State-sponsored Threat Groups Target Telcos, Steal 5G Secrets

Chinese-language APTs are targeting telecom companies in cyberespionage campaigns aimed at stealing sensitive data and trade secrets tied to 5G technology, according to researchers. The campaigns, dubbed “Operation Diànxùn”, target and lure victims working in the telecom industry. A typical ploy...

Google Play Harbors Malware-Laced Apps Bent on Spying

A malware dropper that paves the way for attackers to remotely steal data from Android phones has been spreading via nine malicious apps on the official Google Play store, according to researchers. The malware is part of a campaign aimed at lifting victims’ financial information, but which also...

Malicious Code Bombs Target Amazon, Lyft, Slack, Zillow

Researchers have spotted malicious packages targeting internal applications for Amazon, Lyft, Slack and Zillow among others inside the npm public code repository — all of which exfiltrate sensitive information. The packages weaponize a proof-of-concept PoC code dependency-confusion exploit that w...

Supply-Chain Hack Breaches 35 Companies, Including PayPal, Microsoft, Apple

An ethical hacker has demonstrated a novel supply-chain attack that breached the systems of more than 35 technology players, including Microsoft, Apple, PayPal, Shopify, Netflix, Tesla and Uber, by exploiting public, open-source developer tools. The attack, devised by security researcher Alex...

Spotify Wrapped 2020 Rollout Marred by Pop Star Hacks

In the midst of its popular Spotify Wrapped 2020 playlist rollout of the year’s most popular songs, the streaming service is grappling with a security breach, which affected the pages of some of its biggest stars, including Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa, Future, Pop Smoke and others. Spotify is the most...

Facebook Debuts Bug Bounty ‘Loyalty Program’

Facebook has lifted the curtain on what it claims is an industry first: A loyalty program as part of its bug-bounty offering, which aims to further incentivize researchers to find vulnerabilities in its platform. The loyalty program, called “Hacker Plus,” offers bonuses on top of bounty awards,...

Zoom Flaw Could Have Allowed Hackers To Crack Meeting Passcodes

A security issue in popular video conferencing platform Zoom was disclosed this week, which could have allowed attackers to crack private meeting passcodes and snoop in on video conferences. The problem, which has already been fixed, stems from Zoom not having any check against repeated incorrect...

70 Percent of Mobile, Desktop Apps Contain Open-Source Bugs

A full 70 percent of applications being used today have at least one security flaw stemming from the use of an open-source library. According to Veracode’s annual State of Software Security report, these open-source libraries – free, centralized code repositories that provide ready-made applicati...

Supreme Court Phish Targets Office 365 Credentials

A highly-targeted phishing attack pretends to deliver subpoenas, but actually ends up collecting victims’ Office 365 credentials. The ongoing campaign has slipped by Office 365 and gateway security controls to hit several C-Suite level victims thus far. The phishing emails spoof the U.S. Supreme...

Microsoft Shells Out $100K for IoT Security

Microsoft has launched a bug-bounty program for its Azure Sphere offering, which is a security suite for the internet of things IoT that encompasses hardware, OS and cloud elements. The top reward will come in at $100,000. The Azure Sphere Security Research Challenge is an expansion of a program...

Ransomware Attack Takes Down Toll Group Systems, Again

Australian transportation and logistics giant Toll Group has been hit by a ransomware attack – for the second time in three months. The company said a relatively new form of ransomware known as Nefilim had targeted its systems. Toll Group, a subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings, is a freight and...

Adobe Discloses Dozens of Critical Photoshop, Acrobat Reader Flaws

Adobe has released out-of-band updates addressing critical vulnerabilities in its Photoshop and Acrobat Reader products, which if exploited could allow arbitrary code-execution. Overall, Adobe on Wednesday patched flaws tied to 41 CVEs across its products, 29 of which were critical in severity. T...

Convincing Google Impersonation Opens Door to MiTM, Phishing

An attack that uses homographic characters to impersonate domain names and launch convincing but malicious websites takes minutes and a bare modicum of skill — while reaping high rates of success in luring victims, according to an independent researcher. Researcher Avi Lumelsky set out to see how...

RSAC 2020 Keynote: Changing the World's False Perception of Cybersecurity

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, cybersecurity is portrayed in the media and by businesses as an ongoing complex conflict between defenders and cybercriminals, with heightened noise around hyper-technical proof-of-concept attacks, or nation state threats. But, the reality is starkly different, said Rohit...

Iran-Backed APTs Collaborate on 3-Year 'Fox Kitten' Global Spy Campaign

Two Iran-backed APTs could be working together on a sprawling, three-year campaign to compromise high-value organizations from the IT, telecom, oil and gas, aviation, government and security sectors in Israel and around the world, according to a report by researchers at ClearSky. They maintain,...

Twitter API Abused to Uncover User Identities

Twitter said that malicious actors, with potential ties to state-sponsored groups, were abusing a legitimate function on its platform to unmask the identity of users. The social media giant said that on Dec. 24, 2019, it discovered a large network of fake accounts abusing a legitimate API...

