LockBit Ransomware Operation Shut Down; Criminals Arrested; Decryption Keys Released

The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) on Tuesday confirmed that it obtained LockBit's source code as well as a wealth of intelligence pertaining to its activities and their affiliates as part of a dedicated task force called Operation Cronos. "Some of the data on LockBit's systems belonged to victims who had paid a ransom to the threat actors, evidencing that even when a ransom is paid, it

SaaS Compliance through the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework is one of the world's most important guidelines for securing networks. It can be applied to any number of applications, including SaaS.  One of the challenges facing those tasked with securing SaaS applications is the different settings found in each application. It makes it difficult to develop a

Google Open Sources Magika: AI-Powered File Identification Tool

Google has announced that it's open-sourcing Magika, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool to identify file types, to help defenders accurately detect binary and textual file types. "Magika outperforms conventional file identification methods providing an overall 30% accuracy boost and up to 95% higher precision on traditionally hard to identify, but potentially problematic content

Wazuh in the Cloud Era: Navigating the Challenges of Cybersecurity

Cloud computing has innovated how organizations operate and manage IT operations, such as data storage, application deployment, networking, and overall resource management. The cloud offers scalability, adaptability, and accessibility, enabling businesses to achieve sustainable growth. However, adopting cloud technologies into your infrastructure presents various cybersecurity risks and

Google Starts Blocking Sideloading of Potentially Dangerous Android Apps in Singapore

Google has unveiled a new pilot program in Singapore that aims to prevent users from sideloading certain apps that abuse Android app permissions to read one-time passwords and gather sensitive data. "This enhanced fraud protection will analyze and automatically block the installation of apps that may use sensitive runtime permissions frequently abused for financial fraud when the user attempts

Combined Security Practices Changing the Game for Risk Management

A significant challenge within cyber security at present is that there are a lot of risk management platforms available in the market, but only some deal with cyber risks in a very good way. The majority will shout alerts at the customer as and when they become apparent and cause great stress in the process. The issue being that by using a reactive, rather than proactive approach, many risks

Italian Data Protection Watchdog Accuses ChatGPT of Privacy Violations

Italy's data protection authority (DPA) has notified ChatGPT-maker OpenAI of supposedly violating privacy laws in the region. "The available evidence pointed to the existence of breaches of the provisions contained in the E.U. GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation]," the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (aka the Garante) said in a statement on Monday. It also said it

Cyber Threat Landscape: 7 Key Findings and Upcoming Trends for 2024

The 2023/2024 Axur Threat Landscape Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the latest cyber threats. The information combines data from the platform's surveillance of the Surface, Deep, and Dark Web with insights derived from the in-depth research and investigations conducted by the Threat Intelligence team. Discover the full scope of digital threats in the Axur Report 2023/2024. Overview

Preventing Data Loss: Backup and Recovery Strategies for Exchange Server Administrators

In the current digital landscape, data has emerged as a crucial asset for organizations, akin to currency. It’s the lifeblood of any organization in today's interconnected and digital world. Thus, safeguarding the data is of paramount importance. Its importance is magnified in on-premises Exchange Server environments where vital business communication and emails are stored and managed.  In

This Free Discovery Tool Finds and Mitigates AI-SaaS Risks

Wing Security announced today that it now offers free discovery and a paid tier for automated control over thousands of AI and AI-powered SaaS applications. This will allow companies to better protect their intellectual property (IP) and data against the growing and evolving risks of AI usage. SaaS applications seem to be multiplying by the day, and so does their integration of AI

Case Study: The Cookie Privacy Monster in Big Global Retail

Explore how an advanced exposure management solution saved a major retail industry client from ending up on the naughty step due to a misconfiguration in its cookie management policy. This wasn’t anything malicious, but with modern web environments being so complex, mistakes can happen, and non-compliance fines can be just an oversight away.Download the full case study here. As a child,

Exposed Secrets are Everywhere. Here's How to Tackle Them

Picture this: you stumble upon a concealed secret within your company's source code. Instantly, a wave of panic hits as you grasp the possible consequences. This one hidden secret has the power to pave the way for unauthorized entry, data breaches, and a damaged reputation. Understanding the secret is just the beginning; swift and resolute action becomes imperative. However, lacking the

