Oracle Releases 86 Patches in its January Critical Patch Update

This week’s relentless onslaught of security patches continued late Tuesday afternoon when Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update, a healthy dose of 86 security updates across all major product lines including Oracle Database and MySQL Server. The most serious may be a critical...

Critical Vulnerability Fixed in Chrome 23

It’s Patch Tuesday, and not just for Microsoft and Adobe. Google also patched a number of security vulnerabilities in its Chrome browser today, including one critical flaw and three high-severity ones. The most serious vulnerability that Google fixed in Chrome 23 is a crash in the browser’s histo...

New Java Attack Introduced into Cool Exploit Kit

A new exploit has been found in the Cool Exploit Kit for a vulnerability in Java 7 Update 7 as well as older versions, a flaw that’s been patched by Oracle in Java 7 Update 9. Cool Exploit Kit was discovered last month and is largely responsible for dropping the Reveton ransomware. A new Metasplo...

Apache Fixes Two Security Flaws in Version 2.4.3

The Apache Software Foundation has fixed two vulnerabilities in its ubiquitous Web server, including a cross-site scripting bug that could enable an attacker to upload files to a remote server. The new version of the Apache HTTP Server also includes updates that resolve dozens of other,...

Traffic Sniffing, Not Botnet, May Have Led to Android Spam Run

It’s not every day that you get a security story that involves Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, but that’s what has happened with the claims from a Microsoft official that there was an Android-based botnet in existence sending spam from compromised devices. Now it seems that the spam emanating from...

Google Releases Chrome 20 With Fixes for 20 Security Vulnerabilities

Google has released version 20 of its Chrome browser, and has fixed a nice, symmetrical 20 flaws in the browser, including 13 high-risk bugs. Google also paid out $8,000 in rewards to researchers who reported bugs. A large number of the bugs fixed in Chrome 20 are use-after-free vulnerabilities i...

OpenSSL Releases New Fix for CVE-2012-2110 ASN1 Bug

The OpenSSL developers have had to re-release the fix for a serious vulnerability in the software’s ASN.1 implementation that could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service or potentially run arbitrary code on a remote machine. The updated fix only applies to version 0.9.8v; all of the othe...

Attackers Reused Adobe Reader Exploit Code From 2009 In Extremely Targeted Hacks

The targeted attack that exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Adobe’s Reader application last month was extremely focused on defense industrial base firms, and affected just a handful of systems, according to a company spokesman. Fewer than 20 machines, spread across a number of firms ...

Google Fixes Two Chrome Bugs, Adds Flash 10.3 to Browser

Google has released an updated version of its Chrome browser, which includes fixes for two security vulnerabilities as well as a new version of the Adobe Flash player. The latest version of Chrome is just a small incremental update of the browser, and there were no bugs found by external...

Analysis of the New Adobe Flash Attacks

When Adobe warned customers earlier this week about a newly discovered vulnerability in the Flash Player software, company officials said that there were already attacks underway against the bug. Those attacks are using malicious Flash files buried in Word documents and Microsoft’s security...

Survey: Information Theft A Bigger Problem than Physical Theft

Anyone who has received “notification” of funky activity on their credit card, or an urgent e-mail plea from the widow of Mobutu Sese Seko won’t be surprised to learn that information theft is a big problem. But a new survey out from Kroll Consulting finds that its also the biggest problem facing...

Adobe Exploit Bypasses ASLR and DEP, Drops Signed Malicious File

Attackers are using a previously unknown exploitation technique that bypasses both ASLR and DEP to exploit the unpatched Adobe Reader bug that Adobe warned users about on Wednesday. The exploit works on machines running either Windows Vista or Windows 7 and is also dropping a file on compromised...

Apple Zaps JailbreakMe Bugs in Record Time

Less than two weeks after exploits for a pair of serious security vulnerabilities were fitted into an automated JailbreakMe.com exploit, Apple has rushed out a patch to block the jailbreaking of iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. The iOS 3.2.2 for iPad and iOS 4.0.2 iPhone and iPod Touch update...

Security Risks Abound in Virtualized Environments

Through 2012, 60 percent of virtualized servers will be less secure than the physical servers they replace, according to Gartner. Although they expect this figure to fall to 30 percent by the end of 2015, analysts warned that many virtualization deployment projects are being undertaken without...

Apple Patches 12 Serious Mac OS X Flaws

Apple’s first Mac OS X security update for 2010 is out, providing cover for at least 12 serious vulnerabilities. The update, rated critical, plugs security holes that could lead to code execution vulnerabilities if a Mac user is tricked into opening audio files or surfing to a rigged Web site. Wi...

Human Error Blamed for Leak of 1 Billion Records of Chinese Citizens

A prominent Chinese tech CEO has cited human error as the likely reason hackers got their hands on the personal data of 1 billion people in China from a Shanghai police database and then put some of it up for sale on illicit online markets. A government developer wrote a blog post on the China...

Firms Push for CVE-Like Cloud Bug System

Big gaps exist in the 22-year-old Common Vulnerability and Exposures CVE system that do not address dangerous flaws in cloud services that drive millions of apps and backend services. Too often, cloud providers needlessly expose customers to risk by not sharing the details of bugs discovered on...

