New Campaign Targets Middle East Governments with IronWind Malware

Government entities in the Middle East are the target of new phishing campaigns that are designed to deliver a new initial access downloader dubbed IronWind. The activity, detected between July and October 2023, has been attributed by Proofpoint to a threat actor it tracks under the name TA402, which is also known as Molerats, Gaza Cyber Gang, and shares tactical overlaps with a pro-Hamas

Vietnamese Hackers Using New Delphi-Powered Malware to Target Indian Marketers

The Vietnamese threat actors behind the Ducktail stealer malware have been linked to a new campaign that ran between March and early October 2023, targeting marketing professionals in India with an aim to hijack Facebook business accounts. "An important feature that sets it apart is that, unlike previous campaigns, which relied on .NET applications, this one used Delphi as the programming

Microsoft Warns of Fake Skills Assessment Portals Targeting IT Job Seekers

A sub-cluster within the infamous Lazarus Group has established new infrastructure that impersonates skills assessment portals as part of its social engineering campaigns. Microsoft attributed the activity to a threat actor it calls Sapphire Sleet, describing it as a "shift in the persistent actor's tactics." Sapphire Sleet, also called APT38, BlueNoroff, CageyChameleon, and CryptoCore, has a

N. Korea's BlueNoroff Blamed for Hacking macOS Machines with ObjCShellz Malware

The North Korea-linked nation-state group called BlueNoroff has been attributed to a previously undocumented macOS malware strain dubbed ObjCShellz. Jamf Threat Labs, which disclosed details of the malware, said it's used as part of the RustBucket malware campaign, which came to light earlier this year. "Based on previous attacks performed by BlueNoroff, we suspect that this malware was a late

Pro-Hamas Hacktivists Targeting Israeli Entities with Wiper Malware

A pro-Hamas hacktivist group has been observed using a new Linux-based wiper malware dubbed BiBi-Linux Wiper, targeting Israeli entities amidst the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war. "This malware is an x64 ELF executable, lacking obfuscation or protective measures," Security Joes said in a new report published today. "It allows attackers to specify target folders and can potentially destroy an entire

Microsoft Warns as Scattered Spider Expands from SIM Swaps to Ransomware

The prolific threat actor known as Scattered Spider has been observed impersonating newly hired employees in targeted firms as a ploy to blend into normal on-hire processes and takeover accounts and breach organizations across the world. Microsoft, which disclosed the activities of the financially motivated hacking crew, described the adversary as "one of the most dangerous financial criminal

Malvertising Campaign Targets Brazil's PIX Payment System with GoPIX Malware

The popularity of Brazil's PIX instant payment system has made it a lucrative target for threat actors looking to generate illicit profits using a new malware called GoPIX. Kaspersky, which has been tracking the active campaign since December 2022, said the attacks are pulled off using malicious ads that are served when potential victims search for "WhatsApp web" on search engines. "The

1Password Detects Suspicious Activity Following Okta Support Breach

Popular password management solution 1Password said it detected suspicious activity on its Okta instance on September 29 following the support system breach, but reiterated that no user data was accessed. "We immediately terminated the activity, investigated, and found no compromise of user data or other sensitive systems, either employee-facing or user-facing," Pedro Canahuati, 1Password CTO, 

Retool Falls Victim to SMS-Based Phishing Attack Affecting 27 Cloud Clients

Software development company Retool has disclosed that the accounts of 27 of its cloud customers were compromised following a targeted and SMS-based social engineering attack. The San Francisco-based firm blamed a Google Account cloud synchronization feature recently introduced in April 2023 for making the breach worse, calling it a "dark pattern." "The fact that Google Authenticator syncs to

Three CISOs Share How to Run an Effective SOC

The role of the CISO keeps taking center stage as a business enabler: CISOs need to navigate the complex landscape of digital threats while fostering innovation and ensuring business continuity. Three CISOs; Troy Wilkinson, CISO at IPG; Rob Geurtsen, former Deputy CISO at Nike; and Tammy Moskites, Founder of CyAlliance and former CISO at companies like Time Warner and Home Depot – shared their

New BLISTER Malware Update Fuelling Stealthy Network Infiltration

An updated version of a malware loader known as BLISTER is being used as part of SocGholish infection chains to distribute an open-source command-and-control (C2) framework called Mythic. “New BLISTER update includes keying feature that allows for precise targeting of victim networks and lowers exposure within VM/sandbox environments,” Elastic Security Labs researchers Salim Bitam and Daniel

Okta Warns of Social Engineering Attacks Targeting Super Administrator Privileges

