Microsoft MSHTML Flaw Exploited by Ryuk Ransomware Gang

Criminals behind the Ryuk ransomware were early exploiters of the Windows MSHTML flaw, actively leveraging the bug in campaigns ahead of a patch released by Microsoft this week. Collaborative research by Microsoft and RiskIQ revealed campaigns by Ryuk threat actors early on that exploited the fla...

Windows Hello Bypass Bug Patch is Faulty, Researchers Say

LAS VEGAS – Microsoft Windows 10 biometric user authentication systems Windows Hello can be bypassed, using a single infrared image of a user’s face planted on a tampered clone of an external USB-based webcam. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-34466, CVSS score: 5.7, was patched by Microsoft...

Monumental Supply-Chain Attack on Airlines Traced to State Actor

A monster cyberattack on SITA, a global IT provider for 90 percent of the world’s airline industry, is slowly unfurling to reveal the largest supply-chain attack on the airline industry in history. The enormous data breach, estimated to have already impacted 4.5 million passengers, has potentiall...

Beyond MFA: Rethinking the Authentication Key

You have to hand it to the cyber-thieves: They have proven extremely adept at defeating security measures once thought reliable. Case in point: multifactor authentication MFA. While two-factor authentication 2FA using push text notifications has become the de-facto standard for login security, ba...

New Crypto-Stealer ‘Panda’ Spreads via Discord

Yet another new information stealer – Panda Stealer – is being spread through a worldwide spam campaign. On Tuesday, Trend Micro researchers said that they first spotted the new stealer in April. The most recent wave of the spam campaign has had the biggest impact in Australia, Germany, Japan and...

Five Critical Android Bugs Patched, Part of Feb. Security Bulletin

Google patched five critical bugs in its Android operating system as part of its February Security Bulletin. Two of the flaws were remote code execution vulnerabilities found within the Android media framework and system. Three additional critical Qualcomm bugs were reported by Google and patched...

2021 Cybersecurity Trends: Bigger Budgets, Endpoint Emphasis and Cloud

After shrinking in 2020, cybersecurity budgets in 2021 climb higher than pre-pandemic limits. Authentication, cloud data protection and application monitoring will top the list of CISO budget and cybersecurity priorities. According to experts, these are just a few of the themes to dominate the ye...

Two Chrome Browser Updates Plug Holes Actively Targeted by Exploits

Flaws in Google’s Chrome desktop and Android-based browsers were patched Monday in an effort to prevent known exploits from being used by attackers. Two separate security bulletins issued by Google warned that it is aware of reports that exploits for both exist in the wild. Google’s Project Zero...

Triple-Threat Cryptocurrency RAT Mines, Steals and Harvests

A previously undocumented malware family called KryptoCibule is mounting a three-pronged cryptocurrency-related attack, while also deploying remote-access trojan RAT functionality to establish backdoors to its victims. According to researchers at ESET, the malware has been seen targeting victims...

WhatsApp Axes COVID-19 Mass Message Forwarding

In an effort to stem what it says is misinformation being spread on its platform, WhatsApp is limiting the number of recipients to which its users can forward certain messages about the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, users of the Facebook-owned messaging app can only forward messages with double arrows ...

Apple Update Fixes WebKit Flaws in iOS, Safari

Apple has released a slew of patches across its iOS and macOS operating systems, Safari browser, watchOS, tvOS and iTunes. The most serious flaw in this latest security update, released Tuesday, exists in the WebKit and could enable remote code execution. Of the CVEs disclosed, 30 affected Apple’...

Akamai Talks Massive Uptick in Credential-Stuffing Attacks Against Bank APIs

Cybercriminals continue to firehose financial services companies with new and innovative cyberattacks. Research from Akamai recently found that up to 75 percent of all credential abuse attacks against the financial services industry in 2019 targeted APIs directly rather than user-facing login...

