Insights

U.S. Hacks QakBot, Quietly Removes Botnet Infections

The U.S. government today announced a coordinated crackdown against QakBot, a complex malware family used by multiple cybercrime groups to lay the groundwork for ransomware infections. The international law enforcement operation involved seizing control over the botnet’s online infrastructure, and quietly removing the Qakbot malware from tens of thousands of infected Microsoft Windows computers. Dutch authorities inside a data center with servers tied to the botnet. Image: Dutch National Police. In an international operation announced…

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CISA Releases IOCs Associated with Malicious Barracuda Activity

CISA has released additional indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with exploitation of CVE-2023-2868. CVE-2023-2868 is a remote command injection vulnerability affecting Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliance, versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006. Malicious threat actors exploited this vulnerability as a zero day as early as October 2022 to gain access to ESG appliances.  Download the newly released IOCs associated with this activity: IOCs Associated with Exploitation of Barracuda ESG Vulnerability CVE-2023-2868 (JSON, 85.34 KB ) Review the following…

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Kroll Employee SIM-Swapped for Crypto Investor Data

Security consulting giant Kroll disclosed today that a SIM-swapping attack against one of its employees led to the theft of user information for multiple cryptocurrency platforms that are relying on Kroll services in their ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. And there are indications that fraudsters may already be exploiting the stolen data in phishing attacks. Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi and the now-collapsed crypto trading platform FTX each disclosed data breaches this week thanks to a recent SIM-swapping attack…

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CISA’s VDP Platform 2022 Annual Report Showcases Success

Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released its inaugural Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP) Platform 2022 Annual Report, highlighting the service’s progress supporting vulnerability awareness and remediation across the Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB). This report showcases how agencies have used the VDP Platform—launched in July 2021—to safeguard the FCEB and support risk reduction. The VDP platform gives federal agencies a single, user-friendly interface to intake vulnerability information and to collaborate with the public researcher community for…

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Tourists Give Themselves Away by Looking Up. So Do Most Network Intruders.

In large metropolitan areas, tourists are often easy to spot because they’re far more inclined than locals to gaze upward at the surrounding skyscrapers. Security experts say this same tourist dynamic is a dead giveaway in virtually all computer intrusions that lead to devastating attacks like data theft and ransomware, and that more organizations should set simple virtual tripwires that sound the alarm when authorized users and devices are spotted exhibiting this behavior. In a…

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CISA, NSA, and NIST Publish Factsheet on Quantum Readiness

Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a joint factsheet, Quantum-Readiness: Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), to inform organizations—especially those that support Critical Infrastructure—of the impacts of quantum capabilities, and to encourage the early planning for migration to post-quantum cryptographic standards by developing a Quantum-Readiness Roadmap. CISA, NSA, and NIST urge organizations to review the joint factsheet and to begin preparing…

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Karma Catches Up to Global Phishing Service 16Shop

You’ve probably never heard of “16Shop,” but there’s a good chance someone using it has tried to phish you. A 16Shop phishing page spoofing Apple and targeting Japanese users. Image: Akamai.com. The international police organization INTERPOL said last week it had shuttered the notorious 16Shop, a popular phishing-as-a-service platform launched in 2017 that made it simple for even complete novices to conduct complex and convincing phishing scams. INTERPOL said authorities in Indonesia arrested the 21-year-old…

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CISA Releases JCDC Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Cyber Defense Plan

Today, CISA released the Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Cyber Defense Plan, the first proactive Plan developed by industry and government partners through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC). This plan addresses systemic risks facing the exploitation of RMM software. Cyber threat actors can gain footholds via RMM software into managed service providers (MSPs) or manage security service providers (MSSPs) servers and, by extension, can cause cascading impacts for the small and medium-sized organizations that…

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