"Microsoft Catches Hackers Using Morse Code to Help Cover Their Tracks"

Clever hackers use various techniques to cover their tracks on a target computer, but it is not very often that digital attackers turn to Morse Code, a 177-year-old signaling system, for operational security. Yet that’s precisely what played a part in a year-long phishing campaign that Microsoft researchers outlined on Thursday.  Hackers were sending select targets fake invoices to try to convince them to cough up their passwords and, in some cases, to collect IP addresses and location data of victim machines. The hackers changed their encryption schemes every month to try to hide their activity.  Microsoft researchers compared the malicious attachments the hackers used to steal usernames and passwords from victims and then to try to gain further access to networks to a “jigsaw puzzle.”  The researchers state that on their own, the individual segments of the HMTL file may appear harmless at the code level and may thus slip past conventional security solutions.  The researchers noted that the malicious intent shows only when these segments are put together and properly decoded.  It is currently unclear what motivated the hacking scheme, how successful it was, or what sectors the victims operated. 

CyberScoop reports: "Microsoft Catches Hackers Using Morse Code to Help Cover Their Tracks"