VMware ESXi Servers Encrypted by Lightning-Fast Python Script

Researchers have discovered a new Python ransomware from an unnamed gang that’s striking ESXi servers and virtual machines VMs with what they called “sniper-like” speed. Sophos said on Tuesday that the ransomware is being used to compromise and encrypt VMs hosted on an ESXi hypervisor in operatio...

Stolen Credentials Led to Data Theft at United Nations

A threat actor used stolen credentials from a United Nations employee to breach parts of the UN’s network in April and steal critical data, a spokesman for the intergovernmental organization has confirmed. That data lifted from the network can be used to target agencies within the UN, which alrea...

F5 Bug Could Lead to Complete System Takeover

Application delivery and networking firm F5 released a baker’s dozen of 13 fixes for high-severity bugs, including one that could lead to complete system takeover and hence is boosted to “critical” for customers that run BIG-IP in Appliance Mode, given that an attacker that holds valid credential...

Connected Farms Easy Pickings for Global Food Supply-Chain Hack

A group of hackers made an unnerving DEF CON 29 presentation showing how the sprawling growth of digital and automated farming has left the world’s food supply chain vulnerable to cyberattack. A video for DEF CON 29 hacker conference this week put out by the group Sick Codes explained that modern...

Black Hat: Charming Kitten Leaves More Paw Prints

LAS VEGAS – The suspected Iranian threat group that IBM Security X-Force calls ITG18 and which overlaps with the group known as Charming Kitten keeps leaving a trail of paw prints. The latest: a custom Android backdoor dubbed “LittleLooter” – used exclusively by the threat actor, as far as...

Pro-Trump Gettr Social Platform Hacked On Day 1

Gettr, a social media platform set up by allies of former President Donald Trump, was still wet and squirming when it got hacked – twice. The first slap on the rump for the politically conservative platform came in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog-themed porn that flooded it over the Fourth of July...

DarkSide Pwned Colonial With Old VPN Password

It took only one dusty, no-longer-used password for the DarkSide cybercriminals to breach the network of Colonial Pipeline Co. last month, resulting in a ransomware attack that caused significant disruption and remains under investigation by the U.S. government and cybersecurity experts. Attacker...

623K Payment Cards Stolen from Cybercrime Forum

The Swarmshop cyber-underground “card shop” has been hit by hackers, who lifted the site’s database of stolen payment-card data and leaked it online. That’s according to researchers at Group-IB, who said that the database was posted on a rival underground forum. Card shops, are online cybercrimin...

Fraud Ring Launders Money Via Fake Charity Donations

A money-laundering fraud ring is targeting donation sites, taking advantage of the outpouring of charity sparked by the global pandemic. Dubbed Cart Crasher by the Sift security firm, the fraud ring leverages guest checkout options on donation sites to steal money and launder stolen payment cards...

Cybersecurity Bug-Hunting Sparks Enterprise Confidence

Nearly three-quarters of IT security professionals 73 percent surveyed say they prefer to buy technology and services from vendors who are proactive about security, including leveraging ethical hacking and having transparent communications about vulnerabilities. But less than half of vendors...

NanoCore RAT Scurries Past Email Defenses with .ZIPX Tactic

A spate of malicious emails with attachments delivering the NanoCore remote access trojan RAT is evading anti-malware and email scanners by abusing the .ZIPX file format. That’s according to researchers at Trustwave, who found that the campaign is effectively hiding a malicious executable by givi...

Fake Ad Blocker Delivers Hybrid Cryptominer/Ransomware Infection

At its previous peak in February, the Monero Miner cryptocurrency ransominer was targeting more than 2,500 users a day, disguised as an antivirus installer. Now, the tricky hybrid malware is on the rise again, this time impersonating an ad blocker and OpenDNS service. In total, it has infected mo...

Industrial Gear at Risk from Fuji Code-Execution Bugs

Industrial control software ICS from Fuji Electric is vulnerable to several high-severity arbitrary code-execution security bugs, according to a federal warning. Authorities are warning the flaws could allow physical attacks on factory and critical-infrastructure equipment. Fuji Electric’s Tellus...

Malicious Software Infrastructure Easier to Get and Deploy Than Ever

Simple to use and deploy offensive security tools, making it easier than ever for criminals with little technical know-how to get in on cybercrime are seeing a significant rise, researchers say. Recorded Future just released findings from its regular year-end observations of malicious...

Travelex, Other Orgs Face DDoS Threats as Extortion Campaign Rages On

Companies worldwide have continued to receive extortion emails threatening to launch a distributed denial-of-service DDoS attack on their network, unless they pay up – with British foreign-exchange company Travelex reportedly being one recent high-profile threat recipient. Researchers said that...

Fileless Malware Tops Critical Endpoint Threats for 1H 2020

In the first half of 2020, the most common critical-severity cybersecurity threat to endpoints was fileless malware, according to a recent analysis of telemetry data from Cisco. Fileless threats consist of malicious code that runs in memory after initial infection, instead of files being stored o...

Cerberus Banking Trojan Unleashed on Google Play

A malicious Android app has been uncovered on the Google Play app marketplace that is distributing the banking trojan, Cerberus. The app has 10,000 downloads. Researchers said that the trojan was found within the last few days, as it was being spread via a Spanish currency converter app called...

