Europol Ordered to Delete Data of Individuals With No Proven Links to Crimes

The European Union's data protection watchdog on Monday ordered Europol to delete a vast trove of personal data it obtained pertaining to individuals with no proven links to criminal activity. "Datasets older than six months that have not undergone this Data Subject Categorisation must be erased,...

Researchers Find Bugs in Over A Dozen Widely Used URL Parser Libraries

A study of 16 different Uniform Resource Locator URL parsing libraries has unearthed inconsistencies and confusions that could be exploited to bypass validations and open the door to a wide range of attack vectors. In a deep-dive analysis jointly conducted by cybersecurity firms Claroty and Snyk,...

Abcbot Botnet Linked to Operators of Xanthe Cryptomining malware

New research into the infrastructure behind an emerging DDoS botnet named Abcbot has uncovered "clear" links with a cryptocurrency-mining botnet attack that came to light in December 2020. Attacks involving Abcbot, first disclosed by Qihoo 360's Netlab security team in November 2021, are triggere...

BADNEWS! Patchwork APT Hackers Score Own Goal in Recent Malware Attacks

Threat hunters have shed light on the tactics, techniques, and procedures embraced by an Indian-origin hacking group called Patchwork as part of a renewed campaign that commenced in late November 2021, targeting Pakistani government entities and individuals with a research focus on molecular...

Facebook Launches 'Privacy Center' to Educate Users on Data Collection and Privacy Options

Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, on Friday announced the launch of a centralized Privacy Center that aims to "educate people" about its approach with regards to how it collects and processes personal information across its family of social media apps. "Privacy Center provid...

NHS Warns of Hackers Targeting Log4j Flaws in VMware Horizon

The digital security team at the U.K. National Health Service NHS has raised the alarm on active exploitation of Log4Shell vulnerabilities in unpatched VMware Horizon servers by an unknown threat actor to drop malicious web shells and establish persistence on affected networks for follow-on...

Log4Shell-like Critical RCE Flaw Discovered in H2 Database Console

Researchers have disclosed a security flaw affecting H2 database consoles that could result in remote code execution in a manner that echoes the Log4j "Log4Shell" vulnerability that came to light last month. The issue, tracked as CVE-2021-42392, is the "first critical issue published since...

France Fines Google, Facebook €210 Million Over Privacy Violating Tracking Cookies

The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés CNIL, France's data protection watchdog, has slapped Facebook now Meta Platforms and Google with fines of €150 million $170 million and €60 million $68 million for violating E.U. privacy rules by failing to provide users with an easy opti...

North Korean Hackers Start New Year with Attacks on Russian Foreign Ministry

A North Korean cyberespionage group named Konni has been linked to a series of targeted attacks aimed at the Russian Federation's Ministry of Foreign Affairs MID with New Year lures to compromise Windows systems with malware. "This activity cluster demonstrates the patient and persistent nature o...

NIST Cybersecurity Framework: A Quick Guide for SaaS Security Compliance

When I want to know the most recently published best practices in cyber security, I visit The National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST. From the latest password requirements NIST 800-63 to IoT security for manufacturers NISTIR 8259, NIST is always the starting point. NIST plays a key...

New Trick Could Let Malware Fake iPhone Shutdown to Spy on Users Secretly

Researchers have disclosed a novel technique by which malware on iOS can achieve persistence on an infected device by faking its shutdown process, making it impossible to physically determine if an iPhone is off or otherwise. The discovery — dubbed "NoReboot" — comes courtesy of mobile security...

VMware Patches Important Bug Affecting ESXi, Workstation and Fusion Products

VMWare has shipped updates to Workstation, Fusion, and ESXi products to address an "important" security vulnerability that could be weaponized by a threat actor to take control of affected systems. The issue relates to a heap-overflow vulnerability — tracked as CVE-2021-22045 CVSS score: 7.7 —...

