Email Voted a Weak Link for Election Security, with DMARC Lagging

As the 2020 Presidential election looms closer in the United States, a key focus will be on securing election infrastructure to prevent tampering. In a recent analysis, researchers found that email remains a potential weak link, with most counties failing to implement DMARC protections. DMARC whi...

Linux Bug Opens Most VPNs to Hijacking

A vulnerability in most Linux distros has been uncovered that allows a network-adjacent attacker to hijack VPN connections and inject rogue data into the secure tunnels that victims are using to communicate with remote servers. According to researchers at University of New Mexico and Breakpointin...

Execs Could Face Jail Time For Privacy Violations

A new data privacy bill threatens large tech firms, like Facebook, with tough penalties – including monetary fines and up to 20 years of jail time for executives – if they violate user privacy policies. The “Mind Your Own Business Act,” proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden D-Ore. on Thursday, gives the...

Iran-linked APT33 Shakes Up Cyberespionage Tactics

Following a recent report detailing APT33’s infrastructure and tactics, the Iranian state-sponsored threat actor shook up its cyberespionage efforts by adopting new tools and reassigning key domain infrastructure. The infrastructure overhaul stems from a March 2019 Symantec report exposing the...

Cisco Patches Critical Flaw In ASR 9000 Routers

Cisco has rushed out patches for a critical vulnerability in its ASR 9000 routers that could give remote, unauthenticated attackers access to the devices – as well as the power to launch denial-of-service DoS attacks against them. The flaw is specifically in Cisco Aggregation Services Routers ASR...

Mobile-First Phishing Kit Targets Verizon Customers

As people increasingly go mobile-first in their work and personal lives, cybercrime is keeping up: The latest is a phishing kit that specifically targets Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S. According to Jeremy Richards, a researcher at Lookout Security, the kit pushes phishing links to users v...

Unpatched Windows Bug Allows Attackers to Spoof Security Dialog Boxes

A previously unknown bug in Microsoft Windows would allow an attacker to spoof Windows dialog boxes that surface when making changes to the Windows registry. This would allow an adversary to plant malware or make other nefarious changes in the registry while getting around Windows’ built-in...

Microsoft Adds New Exploit Mitigations to IE 10

Windows 8 is still off on the horizon somewhere, but the new version of Internet Explorer that’s coming with it–IE 10–already is in consumer preview and it includes some major changes to the exploit mitigations. In addition to the existing implementations of ASLR, DEP and others technologies in...

The Security of the Android Operating System

In this video, Tim Armstrong, a malware researcher at Kaspersky Lab talks with Ryan Naraine about the strengths and weaknesses of the Android operating system. Armstrong looks at strengths and weaknesses of the open-source platform and warns about the risks associated with jailbreaking/rooting...

Apache Web Server Zero-Day Actively Exploited, Exposes Sensitive Data

Apache Software has quickly issued a fix for a zero-day security bug in the Apache HTTP Server, which was first reported to the project last week. The vulnerability is under active exploitation in the wild, it said, and could allow attackers to access sensitive information. According to a securit...

Colonial Pipeline Shells Out $5M in Extortion Payout, Report

Colonial Pipeline Co., operator of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, reportedly paid $5 million to criminals behind a ransomware attack that has sent fuel prices spiking up and down the East Coast. Sources familiar with the payout told Bloomberg that representatives of Colonial Pipeline paid the...

What COVID-19 Taught Us: Prepping Cybersecurity for the Next Crisis

Few could have anticipated the impact COVID-19 has had on business. It spread from an isolated outbreak to a global pandemic seemingly overnight, and IT leaders across the planet have had mixed success adjusting to the changes and uncertainty it has brought. While COVID-19 caught many businesses...

NSA Warns: Patched VMware Bug Under Active Attack

Active attacks against a flaw in VMware’s Workspace One Access continue, three days after the vendor patched the vulnerability and urged customers to fix the bug classified as a zero-day at the time. Now the U.S. National Security Agency NSA has escalated concerns and on Monday warned that foreig...

