Data Breaches

Attackers deploy sophisticated Linux implant on Fortinet network security devices

In December network security vendor Fortinet disclosed that a critical vulnerability in its FortiOS operating system was being exploited by attackers in the wild. This week, after additional analysis, the company released more details about a sophisticated malware implant that those attackers deployed through the flaw. Based on currently available information, the original zero-day attack was highly targeted to government-related entities. However, since the vulnerability has been known for over a month, all customers should…

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Cyber attack against Royal Mail linked to Russian hackers

A cyber attack against the UK postal service Royal Mail which saw the company request that customers stop sending mail abroad via its services has been linked to Russian hackers. Royal Mail informed the public of the cyber attack on January 11, saying it had caused “severe disruption” to the computerized systems used to send mail abroad. The company “immediately launched an investigation into the [cyber] incident” and utilized the help of the UK’s National…

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Royal ransomware group actively exploiting Citrix vulnerability

The Royal ransomware group is believed to be actively exploiting a critical security flaw affecting Citrix systems, according to the cyber research team at cyber insurance provider At-Bay. Announced by Citrix on November 8, 2022, the vulnerability, identified as CVE-2022-27510, allows for the potential bypass of authentication measures on two Citrix products: the Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway. There were no known instances of the vulnerability being exploited in the wild at the time…

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CloudSek launches free security tool that helps users win bug bounty

Cybersecurity firm CloudSek has launched BeVigil, a tool that can tell users how safe the apps installed on their phone are, and helps users and developers win bug bounty by helping them identify and report bugs in the code. BeVigil scans all the apps installed on a user’s phone and rates them as dangerous, risky, or safe. Running as a web application for the past one year, BeVigil has already scanned over a million apps…

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IOTW: LastPass facing class action lawsuit following data breach

An anonymous plaintiff has filed a class action lawsuit against password management company LastPass after the company suffered two data breaches within four months in 2022. The suit, which was filed by an anonymous plaintiff referred to as ‘John Doe’ with the United States District Court of Massachusetts, alleges that LastPass failed to “exercise reasonable care in securing and safeguarding highly sensitive consumer data”. The lawsuit also alleges that bad actors could “wreak financial havoc…

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Cybersecurity spending and economic headwinds in 2023

Now that everyone, their brother, sister, and dog have chimed in on cybersecurity predictions for 2023, here are a few observations based on some recent ESG research. First the numbers: 53% of organizations will increase IT spending in 2023, 30% say IT spending will remain flat in 2023, and 18% forecast a decrease in IT spending. As for cybersecurity, 65% of organizations plan to increase cybersecurity spending in 2023. These numbers mean that some organizations…

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Cybercriminals bypass Windows security with driver-vulnerability exploit

The Scattered Spider cybercrime group has recently been observed attempting to deploy a malicious kernel driver using a tactic called bring your own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) — a warning to security professionals that the technique, which exploits longstanding deficiencies in Windows kernel protections, is still being employed by cybercriminals, according to cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. In this latest BYOVD attack, which was observed and stopped by CrowdStrike’s Falcon security system, Scattered Spider attempted to deploy a…

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Study shows attackers can use ChatGPT to significantly enhance phishing and BEC scams

Security researchers have used the GPT-3 natural language generation model and the ChatGPT chatbot based on it to show how such deep learning models can be used to make social engineering attacks such as phishing or business email compromise scams harder to detect and easier to pull off. The study, by researchers with security firm WithSecure, demonstrates that not only can attackers generate unique variations of the same phishing lure with grammatically correct and human-like…

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Timeline of the latest LastPass data breaches

On November 30, 2022, password manager LastPass informed customers of a cybersecurity incident following unusual activity within a third-party cloud storage service. While LastPass claims that users’ passwords remain safely encrypted, it admitted that certain elements of customers’ information have been exposed. The security incident was the latest to affect the service in recent times in the wake of unauthorized access to its development environment in August last year, serious vulnerabilities in 2017, a phishing…

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Data leak exposes information of 10,000 French social security beneficiaries

[Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on the Le Monde Informatique website.] More than 10,000 beneficiaries of a local branch of the French social security agency CAF, or Family Allowance Fund, saw their data exposed for about 18 months, after a file containing personal information was sent to a service provider. The mistake, discovered by France Info — Radio France’s news and investigation service — just before the year-end holidays, could hit the CAF hard.…

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