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☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

US Congress goes bang, bang, on TikTok sale-or-ban plan

March 14th 2024 at 01:46

Bill proposes to do to China what China already does to the US – make life hard for foreign social networks

The United States House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act – a law aimed at forcing TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the app's US operations or face the prospect of a ban.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Nissan to let 100,000 Aussies and Kiwis know their data was stolen in cyberattack

March 14th 2024 at 00:32

Akira ransomware crooks brag of swiping thousands of ID documents during break-in

Over the next few weeks, Nissan Oceania will make contact with around 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand whose data was pilfered in a December 2023 attack on its systems – perhaps by the Akira ransomware gang.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Poking holes in Google tech bagged bug hunters $10M

March 13th 2024 at 18:00

A $2M drop from previous year. So … things are more secure?

Google awarded $10 million to 632 bug hunters last year through its vulnerability reward programs.…

☐ ☆ ✇ WIRED

The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency

By Thor Benson — March 13th 2024 at 17:42
Every US president has the ability to invoke “emergency powers” that could give an authoritarian leader the ability to censor the internet, restrict travel, and more.
☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Cryptocurrency laundryman gets hung out to dry

March 13th 2024 at 16:45

Bitcoin Fog washed hundreds of millions for criminals

The operator of the world's longest-running Bitcoin money laundering service faces a 50-year prison sentence after being found guilty in a US court.…

☐ ☆ ✇ WeLiveSecurity

How to share sensitive files securely online

March 13th 2024 at 10:30
Here are a few tips for secure file transfers and what else to consider when sharing sensitive documents so that your data remains safe
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Third-Party ChatGPT Plugins Could Lead to Account Takeovers

By Newsroom — March 15th 2024 at 11:34
Cybersecurity researchers have found that third-party plugins available for OpenAI ChatGPT could act as a new attack surface for threat actors looking to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. According to new research published by Salt Labs, security flaws found directly in ChatGPT and within the ecosystem could allow attackers to install malicious plugins without users' consent
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Google Introduces Enhanced Real-Time URL Protection for Chrome Users

By Newsroom — March 15th 2024 at 07:50
Google on Thursday announced an enhanced version of Safe Browsing to provide real-time, privacy-preserving URL protection and safeguard users from visiting potentially malicious sites. “The Standard protection mode for Chrome on desktop and iOS will check sites against Google’s server-side list of known bad sites in real-time,” Google’s Jonathan Li and Jasika Bawa said. “If we
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Malicious Ads Targeting Chinese Users with Fake Notepad++ and VNote Installers

By Newsroom — March 15th 2024 at 06:18
Chinese users looking for legitimate software such as Notepad++ and VNote on search engines like Baidu are being targeted with malicious ads and bogus links to distribute trojanized versions of the software and ultimately deploy Geacon, a Golang-based implementation of Cobalt Strike. “The malicious site found in the notepad++ search is distributed through an advertisement block,” Kaspersky
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

LockBit Ransomware Hacker Ordered to Pay $860,000 After Guilty Plea in Canada

By Newsroom — March 14th 2024 at 13:47
A 34-year-old Russian-Canadian national has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail in Canada for his participation in the LockBit global ransomware operation. Mikhail Vasiliev, an Ontario resident, was originally arrested in November 2022 and charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) with "conspiring with others to intentionally damage protected computers and to transmit
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Researchers Detail Kubernetes Vulnerability That Enables Windows Node Takeover

By Newsroom — March 14th 2024 at 11:59
Details have been made public about a now-patched high-severity flaw in Kubernetes that could allow a malicious attacker to achieve remote code execution with elevated privileges under specific circumstances. “The vulnerability allows remote code execution with SYSTEM privileges on all Windows endpoints within a Kubernetes cluster,” Akamai security researcher Tomer Peled said. “To exploit
☐ ☆ ✇ Security – Cisco Blog

Complexity drives more than security risk. Secure Access can help with that too.

