U.S. Sanctions North Korean Group Behind WannaCry, Sony Hacks

The U.S. has slapped sanctions on three well-known North Korean state-sponsored hacker groups – including the group that was tied to the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attacks and the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The three that were sanctioned are the infamous Lazarus Group, as well...

FIN6 Switches Up PoS Tactics to Target E-Commerce

The financial cybergang known as the FIN6 group, known for going after brick-and-mortar point-of-sale PoS data in the U.S. and Europe, has changed up its tactics to target e-commerce sites. According to researchers at IBM X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services IRIS, FIN6 a.k.a. ITG08...

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...

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...

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...

Malicious Docker Containers Earn Cryptomining Criminals $90K

UPDATE Seventeen malicious Docker containers earned cryptomining criminals $90,000 in 30 days in what could be a harbinger of things to come. The figure may seem tame compared to some of the larger paydays that cryptojackers have earned. But, researchers at Kromtech Security Center warn container...

Intel Halts Spectre Fixes On Older Chips, Citing Limited Ecosystem Support

Intel has halted patches for an array of older chips that would protect them against the Spectre vulnerability, according to a recent microcode update. The microcode update shows that its older products – including Wolfdale, Bloomfield, Clarksfield, Gulftown, Harpertown, Jasper Forest, SoFIA 3GR,...

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...

Patched Flash Player Sandbox Escape Leaked Windows Credentials

One of the patches included in Tuesday’s Adobe Flash Player update was a do-over after the researcher who privately reported the problem earlier this year discovered the original patch incompletely resolved the issue. Dutch researcher Bjorn Ruytenberg disclosed details after Adobe updated the...

FireEye Details Microsoft Zero Day Attack on 100 Companies

More than 100 North American companies were attacked by crooks exploiting a Windows zero day vulnerability. The attacks began in early March and involved the zero day vulnerability CVE-2016-0167 reported and partially fixed in April’s Patch Tuesday security bulletins by Microsoft. The zero day wa...

AirDroid Patches Vulnerability Exposing Android Data

A critical vulnerability impacting 50 million Android users running the popular AirDroid application has been patched. AirDroid, an app that allows you link an Android device to a computer and send SMS messages, run apps and add contacts via a Wi-Fi connected web browser, released the patch Jan...

13 Million MacKeeper Records Found in Public Database

A trove of MacKeeper user data—some 13 million records—has been locked down after a researcher found an exposed and accessible database using a simple Shodan query. Chris Vickery revealed his discovery on Monday on Reddit in more of an appeal to reach officials at Kromtech, the parent company tha...

December 2015 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins

Forgive your local Windows admin if they’re a little shy on holiday cheer in the coming days. Blame instead Microsoft for foisting upon them on Tuesday 71 security patches, including two for vulnerabilities in Office and the Windows kernel currently under attack. Microsoft also issued a separate...

Writing OS X Malware at Black Hat 2015

Patrick Wardle has one word for today’s generation of Mac OS X malware: lame. Sure there are advanced samples out there developed by nation-state sponsored groups or exploit vendors such as Hacking Team, but for the most part, Wardle says, we’re still talking about malware that are standalone...

OPM Hack Expands to Include Data of 21.5M People

UPDATE–The ever-expanding data breach at the Office of Personnel Management has now spread to include the Social Security numbers and other personal data of a total of 21.5 million people, and the toll also now includes the agency’s director, Katherine Archuleta, who resigned Friday morning...

Malvertising Campaign Hits AOL Ad Network, Leads to Exploit Kit

Researchers have detected a malvertising campaign running on a pair of sites owned by Huffington Post that is using ads distributed through an AOL ad network. The attack is sending victims through a series of redirects that eventually brings them to a landing page that is running an exploit kit...

Half of Leading USB Controller Chips Vulnerable to BadUSB

BadUSB hasn’t gone from bad to worse necessarily, but it sure has reached a new state of confusion for security experts and consumers in the crosshairs. Researcher Karsten Nohl, who warned the world during Black Hat last summer that the controller chips in most USB devices could be reprogrammed t...

Fake AV Defru Puts New Spin on Rogue AV

Rogue antivirus was once the scourge of the Internet, and while this sort of malware is not entirely extinct, it’s fallen out of favor among criminals as users have become more aware and security products have gotten better at blocking the threat. Image via TechNet However, Daniel Chipiristeanu, ...

