WordPress WP Live Chat Support Plugin Fixes XSS Flaw

For the second time this month a patch has been issued for the WordPress add-on called WP Live Chat Support Plugin. This time around it’s a cross-site scripting XSS vulnerability. The WP Live Chat Support is a popular WordPress plugin that allows users to install a pop-up “chat” plugin to their...

Ransomware 'Remediation' Firm Exposed; Researchers Weigh in on Paying

A company that claimed to use technology tools to help victims with ransomware cleanup was found to secretly be paying the ransom, while collecting a premium from their clients, according to an expose out this week. The situation brings the core dilemma of business-focused ransomware directly int...

Apple iOS 12.2 Patches 51 Serious Flaws

Apple patched 51 vulnerabilities rated serious with its iOS 12.2 update. One of the most serious bugs could allow apps to secretly listen to end users. Apple’s iOS security updates, announced Monday during its March product announcement event, are for the iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later a...

Critical OkCupid Flaw Exposed Daters to App Takeovers

A critical flaw in the OkCupid app has been found that could allow a bad actor to steal credentials, launch man-in-the-middle attacks or completely compromise the victim’s application. This is separate from the OKCupid account-takeover incident reported earlier in the week, but it does fit the...

FireOS Flaw Allowed Limited Content Injection in Amazon Tablets

A vulnerability in the operating system of Amazon’s Fire Tablets could allow a hacker to inject malicious content into Settings, Legal and Compliance, Terms of Use and Privacy sections of the device. The bug could also allow an adversary to capture the serial number of the tablet. The Fire Tablet...

MS10-015 Restart Issues Are the Result of Rootkit Infection

Microsoft on Thursday confirmed that the blue screen of death issues that affected a slew of users after the latest batch of Patch Tuesday updates is the result of an existing infection by the Alureon rootkit. There was widespread speculation after the patch release that simply installing the...

Protecting Phones From Pegasus-Like Spyware Attacks

Pegasus spyware from the Israeli firm NSO Group is nearly invisible. It sends messages to compromise targeted phones without setting off any alarm bells to the phone’s user. There’s little you can do to protect yourself, say experts. But little isn’t nothing. Our guest today is Adam Weinberg, whi...

Windows 0-Days Used Against Dissidents in Israeli Broker’s Spyware

A set of unique spyware strains created by an Israeli firm and allegedly used by governments around the world to surveil dissidents has been defanged by Microsoft, the software giant said. The private company, called variously Candiru, Grindavik, Saito Tech and Taveta and dubbed “Sourgum” by...

Adobe Patches 11 Critical Bugs in Popular Acrobat PDF Reader

Eleven critical bugs in Adobe’s popular and free PDF reader, Acrobat, open both Window and macOS users to attacks ranging from an adversary arbitrarily executing commands on a targeted system to data leakage tied to system-read and memory flaws. In a Tuesday security bulletin, which included...

Google Play Apps Remain Vulnerable to High-Severity Flaw

UPDATE Researchers are warning that several popular Google Play applications – including mobile browser app Edge – have yet to push out an important update addressing a high-severity vulnerability in the Google Play Core Library. The vulnerability exists in Google Play Core Library, which is...

MGM Grand Breach Leaked Details of 10.6 Million Guests Last Summer

A hacking forum this week published details of more than 10.6 million guests who stayed at MGM Resorts, the result of a breach due to unauthorized access to a cloud server that occurred at the famous Las Vegas hotel and casino last summer. The incident—revealed in a published report on ZDNet...

Spyware App on Google Play Gets Boot, Returns Days Later

A music-streaming app offered on Google Play, harboring spyware that stole victims’ contacts, files and SMS messages, made its way onto the official Android app marketplace not once, but twice. The spyware was hidden in an app called Radio Balouch also known as RB Music. The app itself was actual...

Gen Z Interns and Social Media: A Perfect Security Storm

Researchers are warning of a new security Achilles’ heel for enterprises, and it may not be what they expect. That threat is interns. According to researchers, interns are unwittingly posting confidential and valuable company insights via social media that pose a security risk to the companies th...

