Cyber Security

Microsoft plugged as many as 89 security flaws as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday updates released today, including fixes for an actively exploited zero-day in Internet Explorer that could permit an attacker to run arbitrary code on target machines. Of these flaws, 14 are listed as Critical, and 75 are listed as Important in

Cybersecurity researchers on Wednesday shed light on a new sophisticated backdoor targeting Linux endpoints and servers that’s believed to be the work of Chinese nation-state actors. Dubbed “RedXOR” by Intezer, the backdoor masquerades as a polkit daemon, with similarities found between the malware and those previously associated with the Winnti Umbrella (or Axiom) threat group

Threat actors known for keeping a low profile do so by ceasing operations for prolonged periods in between to evade attracting any attention as well as constantly refining their toolsets to fly below the radar of many detection technologies. One such group is FIN8, a financially motivated threat actor that’s back in action after a

The SolarWinds Sunburst attack has been in the headlines since it was first discovered in December 2020. As the so-called layers of the onion are peeled back, additional information regarding how the vulnerability was exploited, who was behind the attack, who is to blame for the attack, and the long-term ramifications of this type of

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malware dropper contained in as many as 9 Android apps distributed via Google Play Store that deploys a second stage malware capable of gaining intrusive access to the financial accounts of victims as well as full control of their devices. “This dropper, dubbed Clast82, utilizes a series of techniques

A malicious web shell deployed on Windows systems by leveraging a previously undisclosed zero-day in SolarWinds’ Orion network monitoring software may have been the work of a possible Chinese threat group. In a report published by Secureworks on Monday, the cybersecurity firm attributed the intrusions to a threat actor it calls Spiral. Back on December

A new research has yielded yet another means to pilfer sensitive data by exploiting what’s the first “on-chip, cross-core” side-channel in Intel Coffee Lake and Skylake processors. Published by a group of academics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the findings are expected to be presented at the USENIX Security Symposium coming this August.

Hackers with suspected ties to Iran are actively targeting academia, government agencies, and tourism entities in the Middle East and neighboring regions as part of an espionage campaign aimed at data theft. Dubbed “Earth Vetala” by Trend Micro, the latest finding expands on previous research published by Anomali last month, which found evidence of malicious

FireEye and Microsoft on Thursday said they discovered three more malware strains in connection with the SolarWinds supply-chain attack, including a “sophisticated second-stage backdoor,” as the investigation into the sprawling espionage campaign continues to yield fresh clues about the threat actor’s tactics and techniques. Dubbed GoldMax (aka SUNSHUTTLE), GoldFinder, and Sibot, the new set of

In what’s a case of hackers getting hacked, a prominent underground online criminal forum by the name of Maza has been compromised by unknown attackers, making it the fourth forum to have been breached since the start of the year. The intrusion is said to have occurred on March 3, with information about the forum

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Cybersecurity researchers on Thursday disclosed two distinct design and implementation flaws in Apple’s crowdsourced Bluetooth location tracking system that can lead to a location correlation attack and unauthorized access to the location history of the past seven days, thereby by deanonymizing users. The findings are a consequence of an exhaustive review undertaken by the Open

Microsoft has awarded an independent security researcher $50,000 as part of its bug bounty program for reporting a flaw that could have allowed a malicious actor to hijack users’ accounts without their knowledge. Reported by Laxman Muthiyah, the vulnerability aims to brute-force the seven-digit security code that’s sent to a user’s email address or mobile

Enterprise cloud security firm Qualys has become the latest victim to join a long list of entities to have suffered a data breach after zero-day vulnerabilities in its Accellion File Transfer Appliance (FTA) server were exploited to steal sensitive business documents. As proof of access to the data, the cybercriminals behind the recent hacks targeting

Signaling a major shift to its ads-driven business model, Google on Wednesday unequivocally stated it would not build alternate identifiers or tools to track users across multiple websites once it begins phasing out third-party tracking cookies from its Chrome browser by early 2022. “Instead, our web products will be powered by privacy-preserving APIs which prevent

