CyberSecurity Updates

20 Jun

Passwords out, passkeys in: are you ready to make the switch?

Information

With passkeys poised for prime time, passwords seem passé. What are the main benefits of ditching one in favor of the other? Chances are good that many of us have had enough of passwords. In a world where we have to manage access for scores of online accounts, passwords no longer seem fit for purpose. Many of us reuse the same, easy-to-remember login credentials across these apps and websites and commit other password-related mistakes, which…

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20 Jun

ASUS warns router customers: Patch now, or block all inbound requests

Information

by Paul Ducklin ASUS is a well-known maker of popular electronics products, ranging from laptops and phones to home routers and graphics cards. This week, the company published firmware updates for a wide range of its home routers, along with a strong warning that if you aren’t willing or able to update your firmware right now, then you need to: [Disable] services accessible from the WAN side to avoid potential unwanted intrusions. These services include…

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20 Jun

VMware Confirms Live Exploits Hitting Just-Patched Security Flaw

Information, News

Less than two weeks after shipping urgent patches to cover security defects in its Aria Operations for Networks product, VMware says hackers have started launching exploits in the wild. The virtualization technology giant on Tuesday updated a critical-level bulletin with a blunt warning to businesses running the network monitoring software: “VMware has confirmed that exploitation of CVE-2023-20887 has occurred in the wild.” The live exploits, first flagged by GreyNoise, target the CVE-2023-20887 command injection vulnerability…

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20 Jun

Western Digital blocks unpatched My Cloud devices

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Western Digital has blocked devices running vulnerable firmware versions from accessing its cloud services, the company said in an advisory. The move comes about a month after the company released firmware updates for its My Cloud product line to address a critical path traversal bug that leads to remote code execution (RCE). “Devices running unpatched firmware versions will not be able to connect to Western Digital cloud services starting June 15, 2023, and users will…

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20 Jun

Security budget hikes are missing the mark, CISOs say

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Misguided expectations on security spend are causing problems for CISOs despite notable budget increases. That’s according to new research from risk and cybersecurity solutions provider BSS, which surveyed 150 security leaders. It found that while most CISOs are experiencing noteworthy increases in security funding, impractical expectations of budget holders are leading to significant amounts being spent on what’s hitting the headlines instead of strategic, business-centric investment in security defenses. This lack of understanding shows that…

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20 Jun

Why assessing third parties for security risk is still an unsolved problem

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

A Forbes article is making the rounds right now about America’s most cyber-secure companies, and I can already see the cybersecurity outrage machine up in arms. Full confession: I haven’t yet read the article, but I’m about to. I’m writing this in two parts: before I read the article, and after I read the article. Part I: What are the most cyber-secure companies? If you ask me to list the most cyber-secure companies (what does…

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19 Jun

Megaupload duo will go to prison at last, but Kim Dotcom fights on…

Information

by Paul Ducklin For the third time in about a week, cybersecurity law-and-order news includes a criminal case that’s been brewing for more than a decade. This time, the news is prison sentences for two of the main four original defendants in the infamous Megaupload saga. If you weren’t following cybersecurity a decade ago, we’ll recap directly from the article we published at the time of the site’s takedown by the FBI in early 2012:…

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19 Jun

Asus Patches Highly Critical WiFi Router Flaws

Information, News

Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer Asus on Monday shipped urgent firmware updates to address vulnerabilities in its WiFi router product lines and warned users of the risk of remote code execution attacks. In an advisory, Asus documented at least nine security defects and multiple security weaknesses that allow code execution, denial-of-service, information disclosure and authentication bypasses. The most serious of the nine vulnerabilities, a highly critical bug with a CVSS severity rating of 9.8/10, dates back…

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19 Jun

Romanian cybercrime gang Diicot builds DDoS botnet with Mirai variant

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

A cybercriminal group calling itself Diicot is performing mass SSH brute-force scanning and deploying a variant of the Mirai IoT botnet on compromised devices, according to researchers. The group also deploys a cryptocurrency mining payload on servers with CPUs that have more than four cores. “Although Diicot have traditionally been associated with cryptojacking campaigns, Cado Labs discovered evidence of the group deploying an off-the-shelf Mirai-based botnet agent, named Cayosin,” researchers from Cado Security said in…

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19 Jun

Trend Micro adds generative AI to Vision One for enhanced XDR

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Trend Micro has announced the integration of generative AI into its flagship Vision One platform with the new AI tool, Companion. Companion uses advanced AI/machine learning analytics and correlated detection models to enhance extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities, according to the cybersecurity vendor. It has been designed to amplify security operations, improve accessibility and efficiency, and quicken threat hunting speeds for analysts of varying skill levels, Trend Micro claimed in a press release. The…

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