Google Releases New Chrome Update to Patch Dozens of New Browser Vulnerabilities

Google has rolled out the first round of updates to its Chrome web browser for 2022 to fix 37 security issues, one of which is rated Critical in severity and could be exploited to pass arbitrary code and gain control over a victim's system. Tracked as CVE-2022-0096, the flaw relates to a...

Researchers Uncover Hacker Group Behind Organized Financial-Theft Operation

Cybersecurity researchers have taken the wraps of an organized financial-theft operation undertaken by a discreet actor to target transaction processing systems and siphon funds from entities primarily located in Latin America for at least four years. The malicious hacking group has been codename...

New Zloader Banking Malware Campaign Exploiting Microsoft Signature Verification

An ongoing ZLoader malware campaign has been uncovered exploiting remote monitoring tools and a nine-year-old flaw concerning Microsoft's digital signature verification to siphon user credentials and sensitive information. Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point Research, which has been trackin...

Hackers Target Real Estate Websites with Skimmer in Latest Supply Chain Attack

Threat actors leveraged a cloud video hosting service to carry out a supply chain attack on more than 100 real estate websites operated by Sotheby's Realty that involved injecting malicious skimmers to steal sensitive personal information. "The attacker injected the skimmer JavaScript codes into...

Microsoft Warns of Continued Attacks Exploiting Apache Log4j Vulnerabilities

Microsoft is warning of continuing attempts by nation-state adversaries and commodity attackers to take advantage of security vulnerabilities uncovered in the Log4j open-source logging framework to deploy malware on vulnerable systems. "Exploitation attempts and testing have remained high during...

SAILFISH System to Find State-Inconsistency Bugs in Smart Contracts

A group of academics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has demonstrated what it calls a "scalable technique" to vet smart contracts and mitigate state-inconsistency bugs, discovering 47 zero-day vulnerabilities on the Ethereum blockchain in the process. Smart contracts are program...

Researchers Detail New HomeKit 'doorLock' Bug Affecting Apple iOS

A persistent denial-of-service DoS vulnerability has been discovered in Apple's iOS mobile operating system that's capable of sending affected devices into a crash or reboot loop upon connecting to an Apple Home-compatible appliance. The behavior, dubbed "doorLock," is trivial in that it can be...

Beware of Fake Telegram Messenger App Hacking PCs with Purple Fox Malware

Trojanized installers of the Telegram messaging application are being used to distribute the Windows-based Purple Fox backdoor on compromised systems. That's according to new research published by Minerva Labs, describing the attack as different from intrusions that typically take advantage of...

Detecting Evasive Malware on IoT Devices Using Electromagnetic Emanations

Cybersecurity researchers have proposed a novel approach that harnesses electromagnetic field emanations from the Internet of Things IoT devices as a side-channel to glean precise knowledge about the different kinds of malware targeting the embedded systems, even in scenarios where obfuscation...

Are Medical Devices at Risk of Ransomware Attacks?

In May 2017, the first documented ransomware assault on networked medical equipment happened. The worldwide ransomware assault WannaCry compromised radiological and other instruments in several hospitals during its height, after a software failure caused by a cyberattack on its third-party vendor...

Microsoft Issues Fix for Exchange Y2K22 Bug That Crippled Email Delivery Service

Microsoft, over the weekend, rolled out a fix to address an issue that caused email messages to get stuck on its Exchange Server platforms due to what it blamed on a date validation error at around the turn of the year. "The problem relates to a date check failure with the change of the new year...

New iLOBleed Rootkit Targeting HP Enterprise Servers with Data Wiping Attacks

A previously unknown rootkit has been found setting its sights on Hewlett-Packard Enterprise's Integrated Lights-Out iLO server management technology to carry out in-the-wild attacks that tamper with the firmware modules and completely wipe data off the infected systems. The discovery, which is t...

