Spy Operations Target Vietnam with Sophisticated RAT

An advanced cyberespionage campaign targeting government and military entities in Vietnam has been discovered that delivered a remote-access tool RAT for carrying out espionage operations, researchers said. Further analysis suggested that this campaign was conducted by a group related to a...

Yeezy Fans Face Sneaker-Bot Armies for Hot Kicks Releases

Shopping bots are likely to make it tough for everyday sneakerheads to get their hands on a pair of new Adidas Yeezy shoes from Kanye West as more styles become available through retailers in the next few months. Researchers at Cequence Security track bots across the internet, and the company’s...

Stolen Jones Day Law Firm Files Posted on Dark Web

The Clop ransomware group has reportedly started posting data on the Dark Web apparently stolen from law firm Jones Day, which represents many of the globe’s most powerful people, including former president Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But the attack had nothing to d...

Military, Nuclear Entities Under Target By Novel Android Malware

Researchers have uncovered two novel Android surveillanceware families being used by an advanced persistent threat APT group to target military, nuclear and election entities in Pakistan and Kashmir. The two malware families, which researchers call “Hornbill” and “SunBird,” have sophisticated...

Google Searches Expose Stolen Corporate Credentials

Attackers behind a recently discovered phishing campaign have unintentionally left more than 1,000 stolen credentials available online via simple Google searches, researchers have found. The campaign, which began in August 2020, used e-mails that spoof notifications from Xerox scans to lure victi...

Threatpost Poll: Weigh in on Ransomware Security

It’s no secret that ransomware attacks continue to rise – with the number of attacks jumping by 350 percent since 2018. Healthcare systems have been hit particularly hard over the past year by ransomware actors, with a recent report saying that healthcare organizations have seen a 45 percent...

Lazarus Group Hits COVID-19 Vaccine-Maker in Espionage Attack

The advanced persistent threat APT known as Lazarus Group and other sophisticated nation-state actors are actively trying to steal COVID-19 research to speed up their countries’ vaccine-development efforts. That’s the finding from Kaspersky researchers, who found that Lazarus Group — widely...

PLEASE_READ_ME Ransomware Attacks 85K MySQL Servers

Researchers are warning on an active ransomware campaign that’s targeting MySQL database servers. The ransomware, called PLEASEREADME, has thus far breached at least 85,000 servers worldwide – and has posted at least 250,000 stolen databases on a website for sale. MySQL is an open-source relation...

Reverse Engineering Tools: Evaluating the True Cost

When sourcing software for business needs, what criteria should you follow? Price typically tops the list. And sure, free software, like the Linux OS, delivers cost savings, stability, flexibility and ongoing development. No argument there. But when it comes to decompilers, which are used for...

Code42 Incydr Series: Honing in on high-risk users with Code42 Incydr

The crux of the insider threat challenge is that everyone can be a risk. That’s why most security teams are focusing on gaining broader and deeper visibility into all file activity — especially the surge in remote, off-network activity. But this doesn’t mean that security teams should discount...

Food-Supply Giant Americold Admits Cyberattack

Americold, a company whose cold-storage capabilities are integral to the U.S. food-supply chain and soon, COVID-19 vaccine distribution, has confirmed an operations-impacting cyberattack, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. The filing was brief and read in part:...

Attackers Target Porn Site Goers in ‘Malsmoke’ Zloader Attack

Cybercriminals are tricking adult website visitors – including sites such as bravoporn.com and xhamster.com – in malvertising attacks that redirect victims to malicious websites serving up malware. The campaign, which is part of a larger malvertising effort dubbed “malsmoke”, has been tracked...

Apple to Deliver 'Privacy Labels' for Apps, Revealing Data-Sharing Details

After years of complaints about over-permissioned apps that collect, use and share private user information, Apple will be making developer privacy policies more transparent for consumers. Starting Dec. 8, iOS and macOS developers will be required to provide detailed information about how their...

Google Forms Abused to Phish AT&T Credentials

Researchers are warning of phishing attacks that leverage Google Forms as a landing page to collect victims’ credentials. The forms masquerade as login pages from more than 25 different companies, brands and government agencies. So far, 265 different Google Forms used in these attacks have been...

TikTok Launches Bug Bounty Program Amid Security SNAFUs

TikTok has expanded its vulnerability disclosure policy to include a global bug-bounty program through a partnership with the ethical hacker platform HackerOne. The bug-bounty program launch signals a new direction for the Chinese-owned video-sharing app, which has been much maligned for its...

Zoom Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption After Setbacks

Video-conferencing giant Zoom is rolling out a technical preview of its end-to-end encryption E2EE next week. Zoom has faced various controversies around its encryption policies over the past year, including several lawsuits alleging that the company falsely told users that it offers full...

IcedID Trojan Rebooted with New Evasive Tactics

Threat actors have enhanced a banking trojan that has been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic with new functionality to help it avoid detection by potential victims and standard security protections. Attackers have implemented several new features — including a password-protected attachment...

