Holiday Shopping Craze, COVID-19 Spur Retail Security Storm

As online retailers prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season, security researchers are warning that cybercriminals will be on the prowl this year, with the added factor of the coronavirus pandemic pushing many Black Friday shoppers online. Chris Eng, chief research officer with Veracode,...

Microsoft Teams Phishing Attack Targets Office 365 Users

Researchers are warning of a phishing campaign that pretends to be an automated message from Microsoft Teams. In reality, the attack aims to steal Office 365 recipients’ login credentials. Teams is Microsoft’s popular collaboration tool, which has particularly risen in popularity among remote...

Carnival Corp. Ransomware Attack Affects Three Cruise Lines

Hackers accessed personal information of guests, employees and crew for three cruise line brands and the casino operations of Carnival Corp. in a ransomware attack the company suffered on Aug. 15, officials have confirmed. Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Seabourn were the brands...

QR Codes Serve Up a Menu of Security Concerns

Quick Response QR codes are booming in popularity and hackers are flocking to exploit the trend. Worse, according to a new study, people are mostly ignorant to how QR codes can be easily abused to launch digital attacks. The reason QR code use is skyrocketing is tied to more brick-and-mortar...

Google Fixes Mysterious Audio Recording Blip in Smart Speakers

After Google Home users started receiving mysterious alerts when their fire alarms went off or their plates smashed in their homes, Google acknowledged that it accidentally rolled out a feature causing the smart devices to record sounds without the voice prompt. Reports of the privacy faux pas...

Augmenting AWS Security Controls

Has the onslaught of lackluster webinars over the past few months left you wanting more? Are you seeking practical, relevant, and usable information and advice on how to stay secure in the cloud? Well, you’re in luck! DivvyCloud, the leading provider of cloud and container security and compliance...

OilRig APT Drills into Malware Innovation with Unique Backdoor

A series of cyberattacks on a telecom company in the Middle East has signaled the return of the OilRig APT. The attacks also revealed a revised backdoor tool in the group’s arsenal, called RDAT. The attacks were observed in April by Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42. Researchers there said that the...

Qbot Trojan Reappears to Go After U.S. Banking Customers

Qbot, an ever-evolving information-stealing trojan that’s been around since 2008, has reappeared after a hiatus to target customers of U.S. financial institutions. Its latest variant features fresh capabilities to help it remain undetected. Qbot a.k.a. Qakbot or Pinkslipbot harvests browsing data...

Phishing Attack Hits German Coronavirus Task Force

Researchers are warning of an ongoing phishing attack that’s targeting the credentials of more than 100 high-profile executives at a German multinational corporation that’s tasked with procuring coronavirus medical gear for Germany. The company, left unnamed by researchers, is part of a task forc...

News Wrap: Fake Minneapolis Police Breach, Zoom End-To-End Encryption Debate

Threatpost editors Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch and Tara Seals discuss the top security news stories of the week, including: Reports emerged earlier this week that the Minneapolis police department had been breached by hacktivist group Anonymous. Security expert Troy Hunt debunked the reports, however...

WordPress Page Builder Plugin Bugs Threaten 1 Million Sites with Full Takeover

Page Builder by SiteOrigin, a WordPress plugin with a million active installs that’s used to build websites via a drag-and-drop function, harbors two flaws that can allow full site takeover. According to researchers at WordPress, both security bugs can lead to cross-site request forgery CSRF and...

ACLU Sues Over U.S. Airport Facial-Recognition Technology

The American Civil Liberties Union ACLU has filed suit the Department of Homeland Security DHS over its use of facial recognition technology in airports, decrying the government’s “extraordinarily dangerous path” to normalize facial surveillance as well as its secrecy in making specific details o...

Gamaredon APT Improves Toolset to Target Ukraine Government, Military

The Gamaredon advanced persistent threat APT group has been supercharging its operations lately, improving its toolset and ramping up attacks on Ukrainian national security targets. Vitali Kremez, head of SentinelLabs, said in research released on Wednesday that he has been tracking an uptick in...

Man Sentenced in ATM Skimming Conspiracy

A New York state man has been sentenced to five years for an elaborate ATM skimming conspiracy that allowed him to steal at least $390,141 from victims. Bogdan Rusu, 39, of Queens, NY pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme, which used secret card-reading devices and pinhole cameras on...

The Scammer Force is Strong with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Whenever the internet lights up in anticipation of anything, there are fraudsters and scammers waiting in the wings to take advantage of it. This week’s premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is no exception, with cybercriminals eyeing one of the world’s most beloved franchises as rich fodd...

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...

Plugging the Data Leak in Manufacturing

More often than not, when then the internet of things IoT is brought up these days, it conjures images of Alexa, Siri and Cortana. These personal assistants can help users turn on a smart light bulb, flick on the oven and get you the day’s news, all in one fell swoop. However, IoT has evolved far...

