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...

On xDedic, a Flash Zero Day, Facial Recognition, and More

Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook discuss the news of the week, including a password issue at Github, the xDedic marketplace, another Flash zero day, and how the poorly the FBI is doing with facial recognition software. Download: ThreatpostNewsWrapJune172016.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Upatre Downloader Spreading Dyreza Banking Trojan

The Upatre downloader is the vehicle that has driven numerous banking Trojan and ransomware attacks to the front door of countless victims at great cost. Microsoft on Thursday warned of a wire-transfer spam campaign that it’s spotted that is spreading Upatre and eventually loading the dangerous...

Has Anyone Seen a Missing Scroll Bar? Phony Flash Update Redirects to Malware

Microsoft said it has received 70,000 reports this week of a new Trojan disguised as an Adobe Flash Player update that will change your browser’s home page and redirect a Web session to an attacker’s page. There are several clues something is amiss, namely part of the GUI for the supposed Flash 1...

New Unpatched Flaw Surfaces in SQL Server

There is an unpatched flaw in Microsoft SQL Server that could enable an attacker to access users’ passwords on the database server. The vulnerability is in SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008. The SQL Server vulnerability was discovered last fall by database-security vendor Sentrigo, which then report...

The Harsh Truths of Cybersecurity in 2022, Part Two

In part one of this series, I outlined some harsh truths of cybersecurity in 2022 and the first three of the top six steps you should take to ensure resiliency against today’s most pervasive threat—ransomware. Here, I’ll cover the remaining three: But first, let’s take a quick step back. It used ...

SideWalk Backdoor Linked to China-Linked Spy Group ‘Grayfly’

The novel backdoor technique called SideWalk, seen in campaigns targeting US media and retailers late last month, has been tied to an adversary that’s been around for quite a while: namely, China-linked Grayfly espionage group. ESET researchers, who named and discovered the new “SparklingGoblin”...

Critical Microsoft Defender Bug Actively Exploited; Patch Tuesday Offers 83 Fixes

Microsoft addressed 10 critical bugs, one under active exploit and another publicly known, in its January Patch Tuesday roundup of fixes. In total it patched 83 vulnerabilities. The most serious bug is a flaw in Microsoft’s Defender anti-malware software that allows remote attackers to infect...

Sunburst's C2 Secrets Reveal Second-Stage SolarWinds Victims

More information has come to light about the Sunburst backdoor that could help defenders get a better handle on the scope of the sprawling SolarWinds espionage attack. The campaign is known to have affected six federal departments, Microsoft, FireEye and dozens of others so far. Sunburst, a.k.a...

Leaked Details of 142 Million MGM Hotel Guests Found for Sale on Dark Web

Researchers have found 142 million personal details from former guests at the MGM Resorts hotels for sale on the Dark Web, evidence that a data leak from the hotel chain last summer may be far bigger in scope than previously thought. An advertisement on a hacker forum has put 142,479,937 details...

Linux Webmin Servers Under Attack by Roboto P2P Botnet

Vulnerable Linux Webmin servers are under active attack by a newly-discovered peer-to-peer P2P botnet, dubbed Roboto by researchers. The botnet is targeting a remote code-execution vulnerability CVE-2019-15107 in Webmin, a web-based system configuration tool for Linux servers. CVE-2019-15107 was...

Breached Passwords Still in Use By Hundreds of Thousands

Hundreds of thousands of web visitors continue utilizing passwords that have previously been compromised. Worse, they are reusing the breached credentials for some of their most sensitive financial, government and email accounts. That’s according to a new Google study released this week, which wa...

Windows Zero-Day Drops on Twitter, Developer Promises 4 More

UPDATE A Windows zero-day exploit dropped by developer SandboxEscaper would allow local privilege-escalation LPE, by importing legacy tasks from other systems into the Task Scheduler utility. It’s the latest zero-day from SandboxEscaper, who said that she has four more in the hopper that she’d li...

Where's the Equifax Data? Does It Matter?

It’s been 17 months since the infamous 2017 Equifax data breach was revealed to have compromised the data of about 147.9 million people i.e., almost every adult in the U.S., with more than 45 percent of the population directly affected by the incident. But an investigative report from CNBC found...

Ultra-Sneaky Phishing Scam Swipes Facebook Credentials

A new phishing attack bent on stealing Facebook credentials has been spotted – and it’s turning researchers’ heads due to how well it hides its malicious intent. Researchers with password management company Myki on Thursday said that attack reproduces a social login prompt in a “very realistic...

New Ninth-Gen Intel CPUs Shield Against Some Spectre, Meltdown Variants

Intel’s new ninth-generation CPUs come packed with hardware-based protections against two variants of the infamous Meltdown and Spectre speculative execution attacks. The ninth-generation desktop Core processors are dubbed Coffee Lake, and became available for preorder on Tuesday. they’re built t...

Red October Attackers Return With CloudAtlas APT Campaign

The attackers behind the Red October APT campaign that was exposed nearly two years ago have resurfaced with a new campaign that is targeting some of the same victims and using similarly constructed tools and spear phishing emails. Red October emerged in January 2013 and researchers found that th...

