Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Hackers are trying to topple Belarus’s dictator, with help from the inside (MIT Technology Review) Opposition from inside the regime of Alexander Lukashenko is helping hackers run what may be the most comprehensive cyberattack on a nation ever.
Russia uses new hardware to target Navalny's anti-Kremlin app - experts (Reuters) Russia is using new digital hardware to target an online app that jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's team created to undermine the Kremlin at next month's parliamentary elections, cyber experts said.
FBI Palantir glitch allowed unauthorized access to private data (New York Post) A computer glitch in a software program, Palantir, used by the FBI allowed some unauthorized employees to access private data for more than a year.
Palantir Stock Falls on Report of Improper Data Access (TheStreet) One of Palantir's software programs used by the FBI gave unauthorized workers access to private data, the New York Post said.
The Evolution of a Magecart Attack Leveraging the Recaptcha.tech Domain (PerimeterX) PerimeterX Cybersecurity Researcher Ben Baryo discovered a skimmer served from recaptcha[.]tech and examined its progression over the course of two years.
New Tools Target Pulse Connect Secure Flaws (Decipher) CISA has released analyses of five new pieces of malware being used in attacks against known bugs in Pulse Connect Secure appliances.
Fake Streaming & Adware Target Olympics 2020 (Zscaler) Olympics 2020 targeted by fake streaming sites and Adware sites
The Eeveelution of ShinyHunters: From Data Leaks to Extortions (Digital Shadows) Digital Shadows retraces the threat group, ShinyHunters' steps and analyzes their origin and how they evolved over the past months.
Advanced Persistent Threat Techniques Used in Container Attacks (Aqua Security) Team Nautilus provides a deep analysis of an intensive campaign targeting cloud native environments that use advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques
Threat Advisory: Recent High Volume Bot Traffic from IPVanish VPN Against Retailers (Cequence) Malicious bot traffic with similar characteristics is emanating from the same VPN vendor and its affiliated companies.
FIN8 cybercrime gang backdoors US orgs with new Sardonic malware (BleepingComputer) A financially motivated cybercrime gang has breached and backdoored the network of a US financial organization with a new malware known dubbed Sardonic by Bitdefender researchers who first spotted it.
Banned RSA SecurID certificate causing issues for Mac enterprise users (AppleInsider) Mac users across the globe are reportedly having trouble logging into their enterprise virtual private networks because of an apparent certificate issue, user reports suggest.
Popular dating app Bumble leaked users' exact location (iTnews) Fix deployed within 72 hours of report.
Fake OpenSea support staff are stealing cryptowallets and NFTs (BleepingComputer) OpenSea users are being targeted in an ongoing and aggressive Discord phishing attack to steal cryptocurrency funds and NFTs.
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
VMware Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in vRealize Operations (SecurityWeek) VMware this week announced patches for a series of vulnerabilities in vRealize Operations, including four considered high severity.
Trends
Cyber War and Peace: Building Digital Trust Today with History as our Guide (SINET) A talk with Nick Shevelyov, on the occasion of the launch of his new book.
Global Consumer Survey Debunks the Top 5 Myths in Mobile Application Security and Highlights Consumers' Demand for Security as a Key Feature of Every Mobile App (PR Newswire) Appdome, the leader in no-code mobile app security and fraud prevention, has released a global consumer survey, How CISOs Can Meet Consumer...
Honeywell Survey: 71% Of Surveyed Facility Managers State Concerns About Operational Cybersecurity (PR Newswire) According to a report released today by Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON), improving cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) systems ranks as one...
Survey: 1 in 4 Facility Managers Experienced OT System Breaches (SecurityWeek) A survey commissioned by Honeywell showed that a quarter of facility managers in the US, Germany and China have admitted suffering a breach of OT systems in the past year.
Nozomi Networks-Sponsored SANS Survey Finds Cyber Threats to OT Environments Continue to Rise—Severity Reaches All-Time High (Nozomi Networks) Industrial organizations are leveraging the cloud as they mature defenses and prioritize control system reliability
SANS 2021 Survey: OT/ICS Cybersecurity (Nozomi Networks) Read the latest findings on OT/ICS cybersecurity in the Nozomi Networks-sponsored SANS 2021 survey.
