Dutch Politician Could Get Three Years in Prison for Hacking iCloud Accounts

Prosecutors in the Netherlands are asking for three years in prison for a Dutch politician who hacked into women’s personal iCloud accounts and stole nude photos and other personal digital material belonging to them, then leaked some of it online. The public prosecutor of the North Holland Public...

Emotet Resurgence Continues With New Tactics, Techniques and Procedures

The notorious banking trojan Emotet, that mysteriously disappeared over the summer, returned last month dropping a new collection of malware including information stealers, email harvesters, self-propagation mechanisms and ransomware. But since the malware returned from its hiatus, there was no...

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...

Rethinking Responsibilities and Remedies in Social-Engineering Attacks

In the pantheon of catchy cybersecurity slogans that should never have caught on, two about social engineering spring to mind almost immediately: “End users are the weakest link” and “attackers only have to be lucky once; defenders have to be lucky all the time.” Both of those statements have bee...

$5.3M Ransomware Demand: Massachusetts City Says No Thanks

After a ransomware attack slapped a hefty payout demand of $5.3 million on New Bedford, Mass., the city announced that it is instead opting to pick up the pieces and restore what it can from backups itself. If the city had opted to pay, the payout would have been the largest known ransom payout f...

Wi-Fi Hotspot Finder Spills 2 Million Passwords

More than 2 million passwords for Wi-Fi hotspots were leaked online by the Android app developer behind the mobile application called WiFi Finder. The passwords were part of an insecure database found by researchers at GDI Foundation. The Android app itself did not just help users find Wi-Fi...

Oracle Fixes 301 Flaws in October Critical Patch Update

Oracle has released a critical patch update addressing more than 300 vulnerabilities across several of its products – including one flaw with a CVSS 3.0 score of 10 that could allow the takeover of the company’s software package, Oracle GoldenGate. Of the 301 security flaws that were fixed in thi...

Multiple D-Link Routers Open to Complete Takeover with Simple Attack

Eight D-Link routers in the company’s small/home office “DWR” range are vulnerable to complete takeover – but the vendor said it is planning on only patching two, according to a researcher. Błażej Adamczyk of the Silesian University of Technology in Poland discovered the vulnerabilities in May,...

Google Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in Android OS

Google patched six critical remote code execution flaws in its Android operating system as part of its October Android Security Bulletin. Four of those remote code execution flaws are tied to Android’s Media framework and impact a wide range of Android devices including Google’s Pixel and Nexus...

Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

Between 180,000 and 800,000 IP-based closed-circuit television cameras are vulnerable to a zero-day vulnerability that allows hackers to access surveillance cameras, spy on and manipulate video feeds or plant malware. According to a Tenable Research Advisory issued Monday, the bugs are rated...

GoDaddy Leaks ‘Map of the Internet’ via Amazon S3 Cloud Bucket Misconfig

UPDATE GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, has exposed high-level configuration information for tens of thousands of systems and competitively sensitive pricing options for running those systems in Amazon AWS, thanks to yet another cloud storage misconfiguration. The documents wer...

Apple Promises Fix for Latest ‘Text Bomb’ Bug As Abuse Spreads

UPDATE Apple said it is working on a fix for the latest text bomb bug that crashes a number of iOS and Mac apps that display specific Telugu language characters. On Monday, it made good on the promise and announced the availability of a patch CVE-2018-4124 for iOS 11.2.6, watchOS 4.2.3, tvOS...

Cisco Issues New Patches for Critical Firewall Software Vulnerability

Cisco has released new patches for a critical vulnerability in its Adaptive Security Appliance software after further investigation revealed additional attack vectors. The company first announced the vulnerability, CVE-2018-0101, on Jan. 29. It received a Common Vulnerability Scoring System base...

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...

Intel Patches CPU Bugs Impacting Millions of Devices

Intel released patches on Monday to protect millions of PCs and servers from vulnerabilities found in its Management Engine, Trusted Execution Engine and Server Platform Services that could allow local attackers elevate privileges, run arbitrary code, crash systems and eavesdrop on communications...

Facebook Awards $100K to Researchers for Credential Spearphishing Detection Method

A group of researchers recently identified a real-time way to detect credential spearphishing attacks in enterprise settings. The discovery net the researchers $100,000 last week from Facebook, which awards money as part of its annual Internet Defense Prize partnership with USENIX Association. Th...

