Daily Briefing for 04.18.24

Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

US Election Officials Told to Prepare for Nation-State Influence Campa (Infosecurity Magazine) A US government advisory sets out actions election officials need to take to mitigate the impact of nation-state influence campaigns ahead of the November elections

'Crude' ransomware tools proliferating on the dark web for cheap, researchers find (The Record) Analysts at Sophos X-Ops are comparing the low-budget cybercrime tools to “junk guns” — cheap, imported weapons that flooded the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s.

SoumniBot malware exploits Android bugs to evade detection (BleepingComputer) A new Android banking malware named 'SoumniBot' is using a less common obfuscation approach by exploiting weaknesses in the Android manifest extraction and parsing procedure.

Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates

Ivanti warns of critical flaws in its Avalanche MDM solution (BleepingComputer) Ivanti has released security updates to fix 27 vulnerabilities in its Avalanche mobile device management (MDM) solution, two of them critical heap overflows that can be exploited for remote command execution.

Cisco discloses root escalation flaw with public exploit code (BleepingComputer) Cisco has released patches for a high-severity Integrated Management Controller (IMC) vulnerability with public exploit code that can let local attackers escalate privileges to root.

Products, Services, and Solutions

Permiso Launches Cloud Console Cartographer to Help Security Teams Make Sense of Console Activity in Cloud Logs (Permiso) On the heels of announcing their Series A fundraising and releasing an open-source cloud threat detection tool, CloudGrappler, Permiso has announced the launch of Cloud Console Cartographer, an open-source tool that helps security teams make sense of console-driven event activity in their AWS logs

Cisco Reimagines Security for Data Centers & Clouds in Era of AI (Cisco) Cisco today unveiled a radically new approach to securing data centers and clouds in response to the increasing demands of the AI revolution

Legislation, Policy, and Regulation

Massachusetts official warns AI systems subject to consumer protection, anti-bias laws (AP News) The Massachusetts attorney general has issued an advisory cautioning developers and business users of artificial intelligence that they must comply with state laws governing data privacy as well as consumer and anti-discrimination protections.

EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy (The Register) Platforms should not confront users with 'binary choice' over personal data use

House votes in favor of curtailing government transactions with data brokers (The Record) The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act passed 219-199 with significant Democratic support. Biden administration officials have denounced the legislation on national security grounds.

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

Events

Spring 2024 CISSP Study Group presented by ISSA Central MD (Columbia, or virtual, Maryland, USA, Feb 20 - May 1, 2024) Our Study Group fosters a learning environment to better absorb and understand the material. This is much better than the alternative of cram it in and regurgitate it on a test immediately following. Our approach simply makes the information more useful and easier to interpret! You can attend each session in-person in Columbia, MD, or attend virtually on line.

SANS Pen Test Austin 2024 (Austin (and virtual), Texas, USA, Apr 22 - 27, 2024) At SANS Pen Test Austin 2024, choose from 41 interactive courses with hands-on labs. Practice your skills and compete against your peers during NetWars Tournaments, and network with your instructor and industry colleagues in real-time. Each course includes electronic and printed books, and several courses align with GIAC certifications!

Insider Threat Program Development, Management & Optimization Live Web Based Training Course (Virtual, Apr 23 - 24, 2024) This highly sought after and very comprehensive training course, will ensure that the Insider Threat Program (ITP) Manager and other key stakeholders that support the ITP (Insider Threat Analyst, FSO, CSO, CISO, Human Resources, CIO - IT, Network Security, Counterintelligence Investigators, Behavioral Science Professionals, Legal Etc.), have the Core / Advanced Knowledge, Blueprint, Resources needed for developing, managing or optimizing an ITP. Students will be provided with an ITP Management Toolkit that provides an abundance of educational resources, templates and checklists for ITP development, management and optimization. All materials will be provided to the student in electronic format (Via Download) before the training. Our student satisfaction levels are in the exceptional range. Over 900+ individuals have attended this training course and received ITP Manager Certificates.

SANS Baltimore Spring 2024 (Baltimore (and virtual), Maryland, USA, Apr 28 - May 3, 2024) At SANS Baltimore Spring 2024, choose from 41 interactive courses with hands-on labs. Practice your skills and compete against your peers during NetWars Tournaments, and network with your instructor and industry colleagues in real-time. Each course includes electronic and printed books, and several courses align with GIAC certifications!

World’s Top 50 Innovators 2024 (London, England, UK, May 8 - 10, 2024) We are thrilled to invite you to join us at one of the most prestigious events in the tech calendar, the World’s Top 50 Innovators 2024! Get ready to embark on an incredible journey of inspiration, creativity, and breakthrough technologies that will shape the future. Innovation is the driving force behind progress, and once again it’s time to celebrate the companies that are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Come and join us to learn what’s on the horizon, understand the bigger picture, and celebrate world-firsts and sensational achievements in the high-tech sectors. The format will be a series of Codex Talks, each of which is a concise presentation, lasting 15 minutes (or less), in which the speaker addresses a challenging question faced by their technology or industry today, and ends with a bold prediction for the future.