The Pulse of Fileless Cryptojacking Attacks: Malicious PowerShell Scripts

Fileless malware predominantly relies on PowerShell scripts, leveraging the native capabilities of Windows systems to execute stealthy attacks that leave no traces on the victim's system. The effectiveness of the fileless method lies in its ability to remain operational on victim endpoints through memory execution, even if the attacks are detected, and the original malicious scripts are removed. Threat actors have increasingly utilized this technique, particularly since 2017, to conduct cryptojacking attacks. With the emergence of new Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in ubiquitous libraries, widespread cryptocurrency mining attacks have become prevalent, often employing fileless techniques. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of PowerShell scripts of fileless cryptojacking, dissecting the common malicious patterns based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Mesoscale constitutive behavior of ferroelectrics

The main goal of this study is the in-situ investigation of the ferroelectric domain structure inside polycrystalline BaTiO3 under thermo-electro-mechanical loading conditions. The outcome is two-fold: (i) the characterization techniques were improved to study the polycrystalline ferroelectrics in the mesoscale; and (ii) the texture, lattice strain and volume fraction of domains were tracked under applied electric field and mechanical stress. Two novel synchrotron-based characterization techniques, three-dimensional X-ray diffraction (3-D XRD) and Scanning X-ray Microdiffraction (ySXRD) were used in this study. The methodology and standards in both techniques differ from each other and the present study provides a framework to bridge these techniques. Although these methods have been developed earlier, their application and adaptation to ferroelectrics required some care. For instance, diffraction spots often overlapped and made it difficult to identify individual domains and/or grains. In order to eliminate the spot overlap, the polycrystalline BaTiO3 sample was heated above the Curie temperature where the (tetragonal) domains disappear and attain the orientation of the grain. Next, the sample was cooled slowly to the room temperature and the evolution of the ferroelectric domains was studied at temperature and under electric field. The orientation relationships, volume fractions and lattice strain evolution of 8 domain systems were studied. Whereas the orientation of the domains remained unchanged under electric field, the fraction of the energetically favorable domain variants increased. Due to local constraints, complete switching from one domain variant to another was not observed. The misorientation angles between domain variants slightly deviated from the theoretical value (=89.4y) by 0.2-0.3y. The deviation angle can be explained with the phase-matching angle developed during the cubic-tetragonal phase transformation to maintain strain compatibility of neighboring domains. The multiscale strain evolution of ferroelectric domains in a polycrystal was investigated quantitatively for the first time. Under electric field, lattice strains of up to 0.1% were measured along the applied field direction. The present study offers a framework to characterize the polycrystalline materials with complex twin structures. By using the methodology described in this study, 3D-XRD and ySXRD techniques can be employed to study texture and lattice strain evolution in polycrystalline materials in the mesoscale

A Prevention and a Traction System for Ransomware Attacks

Over the past three years, especially following WannaCry malware, ransomware has become one of the biggest concerns for private businesses, state, and local government agencies. According to Homeland Security statistics, 1.5 million ransomware attacks have occurred per year since 2016. Cybercriminals often use creative methods to inject their malware into the target machines and use sophisticated cryptographic techniques to hold hostage victims' files and programs unless a certain amount of equivalent Bitcoin is paid. The return to the cybercriminals is so high (estimated \$1 billion in 2019) without any cost because of the advanced anonymity provided by cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin \cite{Paquet-Clouston2019}. Given this context, this study first discusses the current state of ransomware, detection, and prevention systems. Second, we propose a global ransomware center to better manage our concerted efforts against cybercriminals. The policy implications of the proposed study are discussed in the conclusion section

Mesoscale constitutive behavior of ferroelectrics

The main goal of this study is the in-situ investigation of the ferroelectric domain structure inside polycrystalline BaTiO3 under thermo-electro-mechanical loading conditions. The outcome is two-fold: (i) the characterization techniques were improved to study the polycrystalline ferroelectrics in the mesoscale; and (ii) the texture, lattice strain and volume fraction of domains were tracked under applied electric field and mechanical stress. Two novel synchrotron-based characterization techniques, three-dimensional X-ray diffraction (3-D XRD) and Scanning X-ray Microdiffraction (ySXRD) were used in this study. The methodology and standards in both techniques differ from each other and the present study provides a framework to bridge these techniques. Although these methods have been developed earlier, their application and adaptation to ferroelectrics required some care. For instance, diffraction spots often overlapped and made it difficult to identify individual domains and/or grains. In order to eliminate the spot overlap, the polycrystalline BaTiO3 sample was heated above the Curie temperature where the (tetragonal) domains disappear and attain the orientation of the grain. Next, the sample was cooled slowly to the room temperature and the evolution of the ferroelectric domains was studied at temperature and under electric field. The orientation relationships, volume fractions and lattice strain evolution of 8 domain systems were studied. Whereas the orientation of the domains remained unchanged under electric field, the fraction of the energetically favorable domain variants increased. Due to local constraints, complete switching from one domain variant to another was not observed. The misorientation angles between domain variants slightly deviated from the theoretical value (=89.4y) by 0.2-0.3y. The deviation angle can be explained with the phase-matching angle developed during the cubic-tetragonal phase transformation to maintain strain compatibility of neighboring domains. The multiscale strain evolution of ferroelectric domains in a polycrystal was investigated quantitatively for the first time. Under electric field, lattice strains of up to 0.1% were measured along the applied field direction. The present study offers a framework to characterize the polycrystalline materials with complex twin structures. By using the methodology described in this study, 3D-XRD and ySXRD techniques can be employed to study texture and lattice strain evolution in polycrystalline materials in the mesoscale.</p