Stack Clash Vulnerability in Linux, BSD Systems Enables Root Access

Linux, BSD, Solaris and other open source systems are vulnerable to a local privilege escalation vulnerability known as Stack Clash that allows an attacker to execute code at root. Major Linux and open source distributors have made patches available today, and systems running Linux, OpenBSD,...

Authentication Bypass, Potential Backdoors Plague Old WiMAX Routers

WiMAX routers manufactured by several companies, including Huawei and ZyXEL, are vulnerable to an authentication bypass that could let an attacker change the password of the admin user, gain access to the device, or the network behind it. Stefan Viehböck, a researcher with SEC Consult Vulnerabili...

Hundreds of Thousands of Netgear Routers Vulnerable to Password Bypass

Hundreds of thousands–potentially more than one million–Netgear routers are susceptible to a pair of vulnerabilities that can lead to password disclosure. Researchers said that while anyone who has physical access to a router can exploit the vulnerabilities locally, the real threat is that the fl...

Siemens Patches Insufficient Entropy Vulnerability in ICS Systems

German industrial giant Siemens has provided a firmware update addressing vulnerabilities that are found in a popular line of its Desigo PX industrial control hardware used in controlling primarily HVAC systems in commercial buildings . On Wednesday, Siemens, in coordination with ICS-CERT, issued...

ICS-CERT Report Grim Reminder of State of Critical Infrastructure Security

U.S. critical infrastructure got another reminder this week that it needs to do more to protect itself from cyber attacks with the release of an annual government report. The NCCIC/ICS-CERT FY 2015 Annual Vulnerability Coordination Report points out that nagging issues continue to plague industri...

Stagefright Variant 'Metaphor' Puts Millions Of Samsung, LG and HTC Phones At Risk

Millions of Android users are at risk of a new Metaphor exploit that can take over Samsung, LG and HTC phones in under 20 seconds. The hack gives attackers access to the targeted phones including the ability to inject malware and take control over key smartphone functions. Discovered by...

Details Surface on Patched Sandbox Violation Vulnerability in iOS

Apple patched an issue last week in iOS that could have allowed attackers to bypass the third-party app-sandbox protection mechanism on devices and read arbitrary managed preferences via a special app. The issue, which was present in versions of iOS prior to 8.4.1, stems from a vulnerability with...

Government Requests for Twitter User Data Continue to Grow

The appetite for Twitter user data from governments around the world continues to grow, with the volume of such requests increasing by 40 percent in the second half of 2014. Requests from the United States government alone went up 29 percent, the company said in its latest transparency report...

Chrome 40 Patches 62 Security Vulnerabilities

Google pushed out on Wednesday a new version of its Chrome browser 40.0.2214.91 and along with it paid out more than two dozen bounties, including 16 for memory corruption vulnerabilities. In all, 62 security vulnerabilities were patched, 17 of those considered high severity bugs by Google. Most ...

January 2015 Oracle Critical Patch update

Oracle’s first Critical Patch Update of the year arrived Tuesday with its usual volume, and some disturbing fanfare. Oracle admins today are staring at 169 patches on their collective plates across the company’s product line. One of the more pressing fixes is for a an issue in the Oracle E-Busine...

OpenVPN vulnerable to Shellshock Bash vulnerability

OpenVPN wasn’t immune to the Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL, and it’s not going to sidestep Shellshock either. Fredrick Stromberg, cofounder of Mullvad, a Swedish VPN company, reported that OpenVPN servers are vulnerable to Shellshock , the vulnerability in Bash plaguing Linux, UNIX and Mac ...

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...

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 ...

counterfeit merchandise domains seized

In an attempt to curb the rampancy of fraud throughout the holiday shopping season, a coalition of international law enforcement agencies seized 706 Internet domains allegedly involved in the sale of counterfeit merchandise. The United States Homeland Security Investigations’ HSI National...

Microsoft Patches Critical IE Vulnerabilities

Internet Explorer continues to dominate Microsoft’s 2013 security updates. Among the 12 bulletins and 57 vulnerabilities patched in today’s release was a cumulative update for the maligned browser and another fix for a bug being exploited in the wild. Last month, an out-of-band fix for IE 6-8...

Out-of-Band IE Patch Released as More Sites Attacked

Internet Explorer users, exposed to a zero-day vulnerability in the browser and a faulty temporary Fix It from Microsoft, finally got some relief today when the company, as promised, released an out-of-band patch. Meanwhile, a handful of new telco, manufacturing and human rights sites have been...

More than 300,000 at Risk After Major Breach at Florida College

A security breach initially believed contained to about 50 employee records now appears to involve almost 300,000 students, faculty and employees at a Florida college. Officials at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville today confirmed a massive data breach and hundreds of thousands of stol...

