Russian nation-state group Star Blizzard has been targeting WhatsApp accounts, with the group shifting its focus following a law enforcement takedown of its infrastructure. Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed Star Blizzard undertake a social engineering campaign in mid-November 2024. This new campaign aimed to compromise the WhatsApp accounts of individuals working in government and other policy-related
Jan 19, 2025Ravie LakshmananSocial Media / Data Privacy Popular video-sharing social network TikTok has officially gone dark in the United States, 2025, as a federal ban on the app comes into effect on January 19, 2025. “We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make
Notorious North Korea state-sponsored Lazarus group is targeting software developers in an ongoing campaign, researchers from SecurityScorecard have revealed. The campaign, dubbed ‘Operation 99’, was identified on January 9. It is designed to steal sensitive data from developer environments, including source code, secrets and configuration files and cryptocurrency wallet keys. The researchers said the campaign
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions against a Chinese cybersecurity company and a Shanghai-based cyber actor for their alleged links to the Salt Typhoon group and the recent compromise of the federal agency. “People’s Republic of China-linked (PRC) malicious cyber actors continue to target U.S. government systems, including
Latest action by the US Supreme Court has inched social media giant TikTok towards an outright ban in the US unless the platform is sold to a US firm. On January 17, the US Supreme Court rejected a free speech challenge filed by ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, over a bill requiring ByteDance
Jan 17, 2025Ravie LakshmananFirmware Security / Vulnerability Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed three security flaws in Planet Technology’s WGS-804HPT industrial switches that could be chained to achieve pre-authentication remote code execution on susceptible devices. “These switches are widely used in building and home automation systems for a variety of networking applications,” Claroty’s Tomer Goldschmidt said in
Real estate scams have been rising across the Middle East as scammers exploit the trust associated with online listings and the urgency often felt when securing a property. With the increasing use of digital platforms for property searches, many users skip essential verification steps, leaving them vulnerable to fraudsters. Group-IB’s latest analysis, published today, highlights
Jan 16, 2025Ravie LakshmananSpear Phishing / Threat Intelligence The Russian threat actor known as Star Blizzard has been linked to a new spear-phishing campaign that targets victims’ WhatsApp accounts, signaling a departure from its longstanding tradecraft in a likely attempt to evade detection. “Star Blizzard’s targets are most commonly related to government or diplomacy (both
A new initiative aimed at improving collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity across critical infrastructure has been introduced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the US. The JCDC AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook provides detailed guidance for AI developers, providers and adopters on voluntarily sharing cybersecurity information with CISA and its Joint Cyber
Jan 15, 2025Ravie LakshmananMalvertising / Malware Cybersecurity researchers have alerted to a new malvertising campaign that’s targeting individuals and businesses advertising via Google Ads by attempting to phish for their credentials via fraudulent ads on Google. “The scheme consists of stealing as many advertiser accounts as possible by impersonating Google Ads and redirecting victims to
The Biden-Harris Administration has introduced a new Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion aimed at enhancing US national security and preventing the misuse of advanced US technology by countries of concern. The rule strengthens protections against misuse of advanced AI technologies by countries of concern. Measures defined in the new rule include: Continuing restrictions on
Jan 14, 2025Ravie LakshmananEndpoint Security / Vulnerability Microsoft has shed light on a now-patched security flaw impacting Apple macOS that, if successfully exploited, could have allowed an attacker running as “root” to bypass the operating system’s System Integrity Protection (SIP) and install malicious kernel drivers by loading third-party kernel extensions. The vulnerability in question is
A cyber-espionage campaign targeting diplomatic entities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia has been linked to the Russia-aligned intrusion setUAC-0063. According to recent findings by cybersecurity firm Sekoia, the campaign involved weaponized Microsoft Word documents designed to deliver HatVibe and CherrySpy malware, collecting strategic intelligence on Kazakhstan’s diplomatic and economic relations. Infection Chain and Malware Analysis Sekoia’s
Jan 13, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Cloud Security A recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting the Aviatrix Controller cloud networking platform has come under active exploitation in the wild to deploy backdoors and cryptocurrency miners. Cloud security firm Wiz said it’s currently responding to “multiple incidents” involving the weaponization of CVE-2024-50603 (CVSS score: 10.0), a maximum
US dental and medical billing firm Medusind is notifying over 360,000 customers that their personal, financial and medical data may have been accessed by a cybercriminal actor. The breach relates to a cyber incident that took place back on December 29, 2023, and was discovered later the same day. After taking affected systems offline, Medusind
Jan 11, 2025Ravie LakshmananFinancial Crime / Cryptocurrency The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday indicted three Russian nationals for their alleged involvement in operating the cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik were arrested on December 1, 2024, in coordination with the Netherlands’ Financial Intelligence and Investigative Service,
A large-scale cyber-attack originating from outside Slovakia’s borders has hit the information system of the Office of Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre of the Slovak Republic (UGKK). The UGKK is used by the cadastral departments to record and manage information about land and property. All systems have been shut down as a response to the incident.
Jan 11, 2025Ravie LakshmananAI Security / Cybersecurity Microsoft has revealed that it’s pursuing legal action against a “foreign-based threat–actor group” for operating a hacking-as-a-service infrastructure to intentionally get around the safety controls of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) services and produce offensive and harmful content. The tech giant’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) said it has
There has been a critical error on this website.