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Mirai Botnet Creators Helping FBI Fight Cybercrime to Stay Out of Jail

Mirai Botnet Creators Helping FBI Fight Cybercrime to Stay Out of Jail
Sep 19, 2018
Three young hackers who were sentenced late last year for creating and spreading the notorious Mirai botnet are now helping the FBI to investigate other "complex" cybercrime cases in return to avoid their lengthy prison terms. Paras Jha, 21 from New Jersey, Josiah White, 20 from Washington, and Dalton Norman, 21 from Louisiana, plead guilty in December 2017 to multiple charges for their role in creating and hijacking hundreds of thousands IoT devices to make them part of a notorious botnet network dubbed Mirai . Mirai malware scanned for insecure routers, cameras, DVRs, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices which were using their default passwords and then made them part of a botnet network . The trio developed the Mirai botnet to attack rival Minecraft video gaming hosts, but after realizing that their invention was powerful enough to launch record-breaking DDoS attacks against targets like OVH hosting website, they released the source code of Mirai . The

Western Digital's My Cloud NAS Devices Turn Out to Be Easily Hacked

Western Digital's My Cloud NAS Devices Turn Out to Be Easily Hacked
Sep 19, 2018
Security researchers have discovered an authentication bypass vulnerability in Western Digital's My Cloud NAS devices that potentially allows an unauthenticated attacker to gain admin-level control to the affected devices. Western Digital's My Cloud (WD My Cloud) is one of the most popular network-attached storage (NAS) devices which is being used by businesses and individuals to host their files, as well as backup and sync them with various cloud and web-based services. The WD My Cloud devices let users not only share files in a home network but its private cloud feature also allows them to access their data from anywhere around the world at any time. However, security researchers at Securify have discovered an authentication bypass vulnerability on the WD My Cloud NAS boxes that could allow unauthenticated attackers with network access to the device to escalate their privileges to admin-level without needing to provide a password. This would eventually allow attack

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl
Mar 21, 2024SaaS Security / Endpoint Security
In today's digital-first business environment dominated by SaaS applications, organizations increasingly depend on third-party vendors for essential cloud services and software solutions. As more vendors and services are added to the mix, the complexity and potential vulnerabilities within the  SaaS supply chain  snowball quickly. That's why effective vendor risk management (VRM) is a critical strategy in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to protect organizational assets and data integrity. Meanwhile, common approaches to vendor risk assessments are too slow and static for the modern world of SaaS. Most organizations have simply adapted their legacy evaluation techniques for on-premise software to apply to SaaS providers. This not only creates massive bottlenecks, but also causes organizations to inadvertently accept far too much risk. To effectively adapt to the realities of modern work, two major aspects need to change: the timeline of initial assessment must shorte

Ransomware Attack Takes Down Bristol Airport's Flight Display Screens

Ransomware Attack Takes Down Bristol Airport's Flight Display Screens
Sep 17, 2018
Bristol Airport has blamed a ransomware attack for causing a blackout of flight information screens for two days over the weekend. The airport said that the attack started Friday morning, taking out several computers over the airport network, including its in-house display screens which provide details about the arrival and departure information of flights. The attack forced the airport officials to take down its systems and use whiteboards and paper posters to announce check-in and arrival information for flights going through the airport and luggage pickup points for all Friday, Saturday, and the subsequent night. "We are currently experiencing technical problems with our flight information screens," a post on the Bristol Airport's official Twitter feed read on Friday. "Flights are unaffected and details of check-in desks, boarding gates, and arrival/departure times will be made over the public address system. Additional staff are on hand to assist passeng

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

cyber security
websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.

