Why Telecoms Struggle with SaaS Security

The telecom industry has always been a tantalizing target for cybercriminals. The combination of interconnected networks, customer data, and sensitive information allows cybercriminals to inflict maximum damage through minimal effort. It’s the breaches in telecom companies that tend to have a seismic impact and far-reaching implications — in addition to reputational damage, which can be

Daggerfly Cyberattack Campaign Hits African Telecom Services Providers

Telecommunication services providers in Africa are the target of a new campaign orchestrated by a China-linked threat actor at least since November 2022. The intrusions have been pinned on a hacking crew tracked by Symantec as Daggerfly, and which is also monitored by the broader cybersecurity community as Bronze Highland and Evasive Panda. The campaign makes use of "previously unseen plugins

Cacti, Realtek, and IBM Aspera Faspex Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation

Critical security flaws in Cacti, Realtek, and IBM Aspera Faspex are being exploited by various threat actors in hacks targeting unpatched systems. This entails the abuse of CVE-2022-46169 (CVSS score: 9.8) and CVE-2021-35394 (CVSS score: 9.8) to deliver MooBot and ShellBot (aka PerlBot), Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said in a report published this week. CVE-2022-46169 relates to a critical

Breaking the Mold: Pen Testing Solutions That Challenge the Status Quo

Malicious actors are constantly adapting their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to adapt to political, technological, and regulatory changes quickly. A few emerging threats that organizations of all sizes should be aware of include the following: Increased use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Malicious actors are increasingly leveraging AI and machine learning to

Critical WooCommerce Payments Plugin Flaw Patched for 500,000+ WordPress Sites

Patches have been released for a critical security flaw impacting the WooCommerce Payments plugin for WordPress, which is installed on over 500,000 websites. The flaw, if left unresolved, could enable a bad actor to gain unauthorized admin access to impacted stores, the company said in an advisory on March 23, 2023. It impacts versions 4.8.0 through 5.6.1. Put differently, the issue could permit

Experts Reveal Google Cloud Platform's Blind Spot for Data Exfiltration Attacks

Malicious actors can take advantage of "insufficient" forensic visibility into Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to exfiltrate sensitive data, a new research has found. "Unfortunately, GCP does not provide the level of visibility in its storage logs that is needed to allow any effective forensic investigation, making organizations blind to potential data exfiltration attacks," cloud incident response

Experts Discover Flaw in U.S. Govt's Chosen Quantum-Resistant Encryption Algorithm

A group of researchers has revealed what it says is a vulnerability in a specific implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber, one of the encryption algorithms chosen by the U.S. government as quantum-resistant last year. The exploit relates to "side-channel attacks on up to the fifth-order masked implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber in ARM Cortex-M4 CPU," Elena Dubrova, Kalle Ngo, and Joel Gärtner of KTH

Threat Actors Turn to Sliver as Open Source Alternative to Popular C2 Frameworks

The legitimate command-and-control (C2) framework known as Sliver is gaining more traction from threat actors as it emerges as an open source alternative to Cobalt Strike and Metasploit. The findings come from Cybereason, which detailed its inner workings in an exhaustive analysis last week. Sliver, developed by cybersecurity company BishopFox, is a Golang-based cross-platform post-exploitation

Critical Security Vulnerabilities Discovered in Netcomm and TP-Link Routers

Security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Netcomm and TP-Link routers, some of which could be weaponized to achieve remote code execution. The flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-4873 and CVE-2022-4874, concern a case of stack-based buffer overflow and authentication bypass and impact Netcomm router models NF20MESH, NF20, and NL1902 running firmware versions earlier than R6B035. "The two

4 Places to Supercharge Your SOC with Automation

It's no secret that the job of SOC teams continues to become increasingly difficult. Increased volume and sophistication of attacks are plaguing under-resourced teams with false positives and analyst burnout. However, like many other industries, cybersecurity is now beginning to lean on and benefit from advancements in automation to not only maintain the status quo, but to attain better security

Bluebottle Cybercrime Group Preys on Financial Sector in French-Speaking African Nations

A cybercrime group dubbed Bluebottle has been linked to a set of targeted attacks against the financial sector in Francophone countries located in Africa from at least July 2022 to September 2022. "The group makes extensive use of living-off-the-land, dual use tools, and commodity malware, with no custom malware deployed in this campaign," Symantec, a division of Broadcom Software, said in a

