News

The US Department of Energy on Wednesday announced a competition that can help smaller electric utilities obtain funding and technical assistance for improving their cybersecurity posture.  The competition, named the Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ACT) 1 Prize Competition, is part of the Biden administration’s Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity (RMUC) Program, which has set aside $250 million over a five-year period for enhancing cybersecurity at cooperative, municipal and small investor-owned electric utilities.  For the ACT 1…

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A cyberespionage group possibly linked to China has targeted government-related organizations and technology companies in various parts of the world. Trend Micro, which tracks it as Earth Estries, says the group has been around since at least 2020.  While the cybersecurity firm has not directly attributed Earth Estries to any particular country, it did point out that there are some overlaps in tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) with an APT named FamousSparrow. FamousSparrow, which in…

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A newly identified Android trojan targeting users in Southeast Asia is allowing attackers to control devices remotely and perform bank fraud, Trend Micro reports. Dubbed MMRat and active since June, the malware can capture user input and take screenshots, and uses a customized command-and-control (C&C) protocol based on Protobuf, which improves its performance when transferring large amounts of data. The malware has been distributed via websites masquerading as official application stores, and which were tailored…

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Prominent anti-malware vendors SentinelOne and BlackBerry have been separately named in public acquisition chatter, underscoring a clear signal of impending consolidation in cybersecurity. According to published reports, private equity firm Veritas Capital is in early talks to acquire BlackBerry, the venerable tech firm that acquired Cylance and reinvented itself as a cybersecurity vendor. Neither Veritas or BlackBerry has commented on the reports, which say Veritas is interested in acquiring all of the Canadian company, while…

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SecurityWeek is publishing a weekly cybersecurity roundup that provides a concise compilation of noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar. We provide a valuable summary of stories that may not warrant an entire article, but are nonetheless important for a comprehensive understanding of the cybersecurity landscape. Each week, we will curate and present a collection of noteworthy developments, ranging from the latest vulnerability discoveries and emerging attack techniques to significant policy changes and…

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The North Korea-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) actor Lazarus Group has been observed exploiting a Zoho ManageEngine vulnerability to compromise an internet backbone infrastructure provider in Europe, Cisco’s Talos security researchers report. The attack occurred in early 2023, roughly five days after proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code targeting the ManageEngine flaw, which is tracked as CVE-2022-47966 (CVSS score of 9.8), was published. Identified in the Apache xmlsec (XML Security for Java) third-party dependency, the issue can…

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Israeli startup Cypago on Thursday announced that it has raised $13 million in a funding round led by Entrée Capital, Axon Ventures, and Jump Capital, with participation from various angel investors. Founded in 2020, the Tel Aviv-based company also launched its governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) automation (CGA) platform, which aims to bring management, security, and operations together. Combining a SaaS architecture with advanced analysis and correlation, generative AI, and automation, the platform helps…

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Cisco on Wednesday announced patches for six vulnerabilities in its products, including three high-severity bugs in NX-OS and FXOS software that could be exploited to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. Impacting the FXOS software of Firepower 4100 and Firepower 9300 security appliances and of UCS 6300 series fabric interconnects, the most severe of these flaws is CVE-2023-20200, described as the improper handling of specific SNMP requests. The issue allows an authenticated, remote attacker to send…

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It’s been eight and half years since I first wrote about the need for security leadership representation in the boardroom. I then revisited the topic last year, when the SEC initially proposed amendments to its rules to enhance and standardize disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and incident reporting. Now, as the SEC cyber incident disclosure rules come into effect, organizations will finally be forced to seriously consider giving security leaders a seat at…

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Four vulnerabilities identified by academic researchers from Italy and the UK in the TP-Link Tapo L530E smart bulb and its accompanying mobile application can be exploited to obtain the local Wi-Fi network’s password. Currently a best-seller on Amazon Italy, the TP-Link Tapo smart Wi-Fi light bulb (L530E) is cloud-enabled and can be controlled using a Tapo application (available on both Android and iOS) and a Tapo account. The most severe of the identified issues is…

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