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The US Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday indicted two hackers for their alleged involvement in defacing several websites in the country following the assassination of Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani earlier this January. Behzad Mohammadzadeh (aka Mrb3hz4d), 19, and Marwan Abusrour (aka Mrwn007), 25, have been charged with conspiracy to commit intentional damage to a protected computer for a widespread "cyber-assault" that affected over 1,400 websites with pro-Iranian and pro-Palestinian messages. "The hackers victimized innocent third parties in a campaign to retaliate for the military action that killed Soleimani, a man behind countless acts of terror against Americans and others that the Iranian regime opposed," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers in a statement. The defendants, from Iran and Palestine, respectively, are now wanted by the US authorities and are no longer free to travel outside their countries wi

Most cybersecurity professionals fully anticipated that cybercriminals would leverage the fear and confusion surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic in their cyberattacks. Of course, malicious emails would contain subjects relating to Covid-19, and malicious downloads would be Covid-19 related. This is how cybercriminals operate. Any opportunity to maximize effectiveness, no matter how contemptible, is taken. While many have anecdotally suggested ways in which Covid-19 related cyberattacks would unfold, we have little data supporting the actual impact of Covid-19 on cybersecurity. Several have reported that the number of malicious emails with the subject related to Covid-19 has grown several hundred percent and that the majority of Covid-19 related emails are now malicious. Beyond the anticipated increase in Covid-19 related malicious emails, videos, and an array of downloadable files, which we all anticipated, what else is going on behind the scenes? Interestingly, cybersecurity

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

In a new report into the global cybersecurity industry's exposure on the Dark Web this year, global application security company, ImmuniWeb , uncovered that 97% of leading cybersecurity companies have data leaks or other security incidents exposed on the Dark Web, while on average, there are over 4,000 stolen credentials and other sensitive data exposed per cybersecurity company. Even the cybersecurity industry itself is not immune to these problems, as demonstrated in ImmuniWeb's research. Key findings that the research found relating to the leading global cybersecurity companies' exposure on the Dark Web included: 97% of companies have data leaks and other security incidents exposed on the Dark Web. 631,512 verified security incidents were found with over 25% (or 160,529) of those classed as a high or critical risk level+ containing highly sensitive information such as plaintext credentials or PII, including financial or similar data. Hence, on average, there a

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a new advisory on Monday about a wave of cyberattacks carried by Chinese nation-state actors targeting US government agencies and private entities. "CISA has observed Chinese [Ministry of State Security]-affiliated cyber threat actors operating from the People's Republic of China using commercially available information sources and open-source exploitation tools to target US Government agency networks," the cybersecurity agency said. Over the past 12 months, the victims were identified through sources such as Shodan , the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure ( CVE ) database, and the National Vulnerabilities Database (NVD), exploiting the public release of a vulnerability to pick vulnerable targets and further their motives. By compromising legitimate websites and leveraging spear-phishing emails with malicious links pointing to attacker-owned sites in order to gain initial access, the Chinese

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an entirely new kind of Linux malware dubbed "CDRThief" that targets voice over IP (VoIP) softswitches in an attempt to steal phone call metadata. "The primary goal of the malware is to exfiltrate various private data from a compromised softswitch, including call detail records ( CDR )," ESET researchers said in a Thursday analysis . "To steal this metadata, the malware queries internal MySQL databases used by the softswitch. Thus, attackers demonstrate a good understanding of the internal architecture of the targeted platform." Softswitches (short for software switches) are generally VoIP servers that allow for telecommunication networks to provide management of voice, fax, data and video traffic, and call routing. ESET's research uncovered that CDRThief targeted a specific Linux VoIP platform, namely the VOS2009 and 3000 softswitches from Chinese company Linknat, and had its malicious functionalit

Bluetooth SIG—an organization that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards—today issued a statement informing users and vendors of a newly reported unpatched vulnerability that potentially affects hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. Discovered independently by two separate teams of academic researchers, the flaw resides in the Cross-Transport Key Derivation (CTKD) of devices supporting both — Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard. Cross-Transport Key Derivation (CTKD) is a Bluetooth component responsible for negotiating the authenticate keys when pairing two Bluetooth devices together, also known as "dual-mode" devices. Dubbed 'BLURtooth' and tracked as CVE-2020-15802 , the flaw exposes devices powered with Bluetooth 4.0 or 5.0 technology, allowing attackers to unauthorizedly connect to a targeted nearby device by overwriting the authenticated key or reducing the encryption key strength. "Dual-mod

Cybercriminals successfully plundered another digital cryptocurrency exchange. European cryptocurrency exchange Eterbase this week disclosed a massive breach of its network by an unknown group of hackers who stole cryptocurrencies worth 5.4 million dollars. Eterbase, which has now entered maintenance mode until the security issue is resolved, described itself as Europe's Premier Digital Asset Exchange. Based in Bratislava, Slovakia, and launched in 2019, Eterbase is a small cryptocurrency exchange platform that focuses on crypto to SEPA integration (via individual IBAN accounts), multi-asset support, and regulatory compliance. On Monday night, malicious threat actors managed to raid six Eterbase's hot wallets for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Tezos, Algorand, and TRON and transferred the funds into their wallets managed at six rival crypto exchanges, Eterbase reported on its Telegram channel on Tuesday. According to a tweet posted by the affected exchange, Eterbase t

IT help desks everywhere are having to adjust to the 'new normal' of supporting mainly remote workers. This is a major shift away from visiting desks across the office and helping ones with traditional IT support processes. Many reasons end-users may contact the helpdesk. However, password related issues are arguably the most common. Since the onset of the global pandemic that began earlier this year, help desks are now dealing with password resets of users who are working remotely. Servicing users who are working remotely and assisting with password resets can be cumbersome and expose organizations to potential security risks. Self-service password reset (SSPR) solutions can significantly assist in providing the tools that remote workers need to service their accounts. However, there can be challenges with enrollment and other issues. Let's take a look at SSPR and see how businesses can manage enrollment compliance. What is Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR)