Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Advanced StrongPity Hackers Target Syria and Turkey with Retooled Spyware (The Hacker News) StrongPity hackers target Kurdish community in Syria and Turkey for surveillance and intelligence exfiltration purposes.
Promethium APT attacks surge, new Trojanized installers uncovered (ZDNet) The hacking group behind StrongPity is ignoring constant exposure by researchers in its quest for global intelligence and surveillance.
StrongPity APT – Revealing Trojanized Tools, Working Hours and Infrastructure (Bitdefender Labs) Bitdefender researchers have recently found the APT group StrongPity has been targeting victims in Turkey and Syria. Using watering hole tactics to selectively infect victims and deploying a three-tier C&C infrastructure to thwart forensic...
PROMETHIUM extends global reach with StrongPity3 APT (Cisco Talos) The threat actor behind StrongPity is not deterred despite being exposed multiple times over the past four years.
US Cyber Command says foreign hackers will most likely exploit new PAN-OS security bug (ZDNet) Palo Alto Networks disclosed today a major bug that lets hackers bypass authentication on its firewall and corporate VPN products.
Critical flaw opens Palo Alto Networks firewalls and VPN appliances to attack, patch ASAP! (Help Net Security) Palo Alto Networks has patched a critical and easily exploitable vulnerability (CVE-2020-2021) affecting PAN-OS and is urging users to update ASAP.
US Cyber Command highlights Palo Alto Networks security patch, citing foreign espionage (CyberScoop) U.S. cyber officials are urging American companies and individuals who rely on a popular security product to update their systems immediately, before foreign hackers can exploit a flaw in the technology to steal protected information.
Forged Emails and Messages by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Its Cyber-Terror Unit (NCRI) Desperate and crisis-ridden regime grabs at straws in fear of the Resistance and uprising Coinciding with the Iranian Resistance's International
Creepto Cash: personal data of thousands of users from the UK, Australia, South Africa, the US, Singapore exposed in bitcoin scam (Group-IB) Group-IB, a global threat hunting and intelligence company headquartered in Singapore, has discovered thousands of personal records of users from the UK, Australia, South Africa, the US, Singapore, Spain, Malaysia and other countries exposed in a targeted multi-stage bitcoin scam.
945 Websites Hacked – up to 14 Million Potential Victims (Lucy Security) 945 Websites Hacked – up to 14 Million Potential Victims - Lucy Security - Lucy Security AG provides security awareness training and enables organizations to take on the role of an attacker and uncover weaknesses in both technical infrastructure and staff. We improve your IT security towards social engineering, spear phishing and ransomware attacks!
Cyber attack on NHAI email server, no data loss (The Economic Times) "A ransom ware attack on NHAI email server took place yesterday night. The attack was foiled by the security system and email servers were shut down from safety point of view," NHAI Chief General Manager, IT, Akhilesh Srivastava, said.
Beware “secure DNS” scam targeting website owners and bloggers (Naked Security) If you run a website or a blog, watch out for emails promising “DNSSEC upgrades” – these scammers are after your whole site.
Fake "DNS Update" emails targeting site owners and admins (Help Net Security) Attackers are trying to trick web administrators into sharing their admin account login credentials by urging them to activate DNSSEC for their domain.
3 Years After NotPetya, Many Organizations Still in Danger of Similar Attacks (Dark Reading) The same gaps that enabled ransomware to spread remain in patching, network segmentation, backup practices, security experts say.
Remote access at risk: Pandemic pulls more cyber‑crooks into the brute‑forcing game (WeLiveSecurity) ESET data shows that after COVID-19 has forced many people to work from home, cybercriminals have ramped up their brute-force attacks against remote access services.
Attackers Targeted Dozens of U.S. Companies with WastedLocker (The State of Security) Security researchers identified a string of attacks in which malicious actors attempted to target dozens of U.S. organizations with WastedLocker ransomware.
Cybercrims' web skimming strategies taint web analytics platforms (Security Brief) “This is a technique we have not seen before, and one that is particularly effective.
Roblox accounts being hacked in support of Trump reelection (BleepingComputer) A hacking campaign is targeting Roblox accounts to support President Trump in the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections in November.
()
The Imagined Threats of 5G Conspiracy Theorists Are Causing Real-World Harm (Foreign Policy) Attacks on cell phone towers are merely the latest evidence that virtual disinformation is leading to actual violence.
Hackers Wipe Off Data From Old Lenovo NAS: What to Do Now? (Tech Times) Should users just give in?
Understanding BlueLeaks (Avast) Law enforcement and public safety agencies share threat information insecurely through a third-party hosting provider that was breached in mid-June.
