New Campaign Targets Middle East Governments with IronWind Malware

Government entities in the Middle East are the target of new phishing campaigns that are designed to deliver a new initial access downloader dubbed IronWind. The activity, detected between July and October 2023, has been attributed by Proofpoint to a threat actor it tracks under the name TA402, which is also known as Molerats, Gaza Cyber Gang, and shares tactical overlaps with a pro-Hamas

Vietnamese Hackers Using New Delphi-Powered Malware to Target Indian Marketers

The Vietnamese threat actors behind the Ducktail stealer malware have been linked to a new campaign that ran between March and early October 2023, targeting marketing professionals in India with an aim to hijack Facebook business accounts. "An important feature that sets it apart is that, unlike previous campaigns, which relied on .NET applications, this one used Delphi as the programming

CISA Sets a Deadline - Patch Juniper Junos OS Flaws Before November 17

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has given a November 17, 2023, deadline for federal agencies and organizations to apply mitigations to secure against a number of security flaws in Juniper Junos OS that came to light in August. The agency on Monday added five vulnerabilities to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active

New Ransomware Group Emerges with Hive's Source Code and Infrastructure

The threat actors behind a new ransomware group called Hunters International have acquired the source code and infrastructure from the now-dismantled Hive operation to kick-start its own efforts in the threat landscape. "It appears that the leadership of the Hive group made the strategic decision to cease their operations and transfer their remaining assets to another group, Hunters

Top 5 Marketing Tech SaaS Security Challenges

Effective marketing operations today are driven by the use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. Marketing apps such as Salesforce, Hubspot, Outreach, Asana, Monday, and Box empower marketing teams, agencies, freelancers, and subject matter experts to collaborate seamlessly on campaigns and marketing initiatives.  These apps serve as the digital command centers for marketing

Chinese Hackers Launch Covert Espionage Attacks on 24 Cambodian Organizations

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered what they say is malicious cyber activity orchestrated by two prominent Chinese nation-state hacking groups targeting 24 Cambodian government organizations. "This activity is believed to be part of a long-term espionage campaign," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers said in a report last week. "The observed activity aligns with geopolitical goals of

Major Phishing-as-a-Service Syndicate 'BulletProofLink' Dismantled by Malaysian Authorities

Malaysian law enforcement authorities have announced the takedown of a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) operation called BulletProofLink. The Royal Malaysia Police said the effort, which was carried out with assistance from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on November 6, 2023, was based on information that the threat actors behind the platform

New BiBi-Windows Wiper Targets Windows Systems in Pro-Hamas Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have warned about a Windows version of a wiper malware that was previously observed targeting Linux systems in cyber attacks aimed at Israel. Dubbed BiBi-Windows Wiper by BlackBerry, the wiper is the Windows counterpart of BiBi-Linux Wiper, which has been put to use by a pro-Hamas hacktivist group in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war last month. "The Windows variant [...

Microsoft Warns of Fake Skills Assessment Portals Targeting IT Job Seekers

A sub-cluster within the infamous Lazarus Group has established new infrastructure that impersonates skills assessment portals as part of its social engineering campaigns. Microsoft attributed the activity to a threat actor it calls Sapphire Sleet, describing it as a "shift in the persistent actor's tactics." Sapphire Sleet, also called APT38, BlueNoroff, CageyChameleon, and CryptoCore, has a

Russian Hackers Sandworm Cause Power Outage in Ukraine Amidst Missile Strikes

The notorious Russian hackers known as Sandworm targeted an electrical substation in Ukraine last year, causing a brief power outage in October 2022. The findings come from Google's Mandiant, which described the hack as a "multi-event cyber attack" leveraging a novel technique for impacting industrial control systems (ICS). "The actor first used OT-level living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques to

The New 80/20 Rule for SecOps: Customize Where it Matters, Automate the Rest

There is a seemingly never-ending quest to find the right security tools that offer the right capabilities for your organization. SOC teams tend to spend about a third of their day on events that don’t pose any threat to their organization, and this has accelerated the adoption of automated solutions to take the place of (or augment) inefficient and cumbersome SIEMs. With an estimated 80% of

Alert: 'Effluence' Backdoor Persists Despite Patching Atlassian Confluence Servers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a stealthy backdoor named Effluence that's deployed following the successful exploitation of a recently disclosed security flaw in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server. "The malware acts as a persistent backdoor and is not remediated by applying patches to Confluence," Aon's Stroz Friedberg Incident Response Services said in an analysis published

