New Java Vulnerability Coming Bundled With Exploit Kits

A recently discovered Java vulnerability that’s been circulating throughout the hacking underground has begun to show up alongside the BlackHole exploit kit, according to a post on Brian Krebs’ KrebsonSecurity blog. The National Vulnerability Database claims the vulnerability is found in the Java...

Gamification of Ethical Hacking and Hacking Esports

While ethical hacking is by no means a new or groundbreaking practice, the scale at which organizations and individuals are undertaking such initiatives continues to intensify, especially considering recent events such as the log4j vulnerability. Traditionally, ethical hacking is undertaken by...

Automaker Cybersecurity Lagging Behind Tech Adoption, Experts Warn

A pair of recent vulnerabilities found in the automaker ecosystem might not seem like a real danger taken separately. But experts warn a lack of attention on cybersecurity could plague “smart” car and electric vehicle systems — and users — in years to come, as the use of automotive technology...

How to Reduce Exchange Server Downtime in Case of a Disaster?

Exchange Server downtime may occur at any point in time due to several reasons, such as malware attack, server crash, database corruption, and hardware or software-related issues/incompatibility. However, downtime can impact productivity and lead to data loss that can have severe implications on...

‘Battle for the Galaxy’ Mobile Game Leaks 6M Gamer Profiles

An Elasticsearch server holding personal data of 6 million players of the popular mobile game Battle for the Galaxy was discovered insecure and containing over 1 terabyte of unencrypted data, meaning anyone with a link could access data stored on the repository. Ethical hackers WizCase found the...

Exchange Servers Targeted by ‘Epsilon Red’ Malware

Threat actors have deployed new ransomware on the back of a set of PowerShell scripts developed for making encryption, exploiting flaws in unpatched Exchange Servers to attack the corporate network, according to recent research. Researchers from security firm Sophos detected the new ransomware,...

100,000 Google Sites Used to Install SolarMarker RAT

Hackers are using search-engine optimization SEO tactics to lure business users to more than 100,000 malicious Google sites that seem legitimate, but instead install a remote access trojan RAT, used to gain a foothold on a network and later infect systems with ransomware, credential-stealers,...

CISA Warns of Security Flaws in GE Power Management Devices

The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency CISA is warning of critical-severity security flaws in GE’s Universal Relay UR family of power management devices. GE’s UR devices are the “basis of simplified power management for the protection of critical assets,” according to the company...

Linux Systems Under Attack By New RedXOR Malware

Researchers have discovered a new backdoor targeting Linux systems, which they link back to the Winnti threat group. The backdoor is called RedXOR – in part because its network data-encoding scheme is based on the XOR encryption algorithm, and in part because its samples were found on an old...

Hacker Sets Alleged Auction for Witcher 3 Source Code

The ransomware gang behind an attack on videogame developer CD Projekt Red may have made good on its promise to auction off the company’s data – including source code for Cyberpunk 2077 and an unreleased version of the Witcher 3. Or it may not have. The Twitter account @vxunderground, which bills...

Breaking Down Joe Biden's $10B Cybersecurity 'Down Payment'

President Joe Biden laid out a series of cybersecurity initiatives last week at his inauguration, including earmarking $10 billion for various cybersecurity defense initiatives. Those included hiring key security personnel to support for the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency CISA. The...

Cisco DNA Center Bug Opens Enterprises to Remote Attack

A cross-site request forgery CSRF vulnerability in the Cisco Digital Network Architecture DNA Center could open enterprise users to remote attack and takeover. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-1257, exists in the web-based management interface of the Cisco DNA Center, which is a centralized...

SQL Server Malware Tied to Iranian Software Firm, Researchers Allege

Researchers have made new discoveries surrounding the source of a previously-uncovered cryptomining operation that has targeted internet-facing database servers. The campaign, dubbed MrbMiner, was discovered in September 2020 downloading and installing a cryptominer on thousands of SQL servers...

Ransomware in 2020: A Banner Year for Extortion

Remote learning platforms shut down. Hospital chemotherapy appointments cancelled. Ransomware attacks in 2020 dominated as a top threat vector this past year. Couple that with the COVID-19 pandemic, putting strains on the healthcare sector, and we witnessed ransomware exact a particularly cruel...

DHS Among Those Hit in Sophisticated Cyberattack by Foreign Adversaries – Report

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security DHS, plus the Treasury and Commerce departments, have been hacked in an attack related to the FireEye compromise last week, according to reports. In addition, defense contractors and enterprises were caught up in the attack, FireEye said, which was carried...

FireEye Cyberattack Compromises Red-Team Security Tools

Cybersecurity firm FireEye has been hit in what CEO Kevin Mandia described as a highly targeted cyberattack. The attacker targeted and was able to access certain Red Team assessment tools that the company uses to test its customers’ security. Mandia on Tuesday said that based on the techniques an...

