Apple & Microsoft Patch Tuesday, July 2023 Edition

Microsoft Corp. today released software updates to quash 130 security bugs in its Windows operating systems and related software, including at least five flaws that are already seeing active exploitation. Meanwhile, Apple customers have their own zero-day woes again this month: On Monday, Apple...

Patch Tuesday, November 2022 Election Edition

Lets face it: Having “2022 election” in the headline above is probably the only reason anyone might read this story today. Still, while most of us here in the United States are anxiously awaiting the results of how well weve patched our Democracy, it seems fitting that Microsoft Corp. today...

Be Very Sparing in Allowing Site Notifications

An increasing number of websites are asking visitors to approve "notifications," browser modifications that periodically display messages on the users mobile or desktop device. In many cases these notifications are benign, but several dodgy firms are paying site owners to install their notificati...

Apple Phone Phishing Scams Getting Better

A new phone-based phishing scam that spoofs Apple Inc. is likely to fool quite a few people. It starts with an automated call that display's Apple's logo, address and real phone number, warning about a data breach at the company. The scary part is that if the recipient is an iPhone user who then...

Alleged SIM Swapper Arrested in California

Authorities in Santa Clara, Calif. have arrested and charged a 19-year-old area man on suspicion hijacking mobile phone numbers as part of a scheme to steal large sums of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The arrest is the third known law enforcement action this month targeting "SIM swappers,"...

Secret Service Warns of Chip Card Scheme

The U.S. Secret Service is warning financial institutions about a new scam involving the temporary theft of chip-based debit cards issued to large corporations. In this scheme, the fraudsters intercept new debit cards in the mail and replace the chips on the cards with chips from old cards. When...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, October 2020 Edition

Its Cybersecurity Awareness Month! In keeping with that theme, if you abuse Microsoft Windows computers you should be aware the company shipped a bevy of software updates today to fix at least 87 security problems in Windows and programs that run on top of the operating system. That means its onc...

Legal Threats Make Powerful Phishing Lures

Some of the most convincing email phishing and malware attacks come disguised as nastygrams from a law firm. Such scams typically notify the recipient that he/she is being sued, and instruct them to review the attached file and respond within a few days -- or else. Here's a look at a recent spam...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, February 2023 Edition

Microsoft is sending the world a whole bunch of love today, in the form of patches to plug dozens of security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software. This years special Valentines Day Patch Tuesday includes fixes for a whopping three different "zero-day" vulnerabilities that ar...

UK Ad Campaign Seeks to Deter Cybercrime

The United Kingdom's anti-cybercrime agency is running online ads aimed at young people who search the Web for services that enable computer crimes, specifically trojan horse programs and DDoS-for-hire services. The ad campaign follows a similar initiative launched in late 2017 that academics say...

Feds Allege Adconion Employees Hijacked IP Addresses for Spamming

Federal prosecutors in California have filed criminal charges against four employees of Adconion Direct, an email advertising firm, alleging they unlawfully hijacked vast swaths of Internet addresses and used them in large-scale spam campaigns. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that the charges are...

Canada Uses Civil Anti-Spam Law in Bid to Fine Malware Purveyors

Canadian government regulators are using the country's powerful new anti-spam law to pursue hefty fines of up to a million dollars against Canadian citizens suspected of helping to spread malicious software. In March 2019, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission CRTC --...

P2P Weakness Exposes Millions of IoT Devices

A peer-to-peer P2P communications technology built into millions of security cameras and other consumer electronics includes several critical security flaws that expose the devices to eavesdropping, credential theft and remote compromise, new research has found. A map showing the distribution of...

How to Shop Online Like a Security Pro

'Tis the season when even those who know a thing or two about Internet scams tend to let down their guard in the face of an eye-popping discount or the stress of last-minute holiday shopping. So here's a quick refresher course on how to make it through the next few weeks without getting snookered...

New IRS Site Could Make it Easy for Thieves to Intercept Some Stimulus Payments

The U.S. federal government is now in the process of sending Economic Impact Payments by direct deposit to millions of Americans. Most who are eligible for payments can expect to have funds direct-deposited into the same bank accounts listed on previous years' tax filings sometime next week. Toda...

When Card Shops Play Dirty, Consumers Win

Cybercrime forums have been abuzz this week over news that BriansClub -- one of the underground's largest shops for stolen credit and debit cards -- has been hacked, and its inventory of 26 million cards shared with security contacts in the banking industry. Now it appears this brazen heist may...

FEC: Campaigns Can Use Discounted Cybersecurity Services

The U.S. Federal Election Commission FEC said today political campaigns can accept discounted cybersecurity services from companies without running afoul of existing campaign finance laws, provided those companies already do the same for other non-political entities. The decision comes amid much...