'Undeletable' Malware Shows Up in Yet Another Android Device

Security researchers have identified yet another Android-based mobile device available through the government-funded Lifeline Assistance Program pre-loaded with malware, a discovery adding evidence to the disturbing trend of smartphones infected with undeletable malicious code upon purchase. Hard...

How to Safeguard Data When the Majority of Your Workforce is Remote

Before our current situation, you and your teams may have implemented a comprehensive data protection plan. The scope of change businesses are currently facing is something none of us could have predicted. These changes will continue to impact how we work in the future. How can you be sure your...

Five Password Tips for Securing the New WFH Normal

The shift to working from home is pushing system administrators to adjust to a new security normal. This includes new, high-profile challenges, such as the adoption of cloud applications, remote access to digital assets, and remote client support, to name a few. That said, good old-fashioned...

PonyFinal Ransomware Targets Enterprise Servers Then Bides Its Time

A Java-based ransomware known as PonyFinal has galloped onto the scene, targeting enterprise systems management servers as an initial infection vector. According to a warning on Twitter from Microsoft Security Intelligence on Wednesday, PonyFinal is not an automated threat, but rather has humans...

Airplane Hack Exposes Weaknesses of Alert and Avoidance Systems

The aircraft safety system known as the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System TCAS can be coerced into sending an airplane on a mid-air rollercoaster ride – much to the horror of those onboard. Researchers were able to cobble together an effective method for spoofing the TCAS using a $10...

PPE, COVID-19 Medical Supplies Targeted by BEC Scams

Much has been publicized about the shortage of personal protective equipment PPE and other supplies for healthcare facilities in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the FBI is warning that threat actors are taking advantage of efforts to procure PPE and critical equipment such as...

Researchers Warn of Novel PXJ Ransomware Strain

Researchers have discovered a new strain of ransomware, dubbed “PXJ,” which emerged in the wild in early 2020. While PXJ performs functions similar to other ransomware variants, it does not appear to share the same underlying code with most known ransomware families, researchers said. They first...

ThreatList: Ransomware Costs Double in Q4, Sodinokibi Dominates

Ransomware costs more than doubled in the fourth quarter of 2019, with the average ransom payment skyrocketing to $84,116, a 104 percent surge up from $41,198 in the third quarter. Researchers said that the leap up in ransomware costs are due in large part to some attackers pushing variants such ...

U.N. Weathers Storm of Emotet-TrickBot Malware

The operators behind the notorious Emotet malware have taken aim at United Nations personnel in a targeted attack ultimately bent on delivering the TrickBot trojan. According to researchers at Confense, a concerted phishing campaign has been using emails purporting to be from the Permanent Missio...

Marriott Hit With $123M Fine For Massive 2018 Data Breach

The U.K.’s privacy watchdog is hitting Marriott International with a $123 million £99 million penalty stemming from its 2018 data breach of more than 383 million guest records. The Tuesday fine is issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO and comes only a day after the organization...

Post-Data Breach, British Airways Slapped With Record $230M Fine

UPDATE A record $230 million fine has been proposed against British Airways after a 2018 data breach impacted 500,000 of the airline’s customers. If approved, the fee would be the biggest General Data Protection Regulation GDPR fine to be issued to a company so far. On Monday, the Information...

Help Keep Data and Systems Safe with Access Rights Manager (ARM)

Built to provision, deprovision, audit, and manage user access rights to data, files, and other systems, SolarWinds® Access Rights Manager ARM is designed to help security admins and IT pros protect their companies from potential risks like data loss and breaches. Visualize who has access to what...

Microsoft’s Latest Patch Hoses Some Antivirus Software

Microsoft’s April 9 security update is bogging down systems running antivirus software packages made by McAfee, Avast, ArcaBit, Avira and Sophos. According to Microsoft, the company’s April Patch Tuesday security update is causing some systems to have slow startup times, sluggish performance or...

Insecure Ride App Database Leaks Data of 300K Iranian Drivers

A researcher has discovered that over a quarter-million drivers of the Iranian ride hailing app Tap30 have had their data left publicly exposed in an insecure database. Tap30 is an online taxi application, similar to Uber, that connects users to drivers through the mobile app and the corporate...

Fake Instagram Apps on Google Play Harvest User Logins

Three apps on Google Play claiming to help Instagram users amass followers have been found stealing usernames and passwords for the social photo service. The fake apps were uncovered by Malwarebytes, and are still available, according to Nathan Collier, a security researcher with the firm. “As th...

Critical, Unpatched Cisco Flaw Leaves Small Business Networks Wide Open

A critical and unpatched vulnerability in the widely deployed Cisco Small Business Switch software leaves the door open to remote, unauthenticated attackers gaining full administrative control over the device – and therefore the network. Cisco Small Business Switches were developed for small offi...

Critical Bug Patched in Schneider Electric Vehicle Charging Station

Schneider Electric is warning about a critical vulnerability in its EVLink Parking devices – a line of electric vehicle charging stations. The energy management and automation giant said the vulnerability is tied to a hard-coded credential bug that exists within the device that could enable...

