NEWS
Alipay + and Kaspi. kz enable international payment acceptance in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has become the first country in Central Asia to accept
Alipay +, allowing local merchants to receive payments from 12 Alipay +-enabled e-wallets and bank apps. Travellers can now scanto-pay via Kaspi QR, which offers the widest merchant coverage nationwide, from shopping and dining to attractions, convenience stores, medical services and even outlets in rural areas.
“ Since last year, Kazakhstanis have been able to pay in their favourite travel destinations using the Kaspi. kz super app,” said Mikhail Lomtadze, CEO and Co-founder of Kaspi. kz.“ Now visitors to Kazakhstan can pay via Kaspi QR using their Alipay + wallets or bank apps. We are proud to make travel to Kazakhstan more convenient and support economic growth.”
The move aims to boost tourism by expanding payment options for international visitors. In the first half of 2025, Kazakhstan welcomed a record 7.5 million visitors, with China, Germany and South Korea among the top five source markets. These travellers can now use their Alipay +-enabled apps for seamless transactions.
“ This strengthens our partnership with Kaspi. kz for both inbound and outbound cross-border mobile payments that benefit travellers and businesses,” said Edward Yue, General Manager for SEA, South Asia and ANZ, Ant International.“ We’ re connecting our global partners to local merchants and promoting sustainable growth in Kazakhstan and the region.”
The collaboration builds on an April 2024 initiative enabling Kazakhstanis to make payments abroad using Kaspi. kz, with popular destinations including China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, Italy and France.
New GodRAT trojan targets financial sector via Skype
July 2024. The threat actors behind the campaign targeted small and medium-sized businesses( SMBs) in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Jordan and Lebanon.
GodRAT is highly evasive, using steganography – the practice of concealing a file within another – to hide malicious code within image files to avoid detection. The RAT then steals system information and can use additional plugins to explore victims’ systems and deploy password stealers to extract credentials from browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The attackers also used AsyncRAT as a secondary implant to ensure continued access to compromised systems. new remote access Trojan( RAT) called GodRAT has been
A found targeting financial institutions, with its initial distribution channel being malicious screensaver files sent via Skype messenger, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has revealed.
The Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team( GReAT) discovered the malware after it was uploaded to an online scanner in
Saurabh Sharma, a security researcher for Kaspersky’ s GReAT, said,“ GodRAT appears to be an evolution of AwesomePuppet, which was reported by Kaspersky in 2023 and is likely linked to the Winnti APT.” Sharma noted that the malware’ s code has similarities to the two-decade-old Gh0st RAT, highlighting how threat actors continue to adapt legacy codebases for new campaigns.
The GodRAT builder allows attackers to disguise the payload by using legitimate process names and saving the file in various formats, including. exe,. com and. bat.
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