Security

Security researchers are warning of a new phishing campaign which tries to hurry users into making poor decisions by presenting them with a countdown clock. Cofense recently spotted the credential harvesting campaign, which arrives in the form of an alert email about a non-existent ‘suspicious login’ to their account. Purporting to come from a fake

A cyber-attack on the US justice system has compromised a public document management system, revealed lawmakers on the Hill yesterday. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, revealed the attack at a hearing on oversight of the Justice Department on Thursday. Nadler said three hostile actors had breached the Public Access to Court Electronic Records

A bill designed to increase visibility of foreign ransomware attackers has passed in the US House of Representatives. The Reporting Attacks from Nations Selected for Oversight and Monitoring Web Attacks and Ransomware from Enemies Act (also known as the RANSOMWARE Act) will make it easier for the US to respond to ransomware attacks from foreign

by Paul Ducklin If you’ve ever watched a professional plumber at work, or a plasterer, or a bricklayer, or the people who deftly use those improbably long sticks to craft paper-thin pancakes the size of a bicycle wheel… …you’ve probably had the same thoughts that we have. I could do that. I really could. But

Spanish and Romanian police have joined forces to take down a gang suspected of earning at least €3m ($3.1) from internet scams. Spanish National Police arrested three suspects in the southern city of Malaga while their Romanian counterparts cuffed six, following a multi-year investigation, according to Europa Press. They are accused of publishing false adverts

by Paul Ducklin Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere that good podcasts are found. Or just

Applications have opened for the next cohort of the NCSC For Startups program, which is looking for early-stage companies focused on protecting the UK’s critical national infrastructure from cyber threats. The program, launched in 2021, is run by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in partnership with Plexal. A successor to the NCSC Cyber Accelerator, the

by Paul Ducklin Samba is a widely-used open source toolkit that not only makes it easy for Linux and Unix computers to talk to Windows networks, but also lets you host a Windows-style Active Directory domain without Windows servers at all. The name, in case you’ve ever wondered, is a happy-sounding and easy-to-say derivation from

Criminals are using malicious bots to steal information from victims via the popular Telegram and Discord messaging services, said a report this week. Some bots can be rented for as little as $25 a day. The bot-based malware steals credentials, including virtual private network (VPN) client logins, payment card information, cryptocurrency wallets, operating system data,

by Paul Ducklin It’s time for this month’s scheduled Firefox update (technically, with 28 days between updates, you sometimes get two updates in one calendar month, but July 2022 isn’t one of those months)… …and the good news is that the worst bugs listed, which get a risk category of High, are those found by

Global ransomware volumes shrunk by 23% year-on-year (YoY) in the first half of 2022, but overall malware surged by 11% over the period, according to new data from SonicWall. The mid-year update to the firm’s 2022 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report is based on analysis of one million security sensors over 200 countries, as well as

by Paul Ducklin Just under a year ago, the US arm of telecomms giant T-Mobile admitted to a data breach after personal information about its customers was offered for sale on an underground forum. At the time, VICE Magazine claimed to have communicated with the hacker behind the breach via online chat, and to have

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) seized millions of pounds’ worth of cryptocurrency last year as part of its efforts to crack down on money laundering and serious and organized crime (SOC). The NCA, which is the UK agency dedicated to tackling SOC, revealed in its latest annual report that during the period April 1

Google this week announced the reversing of its recent decision to remove the app permissions list from the Google Play Store for Android. In tweets published on July 21, the Android Developers team stated that “privacy and transparency are core values in the Android community. We heard your feedback that you find the app permissions section in

by Paul Ducklin As the English translation of the Baroque-era German rendering of the Ancient Greek philosophical saying goes: Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small/Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all. Today, this saying is usually applied in respect of the judicial process, noting that

