Slack Initiates Mass Password Reset

Popular workspace collaboration platform Slack is in the middle of asking tens of thousands of users to reset their passwords after a security breach. The move is actually in response to new information that has come to light regarding a 2015 compromise, when hackers infiltrated Slack’s networks ...

Agent Smith Malware Infects 25M Android Phones to Push Rogue Ads

Researchers are warning of a new breed of Android malware, dubbed “Agent Smith,” that they claim has infected 25 million handsets in order to replace legitimate apps with doppelgangers that display rogue ads. The malware is tied to a China-based firm, according to Check Point researchers, and is...

News Wrap: Which Companies Are Doing Privacy Right and Which Aren't?

The Threatpost team breaks down the top data privacy-related news this week, including: Google’s acknowledgement that G Suite passwords had been stored in plaintext – since 2005. The database of golfing app Game Golf left misconfigured, exposing millions of data points on games played plus...

Ransomware Behind Norsk Hydro Attack Takes On Wiper-Like Capabilities

LockerGoga, the malware that took down Norsk Hydro last week, has taken the industrial world by storm, as researchers race to uncover more about the mysterious ransomware that crippled several of the aluminum maker’s plants. Questions still remain about how the malware first infects the system it...

Eight Cryptojacking Apps Booted From Microsoft Store

Microsoft booted eight malicious apps from its official desktop and mobile app store after researchers found the programs surreptitiously mined for Monero cryptocurrency. Researchers who discovered the apps said that an unspecified, but significant number, of users may have downloaded the rogue...

Clever Phishing Attack Enlists Google Translate to Spoof Login Page

UPDATE Recently-discovered phishing emails scoop up victims’ Facebook and Google credentials and hides its malicious landing page via a novel method – Google Translate. The phishing campaign uses a two-stage attack to target both Google and Facebook usernames and passwords, according to researche...

Microsoft November Patch Tuesday Fixes 20 Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft tackled 53 vulnerabilities with today’s Patch Tuesday bulletin. Remote code execution bugs dominated this month’s patches, representing 25 fixes. In total, 20 of Microsoft’s security fixes were rated critical. Notable are four vulnerabilities with public exploits identified by Microsoft...

New Magniber Ransomware Targets South Korea, Asia Pacific

Researchers identified a new ransomware family called Magniber that uniquely targets only users in South Korea and the Asia-Pacific regions. The ransomware is primarily being distributed by the Magnitude exploit kit, a primary distribution vehicle in the past for Cerber ransomware. Because of...

September 2014 Microsoft Patch Tuesday security bulletins

The Operation SnowMan espionage campaign, which targeted military intelligence earlier this year via an Internet Explorer zero day, exposed a weak spot in Microsoft’s vulnerability management efforts. What was unique about the SnowMan operation is that it included a check as to whether the...

Microsoft Patches Windows Flaw Exploited by Duqu

Microsoft on Tuesday released 13 security bulletins, including three for critical flaws in Windows Media and in the Windows kernel-mode drivers. The company had planned on releasing 14 bulletins in December’s Patch Tuesday shipment, but officials said that one of the planned fixes was causing a...

Microsoft researching new (secure) browser

Microsoft’s research unit is investing resources in a new Web browser that could eventually signal a shift away from the ubiquitous Internet Explorer. According to a research paper released this week, the project is called Gazelle and is positioned as a secure web browser constructed as a...

FreakOut Botnet Turns DVRs Into Monero Cryptominers

Threat group FreakOut’s Necro botnet has developed a new trick: infecting Visual Tools DVRs with a Monero miner. Juniper Threat Labs researchers have issued a report detailing new activities from FreakOut, also known as Necro Python and Python.IRCBot. In late September, the team noticed that the...

eCh0raix Ransomware Variant Targets QNAP, Synology NAS Devices

Operators of the nearly-year-old eCh0raix ransomware strain that’s been used to target QNAP and Synology network-attached storage NAS devices in past, separate campaigns have, gotten more efficient. According to researchers, both have put out a new variant that can target either vendors’ devices ...

Tiny Kobalos Malware Bedevils Supercomputers to Steal Logins

A tiny-sized malware that packs a big punch has been targeting supercomputers, especially those used in academia and scientific enterprises. It allows initial access for a variety of follow-on attacks, including credential theft – and potentially data exfiltration or cryptomining. That’s accordin...

Ransomware Takes Down Network of French IT Giant

French IT giant Sopra Steria was hit with a cyber attack this week that disrupted the business of the firm and is widely believed to be the work of the threat actors behind Ryuk ransomware. The company revealed the attack in a brief press statement released Oct. 22, two days after officials said...

Tenda Router Zero-Days Emerge in Spyware Botnet Campaign

Two former Tenda router zero-days are anchoring the spread of a Mirai-based botnet called Ttint. In addition to denial-of-service DoS attacks, this variant also has remote-access trojan RAT and spyware capabilities. According to 360Netlab, the botnet is unusual in a few ways. For one, on the RAT...