Qualcomm Chipsets and Lenovo BIOS Get Security Updates to Fix Multiple Flaws

Qualcomm on Tuesday released patches to address multiple security flaws in its chipsets, some of which could be exploited to cause information disclosure and memory corruption. The five vulnerabilities -- tracked from CVE-2022-40516 through CVE-2022-40520 -- also impact Lenovo ThinkPad X13s laptops, prompting the Chinese PC maker to issue BIOS updates to plug the security holes. The list of

Hackers Breach Okta's GitHub Repositories, Steal Source Code

Okta, a company that provides identity and access management services, disclosed on Wednesday that some of its source code repositories were accessed in an unauthorized manner earlier this month. "There is no impact to any customers, including any HIPAA, FedRAMP, or DoD customers," the company said in a public statement. "No action is required by customers." The security event, which was first

Why PCI DSS 4.0 Should Be on Your Radar in 2023

Protecting customer data is critical for any business accepting online payment information. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), created by leading credit card companies, establishes best practices for protecting consumers' information. By adhering to these standards, businesses can ensure that their customer's personal and financial information is secure.  The PCI DSS

COVID-bit: New COVert Channel to Exfiltrate Data from Air-Gapped Computers

An unconventional data exfiltration method leverages a previously undocumented covert channel to leak sensitive information from air-gapped systems. "The information emanates from the air-gapped computer over the air to a distance of 2 m and more and can be picked up by a nearby insider or spy with a mobile phone or laptop," Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D in the Cyber Security Research

How XDR Helps Protect Critical Infrastructure

Critical infrastructure is important for societal existence, growth, and development. Societies are reliant on the services provided by critical infrastructure sectors like telecommunication, energy, healthcare, transportation, and information technology. Safety and security are necessary for the optimal operation of these critical infrastructures. Critical infrastructure is made up of digital

Top Cyber Threats Facing E-Commerce Sites This Holiday Season

Delivering a superior customer experience is essential for any e-commerce business. For those companies, there's a lot at stake this holiday season. According to Digital Commerce 360, nearly $1.00 of every $4.00 spent on retail purchases during the 2022 holiday season will be spent online, resulting in $224 billion in e-commerce sales. To ensure your e-commerce site is ready for the holiday rush

Experts Uncover Two Long-Running Android Spyware Campaigns Targeting Uyghurs

Two long-running surveillance campaigns have been found targeting the Uyghur community in China and elsewhere with Android spyware tools designed to harvest sensitive information and track their whereabouts. This encompasses a previously undocumented malware strain called BadBazaar and updated variants of an espionage artifact dubbed MOONSHINE by researchers from the University of Toronto's

Hackers Using Rogue Versions of KeePass and SolarWinds Software to Distribute RomCom RAT

The operators of RomCom RAT malware are continuing to evolve their campaigns by distributing rogue versions of software such as SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, KeePass password manager, and PDF Reader Pro via fake copycat websites. Targets of the operation consist of victims in Ukraine and select English-speaking countries like the U.K. "Given the geography of the targets and the current

Researchers Expose Over 80 ShadowPad Malware C2 Servers

As many as 85 command-and-control (C2) servers have been discovered supported by the ShadowPad malware since September 2021, with infrastructure detected as recently as October 16, 2022. That's according to VMware's Threat Analysis Unit (TAU), which studied three ShadowPad variants using TCP, UDP, and HTTP(S) protocols for C2 communications. ShadowPad, seen as a successor to PlugX, is a modular

Unknown Actors are Deploying RomCom RAT to Target Ukrainian Military

The threat actor behind a remote access trojan called RomCom RAT has been observed targeting Ukrainian military institutions as part of a new spear-phishing campaign that commenced on October 21, 2022.  The development marks a shift in the attacker's modus operandi, which has been previously attributed to spoofing legitimate apps like Advanced IP Scanner and pdfFiller to drop backdoors on

BEC Scammer Gets 25-Year Jail Sentence for Stealing Over $9.5 Million

A 46-year-old man in the U.S. has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of laundering over $9.5 million accrued by carrying out cyber-enabled financial fraud. Elvis Eghosa Ogiekpolor of Norcross, Georgia, operated a money laundering network that opened at least 50 business bank accounts for illicitly receiving funds from unsuspecting individuals and businesses after

Researchers Uncover Years-Long Mobile Spyware Campaign Targeting Uyghurs

A new wave of a mobile surveillance campaign has been observed targeting the Uyghur community as part of a long-standing spyware operation active since at least 2015, cybersecurity researchers disclosed Thursday. The intrusions, originally attributed to a threat actor named Scarlet Mimic back in January 2016, is said to have encompassed 20 different variants of the Android malware, which were