Watch Out! This New Web Exploit Can Crash and Restart Your iPhone

Watch Out! This New Web Exploit Can Crash and Restart Your iPhone
Sep 17, 2018
It's 2018, and just a few lines of code can crash and restart any iPhone or iPad and can cause a Mac computer to freeze. Sabri Haddouche , a security researcher at encrypted instant messaging app Wire, revealed a proof-of-concept (PoC) web page containing an exploit that uses only a few lines of specially crafted CSS & HTML code. Beyond just a simple crash, the web page, if visited, causes a full device kernel panic and an entire system reboot. The Haddouche's PoC exploits a weakness in Apple's web rendering engine WebKit , which is used by all apps and web browsers running on the Apple's operating system. Since the Webkit issue failed to properly load multiple elements such as "div" tags inside a backdrop filter property in CSS, Haddouche created a web page that uses up all of the device's resources, causing shut down and restart of the device due to kernel panic. You can also watch the video demonstration published by the researcher, which s

Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet
Sep 13, 2018
The Russian man who was accused of operating the infamous Kelihos botnet has finally pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court. Peter Yuryevich Levashov , 38, of St. Petersburg, Russia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Connecticut to computer crime, wire fraud, conspiracy and identity theft charges. Levashov, also known by many online aliases including Peter Severa, Petr Levashov, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov, has admitted of operating several botnets, including the Storm, Waledac and Kelihos botnets, since the late 1990s until he was arrested in April 2017 . Kelihos botnet, dated back to 2010, was a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers that were used to steal login credentials, send bulk spam emails, and infect computers with ransomware and other malware. Russian Hacker Infects 50,000 Computers With Kelihos Botnet Storm and Waledac botnets also shared Kelihos code, but kelihos was the most notorious botnet of all that alone infect

How To Check If Your Twitter Account Has Been Hacked

How To Check If Your Twitter Account Has Been Hacked
Sep 13, 2018
Did you ever wonder if your Twitter account has been hacked and who had managed to gain access and when it happened? Twitter now lets you know this. After Google and Facebook, Twitter now lets you see all the devices—laptop, phone, tablet, and otherwise—logged into your Twitter account. Twitter has recently rolled out a new security feature for its users, dubbed Apps and Sessions, allowing you to know which apps and devices are accessing your Twitter account, along with the location of those devices. In order to find out current and all past logged in devices and locations where your Twitter account was accessed for the last couple months, follow these steps: Check Twitter Login Sessions On Smartphone: Open the Twitter app, and head on to your profile Tap on 'Settings and privacy' section Inside the section, select 'Account' Once inside the option, tap on 'Apps and sessions' Check Twitter Login Sessions On Desktop Or Laptop: The p

New Cold Boot Attack Unlocks Disk Encryption On Nearly All Modern PCs

New Cold Boot Attack Unlocks Disk Encryption On Nearly All Modern PCs
Sep 13, 2018
Security researchers have revealed a new attack to steal passwords, encryption keys and other sensitive information stored on most modern computers, even those with full disk encryption. The attack is a new variation of a traditional Cold Boot Attack , which is around since 2008 and lets attackers steal information that briefly remains in the memory (RAM) after the computer is shut down. However, to make the cold boot attacks less effective, most modern computers come bundled with a safeguard, created by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), that overwrites the contents of the RAM when the power on the device is restored, preventing the data from being read. Now, researchers from Finnish cyber-security firm F-Secure figured out a new way to disable this overwrite security measure by physically manipulating the computer's firmware, potentially allowing attackers to recover sensitive data stored on the computer after a cold reboot in a matter of few minutes. "Cold boot

Tesla Model S Hack Could Let Thieves Clone Key Fobs to Steal Cars

Tesla Model S Hack Could Let Thieves Clone Key Fobs to Steal Cars
Sep 12, 2018
Despite having proper security measures in place to protect the driving systems of its cars against cyber attacks, a team of security researchers discovered a way to remotely hack a Tesla Model S luxury sedans in less than two seconds. Yes, you heard that right. A team of researchers from the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography (COSIC) group of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the KU Leuven University in Belgium has demonstrated how it break the encryption used in Tesla's Model S wireless key fob. With $600 in radio and computing equipment that wirelessly read signals from a nearby Tesla owner's fob, the team was able to clone the key fob of Tesla's Model S, open the doors and drive away the electric sports car without a trace, according to Wired . "Today it's very easy for us to clone these key fobs in a matter of seconds," Lennert Wouters, one of the KU Leuven researchers, told Wired. "We can completely impersonate the key fob

