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"Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime. Yet it is often in the furnace of war that the sharpest tools of peace are forged." - Victor Hugo. In 1971, an unsettling message started appearing on several computers that comprised ARPANET, the precursor to what we now know as the Internet. The message, which read "I'm the Creeper: catch me if you can." was the output of a program named Creeper, which was developed by the famous programmer Bob Thomas while he worked at BBN Technologies. While Thomas's intentions were not malicious, the Creeper program represents the advent of what we now call a computer virus. The appearance of Creeper on ARPANET set the stage for the emergence of the first Antivirus software. While unconfirmed, it is believed that Ray Thomlinson, famously known for inventing email, developed Reaper, a program designed to remove Creeper from Infected Machines. The development of this tool used to defensively chase down and remove

Cybersecurity researchers are sounding the alarm over an ongoing campaign that's leveraging internet-exposed Selenium Grid services for illicit cryptocurrency mining. Cloud security firm Wiz is tracking the activity under the name SeleniumGreed . The campaign, which is targeting older versions of Selenium (3.141.59 and prior), is believed to be underway since at least April 2023 . "Unbeknownst to most users, Selenium WebDriver API enables full interaction with the machine itself, including reading and downloading files, and running remote commands," Wiz researchers Avigayil Mechtinger, Gili Tikochinski, and Dor Laska said . "By default, authentication is not enabled for this service. This means that many publicly accessible instances are misconfigured and can be accessed by anyone and abused for malicious purposes." Selenium Grid, part of the Selenium automated testing framework, enables parallel execution of tests across multiple workloads, different bro

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.

The browser is the nerve center of the modern workspace. Ironically, however, the browser is also one of the least protected threat surfaces of the modern enterprise. Traditional security tools provide little protection against browser-based threats, leaving organizations exposed. Modern cybersecurity requires a new approach based on the protection of the browser itself, which offers both security and frictionless deployment.  In an upcoming live webinar ( Register here ), Or Eshed, CEO of browser security company LayerX, and Christopher Smedberg, Director of Cybersecurity at Advance Publishing, will discuss the challenges facing modern enterprise in the new hybrid-work world, the gaps found in existing security solutions, and a new approach to securing the modern enterprise workspace, which is centered on the browser. The Browser is Where Work Takes Place The browser is the key to the organization's critical assets. It connects all organizational devices, identities, and SaaS and

The Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) has released patches to address multiple security vulnerabilities in the Berkeley Internet Name Domain ( BIND ) 9 Domain Name System (DNS) software suite that could be exploited to trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. "A cyber threat actor could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to cause a denial-of-service condition," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in an advisory. The list of four vulnerabilities is listed below - CVE-2024-4076 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Due to a logic error, lookups that triggered serving stale data and required lookups in local authoritative zone data could have resulted in an assertion failure CVE-2024-1975 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Validating DNS messages signed using the SIG(0) protocol could cause excessive CPU load, leading to a denial-of-service condition. CVE-2024-1737 (CVSS score: 7.5) - It is possible to craft excessively large numbers of resource record typ

The initial onboarding stage is a crucial step for both employees and employers. However, this process often involves the practice of sharing temporary first-day passwords, which can expose organizations to security risks. Traditionally, IT departments have been cornered into either sharing passwords in plain text via email or SMS, or arranging in-person meetings to verbally communicate these credentials. Both methods carry inherent risks, from man-in-the-middle attacks to the simple human error of password mismanagement. This vulnerability creates openings for hackers, who will aim to use weak or intercepted passwords to gain unauthorized access to corporate systems. In this post, we explore the pitfalls of traditional password distribution methods during employee onboarding and introduce a solution that enhances security without compromising the ease of access for new hires. It's possible for organizations to safeguard their digital environments right from the start, ensuring a se

The JavaScript downloader malware known as SocGholish (aka FakeUpdates) is being used to deliver a remote access trojan called AsyncRAT as well as a legitimate open-source project called BOINC. BOINC , short for Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Client, is an open-source "volunteer computing" platform maintained by the University of California with an aim to carry out "large-scale distributed high-throughput computing" using participating home computers on which the app is installed. "It's similar to a cryptocurrency miner in that way (using computer resources to do work), and it's actually designed to reward users with a specific type of cryptocurrency called Gridcoin, designed for this purpose," Huntress researchers Matt Anderson, Alden Schmidt, and Greg Linares said in a report published last week. These malicious installations are designed to connect to an actor-controlled domain ("rosettahome[.]cn" or "rosettah

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Linux variant of a ransomware strain known as Play (aka Balloonfly and PlayCrypt) that's designed to target VMware ESXi environments. "This development suggests that the group could be broadening its attacks across the Linux platform, leading to an expanded victim pool and more successful ransom negotiations," Trend Micro researchers said in a report published Friday. Play, which arrived on the scene in June 2022, is known for its double extortion tactics, encrypting systems after exfiltrating sensitive data and demanding payment in exchange for a decryption key. According to estimates released by Australia and the U.S., as many as 300 organizations have been victimized by the ransomware group as of October 2023. Statistics shared by Trend Micro for the first seven months of 2024 show that the U.S. is the country with the highest number of victims, followed by Canada, Germany, the U.K., and the Netherlands. Manufactu