APT Lazarus Targets Engineers with macOS Malware

North Korean APT Lazarus is up to its old tricks with a cyberespionage campaign targeting engineers with a fake job posting that attempt to spread macOS malware. The malicious Mac executable used in the campaign targets both Apple and Intel chip-based systems. The campaign, identified by...

Authorities Fully Behead Hydra Dark Marketplace

German authorities have taken down the Hydra marketplace – a popular destination on the Dark Web for trading in illicit goods and services, including cyberattack tools and stolen data. This week, they were able to commandeer and take offline underpinning infrastructure such as servers, plus insta...

Amazon Kindle Vulnerable to Malicious EBooks

A security flaw in Amazon’s Kindle e-reader made it vulnerable to malicious eBooks, opening the door to turning the devices into bots, compromising personal information and more. That’s according to Check Point researcher Slava Makkaeveev, who released the findings Friday. Check Point disclosed t...

Hundreds of Millions of Dell Users at Risk from Kernel-Privilege Bugs

Five high-severity security flaws in Dell’s firmware update driver are impacting potentially hundreds of millions of Dell desktops, laptops, notebooks and tablets, researchers said. The bugs have gone undisclosed for 12 years, and could allow the ability to bypass security products, execute code...

Tax Season Ushers in Quickbooks Data-Theft Spike

Cybercriminals are ready for tax season with new malware designed to exfiltrate Quickbooks data and post it on the internet, according to a new report from ThreatLocker. Attackers use email to deliver the malware, which the ThreatLocker’s CEO Danny Jenkins told Threatpost is a simple, 15-line pie...

How to Update Your Remote Access Policy – And Why You Should Now

For close to two decades, organizations have allowed privileged employees to work remotely by offering remote access solutions as a part of the daily work environment. But until recently, working remotely was more of a luxury than a necessity. With the rise of COVID-19, many organizations moved...

U.S. Agencies Must Adopt Vulnerability-Disclosure Policies by March 2021

The U.S. government’s cybersecurity agency is now requiring federal agencies to implement vulnerability-disclosure policies VDPs, which would give ethical hackers clear guidelines for submitting bugs found in government systems, by next March. Currently, most federal agencies lack a formal...

Magecart Gang Attacks Olympic Ticket Reseller and Survival Food Sites

UPDATE A faction of the Magecart threat group, Magecart group 12, has been linked to a recent digital card skimmer attack bent on stealing payment data from a slew of websites, including ones selling anything from Olympic tickets to emergency preparation kits. Over the past few weeks, the group h...

Lazarus APT Collaborates with Trickbot's Anchor Project

Researchers have found evidence of a link between global crimeware organization Trickbot and North Korean APT group Lazarus, observing direct collaboration via an all-in-one attack framework developed by Trickbot called Anchor Project. The move appears to be the first time an APT group has aligne...

Lenovo Warns of ThinkPad Bugs, One Unpatched

Dozens of Lenovo’s flagship ThinkPad models are vulnerable to bugs ranging in severity from low to high. Two of the flaws are tied to industry-wide security bulletins, while a medium-severity flaw affects only Lenovo laptops but remains unpatched. The most severe of the three bugs is a...

IBM Patches Critical, High-Severity Flaws in Spectrum Protect

IBM has disclosed critical and high-severity vulnerabilities in Spectrum Protect, Big Blue’s security tool under the umbrella of its Spectrum data storage software branding. The most severe of these flaws could cause a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on impacted systems. Overall, IBM...

GhostHook Attack Bypasses Windows 10 PatchGuard

A bypass of PatchGuard kernel protection in Windows 10 has been developed that brings rootkits for the latest version of the OS within reach of attackers. Since the introduction of PatchGuard and DeviceGuard, very few 64-bit Windows rootkits have been observed; Windows 10’s security, in particula...

