Microsoft Outlook Flaw Exploited by Russia's APT28 to Hack Czech, German Entities

Czechia and Germany on Friday revealed that they were the target of a long-term cyber espionage campaign conducted by the Russia-linked nation-state actor known as APT28, drawing condemnation from the European Union E.U., the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, the U.K., and the U.S. The Cze...

Vietnam-Based Hackers Steal Financial Data Across Asia with Malware

A suspected Vietnamese-origin threat actor has been observed targeting victims in several Asian and Southeast Asian countries with malware designed to harvest valuable data since at least May 2023. Cisco Talos is tracking the cluster under the name CoralRaider, describing it as financially...

New Silver SAML Attack Evades Golden SAML Defenses in Identity Systems

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new attack technique called Silver SAML that can be successful even in cases where mitigations have been applied against Golden SAML attacks. Silver SAML "enables the exploitation of SAML to launch attacks from an identity provider like Entra ID against...

Google Open Sources Magika: AI-Powered File Identification Tool

Google has announced that it's open-sourcing Magika, an artificial intelligence AI-powered tool to identify file types, to help defenders accurately detect binary and textual file types. "Magika outperforms conventional file identification methods providing an overall 30% accuracy boost and up to...

Malicious NPM Packages Exfiltrate Hundreds of Developer SSH Keys via GitHub

Two malicious packages discovered on the npm package registry have been found to leverage GitHub to store Base64-encrypted SSH keys stolen from developer systems on which they were installed. The modules named warbeast2000 and kodiak2k were published at the start of the month, attracting 412 and...

Iranian Hackers Masquerade as Journalists to Spy on Israel-Hamas War Experts

High-profile individuals working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the U.K., and the U.S. have been targeted by an Iranian cyber espionage group called Mind Sandstorm since November 2023. The threat actor "used bespoke phishing...

3 Ransomware Group Newcomers to Watch in 2024

The ransomware industry surged in 2023 as it saw an alarming 55.5% increase in victims worldwide, reaching a staggering 4,368 cases. --- Figure 1: Year over year victims per quarter The rollercoaster ride from explosive growth in 2021 to a momentary dip in 2022 was just a teaser—2023 roared back...

New JavaScript Malware Targeted 50,000+ Users at Dozens of Banks Worldwide

A new piece of JavaScript malware has been observed attempting to steal users' online banking account credentials as part of a campaign that has targeted more than 40 financial institutions across the world. The activity cluster, which employs JavaScript web injections, is estimated to have led t...

Okta's Recent Customer Support Data Breach Impacted 134 Customers

Identity and authentication management provider Okta on Friday disclosed that the recent support case management system breach affected 134 of its 18,400 customers. It further noted that the unauthorized intruder gained access to its systems from September 28 to October 17, 2023, and ultimately...

CanesSpy Spyware Discovered in Modified WhatsApp Versions

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a number of WhatsApp mods for Android that come fitted with a spyware module dubbed CanesSpy. These modified versions of the instant messaging app have been observed propagated via sketchy websites advertising such modded software as well as Telegram...

SaaS Security is Now Accessible and Affordable to All

This new product offers SaaS discovery and risk assessment coupled with a free user access review in a unique "freemium" model Securing employees' SaaS usage is becoming increasingly crucial for most cloud-based organizations. While numerous tools are available to address this need, they often...

Iranian Cyber Espionage Group Targets Financial and Government Sectors in Middle East

A threat actor affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security MOIS has been observed waging a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign targeting financial, government, military, and telecommunications sectors in the Middle East for at least a year. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check...

Critical OAuth Flaws Uncovered in Grammarly, Vidio, and Bukalapak Platforms

Critical security flaws have been disclosed in the Open Authorization OAuth implementation of popular online services such as Grammarly, Vidio, and Bukalapak, building upon previous shortcomings uncovered in Booking.com and Expo. The weaknesses, now addressed by the respective companies following...