Critical Zoom Flaw Lets Hackers Hijack Conference Meetings

A serious vulnerability in Zoom’s desktop conferencing application could allow a remote attacker to hijack screen controls and kick attendees out of meetings. Researchers at Tenable who on Thursday released a proof of concept exploit for the unauthorized command execution flaw said that bug exist...

Lock-Screen Bypass Bug Quietly Patched in Handsets

A design flaw affecting all in-display fingerprint sensors – that left over a half-dozen cellphone models vulnerable to a trivial lock-screen bypass attack – has been quietly patched. The flaw was tied to a bug in the popular in-display fingerprint reader technology used for user authentication...

Adobe Fixes Acrobat and Reader Flaw With Publicly-Available PoC

Adobe on Tuesday released three patches – including a fix for a flaw in Adobe Acrobat and Reader that exposes hashed passwords that already has a proof-of-concept PoC exploit code publicly available. The information disclosure vulnerability, CVE-2018-15979, exists in Adobe Acrobat and Reader for...

Tiny Island Atoll’s Domain Used in Widespread Ad Fraud

A scam campaign involving “.tk” domains has been active since at least May 2018, redirecting unsuspecting users to fake blogger sites that are collectively bringing in close to $22,000 per month in advertising revenue. The same actors have also been spotted running a tech-support scam in tandem,...

Android OS API-Breaking Flaw Offers Useful WiFi Data to Bad Actors

An “API-breaking” vulnerability has been uncovered that potentially exposes Android device systems data to rogue apps — information that could be very useful to bad actors. Researchers from Nightwatch Cybersecurity System said that certain all-points-bulletins sent out by the Android OS expose...

FBI’s BEC Crackdown Leads To 74 Arrests Globally

The FBI announced Monday the results of a major crackdown on scammers behind business email compromise BEC campaigns that resulted in 74 arrests and the retrieval of millions of dollars. Several U.S. federal authorities and police from other countries were involved in Operation WireWire, a...

Pet Trackers Open to MITM Attacks, Interception

UPDATE Family pets are near and dear to us, so smart collars and other devices for animals that track their locations are becoming popular; a world without the need for lost-pet flyers is after all a wonderful thing. The problem, according to researchers, is that these devices can leak sensitive...

Cisco Warns of Three Critical Bugs in Digital Network Architecture Platform

Cisco Systems patched three bugs on Wednesday that are rated critical, tied to its Digital Network Architecture DNA Center platform. Cisco also warned of four additional vulnerabilities – each rated high. All of the vulnerabilities have available patches for mitigation. All three of the critical...

Samsung Patches Six Critical Bugs in Flagship Handsets

Samsung began rolling out patches over the weekend to fix six critical bugs found in its flagship Android handsets as part of its May patch bulletin. Flaws range from a remote code execution bug to a buffer overflow vulnerability, plus a peek-and-poke command bug that leaves memory locations open...

Mozilla Patches Critical Bug in Thunderbird

Mozilla issued a critical security update to its popular open-source Thunderbird email client. The patch was part of a December release of five fixes that included two bugs rated high and one rated moderate and another low. Mozilla said Thunderbird, which is also serves as a news, RSS and chat...

Banking Apps Found Vulnerable to MITM Attacks

Leading US and UK-based banks have patched a flaw found in their Android and iOS mobile apps that allowed adversaries to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to steal customer credentials and view and manipulate network traffic. According to researchers at the School of Computer Science at the...

Emergency Apple Patch Fixes High Sierra Password Hint Leak

Apple rushed out an emergency patch Thursday that fixed an incredulous bug in its shiny new High Sierra operating system that revealed APFS volume passwords via the password hint feature. Brazilian researcher Matheus Mariano of Leet Tech found the bug and privately disclosed it to Apple. He said...

Samba Update Patches Two SMB-Related MiTM Bugs

Samba this week released three security updates, including two related to SMB connections that could be abused by an attacker already on the network to hijack connections and manipulate traffic or data sent from a client. The most serious of the bugs is CVE-2017-12150 where with certain...

Revamped Nukebot Malware Changes Targets, Adds Functions

A revamped version of the Nukebot banking trojan dubbed Jimmy Nukebot has shifted focus from stealing bankcard data and now acts as a conduit for quietly downloading malicious payloads for web-injects, cryptocurrency mining, and taking screenshots of targeted systems. The code is a modification o...

Windows Search Bug Worth Watching, and Squashing

Between Conficker and WannaCry, there was a nearly a decade when network worms went dark. WannaCry changed that, riding into enterprises globally on the coattails of a leaked nation-state exploit. In the months since the May 12 ransomware attack, vendors, researchers and network admins have been ...

Flash Player Marches Toward End, Patches Two Code Execution Bugs in Latest Update

Adobe today pushed out its first Flash Player update since announcing two weeks ago that it would stop distributing and updating the software in 2020. Flash has been at the center of many targeted attacks and exploit kit activity, and despite numerous improvements to the product including...