Necurs Rootkit Infections Way Up

Infections from a nasty bit of malware, generally delivered by the Black Hole Exploit Kit, surged in November, hitting more than 83,000 machines. Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center rates the Necurs rootkit threat as severe. Dubbed a rootkit by Kaspersky Lab, Necurs has many dimensions to it...

Nitol Infections Fall, But Malware Still Popping Up

When Microsoft went after the Nitol botnet in September, one of the key details in the investigation was the fact that much of the botnet was built by pre-loading malware onto laptops during the manufacturing process in China. This was the clearest case yet of the phenomenon of certified pre-owne...

Deep Packet Inspection Firm Cyberoam Issues Fix Following Private Key Leak

Network security firm Cyberoam issued an over the air update for all of its Deep Packet Inspection DPI devices today after a decrypted version of the company’s universal private key was leaked online over the weekend. The New Jersey-based company pushed the hotfix after an anonymous commenter...

New Version of Stoned Bootkit Said to Bypass Windows 8 Secure Boot

A security researcher who has in the past has created low-level rootkits capable of staying resident on an infected machine after reboots, said he has now accomplished the same feat on Windows 8, which hasn’t even hit the shelves yet. Peter Kleissner said he has created a new version of his Stone...

New Adobe PDF Zero-Day Flaw Under Attack

Adobe today sounded an alarm for a new zero-day flaw in its PDF Reader/Acrobat software, warning that hackers are actively exploiting the vulnerability in-the-wild. Details on the vulnerability are not yet public but the sudden warning from Adobe is a sure sign that rigged PDF documents are being...

Magecart Serves Up Card Skimmers on Restaurant-Ordering Systems

Magecart campaigns have been skimming payment-card credentials of unsuspecting customers using three online restaurant-ordering systems, affecting about 300 restaurants that use the services and compromising tens of thousands of cards so far, researchers have found. Two separate ongoing Magecart...

Facebook Messenger Scam Duped Millions

For months now, millions of Facebook users have been duped by the same phishing scam that cons users into handing over their account credentials. According to a report outlining the phishing campaign, the scam is still active and continues to push victims to a fake Facebook login page where victi...

Nation-state Hackers Target Journalists with Goldbackdoor Malware

Sophisticated hackers believed to be tied to the North Korean government are actively targeting journalists with novel malware dubbed Goldbackdoor. Attacks have consisted of multistage infection campaign with the ultimate goal of stealing sensitive information from targets. The campaign is believ...

Lapsus$ Hackers Target T-Mobile

T-Mobile confirmed that the extortion group Lapsus$ gains access to their system “several weeks ago”. The telecom giant responded to a report by a journalist Brian Krebs, who accessed the internal chats from the private Telegram channel of the core Lapsus$ gang members. The company added that it...

‘PseudoManuscrypt’ Mass Spyware Campaign Targets 35K Systems

Researchers have tracked new spyware – dubbed “PseudoManuscrypt” because it’s similar to “Manuscrypt” malware from the Lazarus advanced persistent threat APT group – that’s attempted to scribble itself across more than 35,000 targeted computers in 195 countries. Kaspersky researchers said in a...

How to Choose the Right DDoS Protection Solution

Pankaj Gupta, Senior Director at Citrix Distributed denial of service DDoS attacks have become increasingly sophisticated, bigger, and economically motivated. Even after 25 years, they still pose a huge security risk for every business. This is in large part because DDoS attacks are relatively ea...

Netflix Bait: Phishers Target Streamers with Fake Service Signups

The past year’s massive migration of movie and television audiences to streaming services has provided scammers with a sweet opportunity to launch phishing attempts to lure would-be subscribers into giving up their payment information. Where there’s payment data, cybercriminals are sure to follow...

Brizy WordPress Plugin Exploit Chains Allow Full Site Takeovers

Vulnerabilities in the Brizy Page Builder plugin for WordPress sites could be chained together to allow attackers to completely take over a website, according to researchers. Brizy or Brizy – Page Builder has been installed on more than 90,000 sites. It’s billed as an intuitive website builder fo...

REvil’s Back; Coder Fat-Fingered Away Its Decryptor Key?

UPDATE The REvil ransomware gang’s tentacles shot out yet again last week, with the ransomware gang’s servers back online, a fresh victim listed on its site, ransomware payments back up and flowing, and an explanation of why it took a two-month hiatus. A purported REvil representative also...

