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Romanian cybersecurity technology company Bitdefender on Monday revealed that attempts are being made to target Windows machines with a novel ransomware family called  Khonsari  as well as a remote access Trojan named  Orcus  by exploiting the recently disclosed critical Log4j vulnerability . The attack leverages the remote code execution (RCE) flaw to download an additional payload, a .NET binary, from a remote server that encrypts all the files with the extension ".khonsari" and displays a ransom note that urges the victims to make a Bitcoin payment in exchange for recovering access to the files. Tracked as CVE-2021-44228 , the RCE vulnerability is also known by the monikers "Log4Shell" or "Logjam" and impacts versions 2.0-beta9 to 2.14.1 of the software library. In simple terms, the bug could force an affected system to download malicious software, giving the attackers a digital beachhead on servers located within corporate networks. Log4j is an op...

As a CISO, one of the most challenging questions to answer is "How well are we protected right now?" Between the acceleration of hackers' offensive capabilities and the dynamic nature of information networks, a drift in the security posture is unavoidable and needs to be continuously compensated. Therefore, answering that question implies continuously validating the security posture and being in a position to check it including, against the latest emerging threats. Yet, the bulk of cybersecurity is focused on defensive tools. The combination of the rapid evolution of technology and the multiplication of technology layers, combined with the professionalization of the threat landscape, has led to a profusion of cybersecurity tools tackling different security aspects. Checking the cybersecurity solution stack efficiency is typically done through pen-testing or, more recently, through red teaming – an exercise aimed to map possible loopholes that would lead to a data breac...

Europol, the European Union's premier law enforcement agency, has  announced  the arrest of a third Romanian national for his role as a ransomware affiliate suspected of hacking high-profile organizations and companies and stealing large volumes of sensitive data. The 41-year-old unnamed individual was apprehended Monday morning at his home in Craiova, Romania, by the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism ( DIICOT ) following a joint investigation in collaboration with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It's not currently known which ransomware gang the suspect was working with, but the development comes a little over a month after Romanian authorities  arrested two affiliates  of the REvil ransomware family, who are believed to have orchestrated no fewer than 5,000 ransomware attacks and extorted close to $600,000 from victims. Affiliates play a key role in the subscription-based ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) busines...

SaaS Adoption is Skyrocketing, Resilience Hasn't Kept Pace SaaS platforms have revolutionized how businesses operate. They simplify collaboration, accelerate deployment, and reduce the overhead of managing infrastructure. But with their rise comes a subtle, dangerous assumption: that the convenience of SaaS extends to resilience. It doesn't. These platforms weren't built with full-scale data protection in mind . Most follow a shared responsibility model — wherein the provider ensures uptime and application security, but the data inside is your responsibility. In a world of hybrid architectures, global teams, and relentless cyber threats, that responsibility is harder than ever to manage. Modern organizations are being stretched across: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments with decentralized data sprawl Complex integration layers between IaaS, SaaS, and legacy systems Expanding regulatory pressure with steeper penalties for noncompliance Escalating ransomware threats and inside...

Apple on Monday released updates to  iOS ,  macOS ,  tvOS , and  watchOS  with security patches for multiple vulnerabilities, including a remote jailbreak exploit chain as well as a number of critical issues in the Kernel and Safari web browser that were first demonstrated at the Tianfu Cup held in China two months ago. Tracked as CVE-2021-30955, the issue could have enabled a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple said it addressed the race condition bug with "improved state handling." The flaw also impacts macOS devices. "The kernel bug CVE-2021-30955 is the one we tried [to] use to build our remote jailbreak chain but failed to complete on time," Kunlun Lab's chief executive, @mj0011sec,  said  in a tweet. A set of similar kernel vulnerabilities were eventually harnessed by the Pangu Team at the  Tianfu hacking contest  to break into an iPhone13 Pro running iOS 15, a feat that netted the white hat ...

Google has rolled out fixes for five security vulnerabilities in its Chrome web browser, including one which it says is being exploited in the wild, making it the  17th such weakness  to be disclosed since the start of the year. Tracked as  CVE-2021-4102 , the flaw relates to a  use-after-free bug  in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which could have severe consequences ranging from corruption of valid data to the execution of arbitrary code. An anonymous researcher has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw. As it stands, it's not known how the weakness is being abused in real-world attacks, but the internet giant issued a terse statement that said, "it's aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-4102 exists in the wild." This is done so in an attempt to ensure that a majority of users are updated with a fix and prevent further exploitation by other threat actors. CVE-2021-4102 is the second use-after-free vulnerability in V8 th...

A previously undocumented, financially motivated threat group has been connected to a string of data theft and extortion attacks on over 40 entities between September and November 2021. The hacker collective, which goes by the self-proclaimed name  Karakurt  and was first identified in June 2021, is capable of modifying its tactics and techniques to adapt to the targeted environment, Accenture's Cyber Investigations, Forensics and Response (CIFR) team said in a report published on December 10. "The threat group is financially motivated, opportunistic in nature, and so far, appears to target smaller companies or corporate subsidiaries versus the alternative big game hunting approach," the CIFR team  said . "Based on intrusion analysis to date, the threat group focuses solely on data exfiltration and subsequent extortion, rather than the more destructive ransomware deployment." 95% of the known victims are based in North America, while the remaining 5% are in...

With 2021 drawing to a close and many closing their plans and budgets for 2022, the time has come to do a brief wrap-up of the SaaS Security challenges on the horizon. Here are the top 3 SaaS security posture challenges as we see them.  1  —  The Mess of Misconfiguration Management The good news is that more businesses than ever are using SaaS apps such as GitHub, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack, SuccessFactors, Zoom, and many others, to enable employees to maintain productivity under the most challenging of circumstances. As for the bad news, many companies are having a hard time adequately addressing the ever-changing security risks of each app.  This challenge begins with a simple miscalculation—businesses are tasking security teams to ensure that the security configurations for each app are set correctly.  While that may seem like the logical choice, these apps are like snowflakes, no two are the same, including their specific settings and configurati...