Exchange Server updates. SolarWinds victim list "solidified." AFCEA and Shell disclose third-party breaches. MangaDex down.

Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

Thousands of Exchange servers breached prior to patching, CISA boss says (CyberScoop) A U.S. government cybersecurity official on Monday warned organizations not to have a false sense of security when it comes to vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server software, noting that “thousands” of computer servers with updated software had already been breached.

Microsoft Exchange Server attacks: 'They're being hacked faster than we can count', says security company (ZDNet) A 'significant' number of cyberattacks targeting vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers are attempted every single day, warn researchers at F-Secure - who say it's critical to apply the patches immediately.

Report goes "behind enemy lines" to reveal SilverFish cyber-espionage group (Malwarebytes Labs) PRODAFT researchers have uncovered a sophisticated cyber-espionage group with links to SolarWinds and EvilCorps.

CISA head: Group of SolarWinds victims is 'solidified' (FCW) Brandon Wales, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also said his agency is still working to determine if any federal networks were compromised by vulnerabilities discovered in Microsoft Exchange.

Does Microsoft share blame for the SolarWinds hack? (Computerworld) Critics, including a prominent U.S. senator, are pointing fingers at Microsoft for not warning customers about the Golden SAML security hole. Doing so might have headed off SolarWinds.

BlackKingdom ransomware attacking Microsoft Exchange servers via ProxyLogon vulnerabilities (Computing) Patching the bugs will not remove a hacker who has already compromised a server, according to Microsoft

OAUTH Abuse: Think SolarWinds/Solorigate Campaign with Focus on Cloud Applications (Proofpoint) Enterprise app stores such as Microsoft AppSource and Google Workspace Marketplace offer millions of useful OAuth apps and add-ons: analytics, security, CRM, document management, project management and more.

TikTok Doesn’t Pose Overt Threat to U.S. National Security, Researchers Say (Wall Street Journal) A new study by university cybersecurity researchers found that the computer code underlying the TikTok app doesn’t pose an overt national security threat to the U.S., which had been a concern of the Trump administration.

TikTok vs Douyin: A Security and Privacy Analysis (The Citizen Lab) A comparative analysis of security, privacy, and censorship issues in TikTok and Douyin, both developed by ByteDance.

Third-party cyber security incident impacts Shell (Shell) Shell has been impacted by a data security incident involving Accellion’s File Transfer Appliance. Shell uses this appliance to securely transfer large data files.

Shell Says Personal, Corporate Data Stolen in Accellion Security Incident (SecurityWeek) Oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) is the latest company to have confirmed impact from the December 2020 cyber-attack on Accellion’s File Transfer Appliance (FTA) file sharing service.

Energy giant Shell discloses data breach after Accellion hack (BleepingComputer) Energy giant Shell has disclosed a data breach after attackers compromised the company's secure file-sharing system powered by Accellion's File Transfer Appliance (FTA).

Hobby Lobby Exposed 138GB of Data (Vice) The cache included customer names, phone numbers, addresses, and the last four digits of their payment card.

Facebook says took down 1.3 billion fake accounts in Oct-Dec (Reuters) Facebook Inc said on Monday it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December and that it had over 35,000 people working on tackling misinformation on its platform.

Musk moves to downplay Tesla spying allegations in China (Silicon Republic) Officials in China are reportedly concerned that tech in Tesla cars could be used for espionage with data sent to the US.

Instagram scams and how to avoid them (Naked Security) Don’t get taken for a sucker on social media! Here are our top tips to protect you from Instagram scams…

Popular Netop Remote Learning Software Found Vulnerable to Hacking (The Hacker News) Popular Remote Learning Software From Netop Vision Pro Found Vulnerable to Hacking

Mangadex Has Been Hacked, Users Should Assume Data Has Been Breached (TorrentFreak) MangaDex, a scanlation platform with tens of millions of monthly visitors, is down following a possible malicious data breach.

MangaDex website taken offline following cyber-attack, data breach (The Daily Swig) Owners of manga fan site are rebuilding the codebase following series of security incidents

MangaDex - See you soon! (MangaDex) Due to a recent hacking incident, MangaDex will be down until further notice.

