A week in security (August 6 – August 12)

Last week, we published a review of exploit kits, talked about everyday tech that can give you a headache, and showed how to protect RDP access from ransomware. We also published a study on the true cost of cybercrime. Other news: Discovered at Black Hat: WhatsApp "message manipulation" Source: T...

DDoS attacks in Q2 2018

News overview Q2 2018 news includes: non-standard use of old vulnerabilities, new botnets, the cutthroat world of cryptocurrencies, a high-profile DDoS attack or not with a political subtext, the slashdot effect, some half-baked attempts at activism, and a handful arrests. But first things first...

DDoS Attacks Get Bigger, Smarter and More Diverse

Distributed denial of service attacks, bent on taking websites offline by overwhelming domains or specific application infrastructure with massive traffic flows, continue to pose a major challenge to businesses of all stripes. Being knocked offline impacts revenue, customer service and basic...

IoT Botnets Found Using Default Credentials for C&C Server Databases

Not following cybersecurity best practices could not only cost online users but also cost cybercriminals. Yes, sometimes hackers don't take best security measures to keep their infrastructure safe. A variant of IoT botnet, called Owari, that relies on default or weak credentials to hack insecure...

5 Powerful Botnets Found Exploiting Unpatched GPON Router Flaws

Well, that did not take long. Within just 10 days of the disclosure of two critical vulnerabilities in GPON router at least 5 botnet families have been found exploiting the flaws to build an army of million devices. Security researchers from Chinese-based cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360 Netlab have...

GPON Routers Multiple Vulnerabilities

GPON Home Routers are prone to multiple vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities where known to be exploited by the Mettle, Muhstik, Mirai, Hajime, and Satori Botnets in 2018. SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018 Greenbone AG Some text descriptions might be excerpted from a referenced sources, and are...

Securing Modern Web Applications: Threats and Types of Attacks

Web Application Firewalls are the most advanced firewall capabilities available to IT teams. Deploying the appropriate WAF is important, especially these days when the security threat landscape is changing so rapidly. In a previous post, we introduced Web Application Firewalls: Securing Modern We...

Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 23 is now available

As security incidents and events keep making headlines, Microsoft is committed to helping our customers and the rest of the security community to make sense of the risks and offer recommendations. Old and new malware continues to get propagated through massive botnets, attackers are increasing...

How to Mitigate the Threat Cryptocurrency Mining Poses to Enterprise Security

The growing popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is generating curiosity—and concern—among security specialists. Crypto mining software has been found on user machines, often installed by botnets. Organizations need to understand the risks posed by this software and what actions, if...

The Botconf Experience

By Yohai Einav, Amir Asiaee, Ali Fakiri-Tabrizi and Alexey Sarychev Originally Posted on January 4, 2018 Earlier this month we took our show on the road, presenting some of our team's work at the Botconf conference in beautiful Montpellier, France. We could talk here for hours about the food, win...

Forever 21 Says PoS Systems Exposed Customer Data for 8 Months

Fashion retailer Forever 21 confirmed a breach made public in November resulted in the theft of credit card data belonging to an undisclosed number of customers. The company had stated that a lack of encryption used on some of its point-of-sales payment terminals could have resulted in unauthoriz...

Code Used in Zero Day Huawei Router Attack Made Public

Exploit code used in the Mirai malware variant called Satori, which was used to attack hundreds of thousands of Huawei routers over the past several weeks, is now public. Researchers warn the code will quickly become a commodity and be leveraged in DDoS attacks via botnets such as Reaper or...

Microsoft teams up with law enforcement and other partners to disrupt Gamarue (Andromeda)

Today, with help from Microsoft security researchers, law enforcement agencies around the globe, in cooperation with Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit DCU, announced the disruption of Gamarue, a widely distributed malware that has been used in networks of infected computers collectively called the...

Microsoft teams up with law enforcement and other partners to disrupt Gamarue (Andromeda)

Today, with help from Microsoft security researchers, law enforcement agencies around the globe, in cooperation with Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit DCU, announced the disruption of Gamarue, a widely distributed malware that has been used in networks of infected computers collectively called the...

IC3 Issues Alert on DDoS Attacks

The Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 has issued an alert on distributed denial-of-service DDoS-for-hire services advertised on criminal forums and marketplaces. Using DDoS attacks to prevent legitimate users from accessing websites or information can lead to serious consequences. US-CERT...

Data Breaches and Credential Stuffing: Don't Get TKOd

It has been a very rough month for the information security community. It feels like we've been on the losing end of a championship fight against Floyd Mayweather. The body shots started with Equifax https://investor.equifax.com/news-and-events/news/2017/09-07-2017-213000628 and continued with...

Linux Trojan Using Hacked IoT Devices to Send Spam Emails

Botnets, like Mirai, that are capable of infecting Linux-based internet-of-things IoT devices are constantly increasing and are mainly designed to conduct Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attacks, but researchers have discovered that cybercriminals are using botnets for mass spam mailings. New...

How to Deploy SecureSphere WAF on Azure

If you host apps in the cloud, then you need security in the cloud. The Imperva SecureSphere Web Application Firewall WAF identifies and acts upon dangers maliciously woven into innocent-looking website traffic, both on-premises and in the cloud, such as: Blocking technical attacks such as SQL...

The IoT Attack Vector “BlueBorne” Exposes Almost Every Connected Device (BlueBorne)

General Overview Armis Labs revealed a new attack vector endangering major mobile, desktop, and IoT operating systems, including Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux, and the devices using them. The new vector is dubbed “BlueBorne”, as it spread through the air airborne and attacks devices via...

Miners on the Rise

Miners are a class of malware whose popularity has grown substantially this year. The actual process of cryptocurrency mining is perfectly legal, though there are groups of people who hoodwink unwitting users into installing mining software on their computers, or exploiting software vulnerabiliti...