Cyber Security

The pressure on small to medium-sized enterprises to protect their organizations against cyberthreats is astronomical. These businesses face the same threats as the largest enterprises, experience the same (relative) damages and consequences when breaches occur as the largest enterprises but are forced to protect their organizations with a fraction of the resources as the largest

Law enforcement agencies from as many as eight countries dismantled the infrastructure of Emotet, a notorious email-based Windows malware behind several botnet-driven spam campaigns and ransomware attacks over the past decade. The coordinated takedown of the botnet on Tuesday — dubbed “Operation Ladybird” — is the result of a joint effort between authorities in the

Researchers have disclosed a new family of Android malware that abuses accessibility services in the device to hijack user credentials and record audio and video. Dubbed “Oscorp” by Italy’s CERT-AGID, the malware “induce(s) the user to install an accessibility service with which [the attackers] can read what is present and what is typed on the

U.S. and Bulgarian authorities this week took control of the dark web site used by the NetWalker ransomware cybercrime group to publish data stolen from its victims. “We are striking back against the growing threat of ransomware by not only bringing criminal charges against the responsible actors, but also disrupting criminal online infrastructure and, wherever

Newly discovered security vulnerabilities in ADT’s Blue (formerly LifeShield) home security cameras could have been exploited to hijack both audio and video streams. The vulnerabilities (tracked as CVE-2020-8101) were identified in the video doorbell camera by Bitdefender researchers in February 2020 before they were eventually addressed on August 17, 2020. LifeShield was acquired by Florida-based

Cybersecurity researchers today disclosed an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Azure Functions that could be used by an attacker to escalate privileges and escape the Docker container used for hosting them. The findings come as part of Intezer Lab‘s investigations into the Azure compute infrastructure. Following disclosure to Microsoft, the Windows maker is said to have

With so much of the world transitioning to working, shopping, studying, and streaming online during the coronavirus pandemic, cybercriminals now have access to a larger base of potential victims than ever before. “Zoombomb” became the new photobomb—hackers would gain access to a private meeting or online class hosted on Zoom and shout profanities and racial

Most companies with small security teams face the same issues. They have inadequate budgets, inadequate staff, and inadequate skills to face today’s onslaught of sophisticated cyberthreats. Many of these companies turn to virtual CISOs (vCISOs) to provide security expertise and guidance. vCISOs are typically former CISOs with years of experience building and managing information security

Cybersecurity researchers on Tuesday disclosed a now-patched security flaw in TikTok that could have potentially enabled an attacker to build a database of the app’s users and their associated phone numbers for future malicious activity. Although this flaw only impacts those users who have linked a phone number with their account or logged in with

An evolving phishing campaign observed at least since May 2020 has been found to target high-ranking company executives across manufacturing, real estate, finance, government, and technological sectors with the goal of obtaining sensitive information. The campaign hinges on a social engineering trick that involves sending emails to potential victims containing fake Office 365 password expiration

Over the years, penetration testing has had to change and adapt alongside the IT environments and technology that need to be assessed. Broad cybersecurity issues often influence the strategy and growth of pen-testing. In such a fast-paced field, organizations get real value from learning about others’ penetration testing experiences, identifying trends, and the role they

In 1982, when SMTP was first specified, it did not contain any mechanism for providing security at the transport level to secure communications between mail transfer agents. Later, in 1999, the STARTTLS command was added to SMTP that in turn supported the encryption of emails in between the servers, providing the ability to convert a

A newly discovered Android malware has been found to propagate itself through WhatsApp messages to other contacts in order to expand what appears to be an adware campaign. “This malware spreads via victim’s WhatsApp by automatically replying to any received WhatsApp message notification with a link to [a] malicious Huawei Mobile app,” ESET researcher Lukas

A new large-scale phishing campaign targeting global organizations has been found to bypass Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) and steal credentials belonging to over a thousand corporate employees. The cyber offensive is said to have originated in August last year, with the attacks aimed specifically at energy and construction companies, said researchers from

SonicWall, a popular internet security provider of firewall and VPN products, on late Friday disclosed that it fell victim to a coordinated attack on its internal systems. The San Jose-based company said the attacks leveraged zero-day vulnerabilities in SonicWall secure remote access products such as NetExtender VPN client version 10.x and Secure Mobile Access (SMA)