Iran-Linked Imperial Kitten Cyber Group Targeting Middle East's Tech Sectors

A group with links to Iran targeted transportation, logistics, and technology sectors in the Middle East, including Israel, in October 2023 amid a surge in Iranian cyber activity since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war. The attacks have been attributed by CrowdStrike to a threat actor it tracks under the name Imperial Kitten, and which is also known as Crimson Sandstorm (previously Curium),

Stealthy Kamran Spyware Targeting Urdu-speaking Users in Gilgit-Baltistan

Urdu-speaking readers of a regional news website that caters to the Gilgit-Baltistan region have likely emerged as a target of a watering hole attack designed to deliver a previously undocumented Android spyware dubbed Kamran. The campaign, ESET has discovered, leverages Hunza News (urdu.hunzanews[.]net), which, when opened on a mobile device, prompts visitors of the Urdu version to install its

When Email Security Meets SaaS Security: Uncovering Risky Auto-Forwarding Rules

While intended for convenience and efficient communication, email auto-forwarding rules can inadvertently lead to the unauthorized dissemination of sensitive information to external entities, putting confidential data at risk of exposure to unauthorized parties. Wing Security (Wing), a SaaS security company, announced yesterday that their SaaS shadow IT discovery methods now include a solution

MuddyC2Go: New C2 Framework Iranian Hackers Using Against Israel

Iranian nation-state actors have been observed using a previously undocumented command-and-control (C2) framework called MuddyC2Go as part of attacks targeting Israel. "The framework's web component is written in the Go programming language," Deep Instinct security researcher Simon Kenin said in a technical report published Wednesday. The tool has been attributed to MuddyWater, an Iranian 

Offensive and Defensive AI: Let’s Chat(GPT) About It

ChatGPT: Productivity tool, great for writing poems, and… a security risk?! In this article, we show how threat actors can exploit ChatGPT, but also how defenders can use it for leveling up their game. ChatGPT is the most swiftly growing consumer application to date. The extremely popular generative AI chatbot has the ability to generate human-like, coherent and contextually relevant responses.

SideCopy Exploiting WinRAR Flaw in Attacks Targeting Indian Government Entities

The Pakistan-linked threat actor known as SideCopy has been observed leveraging the recent WinRAR security vulnerability in its attacks targeting Indian government entities to deliver various remote access trojans such as AllaKore RAT, Ares RAT, and DRat. Enterprise security firm SEQRITE described the campaign as multi-platform, with the attacks also designed to infiltrate Linux systems with a

Experts Warn of Ransomware Hackers Exploiting Atlassian and Apache Flaws

Multiple ransomware groups have begun to actively exploit recently disclosed flaws in Atlassian Confluence and Apache ActiveMQ. Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 said it observed the exploitation of CVE-2023-22518 and CVE-2023-22515 in multiple customer environments, some of which have been leveraged for the deployment of Cerber (aka C3RB3R) ransomware. Both vulnerabilities are critical, allowing threat

QNAP Releases Patch for 2 Critical Flaws Threatening Your NAS Devices

QNAP has released security updates to address two critical security flaws impacting its operating system that could result in arbitrary code execution. Tracked as CVE-2023-23368 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability is described as a command injection bug affecting QTS, QuTS hero, and QuTScloud. "If exploited, the vulnerability could allow remote attackers to execute commands via a network," the

Iranian Hackers Launch Destructive Cyber Attacks on Israeli Tech and Education Sectors

Israeli higher education and tech sectors have been targeted as part of a series of destructive cyber attacks that commenced in January 2023 with an aim to deploy previously undocumented wiper malware. The intrusions, which took place as recently as October, have been attributed to an Iranian nation-state hacking crew it tracks under the name Agonizing Serpens, which is also known as Agrius,

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Russian Money Launderer in Cybercrime Crackdown

The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against a 37-year-old Russian woman for taking part in the laundering of virtual currency for the country's elites and cybercriminal crews, including the Ryuk ransomware group. Ekaterina Zhdanova, per the department, is said to have facilitated large cross border transactions to assist Russian individuals to gain access to Western financial

StripedFly Malware Operated Unnoticed for 5 Years, Infecting 1 Million Devices

An advanced strain of malware masquerading as a cryptocurrency miner has managed to fly the radar for over five years, infecting no less than one million devices around the world in the process. That's according to findings from Kaspersky, which has codenamed the threat StripedFly, describing it as an "intricate modular framework that supports both Linux and Windows." The Russian cybersecurity

