Bad Actors Are Maximizing Remote Everything

The rise of remote work and learning opened new opportunities for many people – as we’ve seen by the number of people who have moved to new places or adapted to “workcations.” Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the same opportunities – just in a different way. Evaluating the prevalence of...

AdSanity, AccessPress Plugins Open Scads of WordPress Sites to Takeover

The WordPress content management system CMS is offering admins more headaches this week, thanks to a pair of disparate but concerning security problems in add-ons for the platform. The first issue affects the WordPress AdSanity plugin. It’s a critical security vulnerability that could allow remot...

Surge in Malicious QR Codes Sparks FBI Alert

Menus, event ticket sales, quick site access — QR codes have become a common way to interact as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the smart little matrix bar codes are easily tampered with and can be used to direct victims to malicious sites, the FBI warned in an alert. QR codes are the...

Telegram Abused to Steal Crypto-Wallet Credentials

Attackers are targeting crypto-wallets of Telegram users with the Echelon infostealer, in an effort aimed at defrauding new or unsuspecting users of a cryptocurrency discussion channel on the messaging platform, researchers have found. Researchers at the SafeGuard Cyber’s Division Seven threat...

Cisco Patches Critical Bug With Public Exploit

Cisco has patched a near-max critical bug in its NFVIS software for which there’s a publicly available proof-of-concept PoC exploit. On Wednesday, Cisco released patches for the flaw – an authentication bypass vulnerability in Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software NFVIS that’s tracked as...

Cream Finance DeFi Platform Rooked For $29M

Cream Finance is the latest decentralized finance DeFi platform for cryptocurrency trading to take a major financial hit at the hands of hackers, losing nearly $19 million in an attack this week on its “flash loan” feature. The attacker was able to steal nearly $29 million before being discovered...

Critical Valve Bug Lets Gamers Add Unlimited Funds to Steam Wallets

A security researcher helped Valve, the makers of the gaming platform Steam, plug an easy-to-exploit hole that allowed users to add unlimited funds to their digital wallet. Simply by changing the account’s email address, the exploit allowed anyone to artificially boost their digital billfold to...

Rogue Marketplace AlphaBay Reboots

The illicit marketplace AlphaBay appears to have resurfaced, four years after a high-profile takedown by international law enforcement agencies. The reboot, according to researchers at Flashpoint, isn’t an exact a replica. Rather, the reconstituted version of the site is described as an homage to...

QR Code Scammers Get Creative with Bitcoin ATMs

With the use of QR codes rising, so, too, are the numbers of scams that aim to take advantage of them. Researchers warned that threat actors are going so far as to send potential victims to gas stations to use Bitcoin ATMs in their endeavors to exploit the technology. The Better Business Bureau B...

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...

Kaseya Attack Fallout: CISA, FBI Offer Guidance

The REvil cybergang is taking credit for Friday’s massive ransomware attack against managed service provider Kaseya Ltd. The criminals behind the attack claim it infected 1 million systems tied to Kaseya services and are demanding $70 million in bitcoin in exchange for a decryption key. Federal...

Windows Container Malware Targets Kubernetes

Windows containers have been victimized for over a year by the first known malware to target Windows containers. The ongoing campaign pierces Kubernetes clusters so as to plant backdoors, allowing attackers to steal data and user credentials, or even hijack an entire databases hosted in a cluster...

Cyber-Insurance Fuels Ransomware Payment Surge

Ransomware victims are increasingly falling back on their cyber-insurance providers to pay the ransom when they’re hit with an extortion cyberattack. But security researchers warn that this approach can quickly become problematic. In the first half of 2020, ransomware attacks accounted for 41...

QR Codes Offer Easy Cyberattack Avenues as Usage Spikes

The use of mobile quick-response QR codes in daily life, for both work and personal use, continues to rise – and yet, most people aren’t aware that these handy mobile shortcuts can open them up to savvy cyberattacks. That’s according to Ivanti, which carried out a survey of 4,157 consumers across...

DDoS Attacks Wane in Q4 Amid Cryptomining Resurgence

Distributed denial-of-service DDoS attacks dropped significantly at the end of 2020, down 31 percent in the fourth quarter, according to researchers. The reason? Cybercriminals have switched their efforts and their botnets to cryptomining. According to an analysis from Kaspersky published Tuesday...

Microsoft Office 365 Attacks Sparked from Google Firebase

A phishing campaign bent on stealing Microsoft login credentials is using Google Firebase to bypass email security measures in Microsoft Office 365, researchers said. Researchers at Armorblox uncovered invoice-themed emails sent to at least 20,000 mailboxes that purport to share information about...

Lazarus Affiliate ‘ZINC’ Blamed for Campaign Against Security Researcher

Microsoft has attributed a recently discovered campaign to target security researchers with custom malware through elaborate socially-engineered attacks to an APT group affiliated with North Korea-linked Lazarus Group. Google’s Threat Analysis Group TAG on Monday already sounded a warning about t...

