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Organizations are losing between $94 - $186 billion annually to vulnerable or insecure APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and automated abuse by bots. That's according to The Economic Impact of API and Bot Attacks report from Imperva, a Thales company. The report highlights that these security threats account for up to 11.8% of global cyber events and losses, emphasizing the escalating risks they pose to businesses worldwide. Drawing on a comprehensive study conducted by the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Center, the report analyzes over 161,000 unique cybersecurity incidents. The findings demonstrate a concerning trend: the threats posed by vulnerable or insecure APIs and automated abuse by bots are increasingly interconnected and prevalent. Imperva warns that failing to address security risks associated with these threats could lead to substantial financial and reputational damage. API Adoption and the Expanding Attack Surface APIs have become indispensable to mod...

The interest in passwordless authentication has increased due to the rise of hybrid work environments and widespread digitization. This has led to a greater need for reliable data security and user-friendly interfaces. Without these measures, organizations are at risk of experiencing data breaches, leaks, and significant financial losses.  While traditional password-based systems offer protection, they are susceptible to security threats like phishing and identity theft which drives the consideration of going passwordless. Additionally, users often have difficulty remembering multiple passwords, which further jeopardizes security as they tend to reuse the same one for accessing multiple business systems and devices. However, passwordless methods such as biometrics, smartcards, and multi-factor authentication prioritize both data security and user satisfaction. Nevertheless, not all passwordless authentication systems are the same and exhibit their own challenges.  The need...

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in the Apache Avro Java Software Development Kit (SDK) that, if successfully exploited, could allow the execution of arbitrary code on susceptible instances. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-47561 (CVSS score: 9.3), impacts all versions of the software prior to 1.11.4. "Schema parsing in the Java SDK of Apache Avro 1.11.3 and previous versions allows bad actors to execute arbitrary code," the project maintainers said in an advisory released last week. "Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.11.4 or 1.12.0, which fix this issue." Apache Avro, analogous to Google's Protocol Buffers ( protobuf ), is an open-source project that provides a language-neutral data serialization framework for large-scale data processing. The Avro team notes that the vulnerability affects any application if it allows users to provide their own Avro schemas for parsing. Kostya Kortchinsky from the Databricks security team has been cr...

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...

Ever heard of a "pig butchering" scam? Or a DDoS attack so big it could melt your brain? This week's cybersecurity recap has it all – government showdowns, sneaky malware, and even a dash of app store shenanigans. Get the scoop before it's too late! ⚡ Threat of the Week Double Trouble: Evil Corp & LockBit Fall : A consortium of international law enforcement agencies took steps to arrest four people and take down nine servers linked to the LockBit (aka Bitwise Spider) ransomware operation. In tandem, authorities outed a Russian national named Aleksandr Ryzhenkov, who was one of the high-ranking members of the Evil Corp cybercrime group and also a LockBit affiliate. A total of 16 individuals who were part of Evil Corp have been sanctioned by the U.K. 🔔 Top News DoJ & Microsoft Seize 100+ Russian Hacker Domains: The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and Microsoft announced the seizure of 107 internet domains used by a Russian state-sponsored threat a...

Google has announced that it's piloting a new security initiative that automatically blocks sideloading of potentially unsafe Android apps in India, after similar tests in Singapore, Thailand, and Brazil. The enhanced fraud protection feature aims to keep users safe when they attempt to install malicious apps from sources other than the Google Play Store, such as web browsers, messaging apps, and file managers. The program, which was first launched in Singapore earlier this February, has already blocked nearly 900,000 high-risk installations in the Southeast Asian nation, the tech giant said. "This enhanced fraud protection will analyze and automatically block the installation of apps that may use sensitive permissions frequently abused for financial fraud," Eugene Liderman, director of mobile security strategy at Google, said . It works by examining the permissions declared by a third-party app in real-time and checking for permissions that are typically abused by...

Europe's top court has ruled that Meta Platforms must restrict the use of personal data harvested from Facebook for serving targeted ads even when users consent to their information being used for advertising purposes, a move that could have serious consequences for ad-driven companies operating in the region. "An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data," the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said in a ruling on Friday. In other words, social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using users' personal data for ad targeting indefinitely, the court said, adding limits must be set in place in order to comply with the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) data minimization requirements. It's worth noting that Article 5(1)(c) of GDPR necessitates that companies limit the process...

Apple has released iOS and iPadOS updates to address two security issues, one of which could have allowed a user's passwords to be read out aloud by its VoiceOver assistive technology. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-44204, has been described as a logic problem in the new Passwords app impacting a slew of iPhones and iPads. Security researcher Bistrit Daha has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw. "A user's saved passwords may be read aloud by VoiceOver," Apple said in an advisory released this week, adding it was resolved with improved validation.  The shortcoming impacts the following devices - iPhone XS and later iPad Pro 13-inch iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later iPad Air 3rd generation and later iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later Also patched by Apple is a security vulnerability (CVE-2024-44207) specific to the newly launched iPhone 16 mo...

Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday announced the seizure of 107 internet domains used by state-sponsored threat actors with ties to Russia to facilitate computer fraud and abuse in the country. "The Russian government ran this scheme to steal Americans' sensitive information, using seemingly legitimate email accounts to trick victims into revealing account credentials," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. The activity has been attributed to a threat actor called COLDRIVER , which is also known by the names Blue Callisto, BlueCharlie (or TAG-53), Calisto (alternately spelled Callisto), Dancing Salome, Gossamer Bear, Iron Frontier, Star Blizzard (formerly SEABORGIUM), TA446, and UNC4057. Active since at least 2012, the group is assessed to be an operational unit within Center 18 of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). In December 2023, the U.K. and U.S. governments sanctioned two members of the group – Aleksandrovich Peretyat...

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a strategic framework that helps organizations continuously assess and manage cyber risk. It breaks down the complex task of managing security threats into five distinct stages: Scoping, Discovery, Prioritization, Validation, and Mobilization. Each of these stages plays a crucial role in identifying, addressing, and mitigating vulnerabilities - before they can be exploited by attackers.  On paper, CTEM sounds great . But where the rubber meets the road – especially for CTEM neophytes - implementing CTEM can seem overwhelming. The process of putting CTEM principles into practice can look prohibitively complex at first. However, with the right tools and a clear understanding of each stage, CTEM can be an effective method for strengthening your organization's security posture.  That's why I've put together a step-by-step guide on which tools to use for which stage. Want to learn more? Read on… Stage 1: Scoping  When you're...