Cyber attack reported at NMSU Foundation (KRQE News 13) A cyber attack investigation is underway at New Mexico State University. School officials say security personnel noticed unusual activities on the network used by the NMSU…
Dark web fraud: How-to guides make cybercrime too easy (Infosec Resources) Introduction to dark web fraud Dark web fraud constitutes a global information security problem. The widespread availability of how-to guides providing
Vulnerability Summary for the Week of June 22, 2020 (CISA) The CISA Vulnerability Bulletin provides a summary of new vulnerabilities that have been recorded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Vulnerability Database (NVD) in the past week.
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Palo Alto Networks patches critical vulnerability in firewall OS (BleepingComputer) Palo Alto Networks disclosed a critical vulnerability found in the operating system (PAN-OS) of all its next-generation firewalls that could allow unauthenticated network-based attackers to bypass authentication.
How to Get Safari's New Privacy Features in Chrome and Firefox (Wired) Apple's browser is getting serious about security protections. If you can't or won't switch, don't worry: you don't have to fall behind.
Latest Galaxy Z Flip firmware update is out now with July security patch (SamMobile) Samsung has really picked up the pace with its monthly security updates over the past year. Several devices now receive ...
Cyber Trends
Sponsored content: What treadmills tell us about the state of the office during Covid-19. (The CyberWire) (This article was contributed and sponsored by Extrahop.) Everything from IP phones to printers to treadmills in your office gym connect to a network somewhere—except now there’s nobody in the building to turn them off. A recent security report from ExtraHop did find that most businesses remembered to shut down the exercise equipment when shuttering their doors in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, but can the same be said for other connected devices?
Evolving Government Data Collection Practices, Explained (Foreign Policy) Part 2: FP Analytics examines evolving government data collection practices and how AI is making this collection more efficient and ubiquitous.
Businesses Lack a Workable Ransomware Recovery Strategy (Infosecurity Magazine) 39% of organizations unaware of their ransomware strategy
Former NSA Chief Michael Rogers Talks Cybersecurity, Relationship Between People and Tech (WashingtonExec) As part of the Upfront Summit, former National Security Agency director and head of the Cyber Command, Michael Rogers, recently shared his thoughts on the
Marketplace
Hunters raises $15M Series A for its threat-hunting platform (TechCrunch) Hunters, a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup that helps enterprises defend themselves from intruders and analyze attacks, today announced that it has raised a $15 million Series A funding round from Microsoft’s M12 and U.S. Venture Partners. Seed investors YL Ventures and Blumberg Captial …
Area 1 Security Raises $25M in Funding to Drive Cloud Email Security Market (EnterpriseAI) Area 1 Security announced it has closed $25 million in growth funding led by new investors, ForgePoint Capital,
Deutsche Telekom Invests in $18m Series B+ Round in Autonomous Breach Protection Company Cynet (Benzinga) The Telekom Innovation Pool (TIP), Deutsche Telekom's strategic investment fund advised by DTCP, announces its investment...
Cynet raises $18 million for AI safeguards against cyberthreats (VentureBeat) Cynet, a cybersecurity startup that leverages AI and machine learning to detect threats, has raised $18 million in venture capital.
Microsoft Is Quietly Becoming a Cybersecurity Powerhouse (The Motley Fool) But will its walled garden convince companies to dump third-party security services?
How the founder of the Telegram messaging app stood up to the Kremlin — and won (Washington Post) Russia’s surrender to Telegram’s Pavel Durov shows the increasing challenges for states seeking to control social media.
Who will benefit from Europe’s growing distrust of Huawei? (Quartz) One homegrown company has a good market reputation, indirect help from the US, and its major competitors have serious problems.
What drives white-hat hackers? (GCN) A recent survey of bug bounty participants found that they don’t hunt bugs for the money, but motivated by the work’s flexible hours and chances to improve their skills.
Reddit bans r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse as part of a major expansion of its rules (The Verge) More than 2,000 communities are being removed on Monday for violating Reddit’s new content policies.
Twitch temporarily bans President Trump for "hateful conduct" (The Verge) Banned for "hateful conduct."
()
Facebook Sees Growing Ad Boycott in Protest Against Handling of Speech (Wall Street Journal) Ford, Clorox and Denny’s are joining a parade of companies that have moved to halt advertising spending on Facebook because of how the social-media giant has handled speech on its platforms.
Microsoft, Ford and Adidas join growing Facebook advertising boycott (The Telegraph) The 'stop hate for profit' campaign rolled up some of Facebook's biggest customers, representing hundreds of millions of dollars per year
As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like (Techdirt.) Well, that did not take long at all. On Friday we predicted that just like every other social media platform out there, the new favorite among people who falsely say that Twitter is censoring conservatives, would start taking down content and shutting...