OldGremlin Ransomware Group Bedevils Russian Orgs

A new cybercriminal group called OldGremlin has been targeting Russian companies – including banks, industrial enterprises and medical firms – with ransomware attacks. OldGremlin relies on a bevy of tools, including custom backdoors called TinyPosh and TinyNode, to gain an initial foothold in the...

OkCupid Security Flaw Threatens Intimate Dater Details

Researchers have discovered a slew of issues in the popular OkCupid dating app, which could have allowed attackers to collect users’ sensitive dating information, manipulate their profile data or even send messages from their profile. OkCupid is one of the most popular dating platforms worldwide,...

Chris Vickery: AI Will Drive Tomorrow’s Data Breaches

From malicious hacks to accidental misconfigurations, Chris Vickery has seen it all. But as cybercriminals continue to innovate, Vickery, the director of risk research with UpGuard, said one emerging security threat will “blindside” the world: “fakeable” voices. More bad actors using artificial...

Hakbit Ransomware Attack Uses GuLoader, Malicious Microsoft Excel Attachments

A ransomware campaign, dubbed Hakbit, is targeting mid-level employees across Austria, Switzerland and Germany with malicious Excel attachments delivered via the popular email provider GMX. The spear-phishing based campaign is low volume and so far targeted the pharmaceutical, legal, financial,...

Can Governments Defeat Nation-State Attacks on Critical Infrastructures?

For physical conflicts, we expect our government to protect us from nation-state adversaries. It turns out, though, that industrial enterprises are much better positioned to defeat most nation-state attacks on power plants, pipelines, and other critical infrastructures than governments are. For...

Millions of Brute-Force Attacks Hit Remote Desktop Accounts

A rash of brute-forcing attempts aimed at users of Microsoft’s proprietary Remote Desktop Protocol RDP has come to light, striking millions per week. The attacks are a likely offshoot of cybercriminals looking to take advantage of the unprecedented numbers of employees working from home amid the...

Domain Name Security: Important Measures You Need to Know

Whether you are an individual, a large commercial business, or a small non-profit organization, the creation and protection of your online presence are essential. While many individuals and businesses use social media platforms to connect with followers, customers, or organization members, a doma...

Azure Red Flag: Microsoft Accidentally Fixes Cloud Config ‘Bug’

UPDATE Researchers are shedding light on a Microsoft Azure misconfiguration bug that leaked sensitive access tokens, which could have given hackers access to virtual machine instances and cloud-based storage buckets. Since its discovery, an update has fixed what researchers said was a...

Trend Micro Fixes Critical Flaws Under Attack

Trend Micro has released security updates patching five vulnerabilities in its endpoint security solutions, Apex One and OfficeScan XG for Windows. Specifically, Apex One 2019 and OfficeScan XG SP1 and XG are affected by four critical-severity and one high-severity flaws. Two of these...

Patrick Wardle: Apple Devices Hit With Recycled macOS Malware

SAN FRANCISCO – Advanced persistent threat APT groups are hitting Apple devices with malware that has been reverse engineered and redeployed for malicious acts. This technique is complicating attribution efforts, Patrick Wardle, security researcher with Jamf, said this week during RSA Conference...

FC Barcelona Suffers Likely Credential-Stuffing Attack on Twitter

Just ahead of its Champion’s League Round of 16 appearance next week, FC Barcelona’s official Twitter account was hacked in an apparent credential-stuffing attack. The strike resulted in account takeover and bogus tweets being sent out. The hacking collective known as OurMine, which made headline...

Google: Flaws in Apple’s Private-Browsing Technology Allow for Third-Party Tracking

Technology Apple designed for its Safari web browser to protect users from being tracked when they surf the web may actually do just the opposite, according to new research from Google. Google researchers have identified a number of security flaws in Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Protection that...

Smart Krampus-3PC Malware Targets iPhone Users Online

A malicious web redirect campaign affecting iPhone users has impacted more than 100 publisher websites, including online newspapers and international weekly news magazines. According to The Media Trust’s Digital Security & Operations DSO team, iPhone users visiting any of the impacted websites we...

Google Will Award $1M-Plus to People Who Can Hack Titan M Security Chip

Google is willing to award up to $1.5 million to hackers who can successfully hack its Titan M security chip on the company’s Pixel devices as part of an expansion of its Android bug-bounty program unveiled this week. The company revealed increased payouts to its Android Security Rewards in a blo...

ThreatList: Sharp Increase in Fake Mobile Apps Impersonating Legit Ones

Malicious mobile apps that try to dupe consumers by mimicking reputable apps is a persistent problem that’s on the rise, making an app store’s commitment to security a key factor to consider for mobile users who want to avoid these threats, according to a new report. The number of blacklisted app...

New Threat Actor Fraudulently Buys Digital Certificates to Spread Malware

Researchers have identified a new threat actor that is using impersonation fraud to purchase digital certificates that are then used for the spread of malware. Security firm ReversingLabs identified a bad actor that deceives certificate authorities into selling them legitimate digital certificate...

Back-to-School Scams Target Students with Library-Themed Emails

College students settling back into school might want to think twice before clicking on an email prompting them to renew their school library account. Researchers warn that students at hundreds of universities worldwide are being targeted with fake emails this week, which tout attachments or link...

