The Importance of Continuous Security Monitoring for a Robust Cybersecurity Strategy

In 2023, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million. Beyond the immediate financial loss, there are long-term consequences like diminished customer trust, weakened brand value, and derailed business operations. In a world where the frequency and cost of data breaches are...

The New 80/20 Rule for SecOps: Customize Where it Matters, Automate the Rest

There is a seemingly never-ending quest to find the right security tools that offer the right capabilities for your organization. SOC teams tend to spend about a third of their...

Mysterious Kill Switch Disrupts Mozi IoT Botnet Operations

The unexpected drop in malicious activity connected with the Mozi botnet in August 2023 was due to a kill switch that was distributed to the bots. "First, the drop manifested in India on August 8," ESET said in an analysis published this week. "A week later, on August 16, the same thing happened ...

Canada Bans WeChat and Kaspersky Apps On Government Devices

Canada on Monday announced a ban on the use of apps from Tencent and Kaspersky on government mobile devices, citing an "unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security." "The Government of Canada is committed to keeping government information and networks secure," the Canadian government said...

Who's Experimenting with AI Tools in Your Organization?

With the record-setting growth of consumer-focused AI productivity tools like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence—formerly the realm of data science and engineering teams—has become a resource available to every employee. From a productivity perspective, that's fantastic. Unfortunately for IT and...

Over 17,000 WordPress Sites Compromised by Balada Injector in September 2023

More than 17,000 WordPress websites have been compromised in the month of September 2023 with a malware known as Balada Injector, nearly twice the number of detections in August. Of these, 9,000 of the websites are said to have been infiltrated using a recently disclosed security flaw in the tagD...

North Korea's Lazarus Group Launders $900 Million in Cryptocurrency

As much as $7 billion in cryptocurrency has been illicitly laundered through cross-chain crime, with the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group linked to the theft of roughly $900 million of those proceeds between July 2022 and July of this year. "As traditional entities such as mixers continue to be...

How to Prevent API Breaches: A Guide to Robust Security

With the growing reliance on web applications and digital platforms, the use of application programming interfaces APIs has become increasingly popular. If you aren't familiar with the term, APIs allow applications to communicate with each other and they play a vital role in modern software...

Cyberattacks Targeting E-commerce Applications

Cyber attacks on e-commerce applications are a common trend in 2023 as e-commerce businesses become more omnichannel, they build and deploy increasingly more API interfaces, with threat actors constantly exploring more ways to exploit vulnerabilities. This is why regular testing and ongoing...

New Variant of XLoader macOS Malware Disguised as 'OfficeNote' Productivity App

A new variant of an Apple macOS malware called XLoader has surfaced in the wild, masquerading its malicious features under the guise of an office productivity app called "OfficeNote." "The new version of XLoader is bundled inside a standard Apple disk image with the name OfficeNote.dmg,"...

Alert: New Electromagnetic Attacks on Drones Could Let Attackers Take Control

Drones that don't have any known security weaknesses could be the target of electromagnetic fault injection EMFI attacks, potentially enabling a threat actor to achieve arbitrary code execution and compromise their functionality and safety. The research comes from IOActive, which found that it is...

Critical Security Vulnerability Discovered in WooCommerce Stripe Gateway Plugin

A security flaw has been uncovered in the WooCommerce Stripe Gateway WordPress plugin that could lead to the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-34000, impacts versions 7.4.0 and below. It was addressed by the plugin maintainers in version 7.4.1, which...

Cybercriminals Using Powerful BatCloak Engine to Make Malware Fully Undetectable

A fully undetectable FUD malware obfuscation engine named BatCloak is being used to deploy various malware strains since September 2022, while persistently evading antivirus detection. The samples grant "threat actors the ability to load numerous malware families and exploits with ease through...

Critical RCE Flaw Discovered in Fortinet FortiGate Firewalls - Patch Now!