Orange Spain Faces BGP Traffic Hijack After RIPE Account Hacked by Malware

Mobile network operator Orange Spain suffered an internet outage for several hours on January 3 after a threat actor used administrator credentials captured by means of stealer malware to hijack the border gateway protocol (BGP) traffic. "The Orange account in the IP network coordination center (RIPE) has suffered improper access that has affected the browsing of some of our customers," the

The Definitive Enterprise Browser Buyer's Guide

Security stakeholders have come to realize that the prominent role the browser has in the modern corporate environment requires a re-evaluation of how it is managed and protected. While not long-ago web-borne risks were still addressed by a patchwork of endpoint, network, and cloud solutions, it is now clear that the partial protection these solutions provided is no longer sufficient. Therefore,

Google Cloud Resolves Privilege Escalation Flaw Impacting Kubernetes Service

Google Cloud has addressed a medium-severity security flaw in its platform that could be abused by an attacker who already has access to a Kubernetes cluster to escalate their privileges. "An attacker who has compromised the Fluent Bit logging container could combine that access with high privileges required by Anthos Service Mesh (on clusters that have enabled it) to

Rogue WordPress Plugin Exposes E-Commerce Sites to Credit Card Theft

Threat hunters have discovered a rogue WordPress plugin that's capable of creating bogus administrator users and injecting malicious JavaScript code to steal credit card information. The skimming activity is part of a Magecart campaign targeting e-commerce websites, according to Sucuri. "As with many other malicious or fake WordPress plugins it contains some deceptive information at

FBI Takes Down BlackCat Ransomware, Releases Free Decryption Tool

The U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) has officially announced the disruption of the BlackCat ransomware operation and released a decryption tool that more than 500 affected victims can use to regain access to files locked by the malware. Court documents show that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) enlisted the help of a confidential human source (CHS) to act as an affiliate

Top 7 Trends Shaping SaaS Security in 2024

Over the past few years, SaaS has developed into the backbone of corporate IT. Service businesses, such as medical practices, law firms, and financial services firms, are almost entirely SaaS based. Non-service businesses, including manufacturers and retailers, have about 70% of their software in the cloud.  These applications contain a wealth of data, from minimally sensitive general

Google's New Tracking Protection in Chrome Blocks Third-Party Cookies

Google on Thursday announced that it will start testing a new feature called "Tracking Protection" beginning January 4, 2024, to 1% of Chrome users as part of its efforts to deprecate third-party cookies in the web browser. The setting is designed to limit "cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default," Anthony Chavez, vice president of Privacy

WhatsApp's New Secret Code Feature Lets Users Protect Private Chats with Password

Meta-owned WhatsApp has launched a new Secret Code feature to help users protect sensitive conversations with a custom password on the messaging platform. The feature has been described as an "additional way to protect those chats and make them harder to find if someone has access to your phone or you share a phone with someone else." Secret Code builds on another feature

Kubernetes Secrets of Fortune 500 Companies Exposed in Public Repositories

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of publicly exposed Kubernetes configuration secrets that could put organizations at risk of supply chain attacks. “These encoded Kubernetes configuration secrets were uploaded to public repositories,” Aqua security researchers Yakir Kadkoda and Assaf Morag said in a new research published earlier this week. Some of those impacted include two top blockchain

Product Walkthrough: Silverfort's Unified Identity Protection Platform

In this article, we will provide a brief overview of Silverfort's platform, the first (and currently only) unified identity protection platform on the market. Silverfort’s patented technology aims to protect organizations from identity-based attacks by integrating with existing identity and access management solutions, such as AD (Active Directory) and cloud-based services, and extending secure

Three Ways Varonis Helps You Fight Insider Threats

What do basketball teams, government agencies, and car manufacturers have in common? Each one has been breached, having confidential, proprietary, or private information stolen and exposed by insiders. In each case, the motivations and methods varied, but the risk remained the same: insiders have access to too much data with too few controls. Insider threats continue to prove difficult for

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

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

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

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

Meta Launches Paid Ad-Free Subscription in Europe to Satisfy Privacy Laws

Meta on Monday announced plans to offer an ad-free option to access Facebook and Instagram for users in the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland to comply with "evolving" data protection regulations in the region. The ad-free subscription, which costs €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android, is expected to be officially available starting next

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

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

YoroTrooper: Researchers Warn of Kazakhstan's Stealthy Cyber Espionage Group

A relatively new threat actor known as YoroTrooper is likely made up of operators originating from Kazakhstan. The assessment, which comes from Cisco Talos, is based on their fluency in Kazakh and Russian, use of Tenge to pay for operating infrastructure, and very limited targeting of Kazakhstani entities, barring the government's Anti-Corruption Agency. "YoroTrooper attempts to obfuscate the

