Cybercriminals from the Eastern European block mostly attack PCs running on the Windows OS. Both long-standing and zero day vulnerabilities make Windows a static target for the skilled yet malicious hackers that reside in Russia.
Operating from predominantly Russian-speaking countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and former USSR “satellite” states such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Georgia, the hackers seem to avoid installing their payload if the targeted PC appears to be using a Russian keyboard layout.
Quite often, domain investors have lost their domains to cybercriminals in Russia that compromised their PCs or laptops.
So what is the keyboard hack we talked about?
By simply installing a Russian keyboard layout in Windows, research has shown that when hitting a PC with malware, the trojan carrier will not deploy its payload once it checks the PC’s locale. It’s akin to being vaccinated against Russian malware attacks.
Read more details about this remarkable discovery at Krebs On Security.
