Security

What was just a rumor has been confirmed: employees of ByteDance, the China-based company that owns TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, accessed data from TikTok to track a Financial Times reporter and a former BuzzFeed reporter in a bid to identify the source of leaks to the media, ByteDance’s general counsel Erich Andersen admitted

by Paul Ducklin Popular password management company LastPass has been under the pump this year, following a network intrusion back in August 2022. Details of how the attackers first got in are still scarce, with LastPass’s first official comment cautiously stating that: [A]n unauthorized party gained access to portions of the LastPass development environment through

The FBI has warned that cyber-criminals are using search engine advertisement services to defraud the public. The public service announcement, issued on December 21, 2022, stated that threat actors are purchasing these ad services to impersonate brands for the purpose of luring users to malicious websites. These sites, which “look identical to the impersonated business’s

by Paul Ducklin STOP THE CROOKS BEFORE THEY STOP YOU! Paul Ducklin talks to world-renowned cybersecurity expert Fraser Howard, Director of Research at SophosLabs, in this fascinating episode, recorded during our recent Security SOS Week 2022. When it comes to fighting cybercrime, Fraser truly is a “specialist in everything”, and he also has the knack

A leading pediatric hospital in Canada has been hit by a cyber-attack, causing several network systems to go down. The Hospital for Sick Children, known as SickKids, based in Toronto, Canada, informed the public of the ongoing cyber-incident in a Twitter post on December 20, 2022. It revealed it has activated ‘Code Grey’ – system

by Paul Ducklin Black Friday is behind us, that football thing they have every four years is done and dusted (congratulations – spoiler alert! – to Argentina), it’s the summer/winter solstice (delete as inapplicable)… …and no one wants to get locked out of their social media accounts, especially when it’s the time for sending and

A new security threat to a recently introduced functionality in Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been uncovered by researchers from Mitiga. The attack vector relates to AWS’ Amazon Virtual Private Cloud feature ‘Elastic IP transfer,’ which was announced in October 2022. This feature enables a far easier transfer of Elastic IP addresses from one AWS

by Paul Ducklin When we woke up this morning, our cybersecurity infofeed was awash with “news” that Apple had just patched a security hole variously described a “gnarly bug”, a “critical flaw” that could leave your Macs “defenceless”, and the “Achilles’ heel of macOS”. Given that we usually check our various security bulletin mailing lists

by Paul Ducklin The “Missing Cryptoqueen” saga has made long-term headlines since co-founders Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood started a cryptocurrency scam known as OneCoin, way back in 2014. Ignatova, who hails from Bulgaria, and who apparently liked to be known as The Cryptoqueen (her charge sheet even shows that name as an alias),

Ransomware groups are expected to tweak their tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and shift their business models as organizations strengthen their cybersecurity measures, law enforcement gets better at tracking down threat actors and governments tighten regulations on cryptocurrencies, according to Trend Micro’s latest research paper. In the report, published on 15 December and titled The

Social media data analytics tool Social Blade has announced a breach that affected its systems on December 14 and exposed users’ personally identifiable information (PII), which was then offered for sale on the dark web. The company did not issue a public warning about the incident but has warned users directly via email. One of the

Social media giant Meta has awarded a total of $2m as part of its bug bounty program. The total amount since the program’s establishment in 2011 is reportedly $16m. The figures come from a blog post Meta published on Thursday looking back at the highlights from the company’s bug bounty program over the last decade.

