The Hacker News — Cyber Security and Hacking News Website: cybersecurity

Managing a WordPress website can sap a lot of your time and energy, which otherwise you'd spend on managing your business. If you're looking to cut down on the hours, you spend troubleshooting WordPress technical and security problems, better managing and monitoring your website and users, or your customers, you need a WordPress activity log plugin . This post explains how to use the WP Security Audit Log plugin to keep a WordPress security audit log (aka activity log). It also highlights five ways an activity log helps you better manage your website and users and improve its security. WordPress Security Audit Logs - Introduction and Benefits An activity log is a record of everything that happens on your WordPress website. This includes a record of plugins, themes, and WordPress core changes, users activity (such as content changes), site settings changes, break-in attempts, WooCommerce store, and product changes, and everything else that happens on your website. WordP

In recent years, gas stations have become one of the favorite targets for thieves who are stealing customers' credit and debit card information by installing a Bluetooth-enabled payment card skimmers at gas stations across the nation. The media has also reported several recent crimes surrounding credit card skimmers, including: Gas pump skimmer found at a 7-Eleven in Pinellas County Credit card skimmer found at West Palm Beach gas station Credit Card Skimmer Found at Gas Station in Sunnyvale Several Gas Pump Credit Card Skimmers Found at Bay Area Stations Gas pump credit card skimmers found at Boerne stations Credit card skimmers target Anthem Circle K For those unaware, Bluetooth credit card skimmer is a tiny sneaky device designed to stealthily capture payment card information, like credit card holder's card number, expiration date and the full name, which nearby thieves then retrieve wirelessly over a Bluetooth connection. Since these devices have been des

After a few popular Android Trojans like  Anubis ,  Red Alert 2.0 ,  GM bot , and Exobot, quit their malware-as-a-service businesses, a new player has emerged on the Internet with similar capabilities to fill the gap, offering Android bot rental service to the masses. Dubbed " Cerberus ," the new remote access Trojan allows remote attackers to take total control over the infected Android devices and also comes with banking Trojan capabilities like the use of overlay attacks, SMS control, and contact list harvesting. According to the author of this malware, who is surprisingly social on Twitter and mocks security researchers and antivirus industry openly, Cerberus has been coded from scratch and doesn't re-use any code from other existing banking Trojans. The author also claimed to be using the Trojan for private operations for at least two years before renting it out for anyone interested from the past two months at $2000 for 1 month usage, $7000 for 6 months and

WAF (Web Application Firewall) has been the first line of defence when it comes to application security for a while now. Many organizations have adopted WAF in one form or the other and most cases, compliance has been the driver for adoption. But unfortunately, when it comes to the efficacy of WAF in thwarting attacks, it has not lived up to the expectations. In most organizations, WAF has always remained in log mode with a little process to monitor and react, rendering the solution ineffective. The major challenge with effective deployment of WAF is: Applications are unique, and there is no silver bullet set of rules that will protect them all, Most WAF's do not try to understand the risk profile of the application; they end up providing common out of box vanilla rules that seldom works. Each application has its own intricacies and the out of the box rules that many WAF vendors provide create a lot of FPs (False Positives) or FNs (False Negatives), For proper implement

In every organization, there is a person who's directly accountable for cybersecurity. The name of the role varies per the organization's size and maturity – CISO, CIO, and Director of IT are just a few common examples – but the responsibility is similar in all places. They're the person who understands the risk and exposure, knows how prepared the team and most important – what the gaps are and how they can be best addressed. Apart from actually securing the organization – and losing some sleep over it – this individual has another equally important task: to communicate the security risk, needs, and status to the company's management. After all, the level of security rises in direct proportion to the amount of invested resources, and management people are the ones who decide and allocate them. Since management people are not typically cybersecurity savvy, engaging them can be challenging – one must find the balance between high-level explanations, a direct c

Organizations around the world are wondering how to become immune from cyber attacks which are evolving every day with more sophisticated attack vectors. IT teams are always on the lookout for new ransomware and exploit spreading in the wild, but can all these unforeseen cyber attacks be prevented proactively? That's definitely a 'NO,' which is why there's a reactive approach in place to save organisations from the aftermath of take downs, and with proper cybersecurity practices, one can reduce the chances of becoming a victim. To do that, organizations should follow specific cybersecurity frameworks that will assist them in redefining and reinforcing their IT security and staying vigilant against cyber attacks. In this article, we'll understand what is cybersecurity framework, why they are mandatory for organizations, and what are their types, strategies, benefits, and implementation in detail. What is a Cybersecurity Framework? Cybersecurity framew

Cybersecurity isn't easy. If there was a product or service you could buy that would just magically solve all of your cybersecurity problems, everyone would buy that thing, and we could all rest easy. However, that is not the way it works. Technology continues to evolve. Cyber attackers adapt and develop new malicious tools and techniques, and cybersecurity vendors design creative new ways to detect and block those threats. Rinse and repeat. Cybersecurity isn't easy, and there is no magic solution, but there are a handful of things you can do that will greatly reduce your exposure to risk and significantly improve your security posture. The right platform, intelligence, and expertise can help you avoid the vast majority of threats, and help you detect and respond more quickly to the attacks that get through. Challenges of Cybersecurity Effective cybersecurity is challenging for a variety of reasons, but the changing perimeter and the confusing variety of solution

