Renowned documentarist Louis Theroux described the growing societal dangers posed by social media use during the keynote interview at the Digital Transformation EXPO Europe 2021. The session came ahead of the release of Theroux’s new three-part documentary series, exploring how tech is increasingly coalescing with human psychology. In one prominent example of this, he noted that
Month: October 2021
by Paul Ducklin Back in June this year, we wrote about a ransomware-related bust in Ukraine, featuring a police video in which a high-security door was dismantled with a BFG (Big Fat Grinder), substantial piles of cash were counted out and packed into evidence bags, and numerous fancy cars were seized. Well, here’s another bust
A good time to check if someone is using your identity is before it even happens. One of identity theft’s several downsides is how people discover they’ve become a victim in the first place—by surprise. They go to rent an apartment, open a line of credit, or apply for financing, only to discover that their finances or reputation has taken a hit because of identity thief. And those
ESET research discovers a previously undocumented UEFI bootkit with roots going back all the way to at least 2012 ESET researchers analyze a previously undocumented, real-world UEFI bootkit that persists on the EFI System Partition (ESP). The bootkit, which we’ve named ESPecter, can bypass Windows Driver Signature Enforcement to load its own unsigned driver, which
Details have emerged about a new cyber espionage campaign directed against the aerospace and telecommunications industries, primarily in the Middle East, with the goal of stealing sensitive information about critical assets, organizations’ infrastructure, and technology while remaining in the dark and successfully evading security solutions. Boston-based cybersecurity company Cybereason dubbed the attacks “Operation Ghostshell,” pointing
The offshore assets of 35 current and former world leaders have been exposed in an unprecedented leak of financial records dubbed the Pandora Papers. The cache of 11.9 million confidential files was leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington, DC. Containing 2.94 terabytes of data, the Papers represent the largest trove of
by Paul Ducklin As you probably know (or, at least, as you know now!), October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which means it’s a great opportunity to do three things: Stop. Think. Connect. Those three words were chosen many years ago by the US public service as a short and simple motto for cybersecurity awareness. 5
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th to October 15th, by celebrating the contributions and importance of Hispanics and Latinos to the United States. The 2021 Hispanic Heritage Month theme invites us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage and to reflect on how great our tomorrow can be if we hold onto our
A newly discovered data exfiltration mechanism employs Ethernet cables as a “transmitting antenna” to stealthily siphon highly-sensitive data from air-gapped systems, according to the latest research. “It’s interesting that the wires that came to protect the air-gap become the vulnerability of the air gap in this attack,” Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D in
A Kittitian soccer player has made a charitable donation of the compensation he received after being racially abused on social media. Midfielder Romaine Sawyers, who is currently on loan at Stoke City Football Club from his parent club, West Bromwich Albion, was victimized by 50-year-old cyber-bully Simon Silwood of Kingswinford, West Midlands. Silwood was arrested
The United States Coast Guard has launched a new program that gives cyber professionals the chance to become Coast Guard Cyber Officers. With the launch of the Direct Commission Cyber Officer (DCCO) program, the maritime security branch of the United States military is hoping to attract top cyber talent to work in cyberspace operations, information assurance, cyber
The long-awaited release of the new James Bond movie is being exploited by cyber-criminals, according to cybersecurity company Kaspersky. No Time to Die is actor Daniel Craig’s fifth and final fling with the internationally renowned 007 spy character created by author Ian Fleming. Bond first entered the public consciousness in 1952 with the publication of Fleming’s
A tragic case making its way through the courts in the US could prove to be the first recorded death due to ransomware. According to papers filed in June 2020 (via NBC), Teiranni Kidd of Mobile, Alabama, is accusing Springhill Memorial Hospital and its owners of failing to mitigate a crippling cyber-attack and then conspiring to hide
Crime-fighters in Europe and the UK have signed a new agreement to boost cooperation on cybercrime and other investigations. The working agreement between the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which investigates serious and organized crimes, and Europol will sit under the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement (TCA). That’s the limited post-Brexit free trade agreement between
The UK Cyber Security Council has announced the appointment of four new trustees, taking its total number to eight. The new trustees come with a range of backgrounds and expertise, designed to add legal, governance and education expertise to the Board of Trustees of the Council. They were appointed following a recruitment and selection process overseen by
