Apple warns people of mercenary attacks via threat notification system

Apple has reportedly sent alerts to individuals in 92 nations on Wednesday, April 10, to say its detected that they may have been a victim of a mercenary attack. The company says it has sent out these types of threat notifications to over 150 countries since the start in 2021. Mercenary spyware i...

Apple Updates Spyware Alert System to Warn Victims of Mercenary Attacks

Apple on Wednesday revised its documentation pertaining to its mercenary spyware threat notification system to mention that it alerts users when they may have been individually targeted by such attacks. It also specifically called out companies like NSO Group for developing commercial surveillanc...

A week in security (March 4 – March 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Patch now! VMWare escape flaws are so serious even end-of-life software gets a fix Update now! JetBrains TeamCity vulnerability abused at scale PetSmart warns customers of credential stuffing attack Predator spyware vendor banned in US ALPHV ransomware gang fakes o...

Predator spyware vendor banned in US

The US Treasury Department has sanctioned Predator spyware vendor Intellexa Consortium, and banned the company from doing business in the US. Predator can turn infected smartphones into surveillance devices. Intellexa is based in Greece but the Treasury Department imposed the sanctions because of...

U.S. Cracks Down on Predatory Spyware Firm for Targeting Officials and Journalists

The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC sanctioned two individuals and five entities associated with the Intellexa Alliance for their role in "developing, operating, and distributing" commercial spyware designed to target government officials, journalists, and poli...

Pegasus spyware creator ordered to reveal code used to spy on WhatsApp users

A California federal judge has ordered spyware maker NSO Group to hand over the code for Pegasus and other spyware products that were used to spy on WhatsApp users. Meta-owned WhatsApp has been fighting NSO in court since 2019, after Pegasus was allegedly used against 1,400 WhatsApp users over th...

The Privacy Danger Lurking in Push Notifications

Plus: Apple warns about sideloading apps, a court orders NSO group to turn over the code of its Pegasus spyware, and an investigation finds widely available security cams are wildly insecure...

U.S. Court Orders NSO Group to Hand Over Pegasus Spyware Code to WhatsApp

A U.S. judge has ordered NSO Group to hand over its source code for Pegasus and other remote access trojans to Meta as part of the social media giant's ongoing litigation against the Israeli spyware vendor. The decision marks a major legal victory for Meta, which filed the lawsuit in October 2019...

A first analysis of the i-Soon data leak

Data from a Chinese cybersecurity vendor that works for the Chinese government has exposed a range of hacking tools and services. Although the source is not entirely clear, it seems that a disgruntled staff member of the group leaked the information on purpose. The vendor, i-Soon aka Anxun is...

Meta Warns of 8 Spyware Firms Targeting iOS, Android, and Windows Devices

Meta Platforms said it took a series of steps to curtail malicious activity from eight different firms based in Italy, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates U.A.E. operating in the surveillance-for-hire industry. The findings are part of its Adversarial Threat Report for the fourth quarter of 2023...

SpyNote Android Spyware Poses as Legit Crypto Wallets, Steals Funds

By Deeba Ahmed From Banking Apps to Crypto Wallets: SpyNote Malware Evolves for Financial Gain. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: SpyNote Android Spyware Poses as Legit Crypto Wallets, Steals Funds...

How 3 Million ‘Hacked’ Toothbrushes Became a Cyber Urban Legend

Plus: China’s Volt Typhoon hackers lurked in US systems for years, the Biden administration’s crackdown on spyware vendors ramps up, and a new pro-Beijing disinformation campaign gets exposed...

Spyware isn’t going anywhere, and neither are its tactics

Private and public efforts to curb the use of spyware and activity of other "mercenary" groups have heated up over the past week, with the U.S. government taking additional action against spyware users and some of the worlds largest tech companies calling out international governments to do more...

Global Coalition and Tech Giants Unite Against Commercial Spyware Abuse

A coalition of dozens of countries, including France, the U.K., and the U.S., along with tech companies such as Google, MDSec, Meta, and Microsoft, have signed a joint agreement to curb the abuse of commercial spyware to commit human rights abuses. The initiative, dubbed the Pall Mall Process, ai...

U.S. Imposes Visa Restrictions on those Involved in Illegal Spyware Surveillance

The U.S. State Department said it's implementing a new policy that imposes visa restrictions on individuals who are linked to the illegal use of commercial spyware to surveil civil society members. "The misuse of commercial spyware threatens privacy and freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly,...

Pegasus Spyware Targeted iPhones of Journalists and Activists in Jordan

The iPhones belonging to nearly three dozen journalists, activists, human rights lawyers, and civil society members in Jordan have been targeted with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, according to joint findings from Access Now and the Citizen Lab. Nine of the 35 individuals have been publicly confirm...

China-backed Hackers Hijack Software Updates to Implant "NSPX30" Spyware

A previously undocumented China-aligned threat actor has been linked to a set of adversary-in-the-middle AitM attacks that hijack update requests from legitimate software to deliver a sophisticated implant named NSPX30. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET is tracking the advanced persistent threat APT...

Notorious Spyware Maker NSO Group Is Quietly Plotting a Comeback

NSO Group, creator of the infamous Pegasus spyware, is spending millions on lobbying in Washington while taking advantage of the crisis in Gaza to paint itself as essential for global security...

CVE-2023-52091

An anti-spyware engine link following vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges on affected installations. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this...

Design/Logic Flaw

An anti-spyware engine link following vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges on affected installations. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this...