Patch Tuesday, August 2018 Edition

Adobe and Microsoft each released security updates for their software on Tuesday. Adobe plugged five security holes in its Flash Player browser plugin. Microsoft pushed 17 updates to fix at least 60 vulnerabilities in Windows and other software, including two "zero-day" flaws that attackers were...

Registered at SSA.GOV? Good for You, But Keep Your Guard Up

KrebsOnSecurity has long warned readers to plant your own flag at the my Social Security online portal of the U.S. Social Security Administration SSA -- even if you are not yet drawing benefits from the agency -- because identity thieves have been registering accounts in peoples' names and...

Notorious Malware, Spam Host “Prospero” Moves to Kaspersky Lab

One of the most notorious providers of abuse-friendly "bulletproof" web hosting for cybercriminals has started routing its operations through networks run by the Russian antivirus and security firm Kaspersky Lab , KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Security experts say the Russia-based service provider...

Booter Boss Interviewed in 2014 Pleads Guilty

A 20-year-old Illinois man has pleaded guilty to running multiple DDoS-for-hire services that launched millions of attacks over several years. The plea deal comes almost exactly five years after KrebsOnSecurity interviewed both the admitted felon and his father and urged the latter to take a more...

What You Should Know About the ‘KRACK’ WiFi Security Weakness

Researchers this week published information about a newfound, serious weakness in WPA2 -- the security standard that protects all modern Wi-Fi networks. What follows is a short rundown on what exactly is at stake here, who's most at-risk from this vulnerability, and what organizations and...

Who’s Behind the Seized Forums ‘Cracked’ & ‘Nulled’?

The FBI joined authorities across Europe last week in seizing domain names for Cracked and Nulled , English-language cybercrime forums with millions of users that trafficked in stolen data, hacking tools and malware. An investigation into the history of these communities shows their apparent...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, July 2024 Edition

Microsoft Corp. today issued software updates to plug at least 139 security holes in various flavors of Windows and other Microsoft products. Redmond says attackers are already exploiting at least two of the vulnerabilities in active attacks against Windows users. The first Microsoft zero-day thi...

“BriansClub” Hack Rescues 26M Stolen Cards

"BriansClub," one of the largest underground stores for buying stolen credit card data, has itself been hacked. The data stolen from BriansClub encompasses more than 26 million credit and debit card records taken from hacked online and brick-and-mortar retailers over the past four years, includin...

Meet Bluetana, the Scourge of Pump Skimmers

"Bluetana," a new mobile app that looks for Bluetooth-based payment card skimmers hidden inside gas pumps, is helping police and state employees more rapidly and accurately locate compromised fuel stations across the nation, a study released this week suggests. Data collected in the course of the...

Spammed Bomb Threat Hoax Demands Bitcoin

A new email extortion scam is making the rounds, threatening that someone has planted bombs within the recipient's building that will be detonated unless a hefty bitcoin ransom is paid by the end of the business day. Sources at multiple U.S. based financial institutions reported receiving the...

Using Fake Reviews to Find Dangerous Extensions

Fake, positive reviews have infiltrated nearly every corner of life online these days, confusing consumers while offering an unwelcome advantage to fraudsters and sub-par products everywhere. Happily, identifying and tracking these fake reviewer accounts is often the easiest way to spot scams...

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter Target Resellers of Hacked Accounts

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter this week all took steps to crack down on users involved in trafficking hijacked user accounts across their platforms. The coordinated action seized hundreds of accounts the companies say have played a major role in facilitating the trade and often lucrati...

Convicted SIM Swapper Gets 3 Years in Jail

A 21-year-old Irishman who pleaded guilty to charges of helping to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from victims has been sentenced to just under three years in prison. The defendant is part of an alleged conspiracy involving at least eight others in the United States who stand accus...

Who’s Behind the “Reopen” Domain Surge?

The past few weeks have seen a large number of new domain registrations beginning with the word "reopen" and ending with U.S. city or state names. The largest number of them were created just hours after President Trump sent a series of all-caps tweets urging citizens to "liberate" themselves fro...

Credit Union Sues Fintech Giant Fiserv Over Security Claims

A Pennsylvania credit union is suing financial industry technology giant Fiserv, alleging that "baffling" security vulnerabilities in the company's software are "wreaking havoc" on its customers. The credit union said the investigation that fueled the lawsuit was prompted by a 2018 KrebsOnSecurit...

Jared, Kay Jewelers Parent Fixes Data Leak

The parent firm of bling retailers Jared and Kay Jewelers has fixed a bug in the Web sites of both companies that exposed the order information for all of their online customers. In mid-November 2018, KrebsOnSecurity heard from a Jared customer who found something curious after receiving a receip...