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

Act Now: VMware Releases Patch for Critical vCenter Server RCE Vulnerability

VMware has released security updates to address a critical flaw in the vCenter Server that could result in remote code execution on affected systems. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-34048 (CVSS score: 9.8), has been described as an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the implementation of the DCE/RPC protocol. "A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger an out-of-bounds

Researcher Reveals New Techniques to Bypass Cloudflare's Firewall and DDoS Protection

Firewall and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack prevention mechanisms in Cloudflare can be circumvented by exploiting gaps in cross-tenant security controls, defeating the very purpose of these safeguards, it has emerged. "Attackers can utilize their own Cloudflare accounts to abuse the per-design trust-relationship between Cloudflare and the customers' websites, rendering the

TikTok Faces Massive €345 Million Fine Over Child Data Violations in E.U.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) slapped TikTok with a €345 million (about $368 million) fine for violating the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in relation to its handling of children's data. The investigation, initiated in September 2021, examined how the popular short-form video platform processed personal data relating to child users (those between the

Webinar: Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR) – Rips in Your Identity Fabric

In today's digital age, SaaS applications have become the backbone of modern businesses. They streamline operations, enhance productivity, and foster innovation. But with great power comes great responsibility. As organizations integrate more SaaS applications into their workflows, they inadvertently open the door to a new era of security threats. The stakes? Your invaluable data and the trust

Way Too Vulnerable: Join this Webinar to Understand and Strengthen Identity Attack Surface

In today's digital age, it's not just about being online but how securely your organization operates online. Regardless of size or industry, every organization heavily depends on digital assets. The digital realm is where business takes place, from financial transactions to confidential data storage. While organizations have quickly adopted tools like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA),

It's a Zero-day? It's Malware? No! It's Username and Password

As cyber threats continue to evolve, adversaries are deploying a range of tools to breach security defenses and compromise sensitive data. Surprisingly, one of the most potent weapons in their arsenal is not malicious code but simply stolen or weak usernames and passwords. This article explores the seriousness of compromised credentials, the challenges they present to security solutions, and the

India Passes New Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDPB), Putting Users' Privacy First

The Indian President Droupadi Murmu on Friday granted assent to the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDPB) after it was unanimously passed by both houses of the parliament last week, marking a significant step towards securing people's information. "The Bill provides for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both the rights of the individuals to protect their

Surviving the 800 Gbps Storm: Gain Insights from Gcore's 2023 DDoS Attack Statistics

Gcore Radar is a quarterly report prepared by Gcore that provides insights into the current state of the DDoS protection market and cybersecurity trends. This report offers you an understanding of the evolving threat landscape and highlights the measures required to protect against attacks effectively. It serves as an insight for businesses and individuals seeking to stay informed about the

Improve Your Security WordPress Spam Protection With CleanTalk Anti-Spam

Every website owner or webmaster grapples with the issue of spam on their website forms. The volume of spam can be so overwhelming that finding useful information within it becomes quite challenging. What exacerbates this issue is that spam can populate your public pages, appearing in comments and reviews. You likely understand how this can damage your website's reputation, affect search results

Microsoft Details Critical Apple macOS Vulnerability Allowing SIP Protection Bypass

Microsoft has shared details of a now-patched flaw in Apple macOS that could be abused by threat actors with root access to bypass security enforcements and perform arbitrary actions on affected devices. Specifically, the flaw – dubbed Migraine and tracked as CVE-2023-32369 – could be abused to get around a key security measure called System Integrity Protection (SIP), or “rootless,” which

Dr. Active Directory vs. Mr. Exposed Attack Surface: Who'll Win This Fight?

Active Directory (AD) is among the oldest pieces of software still used in the production environment and can be found in most organizations today. This is despite the fact that its historical security gaps have never been amended. For example, because of its inability to apply any security measures beyond checking for a password and username match, AD (as well the resources it manages) is

ChatGPT's Data Protection Blind Spots and How Security Teams Can Solve Them

In the short time since their inception, ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms have rightfully gained the reputation of ultimate productivity boosters. However, the very same technology that enables rapid production of high-quality text on demand, can at the same time expose sensitive corporate data. A recent incident, in which Samsung software engineers pasted proprietary code into ChatGPT,

Protect Your Company: Ransomware Prevention Made Easy

Every year hundreds of millions of malware attacks occur worldwide, and every year businesses deal with the impact of viruses, worms, keyloggers, and ransomware. Malware is a pernicious threat and the biggest driver for businesses to look for cybersecurity solutions.  Naturally, businesses want to find products that will stop malware in its tracks, and so they search for solutions to do that.

