CyberSecure Specialist

Serious Security: Why learning to touch-type could protect you from audio snooping

by Paul Ducklin Audio recordings are dangerously easy to make these days, whether by accident or by design. You could end up with your own permanent copy of something you thought you were discussing privately, preserved indefinitely in an uninterestingly-named file on your phone or laptop, thanks to hitting “Record” by mistake. Someone else could end up with a permanent transcript of something you didn’t want preserved at all, thanks to them hitting “Record” on…

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Rapid7 Announces Layoffs, Office Closings Under Restructuring Plan

Rapid7 (NASDAQ: RPD) is the latest cybersecurity vendor to announce layoffs, with the Boston-based firm announcing a restructuring plan late Tuesday that will result in an 18% reduction in employee headcount. In total, approximately 500 employees could be impacted based on the roughly 2,700-person headcount at the end of 2022, with more than 700 people in its Boston headquarters. The company also said in and SEC filing that it would close certain office locations, but…

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Microsoft Patch Tuesday, August 2023 Edition

Microsoft Corp. today issued software updates to plug more than 70 security holes in its Windows operating systems and related products, including multiple zero-day vulnerabilities currently being exploited in the wild. Six of the flaws fixed today earned Microsoft’s “critical” rating, meaning malware or miscreants could use them to install software on a vulnerable Windows system without any help from users. Last month, Microsoft acknowledged a series of zero-day vulnerabilities in a variety of Microsoft…

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Meet the Brains Behind the Malware-Friendly AI Chat Service ‘WormGPT’

WormGPT, a private new chatbot service advertised as a way to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write malicious software without all the pesky prohibitions on such activity enforced by the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard, has started adding restrictions of its own on how the service can be used. Faced with customers trying to use WormGPT to create ransomware and phishing scams, the 23-year-old Portuguese programmer who created the project now says his service…

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Fortinet Releases Security Update for FortiOS

Fortinet has released a security update to address a vulnerability (CVE-2023-29182) affecting FortiOS. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system. CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Fortinet security release [FG-IR-23-149] and apply the necessary updates.

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Microsoft Releases August 2023 Security Updates

Microsoft has released updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. An attacker can exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. CISA encourages users and administrators to review Microsoft’s August 2023 Security Update Guide and apply the necessary updates.

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Cyberinsurance Firm Resilience Raises $100 Million to Expand Its Cyber Risk Platform

Resilience Cyber Insurance Solutions has raised $100 million through a Series D funding round to support global expansion of its cyber risk platform that was launched earlier this year. By connecting leaders in finance, risk, and security, the Resilience Solution helps cyberinsurance policyholders to quantify their cyber risk and prioritize their security program based on a return-on-investment (ROI) analysis of their controls. “The increase in ransomware attacks proves that there are longstanding gaps in today’s cybersecurity and cyber…

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