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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday confirmed unidentified threat actors have breached one of its email servers to blast hoax messages about a fake "sophisticated chain attack." The incident, which was first  publicly disclosed  by threat intelligence non-profit SpamHaus, involved sending rogue warning emails with the subject line "Urgent: Threat actor in systems" originating from a legitimate FBI email address "eims@ic.fbi[.]gov" that framed the attack on Vinny Troia, a security researcher and founder of dark web intelligence firms Night Lion Security and Shadowbyte, while also claiming him to be affiliated with a hacking outfit named TheDarkOverlord. SpamHaus cited its own telemetry data to point out that the email blasts happened over two "spam" waves, one shortly before 5:00 a.m. UTC and another one shortly after 7:00 a.m. UTC.  However, according to Kryptos Logic researcher Marcus Hutchins, the goal appears to be

Threat actors are increasingly banking on the technique of  HTML smuggling  in phishing campaigns as a means to gain initial access and deploy an array of threats, including banking malware, remote administration trojans (RATs), and ransomware payloads. Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team, in a new report published Thursday, disclosed that it identified infiltrations distributing the  Mekotio  banking Trojan, backdoors such as  AsyncRAT  and  NjRAT , and the infamous  TrickBot  malware. The multi-staged attacks — dubbed  ISOMorph  — were also publicly documented by Menlo Security in July 2021. HTML smuggling is an approach that allows an attacker to "smuggle" first-stage droppers, often encoded malicious scripts embedded within specially-crafted HTML attachments or web pages, on a victim machine by taking advantage of basic features in HTML5 and JavaScript rather than exploiting a vulnerability or a design flaw in modern web browsers. By doing so, it enables

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

Researchers from Qihoo 360's Netlab security team have released details of a new evolving botnet called " Abcbot " that has been observed in the wild with worm-like propagation features to infect Linux systems and launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets. While the earliest version of the botnet dates back to July 2021, new variants observed as recently as October 30 have been equipped with additional updates to strike Linux web servers with weak passwords and are susceptible to N-day vulnerabilities, including a custom implementation of DDoS functionality, indicating that the malware is under continuous development. Netlab's findings also build on a report from Trend Micro early last month, which  publicized  attacks targeting Huawei Cloud with cryptocurrency-mining and cryptojacking malware. The intrusions were also notable for the fact that the malicious shell scripts specifically disabled a process designed to monitor and scan the ser

Google researchers on Thursday disclosed that it found a watering hole attack in late August exploiting a now-patched zero-day in macOS operating system and targeting Hong Kong websites related to a media outlet and a prominent pro-democracy labor and political group to deliver a never-before-seen backdoor on compromised machines. "Based on our findings, we believe this threat actor to be a well-resourced group, likely state backed, with access to their own software engineering team based on the quality of the payload code," Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) researcher Erye Hernandez  said  in a report. Tracked as CVE-2021-30869 (CVSS score: 7.8), the security shortcoming concerns a type confusion vulnerability affecting the XNU kernel component that could cause a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with the highest privileges. Apple originally addressed the issue for macOS Big Sur devices as part of a security update shipped on February 1, only to follow

A new cyber mercenary hacker-for-hire group dubbed " Void Balaur " has been linked to a string of cyberespionage and data theft activities targeting thousands of entities as well as human rights activists, politicians, and government officials around the world at least since 2015 for financial gain while lurking in the shadows. Named after a  many-headed dragon  from Romanian folklore, the adversary has been unmasked advertising its services in Russian-speaking underground forums dating all the way back to 2017 and selling troves of sensitive information such as cell tower phone logs, passenger flight records, credit reports, banking data, SMS messages, and passport details. The threat actor calls itself "Rockethack." "This hacker-for-hire group does not operate out of a physical building, nor does it have a shiny prospectus that describes its services," Trend Micro researcher Feike Hacquebord  said  in a newly published profile of the collective. &qu

The operators of TrickBot trojan are collaborating with the Shathak threat group to distribute their wares, ultimately leading to the deployment of Conti ransomware on infected machines. "The implementation of  TrickBot  has evolved over the years, with recent versions of TrickBot implementing malware-loading capabilities," Cybereason security analysts Aleksandar Milenkoski and Eli Salem  said  in a report analysing recent malware distribution campaigns undertaken by the group. "TrickBot has played a major role in many attack campaigns conducted by different threat actors, from common cybercriminals to nation-state actors." The latest report builds on a report from IBM X-Force last month, which  revealed  TrickBot's partnerships with other cybercrime gangs, including Shathak, to deliver proprietary malware. Also tracked under the moniker TA551, Shathak is a sophisticated cybercrime actor targeting end-users on a global scale, acting as a malware distributor

Though we are recovering from the worst pandemic, cyber threats have shown no sign of downshifting, and cybercriminals are still not short of malicious and advanced ways to achieve their goals.  The  Global Threat Landscape Report  indicates a drastic rise in sophisticated cyberattacks targeting digital infrastructures, organizations, and individuals in 2021. Threats can take different forms with the intent to commit fraud and damage businesses and people. Ransomware,  DDoS attacks , phishing, malware, and man-in-the-middle attacks represent the greatest threat to businesses today. When new threats emerge, attackers take advantage of them – however, most businesses are only aware of the current threats. Organizations struggle to address these threats due to their resource sophistication and their lack of understanding of evolving threat landscapes. For these reasons, organizations need visibility on the advanced threats especially targeting their infrastructure. This article will o