Follina Exploited by State-Sponsored Hackers

Researchers have added state-sponsored hackers to the list of adversaries attempting to exploit Microsoft’s now-patched Follina vulnerability. According to researchers at Proofpoint, state-sponsored hackers have attempted to abuse the Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Office, aiming an email-bas...

Multi-Ransomwared Victims Have It Coming–Podcast

You hate to blame the victim, but the fact of the matter is that businesses are just asking to get whacked with ransomware multiple times. A recent study of IT leaders from cloud-native network detection and response firm ExtraHop shows that businesses aren’t even aware of the “attack me,” “easy...

Public Clouds & Shared Responsibility: Lessons from Vulnerability Disclosure

The inexorable movement of data and applications to the cloud that began several years ago and accelerated during the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. The rationale for this transformation is driven by a desire to outsource non-critical functions building and maintaining data centers,...

Black Hat: Scaling Automated Disinformation for Misery and Profit

LAS VEGAS – Researchers recently demonstrated the weaponization of deep neural networks that can be used to shape public opinion, enrage people on Twitter and possibly spark QAnon 2.0. The research, presented last week at Black Hat by Drew Lohn, senior fellow at the Center for Security and...

Guess Fashion Deals With Data Loss, Post-Ransomware

A February ransomware attack on fashion label Guess linked to Colonial Pipeline attackers DarkSide is still causing damage. Guess has started sending letters to 1,300 employees and contractors who had their personal and banking data exposed during the breach. The letter, published by...

Nefilim Ransomware Gang Hits Jackpot with Ghost Account

A Nefilim ransomware attack that locked up more than 100 systems stemmed from the compromise of an unmonitored account belonging to an employee who had died three months previously, researchers said. Nefilim a.k.a. Nemty is a ransomware strain that emerged in 2020, with its operators adopting the...

Google Warns of Critical Android Remote Code Execution Bug

Google has fixed two critical bugs affecting its Android handsets. The more serious flaws exists in the Android System component and allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. The two critical vulnerabilities are part of Google’s January Android security bulletin, released Monday. The...

SAS@Home Virtual Summit Showcases New Threat Intel, Industry Changes

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to force in-person cybersecurity event cancellations, Kaspersky is forging ahead with a virtual security summit, SAS@home. Topics on the agenda include threat intel on advanced persistent threats APTs, new vulnerability research, and topics related to a...

RSAC 2020: Editors' Preview of Hottest Sessions, Speakers and Themes

The RSA 2020 conference kicks off next week in San Francisco, this year with a theme looking at the “human element” of cybersecurity. As they prepare to cover the show, Threatpost editors Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch, Tom Spring and Tara Seals break down the biggest news, stories and trends that they...

ID Thieves Turn to Snail Mail as Juicy Target for Financial Crimes

As it gets harder for cybercriminals to bypass business email compromise BEC defenses, some hackers are switching from email scams to real-mail cons. Researchers at Flashpoint said they are monitoring hacker forums where criminals are swapping tips on a growing ID theft and financial crime area,...

Apple iTunes Bug Actively Exploited in BitPaymer/iEncrypt Campaign

Bad actors are actively targeting a vulnerability in the Windows version of Apple iTunes to deliver BitPaymer/iEncrypt ransomware. It’s a new attack pattern that is difficult to detect, security researchers revealed Thursday. Researchers from Morphisec Labs in August identified the abuse of the...

Apple Fixes iOS Flaw That Opened iPhones to Jailbreaks

Apple has released an emergency patch fixing a kernel vulnerability – for the second time – after it was accidentally unpatched in iOS 12.4. The flaw CVE-2019-8605, a use-after-free issue existing in the kernel, could enable a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with system privileges...

Researcher Discloses Second Steam Zero-Day After Valve Bug Bounty Ban

A researcher has disclosed a zero-day privilege-escalation vulnerability for the Steam gaming client after he said he was barred from the bug bounty program of Steam’s owner, Valve. The vulnerability is the second zero-day privilege-escalation vulnerability that has been released by independent...

20-Year-Old Bug in Legacy Microsoft Code Plagues All Windows Users

A 20-year-old vulnerability present in all versions of Microsoft Windows could allow a non-privileged user to run code that will give him or her full SYSTEM privileges on a target machine. The bug is notable because of where it resides: In a legacy, omnipresent protocol named Microsoft CTF. First...

Bug in NVIDIA’s Tegra Chipset Opens Door to Malicious Code Execution

A flaw impacting millions of mobile and internet of things IoT devices running NVIDIA’s Tegra processor opens the door for a variety of attacks, including device hijacking or siphoning of data. The warning comes from researcher Triszka Balázs, who discovered the flaw and asserts that the bug...

Apple Transparency Report Now Includes App Store Takedown Requests

For the first time Apple added to its transparency report the number of App Store takedown requests it has received from governments. The report, released Tuesday, also puts some hard numbers on how often law enforcement and governments request device and user data. App Takedown Request Apple’s...

