U.S. Arrests Two and Seizes $3.6 Billion Cryptocurrency Stolen in 2016 Bitfinex Hack

The U.S. Justice Department DoJ on Tuesday announced the arrest of a married couple in connection with conspiring to launder cryptocurrency worth $4.5 billion that was siphoned during the hack of the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016. Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan,...

Guide: Alert Overload and Handling for Lean IT Security Teams

Alarming research reveals the stress and strains the average cybersecurity team experiences on a daily basis. As many as 70% of teams report feeling emotionally overwhelmed by security alerts. Those alerts come at such high volume, high velocity, and high intensity that they become an extreme...

Iranian Hackers Using New Marlin Backdoor in 'Out to Sea' Espionage Campaign

An advanced persistent threat APT group with ties to Iran has refreshed its malware toolset to include a new backdoor dubbed Marlin as part of a long-running espionage campaign that started in April 2018. Slovak cybersecurity company ESET attributed the attacks — codenamed "Out to Sea" — to a...

Russian APT Hackers Used COVID-19 Lures to Target European Diplomats

The Russia-linked threat actor known as APT29 targeted European diplomatic missions and Ministries of Foreign Affairs as part of a series of spear-phishing campaigns mounted in October and November 2021. According to ESET's T3 2021 Threat Report shared with The Hacker News, the intrusions paved t...

Microsoft and Other Major Software Firms Release February 2022 Patch Updates

Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out its monthly security updates with fixes for 51 vulnerabilities across its software line-up consisting of Windows, Office, Teams, Azure Data Explorer, Visual Studio Code, and other components such as Kernel and Win32k. Among the 51 defects closed, 50 are rated...

Palestine-Aligned Hackers Use New NimbleMamba Implant in Recent Attacks

An advanced persistent threat APT hacking group operating with motives that likely align with Palestine has embarked on a new campaign that takes advantage of a previously undocumented implant called NimbleMamba. The intrusions leveraged a sophisticated attack chain targeting Middle Eastern...

Several Malware Families Using Pay-Per-Install Service to Expand Their Targets

A detailed examination of a Pay-per-install PPI malware service called PrivateLoader has revealed its crucial role in the delivery of a variety of malware such as SmokeLoader, RedLine Stealer, Vidar, Raccoon, and GCleaner since at least May 2021. Loaders are malicious programs used for loading...

'Roaming Mantis' Android Malware Targeting Europeans via Smishing Campaigns

A financially motivated campaign that targets Android devices and spreads mobile malware via SMS phishing techniques since at least 2018 has spread its tentacles to strike victims located in France and Germany for the first time. Dubbed Roaming Mantis, the latest spate of activities observed in...

Medusa Android Banking Trojan Spreading Through Flubot's Attacks Network

Two different Android banking Trojans, FluBot and Medusa, are relying on the same delivery vehicle as part of a simultaneous attack campaign, according to new research published by ThreatFabric. The ongoing side-by-side infections, facilitated through the same smishing SMS phishing infrastructure...

How Attack Surface Management Preempts Cyberattacks

The wide-ranging adoption of cloud facilities and the subsequent mushrooming of organizations' networks, combined with the recent migration to remote work, had the direct consequence of a massive expansion of organizations' attack surface and led to a growing number of blind spots in connected...

Microsoft Disables Internet Macros in Office Apps by Default to Block Malware Attacks

Microsoft on Monday said it's taking steps to disable Visual Basic for Applications VBA macros by default across its products, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Visio, for documents downloaded from the web in an attempt to eliminate an entire class of attack vector. "Bad actors send...

Microsoft Temporarily Disables MSIX App Installers to Prevent Malware Abuse

Microsoft last week announced that it's temporarily disabling the MSIX ms-appinstaller protocol handler in Windows following evidence that a security vulnerability in the installer component was exploited by threat actors to deliver malware such as Emotet, TrickBot, and Bazaloader. MSIX, based on...

