The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has updated its guidance on supply chain cybersecurity. The revised publication, Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management Practices for Systems and Organizations, gives organizations key practices to adopt as they manage cybersecurity risks across their supply chains. In particular, it advises organizations to consider vulnerabilities in the components of a
Month: May 2022
by Paul Ducklin LISTEN NOW Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. [00’23”] Fun Fact. What comes after “123”? [01’57”] World Password Day. (We still need it!) [04’20”] GitHub authentication troubles. [11’55”] This Week in Tech History. Sasser, the sassy Windows worm. [15’55”] Firefox hits
The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the risks of cyberespionage attacks that typically involve Advanced Persistent Threat groups and often target organizations’ most valuable data The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the risks of cyberespionage and sabotage, which typically involve Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. In this special edition of Week in security, Tony looks
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday moved to sanction virtual currency mixer Blender.io, marking the first time a mixing service has been subjected to economic blockades. The move signals continued efforts on the part of the government to prevent North Korea’s Lazarus Group from laundering the funds stolen from the unprecedented hack of Ronin Bridge
By Oliver Devane McAfee has identified several Youtube channels which were live-streaming a modified version of a live stream called ‘The B Word’ where Elon Musk, Cathie Wood, and Jack Dorsey discuss various aspects of cryptocurrency. The modified live streams make the original video smaller and put a frame around it advertising malicious sites that
IKEA says that it has notified Canada’s privacy watchdog following a large data breach involving the personal information of approximately 95,000 customers. In a statement, the furniture retailer said that some of its customers’ personal information appeared in the results of a “generic search” performed by a co-worker at IKEA Canada between March 1-3 using
by Paul Ducklin Remember the jokes (OK, they were sold as “jokes” when you were at school to add a touch of excitement to Eng. Lang. lessons) about creating valid and allegedly meaningful sentences with a single word repeated many times? There’s an very dubious one with the word BUFFALO seven times in a row,
Here’s what you should know about some of the nastiest mobile malware – from malicious software that takes phones and data hostage to RATs that allow hackers to control devices remotely These days, the device in your pocket can do far more than call or send text messages. Your smartphone stores almost every aspect of
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Windows malware with worm-like capabilities and is propagated by means of removable USB devices. Attributing the malware to a cluster named “Raspberry Robin,” Red Canary researchers noted that the worm “leverages Windows Installer to reach out to QNAP-associated domains and download a malicious DLL.” The earliest signs of the
Imagine – your favorite brand on Instagram just announced a giveaway. You’ll receive a free gift! All you have to do is provide your credit card information. Sounds easy, right? This is a brand you’ve followed and trusted for a while now. You’ve engaged with them and even purchased some of their items. The link
The owner of a Delaware computer repair shop, who alerted the FBI to the contents of a laptop reportedly owned by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, is suing a politician and several news media outlets for allegedly defaming him. John Paul Mac Isaac said Hunter’s MacBook Pro was dropped off at his shop in April 2019 and
by Paul Ducklin Back in the late 1960s and the start of the 1970s (or so we’ve heard), primary school children in the UK got a special treat. Unlike their parents and grandparents before them, they were exempted from learning how to do calculations involving money. Their teachers were no longer expected to show them
The bitter truth about how fraudsters dupe online daters in this new twist on romance fraud The world is a confusing and lonely place sometimes. Police and security experts have been out in force for years warning lonely hearts not to fall for the romance fraudsters whose schemes cost victims more than US$950 million in
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Thursday released an updated cybersecurity guidance for managing risks in the supply chain, as it increasingly emerges as a lucrative attack vector. “It encourages organizations to consider the vulnerabilities not only of a finished product they are considering using, but also of its components — which
Passwords: we entrust our most important data to these strings of letters, numbers, and special characters. So, we should make sure our passwords are words or phrases that we can easily remember, right? While this might be the most convenient option, there are more secure ways to digitally lock up your most sensitive personally identifiable
Privacy and data security concerns have been raised over a plan to link South African phone users’ biometric data to their SIM cards. The proposal by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) was among a list of draft regulations published by the watchdog for public commentary in March. If approved, it would give
by Paul Ducklin Google’s May 2022 updates for Android are out. As usual, the core of Android received two different patch versions. The first is dubbed 2022-05-01, and contains fixes for 13 CVE-numbered vulnerabilities. Fortunately, none of these are currently being exploited, meaning that there are no zero-day holes known this month; none of them
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday announced that it will expand and rebrand its Cyber Unit to fight against cyber-related threats and protect investors in cryptocurrency markets. To that end, the SEC is renaming the Cyber Unit within the Division of Enforcement to Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit and plans to infuse
A former executive of eBay has pleaded guilty to taking part in a disturbing cyber stalking campaign waged against a married couple from Massachusetts. The couple’s terrifying experience began after they wrote about eBay in an online newsletter aimed at eBay sellers, which they edited and published. Under the campaign, parcels with horrifying contents were anonymously sent
by Paul Ducklin Firefox has followed Chromium to the century mark, reaching a score of 100* with its latest scheduled almost-monthly release. For readers without the sporting good fortune of living in a cricket-playing country, an individual score of 100 in a single innings, known as a century or a ton, is considered a noteworthy
Organizations need to get better at mitigating threats from unknown vulnerabilities, especially as both state-backed operatives and financially-motivated cybercriminals are increasing their activity Zero-day vulnerabilities have always had something of a special reputation in the cybersecurity space. These software bugs are exploited for attacks before the flaw is known to the software vendor and so
Cybersecurity researchers have detailed as many as five severe security flaws in the implementation of TLS protocol in several models of Aruba and Avaya network switches that could be abused to gain remote access to enterprise networks and steal valuable information. The findings follow the March disclosure of TLStorm, a set of three critical flaws
Spyware has been detected on the cell phones of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the country’s defense minister, Margarita Robles. In a press conference given Monday morning, the Spanish government said that the phones had been infected with Pegasus spyware and extracted data from both devices. The minister for the presidency, Félix Bolaños, said that the
A Chinese state-sponsored espionage group known as Override Panda has resurfaced in recent weeks with a new phishing attack with the goal of stealing sensitive information. “The Chinese APT used a spear-phishing email to deliver a beacon of a Red Team framework known as ‘Viper,'” Cluster25 said in a report published last week. “The target
A Texas school district employee has tendered their resignation after being caught secretly mining cryptocurrency on school premises. Pings picked up by Galveston Independent School District’s firewall a couple of weeks ago aroused the suspicion of the district’s IT department. An investigation into the activity determined that multiple cryptocurrency mining machines were operating on the
India’s computer and emergency response team, CERT-In, on Thursday published new guidelines that require service providers, intermediaries, data centers, and government entities to compulsorily report cybersecurity incidents, including data breaches, within six hours. “Any service provider, intermediary, data center, body corporate and Government organization shall mandatorily report cyber incidents […] to CERT-In within six hours