Security

Fidelity National Financial (FNF) has revealed that around 1.3 million customers’ data may have been exposed during a ransomware attack it suffered in 2023. The firm, which provides title insurance services to the real estate and mortgage industries, notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the number of potentially impacted consumers in an updated

Takedown of malware infrastructure by law enforcement has proven to have an impact, albeit limited, on cybercriminal activity, according to threat intelligence provider Recorded Future. In its 2023 Adversary Infrastructure Report, published on January 9, 2024, Recorded Future analyzed the effect of three malware takedown operations that took place in 2023 or before: The Emotet

A critical vulnerability has been identified in the AI Engine plugin for WordPress, specifically affecting its free version with over 50,000 active installations.  The plugin is widely recognized for its diverse AI-related functionalities, allowing users to create chatbots, manage content and utilize various AI tools such as translation, SEO and more.  According to an advisory

Security researchers have recently unveiled strategic insights into countering .NET malware through the innovative use of the Harmony library.  The research, published earlier today, explores the significance of code manipulation in malware analysis, emphasizing its pivotal role for researchers, analysts and reverse engineers. Traditionally, code functionality is altered through debugging, Dynamic Binary Instrumentation (DBI) or

In a landmark move, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has taken a new step in developing strategies to fight against cyber-threats that target AI-powered chatbots and self-driving cars. The Institute released a new paper on January 4, 2024, in which it established a standardized approach to characterizing and defending against cyber-attacks on

Cyber-attacks targeting Web3 cost organizations $1.84bn in 2023 across 751 incidents, according to Certik’s Hack3d: The Web3 Security Report 2023. The average cost per incident was $2.45m in 2023. However, there was a wide disparity between the losses suffered, with the 10 most costly attacks alone accounting for $1.11bn. The highest costs occurred in Q3,

The US Justice Department (DoJ) announced that 19 individuals involved in managing and using the late xDedic cybercrime marketplace have been charged with lengthy prison sentences. The list includes two xDedic administrators, Pavlo Kharmanskyi, a Ukrainian man who was arrested while trying to enter the US, and Alexandru Habasescu, of Moldovan nationality, who was arrested

Two years after suffering a series of major beaches, LastPass has started implementing stricter password measures for its customers. These include the requirement for all customers to use a master password with at least 12 characters. This measure has been LastPass’ default option since 2018. In April 2023 it was made mandatory for new customers

Over 100 European banks will be tested on their cyber-attack response and recovery capabilities this year, the European Central Bank (ECB) has announced. The EU’s central bank will conduct its first ever cyber resilience stress test on 109 directly supervised banks in 2024. This test will focus on the banks’ ability to respond to a

Over $80m worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen following a cyber-attack on cross-chain bridge project Orbit Chain. The blockchain revealed the incident on its X account on January 1, 2024, informing users that an “unidentified access” to Orbit Bridge was confirmed on December 31, 2023. 🚨Urgent🚨 Dear Orbit Bridge Users, An unidentified access to Orbit

The German authorities have announced the takedown of a notorious dark web marketplace known for selling drugs, malware and other illegal items. The federal police service (BKA) and the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office for cybercrime (ZIT) announced the news on Wednesday, but revealed the coordinated action took place on December 16. The English-language Kingdom Market, which was

Security vendor Ivanti has released an update to its Avalanche mobile device management (MDM) product which fixes 22 vulnerabilities, 13 of which are rated critical. Ivanti Avalanche is described by the vendor as an enterprise MDM solution capable of managing distributed deployments of more than 100,000 mobile devices – including anything from warehouse scanners to

Security researchers have warned against the DarkGate threat actor, who has recently gained notoriety in the realm of remote access Trojans (RATs) and loaders.  Earlier today, Proofpoint confirmed it has been tracking a distinct operator of the DarkGate malware, temporarily named BattleRoyal, noting its use in at least 20 email campaigns from September to November

The threat landscape has been bustling in the second half of 2023, according to cybersecurity provider ESET. In its Threat Report: H2 2023, the firm recorded many significant cybersecurity incidents between June and November 2023, a period dominated by AI-related malicious activity and the emergence of new Android spyware. According to the report, a new

