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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...

Are you sure the WhatsApp app you are using on your Android device is legitimate, even if it's working perfectly as intended? ...Or the JioTV, AppLock, HotStar, Flipkart, Opera Mini or Truecaller app—if you have installed any of these? I'm asking this because cybersecurity researchers just yesterday revealed eye-opening details about a widespread Android malware campaign wherein attackers silently replaced installed legitimate apps with their malicious versions on nearly 25 million mobile phones. Now the important question here is how they're doing it and why? According to researchers at Check Point, attackers are distributing a new kind of Android malware that disguises itself as innocent-looking photo editing, adult entertainment, or gaming apps and available through widely used third-party app stores. Dubbed Agent Smith , the malware takes advantage of multiple Android vulnerabilities, such as the  Janus flaw and the Man-in-the-Disk flaw , and injects malic...

Magecart strikes again! Cybersecurity researchers have identified yet another supply-chain attack carried out by payment card hackers against more than 17,000 web domains, which also include websites in the top 2,000 of Alexa rankings. Since Magecart is neither a single group nor a specific malware instead an umbrella term given to all those cyber criminal groups and individuals who inject digital card skimmers on compromised websites, it is not necessary for every one of them to use similar techniques with the same sophistication. A new report shared with The Hacker News prior to its release details a new supply-chain attack campaign wherein hackers are using shotgun approach instead of targeted attacks to infect a wide range of websites, preferring larger infection reach as possible over accuracy. Almost two months ago, security researchers from RiskIQ discovered supply-chain attacks involving credit card skimmers placed on several web-based suppliers, including AdMaxi...

A new ransomware family has been found targeting Linux-based Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices made by Taiwan-based QNAP Systems and holding users' important data hostage until a ransom is paid, researchers told The Hacker News. Ideal for home and small business, NAS devices are dedicated file storage units connected to a network or through the Internet, which allow users to store and share their data and backups with multiple computers. Independently discovered by researchers at two separate security firms, Intezer and Anomali, the new ransomware family targets poorly protected or vulnerable QNAP NAS servers either by brute forcing weak SSH credentials or exploiting known vulnerabilities. Dubbed " QNAPCrypt " by Intezer and " eCh0raix " by Anomali, the new ransomware is written in the Go programming language and encrypts files with targeted extensions using AES encryption and appends .encrypt extension to each. However, if a compromised NAS devic...

One of the most powerful, infamous, and advanced piece of government-grade commercial surveillance spyware dubbed FinSpy —also known as FinFisher —has been discovered in the wild targeting users in Myanmar. Created by German company Gamma International, FinSpy is spying software that can target various mobile platforms including iOS and Android, we well as desktop operating systems. Gamma Group reportedly sells its controversial FinSpy espionage tool exclusively to government agencies across the world, but also gained notoriety for targeting human rights activists in many countries. The FinSpy implant is capable of stealing an extensive amount of personal information from targeted mobile devices, such as SMS/MMS messages, phone call recordings, emails, contacts, pictures, files, and GPS location data. In its latest report published today, Kaspersky researchers revealed a cyber-espionage campaign that involves targeting Myanmar users with the latest versions of FinSpy impl...

We've got some really exciting news for you... Offensive Security has released an official version of Kali Linux for Raspberry Pi 4—the most powerful version of the compact computer board yet that was released just two weeks ago with the full 4GB of RAM at low cost and easy accessibility. Based on Debian, Kali Linux has always been the number one operating system for ethical hackers and penetration testers, and Raspberry Pi always has a gold standard for inexpensive single-board computing, designed to let people experiment with building software and hardware. Due to the popularity of Kali Linux on previous versions of Raspberry Pi, Offensive Security says that the developers want to get Kali supported on the latest version of the Pi right away. Now with the release of Raspberry Pi 4, Offensive Security is really excited to launch a new build of Kali Linux that takes advantage of everything the Raspberry Pi 4 has to offer including: A more powerful CPU Options for 1,...

After fining British Airways with a record fine of £183 million earlier this week, the UK's data privacy regulator is now planning to slap world's biggest hotel chain Marriott International with a £99 million ($123 million) fine under GDPR over 2014 data breach. This is the second major penalty notice in the last two days that hit companies for failing to protect its customers' personal and financial information compromised and implement adequate security measures. In November 2018, Marriott discovered that unknown hackers compromised their guest reservation database through its Starwood hotels subsidiary and walked away with personal details of approximately 339 million guests. The compromised database leaked guests' names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences. The breach, which likely happened in 2014, also exposed unencrypted passport...

