Google Enlists Help to Fight Bad Android Apps

After years of unsuccessfully battling malware and bad apps in the Google Play store and on more than 2.5 billion Android devices, Google is finally doing something about it. The tech giant this week unveiled an alliance with three companies with specific expertise in endpoint security to help...

Cybercrime Tool Prices Bump Up in Dark Web Markets

Prices have been rising in the last two years for longstanding tools available on the Dark Web to help bad actors commit cyber attacks and fraud, alongside newer innovations that are emerging to bolster crimes like ransomware and SIM swapping, new research has found. Keeping track of these trends...

Major Groupon, TicketMaster Fraud Scheme Exposed By Insecure Database

UPDATE After discovering a cache of 17 million emails exposed on an unsecured database, researchers with vpnMentor began to hunt for its owner — but to their surprise, they found that the database belonged not to a company, but to a sophisticated criminal network. Cybercriminals had been both...

Black Hat 2019 News Wrap: The Best and Worst of the Show

LAS VEGAS – Black Hat and DEF CON 2019 may be wrapping up, but the dual conferences last week in Las Vegas left the security industry with a flurry of new security flaws, topics and announcements to discuss for the weeks to come. Threatpost editors Tara Seals and Lindsey O’Donnell get together to...

State Farm Falls Victim to Credential-Stuffing Attack

State Farm Insurance is notifying customers that accounts have been compromised by hackers in a credential-stuffing attack. Credential-stuffing is accomplished by hackers who take advantage of users who often reuse the same passwords across multiple online accounts. The cyberattackers use stolen...

SAS 2019: Exodus Spyware Found Targeting Apple iOS Users

SINGAPORE— The Exodus spyware that was recently found lurking in 25 different malicious apps on Google Play has been ported to the Apple iOS ecosystem. The surveillance package can exfiltrate contacts, take audio recordings and photos, track location data and more on mobile devices. Earlier this...

U.S. Senators Urge VPN Ban for Federal Workers Over Spying

UPDATE Two U.S. senators are taking bipartisan aim at foreign-owned virtual private networks VPNs, which they say are often headquartered “in countries that do not share American interests or values” – specifically, China and Russia. Sens. Ron Wyden D-Ore. and Marco Rubio R-Fla. have signed a joi...

U.S. Government Goes After North Korea's Joanap Botnet

The U.S. Justice Department is looking to retaliate against North Korea-linked hackers who have built up a massive global network of infected computers. The department announced on Wednesday that it would seek to map out the Joanap botnet, which has been built and controlled by North Korea-linked...

Microsoft Windows RCE Flaw Gets Temporary Micropatch

Three unfixed Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities have been assigned unofficial, temporary micropatches – including a recently-disclosed high-severity remote code-execution flaw. The micropatches were released Tuesday by ACROS Security’s 0patch platform. 0patch, which is still in its beta stage,...

Google Patches 11 Critical RCE Android Vulnerabilities

Remote code-execution RCE vulnerabilities dominated Google’s December Android Security Bulletin. The flaws are part of a total of 53 unique bugs patched by the Android security team, with a total number of 11 critical bugs – six of which are RCE flaws tied to the operating system’s Media Framewor...

GreyEnergy Spy APT Mounts Sophisticated Effort Against Critical Infrastructure

A new APT group, dubbed GreyEnergy by researchers, has emerged as a successor to the infamous BlackEnergy APT group, which was behind the electric grid cyberattack and resulting power outage in the Ukraine in December 2015. However, GreyEnergy’s focus and targeting revolve around cyber-espionage...

Google Patches Critical 'Broadpwn' Bug in July Security Update

Google released a security patch Wednesday that addresses a critical vulnerability dubbed “Broadpwn” found in millions of Android devices that could allow remote attackers to execute code on targeted devices. The so-called Broadpwn bug is tied to a vulnerability in Broadcom’s BCM43xx family of Wi...

Microsoft Bans Superfish SSL Interception Adware

Microsoft has taken steps to impede the next Superfish from impacting users. Superfish was pre-installed adware found on new Lenovo laptops earlier this year. The software exposes users to man-in-the-middle attacks because of the way it injects advertisements into the browser. It comes with a...

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso Discuss This Week's Microsoft Takedown

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso discuss the Microsoft malware takedown, its legal and security implications and the revelation of a massive financial fraud campaign in Brazil. Download: digitalunderground157.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Experts Downplay MySQL Database Zero-Days

A rash of zero-day exploits and vulnerabilities in the MySQL database were disclosed to the Full Disclosure mailing list over the weekend, but experts are saying they’re much ado about nothing. Of the half-dozen zero-days reported by a researcher known as King Cope, all but one require legitimate...

ExploitHub Offering Bounties – And Residuals – for Exploits

NSS Labs’ announced today that their penetration-testing site, Exploithub, will be offering bounties to researchers for developing exploits for12 high-value vulnerabilities. Exploithub is putting up $4,400 for working exploits against what the company describes as a “dirty dozen” of client-side...

