Security News

The Chinese nation-state group dubbed Alloy Taurus is using a Linux variant of a backdoor called PingPull as well as a new undocumented tool codenamed Sword2033. Alloy Taurus is the constellation-themed moniker assigned to a threat actor that's known for its attacks targeting telecom companies since at least 2012.

London-based professional outsourcing giant Capita has published an update on the cyber-incident that impacted it at the start of the month, now admitting that hackers exfiltrated data from its systems.On March 31, 2023, Capita disclosed an IT issue that impacted its services.

Telecommunication services providers in Africa are the target of a new campaign orchestrated by a China-linked threat actor at least since November 2022. The campaign makes use of "Previously unseen plugins from the MgBot malware framework," the cybersecurity company said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

Microsoft has discovered that an Iranian hacking group known as 'Mint Sandstorm' is conducting cyberattacks on US critical infrastructure in what is believed to be retaliation for recent attacks on Iran's infrastructure. In a new report, researchers in Microsoft's Threat Intelligence team explain that a subgroup of Mint Sandstorm switched from performing surveillance in 2022 to performing direct attacks on US critical infrastructure.

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has accused the United States and other NATO countries of launching over 5,000 cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the country since the beginning of 2022. The agency says it has taken timely measures to prevent these attacks from causing any negative consequences to Russia.

Bots like ChatGPT may not be able to pull off the next big Microsoft server worm or Colonial Pipeline ransomware super-infection but they may help criminal gangs and nation-state hackers develop some attacks against IT, according to Rob Joyce, director of the NSA's Cybersecurity Directorate. Joyce, speaking at CrowdStrike's Government Summit Tuesday, said he doesn't expect to see - at least not "In the near term" - AI used "For automated attacks that will rip through systems at speeds that are unfathomable today."

Belgian HR and payroll giant SD Worx has suffered a cyberattack causing them to shut down all IT systems for its UK and Ireland services. SD Worx is a European HR and payroll management company based out of Belgium that services 5.2 million employees for over 82,000 companies, according to its website.

Owners of MSI-brand motherboards, GPUs, notebooks, PCs, and other equipment should exercise caution when updating their device's firmware or BIOS after the manufacturer revealed it has recently suffered a cyberattack. In a statement shared on Friday, MSI urged users "To obtain firmware/BIOS updates only from its official website," and to avoid using files from other sources.

A North Korean government-backed threat actor has been linked to attacks targeting government and military personnel, think tanks, policy makers, academics, and researchers in South Korea and the U.S. Google's Threat Analysis Group is tracking the cluster under the name ARCHIPELAGO, which it said is a subset of another threat group tracked by Mandiant under the name APT43. The tech giant said it began monitoring the group in 2012, adding it has "Observed the group target individuals with expertise in North Korea policy issues such as sanctions, human rights, and non-proliferation issues."

British outsourcing services provider Capita announced today that a cyberattack on Friday prevented access to its internal Microsoft Office 365 applications. The cyber incident prompted the Capita on March 31 to announce an IT issue that impacted its internal systems.