#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Subscribe – Get Latest News
Insider Risk Management

The Hacker News | #1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Site — Index Page

50,000 Websites Hacked Through MailPoet WordPress Plugin Vulnerability

50,000 Websites Hacked Through MailPoet WordPress Plugin Vulnerability

Jul 24, 2014
The users of WordPress, a free and open source blogging tool as well as content management system (CMS), that have a popular unpatched wordPress plugin installed are being cautioned to upgrade their sites immediately. A serious vulnerability in the WordPress plugin, MailPoet , could essentially allows an attacker to inject any file including malware, defacements and spam, whatever they wanted on the server and that too without any authentication. MailPoet, formerly known as Wysija Newsletter , is a WordPress plugin with more than 1.7 million downloads that allows developers running WordPress to send newsletters and manage subscribers within the content management system. In a blog post, the security researcher and CEO of the security firm Sucuri , Daniel Cid, pointed out the vulnerability to be serious and said that within three weeks since the vulnerability unveiled, over 50,000 websites have been remotely exploited by the cybercriminals to install backdoors targeting the vulner
Researchers Demonstrate Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Tails Operating System

Researchers Demonstrate Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Tails Operating System

Jul 24, 2014
The critical zero-day security flaws, discovered in the privacy and security dedicated Linux-based Tails operating system by the researcher at Exodus Intelligence that could help attackers or law enforcements to de-anonymize anyone's identity, actually lie in the I2P software that's bundled with the Operating System. Exodus Intelligence has released some details and a video evidence that demonstrate an exploit against the found vulnerability unmasking an anonymous user of the Tails operating system. The researchers at Exodus claims they can use the vulnerability to upload malicious code to a system running Tails, execute the payload remotely, and de-anonymize the targeted users' public IP address as well. Tails is a security-focused Debian-based Linux distribution and a suite of applications that can be carried on a USB stick, an SD card or a DVD. It keeps users' communications private by running all connectivity through Tor , the network that routes traffic through
10 Critical Endpoint Security Tips You Should Know

10 Critical Endpoint Security Tips You Should Know

Apr 26, 2024Endpoint Security / IT Security
In today's digital world, where connectivity is rules all, endpoints serve as the gateway to a business's digital kingdom. And because of this, endpoints are one of hackers' favorite targets.  According to the IDC,  70% of successful breaches start at the endpoint . Unprotected endpoints provide vulnerable entry points to launch devastating cyberattacks. With IT teams needing to protect more endpoints—and more kinds of endpoints—than ever before, that perimeter has become more challenging to defend. You need to improve your endpoint security, but where do you start? That's where this guide comes in.  We've curated the top 10 must-know endpoint security tips that every IT and security professional should have in their arsenal. From identifying entry points to implementing EDR solutions, we'll dive into the insights you need to defend your endpoints with confidence.  1. Know Thy Endpoints: Identifying and Understanding Your Entry Points Understanding your network's
HTML5 Canvas Fingerprint — Widely Used Unstoppable Web Tracking Technology
cyber security

SaaS Security Buyers Guide

websiteAppOmniSaaS Security / Threat Detection
This guide captures the definitive criteria for choosing the right SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) vendor.
Warning — Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Identified in Tails Operating System

Warning — Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Identified in Tails Operating System

Jul 23, 2014
The critical zero-day security flaws has been discovered in the privacy and security dedicated Linux-based operating system " Tails " that could be used by an attacker to unmask your identity. Tails, which is been used and recommended by the global surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden to remain Anonymous, has a suite of privacy applications and designed to keep users' communications private by running all connectivity through Tor , the network that routes traffic through various layers of servers and encrypts data. But unfortunately, the highly secured OS has several critical zero-day vulnerabilities that could help attackers or law enforcements to de-anonymize anyone and allows to perform remote code execution , according to a researcher at Exodus Intelligence who uncovered the flaws but didn't publish the details about it. The Texas-based security firm, Exodus Intelligence , tweeted on Monday that it had found several remote code execution vulnerabilities i
Apple Strongly Denies Claims of Installing iOS Backdoor

Apple Strongly Denies Claims of Installing iOS Backdoor

Jul 23, 2014
The allegations from a data forensic expert and security researcher that iOS contains a " backdoor " permitting third parties to potentially gain access to large amount of users' personal data instigated Apple to give a strong response. The company has completely denied to the claims published over the weekend by Jonathan Zdziarski, a forensic scientist and iOS security expert. The researcher, better identified as the hacker moniker " NerveGas ", detailed a number of undocumented features in a paper presentation titled, " Identifying Backdoors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices " showing his findings, from his talk at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference held in New York on Friday. ALLEGATIONS ON APPLE The issue, what he explained in his finding, arises from the way Apple encrypts or fails to encrypt data from the iPhone's native apps, leaving over 600 million personal iOS devices vulnerable to third parties. &q
Firefox 31 — Mozilla Releases Security Updates to Tighten Browser Security