Two-fifths (40%) of business executives would be willing to pay at least a five-figure ransom to restore operations following an attack, going against the advice of governments and law enforcement, according to a new report. Arctic Wolf polled 500 decision-makers from UK firms with over 1000 employees to better understand their security challenges in the new
Today marks the start of the 18th Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month in America, and this year’s theme is “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.” The digital safety initiative was launched back in October 2004 by the National Cyber Security Alliance and the United States Department of Homeland Security to help the public stay safe and secure while
The owner of two chains of American luxury department stores has warned 4.6 million Neiman Marcus customers that their personal data may have been exposed in a security incident that happened 17 months ago. Neiman Marcus Group, which owns the Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman department stores, as well as the high-end home goods line
America’s head of state, Joe Biden, has announced plans to hold a meeting with representatives of 30 different countries later this month to discuss ransomware and other cybersecurity issues. In a statement released to coincide with the first day of America’s annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month, President Biden said that the chief purpose of the confab would be to address
by Paul Ducklin We’ve been warning about fake courier scams on Naked Security for many years, even before the coronavirus pandemic increased our collective reliance on home deliveries. These scams can take many different forms, including: A fake gift sent by an online “friend” is delayed by customs charges. This is a common ruse used
by Paul Ducklin Apple’s iOS 15 is now out – the very latest software version for iPhones, just in time for the official launch of the new iPhone 13 later in the week. (Yes, you can buy an iPhone 13 today, but only by placing what modern sales and marketing jargon refers to as a
by Paul Ducklin VMware’s latest security update includes patches for 19 different CVE-numbered vulnerabilities affecting the company’s vCenter Server and Cloud Foundation products. All of the bugs can be considered serious – they wouldn’t be enumerated in an official security advisory if they weren’t – but VMware has identified one of them, dubbed CVE-2021-22005, as
by Paul Ducklin Thanks to James Cope and Rajeev Kapur of Sophos IT for their help with this article. Researchers at a cybersecurity startup called Guardicore just published a report about an experiment they conducted over the past four months… …in which they claim to have collected hundreds of thousands of Exchange and Windows passwords
by Paul Ducklin If you’ve already listened to this week’s Naked Security Podcast you’ll know that we had finally concluded that iOS 12, the version before the version before the latest-and-greatest iOS 15, which arrived this Monday… …had been dumped forever by Apple. Apple notoriously won’t tell you anything about the security situation in its
by Paul Ducklin [02’01”] A scarily exploitable hole in Microsoft open source code. [10’00”] A simpler take on delivery scams. [19’26”] Memory lane: cool mobile devices from the pre-iPhone era. [23’24”] A Face ID bypass hack, patched for the initial release of iOS 15. [35’21”] Oh! No! When you can’t get into the server (room).
by Paul Ducklin You’ve probably heard of Let’s Encrypt, an organisation that makes it easy and cheap (in fact, free) to get HTTPS certificates for your web servers. HTTPS, short for secure HTTP, relies on the encryption protocol known as TLS, which is short for transport layer security. TLS encrypts and protects the data you
by Paul Ducklin A not-yet-published paper from researchers in the UK has been making media headlines because of its dramatic claims about Apple Pay. Apple-centric publication 9to5Mac covered it with a headline that was almost a story in itself: Apparent flaw allows hackers to steal money from a locked iPhone, when a Visa card is
by Paul Ducklin [00’22”] Guess what? iOS 12 wasn’t dead, it was just resting. [03’04”] Let’s Encrypt brings HTTPS to everyone. [12’12”] Researchers rediscover an Outlook data leakage issue. [25’34”] VMware keeps it real. [28’47”] Oh! No! When the mouse is away, the cat will play. With Paul Ducklin and Doug Aamoth. Intro and outro
by Paul Ducklin You might be forgiven for thinking that cybercrime is almost all about ransomware and cryptocoins these days. In a ransomware attack, the crooks typically blackmail you to send them cryptocurrency in return for giving you your stolen data back (or for not selling it on to someone else). In a cryptocoin attack,
Summary In late June 2021, Secureworks® Counter Threat Unit™ (CTU) researchers discovered a flaw in the protocol used by the Azure Active Directory Seamless Single Sign-On feature. This flaw allows threat actors to perform single-factor brute-force attacks against Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) without generating sign-in events in the targeted organization’s tenant. CTU™ researchers reported