Security News

Hacking gang creates fake firm to hire pentesters for ransomware attacks
2021-10-21 16:24

The FIN7 hacking group is attempting to join the highly profitable ransomware space by creating fake cybersecurity companies that conduct network attacks under the guise of pentesting. As ransomware has become a profitable field for cybercriminals, and having previous experience with fake front companies like "Combi Security", the group set up a new firm to lure legitimate IT specialists.

U.S. Government Bans Sale of Hacking Tools to Authoritarian Regimes
2021-10-21 00:43

The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday announced new rules barring the sales of hacking software and equipment to authoritarian regimes and potentially facilitate human rights abuse for national security and anti-terrorism reasons. "The United States Government opposes the misuse of technology to abuse human rights or conduct other malicious cyber activities, and these new rules will help ensure that U.S. companies are not fueling authoritarian practices," BIS said in a press release.

US govt to ban export of hacking tools to authoritarian regimes
2021-10-20 19:32

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security today announced new controls that would ban U.S. companies from exporting and reselling software and hardware tools that could be used to fuel authoritarian practices through malicious hacking activities and human rights abuse.The rule will become effective in 90 days and will effectively ban the export of "Cybersecurity items" for National Security and Anti-terrorism reasons.

LightBasin hacking group breaches 13 global telecoms in two years
2021-10-19 14:18

A group of hackers that security researchers call LightBasin has been compromising mobile telecommunication systems across the world for the past five years. LightBasin is active since at least 2016 and targets Linux and Solaris servers in particular, although it did interact with Windows systems where needed, in their mission to steal subscriber information and call metadata.

Man gets 7 years in prison for hacking 65K health care employees
2021-10-19 13:17

Justin Sean Johnson, also known as TheDearthStar and Dearthy Star, was sentenced this week to seen years in prison for the 2014 hack of the health care provider and insurer University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. After breaching UPMC's human resources databases, Johnson stole the Personally Identifiable Information and W-2 info of more than 65,000 employees and sold it on the dark web.

Human hacking increased as apps and browsers moved completely to the cloud
2021-10-15 04:00

Human hacking - phishing attacks across all digital channels - has dramatically increased in 2021. "The cybersecurity industry has done a good job of protecting machines, but those efforts leave the most porous and vulnerable parts of any network - the humans using it - unprotected," said Patrick Harr, SlashNext CEO. "Today's hyper-targeted spear phishing attacks, coming at users from all digital channels, are simply not discernable to the human eye. Add to that the increasing number of attacks coming from legitimate infrastructure, and the reason phishing is the number one thing leading to disruptive ransomware attacks is obvious."

Critical Remote Hacking Flaws Disclosed in Linphone and MicroSIP Softphones
2021-10-14 09:16

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in softphone software from Linphone and MicroSIP that could be exploited by an unauthenticated remote adversary to crash the client and even extract sensitive information like password hashes by simply making a malicious call. SIP aka Session Initiation Protocol is a signaling protocol that's used to control interactive communication sessions, such as voice, video, chat and instant messaging, as well as games and virtual reality, between endpoints, in addition to defining rules that govern the establishment and termination of each session.

Medtronic urgently recalls insulin pump controllers over hacking concerns
2021-10-06 14:48

Medtronic is urgently recalling remote controllers for insulin pumps belonging to the 'MiniMed Paradigm' family of products, due to severe cybersecurity risks. The controllers that should be returned to the vendor are models MMT-500 and MMT-503, used with Medtronic MiniMed 508 insulin pump and the MiniMed Paradigm family of insulin pumps.

A New APT Hacking Group Targeting Fuel, Energy, and Aviation Industries
2021-10-04 05:48

A previously undocumented threat actor has been identified as behind a string of attacks targeting fuel, energy, and aviation production industries in Russia, the U.S., India, Nepal, Taiwan, and Japan with the goal of stealing data from compromised networks. "The group compromised a subsidiary and penetrated the target company's network through it. Trusted relationship attacks are rare today due to the complexity of their execution. Using this method [], the ChamelGang group was able to achieve its goal and steal data from the compromised network."

EU officially blames Russia for 'Ghostwriter' hacking activities
2021-09-24 16:11

The European Union has officially linked Russia to a hacking operation known as Ghostwriter that targets high-profile EU officials, journalists, and the general public. "These malicious cyber activities are targeting numerous members of Parliaments, government officials, politicians, and members of the press and civil society in the EU by accessing computer systems and personal accounts and stealing data," European Council officials said in a press release today.