Firefox 31 — Mozilla Releases Security Updates to Tighten Browser Security

Jul 23, 2014
Mozilla has officially released its latest build Firefox 31 for all supported platforms, addressing 11 vulnerabilities in total, three of which are marked critical that could have been exploited by hackers to mount remote code execution attacks. Mozilla Firefox recommends its users to install the security update as soon as possible, warning that the three critical vulnerabilities discovered in its browser could be exploited by attackers and leverage them to " run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing ". CRITICAL VULNERABILITIES The three major vulnerabilities are as follows: MFSA 2014-62 - This is one of the three critical vulnerabilities reported by Patrick Cozzi and get fixed in the newer version of the browser. The vulnerability allows the exploitation of a WebGL crash with Cesium JavaScript library. Much details about the flaw are not known at the time, but Mozilla notes that the flaw cannot be exploi
Indexeus — Search Engine Exposes Malicious Hackers and Data Breaches

Indexeus — Search Engine Exposes Malicious Hackers and Data Breaches

Jul 22, 2014
So far, we have seen the search engine for online underground Black Markets , named ' Grams ' that lets anyone find illegal drugs and other contraband online in an easier way ever and is pretty much fast like Google Search Engine . Now, a new search engine has been launched that primarily exposes all the available information of malicious hackers caught up in the very sort of data breaches  — including the recent massive breaches at Adobe and Yahoo! The search engine dubbed as " Indexeus ", designed by 23-year-old Jason Relinquo of Portugal, boasts a searchable database of "over 200 million entries available to our customers ". It specifically targeted hackers by listing huge amounts of their information such as email addresses, usernames, passwords, Internet address, physical addresses, birthdays and other information that may be associated with those accounts. If in case, any hacker want to get their credentials removed or blacklisted from the search engine
'Real Footage of Malaysian Flight MH 17 Shot Down' Facebook Spam Spreads Malware

'Real Footage of Malaysian Flight MH 17 Shot Down' Facebook Spam Spreads Malware

Jul 22, 2014
A distasteful trend among the cyber crooks have began these days that they left no occasion, either good or bad, to snatch users' financial information in order to make money as well as spread malware to victimize users. The tragedy of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is no exception for the criminal minds. They are exploiting the disaster that took place last week in the disputed territory. All related to Malaysian Airline Flight MH17 , a Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew members, that was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 by a ground-to-air missile. So far, its unclear that who is behind the tragic incident, while Ukraine and the insurgents blamed each other. Within just a week, at least six bogus Facebook pages that popped up the names of the Boeing 777 victims. According to the Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, three of the fraudulent pages were created in the names of children who were on the plane and died. The bogus Fac
Undocumented iOS Features left Hidden Backdoors Open in 600 Million Apple Devices

Undocumented iOS Features left Hidden Backdoors Open in 600 Million Apple Devices

Jul 22, 2014
A well known iPhone hacker and forensic scientist has unearthed a range of undocumented and hidden functions in Apple iOS mobile operating system that make it possible for a hacker to completely bypass the backup encryption on iOS devices and can steal large amounts of users' personal data without entering passwords or personal identification numbers. Data forensics expert named Jonathan Zdziarski has posted the slides ( PDF ) titled " Identifying Backdoors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices " showing his findings, from his talk at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference held in New York on Friday. Jonathan Zdziarski, better identified as the hacker " NerveGas " in the iPhone development community, worked as dev-team member on many of the early iOS jailbreaks and is also the author of five iOS-related O'Reilly books including " Hacking and Securing iOS Applications ." The results of his overall research on the iOS
Cydia Repository by BigBoss Hacked, All Paid and Free Tweaks Stolen

Cydia Repository by BigBoss Hacked, All Paid and Free Tweaks Stolen

Jul 21, 2014
BigBoss repository, one of the biggest and most popular repositories for jailbreak tweaks in Cydia , has reportedly been hacked by either an individual or a group of hackers. Cydia is a software application for iOS that enables a user to find and install software packages on jailbroken iOS Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad. Most of the software packages available through Cydia are free, but some require purchasing. The BigBoss repository is default repository in jailbroken iOS devices and has long been one of Cydia's biggest and best, but it may have just been targeted by cybercriminals. The hackers, who go by the name "Kim Jong-Cracks", managed to gain access to all packages , including all paid as well as free, and made their own repository available with all BigBoss repository applications for free. " The other post more than likely broke rule 1 because it linked the site directly. To anyone that didn't see the post the BigBoss rep
How Russian Hackers Placed "Digital Bomb" Into the NASDAQ

How Russian Hackers Placed "Digital Bomb" Into the NASDAQ

Jul 21, 2014
Four years ago, NASDAQ servers were compromised by Russian hackers, who were somehow able to insert a " digital bomb " into the systems of NASDAQ stock exchange, which would have been able to cause several damage to the computer systems in the stock market and could bring down the entire structure of the financial system of the United States. Till now, identities of the hackers have not been identified by the agencies who are investigating the whole incident from past four years. However, it has been identified that the intruder was not a student or a teen, but the intelligence agency of another country. The Hackers successfully infiltrated the network of NASDAQ stock exchange with customized malware which had ability to extract data from the systems and carry out surveillance as well. However, a closer look at the malware indicated that it was designed to cause widespread disruption in the NASDAQ computer system. MALWARE EXPLOITS TWO 0-DAY VULNERABILITIES
Cyber Criminals Use Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Plane Crash News to Bait Users