Zerodium Spikes Payout for Outlook Zero-Days

Zerodium has jacked up its offering price for Microsoft Outlook zero-day exploits. Act fast if you have the goods and the moral equanimity, to make up to $400,000 for a zero-click, remote code-execution RCE exploit. “Zero-click” means that targets neither have to read a malicious email message no...

‘Be Afraid:’ Massive Cyberattack Downs Ukrainian Gov’t Sites

Cyberattackers brought down around 70 Ukrainian government websites on Friday, defacing the site of the foreign ministry with a message to “Be afraid and expect the worst.” The huge attack hit on Friday, unfolding hours after Russia and Western allies wrapped up fruitless talks intended to...

Purple Fox Rootkit Dropped by Malicious Telegram Installers

A malicious Telegram instant-messaging app installer scurries past a slew of antivirus AV engines to deliver Purple Fox malware, evading detection by separating the attack into bite-sized morsels that fly under the radar. In a Monday report, Minerva Labs said that the attack evades detection by A...

80K Retail WooCommerce Sites Exposed by Plugin XSS Bug

The plugin “Variation Swatches for WooCommerce,” installed across 80,000 WordPress-powered retail sites, contains a stored cross-site scripting XSS security vulnerability that could allow cyberattackers to inject malicious web scripts and take over sites. Variation Swatches is designed to allow...

Online Merchants: Prevent Fraudsters from Becoming Holiday Grinches

As the holiday shopping season gets into full swing, merchants aren’t the only ones expecting to have a prosperous year. Fraudsters, too, are out to grab their illicit share of the money changing hands or accounts in the weeks ahead. Especially susceptible to theft by fraud are millions of...

The Best Ransomware Response, According to the Data

Ransomware has become part of the cost of doing business, and driving down that cost can be the difference between recovery and catastrophe. A data analysis from Fox-IT, part of NCC Group, offers some best practices for how to minimize the fallout of a ransomware attack, after creating a dataset ...

Squid Game Crypto Scammers Rip Off Investors for Millions

Players in the Squid Game cryptocurrency market have been eliminated — at least their investment has — by what cryptocurrency watchers have called a classic “rug-pull” scam. When SQUID tokens were first released last week, they were valued at a paltry $0.01 but promised entry into a game with the...

Facebook Outage Drags Down Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus VR

As of Monday afternoon, Facebook had been flat on its face for hours, suffering a simultaneous worldwide outage not only on its main site, but also at its Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus VR subsidiaries. We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app. We’re worki...

Apple AirTag Zero-Day Weaponizes Trackers

An unpatched stored cross-site scripting XSS bug in Apple’s AirTag “Lost Mode” could open up users to a cornucopia of web-based attacks, including credential-harvesting, click-jacking, malware delivery, token theft and more. That’s according to Bobby Rauch, an independent security researcher who...

Airline Credential-Theft Takes Off in Widening Campaign

A two-year-old espionage campaign against the airline industry is ongoing, with AsyncRAT and other commodity remote-access trojans RATs helping those efforts take flight. The campaign can effectively be a bird strike to the business engine, so to speak, resulting in data theft, financial fraud or...

The Overlooked Security Risks of The Cloud

Cloud networking has done more to change computing as we know it than any other innovation in the last 15 years. It’s enabled small companies to quickly deploy an online presence, large companies to scale as demand ebbs and flows, and in a post-COVID world, it provides the foundation for a remote...

Friends Reunion Anchors Video Swindle

The second quarter saw a rise in entertainment lures for fraud and phishing, including one campaign capitalizing on the buzz around “Friends: The Reunion.” Researchers at Kaspersky found fake sites supposedly hosting video for the much-anticipated special episode of the popular sitcom, according ...

Ransomware’s New Swindle: Triple Extortion

Ransomware attacks are exploding at a staggering rate, and so are the ransoms being demanded. Now experts are warning against a new threat — triple extortion — which means that attackers are expanding out to demand payments from customers, partners and other third parties related to the initial...

Zero Trust: The Mobile Dimension

After embarking on a second unforeseen year of mass remote work, everyone is now accessing corporate resources through the cloud. To help enable this, organizations are introducing new technologies into their standard workflows. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new realm of unmarked territory as...

Spy Operations Target Vietnam with Sophisticated RAT

An advanced cyberespionage campaign targeting government and military entities in Vietnam has been discovered that delivered a remote-access tool RAT for carrying out espionage operations, researchers said. Further analysis suggested that this campaign was conducted by a group related to a...

Microsoft Offers Up To $30K For Teams Bugs

Microsoft wants to send the message the company is serious about the security of its popular Teams desktop application and it’s willing to put some cash behind the talk. A new bug-bounty program offers up to $30,000 for security vulnerabilities, with top payouts going to those with the most...

RTM Cybergang Adds New Quoter Ransomware to Crime Spree

The Russian-speaking group behind the infamous RTM banking trojan is now packing a trifecta of threats as it turns up the heat – part of a massive new money-grab campaign. Beyond the banking malware it is known for, attackers have enlisted a recently-discovered ransomware family called Quoter as...