Feds: Cyberattack on NASA's JPL Threatened Mission-Control Data

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL may know how to send delicate equipment to Mars, but basic cybersecurity best practices appear to pose an issue for it. A comprehensive federal review has detailed an April 2018 security incident that compromised mission systems – stemming from multiple IT...

Tor Security Add-On Abruptly Killed by Mozilla Bug

Thanks to Mozilla letting an intermediate signing certificate expire, the Tor community was thrown into disarray over the weekend when the NoScript security add-on was suddenly killed for both Firefox and the Tor browser. A fix is available for Firefox, but the Tor issue continues. NoScript is a...

SAS 2019: Gaza Cybergang Blends Sophistication Levels in Highly Effective Spy Effort

SINGAPORE — Around 240 high-profile victims in 39 countries worldwide have become victims of an APT cyber-espionage attack, led by an organization dubbed the Gaza Cybergang that comprises several groups of varying sophistication. The victims, who were all targeted last year, include political,...

Purveyor of Cracked Netflix, Hulu, Spotify Accounts Arrested

A Sydney man has been arrested after allegedly selling hundreds of thousands of compromised account details for subscription streaming services, including for Netflix, Hulu and music streaming service Spotify – raking in about $212,000 $300,000 AUD in profit in the process. The Australian Federal...

Adobe Issues Over 100 Patches for Flash, Acrobat and Reader

Adobe fixed a slew of critical vulnerabilities in its Flash Player and Acrobat products as part of its regularly scheduled update on Tuesday morning. Overall, the company issued a 112 fixes for vulnerabilities in its products spanning from Flash Player two bugs, Acrobat and Reader 104 bugs, and...

Cisco Patches Critical Playback Bugs in WebEx Players

Cisco Systems issued a Critical alert on Wednesday warning of multiple vulnerabilities in its popular WebEx player. Six bugs were listed in the security advisory, each of them relating to holes in Cisco WebEx Network Recording Player for Advanced Recording Format ARF and WebEx Recording Format WR...

Motorola Moto G4, G5 Vulnerable to Local Root Shell Attacks

UPDATE Researchers say several Motorola handset models are vulnerable to a critical kernel command line injection flaw that could allow a local malicious application to execute arbitrary code on the devices. The two affected Motorola models are the Moto G4 and Moto G5. The warnings come from Alep...

Oracle Patches 270 Vulnerabilities With First CPU of 2017

Oracle patched 270 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, many remotely exploitable, across 45 different products–including its E-Business Suite, Financial Services software, and MySQL database–as part of its quarterly Critical Patch Update CPU. The massive update comes close breaking Oracle’s record-settin...

NIST Recommends SMS Two-Factor Authentication Deprecation

A U.S. government agency said the end is nigh for SMS-based two-factor authentication, citing a lack of security around the feature. The latest draft version of the Digital Authentication Guideline issued this week by the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology NIST said the practice...

October 2015 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins

Microsoft’s monthly release of security bulletins today is a relatively light load of patches to be tested and deployed. The real news, however, could be in a separate advisory in which it continues to deprecate the outdated RC4 encryption algorithm. Following its initial advisory in May that...

New Campaign Targeting Japanese with Hacking Team Zero Day

Yet another group of attackers has quickly cashed in on one of the Adobe Flash zero days uncovered in the HackingTeam leak and is leveraging it to target Japanese organizations. Last week researchers determined that attackers were able to compromise two Japanese websites, the country’s...

May 2015 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins

Patch Tuesday as we know it may be on its last legs, but it’s certainly not going quietly. A little more than a week after Microsoft announced how it would revamp patch distribution and security updates starting with Windows 10, the company today released its scheduled round of bulletins—13 in al...

Routers Vulnerable to Critical Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

A zero day vulnerability in popular household routers from D-Link and Trendnet could be exploited by attackers to run arbitrary code on devices. The flaw, which can be exploited without authentication, is present in version 1.3 of Realtek’s SDK, which figures into some brands of routers, accordin...

Oracle Patch Update Delivers 98 Fixes

Released alongside patches from Microsoft and Adobe yesterday, Oracle’s regularly scheduled Critical Patch Update fixed 98 issues across a handful of products, including Oracle’s Database, Fusion Middleware, Java SE, and MySQL, to name a few. One of the most pressing issues the update resolves is...

VMware Fixes Java Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Virtual Machine maker VMware has updated a slew of its offerings in order to address a critical information disclosure vulnerability in the Oracle’s Java runtime environment JRE. The update essentially installs the latest version of JRE into VMware systems where the old version of JRE was affecte...

Third Adobe Flash 0Day Under Attack in HanJuan Exploit Kit

The little-known HanJuan exploit kit is delivering attacks targeting the most recent Adobe Flash Player zero-day vulnerability. Adobe has yet to produce a patch for the flaw, which researchers at Trustwave said is a use-after-free vulnerability. The flaw is the third to hit Flash in the last two...