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A computer retail company based in the U.S. was the target of a previously undiscovered implant called SideWalk as part of a recent campaign undertaken by a Chinese advanced persistent threat group primarily known for singling out entities in East and Southeast Asia. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET attributed the malware to an advanced persistent threat it tracks under the moniker SparklingGoblin, an adversary believed to be connected to the Winnti umbrella group, noting its similarities to another backdoor dubbed  Crosswalk  that was put to use by the same threat actor in 2019. "SideWalk is a modular backdoor that can dynamically load additional modules sent from its C&C [command-and-control] server, makes use of Google Docs as a  dead drop resolver , and  Cloudflare workers  as a C&C server," ESET researchers Thibaut Passilly and Mathieu Tartare  said  in a report published Tuesday. "It can also properly handle communication behind a prox...

A modified version of the WhatsApp messaging app for Android has been trojanized to intercept text messages, serve malicious payloads, display full-screen ads, and sign up device owners for unwanted premium subscriptions without their knowledge. "The Trojan Triada snuck into one of these modified versions of the messenger called FMWhatsApp 16.80.0 together with the advertising software development kit (SDK)," researchers from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky  said  in a technical write-up published Tuesday. "This is similar to  what happened with APKPure , where the only malicious code that was embedded in the app was a payload downloader." Modified versions of legitimate Android apps — a practice called Modding — are designed to perform functions not originally conceived or intended by the app developers. FMWhatsApp, billed as a custom build of WhatsApp, allows users to refashion the app with different themes, personalize icons, and hide features like last ...

A previously undisclosed "zero-click" exploit in Apple's iMessage was abused by Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group to circumvent iOS security protections and target nine Bahraini activists. "The hacked activists included three members of Waad (a secular Bahraini political society), three members of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, two exiled Bahraini dissidents, and one member of Al Wefaq (a Shiite Bahraini political society)," researchers from University of Toronto's Citizen Lab  said  in a report published today, with four of the targets hacked by an actor it tracks as LULU and believed to be the government of Bahrain. Citizen Lab called the new exploit chain "FORCEDENTRY." It's also a zero-click exploit, meaning that it can be used to trigger an infection simply by sending a malicious message to the target, even without having to click a link or view the message in question. "As always, if NSO receives reliable information r...

Cybersecurity researchers on Tuesday took the wraps off four up-and-coming ransomware groups that could pose a serious threat to enterprises and critical infrastructure, as the ripple effect of a recent spurt in ransomware incidents show that attackers are growing more sophisticated and more profitable in extracting payouts from victims. "While the ransomware crisis appears poised to get worse before it gets better, the cast of cybercrime groups that cause the most damage is constantly changing," Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 threat intelligence team  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Groups sometimes go quiet when they've achieved so much notoriety that they become a priority for law enforcement. Others reboot their operations to make them more lucrative by revising their tactics, techniques and procedures, updating their software and launching marketing campaigns to recruit new affiliates." The development comes as ransomware attacks are g...

More than 38 million records from 47 different entities that rely on Microsoft's Power Apps portals platform were inadvertently left exposed online, bringing into sharp focus a "new vector of data exposure." "The types of data varied between portals, including personal information used for COVID-19 contact tracing, COVID-19 vaccination appointments, social security numbers for job applicants, employee IDs, and millions of names and email addresses," UpGuard Research team  said  in a disclosure made public on Monday. Governmental bodies like Indiana, Maryland, and New York City, and private companies such as American Airlines, Ford, J.B. Hunt, and Microsoft are said to have been impacted. Among the most sensitive information that was left in the open were 332,000 email addresses and employee IDs used by Microsoft's own global payroll services, as well as more than 85,000 records related to Business Tools Support and Mixed Reality portals. Power Apps  is ...