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☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

SVB collapse's mix of money, urgency and uncertainty makes it irresistible to scammers

March 15th 2023 at 05:46

Phishing, dodgy domain names, and sophisticated attacks already deployed

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) late last week sent tremors through the global financial system, creating opportunities for short-sellers – and numerous species of scammer.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

China sought control of submarine cables to spy, says Micronesia

March 15th 2023 at 03:29

Outgoing president alleges Beijing is systematically bullying strategically located island paradise

The outgoing president of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), David Panuelo, penned a lengthy letter last week accusing Beijing of rampant bribery, spying and other tactics – including an attempt to take control of the nation's submarine cables and telecoms infrastructure.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Microsoft: Patch this severe Outlook bug that Russian miscreants exploited

March 14th 2023 at 23:59

Plus: Fixes for SAP, Adobe. Android, Chrome

Patch Tuesday Microsoft's March Patch Tuesday includes new fixes for 74 bugs, two of which are already being actively exploited, and nine that are rated critical. Let's start with the two that miscreants found before Redmond issued a fix.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Microsoft squashes Windows bug exploited to inflict ransomware misery

March 14th 2023 at 19:01

Not-so-smart SmartScreen flagged up by Googlers

Criminals are exploiting a Microsoft SmartScreen bug to deliver Magniber ransomware, potentially infecting hundreds of thousands of devices, without raising any security red flags, according to Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG).…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

India floats idea of dedicated tribunal to handle online offences

March 13th 2023 at 07:58

Consultation for the long-awaited Digital India Act is finally under way although the draft law's still not been revealed

India's government has started to consult some proposed details of its long-awaited Digital India Act, including a declaration that the bill needed a dedicated adjudicatory tool for offenses committed online.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

UK refreshes national security plan to stop more of China's secret-stealing cyber-tricks

March 14th 2023 at 07:40

A threat that needs two orgs to tackle it: the 'Integrated Security Fund' and the 'National Protective Security Authority'

Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 will oversee a new agency tasked with helping organizations combat Chinese cyber-spies and other threats.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

LockBit brags: We'll leak thousands of SpaceX blueprints stolen from supplier

March 13th 2023 at 23:40

And also, Ring hit with ransomware, too? No, says Amazon

Ransomware gang Lockbit has boasted it broke into Maximum Industries, which makes parts for SpaceX, and stole 3,000 proprietary schematics developed by Elon Musk's rocketeers.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Zoll Medical says intruders had 1M+ patient, staff records at their fingertips

March 13th 2023 at 21:30

Names, addresses, SSNs all up for grabs

Medical device and software maker Zoll Medical says the personal and health information of more than a million people, including patients and employees, may have been stolen by crooks in January.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

CISA joins forces with Women in CyberSecurity to break up the boy's club

March 13th 2023 at 12:32

Also, the FBI just admitted to bypassing warrants by buying cellphone location data, and this week's actionable items

in brief Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's director Jen Easterly has been outspoken in her drive to bring more women into the security industry, and this year for International Women's Day her agency formalized that pledge by announcing a partnership with nonprofit Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS).…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

The UK's bad encryption law can't withstand global contempt

March 13th 2023 at 10:32

Any sufficiently stupid technology is indistinguishable from magical thinking

Opinion Around the world, a vital technology is failing. Just as massive solar flares fry satellites and climate-change superstorms overwhelm flood defences, so a new surge of ridiculous IT-related events is burning out irony meters across the globe.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Cutting complexity

March 13th 2023 at 08:52

Ensuring cybersecurity defences do more with less

Webinar It's like living in a fever dream out there in the world of cybersecurity. More and more sophisticated attacks, a tsunami of solutions offering a gilt-edged escape from the need to constantly reconfigure your defences, and relentless pressure to always stay one step ahead of the hackers.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Google euthanizes Chrome Cleanup Tool because it no longer has a purpose

March 11th 2023 at 00:28

Times have changed and unwanted software on Windows is a rarity (unless you count Windows itself)

Google is bidding adieu to an application that enabled Chrome users on Windows systems to get rid of unwanted software.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

What happens if you 'cover up' a ransomware infection? For Blackbaud, a $3m charge

March 10th 2023 at 22:05

File under cost of doing business

Blackbaud has agreed to pay $3 million to settle charges that it made misleading disclosures about a 2020 ransomware infection in which crooks stole more than a million files on around 13,000 of the cloud software slinger's customers.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Electronics market shows US-China decoupling will hike inflation and slow growth

March 10th 2023 at 18:00

Singapore's central bank has a gloomy vision of the future

According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), trade barriers between US and China have resulted in geoeconomic fragmentation and will likely result in slower global growth and higher inflation.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Acronis downplays intrusion after 12GB trove leaks online