A state-sponsored threat actor allegedly affiliated with Iran has been linked to a series of targeted attacks aimed at internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunication operators in Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, as well as a ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) in Africa, new findings reveal. The intrusions, staged by a group tracked as Lyceum, are believed to have occurred between July and October 2021, researchers from Accenture Cyber Threat Intelligence (ACTI) group and Prevailion's Adversarial Counterintelligence Team (PACT) said in a technical report. The names of the victims were not disclosed. The latest revelations throw light on the web-based infrastructure used by Lyceum, over 20 of them, enabling the identification of "additional victims and provide further visibility into Lyceum's targeting methodology," the researchers  noted , adding "at least two of the identified compromises are assessed to be ongoing despite prior public discl

A new zero-day vulnerability has been disclosed in Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect VPN that could be abused by an unauthenticated network-based attacker to execute arbitrary code on affected devices with root user privileges. Tracked as CVE-2021-3064 (CVSS score: 9.8), the security weakness impacts PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.17. Massachusetts-based cybersecurity firm Randori has been credited with discovering and reporting the issue. "The vulnerability chain consists of a method for bypassing validations made by an external web server (HTTP smuggling) and a stack-based buffer overflow," Randori researchers  said . "Exploitation of the vulnerability chain has been proven and allows for remote code execution on both physical and virtual firewall products." However, in a troubling turn of events, the company said it used this exploit as part of its red team engagements for nearly 10 months before disclosing it to Palo Alto Networks in late Septem

An ongoing mobile spyware campaign has been uncovered snooping on South Korean residents using a family of 23 malicious Android apps to siphon sensitive information and gain remote control of the devices. "With more than a thousand South Korean victims, the malicious group behind this invasive campaign has had access to all the data, communications, and services on their devices," Zimperium researcher Aazim Yaswant said. "The victims were broadcasting their private information to the malicious actors with zero indication that something was amiss." The Dallas-based mobile security company dubbed the campaign " PhoneSpy ." Zimperium did not attribute the spyware to a known threat actor. "The evidence surrounding PhoneSpy shows a familiar framework that has been passed around for years, updated by individuals and shared within private communities and back channels until assembled into what we see in this variation today," Richard Melick, the co

As many as 13 security vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Nucleus TCP/IP stack, a software library now maintained by Siemens and used in three billion operational technology and IoT devices that could allow for remote code execution, denial-of-service (DoS), and information leak. Collectively called " NUCLEUS:13 ," successful attacks abusing the flaws can "result in devices going offline and having their logic hijacked," and "spread[ing] malware to wherever they communicate on the network," researchers from Forescout and Medigate said in a technical report published Tuesday, with one proof-of-concept (PoC) successfully  demonstrating  a scenario that could potentially disrupt medical care and critical processes. Siemens has since released  security updates  to remediate the weaknesses in Nucleus ReadyStart versions 3 (v2017.02.4 or later) and 4 (v4.1.1 or later). Primarily deployed in automotive, industrial, and medical applications, Nucleus

Cybersecurity researchers on Tuesday disclosed 14 critical vulnerabilities in the BusyBox Linux utility that could be exploited to result in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition and, in select cases, even lead to information leaks and remote code execution. The security weaknesses, tracked from CVE-2021-42373 through CVE-2021-42386, affect multiple versions of the tool ranging from 1.16-1.33.1, DevOps company JFrog and industrial cybersecurity company Claroty  said  in a joint report. Dubbed "the Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux,"  BusyBox  is a widely used software suite combining a variety of common Unix utilities or applets (e.g.,  cp ,  ls ,  grep ) into a single executable file that can run on Linux systems such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and remote terminal units (RTUs). A quick list of the flaws and the applets they impact is below — man  - CVE-2021-42373 lzma/unlzma  - CVE-2021-42374 ash  - CVE-2021-42375 hus

Microsoft has released security updates as part of its monthly  Patch Tuesday  release cycle to address 55 vulnerabilities across Windows, Azure, Visual Studio, Windows Hyper-V, and Office, including fixes for two actively exploited zero-day flaws in Excel and Exchange Server that could be abused to take control of an affected system. Of the 55 glitches, six are rated Critical and 49 are rated as Important in severity, with four others listed as publicly known at the time of release.  The most critical of the flaws are  CVE-2021-42321  (CVSS score: 8.8) and  CVE-2021-42292  (CVSS score: 7.8), each concerning a  post-authentication remote code execution flaw  in Microsoft Exchange Server and a security bypass vulnerability impacting Microsoft Excel versions 2013-2021 respectively. The Exchange Server issue is also one of the bugs that was demonstrated at the  Tianfu Cup  held in China last month. However, the Redmond-based tech giant did not provide any details on how the two aforem

No business is out of danger of cyberattacks today. However, specific industries are particularly at risk and a favorite of attackers. For years, the healthcare industry has taken the brunt of ransomware attacks, data breaches, and other cyberattacks. Why is the healthcare industry particularly at risk for a cyberattack? What are the unique challenges to cybersecurity in healthcare, and how can healthcare organizations address these? Healthcare at risk Attackers are targeting various industries across the board. However, attackers seem to have a particular affinity for healthcare organizations. For eleven consecutive years, in the  IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 , healthcare had the highest industry cost of a breach. Additionally, Healthcare data breach costs increased from an average total cost of $7.13 million in 2020 to $9.23 million in 2021, a 29.5% increase. However, the tremendous cost sustained by healthcare organizations for data breach events is not only due to the