Crowdsourcing a Tool for Application Vulnerability Research

Pulling in security help on a project has traditionally meant either hiring more full-time help, or bringing in an outside consultant. Enterprises and vendors alike, however, are starting to really go outside the perimeter these days and are taking advantage of crowdsourcing. Given the paranoia i...

TrueType Font Flaws in July 2013 Microsoft Patch Tuesday

Going all the way back to the Duqu attacks, font-parsing vulnerabilities and exploits have been symptomatic of some high-end espionage attacks targeting the Windows kernel. As a result, with hackers paying more attention to the core of the Windows OS, this year Microsoft has had to address a numb...

Attackers Target Older Java Bugs

It’s no secret that Java has moved to the top of the target list for many attackers. It has all the ingredients they love: ubiquity, cross-platform support and, best of all, lots of vulnerabilities. Malware targeting Java flaws has become a major problem, and new statistics show that this epidemi...

Vulnerability Patched in Schneider Electric ICS Gear

The Industrial Control System CERT released an advisory this week warning of a vulnerability in a popular sensor monitoring system used in a number of critical industries, including energy, water and manufacturing. Aaron Portnoy of Exodus Intelligence discovered the flaw in the Windows-based...

Yahoo Mail Breach Linked to Old WordPress Vulnerability

Researchers at Australia-based BitDefender say they’ve found how some Yahoo Mail accounts are being hijacked, and it leads back to “buggy” blog software Yahoo’s developers used. For about a month Yahoo Mail account holders have been falling for a scam in which they click on a short link that...

Cisco VoIP Hacker Urges Closer Look at Firmware Security Vulnerabilities

Ang Cui’s “Funtenna” is just the latest eye-opener into the security of embedded networked devices such as printers, VoIP phones, routers and other core, connected infrastructure. The Columbia University PhD candidate’s recent hack of a Cisco-branded VoIP phone demonstrates the risk posed by...

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...

New Versions of Chrome and Firefox Disable DigiNotar Root

Mozilla has released version 6.01 of its Firefox browser, which now removes the compromised DigiNotar root certificate from the list of trusted roots. The move comes just two days after security researchers discovered that the Dutch company had issued a valid wildcard certificate for Google to an...

April Patch Tuesday Fixes Critical IE, SMB Bugs

Microsoft has released its April Patch Tuesday fixes, a large group of patches that includes updates for several critical holes in Internet Explorer as well as a patch that finally fixes the SMB client bug that disclosed publicly in February. The most critical of the 17 bulletins that Microsoft...

Microsoft Warns of New IE Code Execution Flaw

Microsoft’s security response team is investigating reports of a potentially dangerous code execution vulnerability in its flagship Internet Explorer browser. The company warned that an attacker could host a maliciously crafted web page and run arbitrary code if they could convince a user to visi...

Adobe Patches Critical Illustrator Security Holes

Adobe has released a critical patch to cover two serious security vulnerabilities in the Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CS4 products. The vulnerabilities could lead to arbitrary code execution. Affected software includes Adobe Illustrator CS4 14.0.0 and Adobe Illustrator CS3 13.0.3 and earlier version...

'High Risk' Flaw Fixed in Google Chrome

Google has pushed out a new version of its Chrome browser to fix a high-severity security hole that could lead to malicious code execution attacks. The vulnerability could be exploited to run arbitrary code within the Google Chrome sandbox, the company said in an advisory. The raw details: The v8...

Researcher Finds Twitter Botnet Command Channel

Arbor Networks security researcher Jose Nazario has stumbled upon a crimeware botnet using Twitter as its command-and-control operation. The botnet, which is linked to identity thieves in Brazil, uses Twitter status messages to communicate with bots — sending new links for the infected computers ...

Latest Cyberattack Against Iran Part of Ongoing Campaign

Malware used in a crippling cyberattacks against an Iranian steel plants last week is connected to an attack that shut down the country’s rail system last year. In both cases, on malware strain was used to impact physical and critical infrastructure, according to a report from Check Point Researc...

A Guide to Surviving a Ransomware Attack

Surviving ransomware is possible with a combination of preparation and intentionality. Often, there is a misguided characterization of ransomware attacks that implies defenders either completely thwart an attack or that attackers establish complete control of their targets’ IT infrastructure. But...

