Security

An Islamic charitable non-profit organization based in Saudi Arabia has been the target of a prolonged cyber-espionage campaign. The campaign began in May 2023 and involved sophisticated tactics employed by an unidentified threat actor. According to a new advisory by cybersecurity firm Talos, the attackers, whose initial access vector remained undisclosed, used malware dubbed “Zardoor” to

Linux developers have addressed a new security flaw discovered in Shim, a component crucial for the boot process in Linux-based systems.  This vulnerability poses a significant risk by allowing the installation of malware that operates at the firmware level (secure boot bypass), presenting challenges for detection and removal. Tracked as CVE-2023-40547, the flaw has been

February 2024 marks 20 years of Facebook’s existence. Despite the brand being well established worldwide and in our day to day lives, only 6% of people trust it and other social media companies with their personal data. In a survey of 12,000 people across the globe, the Thales 2024 Digital Trust Index found that trust in social media

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has introduced a ban on robocalls that contain voices generated by AI to protect US voters from spamming ahead of the November presidential election. Callers must obtain prior express consent from the called party before making a call that utilizes artificial or pre-recorded voice simulated or generated through AI

Raspberry Robin, a malware initially identified in 2021, has demonstrated remarkable adaptability and sophistication in its recent operations, according to a new report.  The findings come from Check Point researchers, who published a new analysis on Wednesday revealing unique and innovative methods employed by the malware, including exploiting vulnerabilities to gain higher privileges. According to

Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) infections were the biggest threat to organizations in the second half of 2023, according to a new Darktrace report. The 2023 End of Year Threat Report highlighted the cross-functional adaption of many of the malware strains. This includes malware loaders like remote access trojans (RATs) being combined with information-stealing malware. Through reverse engineering

The Pennsylvania Courts system has been hit by a cyber-attack, taking down parts of its website. The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts revealed via social media that the service had suffered a denial of service (DoS) attack. The statement noted that court web systems such as PACFile, the use of online docket sheets and the

Cloudflare has revealed its systems were compromised on Thanksgiving last year, leading to source code being accessed by threat actors. The IT service provider believes the attack, which took place on November 23, 2023, was perpetrated by a nation-state actor, who used credentials stolen during a breach of identity and access management (IAM) specialist Okta.

Romance scam victims surged by more than a fifth (22%) in 2023, compared to 2022, according to new figures from Lloyds Bank. The average amount lost per incident was £6937 ($8847) last year. This was lower than in 2022, when the average loss was £8237 ($10,505). Romance scams have exploded in prominence in recent years,

Wizz, a growing social media app among US teenagers, was removed from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store on January 30. Apple and Google had been contacted by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a US conservative anti-pornography organization, who thanked the two giants on X “for booting the Wizz app from

The White House’s goal of bolstering the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure is being threatened by US federal agencies’ lack of oversight of ransomware protections, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO noted that some agencies only assess the adoption of basic cybersecurity protections and general guidance in critical sectors like

Pawn Storm, an advanced persistent threat (APT) actor also known as APT28, has been targeting high-value entities globally, employing a range of techniques since at least 2004.  Despite relying on seemingly outdated methods like decade-old phishing campaigns, the group continues to compromise thousands of email accounts.  According to an advisory published today by Trend Micro

Payloads recently found on compromised Ivanti Connect Secure appliances could be from the same, sophisticated threat actor, according to incident response provider Synacktiv. A new malware analysis from Synacktiv researcher Théo Letailleur showed that the 12 Rust payloads discovered by Volexity as part of its investigation into two Ivanti Connect Secure VPN remote code execution

Teenagers from Western English-speaking countries are increasingly targeted by financial sextortion attacks conducted by Nigeria-based cybercriminals, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) has found. A majority of these happen on social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Wizz. Financial sextortion, the illegal act of adults manipulating minors, or other adults, into sharing sexually suggestive

More than a quarter (27%) of organizations have banned the use of generative AI among their workforce over privacy and data security risks, at least temporarily, according to the Cisco 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study. Most organizations have also instituted controls on these tools. Nearly two-thirds (63%) have established limitations on what data can be

