CyberSecurity Updates

New iOS feature to thwart eavesdropping – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

Video Your iPhone has just received a new feature called iMessage Contact Key Verification that is designed to help protect your messages from prying eyes 15 Dec 2023 Apple has shipped iOS 17.2 to all users and it includes a new feature that is intended to protect users from attackers who could be misusing the company’s iMessage server infrastructure. Called iMessage Contact Key Verification, the feature “automatically verifies that you’re messaging with the person that…

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CISA Secure by Design Alert Urges Manufacturers to Eliminate Default Passwords

Today, CISA published guidance on How Manufacturers Can Protect Customers by Eliminating Default Passwords as a part of our new Secure by Design (SbD) Alert series. This SbD Alert urges technology manufacturers to proactively eliminate the risk of default password exploitation by implementing principles one and three of the joint guidance, Shifting the Balance of Cybersecurity Risk: Principles and Approaches for Secure by Design Software: Take ownership of customer security outcomes. Build organizational structure and…

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CISA Releases Advisory on Cyber Resilience for the HPH Sector

Today, CISA released a Cybersecurity Advisory, Enhancing Cyber Resilience: Insights from the CISA Healthcare and Public Health Sector Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, that details findings from our risk and vulnerability assessments of a Health and Public Health (HPH) Sector organization. CISA encourages all critical infrastructure organizations as well as software manufacturers to review the advisory and apply recommendations. The recommendations detail how organizations can harden networks to improve cyber resilience and reduce the likelihood of domain…

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OilRig’s persistent attacks using cloud service-powered downloaders

ESET researchers analyzed a growing series of OilRig downloaders that the group has used in several campaigns throughout 2022, to maintain access to target organizations of special interest – all located in Israel. These lightweight downloaders, which we named SampleCheck5000 (SC5k v1-v3), OilCheck, ODAgent, and OilBooster, are notable for using one of several legitimate cloud service APIs for C&C communication and data exfiltration: the Microsoft Graph OneDrive or Outlook APIs, and the Microsoft Office Exchange…

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Ten Years Later, New Clues in the Target Breach

On Dec. 18, 2013, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that U.S. retail giant Target was battling a wide-ranging computer intrusion that compromised more than 40 million customer payment cards over the previous month. The malware used in the Target breach included the text string “Rescator,” which also was the handle chosen by the cybercriminal who was selling all of the cards stolen from Target customers. Ten years later, KrebsOnSecurity has uncovered new clues about the real-life…

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CISA Releases Seventeen Industrial Control Systems Advisories

CISA released seventeen Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on December 14, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS. ICSA-23-348-01 Cambium ePMP 5GHz Force 300-25 Radio  ICSA-23-348-02 Johnson Controls Kantech Gen1 ioSmart ICSA-23-348-03 Siemens User Management Component (UMC) ICSA-23-348-04 Siemens LOGO! and SIPLUS LOGO! ICSA-23-348-05 Siemens SIMATIC and SIPLUS Products ICSA-23-348-06 Siemens OPC UA Implementation in SINUMERIK ONE and SINUMERIK MC ICSA-23-348-07 Siemens SIMATIC STEP 7 (TIA Portal)…

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FortiGuard Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

FortiGuard has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple FortiGuard products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. CISA encourages users and administrators to review the following advisories and apply necessary updates: FG-IR-23-196: Double free in cache management FG-IR-22-038: FortiMail, FortiNDR, FortiRecorder, FortiSwitch, FortiVoice – Cross-site scripting forgery (CSRF) in HTTPd CLI console FG-IR-23-138: FortiOS, FortiProxy – Format String Bug in HTTPSd

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A pernicious potpourri of Python packages in PyPI

ESET Research has discovered a cluster of malicious Python projects being distributed in PyPI, the official Python package repository. The threat targets both Windows and Linux systems and usually delivers a custom backdoor. In some cases, the final payload is a variant of the infamous W4SP Stealer, or a simple clipboard monitor to steal cryptocurrency, or both. In May 2023, we reported on another cluster of packages we found on PyPI that delivers password and…

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Delivering trust with DNS security

Cybercrime continues to grow rapidly; indeed, it is a highly lucrative global industry. Without accurately accounting for profits from cybercrime (1, 2), we are left looking at the staggering estimated cost of US$7.08 trillion in 2022 for reference. Measured in terms of GDP, the illegal proceeds would rank as the third-largest “economy” worldwide. Regardless, this landscape keeps evolving, driven by new tech, further monetization of the internet, new illicit opportunities enabled by the vibrant cybercrime…

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CISA and Partners Release Advisory on Russian SVR-affiliated Cyber Actors Exploiting CVE-2023-42793

Today, CISA—along with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), Polish Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW), CERT Polska (CERT.PL), and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)—released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Exploiting JetBrains TeamCity CVE Globally. Since September 2023, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)-affiliated cyber actors (also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 29 (APT 29), the Dukes, CozyBear, and NOBELIUM/Midnight Blizzard) have been targeting servers hosting JetBrains…

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