Security

Cybersecurity solutions provider Emsisoft has released a free decryption tool to enable AstraLocker and Yashma ransomware victims to recover their files without paying a ransom. The company made the announcement in a series of Twitter posts earlier today, providing a download link and related instructions for the tool. “The AstraLocker decryptor is for the Babuk-based one using .Astra or .babyk extension, and they

A fake LinkedIn job offer was the reason behind Axie Infinity’s $600m hack, according to a new investigation by The Block. The digital assets-focused outlet said on Wednesday that while the US government attributed the attack to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, full details of how the exploit was executed had not been disclosed.  The Block said that according

by Paul Ducklin LISTEN NOW Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Paul Ducklin and Chester Wisniewski. 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 are found.

Aon recently disclosed that 145,889 of its North American customers had their sensitive information exposed in a large data breach. The British multinational financial services firm that sells a range of risk-mitigation products announced that hackers breached its systems “at various times” from December 29 2020 to February 26 2022. Aon disclosed the breach in

by Paul Ducklin Remember the Log4Shell bug that showed up in Apache Log4j late in 2021? Log4j is one of the Apache Software Foundation’s many software projects (more than 350 at current count), and it’s a programming library that Java coders can use to manage logfiles in their own products. Logfiles are a vital part

Multiple Russian influence networks have been running disinformation and influence campaigns since May designed to sow division in the West over its support for Ukraine, according to Recorded Future. These efforts are being conducted by “state-controlled media, known covert intelligence outlets, and known propaganda and disinformation amplifiers” including ‘legitimate’ broadcasters like RT, disinformation outlets like Southfront,

by Paul Ducklin Just over a week ago, the newswires were abuzz with news of a potentially serious bug in the widely-used cryptographic library OpenSSL. Some headlines went as far as describing the bug as a possibly “worse-than-Heartbleed flaw”, which was dramatic language indeed. Heartbleed, as you may remember, was an incredibly high-profile data leakage

Google has released an update to its popular Chrome browser to fix four vulnerabilities, including one zero-day current being exploited by attackers. The new Chrome version 103.0.5060.114 will be rolled out to Windows users over the coming days and weeks, according to a Google advisory. It includes the high severity CVE-2022-2294, a heap buffer overflow bug in

by Paul Ducklin Google’s latest update to the Chrome browser fixes a varying number of bugs, depending on whether you’re on Android, Windows or Mac, and depending on whether you’re running the “stable channel” or the “extended stable channel“. Don’t worry if you find the the plethora of Google blog posts confusing… …we did too,

An anonymous hacker has claimed to have stolen the personal information of 1 billion Chinese citizens, representing one of the biggest data breaches in history. Posting on the hacker forum Breach Forums last week, an online user posting under the name ‘ChinaDan’ said they obtained the information from a leaked Shanghai National Police database. They

by Paul Ducklin If you’re a Naked Security Pocast listener, you may remember, back in March 2022, that we spoke about a convicted cybercriminal from Canada by the name of Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins. By all accounts, he was part of several so-called Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) gangs, such as REvil and NetWalker, where the actual ransomware attackers act

The British army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised by a malicious third party on Sunday and used to direct visitors to cryptocurrency scams. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) press office account took to Twitter at around 7pm local time to report the incident. “We are aware of a breach of the army’s Twitter and

Kaspersky security experts have discovered new malware targeting Microsoft Exchange servers belonging to several organizations worldwide. Dubbed “SessionManager” and first spotted by the company in early 2022, the backdoor enables threat actors to keep “persistent, update-resistant and rather stealth access to the IT infrastructure of a targeted organization.” According to Kaspersky, once propagated, SessionManager would enable

by Paul Ducklin The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) famously maintains a Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Currently, nine of them are men, suspected of 22 different offences between them: Accessory After the Fact Aiding and Abetting Armed Robbery Cocaine Importation Conspiracy Conspiracy to Commit Murder-for-Hire Conspiracy to Commit Violent Crimes in Aid of

Microsoft’s Security Intelligence team has issued a new warning against a known cloud threat actor (TA) group. Tracked as 8220 and active since early 2017, the group would have now updated its malware toolset to breach Linux servers in order to install crypto miners as part of a long-running campaign. “The updates include the deployment

by Paul Ducklin We’ll tell this story primarily through the medium of images, because a picture is worth 1024 words. This cybercrime is a visual reminder of three things: It’s easy to fall for a phishing scam if you’re in a hurry. Cybercriminals don’t waste any time getting new scams going. 2FA isn’t a cybersecurity

by Paul Ducklin LISTEN NOW 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 are found.