Following Microsoft’s release of out-of-band patches to address multiple zero-day flaws in on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Server, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued an emergency directive warning of “active exploitation” of the vulnerabilities. The alert comes on the heels of Microsoft’s disclosure that China-based hackers were exploiting unknown software bugs

The attack surface is virtually expanding before our eyes. Protecting assets across multiple locations, with multiple solutions from different vendors, has become a daily concern for CISOs globally. In a new e-book recently published (download here), CISOs with small security teams talk about the drivers for replacing their EDR/NGAV solutions with an Autonomous XDR solution

Cybercriminals are now deploying remote access Trojans (RATs) under the guise of seemingly innocuous images hosted on infected websites, once again highlighting how threat actors quickly change tactics when their attack methods are discovered and exposed publicly. New research released by Cisco Talos reveals a new malware campaign targeting organizations in South Asia that utilize

Microsoft has released emergency patches to address four previously undisclosed security flaws in Exchange Server that it says are being actively exploited by a new Chinese state-sponsored threat actor with the goal of perpetrating data theft. Describing the attacks as “limited and targeted,” Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) said the adversary used these vulnerabilities to

A popular jailbreaking tool called “unc0ver” has been updated to support iOS 14.3 and earlier releases, thereby making it possible to unlock almost every single iPhone model using a vulnerability that Apple in January disclosed was actively exploited in the wild. The latest release, dubbed unc0ver v6.0.0, was released on Sunday, according to its lead

SunCrypt, a ransomware strain that went on to infect several targets last year, may be an updated version of the QNAPCrypt ransomware, which targeted Linux-based file storage systems, according to new research. “While the two ransomware [families] are operated by distinct different threat actors on the dark web, there are strong technical connections in code

Amid heightened border tensions between India and China, cybersecurity researchers have revealed a concerted campaign against India’s critical infrastructure, including the nation’s power grid, from Chinese state-sponsored groups. The attacks, which coincided with the standoff between the two nations in May 2020, targeted a total of 12 organizations, 10 of which are in the power

Let’s first take a look back at 2020! Adding to the list of difficulties that surfaced last year, 2020 was also grim for personal data protection, as it has marked a new record number of leaked credentials and PI data. A whopping 20 billion records were stolen in a single year, increasing 66% from 12

A framework notorious for delivering a banking Trojan has received a facelift to deploy a wider range of malware, including ransomware payloads. “The Gootkit malware family has been around more than half a decade – a mature Trojan with functionality centered around banking credential theft,” Sophos researchers Gabor Szappanos and Andrew Brandt said in a

VMware has addressed multiple critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi and vSphere Client virtual infrastructure management platform that may allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands and take control of affected systems. “A malicious actor with network access to port 443 may exploit this issue to execute commands with unrestricted privileges on the

Cisco has addressed a maximum severity vulnerability in its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Multi-Site Orchestrator (MSO) that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication on vulnerable devices. “An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to the affected API,” the company said in an advisory published yesterday. “A successful exploit

Researchers have uncovered gaps in Amazon’s skill vetting process for the Alexa voice assistant ecosystem that could allow a malicious actor to publish a deceptive skill under any arbitrary developer name and even make backend code changes after approval to trick users into giving up sensitive information. The findings were presented on Wednesday at the

A prolific North Korean state-sponsored hacking group has been tied to a new ongoing espionage campaign aimed at exfiltrating sensitive information from organizations in the defense industry. Attributing the attacks with high confidence to the Lazarus Group, the new findings from Kaspersky signal an expansion of the APT actor’s tactics by going beyond the usual

Ukraine is formally pointing fingers at Russian hackers for hacking into one of its government systems and attempting to plant and distribute malicious documents that would install malware on target systems of public authorities. “The purpose of the attack was the mass contamination of information resources of public authorities, as this system is used for

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