Travelex Knocked Offline by System-Wide Malware Attack

A “computer virus” has forced foreign currency exchange giant Travelex to shut down its online services and its app – leaving its retail locations to carry out tasks manually and many customers stranded without travel money. Its global banking partners have also been left adrift with no way to bu...

Apple Fixes ‘AirDoS’ Bug That Cripples Nearby iPhones, iPads

Apple fixed a bug in its file-swapping feature AirDrop, Tuesday, which allows nearby hackers to render iPhones and iPads inoperable. The bug opens the door for a type of denial-of-service attack, allowing an attacker to infinitely spam all nearby iPhones and iPads with AirDrop share popup...

Platinum APT Shines Up New Titanium Backdoor

APT threat group Platinum has a shiny new plaything: A custom trojan backdoor dubbed Titanium. The backdoor’s name, aside from keeping with the silvery metal theme, comes from password to one of the self-executable archives found in the code. According to Kaspersky researchers who analyzed the...

Half of Android Handsets Susceptible to Clever SMS Phishing Attack

Over half of all Android handsets are susceptible to a clever over-the-air SMS phishing attack that could allow an adversary to route all internet traffic through a rogue proxy, as well as hijack features such as a handset’s homepage, mail server and directory servers for synchronizing contacts a...

Black Hat 2019: Addressing Supply-Chain Risk Starts with People, Microsoft Says

LAS VEGAS – Supply-chain attacks have nabbed headlines lately thanks to high-profile incidents like the Wipro news last April, where attackers were able to compromise the staffing agency’s network and pivot to their customers. That incident pointed out that supply-chain risk should be thought of ...

2.3B Files Exposed in a Year: A New Record for Misconfigs

The last 12 months has seen the exposure of a record 2.3 billion files across cloud databases and online shares, according to an analysis released on Thursday. A report from Digital Shadows’ Photon Research Team, Too Much Information: The Sequel, assessed the scale of inadvertent global data...

Verizon Router Command Injection Flaw Impacts Millions

UPDATE Three vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Verizon Fios Quantum Gateway which, when exploited together, could give an attacker complete control of a victim’s network. The device is used by millions of Verizon home customers and functions as a home’s wireless router and digital...

Facebook Data of Millions Exposed in Leaky Datasets

UPDATE Hundreds of millions of Facebook records – including account names, personal data, and more – have been found in two separate publicly-exposed app datasets. The first publicly-exposed dataset originates from a Mexico-based media company, Cultura Colectiva, and contains over 540 million...

Microsoft Confirms Serious 'PrivExchange' Vulnerability

Microsoft acknowledged an elevated privilege flaw in its Exchange Server could allow a remote attacker with a simple mailbox account to gain administrator privileges. Both a Microsoft advisory and a US-CERT alert were issued on Tuesday warning users of the elevation of privilege flaw, dubbed...

JenX Botnet Has Grand Theft Auto Hook

Researchers at Radware have discovered a new botnet that uses vulnerabilities linked with the Satori botnet and is leveraging the Grand Theft Auto videogame community to infect IoT devices. Satori is a derivative of Mirai, the notorious botnet that in 2016 infamously managed to take down Dyn, a D...

Attackers Exploiting Windows OLE Vulnerability

Attackers are using a zero day vulnerability in nearly all supported versions of Windows in a series of targeted attacks. The flaw is in the OLE technology in Windows and can be used for remote code execution is a targeted user opens a rigged Office file. Microsoft is warning customers that there...

Exploit Code Surfaces for CVE-2012-1875 Internet Explorer Bug

Less than a week after Microsoft released a patch for a critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer, attack code has become publicly available in the form of a module for the Metasploit Framework. The bug is serious one that enables an attacker to bypass both ASLR and DEP, the two main anti-explo...

To Combat Firesheep, Microsoft's Bing Looking Into SSL

Microsoft’s Bing is looking into SSL and other privacy settings for the next version of their search engine. Currently the site strips SSL when forced into HTTPS and in turn, brings up an advisory on browsers signaling an unsafe connection. Introduced at Toorcon, the Firefox extension allows...