New CapraRAT Android Malware Targets Indian Government and Military Personnel

A politically motivated advanced persistent threat APT group has expanded its malware arsenal to include a new remote access trojan RAT in its espionage attacks aimed at Indian military and diplomatic entities. Called CapraRAT by Trend Micro, the implant is an Android RAT that exhibits a high...

Hackers Backdoored Systems at China's National Games Just Before Competition

Systems hosting content pertaining to the National Games of China were successfully breached last year by an unnamed Chinese-language-speaking hacking group. Cybersecurity firm Avast, which dissected the intrusion, said that the attackers gained access to a web server 12 days prior to the start o...

IoT/connected Device Discovery and Security Auditing in Corporate Networks

Today's enterprise networks are complex environments with different types of wired and wireless devices being connected and disconnected. The current device discovery solutions have been mainly focused on identifying and monitoring servers, workstation PCs, laptops and infrastructure devices such...

Chinese Hackers Target Taiwanese Financial Institutions with a new Stealthy Backdoor

A Chinese advanced persistent threat APT group has been targeting Taiwanese financial institutions as part of a "persistent campaign" that lasted for at least 18 months. The intrusions, whose primary intent was espionage, resulted in the deployment of a backdoor called xPack, granting the adversa...

CISA Orders Federal Agencies to Patch Actively Exploited Windows Vulnerability

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA is urging federal agencies to secure their systems against an actively exploited security vulnerability in Windows that could be abused to gain elevated permissions on affected hosts. To that end, the agency has added CVE-2022-21882...

New Argo CD Bug Could Let Hackers Steal Secret Info from Kubernetes Apps

Users of the Argo continuous deployment CD tool for Kubernetes are being urged to push through updates after a zero-day vulnerability was found that could allow an attacker to extract sensitive information such as passwords and API keys. The flaw, tagged as CVE-2022-24348 CVSS score: 7.7, affects...

Microsoft Uncovers New Details of Russian Hacking Campaign Targeting Ukraine

Microsoft on Friday shared more of the tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs adopted by the Russia-based Gamaredon hacking group to facilitate a barrage of cyber espionage attacks aimed at several entities in Ukraine over the past six months. The attacks are said to have singled out government...

Another Israeli Firm, QuaDream, Caught Weaponizing iPhone Bug for Spyware

A now-patched security vulnerability in Apple iOS that was previously found to be exploited by Israeli company NSO Group was also separately weaponized by a different surveillance vendor named QuaDream to hack into the company's devices. The development was reported by Reuters, citing unnamed...

U.S. Authorities Charge 6 Indian Call Centers Scamming Thousands of Americans

A number of India-based call centers and their directors have been indicted for their alleged role in placing tens of millions of scam calls aimed at defrauding thousands of American consumers. The indictment charged Manu Chawla, Sushil Sachdeva, Nitin Kumar Wadwani, Swarndeep Singh, Dinesh Manoh...

Russian Gamaredon Hackers Targeted 'Western Government Entity' in Ukraine

The Russia-linked Gamaredon hacking group attempted to compromise an unnamed Western government entity operating in Ukraine last month amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions between the two countries. Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 threat intelligence team, in a new report publicized on February 3, sa...

Cynet Log4Shell Webinar: A Thorough - And Clear - Explanation

Most security practitioners are now aware of the Log4Shell vulnerability discovered toward the end of 2021. No one knows how long the vulnerability existed before it was discovered. The past couple of months have had security teams scrambling to patch the Log4Shell vulnerability found in Apache...

CISA Warns of Critical Vulnerabilities Discovered in Airspan Networks Mimosa

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA on Thursday published an Industrial Controls Systems Advisory ICSA warning of multiple vulnerabilities in the Airspan Networks Mimosa equipment that could be abused to gain remote code execution, create a denial-of-service DoS...

Hackers Exploited 0-Day Vulnerability in Zimbra Email Platform to Spy on Users

A threat actor, likely Chinese in origin, is actively attempting to exploit a zero-day vulnerability in the Zimbra open-source email platform as part of spear-phishing campaigns that commenced in December 2021. The espionage operation — codenamed "EmailThief" — was detailed by cybersecurity compa...