ShellBot Uses Hex IPs to Evade Detection in Attacks on Linux SSH Servers

The threat actors behind ShellBot are leveraging IP addresses transformed into their hexadecimal notation to infiltrate poorly managed Linux SSH servers and deploy the DDoS malware. "The overall flow remains the same, but the download URL used by the threat actor to install ShellBot has changed...

Researchers Link DragonEgg Android Spyware to LightSpy iOS Surveillanceware

New findings have identified connections between an Android spyware called DragonEgg and another sophisticated modular iOS surveillanceware tool named LightSpy. DragonEgg, alongside WyrmSpy aka AndroidControl, was first disclosed by Lookout in July 2023 as a strain of malware capable of gathering...

Researchers Uncover New GPU Side-Channel Vulnerability Leaking Sensitive Data

A novel side-channel attack called GPU.zip renders virtually all modern graphics processing units GPU vulnerable to information leakage. "This channel exploits an optimization that is data dependent, software transparent, and present in nearly all modern GPUs: graphical data compression," a group...

From Watering Hole to Spyware: EvilBamboo Targets Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Taiwanese

Tibetan, Uyghur, and Taiwanese individuals and organizations are the targets of a persistent campaign orchestrated by a threat actor codenamed EvilBamboo to gather sensitive information. "The attacker has created fake Tibetan websites, along with social media profiles, likely used to deploy...

DDoS 2.0: IoT Sparks New DDoS Alert

The Internet of Things IoT is transforming efficiency in various sectors like healthcare and logistics but has also introduced new security risks, particularly IoT-driven DDoS attacks. This article explores how these attacks work, why they're uniquely problematic, and how to mitigate them. What I...

NodeStealer Malware Now Targets Facebook Business Accounts on Multiple Browsers

An ongoing campaign is targeting Facebook Business accounts with bogus messages to harvest victims' credentials using a variant of the Python-based NodeStealer and potentially take over their accounts for follow-on malicious activities. "The attacks are reaching victims mainly in Southern Europe...

W3LL Store: How a Secret Phishing Syndicate Targets 8,000+ Microsoft 365 Accounts

A previously undocumented "phishing empire" has been linked to cyber attacks aimed at compromising Microsoft 365 business email accounts over the past six years. "The threat actor created a hidden underground market, named W3LL Store, that served a closed community of at least 500 threat actors w...

New BLISTER Malware Update Fuelling Stealthy Network Infiltration

An updated version of a malware loader known as BLISTER is being used as part of SocGholish infection chains to distribute an open-source command-and-control C2 framework called Mythic. "New BLISTER update includes keying feature that allows for precise targeting of victim networks and lowers...

Meta Takes Down Thousands of Accounts Involved in Disinformation Ops from China and Russia

Meta has disclosed that it disrupted two of the largest known covert influence operations in the world from China and Russia, blocking thousands of accounts and pages across its platform. "It targeted more than 50 apps, including Facebook, Instagram, X formerly Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit,...

It's a Zero-day? It's Malware? No! It's Username and Password

As cyber threats continue to evolve, adversaries are deploying a range of tools to breach security defenses and compromise sensitive data. Surprisingly, one of the most potent weapons in their arsenal is not malicious code but simply stolen or weak usernames and passwords. This article explores t...

Two LAPSUS$ Hackers Convicted in London Court for High-Profile Tech Firm Hacks

Two U.K. teenagers have been convicted by a jury in London for being part of the notorious LAPSUS$ aka Slippy Spider transnational gang and for orchestrating a series of brazen, high-profile hacks against major tech firms and demanding a ransom in exchange for not leaking the stolen information...

Why You Need Continuous Network Monitoring?

Changes in the way we work have had significant implications for cybersecurity, not least in network monitoring. Workers no longer sit safely side-by-side on a corporate network, dev teams constantly spin up and tear down systems, exposing services to the internet. Keeping track of these users,...

New SystemBC Malware Variant Targets Southern African Power Company

An unknown threat actor has been linked to a cyber attack on a power generation company in southern Africa with a new variant of the SystemBC malware called DroxiDat as a precursor to a suspected ransomware attack. "The proxy-capable backdoor was deployed alongside Cobalt Strike Beacons in a sout...

