- Digitally Signed Bandook Trojan Reemerges in Global Spy Campaign
November 30, 2020
A wave of targeted cyberattack campaigns bent on espionage is cresting around the globe, using a strain of a 13-year old backdoor trojan named Bandook. According to Check Point Research, Bandook was last spotted being used in 2015 and 2017/2018, in the “Operation Manul” and “Dark Caracal” campaigns, respectively. The malware then all but disappeared from ...
- This new cyberattack can dupe DNA scientists into creating dangerous viruses and toxins
November 30, 2020
A new form of cyberattack has been developed which highlights the potential future ramifications of digital assaults against the biological research sector. On Monday, academics from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev described how “unwitting” biologists and scientists could become victims of cyberattacks designed to take biological warfare to another level. At a time where scientists worldwide ...
- Personal data of 16 million Brazilian COVID-19 patients exposed online
November 26, 2020
The personal and health information of more than 16 million Brazilian COVID-19 patients has been leaked online after a hospital employee uploaded a spreadsheet with usernames, passwords, and access keys to sensitive government systems on GitHub this month. Among the systems that had credentials exposed were E-SUS-VE and Sivep-Gripe, two government databases used to store data ...
- Ransomware hits largest US fertility network, patient data stolen
November 26, 2020
US Fertility, the largest network of fertility centers in the U.S., says that some of its systems were encrypted in a ransomware attack that affected the company two months ago, in September 2020. The US Fertility (USF) network is comprised of 55 locations across 10 states that completed almost 25,000 IVF cycles in 2018 through its ...
- German COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Vulnerability Allowed RCE
November 19, 2020
A security vulnerability in the infrastructure underlying Germany’s official COVID-19 contact-tracing app, called the Corona-Warn-App (CWA), would have allowed pre-authenticated remote code execution (RCE). Researcher Alvaro Muñoz wrote in a report this week that he and his team at GitHub Security Labs were chasing down RCE vulnerabilities on the platform and found one in the infrastructure ...
- Food-Supply Giant Americold Admits Cyberattack
November 19, 2020
Americold, a company whose cold-storage capabilities are integral to the U.S. food-supply chain (and soon, COVID-19 vaccine distribution), has confirmed an operations-impacting cyberattack, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing was brief and read in part: “As a precautionary measure, the company took immediate steps to help contain the incident ...
- Adventures in MQTT Part II: Identifying MQTT Brokers in the Wild
November 18, 2020
The use of publicly accessible MQTT brokers is prevalent across numerous verticals and technology fields. I was able to identify systems related to energy production, hospitality, finance, healthcare, pharmaceutical manufacturing, building management, surveillance, workplace safety, vehicle fleet management, shipping, construction, natural resource management, agriculture, smart homes and far more. Hackers have been sounding alarms about this ...
- Malicious Actors Target Comm Apps such as Zoom, Slack, Discord
November 16, 2020
In our 2020 midyear report, we discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic had forced many organizations to shift from physical offices to virtual ones — a change that also led to the rise of messaging and video conferencing apps as indispensable tools for communication. While these apps have provided businesses a way of maintaining communication between ...
- Nation-State Attackers Actively Target COVID-19 Vaccine-Makers
November 13, 2020
Three nation-state cyberattack groups are actively attempting to hack companies involved in COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research, researchers said. Russia’s APT28 Fancy Bear, the Lazarus Group from North Korea and another North Korea-linked group dubbed Cerium are believed to be behind the ongoing assaults. According to Tom Burt, corporate vice president of Customer Security and Trust ...
- COVID-19 Data-Sharing App Leaked Healthcare Worker Info
November 11, 2020
A platform used by healthcare workers in the Philippines designed to share data about COVID-19 cases contained multiple flaws that exposed healthcare worker data and could potentially could have leaked patient data. Vulnerabilities found in both the COVID-KAYA platform’s web and Android apps allowed for unauthorized users to access private data about the platform’s users and ...
- When Threat Actors Fly Under the Radar: Vatet, PyXie and Defray777
November 6, 2020
As security practitioners, Palo Alto Unit 42 researchers spend a lot of time focusing on the threat actors and malware families that leverage the most impactful exploits or affect the highest number of victims. But what happens when a threat actor goes “low and slow” to fly under the radar? One could argue that, in ...
- Healthcare system facing ‘increased and imminent’ cyber threat
November 3, 2020
Federal agencies warn that cybercriminals are escalating their extortion attempts against the healthcare sector even as hospitals are facing a nationwide surge in Covid-19 cases. In a joint alert, the FBI and two federal agencies warned that they had “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to US hospitals and healthcare providers”. The alert ...
- Cybersecurity: One in three attacks are coronavirus-related
November 3, 2020
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is ‘stepping up support’ for the National Health Service to help protect UK hospitals and other healthcare organisations against cyberattacks. The NCSC’s Annual Review 2020 reveals that the cyber arm of GCHQ has handled more 200 cyber incidents related to coronavirus during the course of this year – almost ...
- Brooklyn & Vermont hospitals are latest Ryuk ransomware victims
October 29, 2020
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn and the University of Vermont Health Network are the latest victims of the Ryuk ransomware attack spree covering the healthcare industry across the U.S. Yesterday, the U.S. government hosted an emergency call with stakeholders in the healthcare industry to alert them to an “increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. ...
- Threat Assessment: Ryuk Ransomware and Trickbot Targeting U.S. Healthcare and Public Health Sector
October 29, 2020
On Oct. 28, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a joint cybersecurity alert regarding an increased and imminent cybersecurity threat to the U.S. healthcare system. Threat operators have displayed a heightened interest in targeting the healthcare and the public ...
- FBI warning: Trickbot and ransomware attackers plan big hit on US hospitals
October 29, 2020
US healthcare providers, already under pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, have been put on high alert over Trickbot malware and ransomware targeting the sector. The warning over an “imminent cybercrime threat to US hospitals and healthcare providers” comes from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), ...
- Singapore’s worst-ever data breach prompted the nation to bolster its cyber defences
October 26, 2020
In 2018, Singapore suffered its worst ever data breach when inadequate cybersecurity at SingHealth saw a quarter of the population’s medical records stolen. The subsequent official review recommended remedies that should already be basic security policies. Two years after the SingHealth hack, Singapore’s cybersecurity is being improved by everything from the fintech-oriented @-Wise Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence ...
- COVID-19 Vaccine-Maker Hit with Cyberattack, Data Breach
October 23, 2020
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has shut down its plants in Brazil, India, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. following a cyberattack, according to reports. The Indian company is the contractor for Russia’s “Sputinik V” COVID-19 vaccine, which is about to enter Phase 2 human trials. The Drug Control General of India (DCGI) gave the ...
- Cybercriminals Gamble With Victims’ Livelihoods To Pass the Covid-19 Blues
October 12, 2020
In the Trend Micro 2020 midyear security report, we discussed how the Covid-19 global pandemic affected the cybersecurity industry. However, the pandemic didn’t just change the way businesses (and subsequently, their employees) operate; the nature of certain criminal activities have also changed in this time of isolation. Interestingly, some of this involves what we might call ...
- New Jersey hospital paid ransomware gang $670K to prevent data leak
October 3, 2020
University Hospital New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey, paid a $670,000 ransomware demand this month to prevent the publishing of 240 GB of stolen data, including patient info. The attack on the hospital occurred in early September by a ransomware operation known as SunCrypt, who infiltrates a network, steals unencrypted files, and then encrypts all of ...
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