Microsoft Security Intelligence Report: The Vinny and Tim Show

This video features Tim Rains and Vinny Gullotto of Microsoft discussing the major threats from the second half of 2008...

Iranian State Broadcaster Clobbered by ‘Clumsy, Buggy’ Code

Footage of opposition leaders calling for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader ran on several of the nation’s state-run TV channels in late January after a state-sponsored cyber-attack on Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. The incident – one of a series of politically motivated attacks in Iran...

HPE Warns Sudo Bug Gives Attackers Root Privileges to Aruba Platform

Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE is warning a vulnerability in Sudo, an open-source program used within its Aruba AirWave management platform, could allow any unprivileged and unauthenticated local user to gain root privileges on a vulnerable host. Rated high in severity, HPE warns the Sudo flaw...

Novel Meteor Wiper Used in Attack that Crippled Iranian Train System

An attack earlier this month on Iran’s train system, which disrupted rail service and taunted Iran’s leadership via hacked public transit display screens, used a never-before-seen wiper malware called Meteor that appears to have been design for reuse, a security researcher has found. The initial...

SolarWinds Issues Hotfix for Zero-Day Flaw Under Active Attack

SolarWinds has issued a hotfix for a zero-day remote code execution RCE vulnerability already under active, yet limited, attack on some of the company’s customers. Microsoft alerted the company about the flaw, which affects its Serv-U Managed File Transfer Server and Serv-U Secured FTP products...

Exclusive Ransomware Poll: 80% of Victims Don’t Pay Up

Ransomware is on the rise, but what toll does it take on the real world? Threatpost set out to answer that question in an exclusive poll aimed at taking the pulse of organizations wrestling with attacks, including looking at mitigations and the defenses organizations have in place. When viewed...

Scheme Flooding Allows User Tracking Across Browsers

A security researcher has discovered a vulnerability that allows websites to track users across a number of different desktop browsers — including Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Tor — posing a threat to cross-browser anonymity. Called “scheme flooding,” the flaw...

Anti-Spam WordPress Plugin Could Expose Website User Data

An SQL-injection vulnerability discovered in a WordPress plugin called “Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk” could expose user emails, passwords, credit-card data and other sensitive information to an unauthenticated attacker. Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk is...

Flubot Spyware Spreading Through Android Devices

Android mobile phone users across the U.K. and Europe are being targeted by text messages containing a particularly nasty piece of spyware called “Flubot,” according to the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre. And the U.S. could be the next target. Victims are asked to download a fake app from ...

Network Detection & Response: The Next Frontier in Fighting the Human Problem

Last year, Gartner published a market guide on network detection and response NDR. Formerly known as network-traffic analytics, which I’ve spoken about in the past at length, NDR has adapted to not only play a major role in helping network and security teams identify threats, but it has enabled...

Spotify Changes Passwords After Another Data Breach

Spotify has alerted users that some of their registration data was inadvertently exposed to a third-party business partner, including emails addresses, preferred display names, passwords, gender and dates of birth. This is at least the third breach in less than a month for the world’s largest...

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...

Have I Been Pwned Set to Go Open-Source

Have I Been Pwned, the service that logs data breaches and lets individuals search to see if they’ve been affected by one, is about to go open-source. The result of that, according to its founder, will be additional transparency and security-enhancing features. HIBP, which was kicked off in 2013,...

4 Unpatched Bugs Plague Grandstream ATAs for VoIP Users

UPDATE Multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in the Grandstream HT800 series of Analog Telephone Adaptors ATAs threaten home office and midrange users alike, with outages, eavesdropping and device takeover. The HT800 series of ATAs is designed for everyone from home or small-office users to...

Vermont Taxpayers Warned of Data Leak Over the Past Three Years

The Vermont Department of Taxes may have been exposing taxpayer data that could be used in credential scams for more than three years due to a vulnerability in its online tax filing system. A notice PDF posted on the department’s website warned taxpayers who filed a Property Transfer Tax return...

Home Chef Serves Up Data Breach for 8 Million Records

Mail-order meal kits have become even more popular as the coronavirus pandemic has kept people home and cooking on a regular basis. Unfortunately, one of these, the popular Kroger’s Home Chef service, recently served up a side of data breach along with its perfectly measured ingredients. Accordin...

Public Sector Ransomware Attacks Rage On: Can Your Organization Repel Them?

To pay or not to pay? That is the question many public-sector organizations must grapple with when faced with a complex ransomware attack – even while the COVID-19 pandemic rages on around them. Ransomware attacks to municipal, local, and state government agencies are on the rise. Places as...

Coronavirus Poll Results: Cyberattacks Ramp Up, WFH Prep Uneven

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the globe and Americans are told to isolate from others, many organizations are sending employees home to work. While most respondents in a Threatpost poll this week said they feel prepared from a security standpoint for this transition, a fifth of them...