Microsoft Issues Software Updates for 17 Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Issues Software Updates for 17 Critical Vulnerabilities
Sep 11, 2018
Times to gear up your systems and software. Just a few minutes ago Microsoft released its latest monthly Patch Tuesday update for September 2018, patching a total of 61 security vulnerabilities, 17 of which are rated as critical, 43 are rated Important, and one Moderate in severity. This month's security updates patch vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Edge, Internet Explorer, MS Office, ChakraCore, .NET Framework, Microsoft.Data.OData, ASP.NET, and more. Four of the security vulnerabilities patched by the tech giant this month have been listed as "publicly known" and more likely exploited in the wild at the time of release. CVE-2018-8475: Windows Critical RCE Vulnerability One of the four publicly disclosed vulnerabilities is a critical remote code execution flaw ( CVE-2018-8475 ) in Microsoft Windows and affects all versions Windows operating system, including Windows 10. The Windows RCE vulnerability resides in the way Windows handles specially cra

Adobe Issues ColdFusion Software Update for 6 Critical Vulnerabilities

Adobe Issues ColdFusion Software Update for 6 Critical Vulnerabilities
Sep 11, 2018
Adobe has released September 2018 security patch updates for a total of 10 vulnerabilities in Flash Player and ColdFusion, six of which are rated as critical that affected ColdFusion and could allow attackers to remotely execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable server. What's the good news this month for Adobe users? This month Adobe Acrobat and Reader applications did not receive any patch update, while Adobe Flash Player has received an update for just a single privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2018-15967) rated as important. Secondly, Adobe said none of the security vulnerabilities patched this month were either publicly disclosed or found being actively exploited in the wild. Total 9 Security Patches for Adobe ColdFusion Adobe has addressed a total of nine security vulnerabilities in its ColdFusion web application development platform, six of which are critical, two important and one moderate. According to the advisory released by Adobe, ColdFusion contain

Tor Browser Zero-Day Exploit Revealed Online – Patch Now

Tor Browser Zero-Day Exploit Revealed Online – Patch Now
Sep 10, 2018
Zerodium, the infamous exploit vendor that earlier this year offered $1 million for submitting a zero-day exploit for Tor Browser , today publicly revealed a critical zero-day flaw in the anonymous browsing software that could reveal your identity to the sites you visit. In a Tweet, Zerodium shared a zero-day vulnerability that resides in the NoScript browser plugin comes pre-installed with the Mozilla Firefox bundled in the Tor software. NoScript is a free browser extension that blocks malicious JavaScript, Java, Flash and other potentially dangerous content on all web pages by default, though users can whitelist sites they trust. According to Zerodium, NoScript "Classic" versions 5.0.4 to 5.1.8.6--with 'Safest' security level enabled--included in Tor Browser 7.5.6 can be bypassed to run any JavaScript file by changing its content-type header to JSON format. In other words, a website can exploit this vulnerability to execute malicious JavaScript on victim

No.1 Adware Removal Tool On Apple App Store Caught Spying On Mac Users

No.1 Adware Removal Tool On Apple App Store Caught Spying On Mac Users
Sep 07, 2018
A highly popular top-tier app in Apple's Mac App Store that's designed to protect its users from adware and malware threats has been, ironically, found surreptitiously stealing their browsing history without their consent, and sending it to a server in China. What's more concerning? Even after Apple was warned a month ago, the company did not take any action against the app. The app in question is "Adware Doctor," the Mac App Store No. 1 paid utility and also ranked as the fourth most popular paid app on the store, which sells for $4.99 and markets itself to be the "best app" to prevent "malware and malicious files from infecting your Mac." However, a security researcher with the @privacyis1st Twitter handle detected Adware Doctor's suspicious spyware-like behavior almost a month ago and also uploaded a proof-of-concept video demonstration of how the user's browser history is exfiltrated. The researcher informed Apple about