Cybersecurity researchers have released an updated version of GandCrab ransomware decryption tool that could allow millions of affected users to unlock their encrypted files for free without paying a ransom to the cybercriminals. GandCrab is one of the most prolific families of ransomware to date that has infected over 1.5 million computers since it first emerged in January 2018. Created by BitDefender, the new GandCrab decryption tool [ download ] can now unlock files encrypted by the latest versions of the ransomware, from 5.0 to 5.2, as well as for the older GandCrab ransomware versions. As part of the " No More Ransom " Project, BitDefender works in partnership with the FBI, Europol, London Police, and several other law enforcement agencies across the globe to help ransomware affected users. The cybersecurity company in recent months released ransomware removal tools for some older GandCrab versions that helped nearly 30,000 victims recover their data for free,

Flipboard, a popular social sharing and news aggregator service used by over 150 million people, has disclosed that its databases containing account information of certain users have been hacked. According to a public note published yesterday by the company, unknown hackers managed to gain unauthorized access to its systems for nearly 10 months—between June 2, 2018, and March 23, 2019, and then again on April 21-22, 2019. The hackers then potentially downloaded database containing Flipboard users' real name, usernames, cryptographically (salted hash) protected passwords and email addresses, including digital tokens for users who linked their Flipboard account to a third-party social media service. According to a breach notification email sent out to affected users and seen by The Hacker News, the company has now reset passwords for all users as a precautionary measure, forcing users to create a new strong password for their accounts. "You can continue to use Flipb

Cybersecurity experts all echo the same thing – cyber attacks are going to get more rampant, and they will continue to pose severe threats against all technology users. Businesses, in particular, have become prime targets for cybercriminals due to the nature of data and information they process and store. 2018 saw a slew of data breaches targeting large enterprises that resulted in the theft of the personal and financial records of millions of customers. Falling victim to cyber attacks can deal with a major financial blow to businesses as the cost of dealing with an attack has risen to $1.1 million on the average. It can even be more devastating for small to medium-sized businesses. 60 percent of these smaller operations close within six months after failing to recover from cyber attacks. But aside from these monetary costs, companies can also lose credibility and their customers' confidence. Needless to say, businesses must improve the protection of their infrastructures

High-quality cybersecurity posture is typically regarded as the exclusive domain of the large and heavy resourced enterprises – those who can afford a multi-product security stack and a skilled security team to operate it. This implies a grave risk to all organizations who are not part of this group, since the modern threat landscape applies to all, regardless of size and vertical. What is less commonly known is that by following basic and well-defined practices and wise security product choices, any organization can level up its defenses to a much higher standard. "At the end of the day it comes down to strategic planning," says Eyal Gruner, CEO and co-founder of Cynet, "rather than thinking in term of specific product or need, zoom out and breakdown the challenge to its logical parts – what do you need to do proactively on an on-going basis, while you're under attack and when you manage a recovery process." From the various frameworks of security b

Google has reportedly suspended all businesses with the world's second-biggest smartphone maker, Huawei, and revoked its Android license effective immediately—a move that will have a drastic impact on Huawei devices across the globe. Revoking Android license means Huawei future smartphones will no longer have access to Android updates and apps like Gmail or the Play Store, as well as Google technical support beyond services that are publicly available via open source licensing, Reuters report. Why? That's because last week, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency banning foreign companies—over surveillance fear—from doing telecommunication business in the United States without the government's approval. About the executive order, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that President Trump "has made it clear that this Administration will do what it takes to keep America safe and prosperous, an

In recent years, we have seen how hackers prey on those too lazy or ignorant to install security patches, which, if applied on time, would have prevented some devastating cyber attacks and data breaches that happened in major organisations. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered government agencies to more swiftly plug the critical security vulnerabilities found on their networks within 15 calendar days since the initial detection, a reduction from 30 days. DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) this week issued a new Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 19-02 instructing federal agencies and departments to address "critical" rated vulnerabilities within 15 days and "high" severity flaws within 30 days of initial detection. The countdown to patch a security vulnerability will start when it was initially detected during CISA's weekly Cyber Hygiene vulnerability scanning, rather than it was the firs

Drupal, the popular open-source content management system, has released security updates to address multiple "moderately critical" vulnerabilities in Drupal Core that could allow remote attackers to compromise the security of hundreds of thousands of websites. According to the advisories published today by the Drupal developers, all security vulnerabilities Drupal patched this month reside in third-party libraries that are included in Drupal 8.6, Drupal 8.5 or earlier and Drupal 7. One of the security flaws is a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that resides in a third-party plugin, called JQuery, the most popular JavaScript library that is being used by millions of websites and also comes pre-integrated in Drupal Core. Last week, JQuery released its latest version jQuery 3.4.0 to patch the reported vulnerability, which has not yet assigned a CVE number, that affects all prior versions of the library to that date. "jQuery 3.4.0 includes a fix for som

Major data breaches and cyber attacks are occurring at an alarming rate, and if you are still not using a VPN and password manager app, you are seriously out of excuses. Not just VPN software and a password manager, cybersecurity experts also recommend using antivirus and backup solutions to protect your computers and precious data stored on them. Unfortunately, to cover these bases, one would typically have to spend at least $30 per month. However, here we have great news for millions of The Hacker News readers. Cybersecurity companies partnered with THN Deal Store have exclusively launched a new subscription package called — The Vault — that slashes the price for top security apps everyone needs to use. At just $9.99 monthly subscription, you can now get licenses for four award-winning cybersecurity apps: Dashlane Password Manager Panda Antivirus Software Degoo Online Backup — 2TB of Secure Cloud Storage NordVPN — One of the best VPN service providers in 2019