This week HP released their report The Evolution of Cybercrime: Why the Dark Web is Supercharging the Threat Landscape and How to Fight Back, exploring how cyber-criminals are increasingly operating in a quasi-professional manner, with malware and ransomware attacks being offered on a ‘software-as-a-service’ basis. The report’s findings showed how cybercrime is being supercharged through “plug and

by Paul Ducklin The phrase Office macros is a harmless-sounding, low-tech name that refers, in real life, to program code you can squirrel away inside Office files so that the code travels along with the text of a document, or the formulas of a spreadsheet, or the slides in a presentation… …and even though the

Ukrainian radio stations were hacked this week by threat actors to spread fake news about President Volodymyr Zelensky’s health, according to Ukraine’s security officials. A music program on “at least one” out of TAVR Media’s stations – one of Ukraine’s largest radio networks – was interrupted by the false reports just after midday on July 21. The so-far unidentified

by Paul Ducklin LISTEN NOW Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere that good podcasts are found.

The number of ransomware victims in the second quarter was over a third lower than Q1 2022, thanks in part to the halt in operations from the prolific Conti group, according to GuidePoint Security. The firm’s quarterly ransomware report was based on data obtained from publicly available resources, including postings by threat groups on their data

by Paul Ducklin Apple has disgorged its latest patches, fixing more than 50 CVE-numbered security vulnerabilities in its range of supported products. The relevant security bulletins, update numbers, and where to find them online are as follows: APPLE-SA-2022-07-20-1: iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6, details at HT213346 APPLE-SA-2022-07-20-2: macOS Monterey 12.5, details at HT213345 APPLE-SA-2022-07-20-3: macOS

Russian adversaries are taking advantage of trusted cloud services, including DropBox and Google Drive to deliver malware to businesses and governments, according to new research. Cloaked Ursula – AKA the Russian government-linked APT29 or Cozy Bear – is increasingly using popular online storage services because it makes attacks difficult to detect and prevent, researchers at Palo Alto

Security researchers have found a new macOS backdoor being used in targeted attacks to steal sensitive information from victims. The threat has been named “CloudMensis” by ESET because it exclusively uses public cloud storage services to communicate with its operators. Specifically, it leverages pCloud, Yandex Disk and Dropbox to receive commands and exfiltrate files, according to

by Paul Ducklin Remember Log4Shell? It was a dangerous bug in a popular open-source Java programming toolkit called Log4j, short for “Logging for Java”, published under a liberal, free source code licence, by the Apache Software Foundation. If you’ve ever written software of any sort, from the simplest BAT file on a Windows laptop to

The Tor Project has updated its flagship anonymizing browser to make it easier for users to evade government attempts to block its use in various regions. Tor Browser 11.5 will “transform the user experience of connecting to Tor from heavily censored regions,” according to the US-based non-profit that manages the open source software. It replaces

This week the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the Cyber Safety Review Board’s (CSRB) first report into the December 2021 Log4j event, where a number of vulnerabilities were reported with this Java-based logging framework. The report’s methodology included a mixture of interviews and requests for information over a 90-day period, engaging with approximately 80 organizations and individuals

Data generated by OnePoll from April 28 to May 3 2022 on behalf of AT&T shows that the average person happens upon a suspicious online site or social media account 6.5 times a day. The recent survey of 2000 general population Americans also found that 54% of consumers said they were unaware of the difference between active and passive

by Paul Ducklin It’s prime vacation season in the Northern Hemipshere, and in some countries, July and August aren’t just months when some people take some days off, but a period of extended family holidays, often involving weeks away from home or on the road. The good news, of course, is that if you’ve had

Enterprises are failing to plan properly for supply chain risks and cybersecurity threats from the wider digital ecosystem, a leading technology consultancy has warned. According to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), firms put the risks posed by ecosystem partners at the bottom of a list of 10 key threats. CISOs and chief risk officers believed that

by Paul Ducklin LISTEN NOW Click-and-drag on the soundwaves below to skip to any point. You can also listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere that good podcasts are found.