Becoming resilient by understanding cybersecurity risks: Part 3—a security pro’s perspective

In part two of this blog series on aligning security with business objectives and risk, we explored the importance of thinking and acting holistically, using the example of human-operated ransomware, which threatens every organization in every industry. As we exited 2020, the Solorigate attack...

Chinese Hackers Had Access to a U.S. Hacking Tool Years Before It Was Leaked Online

On August 13, 2016, a hacking unit calling itself "The Shadow Brokers" announced that it had stolen malware tools and exploits used by the Equation Group, a sophisticated threat actor believed to be affiliated to the Tailored Access Operations TAO unit of the U.S. National Security Agency NSA...

SolarWinds Hackers Stole Some Source Code for Microsoft Azure, Exchange, Intune

Microsoft on Thursday said it concluded its probe into the SolarWinds hack, finding that the attackers stole some source code but confirmed there's no evidence that they abused its internal systems to target other companies or gained access to production services or customer data. The disclosure...

The Untold History of America’s Zero-Day Market

The lucrative business of dealing in code vulnerabilities is central to espionage and war planning, which is why brokers never spoke about it—until now...

Kasablanka Group's LodaRAT improves espionage capabilities on Android and Windows

By Warren Mercer, Chris Neal and Vitor Ventura. The developers of LodaRAT have added Android as a targeted platform.A new iteration of LodaRAT for Windows has been identified with improved sound recording capabilities.The operators behind LodaRAT tied to a specific campaign targeting Bangladesh,...

Android Devices Hunted by LodaRAT Windows Malware

A newly discovered variant of the LodaRAT malware, which has historically targeted Windows devices, is being distributed in an ongoing campaign that now also hunts down Android devices and spies on victims. Along with this, an updated version of LodaRAT for Windows has also been identified; both...

Detailed: Here's How Iran Spies on Dissidents with the Help of Hackers

Twin cyber operations conducted by state-sponsored Iranian threat actors demonstrate their continued focus on compiling detailed dossiers on Iranian citizens that could threaten the stability of the Islamic Republic, including dissidents, opposition forces, and ISIS supporters, and Kurdish native...

Another SolarWinds Orion Hack

At the same time the Russians were using a backdoored SolarWinds update to attack networks worldwide, another threat actor -- believed to be Chinese in origin -- was using an already existing vulnerability in Orion to penetrate networks: Two people briefed on the case said FBI investigators...

Second SolarWinds Attack Group Breaks into USDA Payroll — Report

There had been hints that a second group of malicious actors may have exploited a SolarWinds bug to install the Supernova backdoor — notably, there was a conclusion by Microsoft back in December that this was the case. Now, sources told Reuters that there’s indeed evidence that a separate advance...

Hezbollah-Linked Lebanese Cedar APT Infiltrates Hundreds of Servers

Advanced persistent threat APT group Lebanese Cedar has compromised at least 250 public-facing servers since early 2020, researchers said, with its latest malware. The group has added new features to its custom “Caterpillar” webshell and the “Explosive RAT” remote access trojan RAT, both of which...

Addressing the OT-IT Risk and Asset Inventory Gap

Cyber-espionage and exploitation from nation-state-sanctioned actors have only become more prevalent in recent years, with recent examples including the SolarWinds attack, which was attributed to nation-state actors with alleged Russian ties. There are suspicions that sensitive information has be...

Apple iOS 14 Thwarts iMessage Attacks With BlastDoor System

In an effort to prevent attacks from being launched via its iMessage feature, Apple has debuted a security service called BlastDoor in iOS 14, its current mobile operating system version. First detailed in an analysis this week by Google Project Zero’s Samuel Groß, BlastDoor acts as a “tightly...

Hezbollah Hacker Group Targeted Telecoms, Hosting, ISPs Worldwide

A "persistent attacker group" with alleged ties to Hezbollah has retooled its malware arsenal with a new version of a remote access Trojan RAT to break into companies worldwide and extract valuable information. In a new report published by the ClearSky research team on Thursday, the Israeli...

Outgoing FCC Chair Issues Final Security Salvo Against China

Outgoing Federal Communications Chair Ajit Pai has issued a final warning about Chinese telcos at the end of a tenure spent cracking down on companies like Huawei, ZTE and China Telecom. Pai, a former telecommunications industry lobbyist and in-house counsel for Verizon, told Reuters that managin...

Here's How SolarWinds Hackers Stayed Undetected for Long Enough

Microsoft on Wednesday shared more specifics about the tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs adopted by the attackers behind the SolarWinds hack to stay under the radar and avoid detection, as cybersecurity companies work towards getting a "clearer picture" of one of the most sophisticated...

Malwarebytes Hit by SolarWinds Attackers

Malwarebytes is the latest discovered victim of the SolarWinds hackers, the security company said – except that it wasn’t targeted through the SolarWinds platform. “While Malwarebytes does not use SolarWinds, we, like many other companies were recently targeted by the same threat actor,” it...

SolarWinds Malware Arsenal Widens with Raindrop

An additional piece of malware, dubbed Raindrop, has been unmasked in the sprawling SolarWinds supply-chain attacks. It was used in targeted attacks after the effort’s initial mass Sunburst compromise, researchers said. The SolarWinds espionage attack, which has affected several U.S. government...

Hackers Leak Stolen Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Data

On the heels of a previously-reported cyberattack on the European Medicines Agency EMA, cybercriminals have spilled compromised data related to COVID-19 vaccinations onto the internet. The EMA is an agency of the European Union in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products in...

BumbleBee Opens Exchange Servers in xHunt Spy Campaign

A webshell called BumbleBee has taken flight in an ongoing xHunt espionage campaign that has targeted Microsoft Exchange servers at Kuwaiti organizations. According to researchers at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, BumbleBee so named because of its color scheme was observed being used to upload and...

Unveiled: SUNSPOT Malware Was Used to Inject SolarWinds Backdoor

As the investigation into the SolarWinds supply-chain attack continues, cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a third malware strain that was deployed into the build environment to inject the backdoor into the company's Orion network monitoring platform. Called "Sunspot," the malignant tool ad...