Okta's Recent Customer Support Data Breach Impacted 134 Customers

Identity and authentication management provider Okta on Friday disclosed that the recent support case management system breach affected 134 of its 18,400 customers. It further noted that the unauthorized intruder gained access to its systems from September 28 to October 17, 2023, and ultimately accessed HAR files containing session tokens that could be used for session hijacking attacks. "The

Predictive AI in Cybersecurity: Outcomes Demonstrate All AI is Not Created Equally

Here is what matters most when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity: Outcomes.  As the threat landscape evolves and generative AI is added to the toolsets available to defenders and attackers alike, evaluating the relative effectiveness of various AI-based security offerings is increasingly important — and difficult. Asking the right questions can help you spot solutions

Mysterious Kill Switch Disrupts Mozi IoT Botnet Operations

The unexpected drop in malicious activity connected with the Mozi botnet in August 2023 was due to a kill switch that was distributed to the bots. "First, the drop manifested in India on August 8," ESET said in an analysis published this week. "A week later, on August 16, the same thing happened in China. While the mysterious control payload – aka kill switch – stripped Mozi bots of most

Iran's MuddyWater Targets Israel in New Spear-Phishing Cyber Campaign

The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has been linked to a new spear-phishing campaign targeting two Israeli entities to ultimately deploy a legitimate remote administration tool from N-able called Advanced Monitoring Agent. Cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct, which disclosed details of the attacks, said the campaign "exhibits updated TTPs to previously reported MuddyWater activity,"

FIRST Announces CVSS 4.0 - New Vulnerability Scoring System

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has officially announced CVSS v4.0, the next generation of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System standard, more than eight years after the release of CVSS v3.0 in June 2015. "This latest version of CVSS 4.0 seeks to provide the highest fidelity of vulnerability assessment for both industry and the public," FIRST said in a statement.

HelloKitty Ransomware Group Exploiting Apache ActiveMQ Vulnerability

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of suspected exploitation of a recently disclosed critical security flaw in the Apache ActiveMQ open-source message broker service that could result in remote code execution. "In both instances, the adversary attempted to deploy ransomware binaries on target systems in an effort to ransom the victim organizations," cybersecurity firm Rapid7 disclosed in a

Researchers Expose Prolific Puma's Underground Link Shortening Service

A threat actor known as Prolific Puma has been maintaining a low profile and operating an underground link shortening service that's offered to other threat actors for at least over the past four years. Prolific Puma creates "domain names with an RDGA [registered domain generation algorithm] and use these domains to provide a link shortening service to other malicious actors, helping them evade

Iranian Cyber Espionage Group Targets Financial and Government Sectors in Middle East

A threat actor affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has been observed waging a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign targeting financial, government, military, and telecommunications sectors in the Middle East for at least a year. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point, which discovered the campaign alongside Sygnia, is tracking the actor under the name Scarred

Turla Updates Kazuar Backdoor with Advanced Anti-Analysis to Evade Detection

The Russia-linked hacking crew known as Turla has been observed using an updated version of a known second-stage backdoor referred to as Kazuar. The new findings come from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which is tracking the adversary under its constellation-themed moniker Pensive Ursa. "As the code of the upgraded revision of Kazuar reveals, the authors put special emphasis on Kazuar's ability to

Alert: F5 Warns of Active Attacks Exploiting BIG-IP Vulnerability

F5 is warning of active abuse of a critical security flaw in BIG-IP less than a week after its public disclosure, resulting in the execution of arbitrary system commands as part of an exploit chain. Tracked as CVE-2023-46747 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the BIG-IP system through the management port to achieve code execution. A

Arid Viper Targeting Arabic Android Users with Spyware Disguised as Dating App

The threat actor known as Arid Viper (aka APT-C-23, Desert Falcon, or TAG-63) has been attributed as behind an Android spyware campaign targeting Arabic-speaking users with a counterfeit dating app designed to harvest data from infected handsets. "Arid Viper's Android malware has a number of features that enable the operators to surreptitiously collect sensitive information from victims' devices

Malicious NuGet Packages Caught Distributing SeroXen RAT Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new set of malicious packages published to the NuGet package manager using a lesser-known method for malware deployment. Software supply chain security firm ReversingLabs described the campaign as coordinated and ongoing since August 1, 2023, while linking it to a host of rogue NuGet packages that were observed delivering a remote access trojan called

Atlassian Warns of New Critical Confluence Vulnerability Threatening Data Loss

Atlassian has warned of a critical security flaw in Confluence Data Center and Server that could result in "significant data loss if exploited by an unauthenticated attacker." Tracked as CVE-2023-22518, the vulnerability is rated 9.1 out of a maximum of 10 on the CVSS scoring system. It has been described as an instance of "improper authorization vulnerability." All versions of Confluence Data

