Marketing Analytics Company Leaks Deep Profiles of Entire Ecuador Population

The entire population of Ecuador has been impacted by an open database on an unsecured server, housing a massive amount of personal information collected from public-sector sources by a marketing analytics company. The leaked database, which was found by vpnMentor’s research team, includes record...

Supply Chain Update Software Unknowingly Used in Attacks

Microsoft said a recent attack it calls Operation WilySupply utilized the update mechanism of an unnamed software editing tool to infect targets in the finance and payment industries with in-memory malware. The unnamed editing tool was used to send unsigned malicious updates to users in targeted...

Log4JShell Used to Swarm VMware Servers with Miners, Backdoors

What researchers are calling a “horde” of miner bots and backdoors are using the Log4Shell bug to take over vulnerable VMware Horizon servers, with threat actors still actively waging some attacks. On Tuesday, Sophos reported that the remote code execution RCE Log4j vulnerability in the ubiquitou...

2021 Attacker Dwell Time Trends and Best Defenses

Cyberattacks have shifted from the usual smash-and-grab type of heists to stealthier campaigns where hackers silently camp out on networks for long periods, stealing anything they can get their hands on. Called attacker dwell time, this is part of an adversarial approach that has become even more...

Latest Mirai Variant Targets SonicWall, D-Link and IoT Devices

A new variant of the Mirai botnet has been discovered targeting a slew of vulnerabilities in unpatched D-Link, Netgear and SonicWall devices — as well as never-before-seen flaws in unknown internet-of-things IoT gadgets. Since Feb. 16, the new variant has been targeting six known vulnerabilities ...

‘Tortilla’ Wraps Exchange Servers in ProxyShell Attacks

A new-ish threat actor sometimes known as “Tortilla” is launching a fresh round of ProxyShell attacks on Microsoft Exchange servers, this time with the aim of inflicting vulnerable servers with variants of the Babuk ransomware. Cisco Talos researchers said in a Wednesday report that they spotted...

Containerd Bug Exposes Cloud Account Credentials

A security vulnerability can be exploited to coerce the containerd cloud platform into exposing the host’s registry or users’ cloud-account credentials. Containerd bills itself as a runtime tool that “manages the complete container lifecycle of its host system, from image transfer and storage to...

Valak Loader Revamped to Rob Microsoft Exchange Servers

Threat actors have revamped a popular malware loader into a stealthy infostealer that targets Microsoft Exchange servers to pilfer enterprise mailing information, passwords and enterprise certificates, researchers have found. Security researchers from Cybereason Nocturnus have discovered Valak, a...

Mystery Windows 7 Update An Accidental Test Update

A suspicious Windows 7 update today raised concern on a number of Microsoft and technology forums that the Windows Update service had been compromised. Microsoft, however, cleared the air several hours later admitting that the update was their mistake. “We incorrectly published a test update and...

A Peek Inside the Underground Ransomware Economy

Ransomware is not just a type of malware – it’s also at the center of a sophisticated, flourishing underground economy that has all the conventions of legitimate commerce. It’s a community made up of major malware developers, affiliates and channel partners, and those that provide adjacent...

WP Statistics Bug Lets Attackers Lift Sites’ Data

WP Statistics, a plugin installed on more than 600,000 WordPress websites, has an SQL-injection security vulnerability that could let site visitors make off with all kinds of sensitive information from web databases, including emails, credit-card data, passwords and more. WP Statistics, as its na...

DarkCrewFriends Returns with Botnet Strategy

The hackers-for-hire group DarkCrewFriends has resurfaced and is targeting content management systems to build a botnet. The botnet can be marshalled into service to carry out a variety of criminal activities, including distributed denial-of-service DDoS attacks, command execution, information...

Dell Patches SupportAssist Flaw That Allows Arbitrary Code Execution

Dell has patched a high-severity flaw in its SupportAssist software that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges on affected computers. The flaw, an uncontrolled search path vulnerability that is being tracked as CVE-2020-5316, could allow a locally...