AdLoad Malware 2021 Samples Evade Apple XProtect

A swelling wave of AdLoad malware infections in macOS devices is cresting its way past Apple’s on-device malware scanner, researchers said. The campaign is using around 150 unique samples, some of which are signed by Apple’s notarization service. AdLoad is a well-known Apple threat that’s been...

Black Hat: Bugs Allow Takeover of Capsule Hotel Rooms

LAS VEGAS – A series of vulnerabilities in internet of things IoT devices often found in connected hotel rooms allowed a researcher to take control of multiple rooms’ amenities – and punish a loud neighbor. An inadvertent bug hunt began when Kya Supa, security consultant at LEXFO, was traveling...

‘DeadRinger’ Targeted Exchange Servers Long Before Discovery

Threat actors linked to China exploited the notorious Microsoft Exchange ProxyLogon vulnerabilities long before they were publicly disclosed, in attacks against telecommunications companies aimed at stealing sensitive customer data and maintaining network persistence, researchers have found...

Android Apps in Google Play Harvest Facebook Credentials

A set of nine malicious Android apps that steal Facebook credentials were found on Google Play, which racked up a collective 5.9 million installations before Google removed them. According to Dr. Web’s malware analysts, the applications were fully functional, so that victims remained in the dark...

My Book Live Users Wake Up to Wiped Devices

If you haven’t already, stop reading and go yank your My Book Live storage device offline, lest you join the ranks of those who woke up on Thursday to find that years of data had been wiped clean on devices around the world. Western Digital’s My Book storage device is designed for consumers and...

Kids’ Apps on Google Play Rife with Privacy Violations

About 20 percent of the Top 500 kids’ mobile apps in the Google Play store are collecting data on users in a way that likely violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act COPPA. These have been downloaded by a collective 492 million users, researchers said. That’s according to an analysis...

Police Grab Slilpp, Biggest Stolen-Logins Market

The U.S. Department of Justice DOJ announced on Thursday that a multinational operation has led to the seizure of Slilpp, a well-known marketplace for selling stolen online logins that offered more than 80 million sets of credentials for sale. Since 2012, Slilpp has been an underground market to...

Where Bug Bounty Programs Fall Flat

Eavesdropping on the chatter of 600+ cybercriminal forums shows that cybercriminals have specific preferences, shown by the flavors of exploits they requisition, and that the bug bounty programs either are too slow, don’t pay enough or are just the start of profit-making. A year-long study into t...

Babuk Ransomware Gang Mulls Retirement

Just a few days after hackers bragged about purportedly raiding the computer systems of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department MPD and doxxing what looked like its data, the Babuk ransomware-as-a-service RaaS gang prepared a goodbye note saying that they’re hanging up its spurs...

Malicious Docker Cryptomining Images Rack Up 20M Downloads

At least 30 malicious images in Docker Hub, with a collective 20 million downloads, have been used to spread cryptomining malware, according to an analysis. The malicious images spread across 10 different Docker Hub accounts have raked in around $200,000 from cryptomining, according to Aviv Sasso...

Pair of Apex Legends Players Banned for DDoS Server Attacks

Two high-ranked Apex Legends players have been banned from the platform for cheating by launching distributed denial-of-service DDoS attacks on an Xbox server. The players, who had achieved the rank of “Apex Predators” in the console version of the game haven’t been named, but the whole thing wen...

Second SolarWinds Attack Group Breaks into USDA Payroll — Report

There had been hints that a second group of malicious actors may have exploited a SolarWinds bug to install the Supernova backdoor — notably, there was a conclusion by Microsoft back in December that this was the case. Now, sources told Reuters that there’s indeed evidence that a separate advance...

23M Gamer Records Exposed in VIPGames Leak

VIPGames.com, a free platform with a total of 56 available classic board and card games like Hearts, Crazy Eights, Euchre, Dominoes, Backgammon and others, has exposed the personal data of tens of thousands of users. In all, more than 23 million records for more than 66,000 users were left expose...

A Look Ahead at 2021: SolarWinds Fallout and Shifting CISO Budgets

The new year started off with a bang, with the SolarWinds hack revealed in late December acting as a jarring reminder to companies and U.S. government departments alike that cybercriminals continue to successfully exploit security lapses in technology. But beyond the SolarWinds supply-chain...

Nvidia Warns Windows Gamers of High-Severity Graphics Driver Flaws

Nvidia, which makes gaming-friendly graphics processing units GPUs, on Thursday fixed a slew of high-severity flaws affecting its graphics driver. The vulnerabilities allow bad actors to cripple systems with denial of service attacks, escalate privileges, tamper with data or sniff out sensitive...