RSAC 2020: Lack of Machine Learning Laws Open Doors To Attacks

SAN FRANCISCO – As companies quickly adopt machine learning systems, cybercriminals are close behind scheming to compromise them. That worries legal experts who say a lack of laws swing open the door for bad guys to attack systems. During a panel session at RSA Conference 2020 this week, Cristin...

Active Attacks Target Popular Duplicator WordPress Plugin

Active exploits are targeting a recently patched flaw in the popular WordPress plugin Duplicator, which has more than 1 million active installations. So far, researchers have seen 60,000 attempts to harvest sensitive information from victims. Researchers at Wordfence who discovered the in-the-wil...

Top 10 IoT Disasters of 2019

IoT Disasters 2019 Though more light was shed around insecure Internet of Things IoT devices in 2019 – consequently leading to more calls for regulation– connected devices themselves seemingly stayed just as insecure. From privacy concerns in smart home devices, to botnets evolving to launch...

Fake 'Windows Update' Installs Cyborg Ransomware

A malicious spam campaign that informs victims it contains a “critical Windows update” instead leads to the installation of Cyborg ransomware, researchers have found. Further, they were able to access its builder, which can be used to create malware variants. The email-based threat, discovered...

Americans Concerned and Confused Over Privacy, Survey Reveals

Call it a case of Facebook privacy breach fatigue. When asked, Americans say companies do a worse job than the government when it comes to protecting data collected on their behalf. They also complain potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits. The...

U.S. Government, Military Personnel Data Leaked By Autoclerk

A leaky database owned by reservations management system Autoclerk has exposed the personal data and travel information for thousands of users – including U.S. government and military personnel. Autoclerk, which was acquired by the Best Western Hotel and Resorts Group in August, provides...

Podcast: Departing Employees Could Mean Departing Data

With so many malicious adversaries trying to penetrate companies’ networks, companies are forgetting to watch out for a dangerous threat from within their own ranks – insider threats. Threatpost talks to Tim Bandos, vice president of cybersecurity at Digital Guardian, about the top types of insid...

Magecart Group Targets Routers Behind Public Wi-Fi Networks

A faction of the Magecart threat group is testing code that targets routers used to provide free or paid Wi-Fi services in public spaces and hotels. If successful, attackers would able to compromise these commercial-grade routers and be able to siphon payment data of users joining Wi-Fi networks ...

198 Million Car-Buyer Records Exposed Online for All to See

Over 198 million records containing information on prospective car buyers, including loan and finance data, vehicle information and IP addresses for website visitors, has been found exposed on the internet for anyone to see. The non-password protected Elasticsearch database belonged to Dealer...

Mass Spoofing Campaign Abuses Walmart Brand

An ongoing domain name spoofing campaign is taking aim at retail giant Walmart and other big fish, with more than 540 malicious domains being used to harvest consumer information. The scam domains are mimicking legitimate sites in name and appearance, in hopes of fooling visitors into entering...

Apple Patches iMessage Bug That Bricks iPhones with Out-of-Date Software

Apple patched a high-severity iMessage bug found by Google Project Zero that can be exploited by an attacker who sends a specially-crafted message to a vulnerable iOS device. Those iPhones receiving the malicious message are rendered inoperable, or bricked. Apple patched the bug with the release ...

Millions of Golfers Land in Privacy Hazard After Cloud Misconfig

Finding cloud databases with sensitive information left open to the internet has become par for the course these days – as a new exposure of millions of sensitive data points for the users of a golf app demonstrates. Millions of golfer records from the Game Golf app, including GPS details from...

Researchers Weigh in on Trump's Cyber Workforce Executive Order

Security researchers are reacting to a cybersecurity workforce executive order from the White House that came down Thursday, aimed at improving the level of cyber-expertise at federal agencies. While outlining no specific steps or actions, the order creates a directive to create “a superior...

Podcast: Chris Vickery on UpGuard's Discovery of Millions of Facebook Records

Data collection and security was thrust to the forefront this week after researchers with UpGuard disclosed that hundreds of millions of Facebook records were found in two separate publicly-exposed app datasets. The two publicly-exposed datasets included one controlled by Mexican media company...

SAS 2019 to Tackle APTs, Supply Chains and More

Kaspersky Lab’s Security Analyst Summit kicks off in Singapore next week, where elite researchers, top cybersecurity firms and global law-enforcement agencies will discuss today’s biggest cybersecurity threats and how best to squash them. This year marks the first time the global security...

OceanLotus APT Uses Steganography to Shroud Payloads

The advanced persistent threat APT group OceanLotus has switched up its tactics to use steganography to cloak encrypted payloads within .png image files. Researchers said that they discovered the OceanLotus APT group – a Vietnam-linked cyber-espionage group also known as APT32 – using the tactic ...