- New Zealand: Money-motivated cyber attacks outnumber those carried out by nation-states
November 2, 2023
Major financially motivated cyber attacks in New Zealand have exceeded those launched by nation-states for the first time, and AI looms as an ever-greater weapon, a new report says. In its latest annual threat report, the National Cyber Security Centre said the potential impact was growing – though the number of major attacks dropped slightly, to ...
- Do government sanctions against ransomware groups work?
November 2, 2023
Earlier this year, the U.S. government imposed sanctions against Russian national Mikhail Matveev, an FBI most-wanted cybercriminal, who authorities accuse of being a “prolific ransomware affiliate” involved in cyberattacks in the United States and overseas. Authorities say Matveev played a major role in the development and deployment of the Hive, LockBit and Babuk ransomware variants, ...
- SolarWinds and its CISO accused of misleading investors before major cyberattack
November 1, 2023
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced charges against software company SolarWinds Corporation and its chief information security officer (CISO), Timothy G. Brown, for “fraud and internal control failures relating to allegedly known cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities.” In 2020, SolarWinds announced it had been hacked and that its compromised software channel was used to push ...
- Forty Countries Agree Not to Pay Cybercrime Ransoms
November 1, 2023
Dozens of US allies have signed an agreement never to pay digital extortionists, in a sign of the growing impact ransomware is having on their national security and economies. The pledge was made at the second annual meeting of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative and reported by attendant media, although there is no official word yet ...
- Ransomware gang HelloKitty exploits critical Apache ActiveMQ bug CVE-2023-46604
November 1, 2023
Beginning Friday, October 27, Rapid7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) identified suspected exploitation of Apache ActiveMQ CVE-2023-46604 in two different customer environments. In both instances, the adversary attempted to deploy ransomware binaries on target systems in an effort to ransom the victim organizations. Based on the ransom note and available evidence, we attribute the activity to ...
- Investigation of Session Hijacking via Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway Vulnerability (CVE-2023-4966)
October 31, 2023
On Oct. 10, 2023, Citrix released a security bulletin for a sensitive information disclosure vulnerability (CVE-2023-4966) impacting NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway appliances. Mandiant has identified zero-day exploitation of this vulnerability in the wild beginning in late August 2023 as well as n-day exploitation after Citrix’s publication. Mandiant is investigating multiple instances of successful exploitation of ...
- Over the Kazuar’s nest: Cracking down on a freshly hatched backdoor used by Pensive Ursa
October 31, 2023
While tracking the evolution of Pensive Ursa (aka Turla, Uroburos), Unit 42 researchers came across a new, upgraded variant of Kazuar. Not only is Kazuar another name for the enormous and dangerous cassowary bird, Kazuar is an advanced and stealthy .NET backdoor that Pensive Ursa usually uses as a second stage payload. Pensive Ursa is a ...
- British Library suffering major technology outage after cyber-attack
October 31, 2023
The British Library is suffering a technology outage after it was hit by a cyber-attack, which is affecting services online and its sites in London and Yorkshire. Access to the website, as well as the catalogue and digital collections, is temporarily unavailable. The collection of items ordered on or after 27 October, new collection item orders ...
- India: What you need to know about the Apple and Aadhaar attacks
October 31, 2023
October 31 was a big day for data protection, privacy and surveillance. First, reports poured in about a massive breach of Aadhaar information, with estimates that the data of 815 million Indians had been put up for sale on the ‘dark web’. Soon after, many opposition leaders and civil society members began sharing messages they ...
- From Albania to the Middle East: The Scarred Manticore is listening
October 31, 2023
Check Point Research, in collaboration with Sygnia’s Incident Response Team, has been tracking and responding to the activities of Scarred Manticore, an Iranian nation-state threat actor that primarily targets government and telecommunication sectors in the Middle East. Scarred Manticore, linked to the prolific Iranian actor OilRig (a.k.a APT34, EUROPIUM, Hazel Sandstorm), has persistently pursued high-profile organizations, ...
- Canada bans Chinese app WeChat from government devices
October 30, 2023
Canada has announced it will ban WeChat on government devices. The Chinese-owned app is sometimes referred to as the “everything app” – like WhatsApp, Facebook, Amazon and Tinder all in one. However Western governments have security concerns about it, mainly that the app could be used to spy on users. WeChat is one of the most ...