USPS Site Exposed Data on 60 Million Users

U.S. Postal Service just fixed a security weakness that allowed anyone who has an account at usps.com to view account details for some 60 million other users, and in some cases to modify account details on their behalf. Image: USPS.com KrebsOnSecurity was contacted last week by a researcher who...

For 2nd Time in 3 Years, Mobile Spyware Maker mSpy Leaks Millions of Sensitive Records

mSpy, the makers of a software-as-a-service product that claims to help more than a million paying customers spy on the mobile devices of their kids and partners, has leaked millions of sensitive records online, including passwords, call logs, text messages, contacts, notes and location data...

‘Petya’ Ransomware Outbreak Goes Global

A new strain of ransomware dubbed "Petya" is worming its way around the world with alarming speed. The malware is spreading using a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that the software giant patched in March 2017 -- the same bug that was exploited by the recent and prolific WannaCry ransomware...

Zyxel Fixes 0day in Network Storage Devices

Patch comes amid active exploitation by ransomware gangs Networking hardware vendor Zyxel today released an update to fix a critical flaw in many of its network attached storage NAS devices that can be used to remotely commandeer them. The patch comes 12 days after KrebsOnSecurity alerted the...

Orcus RAT Author Charged in Malware Scheme

In July 2016, KrebsOnSecurity published a story identifying a Toronto man as the author of the Orcus RAT, a software product that’s been marketed on underground forums and used in countless malware attacks since its creation in 2015. This week, Canadian authorities criminally charged him with...

Forced Password Reset? Check Your Assumptions

Almost weekly now I hear from an indignant reader who suspects a data breach at a Web site they frequent that has just asked the reader to reset their password. Further investigation almost invariably reveals that the password reset demand was not the result of a breach but rather the site's...

Secret Service: Theft Rings Turn to Fuze Cards

Street thieves who specialize in cashing out stolen credit and debit cards increasingly are hedging their chances of getting caught carrying multiple counterfeit cards by relying on Fuze Cards, a smartcard technology that allows users to store dozens of cards on a single device, the U.S. Secret...

Feds Charge Three in Mass Seizure of Attack-for-hire Services

Authorities in the United States this week brought criminal hacking charges against three men as part of an unprecedented, international takedown targeting 15 different "booter" or "stresser" sites -- attack-for-hire services that helped paying customers launch tens of thousands of digital sieges...

Who Is Agent Tesla?

A powerful, easy-to-use password stealing program known as Agent Tesla has been infecting computers since 2014, but recently this malware strain has seen a surge in popularity -- attracting more than 6,300 customers who pay subscription fees to license the software. Although Agent Tesla includes ...

FBI Warns of ‘Unlimited’ ATM Cashout Blitz

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI is warning banks that cybercriminals are preparing to carry out a highly choreographed, global fraud scheme known as an "ATM cash-out," in which crooks hack a bank or payment card processor and use cloned cards at cash machines around the world to...

Equifax Breach Fallout: Your Salary History

In May, KrebsOnSecurity broke a story about lax security at a payroll division of big-three credit bureau Equifax that let identity thieves access personal and financial data on an unknown number of Americans. Incredibly, this same division makes it simple to access detailed salary and employment...

Cryptic Rumblings Ahead of First 2020 Patch Tuesday

Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity that Microsoft Corp. is slated to release a software update on Tuesday to fix an extraordinarily serious security vulnerability in a core cryptographic component present in all versions of Windows. Those sources say Microsoft has quietly shipped a patch for the bug to...

Patch Tuesday, October 2018 Edition

Microsoft this week released software updates to fix roughly 50 security problems with various versions of its Windows operating system and related software, including one flaw that is already being exploited and another for which exploit code is publicly available. The zero-day bug --...

Is Your Mobile Carrier Your Weakest Link?

More online services than ever now offer two-step authentication -- requiring customers to complete a login using their phone or other mobile device after supplying a username and password. But with so many services relying on your mobile for that second factor, there has never been more riding o...

Why It’s Still A Bad Idea to Post or Trash Your Airline Boarding Pass

An October 2015 piece published here about the potential dangers of tossing out or posting online your airline boarding pass remains one of the most-read stories on this site. One reason may be that the advice remains timely and relevant: A talk recently given at a Czech security conference...

911 Proxy Service Implodes After Disclosing Breach

The 911 service as it existed until July 28, 2022. 911.re, a proxy service that since 2015 has sold access to hundreds of thousands of Microsoft Windows computers daily, announced this week that it is shutting down in the wake of a data breach that destroyed key components of its business...

NY Investigates Exposure of 885 Million Mortgage Documents

New York regulators are investigating a weakness that exposed 885 million mortgage records at First American Financial Corp. NYSE:FAF as the first test of the state's strict new cybersecurity regulation. That measure, which went into effect in March 2019 and is considered among the toughest in th...