CyberSecurity Updates

24 Oct

When CISOs are doomed to fail, and how to improve your chances of success

Data Breaches, Malware, Social Engineering

There’s a joke cryptographer Jon Callas likes to tell: CISO stands for Chief Intrusion Scapegoat Officer, “because CISOs are often thrown into a position where they can’t succeed.” Callas, who is the director of public interest tech at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says that security officers are often “simultaneously in charge and powerless.” They know what they should do to mitigate risks, but they can’t get enough support. This predicament threatens to overwhelm them. Almost…

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23 Oct

ESET Threat Report T2 2022

Information

A view of the T2 2022 threat landscape as seen by ESET telemetry and from the perspective of ESET threat detection and research experts The past four months were the time of summer vacations for many of us in the northern hemisphere. It appears that some malware operators also took this time as an opportunity to possibly rest, refocus, and reanalyze their current procedures and activities. According to our telemetry, August was a vacation month…

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23 Oct

The need to change cybersecurity for the next generation

Information

Healthy habits that are instilled and nurtured at an early age bring lifelong benefits – the same applies to good cybersecurity habits It’s October, it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM), and with it the annual deluge of articles about phishing, passwords, protecting personal data and such like that will be hitting your inboxes very soon (if they have not already landed). The underlying message behind CSAM is the need to be cyber-vigilant and to educate the…

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23 Oct

Key takeaways from ESET Threat Report T2 2022 – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

Information

A look back on the key trends and developments that shaped the cyberthreat landscape from May to August of this year The ESET research team has just released its latest Threat Report, and in this week’s video, Tony summarizes the report’s main takeaways. What trends and developments shaped the threat landscape between May and August of this year? What were the top threats and what trended downwards? What else do the numbers say? What does…

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23 Oct

Move over Patch Tuesday – it’s Ada Lovelace Day!

Information

by Paul Ducklin The second Tuesday of every month is Microsoft’s regular day for security updates, still known by almost everyone by its unofficial nickname of “Patch Tuesday”. But the second Tuesday in October is also Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating Ada, Countess of Lovelace. Ada was a true pioneer not only of computing, but also of computer science, and gave her name to the programming language Ada. The Ada language, intriguingly, emerged from a US…

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23 Oct

Cryptocurrency ‘Fueling’ Ransomware Incidents

Malware

While Bitcoin’s value continues to swing wildly from one year to the next, its influence on the financial markets is being matched by its impact on the black market. Rising maturity and acceptance of cryptocurrency by the general public is being partly blamed for the simultaneous evolution of ransomware, with new strains and sophisticated techniques being reported. Cyber criminals are no longer taking a broad, ‘scatter-gun’ approach to ransom-based malware, but are using more targeted…

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23 Oct

Incident Of The Week: Checkers Restaurants Details Data Breach

Malware

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc. notified its customers that about 15% of its restaurants in 20 states may have had data exposures possibly starting back into 2015, and some lasting until about mid-April this year. The company operates and franchises nearly 900 restaurants. See Related: “Cyber Attack Takes Weather Channel Offline” The data security issue included nine locations in the Tampa area (where the parent company is based) and two in the Orlando area, where payment…

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23 Oct

Iran’s Nuclear Agency Says Email Server Hacked

Information, News

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said Sunday an email server of its subsidiary was hacked in a “foreign” attack aimed at drawing “attention” amid protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. The Islamic republic has been gripped by weeks-long demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Amini on September 16 after her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women. The street violence has led to dozens of deaths, mostly among protesters but…

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22 Oct

Steam account hacked? Here’s how to get it back

Information

What are the warning signs that someone has hijacked your Steam account? Here is what to look for and what you can do to get your account back. The videogaming industry doesn’t stop growing. In fact, it is estimated to reach a market value of $197 billon by the end of 2022 and surpass $250 billon by 2025. This, together with its irresistible allure for ever younger and younger gamers, has contributed to an increase in scams…

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22 Oct

POLONIUM targets Israel with Creepy malware

Information

ESET researchers analyzed previously undocumented custom backdoors and cyberespionage tools deployed in Israel by the POLONIUM APT group ESET researchers reveal their findings about POLONIUM, an advanced persistent threat (APT) group about which little information is publicly available and its initial compromise vector is unknown. POLONIUM is a cyberespionage group first documented by Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) in June 2022. MSTIC’s assessment is that POLONIUM is an operational group based in Lebanon, coordinating its…

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