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Archive for the ‘cybercrime/malcode’ category: Page 152

Jun 10, 2020

Homeland Security warns of Windows worm

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, internet

The Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory division is cautioning Windows 10 users of the possibility of a wave of cyberattacks due to the recent publication of an exploit code.

“Malicious cyber actors are targeting unpatched systems with the new [threat],” the agency noted on the Homeland Security web site. The agency said it “strongly recommends using a firewall to block server message block ports from the internet and to apply patches to critical- and high-severity vulnerabilities as soon as possible.”

The agency also referred concerned parties to Microsoft’s security guidance posts and notes published by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team at us-cert.gov.

Jun 10, 2020

Honda pauses production and closes offices following ransomware attack

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Honda’s global systems were hit with a ransomware attack on Monday. The attack gripped enough of the Japanese automaker’s systems that it had to temporarily stop production at some factories. Customer service operations are still down as of Tuesday evening, though Honda says there’s no evidence that customer information leaked.

Jun 9, 2020

Millions of WordPress accounts targeted in major cyberattack

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

O,.o!


Attackers exploited XSS vulnerabilities in WordPress themes and plugins to steal database credentials.

Jun 9, 2020

DARPA invites hackers to break hardware to make it more secure

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, military

For more than two years, the Pentagon’s research arm has been working with engineers to beef up the security of computer chips before they get deployed in weapons systems or other critical technologies.

Now, the research arm — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — is turning the hardware over to elite white-hat hackers who can earn up to $25,000 for bugs they find. The goal is to throw an array of attacks at the hardware so its foundations are more secure before production.

“We need the researchers to really roll their sleeves up and dig into what we’re doing and try to break it,” said Keith Rebello, a DARPA program manager. Hardware hacks often involve identifying vulnerabilities in how a computer chip handles information, like the flaw uncovered in Intel microprocessors in March that could have allowed attackers to run malicious code early in the boot process.

Jun 9, 2020

Cyberattack Shuts Down All Honda Factories Worldwide

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, quantum physics

Quantum computers could keep it secure like the dwave.


By now, the company is mostly back online.

Jun 8, 2020

Samsung and SK Telecom reveal world’s first smartphone with quantum security tech

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, mobile phones, quantum physics

The Quantum Random Number Generator makes it much harder to hack some services.

Jun 5, 2020

This new ransomware is targeting Windows and Linux PCs with a ‘unique’ attack

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Researchers detail the unusual workings of Tycoon ransomware — which appears to be designed to stay under the radar as much as possible.

May 31, 2020

Steganography Anchors Pinpoint Attacks on Industrial Targets

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Ongoing spear-phishing attacks aim at stolen Windows credentials for ICS suppliers worldwide.

May 31, 2020

Bluetooth flaw allows impersonation of trusted devices

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

A flaw in a Bluetooth protocol is leaving millions of devices vulnerable to attacks, according to a study released by a Swiss research institute.

The vulnerability, called Bluetooth Impersonation AttackS (BIAS), allows an intrusion by an attacker posing as a previously trusted Bluetooth device.

“In this paper, we demonstrate that the Bluetooth standard contains vulnerabilities enabling an attacker to impersonate a device and to establish a with a victim, without possessing the long term key shared by the impersonated device and the victim,” researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne said in their report.

May 28, 2020

NSA: Russia’s Sandworm Hackers Have Hijacked Mail Servers

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, privacy

A warning that hackers are exploiting vulnerable email servers doesn’t qualify as an unusual event in general. But when that warning comes from the National Security Agency, and the hackers are some of the most dangerous state-sponsored agents in the world, run-of-the-mill email server hacking becomes significantly more alarming.

On Thursday, the NSA issued an advisory that the Russian hacker group known as Sandworm, a unit of the GRU military intelligence agency, has been actively exploiting a known vulnerability in Exim, a commonly used mail transfer agent—an alternative to bigger players like Exchange and Sendmail—running on email servers around the world. The agency warns that Sandworm has been exploiting vulnerable Exim mail servers since at least August 2019, using the hacked servers as an initial infection point on target systems and likely pivoting to other parts of the victim’s network. And while the NSA hasn’t said who those targets have been, or how many there are, Sandworm’s history as one of the most aggressive and destructive hacking organizations in the world makes any new activity from the group worth noting.

“We still consider this to be one of the most, if not the most aggressive and potentially dangerous actor that we track,” says John Hultquist, the director of intelligence at FireEye, who also led a team at iSight Partners when that company first discovered and named Sandworm in 2014.