March 10th 2023 at 03:45

Cyber-thief said goal was to 'humiliate' data-protection biz

The CISO of Acronis has downplayed what appeared to be an intrusion into its systems, insisting only one customer was affected, using stolen credentials, and that all other data remains safe.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Catholic clergy surveillance org 'outs gay priests'

March 10th 2023 at 02:30

Religious non-profit allegedly hoovered up location data from dating apps to ID clerics

A Catholic clergy conformance organization has reportedly been buying up tracking data from mobile apps to identify gay priests, and providing that information to bishops around America.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

FBI and international cops catch a NetWire RAT

March 10th 2023 at 01:33

Malware-seekers were diverted to the Feds, severing a Croatian connection

International law enforcement agencies have claimed another victory over cyber criminals, after seizing the website, and taking down the infrastructure operated by crims linked to the NetWire remote access trojan (RAT).…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

AT&T blames marketing bods for exposing 9M accounts

March 9th 2023 at 22:30

Says it was old and boring data, so that's OK, then ...

AT&T has confirmed that miscreants had access to nine million of its wireless customers' account details after a vendor's network was broken into in January.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

US House reps, staff health data swiped in cyber-heist

March 9th 2023 at 21:27

Data for sale via dark web, Senate in line of fire, too

Health data and other personal information of members of Congress and staff were stolen during a breach of servers run by DC Health Care Link and are now up for sale on the dark web.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Refreshed from its holiday, Emotet has gone phishing

March 9th 2023 at 18:27

Notorious botnet starts spamming again after a three-month pause

Emotet is back. After another months-long lull since a spate of attacks in November 2022, the notorious malware operation that has already survived a law enforcement takedown and various periods of inactivity began sending out malicious emails on Tuesday morning.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Suspected Chinese cyber spies target unpatched SonicWall devices

March 9th 2023 at 02:26

They've been lurking in networks since at least 2021

Suspected Chinese cyber criminals have zeroed in on unpatched SonicWall gateways and are infecting the devices with credential-stealing malware that persists through firmware upgrades, according to Mandiant.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Dems, Repubs eye up ban on chat apps they don't like

March 9th 2023 at 01:28

Clock is ticking for TikTok and other foreign natter-ware

On Tuesday a bipartisan group of a dozen US senators introduced a bill to authorize the Commerce Department to ban information and communications technology products and services deemed threats to national security.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Securing ways to share workplace passwords

March 8th 2023 at 09:30

Keeper protects your team’s credentials without slowing down business

Sponsored Feature When the first computer system passwords were set in 1961, few people needed to carry personal credentials to get through daily life. Nowadays, login credentials are ubiquitous across nearly every application, software and web service.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Boeing signs off design of anti-jamming tech that keeps satellites online

March 8th 2023 at 06:27

China and Russia won't be jammin' US sats no more

Boeing said on Tuesday its anti-jam ground-based satellite communications system had passed the necessary tests to validate its design for use in the U.S. Space Force’s Pathfinder program.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Aussie tech worker payroll scheme operators found guilty of tax fraud

March 8th 2023 at 04:04

Contractors left hanging while principals splurged on luxury goods

Three of the principals of an Australian scheme that offered free payroll services to tech contractors have been found guilty of conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth and conspiring to deal with the proceeds of crime.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Acer confirms server intrusion after miscreant offers 160GB cache of stolen files

March 8th 2023 at 01:12

Customer info safe, or so we're told

Acer has confirmed someone broke into one of its servers after a miscreant put up for sale a 160GB database of what's claimed to be the Taiwanese PC maker's confidential information.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Alert: Crims hijack these DrayTek routers to attack biz

March 8th 2023 at 00:01

Workaround: Throw away kit? Hope there's a patch?

If you're still using post-support DrayTek Vigor routers it may be time to junk them, see if they can be patched, or come up with some other workaround, as a malware variant is setting up shop in the kit.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Pro-Putin scammers trick politicians and celebrities into low-tech hoax video calls

March 7th 2023 at 10:01

Who needs deepfakes when you've got makeup and 'element of surprise'?

