CyberSecure Specialist

Alexa, who else is listening?

Your smart speaker is designed to listen, but could it be eavesdropping too? Ever since Amazon came under fire for being able to potentially listen in on people through its Echo smart speakers, and even transcribe what they were saying, I have been intrigued by the idea of how IoT could be used to snoop on us, unbeknown to the victims. Big tech companies behind Alexa-enabled and other similar devices have since taken steps towards…

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Reddit admits it was hacked and data stolen, says “Don’t panic”

by Paul Ducklin Popular social media site Reddit – “orange Usenet with ads”, as we’ve somewhat ungraciously heard it described – is the latest well-known web property to suffer a data breach in which its own source code was stolen. In recent weeks, LastPass and GitHub have confessed to similar experiences, with cyercriminals apparently breaking and entering in much the same way: by figuring out a live access code or password for an individual staff…

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Flaws in industrial wireless IoT solutions can give attackers deep access into OT networks

It’s common for operational technology (OT) teams to connect industrial control systems (ICS) to remote control and monitoring centers via wireless and cellular solutions that sometimes come with vendor-run, cloud-based management interfaces. These connectivity solutions, also referred to as industrial wireless IoT devices, increase the attack surface of OT networks and can provide remote attackers with a shortcut into previously segmented network segments that contain critical controllers. Industrial cybersecurity firm Otorio released a report this…

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Indigo Bookstore Website Shuts Down After Cyberattack

It is possible that this attack was the result of Info-stealing malware. According to cybersecurity firm Kela, a large amount of data being shared on the Darknet was advertised as login credentials for Indigo that were stolen by info-stealing malware. Such malware looks for sensitive information on the infected system and also collects details about the machine. Threat actors behind the malware can then use stolen information such as credentials to carry out cyberattacks. It…

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Attackers Breach Reddit to Steal Source Code and Internal Data

All organizations should provide phishing awareness and defense training to all of their employees/users. A simple defense technique would be adopting a zero-trust attitude toward outside communication. For email, the zero-trust model means not allowing the delivery of messages unless they originate from a sender who can be authenticated and who has been granted explicit permission to deliver messages to that inbox. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-breach-reddit-to-steal-source-code-and-internal-data/

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North Korean Ransomware Attacks on Healthcare Fund Government Operations

In this campaign, the North Korean ransomware operators made use of numerous vulnerabilities, tools, and TTPs to accomplish their goals. To protect best against a campaign such as this, it is recommended to provide user education into common phishing tactics, such as trojanized software on typo-squatted domains. Additionally, it is recommended to ensure that all software/hardware is up to date, as the operators made use of numerous vulnerabilities that relied on outdated applications. Further, it…

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CISA Adds Three Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

Original release date: February 10, 2023 CISA has added three new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise. Note: To view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow in the “Date Added to Catalog” column, which will sort by descending dates. Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01:…

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Microsoft OneNote Abuse for Malware Delivery Surges

Organizations worldwide have been warned of an increase in the number of attacks abusing Microsoft OneNote documents for malware delivery. Part of the Office suite, OneNote is typically used within organizations for note taking and task management, among other operations. What makes OneNote documents an attractive target for threat actors includes the fact that they do not benefit from the Mark-of-the-Web (MOTW) protection, along with the fact that files can be attached to OneNote notebooks…

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IOTW: Source code stolen in Reddit phishing attack

A “highly targeted” phishing attack against social media site Reddit’s internal network has seen malicious actors steal the company’s source code and internal documents. The breach occurred on February 5, after a phishing attack was launched at Reddit employees. The site said the attack contained “plausible-sounding prompts pointing employees to a website that cloned the behavior of our intranet gateway, in an attempt to steal credentials and second-factor tokens”.  After obtaining an employee’s credentials, the…

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Siemens Drives Rise in ICS Vulnerabilities Discovered in 2022: Report

The number of vulnerabilities discovered in industrial control systems (ICS) continues to increase, and many of them have a ‘critical’ or ‘high’ severity rating, according to a new report from industrial cybersecurity firm SynSaber.  The report compares the number of ICS and ICS medical advisories published by CISA between 2020 and 2022. While the number of advisories was roughly the same in 2021 and 2022, at 350, the number of vulnerabilities discovered last year reached…

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