By Andrew Akers — March 14th 2024 at 12:00

Modern networks are complex, often involving hybrid work models and a mix of first- and third-party applications and infrastructure. In response, organizations have adopted security service edge… Read more on Cisco Blogs

☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

3 Things CISOs Achieve with Cato

By The Hacker News — March 14th 2024 at 10:24
Being a CISO is a balancing act: ensuring organizations are secure without compromising users’ productivity. This requires taking multiple elements into consideration, like cost, complexity, performance and user experience. CISOs around the globe use Cato SSE 360, as part of the Cato SASE Cloud platform to balance these factors without compromise. This article details how CISOs are
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

RedCurl Cybercrime Group Abuses Windows PCA Tool for Corporate Espionage

By Newsroom — March 14th 2024 at 10:23
The Russian-speaking cybercrime group called RedCurl is leveraging a legitimate Microsoft Windows component called the Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) to execute malicious commands. “The Program Compatibility Assistant Service (pcalua.exe) is a Windows service designed to identify and address compatibility issues with older programs,” Trend Micro said in an analysis
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Ande Loader Malware Targets Manufacturing Sector in North America

By Newsroom — March 14th 2024 at 07:17
The threat actor known as Blind Eagle has been observed using a loader malware called Ande Loader to deliver remote access trojans (RATs) like Remcos RAT and NjRAT. The attacks, which take the form of phishing emails, targeted Spanish-speaking users in the manufacturing industry based in North America, eSentire said. Blind Eagle (aka APT-C-36) is a financially motivated threat actor&
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

DarkGate Malware Exploited Recently Patched Microsoft Flaw in Zero-Day Attack

By Newsroom — March 14th 2024 at 04:57
A DarkGate malware campaign observed in mid-January 2024 leveraged a recently patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows as a zero-day using bogus software installers. “During this campaign, users were lured using PDFs that contained Google DoubleClick Digital Marketing (DDM) open redirects that led unsuspecting victims to compromised sites hosting the Microsoft Windows SmartScreen bypass
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Fortinet Warns of Severe SQLi Vulnerability in FortiClientEMS Software

By The Hacker News — March 14th 2024 at 04:21
Fortinet has warned of a critical security flaw impacting its FortiClientEMS software that could allow attackers to achieve code execution on affected systems. "An improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability [CWE-89] in FortiClientEMS may allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via specifically crafted
☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Microsoft Copilot for Security prepares for April liftoff

March 13th 2024 at 16:00

Automated AI helper intended to make security more manageable

Microsoft Copilot for Security, a subscription AI security service, will be generally available on April 1, 2024, the company announced on Wednesday.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Demystifying a Common Cybersecurity Myth

By The Hacker News — March 13th 2024 at 15:39
One of the most common misconceptions in file upload cybersecurity is that certain tools are “enough” on their own—this is simply not the case. In our latest whitepaper OPSWAT CEO and Founder, Benny Czarny, takes a comprehensive look at what it takes to prevent malware threats in today’s ever-evolving file upload security landscape, and a big part of that is understanding where the
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

PixPirate Android Banking Trojan Using New Evasion Tactic to Target Brazilian Users

By The Hacker News — March 13th 2024 at 13:55
The threat actors behind the PixPirate Android banking trojan are leveraging a new trick to evade detection on compromised devices and harvest sensitive information from users in Brazil. The approach allows it to hide the malicious app’s icon from the home screen of the victim’s device, IBM said in a technical report published today. “Thanks to this new technique, during PixPirate reconnaissance
☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Stanford University failed to detect ransomware intruders for 4 months

March 13th 2024 at 12:05

27,000 individuals had data stolen, which for some included names and social security numbers

Stanford University says the cybersecurity incident it dealt with last year was indeed ransomware, which it failed to spot for more than four months.…

☐ ☆ ✇ WIRED

There Are Dark Corners of the Internet. Then There's 764

By Ali Winston — March 13th 2024 at 12:00
A global network of violent predators is hiding in plain sight, targeting children on major platforms, grooming them, and extorting them to commit horrific acts of abuse.
☐ ☆ ✇ WIRED

Porn Sites Need Age-Verification Systems in Texas, Court Rules

By Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica — March 13th 2024 at 09:00
The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has vacated an injunction against an age-verification requirement to view internet porn in Texas.
☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Reducing the cloud security overhead

March 13th 2024 at 08:51

Why creating a layered defensive strategy that includes security by design can help address cloud challenges