Fortinet has released patches to address a critical security flaw in its FortiGate firewalls that could be abused by a threat actor to achieve remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27997, is "reachable pre-authentication, on every SSL VPN appliance," Lexfo Security...

Microsoft Uncovers Banking AitM Phishing and BEC Attacks Targeting Financial Giants

Banking and financial services organizations are the targets of a new multi-stage adversary-in-the-middle AitM phishing and business email compromise BEC attack, Microsoft has revealed. "The attack originated from a compromised trusted vendor and transitioned into a series of AiTM attacks and...

Hackers Win $105,000 for Reporting Critical Security Flaws in Sonos One Speakers

Multiple security flaws uncovered in Sonos One wireless speakers could be potentially exploited to achieve information disclosure and remote code execution, the Zero Day Initiative ZDI said in a report published last week. The vulnerabilities were demonstrated by three different teams from Qrious...

Operation ChattyGoblin: Hackers Targeting Gambling Firms via Chat Apps

A gambling company in the Philippines was the target of a China-aligned threat actor as part of a campaign that has been ongoing since October 2021. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET is tracking the series of attacks against Southeast Asian gambling companies under the name Operation ChattyGoblin...

Over 1 Million WordPress Sites Infected by Balada Injector Malware Campaign

Over one million WordPress websites are estimated to have been infected by an ongoing campaign to deploy malware called Balada Injector since 2017. The massive campaign, per GoDaddy's Sucuri, "leverages all known and recently discovered theme and plugin vulnerabilities" to breach WordPress sites...

Iran-Based Hackers Caught Carrying Out Destructive Attacks Under Ransomware Guise

The Iranian nation-state group known as MuddyWater has been observed carrying out destructive attacks on hybrid environments under the guise of a ransomware operation. That's according to new findings from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team, which discovered the threat actor targeting both...

Cryptojacking Group TeamTNT Suspected of Using Decoy Miner to Conceal Data Exfiltration

The cryptojacking group known as TeamTNT is suspected to be behind a previously undiscovered strain of malware used to mine Monero cryptocurrency on compromised systems. That's according to Cado Security, which found the sample after Sysdig detailed a sophisticated attack known as SCARLETEEL aime...

The Prolificacy of LockBit Ransomware

Today, the LockBit ransomware is the most active and successful cybercrime organization in the world. Attributed to a Russian Threat Actor, LockBit has stepped out from the shadows of the Conti ransomware group, who were disbanded in early 2022. LockBit ransomware was first discovered in Septembe...

Threat Actors Adopt Havoc Framework for Post-Exploitation in Targeted Attacks

An open source command-and-control C2 framework known as Havoc is being adopted by threat actors as an alternative to other well-known legitimate toolkits like Cobalt Strike, Sliver, and Brute Ratel. Cybersecurity firm Zscaler said it observed a new campaign in the beginning of January 2023...

Microsoft Warns of Hackers Using Google Ads to Distribute Royal Ransomware

A developing threat activity cluster has been found using Google Ads in one of its campaigns to distribute various post-compromise payloads, including the recently discovered Royal ransomware. Microsoft, which spotted the updated malware delivery method in late October 2022, is tracking the group...

New Chinese Cyberespionage Group Targeting IT Service Providers and Telcos

Telecommunications and IT service providers in the Middle East and Asia are being targeted by a previously undocumented Chinese-speaking threat group dubbed WIP19. The espionage-related attacks are characterized by the use of a stolen digital certificate issued by a Korean company called DEEPSoft...

Facebook Detects 400 Android and iOS Apps Stealing Users Log-in Credentials

Meta Platforms on Friday disclosed that it had identified over 400 malicious apps on Android and iOS that it said targeted online users with the goal of stealing their Facebook login information. "These apps were listed on the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store and disguised as photo editors...

