Lazarus Targets Defense Companies with ThreatNeedle Malware

The prolific North Korean APT known as Lazarus is behind a spear-phishing campaign aimed at stealing critical data from defense companies by leveraging an advanced malware called ThreatNeedle, new research has revealed. The elaborate and ongoing cyberespionage campaign used emails with COVID-19...

Microsoft: SolarWinds Attackers Downloaded Azure, Exchange Code

Threat actors downloaded some Microsoft Exchange and Azure code repositories during the sprawling SolarWinds supply-chain attack but did not use the company’s internal systems or products to attack other victims. That’s the final verdict this week by the tech giant now that it’s completed a...

U.S. Accuses DPRK Hackers of Stealing Millions

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three North Korean computer programmers for their alleged participation in widespread, destructive cyberattacks as part of the advanced persistent threat APT known as Lazarus Group. The indictment broadens the scope of crimes that the DoJ has linked to...

Agent Tesla Trojan 'Kneecaps' Microsoft's Anti-Malware Interface

Researchers have identified new versions of the Agent Tesla remote access trojan RAT that target the Windows anti-malware interface used by security vendors to protect PCs from attacks. The newly discovered variants have also adopted new obfuscation capabilities, raising the stakes for businesses...

WordPress Pop-Up Builder Plugin Flaw Plagues 200K Sites

Developers of a plugin, used by WordPress websites for building pop-up ads for newsletter subscriptions, have issued a patch for a serious flaw. The vulnerability could be exploited by attackers to send out newsletters with custom content, or to delete or import newsletter subscribers. The plugin...

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...

Einstein Healthcare Network Announces August Breach

Einstein Health Network, a Pennsylvania-based company operating medical rehab, outpatient and primary care centers, announced a breach of its employee email system, which exposed patient personal and medical information. The company waited more than five months to make the compromise public...

Telegram Bots at Heart of Classiscam Scam-as-a-Service

A new automated scam-as-a-service has been unearthed, which leverages Telegram bots in order to steal money and payment data from European victims. The scam, which researchers call Classiscam, is being sold as a service by Russian-speaking cybercriminals, and has been used by at least 40 separate...

SolarWinds Hack Potentially Linked to Turla APT

New details on the Sunburst backdoor used in the sprawling SolarWinds supply-chain attack potentially link it to previously known activity by the Turla advanced persistent threat APT group. Researchers at Kaspersky have uncovered several code similarities between Sunburst and the Kazuar backdoor...

Nando's Hackers Feast on Customer Accounts

Diners at a popular chicken-dinner chain have seen hundreds of dollars siphoned out of their bank accounts, after cybercriminals were able to access their restaurant ordering credentials. The issue though is that payment-card information is not stored within Nando’s accounts, leaving some questio...

APIs Are the Next Frontier in Cybercrime

Application Programming Interface API usage has exploded, and cybercriminals are increasingly taking advantage of API security flaws to commit fraud and steal data. APIs, which are used to create connections between software programs and perform integrations, make everything a bit easier — from...

Trojans, Backdoors and Droppers: The Most-Analyzed Malware

Trojans, backdoors and droppers, oh my: These are the top three malware types being analyzed by threat intelligence teams, according to statistics out on Thursday. According to anonymized statistics from requests to the Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal, almost three quarters 72 percent of the...

Turla APT Revamps One of Its Go-To Spy Tools

The Turla APT group has been spotted using an updated version of the ComRAT remote-access trojan RAT to attack governmental targets. Turla a.k.a. Snake, Venomous Bear, Waterbug or Uroboros, is a Russian-speaking threat actor known since 2014, but with roots that go back to 2004 and earlier,...

LA County Hit with DoppelPaymer Ransomware Attack

The DoppelPaymer ransomware operators claim that they’ve hit a Los Angeles county with a ransomware attack – and are now leaking the city’s data online, according to a recent report. Impacted is the city of Torrance, a coastal U.S. city in the South Bay region of LA, which has a population of...

COVID-19 CISO Checklist for Securing a Remote Workforce

The Coronavirus crisis introduces a heavy burden on the CISO with the joint impact of a mass transition to working remotely coupled with a surge of cyberattacks that strive to monetize the general chaos. Security vendors, unintendedly, contribute to this burden by a relentless generation of noise...

News Wrap, Coronavirus Edition: WFH Security Woes, Pwn2Own

For the week ended March 20, Threatpost editors break down the top security stories, including: The various cybercriminal activities – malware, phishing and other scams – tapping into the coronavirus pandemic The security risks of businesses working from home due to the virus’ spread Privacy...

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...

Adobe Fixes 17 Critical Acrobat, Photoshop and Brackets Flaws

Adobe Systems is stomping out 17 critical vulnerabilities in Acrobat Reader, Photoshop and Brackets, which could lead to arbitrary code execution if exploited. Overall, Adobe released patches – as part of its regularly-scheduled updates – addressing 25 CVEs across various products, including its...

Consumer Data Privacy Rights: Emerging Tech Blurs Lines

LAS VEGAS – From drones to facial recognition, new technology applications are introducing unique consumer privacy issues for civil society — and U.S. lawmakers and legal teams are struggling to keep up. Privacy is a fundamental human right for consumers, but new ways in which data is collected a...

