Credential Theft | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A threat actor that was previously observed using an open-source network mapping tool has greatly expanded their operations to infect over 1,500 victims. Sysdig, which is tracking the cluster under the name CRYSTALRAY , said the activities have witnessed a tenfold surge, adding it includes "mass scanning, exploiting multiple vulnerabilities, and placing backdoors using multiple [open-source software] security tools." The primary objective of the attacks is to harvest and sell credentials, deploy cryptocurrency miners, and maintain persistence in victim environments. A majority of the infections are concentrated in the U.S., China, Singapore, Russia, France, Japan, and India, among others. Prominent among the open-source programs used by the threat actor is SSH-Snake , which was first released in January 2024. It has been described as a tool to carry out automatic network traversal using SSH private keys discovered on systems. The abuse of the software by CRYSTALRAY was

In today's digital age, passwords serve as the keys to our most sensitive information, from social media accounts to banking and business systems. This immense power brings with it significant responsibility—and vulnerability. Most people don't realize their credentials have been compromised until the damage is done. Imagine waking up to drained bank accounts, stolen identities, or a company's reputation in tatters. This isn't just a hypothetical scenario – it's the harsh reality faced by countless individuals and organizations every day. Recent data reveals that compromised credentials are the single biggest attack vector in 2024. That means stolen passwords, not exotic malware or zero-day exploits, are the most common way hackers breach systems and wreak havoc. To help you navigate this critical issue, we invite you to join our exclusive webinar, " Compromised Credentials in 2024: What to Know About the World's #1 Attack Vector. " What You'

As a vCISO, you are responsible for your client's cybersecurity strategy and risk governance. This incorporates multiple disciplines, from research to execution to reporting. Recently, we published a comprehensive playbook for vCISOs, "Your First 100 Days as a vCISO – 5 Steps to Success" , which covers all the phases entailed in launching a successful vCISO engagement, along with recommended actions to take, and step-by-step examples.  Following the success of the playbook and the requests that have come in from the MSP/MSSP community, we decided to drill down into specific parts of vCISO reporting and provide more color and examples. In this article, we focus on how to create compelling narratives within a report, which has a significant impact on the overall MSP/MSSP value proposition.  This article brings the highlights of a recent guided workshop we held, covering what makes a successful report and how it can be used to enhance engagement with your cyber security clients.

Cyber espionage groups associated with China have been linked to a long-running campaign that has infiltrated several telecom operators located in a single Asian country at least since 2021. "The attackers placed backdoors on the networks of targeted companies and also attempted to steal credentials," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The cybersecurity firm did not reveal the country that was targeted, but said it found evidence to suggest that the malicious cyber activity may have started as far back as 2020. The attacks also targeted an unnamed services company that catered to the telecoms sector and a university in another Asian country, it added. The choice of tools used in this campaign overlaps with other missions conducted by Chinese espionage groups like Mustang Panda (aka Earth Preta and Fireant), RedFoxtrot (aka Neeedleminer and Nomad Panda), and Naikon (aka Firefly) in recent years. This incl

Human rights activists in Morocco and the Western Sahara region are the targets of a new threat actor that leverages phishing attacks to trick victims into installing bogus Android apps and serve credential harvesting pages for Windows users. Cisco Talos is  tracking  the activity cluster under the name  Starry Addax , describing it as primarily singling out activists associated with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Starry Addax's infrastructure – ondroid[.]site and ondroid[.]store – is designed to target both Android and Windows users, with the latter involving fake websites masquerading as login pages for popular social media websites. In light of active investigation into the campaign, Talos said it cannot publicly disclose which websites are being targeted with credential harvesting attacks. "However, the threat actors are establishing their own infrastructure and hosting credential harvesting pages such as fake login pages for media and email services po

The threat actor known as COLDRIVER has continued to engage in credential theft activities against entities that are of strategic interests to Russia while simultaneously improving its detection evasion capabilities. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence team is tracking under the cluster as  Star Blizzard  (formerly SEABORGIUM). It's also called Blue Callisto, BlueCharlie (or TAG-53), Calisto (alternately spelled Callisto), Gossamer Bear, and TA446. The adversary "continues to prolifically target individuals and organizations involved in international affairs, defense, and logistics support to Ukraine, as well as academia, information security companies, and other entities aligning with Russian state interests," Redmond  said . Star Blizzard , linked to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), has a  track record  of setting up lookalike domains that impersonate the login pages of targeted companies. It's known to be active since at least 2017. In August 2023,

