data security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

QNAP has released security updates to address two critical security flaws impacting its operating system that could result in arbitrary code execution. Tracked as  CVE-2023-23368  (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability is described as a command injection bug affecting QTS, QuTS hero, and QuTScloud. "If exploited, the vulnerability could allow remote attackers to execute commands via a network," the company said in an advisory published over the weekend. The shortcoming spans the below versions - QTS 5.0.x (Fixed in QTS 5.0.1.2376 build 20230421 and later) QTS 4.5.x (Fixed in QTS 4.5.4.2374 build 20230416 and later) QuTS hero h5.0.x (Fixed in QuTS hero h5.0.1.2376 build 20230421 and later) QuTS hero h4.5.x (Fixed in QuTS hero h4.5.4.2374 build 20230417 and later) QuTScloud c5.0.x (Fixed in QuTScloud c5.0.1.2374 and later) Also fixed by QNAP is another command injection flaw in QTS, Multimedia Console, and Media Streaming add-on ( CVE-2023-23369 , CVSS score: 9.0) th...

The threat actors linked to  Kinsing  have been observed attempting to exploit the recently disclosed Linux privilege escalation flaw called Looney Tunables as part of a "new experimental campaign" designed to breach cloud environments. "Intriguingly, the attacker is also broadening the horizons of their cloud-native attacks by extracting credentials from the Cloud Service Provider (CSP)," cloud security firm Aqua said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The development marks the first publicly documented instance of active exploitation of  Looney Tunables  ( CVE-2023-4911 ), which could allow a threat actor to  gain root privileges . Kinsing actors have a track record of opportunistically and swiftly adapting their attack chains to exploit newly disclosed security flaws to their advantage, having most recently weaponized a  high-severity bug in Openfire  ( CVE-2023-32315 ) to achieve remote code execution. The latest set of attacks entails...

Intro: Why hack in when you can log in? SaaS applications are the backbone of modern organizations, powering productivity and operational efficiency. But every new app introduces critical security risks through app integrations and multiple users, creating easy access points for threat actors. As a result, SaaS breaches have increased, and according to a May 2024 XM Cyber report, identity and credential misconfigurations caused 80% of security exposures. Subtle signs of a compromise get lost in the noise, and then multi-stage attacks unfold undetected due to siloed solutions. Think of an account takeover in Entra ID, then privilege escalation in GitHub, along with data exfiltration from Slack. Each seems unrelated when viewed in isolation, but in a connected timeline of events, it's a dangerous breach. Wing Security's SaaS platform is a multi-layered solution that combines posture management with real-time identity threat detection and response. This allows organizations to get a ...

New findings have shed light on what's said to be a lawful attempt to covertly intercept traffic originating from jabber[.]ru (aka xmpp[.]ru), an  XMPP -based instant messaging service, via servers hosted on Hetzner and Linode (a subsidiary of Akamai) in Germany. "The attacker has issued several new TLS certificates using Let's Encrypt service which were used to hijack encrypted  STARTTLS connections  on port 5222 using transparent [man-in-the-middle] proxy," a security researcher who goes by the alias ValdikSS  said  earlier this week. "The attack was discovered due to the expiration of one of the MiTM certificates, which haven't been reissued." Evidence gathered so far points to the traffic redirection being configured on the hosting provider network, ruling out other possibilities, such as a server breach or a spoofing attack. The wiretapping is estimated to have lasted for as long as six months, from April 18, 2023, although it's been confi...

In today's digital landscape, around  60%  of corporate data now resides in the cloud, with Amazon S3 standing as the backbone of data storage for many major corporations.  Despite S3 being a secure service from a reputable provider, its pivotal role in handling vast amounts of sensitive data (customer personal information, financial data, intellectual property, etc.), provides a juicy target for threat actors. It remains susceptible to ransomware attacks which are often initiated using leaked access keys that have accidentally been exposed by human error and have access to the organization's buckets. To effectively combat these evolving threats, it is vital to ensure that your organization has visibility into your S3 environment, that you are aware of how threat actors can compromise data for ransom and most importantly, best practices for minimizing the risk of cyber criminals successfully executing such an attack. Ensuring Visibility: CloudTrail and Server Access L...

Financial data is much more than just a collection of numbers; it is a crucial component of any business and a prime target for cybercriminals. It's important to understand that financial records can be a veritable treasure trove for digital pirates. A security breach not only puts customers' personal information in jeopardy but also enables fraudsters to drain company funds and exploit clients. Data threats can arise from a variety of sources, ranging from malicious actors with harmful intentions to simple mistakes, such as sending a confidential email to the wrong recipient. The methods used to compromise data are diverse and constantly evolving, including ransomware attacks and inadvertent leaks in cloud storage. Navigating this complex landscape can be daunting, but knowledge is empowering. We're excited to announce that we are hosting an exclusive webinar in collaboration with experts from Win Zip. Titled " Locking Down Financial and Accounting Data — Best Dat...

Ensuring sensitive data remains confidential, protected from unauthorized access, and compliant with data privacy regulations is paramount. Data breaches result in financial and reputational damage but also lead to legal consequences. Therefore, robust data access security measures are essential to safeguard an organization's assets, maintain customer trust, and meet regulatory requirements.  A comprehensive  Data Security Platform  is essential for full visibility and control of sensitive data. One example is Satori's Universal Data Permissions Scanner (UDPS), an open-source authorization analysis tool.   UDPS , available on GitHub, enables universal visibility into data access permissions across various data stores. With this tool, it's easier to identify who has the potential to access sensitive data, which can help organizations take a proactive approach to enhancing their security posture, streamline compliance, and ensure well-governed data access. Understan...

