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Category — Data Leak
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Released from U.K. Prison, Heads to Australia

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Released from U.K. Prison, Heads to Australia

Jun 25, 2024 National Security / Wikileak
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been freed in the U.K. and has departed the country after serving more than five years in a maximum security prison at Belmarsh for what was described by the U.S. government as the "largest compromises of classified information" in its history. Capping off a 14-year legal saga, Assange, 52, pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents. He is due to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served in the Pacific island of Saipan later this week. According to the Associated Press , the hearing is taking place there because of Assange's "opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court's proximity to Australia." "This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organizers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations," WikiLeaks said in a...
FBI Warns U.S. Healthcare Sector of Targeted BlackCat Ransomware Attacks

FBI Warns U.S. Healthcare Sector of Targeted BlackCat Ransomware Attacks

Feb 28, 2024 Ransomware / Healthcare
The U.S. government is warning about the resurgence of BlackCat (aka ALPHV) ransomware attacks targeting the healthcare sector as recently as this month. "Since mid-December 2023, of the nearly 70 leaked victims, the healthcare sector has been the most commonly victimized," the government  said  in an updated advisory. "This is likely in response to the ALPHV/BlackCat administrator's post encouraging its affiliates to target hospitals after operational action against the group and its infrastructure in early December 2023." The alert comes courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The BlackCat ransomware operation suffered a major blow late last year after a coordinated law enforcement operation led to the  seizure of its dark leak sites . But the takedown turned out to be a failure after the group managed to regain control of the...
Want to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management? Start Here!

Want to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management? Start Here!

Dec 05, 2024Attack Surface / Exposure Management
Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...
SaaS Compliance through the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

SaaS Compliance through the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

Feb 20, 2024 Cybersecurity Framework / SaaS Security
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework is one of the world's most important guidelines for securing networks. It can be applied to any number of applications, including SaaS.  One of the challenges facing those tasked with securing SaaS applications is the different settings found in each application. It makes it difficult to develop a configuration policy that will apply to an HR app that manages employees, a marketing app that manages content, and an R&D app that manages software versions, all while aligning with NIST compliance standards.  However, there are several settings that can be applied to nearly every app in the SaaS stack. In this article, we'll explore some universal configurations, explain why they are important, and guide you in setting them in a way that improves your SaaS apps' security posture.  Start with Admins Role-based access control (RBAC) is a key to NIST adherence and should be applied to ev...
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LockBit Ransomware's Darknet Domains Seized in Global Law Enforcement Raid

LockBit Ransomware's Darknet Domains Seized in Global Law Enforcement Raid

Feb 20, 2024 Dark Web / Cybercrime
Update: The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) has confirmed the takedown of LockBit infrastructure. Read here for more details . An international law enforcement operation has led to the seizure of multiple darknet domains operated by  LockBit , one of the most prolific ransomware groups, marking the latest in a long list of digital takedowns. While the full extent of the effort, codenamed  Operation Cronos , is presently unknown, visiting the group's .onion website displays a seizure banner containing the message "The site is now under the control of law enforcement." Authorities from 11 countries, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S., alongside Europol participated in the joint exercise. Malware research group VX-Underground, in a  message  posted on X (formerly Twitter), said the websites were taken down by exploiting a critical security flaw impacting PHP ( CVE-2023-3824 , CVSS score...
U.S. Offers $10 Million Bounty for Info Leading to Arrest of Hive Ransomware Leaders

U.S. Offers $10 Million Bounty for Info Leading to Arrest of Hive Ransomware Leaders

Feb 12, 2024 Dark Web / Cryptocurrency
The U.S. Department of State has  announced  monetary rewards of up to $10 million for information about individuals holding key positions within the Hive ransomware operation. It is also giving away an additional $5 million for specifics that could lead to the arrest and/or conviction of any person "conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in Hive ransomware activity." The multi-million-dollar rewards come a little over a year after a coordinated law enforcement effort  covertly infiltrated and dismantled  the darknet infrastructure associated with the Hive ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) gang. One person with suspected ties to the group was  arrested  in Paris in December 2023. Hive, which emerged in mid-2021, targeted more than 1,500 victims in over 80 countries, netting about $100 million in illegal revenues. In November 2023, Bitdefender  revealed  that a new ransomware group called Hunters International had acquired the s...
How to Handle Retail SaaS Security on Cyber Monday

How to Handle Retail SaaS Security on Cyber Monday

Nov 27, 2023 SaaS Security / Cyber Monday
If forecasters are right, over the course of today, consumers will spend  $13.7 billion . Just about every click, sale, and engagement will be captured by a CRM platform. Inventory applications will trigger automated re-orders; communication tools will send automated email and text messages confirming sales and sharing shipping information.  SaaS applications supporting retail efforts will host nearly all of this behind-the-scenes activity. While retailers are rightfully focused on sales during this time of year, they need to ensure that the SaaS apps supporting their business operations are secure. No one wants a repeat of one of the biggest retail cyber-snafus in history, like when one U.S.-based national retailer had 40 million credit card records stolen.  The attack surface is vast and retailers must remain vigilant in protecting their entire SaaS app stack. For example, many often use multiple instances of the same application. They may use a different Salesforce ...
ServiceNow Data Exposure: A Wake-Up Call for Companies