Identity services provider Okta on Friday warned of social engineering attacks orchestrated by threat actors to obtain elevated administrator permissions. “In recent weeks, multiple U.S.-based Okta customers have reported a consistent pattern of social engineering attacks against IT service desk personnel, in which the caller’s strategy was to convince service desk personnel to reset all

New Wave of Attack Campaign Targeting Zimbra Email Users for Credential Theft

A new "mass-spreading" social engineering campaign is targeting users of the Zimbra Collaboration email server with an aim to collect their login credentials for use in follow-on operations. The activity, active since April 2023 and still ongoing, targets a wide range of small and medium businesses and governmental entities, most of which are located in Poland, Ecuador, Mexico, Italy, and Russia

New Report Exposes Vice Society's Collaboration with Rhysida Ransomware

Tactical similarities have been unearthed between the double extortion ransomware group known as Rhysida and Vice Society, including in their targeting of education and healthcare sectors. "As Vice Society was observed deploying a variety of commodity ransomware payloads, this link does not suggest that Rhysida is exclusively used by Vice Society, but shows with at least medium confidence that

Microsoft Exposes Russian Hackers' Sneaky Phishing Tactics via Microsoft Teams Chats

Microsoft on Wednesday disclosed that it identified a set of highly targeted social engineering attacks mounted by a Russian nation-state threat actor using credential theft phishing lures sent as Microsoft Teams chats. The tech giant attributed the attacks to a group it tracks as Midnight Blizzard (previously Nobelium). It's also called APT29, BlueBravo, Cozy Bear, Iron Hemlock, and The Dukes.

Mastodon Social Network Patches Critical Flaws Allowing Server Takeover

Mastodon, a popular decentralized social network, has released a security update to fix critical vulnerabilities that could expose millions of users to potential attacks. Mastodon is known for its federated model, consisting of thousands of separate servers called "instances," and it has over 14 million users across more than 20,000 instances. The most critical vulnerability, CVE-2023-36460,

Instagram's Twitter Alternative 'Threads' Launch Halted in Europe Over Privacy Concerns

Instagram Threads, the upcoming Twitter competitor from Meta, will not be launched in the European Union due to privacy concerns, according to Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC). The development was reported by the Irish Independent, which said the watchdog has been in contact with the social media giant about the new product and confirmed the release won't extend to the E.U. "at this

Cybercrime Group 'Muddled Libra' Targets BPO Sector with Advanced Social Engineering

A threat actor known as Muddled Libra is targeting the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry with persistent attacks that leverage advanced social engineering ploys to gain initial access. "The attack style defining Muddled Libra appeared on the cybersecurity radar in late 2022 with the release of the 0ktapus phishing kit, which offered a prebuilt hosting framework and bundled templates,"

Kimsuky Targets Think Tanks and News Media with Social Engineering Attacks

The North Korean nation-state threat actor known as Kimsuky has been linked to a social engineering campaign targeting experts in North Korean affairs with the goal of stealing Google credentials and delivering reconnaissance malware. "Further, Kimsuky's objective extends to the theft of subscription credentials from NK News," cybersecurity firm SentinelOne said in a report shared with The

The Importance of Managing Your Data Security Posture

Data security is reinventing itself. As new data security posture management solutions come to market, organizations are increasingly recognizing the opportunity to provide evidence-based security that proves how their data is being protected. But what exactly is data security posture, and how do you manage it?  Data security posture management (DSPM) became mainstream following the publication

Vice Society Ransomware Using Stealthy PowerShell Tool for Data Exfiltration

Threat actors associated with the Vice Society ransomware gang have been observed using a bespoke PowerShell-based tool to fly under the radar and automate the process of exfiltrating data from compromised networks. "Threat actors (TAs) using built-in data exfiltration methods like [living off the land binaries and scripts] negate the need to bring in external tools that might be flagged by

New S1deload Malware Hijacking Users' Social Media Accounts and Mining Cryptocurrency

An active malware campaign has set its sights on Facebook and YouTube users by leveraging a new information stealer to hijack the accounts and abuse the systems' resources to mine cryptocurrency. Bitdefender is calling the malware S1deload Stealer for its use of DLL side-loading techniques to get past security defenses and execute its malicious components. "Once infected, S1deload Stealer steals

Coinbase Employee Falls for SMS Scam in Cyber Attack, Limited Data Exposed

Popular cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase disclosed that it experienced a cybersecurity attack that targeted its employees. The company said its "cyber controls prevented the attacker from gaining direct system access and prevented any loss of funds or compromise of customer information." The incident, which took place on February 5, 2023, resulted in the exposure of a "limited amount of