Cyberattacks Rage in Ukraine, Support Military Operations

Cyberattacks against Ukraine have been used strategically to support ground campaigns, with five state-sponsored advanced persistent threat APT groups behind attacks that began in February. According to research published by Microsoft on Wednesday, the APTs involved in the campaigns are...

Destructive Wiper Targeting Ukraine Aimed at Eroding Trust

Russia is positioned for a hot-war attack on Ukraine that the Biden administration warned could come “at any point” — but the country is already suffering an attack of a different kind. A sweeping malware campaign remains ongoing, which experts agree is intended to permanently disrupt organizatio...

North Korean APTs Stole ~$400M in Crypto in 2021

Vast amounts of cash sloshing around in cryptocurrency markets are proving irresistible for cybercriminals and scammers of all kinds. From basic financial pump-and-dump schemes to straight-up nation-state cybertheft, nascent crypto markets, and their investors – often with dubious understanding o...

GoDaddy’s Latest Breach Affects 1.2M Customers

Web-hosting giant GoDaddy has confirmed another data breach, this time affecting at least 1.2 million of its customers. On Monday, the world’s largest domain registrar said in a public filing to the SEC that an “unauthorized third party” managed to infiltrate its systems on Sept. 6 – and that the...

FBI: FatPipe VPN Zero-Day Exploited by APT for 6 Months

A threat actor has been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in FatPipe’s virtual private network VPN devices as a way to breach companies and gain access to their internal networks, since at least May, the FBI has warned. “As of November 2021, FBI forensic analysis indicated exploitation of a 0-d...

How to Build an Incident-Response Plan, Before Security Disaster Strikes

In a startling discovery, a recent report found that 98 percent of companies have experienced at least one cloud data breach in the past 18 months, compared to 79 percent last year. The same report disclosed that nearly 60 percent of the 200 CISOs and security decision-makers surveyed considered...

Credential Spear-Phishing Uses Spoofed Zix Encrypted Email

Armorblox researchers have spotted an ongoing credential-phishing attack that spoofs an encrypted Zix email – one coming, weirdly enough, from what looks like a legitimate domain associated with the Baptist religion. At least, the threat actor is sending the phishing attack from...

Poly Network Recoups $610M Stolen from DeFi Platform

A threat actor called “Mr. White Hat” has returned the $610 million they stole from the decentralized finance platform Poly Network. The breached company did everything from threaten to sic law enforcement on the attacker on up to its ultimate offer: the position of chief security officer in...

COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Data Exposed, Fake Vax Cards Circulate

This week, the Indiana Department of Health issued a notice that the state’s COVID-19 contact-tracing system had been exposed via a cloud misconfiguration, revealing names, emails, gender, ethnicity, race and dates of birth of more than 750,000 people. The incident shows that COVID-19 data could ...

Data Exfiltration: What You Should Know to Prevent It

In today’s digitally driven era, data is the most critical component of a business. Companies are collecting more data than ever before, and constantly enhancing their operations through data-driven decisions. As a result, data leaks are a serious concern for companies of all sizes; if one occurs...

Application Layer is Still the Front Door for Data Breaches

By Terry Ray, SVP and Fellow, Imperva Each year, the number of data breaches grows by 30% while the number of records compromised increases by an average of 224%. 2021 is far from over, but we’re already on pace for another record-setting year. In fact, Imperva research finds that more records we...

REvil Ransomware Gang Spill Details on US Attacks

Cybercriminals behind the JBS Foods ransomware attack claim they had no intent to target United States-based firms. The group, identified as the Sodinokibi REvil ransomware gang, also said it was not afraid of being labeled a cyber-terrorist group. A spokesperson for REvil shared its positions in...

Banking Attacks Surge Along with Post-COVID Economy

For many, COVID-19 has been a crushing catastrophe. But for bank scammers, it’s shaped up to be a nice little money-making opportunity. As the post-pandemic economy roars back to life, cybercriminals are using a new whirlwind of transactions as cover to launch an extraordinary number of bank frau...

Cyberattack Forces Meat Producer to Shut Down Operations in U.S., Australia

The world’s largest meat distributor shut down some operations in both the United States and Australia over the Memorial Day weekend after a cyberattack on its IT systems that could have a significant effect on the food supply chain if not resolved quickly. Attackers targeted several servers...