Data security is in the headlines often, and it's almost never for a positive reason. Major breaches, new ways to hack into an organization's supposedly secure data, and other threats make the news because well, it's scary — and expensive.  Data breaches, ransomware and malware attacks, and other cybercrime might be pricey to prevent, but they are even more costly when they occur, with the  average cost  of a data breach reaching $4.35 million and counting.  Accordingly, companies are investing in solutions that combat these problems and focusing on their Data security and protection more than ever, based on the results of the  WinZip Enterprise survey  of leading industry professionals responsible for implementing and maintaining security at their organizations.  Confidence is Up Among Data Security Pros While the media is reporting on a wide range of security threats, many of those surveyed reported a certain level of confidence in their organiz...

Data Security Posture Management is an approach to securing cloud data by ensuring that sensitive data always has the correct security posture - regardless of where it's been duplicated or moved to. So, what is DSPM? Here's a quick example: Let's say you've built an excellent  security posture  for your cloud data. For the sake of this example, your data is in production, it's protected behind a firewall, it's not publicly accessible, and your IAM controls have limited access properly. Now along comes a developer and replicates that data into a lower environment. What happens to that fine security posture you've built?  Well, it's gone - and now the data is only protected by the security posture in that lower environment. So if that environment is exposed or improperly secured - so is all that sensitive data you've been trying to protect. Security postures just don't travel with their data . Data Security Posture Management ( DSPM ) was crea...

Apple has announced plans to require developers to submit reasons to use certain APIs in their apps starting later this year with the release of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, tvOS 17, and watchOS 10 to prevent their abuse for data collection. "This will help ensure that apps only use these APIs for their intended purpose," the company  said  in a statement. "As part of this process, you'll need to select one or more approved reasons that accurately reflect how your app uses the API, and your app can only use the API for the reasons you've selected." The APIs that  require  reasons for use relate to the following - File timestamp APIs System boot time APIs Disk space APIs Active keyboard APIs, and User defaults APIs The iPhone maker said it's making the move to ensure that such APIs are not abused by app developers to collect device signals to carry out  fingerprinting , which could be employed to  uniquely identify users  across different...

Secrets are meant to be hidden or, at the very least, only known to a specific and limited set of individuals (or systems). Otherwise, they aren't really secrets. In personal life, a secret revealed can damage relationships, lead to social stigma, or, at the very least, be embarrassing. In a developer's or application security engineer's professional life, the consequences of exposing secrets can lead to breaches of security, data leaks, and, well, also be embarrassing. And while there are tools available for detecting source code and code repositories, there are few options for identifying secrets in plain text, documents, emails, chat logs, content management systems, and more. What Are Secrets? In the context of applications, secrets are sensitive information such as passwords, API keys, cryptographic keys, and other confidential data that an application needs to function but should not be exposed to unauthorized users. Secrets are typically stored securely and access...

Data security is reinventing itself. As new data security posture management solutions come to market, organizations are increasingly recognizing the opportunity to provide evidence-based security that proves how their data is being protected. But what exactly is data security posture, and how do you manage it?  Data security posture management  (DSPM) became mainstream following the publication of Gartner® Cool Vendors™ in Data Security—Secure and Accelerate Advanced Use Cases. In that  report , Gartner1 seems to have kicked off the popular use of the data security posture management term and massive investment in this space by every VC. Since that report, Gartner has identified at least 16 DSPM vendors, including Symmetry Systems. What is Data Security Posture? There certainly is a lot being marketed and published about data security posture management solutions themselves, but we first wanted to dig into what is data security posture?  Symmetry Systems define...

Improperly deactivated and abandoned Salesforce  Sites  and  Communities  (aka Experience Cloud) could pose severe risks to organizations, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data. Data security firm Varonis dubbed the abandoned, unprotected, and unmonitored resources " ghost sites ." "When these Communities are no longer needed, though, they are often set aside but not deactivated," Varonis Threat Labs researchers  said  in a new report shared with The Hacker News. "Because these unused sites are not maintained, they aren't tested against vulnerabilities, and Admins fail to update the site's security measures according to newer guidelines." Varonis said it found many of these deactivated (but still active) sites still fetching new data, thereby allowing threat actors to extract data by manipulating the  host header  in the HTTP request. Identifying the complete internal URLs associated with the sites is challenging but not impossi...

Facebook's parent company Meta has been fined a record $1.3 billion by European Union data protection regulators for transferring the personal data of users in the region to the U.S. In a binding decision taken by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), the social media giant has been ordered to bring its data transfers into compliance with the GDPR and delete unlawfully stored and processed data within six months. Additionally, Meta has been given five months to suspend any future transfer of Facebook users' data to the U.S. Instagram and WhatsApp, which are also owned by the company, are not subject to the order. "The EDPB found that Meta IE's infringement is very serious since it concerns transfers that are systematic, repetitive, and continuous," Andrea Jelinek, EDPB Chair,  said  in a statement. "Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive. The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organizati...