CyberSecure Specialist

Zerobot Botnet Emerges as a Growing Threat with New Exploits and Capabilities

The main methods that Zerobot uses to infect a system, via brute-force or vulnerability exploitation, can easily be prevented by following a few recommended steps. The first recommendation would be to make sure all devices on a network are up-to-date on their patches, particularly any Internet-facing devices. The threat actors rely on devices remaining unpatched to infect systems and grow their botnet, so by making sure all devices are up-to-date and not vulnerable, an organization…

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FIN7 Cybercrime Syndicate Emerges as Major Player in Ransomware Landscape

To protect against ransomware attacks, organizations should: • Regularly back up data, air gap, and password protect backup copies offline.• Ensure copies of critical data are not accessible for modification or deletion from the system where the data resides.• Implement network segmentation.• Implement a recovery plan to maintain and retain multiple copies of sensitive or proprietary data and servers in a physically separate, segmented, secure location• Install updates/patch operating systems, software, and firmware as soon…

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The Guardian Media Group Hit by Ransomware Attack

Companies looking to defend against ransomware should consider adopting a defense-in-depth strategy. Network segmentation, backups, regular patching, and vulnerability assessments are just a few of the measures that should be taken when attempting to lessen the likelihood of an attack. Promoting healthy cyber habits within a company is also crucial. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-attack-guardian

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‘Tis the season for gaming: Keeping children safe (and parents sane)

It’s all fun and games over the holidays, but is your young gamer safe from the darker side of the action? As Christmas draws nearer, parents are handling a barrage of requests from their kids for the latest gaming titles and consoles. Despite gathering macro-economic headwinds, US consumers are set to increase their total retail spending by around 7% year-on-year this holiday season, and by 3.5% on electronics. But while several weeks of uninterrupted gaming…

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“Suspicious login” scammers up their game – take care at Christmas

by Paul Ducklin Black Friday is behind us, that football thing they have every four years is done and dusted (congratulations – spoiler alert! – to Argentina), it’s the summer/winter solstice (delete as inapplicable)… …and no one wants to get locked out of their social media accounts, especially when it’s the time for sending and receiving seasonal greetings. So, even though we’ve written about this sort of phishing scam before, we thought we’d present a…

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Zerobot IoT Botnet Adds More Exploits, DDoS Capabilities

The recently detailed Internet of Things (IoT) botnet Zerobot has been updated with an expanded list of exploits and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) capabilities. Initially detailed two weeks ago, Zerobot is a self-replicating and self-propagating piece of malware written in the Golang (Go) programming language, which can target twelve device architectures. Fortinet, which first warned of the threat’s capabilities, analyzed two variants of the malware, one of which contained exploits targeting 21 known vulnerabilities, including the…

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How carding can affect your business

This article explains what carding is, how hackers can gain access to payment details and the effects carding cyber attacks can have on businesses. In the first six months of 2022, there were 230,937 credit card fraud reports filed in the US alone, highlighting the growth of carding as a threat vector This article will explore carding, how it operates and the devastating effects it can have on ecommerce businesses. Contents:  What is carding and…

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How Marvel’s Avengers inspire Pinsent Masons CISO to adapt cybersecurity hiring

Cybersecurity’s ongoing battle with a “skills shortage” has seen the sector lose its way regarding talent hiring and retention, says Christian Toon, CISO at London-based law firm Pinsent Masons. In an industry crying out for diversity and innovation, this year’s number one UK CSO 30 Awards winner says he takes inspiration from the Marvel Comics universe to challenge traditional HR approaches and more effectively recruit and keep security talent. “We have what some describe as…

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Threat Actors Continue to Deploy Raspberry Robin

The primary attack vector has been infected USB drives which download a malicious MSI installer file that deploys the primary payload. Either msiexec.exe or wmic.exe are utilized as trusted installers. Some UBS drives have a configured autorun.inf file that will automatically run the payload, whereas others rely on social engineering to invite a targeted user to click on an associated .LNK file. The payload loader now deploys a decoy adware named BrowserAssistant in order to…

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Microsoft dishes the dirt on Apple’s “Achilles heel” shortly after fixing similar Windows bug

by Paul Ducklin When we woke up this morning, our cybersecurity infofeed was awash with “news” that Apple had just patched a security hole variously described a “gnarly bug”, a “critical flaw” that could leave your Macs “defenceless”, and the “Achilles’ heel of macOS”. Given that we usually check our various security bulletin mailing lists before even looking outside to check the weather, primarily to see if Apple has secretly unleashed a new advisory overnight……

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