- UK’s Computer Misuse Act to be reviewed, says Home Secretary as she condemns ransomware payoffs
May 11, 2021
Priti Patel has promised a government review of the UK’s 30-year-old Computer Misuse Act “this year” as well as condemning companies that buy off ransomware criminals. The Home Secretary pledged the legal review in a speech at the CyberUK conference this afternoon, organised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). “As part of ensuring that we have ...
- Compsci boffin publishes proof-of-concept code for 54-year-old zero-day in Universal Turing Machine
May 11, 2021
A computer science professor from Sweden has discovered an arbitrary code execution vuln in the Universal Turing Machine, one of the earliest computer designs in history – though he admits it has “no real-world implications”. In a paper published on academic repository ArXiv, Pontus Johnson, a professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, ...
- Wormable Windows Bug Opens Door to DoS, RCE
May 11, 2021
Microsoft’s May Patch Tuesday release addressed a modest 55 cybersecurity vulnerabilities, including just four critical bugs. It’s the smallest monthly update from the computing giant since 2020, but it does contain a patch for a concerning wormable vulnerability found in the Windows OS. The good news is that none of the vulnerabilities are being actively exploited ...
- Industrial Cybersecurity: Guidelines for Protecting Critical Infrastructure
May 11, 2021
Over the weekend, the Alpharetta, GA based Colonial Pipeline was hit by an extensive ransomware attack that shut down its information technology (IT) and industrial operational technology (OT) systems. Simply put, an all-too-common ransomware event targeting IT systems encouraged a voluntary shutdown on the production side (OT) of the business to prevent further exposure. Colonial ...
- DDoS attacks in Q1 2021
May 10, 2021
Q1 2021 saw the appearance of two new botnets. News broke in January of the FreakOut malware, which attacks Linux devices. Cybercriminals exploited several critical vulnerabilities in programs installed on victim devices, including the newly discovered CVE-2021-3007. Botnet operators use infected devices to carry out DDoS attacks or mine cryptocurrency. Another active bot focused on Android devices with the ADB ...
- Tips to avoid the new wave of ransomware attacks
May 10, 2021
There have been a lot of changes in ransomware over time. We want to help you protect your organization from this growing attack trend. The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack is just part of a new onslaught of ransomware attacks that malicious actors are ramping up against high value victims. Why are we seeing this? These malicious actors ...
- US and Australia warn of escalating Avaddon ransomware attacks
May 10, 2021
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) are warning of an ongoing Avaddon ransomware campaign targeting organizations from an extensive array of sectors in the US and worldwide. The FBI said in a TLP:GREEN flash alert last week that Avaddon ransomware affiliates are trying to breach the networks of manufacturing, ...
- DarkSide ransomware will now vet targets after pipeline cyberattack
May 10, 2021
The DarkSide ransomware gang posted a new “press release” today stating that they are apolitical and will vet all targets before they are attacked. Last week, the ransomware gang encrypted the network for the Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer Related story: Colonial Pipeline cyberattack shuts down pipeline that supplies ...
- AXA pledges to stop reimbursing ransom payments for French ransomware victims
May 10, 2021
Insurance company AXA has revealed that, at the request of French government officials, it will end cyber insurance policies in France that pay ransomware victims back for ransoms paid out to cybercriminals. While unconfirmed, the Associated Press reported that the move was an industry first. AXA is one of the five biggest insurers in Europe and ...
- Lemon Duck hacking group adopts Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities in new attacks
May 10, 2021
Researchers have explored the latest activities of the Lemon Duck hacking group, including the leverage of Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities and the use of decoy top-level domains. The active exploit of zero-day Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities in the wild was a security disaster for thousands of organizations. Four critical flaws, dubbed ProxyLogon, impact on-prem Microsoft Exchange Server ...
- NAME:WRECK DNS Bugs: What You Need to Know
May 9, 2021
For most internet users, there’s not much of a perceivable difference between the domain name they want to visit and the server that the domain queries. That’s because the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol does a good job of seamlessly routing users to different IP addresses that are all associated with a single domain name. The ...
- Colonial Pipeline cyberattack shuts down pipeline that supplies 45% of East Coast’s fuel
May 8, 2021
Colonial Pipeline, which accounts for 45% of the East Coast’s fuel, said it has shut down its operations due to a cyberattack. The attack highlights how ransomware and other cyberattacks are increasingly a threat to real-world infrastructure. The company delivers refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil and fuel for the ...
- Qualcomm chip vulnerability found in millions of Google, Samsung, and LG phones
May 8, 2021
Millions of phones across the globe were affected by a vulnerability found within a ubiquitous Qualcomm chipset, according to researchers with Israeli cybersecurity firm Checkpoint. Check Point’s Slava Makkaveev published a blog post on Thursday highlighting a security flaw in Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem Interface “that can be used to control the modem and dynamically patch ...
- Google teams up with Stop Scams to tackle financial fraud in the UK
May 8, 2021
Google has joined Stop Scams and outlined new measures to try and clamp down on financial fraud in the United Kingdom. On Friday, Vice President and MD of Google UK & Ireland, Ronan Harris, said that Google is the first major tech giant to partner with Stop Scams UK, an industry-led group that aims to tackle ...
- Russian state hackers switch targets after US joint advisories
May 7, 2021
Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) operators have switched their attacks to target new vulnerabilities in reaction to US govt advisories published last month with info on SVR tactics, tools, techniques, and capabilities used in ongoing attacks. The warning comes after US and UK governments formally attributed the SolarWinds supply-chain attack and COVID-19 vaccine developer targeting to Russian SVR ...
- New TsuNAME DNS bug allows attackers to DDoS authoritative DNS servers
May 6, 2021
Attackers can use a newly disclosed domain name server (DNS) vulnerability publicly known as TsuNAME as an amplification vector in large-scale reflection-based distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks targeting authoritative DNS servers. In simpler terms, authoritative DNS servers translate web domains to IP addresses and pass this info to recursive DNS servers that get queried by ...
- Operation TunnelSnake
May 6, 2021
Formerly unknown rootkit used to secretly control networks of regional organizations Windows rootkits, especially those operating in kernel space, are pieces of malware infamous for their near absolute power in the operating system. Usually deployed as drivers, such implants have high privileges in the system, allowing them to intercept and potentially tamper with core I/O operations ...
- Ryuk ransomware finds foothold in bio research institute through student who wouldn’t pay for software
May 6, 2021
Security researchers have provided insight into how a single student unwittingly became the conduit for a ransomware infection that cost a biomolecular institute a weeks’ worth of vital research. In a report due to be published on Thursday, Sophos described the case, in which the team was pulled in to neutralize an active cyberattack on a ...
- Data leak implicates over 200,000 people in Amazon fake product review scam
May 6, 2021
An open database has revealed the identities of over 200,000 individuals who appear to be involved in Amazon fake product review schemes. There is an ongoing battle between the e-commerce giant and dubious sellers, worldwide, who wish to hamstring competitors and gain an edge by generating fake reviews for their products. This can include paying individuals to ...
- US Department of Defense expands its bug hunting programme to networks, IoT and more
May 5, 2021
The US Department of Defense (DOD) has significantly expanded its bug bounty program to all publicly accessible information systems, including not just websites but also networks, frequency-based communication, Internet of Things, and industrial control systems. The DoD bug bounty, which is overseen by the DoD’s Cyber Crime Center (DC3), is now much broader than the “Hack ...
