Security News > 2020 > October
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Friday informed users about the availability of patches for two remote code execution vulnerabilities that affect Windows Codecs Library and Visual Studio Code. Residing in Visual Studio Code and tracked as CVE-2020-17023, the second vulnerability can be triggered when the user opens a malicious 'package.
Just days after issuing fixes for scores of bugs in its products for this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has issued two more patches for security holes that can be exploited by maliciously crafted files to run malware on victims' computers. The first, CVE-2020-17023, is a Visual Studio issue that allows for remote code execution after getting the target to click on a specially crafted package.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged six Russian intelligence operatives for hacking operations related to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the 2017 French elections, and the notorious NotPetya ransomware attack. Believed to be part of the elite Russian hacking group known as "Sandworm", the indictment states that all six individuals are part of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate known as GRU. "No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.
A ransomware gang that just emerged this month dubbed Egregor claims to have hacked the source code to the upcoming gaming release, Watch Dogs: Legion. In separate gaming news, a popular fantasy title called Albion - a massive multiplayer online role-playing game - has been hacked.
Microsoft and Adobe released out-of-band security updates for Visual Studio Code, the Windows Codecs Library, and Magento. Microsoft has fixed CVE-2020-17023, a remote code execution vulnerability in Visual Studio Code, its free and extremely popular source-code editor that's available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
A Monday blog post from cyber threat intelligence provider Check Point Research found that Microsoft was the top impersonated brand in phishing attempts during the third quarter. For the quarter, email phishing was the most prevalent type of brand phishing, accounting for 44% of all attacks.
Google says its Threat Analysis Group hasn't observed any significant coordinated influence campaigns that are targeting United States voters on its platform. Google also notes that users who were identified as being targeted in such attacks were alerted, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also informed of these attacks.
A Russian goes on trial in Paris Monday accused of having defrauded nearly 200 victims across the world of 135 million euros using ransomware. In France, many of the victims were local councils, law or insurance firms and small local businesses such as driving schools or pharmacies.
Hackers with access to the Signaling System 7 used for connecting mobile networks across the world were able to gain access to Telegram messenger and email data of high-profile individuals in the cryptocurrency business. Hackers pulling an SS7 attack can intercept text messages and calls of a legitimate recipient by updating the location of their device as if it registered to a different network.
Azure Defender for IoT - Microsoft's new security solution for discovering unmanaged IoT/OT assets and IoT/OT vulnerabilities - is now in public preview and can be put to the test free of charge. About Azure Defender for IoT. "As industrial and critical infrastructure organizations implement digital transformation, the number of networked IoT and Operational Technology devices has greatly proliferated. Many of these devices lack visibility by IT teams and are often unpatched and misconfigured, making them soft targets for adversaries looking to pivot deeper into corporate networks," Phil Neray, Director of Azure IoT Security Strategy at Microsoft, explained.