Misuse of Language: 'Cyber'

Threatpost Op-Ed is a regular feature where experts contribute essays and commentary on what’s happening in security and privacy. Today’s contributors are Dave Dittrich and Katherine Carpenter. The terms “cyber war” and “cyber weapon” are thrown around casually, often with little thought to their...

Overload: Critical Lessons from 15 Years of ICS Vulnerabilities

In the past several years, a flood of vulnerabilities has hit industrial control systems ICS – the technological backbone of electric grids, water supplies, and production lines. These vulnerabilities affect the reliable operation of sensors, programmable controllers, software and networking...

Cerber: Analyzing a Ransomware Attack Methodology To Enable Protection

Ransomware is a common method of cyber extortion for financial gain that typically involves users being unable to interact with their files, applications or systems until a ransom is paid. Accessibility of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has directly contributed to this ransomware model. Based on...

Apple Patents Technology to remotely disable your iPhone Camera at Concerts

Here's something you'll not like at all: Apple has been awarded a patent for technology that would prevent you from snapping pictures and shooting videos with your iPhone or iPad at places or events, like concerts or museums, where it might be prohibited or inappropriate. The patent, granted on...

The Latest Android Overlay Malware Spreading via SMS Phishing in Europe

Introduction In April 2016, while investigating a Smishing campaign dubbed RuMMS that involved the targeting of Android users in Russia, we also noticed three similar Smishing campaigns reportedly spreading in Denmark February 2016, in Italy February 2016, and in both Denmark and Italy April 2016...

Windows BITS 'Notification' Feature Used to Deliver Malware

Attackers have found a new way to exploit the Widows Background Intelligent Transfer Service BITS which is being used to infect and reinfect targeted PCs with malware even after the initial infection has been removed. According to security researchers at Dell SecureWorks, attackers are exploiting...

IRONGATE ICS Malware: Nothing to See Here...Masking Malicious Activity on SCADA Systems

In the latter half of 2015, the FireEye Labs Advanced Reverse Engineering FLARE team identified several versions of an ICS-focused malware crafted to manipulate a specific industrial process running within a simulated Siemens control system environment. We named this family of malware IRONGATE...

SandJacking Attack Puts iOS Devices At Risk to Rogue Apps

Apple has yet to patch a vulnerability disclosed during last week’s Hack in the Box hacker conference in Amsterdam that allows an attacker with physical access—even on the latest versions of iOS—to swap out legitimate apps with malicious versions undetected on the device. Researcher Chilik Tamir ...

CVE-2016-1322

The REST interface in Cisco Spark 2015-07-04 allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and create arbitrary user accounts via unspecified web requests, aka Bug ID CSCuv72584...

Holiday Season 2015 Email Campaign

The holiday season is a time when many people go on vacation or at least get much-needed downtime from work, but that is not always the case with attackers. To better understand the threats we face during “the most wonderful time of the year,” FireEye Labs has been collecting data on the most...

China-based Cyber Threat Group Uses Dropbox for Malware Communications and Targets Hong Kong Media Outlets

FireEye Threat Intelligence analysts identified a spear phishing campaign carried out in August 2015 targeting Hong Kong-based media organizations. A China-based cyber threat group, which FireEye tracks as an uncategorized advanced persistent threat APT group and other researchers refer to as...

ModPOS: Highly-Sophisticated, Stealthy Malware Targeting US POS Systems with High Likelihood of Broader Campaigns

Today, iSIGHT Partners is sharing details about a highly sophisticated criminal malware framework that has been used to target point-of-sale POS systems at US-based retailers. We believe this very hard to detect malware is likely being used in broader campaigns and are disclosing details to help...

CVE-2015-4852

The WLS Security component in Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6.0, 12.1.2.0, 12.1.3.0, and 12.2.1.0 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a crafted serialized Java object in T3 protocol traffic to TCP port 7001, related to...

Pinpointing Targets: Exploiting Web Analytics to Ensnare Victims

Over the past year, FireEye Threat Intelligence has identified suspected nation-state sponsored cyber-actors engaged in a large-scale reconnaissance effort. This effort makes use of web analytics—the technologies to collect, analyze, and report data The individuals behind this activity have amass...

What is Threat Intelligence and How It Helps to Identify Security Threats

Simply put, threat intelligence is knowledge that helps you identify security threats and make informed decisions. Threat intelligence can help you solve the following problems: How do I keep up to date on the overwhelming amount of information on security threats…including bad actors, methods,...

U.S. and Japan to Cooperate on Cybersecurity, Information Sharing

The United States and Japan have agreed to cooperate more closely on cybersecurity and information sharing initiatives as a way to help both countries defend against future threats and attacks. The new initiative will include a variety of components, most notably cooperation during serious...

Penn State Offline Following Advanced Two-Year Cyberattack

Penn State University President Eric J. Barron announced Friday that the university disconnected its networks from the public Internet after sustaining an intrusion into the College of Engineering that had lasted longer than two years. It will be a matter of days before Penn State brings its...

Vulnerabilities in the OpenSUSE operating system that allow malicious actors to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of protected information

Multiple vulnerabilities exist in the audit package of the OpenSUSE operating system. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities can lead to breaches of confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of protected information. These vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely...

White House Executive Order Declares Cyber National Emergency

U.S. President Barack Obama last week issued an Executive Order declaring a national emergency and deputizing the Treasury Secretary and Attorney General to apply sanctions and other consequences for international actors deemed to have engaged in “cyber-enabled activities” detrimental to U.S...

Most Targeted Attacks Exploit Privileged Accounts

We all like to write and talk about flashy zero-day vulnerabilities. However, a new threat report cautions enterprises not to flatter themselves, because the majority of criminals are not using valuable zero-days exploits to penetrate corporate networks: they’re phishing privileged account...