U.S. Adds 2 More Chinese Telecom Firms to National Security Threat List

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has added Pacific Network Corp, along with its subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC, and China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited, to the list of communications equipment and services that have been deemed a threat to national security. The agency said the companies are subject to the Chinese government's exploitation, influence, and control, and could

SparklingGoblin APT Hackers Using New Linux Variant of SideWalk Backdoor

A Linux variant of a backdoor known as SideWalk was used to target a Hong Kong university in February 2021, underscoring the cross-platform abilities of the implant.  Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, which detected the malware in the university's network, attributed the backdoor to a nation-state actor dubbed SparklingGoblin. The unnamed university is said to have been already targeted by the

Why Vulnerability Scanning is Critical for SOC 2

SOC 2 may be a voluntary standard, but for today's security-conscious business, it's a minimal requirement when considering a SaaS provider. Compliance can be a long and complicated process, but a scanner like Intruder makes it easy to tick the vulnerability management box. Security is critical for all organisations, including those that outsource key business operations to third parties like

Researchers Find New Android Spyware Campaign Targeting Uyghur Community

A previously undocumented strain of Android spyware with extensive information gathering capabilities has been found disguised as a book likely designed to target the Uyghur community in China. The malware comes under the guise of a book titled "The China Freedom Trap," a biography written by the exiled Uyghur leader Dolkun Isa. <!--adsense--> "In light of the ongoing conflict between the

FTC Sues Data Broker Over Selling Location Data for Hundreds of Millions of Phones

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday said it filed a lawsuit against Kochava, a location data broker, for collecting and selling precise geolocation data gathered from consumers' mobile devices. The complaint alleges that the U.S. company amasses a "wealth of information" about users by purchasing data from other data brokers to sell to its own clients. "Kochava then sells

Critical Vulnerability Discovered in Atlassian Bitbucket Server and Data Center

Atlassian has rolled out fixes for a critical security flaw in Bitbucket Server and Data Center that could lead to the execution of malicious code on vulnerable installations. Tracked as CVE-2022-36804 (CVSS score: 9.9), the issue has been characterized as a command injection vulnerability in multiple endpoints that could be exploited via specially crafted HTTP requests. <!--adsense--> “An

Air-Gapped Devices Can Send Covert Morse Signals via Network Card LEDs

A security researcher who has a long line of work demonstrating novel data exfiltration methods from air-gapped systems has come up with yet another technique that involves sending Morse code signals via LEDs on network interface cards (NICs). The approach, codenamed ETHERLED, comes from Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D in the Cyber Security Research Center in the Ben Gurion University of the

Russian State Hackers Continue to Attack Ukrainian Entities with Infostealer Malware

Russian state-sponsored actors are continuing to strike Ukrainian entities with information-stealing malware as part of what's suspected to be an espionage operation. Symantec, a division of Broadcom Software, attributed the malicious campaign to a threat actor tracked Shuckworm, also known as Actinium, Armageddon, Gamaredon, Primitive Bear, and Trident Ursa. The findings have been corroborated 

A Growing Number of Malware Attacks Leveraging Dark Utilities 'C2-as-a-Service'

A nascent service called Dark Utilities has already attracted 3,000 users for its ability to provide command-and-control (C2) services with the goal of commandeering compromised systems. "It is marketed as a means to enable remote access, command execution, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and cryptocurrency mining operations on infected systems," Cisco Talos said in a report shared

Single-Core CPU Cracked Post-Quantum Encryption Candidate Algorithm in Just an Hour

A late-stage candidate encryption algorithm that was meant to withstand decryption by powerful quantum computers in the future has been trivially cracked by using a computer running Intel Xeon CPU in an hour's time. The algorithm in question is SIKE — short for Supersingular Isogeny Key Encapsulation — which made it to the fourth round of the Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standardization

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

New Air-Gap Attack Uses SATA Cable as an Antenna to Transfer Radio Signals

A new method devised to leak information and jump over air-gaps takes advantage of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) or Serial ATA cables as a communication medium, adding to a long list of electromagnetic, magnetic, electric, optical, and acoustic methods already demonstrated to plunder data. "Although air-gap computers have no wireless connectivity, we show that attackers can use

Microsoft Warns of Large-Scale AiTM Phishing Attacks Against Over 10,000 Organizations

Microsoft on Tuesday disclosed that a large-scale phishing campaign targeted over 10,000 organizations since September 2021 by hijacking Office 365's authentication process even on accounts secured with multi-factor authentication (MFA). "The attackers then used the stolen credentials and session cookies to access affected users' mailboxes and perform follow-on business email compromise (BEC)