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Google on Tuesday  announced  a new feature to its password manager that could be used to change a stolen password automatically with a single tap. Automated password changes build on the tool's ability to  check the safety  of saved passwords. Thus when Chrome finds a password that may have been compromised as part of a data breach, it will prompt users with an alert containing a "Change Password" button, tapping which "Chrome will not only navigate to the site, but also go through the entire process of changing your password." Enabling this in the background is Google's  Duplex  technology, which it debuted in 2018 and expanded in 2019 to support various functions in Google Assistant like booking a rental car, ordering food, and buying movie tickets. The search giant, however, noted that users could take over control at any point during the process and change the password manually. The feature is currently being rolled out in Chrome for Android to a...

In July 2018, when Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD)  agreed to a deal  with state-owned telco China Telecom to move iCloud data belonging to Apple's China-based users to the latter's servers, the shift raised concerns that it could make user data vulnerable to state surveillance. Now, according to a  deep-dive report  from The New York Times, Apple's privacy and security concessions have "made it nearly impossible for the company to stop the Chinese government from gaining access to the emails, photos, documents, contacts and locations of millions of Chinese residents." The revelations stand in stark contrast to Apple's commitment to privacy, while also highlighting a pattern of  conceding  to the  demands  of the Chinese government in order to continue its operations in the country. Apple, in 2018, announced iCloud data of users in mainland China would move to a new data center in Guizhou province as part of a partnership with GCBD. The transit...

Leaders in the InfoSec field face a strange dilemma. On the one hand, there are hundreds of thousands of resources available to find online to read (or watch) if they have questions – that's a benefit of a digital-first field. On the other hand, most leaders face challenges that – while not entirely unique each time – tend to require a specific touch or solution. For most, it would be great to have a sympathetic ear or a fresh perspective that has faced similar challenges. Where does the tip of the spear turn to for a helping hand? One popular avenue is to turn to a virtual CISO (or vCISO), an external consultant who can offer strategic advice, suggestions and help find insights that can be instrumental in building better security systems. For many organizations, having the benefits of a CISO, even on a temporary basis, can be incredibly helpful and valuable. With that in mind, Chris Roberts, Cynet's chief security strategist, is offering a new program ( you can learn more...

If you invite guest users into your Entra ID tenant, you may be opening yourself up to a surprising risk.  A gap in access control in Microsoft Entra's subscription handling is allowing guest users to create and transfer subscriptions into the tenant they are invited into, while maintaining full ownership of them.  All the guest user needs are the permissions to create subscriptions in their home tenant, and an invitation as a guest user into an external tenant. Once inside, the guest user can create subscriptions in their home tenant, transfer them into the external tenant, and retain full ownership rights. This stealthy privilege escalation tactic allows a guest user to gain a privileged foothold in an environment where they should only have limited access. Many organizations treat guest accounts as low-risk based on their temporary, limited access, but this behavior, which works as designed, opens the door to known attack paths and lateral movement within the resource t...

A total of 158 privacy and security issues have been identified in 58 Android stalkware apps from various vendors that could enable a malicious actor to take control of a victim's device, hijack a stalker's account, intercept data, achieve remote code execution, and even frame the victim by uploading fabricated evidence. The new findings, which come from an analysis of 86 stalkerware apps for the Android platform undertaken by Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, highlight the unintended consequences of a practice that's not only unethical but in the process could also expose private and intimate information of the victims and leave them at risk of cyberattacks and fraud. "Since there could be a close relationship between stalker and victim, the stalker's private information could also be exposed," ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko  said  in a Monday write-up. "During our research, we identified that some stalkerware keeps information about the stalkers using ...

A financially motivated cybercrime gang has unleashed a previously undocumented banking trojan, which can steal credentials from customers of 70 banks located in various European and South American countries. Dubbed " Bizarro " by Kaspersky researchers, the Windows malware is "using affiliates or recruiting money mules to operationalize their attacks, cashing out or simply to helping [sic] with transfers." The campaign consists of multiple moving parts, chief among them being the ability to trick users into entering two-factor authentication codes in fake pop-up windows that are then sent to the attackers, as well as its reliance on social engineering lures to convince visitors of banking websites into downloading a malicious smartphone app. Bizarro, which uses compromised WordPress, Amazon, and Azure servers to host the malware, is distributed via MSI packages downloaded by victims from sketchy links in spam emails. Launching the package downloads a ZIP archiv...

Latest research has demonstrated a new exploit that enables arbitrary data to be uploaded from devices that are not connected to the Internet by simply sending "Find My" Bluetooth broadcasts to nearby Apple devices. "It's possible to upload arbitrary data from non-internet-connected devices by sending Find My [Bluetooth Low Energy] broadcasts to nearby Apple devices that then upload the data for you," Positive Security researcher Fabian Bräunlein  said  in a technical write-up disclosed last week. The study builds on a previous analysis by TU Darmstadt  published  in March 2021, which disclosed two distinct design and implementation flaws in Apple's crowdsourced Bluetooth location tracking system that could lead to a location correlation attack and unauthorized access to a user's location history of the past seven days. The investigation was augmented by the release of a framework called  OpenHaystack  that's designed to let any user create an ...

In today's digital world, password security is more important than ever. While biometrics, one-time passwords (OTP), and other emerging forms of authentication are often touted as replacements to the traditional password, today, this concept is more marketing hype than anything else. But just because  passwords aren't going anywhere anytime soon  doesn't mean that organizations don't need to modernize their approach to password hygiene right now.  The Compromised Credential Crisis As Microsoft's  security team put it , "All it takes is one compromised credential…to cause a data breach." Coupled with the rampant problem of password reuse, compromised passwords can have a significant and long-lasting impact on enterprise security. In fact, researchers from Virginia Tech University found that over 70% of users employed a compromised password for other accounts up to a year after it was initially leaked, with 40% reusing passwords that were leaked over three years a...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered an ongoing malware campaign that heavily relies on AutoHotkey (AHK) scripting language to deliver multiple remote access trojans (RAT) such as Revenge RAT, LimeRAT, AsyncRAT, Houdini, and Vjw0rm on target Windows systems. At least four different versions of the campaign have been spotted starting February 2021, according to researchers from Morphisec Labs. "The RAT delivery campaign starts from an AutoHotKey (AHK) compiled script," the researchers  noted . "This is a standalone executable that contains the following: the AHK interpreter, the AHK script, and any files it has incorporated via the  FileInstall  command. In this campaign, the attackers incorporate malicious scripts/executables alongside a legitimate application to disguise their intentions." AutoHotkey is an open-source custom scripting language for Microsoft Windows that's meant to provide easy hotkeys for macro-creation and software automation, enablin...

Just as Colonial Pipeline  restored  all of its systems to operational status in the wake of a crippling ransomware incident a week ago, DarkSide, the cybercrime syndicate behind the attack, claimed it lost control of its infrastructure, citing a law enforcement seizure. All the dark web sites operated by the gang, including its DarkSide Leaks blog, ransom collection site, and breach data content delivery network (CDN) servers, have gone dark and remain inaccessible as of writing. In addition, the funds from their cryptocurrency wallets were allegedly exfiltrated to an unknown account, according to a note passed by DarkSide operators to its affiliates. "At the moment, these servers cannot be accessed via SSH, and the hosting panels have been blocked," the  announcement  obtained by Intel 471 read. The development comes as DarkSide closed its Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) affiliate program for good "due to the pressure from the U.S.", with the group stating th...