Cisco Patch-Palooza Tackles 29 High-Severity Bugs

Cisco Systems released a barrage of patches, Thursday, aimed at fixing bugs in the networking giant’s ubiquitous IOS operating system. The patches plug holes in a wide range of products and address denial-of-service, file overwrite and input validation attacks. The advisory was planned and part o...

Adobe Addresses Critical Flash, Framemaker Flaws

Adobe has released patches addressing a wave of critical flaws in its Framemaker and Flash Player products, which, if exploited, could lead to arbitrary code-execution. Overall, Adobe stomped out flaws tied to 42 CVEs for its regularly scheduled February updates, with 35 of those flaws being...

Mattress Company Leaks Data Records of 387K Customers

A Wisconsin mattress company leaked the records of 387,000 customers online in a database that lacked password protection, a security researcher has found. The incident once again demonstrates the potential security consequences of failing to take even the simplest security measures to protect...

Facebook Faces Lawsuit Over Massive 2018 Data Breach

Facebook lost a key court ruling last week and now must face a lawsuit tied to a data breach of its platform disclosed in 2018, which impacted nearly 30 million of its users. The data breach, first disclosed by Facebook in September 2018, directly impacted the access tokens of 30 million accounts...

Linux Command-Line Editors Vulnerable to High-Severity Bug

A high-severity bug impacting two popular command-line text editing applications, Vim and Neovim, allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary OS commands. Security researcher Armin Razmjou warned that exploiting the bug is as easy as tricking a target into clicking on a specially crafted text fil...

Chinese Spies Stole NSA Cyberweapons Long Before Shadow Brokers Leak

Hacking tools allegedly developed by the National Security Agency NSA were being used in the wild by at least one APT long before the Shadow Brokers released the now-infamous trove of U.S. cyberweapons, new analysis suggests. According to researchers at Symantec, an attack group affiliated with t...

Multiple Sierra Wireless AirLink Routers Open to Remote Code Execution

Sierra Wireless is warning that additional AirLink router models, which are targeted toward IoT applications, are vulnerable to previously-disclosed critical flaws. The vulnerabilities are part of the 11 critical bugs disclosed on Sierra Wireless’ AirLink ES450 LTE router last week – only now,...

RSAC 2019: 58% of Orgs Have Unfilled Cyber Positions

SAN FRANCISCO – Much has been made of the cybersecurity workforce gap, and it appears to be a persistent issue: A full 69 percent of respondents in a recent survey said that they have cybersecurity teams that are understaffed. According to ISACA’s State of Cybersecurity 2019 survey, released at t...

VMware Warns of Ransomware-Friendly Bug in vCenter Server

VMware has released a security update that includes patches for 19 CVE-numbered vulnerabilities that affect the company’s vCenter Server virtualization management platform and its hybrid Cloud Foundation platform for managing VMs and orchestrating containers. They’re all serious, but one –...

Microsoft Signed Malware That Spreads Through Gaming

Microsoft signed a driver being distributed within gaming environments that turned out to be a malicious network filter rootkit. G DATA malware analyst Karsten Hahn first noticed the rootkit, publicly posting the find on June 17 and simultaneously reaching out to Microsoft. Hahn noted that the co...

PDF Feature ‘Certified’ Widely Vulnerable to Attack

Certified portable document format PDF files are used to securely sign agreements between two parties while keeping the contents’ integrity protected, but a new report found the security protections on most certified PDF applications were inadequate and left organizations exposed to a number of...

VMware Sounds Ransomware Alarm Over Critical Severity Bug

VMware patched a critical bug impacting its vCenter Server platform with a severity rating of 9.8 out of 10. The company said the flaw could allow a remote attacker to exploit its products and take control of a company’s affected system. VMware went a step further on Tuesday, calling on IT securi...