Hackers Abused Microsoft's "Verified Publisher" OAuth Apps to Breach Corporate Email Accounts

Microsoft on Tuesday said it took steps to disable fake Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) accounts that were used for creating malicious OAuth applications as part of a phishing campaign designed to breach organizations' cloud environments and steal email. "The applications created by these fraudulent actors were then used in a consent phishing campaign, which tricked users into granting

PY#RATION: New Python-based RAT Uses WebSocket for C2 and Data Exfiltration

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a new attack campaign that leverages a Python-based remote access trojan (RAT) to gain control over compromised systems since at least August 2022. "This malware is unique in its utilization of WebSockets to avoid detection and for both command-and-control (C2) communication and exfiltration," Securonix said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The

4 Places to Supercharge Your SOC with Automation

It's no secret that the job of SOC teams continues to become increasingly difficult. Increased volume and sophistication of attacks are plaguing under-resourced teams with false positives and analyst burnout. However, like many other industries, cybersecurity is now beginning to lean on and benefit from advancements in automation to not only maintain the status quo, but to attain better security

New Analysis Reveals Raspberry Robin Can be Repurposed by Other Threat Actors

A new analysis of Raspberry Robin's attack infrastructure has revealed that it's possible for other threat actors to repurpose the infections for their own malicious activities, making it an even more potent threat. Raspberry Robin (aka QNAP worm), attributed to a threat actor dubbed DEV-0856, is a malware that has increasingly come under the radar for being used in attacks aimed at finance,

Vice Society Ransomware Attackers Adopt Robust Encryption Methods

The Vice Society ransomware actors have switched to yet another custom ransomware payload in their recent attacks aimed at a variety of sectors. "This ransomware variant, dubbed 'PolyVice,' implements a robust encryption scheme, using NTRUEncrypt and ChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithms," SentinelOne researcher Antonio Cocomazzi said in an analysis. Vice Society, which is tracked by Microsoft under the

Vice Society Ransomware Attackers Targeted Dozens of Schools in 2022

The Vice Society cybercrime group has disproportionately targeted educational institutions, accounting for 33 victims in 2022 and surpassing other ransomware families like LockBit, BlackCat, BianLian, and Hive. Other prominent industry verticals targeted include healthcare, governments, manufacturing, retail, and legal services, according to an analysis of leak site data by Palo Alto Networks

Vice Society Hackers Are Behind Several Ransomware Attacks Against Education Sector

A cybercrime group known as Vice Society has been linked to multiple ransomware strains in its malicious campaigns aimed at the education, government, and retail sectors. The Microsoft Security Threat Intelligence team, which is tracking the threat cluster under the moniker DEV-0832, said the group avoids deploying ransomware in some cases and rather likely carries out extortion using

Microsoft Confirms Server Misconfiguration Led to 65,000+ Companies' Data Leak

Microsoft this week confirmed that it inadvertently exposed information related to thousands of customers following a security lapse that left an endpoint publicly accessible over the internet sans any authentication. "This misconfiguration resulted in the potential for unauthenticated access to some business transaction data corresponding to interactions between Microsoft and prospective

Uber Claims No Sensitive Data Exposed in Latest Breach… But There's More to This

Uber, in an update, said there is "no evidence" that users' private information was compromised in a breach of its internal computer systems that was discovered late Thursday. "We have no evidence that the incident involved access to sensitive user data (like trip history)," the company said. "All of our services including Uber, Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and the Uber Driver app are operational."

Iranian Hackers Target High-Value Targets in Nuclear Security and Genomic Research

Hackers tied to the Iranian government have been targeting individuals specializing in Middle Eastern affairs, nuclear security, and genome research as part of a new social engineering campaign designed to hunt for sensitive information. Enterprise security firm Proofpoint attributed the targeted attacks to a threat actor named TA453, which broadly overlaps with cyber activities monitored under

Why Vulnerability Scanning is Critical for SOC 2

SOC 2 may be a voluntary standard, but for today's security-conscious business, it's a minimal requirement when considering a SaaS provider. Compliance can be a long and complicated process, but a scanner like Intruder makes it easy to tick the vulnerability management box. Security is critical for all organisations, including those that outsource key business operations to third parties like

North Korea Hackers Spotted Targeting Job Seekers with macOS Malware

The North Korea-backed Lazarus Group has been observed targeting job seekers with malware capable of executing on Apple Macs with Intel and M1 chipsets. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET linked it to a campaign dubbed "Operation In(ter)ception" that was first disclosed in June 2020 and involved using social engineering tactics to trick employees working in the aerospace and military sectors into