Former Uber CSO Charged With Paying ‘Hush Money’ in 2016 Breach Cover-Up

A former Uber security executive has been charged for his role in the cover-up of a massive 2016 data breach, in which attackers accessed the company’s Amazon Web Services accounts and stole data associated with 57 million passengers and drivers. The U.S. State Attorney for the Northern District ...

'EmoCrash' Exploit Stoppered Emotet For 6 Months

A researcher was able to exploit a vulnerability in Emotet – effectively causing the infamous malware to crash and preventing it from infecting systems for six months. Emotet, which first emerged in 2014 and has since then evolved into a full fledged botnet that’s designed to steal account...

Black Lives Matter Emails Deliver TrickBot Malware

Cyberattackers are seizing upon the 24-hour news cycle again in order to capitalize on the current zeitgeist – this time with a fake Black Lives Matter malspam campaign that distributes the TrickBot malware. According to Swiss security firm Abuse.ch, threat actors are posing as government...

Nation-State Attacks Drop in Latest Google Analysis

Google has registered a significant drop in government-backed cyberattacks against its properties and the people who use its products. Google sends out warnings if it detects that an account is a target of government-backed phishing or malware attempts. For 2019, the internet giant sent almost...

Flaws Riddle Zyxel’s Network Management Software

Security researchers are warning that networking hardware vendor Zyxel and its Cloud CNM SecuManager software is chock-full of unpatched vulnerabilities that kick open the doors for hackers to exploit. In all, researchers have identified 16 vulnerabilities, ranging from multiple backdoors and...

Critical Zoho Zero-Day Flaw Disclosed

UPDATE A zero-day vulnerability has been disclosed in the IT help desk ManageEngine software made by Zoho Corp. The serious vulnerability enables an unauthenticated, remote attacker to launch attacks on affected systems. Zoho has now released a security update addressing the vulnerability. As of...

MTTD and MTTR: Two Metrics to Improve Your Cybersecurity

For any organization to protect itself from cyberattacks and data breaches, it’s critical to discover and respond to cyber threats as quickly as possible. Shutting the window of vulnerabilities promptly makes the difference between a mild compromise and a catastrophic data breach. Understanding...

sLoad Malware Revamped as Powerful 'StarsLord' Loader

The sLoad malware downloader, a PowerShell-based trojan first spotted in May 2018, has a new, polished version that comes with “more powerful features, posing even higher risk,” Microsoft researchers are warning. After discovering it being used in several campaigns over the holidays, researchers...

Avast Network Breached As Hackers Target CCleaner Again

Czech antivirus vendor Avast on Monday warned that hackers were able to access its internal network using a temporary VPN account. Avast said that it believes that the intrusion, first detected on Sept. 25, was likely targeting its CCleaner business in a supply chain attack. CCleaner, which is...

Newly-Discovered Malware Targets Unpatched MacOS Flaw

Researchers have discovered never-before-seen Mac malware samples, which they believe are being developed to target a recently-disclosed vulnerability in the MacOS operating system. The vulnerability, a bypass that was disclosed in May and has yet to be patched by Apple, exists in the MacOS...

Alpine Linux Docker Images Shipped for 3 Years with Root Accounts Unlocked

For three years, some Alpine Linux Docker images have shipped with a root account and no password, opening the door for attackers to easily access vulnerable servers and workstations provisioned for the images. Affected versions of Alpine Linux Docker distros include 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8...

Threatpost Poll: Are Password Managers Too Risky?

Do you use a password manager? Or do you think they pose too much of a risk, holding all the keys to the kingdom? Weigh in with our poll, below. A little background: There have been vulnerabilities found before in this kind of software, which is meant to take the headache out of remembering...

Mac "CookieMiner" Malware Aims to Gobble Crypto Funds

A newly-discovered malware is targeting Mac users’ web cookies and credentials in hopes of withdrawing funds on their cryptocurrency exchange accounts. The malware, discovered this month and aptly named “CookieMiner,” collects cryptocurrency-related cookies – in addition to compromised credential...

Critical MySQL Vulnerability Disclosed

A researcher has published details and a limited proof-of-concept exploit for a critical vulnerability in MySQL that has been patched by some vendors, but not yet by Oracle. The vulnerability allows an attacker to remotely or locally exploit a vulnerable MySQL database and execute arbitrary code,...

Microsoft Shuts Down Patch Tuesday Advanced Notifications

Microsoft today pulled the plug on its Advanced Notification Service ANS, offering it going forward only to paying Premier customers. ANS preceded the release of Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletins; on the Thursday prior, Microsoft would provide users via its security website a...

New Adobe Flash Exploit Found in Angler, Fiesta EKs

Two notorious exploit kits are already seeding vulnerable websites with exploits for a Flash Player vulnerability that was patched in last week’s Adobe security bulletin. French researcher Kafeine told Threatpost that the most likely scenario is that a skilled coder found a way to reverse-enginee...

IE to Block Older ActiveX Controls, Starting with Java

Next week’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday security bulletins will not only bring nine new security bulletins but also an update to Internet Explorer that blocks outdated ActiveX controls, starting with Java. Notifications will flag the older ActiveX controls and users will have the option to update the...

