CyberSecurity Updates

10 May

Evil digital twins and other risks: the use of twins opens up a host of new security concerns

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

The use of digital twins — virtual representations of actual or envisioned real-world objects — is growing. Their uses are multifold and can be incredibly helpful, providing real-time models of physical assets or even people or biological systems that can help identify problems as or even before they occur. Grand View Research has predicted that the global digital twin market, valued at $11.1 billion in 2022, will grow at a 37.5% compound annual growth rate…

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10 May

Make them pay: Hackers devise new tactics to ensure ransomware payment

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Ransomware remains one of the biggest cybersecurity threats that organizations and governments continue to face. However, hackers are engineering new ways to extract ransom from their victims as organizations take a conscious call to decline ransom payment demands. With the fall of the most notorious ransomware gang, Conti, in May 2022, it was assumed that ransomware attacks would see a major decline. However, Tenable found that 35.5% of breaches in 2022 were the result of a ransomware attack,…

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09 May

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, May 2023 Edition

Information, Insights

Microsoft today released software updates to fix at least four dozen security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including patches for two zero-day vulnerabilities that are already being exploited in active attacks. First up in May’s zero-day flaws is CVE-2023-29336, which is an “elevation of privilege” weakness in Windows which has a low attack complexity, requires low privileges, and no user interaction. However, as the SANS Internet Storm Center points out, the…

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09 May

Evasive Panda APT group delivers malware via updates for popular Chinese software

Information

ESET Research uncovers a campaign by the APT group known as Evasive Panda targeting an international NGO in China with malware delivered through updates of popular Chinese software ESET researchers have discovered a campaign that we attribute to the APT group known as Evasive Panda, where update channels of legitimate applications were mysteriously hijacked to deliver the installer for the MgBot malware, Evasive Panda’s flagship backdoor. Key points of the report: Users in mainland China…

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09 May

How the war in Ukraine has been a catalyst in private‑public collaborations

Information

As the war shows no signs of ending and cyber-activity by states and criminal groups remains high, conversations around the cyber-resilience of critical infrastructure have never been more vital A number of security practitioners, policymakers, law enforcement professionals and other experts from various countries will gather in Warsaw, Poland, tomorrow to discuss how the public and private sectors are dealing with heightened cybersecurity risks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Ahead of the event,…

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09 May

ESET APT Activity Report Q4 2022­–Q1 2023

Information

An overview of the activities of selected APT groups investigated and analyzed by ESET Research in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 ESET APT Activity Report Q4 2022–Q1 2023 summarizes the activities of selected advanced persistent threat (APT) groups that were observed, investigated, and analyzed by ESET researchers from October 2022 until the end of March 2023. Attentive readers will notice that a small portion of the report also mentions some events previously covered in APT Activity Report…

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09 May

S3 Ep132: Proof-of-concept lets anyone hack at will

Information

by Paul Ducklin 2FA, HACKING, AND PATCHING No audio player below? Listen directly on Soundcloud. With Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin. Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere that good podcasts are found. Or just drop the URL of our RSS feed into your favourite podcatcher. READ THE TRANSCRIPT DOUG.  Remote code execution, remote code execution, and 2FA codes in the…

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09 May

Google wins court order to force ISPs to filter botnet traffic

Information

by Naked Security writer A US court has recently unsealed a restraining order against a gang of alleged cybercrooks operating outside the country, based on a formal legal complaint from internet giant Google. Google, it seems, decided to use its size, influence and network data to say, “No more!”, based on evidence it had collected about a cybergang known loosely as the CryptBot crew, whom Google claimed were: Ripping off Google product names, icons and…

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09 May

Low-level motherboard security keys leaked in MSI breach, claim researchers

Information

by Paul Ducklin About a month ago, we wrote about a data breach notification issued by major motherboard manufacturer MSI. The company said: MSI recently suffered a cyberattack on part of its information systems. […] Currently, the affected systems have gradually resumed normal operations, with no significant impact on financial business. […] MSI urges users to obtain firmware/BIOS updates only from its official website, and not to use files from sources other than the official…

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09 May

Microsoft Patch Tuesday: 40 Vulnerabilities, 2 Zero-Days

Information, News

Microsoft on Tuesday announced patches for 40 newly documented vulnerabilities in its products, including two zero-day flaws. One of the zero-days, CVE-2023-29336, is described as an elevation of privilege bug in the Win32k driver. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to gain System privileges. Microsoft has shared no information on the attacks exploiting this vulnerability, but such issues are typically combined with code execution flaws to spread malware, according to Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative…

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