British Airways Hacked – 380,000 Payment Cards Compromised

British Airways Hacked – 380,000 Payment Cards Compromised
Sep 07, 2018
British Airways, who describes itself as "The World's Favorite Airline," has confirmed a data breach that exposed personal details and credit-card numbers of up to 380,000 customers and lasted for more than two weeks. So who exactly are victims? In a statement released by British Airways on Thursday, customers booking flights on its website (ba.com) and British Airways mobile app between late 21 August and 5 September were compromised. The airline advised customers who made bookings during that 15 days period and believe they may have been affected by this incident to "contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice." British Airways stated on its Twitter account that personal details stolen in the breach included their customers' names and addresses, along with their financial information, but the company assured its customers that the hackers did not get away with their passport numbers or travel details. The

U.S. Charges North Korean Spy Over WannaCry and Sony Pictures Hack

U.S. Charges North Korean Spy Over WannaCry and Sony Pictures Hack
Sep 06, 2018
The U.S. Department of Justice announces criminal charges against a North Korean government spy in connection with the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware attack and the 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack . According to multiple government officials cited by the NY Times who are familiar with the indictment, the charges would be brought against Park Jin Hyok , who works for North Korean military intelligence agency Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). The November 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack was done in retaliation for the studio's production of a comedic film, " The Interview ," a comedy about two journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In June 2014, the Pyongyang government also denounced the film as "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an Act of War" in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Sony Pictures hack was devastating to the company and exposed over 200

19-Year-Old Hacker Arrested Over Making Hoax School and Flight Bomb Threats

19-Year-Old Hacker Arrested Over Making Hoax School and Flight Bomb Threats
Sep 06, 2018
British police have arrested a 19-year-old teen who is an alleged member of Apophis Squad cybercriminal group responsible for making hoax bomb threats to thousands of schools and airlines; and DDoSing ProtonMail and Tutanota secure email services. George Duke-Cohan was arrested in his bedroom at his family home in Watford by British National Crime Agency (NCA) on 31st August and pledged guilty to three counts of making bomb threats to schools and airlines in Luton Magistrates' Court on Monday. Duke-Cohan spammed out more than 24,000 emails to schools across the UK and in the US as well, claiming that pipe bombs had been planted on the premises, which would blow up the building if $5,000 extortion money was not made within 3 hours. He Got Arrested Third-Time For Making Hoax Bomb Threats This is not the first time Duke-Cohan has been arrested for spreading fake bomb threats. He first created panic in March this year when he emailed thousands of schools in the UK warnin

Cisco Issues Security Patch Updates for 32 Flaws in its Products

Cisco Issues Security Patch Updates for 32 Flaws in its Products
Sep 06, 2018
Cisco today released thirty security patch advisory to address a total of 32 security vulnerabilities in its products, three of which are rated critical, including the recently disclosed Apache Struts remote code execution vulnerability that is being exploited in the wild. Out of the rest 29 vulnerabilities, fourteen are rated high and 15 medium in severity, addressing security flaws in Cisco Routers, Cisco Webex, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco SD-WAN Solution, Cisco Cloud Services Platform, Cisco Data Center Network, and more products. The three critical security vulnerabilities patched by Cisco address issues in Apache Struts, Cisco Umbrella API, and Cisco RV110W, RV130W and RV215W router's management interface. Apache Struts Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2018-11776) The vulnerability, reported late last month by Semmle security researcher Man Yue Mo, resides in the core of Apache Struts and originates due to insufficient validation of user-provided untrusted inputs in