Ransomware Attack Foils IoT Giant Sierra Wireless

A ransomware attack on leading internet-of-things IoT manufacturer Sierra Wireless this week ground its production activity to a halt and froze various other internal operations. The Canadian multinational manufacturer creates a broad array of communications equipment – from gateways to routers,...

DanaBot Malware Roars Back into Relevancy

Researchers are warning that a new fourth version of the DanaBot banking trojan has surfaced after months of mysteriously going quiet. The latest variant, still under analysis by researchers, is raising concerns given the number of past DanaBot effective campaigns. From May 2018 to June 2020,...

Citrix SD-WAN Bugs Allow Remote Code Execution

Three security bugs in the Citrix software-defined SD-WAN platform would allow remote code-execution and network takeover, according to researchers. The flaws affect the Citrix SD-WAN Center in versions before 11.2.2, 11.1.2b and 10.2.8. They consist of an unauthenticated path traversal and shell...

Colossal Intel Update Anchored by Critical Privilege-Escalation Bugs

A massive Intel security update this month addresses flaws across a myriad of products – most notably, critical bugs that can be exploited by unauthenticated cybercriminals in order to gain escalated privileges. These critical flaws exist in products related to Wireless Bluetooth – including...

FIFA 21 Blockbuster Release Gives Fraudsters an Open Field for Theft

The hotly anticipated release of blockbuster video game FIFA 21 on Oct. 6, along with the return of professional play, are giving soccer fans reason to celebrate. And, unsurprisingly, cybercriminals are already figuring out how to capitalize. A report from researcher Christopher Boyd at...

$100K Paid Out for Google Cloud Shell Root Compromise

Google has awarded its inaugural annual top prize for the Google Cloud Platform GCP, for vulnerabilities found in the Google Cloud Shell. The find — a container escape that leads to host root access and the ability to use privileged containers — has earned $100,000 for Dutch researcher Wouter ter...

DeathRansom Campaign Linked to Malware Cornucopia

An ongoing DeathRansom malware campaign has been found by researchers to be part of a larger collection of malicious offensives, all carried out by an actor going by the nickname “scat01.” According to Artem Semenchenko and Evgeny Ananin at FortiGuard Labs, evidence found on Russian underground...

10 Steps for Ransomware Protection

Just the thought of ransomware is enough to keep CISOs and security teams up at night. Victims are caught in an awful choice between paying a ransom to a criminal who may or may not release their captured network and data, or potentially spending millions of dollars to remove the ransomware on...

Unpatched Bug Under Active Attack Threatens WordPress Sites with XSS

An unpatched vulnerability in the Rich Reviews plugin for WordPress is putting an estimated 16,000 sites in danger of stored cross-site scripting XSS attacks. Sites running the plugin are vulnerable to unauthenticated plugin option updates, which can be used to deliver malware payloads; and...

DEF CON 2019: Picture Perfect Hack of a Canon EOS 80D DSLR

LAS VEGAS – Multiple vulnerabilities in Canon’s DSLR camera firmware could allow an attacker to plant malware on devices and ransom images from users. The bugs, outlined in a session here at DEF CON, open the door to a range of hacks via a Wi-Fi network or a PC’s USB connection to a camera. Eyal...

Honda's Security 'Soft Spots' Exposed in Unsecured Database

An unsecured database belonging to Honda Motor Company was found leaking crucial information about its global systems, including which devices aren’t up-to-date or protected by security solutions. The exposed ElasticSearch database contained approximately 134 million documents, and amounted to...

EA Games Patches Account-Hijacking Bug

Researchers chained together two vulnerabilities in the Electronic Arts EA gaming platform and developed a proof-of-concept attack that allowed for possible account takeovers. A successful attack could allow a malicious actor to gain access to a user’s account and steal credit card information or...