Intel Memory Bug Poses Risk for Hundreds of Products

Chipmaker Intel is reporting a memory bug impacting microprocessor firmware used in “hundreds” of products. According to an advisory issued by the company on Tuesday, the bug is firmware-based and rated as “high” risk with a Common Vulnerability Scoring System CVSS score of 7. The vulnerability...

Linux Servers at Risk of RCE Due to Critical CWP Bugs

Researchers have discovered two critical bugs in Control Web Panel CWP – a popular web hosting management software used by 200,000+ servers – that could allow for remote code execution RCE as root on vulnerable Linux servers. CWP, formerly known as CentOS Web Panel, is an open-source Linux contro...

Ransomware Phishing Emails Sneak Through SEGs

Secure email gateway SEG protections aren’t necessarily enough to stop phishing emails from delivering ransomware to employees, especially if the cybercrooks are using legitimate cloud services to host malicious pages. Researchers are raising the alarm over a phishing email kicking off a...

SAS 2021: FinSpy Surveillance Kit Re-Emerges Stronger Than Ever

The FinSpy surveillance kit has been driven from its hiding place following an eight-month investigation by Kaspersky researchers. Detections of the spyware trojan have dwindled since 2018, but it turns out that it hasn’t gone away – it’s simply been hiding behind various first-stage implants tha...

Lexmark Printers Open to Arbitrary Code-Execution Zero Day

Lexmark printers – those ubiquitous, inky office workhorses that fill homes and offices, and are found all the way on up to the federal government – have an unpatched vulnerability that could lead to serious, easy-to-execute attacks that require neither privileges nor user interaction and which c...

Hackers Exploit Post-COVID Return to Offices

With COVID-19 restrictions lifting and workers trickling back to offices, threat actors are sharpening their spear phishing ploys. The latest scam includes pelting recipients with emails purportedly from their CIOs welcoming employees back into offices. The emails outline a company’s post-pandemi...

The Gig Economy Creates Novel Data-Security Risks

As businesses strive to move faster and faster, many are adopting a “just-in-time” strategy of spinning up human resources on demand – a phenomenon known as the gig economy, familiar to most via Uber, Instacart or DoorDash. But it’s a concept that enterprises are embracing too – inadvertently...

Fresh Loader Targets Aviation Victims with Spy RATs

A cyberattack campaign that goes after aviation targets has been uncovered, which is spreading remote access trojan RAT malware bent on cyber-espionage. Researchers from Microsoft said this week on Twitter that spear-phishing emails are the main attack vector. Individuals in the aerospace and...

Biden Races to Shore Up Power Grid Against Hacks

President Biden is putting the final details on a plan to encourage American electric utilities to strengthen their cybersecurity protections against hackers in the next 100 days, amid increasing cyberattacks. The White House push to boost electrical grid security comes in the wake of a report th...

Europol Credits Sweeping Arrests to Cracked Sky ECC Comms

Europol launched “major interventions” against organized crime on March 9, which it said were made possible by monitoring the encrypted messages of around 70,000 users of the Sky ECC service since mid-February. Sky ECC, which focuses on selling mobile phones with specialized, private...

Microsoft, FireEye Unmask More Malware Linked to SolarWinds Attackers

Researchers have uncovered more custom malware that is being used by the threat group behind the SolarWinds attack. Researchers with Microsoft and FireEye identified three new pieces of malware that the companies said are being used in late-stage activity by the threat actor previously called...

Google’s Chrome 86: Critical Payments Bug, Password Checker Among Security Notables

Google’s latest version of its browser, Chrome 86, is now being rolled out with 35 security fixes – including a critical bug – and a feature that checks if users have any compromised passwords. As of Tuesday, Chrome 86 is being promoted to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux and will ro...

Microsoft Office 365 Phishing Attack Uses Multiple CAPTCHAs

Researchers are warning of an ongoing Office 365 credential-phishing attack that’s targeting the hospitality industry – and using visual CAPTCHAs to avoid detection and appear legitimate. CAPTCHAs – commonly utilized by websites like LinkedIn and Google – are a type of challenge–response test use...