Yeezy Fans Face Sneaker-Bot Armies for Hot Kicks Releases

Shopping bots are likely to make it tough for everyday sneakerheads to get their hands on a pair of new Adidas Yeezy shoes from Kanye West as more styles become available through retailers in the next few months. Researchers at Cequence Security track bots across the internet, and the company’s...

Leading Game Publishers Hit Hard by Leaked-Credential Epidemic

Leading gaming companies, such as Ubisoft, have become big targets for cybercriminals that aim to turn a profit by selling leaked insider-credentials tied to the top game publishers. Over 500,000 stolen credentials tied to the top 25 gaming firms were found on caches of breached data online and u...

Tech Giants Lend WhatsApp Support in Spyware Case Against NSO Group

Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp has received new high-caliber support in its case against Israeli intelligence company NSO Group. The court case aims to hold NSO Group accountable for distributing its Pegasus spyware on the popular WhatsApp messaging service with the intent of planting its spyware o...

Insider Threats: What Are They, Really?

What an insider threat really is The idea of an “insider threat” sounds like some sort of double agent hiding away in a cubicle—someone hired to steal company secrets and take you down. That sounds pretty exciting, but it’s not very accurate. When we talk about insider threats, in reality, we’re...

Agent Tesla Keylogger Gets Data Theft and Targeting Update

Six-year-old keylogger malware called Agent Tesla has been updated again, this time with expanded targeting and improved data exfiltration features. Agent Tesla first came into the scene in 2014, specializing in keylogging designed to record keystrokes made by a user in order to exfiltrate data...

Rana Android Malware Updates Allow WhatsApp, Telegram IM Snooping

Researchers have discovered new samples of a previously discovered Android malware, which is believed to be linked to the APT39 Iranian cyberespionage threat group. The new variant comes with new surveillance capabilities – including the ability to snoop on victims’ Skype, Instagram and WhatsApp...

Kmart, Latest Victim of Egregor Ransomware – Report

Retail stalwart Kmart has suffered a ransomware attack at the hands of the Egregor gang, according to a report. The incident has encrypted devices and servers connected to the company’s networks, knocking out back-end services, according to BleepingComputer. The outlet obtained the purported rans...

Smart Doorbells on Amazon, eBay, Harbor Serious Security Issues

Researchers have found serious security and privacy issues in 11 different smart doorbells, distributed via online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, which could be exploited by attackers to physically switch off the devices. Smart doorbells, which connect to a smartphone and alert users when...

GoDaddy Employees Tricked into Compromising Cryptocurrency Sites

A recent social-engineering “vishing” attack on domain registrar GoDaddy temporarily handed over control of cryptocurrency service sites NiceHash and Liquid to fraudsters, exposing personal information of users. Vishing is a phishing scam that uses voice interactions over the phone to gain trust...

Code42 Incydr Series: Protect IP with Code42 Incydr

Stealing a jumbo-jet airplane sounds like a ridiculous movie, but it’s actually just one example of IP theft. It’s happening to tech giants like Twitter and Google, and consumer brands like Hershey. But it’s also happening to organizations built around security — like McAfee and even the CIA. In...

Ghimob Android Banking Trojan Targets 153 Mobile Apps

A new banking trojan has been discovered targeting Android users, with the capabilities to spy on 153 mobile apps from various banks, cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Researchers describe the banking trojan, called Ghimob, as a “full-fledged spy in your pocket” that can be accessed remotely by its...

Feds: Iran Behind 'Proud Boys' Email Attacks on Democratic Voters

Federal officials claim that Iranian threat actors are behind two separate email campaigns that assailed Democratic voters this week with threats to “vote for Trump or else.” The campaigns claimed to be from violent extremist group Proud Boys. Two specific email campaigns — one on Tuesday Oct. 20...

TrickBot Takedown Disrupts Major Crimeware Apparatus

The TrickBot trojan has been dealt a serious blow thanks to a coordinated action led by Microsoft that disrupted the botnet that spreads it. However, researchers warn that the operators will quickly try to revive their operations. TrickBot is known for spreading other malware, especially...

Comcast TV Remote Hack Opens Homes to Snooping

A security flaw allowing attackers to remotely snoop in on victims’ private conversations was found to stem from an unexpected device – their TV remotes. The flaw stems from Comcast’s XR11, a popular voice-activated remote control for cable TV, which has more than 18 million units deployed across...

Live Webinar: XDR and Beyond

Anyone paying attention to the cybersecurity technology market has heard the term XDR – Extended Detection and Response. It’s a new technology approach that combines multiple protection technologies into a single platform. All the analyst firms are writing about it and many of the top cybersecuri...

Hackers Exploit Autodesk Flaw in Recent Cyberespionage Attack

Threat actors exploited a vulnerability in the popular 3D computer graphics Autodesk software in order to launch a recent cyber-espionage attack against an international architectural and video production company. Researchers said that further analysis of the attack points to a sophisticated,...