The Agenda ransomware group has been observed developing new malware using the Rust programming language and using it to breach several companies. “The threat actors not only claimed that they were able to breach the servers of these companies but also threatened to publish their files,” wrote Trend Micro researchers, who recently discovered the new malicious

by Paul Ducklin If you’re a regular Naked Security reader, you can probably guess where on the planet we’re headed in this virtual journey…. …we’re off once more to the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Researchers in the department’s Cyber-Security Research Center regularly investigate security

The US Senate passed a bill on Wednesday banning federal employees from using the TikTok app on devices provided by the government. The No TikTok on Government Devices Act was approved after no senators objected to the measure authored by Missouri republican senator Josh Hawley. “TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s

by Paul Ducklin PWNING THE WINDOWS KERNEL Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere that good podcasts

Prominent threat actors have been spotted exploiting legitimately signed Microsoft drivers in active intrusions into telecommunication, business process outsourcing (BPO), managed security service providers (MSSP) and financial services companies. The findings from SentinelLabs, Sophos and Mandiant were first shared with Microsoft in October 2022. On Tuesday, the four companies released advisories detailing the attacks. Investigations into

by Paul Ducklin Another month, another Microsoft Patch Tuesday, another 48 patches, another two zero-days… …and an astonishing tale about a bunch of rogue actors who tricked Microsoft itself into giving their malicious code an official digital seal of approval. For a threat researcher’s view of the Patch Tuesday fixes for December 2022, please consult

Social media company Twitter has issued a public statement regarding allegations that it was hacked earlier this year. Writing in a blog post on Friday, the Elon Musk-owned platform said it learned that someone had potentially exploited a vulnerability that Twitter reportedly discovered in January and fixed in June 2022. The flaw enabled someone submitting

by Paul Ducklin Apple has just published a wide range of security fixes for all its supported platforms, from the smallest watch to the biggest laptop. In other words, if you’ve got an Apple product, and it’s still officially supported, we urge you to do an update check now. Remember that even if you’ve set

The cost of the cyber-attack that hit the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) last year has officially reached €80m ($83.75m). The figures come from a letter from HSE chief information officer Fran Thompson sent to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín last Friday. The missive, viewed by The Irish Times, comes months after the Department of Health

by Paul Ducklin You’ve probably heard of Pwn2Own, a hacking contest that started life alongside the annual CanSecWest cybersecurity event in Vancouver, Canada. Pwn2Own is now a multi-million “hackers’ brand” in its own right, having been bought up by anti-virus outfit Trend Micro and extended to cover many more types of bug than just browsers

A subgroup of the Iran-based Cobalt Mirage threat group has been observed leveraging Drokbk malware to achieve persistence on victims’ systems. The claims come from Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) researchers, who shared an advisory about Drokbk with Infosecurity before publication. According to the security team, the attacks come from Cobalt Mirage’s subgroup, Cluster B.

Business email compromise (BEC) scams have been increasingly targeting mobile devices, particularly with SMS-focused attacks. According to a new advisory by cybersecurity specialists at Trustwave, the trend indicates a broader shift towards phishing scams via text messages. “Phishing scams are prevalent in the SMS threat landscape, and now, BEC attacks are also going mobile,” reads

Threat group Silence has been spotted infecting an increasing number of devices using Truebot malware. The findings come from Cisco Talos researchers, who have also suggested a connection between Silence and the infamous hacking group Evil Corp (tracked by Cisco as TA505). According to an advisory published on Thursday, the campaigns observed by the firm

by Paul Ducklin DATA BREACHES – THE STING IN THE TAIL Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and

Indiana’s attorney general filed two separate lawsuits against social media firm TikTok Wednesday alleging the platform promoted content to young users that isn’t age-appropriate and did not adequately protect the safety of users’ data. According to court documents, the TikTok algorithm “promotes a variety of inappropriate content to 13-17-year-old users throughout the United States.” Indiana’s

by Paul Ducklin Researchers at application security company Jscrambler have just published a cautionary tale about supply chain attacks… …that is also a powerful reminder of just how long attack chains can be. Sadly, that’s long merely in terms of time, not long in terms of technical complexity or the number of links in the

Threat actors have been observed targeting companies operating within the cryptocurrency industry for financial gain. According to a new advisory published by Microsoft on Tuesday, attacks targeting this market have taken several forms over the past few months, including fraud, vulnerability exploitation, fake applications and info stealer deployment. “We are also seeing more complex attacks

by Paul Ducklin BUSINESS RISKS FROM AFTER-HOURS MALWARE Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere that good