Sponsored Feature The world is filled with choices. Whether it's the 20 different types of shampoo on offer at the grocery store, or the dozens of Linux distros you can try for free, you can have it all.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Whizkids jimmy OpenAI, Google's closed models

March 13th 2024 at 08:34

Infosec folk aren’t thrilled that if you poke APIs enough, you learn AI's secrets

Boffins have managed to pry open closed AI services from OpenAI and Google with an attack that recovers an otherwise hidden portion of transformer models.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Join Our Webinar on Protecting Human and Non-Human Identities in SaaS Platforms

By The Hacker News — March 13th 2024 at 10:33
Identities are the latest sweet spot for cybercriminals, now heavily targeting SaaS applications that are especially vulnerable in this attack vector. The use of SaaS applications involves a wide range of identities, including human and non-human, such as service accounts, API keys, and OAuth authorizations. Consequently, any identity in a SaaS app can create an opening for cybercriminals to
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Researchers Highlight Google's Gemini AI Susceptibility to LLM Threats

By Newsroom — March 13th 2024 at 10:14
Google's Gemini large language model (LLM) is susceptible to security threats that could cause it to divulge system prompts, generate harmful content, and carry out indirect injection attacks. The findings come from HiddenLayer, which said the issues impact consumers using Gemini Advanced with Google Workspace as well as companies using the LLM API. The first vulnerability involves
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Alert: Cybercriminals Deploying VCURMS and STRRAT Trojans via AWS and GitHub

By Newsroom — March 13th 2024 at 09:43
A new phishing campaign has been observed delivering remote access trojans (RAT) such as VCURMS and STRRAT by means of a malicious Java-based downloader. “The attackers stored malware on public services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and GitHub, employing a commercial protector to avoid detection of the malware,” Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Yurren Wan said. An unusual aspect of the
☐ ☆ ✇ The Hacker News

Microsoft's March Updates Fix 61 Vulnerabilities, Including Critical Hyper-V Flaws

By Newsroom — March 13th 2024 at 05:38
Microsoft on Tuesday released its monthly security update, addressing 61 different security flaws spanning its software, including two critical issues impacting Windows Hyper-V that could lead to denial-of-service (DoS) and remote code execution. Of the 61 vulnerabilities, two are rated Critical, 58 are rated Important, and one is rated Low in severity. None of the flaws are listed as
☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

March Patch Tuesday sees Hyper-V join the guest-host escape club

March 13th 2024 at 00:16

Critical bugs galore among 61 Microsoft fixes, 56 from Adobe, a dozen from SAP, and a fistful from Fortinet

Patch Tuesday Microsoft's monthly patch drop has arrived, delivering a mere 61 CVE-tagged vulnerabilities – none listed as under active attack or already known to the public.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Meta sues ex infra VP for allegedly stealing top-secret datacenter blueprints

March 12th 2024 at 22:39

Exec accused of using own work PC to swipe confidential AI and staffing docs for stealth cloud startup

An ex-Meta veep has been sued by his former bosses for "brazenly disloyal and dishonest conduct" – and by that, they mean he allegedly stole confidential documents to help him build and recruit colleagues for an AI cloud startup. …

☐ ☆ ✇ Krebs on Security

Patch Tuesday, March 2024 Edition

By BrianKrebs — March 12th 2024 at 20:36

Apple and Microsoft recently released software updates to fix dozens of security holes in their operating systems. Microsoft today patched at least 60 vulnerabilities in its Windows OS. Meanwhile, Apple’s new macOS Sonoma addresses at least 68 security weaknesses, and its latest update for iOS fixes two zero-day flaws.

Last week, Apple pushed out an urgent software update to its flagship iOS platform, warning that there were at least two zero-day exploits for vulnerabilities being used in the wild (CVE-2024-23225 and CVE-2024-23296). The security updates are available in iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, and iOS 16.7.6.

Apple’s macOS Sonoma 14.4 Security Update addresses dozens of security issues. Jason Kitka, chief information security officer at Automox, said the vulnerabilities patched in this update often stem from memory safety issues, a concern that has led to a broader industry conversation about the adoption of memory-safe programming languages [full disclosure: Automox is an advertiser on this site].