'[F]Unicorn' Ransomware Impersonates Legit COVID-19 Contact-Tracing App

A fresh ransomware strain known as “FUnicorn” has emerged, first seen this week targeting users by pretending to be an official government COVID-19 contact tracing app. According to an advisory from the Computer Emergency Response Team CERT from the Agency for Digital Italy AgID, the malware fami...

Podcast: Shifting Cloud Security Left With Infrastructure-as-Code

Companies are increasingly dealing with a slew of security and compliance issues across cloud services and containers – from AWS to Azure to Google Cloud. Infrastructure-as-Code IaC security capabilities can help companies shift their cloud security “left” to improve developer productivity, avoid...

Zoom Beefs Up End-to-End Encryption to Thwart 'Zoombombers'

Video calling platform Zoom is boosting its security profile via the acquisition of a small startup called Keybase. The 25-person, New York-based company will provide more robust encryption for Zoom calls on paid subscriptions by implementing an end-to-end architecture. “Logged-in users will...

WHO, CDC and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Victims of Credential Dump, Report

Unknown threat actors have allegedly dumped nearly 25,000 email addresses and passwords from notable organizations involved in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, including credentials from prominent health organizations. Hackers have been using information belonging to groups such as World...

Tupperware Cyberattack Stores Away Customer Payment Cards

Cybercriminals hacked the official website of Tupperware, the popular food container giant, injecting a payment card skimmer into its checkout page in hopes of stealing the credit-card details of online customers. The attackers targeted the official Tupperware.com website, which averages close to...

Hackers Hijack Routers to Spread Malware Via Coronavirus Apps

Cybercriminals are hijacking routers and changing Domain Name System DNS settings, in order to redirect victims to attacker controlled sites promoting fake coronavirus information apps. If victims download these apps, they are infected with information-stealing Oski malware. This latest attack...

Apple Safari Blocks Ad-Targeting Cookie Support

Apple has released an update to its Safari browser that blocks third-party cookies, following an announcement by Google that it would do the same for its Chrome browser. Through the release of Safari 13.1 on Tuesday, alongside some changes to Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention ITP in iOS and...

More Than Half of IoT Devices Vulnerable to Severe Attacks

More than half of all internet of things IoT devices are vulnerable to medium- or high-severity attacks, meaning that enterprises are sitting on a “ticking IoT time bomb,” according to Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 research team. In new research released Tuesday, researchers said that several...

Estée Lauder Exposes 440M Records, with Email Addresses, Network Info

A non-password protected cloud database containing hundreds of millions of customer records and internal logs for cosmetic giant Estée Lauder has been found exposed online, according to researchers. In all, 440,336,852 individual data pieces were exposed, according to researcher Jeremiah Fowler a...

Zoom Fixed Flaw Opening Meetings to Hackers

NEW ORLEANS – Enterprise video conferencing firm Zoom has issued a bevy of security fixes after researchers said the company’s platform used weak authentication that made it possible for adversaries to join active meetings. The issue stems from Zoom’s conference meetings not requiring a “meeting...

400 Vet Locations Nipped by Ryuk Ransomware

National Veterinary Associates NVA has been hit with the Ryuk ransomware, in an attack that affects 400 clinics across the country. The California company said that it could take a week for its facilities to be fully back up and running normally. Patient records, payment systems and practice...

Download: The Comprehensive Compliance Guide

A large part of the CISO/CIO responsibility is ensuring compliance standards are met. As one of the main drivers of security product purchase and implementation, regulation comes in many different shapes and sizes. Some standards provide clear consequences for failure to meet them. Others provide...

Stubborn Malware Targets QNAP NAS Hardware Specifically

UPDATE Top-selling network attached storage devices NAS made by QNAP Systems are being singled out by attackers, who have crafted malware specifically designed for the vendor’s hardware. Researchers at the Finland’s National Cyber Security Centre NCSC-FI reported the targeted attacks late last...

Bedside Hotel Robot Hacked to Stream In-Room Video

A Japanese hotel chain called “Henn na” that uses robots in lieu of human staff is wrestling with bedside bots that researchers hacked to view video footage from guest rooms. The chain’s parent, HIS Group, owns 10 locations throughout Japan that leverage robots with facial recognition capability...

Apple Shares Some Browsing History with Chinese Company

Apple is sending some browsing history of iOS 13 Safari users to Tencent Holdings Limited, a Chinese multinational conglomerate. The data shared is tied to the Safari Safe Browsing technology. Revelations of the relationship have drawn criticism from security and privacy experts. Apple’s Safari...

WordPress Plugins Anchor Widespread Malvertising, Rogue Backdoor Campaign

A malvertising campaign redirecting website visitors and surfacing popups is plaguing the WordPress ecosystem, according to researchers, using known vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins as the attack vector. The campaign has been ongoing all summer, with cybercrooks bent on redirecting website...

Google Launches Open-Source Browser Extension for Ad Transparency

Google is launching an experimental, open-source browser extension aimed at increasing transparency around online advertising by displaying information about the ads that are shown to users. The browser extension is an integral part of a new Google initiative announced Thursday to develop a set o...