Cyber Criminals Use Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Plane Crash News to Bait Users

Jul 19, 2014
Any occasion that captures public attention – regardless of how sensitive – comes out to be an opportunity for spammers and hackers to snatch users' personal information and spread malware , and the tragedy of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is no exception. According to the U.S. intelligence officials, Malaysia Airline Flight MH17, a Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew members, was struck by a ground-to-air missile. So far, it's unclear, whether the missile was launched by the Russian military or pro-Russian separatist rebels. Ukraine and the insurgents blamed each other. Spammers and cybercriminals are quick to take advantage of the tragedy and started spreading malware through the social media websites, abusing the mystery behind the crash of Malaysia Airline Flight MH17. Researchers at the anti-virus firm Trend Micro came across some suspicious tweets written in Indonesian language. The cybercriminals are using the trending #MH17 to lu
New Variant of Havex Malware Scans for OPC Servers at SCADA Systems

New Variant of Havex Malware Scans for OPC Servers at SCADA Systems

Jul 19, 2014
At the beginning of the month, we have reported about the new surge of a Stuxnet-like malware "Havex" , which was previously targeting organizations in the energy sector, had been used to carry out industrial espionage against a number of companies in Europe and compromised over 1,000 European and North American energy firms. Recently, researchers at security firm FireEye have discovered a new variant of Havex remote access Trojan that has capability to actively scan OPC ( Object linking and embedding for Process Control ) servers, used for controlling SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems in critical infrastructure, energy, and manufacturing sectors. OPC is a communications standard that allows interaction between Windows-based SCADA or other industrial control systems (ICS) applications and process control hardware. New Havex variant gathers system information and data stored on a compromised client or server using the OPC standard. OPC is pervasive and
NSA Employees Routinely Pass Around Intercepted Photos

NSA Employees Routinely Pass Around Intercepted Photos

Jul 18, 2014
The 31-year-old former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden has warned that during surveillance, among other things, NSA system administrators also intercepted and routinely passed the photos of people in "sexually compromising" situations among other NSA employees. In a video interview, NSA whistleblower speaks with the Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger and reporter Ewen MacAskill in Moscow, which was then published by the Guardian on Thursday. WOOOH!! ATTRACTIVE NUDIE PICS - PASS IT ON TO BILL TOO " You've got young enlisted guys, 18 to 22 years old. They've suddenly been thrust into a position of extraordinary responsibility where they now have access to all of your private records, " he said in the video interview. " During the course of their daily work they stumble upon something that is completely unrelated to their work in any sort of necessary sense – for example, an intimate photo of someone o
New Pushdo Malware Hacks 11,000 Computers in Just 24 Hours

New Pushdo Malware Hacks 11,000 Computers in Just 24 Hours

Jul 17, 2014
One of the oldest active malware families, Pushdo, is again making its way onto the Internet and has recently infected more than 11,000 computers in just 24 hours. Pushdo, a multipurpose Trojan, is primarily known for delivering financial malware such as ZeuS and SpyEye onto infected computers or to deliver spam campaigns through a commonly associated components called Cutwail that are frequently installed on compromised PCs. Pushdo was first seen over 7 years ago and was a very prolific virus in 2007. Now, a new variant of the malware is being updated to leverage a new domain-generation algorithm (DGA) as a fallback mechanism to its normal command-and-control (C&C) communication methods. DGAs are used to dynamically generating a list of domain names based on an algorithm and only making one live at a time, blocking on 'seen' Command & Control domain names becomes nearly impossible. With the help of a DGA, cyber criminals could have a series of advantages
FBI — Botnets Infecting 18 Computers per Second. But How Many of Them NSA Holds?

FBI — Botnets Infecting 18 Computers per Second. But How Many of Them NSA Holds?

Jul 17, 2014
Botnets - a secretly compromised networks of ordinary home and office computers with rogue software or "malware" that are controlled by an individual criminal or a group - has dramatically increased over the past several years and are considered to pose the biggest threat to the Internet. Cyber criminals have brushed-up their hacking skills and are using Botnets as a cyber weapon to carry out multiple crimes like DDoS attacks (distributed denial of service), mass spamming, page rank and advertising revenue manipulation, mining bitcoins, cyber espionage and surveillance etc. 18 BOTNET INFECTIONS PER SECOND According to the director of FBI's cyber division, Joseph Demarest, Botnet has become one of the biggest enemies of the Internet today, and therefore its impact has been significant. Yesterday during a hearing before a U.S. Senate committee, he says that every second 18 computers worldwide are part of botnet armies, which amounts to over 500 million comp
Expert Insights
Cybersecurity Resources