Critical Android Flaw Leads to 'Permanent DoS’

Google has released an update stomping out three critical-severity vulnerabilities in its Android operating system — one of which could result in “permanent denial of service” on affected mobile devices if exploited. The vulnerabilities are part of Google’s December 2019 Android Security Bulletin...

Free HermeticRansom Ransomware Decryptor Released

A free decryptor is out to unlock a ransomware found piggybacking on the HermeticWiper data wiper malware that ESET and Broadcom’s Symantec discovered targeting machines at financial, defense, aviation and IT services outfits in Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia last week. The fact that there was...

Indictments, Attribution Unlikely to Deter Chinese Hacking

The federal government is fighting back against what it says are China-based cyberattacks against U.S. universities and companies with indictments and a “naming-and-shaming” approach — but researchers aren’t convinced the efforts will come to much in terms of deterring future activity. On Monday,...

Unpatched Bug in WiFi Mouse App Opens PCs to Attack

The mobile application called WiFi Mouse, which allows users to control mouse movements on a PC or Mac with a smartphone or tablet, has an unpatched bug allowing adversaries to hijack desktop computers, according to researcher Christopher Le Roux who found the flaw. Impacted is the Android app’s...

vBulletin Flaw Exploited in Dutch Sex-Work Forum Breach

Hackers have stolen the account details of 250,000 users of Dutch sex-work forum Hookers.nl – including email addresses of both escorts and customers. The website provides a forum for escorts and customers to discuss sex work — including clients discussing their experiences with sex workers. A...

Apache Struts 2 Flaw Uncovered: ‘More Critical Than Equifax Bug’

A critical remote code-execution vulnerability in Apache Struts 2, the popular open-source framework for developing web applications in the Java programming language, is threatening a wide range of applications, even when no additional plugins have been enabled. Successful exploitation could lead...

How Email Attacks are Evolving in 2021

Hundreds of thousands of dollars lost. Financial and emotional ruin. And in some cases, suicide. These are some of the outcomes business email compromise BEC attacks have on victims, said Ronnie Tokazowski, senior threat researcher with Agari. These type of attacks don’t garner the same attention...

‘StrandHogg’ Vulnerability Allows Malware to Pose as Legitimate Android Apps

Researchers have discovered a new Android vulnerability that could allow malware to pose as popular apps and ask for various permissions, potentially allowing hackers to listen in on users, take photos, read and send SMS messages, and basically take over various functions as if they are the...

Microsoft to Investigate Alleged Xbox Credit Card Hack

Microsoft is looking into a potential security issue affecting its Xbox 360 video game console this week after a group of college students claimed they were able to extract the credit card information of a console’s previous owner from the machine. Ashley Podhradsky, Rob D’Ovidio, and Cindy Casey...

U.S. Weapons Programs Lack 'Key' Cybersecurity Measures

Weapons programs from the U.S. Department of Defense DoD are falling short when it comes to incorporating cybersecurity requirements, according to a new watchdog report. While the DoD has developed a range of policies aimed at hardening the security for its weapon systems, the guidance leaves out...

New Drupalgeddon Attacks Enlist Shellbot to Open Backdoors

Researchers are warning of a new wave of cyberattacks targeting unpatched Drupal websites that are vulnerable to Drupalgeddon 2.0. What’s unique about this latest series of attacks is that adversaries are using PowerBot malware, an IRC-controlled bot also called PerlBot or Shellbot. Researchers a...

Demo of ASP.NET Padding Oracle Attack

In this video, researchers Juliano Rizzo and Thai Duong demonstrate the technique they developed for stealing cryptographic keys for ASP.NET Web applications, enabling them to compromise virtually any app built on ASP.NET. You can read the full story of their attack in this article, “Padding Orac...