More details have emerged about a security feature bypass vulnerability in Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM) that was addressed by Microsoft as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday updates earlier this month. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-1678 (CVSS score 4.3), was described as a “remotely exploitable” flaw found in a vulnerable component bound to the

Cybersecurity researchers have warned of a publicly available fully-functional exploit that could be used to target SAP enterprise software. The exploit leverages a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2020-6207, that stems from a missing authentication check in SAP Solution Manager (SolMan) version 7.2 SAP SolMan is an application management and administration solution that offers end-to-end application lifecycle

Like it or not, 2020 was the year that proved that teams could work from literally anywhere. While terms like “flex work” and “WFH” were thrown around before COVID-19 came around, thanks to the pandemic, remote working has become the defacto way people work nowadays. Today, digital-based work interactions take the place of in-person ones

Amazon has addressed a number of flaws in its Kindle e-reader platform that could have allowed an attacker to take control of victims’ devices by simply sending them a malicious e-book. Dubbed “KindleDrip,” the exploit chain takes advantage of a feature called “Send to Kindle” to send a malware-laced document to a Kindle device that,

When you are a startup, there are umpteen things that demand your attention. You must give your hundred percent (probably even more!) to work effectively and efficiently with the limited resources. Understandably, the application security importance may be pushed at the bottom of your things-to-do list. One other reason to ignore web application protectioncould be

Microsoft on Wednesday shared more specifics about the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) adopted by the attackers behind the SolarWinds hack to stay under the radar and avoid detection, as cybersecurity companies work towards getting a “clearer picture” of one of the most sophisticated attacks in recent history. Calling the threat actor “skillful and methodic

A relatively new crypto-mining malware that surfaced last year and infected thousands of Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) databases has now been linked to a small software development company based in Iran. The attribution was made possible due to an operational security oversight, said researchers from cybersecurity firm Sophos, that led to the company’s name inadvertently

An ongoing malware campaign has been found exploiting recently disclosed vulnerabilities in Linux devices to co-opt the systems into an IRC botnet for launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and mining Monero cryptocurrency. The attacks involve a new malware variant called “FreakOut” that leverages newly patched flaws in TerraMaster, Laminas Project (formerly Zend Framework), and Liferay

Cybersecurity is hard. For a CISO that faces the cyber threat landscape with a small security team, the challenge is compounded. Compared to CISOs at large enterprises, CISOs small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have smaller teams with less expertise, smaller budgets for technology and outside services, and are more involved in day-to-day protection activities. CISOs

In January 2019, a critical flaw was reported in Apple’s FaceTime group chats feature that made it possible for users to initiate a FaceTime video call and eavesdrop on targets by adding their own number as a third person in a group chat even before the person on the other end accepted the incoming call.

Malwarebytes on Tuesday said it was breached by the same group who broke into SolarWinds to access some of its internal emails, making it the fourth major cybersecurity vendor to be targeted after FireEye, Microsoft, and CrowdStrike. The company said its intrusion was not the result of a SolarWinds compromise, but rather due to a

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered multiple vulnerabilities in Dnsmasq, a popular open-source software used for caching Domain Name System (DNS) responses, thereby potentially allowing an adversary to mount DNS cache poisoning attacks and remotely execute malicious code. The flaws, collectively called “DNSpooq” by Israeli research firm JSOF, echoes previously disclosed weaknesses in the DNS architecture, making

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a fourth new malware strain—designed to spread the malware onto other computers in victims’ networks—which was deployed as part of the SolarWinds supply chain attack disclosed late last year. Dubbed “Raindrop” by Broadcom-owned Symantec, the malware joins the likes of other malicious implants such as Sunspot, Sunburst (or Solorigate), and Teardrop

Apple has removed a controversial feature from its macOS operating system that allowed the company’s own first-party apps to bypass content filters, VPNs, and third-party firewalls. Called “ContentFilterExclusionList,” it included a list of as many as 50 Apple apps like iCloud, Maps, Music, FaceTime, HomeKit, the App Store, and its software update service that were

Joker’s Stash, the largest dark web marketplace notorious for selling compromised payment card data, has announced plans to shut down its operations on February 15, 2021. In a message board post on a Russian-language underground cybercrime forum, the operator of the site — who goes by the name “JokerStash” — said “it’s time for us