APT Threat Targets Tibetans, Journalists and Human Rights Workers

Tibetans, journalists and human rights workers in Hong Kong and Taiwan have been targeted in an APT campaign that makes use of Microsoft Rich Text File RTF documents to compromise computers. Researchers say it’s a new strategy by attackers in an ongoing advanced persistent threat that dates back ...

Microsoft Releases Automatic Updater for Certificate Revocation Lists, Plans to Invalidate Short RSA Keys

As part of its response to the Flame malware and its usage of a forged Microsoft certificate to sign malicious files, Microsoft has changed the way that Windows handles certificates, releasing an automatic updater function that will recognize and flag untrusted certificates. The new functionality...

Microsoft Withdraws Outlook Update After Gmail Conflicts

Microsoft says a recent patch for Outlook 2007 after it caused slow performance and problems with third party e-mail services. Microsoft withdrew a software update released last week after reports that the update, to its Outlook 2007 e-mail product, was causing problems for customers connecting t...

Kaseya Patches Imminent After Zero-Day Exploits

UPDATE 3 The worldwide July 2 attacks on the Kaseya Virtual System/Server Administrator VSA platform by the REvil ransomware gang turn out to be the result of exploits for at least one zero-day security vulnerability, and the company is swinging into full mitigation mode, with patches for the...

Google Patches Critical Android RCE Bug

Google patched more than 90 security vulnerabilities in its Android operating system impacting its Pixel devices and third-party Android handsets, including a critical remote code-execution bug that could allow an attacker to commandeer a targeted vulnerable mobile device. That bug CVE-2021-0507...

Ransomware Attack Strikes Spain’s Employment Agency

The Spanish State Employment Service SEPE in Spain has been hit by a cyberattack, suspending its communications systems across hundreds of offices and delaying thousands of appointments. SEPE is an “autonomous body” in Spain that manages and controls unemployment benefits. The cyberattack hit...

Silver Peak SD-WAN Bugs Allow for Network Takeover

Silver Peak’s Unity Orchestrator, a software-defined WAN SD-WAN management platform, suffers from three remote code-execution security bugs that can be chained together to allow network takeover by unauthenticated attackers. SD-WAN is a cloud-based networking approach used by enterprises and...

Nvidia Warns Windows Gamers of GeForce NOW Flaw

Nvidia is red-flagging a high-severity flaw in its GeForce NOW application software for Windows. An attacker on a local network can exploit the flaw in order to execute code or gain escalated privileges on affected devices. GeForce NOW is the brand used by Nvidia for its cloud-based gaming servic...

Meetup Critical Flaws Allow 'Group' Takeover, Payment Theft

A popular online social service, Meetup, has fixed several critical flaws in its website. If exploited, the flaws could have enabled attackers to hijack any Meetup “group,” access the group’s member details and even redirect Meetup payments to an attacker-owned PayPal account. Meetup is a service...

15 Billion Credentials Currently Up for Grabs on Hacker Forums

Fifteen billion usernames and passwords for a range of internet services are currently for sale on underground forums – shedding light on the sheer scope of compromised credentials that are fueling account takeovers on the internet. A report released Wednesday — “From Exposure to Takeover” by the...

Android Keyboard App Could Swindle 40M Users Out of Millions

Researchers are warning users to delete a popular Android keyboard app that, once downloaded, makes unauthorized purchases of premium digital content. Google told Threatpost it has removed the app from its Google Play marketplace – but researchers say it was downloaded on at least 40 million phon...

Nvidia Fixes High-Severity Flaws in GeForce Experience for Gamers

Nvidia, which makes gaming-friendly graphics processing units GPUs, has patched two high-severity flaws in its GeForce Experience software, which could allow denial of service, information disclosure and privilege escalation on impacted systems. GeForce Experience is software for gamers utilizing...

ThreatList: Phishing Attacks Doubled in 2018

Phishing attempts more than doubled in 2018, as bad actors sought to trick victims into handing over their credentials. They used both old tricks – such as scams tied to current events – as well as other stealthy, fresher tactics. Researchers with Kaspersky Lab said in a Tuesday report that durin...

