices include smartphones, smart TVs, and even smartwatches.

Lemon Group Pre-Infected Android Devices With Guerilla Malware

According to a recent report from Trend Micro, their researchers found many Android devices serving users with severe malware. Investigating the matter made them unveil a sneaky malware campaign that caused the shipping of pre-infected Android devices.

As explained, they traced back the malware campaign to the “Lemon Group” that re-flashed the target Android devices with new ROMs. Re-flashing ROMs is a technique that helps replace or modify the respective devices, such as a smartphone’s firmware. If done on pre-shipped devices, this process can help interested users run a different OS on the device.

Specifically, Trend Micro noticed the Lemon Group had exploited this technique to flash devices to infect them with Guerilla malware.

It remains unclear how the threat actors managed to infect pre-shipped devices. Yet, upon receiving numerous reports regarding the Guerilla malware infections in newly purchased phones, Trend Micro researchers analyzed the devices’ ROM images to find the malware.

On the infected devices, the malware installs various plugins serving different functionalities such as intercepting SMS messages, configuring reverse proxy from the infected device, hijacking WhatsApp sessions, harvesting Facebook data, and silent installations of other apps.

Malware Infected The Android Users Globally

Regarding the Lemon Group, Trend Micro explained that it mainly targets big data firms and advertisers, gaining insights about the potential targets it can infect with its malware.

For instance, in a recent campaign, the threat actors infected around 8.9 million Android devices, including smartphones, smart watches, Android TV boxes, and smart TVs.

These infected devices then targeted users in over 180 countries, including the United States, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Argentina, South Africa, Angola, Philippines, Mexico, and Russia. The researchers could identify around 490,000 different mobile numbers associated with OTPs generated for Lemon Group SMS-related activities.

The researchers have also shared the details about this campaign that’s seemingly ongoing for the past five years at the recent Black Hat Asia May 2023 conference.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.


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OnePlus V Fold and/or OnePlus 11T to utilize Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2

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OnePlus V Fold and/or OnePlus 11T to utilize Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2
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For a while, we thought that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 won’t launch at all. Well, based on some recent info, that chip is coming after all. The same tipster that shared that info is now bringing some fresh Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2-related information. Based on info from Revegnus, the OnePlus V Fold and/or OnePlus 11T will be fueled by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 processor.

The OnePlus V Fold and/or OnePlus 11T are expected to utilize the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2

In his tweet Revegnus wrote: “iQOO and OnePlus will use Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2”. He did not specify any models, but OnePlus has a couple of high-end devices left to launch this year, so we can guess.

The OnePlus V Fold is coming for sure, OnePlus confirmed its launch for Q3. We’re still not sure if that’ll be its name, though. The OnePlus 11T will likely launch in Q4 this year, though we haven’t heard anything about that phone just yet. There is also a chance we’ll see a clamshell foldable from OnePlus this year, but nothing is certain yet.

In any case, both the OnePlus V Fold and OnePlus 11T will reach for the most powerful chips on the market. The OnePlus V Fold could still use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, because it’s coming in Q3, it’s possible OnePlus already completely adapted it to the SNapdragon 8 Gen 2, and the ‘Plus’ model didn’t even launch yet.

If that chip does end up launching soon, the OnePlus 11T will utilize it for sure. The OnePlus 10T included the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor last year, which has proven to be the right call by OnePlus.

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 will likely be a minor improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 was a huge improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 won’t exactly be a huge boost over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Qualcomm really did a fantastic job with that processor.

With the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, Qualcomm switched to TSMC, from Samsung. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, on the other hand, was manufactured by Samsung. TSMC is still ahead when it comes to SoC production tech. That is why we’ve seen considerable changes between the two chips. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2, if it does launch, will also be manufactured by TSMC:


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