Pro-Russian scammers using social engineering and impersonation to trick prominent western commentators into conducting recorded video calls have kicked these campaigns "into high gear" over the past 12 months, according to security researchers.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

EPA orders US states to check cyber security of public water supplies

March 6th 2023 at 22:45

Don’t let miscreants poison the wells

The US government is requiring states to assess the cyber security capabilities of their drinking water systems, part of the White House's broader efforts to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from attacks by nation-states and other cyber threats.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

DoppelPaymer ransomware suspects cuffed, alleged ringleaders escape

March 6th 2023 at 21:45

Millions extorted from victims, one attack left hospital patient dead

German and Ukrainian cops have arrested suspected members of the DoppelPaymer ransomware crew and issued warrants for three other "masterminds" behind the global operation that extorted tens of millions of dollars and may have led to the death of a hospital patient.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Where are the women in cyber security? On the dark side, study suggests

March 6th 2023 at 03:01

Also, Royal ransomware metastasizes to other critical sectors, and this week's critical vulnerabilities

In Brief If you can't join them, then you may as well try to beat them – at least if you're a talented security engineer looking for a job and you happen to be a woman. …

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Secret Service, ICE break the law over and over with fake cell tower spying

March 4th 2023 at 01:00

Investigations 'at risk' from sloppy surveillance uncovered by audit probe

The US Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencies have failed to follow the law and official policy regarding the use of cell-site simulators, according to a government audit.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Snap CISO: I rate software supply chain risk 9.9 out of 10

March 4th 2023 at 00:01

'Understanding your inventory is absolutely No. 1' he tells The Reg

SCSW On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest risk, Snap Chief Information Security Officer Jim Higgins rates software supply chain risk "about 9.9."…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

FTC: BetterHelp pushed users to share mental health info then gave it to Facebook

March 3rd 2023 at 21:30

Feds propose $7.8M payment and ban on revealing 'sensitive' data to settle complaint

Even if you don't know anyone who has used BetterHelp's services, podcast fans will recognize it from its annoying adverts for its online therapists. American regulators, however, allege the company's relationship with the advertising industry is more perverse than a mere irritating jingle, claiming it betrayed loyalties that should lie with customers by passing on their mental health info to Facebook, Snapchat and others.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Frankenstein malware stitched together from code of others disguised as PyPI package

March 3rd 2023 at 18:30

Crime-as-a-service vendors mix and match components as needed by client

A malicious package discovered in the Python Package Index (PyPI) is the latest example of what threat hunters from Kroll called the continued "democratization of cybercrime," with the bad guys creating malware variants from the code of others.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Warning on SolarWinds-like supply-chain attacks: 'They're just getting bigger'

March 3rd 2023 at 11:33

Industry hasn't 'improved much at all' Mandiant's Eric Scales tells us

SCSW Back in 2020, Eric Scales led the incident response team investigating a state-backed software supply-chain attack that compromised application build servers and led to infections at government agencies and tech giants including Microsoft and Intel.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

German Digital Affairs Committee hearing heaps scorn on Chat Control

March 3rd 2023 at 10:34

Proposal to break encryption to scan messages for abuse material challenged as illegal and unworkable

Europe's proposed "Chat Control" legislation to automatically scan chat, email, and instant message communications for child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) ran up against broad resistance at a meeting of the German Parliament's (Bundestag) Digital Affairs Committee on Wednesday.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Smart security

March 3rd 2023 at 10:15

Outlawing cybersecurity hype

Webinar Trying to keep on top of all the hype and complexity in cybersecurity can be more than an just an uphill struggle and more like a veritable mountain to climb every morning.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Pushers of insecure software in Biden's crosshairs

March 3rd 2023 at 00:15

Just-revealed US cybersecurity strategy 'has fangs' for catching crafty criminals and crummy coders

Analysis Technology providers can expect more regulations, while cyber criminals can look for US law enforcement to step up their efforts to disrupt ransomware gangs and other illicit activities, under the Biden administration's computer security plan announced on Thursday.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

CI/CD: Necessary for modern software development, yet it carries a lot of risk

March 2nd 2023 at 23:10

With great speed comes great insecurity

SCSW CI/CD over the past decade has become the cornerstone of modern software development.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Intruder alert: WH Smith hit by another cyber attack

March 2nd 2023 at 13:27

Less than a year after Funky Pigeon leaked data of greetings cards biz

Less than a year after its online greetings card subsidiary Funky Pigeon was attacked, WH Smith has admitted someone broke into its systems.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Forget ChatGPT, the most overhyped security tool is technology itself, Wiz warns

March 2nd 2023 at 08:30

Infosec also needs to widen its talent pool or miss out

Interview It's a tough economy to ask for a bigger security team or larger budget to buy technology to protect against cyberattacks. …

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

It's official: BlackLotus malware can bypass Secure Boot on Windows machines

March 1st 2023 at 21:30

The myth 'is now a reality'

BlackLotus, a UEFI bootkit that's sold on hacking forums for about $5,000, can now bypass Secure Boot, making it the first known malware to run on Windows systems even with the firmware security feature enabled.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

PlugX RAT masquerades as legit Windows debugger to slip past security

March 1st 2023 at 07:30

DLL side-loading does the trick, again

Cybercriminals are disguising the PlugX remote access trojan as a legitimate open-source Windows debugging tool to evade detection and compromise systems.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Google: You get crypto, you get crypto, almost everyone gets email crypto!