China-Linked Hackers Spy on Texts With MessageTap Malware

Researchers have discovered a new malware used for cyber-espionage efforts by China-linked threat group APT41. The malware intercepts telecom SMS server traffic and sniffs out certain phone numbers and SMS messages – particularly those with keywords relating to Chinese political dissidents. The...

Most Americans Fail Cybersecurity Quiz

When it comes to two-factor authentication and secure web browsing, most Americans don’t know their HTTPS from their 2FA to save their digital bacon: A Pew Research Center study found most Americans don’t have a firm grasp of cybersecurity issues core to protecting their data. Click to enlarge. I...

Podcast: Vendors, Suppliers, Partners – Oh My! Who Will Increase Your Risk of Account Takeover?

Your users’ login credentials are available for sale on the criminal underground — and criminals know it. For the third year running, the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Report calls out the use of weak and stolen credentials as the most common hacking tactic. This podcast is sponsored by SpyCloud The...

Apple Updates Privacy Policies After Siri Audio Recording Backlash

Apple is taking steps to improve the privacy of audio collected by its Siri voice assistant, on the heels of backlash around a program that let contractors listen into Siri conversations. On Wednesday, the phone giant apologized for violating users’ privacy through the program, which was...

Choice Hotels Breach Showcases Need for Shared Responsibility Model

Hospitality giant Choice Hotels fell victim to hackers this week, thanks to a MongoDB database that was left open to the internet containing 700,000 customer records. The situation highlights supply-chain data-security risk, given that the data was being held by a third-party vendor — and brings ...

Cryptolocking WordPress Plugin Locks Up Blog Posts

A malicious WordPress plugin ironically called WP Security has been spotted in the wild encrypting blog posts and rendering the content unreadable. It’s capable of targeting individual posts — an unusual behavior, according to researchers. According to analysis from Sucuri, the plugin obtains a...

Point Blank Gamers Targeted with Backdoor Malware

The focus of the APT behind the ShadowHammer supply-chain attack that abused the ASUS computer update function turns out to be wider in scope than previously thought. Researchers have found similar digitally-signed binaries using the videogame industry as a delivery conduit for malware. Victims...

2019 and Beyond: The (Expanded) RSAC Advisory Board Weighs in on What’s Next: Pt. 2

Our first 2019 predictions post from the RSA Conference Advisory Board was not all sunshine and roses — cautious optimism was tabled by the acknowledged distance we must still travel as an industry — and our second set of predictions does not belie that theme. This trepidation does not mean we’re...

Microsoft Issues Multiple Critical Patches for Edge Browser

Microsoft patched a bevy of critical bugs impacting its Edge browser that could allow an attacker to hijack a targeted PC simply by steering a victim to a rigged website harboring specially crafted exploit code. In all, Microsoft tackled four critical Edge vulnerabilities, part of the company’s...

Kubernetes Flaw is a "Huge Deal," Lays Open Cloud Deployments

A critical privilege-escalation vulnerability CVE-2018-1002105 has been uncovered in the Kubernetes open-source container software, which is a fixture in much of today’s cloud infrastructure. It could allow an attacker unfettered, remote access for stealing data or crashing production application...

Podcast: A Utility Ransomware Attack, Post-Hurricane

A “critical water utility” was hit by a recent ransomware attack, significantly impeding the service in the week after Hurricane Florence hit the East Coast of the U.S. The Onslow Water and Sewer Authority ONWASA said in a Monday release that a “sophisticated ransomware attack… has left the utili...

Phishing Spy Campaign Targets Top Mideast Officials

Researchers have discovered a phishing campaign that infected Android devices with custom surveillance-ware bent on extracting data from top officials, primarily in the Middle East. Researchers at Lookout Security told Threatpost that the tool, dubbed Stealth Mango, has been used to collect over ...

Remote Code Execution Bug Patched in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

Researchers at Cisco Talos are detailing a remote code execution vulnerability found in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC that can be triggered when a malicious file is opened or a victim accesses a rigged webpage. According to Talos, the vulnerability CVE-2018-4901 was disclosed on Dec. 7 and Adobe issued...

HP to Patch RCE Bug Impacting 50 Enterprise Printer Models

UPDATE HP Inc. said it has released firmware patches for dozens of enterprise-class printer models affected by an arbitrary code execution bug. According to a security bulletin posted by HP, the vulnerability CVE-2017-2750 is tied to “insufficient solution DLL signature validation” allowing for...

Macs Not Receiving EFI Firmware Security Updates as Expected

Since the Thunderstrike bootkit attacks targeting Apple firmware were disclosed in 2015, Apple has bundled subsequent EFI updates with its regular macOS security and software updates in an attempt to improve protection around its hardware. Researchers at Duo Security, however, have uncovered that...

Adobe Fixes Eight Vulnerabilities in Flash, RoboHelp, ColdFusion

Adobe fixed eight vulnerabilities across three products, including two critical memory corruption bugs and a critical XML parsing flaw, with its regularly scheduled update on Tuesday. RoboHelp for Windows, ColdFusion, and as usual, Flash Player, all received updates as part of the company’s Patch...