New SkidMap Linux Malware Variant Targeting Vulnerable Redis Servers

Vulnerable Redis services have been targeted by a "new, improved, dangerous" variant of a malware called SkidMap that's engineered to target a wide range of Linux distributions. "The malicious nature of this malware is to adapt to the system on which it is executed," Trustwave security researcher...

Cybercriminals Renting WikiLoader to Target Italian Organizations with Banking Trojan

Organizations in Italy are the target of a new phishing campaign that leverages a new strain of malware called WikiLoader with an ultimate aim to install a banking trojan, stealer, and spyware referred to as Ursnif aka Gozi. "It is a sophisticated downloader with the objective of installing a...

Casbaneiro Banking Malware Goes Under the Radar with UAC Bypass Technique

The financially motivated threat actors behind the Casbaneiro banking malware family have been observed making use of a User Account Control UAC bypass technique to gain full administrative privileges on a machine, a sign that the threat actor is evolving their tactics to avoid detection and...

Apple Threatens to Pull iMessage and FaceTime from U.K. Amid Surveillance Demands

Apple has warned that it would rather stop offering iMessage and FaceTime services in the U.K. than bowing down to government pressure in response to new proposals that seek to expand digital surveillance powers available to state intelligence agencies. The development, first reported by BBC News...

Exploring the Dark Side: OSINT Tools and Techniques for Unmasking Dark Web Operations

On April 5, 2023, the FBI and Dutch National Police announced the takedown of Genesis Market, one of the largest dark web marketplaces. The operation, dubbed "Operation Cookie Monster," resulted in the arrest of 119 people and the seizure of over $1M in cryptocurrency. You can read the FBI's...

Node.js Users Beware: Manifest Confusion Attack Opens Door to Malware

The npm registry for the Node.js JavaScript runtime environment is susceptible to what's called a manifest confusion attack that could potentially allow threat actors to conceal malware in project dependencies or perform arbitrary script execution during installation. "A npm package's manifest is...

Cybercriminals Hijacking Vulnerable SSH Servers in New Proxyjacking Campaign

An active financially motivated campaign is targeting vulnerable SSH servers to covertly ensnare them into a proxy network. "This is an active campaign in which the attacker leverages SSH for remote access, running malicious scripts that stealthily enlist victim servers into a peer-to-peer P2P...

North Korea's Kimsuky Group Mimics Key Figures in Targeted Cyber Attacks

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies have issued a new alert warning of North Korean cyber actors' use of social engineering tactics to strike think tanks, academia, and news media sectors. The "sustained information gathering efforts" have been attributed to a state-sponsored cluster dubb...

Alert: Brazilian Hackers Targeting Users of Over 30 Portuguese Banks

A Brazilian threat actor is targeting more than 30 Portuguese financial institutions with information-stealing malware as part of a long-running campaign that commenced in 2021. "The attackers can steal credentials and exfiltrate users' data and personal information, which can be leveraged for...

Babuk Source Code Sparks 9 Different Ransomware Strains Targeting VMware ESXi Systems

Multiple threat actors have capitalized on the leak of Babuk aka Babak or Babyk ransomware code in September 2021 to build as many as nine different ransomware families capable of targeting VMware ESXi systems. "These variants emerged through H2 2022 and H1 2023, which shows an increasing trend o...

New Wi-Fi Protocol Security Flaw Affecting Linux, Android and iOS Devices

A group of academics from Northeastern University and KU Leuven has disclosed a fundamental design flaw in the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi protocol standard, impacting a wide range of devices running Linux, FreeBSD, Android, and iOS. Successful exploitation of the shortcoming could be abused to hijack TCP...

New EX-22 Tool Empowers Hackers with Stealthy Ransomware Attacks on Enterprises

A new post-exploitation framework called EXFILTRATOR-22 aka EX-22 has emerged in the wild with the goal of deploying ransomware within enterprise networks while flying under the radar. "It comes with a wide range of capabilities, making post-exploitation a cakewalk for anyone purchasing the tool,...

