Security News
Microsoft released the February 2021 non-security Microsoft Office updates with improvements and fixes for issues and crashes impacting Windows Installer editions of Office 2016, Office 2013, and Office 2010 products. Three of the Office February 2021 non-security updates apply to the entire Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft Office 2013, and Microsoft Office 2010 software suites, while four others address issues affecting the PowerPoint and Outlook apps.
UK Research and Innovation, the British government's science and research organisation, has temporarily turned off a couple of its web-facing services after an apparent ransomware attack. In a statement issued last week while everyone was gazing goggle-eyed at the European Union's vaccine export struggles, UKRI said data from its Brussels-based UK Research Office and an extranet service had been "Encrypted by a third party".
The UK Post Office has awarded two contracts worth a total of £30m for a banking network and ATMs system in a procurement expected to be worth £357m once all contracts are awarded. UK government-owned company which runs the familiar local outlets has awarded Cennox a £26m contract for banking automation managed services while Vocalink has won a £4m contract for provision of a highly resilient, compliant and secure platform providing ATMs. The Post Office said last year it planned to close almost a third of its 2,000 cash machines, which are free to use and valuable to the public where alternative facilities are scarce.
"Serious" vulnerability found in Libgcrypt, GnuPG's cryptographic libraryLibgcrypt 1.9.0, the newest version of a cryptographic library integrated in the GNU Privacy Guard free encryption software, has a "Severe" security vulnerability and should not be used, warned Werner Koch. Sudo vulnerability allows attackers to gain root privileges on Linux systemsA vulnerability in sudo, a powerful and near-ubiquitous open-source utility used on major Linux and Unix-like operating systems, could allow any unprivileged local user to gain root privileges on a vulnerable host.
A newly-uncovered phishing kit, dubbed LogoKit, eliminates headaches for cybercriminals by automatically pulling victims' company logos onto the phishing login page. These targeted services range from generic login portals to false SharePoint, Adobe Document Cloud, OneDrive, Office 365, and cryptocurrency exchange login portals.
Microsoft has announced that Application Guard for Office is now generally available for all Microsoft 365 users with supported licenses. Application Guard for Office was launched in limited preview in November 2019 and it is only available to organizations that have Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Security licenses.
An ongoing campaign powered by a phishing kit sold on underground forums is explicitly targeting high-ranking executives in a variety of sectors and countries with fake Office 365 password expiration notifications, Trend Micro researchers warn. The compromised accounts can be used to send out even more convincing phishing emails, perpetrate BEC scams, or collect sensitive information.
The British government has denied being "Complacent" over the Solarwinds hack as a fed-up peer of the realm urged a minister to "Answer the question". Lord True, the government's Cabinet Office spokesman in the House of Lords, described the attack as "a complex and global cyber incident" and said UK.gov was "Working with international partners to fully understand its scale and any UK impact."
An ongoing phishing campaign delivering fake Office 365 password expiration reports has managed to compromise tens of C-Suite email accounts to date, according to a warning from anti-malware vendor Trend Micro. The phishers were able to compromise 40 legitimate email addresses of CEOs, directors, company founders, and owners, as well as those of other enterprise employees.
Security company Malwarebytes suspects a breach of its Office 365 and Azure tenancies is by the same attacker behind the SolarWinds hack, but reckons flaws in Azure Active Directory security are also to blame. Malwarebytes, whose products include widely used anti-malware tools for consumers and businesses, said that it does not use SolarWinds but believes that the same attacker used "Another intrusion vector that works by abusing applications with privileged access to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure environments".