Human negligence, cyber skills gaps and disinterested C-level execs are putting manufacturing firms at an escalated risk of serious breaches, according to Capgemini. The global consultancy collected responses from cybersecurity leaders in 950 organizations to compile its report, Smart & Secure: Why smart factories need to prioritize cybersecurity. It revealed that while over half (51%) of respondents

by Paul Ducklin This month’s scheduled Firefox release is out, with the new 102.0 version patching 19 CVE-numbered bugs. Despite the large number of CVEs, the patches don’t include any bugs already being exploited in the wild (known in the jargon as zero-days), and don’t include any bugs labelled Critical. Perhaps the most significant patch

Security researchers have uncovered a likely state-sponsored information-stealing operation targeting SOHO workers over the past two years. Coinciding with the shift to mass remote working during the pandemic, the operation was focused on accessing corporate resources via less well-protected home routers, according to Lumen Technologies. It targeted at least scores of SOHO devices from manufacturers including

Security researchers have uncovered a new Chinese influence operation targeting Western rare earth producers, which could set the tone for future campaigns in other sectors. The Dragonbridge campaign has been operating since 2019, using a network of thousands of inauthentic accounts on multiple social media platforms, websites and forums to promote Chinese interests abroad. However, Mandiant

by Paul Ducklin Sadly, over the years, we’ve needed to write numerous Naked Security warnings about romance scammers and sextortionists. Although those are general-sounding terms, they’ve come to refer to two specific sorts of online crime: Romance scamming. This typically refers to a long-game confidence trick in which cybercriminals court your online friendship under a

UK critical national infrastructure (CNI) organizations could face an exodus of cybersecurity leaders over the next 12 months due to stress and burnout, according to new research from Bridewell Consulting. The survey of 521 UK cybersecurity decision-makers in communications, utilities, finance, government, transport and aviation found that 95% of respondents are experiencing factors that would make them likely

by Paul Ducklin Another day, another De-Fi (decentralised finance) attack. This time, online smart contract company Harmony, which pitches itself as an “open and fast blockchain”, has been robbed of more than $80,000,000’s worth of Ether cryptocoins. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, depending on your point of view), if visit Harmony’s website, you’ll probably end up totally

Police from Europe and South America have teamed up to take action against an organized crime group involved in human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Between 20-23 June, they swooped on 14 locations, arrested 10 and interviewed eight victims. Among items seized in the searches were vehicles, electronic equipment, hard drives, over 40 mobile phones, SIM

The second day of InfoSecurity Europe 2022 saw Geoff White, investigative journalist and author of Penguin Books’ The Lazarus Heist, discuss how government-sponsored cyber-attackers increasingly interact with organized crime gangs, operating seamlessly on a global scale. White also touched upon the emerging world of cryptocurrency theft. In illuminating the increasing connection between cybersecurity and geopolitical

The closing keynote discussion of the InfoSecurity Europe 2022 conference was titled ‘Next Generation, Next Challenges, New Opportunities’ and was moderated by Eleanor Dallaway, editorial director of Infosecurity Magazine. Dallaway was joined onstage by specialists Marc Avery, CISO & director, Cyber Chain Alliance, Jonathan Kidd, global CISO, Computershare and Chris Green, head of PR and

by Paul Ducklin If you’re an OpenSSL user, you’re probably aware of the most recent high-profile bugfix release, which came out back in March 2022. That fix brought us OpenSSS 3.0.2 and 1.1.1n, updates for the two current fully-supported flavours of the product. (There’s a legacy version, 1.0.2, but updates to that version are only

by Paul Ducklin LISTEN NOW Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. [00’22”] Duck gets behind the Ducks. [01’34”] 2000 phone scammers arrested in Interpol action. [11’12”] A three-year-old hacking case ends in conviction. [17’13”] Canadian financial company picks up enormous data breach fine. With

Global businesses could be exposing themselves to billions in annual losses because they aren’t properly securing their APIs, according to new research from Imperva. The security firm teamed up with the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Analytics Center to analyze nearly 117,000 unique cybersecurity incidents for their report, Quantifying the Cost of API Insecurity. It revealed that vulnerable and