Social Engineering

When an ant colony is threatened, individual ants release pheromones to warn of the impending danger. Each ant picking up the warning broadcasts it further, passing it from individual to individual until the full defenses of the colony are mobilized. Instead of a single ant facing the danger alone, thousands of defenders with a single purpose swiftly converge on the threat. This all happens without the need for direction from a central authority or guidance…

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Despite efforts taken in recent years to proactively monitor public software repositories for malicious code, packages that bundle malware continue to routinely pop up in such places. Researchers recently identified two legitimate looking packages that remained undetected for over two months and deployed an open-source information stealing trojan called TurkoRat. Effective use of typosquatting on malicious npm packages Attackers attempt to trick users into downloading malicious packages in several ways, and typosquatting is one of…

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Cybercrime gang Lemon Group has managed to get malware known as Guerrilla preinstalled on about 8.9 million Android-based smartphones, watches, TVs, and TV boxes globally, according to Trend Micro.  The Guerilla malware can load additional payloads, intercept one-time passwords (OTPs) from SMS texts, set up a reverse proxy from the infected device, and infiltrate WhatsApp sessions.  “The infection turns these devices into mobile proxies, tools for stealing and selling SMS messages, social media and online…

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The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has urged businesses and security leaders to make accessibility a cybersecurity priority to help make systems more secure and human errors/workarounds less likely. It can also aid in meeting legal requirements, delivering better operational outcomes, and attracting and retaining more diverse talent, according to the NCSC. However, there are various examples of cybersecurity being presented in a way that is inaccessible for a lot of people, particularly for…

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Cisco patched several vulnerabilities this week that affect multiple models of its small business switches and could allow attackers to take full control of the devices remotely. The flaws are all located in the web-based management interface of the devices and can be exploited without authentication. While the company didn’t disclose which specific components of the web interface the flaws are located in, it noted in its advisory that the vulnerabilities are not dependent on…

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OX Security, an application security vendor, now has a plugin for ChatGPT, allowing users to leverage the power of the headline-making generative AI assistant to protect the software supply chain, generate personalized security recommendations and remedy security issues quickly. The Israel-based company, in a press release issued yesterday, said that generative AI has already altered the security landscape, and not for the better. AI models, according to OX, have been used to seek out new…

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While most organizations have a cyber resilience program in place, more than half of them lack a comprehensive approach to assessing resilience, according to a study by Immersive Labs. The study aimed at understanding business preparedness amidst growing incidents found a strong intent to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities driven by external threats. “Rules of engagement for cyberthreat actors are constantly innovating to cause catastrophic and unavoidable situations,” said Michael Sampson, analyst at Osterman Research and author…

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Cloud networking solutions provider Aviatrix has launched a distributed cloud firewall offering in a bid to strengthen network security for application traffic on multicloud environments. The offering is targeted at distributing both inspection and policy enforcement into the original path of application traffic, eliminating the need to redirect traffic to centralized firewalls or other network security services. “Aviatrix is the first to deliver a distributed cloud firewall,” said Rod Stuhlmuller, vice president of solutions marketing…

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Russian national, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, has been charged and indicted for launching ransomware attacks against thousands of victims in the US and across the world, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a press release. The US Department of State has also announced an award of up to $10 million for information that leads to the arrest and/or conviction of the Russian national. “According to the indictment obtained in the District of New Jersey,…

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IBM has purchased application security startup Polar Security, in an attempt to address the security of application data in the cloud and help organizations track vulnerable information. In a statement issued this morning, IBM said that the increased cloud adoption driven by the pandemic has strained organizational capacity to track certain aspects of their application frameworks, including certain types of app data, permissions and more. The company said that this has led to “shadow data,”…

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