Chinese APT Hackers Used Log4Shell Exploit to Target Academic Institution

A never-before-seen China-based targeted intrusion adversary dubbed Aquatic Panda has been observed leveraging critical flaws in the Apache Log4j logging library as an access vector to perform various post-exploitation operations, including reconnaissance and credential harvesting on targeted...

Ongoing Autom Cryptomining Malware Attacks Using Upgraded Evasion Tactics

An ongoing crypto mining campaign has upgraded its arsenal while evolving its defense evasion tactics that enable the threat actors to conceal the intrusions and fly under the radar, new research published today has revealed. Since first detected in 2019, a total of 84 attacks against its honeypo...

New Apache Log4j Update Released to Patch Newly Discovered Vulnerability

The Apache Software Foundation ASF on Tuesday rolled out fresh patches to contain an arbitrary code execution flaw in Log4j that could be abused by threat actors to run malicious code on affected systems, making it the fifth security shortcoming to be discovered in the tool in the span of a month...

Experts Detail Logging Tool of DanderSpritz Framework Used by Equation Group Hackers

Cybersecurity researchers have offered a detailed glimpse into a system called DoubleFeature that's dedicated to logging the different stages of post-exploitation stemming from the deployment of DanderSpritz, a full-featured malware framework used by the Equation Group. DanderSpritz came to light...

Garrett Walk-Through Metal Detectors Can Be Hacked Remotely

A number of security flaws have been uncovered in a networking component in Garrett Metal Detectors that could allow remote attackers to bypass authentication requirements, tamper with metal detector configurations, and even execute arbitrary code on the devices. "An attacker could manipulate thi...

PECB Certified Lead Ethical Hacker: Take Your Career to the Next Level

Cybercrime is increasing exponentially and presents devastating risks for most organizations. According to Cybercrime Magazine, global cybercrime damage is predicted to hit $10.5 trillion annually as of 2025. One of the more recent and increasingly popular forms of tackling such issues by...

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Pirated Downloads Contain Crypto-Mining Malware

Peter Parker might not be a mastermind cryptocurrency criminal, but the name Spiderman is quickly becoming more associated with the mining landscape. ReasonLabs, a leading provider of cybersecurity prevention and detection software, recently discovered a new form of malware hacking into customer...

New Android Malware Targeting Brazil's Itaú Unibanco Bank Customers

Researchers have discovered a new Android banking malware that targets Brazil's Itaú Unibanco with the help of lookalike Google Play Store pages to carry out fraudulent financial transactions on victim devices without their knowledge. "This application has a similar icon and name that could trick...

New Android Malware Targeting Brazil's Itaú Unibanco Bank Customers

Researchers have discovered a new Android banking malware that targets Brazil's Itaú Unibanco with the help of lookalike Google Play Store pages to carry out fraudulent financial transactions on victim devices without their knowledge. "This application has a similar icon and name that could trick...

Expert Details macOS Bug That Could Let Malware Bypass Gatekeeper Security

Apple recently fixed a security vulnerability in the macOS operating system that could be potentially exploited by a threat actor to "trivially and reliably" bypass a "myriad of foundational macOS security mechanisms" and run arbitrary code. Security researcher Patrick Wardle detailed the discove...

New Ransomware Variants Flourish Amid Law Enforcement Actions

Ransomware groups continue to evolve their tactics and techniques to deploy file-encrypting malware on compromised systems, notwithstanding law enforcement's disruptive actions against the cybercrime gangs to prevent them from victimizing additional companies. "Be it due to law enforcement,...

New BLISTER Malware Using Code Signing Certificates to Evade Detection

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an evasive malware campaign that makes use of valid code signing certificates to sneak past security defenses and stay under the radar with the goal of deploying Cobalt Strike and BitRAT payloads on compromised systems. The binary, a loader, has...

CISA, FBI and NSA Publish Joint Advisory and Scanner for Log4j Vulnerabilities

Cybersecurity agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. on Wednesday released a joint advisory in response to widespread exploitation of multiple vulnerabilities in Apache's Log4j software library by nefarious adversaries. "These vulnerabilities, especially Log4Shell, a...

