Security News > 2022 > February
Microsoft says the latest released Windows 11 developer build also comes with a series of optimizations for windowed and borderless modes that will "Significantly improve latency," which can drastically reduce input lag and provide a better experience in DX10/DX11 games. Other Windows 11 gaming improvements introduced on Wednesday include Auto HDR and Variable Refresh Rate for a better HDR gaming experience.
Kraken has already spread like wildfire, but in the past few months, the malware's author has been tinkering away, adding more infostealers and backdoors. There's a new, still-under-development, Golang-based botnet called Kraken with a level of brawn that belies its youth: It's using the SmokeLoader malware loader to spread like wildfire and is already raking in a tidy USD $3,000/month for its operators, researchers report.
A reporter interviews a Uyghur human-rights advocate, and uses the Otter. Ai, the automated transcription app that I had used to record the interview.
The company's researchers noted 623.3 million ransomware attacks globally last year, up 105 per cent on 2020 and more than triple 2019's figure. Cryptojacking in 2021 rose 19 per cent to 97.1 million globally and while malware might have dropped by 4 per cent in 2021, it looked very much like things picked up in the latter part of the year, indicating an upward trend on the cards for 2022.
Cisco has addressed a high severity vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to crash Cisco Secure Email appliances using maliciously crafted email messages. The security flaw was found in DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities, a Cisco AsyncOS Software component used by Cisco Secure Email to check emails for spam, phishing, malware, and other threats.
Cisco has addressed a high severity vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to crash Cisco Secure Email appliances using maliciously crafted email messages. The security flaw was found in DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities, a Cisco AsyncOS Software component used by Cisco Secure Email to check emails for spam, phishing, malware, and other threats.
"The DDoS attacks against the Ukrainian defense ministry and financial institutions appear to be harassment similar to the previous DDoS attacks seen in January," Rick Holland, CISO at Digital Shadows, said via email. In the past two months, Russian- advanced persistent threats have been tied to an attack on 70 Ukrainian government websites, a wiper targeting government, non-profit and IT organizations, and increased attacks and espionage against military targets.
Hackers are starting to realize that Microsoft Teams is a great means of spreading tentacles throughout an organization's systems; since the start of the year, Avanan has been seeing hackers increasingly dropping malware in Teams conversation. To be able to use this avenue of attack, hackers need to take control of a Microsoft Teams account.
Threat actors are targeting Microsoft Teams users by planting malicious documents in chat threads that execute Trojans that ultimately can take over end-user machines, researchers have found.In January, researchers at Avanan, a Check Point Company, began tracking the campaign, which drops malicious executable files in Teams conversations that, when clicked on, eventually take over the user's computer, according to a report published Thursday.
Security researchers warn that some attackers are compromising Microsoft Teams accounts to slip into chats and spread malicious executables to participants in the conversation. More than 270 million users are relying on Microsoft Teams every month, many of them trusting the platform implicitly, despite the absence of protections against malicious files.