Scammers and Hackers See New Frontier in NFT Art (Wall Street Journal) Imposters are increasingly exploiting security gaps in the rapidly expanding marketplace—and artists and collectors who aren’t crypto-literate are proving easy marks.
OPSWAT Survey Finds Poor Adoption of Security Best Practices for Web Application Security, Leaving Critical Infrastructure Industries Vulnerable to Increased Cyber Threats (PR Newswire) OPSWAT, the global leader in Critical Infrastructure Protection, today announced the results of its Web Application Security Report, revealing...
Web Application Security Report 2021 (OPSWAT) Secure File Uploads in Web Applications: Attitudes, Opinions, Statistics & Trends
Marketplace
Cybersecurity Market Review (Q1 2021) (Momentum Cyber) We are pleased to provide you with Momentum’s Cybersecurity Market Review for H1 2021. Strategic activity in the first half of 2021 smashed all previous records and included 593 transactions completed totaling $51.0B in deal value across M&A (163 transactions, $39.5B) and Financing (430 transactions, $11.5B).
Incident Response Firm BreachQuest Launches With $4.4 Million in Seed Funding (SecurityWeek) BreachQuest launches with $4.4 million in seed funding and a goal to modernize cyber incident response.
BreachQuest Launches to Reimagine Cyber Incident Response with Seed Funding From Slow Ventures and Founders of Tinder and Lookout (PR Newswire) Today, BreachQuest is announcing $4.4M in seed funding raised from Slow Ventures, Tinder Founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen and Lookout...
Vannevar Labs Announces $12M Series A Funding Round (PR Newswire) Vannevar Labs, which provides state of the art technology to solve critical national security problems, announced today a $12M Series A funding...
Experian Named Top Fraud Prevention Leader in International Analyst Report (Yahoo) COSTA MESA, Calif., August 25, 2021--Research from KuppingerCole lists Experian as an overall leader in fraud reduction intelligence platforms.
Facebook will let bug hunters submit joint reports (The Record by Recorded Future) Social media giant Facebook updated today its bug bounty program to allow security researchers to submit joint reports and split bug bounty payouts.
Nutanix dumps Arrow, Tech Data from distie roster (CRN Australia) Sticks with Dicker Data and adds Ingram Micro.
Cybersecurity Financial Services Industry Expert Perry Menezes Joins MorganFranklin Consulting (Valdosta Daily Times) MorganFranklin Consulting, a leading finance, technology, and cybersecurity advisory and management consulting firm that specializes in solving complex transformational challenges for its clients, today announced the addition of financial services industry expert Perry Menezes as a managing director in its cybersecurity practice.
Anomali names new ANZ leader (CRN Australia) Kash Sharma moves from Radware to take up the role.
Deloitte Hires Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Chris Weggeman to Strengthen Cyber Risk Assessment Capabilities and Enhance the Delivery of Cyber Security Services – Press release (Deloitte United States) Lieutenant General (Ret.) Chris P. Weggeman, a senior military commander, has joined Deloitte’s Government and Public Services (GPS) practice to oversee mission-critical operations within the organization’s Cyber and Strategic Risk portfolio.
Paul Ciesielski Joins TrueFort as Chief Revenue Officer (Yahoo) Paul Ciesielski will oversee the expansion of TrueFort’s global sales operations and go-to-market team.
Products, Services, and Solutions
Fullstack Academy and Security Advisor Alliance Partner to Advance Nationwide Cybersecurity Education and Entry-Level Talent (BusinessWire) Fullstack Academy and Security Advisor Alliance Partner to Advance Nationwide Cybersecurity Education and Entry-Level Talent
Beyond Identity and Ignition Technology Announce Strategic Distribution Partnership (Beyond Identity) Beyond Identity selects Ignition Technology to drive channel expansion in the Nordics and Benelux
It's not just Facebook and Twitter. TikTok is 'hatescape' for racism and white supremacy, study says (USA TODAY) Despite pledges to crack down on extremism and hate, TikTok videos still promote white supremacy, terrorism, racism and antisemitism, a study says.
Bitwarden Expands Capabilities for Managed Service Providers (Yahoo) Bitwarden, the leading open source password manager for businesses and individuals, today announced a new offering that empowers Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to easily deliver password management-as-a-service for their clients. This release expands the Bitwarden commitment to help MSPs provide world class, enterprise-ready security solutions to their customers.