RansomExx Ransomware Gang Dumps Stolen Embraer Data: Report

Hackers have dumped sensitive company data that was stolen during a ransomware attack last month on aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The compromised data appeared on a new dark web site created to publish leaked information, according to a published report. The move appears to be a revenge for the...

Trump Site Alleging AZ Election Fraud Exposes Voter Data

A security flaw on a website set up to gather evidence of in-person voter fraud in Arizona would have opened the door for SQL injection and other attacks. The bug, found on a site set up by Trump campaign called dontpressthegreenbutton.com, was discovered by cybersecurity pro Todd Rossin, almost ...

Kegtap, Singlemalt, Winekey Malware Serve Up Ransomware to Hospitals

The boozy names might sound like the kind of thing conjured up in a frat-house common room, but malware families Kegtap, Singlemalt and Winekey are being used to gain initial network access in potentially lethal ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations in the midst of a global pandemic,...

Russian Espionage Group Updates Custom Malware Suite

The advanced persistent threat APT known as Turla is targeting government organizations using custom malware, including an updated trio of implants that give the group persistence through overlapping backdoor access. Russia-tied Turla a.k.a. Ouroboros, Snake, Venomous Bear or Waterbug is a...

Experts Weigh in on E-Commerce Security Amid Snowballing Threats

The raging pandemic has forced many retailers to re-imagine their businesses, shifting from in-person to contactless interactions through online sales. This new socially distanced reality is colliding with the crush of an upcoming holiday shopping season, creating an unprecedented opportunity for...

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...

Office 365 OAuth Attack Targets Coinbase Users

Office 365 users are receiving emails purporting to come from cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, which ask them to download updated Terms of Service via an OAuth consent app. But when they agree to do so, users are unknowingly giving attackers full access to their email. OAuth is an open standard...

Malware Families Turn to Legit Pastebin-Like Service

Cybercriminals are increasingly turning to a legitimate, Pastebin-like web service for downloading malware — such as AgentTesla and LimeRAT — in spear-phishing attacks. Pastebin, a code-hosting service that enables users to share plain text through public posts called “pastes,” currently has 17...

Unsecured Microsoft Bing Server Leaked Search Queries, Location Data

An unsecured database has exposed sensitive data for users of Microsoft’s Bing search engine mobile application – including their location coordinates, search terms in clear text and more. While no personal information, like names, were exposed, researchers with Wizcase argued that enough data wa...

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...

Malicious 'Blur' Photo App Campaign Discovered on Google Play

A new campaign of malicious photo apps on Google Play floods Android devices with random ads instead of functioning as advertised. They also elude detection by making its icon disappear from the device home screen soon after it’s downloaded. Researchers at the White Ops Satori Threat Intelligence...

DMARC Adoption Spikes, Higher Ed Remains Behind

Adoption of the email security protocol DMARC has continued to tick upwards, with the number of domains deploying DMARC records surpassing 1 million in the last two years — a 2.5 times greater total than in 2018. That’s according to Valimail’s Email Fraud Landscape 2020 report, which also found...

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...

New Android Malware Targets PayPal, CapitalOne App Users

An Android mobile malware has been uncovered that steals payment data from users of popular financial apps like PayPal, Barclays, CapitalOne and more. The infostealer, called EventBot, has targeted users of more than 200 different banking, money-transfer services and general cryptocurrency wallet...

Tencent Ups Top Bug-Bounty Award to $15K

The Tencent Security Response Center TSRC is launching an expanded bug-bounty program, via the HackerOne white-hat platform – and the company has increased its top reward to $15,000. Tencent, a China-based global internet service provider, is opening up its existing bug-bounty program to...

This Stalkerware Delivers Extra-Creepy Features

Researchers are sending up a red flag over the distribution of an aggressive stalkerware app called Monitor Minor. In a report released Monday, researchers said the Android version of the app gives stalkers near absolute control of targeted devices, going so far as allowing them to capture the...

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...

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...

Pwn2Own Expands Into Industrial Control Systems Hacking

Industrial control systems ICS used to manage critical infrastructure and manufacturing will be the main target in next year’s popular Pwn2Own’s annual hacking competition. Over the past few years, Pwn2Own – a hacking contest that draws in white-hat hackers looking for fame and fortune through...