New evidence shows that Iran’s intelligence and military services are associated with cyber activities targeting Western countries through their network of contracting companies. A string of multi-year leaks and doxxing efforts led by anti-Iranian government hacktivists and dissident networks has uncovered an intricate web of entities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) involved

Ukrainian security services have arrested a hacker for allegedly targeting government websites and providing intelligence to Russia to carry out missile strikes on the city of Kharkiv. Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) revealed that its cyber unit has identified the individual, who it accused of following instructions from Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB. Hacker Spied

North Korea-backed threat actors hacked more crypto platforms than ever in 2023 but stole less of the digital currency in total than in 2022. Crypto research firm Chainalysis has found that North Korean adversaries stole slightly over $1.0bn in 2023, compared with around $1.7bn in 2022. The 2022 spike, which set a record of stolen

The emergence of cybercrime-as-a-service (RaaS) has lowered the entry barrier into cybercrime by allowing cybercriminals to specialize in only one aspect of the attack supply chain. This can be coding malware, developing phishing kits, crafting initial access methods, releasing vulnerability exploits, or sharing data dumps listing potential victims. However, at the end of the chain,

The UK government has published a new Code of Practice on cybersecurity governance, targeting directors and other senior business leaders. The draft document aims to establish cybersecurity as a key focus for businesses, on par with financial and legal risks. The code highlights a number of areas business leaders should focus on to enhance their

A lack of understanding combined with budgetary squeezes are significant obstacles for organization’s navigating data privacy and compliance with data protection laws, according to industry body ISACA. In The State of Data Privacy in 2024 report, ISACA found that over half (57%) of cyber professionals are not confident in their organization’s privacy team’s ability to

Cybersecurity researchers at Proofpoint have identified the resurgence of TA866 in email threat campaigns after a hiatus of nine months.  Writing in an advisory published today, the firm said it thwarted a large-scale campaign on January 11 involving several thousand emails primarily targeting North America.  The malicious emails, adopting an invoice-themed guise, were equipped with

South Africa, known to be ‘the world’s most internet-addicted country,’ finds itself plagued by the internet’s dark underbelly: ransomware. It is the most targeted nation in Africa for these cyber-attacks and places eighth globally, according to the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Despite its digital dependency, the country’s cyber strategy is still

Russian threat group Coldriver has expanded its targeting of Western officials with the use of malware to steal sensitive data, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has revealed. Coldriver, AKA Star Blizzard, is linked to Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB. It is known to focus on credential phishing campaigns targeting high-profile NGOs, former intelligence and military

The value of cryptocurrency flowing into illicit addresses in 2023 was nearly two-fifths lower than the figure a year previously, with sanctioned entities accounting for the vast majority of activity, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain analysis company revealed the news in a teaser of its forthcoming 2024 Crypto Crime Report. It tracks funds stolen in

With elections expected to occur in over 50 countries in 2024, the misinformation threat will be top of mind. OpenAI, the developer of the AI chatbot ChatGPT and the image generator DALL-E, has announced new measures to prevent abuse and misinformation ahead of big elections this year. In a January 15 post, the firm announced

Email security remained top of mind for cybersecurity professionals in 2023 as over nine in ten (94%) cyber decision-makers had to deal with a phishing attack, according to email security provider Egress. This is up 2% from the previous year, Egress’ Email Security Risk Report 2024 found. The top three phishing techniques used throughout 2023

The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28), held in Dubai at the end of 2023, sparked an “unprecedented surge” in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against environmental services. In its DDoS Threat Report for 2023 Q4, content delivery provider Cloudflare found a 61,839% spike in HTTP DDoS attack traffic targeting environmental services’

A vulnerability has been discovered in a popular Bosch smart thermostat, allowing potential attackers to send commands to the device and replace its firmware, according to Bitdefender. The vulnerability impacts the Wi-Fi microcontroller that acts as a network gateway for the thermostat’s logic microcontroller. The Bosch smart thermostat products BCC101, BCC102 and BCC50, from version

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has urged critical infrastructure organizations to address vulnerabilities affecting nine industrial control systems (ICS) products. The report, dated January 11, 2024, highlighted a series of high and critical severity vulnerabilities in products widely used in sectors like energy, manufacturing and transportation. Users and administrators in these sectors