Ransomwared Bank Tells Customers It Lost Their SSNs (Vice) A data breach that already hit bank employees just got much worse

Phishing Scam - Charity (IRONSCALES) IRONSCALES identified and stopped a charity-related phishing scam impacting 200+ customers

Cybercriminals still leveraging COVID-19 pandemic for scams (Intel 471) While the world is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, the cybercriminal underground is finding ways to continue its schemes as civil society is trying to repair the wreckage COVID-19 has caused.

A passport to freedom? Fake COVID-19 test results and vaccination certificates offered on Darknet and hacking forums - Check Point Software (Check Point Software) Check Point Research highlights new trend of forged negative COVID-19 test results and fake vaccine certificates offered on the Darknet and various

Park Hill School District cancels school due to malware attack (FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV) The Park Hill School District has canceled all classes for the day after a malware attack compromised needed computer systems.

Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates

Microsoft Exchange server patching efforts are going extraordinarily well (The Record by Recorded Future) Three weeks after disclosing a major vulnerability in its email server software, Microsoft said today that roughly 92% of all Exchange servers have been patched or received temporary mitigations against the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities and are safe from attacks.

Netop Vision Pro – Distance Learning Software is 20/20 in Hindsight (McAfee Blogs) The McAfee Labs Advanced Threat Research team is committed to uncovering security issues in both software and hardware to help developers provide safer

Critical RCE Vulnerability Found in Apache OFBiz ERP Software—Patch Now (The Hacker News) Critical RCE Vulnerability Found in Apache OFBiz Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system—Patch Now

Adobe Patches Critical ColdFusion Security Flaw (SecurityWeek) Adobe has released an "critical" patch for a potentially dangerous code execution vulnerability in Adobe ColdFusion.

Samsung's off to an early start with March security updates for its phones (Android Police) Samsung started updating some of its international devices to the March security patch last week, and now distribution is reaching unlocked devices in the

Cyber Trends

The State of the WAN 2021 (Aryaka) Learn about the latest WAN trends and SD-WAN drivers influencing digital transformation in our 5th annual State of the WAN 2021 report. Download now.

Threat Trends: DNS Security, Part 2 (Cisco Blogs) A deep dive into industry-specific threat trends surrounding malicious DNS activity.

Remote Workers in the Crosshairs: Mimecast Publishes New Report Detailing Threat Actor Attacks During “The Year of Social Distancing” (GlobeNewswire) Company researchers report a 48% rise in threat volume in the first year of the pandemic; Threat actor attack volume mirrors spiking COVID-19 infection rates in April and October 2020

The Year of Social Distancing: Security Challenges of the New Digital Workspace (Mimecast) There have been events throughout history that have caused a fundamental transformation of society on a global scale. The harnessing of electricity, the internal combustion engine, the two world wars and the internet come to mind. However, none of these caused a global transformation of society as quickly as did the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marketplace

RedTorch Formed from Ashes of Norse Corp. (KrebsOnSecurity) Remember Norse Corp., the company behind the interactive "pew-pew" cyber attack map shown in the image blow? Norse imploded rather suddenly in 2016 following a series of managerial missteps and funding debacles. Now, the founders of Norse have launched a new company with a somewhat different vision: RedTorch, which for the past two years has…

Axis Security Accelerates Growth with Series C Funding Led by Spark Capital; Raises $100 Million in First Year with Disruptive Platform that Transforms Secure Remote Access (PR Newswire) Axis Security, the leader in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), today announced a $50 million Series C round, bringing its total raised to date...

KnowBe4 Files For First Cybersecurity Vendor IPO Of 2021 (CRN) KnowBe4 became the first cybersecurity company to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) this year, revealing diminishing losses and a rapidly growing channel program.

10 things we learned about KnowBe4 in its IPO (St Pete Catalyst) Clearwater cybersecurity training business KnowBe4 — the first technology unicorn headquartered in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area — plans to raise at least $100 million in an initial public offering. The planned IPO was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday, almost exactly one year since the St. Pete Catalyst was [...]

