CyberSecure Specialist

27 Jan

Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning – Future Collaboration and Continued Research

Insights

Reflections and Wider Considerations This is the final post in the series that began with reflections and learnings from the first US-UK collaboration working with Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). Since the PETs Prize Challenges, the ecosystem around these technologies has continued to develop, with a shift from more theoretical and academic conversations to greater uptake and consideration of PETs. Since our first post in December of 2023, this series has explored a variety of practical considerations…

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22 Jan

MasterCard DNS Error Went Unnoticed for Years

Information, Insights

The payment card giant MasterCard just fixed a glaring error in its domain name server settings that could have allowed anyone to intercept or divert Internet traffic for the company by registering an unused domain name. The misconfiguration persisted for nearly five years until a security researcher spent $300 to register the domain and prevent it from being grabbed by cybercriminals. A DNS lookup on the domain az.mastercard.com on Jan. 14, 2025 shows the mistyped…

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22 Jan

CISA and FBI Release Advisory on How Threat Actors Chained Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Service Applications

Attacks, Insights, Malware

CISA, in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), released Threat Actors Chained Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Service Applications. This advisory was crafted in response to active exploitation of vulnerabilities—CVE-2024-8963, an administrative bypass vulnerability; CVE-2024-9379, a SQL injection vulnerability; and CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-9380, remote code execution vulnerabilities—in Ivanti Cloud Service Appliances (CSA) in September 2024. CISA, and the use of trusted third-party incident response data, found that threat actors chained the listed vulnerabilities to…

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17 Jan

CISA and FBI Release Updated Guidance on Product Security Bad Practices

Attacks, Insights, Malware

In partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CISA released an update to joint guidance Product Security Bad Practices in furtherance of CISA’s Secure by Design initiative. This updated guidance incorporates public comments CISA received in response to a Request for Information, adding additional bad practices, context regarding memory-safe languages, clarifying timelines for patching Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs), and other recommendations. While this voluntary guidance is intended for software manufacturers who develop software products…

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16 Jan

Chinese Innovations Spawn Wave of Toll Phishing Via SMS

Information, Insights

Residents across the United States are being inundated with text messages purporting to come from toll road operators like E-ZPass, warning that recipients face fines if a delinquent toll fee remains unpaid. Researchers say the surge in SMS spam coincides with new features added to a popular commercial phishing kit sold in China that makes it simple to set up convincing lures spoofing toll road operators in multiple U.S. states. Last week, the Massachusetts Department…

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16 Jan

CISA and Partners Release Call to Action to Close the National Software Understanding Gap

Attacks, Insights, Malware

Today, CISA—in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD R&E), and the National Security Agency (NSA)—published Closing the Software Understanding Gap. This report urgently implores the U.S. government to take decisive and coordinated action.  Software understanding refers to assessing software-controlled systems across all conditions. Mission owners and operators often lack adequate capabilities for software understanding because technology manufacturers build software that…

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15 Jan

CISA Releases Microsoft Expanded Cloud Logs Implementation Playbook

Attacks, Insights, Malware

Today, CISA released the Microsoft Expanded Cloud Logs Implementation Playbook to help organizations get the most out of Microsoft’s newly introduced logs in Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard). This step-by-step guide enables technical personnel to better detect and defend against advanced intrusion techniques by operationalizing expanded cloud logs.  The playbook details analytical methodologies tied to using these logs. Specifically, the playbook offers: An overview of the newly introduced logs in Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard) that enable…

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14 Jan

Microsoft: Happy 2025. Here’s 161 Security Updates

Information, Insights

Microsoft today unleashed updates to plug a whopping 161 security vulnerabilities in Windows and related software, including three “zero-day” weaknesses that are already under active attack. Redmond’s inaugural Patch Tuesday of 2025 bundles more fixes than the company has shipped in one go since 2017. Rapid7‘s Adam Barnett says January marks the fourth consecutive month where Microsoft has published zero-day vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday without evaluating any of them as critical severity at time of…

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14 Jan

Microsoft Releases January 2025 Security Updates

Attacks, Insights, Malware

Microsoft released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple Microsoft products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.  CISA encourages users and administrators to review the following and apply necessary updates: Microsoft Security Update Guide for January

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14 Jan

CISA Releases the JCDC AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook and Fact Sheet

Attacks, Insights, Malware

Today, CISA released the JCDC AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook and Fact Sheet to foster operational collaboration among government, industry, and international partners and strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity. The playbook provides voluntary information-sharing processes that, if adopted, can help protect organizations from emerging AI threats.  Specifically, the playbook: Facilitates collaboration between federal agencies, private industry, international partners, and other stakeholders to raise awareness of AI cybersecurity risks and improve the resilience of AI systems. Guides JCDC…

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