On Feb. 26, 2024, the Biden administration issued a report that calls for greater adoption of memory-safe programming languages. On Mar. 4, 2024, Google published Secure by Design, which lays out the company’s perspective on memory safety risks.

Mercifully, there do not appear to be any zero-day threats hounding Windows users this month (at least not yet). Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at Tenable, notes that of the 60 CVEs in this month’s Patch Tuesday release, only six are considered “more likely to be exploited” according to Microsoft.

Those more likely to be exploited bugs are mostly “elevation of privilege vulnerabilities” including CVE-2024-26182 (Windows Kernel), CVE-2024-26170 (Windows Composite Image File System (CimFS), CVE-2024-21437 (Windows Graphics Component), and CVE-2024-21433 (Windows Print Spooler).

Narang highlighted CVE-2024-21390 as a particularly interesting vulnerability in this month’s Patch Tuesday release, which is an elevation of privilege flaw in Microsoft Authenticator, the software giant’s app for multi-factor authentication. Narang said a prerequisite for an attacker to exploit this flaw is to already have a presence on the device either through malware or a malicious application.

“If a victim has closed and re-opened the Microsoft Authenticator app, an attacker could obtain multi-factor authentication codes and modify or delete accounts from the app,” Narang said. “Having access to a target device is bad enough as they can monitor keystrokes, steal data and redirect users to phishing websites, but if the goal is to remain stealth, they could maintain this access and steal multi-factor authentication codes in order to login to sensitive accounts, steal data or hijack the accounts altogether by changing passwords and replacing the multi-factor authentication device, effectively locking the user out of their accounts.”

CVE-2024-21334 earned a CVSS (danger) score of 9.8 (10 is the worst), and it concerns a weakness in Open Management Infrastructure (OMI), a Linux-based cloud infrastructure in Microsoft Azure. Microsoft says attackers could connect to OMI instances over the Internet without authentication, and then send specially crafted data packets to gain remote code execution on the host device.

CVE-2024-21435 is a CVSS 8.8 vulnerability in Windows OLE, which acts as a kind of backbone for a great deal of communication between applications that people use every day on Windows, said Ben McCarthy, lead cybersecurity engineer at Immersive Labs.

“With this vulnerability, there is an exploit that allows remote code execution, the attacker needs to trick a user into opening a document, this document will exploit the OLE engine to download a malicious DLL to gain code execution on the system,” Breen explained. “The attack complexity has been described as low meaning there is less of a barrier to entry for attackers.”

A full list of the vulnerabilities addressed by Microsoft this month is available at the SANS Internet Storm Center, which breaks down the updates by severity and urgency.

Finally, Adobe today issued security updates that fix dozens of security holes in a wide range of products, including Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Premiere Pro, ColdFusion 2023 and 2021, Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, and Adobe Animate. Adobe said it is not aware of active exploitation against any of the flaws.

By the way, Adobe recently enrolled all of its Acrobat users into a “new generative AI feature” that scans the contents of your PDFs so that its new “AI Assistant” can  “understand your questions and provide responses based on the content of your PDF file.” Adobe provides instructions on how to disable the AI features and opt out here.

☐ ☆ ✇ WIRED

US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying

By Dell Cameron — March 12th 2024 at 19:14
A closed-door presentation for House lawmakers late last year portrayed American anti-war protesters as having possible ties to Hamas in an effort to kill privacy reforms to a major US spy program.
☐ ☆ ✇ WeLiveSecurity

Election cybersecurity: Protecting the ballot box and building trust in election integrity

March 12th 2024 at 10:30
What cyberthreats could wreak havoc on elections this year and how worried should we as voters be about the integrity of our voting systems?
☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

Biden's budget proposal boosts CISA funding to $3B

March 12th 2024 at 18:30

Plus almost $1.5b for health-care cybersecurity

US President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve an extra $103 million in funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, bringing CISA's total budget to $3 billion.…

☐ ☆ ✇ The Register - Security

JetBrains is still mad at Rapid7 for the ransomware attacks on its customers

March 12th 2024 at 16:30

War of words wages on between vendors divided

Last week, we wrote about how security outfit Rapid7 threw JetBrains, the company behind the popular CI/CD platform TeamCity, under the bus over allegations of silent patching. Now, JetBrains has gone on the offensive.…

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