Orca Security Hits $1.2B Valuation After $210M Series C  (Crunchbase News) Los Angeles-based cloud security provider Orca Security has landed a $210 million Series C; giving it a $1.2 billion valuation and lifting the company’s total amount of funding raised in the last 10 months to $285 million.

SailPoint Technologies’ Acquisition of ERP Maestro (Global Legal Chronicle) Vinson & Elkins LLP advised SailPoint Technologies, Inc. on the deal. SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SAIL), the leader in identity security for the cloud enterprise, …

CFC acquires Queensland cyber security firm (Insurance News) CFC Underwriting has extended its cyber incident response team with the acquisition of Gold Coast-based Insane Technologies as it works towards 24/7 “follow the sun” cyber incident service for its customers across 65 countries.

A tiny security start-up founded by engineers who sold their last company to Microsoft is already worth $1.7 billion (CNBC) Investors see Wiz as being worth more than some public companies given the fast uptake of its cloud security tool.

Cymulate Expands its Global Operations into Asia with Japanese Telecoms Giant NTT (PR Newswire) Cymulate, the only SaaS-based Continuous Security Validation platform to operationalize the MITRE ATT&CK® framework end-to-end, today announced...

AVCtechnologies Named Growth Partner of the Year by AT&T Cybersecurity (GlobeNewswire) AT&T Cybersecurity recognizes outstanding growth by the AVCtechnologies Computex brand

Blank Rome Expands Privacy, Security & Data Protection Practice with Leading Team in California (Yahoo) Blank Rome LLP is pleased to welcome three new attorneys to the firm’s Corporate, M&A, and Securities group, notably enhancing the firm’s Privacy, Security & Data Protection practice: partners Sharon R. Klein, who will serve as chair of the Privacy, Security & Data Protection practice, and Alex C. Nisenbaum, as well as associate Karen H. Shin.

ExtraHop appoints Keith Symons to lead Aussie channel sales (ARN) US-based cyber analytics vendor ExtraHop has appointed IT veteran Keith Symons to lead sales across the Australian channel.

Trevor Hellebuyck Joins WireWheel as Chief Technology Officer (PR Newswire) WireWheel, a leader in data privacy technology, today announced Trevor Hellebuyck has joined the Company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In...

As Customer Growth Surges, Devo Technology Adds to Executive Team and Board of Directors (Devo.com) Fueled by sustained, strong momentum, cloud-native logging and security analytics leader adds industry veterans from Amazon, F5 Networks, SAP, LogMeIn and IBM Security...

Telos Hires Industry Veteran Troy Bertram to Lead Global Enterprise Sales Efforts (Telos Corporation) Regulated industry and commercial enterprise sales leader brings 25 years of business development, leadership and channel strategy experience

Products, Services, and Solutions

Microsoft’s one-click tool to protect against cyberattacks is getting lots of downloads (Fortune) The tool has been downloaded more than 25,000 times since it was released last week.

DH2i and Nubelity Enter into Strategic Channel Agreement -- Expanding DH2i’s Latin America Footprint (DH2i) DH2i is very pleased to share that we have entered into a strategic channel agreement with Nubelity, serving our first joint customer, a Latin American bank.

Acronis DeviceLock DLP 9.0 delivers complete data loss protection for endpoints (Acronis) For information about Acronis and Acronis' products or to schedule an interview, please send an email or get through to Acronis' representative, using media contacts.

Deloitte partners with cybersecurity scale-up (BusinessCloud) Contextual monitoring firm to combat criminal activities amid fraud epidemic

Thycotic releases new integrations to bolster account governance (Security Brief) “Service accounts are often left defenceless, even by enterprises with established programs for privileged user security.

PKWARE Unveils New Branding and Launches New PK Protect Solution Suite (PR Newswire) PKWARE, a global leader in automated data security, announced today a rebrand and product relaunch under the new PK Protect, an integrated...