Major BEC Phishing Ring Cracked Open with 3 Arrests

Three men suspected of participating in a massive business email compromise BEC ring have been arrested in Lagos, Nigeria. A joint INTERPOL, Group-IB and Nigeria Police Force cybercrime investigation resulted in the arrest of the Nigerian nationals, believed to be responsible for distributing...

California Elementary Kids Kicked Off Online Learning by Ransomware

As students head back to the classroom, the spate of ransomware attacks against schools is continuing. The latest is a strike against a California school district that closed down remote learning for 6,000 elementary school students, according to city officials. The cyberattack, against the Newha...

Cloud Leak Exposes 320M Dating-Site Records

Users of 70 different adult dating and e-commerce websites have had their personal information exposed, thanks to a misconfigured, publicly accessible Elasticsearch cloud server. In all, 320 million individual records were leaked online, researchers said. All of the impacted websites have one thi...

8 U.S. City Websites Targeted in Magecart Attacks

Researchers are warning that the websites of eight U.S. cities – across three states – have been compromised with payment card-stealing Magecart skimmers. The websites all utilize Click2Gov municipality payment software, which was previously involved in data breaches. Unlike other skimmers, which...

Latest Apple Text-Bomb Crashes iPhones via Message Notifications

Apple devices are vulnerable to a “text bomb” attack where simply looking at messages or posts containing characters in the Sindhi language can crash devices. Sindhi is an official language used in Pakistan. The bug affects iPhone, iPad, Macs and Apple Watches, and arises from macOS and iOS faili...

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...

PsiXBot Adds PornModule, Google DNS Service to Its Arsenal

The PsiXBot malware has made a few changes in recent weeks, including implementing Google’s DNS over HTTPS DoH and adding the blackmail-ready “PornModule” to its bag of tricks. PsiXBot is a multi-use Windows malware that has a range of capabilities, including keylogging, stealing passwords and...

ThreatList: Half of All Social Media Logins Are Fraud

More than half of logins 53 percent on social-media sites are fraudulent; and 25 percent of all new account applications on social media are fake, according to a recent analysis. Those numbers far outstrip the overall rate of 10 percent of interactions being fraudulent. The Arkose Labs Q3 Fraud a...

Fortnite Ransomware Masquerades as an Aimbot Game Hack

A ransomware that calls itself “Syrk” is targeting gaming juggernaut Fortnite’s enormous user base, purporting to be a game hack tool. Syrk promises players an “aimbot” for aiming more accurately while playing, and “ESP,” for discovering other player’s locations in the game. What it really gives...

JetBlue Bomb Scare Set Off with Apple AirDrop

The feature in Apple mobile devices that allows people to send photos to nearby phones via Bluetooth is at the heart of a terrorism scare on a JetBlue flight over the weekend. According to the New York Daily News, a prankster sent a photo of a suicide vest to everyone who had an Apple device on t...

Researcher Claims Iranian APT Behind 6TB Data Heist at Citrix

A researcher has attributed a recently publicized attack on Citrix’ internal network to the Iranian-linked group known as IRIDIUM – and said that the data heist involved 6 terabytes of sensitive data. Resecurity posted a blog on Friday indicating that it detected a targeted attack and data breach...

ThreatList: APT Adversaries Up the Ante on Speed, Target Telecom

Despite law-enforcement wins in the form of several high-profile arrests and indictments during 2018, nation-state adversaries have upped their games when it comes to speed. That’s according to CrowdStrike’s 2019 Global Threat Report, which found that when analyzing how long it takes to go from...

Severe PHP Exploit Threatens WordPress Sites with Remote Code Execution

UPDATE Researchers have created a proof-of-concept exploit that would enable bad actors to target a severe vulnerability in the PHP programming language behind several major CMS companies, including WordPress. The vulnerability remains unresolved – more than a year after it was reported. The...

Security Camera Found Riddled With Bugs

CANCUN, Mexico – Tech firm Hanwha Techwin is racing to fix 13 critical security holes found in its popular line of SmartCam security cameras. The patch rollout is part of public disclosure of the vulnerabilities set for today by researchers who discovered the bugs. Flaws range from the use of an...

Bug in HP Remote Management Tool Leaves Servers Open to Attack

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has patched a vulnerability in its remote management hardware called Integrated Lights-Out 3 that is used in its popular line of HP ProLiant servers. The bug allows an attacker to launch an unauthenticated remote denial of service attack that could contribute to a...

Huawei Router Vulnerability Used to Spread Mirai Variant

Researchers have identified a vulnerability in a Huawei home router model that is being exploited by an adversary to spread a variant of the Mirai malware called Mirai Okiru, also known as Satori. Researchers at Check Point published a report Thursday, and said the flaw is in Huawei’s router mode...

Dedicated Machine Learning Behind Early Phishing Detection in Gmail

Cybercrime and state-sponsored advanced attacks continue to cling to email as a primary distribution vehicle for first-stage malware. Phishing campaigns thrive in targeted attacks, and criminals have even resuscitated old-school macro malware in attachments to gain that initial foothold on a...