A collection of 21 security flaws have been discovered in Sierra Wireless AirLink cellular routers and open-source software components like  TinyXML  and  OpenNDS . Collectively tracked as  Sierra:21 , the issues expose over 86,000 devices across critical sectors like energy, healthcare, waste management, retail, emergency services, and vehicle tracking to cyber threats, according to Forescout Vedere Labs. A majority of these devices are located in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, and Thailand. "These vulnerabilities may allow attackers to steal credentials, take control of a router by injecting malicious code, persist on the device and use it as an initial access point into critical networks," the industrial cybersecurity company  said  in a new analysis. Of the 21 vulnerabilities, one is rated critical, nine are rated high, and 11 are rated medium in severity. This includes remote code execution (RCE), cross-site scripting (XSS), denial-of-service (DoS), unauthori

The North Korea-aligned  Lazarus Group  has been attributed as behind a new campaign in which an unnamed software vendor was compromised through the exploitation of known security flaws in another high-profile software. The attack sequences, according to Kaspersky, culminated in the deployment of malware families such as SIGNBT and  LPEClient , a known hacking tool used by the threat actor for victim profiling and payload delivery. "The adversary demonstrated a high level of sophistication, employing advanced evasion techniques and introducing SIGNBT malware for victim control," security researcher Seongsu Park  said . "The SIGNBT malware used in this attack employed a diverse infection chain and sophisticated techniques." The Russian cybersecurity vendor said the company that developed the exploited software had been a victim of a Lazarus attack several times, indicating an attempt to steal source code or poison the software supply chain, as in the case of the 

Is your organization constantly under threat from credential phishing? Even with comprehensive security awareness training, many employees still fall victim to credential phishing scams. The result? Cybercriminals gaining immediate and unhindered access to sensitive data, email accounts, and other applications. But what if you could outsmart these criminals and protect your organization? Join  Graham Cluley , renowned cybersecurity expert and host of the Smashing Security podcast, and  Mike Britton , CISO at Abnormal Security, for an illuminating webinar that delves into the world of credential phishing and offers actionable insights. What Will You Learn? Understanding the Lure:  How attackers manipulate victims into submitting credentials, employing tactics such as generative AI. Why Victims Fall for the Trap:  A detailed look at why security awareness training may not always succeed in preventing employees from taking the bait. Effective Strategies to Combat Threats:  Compre

A hack-for-hire group that was  first exposed in 2019  has expanded its focus to set its sights on entities with business or political ties to Russia. Dubbed Void Balaur , the cyber mercenary collective has a history of launching cyberattacks against biotechnology and telecom companies since 2015. As many as 3,500 victims have been reported as of November 2021. "Void Balaur [...] primarily dabbles in cyber espionage and data theft, selling the stolen information to anyone willing to pay," Trend Micro  noted  at the time. Attacks conducted by the group are typically both generic and opportunistic and are aimed at gaining unauthorized access to widely-used email services, social media, messaging, and corporate accounts. Earlier this June, Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) took the wraps off a set of  credential theft attacks  targeting journalists, European politicians, and non-profit's mounted by the threat actor. "Void Balaur also goes after targets va

Credential theft is clearly still a problem. Even after years of warnings, changing password requirements, and multiple forms of authentication,  password  stealing remains a top attack method used by cyber criminals. The latest  report  from the Ponemon Institute shares that 54% of security incidents were caused by credential theft, followed by ransomware and DDoS attacks. 59% of organizations aren't revoking credentials that are no longer needed, meaning passwords can go unattended and dormant like a sitting duck (similar to what happened with Colonial Pipeline). And  Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report  cites that nearly 50% of all data breaches were caused by stolen credentials. The stats don't lie. Cybercriminals are advancing, there's no doubt, but if there's an option to take the path of least resistance, they'll take it. Too often, that means compromising passwords and exploiting vulnerable access points.  Credential Theft and Critical Access