Gigamon Launches Hawk and Partners with AWS to Simplify and Secure Cloud Adoption (Gigamon) Hawk, the industry’s first elastic visibility fabric for all data-in-motion, closes the critical cloud visibility gap.

Exabeam Launches First-ever Comprehensive Use Case Coverage for Successful Outcome-based Security (Exabeam) Prescriptive end-to-end framework enables organizations to protect against external threats, compromised insiders and malicious insiders FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 23, 2021 –Exabeam, the security analytics and automation company, today announced a set of new functionalities aligned across Exabeam’s products to solve specific security challenges. The new Threat Detection, Investigation & Response (TDIR) use case packages... Read more »

Medigate Partners with Rapid7 to Protect Healthcare IoT Devices (BusinessWire) Medigate partners with Rapid7 to protect healthcare IoT devices to secure real time health.

We're open sourcing Protocol Fuzzer Community Edition! (GitLab) GitLab is releasing an open source protocol fuzz testing repository.

Technologies, Techniques, and Standards

Industry Leaders Create First Unified Cybersecurity Guide for Boards of Directors (Mirage News) Boards of directors need to play a more active role in protecting their organization from the growing threat of cyber risks, and few fully understand the...

Principles for Board Governance of Cyber Risk (World Economic Forum) This paper is designed for corporate directors to refer to as they set their organization’s cybersecurity strategy and engage with stakeholders on the issue of cyber risk.

Executing Commander’s Intent at Machine Speed for Cyber (The Cipher Brief) The Need. Decision advantage for the federal government and in DoD combined cyber operations results from the secure, seamless, and rapid maneuver of data and information.

One Shockingly Common Blind Spot that Can Derail Your Company's Cybersecurity (Entrepreneur) So you think your company's data is secure? If you haven't engaged your employees in cybersecurity, your company could be in danger.

XDR: A Cybersecurity Game-changer (TahawulTech.com) XDR is an integrated platform that provides visibility and automated defences required across all enterprise data.

Design and Innovation

U-M computer chip pitted against 500+ hackers. The chip won. (University of Michigan News) An "unhackable" computer chip lived up to its name in its first bug bounty competition, foiling over 500 cybersecurity researchers who were offered tens of thousands of dollars to analyze it and three other secure processor technologies for vulnerabilities. MORPHEUS, developed by computer science

Research and Development

Quantum computing's threat to cryptography--Part 1 (FierceElectronics) An expert describes how quantum computing may undermine current crypto techniques.

After the science: What quantum computing will really mean for the tech industry (CRN Australia) Four of Australia's quantum leaders explain the real-world effects of quantum computing.

Novel thermometer can accelerate quantum computer development (EurekAlert!) Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a novel type of thermometer that can simply and quickly measure temperatures during quantum calculations with extremely high accuracy. The breakthrough provides a benchmarking tool for quantum computing of great value - and opens up for experiments in the exciting field of quantum thermodynamics.

Legislation, Policy, and Regulation

What We Learned in the DNI’s New Election Report (Defense One) The newly released assessment is more complex and comprehensive than its 2017 predecessor, reflecting just how much the issue of foreign interference has evolved.

China’s Huawei, ZTE may qualify for trusted gear vendors list: Report - ET Teleco (ETTelecom.com) Along with Chinese equipment makers, Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson as well as semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel and Qualcomm will also face scr..

The Huawei Factor in US-India Relations (Diplomat) U.S. and Indian decisions about Huawei have implications not just for their separate relations with China, but the U.S.-India bilateral as well.

US government calls for better information sharing in wake of SolarWinds, Exchange attacks (CSO Online) The Biden administration seeks ways to better gather and share security intelligence from the private sector, but experts see barriers to success.

CYBERSEC 2021: Progress, diplomacy, and competing claims: notes from the conference. (The CyberWire) The fourth CYBERSEC Brussels Leaders Foresight Conference, “Together Against Adversarial Internet,” convened Western leaders on March 18, 2021, to survey questions of policy, economics, security, and innovation through the lens of their shared digital future.