Even Top-Ranked Android Apps in Google Play Store Provide Misleading Data Safety Labels

An investigation into data safety labels for Android apps available on the Google Play Store has uncovered "serious loopholes" that allow apps to provide misleading or outright false information. The study, conducted by the Mozilla Foundation as part of its Privacy Not Included initiative, compar...

Norway Seizes $5.84 Million in Cryptocurrency Stolen by Lazarus Hackers

Norwegian police agency Økokrim has announced the seizure of 60 million NOK about $5.84 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen by the Lazarus Group in March 2022 following the Axie Infinity Ronin Bridge hack. "This case shows that we also have a great capacity to follow the money on the blockchai...

Post-Macro World Sees Rise in Microsoft OneNote Documents Delivering Malware

In a continuing sign that threat actors are adapting well to a post-macro world, it has emerged that the use of Microsoft OneNote documents to deliver malware via phishing attacks is on the rise. Some of the notable malware families that are being distributed using this method include AsyncRAT,...

Hackers Abused Microsoft's "Verified Publisher" OAuth Apps to Breach Corporate Email Accounts

Microsoft on Tuesday said it took steps to disable fake Microsoft Partner Network MPN accounts that were used for creating malicious OAuth applications as part of a phishing campaign designed to breach organizations' cloud environments and steal email. "The applications created by these fraudulen...

LastPass Parent Company GoTo Suffers Data Breach, Customers' Backups Compromised

LastPass-owner GoTo formerly LogMeIn on Tuesday disclosed that unidentified threat actors were able to steal encrypted backups of some customers' data along with an encryption key for some of those backups in a November 2022 incident. The breach, which targeted a third-party cloud storage service...

Massive Ad Fraud Scheme Targeted Over 11 Million Devices with 1,700 Spoofed Apps

Researchers have shut down an "expansive" ad fraud scheme that spoofed more than 1,700 applications from 120 publishers and impacted roughly 11 million devices. "VASTFLUX was a malvertising attack that injected malicious JavaScript code into digital ad creatives, allowing the fraudsters to stack...

Irish Regulator Fines Facebook $277 Million for Leak of Half a Billion Users' Data

Ireland's Data Protection Commission DPC has levied fines of €265 million $277 million against Meta Platforms for failing to safeguard the personal data of more than half a billion users of its Facebook service, ramping up privacy enforcement against U.S. tech firms. The fines follow an inquiry...

Multiple Vulnerabilities Reported in Checkmk IT Infrastructure Monitoring Software

Multiple vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Checkmk IT Infrastructure monitoring software that could be chained together by an unauthenticated, remote attacker to fully take over affected servers. "These vulnerabilities can be chained together by an unauthenticated, remote attacker to gain co...

Fake Antivirus and Cleaner Apps Caught Installing SharkBot Android Banking Trojan

The notorious Android banking trojan known as SharkBot has once again made an appearance on the Google Play Store by masquerading as antivirus and cleaner apps. "This new dropper doesn't rely on Accessibility permissions to automatically perform the installation of the dropper Sharkbot malware,"...

Malicious Browser Extensions Targeted Over a Million Users So Far This Year

More than 1.31 million users attempted to install malicious or unwanted web browser extensions at least once, new findings from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky show. "From January 2020 to June 2022, more than 4.3 million unique users were attacked by adware hiding in browser extensions, which is...

RubyGems Makes Multi-Factor Authentication Mandatory for Top Package Maintainers

RubyGems, the official package manager for the Ruby programming language, has become the latest platform to mandate multi-factor authentication MFA for popular package maintainers, following the footsteps of NPM and PyPI. To that end, owners of gems with over 180 million total downloads are...

Meta Cracks Down on Cyber Espionage Operations in South Asia Abusing Facebook

Facebook parent company Meta disclosed that it took action against two espionage operations in South Asia that leveraged its social media platforms to distribute malware to potential targets. The first set of activities is what the company described as "persistent and well-resourced" and undertak...