Cybercriminals unleashed an average of 411,000 malicious files every day in 2023, representing a 3% increase from the previous year, according to Kaspersky. The firm’s Security Bulletin: Statistics of the Year Report, published on December 14, 2023, showed that particular types of threats also escalated. One example is the use of malicious desktop files (Microsoft

After a quieter month in October, ransomware groups seemed to return with a vengeance in November, with the highest number of listed victims ever recorded, according to Corvus Insurance. In a report published on December 18, 2023, Corvus Threat Intel observed 484 new ransomware victims posted to leak sites in November. This represents a 39.08%

Security researchers have discovered a new series of “crypto drainer” malware attacks that have stolen $59m from victims so far after luring them to phishing pages via Google and X (formerly Twitter) ads. A crypto drainer is a type of malware that tricks the user into approving a transaction which then automatically drains their cryptocurrency

The UK’s secretary of state for justice has warned of a “clear and present danger” to British democracy from deepfakes ahead of the upcoming general election. Robert Buckland made the remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Today program yesterday, claiming the technology delivers a “liar’s dividend” in that, by undermining trust in the veracity of information,

UK telco EE has warned customers they could be deluged with millions of scam SMS messages on December 23 as fraudsters look to capitalize on last-minute Christmas shopping. The mobile operator claimed that the equivalent day last year saw it block three million text message scams (aka “smishing”), the highest daily number in 2022. This

ESO Solutions, a data and software provider for emergency responders and healthcare entities, has commenced the notification process for 2.7 million individuals affected by a ransomware attack.  The breach, which unfolded on September 28, compelled ESO to shut down systems temporarily to curb the incident’s reach. Although the attackers accessed and encrypted internal systems, ESO said it

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a novel targeted malspam operation deploying password-stealing malware. The campaign was discovered by Sophos X-Ops and described in an advisory published today. According to the report, the attackers employed social engineering tactics, utilizing emailed complaints about service issues or requests for information to establish trust with their targets before sending malicious

The takedown of the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group’s leak site has been confirmed as a result of global law enforcement action. The FBI is now urging over 500 of the group’s victims to come forward to receive a decryption key that will enable them to restore their systems. A notice on the notorious Ransomware-as-a-Group’s (RaaS) website

Delta Dental of California and affiliates disclosed a data breach following a global security incident linked to the vulnerability in MOVEit file transfer software by Progress Software.  According to a breach notification filed with the Maine Attorney General on December 14, unauthorized actors accessed protected health information. The exposed data includes individuals’ names coupled with a mix

Tens of thousands of current and former employees of a leading US cybersecurity and nuclear research laboratory were impacted by a major data breach discovered in November, it has been revealed. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) said in an updated notice published this week that it first became aware of the incident on November 20.

The UK government has proposed new rules designed to regulate the datacenter sector, in a bid to improve baseline cybersecurity and resilience. It’s seeking industry feedback on a new consultation document, Protecting and enhancing the security and resilience of UK data infrastructure, which will be open until February 22 2024. Under the current proposals, datacenter providers

Four US residents have been charged with a series of money laundering offenses connected to a major “pig butchering” fraud syndicate. Lu Zhang, 36, of Alhambra, California; Justin Walker, 31, of Cypress, California; Joseph Wong, 32, of Rosemead, California; and Hailong Zhu, 40, of Naperville, Illinois, are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, concealment

Cozy Bear, a threat group linked with the Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR), has been conducting a global hacking campaign targeting servers hosting JetBrains TeamCity software, according to US, UK and Polish government agencies. In a joint advisory published on December 13, 2023, six security and intelligence agencies in the US, the UK and Poland

The cyber threat to critical infrastructure is increasing, prompting cyber government agencies to issue more warnings and advisories for industrial businesses. Against this backdrop, MITRE has launched EMB3D, a new threat model framework for defenders tasked with protecting operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS). EMB3D provides a knowledge base of cyber threats to

The most significant data breach that has ever occurred in the history of UK policing was due to force-wide security failings and a “light touch approach” to data protection. In August 2023, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) suffered from a cyber incident that resulted in 9483 police officers and civilian staff having their

Europol has issued a new warning regarding an emerging trend in organized crime involving the use of Bluetooth trackers.  Originally designed to help individuals locate personal items and prevent vehicle theft, these small devices are being increasingly exploited by criminals for illicit activities. According to a new blog post published by Europol today, criminals are