ColdFusion Hotfix Resolves XSS, Java Deserialization Bugs

Adobe today released an important security hotfix for several versions of its ColdFusion rapid web application development platform. The company said the update addresses an input validation vulnerability CVE-2017-3008 in the software that could be used in reflected cross-site scripting XSS...

Instagram Adds Two-Factor Authentication

Instagram became the latest in a long line of services over the years to offer users two-factor authentication this week. Kevin Systrom, co-founder and CEO of the Facebook-owned mobile photo-sharing app announced the feature on its blog Thursday afternoon. With the feature – accessible via Settin...

Google Patches Android 'Custom Boot Mode' Vulnerability

A high-risk Android custom boot mode vulnerability was one of many bugs patched by Google as part of its January Android Security Bulletin released earlier this week. On Thursday, the IBM security team that discovered the vulnerability disclosed details about the flaw which leaves Nexus 6 and 6P...

Cerber Ransomware On The Rise, Fueled By Dridex Botnet

Starting in April security experts at FireEye spotted a massive uptick in Cerber ransomware attacks delivered via a rolling wave of spam. Researchers there link the Cerber outbreaks to the fact that attackers are now leveraging the same spam infrastructure credited for making the potent Dridex...

Reddit Removes NSL Warrant Canary from Transparency Report

Reddit’s latest transparency report is missing a nugget of information that was present in a previous report. Last year’s report included a warrant canary which stated that as of Jan. 29, 2015, Reddit had never received a National Security Letter, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order or...

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...

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso on the Latest Apple Patches, Mudge and the Cyber UL, and the OPM Hack

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso discuss the OS X and iOS patches, the potential for the new cyber UL project run by Mudge, and the lawsuit against OPM after its data breach. Download: digitalunderground210.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

IBM Outs Dyre Wolf Campaign Steals $1 Million

The Dyre banking Trojan‘s ascension to the top of the financial malware food chain took a massive leap forward in the first three months of 2015. Already spreading a damaging piece of malware that targets corporate bank accounts, the Eastern European keepers of Dyre recently upped their social...

Adobe Releases Emergency Flash Player Patch

Adobe today revised a security bulletin it released more than a month ago, adding a patch for a code-execution vulnerability in Flash Player already included in some exploit kits. French researcher Kafeine found the exploits in the Angler and Nuclear kits less than a week after Adobe released an...

Google Fixes Security Vulnerabilities with Chrome Update

Google released a stable channel update for its Chrome browser yesterday, resolving 12 vulnerabilities, one of which was considered ‘critical’, Google’s most severe rating, ten of which received second most severe ‘high’ ratings, and one receiving a third-in-line ‘medium’ rating. Google paid out ...

Ruby on Rails Patches DoS, Remote Execution Flaws

Web app framework Ruby on Rails patched two security flaws this week in the open source framework that could have led to denial of service attacks and remote execution vulnerabilities. With builds 3.2.12, 3.1.11 and 2.3.17, the framework fixed a serialized attributes YAML vulnerability...

Rocra Espionage Malware Campaign Uncovered After Five Years of Activity

For five years, it hid in the weeds of networks used by Eastern European diplomats, government employees and scientific research organizations, stealing data and infecting more machines in an espionage campaign rivaling Flame and others of its ilk. The campaign, called Rocra or Red October by...

Use of Java Zero-Day Flaws Tied to Nitro Attack Crew

Researchers say that one of the attack groups using the two new Java zero-day vulnerabilities is the same group that was behind an earlier targeted attack campaign from 2011. That group was traced back to China and was essentially running a spear-phishing campaign, but now the crew, known as Nitr...

What Have We Learned: Flame Malware

When the news about the Flame malware first broke several weeks ago, people from all parts of the security community, political world and elsewhere quickly began trying to figure out what the significance of the tool was and whether it represented anything new. That was difficult at the time, giv...

Exploit Kits Now Updated With New Wares Before Patches Are Ready

The creators and maintainers of exploit kits often rely on public reports of new exploits and proof-of-concept exploit code in order to be able to add new exploits to their software. And in many cases, the exploits included in kits such as Black Hole and Eleonore and others will be for...

Anatomy of the Duqu Attacks

Stuxnet has become the bogeyman of Internt security and cyberwar, showing up in marketing pitches, PowerPoint presentations and press releases from Washington to Silicon Valley to Tehran. But while Stuxnet has been garnering headlines for more than a year now, the far more serious threat in terms...

Adobe Warns of Attacks on Critical Flash Player Bug

Adobe is warning its users about a critical vulnerability in Flash that affects Adobe Reader and Acrobat, as well. The bug can be used by remote attackers to run arbitrary code and Adobe officials said that they’ve already seen some attacks that are targeting the vulnerability. The vulnerability ...