Research Reveals Huge Cache of FTP, Email Credentials Stolen by Waledac

Researchers have discovered that the gang behind the once-and-future botnet Waledac has gathered nearly 500,000 stolen passwords for email accounts, along with close to 125,000 sets of pilfered credentials for FTP accounts. The discovery isn’t so surprising in its details, but rather in its scope...

Karakurt Ensnares Conti, Diavol Ransomware Groups in Its Web

Researchers have found financial and technological links between the Karakurt cybercriminal group and two high-profile ransomware actors that signal a shift in business operations and an expansion of opportunities for the threat actors to target victims, they said. Karakurt—a financially motivate...

Why Healthcare Keeps Falling Prey to Ransomware and Other Cyberattacks

The healthcare industry is under attack like never before. What started as a surge in criminal activity during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic has now metastasized into a full-blown crisis within the healthcare industry worldwide. The recent disruptive ransomware attacks on Scripps...

15 Cybersecurity Pitfalls and Fixes for SMBs

Small- to medium-sized businesses SMBs, those with 100 employees or less, are more vulnerable than ever to catastrophic cybersecurity breaches and attacks. The good news is that there are many things they can do, with extraordinarily little added investment, that will help IT managers lock down...

SMS Attack Spreads Emotet, Steals Bank Credentials

Attackers are sending SMS messages purporting to be from victims’ banks – but once they click on the links in the text messages, they are asked to hand over their banking credentials and download a file that infects their systems with the Emotet malware. Emotet has continued to evolve since its...

Drones are Quickly Becoming a Cybersecurity Nightmare

Drones are a growing threat for law enforcement and business security officers. In the run-up to Christmas 2018, rogue drones grounded planes at London Gatwick, the UK’s second-busiest airport. But, increasingly it’s not just the air traffic controllers sounding the alarms over drones, it’s also...

Anthem, Apple and the Pentagon: A Data-Breach Cornucopia

Like pumpkin spice and turning leaves, data breaches have become a theme for the fall. This season is shaping up to be no exception, with Anthem, Apple and, worryingly, the Pentagon all making headlines in the last few days. It is, of course, part of the “new normal” as cyberattackers continue to...

Picking Up Where Neutrino Left Off: RIG Pushing CrypMIC Ransomware

When an exploit kit fades away, it usually doesn’t take long for another to take its place in the limelight, especially when the kit is an integral part of the ransomware ecosystem. That’s exactly what’s happened over the past few weeks as researchers say they’ve seen an uptick in RIG Exploit Kit...

Issues Arise With MS14-066 Schannel Patch

Some users who have installed the MS14-066 patch that fixes a vulnerability in the Schannel technology in Windows are having issues with the fix causing TLS negotiations to fail in some circumstances. The problem arises when users have TLS 1.2 enabled in certain configurations and it will sometim...

Three Critical Fixes in July Microsoft Patch Tuesday

Microsoft issued nine bulletins fixing 16 vulnerabilities in the July 2012 edition of Patch Tuesday. Three of the bulletins received Microsoft’s most severe ‘critical’ rating, while the remaining six were deemed merely ‘important.’ First and foremost among the critical patches is MS12-043, a fix...

Microsoft Issues FixIt For XML Flaw

With attackers already exploiting the MSXML zero-day vulnerability, which affects a wide range of products, Microsoft has issued a FixIt tool for the bug that it is encouraging users to install as they prepare a full patch for the flaw. The vulnerability is a critical one, and, because it’s prese...

Actively Exploited Zero-Day Bug Patched by Microsoft

Microsoft has revealed 73 new patches for May’s monthly update of security fixes, including a patch for one flaw–a zero-day Windows LSA Spoofing Vulnerability rated as “important”—that is currently being exploited with man-in-the-middle attacks. The software giant’s monthly update of patches that...