Exchange Servers Speared in IcedID Phishing Campaign

The ever-evolving banking trojan IcedID is back again with a phishing campaign that uses previously compromised Microsoft Exchange servers to send emails that appear to come from legitimate accounts. Attackers also are using stealthy new payload-delivery tactics to spread the modular malware...

Insurance Giant CNA Hit with Novel Ransomware Attack

A novel ransomware attack forced insurance giant CNA to take systems offline and temporarily shutter its website. The attack occurred earlier this week and leveraged a new variant of the Phoenix CryptoLocker malware. The Chicago-based company—the seventh largest commercial insurance provider in t...

Billions of Devices Open to Wi-Fi Eavesdropping Attacks

SAN FRANCISCO — A serious vulnerability in Wi-Fi chips has been discovered that affects billions of devices worldwide, according to researchers. It allows attackers to eavesdrop on Wi-Fi communications. The bug CVE-2019-15126 stems from the use of an all-zero encryption key in chips made by...

Cisco Webex Flaw Lets Unauthenticated Users Join Private Online Meetings

UPDATE Cisco Systems has fixed a high-severity vulnerability in its popular Webex video conferencing platform, which could let strangers barge in on password-protected meetings – no authentication necessary. A remote attacker would not need to be authenticated to exploit the flaw, according to...

The APT Name Game: How Grim Threat Actors Get Goofy Monikers

What’s in a name? When it comes to advanced persistent threat groups, it is often quite a bit. While their monikers’ may seem whimsical – Fancy Bear, Nomadic Octopus, Ocean Lotus and Darkhotel – the reality is these are not arbitrary names. In fact, many are similar to schoolyard nicknames or a...

Apache Guacamole Opens Door for Total Control of Remote Footprint

Apache Guacamole, a popular infrastructure for enabling remote working, is vulnerable to a slew of security bugs related to the Remote Desktop Protocol RDP, researchers have warned. Admins should update their systems to avoid attacks bent on stealing information or remote code-execution. “Once in...

Microsoft Tackles Election Security with Bug Bounties

As the 2020 presidential election draws closer and primary season looms around the corner, Microsoft has launched a bug-bounty program specifically aimed at its ElectionGuard product, which the software giant has positioned as performing “end-to-end verification of elections.” ElectionGuard is a...

Malware That Targets Both Microsoft, Apple Operating Systems Found

Researchers came across a malicious Word document last week that doesn’t discriminate between OS platforms. The malicious Word document is designed to spread malware on either Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, depending on where it’s opened. Like many other strains of malware these days, the sample,...

It's The Stupidity, Stupid: How Absurd Pitches Help Online Scammers Find Their Marks

Do you find e-mail pleas for help from the widow of Democratic Republic of the Congo strongman Mobutu Sese Seko unconvincing or downright silly? That may be the point, according to Microsoft researcher Cormac Herley. The outlandish claims of Nigerian Letter – or “419” – scams serve a critical...

Sextortion Rears Its Ugly Head Again

A new French-language sextortion campaign is making the rounds, researchers warn. As noted by Sophos researchers in a Monday report, sextortion is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but its popularity has waned in recent years due to effective cybersecurity, law enforcement crackdowns and the...

Threat Actors Use Google Docs to Host Phishing Attacks

Threat actors are exploiting Google Docs by hosting their attacks within the web-based document service in a new phishing campaign that delivers malicious links aimed at stealing victims’ credentials. Researchers at email and collaboration security firm Avanan discovered the campaign, which is th...

Sprawling Cyberattack Breaches Several Airlines

A communications and IT vendor for 90 percent of the world’s airlines, SITA, has been breached, compromising passenger data stored on the company’s U.S. servers in what the company is calling a “highly sophisticated attack.” The affected servers are in Atlanta, and belong to the SITA Passenger...

Critical Flash Player Flaw Opens Adobe Users to RCE

Adobe is warning of a critical vulnerability in its Flash Player application for users on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS operating systems. The vulnerability is the only flaw released this month as part of Adobe’s regularly scheduled patches markedly less than the 18 flaws addressed during it...