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which is facing the heat for causing worldwide IT disruptions by pushing out a flawed update to Windows devices, is now warning that threat actors are exploiting the situation to distribute Remcos RAT to its customers in Latin America under the guise of providing a hotfix. The attack chains involve distributing a ZIP archive file named " crowdstrike-hotfix.zip ," which contains a malware loader named Hijack Loader (aka DOILoader or IDAT Loader) that, in turn, launches the Remcos RAT payload. Specifically, the archive file also includes a text file ("instrucciones.txt") with Spanish-language instructions that urges targets to run an executable file ("setup.exe") to recover from the issue. "Notably, Spanish filenames and instructions within the ZIP archive indicate this campaign is likely targeting Latin America-based (LATAM) CrowdStrike customers," the company said , attributing the campaign to a suspected e-

Learn about critical threats that can impact your organization and the bad actors behind them from Cybersixgill's threat experts. Each story shines a light on underground activities, the threat actors involved, and why you should care, along with what you can do to mitigate risk.  In the current cyber threat landscape, the protection of personal and corporate identities has become vital. Once in the hands of cybercriminals, compromised credentials and accounts provide unauthorized access to corporations' sensitive information and an entry point to launch costly ransomware and other malware attacks. To properly mitigate threats stemming from compromised credentials and accounts, organizations need identity intelligence. Understanding the significance of identity intelligence and the benefits it delivers is foundational to maintaining a secure posture and minimizing risk.  There is a perception that security teams and threat analysts are already overloaded by too much data. By these

Cybersecurity researchers said they discovered an accidentally leaked GitHub token that could have granted elevated access to the GitHub repositories of the Python language, Python Package Index (PyPI), and the Python Software Foundation (PSF). JFrog, which found the GitHub Personal Access Token, said the secret was leaked in a public Docker container hosted on Docker Hub. "This case was exceptional because it is difficult to overestimate the potential consequences if it had fallen into the wrong hands – one could supposedly inject malicious code into PyPI packages (imagine replacing all Python packages with malicious ones), and even to the Python language itself," the software supply chain security company said . An attacker could have hypothetically weaponized their admin access to orchestrate a large-scale supply chain attack by poisoning the source code associated with the core of the Python programming language, or the PyPI package manager. JFrog noted that the aut

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a short-lived DarkGate malware campaign that leveraged Samba file shares to initiate the infections. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said the activity spanned the months of March and April 2024, with the infection chains using servers running public-facing Samba file shares hosting Visual Basic Script (VBS) and JavaScript files. Targets included North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. "This was a relatively short-lived campaign that illustrates how threat actors can creatively abuse legitimate tools and services to distribute their malware," security researchers Vishwa Thothathri, Yijie Sui, Anmol Maurya, Uday Pratap Singh, and Brad Duncan said . DarkGate, which first emerged in 2018, has evolved into a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) offering used by a tightly controlled number of customers. It comes with capabilities to remotely control compromised hosts, execute code, mine cryptocurrency, launch reverse shells, and drop addit

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'

Financial institutions in Latin America are being threatened by a banking trojan called Mekotio (aka Melcoz). That's according to findings from Trend Micro, which said it recently observed a surge in cyber attacks distributing the Windows malware. Mekotio , known to be actively put to use since 2015, is known to target Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Peru, and Portugal with an aim to steal banking credentials. First documented by ESET in August 2020, it's part of a tetrade of banking trojans targeting the region, such as Guildma, Javali, and Grandoreiro , the latter of which was dismantled by law enforcement earlier this year. "Mekotio shares common characteristics for this type of malware, such as being written in Delphi, using fake pop-up windows, containing backdoor functionality and targeting Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries," the Slovakian cybersecurity firm said at the time. The malware operation suffered a blow in

French cloud computing firm OVHcloud said it mitigated a record-breaking distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in April 2024 that reached a packet rate of 840 million packets per second (Mpps). This is just above the previous record of 809 million Mpps reported by Akamai as targeting a large European bank in June 2020. The 840 Mpps DDoS attack is said to have been a combination of a TCP ACK flood that originated from 5,000 source IPs and a DNS reflection attack leveraging about 15,000 DNS servers to amplify the traffic. "While the attack was distributed worldwide, 2/3 of total packets entered from only four [points of presence], all located in the U.S. with 3 of them being on the west coast," OVHcloud noted . "This highlights the capability of the adversary to send a huge packet rate through only a few peerings, which can prove very problematic." The company said it has observed a significant uptick in DDoS attacks in terms of both frequency and intensi

The attack surface isn't what it once was and it's becoming a nightmare to protect. A constantly expanding and evolving attack surface means risk to the business has skyrocketed and current security measures are struggling to keep it protected. If you've clicked on this article, there's a good chance you're looking for solutions to manage this risk. In 2022, a new framework was coined by Gartner to address these challenges - Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). Since then, putting this framework into action has become a priority across many organizations for the profound improvement it is expected to make toward maintaining a high level of security readiness and resilience.  "By 2026 organizations that prioritize their security investments based on a continuous exposure management program will be three times less likely to suffer a breach." Gartner, "How to Manage Cybersecurity Threats, Not Episodes," August 21, 2023 CTEM provides a continuous and comprehensive view of the

The loader-as-a-service (LaaS) known as FakeBat has become one of the most widespread loader malware families distributed using the drive-by download technique this year, findings from Sekoia reveal. "FakeBat primarily aims to download and execute the next-stage payload, such as IcedID , Lumma , RedLine , SmokeLoader , SectopRAT , and Ursnif ," the company said in a Tuesday analysis. Drive-by attacks entail the use of methods like search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning, malvertising, and nefarious code injections into compromised sites to entice users into downloading bogus software installers or browser updates. The use of malware loaders over the past few years dovetails with the growing use of landing pages impersonating legitimate software websites by passing them off as legitimate installers. This ties into the larger aspect that phishing and social engineering remain one of the threat actors' main ways to acquire initial access. FakeBat , also known as Eu