Critical Flaws Discovered in Cisco Small Business RV Series Routers

Cisco has patched multiple critical security vulnerabilities impacting its RV Series routers that could be weaponized to elevate privileges and execute arbitrary code on affected systems, while also warning of the existence of proof-of-concept PoC exploit code targeting some of these bugs. Three ...

New SEO Poisoning Campaign Distributing Trojanized Versions of Popular Software

An ongoing search engine optimization SEO poisoning attack campaign has been observed abusing trust in legitimate software utilities to trick users into downloading BATLOADER malware on compromised machines. "The threat actor used 'free productivity apps installation' or 'free software developmen...

How SSPM Simplifies Your SOC2 SaaS Security Posture Audit

An accountant and a security expert walk into a bar… SOC2 is no joke. Whether you're a publicly held or private company, you are probably considering going through a Service Organization Controls SOC audit. For publicly held companies, these reports are required by the Securities and Exchange...

New Variant of UpdateAgent Malware Infects Mac Computers with Adware

Microsoft on Wednesday shed light on a previously undocumented Mac trojan that it said has undergone several iterations since its first appearance in September 2020, effectively granting it an "increasing progression of sophisticated capabilities." The company's Microsoft 365 Defender Threat...

New Wave of Cyber Attacks Target Palestine with Political Bait and Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have turned the spotlight on a new wave of offensive cyberattacks targeting Palestinian activists and entities starting around October 2021 using politically-themed phishing emails and decoy documents. The intrusions are part of what Cisco Talos calls a longstanding...

New Malware Used by SolarWinds Attackers Went Undetected for Years

The threat actor behind the supply chain compromise of SolarWinds has continued to expand its malware arsenal with new tools and techniques that were deployed in attacks as early as 2019, once indicative of the elusive nature of the campaigns and the adversary's ability to maintain persistent...

Cynet's Keys to Extend Threat Visibility

We hear about the need for better visibility in the cybersecurity space – detecting threats earlier and more accurately. We often hear about the dwell time and the time to identify and contain a data breach. Many of us are familiar with IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report that has been tracking th...

Dozens of Security Flaws Discovered in UEFI Firmware Used by Several Vendors

As many as 23 new high severity security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in different implementations of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface UEFI firmware used by numerous vendors, including Bull Atos, Fujitsu, HP, Juniper Networks, Lenovo, among others. The vulnerabilities reside in Insyde...

Hacker Group 'Moses Staff' Using New StrifeWater RAT in Ransomware Attacks

A politically motivated hacker group tied to a series of espionage and sabotage attacks on Israeli entities in 2021 incorporated a previously undocumented remote access trojan RAT that masquerades as the Windows Calculator app as part of a conscious effort to stay under the radar. Cybersecurity...

Critical Bug Found in WordPress Plugin for Elementor with Over a Million Installations

A WordPress plugin with over one million installs has been found to contain a critical vulnerability that could result in the execution of arbitrary code on compromised websites. The plugin in question is Essential Addons for Elementor, which provides WordPress site owners with a library of over ...

SolarMarker Malware Uses Novel Techniques to Persist on Hacked Systems

In a sign that threat actors continuously shift tactics and update their defensive measures, the operators of the SolarMarker information stealer and backdoor have been found leveraging stealthy Windows Registry tricks to establish long-term persistence on compromised systems. Cybersecurity firm...

Iranian Hackers Using New PowerShell Backdoor in Cyber Espionage Attacks

An advanced persistent threat group with links to Iran has updated its malware toolset to include a novel PowerShell-based implant called PowerLess Backdoor, according to new research published by Cybereason. The Boston-headquartered cybersecurity company attributed the malware to a hacking group...