Think Before You Share the Link: SaaS in the Real World

Collaboration sits at the essence of SaaS applications. The word, or some form of it, appears in the top two headlines on Google Workspace’s homepage. It can be found six times on Microsoft 365’s homepage, three times on Box, and once on Workday. Visit nearly any SaaS site, and odds are ‘collaboration’ will appear as part of the app’s key selling point.  By sitting on the cloud, content within

Tick APT Targeted High-Value Customers of East Asian Data-Loss Prevention Company

A cyberespionage actor known as Tick has been attributed with high confidence to a compromise of an East Asian data-loss prevention (DLP) company that caters to government and military entities. "The attackers compromised the DLP company's internal update servers to deliver malware inside the software developer's network, and trojanized installers of legitimate tools used by the company, which

Webinar: Learn How to Comply with New Cyber Insurance Identity Security Requirements

Have you ever stopped to think about the potential consequences of a cyberattack on your organization? It's getting more intense and destructive every day, and organizations are feeling the heat. That's why more and more businesses are turning to cyber insurance to find some much-needed peace of mind. Imagine, in the unfortunate event of a successful security breach or ransomware attack, the

Tackling the New Cyber Insurance Requirements: Can Your Organization Comply?

With cyberattacks around the world escalating rapidly, insurance companies are ramping up the requirements to qualify for a cyber insurance policy. Ransomware attacks were up 80% last year, prompting underwriters to put in place a number of new provisions designed to prevent ransomware and stem the record number of claims. Among these are a mandate to enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA)

WhatsApp Hit with €5.5 Million Fine for Violating Data Protection Laws

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on Thursday imposed fresh fines of €5.5 million against Meta's WhatsApp for violating data protection laws when processing users' personal information. At the heart of the ruling is an update to the messaging platform's Terms of Service that was imposed in the days leading to the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018,

Irish Regulators Fine Facebook $414 Million for Forcing Users to Accept Targeted Ads

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Meta Platforms €390 million (roughly $414 million) over its handling of user data for serving personalized ads in what could be a major blow to its ad-fueled business model. To that end, the privacy regulator has ordered Meta Ireland to pay two fines – a €210 million ($222.5 million) fine over violations of the E.U. General Data Protection

Irish Regulator Fines Facebook $277 Million for Leak of Half a Billion Users' Data

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has levied fines of €265 million ($277 million) against Meta Platforms for failing to safeguard the personal data of more than half a billion users of its Facebook service, ramping up privacy enforcement against U.S. tech firms. The fines follow an inquiry initiated by the European regulator on April 14, 2021, close on the heels of a leak of a "collated

Indian Government Publishes Draft of Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022

The Indian government on Friday released a draft version of the much-awaited data protection regulation, making it the fourth such effort since it was first proposed in July 2018. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, as it's called, aims to secure personal data, while also seeking users' consent in what the draft claims is "clear and plain language" describing the exact kinds of

Five Steps to Mitigate the Risk of Credential Exposure

Every year, billions of credentials appear online, be it on the dark web, clear web, paste sites, or in data dumps shared by cybercriminals. These credentials are often used for account takeover attacks, exposing organizations to breaches, ransomware, and data theft.  While CISOs are aware of growing identity threats and have multiple tools in their arsenal to help reduce the potential risk, the

Hackers Using Fake DDoS Protection Pages to Distribute Malware

WordPress sites are being hacked to display fraudulent Cloudflare DDoS protection pages that lead to the delivery of malware such as NetSupport RAT and Raccoon Stealer. "A recent surge in JavaScript injections targeting WordPress sites has resulted in fake DDoS prevent prompts which lead victims to download remote access trojan malware," Sucuri's Ben Martin said in a write-up published last week

Italy Data Protection Authority Warns Websites Against Use of Google Analytics

Following the footsteps of Austria and France, the Italian Data Protection Authority has become the latest regulator to find the use of Google Analytics to be non-compliant with E.U. data protection regulations. The Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, in a press release published last week, called out a local web publisher for using the widely used analytics tool in a manner that