Experts Uncover New 'CosmicStrand' UEFI Firmware Rootkit Used by Chinese Hackers

An unknown Chinese-speaking threat actor has been attributed to a new kind of sophisticated Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware rootkit called CosmicStrand. "The rootkit is located in the firmware images of Gigabyte or ASUS motherboards, and we noticed that all these images are related to designs using the H81 chipset," Kaspersky researchers said in a new report published today

Magecart Hacks Food Ordering Systems to Steal Payment Data from Over 300 Restaurants

Three restaurant ordering platforms MenuDrive, Harbortouch, and InTouchPOS were the target of two Magecart skimming campaigns that resulted in the compromise of at least 311 restaurants. The trio of breaches has led to the theft of more than 50,000 payment card records from these infected restaurants and posted for sale on the dark web. "The online ordering platforms MenuDrive and Harbortouch

Racoon Stealer is Back — How to Protect Your Organization

The Racoon Stealer malware as a service platform gained notoriety several years ago for its ability to extract data that is stored within a Web browser. This data initially included passwords and cookies, which sometimes allow a recognized device to be authenticated without a password being entered. Racoon Stealer was also designed to steal auto-fill data, which can include a vast trove of

Roaming Mantis Financial Hackers Targeting Android and iPhone Users in France

The mobile threat campaign tracked as Roaming Mantis has been linked to a new wave of compromises directed against French mobile phone users, months after it expanded its targeting to include European countries. No fewer than 70,000 Android devices are said to have been infected as part of the active malware operation, Sekoia said in a report published last week. Attack chains involving Roaming

SonicWall Issues Patch for Critical Bug Affecting its Analytics and GMS Products

Network security company SonicWall on Friday rolled out fixes to mitigate a critical SQL injection (SQLi) vulnerability affecting its Analytics On-Prem and Global Management System (GMS) products. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-22280, is rated 9.4 for severity on the CVSS scoring system and stems from what the company describes is an "improper neutralization of special elements" used in

Microsoft Resumes Blocking Office VBA Macros by Default After 'Temporary Pause'

Microsoft has officially resumed blocking Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default across Office apps, weeks after temporarily announcing plans to roll back the change. "Based on our review of customer feedback, we've made updates to both our end user and our IT admin documentation to make clearer what options you have for different scenarios," the company said in an update on July

Google Bringing the Android App Permissions Section Back to the Play Store

Google on Thursday said it's backtracking on a recent change that removed the app permissions list from the Google Play Store for Android across both the mobile app and the web. "Privacy and transparency are core values in the Android community," the Android Developers team said in a series of tweets. "We heard your feedback that you find the app permissions section in Google Play useful, and

An Easier Way to Keep Old Python Code Healthy and Secure

Python has its pros and cons, but it's nonetheless used extensively. For example, Python is frequently used in data crunching tasks even when there are more appropriate languages to choose from. Why? Well, Python is relatively easy to learn. Someone with a science background can pick up Python much more quickly than, say, C. However, Python's inherent approachability also creates a couple of

Ukrainian Radio Stations Hacked to Broadcast Fake News About Zelenskyy's Health

Ukrainian radio operator TAVR Media on Thursday became the latest victim of a cyberattack, resulting in the broadcast of a fake message that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was seriously ill. "Cybercriminals spread information that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is allegedly in intensive care, and his duties are performed by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk,"

Candiru Spyware Caught Exploiting Google Chrome Zero-Day to Target Journalists

The actively exploited but now-fixed Google Chrome zero-day flaw that came to light at the start of this month was weaponized by an Israeli spyware company and used in attacks targeting journalists in the Middle East. Czech cybersecurity firm Avast linked the exploitation to Candiru (aka Saito Tech), which has a history of leveraging previously unknown flaws to deploy a Windows malware dubbed