QNAP Warns of New DeadBolt Ransomware Attacks Exploiting Photo Station Flaw

QNAP has issued a new advisory urging users of its network-attached storage NAS devices to upgrade to the latest version of Photo Station following yet another wave of DeadBolt ransomware attacks in the wild by exploiting a zero-day flaw in the software. The Taiwanese company said it detected the...

Nearly 1,900 Signal Messenger Accounts Potentially Compromised in Twilio Hack

Popular end-to-end encrypted messaging service Signal on Monday disclosed the cyberattack aimed at Twilio earlier this month may have exposed the phone numbers of roughly 1,900 users. "For about 1,900 users, an attacker could have attempted to re-register their number to another device or learned...

Cisco Confirms It's Been Hacked by Yanluowang Ransomware Gang

Networking equipment major Cisco on Wednesday confirmed it was the victim of a cyberattack on May 24, 2022 after the attackers got hold of an employee's personal Google account that contained passwords synced from their web browser. "Initial access to the Cisco VPN was achieved via the successful...

Over a Dozen Android Apps on Google Play Store Caught Dropping Banking Malware

A malicious campaign leveraged seemingly innocuous Android dropper apps on the Google Play Store to compromise users' devices with banking malware. These 17 dropper apps, collectively dubbed DawDropper by Trend Micro, masqueraded as productivity and utility apps such as document scanners, QR code...

Researchers Disclose 56 Vulnerabilities Impacting OT Devices from 10 Vendors

Nearly five dozen security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in devices from 10 operational technology OT vendors due to what researchers call are "insecure-by-design practices." Collectively dubbed OT:ICEFALL by Forescout, the 56 issues span as many as 26 device models from Bently Nevada,...

Cyber Security WEBINAR — How to Ace Your InfoSec Board Deck

Communication is a vital skill for any leader at an organization, regardless of seniority. For security leaders, this goes double. Communicating clearly works on multiple levels. On the one hand, security leaders and CISOs must be able to communicate strategies clearly – instructions, incident...

Germany Shuts Down Russian Hydra Darknet Market; Seizes $25 Million in Bitcoin

Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, the Bundeskriminalamt BKA, on Tuesday announced the official takedown of Hydra, the world's largest illegal dark web marketplace that has cumulatively facilitated over $5 billion in Bitcoin transactions to date. "Bitcoins amounting to currently the...

Another Chinese Hacking Group Spotted Targeting Ukraine Amid Russia Invasion

A Chinese-speaking threat actor called Scarab has been linked to a custom backdoor dubbed HeaderTip as part of a campaign targeting Ukraine since Russia embarked on an invasion last month, making it the second China-based hacking group after Mustang Panda to capitalize on the conflict. "The...

New Variant of Russian Cyclops Blink Botnet Targeting ASUS Routers

ASUS routers have emerged as the target of a nascent botnet called Cyclops Blink, almost a month after it was revealed the malware abused WatchGuard firewall appliances as a stepping stone to gain remote access to breached networks. According to a new report published by Trend Micro, the botnet's...

Google Buys Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant for $5.4 Billion

Google is officially buying threat intelligence and incident response company Mandiant in an all-cash deal approximately valued at $5.4 billion, the two technology firms announced Tuesday. Mandiant is expected to be folded into Google Cloud upon the closure of the acquisition, which is slated to...

Code Execution Bug Affects Yamale Python Package — Used by Over 200 Projects

A high-severity code injection vulnerability has been disclosed in 23andMe's Yamale, a schema and validator for YAML, that could be trivially exploited by adversaries to execute arbitrary Python code. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-38305 CVSS score: 7.8, involves manipulating the schema file...

Creating Wireless Signals with Ethernet Cable to Steal Data from Air-Gapped Systems

A newly discovered data exfiltration mechanism employs Ethernet cables as a "transmitting antenna" to stealthily siphon highly-sensitive data from air-gapped systems, according to the latest research. "It's interesting that the wires that came to protect the air-gap become the vulnerability of th...