Nebraska Medicine Breached By Rogue Employee

Hospital network Nebraska Medicine has disclosed a data breach after a former employee accessed sensitive patient data – including medical records and Social Security numbers. The Nebraska Medicine network encompasses Nebraska’s largest hospital, Nebraska Medical Center, as well as other location...

Insecure Database Exposes Millions of Private SMS Messages

Tens of millions of SMS messages have been found on an unprotected database, putting the private data of hundreds of millions of people in the United States at risk for theft or exposure and leaving a communications company open for potential intrusion, security researchers discovered. Noam Rotem...

ThreatList: Data Breaches Batter Stock Prices at Public Companies, For Months

Much has been made of the fallout that companies face after a data breach. But for public companies, shaken investor confidence adds a whole new dimension to recovery concerns. A recent study from Comparitech shows that share prices for large breached companies will hit a low point approximately ...

Android Malware Plaguing 45K Devices Remains a Mystery

Researchers are on the hunt for the infection vector behind a mysterious mobile malware that has infected over 45,000 Android devices in the past six months. Researchers said they have detected a surge in detections of the malware, dubbed Xhelper, which can hide itself from users, download...

ThreatList: Google's Advertising Network Dominates Global Data Collection

When it comes to data collection, Google’s combined arsenal of advertising tools and services continue to help it dominate at a global level. Close behind are AOL Advertising, Moat and AppNexus. Each are singled out by researchers in new report that brings to mind the privacy-busting quote, “If...

Marc Rogers: Success of Anonymous Bug Submission Program 'Takes A Village'

A global anonymous bug submission platform, announced at DEF CON in August, aims to help encourage ethical hackers to submit high-level bugs anonymously that might otherwise trigger a barrage of questions or put researchers in legal hot water. DEF CON conference founder Jeff Moss said the goal wa...

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...

Six Hackers Have Now Pocketed $1M From Bug Bounty Programs

Six hackers in total have each now pocketed more than $1 million from finding vulnerabilities in bug-bounty programs – including one from the U.S. That figure comes as more bug-bounty programs bump up their rewards due to participants finding more high-severity vulnerabilities in their platforms,...

Elderly China Chopper Tool Still Going Strong in Multiple Campaigns

A nine-year-old web shell used for providing remote access to web servers for cyberattackers is staying very active despite its advanced age in cyber-years, anyway. Researchers said they’ve spotted it being used in several recent campaigns – all with disparate goals. The tool, known as China...

Brand-New SystemBC Proxy Malware Spotted Using SOCKS5 for Stealth

A previously undocumented proxy malware, dubbed “SystemBC,” is upping the stealth game by using SOCKS5 to evade detection. It’s being distributed by the Fallout and RIG exploit kits EKs, according to researchers. Proofpoint researchers said on Thursday that in the most recently tracked example, t...

FDA Warns of Potentially Fatal Flaws in Medtronic Insulin Pumps

The Food and Drug Administration FDA has issued an emergency alert, warning that Medtronic MiniMed insulin pumps are vulnerable to potentially life-threatening cyberattacks. Specifically impacted are Medtronic’s MiniMed insulin pumps, the MiniMed 508 insulin pump and MiniMed Paradigm series insul...

Infosecurity Europe: Easing the Clash Between IT and Industrial Worlds

LONDON, UK – Information technology and operational technology are like two sides of the same coin. Their objectives are the same, but too often they don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to priorities, according to cybersecurity experts. Information technology IT teams are tasked with securing and...

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...

Cisco Patches Two Critical RCE Bugs in IOS XE Software

Three critical vulnerabilities were patched by Cisco Systems on Wednesday, each tied to the company’s widely used internetworking operating system IOS XE. Two of the bugs are remote code execution vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to take control over affected systems. The critical bug...

Vanilla Forums Open Source Software Vulnerable to RCE, Host Header Injection Vulnerability

Popular open source forum software suffers from vulnerabilities that could let an attacker gain access to user accounts, carry out web-cache poisoning attacks, and in some instances, execute arbitrary code. Legal Hackers‘ Dawid Golunski found the vulnerabilities–a host header injection and an...

Microsoft Patches Zero Day Disclosed by Google

Microsoft followed through and today patched a zero-day vulnerability being exploited in public attacks that was disclosed by Google researchers nine days ago. The victims have yet to have been identified, but Microsoft did accuse the Sofacy APT gang of carrying out the attacks. Sofacy is general...

Apple Patches iOS Flaw Exploitable by Malicious JPEG

Apple on Monday patched a code execution vulnerability in iOS that could be exploited via a JPEG file crafted to take advantage of the flaw. Apple also issued its first round of patches for macOS Sierra as part of a large update that also included fixes for vulnerabilities found in Safari, Apple...

PLC Blaster Worm Targets Industrial Control PLCs

LAS VEGAS – Security researchers at Black Hat USA described a proof-of-concept worm that targets weaknesses within automated industrial control systems used to manage critical infrastructure and manufacturing. The worm, according to OpenSource Security, has the capability to autonomously search f...

