Cyber Attack | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

In both April and June this year, a series of cyber attacks was conducted against the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) . These attacks resulted in 21 million current and former Federal government employees' information being stolen. After months of investigation, the FBI's Cyber Task Force identified several Remote Access Tools (RATs) that were used to carry out the attack. One of the more effective tools discovered is named ' FF-RAT '. FF-RAT evades endpoint detection through stealth tactics, including the ability to download DLLs remotely and execute them in memory only. Hackers use RATs to gain unlimited access to infected endpoints. Once the victim's access privilege is acquired, it is then used for malware deployment, command and control (C&C) server communication, and data exfiltration. Most Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks also take advantage of RAT functionality for bypassing strong authentication, reconnaissance, spreading

The Potential threat, range from very narrow to very broad, posed by Cyber-Terrorism has provoked considerable alarm. Terrorists involved in Cyber Espionage and Operations aim at gaining access to Nation's critical infrastructure involving both Government as well as Private sectors. The Frequency and Intensity of such Cyber-attacks are increasing rapidly and extending into absolute cyber-war between states, allowing terrorist organizations to pilfer data from financial and military organizations. Similar Incident happened, few months back, when a group of Middle-east terrorists tried to infiltrate Indian Government officials operational in Cyber related divisions. In response, a team of Independent Indian security researchers planned a counter operation to track down the terrorist organization behind the cyber attack. Shesh Sarangdhar , a security researcher at Seclabs & Systems Pvt. told The Hacker News that his team successfully penetrated the sourc

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,

Remember the previously demonstrated technique to Hack into air-gapped computers using Heat waves? What if the same was possible to hack computers to steal data using Sound waves ? Imagine, If a remote hacker could steal classified information from a targeted computer without having to physically and Internet access to it. A team of security researchers has demonstrated exactly the same by developing a new hacking technique called Funtenna that uses sound and radio waves to siphon data from computers even without Internet access. According to a lead researcher Ang Cui of Red Balloon Security, the Funtenna radio signal hack has the potential to turn Internet-connected devices (printer, washing machine and air conditioner) – popularly known as the Internet of Things – into bugs that can transmit data out of a network using sound waves that can not be heard by a human ear. How Funtenna Works? The attacker only needs to install malware on a target's devic

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) – the organisation responsible for allocating domain names and IP addresses for the Internet – has been hacked , potentially compromising its customers' names, email addresses, hashed passwords, and more. The US-administered non-profit corporation admitted on Wednesday that its server security was breached within the past week and that… …an " unauthorised person " gained access to usernames , email addresses , and encrypted passwords for profile accounts on ICANN.org public website. The organisation believes that the leaked information includes harmless information such as user preferences, public biographies, interests, newsletters, and subscriptions. Less than ten months ago, ICANN was hacked  by a hacker who gained access to its internal system following a spear phishing attack in November last year. Employees were tricked into handing over their credentials after receiving malicious emails

Internet of Things (IoT) with the purpose of providing convenience to the users enabled every object in the universe to be as smart as a whip. By assigning IP address to all sorts of devices, ranging from household appliances, machines, medical devices and sensors to other day-to-day objects, and putting them all together on a standardised network is a common Internet of Things (IoT) practice. Is Internet of Things Secure? In my previous articles, I gave you a glance of the most vulnerable smart cities that are increasingly adopting devices connected to the Internet in an attempt to add convenience and ease to daily activities. By 2020, there will be more than 45 Billion Internet-connected devices that will transform the way we live and work. The bottom line: As the number of IoT enabled systems increases, the complexity of handling them increases; leading to an introduction of new risk and vulnerabilities associated with them. Security of Internet of