HackerOne Brings Hacker-Powered Cloud Security Capabilities to AWS Customers (BusinessWire) HackerOne today announced expanded capabilities for Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers.
SentinelOne Expands Partner Ecosystem with New Zero Trust Integrations from Cloudflare and Zscaler (BusinessWire) SentinelOne (NYSE: S), an autonomous cybersecurity platform company, today announced that new integrations with Cloudflare and Zscaler are now availab
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Best Practices for Construction to Defend Itself from Ransomware Attacks (For Construction Pros) Architecture, engineering and construction’s disbursed computer-network access points subject the industry to twice the risk of ransomware attacks. Here’s how you can protect your data, and vendors who can help
New Army cyber school leader wants to fix a problem for graduates (C4ISRNet) “When you graduate from the schoolhouse, in my personal opinion, you should be ready to execute your job," he said.
How to set up Docker for Varnish HTTP/2 request smuggling (Detectify Labs) Here a guide on how to set up a docker to test out varnish HTTP/2 request smuggling including the link to the github repo.
Design and Innovation
A New Chip Cluster Will Make Massive AI Models Possible (Wired) Cerebras says its technology can run a neural network with 120 trillion connections—a hundred times what's achievable today.
Research and Development
Intel® Labs Establishes Crypto Frontiers Research Center (Intel) Cryptography, the practice, and study of techniques for secure communication, has been around for thousands of years.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
UK, U.S. impose sanctions on Russian intelligence agents over Navalny poisoning (Reuters) Britain and the United States imposed sanctions on Friday on men they said were Russian intelligence operatives responsible for the poisoning one year ago of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Taliban are rounding up Afghans on blacklist - private intel report (Reuters) The Taliban have begun rounding up Afghans on a blacklist of people they believe have worked in key roles with the previous Afghan administration or with U.S.-led forces that supported it, according to a report by a Norwegian intelligence group.
Afghanistan live news: warnings of imminent terror attack as evacuations enter ‘most hectic, dangerous phase’ (the Guardian) German defence minister says threats of attack in Kabul ‘significantly more concrete’; reports of shots fired at Italian plane leaving airport
The Real Winner of the Afghan War? It’s Not Who You Think. (New York Times) Pakistan, nominally a U.S. partner in the war, was the Afghan Taliban’s main patron, and sees the Taliban’s victory as its own. But now what does it do with its prize?
In quest for legitimacy and to keep money flowing, Taliban pushes for political deal with rivals (Washington Post) The Taliban is scrambling to reach a deal with former Afghan officials to establish a government that could gain international recognition, keep aid money flowing into the country and restore access to billions of dollars in international reserves.
Here’s how Biden could mitigate damage done by the Afghan withdrawal (Defense News) The effort will need to start in Afghanistan but must be global in nature.
Opinion | Let’s Not Pretend That the Way We Withdrew From Afghanistan Was the Problem (New York Times) Our ignominious exit reflects the failure of America’s foreign policy establishment at both prediction and policymaking.
Opinion: The Biden administration’s gaseous obfuscation on Afghanistan isn’t helping (Washington Post) Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, a retired rear admiral, recently said that during the long U.S. undertaking in Afghanistan “the goals did migrate over time.” Did the goals themselves have agency — minds of their own? Why do so many people, particularly in government, engage in such gaseous talk? Because it envelops in abstract, obfuscating vocabularies things that are awkward to defend. And because we are decades into the “leakage of reality” from American life.
Opinion: The U.S. dare not betray the students at the American University of Afghanistan (Washington Post) President Biden is sticking to the Aug. 31 deadline for removing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which means that time is rapidly running out for those desperate to escape Taliban rule. As news of Biden’s decision broke on Tuesday, hundreds of young women with a special U.S. affiliation were in hiding across Kabul, waiting for news regarding when, or if, their chance at evacuation will come.
Cuba passes internet censorship and cybersecurity law (The Record by Recorded Future) Following weeks of protests against its decades-long communist leadership, the Cuban government passed a series of new laws that limit freedom of expression on the internet and force local service providers to create censorship mechanisms on their networks in order to prevent the spread of "false information."