High-Severity Cisco IOS XE Flaw Threatens SD-WAN Routers

Cisco has patched a high-severity vulnerability in its router software, which if exploited could enable a local, authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges. The flaw exists in Cisco IOS XE. This Linux-based version of Cisco’s Internetworking Operating System IOS is...

Zoom Taps Ex-Facebook CISO Amid Security Snafus, Lawsuit

As it faces a major lawsuit, Zoom is taking a significant step to bolster security and privacy efforts by recruiting an industry heavy-hitter – former Facebook CISO Alex Stamos – to provide special counsel. It has also named third-party expert security advisory teams. The popular videoconferencin...

Top 10 Breaches and Leaky Server Screw Ups of 2019

Top 10 Breaches and Leaky Server Screw Ups of 2019 From massive credential spills on the Dark Web and hacked data to card-skimming and rich profiles exposed by way of cloud misconfigurations, 2019 was a notable year for data breaches. Big names like Capital One, Macy’s and Sprint were impacted, a...

Modern Intel CPUs Plagued By Plundervolt Attack

Researchers have discovered a new attack impacting modern Intel CPUs, which could allow an attacker to extract highly-sensitive information – such as encryption keys – from affected processors by altering their voltage. The attack, dubbed “Plundervolt,” centers around Intel Software Guard...

Microsoft OAuth Flaw Opens Azure Accounts to Takeover

A vulnerability in the way Microsoft applications use OAuth for third-party authentication could allow an attacker to take over Azure cloud accounts. OAuth is a protocol that allows app users to share data about their accounts with third-party websites or apps, so that when they sign into the app...

Three Areas to Consider, to Focus Your Cyber-Plan

How’s this for concerning news: Half of all organizations don’t have the wherewithal to stop malicious actors from stealing sensitive information, taking down critical assets or damaging customer trust. According to a recent report from FireEye, 51 percent of organizations don’t believe they are...

Raccoon Malware Scavenges 100,000+ Devices to Steal Data

A new information stealer, dubbed Raccoon, is rapidly gaining popularity with cybercriminals. In just a few months, researchers say the malware has already infected hundreds of thousands of devices across the world to rove through victims’ credit card data, email credentials and more. The malware...

New Way Found to Use Alexa, Google to 'Voice Phish' and Eavesdrop on Users

Researchers have found new ways that bad actors can exploit Alexa and Google Home smart speakers to spy on users. This time the hack not only includes eavesdropping, but also includes voice-phishing, or using people’s voice cues to determine passwords. The vulnerability lies in small apps created...

Phorpiex Botnet Shifts Gears From Ransomware to Sextortion

A recent wide-scale campaign indicates that a decade-old botnet is shifting gears from distributing ransomware to delivering millions of sextortion threats to innocent recipients. Worse, researchers say that the botnet’s spam campaign can affect up to 27 million potential victims. The botnet,...

Zebrocy Retools for New Political Attacks

The APT known as the Sednit threat group also known as Sofacy, APT28 and Fancy Bear has kicked off a fresh spearphishing campaign, that was spotted targeting government entities with the Zebrocy backdoor. The malware features a rewritten and newly-improved backdoor and downloader, indicating an...

These Hacks Require Literally Sneaking in the Backdoor

After slipping past security, picking a backdoor lock and gaining access to a company’s inner sanctum, a skilled hacker can cause mayhem. They can plant malware on a network, grab physical files and walk out the front door with a donut pilfered from the employee break room. Meet the world of a...

Android Zero-Days Now Worth More Than iPhone Exploits

An Android zero-day exploit is now worth more than one for the iPhone on the global cyberweapons market. Exploit acquisition vendor Zerodium said Tuesday that it is willing to pay a whopping $2.5 million for a zero-click Android zero-day with persistence. That number significantly increases the...