Microsoft Fixes 47 Vulnerabilities with September Patch Tuesday

Microsoft patched 47 vulnerabilities as part of 14 security bulletins, seven critical, with its monthly Patch Tuesday updates today. The company is warning users that if left unpatched, 10 of the issues can lead to remote execution. The updates resolve issues in Microsoft Windows, Office, Office...

Intel Patches Local EoP Vulnerability Impacting Windows 7

Intel issued an important security patch Monday for a vulnerability that could allow hackers to execute arbitrary code on targeted systems running Windows 7. The bug, located in Intel’s HD graphics Windows kernel driver, leaves affected systems open to a local privilege escalation attacks that...

USAID a Target of DoL Watering Hole Attackers

One of the nine sites serving malware tied to the recent watering hole attack on the U.S. Department of Labor was located in Cambodia and has ties to the United States Agency for International Development USAID. Speculation has it that the DoL attack was targeting downstream employees at the...

Cool Exploit Kit Includes Old Internet Explorer Exploit

You cannot accuse the keepers of the Cool Exploit Kit of not recognizing market trends. Given a rash of recent watering hole attacks and zero-day exploits built around Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, it’s no surprise that a 15-month-old IE exploit has been included in the crimeware package...

Ongoing Targeted Attack Campaign Going After Defense, Aerospace Industries

Researchers have identified a strain of malware that’s being used in a string of targeted attacks against defense contractors, government agencies and other organizations by leveraging exploits against zero-day vulnerabilities. The attacks may have been going on since 2009 in some form and the...

New Toolkit Able to Track and Trace Duqu Worm

The Hungarian research facility that helped discover Duqu, the much-blogged about Trojan, has now released an open-source toolkit that can be used to help detect traces and instances of the worm. The Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security CrySys at the Budapest University of Technology an...

Attorney General: Massachusetts Won't Investigate iTunes Fraud

It looks as if Apple iTunes users who have been the victim of identity theft will have to look for a new knight in shining armor to wring answers from the notoriously close-lipped Cupertino technology giant. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said on Monday that it isn’t planning to...

Adobe Releases Emergency Fix for Critical Reader Flaws

Adobe on Tuesday released an emergency patch for several critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader, including the recent Adobe Flash bug and a separate flaw that was disclosed earlier this month. The patch released Tuesday is outside of the company’s normal quarterly update schedule for Reader and...

How DEP Can Mitigate IE Zero-Day Attacks

Jonathan Ness of Microsoft’s Security Research and Defense team explains the inner workings of the Data Execution Prevention technology that can help mitigate the targeted attacks exploiting the vulnerability in Internet Explorer right now...

Open Redirect Flaw Snags Amex, Snapchat User Data

Attackers are exploiting a well-known open redirect flaw to phish people’s credentials and personally identifiable information PII using American Express and Snapchat domains, researchers have found. “Since the first domain name in the manipulated link is in fact the original site’s, the link may...

‘Callback’ Phishing Campaign Impersonates Security Firms

A new callback phishing campaign is impersonating prominent security companies to try to trick potential victims into making a phone call that will instruct them to download malware. Researchers at CrowdStrike Intelligence discovered the campaign because CrowdStrike is actually one of the...

Feds Shut Down RaidForums Hacking Marketplace

U.S. law enforcement has shut down one of the largest cybercriminal online forums in the world and revealed the charges its Portuguese founder will face in federal court. However, the takedown is likely to only be a temporary blow to hackers, who will find other ways of buying and selling data...

Bogus Cryptomining Apps Infest Google Play

Google has removed eight deceptive mobile apps from the Play Store that masquerade as cryptocurrency cloud-mining applications but which really exist to lure users into expensive subscription services and other fraudulent activity. They may have been removed, but researchers at Trend Micro noted...

Black Hat: New CISA Head Woos Crowd With Public-Private Task Force

LAS VEGAS – Just weeks after the U.S. Senate confirmed Jen Easterly to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, the new director spoke at Black Hat USA 2021 on Thursday, albeit virtually, announcing a major public-private partnership to fight cybercrime. Called the Joint...

STEM Audio Table Rife with Business-Threatening Bugs

The STEM Audio Table conference-room speaker has a security vulnerability that would allow unauthenticated remote code execution RCE as root – paving the way for eavesdropping on conversations, denial of service, lateral movement throughout enterprise networks and more. And, there are multiple...

Apple’s Device Location-Tracking System Could Expose User Identities

Two vulnerabilities in a crowdsourced location-tracking system that helps users find Apple devices even when they’re offline could expose the identity of users, research claim. Offline Finding, a proprietary app introduced by Apple in 2019 for its iOS, macOS and watchOS platforms, enables the...

Clubhouse Conversations Recorded, Researchers Warn

At nearly a year old, the invitation-only, audio-based social-media platform ClubHouse is grappling with security issues on multiple fronts, but the consensus among researchers is coming into focus: Assume your ClubHouse conversations are being recorded. The company confirmed to Bloomberg that ov...