March 1st 2023 at 01:38

Personal Gmail users still out of luck

Google continued its client-side encryption rollout, the feature generally available to some Gmail and Calendar users who can now send and receive encrypted messages and meeting invites.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

US government sets a 30-day deadline for wiping TikTok from feds' phones

March 1st 2023 at 00:30

Last chance to film yourself doing a ByteDance, in the US and abroad

The White House has ordered all federal government employees to delete TikTok from work devices, over fears the video-sharing app could be used to spy on Americans. …

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

US cybersecurity chief: Software makers shouldn't lawyer their way out of security responsibilities

February 28th 2023 at 22:32

Who apart from Microsoft is happy with the ship now, oh just fix it later approach?

SCSW What's more dangerous than Chinese spy balloons? Unsafe software and other technology products, according to America's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Dish: Someone snatched our data, if you're wondering why our IT systems went down

February 28th 2023 at 21:06

Outage-hit telco still won't confirm ransomware infection, or if it's paying up

Dish has confirmed what everyone was suspecting, given the ongoing downtime experienced by some of its systems, that the US telco was hit by criminal hackers.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

News Corp outfoxed by IT intruders for years

February 28th 2023 at 08:31

All the news that's fit to pwn

The miscreants who infiltrated News Corporation's corporate IT network spent two years in the media monolith's system before being detected early last year.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Russian hacktivists DDoS hospitals, with pathetic results

February 28th 2023 at 07:30

Not that we're urging them to try harder or anything

A series of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks shut down nine Danish hospitals' websites for a few hours on Sunday, but did not have any life-threatening impact on the medical centers' operations or digital infrastructure.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

US Marshals Service leaks β€˜law enforcement sensitive information’ in ransomware incident

February 28th 2023 at 06:59

It’s not just another data breach when the victim oversees witness protection programs

The US Marshals Service, the enforcement branch of the nation’s federal courts, has admitted a β€œmajor” breach of its information security defenses led to a ransomware infection and exfiltration of β€œlaw-enforcement sensitive information."…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Feeling VEXed by software supply chain security? You’re not alone

February 28th 2023 at 01:01

Chainguard CEO explains how to secure code given crims know to poison it at the source

SCSW The vast majority of off-the-shelf software is composed of imported components, whether that's open source libraries or proprietary code. And that spells a security danger: if someone can subvert one of those components, they can infiltrate every installation of applications using those dependencies.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Dish multi-day outage rolls on as ransomware fears grow

February 27th 2023 at 20:30

Techies 'hard at work' and all of that

US telco Dish said it is investigating a multi-day network "issue" that knocked some of its systems offline, leaving customers stranded from the web.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

China makes it even harder for data to leave its shores

February 27th 2023 at 13:30

Many foreign companies had already given up – now there's more red tape

Starting in June, companies operating in China must undergo a regulatory intervention when sending data abroad, thanks to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Russian charged with smuggling US counterintel tech to Motherland

February 27th 2023 at 11:30

Also, don't download that 'ChatGPT Windows client,' and this week's critical vulnerabilities to keep an eye on

In brief A Russian national has been hit with a five-count indictment alleging he smuggled hardware and software used for counterintelligence operations out of the US to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and North Korea.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Microsoft: For better security, scan more Exchange server objects

February 26th 2023 at 09:00

Software giant takes some files and processes off the exclusion list

Microsoft is recommending that Exchange server users scan certain objects for viruses and other threats that until now had been excluded.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

'Ethical hacker' among ransomware suspects cuffed by Dutch cops

February 25th 2023 at 09:04

Beware the Dark Side

Dutch police have arrested three men for their alleged involvement with a ransomware gang that stole sensitive data and extorted hundreds of thousands of euros from thousands of companies.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Telus source code, staff info for sale on dark web forum

February 25th 2023 at 00:30

$50k buys you '1,000 unique repositories' that may or may not be legit

Canadian communications giant Telus is investigating whether crooks have stolen employee data and its source code, all of which is being offered for sale on a criminal forum.…

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Bitcoin mining rig found stashed in school crawlspace

February 24th 2023 at 23:30

Don't blame the kids! Ex-city employee charged with $17k power theft

Pics A Massachusetts man accused of using his job as a city's assistant facilities director to hide a cryptocurrency mining operation in the crawlspace of a school has surrendered himself to authorities on Friday morning after skipping his Thursday arraignment. …

☐ β˜† βœ‡ The Register - Security

Google destroyed evidence for antitrust battle, Feds complain

February 24th 2023 at 22:30

rm -rf'ing staff chat logs can't go unpunished, says Uncle Sam

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) asked the judge hearing its antitrust case against Google to sanction the search advertising giant for destruction of evidence.…

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