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Pakistan has become the latest target of a threat actor called the Smishing Triad, marking the first expansion of its footprint beyond the E.U., Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and the U.S. "The group's latest tactic involves sending malicious messages on behalf of Pakistan Post to customers of mobile carriers via iMessage and SMS," Resecurity said in a report published earlier this week. "The goal is to steal their personal and financial information." The threat actors, believed to be Chinese-speaking , are known to leverage stolen databases sold on the dark web to send bogus SMS messages, enticing recipients into clicking on links under the pretext of informing them of a failed package delivery and urging them to update their address. Users who end up clicking on the URLs are directed to fake websites that prompt them to enter their financial information as part of a supposed service fee charged for redelivery. "Besides Pakistan Post, the group was also ...

A suspected Pakistan-based threat actor has been linked to a cyber espionage campaign targeting Indian government entities in 2024. Cybersecurity company Volexity is tracking the activity under the moniker UTA0137, noting the adversary's exclusive use of a malware called DISGOMOJI that's written in Golang and is designed to infect Linux systems. "It is a modified version of the public project Discord-C2, which uses the messaging service Discord for command and control (C2), making use of emojis for its C2 communication," it said . It's worth noting that DISGOMOJI is the same "all-in-one" espionage tool that BlackBerry said it discovered as part of an infrastructure analysis in connection with an attack campaign mounted by the Transparent Tribe actor, a Pakistan-nexus hacking crew The attack chains commence with spear-phishing emails bearing a Golang ELF binary delivered within a ZIP archive file. The binary then downloads a benign lure document wh...

Meta on Friday said it's delaying its efforts to train the company's large language models ( LLMs ) using public content shared by adult users on Facebook and Instagram in the European Union following a request from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The company expressed disappointment at having to put its AI plans on pause, stating it had taken into account feedback from regulators and data protection authorities in the region. At issue is Meta's plan to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models without seeking users' explicit consent, instead relying on the legal basis of ' Legitimate Interests ' for processing first and third-party data in the region. These changes were expected to come into effect on June 26, before when the company said users could opt out of having their data used by submitting a request "if they wish." Meta is already utilizing user-generated content to train its AI in other markets such ...

While phishing and ransomware dominate headlines, another critical risk quietly persists across most enterprises: exposed Git repositories leaking sensitive data. A risk that silently creates shadow access into core systems Git is the backbone of modern software development, hosting millions of repositories and serving thousands of organizations worldwide. Yet, amid the daily hustle of shipping code, developers may inadvertently leave behind API keys, tokens, or passwords in configuration files and code files, effectively handing attackers the keys to the kingdom. This isn't just about poor hygiene; it's a systemic and growing supply chain risk. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, so do compliance requirements. Security frameworks like NIS2, SOC2, and ISO 27001 now demand proof that software delivery pipelines are hardened and third-party risk is controlled. The message is clear: securing your Git repositories is no longer optional, it's essential. Below, we look at the ris...

Google's plans to deprecate third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome web browser with Privacy Sandbox has run into fresh trouble after Austrian privacy non-profit noyb (none of your business) said the feature can still be used to track users. "While the so-called 'Privacy Sandbox' is advertised as an improvement over extremely invasive third-party tracking, the tracking is now simply done within the browser by Google itself," noyb said . "To do this, the company theoretically needs the same informed consent from users. Instead, Google is tricking people by pretending to 'Turn on an ad privacy feature.'" In other words, by making users agree to enable a privacy feature, they are still being tracked by consenting to Google's first-party ad tracking, the Vienna-based non-profit founded by activist Max Schrems alleged in a complaint filed with the Austrian data protection authority. Privacy Sandbox is a set of proposals put forth by the i...

Data is growing faster than ever. Remember when petabytes (that's 1,000,000 gigabytes!) were only for tech giants? Well, that's so last decade! Today, businesses of all sizes are swimming in petabytes. But this isn't just about storage anymore. This data is ALIVE—it's constantly accessed, analyzed, shared, and even used to train the next wave of AI. This creates a huge challenge: how do you secure such a vast, ever-changing landscape? That's why we've brought together a powerhouse panel of industry experts who have not only faced these challenges but conquered them. Join us for an exclusive webinar, " Data Security at the Petabyte Scale ," and gain insights from the best in the field: Shaun Marion: Former CISO of McDonald's, a global brand with data security demands on a massive scale. Robert Bigman: Former CISO at the CIA, where protecting classified information at the highest levels is paramount. Asaf Kochan: Former head of Unit 8200 ...

As cyber threats loom large and data breaches continue to pose increasingly significant risks. Organizations and industries that handle sensitive information and valuable assets make prime targets for cybercriminals seeking financial gain or strategic advantage.  Which is why many highly regulated sectors, from finance to utilities, are turning to military-grade cyber defenses to safeguard their operations. Regulatory Pressures Impacting Cyber Decisions Industries such as finance, healthcare, and government are subject to strict regulatory standards, governing data privacy, security, and compliance. Non-compliance with these regulations can result in severe penalties, legal repercussions, and damage to reputation. To meet regulatory requirements and mitigate the ever-increasing risk, organizations are shifting to adopt more robust cybersecurity measures. Understanding the Increase of Threats Attacks on regulated industries have increased dramatically over the past 5 years, wi...

An analysis of a hybrid biometric access system from Chinese manufacturer ZKTeco has uncovered two dozen security flaws that could be used by attackers to defeat authentication, steal biometric data, and even deploy malicious backdoors. "By adding random user data to the database or using a fake QR code, a nefarious actor can easily bypass the verification process and gain unauthorized access," Kaspersky said . "Attackers can also steal and leak biometric data, remotely manipulate devices, and deploy backdoors." The 24 flaws span six SQL injections, seven stack-based buffer overflows, five command injections, four arbitrary file writes, and two arbitrary file reads. A brief description of each vulnerability type is below - CVE-2023-3938 (CVSS score: 4.6) - An SQL injection flaw when displaying a QR code into the device's camera by passing a specially crafted request containing a quotation mark, thereby allowing an attacker to authenticate as any user in th...

Threat actors linked to North Korea have accounted for one-third of all the phishing activity targeting Brazil since 2020, as the country's emergence as an influential power has drawn the attention of cyber espionage groups. "North Korean government-backed actors have targeted the Brazilian government and Brazil's aerospace, technology, and financial services sectors," Google's Mandiant and Threat Analysis Group (TAG) divisions said in a joint report published this week. "Similar to their targeting interests in other regions, cryptocurrency and financial technology firms have been a particular focus, and at least three North Korean groups have targeted Brazilian cryptocurrency and fintech companies." Prominent among those groups is a threat actor tracked as UNC4899 (aka Jade Sleet, PUKCHONG, and TraderTraitor), which has targeted cryptocurrency professionals with a malware-laced trojanized Python app. The attack chains involve reaching out to pote...

Microsoft on Thursday revealed that it's delaying the rollout of the controversial artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs. To that end, the company said it intends to shift from general availability to a preview available first in the Windows Insider Program ( WIP ) in the coming weeks. "We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security," it said in an update. "This decision is rooted in our commitment to providing a trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers and to seek additional feedback prior to making the feature available to all Copilot+ PC users." First unveiled last month, Recall was originally slated for a broad release on June 18, 2024, but has since waded into controversial waters after it was widely panned as a privacy and security risk and an alluring target for threat ac...