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If you're administrating Windows Server, make sure it's up to date with all recent patches issued by Microsoft, especially the one that fixes a recently patched critical vulnerability that could allow unauthenticated attackers to compromise the domain controller. Dubbed 'Zerologon' (CVE-2020-1472) and discovered by Tom Tervoort of  Secura , the privilege escalation vulnerability exists due to the insecure usage of AES-CFB8 encryption for Netlogon sessions, allowing remote attackers to establish a connection to the targeted domain controller over Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC). "The attack utilizes flaws in an authentication protocol that validates the authenticity and identity of a domain-joined computer to the Domain Controller. Due to the incorrect use of an AES mode of operation, it is possible to spoof the identity of any computer account (including that of the DC itself) and set an empty password for that account in the domain," researchers at cyber...

As ransomware attacks  against critical infrastructure continue to spike in recent months, cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new entrant that has been actively trying to conduct multistage attacks on large corporate networks of medical labs, banks, manufacturers, and software developers in Russia. The ransomware gang, codenamed "OldGremlin" and believed to be a Russian-speaking threat actor, has been linked to a series of campaigns at least since March, including a successful attack against a clinical diagnostics laboratory that occurred last month on August 11. "The group has targeted only Russian companies so far, which was typical for many Russian-speaking adversaries, such as  Silence  and  Cobalt , at the beginning of their criminal path," Singaporean cybersecurity firm Group-IB said in a report published today and shared with The Hacker News. "Using Russia as a testing ground, these groups then switched to other geographies to distance thems...

A back-end server associated with Microsoft Bing exposed sensitive data of the search engine's mobile application users, including search queries, device details, and GPS coordinates, among others. The logging database, however, doesn't include any personal details such as names or addresses. The data leak, discovered by Ata Hakcil of  WizCase  on September 12, is a massive 6.5TB cache of log files that was left for anyone to access without any password, potentially allowing cybercriminals to leverage the information for carrying out extortion and phishing scams. According to WizCase, the Elastic server is believed to have been password protected until September 10, after which the authentication seems to have been inadvertently removed. After the findings were privately disclosed to Microsoft Security Response Center, the Windows maker addressed the misconfiguration on September 16. Misconfigured servers have been a constant  source of data leaks  in recent y...

A UK man who threatened to publicly release stolen confidential information unless the victims agreed to fulfill his digital extortion demands has finally pleaded guilty on Monday at U.S. federal district court in St. Louis, Missouri. Nathan Francis Wyatt , 39, who is a key member of the infamous international hacking group 'The Dark Overlord,' has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $1,467,048 in restitution to his victims. Wyatt, who was extradited to the United States late last year after being held for over two years in the United Kingdom, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit aggravated identity theft and computer fraud. U.K. police first arrested Wyatt in September 2016 during an investigation into the hacking of an iCloud account belonging to Pippa Middleton, the younger sister of the British royal family member Duchess of Cambridge, and stealing 3,000 images of her. Though he was released in that case without charge due to lack of ...

German authorities last week  disclosed  that a ransomware attack on the University Hospital of Düsseldorf (UKD) caused a failure of IT systems, resulting in the death of a woman who had to be sent to another hospital that was 20 miles away. The incident marks the first recorded casualty as a consequence of cyberattacks on critical healthcare facilities, which has ramped up in recent months. The attack, which exploited a Citrix ADC  CVE-2019-19781  vulnerability to cripple the hospital systems on September 10, is said to have been "misdirected" in that it was originally intended for Heinrich Heine University, according to an extortion note left by the perpetrators. After law enforcement contacted the threat actors and informed them that they had encrypted a hospital, the operators behind the attack withdrew the ransom demand and provided the decryption key. The case is currently being treated as a homicide, BBC News  reported  over the weekend. Unpatc...

Dear Android users, if you use the Firefox web browser on your smartphones, make sure it has been updated to version 80 or the latest available version on the Google Play Store. ESET security researcher Lukas Stefanko yesterday tweeted an alert demonstrating the exploitation of a recently disclosed high-risk remote command execution vulnerability affecting the Firefox app for Android. Discovered originally by Australian security researcher Chris Moberly , the vulnerability resides in the SSDP engine of the browser that can be exploited by an attacker to target Android smartphones connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the attacker, with Firefox app installed. SSDP, stands for Simple Service Discovery Protocol, is a UDP based protocol that is a part of UPnP for finding other devices on a network. In Android, Firefox periodically sends out SSDP discovery messages to other devices connected to the same network, looking for second-screen devices to cast. Any device on the local netwo...

Capping off a busy week of charges and sanctions  against Iranian hackers, a new research offers insight into what's a six-year-long ongoing surveillance campaign targeting Iranian expats and dissidents with an intention to pilfer sensitive information. The threat actor, suspected to be of Iranian origin, is said to have orchestrated the campaign with at least two different moving parts — one for Windows and the other for Android — using a wide arsenal of intrusion tools in the form of info stealers and backdoors designed to steal personal documents, passwords, Telegram messages, and two-factor authentication codes from SMS messages. Calling the operation " Rampant Kitten ," cybersecurity firm Check Point Research said the suite of malware tools had been mainly used against Iranian minorities, anti-regime organizations, and resistance movements such as the Association of Families of Camp Ashraf and Liberty Residents (AFALR), Azerbaijan National Resistance Organization...

The U.S. government on Thursday imposed  sweeping sanctions  against an Iranian threat actor backed by the country's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) for carrying out malware campaigns targeting Iranian dissidents, journalists, and international companies in the telecom and travel sectors. According to the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the sanctions target Rana Intelligence Computing Company (or Rana), which the agencies said operated as a front for the threat group  APT39  (aka Chafer or Remix Kitten), Iranian cyber espionage hacking collective active since 2014 known for its attacks on companies in the U.S. and the Middle East with an aim to pilfer personal information and advance Iran's national security objectives. To that effect, 45 individuals who served in various capacities while employed at the front company, including as managers, programmers, and hacking experts, have been implicated in the sanctions, which also...