Oracle Releases Fix For Java CVE-2012-4681 Flaw

Oracle on Thursday released a new version of Java that included a fix for the CVE-2012-4681 vulnerability that has been used in limited targeted attacks in the last couple of weeks. The release of Java 7 update 7 comes about four days after the Java flaw was publicly disclosed, but several months...

New Gauss Malware, Descended From Flame and Stuxnet, Found On Thousands of PCs in Middle East

A new piece of malware dubbed Gauss, that experts say is a direct descendant of Flame and also related to Stuxnet and Duqu, has been found on thousands of PCs in the Middle East, mostly in Lebanon. Gauss contains some of the same code as Flame, but is markedly different in a number of respects,...

How SQL Injection Attacks Work

SQL injection attacks have been going on for years, and the vulnerabilities and exploitation techniques are well-understood and widely discussed. However, they’re still quite prevalent and are used in a variety of scenarios. One recent example is the attack on a Yahoo site that resulted in a brea...

FEMA: State, Local Officials Not Prepared to Respond to Cyberattack

A report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA finds that state and local government officials in the U.S. are pessimistic about their ability to respond to a cyberattacks. The National Preparedness Report NPR was commissioned by the Obama Administration. It found that, although the...

IE 9 Falls to Pair of Zero Days at Pwn2Own

The same team from VUPEN that took down Google Chrome on Wednesday has succeeded in compromising Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7, using two separate bugs. The success at the Pwn2Own contest was the result of a heap overflow bug in IE as well as a separate bug in the browser’s protected mode. The...

Adobe Plans Critical Security Updates for Reader, Acrobat Next Week

Adobe said on Friday that it will issue critical fixes for its popular Reader and Acrobat products on Tuesday, January 10. The company said it is planning to release updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions X and earlier for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms to fix a slew of critical...

New Local Linux Kernel Root Exploit Published

An interesting exploit for the Linux kernel that enables an attacker to escalate his privileges on a local machine has popped up on the Full Disclosure mailing list. The exploit chains together three separate bugs to get root on a vulnerable machine. The exploit was posted Tuesday by Dan Rosenber...

End of Support for XP SP2 is End of an Era

Microsoft’s announcement this week that it is preparing to end support for machines running Windows XP SP2 not only represents a challenge for the thousands of businesses still running SP2, but also is the end of an era for both Microsoft and its customers. By the time Microsoft drops support for...

State-Sponsored Phishing Attack Targeted Israeli Military Officials

An advanced persistent threat group, with ties to Iran, is believed behind a phishing campaign targeting high-profile government and military Israeli personnel, according to a report by Check Point Software. Targets of the campaign included a senior leadership in the Israeli defense industry, the...

Threat Actors Use Telegram to Spread ‘Eternity’ Malware-as-a-Service

Cybercriminals are promoting a new, modular malware-as-a-service offering that allows would-be attackers to choose from a cornucopia of threats via a Telegram channel that to date has more than 500 subscribers, researchers have found. The new malware service, dubbed the Eternity Project by the...

You Can’t Eliminate Cyberattacks, So Focus on Reducing the Blast Radius

Lately, I’ve started wondering if the biggest risk concerning cyberattacks is that we’re becoming desensitized to them. After all, businesses experience a ransomware attack every 11 seconds—the majority of which the public never hears about. Faced with this reality, it may seem like your efforts ...

‘Dark Herring’ Billing Malware Swims onto 105M Android Devices

Nearly 500 malicious apps lurking on the Google Play Store have successfully installed Dark Herring malware — a cash-stealer intended to add sneaky charges onto mobile carrier bills — on more than 100 million Android devices across the globe. That’s quite a school of fish. Dark Herring malware wa...

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...

CISA Urges Sites to Patch Critical RCE in Discourse

Discourse – the ultra-popular, widely deployed open-source community forum and mailing list management platform – has a critical remote code-execution RCE bug that was fixed in an urgent update on Friday. Tracked as CVE-2021-41163, the flaw is found in Discourse versions 2.7.8 and earlier. It’s...

Feds Warn BlackMatter Ransomware Gang is Poised to Strike

Federal authorities are warning businesses to shore up cybersecurity defenses as it carefully monitors the reemergence of the DarkSide ransomware gang, believed responsible for the crippling Colonial Pipeline attack in May 2021. The ransomware-as-a-service gang has regrouped under the moniker...

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...