CyberSecurity Updates

28 Feb

Dutch police arrest three cyberextortion suspects who allegedly earned millions

Information

by Naked Security writer Dutch police announced late last week that they’d arrested three young men, aged between 18 and 21, suspected of cybercrimes involving breaking in, stealing data, and then demanding hush money. The charges include: computer intrusion, data theft, extortion, blackmail, and money laundering. The trio were actually arrested a month earlier, back in January 2023, but the details of the arrest were kept secret until now, presumably to allow undercover investigations to…

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28 Feb

LastPass: The crooks used a keylogger to crack a corporatre password vault

Information, Malware

by Paul Ducklin There’s no date on the update, but as far as we can make out, LastPass just [2023-02-27] published a short document entitled Incident 2 – Additional details of the attack. As you probably remember, because the bad news broke just before the Christmas holiday season in December 2022, LastPass suffered what’s known in the jargon as a lateral movement attack. Simply put, lateral movement is just a fancy way of saying, “Once…

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27 Feb

White House: No More TikTok on Gov’t Devices Within 30 Days

Information, News

The White House is giving all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices, as the Chinese-owned social media app comes under increasing scrutiny in Washington over security concerns. The Office of Management and Budget calls the guidance, issued Monday, a “critical step forward in addressing the risks presented by the app to sensitive government data.” Some agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, already have restrictions in place;…

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27 Feb

PureCrypter Malware Hits Government Orgs with Ransomware, Info-Stealers

Attacks, Malware

To protect against attacks such as this, organizations should:• Configure email clients to notify users when emails originate from outside the organization.• Focus on cyber security awareness and training.• Regularly provide users with training on information security principles and techniques as well as overall emerging cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities.• Ensure Office applications are configured to disable all macros without notification.• Pay special attention to warning notifications in email clients and Office applications.• Implement monitoring of…

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27 Feb

Stanford University Suffers Data Breach

Attacks, Malware

Individuals who were affected by this incident should consider following these steps: 1. Take advantage of the identity theft protection services offered by the university. This will help monitor any suspicious activity related to personal information.2. Monitor financial accounts and credit reports regularly. Look for any unauthorized activity or changes to credit reports that aren’t recognized.3. Change passwords for any accounts that use the same password as the Stanford University account. Use strong, unique passwords…

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27 Feb

PlugX Trojan Masked as Legitimate Windows Debugger Tool

Attacks, Malware

The hijacking of x64dbg to load PlugX was discovered last month by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which discovered a new variant of the malware that hides malicious files on removable USB devices to propagate the infection to other Windows hosts. Persistence is achieved by changing the Windows Registry and setting up scheduled processes to maintain access. Trend Micro’s analysis also revealed the use of x32dbg.exe to deploy a backdoor, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP)…

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27 Feb

Cybersecurity in wartime: how Ukraine’s infosec community is coping

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

Whenever shells rain down on Ukraine, Yuriy Gatupov’s colleagues put a ‘+’ sign in a chat room. Then, the pluses are counted. “We check if everybody is alive,” he says. Gatupov, the owner of two cybersecurity companies, says it is vital to stay connected during a time of war. With Russia now controlling around 18% of Ukraine’s territory including Donbas and Crimea, tech workers face formidable challenges. Air raid sirens blast all the time. Explosions…

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27 Feb

Beware rogue 2FA apps in App Store and Google Play – don’t get hacked!

Information, Malware

by Paul Ducklin Thanks to Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry of @mysk_co for the impetus and information behind this article. The duo describe themselves as “two iOS developers and occasional security researchers on two continents.” In other words, although cybersecurity isn’t their core business, they’re doing what we wish all programmers would do: not taking application or operating system security features for granted, but keeping their own eyes on how those features work in…

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26 Feb

When Low-Tech Hacks Cause High-Impact Breaches

Information, Insights

Web hosting giant GoDaddy made headlines this month when it disclosed that a multi-year breach allowed intruders to steal company source code, siphon customer and employee login credentials, and foist malware on customer websites. Media coverage understandably focused on GoDaddy’s admission that it suffered three different cyberattacks over as many years at the hands of the same hacking group.  But it’s worth revisiting how this group typically got in to targeted companies: By calling employees…

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25 Feb

A year of wiper attacks in Ukraine

Information

ESET Research has compiled a timeline of cyberattacks that used wiper malware and have occurred since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 This blogpost presents a compiled overview of the disruptive wiper attacks that we have observed in Ukraine since the beginning of 2022, shortly before the Russian military invasion started. We were able to attribute the majority of these attacks to Sandworm, with varying degrees of confidence. The compilation includes attacks seen by ESET,…

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