AI Security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new supply chain attack vector dubbed Rules File Backdoor that affects artificial intelligence (AI)-powered code editors like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, causing them to inject malicious code. "This technique enables hackers to silently compromise AI-generated code by injecting hidden malicious instructions into seemingly innocent configuration files used by Cursor and GitHub Copilot," Pillar security's Co-Founder and CTO Ziv Karliner said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. "By exploiting hidden unicode characters and sophisticated evasion techniques in the model facing instruction payload, threat actors can manipulate the AI to insert malicious code that bypasses typical code reviews." The attack vector is notable for the fact that it allows malicious code to silently propagate across projects, posing a supply chain risk. The crux of the attack hinges on the rules files that are used ...

Google is making the biggest ever acquisition in its history by purchasing cloud security company Wiz in an all-cash deal worth $32 billion. "This acquisition represents an investment by Google Cloud to accelerate two large and growing trends in the AI era: improved cloud security and the ability to use multiple clouds (multicloud)," the tech giant said today. It added the acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is meant to provide customers with a "comprehensive security platform" that secures modern IT environments.  Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said by bringing its cloud offerings and Wiz together, the move will "spur the adoption of multicloud cybersecurity, the use of multicloud, and competition and growth in cloud computing." Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport said it will remain an independent multicloud platform even after the deal is closed, and that it will work with other cloud companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft A...

The latest Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report found that sensitive data is found in 66% of cloud storage buckets. This data is vulnerable to ransomware attacks. The SANS Institute recently reported that these attacks can be performed by abusing the cloud provider's storage security controls and default settings. "In just the past few months, I have witnessed two different methods for executing a ransomware attack using nothing but legitimate cloud security features," warns Brandon Evans, security consultant and SANS Certified Instructor. Halcyon disclosed an attack campaign that leveraged one of Amazon S3's native encryption mechanisms, SSE-C, to encrypt each of the target buckets. A few months prior, security consultant Chris Farris demonstrated how attackers could perform a similar attack using a different AWS security feature, KMS keys with external key material, using simple scripts generated by ChatGPT. "Clearly, this topic is top-of-mind for both threat actors and ...

Cyber threats today don't just evolve—they mutate rapidly, testing the resilience of everything from global financial systems to critical infrastructure. As cybersecurity confronts new battlegrounds—ranging from nation-state espionage and ransomware to manipulated AI chatbots—the landscape becomes increasingly complex, prompting vital questions: How secure are our cloud environments? Can our IoT devices be weaponized unnoticed? What happens when cybercriminals leverage traditional mail for digital ransom? This week's events reveal a sobering reality: state-sponsored groups are infiltrating IT supply chains, new ransomware connections are emerging, and attackers are creatively targeting industries previously untouched. Moreover, global law enforcement actions highlight both progress and persistent challenges in countering cybercrime networks. Dive into this edition to understand the deeper context behind these developments and stay informed about threats that continue reshap...

Credential stuffing attacks had a huge impact in 2024, fueled by a vicious circle of infostealer infections and data breaches . But things could be about to get worse still with Computer-Using Agents, a new kind of AI agent that enables low-cost, low-effort automation of common web tasks — including those frequently performed by attackers. Stolen credentials: The cyber criminal's weapon of choice in 2024 Stolen credentials were the #1 attacker action in 2023/24 , and the breach vector for 80% of web app attacks. Not surprising when you consider the fact that billions of leaked credentials are in circulation online, and attackers can pick up the latest drop for as little as $10 on criminal forums.  The criminal marketplace for stolen credentials is benefitting from the publicity of high-profile breaches in 2024 such as the attacks on Snowflake customers using credentials found in data breach dumps and compromised credential feeds from infostealer and mass phishing campaigns, r...

Microsoft on Thursday unmasked four of the individuals that it said were behind an Azure Abuse Enterprise scheme that involves leveraging unauthorized access to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) services in order to produce offensive and harmful content. The campaign, called LLMjacking, has targeted various AI offerings, including Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service. The tech giant is tracking the cybercrime network as Storm-2139. The individuals named are - Arian Yadegarnia aka "Fiz" of Iran, Alan Krysiak aka "Drago" of United Kingdom, Ricky Yuen aka "cg-dot" of Hong Kong, China, and Phát Phùng Tấn aka "Asakuri" of Vietnam "Members of Storm-2139 exploited exposed customer credentials scraped from public sources to unlawfully access accounts with certain generative AI services," Steven Masada, assistant general counsel for Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), said . "They then altered the capabilities of ...

Welcome to this week's Cybersecurity News Recap. Discover how cyber attackers are using clever tricks like fake codes and sneaky emails to gain access to sensitive data. We cover everything from device code phishing to cloud exploits, breaking down the technical details into simple, easy-to-follow insights. ⚡ Threat of the Week Russian Threat Actors Leverage Device Code Phishing to Hack Microsoft Accounts — Microsoft and Volexity have revealed that threat actors with ties to Russia are leveraging a technique known as device code phishing to gain unauthorized access to victim accounts, and use that access to get hold of sensitive data and enable persistent access to the victim environment. At least three different Russia-linked clusters have been identified abusing the technique to date. The attacks entail sending phishing emails that masquerade as Microsoft Teams meeting invitations, which, when clicked, urge the message recipients to authenticate using a threat actor-generated dev...

AI is everywhere now, transforming how businesses operate and how users engage with apps, devices, and services. A lot of applications now have some Artificial Intelligence inside, whether supporting a chat interface, intelligently analyzing data or matching user preferences. No question AI benefits users, but it also brings new security challenges, especially Identity-related security challenges. Let's explore what these challenges are and what you can do to face them with Okta. Which AI? Everyone talks about AI, but this term is very general, and several technologies fall under this umbrella. For example, symbolic AI uses technologies such as logic programming, expert systems, and semantic networks. Other approaches use neural networks, Bayesian networks, and other tools. Newer Generative AI uses Machine Learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLM) as core technologies to generate content such as text, images, video, audio, etc. Many of the applications we use most often toda...