Social Engineering

BlackByte group has claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on the city of Augusta in Georgia.  The ransomware group has posted 10GB of sample data for free and claimed they have a lot more data available.  “We have lots of sensitive data. Many people would like to see that as well as the media. You were given time to connect us but it seems like you are sleepy,” the screenshot shared by security researcher Brett Callow, who…

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A new phishing technique can leverage the “file archiver in browser” exploit to emulate an archiving software in the web browser when a victim visits a .zip domain, according to a security researcher identifying as mr.d0x. The attacker essentially simulates a file archiving software like WinRAR in the browser and masks it under the .zip domain to stage the phishing attack. “Performing this attack first requires you to emulate a file archive software using HTML/CSS,”…

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There’s no getting around it, I am long in the tooth and have been dealing with individuals who break trust within their work environment for more than 30 years, both in government (where we called it counterespionage or counterintelligence) and in the private sector. Today we call programs that help prevent or identify breaches of trust insider risk management (IRM). Over the years I have hypothesized that where such IRM programs reside within an organization…

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Over the past few years state-sponsored attackers have been ramping up their capabilities of hitting critical infrastructure like power grids to cause serious disruptions. A new addition to this arsenal is a malware toolkit that seems to have been developed for red-teaming exercises by a Russian cybersecurity company. Dubbed COSMICENERGY by researchers from Mandiant, the malware can interact with remote terminal units (RTUs) and other operational technology (OT) devices that communicate over the specialized IEC…

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Cybersecurity professionals who need to track the latest vulnerability exploits now have a new tool designed to make their job easier, with the launch today of VulnCheck XDB, a database of exploits and proof of concepts hosted on Git repositories. The tool, from cyberthreat intelligence provider VulnCheck, is aimed at helping vulnerability researchers and security teams prioritize vulnerabilities based on the availability and criticality of new exploits that have been made public. “There is a…

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Inactive and non-maintained accounts pose significant security risks to users and businesses, with cybercriminals adept at using information stolen from forgotten or otherwise non-upheld accounts to exploit active accounts. That’s according to Okta’s first Customer Identity Trends Report which surveyed more than 20,000 consumers in 14 countries about their online experiences and attitudes towards digital security and identity. It found that increasing identity sprawl can trigger significant account takeover (ATO) security risks due to accounts…

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Microsoft and a few American intelligence agencies have detected malware of Chinese origin deployed in critical infrastructure systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States. The malicious activity, focused on post-compromise credential access and network security discovery, has been linked to Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored threat actor in China. “Volt Typhoon has been active since mid-2021 and has targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the United States,” Microsoft said in a…

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Earlier this year, ESG published a research report focused on how enterprise organizations use threat intelligence as part of their overall cybersecurity strategy. The research project included a survey of 380 cybersecurity professionals working at enterprise organizations (i.e., more than 1,000 employees). Survey respondents were asked questions about their organization’s cyber-threat intelligence (CTI) program – how it was staffed, what types of skills were most important, its challenges and strategies, spending plans, etc. I’ve written…

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The rapid emergence of Open AI’s ChatGPT has been one of the biggest stories of the year, with the potential impact of generative AI chatbots and large language models (LLMs) on cybersecurity a key area of discussion. There’s been a lot of chatter about the security risks these new technologies could introduce — from concerns about sharing sensitive business information with advanced self-learning algorithms to malicious actors using them to significantly enhance attacks. Some countries,…

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Advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks were once mainly a concern for large corporations in industries that presented cyberespionage interest. That’s no longer the case and over the past year in particular, the number of such state-sponsored attacks against small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) has increased significantly. Cybersecurity firm Proofpoint analyzed its telemetry data more than 200,000 SMB customers over the past year and saw a rise in phishing campaigns originating from APT groups, particularly those…

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