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) type attacks continue to emerge on a global scale. What makes these attacks deviate from the norm is often the resources required to develop and implement them: time, money, and the knowledge required to create custom pieces of malware to carry out specific, targeted attacks. Operation Lotus Blossom is one of the more recent APT attacks that has been discovered and analyzed. It is an advanced adversary campaign against the mostly government and state-sponsored entities in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Indonesia. It is thought that this group carried out the attack to gain a geopolitical advantage by stealing specific information from government and military institutions in that area.  At this point, it is still too early to tell if the reach of the attack will extend to the private sector (a la Stuxnet and Duqu). How does the attack work? It was found that Operation Lotus Blossom involved a novel custom-built malware

Imagine… You drive to work in your Smart-Car connected to the GPS automatically, but a hacker breaks into your car's network, takes control of the steering wheel, crashes you into a tree, and BOOM ! Believe it or not, such cyber attacks on smart devices are becoming reality. Car Hacking was recently demonstrated by a pair of security researchers who controlled a Jeep Cherokee remotely from miles away, which shows a rather severe threat to the growing market of the Internet of Things (IoT) . Internet of Things (IoT) — A technology that connects objects to a network or the Internet, and enables interaction among varied devices such as: Smart Cars Smart TVs Refrigerators Wearables Routers Other embedded computing as well as non-computing devices. Few days back, I had read about Smart Dustbins that are the latest smart objects to become Wi-Fi-enabled. Internet of Things to make Cities Smart or Dumb? Cities around the world are becoming

Do you own a Smartwatch ? If yes, then how safe it is? There are almost 100 percent chances that you own a vulnerable Smartwatch. Computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard is warning users of smartwatches including Apple Watch and Samsung Gear that their wearable devices are vulnerable to cyber attacks. In a study, HP's Fortify tested today's top 10 smartwatches for security features, such as basic data encryption, password protection and privacy concerns. The most shocking part of the study was that –  Not even a Single Smartwatch Found to be 100 percent Safe Security experts found that 100 percent of wearable devices contained at least one serious security vulnerability that could make the devices vulnerable to hackers. With the increase in the adoption of smartwatches, manufacturers need to pay closer attention to the customers' security because these wearable devices could potentially open doors to new threats to personal and sensitive informat

Hacking Team , the Italy-based spyware company that sells spying software to law enforcement agencies worldwide, says the company has always operated with the law and regulation in an ethical manner. However, there was only one Violation of Law in this entire event, and that is – " the massive cyber attack on the Hacking Team. " company stated. The recent hack on Hacking Team exposed nearly 500GB of massive internal documents including internal emails, hacking tools, zero-day exploits , surveillance tools, source code for Spyware and a spreadsheet listing every government client with date of purchase and amount paid. Hacking Team Hack and Media Reports: The attack on Hacking Team was really huge in every sense. The team finally shows its disappointment with media on its hacking incident saying, the company that helps government fight crimes is being treated as the culprits, and the criminals who attacked the company are not. " Had a media company

The US federal agency has notified its 4 Million current and former government employees that their private data has been compromised in a massive data breach. Hackers managed to break into US government computer systems in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and steal records of Millions of employees, making it one of the largest known breaches of information ever on federal workers. The stolen information includes birth dates, credit card data, banking records, security clearance information, and background checks dating back three decades, potentially affecting people across the spectrum of the federal agency. The massive breach is believed to be carried out by the hackers based in China, the Obama administration announced on Thursday. The breach is believed to be an "attack against the (American) nation." Biggest Data Breach in US History However, China has denied any involvement in what could be the largest cyber-attack in US history by c

The bandwidth of Millions of users of a popular free VPN service is being sold without their knowledge in an attempt to cover the cost of its free service, which could result in a vast botnet-for-sale network. " Hola ," a free virtual private network, is designed to help people abroad watch region restricted shows like American Netflix, and other streaming United States media. Hola is selling users' bandwidth: Hola is easy-to-use browser plugin available in the Google Chrome Store with currently more than 6 Million downloads . But, unfortunately, Hola could be used by hackers to maliciously attack websites, potentially putting its users at risk of being involved in illegal or abusive activities. Hola uses a peer-to-peer system to route users' traffic. So, if you are in Denmark and wants to watch a show from America, you might be routed through America-based user's Internet connections. However, Hola is not leaving a chance to make money o