Second Florida City Pays Hackers $500k Post-Ransomware Attack

UPDATE A city in Florida has paid hackers almost $500,000 after suffering a ransomware attack that locked down its email systems and servers – only the latest municipality to be hit by ransomware and pay the ransom. The Florida municipality, Lake City, has a population of 12,046 and is located in...

Tap 'n Ghost Attack Creatively Targets Android Devices

Researchers have created a novel proof-of-concept PoC attack named Tap ‘n Ghost, which targets Near Field Communication NFC-enabled Android smartphones. This allows an attacker to take control of a target phone simply by tricking the victim into placing their handset on a specially crafted surfac...

FEMA Exposes PII for Millions of Hurricane, Wildfire Survivors

The Federal Emergency Management Agency exposed the personal identifiable information of 2.3 million survivors of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017, by oversharing survivor data with a contractor when it wasn’t necessary. Worse, the contractor’s networks has...

Unpatched Fujitsu Wireless Keyboard Bug Allows Keystroke Injection

UPDATE Fujitsu is stopping sales for its popular wireless keyboard after a researcher discovered it is vulnerable to keystroke injection attacks that could allow an adversary to take control of a victim’s system. Researchers with Germany-based SySS reported on Friday that the high-severity...

RSA Conference 2019: NIST's Privacy Framework Starts to Take Shape

Data privacy has been thrust into the limelight with the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe last year and a string of high-profile consumer privacy snafus. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has plans to help companies address data privacy with the...

BSides SF 2019: Remote-Root Bug in Logitech Harmony Hub Patched and Explained

SAN FRANCISCO – Users of Logitech’s Harmony Hub have been wide open to an attack for years because of four unpatched vulnerabilities that left any IoT device connected at risk to remote takeover. The bugs were patched by Logitech in November, but for the first time the researchers that discovered...

Cisco Accidentally Released Dirty CoW Exploit Code in Software

Cisco Systems revealed in a security bulletin Wednesday that it “inadvertently” shipped in-house exploit code that was used in security tests of scripts as part of its TelePresence Video Communication Server and Expressway Series software. The code exploits the Dirty Cow vulnerability...

Microsoft Plans to Disable SSLv3 in IE, All Online Services

Microsoft is planning to disable support for the weak SSLv3 protocol in Internet Explorer at some undetermined point in the future, and also will remove support for it in the company’s online services soon. The security and utility of SSLv3 has been an issue for a long time, but it came into...

Microsoft Fixes Critical IE, Windows Bugs with February Patch Tuesday

Microsoft released nine security updates Tuesday, four critical; five important, fixing 21 different holes in various applications with its February patch release. The four critical fixes deal with vulnerabilities in the company’s Windows, Internet Explorer, .NET Framework and Silverlight program...

MS Denies Windows 7 Backdoor Allegations

Microsoft today denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency NSA official testified before Congress that the agency had worked on the operating system. “Microsoft has not and will not put ‘backdoors’ into Windows,” a...

Android Patches Actively Exploited Zero-Day Kernel Bug

Among Google’s November Android security updates is a patch for a zero-day weakness that “may be under limited, targeted exploitation,” the company said. Out of this month’s batch of 39 patches, 18 of them plug flaws in the framework and system components and another 18 address vulnerabilities in...

Apple Releases Urgent iOS Updates to Patch New Zero-Day Bug

Apple on Monday rushed out a security update for iOS 15.0.2 and iPadOS 15.0.2 to fix a remote code-execution RCE zero-day vulnerability that’s being actively exploited. Within hours, a security researcher had picked the bug apart and published both proof-of-concept code and an explanation of the...

Critical Intel Active Management Technology Flaw Allows Privilege Escalation

Intel patched a critical privilege escalation vulnerability in its Active Management Technology AMT, which is used for remote out-of-band management of PCs. AMT is part of the Intel vPro platform Intel’s umbrella marketing term for its collection of computer hardware technologies and is primarily...