Trojanized PyCharm Software Version Delivered via Google Search Ads

A new malvertising campaign has been observed capitalizing on a compromised website to promote spurious versions of PyCharm on Google search results by leveraging Dynamic Search Ads. "Unbeknownst to the site owner, one of their ads was automatically created to promote a popular program for Python developers, and visible to people doing a Google search for it," Jérôme Segura, director of threat

Pro-Hamas Hacktivists Targeting Israeli Entities with Wiper Malware

A pro-Hamas hacktivist group has been observed using a new Linux-based wiper malware dubbed BiBi-Linux Wiper, targeting Israeli entities amidst the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war. "This malware is an x64 ELF executable, lacking obfuscation or protective measures," Security Joes said in a new report published today. "It allows attackers to specify target folders and can potentially destroy an entire

New Webinar: 5 Must-Know Trends Impacting AppSec

Modern web app development relies on cloud infrastructure and containerization. These technologies scale on demand, handling millions of daily file transfers – it's almost impossible to imagine a world without them. However, they also introduce multiple attack vectors that exploit file uploads when working with public clouds, vulnerabilities in containers hosting web applications, and many other

Hackers Using MSIX App Packages to Infect Windows PCs with GHOSTPULSE Malware

A new cyber attack campaign has been observed using spurious MSIX Windows app package files for popular software such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Grammarly, and Cisco Webex to distribute a novel malware loader dubbed GHOSTPULSE. "MSIX is a Windows app package format that developers can leverage to package, distribute, and install their applications to Windows users," Elastic

N. Korean Lazarus Group Targets Software Vendor Using Known Flaws

The North Korea-aligned Lazarus Group has been attributed as behind a new campaign in which an unnamed software vendor was compromised through the exploitation of known security flaws in another high-profile software. The attack sequences, according to Kaspersky, culminated in the deployment of malware families such as SIGNBT and LPEClient, a known hacking tool used by the threat actor for

F5 Issues Warning: BIG-IP Vulnerability Allows Remote Code Execution

F5 has alerted customers of a critical security vulnerability impacting BIG-IP that could result in unauthenticated remote code execution. The issue, rooted in the configuration utility component, has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-46747, and carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10. "This vulnerability may allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the BIG-IP

Microsoft Warns as Scattered Spider Expands from SIM Swaps to Ransomware

The prolific threat actor known as Scattered Spider has been observed impersonating newly hired employees in targeted firms as a ploy to blend into normal on-hire processes and takeover accounts and breach organizations across the world. Microsoft, which disclosed the activities of the financially motivated hacking crew, described the adversary as "one of the most dangerous financial criminal

The Danger of Forgotten Pixels on Websites: A New Case Study

While cyberattacks on websites receive much attention, there are often unaddressed risks that can lead to businesses facing lawsuits and privacy violations even in the absence of hacking incidents. A new case study highlights one of these more common cases.  Download the full case study here. It's a scenario that could have affected any type of company, from healthcare to finance, e-commerce to

Iranian Group Tortoiseshell Launches New Wave of IMAPLoader Malware Attacks

The Iranian threat actor known as Tortoiseshell has been attributed to a new wave of watering hole attacks that are designed to deploy a malware dubbed IMAPLoader. "IMAPLoader is a .NET malware that has the ability to fingerprint victim systems using native Windows utilities and acts as a downloader for further payloads," the PwC Threat Intelligence team said in a Wednesday analysis. "It uses

Critical OAuth Flaws Uncovered in Grammarly, Vidio, and Bukalapak Platforms

Critical security flaws have been disclosed in the Open Authorization (OAuth) implementation of popular online services such as Grammarly, Vidio, and Bukalapak, building upon previous shortcomings uncovered in Booking[.]com and Expo. The weaknesses, now addressed by the respective companies following responsible disclosure between February and April 2023, could have allowed malicious actors to

Ex-NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Data to Russia

A former employee of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of attempting to transmit classified defense information to Russia. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, served as an Information Systems Security Designer for the NSA from June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022, where he had Top Secret clearance to access sensitive documents. The latest development comes more

34 Cybercriminals Arrested in Spain for Multi-Million Dollar Online Scams

Spanish law enforcement officials have announced the arrest of 34 members of a criminal group that carried out various online scams, netting the gang about €3 million ($3.2 million) in illegal profits. Authorities conducted searches across 16 locations Madrid, Malaga, Huelva, Alicante, and Murcia, seizing two simulated firearms, a katana sword, a baseball bat, €80,000 in cash, four high-end

