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Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out its scheduled  monthly security update  with patches for 55 security flaws affecting Windows, Exchange Server, Internet Explorer, Office, Hyper-V, Visual Studio, and Skype for Business. Of these 55 bugs, four are rated as Critical, 50 are rated as Important, and one is listed as Moderate in severity. Three of the vulnerabilities are publicly known, although, unlike  last month , none of them are under active exploitation at the time of release. The most critical of the flaws addressed is  CVE-2021-31166 , a wormable remote code execution vulnerability in the HTTP protocol stack. The issue, which could allow an unauthenticated attacker to send a specially crafted packet to a targeted server, is rated 9.8 out of a maximum of 10 on the CVSS scale. Another vulnerability of note is a remote code execution flaw in Hyper-V ( CVE-2021-28476 ), which also scores the highest severity among all flaws patched this month with a CVSS rating of...

The cybercrime syndicate behind Babuk ransomware has leaked more personal files belonging to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) after negotiations with the DC Police broke down, warning that they intend to publish all data if their ransom demands are not met. "The negotiations reached a dead end, the amount we were offered does not suit us, we are posting 20 more personal files on officers, you can download this archive, the password will be released tomorrow. if during tomorrow they do not raise the price, we will release all the data," the gang said in a statement on their data leak site. "You still have the ability to stop it," it added. The Babuk group is said to have  stolen 250GB of data , including investigation reports, arrests, disciplinary actions, and other intelligence briefings. Like other ransomware platforms, DarkSide adheres to a practice called double extortion, which involves demanding money in return for unlocking files and servers en...

Adobe has released  Patch Tuesday updates  for the month of May with fixes for multiple vulnerabilities spanning 12 different products, including a zero-day flaw affecting Adobe Reader that's actively exploited in the wild. The list of updated applications includes Adobe Experience Manager , Adobe InDesign , Adobe Illustrator , Adobe InCopy , Adobe Genuine Service , Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Magento , Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop Application, Adobe Media Encoder , Adobe After Effects , Adobe Medium, and Adobe Animate. In a security bulletin, the company  acknowledged  it received reports that the flaw "has been exploited in the wild in limited attacks targeting Adobe Reader users on Windows." Tracked as CVE-2021-28550, the zero-day concerns an arbitrary code execution flaw that could allow adversaries to execute virtually any command on target systems. While the targeted attacks took aim at Windows users of Adobe Reader, the issue affects both Windows and macO...

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...

The concept of automation has taken on a life of its own in recent years. The idea is nothing new, but the current interest in automation is a mix of both hype and innovation. On the one hand, it's much easier today to automate everything from small processes to massive-scale tasks than it's ever been before. On the other hand, are we really prepared to hand the reins over to completely automated systems, and should we? There are areas in security operations where automation is already a critical component. In terms of analytics and parsing through ever-expanding data flows, it's impossible for most teams to keep up without impacting other areas of their jobs. Automated systems help us make sense of threats much faster and more reliably. However, automation isn't a cure-all (just yet). A new live webinar from XDR provider Cynet dives into the topic more in depth ( register here ). The webinar explores automation as it exists today in the cybersecurity industry. Led ...

Inadequate implementation of telecom standards, supply chain threats, and weaknesses in systems architecture could pose major cybersecurity risks to 5G networks, potentially making them a lucrative target for cybercriminals and nation-state adversaries to exploit for valuable intelligence. The analysis, which aims to identify and assess risks and vulnerabilities introduced by 5G adoption, was published on Monday by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), in partnership with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). "As new 5G policies and standards are released, there remains the potential for threats that impact the end-user," the report  said . "For example, nation states may attempt to exert undue influence on standards that benefit their proprietary technologies and limit customers' choices to use other equipment or software." S...

Cybersecurity researchers on Monday disclosed a new Android trojan that hijacks users' credentials and SMS messages to facilitate fraudulent activities against banks in Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Called " TeaBot " (or Anatsa), the malware is said to be in its early stages of development, with malicious attacks targeting financial apps commencing in late March 2021, followed by a rash of infections in the first week of May against Belgium and Netherlands banks. The first signs of TeaBot activity emerged in January. "The main goal of TeaBot is stealing victim's credentials and SMS messages for enabling frauds scenarios against a predefined list of banks," Italian cybersecurity and online fraud prevention firm Cleafy said in a Monday write-up. "Once TeaBot is successfully installed in the victim's device, attackers can obtain a live streaming of the device screen (on demand) and also interact with it via Accessibility Serv...

The ransomware attack  against Colonial Pipeline's networks has prompted the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to issue a  regional emergency declaration  in 17 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.). The declaration provides a temporary exemption to Parts 390 through 399 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations ( FMCSRs ), allowing alternate transportation of gasoline, diesel, and refined petroleum products to address supply shortages stemming from the attack. "Such [an] emergency is in response to the unanticipated shutdown of the Colonial pipeline system due to network issues that affect the supply of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products throughout the Affected States," the directive said. "This Declaration addresses the emergency conditions creating a need for immediate transportation of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products and provides necessary relief." The states...

An unknown threat actor managed to control more than 27% of the entire Tor network exit capacity in early February 2021, a new study on the dark web infrastructure revealed. "The entity attacking Tor users is actively exploiting tor users since over a year and expanded the scale of their attacks to a new record level," an independent security researcher who goes by the name nusenu  said  in a write-up published on Sunday. "The average exit fraction this entity controlled was above 14% throughout the past 12 months." It's the latest in a series of efforts undertaken to bring to light malicious Tor activity perpetrated by the actor since  December 2019 . The attacks, which are said to have begun in January 2020, were first  documented and exposed  by the same researcher in August 2020. Tor is open-source software for enabling anonymous communication on the Internet. It obfuscates the source and destination of a web request by directing network traffic through...

For as long as corporate IT has been in existence, users have been required to change their passwords periodically. In fact, the need for scheduled password changes may be one of the most long-standing of all IT best practices. Recently, however, things have started to change. Microsoft has reversed course on the best practices that it has had in place for decades and  no longer recommends that organizations require users to change passwords periodically . Organizations are being forced to consider, perhaps for the first time, whether or not requiring periodic password changes is a good idea. Microsoft password reset recommendations According to Microsoft, requiring users to change their passwords frequently does more harm than good.  Humans are notoriously resistant to change. When a user is forced to change their password, they will often come up with a new password that is based on their previous password. A user might, for example, append a number to the end of their ...