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The recent tsunami of ransomware has brought to life the fears of downtime and data loss cybersecurity pros have warned about, as attacks on the energy sector, food supply chain, healthcare industry, and other critical infrastructure have grabbed headlines. For the industry experts who track the evolution of this threat, the increased frequency, sophistication, and destructiveness of ransomware suggests that businesses still have some major gaps in their defense strategies. It's no surprise that a new, multi-layered approach to protection is needed to stem the damage caused by ransomware. But what changes should an IT team implement to close those gaps? During a recent panel, a team of cybersecurity experts outlined a three-step plan to do just that -- centered around embracing new technologies, improving security processes, and ensuring their people know how to help curb the threat. 1  —  New Strains Overwhelm Old Defenses Many new ransomware strains now act like advanc...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed critical security vulnerabilities affecting  NETGEAR DGN2200v1 series routers , which they say could be reliably abused as a jumping-off point to compromise a network's security and gain unfettered access. The three  HTTPd  authentication security weaknesses (CVSS scores: 7.1 – 9.4) impact routers running firmware versions prior to v1.0.0.60, and have since been  fixed by the company  in December 2020 as part of a coordinated vulnerability disclosure process. "The rising number of firmware attacks and ransomware attacks via VPN devices and other internet-facing systems are examples of attacks initiated outside and below the operating system layer," Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team's Jonathan Bar Or  said . "As these types of attacks become more common, users must look to secure even the single-purpose software that run their hardware—like routers." In a nutshell, the flaws allow accessing router management p...

Colombian authorities on Wednesday said they have arrested a Romanian hacker who is wanted in the U.S. for distributing a virus that infected more than a million computers from 2007 to 2012. Mihai Ionut Paunescu (aka "Virus"), the individual in question, was detained at the El Dorado airport in Bogotá, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia  said . Paunescu was  previously charged  by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) in January 2013 for operating a bulletproof hosting service that "enabled cyber criminals to distribute the Gozi Virus, the Zeus Trojan and other notorious malware, and conduct other sophisticated cyber crimes." He was arrested in Romania in December 2012 but managed to avoid extradition to the U.S. "Through this service, Paunescu, like other bulletproof hosts, knowingly provided critical online infrastructure to cyber criminals that allowed them to commit online criminal activity with little fear of detection by law enforcement,...

A coordinated international law enforcement operation resulted in the takedown of a VPN service called DoubleVPN for providing a safe haven for cybercriminals to cover their tracks. "On 29th of June 2021, law enforcement took down DoubleVPN," the agencies said in a seizure notice splashed on the now-defunct site. "Law enforcement gained access to the servers of DoubleVPN and seized personal information, logs and statistics kept by DoubleVPN about all of its customers. DoubleVPN's owners failed to provide the services they promised." The criminal investigation was conducted by agencies from Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, U.K., and the U.S., alongside authorities from Eurojust and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). DoubleVPN is said to have been heavily advertised on both Russian and English-speaking underground cybercrime forums as a means to mask the location and identities of ransomware operators and...

Organizations today already have an overwhelming number of dangers and threats to look out for, from spam to phishing attempts to new infiltration and ransomware tactics. There is no chance to rest, since attack groups are constantly looking for more effective means of infiltrating and infecting systems. Today, there are hundreds of groups devoted to infiltrating almost every industry, constantly devising more sophisticated methods to attack organizations. It's even more troubling to note that some groups have started to collaborate, creating complex and stealthy tactics that leave even the best security teams scrambling to respond. Such is the case noted by XDR Provider Cynet, as the company observes in its newest Research Webinar ( register here ). Cynet's research team noted that two of the most infamous attack groups – Lunar Spider and Wizard Spider – have started working together to infect organizations with ransomware. The development is certainly troubling, and the ...

A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit related to a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Windows Print Spooler and patched by Microsoft earlier this month was briefly published online before being taken down. Identified as  CVE-2021-1675 , the security issue could grant remote attackers full control of vulnerable systems.  Print Spooler  manages the printing process in Windows, including loading the appropriate printer drivers and scheduling the print job for printing, among others. Print Spooler flaws are concerning, not least because of the wide attack surface, but also owing to the fact that it runs at the highest privilege level and is capable of dynamically loading third-party binaries. The Windows maker addressed the vulnerability as part of its Patch Tuesday update on June 8, 2021. But almost two weeks later, Microsoft revised the flaw's impact from an elevation of privilege to remote code execution (RCE) as well as upgraded the severity level from Im...

GitHub on Tuesday launched a technical preview of a new AI-powered  pair programming  tool that aims to help software developers write better code across a variety of programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go. Copilot , as the code synthesizer is called, has been developed in collaboration with  OpenAI , and leverages Codex, a new AI system that's trained on publicly available source code and natural language with the goal of translating comments and code written by a user into auto-generated code snippets. "GitHub Copilot draws context from the code you're working on, suggesting whole lines or entire functions," GitHub CEO Nat Friedman  said  in a blog post. "It helps you quickly discover alternative ways to solve problems, write tests, and explore new APIs without having to tediously tailor a search for answers on the internet." Despite its function as an AI-based autocomplete for writing boilerplate code, the Micr...