Ukraine Continues to Face Cyber Espionage Attacks from Russian Hackers

Cybersecurity researchers on Monday said they uncovered evidence of attempted attacks by a Russia-linked hacking operation targeting a Ukrainian entity in July 2021. Broadcom-owned Symantec, in a new report published Monday, attributed the attacks to an actor tracked as Gamaredon aka Shuckworm or...

Reasons Why Every Business is a Target of DDoS Attacks

DDoS Distributed Denial of Service attacks are making headlines almost every day. 2021 saw a 434% upsurge in DDoS attacks, 5.5 times higher than 2020. Q3 2021 saw a 24% increase in the number of DDoS attacks in comparison to Q3 2020. Advanced DDoS attacks that are typically targeted, known as sma...

Researchers Uncover New Iranian Hacking Campaign Targeting Turkish Users

Details have emerged about a previously undocumented malware campaign undertaken by the Iranian MuddyWater advanced persistent threat APT group targeting Turkish private organizations and governmental institutions. "This campaign utilizes malicious PDFs, XLS files and Windows executables to deplo...

New SureMDM Vulnerabilities Could Expose Companies to Supply Chain Attacks

A number of security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in 42 Gears' SureMDM device management solution that could be weaponized by attackers to perform a supply chain compromise against affected organizations. Cybersecurity firm Immersive Labs, in a technical write-up detailing the findings, sa...

New Samba Bug Allows Remote Attackers to Execute Arbitrary Code as Root

Samba has issued software updates to address multiple security vulnerabilities that, if successfully exploited, could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with the highest privileges on affected installations. Chief among them is CVE-2021-44142, which impacts all versions of Samba...

Behind The Buzzword: Four Ways to Assess Your Zero Trust Security Posture

With just about everything delivered from the cloud these days, employees can now collaborate and access what they need from anywhere and on any device. While this newfound flexibility has changed the way we think about productivity, it has also created new cybersecurity challenges for...

Your Graphics Card Fingerprint Can Be Used to Track Your Activities Across the Web

Researchers have demonstrated a new type of fingerprinting technique that exploits a machine's graphics processing unit GPU as a means to persistently track users across the web. Dubbed DrawnApart, the method "identifies a device from the unique properties of its GPU stack," researchers from...

German Court Rules Websites Embedding Google Fonts Violates GDPR

A regional court in the German city of Munich has ordered a website operator to pay €100 in damages for transferring a user's personal data — i.e., IP address — to Google via the search giant's Fonts library without the individual's consent. The unauthorized disclosure of the plaintiff's IP addre...

Researchers Use Natural Silk Fibers to Generate Secure Keys for Strong Authentication

A group of academics at South Korea's Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology GIST have utilized natural silk fibers from domesticated silkworms to build an environmentally friendly digital security system that they say is "practically unbreachable." "The first natural physical unclonable...

Apple Pays $100,500 Bounty to Hacker Who Found Way to Hack MacBook Webcam

Apple last year fixed a new set of macOS vulnerabilities that exposed Safari browser to attack, potentially allowing malicious actors to access users' online accounts, microphone, and webcam. Security researcher Ryan Pickren, who discovered and reported the bugs to the iPhone maker, was compensat...

DeepDotWeb News Site Operator Sentenced to 8 Years for Money Laundering

An Israeli national was sentenced to 97 months in prison in connection with operating the DeepDotWeb DDW clearnet website, nearly a year after the individual pleaded guilty to the charges. Tal Prihar, 37, an Israeli citizen residing in Brazil, is said to have played the role of an administrator o...

Hackers Using Device Registration Trick to Attack Enterprises with Lateral Phishing

Microsoft has disclosed details of a large-scale, multi-phase phishing campaign that uses stolen credentials to register devices on a victim's network to further propagate spam emails and widen the infection pool. The tech giant said the attacks manifested through accounts that were not secured...

How Wazuh Can Improve Digital Security for Businesses

2021 was a year peppered by cyberattacks, with numerous data breaches happening. Not only that, but ransomware has also become a prominent player in the hackers' world. Now, more than ever, it's important for enterprises to step up cybersecurity measures. They can do this through several pieces o...