Security News > 2020

Apple is rolling out a new update to its iOS operating system that addresses the location privacy issue on iPhone 11 devices that was first detailed here last month. In December, KrebsOnSecurity pointed out the new iPhone 11 line queries the user's location even when all applications and system services are individually set never to request this data.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, has been officially fingered as the man responsible for hacking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's iPhone X, causing a massive stir in diplomatic circles. Following a report yesterday that Bezos's smartphone had been compromised by a malware-poisoned video sent directly by bin Salman to Bezos through WhatsApp, on Wednesday two UN special rapporteurs named the head of the oil state as the source of digital spyware, and called for an "Immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities" into the "Continuous, multi-year, direct and personal involvement of the Crown Prince in efforts to target perceived opponents."

A recently uncovered threat actor, dubbed Vivin, has made thousands of U.S. dollars through a large-scale cryptomining campaign. Vivin is unique due to its longevity - the threat actor has been active since at least 2017 - and researchers with Cisco Talos point to Vivin as a good example of why cryptomining malware isn't going anywhere, despite a loss in the value of Monero over the past few years.

Security vulnerabilities in some AMD ATI Radeon graphics cards could allow attackers to remotely execute code or cause a denial of service condition, researchers from Cisco Talos have warned. A total of four security flaws were disclosed, all of them impacting the AMD ATIDXX64.

Google security researchers have published details about the flaws they identified last year in Intelligent Tracking Protection, a privacy scheme developed by Apple's WebKit team for the company's Safari browser. Schuh expressed skepticism that Apple will be able to salvage ITP. "They attempt to mitigate tracking by adding state mechanisms, but adding state often introduces worse privacy/security issues," he wrote.

Wednesday is the deadline to seek cash payments and claim free services as part of Equifax's $700 million settlement over a massive data breach. The compromised data included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver license numbers, credit card numbers and in some cases, data from passports.

FTCODE, a ransomware strain that has been active since at least 2013, has recently been revamped to include new features, including the ability to steal credentials and passwords from web browsers and email clients, according to two research reports released this week. When examining these new ransomware samples, analysts found that FTCODE had recently been updated to steal credentials and passwords from popular browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, according to an analysis by Zscaler ThreatLabZ researchers Rajdeepsinh Dodia, Amandeep Kumar and Atinderpal Singh.

You'll be surprised at how many devices, apps, and services are associated with your Firefox cloud account. Find out how to remove them.

Security firm Cynet has released a report on The State of Breach Protection in 2020 that paints a picture of a cybersecurity landscape that is evolving quickly-maybe too quickly for IT teams to keep up. The report, which predicts security trends for 2020 based on responses from cybersecurity professionals, finds that that most are planning to roll out advanced protection products in 2020.

In light of rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran, the Association of Executives in Healthcare Information Security recently issued new data security guidance to help the healthcare sector prepare for potential nation-state attacks, says Christopher Frenz, one of the document's authors. After an Iranian general was killed in a recent U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, security experts and the Department of Homeland Security warned of possible retaliatory cyber strikes from Iran that could target critical infrastructure, government agencies as well as private businesses.