Microsoft today released its monthly batch of software security updates for the July month to patch a total of 77 vulnerabilities, 14 are rated Critical, 62 are Important, and 1 is rated Moderate in severity. The July 2019 security updates include patches for various supported versions of Windows operating systems and other Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer, Edge, Office, Azure DevOps, Open Source Software, .NET Framework, Azure, SQL Server, ASP.NET, Visual Studio, and Exchange Server. Details of 6 security vulnerabilities, all rated important, were made public before a patch was released, none of which were found being exploited in the wild. However, two new privilege escalation vulnerabilities, one affects all supported versions of the Windows operating system, and the other affects Windows 7 and Server 2008, have been reported as being actively exploited in the wild. Both actively exploited vulnerabilities lead to elevation of privilege, one (CVE-2019-1132)...

Lodash, a popular npm library used by more than 4 million projects on GitHub alone, is affected by a high severity security vulnerability that could allow attackers to compromise the security of affected services using the library and their respective user base. Lodash is a JavaScript library that contains tools to simplify programming with strings, numbers, arrays, functions, and objects, helping programmers write and maintain their JavaScript code more efficiently. Liran Tal, a developer advocate at open-source security platform Snyk, recently published details and proof-of-concept exploit of a high-severity prototype pollution security vulnerability that affects all versions of lodash, including the latest version 4.17.11. The vulnerability, assigned as CVE-2019-10744 , potentially affects a large number of frontend projects due to the popularity of lodash that is being downloaded at a rate of more than 80 million times per month. Prototype pollution is a vulnerability t...

Enterprises should expect to see more cyberattacks launched against them. The data that they now gather and store have made their infrastructures key targets for hackers. Customer data and intellectual property can be sold in the black market for profit, and sensitive information can also be used by hackers to extort them. Enterprises are now aggressively shifting their workloads to the cloud which, while it has many benefits, expands their defensive perimeter and exposes them to further risks as well. As such, organizations are now widely investing in various security solutions in order to comprehensively protect their networks. Gartner expects security spending to exceed $124 billion this year. Solutions such as firewalls and threat prevention tools have increasingly become essential for enterprises. Leading firewall provider Palo Alto Networks , for example, provides companies with various measures to protect their infrastructures. It's currently being used by tens...

Smartphones are a goldmine of sensitive data, and modern apps work as diggers that continuously collect every possible information from your devices. The security model of modern mobile operating systems, like Android and iOS, is primarily based on permissions that explicitly define which sensitive services, device capabilities, or user information an app can access, allowing users decide what apps can access. However, new findings by a team of researchers at the International Computer Science Institute in California revealed that mobile app developers are using shady techniques to harvest users' data even after they deny permissions. In their talk " 50 Ways to Pour Your Data " [ PDF ] at PrivacyCon hosted by the Federal Trade Commission last Thursday, researchers presented their findings that outline how more than 1,300 Android apps are collecting users' precise geolocation data and phone identifiers even when they've explicitly denied the required permi...

More and more, organizations take the route of outsourcing incident response to Managed Security Service Providers. This trend is distinct regardless of the organization's cyber maturity level and can be found across a wide range of cyber maturity, from small companies with no dedicated security team to enterprises with a fully equipped SOC. The hands of the incident response service providers are extremely busy, and the need from their side to scale while maintaining top quality has never been greater. To address this need, Cynet offers IR service providers to collect data, analyze, investigate and remediate threats on their customers' environments with Cynet 360 platform for free, introducing unmatched speed and reliability into their operations. Any incident responder can now simply sign up to Cynet and immediately get free access to the platform. "Cynet tackles the incident response play at its most fundamental core – speed," said Eyal Gruner, co-fo...

Security researchers at Microsoft have released details of a new widespread campaign distributing an infamous piece of fileless malware that was primarily being found targeting European and Brazilian users earlier this year. Dubbed Astaroth , the malware trojan has been making the rounds since at least 2017 and designed to steal users' sensitive information like their credentials, keystrokes, and other data, without dropping any executable file on the disk or installing any software on the victim's machine. Initially discovered by researchers at Cybereason in February this year, Astaroath lived off the land by running the payload directly into the memory of a targeted computer or by leveraging legitimate system tools, such as WMIC, Certutil, Bitsadmin, and Regsvr32, to run the malicious code. While reviewing the Windows telemetry data, Andrea Lelli, a researcher at Microsoft Defender ATP Research Team, recently spotted a sudden unusual spike in the usage of Managemen...

If you use Zoom video conferencing software on your Mac computer—then beware—any website you're visiting in your web browser can turn on your device camera without your permission. Ironically, even if you had ever installed the Zoom client on your device and simply uninstalled it, a remote attacker can still activate your webcam. Zoom is one of the most popular cloud-based meeting platforms that provide video, audio, and screen sharing options to users, allowing them to host webinars, teach online courses, conduct online training, or join virtual meetings online. In a Medium post published today, cybersecurity researcher Jonathan Leitschuh disclosed details of an unpatched critical security vulnerability (CVE-2019-13450) in the Zoom client app for Apple Mac computers, which if combined with a separate flaw, could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on the targeted systems remotely. Jonathan responsibly reported the security vulnerability to the affected company ov...