IoT SAFE — An Innovative Way to Secure IoT

By the end of 2021, there will be 12 billion connected IoT devices, and by 2025, that number will rise to 27 billion. All these devices will be connected to the internet and will send useful data that will make industries, medicine, and cars more intelligent and more efficient. However, will all...

4-Year-Old Bug in Azure App Service Exposed Hundreds of Source Code Repositories

A security flaw has been unearthed in Microsoft's Azure App Service that resulted in the exposure of source code of customer applications written in Java, Node, PHP, Python, and Ruby for at least four years since September 2017. The vulnerability, codenamed "NotLegit," was reported to the tech...

Researchers Disclose Unpatched Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Teams Software

Microsoft said it won't be fixing or is pushing patches to a later date for three of the four security flaws uncovered in its Teams business communication platform earlier this March. The disclosure comes from Berlin-based cybersecurity firm Positive Security, which found that the implementation ...

China suspends deal with Alibaba for not sharing Log4j 0-day first with the government

China's internet regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology MIIT, has temporarily suspended a partnership with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, for six months on account of the fact that it failed to promptly inform the governmen...

New Exploit Lets Malware Attackers Bypass Patch for Critical Microsoft MSHTML Flaw

A short-lived phishing campaign has been observed taking advantage of a novel exploit that bypassed a patch put in place by Microsoft to fix a remote code execution vulnerability affecting the MSHTML component with the goal of delivering Formbook malware. "The attachments represent an escalation ...

Active Directory Bugs Could Let hackers Take Over Windows Domain Controllers

Microsoft is urging customers to patch two security vulnerabilities in Active Directory domain controllers that it addressed in November following the availability of a proof-of-concept PoC tool on December 12. The two vulnerabilities — tracked as CVE-2021-42278 and CVE-2021-42287 — have a severi...

Tropic Trooper Cyber Espionage Hackers Targeting Transportation Sector

The transportation industry and government agencies related to the sector are the victims of an ongoing campaign since July 2020 by a sophisticated and well-equipped cyberespionage group in what appears to be yet another uptick in malicious activities that are "just the tip of the iceberg." "The...

Top 7 common Cybersecurity Myths — Busted

Even with the growing awareness about cybersecurity, many myths about it are prevalent. These misconceptions can be a barrier to effective security. The first step to ensure the security of your business is to separate the false information, myths, and rumors from the truth. Here, we're busting...

Secret Backdoors Found in German-made Auerswald VoIP System

Multiple backdoors have been discovered during a penetration test in the firmware of a widely used voice over Internet Protocol VoIP appliance from Auerswald, a German telecommunications hardware manufacturer, that could be abused to gain full administrative access to the devices. "Two backdoor...

Meta Sues Hackers Behind Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram Phishing Attacks

Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms on Monday said it has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. state of California against bad actors who operated more than 39,000 phishing websites that impersonated its digital properties to mislead unsuspecting users into divulging their login credentials...

New Mobile Network Vulnerabilities Affect All Cellular Generations Since 2G

Researchers have disclosed security vulnerabilities in handover, a fundamental mechanism that undergirds modern cellular networks, which could be exploited by adversaries to launch denial-of-service DoS and man-in-the-middle MitM attacks using low-cost equipment. The "vulnerabilities in the...

CISA Compliance for 2022

The last several years have seen an ever-increasing number of cyber-attacks, and while the frequency of such attacks has increased, so too has the resulting damage. One needs only to look at CISA's list of significant cyber incidents to appreciate the magnitude of the problem. In May of 2021, for...

Experts Discover Backdoor Deployed on the U.S. Federal Agency's Network

A U.S. federal government commission associated with international rights has been targeted by a backdoor that reportedly compromised its internal network in what the researchers described as a "classic APT-type operation." "This attack could have given total visibility of the network and complet...