Security News

Security analysts have uncovered a malicious campaign from China-linked threat actor Mustang Panda, which has been running for at least eight months with a new variant of the Korplug malware called Hodur and custom loaders. Also tracked as TA416, Mustang Panda is known to serve China-aligned interests and has been recently associated with phishing and espionage operations that targeted European diplomats.

A new regulation coming in the form of an amendment in the Telecommunications Act of Germany could radically change the relationship between consumers and internet service providers. According to the draft, users will be able to test their internet speeds and, if there's a too large deviation between their real-world results and what their ISPs promised, they will be eligible for a bill discount.

A state-sponsored threat actor allegedly affiliated with Iran has been linked to a series of targeted attacks aimed at internet service providers and telecommunication operators in Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, as well as a ministry of foreign affairs in Africa, new findings reveal. The intrusions, staged by a group tracked as Lyceum, are believed to have occurred between July and October 2021, researchers from Accenture Cyber Threat Intelligence group and Prevailion's Adversarial Counterintelligence Team said in a technical report.

The Iranian state-supported APT known as 'Lyceum' targeted ISPs and telecommunication service providers in the Middle East and Africa between July and October 2021. Apart from Israel, which is permanently in the crosshairs of Iranian hackers, researchers have spotted Lyceum backdoor malware attacks in Morocco, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.

The Federal Trade Commission found that the six largest internet service providers in the U.S. collect and share customers' personal data without providing them with info on how it's used or meaningful ways to control this process. "Many internet service providers collect and share far more data about their customers than many consumers may expect-including access to all of their Internet traffic and real-time location data-while failing to offer consumers meaningful choices about how this data can be used," the FTC said.

UK telecom and broadcasting regulator, Ofcom has mandated new requirements for Internet Service Providers and phone companies to provide additional services for users with special needs. These include companies in the sector-even those not typically providing telephony services to offer an emergency video relay service that users with hearing or speech impairments can rely on.

How it gets onto servers is unclear though systems infected by Kobalos have their SSH client tampered with to steal usernames and passwords, and presumably server addresses, that are typed into it. These details could be used by the malware's masterminds to log into those systems to propagate their malware.

A "Persistent attacker group" with alleged ties to Hezbollah has retooled its malware arsenal with a new version of a remote access Trojan to break into companies worldwide and extract valuable information. In a new report published by the ClearSky research team on Thursday, the Israeli cybersecurity firm said it identified at least 250 public-facing web servers since early 2020 that have been hacked by the threat actor to gather intelligence and steal the company's databases.

Volatile Cedar, an advanced hacker group believed to be connected to the Lebanese Hezbollah Cyber Unit, has been silently attacking companies around the world in espionage operations. Using common web shell utilities as the main hacking tool and rarely relying on other tools, which hindered attribution.

The threats ranged from phishing attacks to websites attempting to download malware onto the customer's computer, to hackers trying to break into their connected home devices so they can gain entry onto their network and access personal information. The most commonly targeted devices are computers, laptops and smartphones, followed by networked cameras, networked storage devices, and streaming video devices.