Thousands of MikroTik Routers Hacked to Eavesdrop On Network Traffic

Thousands of MikroTik Routers Hacked to Eavesdrop On Network Traffic
Sep 04, 2018
Last month we reported about a widespread crypto-mining malware campaign that hijacked over 200,000 MikroTik routers using a previously disclosed vulnerability revealed in the CIA Vault 7 leaks . Now Chinese security researchers at Qihoo 360 Netlab have discovered that out of 370,000 potentially vulnerable MikroTik routers, more than 7,500 devices have been compromised to enable Socks4 proxy maliciously, allowing attackers to actively eavesdrop on the targeted network traffic since mid-July. The vulnerability in question is Winbox Any Directory File Read (CVE-2018-14847) in MikroTik routers that was found exploited by the CIA Vault 7 hacking tool called Chimay Red , along with another MikroTik's Webfig remote code execution vulnerability. Both Winbox and Webfig are RouterOS management components with their corresponding communication ports as TCP/8291, TCP/80, and TCP/8080. Winbox is designed for Windows users to easily configure the routers that download some DLL files

Hacker Who Leaked Celebrities' Personal Photos Gets 8 Months in Prison

Hacker Who Leaked Celebrities' Personal Photos Gets 8 Months in Prison
Aug 31, 2018
George Garofano (left) The fourth celebrity hacker—who was charged earlier this year with hacking into over 250 Apple iCloud accounts belonged to Jennifer Lawrence and other Hollywood celebrities—has been sentenced to eight months in prison. Earlier this year, George Garofano, 26, of North Branford, admitted to illegally obtaining credentials of his victims' iCloud accounts using a phishing scheme, carried out from April 2013 to October 2014, in which he posed as a member of Apple's security team and tricked victims into revealing their iCloud credentials. Using stolen credentials, Garofano then managed to steal victims' personal information, including their sensitive and intimate photographs and videos, from their iCloud accounts, and then leaked them on online forums, like 4Chan. Among the victims were Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian , Kirsten Dunst, Kate Upton, American Olympic gold medallist Misty May Treanor and actors Alexandra Chando, Kelli Garner and

Air Canada Suffers Data Breach — 20,000 Mobile App Users Affected

Air Canada Suffers Data Breach — 20,000 Mobile App Users Affected
Aug 30, 2018
Air Canada has confirmed a data breach that may have affected about 20,000 customers of its 1.7 million mobile app users. The company said it had "detected unusual log-in behavior" on its mobile app between August 22 and 24, during which the personal information for some of its customers "may potentially have been improperly accessed." The exposed information contains basic information such as customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other information they have added to their profiles. Passport Numbers Exposed in Air Canada Data Breach However, what's worrisome? Hackers could have also accessed additional data including customer's passport number, passport expiration date, passport country of issuance and country of residence, Aeroplan number, known traveler number, NEXUS number, gender, date of birth, and nationality, if users had this information saved in their profile on the Air Canada mobile app. The airline assured its c

Instagram Adds 3 New Security Tools to Make its Platform More Secure

Instagram Adds 3 New Security Tools to Make its Platform More Secure
Aug 29, 2018
Instagram is growing quickly—and with the second most popular social media network in the world (behind just Facebook), the photo-sharing network absolutely dominates when it comes to user interactions. And with great success comes great responsibility—responsibility to keep users' accounts safe, responsibility to fight fake accounts and news, and responsibility of being transparent. You might know that the Facebook-owned photo-sharing network has recently been a victim of a widespread hacking campaign that has affected thousands of Instagram users, leaving them locked out of their accounts. In the wake of the security mishappening, Instagram has announced a trio of security updates intended to discourage trolls, stop misinformation, and make the platform a little safer for its one billion users. In an official blog post , titled "New Tools to Keep Instagram Safe," published by Instagram Co-Founder & CTO Mike Krieger on August 28, the company announced thr
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