1Password Detects Suspicious Activity Following Okta Support Breach

Popular password management solution 1Password said it detected suspicious activity on its Okta instance on September 29 following the support system breach, but reiterated that no user data was accessed. "We immediately terminated the activity, investigated, and found no compromise of user data or other sensitive systems, either employee-facing or user-facing," Pedro Canahuati, 1Password CTO, 

DoNot Team's New Firebird Backdoor Hits Pakistan and Afghanistan

The threat actor known as DoNot Team has been linked to the use of a novel .NET-based backdoor called Firebird targeting a handful of victims in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which disclosed the findings in its APT trends report Q3 2023, said the attack chains are also configured to deliver a downloader named CSVtyrei, so named for its resemblance to Vtyrei. "Some

Quasar RAT Leverages DLL Side-Loading to Fly Under the Radar

The open-source remote access trojan known as Quasar RAT has been observed leveraging DLL side-loading to fly under the radar and stealthily siphon data from compromised Windows hosts. "This technique capitalizes on the inherent trust these files command within the Windows environment," Uptycs researchers Tejaswini Sandapolla and Karthickkumar Kathiresan said in a report published last week,

Malvertisers Using Google Ads to Target Users Searching for Popular Software

Details have emerged about a malvertising campaign that leverages Google Ads to direct users searching for popular software to fictitious landing pages and distribute next-stage payloads. Malwarebytes, which discovered the activity, said it's "unique in its way to fingerprint users and distribute time sensitive payloads." The attack singles out users searching for Notepad++ and PDF converters to

ExelaStealer: A New Low-Cost Cybercrime Weapon Emerges

A new information stealer named ExelaStealer has become the latest entrant to an already crowded landscape filled with various off-the-shelf malware designed to capture sensitive data from compromised Windows systems. "ExelaStealer is a largely open-source infostealer with paid customizations available from the threat actor," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher James Slaughter said in a

Sophisticated MATA Framework Strikes Eastern European Oil and Gas Companies

An updated version of a sophisticated backdoor framework called MATA has been used in attacks aimed at over a dozen Eastern European companies in the oil and gas sector and defense industry as part of a cyber espionage operation that took place between August 2022 and May 2023. "The actors behind the attack used spear-phishing mails to target several victims, some were infected with Windows

Unraveling Real-Life Attack Paths – Key Lessons Learned

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, attackers are always searching for vulnerabilities and exploits within organizational environments. They don't just target single weaknesses; they're on the hunt for combinations of exposures and attack methods that can lead them to their desired objective. Despite the presence of numerous security tools, organizations often have to deal with two

TetrisPhantom: Cyber Espionage via Secure USBs Targets APAC Governments

Government entities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are the target of a long-running cyber espionage campaign dubbed TetrisPhantom. "The attacker covertly spied on and harvested sensitive data from APAC government entities by exploiting a particular type of secure USB drive, protected by hardware encryption to ensure the secure storage and transfer of data between computer systems," Kaspersky 

Webinar: Locking Down Financial and Accounting Data — Best Data Security Strategies

Financial data is much more than just a collection of numbers; it is a crucial component of any business and a prime target for cybercriminals. It's important to understand that financial records can be a veritable treasure trove for digital pirates. A security breach not only puts customers' personal information in jeopardy but also enables fraudsters to drain company funds and exploit clients.

CERT-UA Reports: 11 Ukrainian Telecom Providers Hit by Cyberattacks

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has revealed that threat actors "interfered" with at least 11 telecommunication service providers in the country between May and September 2023. The agency is tracking the activity under the name UAC-0165, stating the intrusions led to service interruptions for customers. The starting point of the attacks is a reconnaissance phase in

Warning: Unpatched Cisco Zero-Day Vulnerability Actively Targeted in the Wild

Cisco has warned of a critical, unpatched security flaw impacting IOS XE software that’s under active exploitation in the wild. Rooted in the web UI feature, the zero-day vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2023-20198 and has been assigned the maximum severity rating of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system. It’s worth pointing out that the shortcoming only affects enterprise networking gear that have the

FBI, CISA Warn of Rising AvosLocker Ransomware Attacks Against Critical Infrastructure

The AvosLocker ransomware gang has been linked to attacks against critical infrastructure sectors in the U.S., with some of them detected as recently as May 2023. That's according to a new joint cybersecurity advisory released by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailing the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation's