Security

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a Mitigation Guide specifically tailored for the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. The new guide outlines defensive mitigation strategies and best practices to counteract prevalent cyber-threats targeting critical infrastructure in the healthcare domain. The paper, published on Friday, emphasizes the importance of vulnerability management,

Royal Mail has revealed a multimillion-pound cost attached to a serious ransomware breach it suffered earlier this year. The British postal service company was hit by a LockBit affiliate, in an incident which caused “severe service disruption” for items sent abroad. It later transpired that the ransomware actors were demanding nearly $80m from the firm

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have released a detailed cybersecurity advisory on the sophisticated Scattered Spider threat group, urging critical infrastructure (CNI) firms to implement its mitigation recommendations. The group (also known as 0ktapus, Starfraud, UNC3944, Scatter Swine, Octo Tempest and Muddled Libra) is thought to be responsible for big-name

involving the spoofing of luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Ray-Ban. The hackers craft enticing emails promising heavy discounts on these luxury products, with the email addresses manipulated to mimic the authenticity of the brands. Despite the appearance of legitimacy, a closer look reveals that the email origins have no connection to the actual

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has introduced the Certificate of Competence in Zero Trust (CCZT), the industry’s inaugural authoritative zero trust certification.  CSA said the certification responds to the evolving landscape of pervasive technology and the inadequacy of legacy security models. It aims to equip security professionals with the knowledge necessary to develop and implement

The US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has unveiled its inaugural roadmap for artificial intelligence (AI). The initiative aligns with President Biden’s recent Executive Order, which directed DHS to globally promote AI safety standards, safeguard US networks and critical infrastructure, and address the potential weaponization of AI. The roadmap

Security researchers have discovered a total of 3938 unique secrets on PyPI, the official third-party package management system for the Python community, across all projects, with 768 of them validated as authentic.  Notably, 2922 projects contained at least one unique secret. Among the leaked secrets were various credentials, including AWS Keys, Redis credentials, Google API

The global online gaming community is facing a rising threat from cyber-criminals exploiting vulnerabilities inherent in gamers’ interactions with digital content.  A recent report by Sekoia.io has shed light on a targeted campaign using Discord messages and fake download websites to distribute information-stealing malware within the gaming sphere. According to the post, gamers, in their quest for

Two giants of the banking and legal sectors have been breached by suspected ransomware actors, according to reports. Allen & Overy is one of the UK’s “Magic Circle” law firms. It released a statement yesterday revealing a “data incident” impacting a “small number of storage servers.” Although the firm did not name ransomware as the

Microsoft has revealed a new threat campaign exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the popular SysAid IT helpdesk software. Posting to X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence account said the group is the same one responsible for the MOVEit data theft and extortion campaign – a threat actor known as Lace Tempest (aka DEV-0950,

Most British lawmakers are unaware or misinformed about how and where facial recognition technology (FRT) is being used, and the privacy threats it poses, according to a new Privacy International study. The rights group commissioned YouGov to poll 114 UK MPs about the technology, which uses AI to extract biometric data from facial images captured

The Kaspersky Cyber Threat Intelligence team has unveiled crucial insights into the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) employed by Asian Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. The 370-page report, Modern Asian APT groups: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures, published today, is based on an examination of around one hundred cybersecurity incidents that unfolded across different regions globally, commencing

A new threat intelligence assessment released by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) has warned of potential unprecedented challenges to the security of elections over the next year. In its latest report, Microsoft suggested that authoritarian nation states may attempt to interfere with electoral processes using a combination of traditional methods and emerging technologies, including AI. 

The Singapore-based luxury complex Marina Bay Sands revealed it was hit by a security incident that exposed the personal data of 665,000 customers. According to a statement published by the resort, the incident occurred on October 19-20 and involved unauthorized third-party access to its non-casino customers’ loyalty program membership data. The leaked data included personally

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned a Russian national for her involvement in laundering and transferring funds using virtual currency on behalf of Russian elites.  Ekaterina Zhdanova reportedly played a pivotal role in assisting Russian elites and illicit actors in evading US and international sanctions, particularly by

Microsoft has announced a major new cybersecurity initiative designed to help the company better respond to the increasing speed, scale and sophistication of today’s cyber-threats. The Secure Future Initiative has been driven in part by the growing sophistication of state-sponsored actors, in particular the Volt Typhoon campaign targeting US critical infrastructure and the more recent

The UK Frontier AI Taskforce, a government-funded initiative launched in April 2023 as the Foundation Model Taskforce, is evolving to become the UK AI Safety Institute. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the creation of the Institute during his closing speech at the AI Safety Summit, held in Bletchley Park, England, on November 2, 2023.

