Security News
Bermuda experienced a widespread power outage since Friday evening which impacted the island's internet and phone service availability. Power surges that often follow a power cut can be damaging to voltage-sensitive devices like laptop computers, mobile phones, medical equipment, etc.
Microsoft in March will start blocking Excel XLL add-ins from the internet to shut down an increasingly popular attack vector for miscreants. Security researchers have said that after Microsoft began blocking Visual Basic for Application macros by default in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in July 2022 to cut off a popular attack avenue, threat groups began using other options, such as LNK files and ISO and RAR attachments.
Popular instant messaging service WhatsApp has launched support for proxy servers in the latest version of its Android and iOS apps, letting users circumvent government-imposed censorship and internet shutdowns. "Choosing a proxy enables you to connect to WhatsApp through servers set up by volunteers and organizations around the world dedicated to helping people communicate freely," the Meta-owned company said.
Starting today, WhatsApp allows users to connect via proxy servers due to Internet shutdowns or if their governments block the service in their country. The new proxy support option is available to all users running the latest WhatsApp iOS and Android applications.
Microsoft announced today that a future Microsoft Edge update would permanently disable the Internet Explorer 11 desktop web browser on some Windows 10 systems in February."The out-of-support Internet Explorer 11 desktop application is scheduled to be permanently disabled on certain versions of Windows 10 devices on February 14, 2023, through a Microsoft Edge update, not a Windows update as previously communicated," Redmond said on Friday.
An Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability was actively exploited by a North Korean threat actor to target South Korean users by capitalizing on the recent Itaewon Halloween crowd crush to trick users into downloading malware. "The group has historically focused their targeting on South Korean users, North Korean defectors, policy makers, journalists, and human rights activists," TAG said in a Thursday analysis.
North Korea has hit a new low, using the death of over 150 people to exploit a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer. South Korea declared a week of national mourning after the incident.
Google's Threat Analysis Group revealed today that a group of North Korean hackers tracked as APT37 exploited a previously unknown Internet Explorer vulnerability to infect South Korean targets with malware. Once opened on the victims' devices, the document would deliver an unknown payload after downloading a rich text file remote template that would render remote HTML using Internet Explorer.
The United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre, the government agency that leads the country's cyber security mission, is now scanning all Internet-exposed devices hosted in the UK for vulnerabilities. "These activities cover any internet-accessible system that is hosted within the UK and vulnerabilities that are common or particularly important due to their high impact," the agency said.
The Shadowserver Foundation fulfills a unique role in the cybersecurity ecosystem by supplying vital security information to Internet defenders and law enforcement at no cost. In this Help Net Security video, Piotr Kijewski, CEO at The Shadowserver Foundation, talks about what they do and offers insight into their track record of delivering high-quality, actionable cyber threat intelligence for over 15 years.