Security firm Check Point has uncovered what seems to be a successful, and long-running, cyber-surveillance campaign called " Volatile Cedar ." Check Point found that targets of the attack included, but were not limited to, defense contractors, media companies, telecommunications, and educational institutions. The attack is said to have originated in Lebanon and possibly has political ties in the region. According to an article in Techworld , previous cyber-campaigns originating from Lebanon have been either extremely unsophisticated or targeted at other countries in the region. However, Volatile Cedar is different. According to the report, this campaign has been in operation since 2012 and has successfully penetrated a large number of targets across the globe. During this time it has allowed the attackers to steal data and monitor a large volume of victim's actions. The actors involved in this campaign do not appear to be using flashy mechanisms like zero day attacks

Just after a new security vulnerability surfaced Wednesday, many tech outlets started comparing it with HeartBleed, the serious security glitch uncovered last year that rendered communications with many well-known web services insecure, potentially exposing Millions of plain-text passwords. But don't panic. Though the recent vulnerability has a more terrific name than HeartBleed , it is not going to cause as much danger as HeartBleed did. Dubbed VENOM , stands for Virtualized Environment Neglected Operations Manipulation , is a virtual machine security flaw uncovered by security firm CrowdStrike that could expose most of the data centers to malware attacks, but in theory. Yes, the risk of Venom vulnerability is theoretical as there is no real-time exploitation seen yet, while, on the other hand, last year's HeartBleed bug was practically exploited by hackers unknown number of times, leading to the theft of critical personal information. Now let's know more about Ven

There is a very sleek line between hacking and security. The security used to protect the public could be misused by hackers against the public itself, and one shouldn't forget that with the advance in technology, the techniques used by cyber criminals also improves. Today, What hackers need to conduct a successful cyber attack? Maybe just a computing device injected under the skin of their bodies, who can bear the pain, would be enough to help complete a successful cyber attack – also known as Biohacking . This was exactly what presented by the former U.S. Navy petty officer and now engineer at APA Wireless Seth Wahle . With no malicious intention, Wahle implanted a small NFC chip in his left hand right between his thumb and his pointer finger in order to display the risks of Biohacking. Hacking Android devices using NFC implants: For those unaware, NFC (Near Field Communications) chips embedded in our smartphone devices are used for transferring files and in various mobile pa

The infamous hacking group Anonymous that vowed an ' Electronic Holocaust ' against Israel and promised to 'erase Israel from cyberspace' on 7th April, managed to launch a cyber attack, beginning Tuesday morning. In a spooky video " message to Israel " posted on YouTube March 4 , Anonymous declared cyber attack against Israel on April 7 in response to what the group calls ' crimes in the Palestinian territories. ' Today we noticed a number of hacking incidents against Israeli cyberspace under #OpIsrael . Anonymous conduct #OpIsrael attack against Israel every year on 7th April and this is the fourth annual cyber attack on Israel in order to protest against Israeli bombing on the Palestinian territory. CYBER ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAEL Today, Anonymous and Pro-Palestinian hackers targeted dozens of Israeli Government websites , including the Knesset portal (parliament), as well as websites related to the Israeli court system and the

The famous cyber hacker group Anonymous has vowed an ' Electronic Holocaust ' against Israel in response to what the group calls 'crimes in the Palestinian territories'. In a spooky video " message to Israel " posted on YouTube March 4, Anonymous declared yet another cyber attack on April 7, which is one week before Holocaust Remembrance day. Totally in news delivering style, the video clip shows a man wearing an Anonymous mask and threatening to take down Israeli servers and websites related to critical infrastructure next week, promising to 'erase you from cyberspace'. " We will erase [Israel] from cyberspace in our electronic Holocaust ," says the video. " As we did many times, we will take down your servers, government websites, Israeli military sites, and Israeli institutions. " The cyber activist group declared Palestinians youths as a 'symbol of freedom', and urged them to "never give up. [Anonymous] are with