A US federal agency was successfully targeted by a previously unknown backdoor malware called Firestarter, according to CISA cybersnoops and their UK counterparts – neither of which disclosed the agency’s name.
Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies include NASA; Homeland Security itself (cyberworkers at CISA are part of an operational unit in Homeland Security); the FBI; the DoJ; the IRS; the Department of Veteran Affairs; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and more. Described as a backdoor with remote access capabilities, Firestarter was named after Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD), the two products the malware targeted.
Read more…
Source: The Register News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Discovers 27 New Vulnerabilities Across Microsoft Products
October 2, 2020
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 threat researchers have been credited with discovering 27 new vulnerabilities addressed by the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), as part of its last nine months of security update releases. Vulnerabilities The Microsoft vulnerabilities discovered included 27 vulnerabilities rated “important,” including Remote Code Execution, Privilege Elevation, Information Disclosure and one Denial of Service ...
- Zerologon Attacks Against Microsoft DCs Snowball in a Week
September 29, 2020
A spike in exploitation attempts against the Microsoft vulnerability CVE-2020-1472, known as the Zerologon bug, continues to plague businesses. That’s according to researchers from Cisco Talos, who warned that cybercriminals are redoubling their efforts to trigger the elevation-of-privilege bug in the Netlogon Remote Protocol, which was addressed in the August Microsoft Patch Tuesday report. Microsoft announced ...
- Why Web Browser Padlocks Shouldn’t Be Trusted
September 29, 2020
For years, Apple, Firefox, Google and Microsoft relentlessly made the point that in order to avoid rogue sites you must make sure your browser “padlock” is either locked, green or is otherwise indicating a site as being “secure.” Now, cybersecurity firms are stressing that those padlocks are not enough. “You must look beyond the lock,” said ...
- Update now: Cisco warns over 25 high-impact flaws in its IOS and IOS XE software
September 25, 2020
Cisco has alerted customers using its IOS and ISO XE networking gear software to apply updates for 34 flaws across 25 high-severity security advisories. The large number of flaws affecting ISO and ISO XE are due to the advisories being announced as part of Cisco’s semi-annual release for the widely used software for Cisco routers and ...
- Critical Industrial Flaws Pose Patching Headache For Manufacturers
September 23, 2020
While patch management already presents challenges for enterprises, it’s even more of a headache for manufacturers and other industrial firms – who may even need to shut down entire factory operations in order to apply fixes. Sharon Brizinov, the principal vulnerability researcher with Claroty, has discovered and reported various security flaws in industrial control systems (ICS), ...
- Microsoft: Hackers using Zerologon exploits in attacks, patch now!
September 23, 2020
Microsoft has warned that attackers are actively using the Windows Server Zerologon exploits in attacks and advises all Windows administrators to install the necessary security updates. As part of the August 2020 Patch Tuesday security updates, Microsoft fixed a critical 10/10 rated security vulnerability known as ‘CVE-2020-1472 | Netlogon Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability’.from other specific target ...