CYBERSEC 2021: Regulatory obstacles to data flow. (The CyberWire) The Kosciuszko Institute's fourth CYBERSEC Brussels Leaders Foresight Conference, “Together Against Adversarial Internet,” convened Western leaders on March 18th, 2021, to survey questions of policy, economics, security, and innovation through the lens of their shared digital future. This article describes the discussions that took place surrounding data flows, and in particular ways of overcoming regulatory obstacles, post-Schrems II.

CYBERSEC 2021: Partnering across oceans and seas. (The CyberWire) The Kosciuszko Institute's fourth CYBERSEC Brussels Leaders Foresight Conference, “Together Against Adversarial Internet,” convened Western leaders on March 18th, 2021, to survey questions of policy, economics, security, and innovation through the lens of their shared digital future. The Three Seas Initiative remains an important capacity-building exercise.

DoD’s Own Bureaucracy Top Barrier To Winning Spectrum Back (Breaking Defense) America's inability to progress beyond "Cold War capabilities" in this "most important environment to modern warfare" follows three EMS strategies over eight years. "They weren't bad strategies," experts agreed, but DoD simply failed to fully implement them. Now GAO is warning the latest strategy, just months old, may face the same fate.

New Cybersecurity Programs to Protect US Energy (Infosecurity Magazine) US to launch three new research programs to safeguard energy security

DOE Announces Cybersecurity Programs for Enhancing Safety and Resilience of U.S. Energy Sector (Energy.gov) CESER Adding Three New Research Programs to Develop New Safeguards Against Physical and Cyber Threats

Biden to nominate tech antitrust pioneer Lina Khan for FTC commissioner (The Verge) A leading voice in tech antitrust.

Analysis | The Cybersecurity 202: DHS official promises help for states struggling with digital attacks on critical services (Washington Post) CISA is readying the use of some new tools to combat the rise in ransomware.

Connecticut Legislature Considers Incentivizing Adoption of Cybersecurity Best Practices (PR Newswire) The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®) testified before the Commerce Committee of the State of Connecticut General Assembly last...

Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement

Alleged North Korean Operative Makes First U.S. Court Appearance (Wall Street Journal) Mun Chol Myong, who was extradited from Malaysia last week, faces charges of helping North Korea flout U.S. sanctions.

Suspected BEC gang arrested in Nigeria amid internet fraud crackdown efforts (The Record by Recorded Future) Nigerian authorities arrested 18 suspects last week in the province of Ogun on internet fraud-related charges, including malware and business email compromise (BEC) attacks, officials told The Record today.

U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs Facebook appeal in user tracking lawsuit (Reuters) The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away Facebook Inc's bid to pare back a $15 billion class action lawsuit accusing the company of illegally tracking the activities of internet users even when they are logged out of the social media platform.

Why this French court decision has far-reaching consequences for many businesses (IAPP) A recent court case from France's highest administrative court has significant consequences for many businesses in the wake of the "Schrems II" decision.

Sidney Powell Says Her Dominion Claims Were Opinion Not Fact (Bloomberg) Lawyer says case should move from D.C. to Texas if not tossed. She says Washington courts are too busy after the Jan. 6 riot.

Pollard, ex-Navy analyst, defends spying on US for Israel in rare interview (Navy Times) Jonathan Pollard sold military secrets to Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy in the 1980s.

For a complete running list of events, please visit the Event Tracker.

Newly Noted Events

Cyber Apocalypse Global CTF 2021 (Virtual, Apr 19 - 23, 2021) Free for everyone to join, this five-day, capture-the-flag hackathon not only has a backstory ("Ready to save the world? 22 April is International Earth Day and guess what… The Earth was hacked by malicious extraterrestrials; Their ultimate plan is to seize control of our planet; It’s only you who can save us from this terrible fate") but it offers a prizes as well: £11,500. It's also an opportunity to hack for a good cause: they're raising donations for Code.org.

Security Summit: South Africa (Virtual, Apr 22, 2021) With the constant threats to payment security globally, it’s important, now more than ever, that we help secure the future of payments together. Join the PCI Security Standards Council and invited guests for a special free online program for payment security professionals in South Africa. The PCI SSC Security Summit: South Africa is scheduled for Thursday, 22 April 2021 and will include updates from the Council, regional insights, and a panel discussion with local industry leaders. Don’t miss out on this opportunity.