May 2016 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins

Microsoft released a hefty load of security bulletins today, which included a patch for a JScript and VBScript scripting engine vulnerability being publicly exploited. The flaw is addressed in its own bulletin, MS16-053, but users need to pay attention to, and apply MS16-051 as well since the...

Google Patches More Trouble in Mediaserver

Google has re-branded its monthly patch release, bringing a new name and new scope to the newly renamed Android Security Bulletin. While that may be new, the content is definitely familiar. Once again, critical remote code execution Mediaserver vulnerabilities dominate this month’s patches...

Android Rooting Application Emergency Patch

A rooting application has been found in the wild targeting Nexus mobile devices using a local privilege escalation vulnerability patched two years ago in the Linux kernel that remains unpatched in Android. Researchers at Zimperium, the same company that discovered last summer’s Stagefright flaws...

Google Updates Chrome, Fixes Three High Severity Issues

Google pushed out the latest version of its flagship browser Chrome on Tuesday, fixing three high severity bugs in the process. The update graduates the browser to version number 49.0.2623.87 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, according to a post on Google’s Chrome Releases blog this week. Two of the...

OpenSSH Private Crypto Key Leak Patch

OpenSSH today released a patch for a critical vulnerability that could be exploited by an attacker to force a client to leak private cryptographic keys. The attacker would have to control a malicious server in order to force the client to give up the key, OpenSSH and researchers at Qualys said in...

Microsoft Schannel Bug Latest in Long Line of Serious Crypto Flaws

The critical vulnerability in the Schannel technology in Windows that Microsoft patched Tuesday is ripe for exploitation, experts say, and continues the long line of severe vulnerabilities in major SSL/TLS implementations in recent months. Secure Channel, also known as Schannel, is a technology...

Dyreza Banker Trojan Attackers Exploiting CVE-2014-4114 Windows Flaw

The Dyreza Trojan is nothing if not ambitious. The malware has been spotted doing a variety of interesting things in the last year, including bypassing SSL and targeting users of specific business apps. Now the Trojan is exploiting the recently disclosed CVE-2014-4114 vulnerability in Windows tha...

POS Service Confirms Goodwill Breach Lasted 18 Months

Third-party payment vendor C&K Systems released further details this week regarding a breach that affected its systems for 18 months and went on to affect customers who shopped at Goodwill, in addition to two unnamed retailers. The company provided an update on the breach via a press release Mond...

VMware Patches ESXi Against OpenSSL Flaw, But Many Other Products Still Vulnerable

While the group of vulnerabilities that the OpenSSL Project patched last week hasn’t grown into the kind of mess that the Heartbleed flaw did, the vulnerabilities still affect a huge range of products. Vendors are still making their way through the patching process, and VMware has released an...

Pinkie Pie Linux Kernel Patch Available

Several vulnerabilities have been patched in the Linux kernel that could have led to a denial of service or privilege escalation. Debian, which distributes versions of Linux for personal computers and network servers, warned about the vulnerabilities yesterday in a security update. The most...

TIFF Zero Day Patch Among December 2013 Microsoft updates

Microsoft will, next week, patch a zero-day vulnerability in its GDI+ graphics component being exploited in targeted attacks in the Middle East and Asia. The zero day has sat unpatched since it was made public Nov. 5; Microsoft did release a FixIt tool as a temporary mitigation. The patch is one ...

Counter.php Redirecting to Sites Peddling Styx Exploit Kit

The Counter.php strain of malware has been spotted in the past redirecting users to a handful of malicious sites and now appears to be leveraging that ability to send victims to websites serving up the Styx exploit kit. According to a post on Securelist today, Vincente Diaz, a researcher with...

MiniDuke Espionage Malware Hits Governments in Europe Using Adobe Exploits

New espionage malware has been discovered that targets a patched sandbox-bypass vulnerability in Adobe Reader. The attacks have hit a relatively small number of government victims in 23 countries, primarily in Europe, and rely on a string of unusual tactics, including the use of steganography to...

Olympic Flavored 419 Scams Exploit London Games Fervor

Olympic themed fraud, email scams, and spam campaigns are so banal right now that the official website of the 2012 London Olympic Games contains not only a ‘stay safe online’ page but has also compiled a downloadable list of known scams. The “Stay safe online” page of the London Games’ website...

Adobe Zaps Dangerous Flash Player Bugs

Adobe has shipped a critical Flash Player update to fix at least seven documented security vulnerabilities that expose nearly every computer user to dangerous hacker attacks. The Flash Player 10.0.42.34 update is available for all platforms Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Here are the raw details:...

Apple Patches Critical Safari Vulnerabilities

Apple today shipped Safari 4.0.4 to fix a total of seven security flaws that expose Windows and Mac users to a wide range of malicious hacker attacks. The high-priority update patches vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution drive-by downloads if a user simply surfs to a maliciously rigge...