US Supreme Court to hear arguments related to TikTok ban.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

US Supreme Court to hear arguments related to TikTok ban.
Suspected Chinese threat actor exploits Ivanti Connect Secure vulnerability.
New version of the Banshee macOS stealer.

US Supreme Court to hear arguments related to TikTok ban.

The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments today concerning a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States on January 19th unless the app's owner, China-based ByteDance, agrees to sell off its US operations, NBC News reports. The law was passed by Congress earlier this year with broad bipartisan support and was signed by President Biden in April. TikTok and its supporters argue that the law violates the First Amendment, while proponents of the ban maintain that TikTok represents a national security risk due to its Chinese ownership. President-elect Trump has dropped his previous support for a ban and requested that the court delay the law in order to allow his incoming administration to reach a "political resolution." CBS News notes that it's unclear if the Supreme Court will take the president-elect's request into account when deciding the case.

If the law goes into effect, new users won't be able to download TikTok from Google or Apple's app stores, and existing users won't be able to update the app.

Suspected Chinese threat actor exploits Ivanti Connect Secure vulnerability.

Mandiant has published an analysis of the ongoing exploitation of a recently disclosed vulnerability (CVE-2025-0282) affecting Ivanti Connect Secure VPNs. The vulnerability, which received a patch on Wednesday, is an unauthenticated stack-based buffer overflow that could lead to unauthenticated remote code execution.

Mandiant attributes the exploitation to the China-aligned espionage actor UNC5221. The researchers write, "In at least one of the appliances undergoing analysis, Mandiant observed the deployment of the previously observed SPAWN ecosystem of malware (which includes the SPAWNANT installer, SPAWNMOLE tunneler, and the SPAWNSNAIL SSH backdoor). The deployment of the SPAWN ecosystem of malware following the targeting of Ivanti Secure Connect appliances has been attributed to UNC5337, a cluster of activity assessed with moderate confidence to be part of UNC5221....Mandiant has also identified previously unobserved malware families from additional compromised appliances, tracked as DRYHOOK and PHASEJAM that are currently not yet linked to a known group."

Mandiant concludes that "defenders should be prepared for widespread, opportunistic exploitation, likely targeting credentials and the deployment of web shells to provide future access."

New version of the Banshee macOS stealer.

Researchers at Check Point are tracking a new version of Banshee, a strain of macOS malware designed to steal browser credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, passwords, and other sensitive data. The new version of Banshee surfaced in late September 2024, using a string encryption algorithm from Apple's XProtect antivirus engine that allowed it to evade detection for more than two months.

Banshee's malware-as-a-surface operation shut down after its source code was leaked in November 2024, but Check Point notes that multiple phishing campaigns are still distributing the malware.

Notes.

Today's issue includes events affecting , and China the United States.

Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

New amateurish ransomware group FunkSec using AI to develop malware (The Record) Despite claims to have attacked dozens of victims in the last month, the group likely consists of inexperienced hackers seeking recognition, researchers said.

Proton Mail still down as Proton recovers from worldwide outage (BleepingComputer) Privacy firm Proton suffered a massive worldwide outage today, taking down most services, with Proton Mail and Calendar users still unable to connect to their accounts.

Marketplace

Welcoming Our New CFO & President (Wiz) Fazal Merchant joins our leadership team as we look to what lies ahead.

Products, Services, and Solutions

Securing a city-sized event: How Amazon integrates physical and logical security at re:Invent (Amazon Web Services) Securing an event of the magnitude of AWS re:Invent—the Amazon Web Services annual conference in Las Vegas—is no small feat. The most recent event, in December, operated on the scale of a small city, spanning seven venues over twelve miles and nearly seven million square feet across the bustling Las Vegas Strip. Keeping all 60,000 […]

Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement

Florida Firm Fined $337K by Feds for Data Deleted in Hack (BankInfoSecurity) A Florida-based behavioral health holding company has paid federal regulators a $337,750 HIPAA settlement for a 2018 incident involving the deletion of electronic

Industry Events

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

Newly Noted Events

CSA's Virtual AI Summit Q1 2025 (Virtual, Jan 29 - 30, 2025) As organizations increasingly deploy AI technologies, understanding the risks, compliance requirements, and security implications becomes critical to successful and sustainable adoption. CSA’s 2nd annual Virtual AI Summit will dive deep into the enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence, the critical role of cybersecurity in GenAI, and focus on governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) as vital best practices. This two-day virtual summit brings together thought leaders, cybersecurity experts, and AI innovators to explore how AI is transforming business operations while addressing the challenges of securing AI systems and maintaining compliance with evolving regulations. Attendees will receive an early preview of STAR for AI in addition to exclusive inside information on a major CSA-led AI initiative that is yet to be announced. The CSA Virtual AI Summit is the must-attend event to get the inside track on how AI can help you transform, automate and build compliance within your cloud environment.

Events

Hacking 4 Humanity 2025 (Virtual, Jan 24 - Feb 7, 2025) Online hate is on the rise, leading to real-world devastating effects on individuals and communities around the world. Join Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne, Pitt, and other undergrad and grad students from Pittsburgh at a multidisciplinary hackathon to develop new tech and policy solutions that mitigate online hate and create safer communities. Hacking4Humanity is a tech and policy hackathon for undergraduate and graduate students, which offers students a new way to engage with real-world social problems that can be improved with novel technical and policy solutions.

Cyberjutsu Unplugged: Career Exploration Day (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Jan 25, 2025) Join us January 25th and learn more about Cybersecurity and how you can have a career in this space. This is a FREE event but we do recommend making a donation. Just $50, provides a one year membership to the Women's Society of Cyberjutsu and all the resources available to help you along your journey.

GSA Spaceport Summit 2025 (Orlando, Florida, USA, Jan 27, 2025) Commercial Space Week begins with annual GSA Spaceport Summit on January 27, 2025.

Space Mobility Conference and Expo (Orlando, Florida, USA, Jan 28, 2025) Space Mobility mobilizes commercial industry executives and high-ranking officials from defense and government agencies to assure access and superiority in the highly contested space domain.

SpaceCom/Space Congress (Orlando, Florida, USA, Jan 28 - 30, 2025) SpaceCom | Space Congress exclusively draws participation from the industry leaders and organizations with the power to drive new space strategies, fuel forward progress, signal demand for continued innovation, inform policy, and institute a sustainable future for commercial space. As host of Commercial Space Week, SpaceCom integrates the people, institutions, and solutions that ignite innovation– facilitating progress for every space mission.

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Daily Briefing for 01.10.25

At a glance.

US Supreme Court to hear arguments related to TikTok ban.

Suspected Chinese threat actor exploits Ivanti Connect Secure vulnerability.

New version of the Banshee macOS stealer.

Notes.

Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

Marketplace

Products, Services, and Solutions

Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement

Newly Noted Events

Events