Threat actors have compromised sensitive health data on tens of millions of US patients so far this year, according to new figures released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The HHS said that there had been a 239% increase in “large breaches” reported to its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the

A new social engineering campaign conducted by the “MuddyWater” group has been observed targeting two Israeli entities with tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) previously associated with this threat actor. MuddyWater, a group known for spear-phishing emails since 2020, has historically employed links and PDFs, RTFs and HTML attachments that direct victims to archives hosted on different file-sharing

North Korean hackers suspected to be associated with the Lazarus Group have been observed targeting blockchain engineers involved in cryptocurrency exchange platforms with a new macOS malware named Kandykorn.  This intrusion, tracked as REF7001 by Elastic Security Labs, utilized a combination of custom and open source capabilities to gain initial access and post-exploitation on macOS

Cybersecurity experts at Cisco Talos have exposed the latest operations of the espionage-driven Arid Viper advanced persistent threat (APT) group. The new campaign, active since April 2022, has been targeting Arabic-speaking Android users. According to an advisory published earlier today, the modus operandi of Arid Viper involves the deployment of customized mobile malware in the

A new malicious campaign by the notorious Lazarus Group has been observed leveraging malware distributed through legitimate software. Kaspersky’s Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) unveiled the cyber campaign at the Security Analyst Summit (SAS). The team’s investigation identified a series of cyber incidents where targets were infected through legitimate software designed to encrypt web communications

Microsoft has described the Octo Tempest (aka Scattered Spider, 0ktapus, UNC3944) group as “one of the most dangerous financial criminal groups” operating today. In a lengthy analysis, the tech giant explained that the financial extortion group is unusual in comprising English-speaking threat actors, even though it has collaborated with the Russian-speaking ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware operation. “Historically,

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has announced the launch of a new offering designed to prevent school users visiting malicious websites. PDNS for Schools is completely free and will be rolled out from now into the coming year, according to NCSC deputy director for economy and society, Sarah Lyons. “This timeframe will allow

Generative AI is too beneficial to abandon despite the threats it poses to organizations, according to experts speaking at the ISC2 Security Congress 2023. During a session at the event, Kyle Hinterburg, Manager at LBMC and Brian Willis, Senior Manager at LBMC pointed out that while criminals will utilize generative AI tools and they carry

In an update to previous reports, Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) has disclosed new insights into the notorious Operation Triangulation at the recent Security Analyst Summit.  The investigation delves into the complex cyber assault that targeted both the public and Kaspersky’s own employees, offering fresh details on the attack chain and its implications

ESET Research has discovered a significant cybersecurity threat as the Winter Vivern group exploited a zero-day cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Roundcube Webmail server.  The new campaign, described in an advisory published today, targeted Roundcube Webmail servers of governmental entities and a think tank in Europe. ESET Research promptly reported the vulnerability to the

Salt Security has revealed research unveiling critical API security vulnerabilities in the OAuth protocol implementations of popular online platforms like Grammarly, Vidio and Bukalapak.  These vulnerabilities, which have now been addressed, had the potential to compromise user credentials and enable full account takeovers, endangering billions of users. The research paper, published today, marks the final chapter

A recent research report by Uptycs has highlighted the evolution of QuasarRAT, an open-source remote administration tool (RAT) known for its lightweight nature and range of malicious functions.  According to an advisory published on Friday by Uptycs security researcher Tejaswini Sandapolla, the C#-based tool, also referred to as CinaRAT or Yggdrasil, has been discovered employing

Valve is bolstering the security of its Steamworks platform by introducing SMS verification for developers, aiming to prevent future incidents of hackers infiltrating developer accounts.  The move comes in response to previous breaches where malevolent actors compromised developers’ accounts and injected malware into various game builds. While these attacks, as confirmed by PC Gamer, impacted fewer