Area 1 Security Snags Ex-SonicWall Vet Patrick Sweeney As CEO (CRN) Area 1 Security has brought on former SonicWall and Talari Networks executive Patrick Sweeney as CEO to help build the company’s channel program from scratch.
Products, Services, and Solutions
Bitglass deepens integration with MFA vendor Duo Security (Security Brief) Bitglass has announced a deepened integration with Duo Security, now part of Cisco, as it looks to strengthen security for the modern workforce.
Globe joins US-based Zscaler’s partner program to strengthen businesses’ cybersecurity (GMA News Online) Telecommunications giant Globe Telecom Inc. has joined California-based cloud information security firm Zscaler’s program to boost local businesses’ cybersecurity amid increase in digital transactions and remote work during the COVID-19 health crisis.
Comodo and CyberSecOp Announce Strategic Partnership after Award-Winning MSSP Dropped Leading Competitor (PR Newswire) Comodo and CyberSecOp today announced their strategic partnership. CyberSecOp, an award-winning, independent security consultancy firm...
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Accenture, AMD, Facebook and Nvidia sign up to advance 'Confidential Computing' (SiliconANGLE) Accenture, AMD, Facebook and Nvidia sign up to advance 'Confidential Computing' - SiliconANGLE
How to keep your communications truly private when everyone is remote (Federal News Network) With the increased attack surface created by remote work, it’s never been more critical that organizations revisit their cyber policies and the training they offer to employees.
3 Ways to Flatten the Health Data Hacking Curve (Dark Reading) With more people working from home, health data security is more challenging but vitally important. These tips can help safeguard healthcare data.
5 Ways to Improve Cyber Security Within Your Charity (PC Tech Magazine) Here's how to improve cyber security in Charity who are increasingly reliant on IT and technology falling victim to a range of malicious cyber activity.
Webcast: IPv6: How to Securely Start Deploying (Black Hills Information Security) Joff Thyer has dove into everything that is IPv6 and has so much to share about it. He gets really technical but in a way you’ll be able to understand. Google reports that over 30% of their systems access comes via the IPv6 protocol coming into 2020. Many Internet Service Providers have no remaining choice […]
Webcast: Modern Webapp Pentesting: How to Attack a JWT (Black Hills Information Security) So much information about testing webapps for security problems is old. Don’t get me wrong, the old stuff still works way more often than we’d like, but there’s more to webapp vulnerabilities than cross-site scripting and SQL injection. Take JWTs – JSON Web Tokens – for example. These are base64 encoded tokens that sometimes get […]
Design and Innovation
A remote corner of Idaho has become the best hope for the U.S. challenge to Huawei (Washington Post) Interest in the new technology is growing because some U.S. officials and lawmakers see it as a way to challenge Huawei, the Chinese company that has dominated wireless equipment sales for years.
New privacy-preserving SSO algorithm hides user info from third parties (Help Net Security) Researchers developed an SSO algorithm that does not disclose the user's identity and sensitive personal information to the service provider.
Academia
Hacker bootcamp: Alumnus creates cybersecurity experience for IST students (Penn State University) With students in the College of Information Sciences and Technology having offers rescinded from their internship placements, one alumnus launched an eight-week virtual hacker bootcamp to give a group of students professional experiences this summer.
How ASU's policy and security office is reimagining IT culture (ASU Now) Partnership, leadership and stakeholder empowerment is at the heart of the ASU UTO governance, policy and information security teams' unique approach. These domain experts and cultural ambassadors cultivate effective information technology (IT) practices, drive security and enable innovation across the university.
CSUSB receives 3 Department of Defense cybersecurity scholarships (Inland Empire Community News) Three students in the Cal State San Bernardino cybersecurity program will receive full scholarships in the fall from the Department of Defense Cyber
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Australian government pledges 10-year, AU$1.35 billion cyber kitty (ZDNet) AU$470 million will be used to create 500 cyber-related jobs within the Australian Signals Directorate.
DDoS and dingoes: Australia to bolster cyber-defences with 500 hackers amid China spat (Register) AU$1.35bn fund follows revelations that country was hit by state-run attack
Morrison's $1.3 billion for more 'cyber spies' is an incremental response to a radical problem (The Conversation) The Coalition has announced a new package to boost cyber security. But this is not new money and much more needs to be done to ward off cyber threats.
China Passes Hong Kong Security Law Aimed at Crushing Protests (Wall Street Journal) China’s legislature approved a sweeping new law aimed at quashing threats to national security in Hong Kong, rejecting Western criticism that Beijing’s efforts will curb people’s freedoms in the protest-torn city.
