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Multiple security weaknesses have been disclosed in MediaTek system-on-chips (SoCs) that could have enabled a threat actor to elevate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the firmware of the audio processor, effectively allowing the attackers to carry out a "massive eavesdrop campaign" without the users' knowledge. The discovery of the flaws is the result of reverse-engineering the Taiwanese company's audio digital signal processor ( DSP ) unit by Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Research, ultimately finding that by stringing them together with other flaws present in a smartphone manufacturer's libraries, the issues uncovered in the chip could lead to local privilege escalation from an Android application.  "A malformed inter-processor message could potentially be used by an attacker to execute and hide malicious code inside the DSP firmware," Check Point security researcher Slava Makkaveev  said  in a report. "Since the DSP firmware h

A threat actor known for striking targets in the Middle East has evolved its Android spyware yet again with enhanced capabilities that allow it to be stealthier and more persistent while passing off as seemingly innocuous app updates to stay under the radar. The new variants have "incorporated new features into their malicious apps that make them more resilient to actions by users, who might try to remove them manually, and to security and web hosting companies that attempt to block access to, or shut down, their command-and-control server domains," Sophos threat researcher Pankaj Kohli  said  in a report published Tuesday. Also known by the monikers  VAMP ,  FrozenCell ,  GnatSpy , and  Desert Scorpion , the mobile spyware has been a preferred tool of choice for the APT-C-23 threat group since at least 2017, with  successive iterations  featuring extended surveillance functionality to vacuum files, images, contacts and call logs, read notifications from messaging apps, r

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platforms have received incredible attention as the platform for security teams. Whether you're evaluating an EDR for the first time or looking to replace your EDR, as an information security professional, you need to be aware of the gaps prior already to implementation so you can best prepare how to close the gaps. It's important to understand that each company is unique, and an EDR that a large company uses might not necessarily be the technology that works best when you are leading a small security team, even if you're within the same industry vertical. Understanding your threat detection technology requirements based on your unique company characteristics will help you choose the right one.  The eBook and webinar "The Dark Side of EDR. Are You Prepared?" helps you in that requirement definition process. It points out the dark side(s) of EDR and provides guidance as to how to overcome them according to your company'

At least 9.3 million Android devices have been infected by a new class of malware that disguises itself as dozens of arcade, shooter, and strategy games on Huawei's AppGallery marketplace to steal device information and victims' mobile phone numbers. The mobile campaign was disclosed by researchers from Doctor Web, who classified the trojan as " Android.Cynos.7.origin ," owing to the fact that the malware is a modified version of the Cynos malware. Of the total 190 rogue games identified, some were designed to target Russian-speaking users, while others were aimed at Chinese or international audiences. Once installed, the apps prompted the victims for permission to make and manage phone calls, using the access to harvest their phone numbers along with other device information such as geolocation, mobile network parameters, and system metadata.  "At first glance, a mobile phone number leak may seem like an insignificant problem. Yet in reality, it can serio

Apple has sued NSO Group and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies in a U.S. federal court holding it accountable for illegally targeting users with its Pegasus surveillance tool, marking yet another setback for the Israeli spyware vendor. The Cupertino-based tech giant painted NSO Group as "notorious hackers — amoral 21st century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse." In addition, the lawsuit seeks to permanently prevent the infamous hacker-for-hire company from breaking into any Apple software, services or devices. The iPhone maker, separately, also revealed its plans to  notify targets  of state-sponsored spyware attacks and has committed $10 million, as well as any monetary damages won as part of the lawsuit, to cybersurveillance research groups and advocates. To that end, the company intends to display a "Threat Notification" after the targeted users sign into appleid.apple[

Marvel has been entertaining us for the last 20 years. We have seen gods, super-soldiers, magicians, and other irradiated heroes fight baddies at galactic scales. The eternal fight of good versus evil. A little bit like in cybersecurity, goods guys fighting cybercriminals. If we choose to go with this fun analogy, is there anything useful we can learn from those movies? World-ending baddies always come with an army When we watch the different Avenger movies, the first thing we realize is that big baddies never fight alone. Think Ultron and his bot army, Thanos or Loki with the Chitauri. They all come with large, generic clone proxy armies that heroes must fight before getting to the final boss. In the same way, serious cyberattacks are planned and delivered by organized and structured groups of cybercriminals such as APT groups with sometimes hundreds of members. In real-life scenarios, attacks are coming from IPs (one or many) that have been stolen, hacked, or bought by the crimin

A now-patched vulnerability affecting Oracle VM VirtualBox could be potentially exploited by an adversary to compromise the hypervisor and cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. "Easily exploitable vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox," the advisory  reads . "Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized ability to cause a hang or frequently repeatable crash (complete DoS) of Oracle VM VirtualBox" Tracked as  CVE-2021-2442  (CVSS score: 6.0), the flaw affects all versions of the product prior to 6.1.24. SentinelLabs researcher Max Van Amerongen has been credited with discovering and reporting the issue, following which  fixes have been rolled out  by Oracle as part of its Critical Patch Update for July 2021. Oracle VM  VirtualBox  is an open-source and cross-platform hypervisor and desktop virtualization software that enabl

Banking apps from Brazil are being targeted by a more elusive and stealthier version of an Android remote access trojan (RAT) that's capable of carrying out financial fraud attacks by stealing two-factor authentication (2FA) codes and initiating rogue transactions from infected devices to transfer money from victims' accounts to an account operated by the threat actor. IBM X-Force dubbed the revamped banking malware BrazKing , a previous version of which was referred to as  PixStealer  by Check Point Research. The mobile RAT was first seen around November 2018,  according  to ThreatFabric. "It turns out that its developers have been working on making the malware more agile than before, moving its core overlay mechanism to pull fake overlay screens from the command-and-control (C2) server in real-time," IBM X-Force researcher Shahar Tavor  noted  in a technical deep dive published last week. "The malware […] allows the attacker to log keystrokes, extract the pa

In the business world, mergers and acquisitions are commonplace as businesses combine, acquire, and enter various partnerships. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are filled with often very complicated and complex processes to merge business processes, management, and a whole slew of other aspects of combining two businesses into a single logical entity. In the modern business world before and after the acquisition, a new concern with M&A activities is cybersecurity. What role does cybersecurity play in today's mergers and acquisitions of businesses? Why is it becoming a tremendous concern? Cybersecurity threats are growing in leaps and bounds There is no question that cybersecurity risks and threats are growing exponentially. A  report from Cybersecurity Ventures  estimated a ransomware attack on businesses would happen every 11 seconds in 2021. Global ransomware costs in 2021 would exceed $20 billion. It seems there are constantly new reports of major ransomware attacks, cos

Web hosting giant GoDaddy on Monday disclosed a data breach that resulted in the unauthorized access of data belonging to a total of 1.2 million active and inactive customers, making it the  third   security incident  to come to light since 2018. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the world's largest domain registrar  said  that a malicious third-party managed to gain access to its  Managed WordPress  hosting environment on September 6 with the help of a compromised password, using it to obtain sensitive information pertaining to its customers. It's not immediately clear if the compromised password was secured with two-factor authentication. The Arizona-based company  claims  over 20 million customers, with more than 82 million domain names registered using its services. GoDaddy revealed it discovered the break-in on November 17. An investigation into the incident is ongoing and the company said it's "contacting all impacted custo