Google's Plan to Crunch Health Data on Millions of Patients Draws Fire

Tech behemoth Google is using artificial intelligence to reportedly slice and dice personal healthcare details on millions of Americans. That has some researchers diagnosing the company with HIPAA violations and prescribing regulatory controls as a remedy. And, at least one federal regulator is...

MSPs Can Now Provide Managed Detection and Response with Cynet 360

Today, managed detection and response MDR is a rapidly growing market segment, actively pursued by some 27 percent of organizations, according to April 2019 numbers released by ESG Research. According to the same, another 11 percent of organizations plan to pursue MDR in the future. The Cynet 360...

$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...

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...

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...

BEC Scam Gang London Blue Evolves Tactics, Targets

Prolific business email compromise group London Blue has been spotted in a recent campaign that demonstrates the group’s evolved tactics and improved targeting via an updated database. London Blue has been around since 2011 – but researchers spotted the business email compromise BEC group again i...

How to Maximize the Value of Your Cybersecurity Investment

When it comes to developing a successful cybersecurity program in 2019, simply purchasing and deploying cybersecurity technology is only the first step in deriving value from the investment. Maximizing value and capitalizing on these efforts requires a series of defined processes and no shortage ...

RSAC 2019: For Domestic Abuse, IoT Devices Pose New Threat

SAN FRANCISCO – The influx of connected products in the home – from smart thermometers to connected locks – presents a disturbing new threat surface for victims of domestic abuse. That’s what Lisa Green, senior director of operations at Independent Security Evaluators, is warning conference-goers...

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...

Researchers Break IPsec VPN Connections with 20-Year-Old Protocol Flaw

A new Bleichenbacher oracle cryptographic attack has been set loose on the world, using a 20-year-old protocol flaw to compromise the Internet Key Exchange IKE protocol used to secure IP communications. Specifically, the attack targets IKE’s handshake implementation used for IPsec-based VPN...

Intel Smart Sound Tech Vulnerable to Three High-Severity Bugs

Intel issued three fixes for bugs that could allow a local attacker to execute code on Intel Core and Atom processor-based PCs. The vulnerabilities are tied to versions of its own Intel Smart Sound Technology, used to boost audio processing for tasks such as voice commands and interactions with...

Massive Malspam Campaign Finds a New Vector for FlawedAmmyy RAT

A widespread spam campaign from the well-known financial criminal group TA505 is spreading the FlawedAmmyy RAT using a brand-new vector: Weaponized PDFs containing malicious SettingContent-ms files. The SettingContent-ms file format was introduced in Windows 10; it allows a user to create...

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...

Mozilla Tests DNS over HTTPS: Meets Some Privacy Pushback

The Mozilla Foundation is testing a new mechanism for securing domain name server traffic that uses the encrypted HTTPS channel. It is an attempt to speed up the internet, reduce the threat of man-in-the-middle attacks and keep prying eyes from monitoring what users do online. Starting in the nex...

Microsoft December Patch Tuesday Update Fixes Six Critical Bugs

Microsoft patched 34 vulnerabilities that are part of its December Patch Tuesday release. A total of 20 vulnerabilities were rated critical and another 12 were rated important. Impacted are Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Exchange. Notable...

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...

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...

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...

VMware vCenter Server Patch Reissue

VMware on Saturday reissued a patch from October that incompletely addressed a critically rated remote code execution vulnerability in vCenter Server. The original vulnerability, CVE-2015-2342, was a poorly configured JMX RMI service in vCenter Server that was remotely accessible. The flaw allowe...

Flawed TLS Implementations Leak RSA Keys

A number of TLS software implementations contain vulnerabilities that allow hackers with minimal computational expense to learn RSA keys. Florian Weimer, a researcher with Red Hat, last week published a paper called “Factoring RSA Keys With TLS Perfect Forward Secrecy” that demonstrated...

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...

Stagefright Patch Incomplete Leaving Android Devices Still Exposed

Google today released to open source a new patch for the infamous Stagefright vulnerability found in 950 million Android devices after researchers at Exodus Intelligence discovered the original patch was incomplete and Android devices remain exposed to attack. “We’ve already sent the fix to our...

Samy Kamkar's ProxyGambit Picks Up for Defunct ProxyHam

Without fail in the weeks leading up to Black Hat and DEF CON, there are inevitably talks that are either pulled by organizers, cancelled by presenters, or strong suggestions are made that the talks don’t happen. This year’s first casualty, Ben Caudill’s scheduled DEF CON demonstration of ProxyHa...

Remotely Exploitable Vulnerabilities in SAP Compression Algorithms

The two primary compression algorithms used by SAP SE products, some of the most popular enterprise and business management software platforms on the market, contain multiple, remotely exploitable security vulnerabilities. Martin Gallo of Core Security Consulting Services found vulnerabilities in...

Destover Wiper Malware Analysis

Researchers are starting to stitch together clues about the wiper malware that has landed a body blow to Sony Pictures Entertainment. Not only were thousands of files and documents leaked that included unreleased movies, confidential company presentations and financial records, employee records,...

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...

Web Editor Vulnerable To XSS Attacks

All versions of an HTML editor used in several Microsoft technologies, including ASP.NET, suffer from a high-risk cross-site scripting XSS vulnerability that could allow an attacker to inject malicious script and glean private information. The problem exists in all versions of RadEditor, a WYSIWY...