New Azure AD Bug Lets Hackers Brute-Force Passwords Without Getting Caught

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed an unpatched security vulnerability in the protocol used by Microsoft Azure Active Directory that potential adversaries could abuse to stage undetected brute-force attacks. "This flaw allows threat actors to perform single-factor brute-force attacks agains...

How Does DMARC Prevent Phishing?

DMARC is a global standard for email authentication. It allows senders to verify that the email really comes from whom it claims to come from. This helps curb spam and phishing attacks, which are among the most prevalent cybercrimes of today. Gmail, Yahoo, and many other large email providers hav...

Critical Flaw Discovered in Cisco APIC for Switches — Patch Released

Cisco Systems on Wednesday issued patches to address a critical security vulnerability affecting the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller APIC interface used in its Nexus 9000 Series Switches that could be potentially abused to read or write arbitrary files on a vulnerable system. Tracked...

Critical ThroughTek SDK Bug Could Let Attackers Spy On Millions of IoT Devices

A security vulnerability has been found affecting several versions of ThroughTek Kalay P2P Software Development Kit SDK, which could be abused by a remote attacker to take control of an affected device and potentially lead to remote code execution. Tracked as CVE-2021-28372 CVSS score: 9.6 and...

China's Cyberspies Targeting Southeast Asian Government Entities

A sweeping and "highly active campaign" that originally set its sights on Myanmar has broadened its focus to strike a number of targets located in the Philippines, according to new research. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which first spotted the infections in October 2020, attributed them ...

Facebook Sues 4 Vietnamese for Hacking Accounts and $36 Million Ad Fraud

Facebook on Tuesday revealed it filed two separate legal actions against perpetrators who abused its ad platform to run deceptive advertisements in violation of the company's Terms and Advertising Policies. "In the first case, the defendants are a California marketing company and its agents...

SolarWinds Hackers Breach Microsoft Customer Support to Target its Customers

In yet another sign that the Russian hackers who breached SolarWinds network monitoring software to compromise a slew of entities never really went away, Microsoft said the threat actor behind the malicious cyber activities used password spraying and brute-force attacks in an attempt to guess...

Beware! Connecting to This Wireless Network Can Break Your iPhone's Wi-Fi Feature

A wireless network naming bug has been discovered in Apple's iOS operating system that effectively disables an iPhone's ability to connect to a Wi-Fi network. The issue was spotted by security researcher Carl Schou, who found that the phone's Wi-Fi functionality gets permanently disabled after...

Hackers Breached Colonial Pipeline Using Compromised VPN Password

The ransomware cartel that masterminded the Colonial Pipeline attack early last month crippled the pipeline operator's network using a compromised virtual private network VPN account password, the latest investigation into the incident has revealed. The development, which was reported by Bloomber...

Researchers Uncover Hacking Operations Targeting Government Entities in South Korea

A North Korean threat actor active since 2012 has been behind a new espionage campaign targeting high-profile government officials associated with its southern counterpart to install an Android and Windows backdoor for collecting sensitive information. Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes attributed t...

Researchers Warn of Facefish Backdoor Spreading Linux Rootkits

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new backdoor program capable of stealing user login credentials, device information and executing arbitrary commands on Linux systems. The malware dropper has been dubbed "Facefish" by Qihoo 360 NETLAB team owing its capabilities to deliver different...

Facebook Will Limit Your WhatsApp Features For Not Accepting Privacy Policy

WhatsApp on Friday disclosed that it won't deactivate accounts of users who don't accept its new privacy policy rolling out on May 15, adding it will continue to keep reminding them to accept the new terms. "No one will have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of WhatsApp on May 15 becau...

18-Year-Old Hacker Gets 3 Years in Prison for Massive Twitter 'Bitcoin Scam' Hack

A Florida teen accused of masterminding the hacks of several high-profile Twitter accounts last summer as part of a widespread cryptocurrency scam pled guilty to fraud charges in exchange for a three-year prison sentence. Graham Ivan Clark, 18, will also serve an additional three years on...