China passes controversial Hong Kong national security law (the Guardian) Critics say the measure, which criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, devastates Hong Kong’s autonomy
U.S. starts revoking Hong Kong privileges to pressure China (Kyodo News+) The United States says it is ending controlled defense exports to Hong Kong and will take steps toward imposing the same restrictions on U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to the territory as it does for mainland China.
US bars defense exports to Hong Kong, says new rules coming (Washington Post) The Trump administration is barring defense exports to Hong Kong and will soon require licenses for the sale of items that have both civilian and military uses
Huawei or Not? Brazil Faces a Key Geopolitical Choice (Americas Quarterly) The government has to choose between U.S. and China for its 5G network — while battling deep political, health and economic crises.
TikTok, Shareit, UC Browser among 59 Chinese apps banned by India as border tensions simmer in Ladakh (India Today) As tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China continues, the Government of India has decided to ban on 59 Chinese apps, including Tik Tok.
India Bans TikTok, Dozens of Other Chinese Apps After Border Clash (Wall Stree Journal) India banned dozens of Chinese mobile apps, including widely used TikTok and WeChat, after a border clash between troops from the two countries left 20 Indian soldiers dead this month.
India Bans Nearly 60 Chinese Apps, Including TikTok and WeChat (New York Times) The move is part of the tit-for-tat retaliation after the Indian and Chinese militaries clashed earlier this month.
After Pompeo says 'tide is turning against Huawei,' India reportedly weighs 5G ban on Chinese firm (CNBC) India said it would block 59 Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat, claiming they are a threat to national security. And now it's reportedly assessing whether Huawei and ZTE can participate in its 5G rollout.
India steps up vigil for cyber attacks from China after apps ban (The Economic Times) Cybersecurity experts said Indias ban on 59 Chinese apps was only the start and there will be greater scrutiny of companies, device makers and apps with exposure to China, which can trigger retaliatory attacks.
Campaigners Call for Computer Misuse Act Revision on 30th Anniversary (Infosecurity Magazine) The CyberUp Campaign calls for a revision of the Computer Misuse Act 30 years after it reached royal assent
Analysis | The Cybersecurity 202: Commission's plan to avert devastating cyberattack faces uphill battle, 9/11-era officials say (Washington Post) Policymakers may be reluctant to carry out ambitious changes without a public outcry.
Senators move to boost state and local cybersecurity as part of annual defense bill (TheHill) A group of Senate Democrats on Monday introduced a measure that would strengthen cybersecurity protections for states vulnerable to malicious cyberattacks as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (ND
The Senate has questions about DISA’s network security system (C4ISRNET) Language in the Senate NDAA would bar funds from being spent to deploy a DISA network security platform on DoD's SIPRNet.
Internet freedom activists are concerned a Trump appointee could threaten pro-democracy work abroad - CyberScoop (CyberScoop) Internet freedom advocates are urging U.S. lawmakers to protect a small government-backed nonprofit that’s funded a generation of secure technologies meant to safeguard data in repressive countries...
FCC Limits Definition Of Autodialer (Law360) The Federal Communications Commission has narrowed its definition of an "autodialer," stating that systems requiring the manual dialing of numbers are not autodialers and are not subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's restrictions.
California Enters Privacy Law Limbo as November Vote Looms (Wall Street Journal) Californians found themselves in an unusual situation over the past week: preparing to vote on a new privacy law before its predecessor has even been enforced.
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
Germany uncovers massive online child abuse network (Reuters) German cyber crime authorities have uncovered a massive online network of at least 30,000 people who share child pornography and exchange advice on how to sedate and abuse minors, law enforcement authorities said on Monday.
Huawei data flows under fire in German court case (POLITICO) A former manager sued the Chinese firm for breaching GDPR, opening a Pandora’s box on data flowing to China.
Cyber crime accused in judicial custody (MorungExpress) The Nagaland Police’s Cyber Crime Police Station, Kohima has summoned atleast two persons in Nagaland in connection to the Pankaj Gupta case.
Tim Hortons faces probe from privacy regulator after report that mobile app tracks users movements (CBC) Tim Hortons is being investigated by Canadian privacy authorities after media reports raised concerns about how its smartphone app may be collecting and using data on people’s movements as they go about their daily activities.
UnityPoint Health Reaches $2.8M Settlement Over 2018 Data Breach (HealthITSecurity) UnityPoint Health has reached a $2.8 settlement with the 1.4 million patients impacted by two separate phishing-related data breaches, which also requires the health system to upgrade its security.
File Your Claim in the Yahoo Data Breach Settlement (NerdWallet) You have until July 20 to file a claim in the $117.5 million settlement for data breaches at Yahoo. But how much you'll get, and when, is uncertain.