RSA Conference 2019: The Expanding Automation Platform Attack Surface

SAN FRANCISCO – Automation platforms are increasingly being used to chain multiple IoT devices together to create user-friendly smart applications – but that’s also creating unpredictable attack surfaces that can be hard to manage. A Trend Micro report released at RSA Conference 2019 warns that...

New Threat Actor ‘Rocke’: A Rising Monero Cryptomining Menace

Researchers are warning of a Chinese-language threat actor leveraging a wide array of Git repositories to infect vulnerable systems with Monero-based cryptomining malware. Researchers at Cisco Talos, who discovered the threat actor they call “Rocke”, said they have been tracking the adversary sin...

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Addresses Two Zero-Days in 60-Flaw Roundup

Microsoft has rolled out its August Patch Tuesday fixes, addressing 19 critical vulnerabilities, including fixes for two zero-day vulnerabilities that are under active attack. Overall, the company patched a total of 60 flaws, spanning Microsoft Windows, Edge, Internet Explorer IE, Office, .NET...

Kronos Banking Trojan Surfaces After Years of Silence

The Kronos banking trojan is back from the malware dustbin. After years of lying dormant, hackers have reworked the underlying code and are actively targeting victims in Germany, Japan and Poland. The latest variant has incorporated a new command-and-control feature designed to work with the Tor...

Wireless 'BlueBorne' Attacks Target Billions of Bluetooth Devices

Researchers disclosed a bevy of Bluetooth vulnerabilities Tuesday that threaten billions of devices from Android and Apple smartphones to millions of printers, smart TVs and IoT devices that use the short-range wireless protocol. Worse, according to researchers at IoT security firm Armis that fou...

Microsoft Online Services Bug Bounty Program Launches

Microsoft had always rejected the possibility of a full-scale bug bounty, relying instead on solid relationships it spent the better part of a decade fostering with researchers worldwide who submit vulnerabilities to the Microsoft Security Research Center MSRC. Yet in the past couple of years, th...

Microsoft Teams Targeted With Takeover Trojans

Threat actors are targeting Microsoft Teams users by planting malicious documents in chat threads that execute Trojans that ultimately can take over end-user machines, researchers have found. In January, researchers at Avanan, a Check Point Company, began tracking the campaign, which drops...

Attackers Target Intuit Users by Threatening to Cancel Tax Accounts

Just in time for tax season, Intuit is warning customers of a phishing campaign that threatens to close user accounts if they don’t click on a malicious link. The attacks on the accounting-software specialist that many people use for filing U.S. income tax forms comes as phishers overall are...

Critical Cisco Bug in VPN Routers Allows Remote Takeover

A critical security vulnerability in a subset of Cisco Systems’ small-business VPN routers could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to take over a device – and researchers said there are at least 8,800 vulnerable systems open to compromise. Cisco addressed the bugs CVE-2021-1609 as part of ...

On the Taxonomy and Evolution of Ransomware

Given the frequency with which “ransomware” appears in news articles, it may be worthwhile to take a step back and actually consider what the term means. Any malware or attack that culminates in extorting ransom from the victim is commonly referred to as ransomware. The general idea is to encrypt...

Verizon: Pandemic Ushers in ⅓ More Cyber Misery

Thanks for just showing up, said the team that cranked out the Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report DBIR. It’s quite the accomplishment that we all made it through the “often frightening and always unpredictable dystopian wasteland that was 2020,” the carrier noted, with cybersecurity...

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Plugs Critical Bug in Edge Platform Tool

Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE is urging customers to patch one of its premier edge application management tools that could allow an attacker to carry out a remote authentication bypass attack and infiltrate a customer’s cloud infrastructure. Join Threatpost for “Fortifying Your Business Against...

EFF Talks the Corporate Surveillance of Consumers

You can’t protect your privacy if you don’t know how it’s being violated. That’s the essence of a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that shines a bright disinfecting light on how corporations are collecting data on consumers. Think Facebook-like data collection on steroids and you begi...

Fake iOS Jailbreak Site Lures in Apple Users

Bad actors are taking advantage of a recently-disclosed iOS bug with a fake website claiming to give iPhone users the ability to jailbreak their phones. In reality, researchers warn, the site ultimately enables attackers to conduct click fraud. A jailbreak, a method to escape Apple’s limitations ...

Firmware Bugs Plague Server Supply Chain, 7 Vendors Impacted

Two firmware vulnerabilities impacting Lenovo, Acer and five additional server brands allow adversaries to brick servers, run arbitrary code on targeted systems and maintain a persistent foothold – surviving even an operating system reinstallation. The bugs are tied to Gigabyte motherboards used ...

Siemens Warns of Critical Remote-Code Execution ICS Flaw

Siemens has released 16 security advisories for various industrial control and utility products, including a warning for a critical flaw in the WibuKey digital rights management DRM solution that affects the SICAM 230 process control system. SICAM 230 is used for a broad range of industrial contr...

Windows Update for Business Uproots Patch Tuesday

Scheduled patch deliveries are so last decade—and thankfully, it looks like they’re over when it comes to Microsoft Patch Tuesday. Microsoft this week at its Ignite event introduced its new security update scheme called Windows Update for Business, which debuts in Windows 10 with several new...