Spies for Hire: China’s New Breed of Hackers Blends Espionage and Entrepreneurship (New York Times) The state security ministry is recruiting from a vast pool of private-sector hackers who often have their own agendas and sometimes use their access for commercial cybercrime, experts say.
Biden Says Cybersecurity Is the ‘Core National Security Challenge’ at CEO Summit (Wall Street Journal) President Biden hosted executives from major technology, financial and energy companies Wednesday to discuss cybersecurity and related issues, as his administration seeks to guard against disruptive attacks on businesses and infrastructure.
Biden urges CEOs to help improve cybersecurity across the U.S. (Fortune) Biden has prioritized cybersecurity amid a wave of ransomware attacks.
Tech giants pledge billions for cyber security after Presidential meeting (Computing) Biden wants the industry to "raise the bar on cybersecurity"
Vendor giants commit to billions in cybersecurity spending and new initiatives following White House meeting (CRN) Microsoft to invest $20bn in cybersecurity over next five years
Biden tells top CEOs at White House summit to step up on cybersecurity (Washington Post) ‘You have the power, capacity and responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar,’ president tells chiefs of Apple, Google, JPMorgan Chase, others
Marketplace: Biden looks to fill half a million cybersecurity jobs on Apple Podcasts (Apple Podcasts) Show Marketplace, Ep Biden looks to fill half a million cybersecurity jobs - Aug 25, 2021
Tech companies pledge billions in cybersecurity investments (Federal News Network) Some of the country’s leading technology companies have committed to investing billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and to train skilled workers…
Google, Microsoft plan to spend billions on cybersecurity after meeting with Biden (CNBC) Business leaders in sectors ranging from tech to insurance committed billions of dollars to beefing up cybersecurity efforts at a meeting with President Biden.
Microsoft to quadruple cybersecurity investments, spending $20B over five years (GeekWire) [Updated below with Microsoft confirmation and related announcements from Amazon, Google, and Code.org.] Microsoft reportedly plans to quadruple its cybersecurity spending to $20 billion over a five…
Why we’re committing $10 billion to advance cybersecurity (Google) Today, we are announcing that we will invest $10 billion over the next five years to strengthen cybersecurity.
Coalition meets with President Biden on cybersecurity (Coalition) Coalition CEO, Joshua Motta, met with President Biden to discuss cybersecurity and why stopping ransomware requires more than better technology.
DHS stands up new excepted service for cyber talent (FCW) The new human resources system, which is launching seven years after legislation authorizing special pay for cybersecurity specialists, is a complete move away from traditional federal HR practices, the agency said.
EXCLUSIVE Huawei gets U.S. approvals to buy auto chips, sparking blow back (Reuters) U.S. officials have approved license applications worth hundreds of millions of dollars for China's blacklisted telecom company Huawei to buy chips for its growing auto component business, two people familiar with the matter said.
Huawei gets US approval for auto chips as it refocuses on smart cars (South China Morning Post) The licences are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, giving Huawei access to less sophisticated chips found in car screens and sensors as it moves away from smartphones amid sanctions.
UK government names Facebook critic as preferred candidate for next Information Commissioner (Computing) John Edwards has previously called Facebook "morally bankrupt pathological liars"
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
Vade Secure Ordered to Pay $14 Million to Proofpoint in IP Theft Lawsuit (SecurityWeek) Email security company Vade Secure has been ordered to pay Proofpoint nearly $14 million as a result of a trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement lawsuit.
Federal judge in Michigan orders pro-Trump lawyers disciplined over lawsuit seeking to overturn 2020 election (Washington Post) A federal judge in Michigan has ordered that Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood and seven other attorneys who filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election be disciplined, calling the suit “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
Peterborough Scam Update: Some finance staff on paid leave (Monadnock Ledger-Transcript) The Town of Peterborough handed over $2.3 million to internet scammers, who collected three large scheduled payment transfers and converted them to cryptocurrency. Town officials said the stolen funds can’t be recovered and it remained unclear whether...
The SEC and the DOJ just charged this startup founder with fraud, saying he lied to Tiger and others (TechCrunch) Today, both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Manish Lachwani, cofounder of a mobile app testing company Headspin, with fraud. The SEC says he violated antifraud provisions, and the civil penalties it’s seeking include a permanent injunction, a …