Podcast: Behind-the-Scenes Look at Scattered Canary BEC Cybergang

LONDON, U.K. – At Infosecurity Europe, Threatpost caught up with Agari researchers to discuss their threat research unveiled at the show about a newly-unveiled business email compromise BEC cybergang. The cybercriminal group, which researchers called Scattered Canary, has been evolving for over 1...

Dell Security Support Tool Harbors High-Severity Flaws

Two high-severity flaws in Dell’s client support tool, SupportAssist Client, could enable remote code-execution RCE and cross-site request forgery CSRF attacks. SupportAssist helps users remove viruses or detect security issues on their PCs, and comes preinstalled on most new Dell devices. “Dell...

WannaCry Hero Pleads Guilty to Kronos Malware Charges

Marcus Hutchins, the researcher hailed for squashing the WannaCry ransomware outbreak in May 2017, pleaded guilty to charges relating to the creation of the Kronos malware. The 24-year-old researcher filed a plea agreement admitting guilt to two of 10 counts in the Eastern District of Wisconsin o...

Threatpost Data: Password Managers Are Worth the Risk, Readers Say

Despite a high-profile memory-related vulnerability in password managers capturing headlines last week, a recent Threatpost poll found that 84 percent of respondents use password managers – while only 10 percent said they don’t due to security risks. There have been vulnerabilities found before i...

Microsoft Launches Azure DevOps Bug Bounty Program

Microsoft lifted the curtain on a new Azure DevOps bug bounty program, designed to sniff out flaws in its Azure DevOps online services and servers. Azure DevOps is a cloud service launched in 2018 that enables collaboration on code development across the breadth of a development lifecycle...

Rowhammer Variant ‘RAMpage’ Targets Android Devices All Over Again

Researchers have found a new variation of the Rowhammer attack technique they have dubbed RAMpage. The vulnerability could allow an adversary to create an exploit to gain administrative control over targeted Android smartphones and tablets. The flaw impacts Android devices dating back to 2012...

KRACK Vulnerability Puts Medical Devices At Risk

A slew of devices from medical technology company Becton, Dickinson and Company BD are vulnerable to the infamous KRACK key-reinstallation attack, potentially enabling hackers to change and exfiltrate patient records. The KRACK vulnerability, discovered last October, is an industry-wide glitch in...

US-CERT Warns of Crypto Bugs in IEEE Standard

Recent academic work focused on weak cryptographic protections in the implementation of the IEEE P1735 standard has been escalated to an alert published Friday by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS’ US-CERT warned the IEEE P1735 standard for encrypting electronic-design intellectual propert...

Five Critical Android Bugs Get Patched in October Update

Five critical vulnerabilities were reported by Google Monday as part of its October Android Security Bulletin. In all, 14 patches were issued for corresponding vulnerabilities, ranging from critical to high. The relative low bug count for the month of October is due to the fact this month Google...

Microsoft Offers Analysis of Zero-Day Exploited By Zirconium Group

Microsoft has released technical details on a zero-day vulnerability being exploited by a little-known APT group known as Zirconium. According to the company the vulnerability CVE-2017-0005 affects mostly older versions of Windows and can allow an adversary to execute remote code if a user either...

DROWN Flaw Opens 33 Percent Of HTTPS Connections To Attack

Researchers revealed a massive transport layer security TLS vulnerability today that leaves millions of Internet users vulnerable to an attack that could expose passwords, credit card numbers and financial data. OpenSSL and others are urging companies to patch their web servers or risk exposure t...

Microsoft Issues Critical, Out-of-Band Patch for All Versions of Windows

Microsoft released an out-of-band patch Monday that addresses a critical remotely exploitable flaw in all versions of Windows. The vulnerability stems from how Windows’ Adobe Type Manager Library handles OpenType fonts. If a user was tricked into either opening a rigged document or visiting an...

APT Group Embeds C&C Data on TechNet Pages

The so-called Deputy Dog APT group has surfaced again with a means of keeping its command and control servers under wraps that involves Microsoft’s TechNet online resources. New research published last week by Microsoft and FireEye revealed targeted attacks against organizations have been...

Citadel Variant Targets Password Managers

The Citadel Trojan has once again branched out beyond its roots as banking malware and is now targeting the master passwords guarding major password management products. Researchers from IBM Trusteer today said they’ve notified makers of the nexus Personal Security Client, Password Safe and KeePa...

Sandworm APT Team Found Using Windows Zero Day Vulnerability

UPDATE–A cyberespionage team, possibly based in Russia, has been using a Windows zero day vulnerability to target a variety of organizations in several countries, including the United States, Poland, Ukraine and western Europe. The vulnerability, which will be patched today by Microsoft, is...

NetTraveler Now Using Java Exploits, Watering Hole Attacks

When NetTravler was unveiled in June, Costin Raiu of Kaspersky Lab warned that the espionage campaign was an “ugly gorilla with a thousand faces” and that we hadn’t seen them all yet. A little more than two months later, another profile of the malware targeting activists, diplomats, government...