ICE's $2 Million Contract With a Spyware Vendor Is Under White House Review

Immigration and Customs Enforcement's contract with Paragon Solutions faces scrutiny over whether it complies with the Biden administration's executive order on spyware, WIRED has learned...

Qualcomm Urges OEMs to Patch Critical DSP and WLAN Flaws Amid Active Exploits

Qualcomm has rolled out security updates to address nearly two dozen flaws spanning proprietary and open-source components, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-43047 CVSS score: 7.8, has been described as a...

ICE Signs $2 Million Contract With Spyware Maker Paragon Solutions

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s one-year contract with Paragon’s US subsidiary comes amid the Biden administration’s years-long crackdown on commercial spyware vendors...

Watering Hole Attack on Kurdish Sites Distributing Malicious APKs and Spyware

As many as 25 websites linked to the Kurdish minority have been compromised as part of a watering hole attack designed to harvest sensitive information for over a year and a half. French cybersecurity firm Sekoia, which disclosed details of the campaign dubbed SilentSelfie, described the intrusio...

ChatGPT macOS Flaw Could've Enabled Long-Term Spyware via Memory Function

A now-patched security vulnerability in OpenAI's ChatGPT app for macOS could have made it possible for attackers to plant long-term persistent spyware into the artificial intelligence AI tool's memory. The technique, dubbed SpAIware, could be abused to facilitate "continuous data exfiltration of...

US Sanctions Intellexa Spyware Network Over Threat to National Security

The U.S. Treasury sanctions the Intellexa Consortium and key figures for distributing Predator spyware, a serious national security…...

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Executives Linked to Intellexa Predator Spyware Operation

The U.S. Department of Treasury has imposed fresh sanctions against five executives and one entity with ties to the Intellexa Consortium for their role in the development, operation, and distribution of a commercial spyware called Predator. "The United States will not tolerate the reckless...

Apple Drops Spyware Case Against NSO Group, Citing Risk of Threat Intelligence Exposure

Apple has filed a motion to "voluntarily" dismiss its lawsuit against commercial spyware vendor NSO Group, citing a shifting risk landscape that could lead to exposure of critical "threat intelligence" information. The development was first reported by The Washington Post on Friday. The iPhone...

A Creative Trick Makes ChatGPT Spit Out Bomb-Making Instructions

Plus: New evidence emerges about who may have helped 9/11 hijackers, UK police arrest a teen in connection with an attack on London’s transit system, and Poland’s spyware scandal enters a new phase...

“Hello pervert” sextortion scam includes new threat of Pegasus—and a picture of your home

After using passwords obtained from one of the countless breaches as a lure to trick victims into paying, the “Hello pervert” sextortion scammers have recently introduced two new pressure tactics: Name-dropping the infamous Pegasus spyware and adding pictures of your home environment. They do thi...

IT threat evolution in Q2 2024. Mobile statistics

Quarterly figures According to Kaspersky Security Network, in Q2 2024: 7 million attacks using malware, adware or unwanted mobile software were blocked. The most common threat to mobile devices was RiskTool software – 41% of all detected threats. A total of 367,418 malicious installation packages...

Powerful Spyware Exploits Enable a New String of ‘Watering Hole’ Attacks

Suspected Russian hackers have compromised a series of websites to utilize sophisticated spyware exploits that are eerily similar to those created by NSO Group and Intellexa...

Security Bulletin: IBM Cloud Pak for Data is vulnerable to unknown impact and attack vector due to Python certifi ( CVE-2022-23491 )

Summary Python certifi is used by IBM Cloud Pak for Data as part of the platform. CVE-2022-23491. Vulnerability Details CVEID:CVE-2022-23491 DESCRIPTION: An unspecified error in with TrustCor's ownership also operated a business that produced spyware in Certifi has an unknown impact and attack...

New Android Spyware LianSpy Evades Detection Using Yandex Cloud

Users in Russia have been the target of a previously undocumented Android post-compromise spyware called LianSpy since at least 2021. Cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky, which discovered the malware in March 2024, noted its use of Yandex Cloud, a Russian cloud service, for command-and-control C2...

Google Patches New Android Kernel Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild

Google has addressed a high-severity security flaw impacting the Android kernel that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-36971, has been described as a case of remote code execution impacting the kernel. "There are indications that CVE-2024-3697...

LianSpy: new Android spyware targeting Russian users

In March 2024, we discovered a campaign targeting individuals in Russia with previously unseen Android spyware we dubbed LianSpy. Our analysis indicates that the malware has been active since July 2021. This threat is equipped to capture screencasts, exfiltrate user files, and harvest call logs a...

New Mandrake Spyware Found in Google Play Store Apps After Two Years

A new iteration of a sophisticated Android spyware called Mandrake has been discovered in five applications that were available for download from the Google Play Store and remained undetected for two years. The applications attracted a total of more than 32,000 installations before being pulled...

Mandrake spyware sneaks onto Google Play again, flying under the radar for two years

Introduction In May 2020, Bitdefender released a white paper containing a detailed analysis of Mandrake, a sophisticated Android cyber-espionage platform, which had been active in the wild for at least four years. In April 2024, we discovered a suspicious sample that appeared to be a new version ...

Stop X’s Grok AI From Training on Your Tweets

Plus: More Pegasus spyware controversy, a major BIOS controversy, and more of the week’s top security news...

Pro-Houthi Group Targets Yemen Aid Organizations with Android Spyware

A suspected pro-Houthi threat group targeted at least three humanitarian organizations in Yemen with Android spyware designed to harvest sensitive information. These attacks, attributed to an activity cluster codenamed OilAlpha, entail a new set of malicious mobile apps that come with their own...