Interview with Kaspersky Chief Malware Expert Alex Gostev

The last year has seen a lot of changes in the threat landscape, with the emergence of a number of new cyber espionage tools such as Gauss and Flame, as well as an increase in the volume of malware targeting mobile platforms such as Android. Recently, Alex Gostev, the chief malware expert at...

iPhone Users Urged to Update to Patch 2 Zero-Days

Apple is urging macOS, iPhone and iPad users immediately to install respective updates this week that includes fixes for two zero-days under active attack. The patches are for vulnerabilities that allow attackers to execute arbitrary code and ultimately take over devices. Patches are available fo...

Critical Cisco StarOS Bug Grants Root Access via Debug Mode

Cisco released a security update warning about a handful of vulnerabilities lurking in its networking technology, led by a critical bug in the company’s StarOS debug services. Cisco pushed out a fix for its Cisco StarOS Software on Wednesday. Jan. 19. In its advisory, the company said that the fl...

Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome Roll Out Password Protection Tools

Two major browsers –Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome – are rolling out default features, which they say will better help notify users if their password has been compromised as part of a breach or database exposure. Edge and Chrome’s moves signify a bigger push by browsers to solve the big “passwo...

Malware Risks Triple on WFH Networks: Experts Offer Advice

Home office networks are 3.5 times more likely than corporate networks to be infected by malware, according a report from BitSight. That statistic comes into sharp focus as the coronavirus pandemic forces companies to shift to a work-from-home workforce. Those home networks that remote workers ar...

Wacom Tablet Data Exfiltration Raises Security Concerns

The Wacom digital drawing tablet appears to be silently exfiltrating user data, according to an investigation by software engineer Robert Heaton – and the company responded on Friday, downplaying the report. However, security researchers say the tablets still pose a risk and a privacy problem...

Microsoft Leaves 250M Customer Service Records Open to the Web

UPDATE Misconfigured Microsoft cloud databases containing 14 years of customer support logs exposed 250 million records to the open internet for 25 days. The account info dates back as far as 2005 and is as recent as December 2019 — and exposes Microsoft customers to phishing and tech scams...

7 Tips for Maximizing Your SOC

It takes a special sort of person to be a security analyst. The person must be detail-oriented, curious, intelligent and hard-working, and with a quick reaction time as constant attacks unfold. These analysts have deep expertise that they use during their long shifts to sort through what’s worth...

Innovative PureLocker Ransomware Emerges in Targeted Attacks

The PureLocker ransomware – so-called because it’s written in the PureBasic programming language – has been spotted being used in targeted attacks against both Windows and Linux-based production servers at enterprises. Researchers said it shows unusual characteristics that underscore the innovati...

New Bug Found in NSA’s Ghidra Tool

A medium severity bug reported on Saturday impacts Ghidra, a free, open-source software reverse-engineering tool released by the National Security Agency earlier this year. The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to compromise exposed systems, according to a NIST National Vulnerability Databas...

Full Insight into the Internal Environment with Cynet Free Visibility

Organizational IT security teams have the enormous job of protecting their assets while monitoring and eliminating exposed attack surfaces. Achieving real-time visibility and doing so quickly and efficiently is integral to this, unfortunately though, it eats into resources, frequently requiring...

Shade Ransomware Expands to U.S. Targets

Shade, a ransomware known to target Russian victims, has been spotted in several recent campaigns scoping out new locations – including in the U.S. and Japan. The ransomware, first spotted in late 2014 by Kaspersky Lab researchers, has been known for focusing on Russian victims – but more recent...

WannaCry-Infested Laptop Starts at $1.13M in Art Auction

Malware as high art? Stranger things have happened, but a Windows laptop infected with six high-profile pieces of malware think WannaCry and BlackEnergy is nonetheless looking to fetch more than $1 million in public art-auction bids. A project called “The Persistence of Chaos,” mounted by artist...

Qualcomm Critical Flaw Exposes Private Keys For Android Devices

Researchers have uncovered a side-channel attack that enables a bad actor to extract sensitive data from Qualcomm’s secure keystore. The critical flaw impacts most modern Android devices that use Qualcomm chips. The issue stems from an issue in Qualcomm technology, dubbed the Qualcomm Secure...

Microsoft Publishes Information Sharing Framework

Microsoft earlier this week published a 25-page framework offering guidance on how to effectively share information and what kinds of information need to be shared in order to reduce overall risk. Information sharing has been an oft-repeated refrain in security and policy-making circles for the...

Microsoft Agrees to Modify Windows 8 Following EU Complaint

Microsoft announced Wednesday it will tweak the release of its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system to comply with the European Commission, which argues that in its current state, the software fails to offer customers a browser choice screen to let them “easily choose their preferred web...

What the Log4Shell Bug Means for SMBs: Experts Weigh In

News of the Log4Shell vulnerability is everywhere, with security experts variously calling the Apache log4j logging library bug a recipe for an “internet meltdown,” as well as the “worst cybersecurity bug of the year.” Names like “Apple,” “Twitter” and “Cloudflare” are being bandied about as bein...