Security Summit: India (Virtual, Jun 3, 2021) We provide you with the information and tools to help secure payment data. We lead a global, cross industry effort to increase payment security by providing industry-driven, flexible and effective data security standards and programs that help businesses detect, mitigate and prevent criminal attacks and breaches. Don’t miss out.

Security Summit: Latin America (Virtual, Aug 12, 2021) We provide you with the information and tools to help secure payment data. We lead a global, cross industry effort to increase payment security by providing industry-driven, flexible and effective data security standards and programs that help businesses detect, mitigate and prevent criminal attacks and breaches. Don’t miss out.

Upcoming Events

National Cyber League (NCL) Spring Season (Virtual, Feb 15 - Apr 11, 2021) The National Cyber League (NCL) is a defensive and offensive biannual puzzle-based, capture-the-flag style cybersecurity competition allowing US high school and collegiate students of all skill levels to showcase and build their skills. Its virtual training ground helps students prepare and test themselves against cybersecurity challenges that they will likely face in the workforce. All participants play the games simultaneously during Preseason, Individual Game and Team Game. Between easy, medium and hard challenges, students identify their strengths and weaknesses and expand their portfolio with an NCL Scouting Report. Registration for the Spring Season closes March 9, 2020.

SoCal Cyber Cup Challenge (SCCC) (Virtual, Feb 15 - May 31, 2021) Now in its 12th year, the SoCal Cyber Cup Challenge (SCCC) is a cybersecurity competition for middle school, high school, and community college students in the Southern California region, started by NDIA San Diego. Supported by a Department of Defense grant, this year’s competition will include community college students and extensive training for competitors and their mentors. As part of the grant, faculty from Coastline College, Palomar College, and Riverside City College will be supporting the challenge by developing mentor training content and promoting the competition.

Celebrating Women in Privacy: Ways to Support and Advance Women in the Field (Virtual, Mar 23, 2021) Women hold only 25% of all the jobs in the tech industry. Women in privacy, in particular, are paid 17% less than their male counterparts; with women of color making even less. Discrimination and bias, both within policies and in the way we structure our workforce, limit the U.S.’s ability to identify and address threats, innovate, address issues related to privacy invasions, and more. To celebrate March as Women’s History Month — an in concert with #ShareTheMicInCyber — join leading women in privacy for a conversation promoting diversity in tech and exploring ways to promote change within the industry. Let’s open a dialogue about the ways allyship, mentorship, and sponsorship can advance women in privacy.

Priv8 Digital Privacy Summit (Virtual, Mar 23 - 25, 2021) The summit will feature keynotes from all fronts of the privacy war, including Whistleblower & Cybersecurity Expert Edward Snowden, Founder and CEO of the Electric Coin Company Zooko Wilcox, Electronic Frontier Foundation Executive Director Cindy Cohn, Digital Minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang, Executive Director at the Linux Foundation, Brian Behlendorf, as well as Co-founder and CEO of Orchid, Dr. Steven Waterhouse. Priv8 topics will illuminate the battlelines between freedom versus safety in the perpetual privacy crisis, focusing on how we communicate, transact financially and live in the era of digital surveillance. The summit will enhance the conversation around the future of digital privacy, reveal how the pandemic accelerated existing trends and analyze how people can protect their rights online.

The Cybersecurity Summit (Virtual, Mar 23 - 25, 2021) Join Cipher Brief CEO and Publisher Suzanne Kelly and former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency Rick Ledgett for a world-class, three-day virtual Cybersecurity Summit engaging experts from the public and private sectors on today's most pressing cybersecurity issues including: lessons learned from the SolarWinds hack, adapting a forward-leaning defense posture for private companies, and the latest innovative ideas for information sharing. This event is available to Cipher Brief members and non-members, and will take place over three days, from 11:00AM to 1:30PM (ET)