ServiceNow Data Exposure: A Wake-Up Call for Companies

Oct 30, 2023 SaaS Security / Data Security
Earlier this week, ServiceNow  announced on its support site  that misconfigurations within the platform could result in "unintended access" to sensitive data. For organizations that use ServiceNow, this security exposure is a critical concern that could have resulted in major data leakage of sensitive corporate data.  ServiceNow has since taken steps to fix this issue .  This article fully analyzes the issue, explains why this critical application misconfiguration could have had serious consequences for businesses, and remediation steps companies would take, if not for the ServiceNow fix. (Although, recommended to double check that the fix has closed the organization's exposure.) In a Nutshell ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform used for automating IT service management, IT operations management, and IT business management for customer service, as well as HR, security operations, and a wide variety of additional domains. This SaaS application is considered to b...
The Danger of Forgotten Pixels on Websites: A New Case Study

The Danger of Forgotten Pixels on Websites: A New Case Study

Oct 26, 2023 Web Security / Data Protection
While cyberattacks on websites receive much attention, there are often unaddressed risks that can lead to businesses facing lawsuits and privacy violations even in the absence of hacking incidents. A new case study highlights one of these more common cases.  Download the full case study here . It's a scenario that could have affected any type of company, from healthcare to finance, e-commerce to insurance, or any other industry. Recently, Reflectiz, an advanced website security solution provider, released a  case study  focusing on a forgotten and misconfigured pixel that had been associated with a leading global healthcare provider. This overlooked piece of code surreptitiously gathered private data without user consent, potentially exposing the company to substantial fines and damage to its reputation. Nowadays, it has become common practice for companies to embed such pixels into their websites. For instance, the TikTok Pixel is a typical example, added to web...
Live Webinar: Overcoming Generative AI Data Leakage Risks

Live Webinar: Overcoming Generative AI Data Leakage Risks

Sep 19, 2023 Artificial Intelligence / Browser Security
As the adoption of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, continues to surge, so does the risk of data exposure. According to Gartner's "Emerging Tech: Top 4 Security Risks of GenAI" report, privacy and data security is one of the four major emerging risks within generative AI.  A new webinar  featuring a multi-time Fortune 100 CISO and the CEO of LayerX, a browser extension solution, delves into this critical risk. Throughout the webinar, the speakers will explain why data security is a risk and explore the ability of DLP solutions to protect against them, or lack thereof. Then, they will delineate the capabilities required by DLP solutions to ensure businesses benefit from the productivity GenAI applications have to offer without compromising security.  The Business and Security Risks of Generative AI Applications GenAI security risks occur when employees insert sensitive texts into these applications. These actions warrant careful consideration, because the inserted da...
Microsoft AI Researchers Accidentally Expose 38 Terabytes of Confidential Data

Microsoft AI Researchers Accidentally Expose 38 Terabytes of Confidential Data

Sep 19, 2023 Data Safety / Cybersecurity
Microsoft on Monday said it took steps to correct a glaring security gaffe that led to the exposure of 38 terabytes of private data. The leak was discovered on the company's AI GitHub repository and is said to have been inadvertently made public when publishing a bucket of open-source training data, Wiz said. It also included a disk backup of two former employees' workstations containing secrets, keys, passwords, and over 30,000 internal Teams messages. The repository, named " robust-models-transfer ," is no longer accessible. Prior to its takedown, it featured source code and machine learning models pertaining to a  2020 research paper   titled  "Do Adversarially Robust ImageNet Models Transfer Better?" "The exposure came as the result of an overly permissive  SAS token  – an Azure feature that allows users to share data in a manner that is both hard to track and hard to revoke," Wiz  said  in a report. The issue was reported to Microsoft on J...
VirusTotal Data Leak Exposes Some Registered Customers' Details

VirusTotal Data Leak Exposes Some Registered Customers' Details

Jul 18, 2023 Privacy / Malware
Data associated with a subset of registered customers of VirusTotal, including their names and email addresses, were exposed after an employee inadvertently uploaded the information to the malware scanning platform. The security incident, which comprises a database of 5,600 names in a 313KB file, was first disclosed by  Der Spiegel  and  Der Standard  yesterday. Launched in 2004, VirusTotal is a popular service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs to detect types of malware and malicious content using antivirus engines and website scanners. It was acquired by Google in 2012 and became a subsidiary of Google Cloud's Chronicle unit in 2018. When reached for comment, Google confirmed the leak and said it took immediate steps to remove the data. "We are aware of the unintentional distribution of a small segment of customer group administrator emails and organization names by one of our employees on the VirusTotal platform," a Google Cloud spokesperson told The Ha...
Password Reset Hack Exposed in Honda's E-Commerce Platform, Dealers Data at Risk

Password Reset Hack Exposed in Honda's E-Commerce Platform, Dealers Data at Risk

Jun 12, 2023 Data Safety / Hacking
Security vulnerabilities discovered in Honda's e-commerce platform could have been exploited to gain unrestricted access to sensitive dealer information. "Broken/missing access controls made it possible to access all data on the platform, even when logged in as a test account," security researcher Eaton Zveare  said  in a report published last week. The  platform  is designed for the sale of power equipment, marine, lawn and garden businesses. It does not impact the Japanese company's automobile division. The hack, in a nutshell, exploits a password reset mechanism on one of Honda's sites, Power Equipment Tech Express (PETE), to reset the password associated with any account and obtain full admin-level access. This is made possible due to the fact that the API allows any user to send a password reset request simply by just knowing the username or email address and without having to enter a password tied to that account. Armed with this capability, a malicio...
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