DHS Issues Dire Patch Warning for ‘Zerologon’

Federal agencies that haven’t patched their Windows Servers against the ‘Zerologon’ vulnerability by Monday Sept. 21 at 11:59 pm EDT are in violation of a rare emergency directive issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security. With only hours until the deadline for the directive, issued on Friday,...

UPDATE: Canon Ransomware Attack Results in Leaked Data, Report

UPDATE The Maze ransomware gang has reportedly leaked Canon U.S.A. data online. Researchers said in April that the Maze gang had created a dedicated web page, which lists the identities of its non-cooperative victims who don’t pay ransoms and regularly publishes samples of the stolen data. This s...

Critical RCE Bug Found Lurking in Avaya VoIP Phones

A decade-old remote code-execution RCE bug has been found, unpatched, in an Avaya desk phone that’s used at 90 percent of Fortune 100 companies. If exploited, attackers could remotely take over the operation of the phone, exfiltrate audio and potentially even “bug” the phone to listen in...

Oil & Gas Targeted in Year-Long Espionage Campaign

A sophisticated campaign targeting large international companies in the oil and gas sector has been underway for more than a year, researchers said, spreading common remote access trojans RATs for cyber-espionage purposes. According to Intezer analysis, spear-phishing emails with malicious...

Pandemic-Bored Attackers Pummeled Gaming Industry

Attacks on the gaming industry skyrocketed during the year of the pandemic, with attacks on web applications shooting up 340 percent in 2020. According to Akamai Technologies’ latest State of the Internet and Security report, Gaming in a Pandemic PDF, cyberattack traffic targeting the video game...

Geek Squad Vishing Attack Bypasses Email Security to Hit 25K Mailboxes

A pair of billing and tech support “vishing” attacks using Geek Squad and Norton Antivirus as cover managed to hit 25,000 mailboxes recently, questing after victims’ credit-card details. Vishing a contraction of “voice phishing” generally involves stealing personal information from victims over t...

Hackers Leverage Adobe Zero-Day Bug Impacting Acrobat Reader

Adobe is warning customers of a critical zero-day bug actively exploited in the wild that affects its ubiquitous Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software. A patch is available, as part of the company’s Tuesday roundup of 43 fixes for 12 of its products, including Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop Application...

Mozilla Fixes Firefox Flaw That Allowed Spoofing of HTTPS Browser Padlock

The Mozilla Foundation fixed a flaw in its Firefox browser that allowed spoofing of the HTTPS secure communications icon, displayed as a padlock in the browser address window. Successful exploitation of the flaw could have allowed a rogue website to intercept browser communications. The patch was...

National Surveillance Camera Rollout Roils Privacy Activists

While controversy over the potential overreach of neighborhood and law-enforcement video surveillance has focused mainly on Ring, an Atlanta-based startup has quietly rolled out its own network of smart surveillance cameras across the country that is again raising questions of privacy and the ire...

Malaysia Air Downplays Frequent-Flyer Data Breach

Malaysia Airlines sent out an email to frequent flyer program members assuring them that there’s “no evidence” their personal data has been misused in the wake of a supply-chain attack via a third-party vendor. However, experts think that’s unlikely. And, they say the repercussions could be...

A Brisk Private Trade in Zero-Days Widens Their Use

There were more zero-days exploited in 2019 than any of the previous three years, according to telemetry from FireEye Mandiant. The firm said that’s likely due to more zero-days coming up for sale by cyber-weapons dealers like NSO Group; a growing commercial market has made such tools much more...

Malware Infests Popular Pirate Streaming Hardware

You get what you pay for when you pirate content. That’s the takeaway from the latest report by Digital Citizens Alliance. It found that pirating hardware, which enables free streaming copyright-protected content, comes packed with malicious malware. The devices give criminals easy access to rout...